I posted this to the Neverwinter Facebook Page, and well, it got lost in the shuffle, so let's see if we can get more exposure and response here.
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I recently had a chat with Lord Neverember about Neverwinter, and he suggested that I voice my opinion publicly so that other may hear and weigh in on the matters. Therefore, I am stepping forward as a frontman for all of the Adventurers of Neverwinter.
This goes out to all of the developers at Cryptic Studios, Perfect World North America, Perfect World Europe, Perfect World China, Wizards of the Coast, Blue Shift, The Neverwinter Game Team, and the powers that be at Arc Games.
Neverwinter was released on Xbox Console on March 31, 2015. I started playing on April 17, 2015. So, at this point, I’d consider myself as a Veteran Player. In the last three years, there have been many Modules released as the game has grown and evolved. Yet, to the dismay of your players, many basic and simple aspects of the game have not. For this reason, I have taken the tie to compile a list of some of those things, that you have either looked over, neglected, cast aside, or for whatever reason, chose to do nothing about. With that said, let’s start from the beginning, and by that, I mean when you first start the game up.
1. Since it’s release, we have had to sit and watch a splash screen of Valindra Shadowmantle. I never liked the choice of image for a splash screen to begin with, but the game more than made up for such a poor choice of an image. After playing the game, I determined the relevance of the image (still a poor choice). I will never forget the day that Strongholds was released on console. I downloaded the update, started the game, and there is the same splash screen. Over the years, and many new campaigns and storylines later, the game has grown and changed, but we are still subjected to seeing that disgusting image of Valindra when we start the game. I know computer programming, and it is not hard to change one line of code for that image. In fact, you don’t even have to change the code at all; just change the image. My personal suggestion would be an image that is in direct relation to the current module release.
2. We have seen character classes nerfed and even reworked. In fact, at one point you said that by the end of 2015 all classes would receive an overhaul. Unless, I missed something somewhere, what ever happened to the Great Weapons Fighter in all of this? Was this class left out? If it wasn’t I missed those Patch Notes.
3. In the beginning as you advanced through the game, you would fight and enemies would drop what most of us deemed generally worthless items, but at times, there might be a useful piece of equipment here and there. As you progressed through the game, so did the equipment drops. We graduated from Common to Uncommon, and up to Rare, at least until we hit level 70. At this point, it all came to not just an abrupt halt, but a complete waste of time and screen real estate to have these pieces scattered across the screen after a big fight. Not only were they worthless, but a complete waste of time to pick up. Herein lies the next place where you dropped the ball. If you were not going to give us epic drops of equipment that we could use for refinement with points to make it even with the trouble, could you at least change the colors of enchantments, runestones, and the various other refinement materials? At the end of a fight with a mob of enemies, it is a workout to pick up what you want because you go to something thinking it’s worth picking up, and it turns out to be a worthless Green unidentified item. This is simply torture. Please fix it.
4. Bank Deposit. This is short and simple. A programming oversight, if you will. If I have only one item to deposit, then WHY ON EARTH an I asked how many do I want to deposit. Fix It!
5. Seals Vendor in Sun’s Costner Market. Along the same scenario as above, but in reverse. You only allow us to have 1,200 Seals at a time. With the exception of the Astro Diamond pouch, everything else is 100 seals each, so why am I able to make a selection larger than 12? Again, a huge oversight that has been there for as long as I can recall. Fix it!
6. Dungeons. My word, this has been an issue since the game was released. The Queue System had it’s downside early on, and you made a nice improvement by adding a private queue system. This was great, until you broke it unbeknownst to yourself, and have never resolved it since. I have a solution to this problem. With the release of Fangbreaker Island and subsequent Dungeons since, you have completely alienated the vast majority of your players. Everyone refuses to use the Queue System where new dungeons are concerned because they have the option for a private queue, and can put together a selective group of people with only the highest of item levels. Meanwhile, everyone else is left out of being able to run this NEW content, because no one will invite them to one of these private queues. Here is the simple solution to that. Public Queues Only for the three(3) most recent dungeons so that EVERYONE has an Equal chance at obtaining new rewards,. Meanwhile, still offering Public and Private Queues for older content. Some might balk at this idea, but it beings the game back to the basics of forcing people to work together to achieve a common goal.As an afterthought, you could allow people to access the private queues system for new dungeons, but only if they entire group was in the same guild or alliance. Some might like that idea, while others would hate it, because now they would have to schedule their dungeon runs the same way that they have to schedule Drgonflight Runs. Again, the latter is just an afterthought.
7. Since we are on the subject of increased difficulty in gameplay, let’s continue. Every since the release of Storm King’s Thunder, the content has increased in difficulty, and you went absolutely overboard with the release of the Jungles of Chult, yet we have not seen a raise in the level cap since the Well of Dragons and Tiamat, two years ago. Why is that? You have continued to increase the difficulty of the game with stronger enemies and boss fights with the rewards of newer and stronger gear, but you have not raised the level cap. We even had a major change from Gamer Score to the current Item Level, and it would have been the perfect time to introduce a raise in the level cap, but you chose not to. WHY IS THAT?
8. The Vault of Piety. Did you forget about it being there? In the beginning, it was a goal to get get the Angel of Protaction, which many of us achieved within the first year, after that, nothing. It’s been the same since day one. No new content, nothing, You’ve added content to the Tarmalune Trade House and the Wondrous Bazaar, but nothing to the Vault of Piety. Why is that?
So, in closing, on behalf of all of my fellow Adventurers across all platforms, I pose these questions to you that many of us are thinking and I have discussed with many over the past three(3) of venturing across the Swordcoast. I look forward to hearing from you, and feel free to message me directly and I will offer my email for further correspondence. And to all others, please Like and Share this post as well as comment so that the developers will hopefully take heed to this post.
And one last thing….. What ever happened to getting Xbox and PC on the same release date schedule by the end of the first year? Ye, I realized that succumbed to s Play Station release in 2016, but even in the past 24 months, this has still not occurred to get all three platforms on the same cycle. Now that other games have PC and Xbox communicating together, you are that much further behind. I really look forward to your input on this subject.
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Comments
As for restricting private queues to guild/alliance groups, how is this helpful to the community. So now you don’t want me to be able to play content with a friend simply because said friend in not a member of my guild/alliance. How is that fair to either of us? You do realize that sending out patches to PC is much easier than to Xbox/PlayStation. As far as I remember patches/update have to go through a certification process before being released. Releasing the update for PC first allows them to work out any bugs before they get to the consoles and potentially shut the game completely until another patch can be created, certified and released.
Of course, most of the times the bugs they fix before console release are bugs that benefit PC players for weeks that we miss out on.
2. Are you upset that the GWF has never been nerfed or mad that it needs a rework? Seems to be the most strait forward class in the game and I don’t think much needs to be changed. Most people spamming LFG chat only want a GWF for DPS. That’s one reason I think they should be nerfed, but that’s a different topic I won’t get into.
3. Hey, at least we can turn that HAMSTER into RP now.
4. Never noticed that personally.
5. I just wish I could carry more seals cuz I’m lazy and don’t feel like buying rings to salvage all the time.
6. I would never want to run the top 3 dungeons with random people.
7. I don’t think a level cap increase would be a good idea. That would make all lvl 70 gear irrelevant. Sure with each new mod there is better gear to get, but at least the old stuff is still viable.
8. I’m with you on the vault of piety. I mostly just buy the elixirs though.
I do agree that modules should be released at the same time across all platforms. I understand that process does take longer on consoles, but there are other games that release content on the same schedule across all platforms. So it’s not impossible like some people make it seem.
Let me explain my point of view which is clearly not yours apparently and you're not talking in my name.
I have absolutely nothing against bringing the most players to endgame content. This is something im trying to do in my guild even. Thats including tong and codg.
But here is the main issue with that. While i can understand the frustration of the "left out" players, you "left out" players need to understand the frustration of us, the ones leaving you guys out.
When you have a DC in Tong using flame strike on bosses, chains on bosses, not a single hallowed ground or useful daily/encounters to buff/support the party and that this DC thinks he's playing the way it should be played and is answering you "nobody tells me the way I play my class", when you have a dps that is doing less damage than the DC using Divine glow exaltation and forgemaster (basically not a dps set up) and thinks its ok for him to be here because hey he's 12k!, when you have a tank that says "well im not a tank i built a dps tank", when you have an OP that doesnt have a single point in Bane and doesnt see anything wrong with that, when you have a GF that doesnt use ITF "what's ITF??? oh ok i will put next time i have point there'' and so on...
I am not making up anything of whats written above. All those are players i met in Tong, FBI or mSP. So yes private for the win. Some of us that you say are leaving you guys out dont necessary want to spend 1hr everytime in an endgame dungeon when we meet stubborn players that dont want to learn, that want to fast reach endgame content without taking the time to read/practice/try/search whats the best to do with their toons. Its not a matter of iL, i ran some Tongs with a 14k TR as only dps who knew what he was doing and we finished in 25mn.
Its a matter of people that absolutely want to do endgame when they clearly dont have the mindset for it. Im talking about desire to learn, desire to improve, desire to be better, desire to be included in the group, desire to be useful and bring something and at the end of the run, everybody had fun.
Many classes have been nerfed lately but not the GWF and I'd like to see them tone it down a notch on the GWF. There's a reason why its the most popular dps class because its brain dead easy to play and has highest dps.
There plenty of changes the devs need to make but they instead focus on nerfing rAD income to 100k and making RQ even worse.
Cheers
I never feel left out of new content because I can always start my own group, (oh SNAP you can do that) i guess the game its leaving anyone out.
I hate the random queue system with a passion. I hate the random queue system with a passion.
The Devs are not concerned with bring us decent content, only nerfing, and taking away the things we like about the game. This is the second or third time lost count that they are attempting to nerf RAD/AD to force people into the ZEN market. Its a great market strategy and bad business move, good for them bad for us. But I am not hating they need to make money somehow, if this is the solution they came up with more power to them.
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