Hi,
I'm a totally new player to Neverwinter (NWN) and figured that it would be fun to post about my experience learning the ins and outs of the game for the first time. Part of my rationale is that, as a former "Elite" player from Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO), and so far removed from the day to day pain new players in that game faced, it would be refreshing to struggle at a game and jot down my thoughts.
DDO was my only previous MMO experience but it was extensive complete with forum lurking and major cash & time investments. That said, expect several comparisons to the D&D themed game
So without further ado...
TLDR
NWN has so much going for it (see the good). But it suffers a fatal wound with such easy repetitive game play in PVE. I'm 45 levels in and can't get motivated to log in.
Comments
The Good
GraphicsFirst things first, the game is beautiful! I love the music score and voice work, it's adds a great deal to feeling immersed in the game. Sound affects generally mesh well, even my rental mounted made a satisfying sound as hooves met ground.
The first day or so of game place was great. The game wasn't too challenging to start and I got to learn how to use various powers. One is called a "Daily" and I have no idea why since you get to use it more often than daily. The UI is very well done, in particular choosing new ability and powers is done in an intuitive way that I could grasp quickly. This was much appreciated since the original DDO character UI was a mess which was scrapped in future iterations.
Guilds
Love it so far! From what I've seen in the few days in a guild, Strongholds seem like a great idea (though I've heard the code is a bit buggy). The option to build out your stronghold and do quests as a guild is a neat feature that DDO could not pull off. It sounds like there will be guild PVP which I love the idea of. That in particular seems like a great way to mix and match game elements to give new and long time players a variety of game play that keeps them coming back.
There was a guild calendar, build bank, several levels of guild membership with permissions, all really great work compared to DDO guilds. I'm sad for DDO in this respect because they should be embarrased by how limited their guild feature is.
Player Handles!
LOVE IT. I don't need to friend every character for a single player account?! Maybe you take that for granted, but I had to name all my characters in DDO nearly the same (Bhrette, Frette, Wrette) so people would know who I was. CHARACTERNAME@HANDLE for the win!
Crafting
I hear it's getting a big nerf on the forums, but I love the approach. Time based and like everything else, I can pull up the menu from anywhere! I have no idea what to do with it yet, but I'm gathering a lot of wolf pelts right now
User Interface
Awesome! I can access the Auction House (AH), Astral Diamond Store, Zen Store, Queues, Guilds and such from anywhere! In DDO, you'd have to run half way across a zone to check any of that stuff. Kudos to the designers!
One complaint, the AH search & filter feature is poor. It seems to be buggy and why I can't limit my search to min/max buy out prices is beyond me. Try buy a Mark Of Power when there are 500 and all you can do is sort by Buy Out.
Events
This is a nice way to add variety to game play. Hourly rotations for extra bonuses are a nice touch. There seems to be a regular rotation of server wide events and a calendar to tell you what is coming up. It's nice...not enough to save NWN from it's own highly repetitive game play, but nice.
The Bad
Party Based Dugeons?In DDO, this was THE way to play the game and slayer areas were a nice diversion. In NWN it's the opposite. You spend all your time in slayer areas doing, what amounts to the same quest (kill 6,12,24 MOBS) and return for XP. I've seen a couple of dungeons, SOLO of course and they involve running to the end and killing the boss. COOP game play is awesome and should be a major design goal, but NWN opted for an individual to mindlessly kill mobs and perform the same FETCH type quests over and over?! DDO has 75 custom quests and most required teamwork to complete (until they managed to remove the need for teamwork, but that is another forum post) leading to a great deal of variety and replay-ablity. NWN lacks all this and after playing my 45 levels, I'm burned out already. I heard there are a few party based dungeons in some zones, but much like the Tea Cup ride at Disney, they are closed for repairs. Maybe I'm complaining to early, is lvl 70 different? There's a good chance I'll never know because I can't stomach the march.
PVP
Here is a way to give you a reason to build your Bad HAMSTER character. Trick out your toon and pwn others! Here is a way to introduce elements to game variety into a persistent MMO! PVP should be in the GOOD list right? Maybe it will be but so party its a big fail from a noob's perspective. I've played 10-15 PVP games and I've lost nearly all of them. Character balance and Team balance are both broken.
How are characters broken? Well, I can't damage Paladins and I can't even take a swing at a rogue. I can't break the damage resistance of the former and am perpetually stunned by the latter.
Teams are unbalanced every time. I've yet to be in a close game. Don't they balance by Item Power? Win and Loss rates? Do they just gather players within a 10 level range and throw them together randomly?
Why is it only capture the flag? How about first team to 15 kills? How about a race through a dungeon and the first team to complete wins? PVP just seems half done.
PVE
It's too easy. I get pwned in PVP but haven't faced a serious threat in PVE yet. Bleh
Every Man is an Island
Where is everybody? It's like this is only a solo MMO? Do they make such a thing? Well yes, and you are playing it I didn't worry about groups until about level 5, but then got to thinking, am I missing something? Where are the party based dungeons? Hell, how do I speak to anyone? I learned that like small children, you are seen but not heard from until level 10+. No zone chat, hell, no forum postings?! Games should make for a welcoming experience and I was shut out in the cold in game and out for the first week.
Characters
Maybe it's the UI or the fact that I'm a noob, but building a NWN character seems simplistic and it certainly doesn't require many hard decisions. Let's examine those in reverse order. I've had more points than I needed and max out 80% of the available powers anyway, so I don't have to forgo one awesome power in order to make room for another. Feats are nearly the same thing and illustrate how you don't have to make that many decisions in building a character. Sure you make some simple decisions, like will i melee as a ranger or not, but then you just take most of the melee fee tree and call it a day. Compared to DDO, I just don't see much room to craft a variety of different builds on the same character. (Perhaps I need more seasoning and access to gear since that is a great deal of a characters power)
I haven't seen much affect in choosing one race over another beyond the abilities you gain at level one. In DDO, there are more ways to mix and match race + classes.
I also haven't seen much "min/max" type approaches yet either. That again, could be since I'm a noob, but in DDO, the game was about raw DPS all the time. My early experience in NWN shows that stuns, buffs and escapes play a larger role in your effectiveness.
The Neutral
Currency & CollectiblesThere are more currencies than I can count and some are convertable to other. Meh Ideally, a MMO hires real economist and limits currency inflation to something below that ofZimbabwe's. But that doesn't seem to be the case here. Astral Diamonds are hard for a new player to acquire and items on the AH demand eye watering prices which tells me farmers, exploits or poor economics have hit NWN hard. I mentioned the Mark of Potency. It's 25k in the AD store (cheaper on the AH) but even at the AH price, I spent all my savings to upgrade a few rank 5 enchantments to rank 6. Wow, I must be a poor noob I suppose that's just temporary and soon I'll be rolling in AD like the rest of you elites.
Freemium
I'd prefer a monthly subscription (less than $10) and kill ZEN but I get that the market is into micro transaction right now. I guess I should put my money where my mouth is and go find a paid fantasy themed MMO so I don't have to put up with in game ads selling ZEN so I can power up.
Combat
It's OK. Stun, Buff, Heals, DPS, it's all there. There are tactics, well at least for the ranger I'm playing. The game only gives you 8 combat options (2 basic, 3 medium and 2 more Daily Powers) which seems like kid stuff to me. I also hate that I move so HAMSTER slow and have to stop every time I want to attack.
Foundry
This, like PVP, should be a big plus. It's genius to leverage community generated content. But so far, I see no compelling reason to play these other than I'm tired of slayer zones. If that Party Based dungeons ever worked out, the Foundry might be a big win. Until then it's just meh. A great idea that isn't fulfilling it's potential.
the blacksmithing/mailsmithing/leatherworking/tailoring, only usefull for pants/shirt and some armor kits, but can be raised to lvl 25 without making a single thing.
weaponsmithing/artificing. completely useless
jewelcrafting, needed to make 2 socket rings.
that left leadership, which was usefull for generating AD, since AD is the currency for buying gmops, and the auction house, and anything more useful than a basic heal pot. and thats what's getting nerfed. oh and the good recipies in most other professions need that ad too.
As a newbie, it's very likely that you have to respec yout talents at later stage and reconsider all the choices you've done at the beginning.
Where is everybody? In the Strongholds where most of the teamplay is at the moment.
PVP is a coin toss: no more, no less unless you play with a pre-made team. In that case, no coin toss: if you're not a specialized ultra-pro PVP player, you will be meat for butchers.
Oltreverso guild leader
Maga Othelma - DC | Svalvolo - SW | Dente Avvelenato- GWF