For now.. mine character at level 64 just don't level up anymore and I'm thinking of leaving.
Anyway if they nerf enchantments all the better.
If you keep doing the vigilance quest burnout is likely, even with double experience it's still bad. If you're level 64 it's a boring tedious road to 70. I found that chain grinding giants in Spinward Rise was a faster method over questing, and it's likely due to the wasted time walking.
I share your discouragement with the leveling system. I have a paladin/wizard/devoted cleric I want to level, but I do not want to do 60-70 again.
Unhappy i see that my guild deflates because it isn't fun anymore to play. They changed a lot and not (in my opinion) for the good of the players who are play this game because it is free to play. They change the dungeons in horror worlds and deleted the "old T2" dungeons where the final chest was needed because you got your gear there.
In the good old days we did a lot of guild runs for upgrading guildys gear and for split runs to earn some AD. If i rememeber correct there was less lag also.
And now they wanne throw a lot of new stuff in the game with new bugs. All busy with Strongholds. I understand the excitement of developers about this new mod but before you start something new make sure that what you already have is in a good condition. Because you can't build on something that is already not functional (read playable)
I know I will never ever go thru those lev 60-70 quests again . So there goes any $$ they would of made from me having the want to ever play of my alts..
"What is the sense of living the life you're given if all you ever do is stand in one place?" Lord Huron
0
theycallmetomuMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,861Arc User
Unhappy
I've only ever focused on one character at a time, personally.
they could easily make vigilante quests much better by making them give more exp, and requiring to do less of them to go to the next spot (10 instead of 16 seems about right)
it would still be boring, but at least shorter.
It would be much better to have an actual questline, but that's probably harder to do now.
theycallmetomuMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,861Arc User
edited July 2015
Unhappy
I still say just change each vigilance quest to a gold quest, so you only have to do it once, and raaaaapidly expedidite leveling.
People will either spend most of their playtime at level 70 anyway, or will be running alts. There's no problem with characters leveling up quickly. If anything, the fact that this allows multiple characters means characters will be spending more on RP and crafted items and the like. A win-win. Why all the fixation on difficult leveling?
I mean, the reason I left another free-to-play game, Runes of Magic (which, let's face it, is totally pay-to-win) was because of how difficult it was to level up at the higher levels. Why do MMOs do this?
For now.. mine character at level 64 just don't level up anymore and I'm thinking of leaving. It's bad because I wasted money here for mine other characters but these things make me so angry and stressed. Actually I would not advice this game to anyone asking me. Before I publicized it but, knowing the stress it brings for (not) reaching endgame content, will not do anymore.
Anyway if they nerf enchantments all the better.
I'd strongly recommend you bite through the grind to 70 and focus on Spinward Rise as soon as you're able. Once you're back in basic lvl70 blues, things are a LOT better. You may not be doing IWD or WoD just yet, but with a reasonably intelligent team, T1 dungeons and skirmishes as well as sharandar and DR should be fine.
Bite through the grind to level to 70,
then bite through the grind of Spinward Rise,
followed by bitting through the grind to upgrade your weapon and other equipment,
then bite over and over and over again through the overflow grind for a random chance power point.
And about dungeons and skirmishes, you forgot to mention, that the Devs had to change vote kick to get that one working again for new players, and even then, there is still the problem of getting one-shot from various sources, and not much from the Devs about this problem at all.
Level 1-60 is fun, from there it's going downhill fast... and not in a good way.
@arcofortep12 buy a few character slots, while those are on sale, and have at least some fun leveling all classes to 60.
silverkeltMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,235Arc User
Uncertain for the future
Once... in almost two years of playing in legit, did I kick someone .. and that person was a complete jerk.
Ive left a couple of groups that were cheating and got kicked by a random russian tag team in a pk right at the end. Other then that Ive run hundreds of other DDs in just pugs , not even legit and never been kicked.
So in thousands of runs Ive experienced little issues with kicking. Sometimes I wonder if the people always complaining about kicking is doing something that warrents it. IF your a complete jerk and scream and yell at people, I would also kick you.
Im not saying everyone who complains about kicking is doing that.. but I just cant fathom all this supposed kicking going on. How exactly it was a problem in the game that ever warranted discussion.
... just a side topic to actual issues in game, as I dont believe this is one honestly.
A lot of new players were just kicked from groups because of their lowish itemlevel, nothing more and nothing less.
I have also seen my fair share of vote kicks, and no idea how to describe these reasons for those kicks, since there was none given at all, or just some random gibberish.
And even if i voted no, there were more then enough times players around, that voted yes on those crappy vote kicks.
In the end, if the Devs felt it necessary to change the vote kick, you can be sure, that the complains about the vote kick seen here in the forum were only the tip of the iceberg.
This change is at least one change, that gives me a bit of hope... but not much.
I do believe in killing the messenger...
Want to know why?
Because it sends a message!
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soditalloverMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 88Arc User
Unhappy
part of the problem with the vote kick is that all partys even pre made enter into a pug dungeon so if a player drops for any reason a pug is shoved in not that is always bad sometimes works however it can be a dungeon breaker if a premade was able to invite to the dungeon the vote kick system would never come into it. and tbh the whole pug system is utter rubbish when setting the party you aim at the best possible team then you get a random,
I voted for happy. While there are some issues that clearly need to be addressed, to me, the game is still fun every time I log on. The game is supposed to be fun, and if you don't take everything so seriously all the time, it still can be. So you are upset with one or 2 things? Do something different in the game. You don't like a certain zone while leveling up? Level using Foundry quests or PvP or running some of the leveling dungeons. Bored with doing the same thing over and over? Do something else. It's only repetitive if you make it that way.
I can appreciate your view. I voted uncertain, myself. But I also believe that when you focus on the 'good', the 'good' is what you recieve. So, I appreciate your optomisim and positive outlook.
For me, its a matter of making sure that the development team clearly understands that the current direction of a lot of things is damaging their long term relationships with the player base. Clearly I like the game. And that includes pretty much the majority of the folks on this poll. If they didn't really like the game, they wouldn't be here speaking their mind. Sure, there's a troll or two, but most folks who even bother to go the forms, are passionate about the game on some level.
For me, its the bussiness model. The impression I get, compared to the other cash shops in other games, is Cryptic/PWE is deliberately building in scaricity, so that they can sell me back the solution. Its highly disingenious.
Their model demonstartes to me, that they don't care about a long term relationship with me. They are betting on my short term money, and that I will eventually go somewhere else. They see themseleves, and my patronage, as disposable. Its like they don't get, that not adding value, and courting the customer, ultimately will lead to their loss of revenue.
Its pure speculation on my part, but I blame it on PWE. They bring a monetization model that works in the east, and they think they can import that model here, lock, stock, and barrel. They highlight their success with their other Asian offerings in the west as their justification.
They fail to relaize a number of things. We don't see this game as an eastern market game, so we don't view it with the same (cheap, and disposable) expectations that we attach to imports. In fact, most import games are seen as 'one night stands'. Quickly discarded before any real time, or money, is spent.
I can only speak for myself, but I bet a number of other folks feel as I do. I am a retired adult, who has spent his life in a capatilist consumer culture, like most other folks have (not that everybody is a retired adult).
When you deliberately try to trick me through deceptive practices like building in obsolecense, so you can sell me the solution, you very much offend me.
Its like they've learned nothing from the American Auto Industry. Those of us who are old enough to remember, remember the American Automobile Industry being caught practicing Planned Obsolesence. Their revenue plummeted, and they never, ever, fully recovered from that reputation.
Cryptic, the US Government isn't going to bail you out when you fail.
What works in this commercial environment is quality, and long term patronage. Americans will give you money, based on loyalty alone, if they think you're trying to do right by them.
Elder Scrolls Online, The Secret World, Lords of the Rings Online, Guild Wars2, Star Wars the Old Republic all have much better, and much more up-front cash shops. And they all, also have a premium service. With a model like that, I can see the revune stream up front. I don't feel like their are hiddeen costs, and that they are trying to rip me off.
I really like this game, and I grew up loving the franchise. But right now, I play this game, in spite of its bussiness practices. I am quickly loosing my loyalty to Cryptic, and I have absolutely nothing good to say about PWE.
Its time you change your tune and act like you belong in the Western markets by selling a quality, value added product, and courting reltionships with the customer.
This is about 95% of how I see it as well. This is the first game in a long time that I get frustrated when I see end game design...it's nothing more then a sink to pull my money in. they don't get it...give us a game we can enjoy playing, and a cash shop that makes us want to buy, and we'll love it. But if you give us a horrible stretched out game, and a cash shop full of things that were forced to buy if we want to progress past a certain point in the game, and we'll leave.
I am unhappy with the game. I'm currently playing some of my lower level toons, and doing the one campaign I can do on my 60's (since they pretty much locked us out of the older campaigns until 70...) but I refuse to involve myself in the money sink and grind that is the end game. once all my toons hit 60, ill probably quit. The only thing I see post 60 is "cash funnel for ingame store".
You know the funny thing? I have no problems putting money into other MMO's that have cash shops. GW2, SWtOR, Marvel Heroes...all of those I regularly put in far more then a subscription would be just because I love the game. Here...they're going to be lucky to get a penny from me. I'm starting at the cost of a single GMOP, and realizing that its days to weeks worth of grinding just for one. I'm logging into 10 toons just to run leadership because of the broken economy they've created. And you can't say that it's the Bot's fault...the bot's don't set the prices of GMOP's, the company does.
I am unhappy because of how the mod6 level 60-70 thing worked out. Why did they move Sharendar, Dread Ring, and Ice Wind Dale from 60 to 70 content? I am a solo casual player and just finished my main (HR) on Dread Ring and was working on Dale and Dragons. Now with my HR (currently 67) I will never get to any of those zones again. None of my alts will ever get to those zones at all. Not to mention that all the cool gear I spent so much time to make was rendered useless with mod6. The content up to level 60 is still good for soloing, but I am disappointed that I will not get to experience much of the end game content. If they are taking the game to team/guild playing that is certainly their choice, but it does nothing for me. I even stopped spending real money this game and I am sure my play time will be reduced now that Summer Festival is over. It is time to start looking for fun elsewhere.
My advice to people currently: Level to 60, level on as long as you can bear, then start an alt, Level that to 60 then use LShip, DD hour ToS, and the Minsc & Boo Show your previous char to 67 or 68, then go to SpinRise... :^/
I even admit I liked Fiery Pit - some nice concepts there, e.g. in the Fardelver's Revamp, but IMHO it's plainly beyond Lvl 65 solo playability, unless you're trickle-down-boosted.
But that whole forcefeeding of the barely bearable Elemental Evil "campaign" "content" is an elementary evil move. Really bars many casuals from playing and breeds discontent on longtimers going for alts. Big bad move. Like the nerf of the Dragon's Hoard enchantments. Like the binding of bags. Like the attempted Health Stone demand generation by making Dungeon mobs almost OSK almost everyone.
Honestly, pulling the micro-transaction registers might have been a credible thing is those micro-transactions were worthy their name. But they aren't, they're somewhat expensive and hence don't undercut the no-matter-threshold of many a gamer - which causes people to go elsewhere.
Regarding all the "Level 60-70" comments: I agree with you and feel your pain.
The problem is the brick wall everyone hits the moment they reach 61.
The FIX is actually simple in theory: realign the entire XP leveling curve to be more even from level 5 all the way to 70, so it's not like you're borrowing extra XP to level up to 60 then suddenly are billed for all that extra XP you've been earning.
Simply put: Rothe Valley should be a level 65 zone, Whispering caverns 66, then Drowned Shore 68 and so on.
This would be the *proper* fix. Actually implementing that, however, would be a massive effort for the Devs and take a long time, which is why it's just not gonna happen. This is the fatal result of planning a long-term direction then changing that direction five minutes before reaching the end-goal.
Things will get better. If you're patient enough to wait another year or two.
I'm "Uncertain for the future" with a relevant tendency to unhappy.
I was lucky enough to bring my main toon to lvl 70 before the exp lvling was changed. I've another toon at lvl 60 but I don't have time to grind and I quit progressing with it.
Despite this, I had some fun with current mod 6, but now it's very boring with no decent chance to increase AD, gold, and RPs.
The current model is based on grinding and poor end-game rewards: if nothing changes dramatically, this game is over and I'm not going to spend money for it. Even worse, there's no value for money at the zen market. Zen are very expensive, most of the companions are useless, fashion is not a must, objects to refine are ridiculously expensive with no value at all and so on.
The economy is broken and the market is in the hand of 3rd party AD vendors: the tentatives from Cryptic to stop them are unsuccessful and they had a bad influence on the player base.
Reported bugs and exploits are still there: only bugs that have an impact on $ are immediately addressed.
I want to be clear: this is not a criticism, but a simple matter of facts and evidences. If I'm wrong, I would like to see evidence of it. I don't want to provide suggestions: it's up to Cryptic to solve this problems and if they don't, slowly and day by day, this game will be forgotten. It's the market baby...
Here the only criticism I have: the great potential of this game has been destroyed with bad decisions and bad design.
Here my two cents about the f2p concept. The model was: if you want to speed up the develpment of your toon, you should buy some zen and you should progress fast. Even this implicit "promise" is broken:
- if you dont' want to pay, the development time of your toon is infinite and no way to play endgame contents. You stick in a grey area where almost nothing is allowed, grinding bored between Shar, DR and IWD and some low end contents.
- if you pay, the value for money is very low. You may want to buy some keys, a mount and that's it. Even if you pay thousand $, the end-game contents are so poor that there's no reason to spend and, in any case, you have to put your gear on the trash in the next 3 months. I use to buy some zen, but nothing is really worth.
Finally, this is a "pay-to-run-after every-change" game: it may work at the beginning, but on the long run, when the pattern is understood, none is going to support and pay for it.
Now if I look in my crystal ball, I see bad things. With the new module, you will be evaluated not only for your equipment, but also for the guild you come from. The grinding mechanism is now extended at guild level and on the long run, we will have few powerful guilds (role of the exploiters here?) and few more.
A new player must do:
- leveling to 70
- Shar, DR and IWD
- Tiranny of the dragons
- Make dungeons and pvp
- Refine everything (mission impossible today)
- buy a good mount
- make 2 or 3 respec (it always happen)
- join a good guild
Time to do it? Infinite. Amount of money to do it? Unaffordable.
Post edited by lewstelamon01 on
Oltreverso guild leader Maga Othelma - DC | Svalvolo - SW | Dente Avvelenato- GWF
I voted unhappy, though the funny thing is that if you asked me in mod 5 when I joined, I'd have said happy.
Asides from the mob difficulty change which I fairly enjoy, this game has taken a remarkable turn for the worse in mod 6, and the increasingly terrible decisions from above leave me little hope for the future.
I mean, at the moment I'm still having fun due to working on remaining campaign boons, and other stuff going on (such as moonstone mask RP) but really I don't know how much longer it'll last.
Basically, if they manage to screw up SW as a class enough I won't be able to solo content anymore (which would pretty much mean, any further nerf), I am probably out.
0
romotheoneMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 729Arc User
Unhappy
@vaelynx
It has been stated in yesterday's stream that SW is going to be next on the class review list. But this has been said in the context of SWs performing poorly in PvP, so I'm not sure what is going to happen there exactly.
At the same time, I am not seeing a dramatic decrease in players online. That makes me hope for the future.
which is funny since i know for a fact that there are a LOT more bots logging in. so with only a small decrease in total numbers coupled with the influx of professions botters = less actual players than you think.
I base my sentence only on my own experience (= my guild and legit channel).
For what I do and how I play, I don't see a dramatic decrease in player numbers. I can team up with people for a t2 run exactly like before.
At the same time, how can you know that there is actually a decrease? we don't have a meter for online players.
Legit channel has 200-250 players online as before the modification.
I don't consider even this a good meter..
Mind you, I am not saying you are wrong. I would like to understand how can you be sure that the total number of players is decreasing
More botters online? I believe so. But botters online do not produce tens of millions of AD/day. Creating a BOT that launches profession tasks is not easy (the task position is not fixed, thanks to variable rare tasks).
At the same time, I am not seeing a dramatic decrease in players online. That makes me hope for the future.
which is funny since i know for a fact that there are a LOT more bots logging in. so with only a small decrease in total numbers coupled with the influx of professions botters = less actual players than you think.
[...]
At the same time, how can you know that there is actually a decrease? we don't have a meter for online players.
[...]
...sure it's only the Steam-players' subgroup. Subgroup analysis of a significant fraction of the playerbase, though. Plua, please keep in mind that with appropriate selection, subgroup analysis can predict election results +/- 1% within minutes after closing the ballot.
0
silverkeltMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,235Arc User
Uncertain for the future
Below is a little flawed, but it shows what we all know, AVG player population has plummeted by THOUSANDS since the last year give or take. It started around mod 4 debacle and has continued to decrease. The recent and rampant unfriendly , against feedback implementation of things like experience , rp nerfing ect hasnt helped. AT the same time they are pissing off their playerbase, a new and highly anticipated ALT friendly game has arrived.
They are doing nothing but maximizing profits , with a highly shortsighted approach. My suggestion is to stop spending money, its the only thing they care about, our feedback has been ignored for over a year now.
Again, this isnt saying Im having NO fun in the game, I do find moments of fun, basically 3 manned lostmouth last night.. that was sort of fun, 4 manned a VT tankless, and not the best of DPS, so it wasnt a insta burn, it was quite challenging in fact. Both of those were fun. I dont have much fun in t2s, because you HAVE to have pretty much the same set up every time and most groups cant do them as it is, so I cant just pick up random people in legit most of the time and get anything but etos done, which Im tired of.
The game always gets a short term bump at new mods, but lately not many stay after a couple of weeks, usually to see how boinked things are and leave. Also, regardless of what they say, small guilds, casual solo players will probably leave the game soon as well, so another reduction coming in the coming months.
We might be down 4-5 thousands of players average at peak time (so thats up to tens of thousands who have left) since when I first started playing in 2013.
Month Avg. Players Gain % Gain Peak Players
Last 30 Days 2,308.0 -249.3 -9.75% 3,639
June 2015 2,557.4 -348.4 -11.99% 4,285
May 2015 2,905.7 -786.7 -21.31% 5,079
April 2015 3,692.4 +392.8 +11.91% 6,324
March 2015 3,299.6 -150.8 -4.37% 5,921
February 2015 3,450.4 -230.2 -6.25% 5,881
January 2015 3,680.6 +164.7 +4.68% 6,043
December 2014 3,515.9 -183.3 -4.96% 6,069
November 2014 3,699.3 +682.0 +22.60% 7,231
October 2014 3,017.3 -49.0 -1.60% 5,258
September 2014 3,066.3 -1,080.7 -26.06% 5,669
August 2014 4,146.9 +753.5 +22.20% 9,459
July 2014 3,393.5 -633.3 -15.73% 5,547
June 2014 4,026.8 -83.3 -2.03% 6,717
May 2014 4,110.1 +238.1 +6.15% 8,220
April 2014 3,872.0 -222.7 -5.44% 6,668
March 2014 4,094.7 -944.0 -18.74% 7,805
February 2014 5,038.8 -1,366.5 -21.33% 9,669
January 2014 6,405.3 -782.2 -10.88% 11,604
December 2013 7,187.5 - - 14,822
Comments
If you keep doing the vigilance quest burnout is likely, even with double experience it's still bad. If you're level 64 it's a boring tedious road to 70. I found that chain grinding giants in Spinward Rise was a faster method over questing, and it's likely due to the wasted time walking.
I share your discouragement with the leveling system. I have a paladin/wizard/devoted cleric I want to level, but I do not want to do 60-70 again.
In the good old days
And now they wanne throw a lot of new stuff in the game with new bugs. All busy with Strongholds. I understand the excitement of developers about this new mod but before you start something new make sure that what you already have is in a good condition. Because you can't build on something that is already not functional (read playable)
it would still be boring, but at least shorter.
It would be much better to have an actual questline, but that's probably harder to do now.
People will either spend most of their playtime at level 70 anyway, or will be running alts. There's no problem with characters leveling up quickly. If anything, the fact that this allows multiple characters means characters will be spending more on RP and crafted items and the like. A win-win. Why all the fixation on difficult leveling?
I mean, the reason I left another free-to-play game, Runes of Magic (which, let's face it, is totally pay-to-win) was because of how difficult it was to level up at the higher levels. Why do MMOs do this?
then bite through the grind of Spinward Rise,
followed by bitting through the grind to upgrade your weapon and other equipment,
then bite over and over and over again through the overflow grind for a random chance power point.
And about dungeons and skirmishes, you forgot to mention, that the Devs had to change vote kick to get that one working again for new players, and even then, there is still the problem of getting one-shot from various sources, and not much from the Devs about this problem at all.
Level 1-60 is fun, from there it's going downhill fast... and not in a good way.
@arcofortep12 buy a few character slots, while those are on sale, and have at least some fun leveling all classes to 60.
Ive left a couple of groups that were cheating and got kicked by a random russian tag team in a pk right at the end. Other then that Ive run hundreds of other DDs in just pugs , not even legit and never been kicked.
So in thousands of runs Ive experienced little issues with kicking. Sometimes I wonder if the people always complaining about kicking is doing something that warrents it. IF your a complete jerk and scream and yell at people, I would also kick you.
Im not saying everyone who complains about kicking is doing that.. but I just cant fathom all this supposed kicking going on. How exactly it was a problem in the game that ever warranted discussion.
... just a side topic to actual issues in game, as I dont believe this is one honestly.
I have also seen my fair share of vote kicks, and no idea how to describe these reasons for those kicks, since there was none given at all, or just some random gibberish.
And even if i voted no, there were more then enough times players around, that voted yes on those crappy vote kicks.
In the end, if the Devs felt it necessary to change the vote kick, you can be sure, that the complains about the vote kick seen here in the forum were only the tip of the iceberg.
This change is at least one change, that gives me a bit of hope... but not much.
This is about 95% of how I see it as well. This is the first game in a long time that I get frustrated when I see end game design...it's nothing more then a sink to pull my money in. they don't get it...give us a game we can enjoy playing, and a cash shop that makes us want to buy, and we'll love it. But if you give us a horrible stretched out game, and a cash shop full of things that were forced to buy if we want to progress past a certain point in the game, and we'll leave.
I am unhappy with the game. I'm currently playing some of my lower level toons, and doing the one campaign I can do on my 60's (since they pretty much locked us out of the older campaigns until 70...) but I refuse to involve myself in the money sink and grind that is the end game. once all my toons hit 60, ill probably quit. The only thing I see post 60 is "cash funnel for ingame store".
You know the funny thing? I have no problems putting money into other MMO's that have cash shops. GW2, SWtOR, Marvel Heroes...all of those I regularly put in far more then a subscription would be just because I love the game. Here...they're going to be lucky to get a penny from me. I'm starting at the cost of a single GMOP, and realizing that its days to weeks worth of grinding just for one. I'm logging into 10 toons just to run leadership because of the broken economy they've created. And you can't say that it's the Bot's fault...the bot's don't set the prices of GMOP's, the company does.
I even admit I liked Fiery Pit - some nice concepts there, e.g. in the Fardelver's Revamp, but IMHO it's plainly beyond Lvl 65 solo playability, unless you're trickle-down-boosted.
But that whole forcefeeding of the barely bearable Elemental Evil "campaign" "content" is an elementary evil move. Really bars many casuals from playing and breeds discontent on longtimers going for alts. Big bad move. Like the nerf of the Dragon's Hoard enchantments. Like the binding of bags. Like the attempted Health Stone demand generation by making Dungeon mobs almost OSK almost everyone.
Honestly, pulling the micro-transaction registers might have been a credible thing is those micro-transactions were worthy their name. But they aren't, they're somewhat expensive and hence don't undercut the no-matter-threshold of many a gamer - which causes people to go elsewhere.
The problem is the brick wall everyone hits the moment they reach 61.
The FIX is actually simple in theory: realign the entire XP leveling curve to be more even from level 5 all the way to 70, so it's not like you're borrowing extra XP to level up to 60 then suddenly are billed for all that extra XP you've been earning.
Simply put: Rothe Valley should be a level 65 zone, Whispering caverns 66, then Drowned Shore 68 and so on.
This would be the *proper* fix. Actually implementing that, however, would be a massive effort for the Devs and take a long time, which is why it's just not gonna happen. This is the fatal result of planning a long-term direction then changing that direction five minutes before reaching the end-goal.
Things will get better. If you're patient enough to wait another year or two.
I was lucky enough to bring my main toon to lvl 70 before the exp lvling was changed. I've another toon at lvl 60 but I don't have time to grind and I quit progressing with it.
Despite this, I had some fun with current mod 6, but now it's very boring with no decent chance to increase AD, gold, and RPs.
The current model is based on grinding and poor end-game rewards: if nothing changes dramatically, this game is over and I'm not going to spend money for it. Even worse, there's no value for money at the zen market. Zen are very expensive, most of the companions are useless, fashion is not a must, objects to refine are ridiculously expensive with no value at all and so on.
The economy is broken and the market is in the hand of 3rd party AD vendors: the tentatives from Cryptic to stop them are unsuccessful and they had a bad influence on the player base.
Reported bugs and exploits are still there: only bugs that have an impact on $ are immediately addressed.
I want to be clear: this is not a criticism, but a simple matter of facts and evidences. If I'm wrong, I would like to see evidence of it. I don't want to provide suggestions: it's up to Cryptic to solve this problems and if they don't, slowly and day by day, this game will be forgotten. It's the market baby...
Here the only criticism I have: the great potential of this game has been destroyed with bad decisions and bad design.
Here my two cents about the f2p concept. The model was: if you want to speed up the develpment of your toon, you should buy some zen and you should progress fast. Even this implicit "promise" is broken:
- if you dont' want to pay, the development time of your toon is infinite and no way to play endgame contents. You stick in a grey area where almost nothing is allowed, grinding bored between Shar, DR and IWD and some low end contents.
- if you pay, the value for money is very low. You may want to buy some keys, a mount and that's it. Even if you pay thousand $, the end-game contents are so poor that there's no reason to spend and, in any case, you have to put your gear on the trash in the next 3 months. I use to buy some zen, but nothing is really worth.
Finally, this is a "pay-to-run-after every-change" game: it may work at the beginning, but on the long run, when the pattern is understood, none is going to support and pay for it.
Now if I look in my crystal ball, I see bad things. With the new module, you will be evaluated not only for your equipment, but also for the guild you come from. The grinding mechanism is now extended at guild level and on the long run, we will have few powerful guilds (role of the exploiters here?) and few more.
A new player must do:
- leveling to 70
- Shar, DR and IWD
- Tiranny of the dragons
- Make dungeons and pvp
- Refine everything (mission impossible today)
- buy a good mount
- make 2 or 3 respec (it always happen)
- join a good guild
Time to do it? Infinite. Amount of money to do it? Unaffordable.
Oltreverso guild leader
Maga Othelma - DC | Svalvolo - SW | Dente Avvelenato- GWF
Asides from the mob difficulty change which I fairly enjoy, this game has taken a remarkable turn for the worse in mod 6, and the increasingly terrible decisions from above leave me little hope for the future.
I mean, at the moment I'm still having fun due to working on remaining campaign boons, and other stuff going on (such as moonstone mask RP) but really I don't know how much longer it'll last.
Basically, if they manage to screw up SW as a class enough I won't be able to solo content anymore (which would pretty much mean, any further nerf), I am probably out.
It has been stated in yesterday's stream that SW is going to be next on the class review list. But this has been said in the context of SWs performing poorly in PvP, so I'm not sure what is going to happen there exactly.
I base my sentence only on my own experience (= my guild and legit channel).
For what I do and how I play, I don't see a dramatic decrease in player numbers. I can team up with people for a t2 run exactly like before.
At the same time, how can you know that there is actually a decrease? we don't have a meter for online players.
Legit channel has 200-250 players online as before the modification.
I don't consider even this a good meter..
Mind you, I am not saying you are wrong. I would like to understand how can you be sure that the total number of players is decreasing
More botters online? I believe so. But botters online do not produce tens of millions of AD/day. Creating a BOT that launches profession tasks is not easy (the task position is not fixed, thanks to variable rare tasks).
Lethinath - DC
Fayn Fiddler - HR
Jean Fiddler - OP
Quinn Fiddler - TR
Tre'Davious Flynn - SW
Bogus Skullslicker - GF
Vanhankaupunginselk - CW
Alea - GWF
Noble Misfits
http://steamcharts.com/cmp/109600#3m
...sure it's only the Steam-players' subgroup. Subgroup analysis of a significant fraction of the playerbase, though. Plua, please keep in mind that with appropriate selection, subgroup analysis can predict election results +/- 1% within minutes after closing the ballot.
Below is a little flawed, but it shows what we all know, AVG player population has plummeted by THOUSANDS since the last year give or take. It started around mod 4 debacle and has continued to decrease. The recent and rampant unfriendly , against feedback implementation of things like experience , rp nerfing ect hasnt helped. AT the same time they are pissing off their playerbase, a new and highly anticipated ALT friendly game has arrived.
They are doing nothing but maximizing profits , with a highly shortsighted approach. My suggestion is to stop spending money, its the only thing they care about, our feedback has been ignored for over a year now.
Again, this isnt saying Im having NO fun in the game, I do find moments of fun, basically 3 manned lostmouth last night.. that was sort of fun, 4 manned a VT tankless, and not the best of DPS, so it wasnt a insta burn, it was quite challenging in fact. Both of those were fun. I dont have much fun in t2s, because you HAVE to have pretty much the same set up every time and most groups cant do them as it is, so I cant just pick up random people in legit most of the time and get anything but etos done, which Im tired of.
The game always gets a short term bump at new mods, but lately not many stay after a couple of weeks, usually to see how boinked things are and leave. Also, regardless of what they say, small guilds, casual solo players will probably leave the game soon as well, so another reduction coming in the coming months.
We might be down 4-5 thousands of players average at peak time (so thats up to tens of thousands who have left) since when I first started playing in 2013.
Month Avg. Players Gain % Gain Peak Players
Last 30 Days 2,308.0 -249.3 -9.75% 3,639
June 2015 2,557.4 -348.4 -11.99% 4,285
May 2015 2,905.7 -786.7 -21.31% 5,079
April 2015 3,692.4 +392.8 +11.91% 6,324
March 2015 3,299.6 -150.8 -4.37% 5,921
February 2015 3,450.4 -230.2 -6.25% 5,881
January 2015 3,680.6 +164.7 +4.68% 6,043
December 2014 3,515.9 -183.3 -4.96% 6,069
November 2014 3,699.3 +682.0 +22.60% 7,231
October 2014 3,017.3 -49.0 -1.60% 5,258
September 2014 3,066.3 -1,080.7 -26.06% 5,669
August 2014 4,146.9 +753.5 +22.20% 9,459
July 2014 3,393.5 -633.3 -15.73% 5,547
June 2014 4,026.8 -83.3 -2.03% 6,717
May 2014 4,110.1 +238.1 +6.15% 8,220
April 2014 3,872.0 -222.7 -5.44% 6,668
March 2014 4,094.7 -944.0 -18.74% 7,805
February 2014 5,038.8 -1,366.5 -21.33% 9,669
January 2014 6,405.3 -782.2 -10.88% 11,604
December 2013 7,187.5 - - 14,822