Neverwinter 2018 - The Death Cycle

maugrym

With this week's coupling of the following events, I think it is safe to say that Neverwinter is in its death throes, unless something drastically changes. This post, which will likely go overlooked, is to encourage the devs to reconsider the race to the bottom.

Here are the concerning events (from a PS4 perspective):
1) Zen Sale FOR 6 DAYS
2) Zen MARKET Sale FOR 6 DAYS
3) The New Lockbox w/ RP for everyone
4) The prerelease of Leg Tools

1 & 2 effectively mean that you can buy stuff off of the Zen Mkt for 42% of the normal cost if you use cash to buy Zen. This represents a massive deflation event, which might be fine if it only existed for a day or two, as these sales used to. Coupled w the 6 DAY duration, this effectively floods the market with cheap goods, at a time when players don't need them anyhow.


3 just perpetuates the ongoing destruction of RP, the only barrier to maxing toons. Within a short time, players will be able to rank out all items to 14 (aided by the ongoing onslaught to Ward pricing achieved by 1/2). This, then, leaves virtually nothing to actually pursue in the game. Add to this the planned RP instead of AD salvage changes of Mod 15, and you're left wondering why the devs even bother to have ranks of gems (answer, because the mats require bag space).


4 just demonstrates how useless people consider crafting to be, as the price of Leg tools has dropped to below 400k in less than 3 weeks. The sad part is, given that people will complain their way into winning, even if crafting ends up being the best thing to do in the game (a bad path to follow), the devs will "fix" any shortfall even further by, for example, putting hard to find mats in lockboxes (a complaint-mitigation effect as they did with RP)

The aggregate point of this post is this - this game has RAPIDLY moved to an "Everyone can easily get everything that matters" format. Gear is stupidly easy to get (didn't get it, wait until the next mod and run garbage dungeons, you'll get the last tier of marks), leveling gems is insanely cheap. The attempts to level off the AD market have failed because no one wants to buy Zen for money, and the devs lack an outlet for AD (Knox isn't working, you'd be better off listing him for 20 mil with an unlimited number). Evidence of this failure is apparent in the 6 million in requested Zen on the PS4 headed into this sale.

Either make dungeons harder (so R14s matter), make legendary gear droppable, but difficult to obtain, or create a new "something to achieve." We shouldn't see people running the next end dungeon 1 week after the Mod, but you seem to want to just sell winning at this point (via the packs now available prerelease w the currency), and that will inevitably kill the game. I had 5 toons CR ready in the first week, with all CR boons maxed... I didn't even complete the new zone because what's the point?

When the focus of the game shifts from hard to obtain but powerful gear to "let's gear everyone equally," the whole concept quickly becomes pointless.

So, for the love of Toril, please put something in the game that both takes effort to achieve and is actually WORTH the effort. Which is to say, please put in some gear that requires more than casual play and THEN DON'T PUT IN AN ALTERNATIVE TO BUY THE EQUIVALENT WITH CASH. And maybe keep the sales to a few days. I know they generate cash, but I have to question the difference in cash generated by a 3 day vs. 6 day sale, relative to the price impact on EVERYTHING achieved by the 6 day sale. I expect those with money would have found a way to spend it in 3 days, and maybe then you could slow this lowest common denominator trend...

dread4moor

Yeah.
@maugrym#5972 , welcome to Neverwinter. And the slow motion car crash that has been it's "death cycle" for the past several years.

I've played NW ~5 years. I witnessed several cataclysmic "this is the end" events.

Caturday
Keygate
Coalgate
Resonator-gate
Elemental Evil Disaster
Refinegate
Bot invasion
Huntgate... etc...

A dozen "gamebreaking" exploits and half a dozen half-baked disastrous Mod launches (including the current one).

Yet... here we are... still playing and still talking about NW.
So there is still a pulse, isn't there?
The reality of any business, you are still alive so long as a single HAMSTER is willing to pay you.

Like all things shiny and new (in 2013), NW will not die abruptly. It will just faaaaade away.

jonkoca

The "we need content that makes r14s matter" argument always kills me. We've always had that content, right from the start.

It's called pvp.

I'm almost certainly in a minority, but I'm happy it's easier for new players to gear up. I need more people to fight in dominion.

kalina311

The backlog on Pc is at 21 million not cleared even by the sale exactly as I predicted
It hardly even moved when mod 15 launched .. and people tried to school me and say wait for the sale its normal wait for the sale lol Zen exchange always used to go down in any new mod regardless of any upcoming sale this time it did not

there is so much wealth in old profession asset to turn into guild marks to intern turn into profession maps to sell that there is little need for ads or to buy zen ..or just to directly sell on the auction house

there is so much old player wealth stacked in gold also being turned in fortunes / ads

and there is so much unbound rps droping like candy that a stack of 99 peridots is 3.2k now so pointless to make or craft

mod 15 hit and suddenly i had millions of ads in resources of stuff that used to be worthless in the prior mod
and no i was never a crafter .. this was just basic stuff that dropped on the ground i had accumulated


They also took away the measly 1 blood ruby (worth next to nothing) you would get a week from stronghold pvp
that was put there by the devs to " encourage" participation then removed cause people were "abusing it" by participating
meanwhile in mod 15 unbound rps/ gems drop like water anyways ..

stick and carrot if you ask me dev logic 101

devs.... no one is quing for pvp let give them a reward to get more people involved .. a paraphrased but direct quote ..

devs fast forward a mod or too ..too many people are participating and grouping up as a guild and getting the weekly rewards pvping lets remove it and force people not to be able to custom Q for strongholds else/and no rewards

no new races no new classes and a dev responsible for class balance left just before the mod released
so the canned response remains we cant have those( new classes and races ) cause theres is no class balance yet/ not finished ..we are working on them TM

and then there is releasing of lockboxes that are so worthless/ luck distribution wise you may as well and should be opening ones from older mods.. what does that say when older lock boxes are better then newer ones ?

mebengalsfan

Corrective Action is why the zen exchange is where it is. Quite a few good long time players simply took it as a way to go elsewhere and many have. I see more of my PPSN online friends playing other games not called NWO and most of my PSN friends are from NWO. Over 70% of them are not playing NWO anymore. Don't tell me that the Corrective Action taken in September didn't have anything to do with it, it did.

Even a sale won't resolve the issue and it will continue to back up until the devs find a way to bring more new players into the game. The issue is many of the new players are F2P only adding to any backlog.

There have been post on how to resolve the backlog. I won't get into that.

As for not having anything to do in the game, there is plenty to do other than dungeon running. You can farm zone for items that sell in the AH, you can do MC, do training runs in the alliance, etc...

dyukiller

i would like to play hard end game content, i'm talking about something like destiny raids, dungeons that ppl takes 2 week to understand the mechanics and kill bosses, and a cosmetic reward to every one on server knows that.
Cr for exemple,as soon as it was unlocked ppl posted shard of prom to sell on ah, i mean a new end game was broke in hours.

you guy should create class mechanics, like a place that only tr with steath can pass, or a ground that onle breaks with gwf slam, maybe ppl stop to play dg with 5 support, with gf as dps.

mebengalsfan

dyukiller said:

i would like to play hard end game content, i'm talking about something like destiny raids, dungeons that ppl takes 2 week to understand the mechanics and kill bosses, and a cosmetic reward to every one on server knows that.
Cr for exemple,as soon as it was unlocked ppl posted shard of prom to sell on ah, i mean a new end game was broke in hours.

you guy should create class mechanics, like a place that only tr with steath can pass, or a ground that onle breaks with gwf slam, maybe ppl stop to play dg with 5 support, with gf as dps.

Go play ESO. DCUO had those when I played and just like NWO many players will complain.

CoDG original push pull prior to being adjusted required good understanding of your character and when to use the dodge feature of your class and yet many fell and over time it was adjusted. The sisters fight in CR is a great mechanical fight yet most people simply SCROLL through it. Just like anything they simply scroll and steamroll.

That is how this game is designed is scroll and steamroll. Players don't actually want a challenge, most say they do but when push comes to shove most will come back when the challenge is presented to the community asking for adjustments.

When I played DCUO the latest content was impossible for most players for the standard raid. I personally enjoyed the elite as it was even more difficult due to only being able to be revived 2x. After the 2nd revive you were out. Most elite players quit after they got a piece of the top gear from a boss, meaning rarely did the team make to the last boss. I loved that raid but I defended the common player by asking for adjustment to the standard raid and asked to increase the difficulty of the elite raid. The devs did not adjust the standard and made the elite easier. The reason elite was made easier, because enough elite players wanted the content adjusted because it was TOO HARD... I had no issues and beat that raid a few times.

NWO is in easy mod and has been since day one, especially if you run the meta; even not running the meta you can easily beat all content with a 14K group if all players know how to play their class to max potential. Done a CoDG and CR with a 14K group both were beaten in reasonable time, though CR it was close as we almost did not beat the 2nd boss.

I have asked for normal and master content with master having enemies having higher DR, more health, higher damage, more mechanics, etc.. not sure if mod 15 is designed to move us towards that but it is what it is.

As for this game dying, it won't go away simply because it is F2P and does not require a subscription to play on PS4 or PC. With XBox it does require XBox Live GOLD but that typically pays for itself with the free games they give away annually. Regardless, the game is simply adjusting based on recent activity by the devs and content. There always seems to be newer players wanting to reach 16-18K il and some do and when those do they get to this point of OMG I am so bored and quit or OMG I am now done with this character and can go build up another character. I build up characters until I have a full on DPS, Tank and Healer in most MMOs. Right now my DPS is nearly completed and my DC is in the same boat. Both just need R14 and cost vs. gains is not worth the investment of my own personal resources, so I'm using in game resources. I'm right now working on my GF and she is coming along nicely. She is around 15.8K or so IL but simply by moving over my comp gear and two shadowstalker rings and enchantments from my CW I can easily be 16.5K+. But IL is not important and I like to buildup each character with their own enchantments so that is what I am doing currently with my GF.

So I am having fun again playing my GF and grinding out gear for my GF. Others have fun grinding out MC mats, creating gear through MC, playing the AH, running various dungeons over and over, etc... me I just like playing various characters and having fun doing it.

riskybiz316

This guy has got to be the bigest cry baby that plays the game. If the game was dead or was dying then you wouldnt be here talking about. Youre just mad because you cant rip other players off for RP anymore lol sad sad sad little man. You probably dont run content if you consistently bring up The AH and lack of value of things. A 6 day sale was great for everyone and was much needed. Backlog is down to 1 mill and dropping everyday which means more new players and money being put into the game. The game is nowhere close to being dead. Maybe content wise theres not a lot to do. But with 15 coming and the most to do out of any mod on the horizon. youre just an idiot plain and simple