Greetings Adventurers!
As part of our follow up to May 7th's stream, we pulled questions from chat that we originally missed during the stream. This is a practice we hope to continue for future Q&A streams (read more about our follow-up schedule
here) so if your question doesn't get answered live, it may be answered in the written follow-up. This also allows us a chance to circle back with the different members of the team who worked on the question-relevant features.
Due to the variety of topics and volume of questions, we have divided the follow up into two parts. Part 1 covers questions regarding Strongholds, Companions, Refinement, HEs & MEs, Gear, and Content. Part 2 will answer questions regarding scaling and Classes/Powers/Stats/Feats. And for those with questions regarding PvP, we definitely have not forgotten you so you'll need to stay tuned for future news!
Note: In an effort to keep these write ups in conversational style (versus one-directional blog-style write ups), these questions are answered as if they were received on stream so some may have simple answers, others are more in depth, and others require additional information. Questions have been edited for clarity/grammar or condensed into one if multiple versions of the question was asked.
Q. Do we have any plans for Strongholds?[Salim G.] There have been ongoing discussions about where we want to take strongholds, community feedback and requests, and how we want to address some of the long standing issues. We have no specific plans we can discuss at this time but hopefully we can formalize these talks to provide more insight to the community in the future.
Q. Are strongholds being looked at HE wise?[Salim G.] We are actively looking into issues introduced with Undermountain. We are currently following up specifically on reports that players are still experiencing issues with Maurauder’s auto-completing after a fix was issued. We want to make sure the Stronghold content is optimal before introducing additional or new encounters.
Q. Can you guys please do something for those people who are still upgrading their guilds? Losing players has made this a bad hard ship on players![Salim G.] We are talking about ways to resolve these types of underlying issues related to system as big as Strongholds.
Q. Can we get a Day and Night cycle for Stronghold that transform the critters and make the stronghold events different depending on the day and night cycle?[Salim G.] That’s an interesting request and something we can consider for future development!
Q. Are you in the next patch going to fix the issue with Healing type companions? For example Celeste no longer heals. She just stands there[Salim G.] We will look into it!
Q. Will we get more and better companion gear?[Salim G.] Yes, there will be more companion gear released in the next module. So much it will blow your mind. (Community Manager Note: I have confirmed that this is hyperbole and not meant to be taken as companion gear that actually blows adventurer’s minds. Unless it’s a mindflayer, then we can’t make any promises)
Q. Can you give opportunity to rerun some quest line expeditions for taking unreceived companion gear?[Salim G.] This is not something we plan on doing, but we will be releasing more companion gear over time to make it easier to get your companion all geared up.
Q. Is the Heroic Encounter reward bug being fixed? [Julia F.] The team is aware of the issue where players receive the “You already have all the items in this package” message, preventing players from receiving HE rewards and we are actively investigating.
Q. Why do bounty bags from low level areas that we buy from bounty masters give us error when farming those areas for the area boss unique drops?[Julia F.] We need some additional details on this. What error is it? In which area do you get the error?
Q. Are you going to add a rewards chest for players that have already done their 3 Master Expeditions? [Ryan H.] There is not currently a plan to add rewards for completing the three dailies.
Q. When are you planning to fix the Master Expedition bug where people are returned to the Yawning Portal when they disconnect? The same bug occurred in Barovia Hunts and Tales of Old, too.[Ryan H.] I believe this should be fixed but we will be on the lookout for additional reports!
Q. Did you change the Barovia Gear from Rank 8 Enchantments to Rank 6?[Jared S.] The first character on the account gets rank 8 enchantments, additional characters get rank 6.
Q. Did you realize that enchants have been narrowed even further with the balance?[Jared S.] Need more clarification on this question. Is it asking which enchantments players want to use or their effectiveness or what?
Q. Is there going to be anyway of upgrading old equipment (ala STO) to benefit from getting equipment from any lower level areas (E.g. Barovia)?[Jared S.] This is a topic we have discussed in the past, but there are currently no near term plans to implement an upgrade system for old items.
Q. Why does it cost the same gold to remove all ranks of enchantments? I can't afford to remove all enchants from the Companion Gear to sell it off.[Jared S.] There is a scaling cost to remove enchantments but it does cap at a certain point to make sure it doesn’t get too high. This means after you progress far enough you will run into the capped removal cost.
Q. Why should a level 80 run 70 content?[Thomas F.] This is a great question, and always a dilemma when you raise the level cap in a game - there is going to be a period between releases when max level players have completed most or all intended end-game content. There are many players who have hit level 80, but have not completed or even started any of the campaign zones available, which was the whole reason for the Challenge campaigns. The new Challenge Campaign system allows you to play content across all of Neverwinter and earn rewards for completion of weekly challenges. While completing weekly Challenge Campaign tasks, you can select a specific campaign currency to receive as a reward, even if that campaign currency is not specific to your current Challenge Campaign task. In a nut shell, get a chance to fill in your boons and get other high end gear.
Q. Some of us have played for years and don't have any other areas to play after Undermountain. What is there after that for us?[Thomas F.] This is always a challenge when you make a level expansion in a game. Since the stream, the Lair of the Mad Mage Dungeon has opened up, and you have the Master expeditions repeatable content and currently the only place to get valuable resources necessary to achieve the highest quality gear! And, the Challenge Campaign, which allows you to fill in any missing boons as well as getting other
Q. Now with the foundry gone, is there anything roleplay community can look forward to, such as new hairstyles, fashion or dyes?[Thomas F.] Good question! All that you mentioned are things currently on the docket. Now when I say that, I don’t necessarily mean the next module release, but on the calendar to be considered for this year’s development. Question back to you- Where as a roleplayer do you like to hang out in NW?
Q. Can time gates be removed from all campaigns?[Thomas F.] Nope. Sorry
Q. Maybe a new 15 or 20 player raid? I know Tiamat is a strain, but it almost works, so 15-20 players might fly?[Thomas F.] Raids are something we have been brainstorming, but as you know the challenge is scale. Our engine is really pushed to its current limits with things like Tiamat, so we are looking at doing something with less players, that can fill the queues faster and get a fun experience for all playing.
Q. What do you think of the idea of adding all dungeons which are now currently available at level 70 and lower in the form of a level 80 dungeon NEXT TO the old dungeons? No scaling of players here![Thomas F.] We have discussed this, but think that it might send the wrong message, as new players coming in would expect level 80 gear and rewards from them, among other things. We are looking into ways to make the Dungeon queues feel more appropriate, via item leveling and other systems changes.
Comments
[Thomas F.] This is a great question, and always a dilemma when you raise the level cap in a game - there is going to be a period between releases when max level players have completed most or all intended end-game content. There are many players who have hit level 80, but have not completed or even started any of the campaign zones available, which was the whole reason for the Challenge campaigns. The new Challenge Campaign system allows you to play content across all of Neverwinter and earn rewards for completion of weekly challenges. While completing weekly Challenge Campaign tasks, you can select a specific campaign currency to receive as a reward, even if that campaign currency is not specific to your current Challenge Campaign task. In a nut shell, get a chance to fill in your boons and get other high end gear. "
This ISN"T the point of this question. the point of this question is more along the lines of ALL the level 70 dungeons. not the campaigns. NO ONE will be doing the dungeons at level 70. everyone will be scaled for that content.
and that content will be more difficult because we can't even touch arpen for that content. So NO ONE will run those dungeons.
1. they take a long time now if even possible to complete
2. the rewards aren't on par with the new dungeons
it's going to be MORE difficult for the lower geared people to run than the higher geared and still not worthy of higher geared ppls time consideration so those dungeons have become obsolete for everyone. but now the lower geared people have nothing to run. no way to gear up. this is something I wrote in the other thread that is on this topic.
"what precisely is the role of the level 70 dungeons now? no one will be at level 70 for more than a blink of the eye so no one will be able to run this content unscaled/capped.
The traditional role of the t2s has been to help lower levels level up. get gear and stuff and junk. now what is their (t2) role?
The better geared players aren't going to go back for content that takes longer for worse rewards and that they aren't geared to play because arpen can't even hit cap.. the lower geared players have no chance at all of completing it if the better geared 80's can barely do it.
So the lower il levels have no content really. the higher il levels have the most recent dungeon and that's about it.
so with the scaling cap that keeps us far below where we need to be for level 70 or the dungeons not being level 80.. you've basically made all content without point except for the newest one. and it's only good for your best geared players.
so you've alienated the majority of the players with nothing to do..
so again I ask, what is the point of the current level 70 dungeons? what purpose are they supposed to be serving in this game? and what are you doing to make the reality line up with the goal?"
edit I just saw the question about level 80 dungeons. why couldn't they award level 80 gear. the people running these dungeons will be pretty much exclusively level 80. NO ONE WILL BE LEVEL 70 for more than an hour now.. you can't stop the clock at level 70. but honestly even if you kept the rewards the same we'd all be happier if these were level 80 instead of 70 because they'd still be doable for the time spent. we'd be at arpen cap for them at least. the rewards ironically would be more inline with the amount of time and effort they'd now require.
there is no point to these dungeons at level 70. it makes NO SENSE AT ALL
it is deeply tied to the reason people are so upset about the scaling cap. people want things to do in this game. you're locking off MOST content now. why would we upgrade our gear, buy wards, etc if that gear is only good in one dungeon maybe 2? the majority of the game isn't there. we can't help lower levels any more.. no reason to go back for rewards.. it's the reason people aren't playing.
so in short PLEASE reconsider. making all dungeons level 80
Again i am sorry to say it but most of those answers are like beating around the bush: the new ones are answering nothing in my eyes, and the old ones are like a repeat of the stream:"do challenge of hero! do MExp! Im sorry, what was the question? i dont understand" They're aware of the issue and will look into it!
I've suggested a toggle to just turn off leveling up after level 70 (and I personally still really want that if they're not going to make relevant content level 80) but honest new players would never use that because they want to be level 80s.
you're losing the majority of your player base with this mod because of the scaling cap/ not having relevant content unscalled. if you keep it the way it is it also is guaranteed NOT to retain new players.
I know you're trying to do these replies to give the appearance of listening to us, but instead you are coming off as tone deaf.
Fact: This was never about "new players"! Every gamer who has played Neverwinter to date was a "new player" before there was a mod 16... and never had a problem with the existing system. If we had questions, we just posted them to general chat and helped each other out... which is part of being in an MMO.
Fact: NEVER do I recall the existing player base ever asking for such a colossal, clumsy, sloppy, incompetent, unprofessional and ham-fisted nerf and "scaling" as we are witnessing here today!
Fact: This was not the players' idea. This was your idea! And I'm sorry to be the one to burst your bubble but your idea is not only a total and complete game-breaking failure, but it is also a shameless slap in the face to every gamer who has invested their time and money on this game!
I can forgive Atari for releasing ET: The Extra Terrestrial. I can overlook Sonic the Hedgehog 2006. I won't even go near Superman 64. But you have absolutely no excuse. You threw your entire existing player-base under the bus, took a truly beautiful game that was not broken and utterly destroyed it allegedly all in the name of drawing in "new players". Seriously?
Do you think we gamers are that stupid to fall for a "for the new player" cop-out?
What rubbish!
I honestly don't care at this point whether you delete my account or not. If you do. it simply proves me right. If you don't, the game is still unplayable regardless.
I was up in arms when mod 16 hit preview and furious when mod 16 hit live. However I found something that works for me.
This said...
Teneberous enchantments have stopped working since the patch on 5/13/2019.
The last patch we just got made my briartwine armor enchantment stop reflecting damage back to enemies in the undermountain area.
When can we expect these enchantments to work properly again?
But to address the question there are 2 issues with enchants.
1) Scaling basically invalidates them past level 9. (6 for Bondings)
2) Capping stats without enchants at all is easy, this results in basically 1 enchant mattering for all offence slots and the same bonus type applying for Runestones (hence the emergence of 200k Power toons).
The changes to Weapon Enchants, notably the removal of buffs/debuffs also makes the choices here far more narrow than they were in Mod16. Armor Enchants are in a better spot than Weapon Enchants, but that’s because they were changed very little in comparison. Once again Mr Foss has not understood the meaning of question, and has again provided the same empty answer as a result.
Let’s try this again:
Why should a level 80 toon struggle to complete level 70 content that takes hours and weeks for what amounts to no reward at all?
At level 80 few of the Boons matter at all, so why work hard over a long period of time to get them?
There is no “high level gear” in the level 70 campaigns that need anything more than access to the zone, so again why work hard to get this gear when you can team up and run level 80 content that will give a chance at some of the best gear in the game that is more than adequate for everything but the top 10% of players? Again you don’t understand.
I have every boon and all the equipment I need from those old campaigns on 2 toons (some people I play with have that on 5 or more toons).
What do these players do?
Challenge Campaigns fall into the “you scaled me to ineffective even though I’m above cap at level 80, making these painful and unrewarding experiences”.
These players have LotMM and ? Of course they can, you just don’t want to because you don’t understand how irrelevant that content is to level 80 characters and how badly you have invalidated all that content with your scaling. So instead of fixing it so the dungeons are playable for all characters at all levels of 80 gear you think leaving them a scaled mess that breaks the game is a better solution?
You don’t think Red Feather, Prized and Ebonized gear from chests in these old dungeons (levelled to 80 so they are playable not a broken mess) isn’t a vastly superior reward than gear that is utterly useless to all who run it?
Of course not. You approved the insanity that is Ruined Apprentice Armor, that is more labour intensive and costly for weaker gear than the gear that is readily obtained for running MEs.
Can you explain why some of the most difficult to obtain gear in the game isn’t close to being some of the best gear in the game?
Can you explain why most of the new sets have the same bonuses with only their stats increasing as their iL increases?
Can you explain why you keep putting % Damage buffs on gear?
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Are there any plans to diversify player builds other than the currently overwhelmingly dominant Power-stacking build?
examples:
When are the developers going to clarify the final status of the Tenebrous Enchantment so players can see if Tenebrous + Health-stacking is viable?
Are the developers going to buff stats of control effects damage bonuses from companions? Will control bonus be actually useful with it? One can easily notice that Mastery Insignia is cheap as dirt ( because how many players stacks Accuracy + control bonus?). Whereas one can stack power and it's always 1% damage bonus per 1000 stats.
TIA
Have you actually seen any reaction on Tales of the old? I somehow missed any that would NOT include some complain about being forced out back to the PE on disconnect, leaving the player with just wasted time. (and people disconnected like crazy in that area)
You need additional reports? Now I see why you need the new players: the old are now used to such gimmicks and gave up their reporting. Or have they already reported this? Oh, nevermind the question, I cant be bothered to check the forum...
The Moonstone Mask being one of the few separately instanced taverns also causes issues when events such as the Waukeen events take place in he Mask, causing a plethora of players to gather there for guests, rather than RP and therefore making the Mask hardly useable for RP.
Since the new mod launched and the starting quest for it leads players to the Mask, the floating tavern's instances have started splitting up as well, making it even more difficult for people to gather. Am I also right to assume the cap of players in the instance has been reduced from twenty (or more) players to fifteen?
Put shortly, as it stands, roleplayers have mostly been hanging around the Moonstone Mask. Other taverns can be used, but tend to be a result of pre-arranged RP due to the several instances other taverns have.
There is currently a Discord server related to roleplay in Neverwinter Online that consists of about eighty people or so, and that might be a place to gather more direct answers to questions or ideas you might have for the RP-community. Should you wish to know more, you can send me a private message.
Once upon a time you were standing against a challenging question: Why do people run some dungeon more than another?
To be specific, the answer of a developer that time was: Players always choose the fastest way to gain AD. (followed by how difficult it is to counter that)
It is a proven strategy, not just by this game, that if you want to prevent a specific group from doing something, you make it especially hard for them to do so and if possible minimise rewards associated with that undesired action.
(following assumes all the dungeons are actually beatable)
So, now, thanks to the scaling in tandem with not adjusting the rewards, for the lvl 80 char is the easiest dungeon the newest one (respectively, according to your previous responses - if everything actually works - the dungeons from the last two campaigns) and the best rewards come from the latest dungeon as well.
The question is: why to run previous content, if it is harder and lacks on rewards?
As far as the lvl 70 dungeons you behaved like cyclist in a shady neighbourhood - buying an extra tough lock on the cheapest bike possible. I am not claiming that it is 100% effective strategy, but it is a hell of a deterrent to bother.
(BTW: as for the boons, compared to preMOD16, we are required to put some extra effort for boons that split into two categories: not worth it and not working at all)
Bugs and suggestions:
Tactical Enchantments no matter their rank are unable to be slotted in utility slots, not sure this is a known issue but I was sad to see that they didn't work as I wanted to try them out.
Tenebrous Enchantments are broken, they don't work at all since the last patch. Was this intentional and are you prepping them for a nerf since a lot of players run them in their builds now or was just just a case of bug? To be honest, would like to know in case I need to exchange my Tenebrous to something else before the exchange disappears.
I suggest you implement an exchange for AD with the newer seals (Seal of the Mountain) since a lot of us are capped on those seals but don't see a reason to spend them on more things than a ring or two, then they just sit and gather dust.
Your reply on how to work more with the content creators and streamers of this game while it was a good suggestion I don't think it sits well with the community overall. We need to be thrown a bone every now and then, see some sort of indication that you appreciate the community. Showing up in streams is a good start, shoutout to MidnightLight for popping in every now and then most recently Lassor! I have suggested this for a while and still think its a good idea: loot drops. Talk to Twitch and arrange a loot drop event here and there for watching streamers of the game - it would bring in more numbers and raise the curiosity and the popularity of the game through Twitch.
The Watcher set is a fun mysterious adventure to try and figure out, many have already given up on trying to get it though, wish we had some more clues on how to obtain it because lets be honest - its the coolest looking weapon set in mod 16.
Fun rewards. People ask why they should run level 70 dungeons, well what if you got specific and cool transmutes out of them? Perhaps you gather fragments from different dungeons, trials and skirmishes to later combine them into a cool reward - maybe a cool looking companion or even mount? Never underestimate the power of cosmetic things. I would farm my behind off for some amazing transmutes and I have in the past. There is so much potential, you can even award players with items for completing collections or acheivements, it doesn't have to be huge rewards for it to spark more fun and life into old content!
I have had one foot out the door since mod 16 playtest after 5 years of non stop playing. I believe I was one of the most vocal people in there to oppose the current system in its entirety. I stopped posting things on the forum a few weeks after closed playtest ended, the reason being I did not feel as though there were any honest or in some cases huge lack of any response at all not just to my posts but the important posts that I saw simply browsing around. The "apology" was a good attempt but to be honest a lot of players expected more. You keep addressing our outcry for lack of things to do at endgame with the simple solution that we should run challenge campaigns. Why? I don't think you fully understand what scaling and the level cap did for the playerbase.
I have 3 level 80 endgame characters with all boons, decent gear and capped stats for the new dungeon - why should I struggle in level 70 dungeons and not have the stat caps when I have the caps for level 80 content? I doesn't make sense. You want to challenge us, make things more difficult so that we can't blast through dungeons, which is fine but it still feels as though you are punishing players for running level 70 content when they hit 80. The loot tables have not been updated, heck even in Lair of the Mad Mage I received an Emerald drop from the second boss and an artifact belt from mod 6 at the end chest. Running Lostmauth you will still receive Alliance gear, it needs to change.
Due to scaling a lot of players don't see any reason to progress, get your enchantments to rank 9 and thats it. Why upgrade if you will be scaled down anyway? If you will never meet the cap requirements in level 70 content? We should strive towards progression, not away from it. We should all be working towards rank 15 enchantments to one day become more powerful. It seems that the scaling down has left us with one option in terms of dungeons - the new one. Yet if you don't want us to run the level 70 dungeons, we really should have more things to do at endgame. I hope that the upcoming events will be updated and make players want to fully engage in them, otherwise we are kind of done with mod 16. We run Master Expeditions and Lair of the Mad Mage until we have what we need and then... thats it.
You guys are trying your best, I do think that more honesty and an open line of communication would make the comminuty feel better though. Instead of going around in circles with your answers, maybe be a bit more blunt.
Sorry for the lengthy post, as you look through these comments (not just here but on the forum overall, twitter, twitch, discord) do have in mind that we aren't sitting around bashing the game. We critisize and suggest things because we see the amazing epic potential this game has, we love it to its core and want other people to see what we see. And we want a merging of our visions and yours to create a game that blows all other games out of the water.
Cheers!
This has resulted in a people swapping high value enchants for runestones they thought they needed to cap stats at the outset, now finding those runestones offer no value as they just pull the stats in question way over cap.
Please can you allow for runestone exchanges in the vendor whilst its there.
Thanks.
You wanted to make dungeons more challenging, so that people could engage in the mechanics.
Except they aren't more challenging, they just take longer and have become boring. Due to Mod16 gameplay changes, the combat is less engaging, slower paced, and less enjoyable as a whole.
You wanted to bring the gap between high level players and new players closer together, so they could enjoy dungeons together.
Except you haven't, you have divided players even more. Now that dungeons take much longer to complete, nobody wants to waste their time playing with "weaker" players. People demand 22K Item Level, and 150K+ Power. And 95% of the dungeons aren't worth high level players time.
Players were doing too much damage.
For the most part, we still are. Maybe boss fights are a bit slower, but this doesn't actually affect overall run time of the one end game dungeon this mod offers compared to previous mods.
Players were running ahead going "door to door" and leaving others behind.
And we still are. Since dungeons take so long to complete now, and encounters recharge so slowly, it doesn't make sense to spend 1-2 minutes fighting each group of enemies one at a time. Running ahead, skipping everything that is possible, is the new most time effective strategy. In mod 15 it was faster to kill each group and work as a team.
Other issues:
You award players Seals of the Mountain for completing Random Queue assignments.
Why? Those seals are completely irrelevant. At least previously Seals of the Crown were useful for buying "BIS" gear.
You have made it so that running Hardcore mode dungeons from the weekly Acquisitions Inc. quest is pointless.
Why introduce a game mode just to make it irrelevant the next mod?
Every single bit of content that comes before mod 16 is a complete waste of time. And even most mod 16 content becomes a waste of time as well.
There are no dungeons worth running other than LOMM. After you get your weapons from Master Expeditions there is no real reason to continue doing them, and even that grind feels tedious and annoying because you are 100% at the mercy of RNG.
95% of your game's content is NOT enjoyable and NOT worth your player's time. It is NOT acceptable to say, "well this is just what happens when you raise a level cap in a game," or, "this is what happens when you make a level expansion." This is a blatant lie. There are many examples of games that handle scaling correctly, and have proper gear progression systems in place, or games that bother to update their loot tables to keep old content worth their players time.
You owe us more, and these Q&A sessions where you continuously ignore the core issues killing the game, are unacceptable.
But earning RAD is more difficult and time consuming and the RAD cap remains at 100K/day.
This is honestly such a baffling answer. Does he not realize that people have been playing for years and completed campaigns as they came out? I'm on console and once mod 16 hits, I'll get to 80 and...do 3 ME per day and the dungeon (if we get it). Everything else is done. Almost my entire guild of 150 people is done with campaigns. Is he that out of touch with the last almost 6 years of the game?
> @dawndilion#7316. The developers are just catering to the newer players. Its bot a good idea though because their items will be item scaled. The amount of IL through the old boons is significant. If a person gears up and goes back to get them, it will be easier for them to do the level 80 content than the level 70. Now they are at a crossroads, grind mindlessly all those campaigns to have the IL to do LOMM. If they do this more than likely not many will help them due to the same IL scaling. They spend $ on Zen or AD and buy the campaigns. Probably the solution Cryptic wants. Or uninstall. I m sure if the player had no intent on spending money they would rather have them gone anyway. Look at us for example we dont spend money anymore, and they essentially want us gone.
There is always something to spend on here
[Julia F.] We need some additional details on this. What error is it? In which area do you get the error?"
"error you already have all items of this bag/package" pirate skyhold bounty bags a stack of 10 on my warlock gives that error, opened 1 orc bounty bag(orc insignia used to buy these) it dropped the boots gear(good cosmetic not my fav but i like farming for similiar gear transmute) @nitocris83 until we can't get a gear transmute collection tab were we spend ad to use the transmute on our gear those bounty bag are my favorite places to farm and get gear transmutes.
[Jared S.] Need more clarification on this question. Is it asking which enchantments players want to use or their effectiveness or what?"
Not my question but, right now its narrowed to a point player only need radiants on offense slots, and empowered runestones on companion gear offense slots, all our gear farmed can give us enough to max offesnsive caps and if we sacrifice 1 companion gear with 2 offense slots for 2 defense slots we can reach defensive caps, basicly we are narrrowed to single stat enchantments and runestone and make dual stats and 3 stats enchantments useless.