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Drow Unlock Idea: How to please ALL parties.
thecain
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
I doubt that PWE or Cryptic will give this a look, but I had a pretty amazing idea after I came back from my morning walk. The big thing right now is that you can't access Drow at the start, right? That $200 get the Drow exclusively. Well, I had an idea about this. Where Heroes will start with it, Guardians can get the Drow itself, Starter packs can get it a little earlier, and all free players can eventually unlock it by playing, thus ensuring that they'll jump in and play.
1: Heroes will get the unlock from the start, including the skin.
2: Guardians will get the Drow itself, but not the skin.
3: Starter packs will come with a scroll that can be used at level 15 to get a quest to unlock the basic Drow (not the skin!), which will be an easier version of...
4: ... The quest for all free players that would come around Level 30. Why 30? It's when you get your Paragon Points, and when you start to become "Epic". What better way to feel epic that to do a quest that actually shows WHY the Drow are working with the good guys? Perhaps a faction gets betrayed in the Underdark, maybe the remnants of a destroyed House are fleeing death and the heroes come upon them after a villager reports that they saw large amounts of Drow nearby. The fact of the matter is, it'll explain why the Drow are even there, it's in the spirit of D&D (unlocking the Drow via a quest), it ensures exclusivity of a day 1 unlock for certain players, and adds value to all packs that may want the Drow early.
It fulfills every single stipulation for the argument in the first place, and makes you work for the Drow. It's lore friendly. It's BUYER friendly. It ensures more sales of the packs for impatient people, and/or rewards those that support the creators with one of the most beloved races in the Forgotten Realms. I figure yelling at the devs to change it back, liar liar isn't work, so I think this compromise could be epic, and serve ALL users, purchaser and non, and bring back distressed guilds by having them work towards the reward of having one of the most iconic Forgotten Realms races. After the 60 day period, the quest would remain, but it would just give the regular rewards, nothing special, save for MAYBE a title that shows you brought the Drow to the good side.
Feedback is appreciated, flattery will get you everywhere.
1: Heroes will get the unlock from the start, including the skin.
2: Guardians will get the Drow itself, but not the skin.
3: Starter packs will come with a scroll that can be used at level 15 to get a quest to unlock the basic Drow (not the skin!), which will be an easier version of...
4: ... The quest for all free players that would come around Level 30. Why 30? It's when you get your Paragon Points, and when you start to become "Epic". What better way to feel epic that to do a quest that actually shows WHY the Drow are working with the good guys? Perhaps a faction gets betrayed in the Underdark, maybe the remnants of a destroyed House are fleeing death and the heroes come upon them after a villager reports that they saw large amounts of Drow nearby. The fact of the matter is, it'll explain why the Drow are even there, it's in the spirit of D&D (unlocking the Drow via a quest), it ensures exclusivity of a day 1 unlock for certain players, and adds value to all packs that may want the Drow early.
It fulfills every single stipulation for the argument in the first place, and makes you work for the Drow. It's lore friendly. It's BUYER friendly. It ensures more sales of the packs for impatient people, and/or rewards those that support the creators with one of the most beloved races in the Forgotten Realms. I figure yelling at the devs to change it back, liar liar isn't work, so I think this compromise could be epic, and serve ALL users, purchaser and non, and bring back distressed guilds by having them work towards the reward of having one of the most iconic Forgotten Realms races. After the 60 day period, the quest would remain, but it would just give the regular rewards, nothing special, save for MAYBE a title that shows you brought the Drow to the good side.
Feedback is appreciated, flattery will get you everywhere.
Post edited by thecain on
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Comments
It appears the "drow" race option is separate. In other words, when HoTN players go to race selection, one will actually be a menzo renegade. So, the "drow" race is simply "locked" for 60 days - there are no "skins". The "costume" is clothing granted at start (just like clerics get a chain shirt and pants).
So, I'm not sure how this data fits into your plan, as your points address a problem as if there is one drow race, and HoTN get access to it. I get the spirit of the idea, though - make it unlockable.
I'm still of a mind (granted, I have no stake in this, because I'm not playing drow) that if you make statements that a race will be in at launch for free, then you should just include it - not obfuscate it with more coded solutions.
I'm with you all the way on that one, but I'm fairly sure PWE and Cryptic aren't going to back down from the race being locked out. At the very least, this will give people the ability to get it rather than just waiting. It's a compromise where the dev gets what they want, the players at least get somewhat of what they want, and the lies... eh. You can unlock it 2 days if you're really dedicated, but it's exclusive as an unlock to the payers, even though the Renegade itself was to be their exclusive unlock. I'm offering the company honey, rather than bile. I'll just hope they'll bite.
Well they changed their minds and Drow will not be in at launch. Companies are allowed to go back on their statements. Terms, conditions, and content can change from said things previously stated.
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Honestly, we don't know why they locked the drow race. To make it seem like the HoTN pack is more exclusive than it is? That would be my guess. But there haven't been any clear posts as to reasoning. So I'm not sure making it unlockable solves whatever problem Cryptic/PWE has, organizationally.
The biggest problem I see is poor communication and then no communication thereafter.
This is true. Enron promised to make money for their constituents, and invested it in something that didn't exist. People pre-purchased an Aliens game which never made it onto the disc, even though the fake footage was playing on their website a full two weeks after release.
I just didn't take Cryptic as that sort. Everyone has their pet peeves, and ***** about things. My only issue here is... why would you generate all the negative press for something that is actually in the product, not something that actually has to be coded and "won't make it for release" (which I understand, working in software development)?
thecain, your idea isn't bad, but it's not going to happen. Also, assuming that anyone could ever come up with any plan about anything at all, ever, that "ALL parties" (those parties being gamers) would be pleased by is pure fantasy. Nerds gonna rage, no matter how good the idea is.
Heroes: MenzoGade
Guardians: Vanilla Drow
Starter Packs: Do they technically count as Founders if they don't get the title? Oh well thirty days after launch.
Everyone else sixty days, or tie it into preferred status from buying something through the cash store for the first sixty days. If they buy something they get that status, and unlock the Vanilla Drow.
That is way it should be.
Everyone would have it unlocked after the 60 days.
Says the Guardian. My idea makes it so everyone can still get it around launch, while allowing the Drow as a starter race to Guardians. My idea was made to fulfill all former obligations, while also fulfilling the new wishes of the company. Thus why I called it a compromise.
Well I like your idea. Especially the fact that you make drow something to work towards. I think with a few tweaks it would be workable. The only problem is receiving the quest at a specified level. Last Beta weekend there were many people who reached level 30. That was a 2 day span which is far short of the 60 days they have set and may be asking too much. But I think it's a good idea and seems like you put some thought into it.
I wish more people would try to come up with solutions instead of blindly feeding into the hate machine. Call me an optomist, but I do believe that if the community got behind a solid idea/alternative the devs would be more likely to listen and at least give it some consideration.
Thank you for the kind words! Well, when considering a proposal, you have to make the idea worth the company's time, they have to get something out of it too. I figured with the idea above, not only could they take a jump into hosting contests for the community, but rebuilding that trust, offering a pretty sweet reward (becoming part of D&D lore), AND keeping what they were originally going for, though I know where you're coming from. As for the level reward, would it be better at getting a scroll at level 30, and getting the quest for F2P at Level 60? Because that kind of places it at the very end of the game... rather than putting it near the very start.
Not only did I consider level and the like, but I had to question story flow as well. If the Drow arrive in the middle of the story, they can still have a lot to do. But if the Drow literally arrive at the tail end, it leaves it hard to write things around them, and that'd be more for extra races/expansions and the like. Even then, there are multiple reports that either this is the way XP will stay, or that XP was jacked up a lot so people could test later content.
Either way, I can see where you're coming from. I could see it working even at Level 60... but it would kind of stink from a writing perspective. I didn't want it to seem like you were buying the Drow though, at least, with the Starter pack. It was just a neat, early something, and could be gained in about a week's time of effort, if you didn't have all day to play.
I'm sure when the next beta comes, I could refine my thoughts on it, since I'll finally be in the beta myself.
Ahh, I see where you're coming from. Sounds like it would make for a good quest line. Giving players something to work towards and even those (Hero/Guardian) would want to play through just to get the lore. But not to sure about how it could be paced as far as leveling. As you stated already speculation is across the board as to the pace for leveling. I've even read that leveling pace slows down at higher levels. So no way of knowing.
Wasn't there something similar to what you are discussing added to City of Heroes? You had to reach max level in order to unlock that particular alien race? I know it was added later to the game and think you had to do a mini quest to open it up.
Not sure how far any ideas will go at the moment, but I figure better to offer 'em up than keep quiet.
Seven years dealing with the public has taught me how impossible this is. Appeasing the customer always seems to be some form of damage control. With how confusing all PWE's previous announcements have been, and how great the confusion and uproar is, their best bet at this point may be to stick with their last statement and keep it simple. Nice suggestion, but I think the confusion would lead to more disappointment than satisfaction.
You're talking about the Warshade and Peacebringers. Yes, actually, I believe it started at just achieving level 50, moved to level 20, then became something that you only got if you bought from the store and became a "premium" user. I had a Warshade... I miss the guy. But yes, you are right, though I wasn't thinking of it initially. I took several things into account:
1: Start with the current model that the team want to use, design a compromise where they could not only fulfill their promise, but also keep exclusivity, and importance, to all brackets of payers in some way.
2: Tier the amount of time people have to invest based on payment. IE, Guardians start with Vanilla Drow, whereas Heroes get Drow AND Renegades.
3: Set the bar to where free players could still reach it, so they don't have to grind an alt all the way to end game just to get their main (for the Drow Guild folks, among others).
4: Make it acceptable where it wasn't just really easy to do. It has to be an achievement, as well as feel like actual lore.
5: Make it something the community would want to take part in, IE, make it acceptable, not only in lore terms, but in putting a contest around designing actual game content. Also would be a good way to test the foundry.
6: Wrap it all up in a nice package and present it to the devs... who I still have no way of getting in direct touch with. I have no idea if they've even seen this post.
Overall, I'm just pleased I had the idea, and was able to get some good feedback from others. I don't expect to please everyone, it's impossible, but it's a compromise...
You're very handsome.
lol'd tnx.
I personally couldn't stand drizzt, boring character created by an author not even originally tied officially with D&D, not too step on toes just telling it like it is. Dark elves are evil and they aren't that interesting too boot. How about the gythanki or githerazi or a lizrdman race or gnomes which are cool. I had enough drow crud to last me a lifetime with ddo!
Please cryptic offer us a race or two that are fresh and exciting......gnomes(silverflibinginixcd or however you spell it) would be nice.
It would be extremely unfair to those of us who did spend money on this game to give the Drow out to those who did not spend money. There has to be a fine line when marketing items and entice users to spend money on the game.
Again, if you don’t like it sorry, but this is how it is in life, so get used to disappointment. Either spend the money for the pack, or give it a rest because Cryptic is not going ot take a chance by pissing many of us off that spent money on this game and have us all up in arms demanding a refund. And that is what will happen.
But you weren't promised exclusive access to Drow. You were promised just the renegade skin. Unfortunately, it seems the poor wording of Cryptic confused some of you into thinking otherwise.
of course some will choose that path willingly, just like you could in any other humanoid communities.
think of how darth vader started out, since everyone is probably familiar with that one.
he didnt start out as evil he was corrupted.
as you all may or may not know, he started out as a normal fairly good natured human (well normal , apart from his midi-chlorian count that is.).
dark elves actually started out as normal elves and due to the corruption by Lolth /Araushnee they became night dwellers underground and above their skin changed and the dark elf was born... adaptation/evolution due to their different ways(the short version of it)
it most definitely has to do with the goddess Auraushnee/Lolth...
below is how most dark elves cant break free and are made evil/corrupted.
Auraushnee/Lolth is the goddess of the drow race and society. She is responsible for the nature, customs, laws and survival of most drow communities. The Spider Queen maintains her absolute rule over drow cities by means of her clergy, who tirelessy seek out and destroy all traces of dissent, disobedience, rival faith, or sacrilege and who ruthlessly enforce the Way of Lolth. The Spider Queen foments unending chaos in drow society and sets the drow eternally at war with each other both for her own amusement and to prevent complacency, runaway pride from asserting itself, or the rise of other faiths.
some dark elves broke free from Lolth grasps , broke free of her corruption and became sane , good natured dark elves, i think only the corrupted dark elves where called Drow, because Lolth gave them that name. "Dark" has nothing to do with them being evil although some people seem to interpret it that way.
i hope i got some of it right but that is how i remember it from the 1980 's of how elves became dark elves and named Drow by Lolth.
Sorry, but you need to go back a re-read whats being offered.
a unique playable race armed with the "Faerie Fire" racial ability and tattoo cosmetic option. Like the legendary ranger Drizzt Do'Urden, explore the realm of Faerun as a Drow exiled from the Dark Elf stronghold of Menzoberranzan, City of Intrigue.
When it says a unique playable race, that to me says you get the char Drow to play as. not a skin.