Description of Goal: A single numeric representation of a character's abilities (not both character level and Item Level)
As of the 2020-17-17 patch, entering Tyranny of Dragon areas now show a message that "your item level has been changed" and leaving the area: "Your item level has returned to normal": - with this change of message I sense a movement away from character level designation for a zone ('you are now level 30','you are now level 38') and one of Item level designation. *If* that is the development goal ... then it needs to be implemented *everywhere* not just in Tyranny zones. You also need to indicate this same level on the NPC enemies and our characters so an 'Inspect' is no longer required to determine the IL. Char level is just a gate for content access, but the new players are confused thinking level 80 gets them somewhere... Simplify and be consistent. Remove non-combat IL from the calculation (Gold/XP insignias and enchants).
Area of Impact: Ease of use, Clarity of Gameplay
Risks and Concerns: The volume of work needed to convert all aspects of the game to one leveling system
Description and Goal: Make combat (non-augment) companions great again! One of the main problems with non-augment companions is their damage formula. How it works was never explained, so maybe there was an oversight in the implementation and the current formula is wrong. Let's take for example maxed legendary companion (lvl 40) with BiS items, it would have ratings around 17k-27k each. Maxed bonding runestones gives us 210% of companion stats, thanks to this, we can achieve the required caps in demanding content. This is where the problems begin, as these additional stats from bondings do not affect the companion in any way.
Based on my testing, the companions damage formula is: companion stats + player stats without companion, e.g. companion has 25k armor penetration, the player without a companion has 20k, i.e. a total of 45k armor penetration. The mobs in Vallenhas have 85k def, so our companion's damage is reduced by 40% (85-45), where in fact the player has 72k armor penetration, so the damage should only be reduced by 13%
Once the damage formula is fixed, update all companion power descriptions to determine magnitude damage Area of Impact: Companions Risks & Concerns: Probably some balance tweaks would be needed
Description and Goal: Touch Pad Swipe Function Toggle on PS4 in Options, because the swipe function interferes with having to press Touch Pad to cycle the HUD elements. Area of Impact: Ease of use. Risks & Concerns: None, it's all positives!
Description and Goal: Improved Target System. Right now, it is too easy to hit the wrong target when it comes to Ranged Powers and it can be hard to hit the right enemy with a CQC attack if they stack in the same spot, say for example wanting to hit a boss with a strong single-target attack but a trash mob is there too and you hit the trash mob instead. I feel being able to lock-on to specific targets would do wonders, but having the ability to choose a target without the reticle would work too (I speak for consoles at least). Area of Impact: Combat Fluency. Risks & Concerns: If locking on becomes a thing, the only potential problem is how to do it on consoles. Some possibilities would be pressing L3 or R3 while standing still, or incorporating holding L1 and pressing L3 or R3 to expand button mapping.
Description and Goal: Code-related frame rate lag. River District is a prime example where this may be a thing. If you initiate auto-run while in River District and then open the main menu, you will notice the frame rate lag drops drastically and you can see in the menu's background how much smoother you move. However, when you close the main menu it's back to lag central. If this ever got fixed, it may even result in smoother gameplay universally! Area of Impact: Normal Gameplay. Risks & Concerns: This is likely no easy fix so it may take a long time if ever put on the table considering old content is low priority for fixes and updates.
Description and Goal: Rogue Stealth Toggle. It would be awesome if Rogues could simply pop out of Stealth manually before their meter completely empties. It is possible to do this by mounting when able before the meter drains and thus preserve what amount of the meter you have left to have access to Stealth sooner, but it would be nice if we could turn it off freely too by simply pressing R1/(whatever PC presses) again. Area of Impact: Combat Fluency. Risks & Concerns: None I can think of. I realize this may be a bit beyond simple QoL changes but to me it's QoL.
The first 2 I've been wanting for a long time but never got and would love to see happen, as would others I'm sure!
Idea: Complete abandonment of competitive chests and nodes.
We can argue if some competition is a healthy aspect to the game, or just creates a toxic environment, but the current state brings probably the worst from people. The thing is: if you leave at least one item in the node/chest, the chest is supposed to reset and act as a brand new one for the next player. If all items are taken or shovelled into your inventory directly - like in Hell now, the next looter does not get anything.
Now, some chests - like those in ToO - are the main targets for player's attention. That is where such system poisons the mood - as there are quite often people left without any loot at all. Oh, and did I say that the reset function sometimes does not trigger properly, and people are angry at each other even though it was the faulty system that caused the issue?
Anyway - the "leaving something requirement"... does not make much sense anyway. Having a separate loot unconditionally would alleviate a lot of tension.
Add controller support that duplicates the controls on xbox and ps4
goal to add another level of accessibility. not everyone is dexterous enough to be able to get around the keyboard as needed.
drawbacks: none that I can see. xbox and ps4 are doing fine. this isn't a twitch reflex game so there will be no edge to people still using keyboard and mouse instead of controller.
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plasticbatMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 12,463Arc User
Description and Goal: A tour version of the latest dungeons
A tour version of the latest dungeon so that one can take a tour to see what it looks like in the latest dungeon. The mob should be 1/5 of the strength of the real version of the dungeon and expect one can solo it. The dungeon should provide next to no reward, no XP gain. No point for anyone to make a bot for it. The idea is to allow the non-end gamer to explore the dungeon with ease and their own time. Dev may even give the god mode for the character within this dungeon if solo.
Area of Impact: there is a dungeon (or dungeons) for those who are not well equipped in every new mod for site seeing purpose.
Risks & Concerns: I don't expect too much since the dungeon is already built. What it needs is to change the mob strength parameters. Since there is no reward, not many people will run it many times. Hence, it should not cause too much server resource.
*** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
Larger one for "Materials" items, Smaller one for "Toolbox" items. Unless you're feeling generous and decide to make them both decent sized.
I envision it more as a means to store commonly shared resources and transfer specific items between characters, rather than a huge bank vault to store hundreds of items. So the bulk of a characters' resources would still be on the character.
Maybe just make it like the bank works currently, with say... 3 or 4 free rows of Acct Wide slots and sell me the extra rows for Zen/AD... I'll buy them!!!
Rp account Wide, Gold Account Wide, An endgame ready character or characters with tons of refinemente points has no use for them and players will creat new toon. It would be nice to have refinement points account wide or if it could be transfer to another. Same thing for the gold. Creating new things or using another toon means swapping enchantment. Having account wide gold would be nice also.
Goal: provides the ability to upgrade artifacts , artifact sets, enchantments, weapons and swap enchantments throughout all your characters. Ppl stake rp anyways and gold on all toons so why not merge it all. Save time and make it easier. It would make playing alts a less unpleasant endeavor and alot more enjoyable
Many players use overload slot such as the Greater White dragon glyphs or Black Ice. Many will buy the ones from the stronghold vendor aswell but all those tend to clog
Goal: Less struggle with inventory space. Makes room. If they stack it will Unclogged Bags, bank or mail. Therefore players will invest in more glyphs and stack in inventory to carry more.
Goal: Scale up lower level characters in the stronghold again.
Description: SCALE UP THE BLOODY LITTLE CHARACTERS IN THE STRONGHOLD AGAIN
Reason: They need this to actually contribute to a guild or alliance. They literally cannot damage anything let alone participate in heroics to earn influence. Why this was taken away in the first place is beyond me.
Effect: Makes small characters actually useful instead of taking up a slot that an 80 could fill. Usefulness is not a bad thing...
Goal: Scale up lower level characters in the stronghold again.
Description: SCALE UP THE BLOODY LITTLE CHARACTERS IN THE STRONGHOLD AGAIN
Reason: They need this to actually contribute to a guild or alliance. They literally cannot damage anything let alone participate in heroics to earn influence. Why this was taken away in the first place is beyond me.
Effect: Makes small characters actually useful instead of taking up a slot that an 80 could fill. Usefulness is not a bad thing...
Downsides: None that are apparent.
I thought this was with the newest patch the one live on pc but not on xbox yet? didn't they say they were doing this? I haven't looked..
Description: Simply Companion power selection is based off paragon, along with a slight adjustment to what the paragon's get~
Reason: Gives a bit more variety to the players Companion power choices also 1 slot being dedicated to a selection between two types, the certain types being offense = dps defense = tank utility = healer.
Effects: Paragon's companion selection.
Downside: Some players maybe angry due to slot adjustment n' having to upgrade another companion~ Each can technically have the same bonuses in Idea 1 shown below, but are still forced to there roles type~ c:
Idea 1
More choice for players~
Role difference doesn't differ the choices too much, but more choice overall without giving players full free rain~
Issues: Some companions say "Defense, Utility" ect move those to just one type by default to lessen potential confusion.
Idea 2
Less choice for players~
Roles do differ the choices more with this~ (Good/Bad)
Forces certain top tier comps to take up, for example dps's 1 slot def and utility with not much wiggle room otherwise.
Description and Goal: Companion viability in content, specifically non-augments without a complete rework of the companion system. Currently there are more nonaugments in the game than augments. Due to current game dynamics for end game dungeons these companions are nonviable. Area of Impact: Game play and customization options Risks & Concerns: Changing game dynamics as players scramble to level up/max out non augments. Higher prices on companions in AH. Rising Exchange rates as players convert AD to Zen.
Make ALL companions viable. Why do you keep cranking out and promoting companions that will NEVER be used? (Yes we know about bolster.) Currently players only really use augments in play, even Xuna and the Abyssal chicken aren't strong enough for end game content because of the loss of stats.
There are some simple fixes to this.
1) Adjust the bonding stones to grant a percentage each time a companion uses an ability, in addition to the passive buff it already gives. It might max out at 20% per stone so that there would still be a place for augments (instead of 310% it would give 275% buff with non augments). This would allow players to be battle ready for end game content and also let them have a wider range of options for end game play.
2) New companion equipment focused on non augments. By creating new equipment with triggered powers of companions you could increase the viability of non augments in the game. Sample ideas are the following:
Striking ring of the Companion: Each time the companion uses a power this item grants +x% damage for 5-10 sec and have a scaling damage and cool down depending on quality (up to +5).
Healing ring of the companion: Each time the companion uses a power this item grants +x% outgoing healing. Scales as above.
Guarding ring of the companion: As above but generates temp hp and threat.
These items could be placed in lock boxes and unbound. This would generate revenue as people sell of rings for AD and people purchase zen to acquire these items. It would also allow players to use non augments for end game and regular content.
3) Allow buffs that affect the player to also affect companions. Optionally create buff items specifically for companions. These items could be crafted, purchased, or special drops. Concern: It might be difficult to make these buffs unidirectional.
4) allow or create reinforcement kits to enhance companion equipment. Concern: This might lead to over capping. Scaling in content might be desirable. Optionally to offset that it might be desirable to give the items a high AD cost, make them master work items, or both.
Description and Goal: Wow Factor, to increase player investment and immersion in items and content. Area of Impact: Game items, powers, companions, etc Risks & Concerns: Few. Mostly coding as most of these are cosmetic. When you create a new item ask "Where is the WOW?" With the focus primarily on stats, I feel a lot of potential is lost. Many of the items in the game have no WOW factor. Aside from their appearance as transmutes, most of them are boring. Those that aren't (items that summon creatures, etc) are so weak players don't use them. I feel like there is a ton of junk items in the game, mostly items that are never going to be used at all.
So here are some suggestions rather than solutions, questions to ask yourself when making these items:
1) Who is going to use them, and why? 2) Does this item compete with a better item? If so, does this item need to be put into the game? 3) Will players use these items at all? If not perhaps this item can be tweaked or simply not used. 4) Will players be impressed with the nonstat effects (if any) of this item? 5) will this item be obsolete with the next mod? If so, how hard is this to get? Would the reward be worth it for the players? 6) Will the players be excited to get this item or just throw it out? If players aren't going to keep the item, why go through the effort to create it? Could something else replace this item as a drop or reward?
And here are a couple of solutions:
1) Instead of dropping items, have enemies drop transmutes, unless the item is special. This would increase the excitement of getting the item. Keep it unbound in cases where players get multiple copies. Sell able items are good for both players and the profit margin of the game itself.
2) have items and powers have player only visible effects. This would increase immersion but prevent strain for the other players system wise and have lower impacts on lag.
3) Have certain animations available for high damage attacks that is viewable where the mini map is located.
4) Have certain visuals for death blows. We already have this with the Disintegrate power. Other kill powers might have other visuals. Example: if an enemy is killed with Iceknife they might have the knife protruding from the body, hidden daggers might have the blades embedded in the corpse... etc.
Concern (3&4): this might take some effort in coding and might need to be specific to larger enemies and bosses.
5) Have summoned creatures be affected by bonding stones and companion equipment. This would make items that summon creatures more desirable for play. Also, have some sort of animation when the creatures are summoned. Example: Warden's Chestplate might create a small patch of mist when guards are summoned, etc.
@yutz ad companions I am afraid you are basically requesting reversal of m16 companion system overhaul. That will not happen. Moreover, devs behave like they do not want anyone to actually use a non-augment pet. All in all, it does not require any AI programming if the companions are reduced just to a weird enchantment... You can see it whenever they advertise a limited companion - always just a screen-shot at offence/defence/utility ability.
Btw: There are other, easier ways to make the non-augment companions used. For example: reducing the augmentation bonus just to HP. (and slashing down all the stats on creatures) That way you would be making a choice: Do I need HP, or a companion? Atm you are choosing: Do I want to cripple myself, or not?
QoL..? What I'm gonna suggest.. well it would be QoL for me so i think it fits the bill. Please consider my following proposal:
"Training Grounds"
The name was from a guildie (my dear imaginary dictator) but i built an idea upon it. To make it clear and fast:
* The end content as it is now are the Trials. And both the community and users have different ideas, most being a separate low-level trial system or the like. What we as users want is a practical way to play these trials without having to waste tons of resources and wait for 10 of our mates to be online and available at the same time.
* we want the Trails to be more accessible. The ones that haven't completed them are probably just struggling to practice the mechanics (like myself).
* The reason I am struggling is that you/the devs built the end game to be trained via preview. I don't accept the preview shard as part of the main game. For me Mimic (or Owlbear) is for beta testing. And it's a great way to test the bugs and check out the forth coming features. BUT it shouldn't be the only/primary way to run and prepare for Trials.
* There should be an in-game way to practice the end content. The reason that only few or no one practices it (in live) is mentioned above. The AD cost and time to gather up friends to play.
* The AD costs are: Life Scrolls and Health Stones. If we could make a system that eliminates these I truly believe a lot more players would be able to access and practice ToMM/Zarial/new Trials to come.
Proposal:
* Make a new system under the classic Q. Call it "Training Grounds" or whatever. Put a back story to it: an NPC that tells you Elminister made a magical environment for you to prepare for your strongest battles.. The concept is once you reach level 80 you talk to the NPC and from then on you can Q under the normal system for either ToMM Training or Zarial Training.
* It is kind of like a Virtual (Magical) Reality. You enter and play at no risk.
* Within the trial there is an extra NPC. You can purchase (virtual) Scrolls of Life and Health Stones for free or like 1 gold each (gold sink yay!). But here's the catch. These are only in your possession while you are at the respective VR. Once you get out they disappear from your inventory. To come to think about it, you can make entering the Q via gold too (10 gold for example). It would be a nice way to spend gold in game.
* There will be no downgrade on the trials difficulty. So you get a real taste to the fight and check whether you are ready for the real one.
* There will be no experience nor even a chest at the end. This VR Training Ground is only there to practice. People can shout out in zone chat to gather training groups or even pug it.
I know a lot of people are going to say there is Preview. But as i mentioned before I don't believe Preview should be the way to play Neverwinter. If I want to play the game content it should be in Live. If I want to test the new content/changes preview is always there for that.
Alright folks, 8 pages during Phase 1! Whew! Thanks to everyone who has contributed thus far. I'm closing the thread temporarily while we transition to phase 2.
Phase 2: Discussions (not arguments!) of proposed ideas from Phase 1
Please keep discussions civil - while it's ok to disagree, we want this to be a constructive dialogue. Derailment of discussion topics will be removed and repeat offenders will be silenced for the duration of this or future CDP topics.
It would be interesting for you to select proposals with feasibility of reaching the server live, than letting us discuss proposals that we don't even know if can be executed.
I am in favor of all proposals that promoted equality for classmates in their respective paragorns. @Ltsmithneko's proposals are very interesting.
So it's discussions now? Well, I liked the idea that someone had to make most character bound items account bound. It will make the game more alt friendly
I posted this before, and I will post this again here. An idea would be to reward players for staying and playing daily. Much like the beloved endeavor system in Star Trek Online also owned by you which I also played since Legacy of Romulus and love it. It would be a great reward to bring that system over to Never Winter. This way no matter how much you change classes, companions, enchants, and items. This would be the one thing you would not take away from the players as its account wide bonus unlocks applied to all classes. If successful you can give it something that is earned over time slowly like in Star Trek that can give say 10% damage, outgoing heals, incoming heals, ect that is randomly rewarded 3 choices to pick from from per perk point. That will take time to grow. by slowly increasing perk points in Never Winter. This will also keep ques going as its random per person generated daily and you can have a Universal Endeavor that is server wide. Example, complete Cradle of the death god, or Craft 10 astral diamond crates, donate influence to guild, ect. Please look at this video, please think of the possibility of long term players staying even longer. Thank you for your time. I think this would be a huge quality of life improvement. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stFhwX_36Yk
Agreeing with AdmiralWarlord - Developer feedback in Phase 2 would make the discussions richer and narrow the focus. At this point, we will start to regurgitate points already made.
greywyndMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 7,158Arc User
When do we enter the penalty phase?
I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
Comments
A single numeric representation of a character's abilities (not both character level and Item Level)
As of the 2020-17-17 patch, entering Tyranny of Dragon areas now show a message that "your item level has been changed" and leaving the area: "Your item level has returned to normal": - with this change of message I sense a movement away from character level designation for a zone ('you are now level 30','you are now level 38') and one of Item level designation. *If* that is the development goal ... then it needs to be implemented *everywhere* not just in Tyranny zones. You also need to indicate this same level on the NPC enemies and our characters so an 'Inspect' is no longer required to determine the IL. Char level is just a gate for content access, but the new players are confused thinking level 80 gets them somewhere... Simplify and be consistent. Remove non-combat IL from the calculation (Gold/XP insignias and enchants).
Area of Impact:
Ease of use, Clarity of Gameplay
Risks and Concerns:
The volume of work needed to convert all aspects of the game to one leveling system
One of the main problems with non-augment companions is their damage formula. How it works was never explained, so maybe there was an oversight in the implementation and the current formula is wrong.
Let's take for example maxed legendary companion (lvl 40) with BiS items, it would have ratings around 17k-27k each.
Maxed bonding runestones gives us 210% of companion stats, thanks to this, we can achieve the required caps in demanding content. This is where the problems begin, as these additional stats from bondings do not affect the companion in any way.
Based on my testing, the companions damage formula is: companion stats + player stats without companion, e.g. companion has 25k armor penetration, the player without a companion has 20k, i.e. a total of 45k armor penetration.
The mobs in Vallenhas have 85k def, so our companion's damage is reduced by 40% (85-45), where in fact the player has 72k armor penetration, so the damage should only be reduced by 13%
Once the damage formula is fixed, update all companion power descriptions to determine magnitude damage
Area of Impact: Companions
Risks & Concerns: Probably some balance tweaks would be needed
Area of Impact: Ease of use.
Risks & Concerns: None, it's all positives!
Description and Goal: Improved Target System. Right now, it is too easy to hit the wrong target when it comes to Ranged Powers and it can be hard to hit the right enemy with a CQC attack if they stack in the same spot, say for example wanting to hit a boss with a strong single-target attack but a trash mob is there too and you hit the trash mob instead. I feel being able to lock-on to specific targets would do wonders, but having the ability to choose a target without the reticle would work too (I speak for consoles at least).
Area of Impact: Combat Fluency.
Risks & Concerns: If locking on becomes a thing, the only potential problem is how to do it on consoles. Some possibilities would be pressing L3 or R3 while standing still, or incorporating holding L1 and pressing L3 or R3 to expand button mapping.
Description and Goal: Code-related frame rate lag. River District is a prime example where this may be a thing. If you initiate auto-run while in River District and then open the main menu, you will notice the frame rate lag drops drastically and you can see in the menu's background how much smoother you move. However, when you close the main menu it's back to lag central. If this ever got fixed, it may even result in smoother gameplay universally!
Area of Impact: Normal Gameplay.
Risks & Concerns: This is likely no easy fix so it may take a long time if ever put on the table considering old content is low priority for fixes and updates.
Description and Goal: Rogue Stealth Toggle. It would be awesome if Rogues could simply pop out of Stealth manually before their meter completely empties. It is possible to do this by mounting when able before the meter drains and thus preserve what amount of the meter you have left to have access to Stealth sooner, but it would be nice if we could turn it off freely too by simply pressing R1/(whatever PC presses) again.
Area of Impact: Combat Fluency.
Risks & Concerns: None I can think of. I realize this may be a bit beyond simple QoL changes but to me it's QoL.
The first 2 I've been wanting for a long time but never got and would love to see happen, as would others I'm sure!
We can argue if some competition is a healthy aspect to the game, or just creates a toxic environment, but the current state brings probably the worst from people.
The thing is: if you leave at least one item in the node/chest, the chest is supposed to reset and act as a brand new one for the next player. If all items are taken or shovelled into your inventory directly - like in Hell now, the next looter does not get anything.
Now, some chests - like those in ToO - are the main targets for player's attention. That is where such system poisons the mood - as there are quite often people left without any loot at all. Oh, and did I say that the reset function sometimes does not trigger properly, and people are angry at each other even though it was the faulty system that caused the issue?
Anyway - the "leaving something requirement"... does not make much sense anyway. Having a separate loot unconditionally would alleviate a lot of tension.
Add controller support that duplicates the controls on xbox and ps4
goal to add another level of accessibility. not everyone is dexterous enough to be able to get around the keyboard as needed.
drawbacks: none that I can see. xbox and ps4 are doing fine. this isn't a twitch reflex game so there will be no edge to people still using keyboard and mouse instead of controller.
A tour version of the latest dungeon so that one can take a tour to see what it looks like in the latest dungeon. The mob should be 1/5 of the strength of the real version of the dungeon and expect one can solo it. The dungeon should provide next to no reward, no XP gain. No point for anyone to make a bot for it. The idea is to allow the non-end gamer to explore the dungeon with ease and their own time. Dev may even give the god mode for the character within this dungeon if solo.
Area of Impact: there is a dungeon (or dungeons) for those who are not well equipped in every new mod for site seeing purpose.
Risks & Concerns: I don't expect too much since the dungeon is already built. What it needs is to change the mob strength parameters. Since there is no reward, not many people will run it many times. Hence, it should not cause too much server resource.
Larger one for "Materials" items, Smaller one for "Toolbox" items.
Unless you're feeling generous and decide to make them both decent sized.
I envision it more as a means to store commonly shared resources and transfer specific items between characters, rather than a huge bank vault to store hundreds of items. So the bulk of a characters' resources would still be on the character.
Maybe just make it like the bank works currently, with say... 3 or 4 free rows of Acct Wide slots and sell me the extra rows for Zen/AD... I'll buy them!!!
Rp account Wide, Gold Account Wide,
An endgame ready character or characters with tons of refinemente points has no use for them and players will creat new toon. It would be nice to have refinement points account wide or if it could be transfer to another. Same thing for the gold. Creating new things or using another toon means swapping enchantment. Having account wide gold would be nice also.
Goal: provides the ability to upgrade artifacts , artifact sets, enchantments, weapons and swap enchantments throughout all your characters. Ppl stake rp anyways and gold on all toons so why not merge it all. Save time and make it easier. It would make playing alts a less unpleasant endeavor and alot more enjoyable
Make the Glyphs Stackable.
Many players use overload slot such as the Greater White dragon glyphs or Black Ice. Many will buy the ones from the stronghold vendor aswell but all those tend to clog
Goal: Less struggle with inventory space. Makes room. If they stack it will Unclogged Bags, bank or mail. Therefore players will invest in more glyphs and stack in inventory to carry more.
Description: SCALE UP THE BLOODY LITTLE CHARACTERS IN THE STRONGHOLD AGAIN
Reason: They need this to actually contribute to a guild or alliance. They literally cannot damage anything let alone participate in heroics to earn influence. Why this was taken away in the first place is beyond me.
Effect: Makes small characters actually useful instead of taking up a slot that an 80 could fill. Usefulness is not a bad thing...
Downsides: None that are apparent.
Sometimes you need to change loadouts but can't bc you have to wait for up to 10 mins for its cool down to expire.
Description: Simply Companion power selection is based off paragon, along with a slight adjustment to what the paragon's get~
Reason: Gives a bit more variety to the players Companion power choices also 1 slot being dedicated to a selection between two types, the certain types being offense = dps defense = tank utility = healer.
Effects: Paragon's companion selection.
Downside: Some players maybe angry due to slot adjustment n' having to upgrade another companion~ Each can technically have the same bonuses in Idea 1 shown below, but are still forced to there roles type~ c:
- More choice for players~
- Role difference doesn't differ the choices too much, but more choice overall without giving players full free rain~
Issues: Some companions say "Defense, Utility" ect move those to just one type by default to lessen potential confusion.Area of Impact: Game play and customization options
Risks & Concerns: Changing game dynamics as players scramble to level up/max out non augments. Higher prices on companions in AH. Rising Exchange rates as players convert AD to Zen.
Make ALL companions viable. Why do you keep cranking out and promoting companions that will NEVER be used? (Yes we know about bolster.) Currently players only really use augments in play, even Xuna and the Abyssal chicken aren't strong enough for end game content because of the loss of stats.
There are some simple fixes to this.
1) Adjust the bonding stones to grant a percentage each time a companion uses an ability, in addition to the passive buff it already gives. It might max out at 20% per stone so that there would still be a place for augments (instead of 310% it would give 275% buff with non augments). This would allow players to be battle ready for end game content and also let them have a wider range of options for end game play.
2) New companion equipment focused on non augments. By creating new equipment with triggered powers of companions you could increase the viability of non augments in the game. Sample ideas are the following:
Striking ring of the Companion: Each time the companion uses a power this item grants +x% damage for 5-10 sec and have a scaling damage and cool down depending on quality (up to +5).
Healing ring of the companion: Each time the companion uses a power this item grants +x% outgoing healing. Scales as above.
Guarding ring of the companion: As above but generates temp hp and threat.
These items could be placed in lock boxes and unbound. This would generate revenue as people sell of rings for AD and people purchase zen to acquire these items. It would also allow players to use non augments for end game and regular content.
3) Allow buffs that affect the player to also affect companions. Optionally create buff items specifically for companions. These items could be crafted, purchased, or special drops.
Concern: It might be difficult to make these buffs unidirectional.
4) allow or create reinforcement kits to enhance companion equipment.
Concern: This might lead to over capping. Scaling in content might be desirable. Optionally to offset that it might be desirable to give the items a high AD cost, make them master work items, or both.
Area of Impact: Game items, powers, companions, etc
Risks & Concerns: Few. Mostly coding as most of these are cosmetic.
When you create a new item ask "Where is the WOW?" With the focus primarily on stats, I feel a lot of potential is lost. Many of the items in the game have no WOW factor. Aside from their appearance as transmutes, most of them are boring. Those that aren't (items that summon creatures, etc) are so weak players don't use them. I feel like there is a ton of junk items in the game, mostly items that are never going to be used at all.
So here are some suggestions rather than solutions, questions to ask yourself when making these items:
1) Who is going to use them, and why?
2) Does this item compete with a better item? If so, does this item need to be put into the game?
3) Will players use these items at all? If not perhaps this item can be tweaked or simply not used.
4) Will players be impressed with the nonstat effects (if any) of this item?
5) will this item be obsolete with the next mod? If so, how hard is this to get? Would the reward be worth it for the players?
6) Will the players be excited to get this item or just throw it out? If players aren't going to keep the item, why go through the effort to create it? Could something else replace this item as a drop or reward?
And here are a couple of solutions:
1) Instead of dropping items, have enemies drop transmutes, unless the item is special. This would increase the excitement of getting the item. Keep it unbound in cases where players get multiple copies. Sell able items are good for both players and the profit margin of the game itself.
2) have items and powers have player only visible effects. This would increase immersion but prevent strain for the other players system wise and have lower impacts on lag.
3) Have certain animations available for high damage attacks that is viewable where the mini map is located.
4) Have certain visuals for death blows. We already have this with the Disintegrate power. Other kill powers might have other visuals. Example: if an enemy is killed with Iceknife they might have the knife protruding from the body, hidden daggers might have the blades embedded in the corpse... etc.
Concern (3&4): this might take some effort in coding and might need to be specific to larger enemies and bosses.
5) Have summoned creatures be affected by bonding stones and companion equipment. This would make items that summon creatures more desirable for play. Also, have some sort of animation when the creatures are summoned. Example: Warden's Chestplate might create a small patch of mist when guards are summoned, etc.
I am afraid you are basically requesting reversal of m16 companion system overhaul. That will not happen.
Moreover, devs behave like they do not want anyone to actually use a non-augment pet. All in all, it does not require any AI programming if the companions are reduced just to a weird enchantment... You can see it whenever they advertise a limited companion - always just a screen-shot at offence/defence/utility ability.
Btw: There are other, easier ways to make the non-augment companions used. For example: reducing the augmentation bonus just to HP. (and slashing down all the stats on creatures)
That way you would be making a choice: Do I need HP, or a companion? Atm you are choosing: Do I want to cripple myself, or not?
"Training Grounds"
The name was from a guildie (my dear imaginary dictator) but i built an idea upon it. To make it clear and fast:
* The end content as it is now are the Trials. And both the community and users have different ideas, most being a separate low-level trial system or the like. What we as users want is a practical way to play these trials without having to waste tons of resources and wait for 10 of our mates to be online and available at the same time.
* we want the Trails to be more accessible. The ones that haven't completed them are probably just struggling to practice the mechanics (like myself).
* The reason I am struggling is that you/the devs built the end game to be trained via preview. I don't accept the preview shard as part of the main game. For me Mimic (or Owlbear) is for beta testing. And it's a great way to test the bugs and check out the forth coming features. BUT it shouldn't be the only/primary way to run and prepare for Trials.
* There should be an in-game way to practice the end content. The reason that only few or no one practices it (in live) is mentioned above. The AD cost and time to gather up friends to play.
* The AD costs are: Life Scrolls and Health Stones. If we could make a system that eliminates these I truly believe a lot more players would be able to access and practice ToMM/Zarial/new Trials to come.
Proposal:
* Make a new system under the classic Q. Call it "Training Grounds" or whatever. Put a back story to it: an NPC that tells you Elminister made a magical environment for you to prepare for your strongest battles.. The concept is once you reach level 80 you talk to the NPC and from then on you can Q under the normal system for either ToMM Training or Zarial Training.
* It is kind of like a Virtual (Magical) Reality. You enter and play at no risk.
* Within the trial there is an extra NPC. You can purchase (virtual) Scrolls of Life and Health Stones for free or like 1 gold each (gold sink yay!). But here's the catch. These are only in your possession while you are at the respective VR. Once you get out they disappear from your inventory. To come to think about it, you can make entering the Q via gold too (10 gold for example). It would be a nice way to spend gold in game.
* There will be no downgrade on the trials difficulty. So you get a real taste to the fight and check whether you are ready for the real one.
* There will be no experience nor even a chest at the end. This VR Training Ground is only there to practice. People can shout out in zone chat to gather training groups or even pug it.
I know a lot of people are going to say there is Preview. But as i mentioned before I don't believe Preview should be the way to play Neverwinter. If I want to play the game content it should be in Live. If I want to test the new content/changes preview is always there for that.
Thank you for your time.
-Tassle
Phase 2: Discussions (not arguments!) of proposed ideas from Phase 1
Please keep discussions civil - while it's ok to disagree, we want this to be a constructive dialogue. Derailment of discussion topics will be removed and repeat offenders will be silenced for the duration of this or future CDP topics.
I am in favor of all proposals that promoted equality for classmates in their respective paragorns. @Ltsmithneko's proposals are very interesting.