Something to consider...

lunari

So I've been playing this game nearly 3 years and the experience has been great despite of some bad encounters, but they don't out weight the good, for me at least. Yet in recent mods I've noticed something thats getting quite annoying from both sides of new players and older players.

When it comes to dungeons the random que is nice feature to help new players, but thats IF you are one of those helping people to guide them through the dungeon. (Something I usually do.) Yet I've encountered older players complaining how slow the other players are moving, they aren't doing enough damage, or being completely rude to others. Now I understand you can report or kick or whatever to remove the problem. Yet this had brought me an idea that I feel like devs should really consider.

Now the random que can still be there if its intended to be there, but I have an idea that can help both new or older players and perhaps bring a whole new experience to NeverWinter. My idea is having the feature with 5 active companions because of their stats is nice, but why not make them useful for players? For example if a player wants to go through the dungeon to experience it alone, or take the time to cherish the work that has been made for it or learn the mechanics to the dungeon. Or an older player just wants to get through the dungeon at their pace. You should be able to use whatever companions you have available as a strategy to get through the dungeon.

All companions in the game has a use or role they play. Such as tank, healers, rogues, mages and more. So as a player who wants to solo a dungeon would want to choose out of the catagory I have available and place them in the 5 active slots as their chose before queing into the dungeon or skrimish. Now this feature can be solo random que or solo normal dungeon que.

I believe this idea would be great and a new experience. It can also be a marketing purpose for companions in the Zen Market, Lootboxes and Auction House. Players would be driven to buy companions and want to upgrade them to the best way they can to get through the dungeon solo.

Sure I have concerns about this because what if everyone turns to this feature? Then random que would be longer to que or new players would struggle to get through a certain dungeon because most people won't want to help them or guide them through? At the end of the day I like to know the good and the bad this feature could bring to NeverWinter and why hasn't it be brought to NeverWinter before? What do you guys think? I like to see other peoples point of view if this could be possible and reasonable for both gaming and business.

plasticbat

If the goal is to allow a new character to solo a dungeon, it does not take as much as you mentioned to do that.
Give it an augment pet, some ring, some enchantment. It can run through most level dungeons.
Or, give the pet bonding stones, some ring, some enchantment. Same effect.

More pet in the game, more aggro, slower the run, more upset the AD runner will be.

niffarious

I like the idea. And speaking as someone who has only been playing a few weeks, I find that I am running to keep up.. I can't even look around this new dungeon place either.. I don't have a chance to kill anything unless its left over bad guys that the people who (have probably raced through the dungeon a zillion times) left behind because they are too busy racing through everything. And most times I do the death race from the last campfire because no one comes to help. Its pretty sad actually. I still haven't even found anything to let me know the basics like how to type on the chat to even try to tell the people in that dungeon something like, "Hi, I'm brand new to Neverwinter! Please don't leave me behind to die."

I que up into the dungeon making sure the bags I have are stocked up with healing potions, injury kits, the other little kits for opening things I find along the way; and that my companion had leveled up some and had gear too - hoping that I'll find some sort of gear I can actually use that will make an improvement and well.. death happens. A lot!

I really did mistakenly think that going into a dungeon in Neverwinter would be maybe a bit nicer, slower or less angry than the ones I'd experienced in another game. Not sure if mentioning another game's name is taboo. So I won't.
Anyhow, I still enjoy Neverwinter a great deal because of the solo quests and few solo dungeons I am able to do. So yep, if we could make up the difference of players in companions to be able to do a dungeon I'm all for it.

And here is a bit of a kicker. My first dungeon, I ran up to the door and tried to go in - three people are needed to be in the party. So the first thing I did was run all the way back to town (no horse at the time), so that I could buy another companion.. Not knowing I could only have one out at a time, and that companions didn't count as people. How's that for a laugh? lol

I did have two questions on companions; Leveling, and have actually looked through every bit I information I could find too..
How high are the Legendary for levels? As far as getting what I would probably need for specific class, I know what I should have, but well.. Its kinda like those killer mounts.. I tend to get what I enjoy looking at and naming just right.
And what happens if you run out of companion slots? Can you just boot out the least favorite so that you can have another? I know I had picked one of the default companions for the quest.. because well, free companion right? No clue as to what the dog looked like in the beginning, but gawds! it was ugly!! Its just hanging out in the idle part of that stable thing now. Probably flipping fleas towards my active companions.

greywynd

You can buy more companion slots.

You can private queue for dungeons you have access to.

wintersmoke

The devs didn't take away the option to run the dungeons solo... Just the ability to get the daily AD bonus for doing so.

athena

I like the solo random queue idea. Many times there are runners who are just too impatient to run with others.

I have another idea i'd like to propose as a possible. I'd really like to run a solo queue with my alternate toons as slot fillers. Meaning that, as i have 3 dps 1 tank 1 dps, i'd then fill one slot and theothers would fill the remaining slots and the computer AI would run the alts while i do the main. I think it may be fun.

greywynd

...and defeat the entire purpose of the current queue system.

As for what you propose, I've seen it done. It usually falls under "multi-boxing".