[quote]> @eladonwarps#6040 said: > To echo on that, I've never seen a persistent-world game that didn't have this discourse constantly on their forums. I've been on many over the years. It's always, "This promo was a bad cash grab, game is dying," or "Going Free to Play means it's dying," or "ANY CHANGE AT ALL = HUGE NERF QQ." > > We really don't know what new stat will replace Companion Influence on Insignias, Enchants, and Boons. Might be a mix - Boon might be better off as a combat supportive stat, but the other two could very well be something people really want, like Rough AD droprate. After all, there's a new collar for that one. But it's all Wild Mass Guessing, myself included. > > There's also a lot of assuming that the new benchmark for balance will be based on having 3 Bonding R15s. Many players don't have that. I was in the process of getting there, but stopped when I saw the news. Maybe they take a different benchmark, and as a result the other IL and stat adjusts actually buff us. It's not unheard of. > > Yeah, this was a bit of a surprise, but outside of a very vocal handful, I haven't seen much talk of this in-game. I for one will wait until it plays out. Sometimes, changes need to happen. I've personally seen a lot of Item Level inflation not representing stats, so maybe an adjustment will help. [/Quote]
Looks like Deepcrow is on the menu. Preview's up and it's a disaster.
Call me El, she/her only. Currently Professions-only until the next combat change fixes this mess.
And wich stat will replace companion influence? thats important tho
I just did free race reroll and took +2 Charisma on my OP Tank for companion influence... My tank goes Con/Cha. What other benefit will be added to Charisma? How about Physical Damage... Tanks are again getting hit bad.
I hope we get free rerolls too. Goes without saying all my Dark Stones need free change. But this is a money grab, no different than mounts. And knew Companions was next. Mythic Mounts by 10. At least Companions is only by 5 and most are already Legendary in given Category for Bolster. Mounts never had bolster n no real need for multiple Legendary mounts before change. So Mount change more of money grab...
woah, where can you get free race reroll?
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plasticbatMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 12,456Arc User
And wich stat will replace companion influence? thats important tho
I just did free race reroll and took +2 Charisma on my OP Tank for companion influence... My tank goes Con/Cha. What other benefit will be added to Charisma? How about Physical Damage... Tanks are again getting hit bad.
I hope we get free rerolls too. Goes without saying all my Dark Stones need free change. But this is a money grab, no different than mounts. And knew Companions was next. Mythic Mounts by 10. At least Companions is only by 5 and most are already Legendary in given Category for Bolster. Mounts never had bolster n no real need for multiple Legendary mounts before change. So Mount change more of money grab...
woah, where can you get free race reroll?
I believe he is talking about preview server.
*** 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. ***
is there a chance to have the companion bolster like the mount bolster just like the others suggested? (without the category limit, like a mythic companion giving 10% bolster, for a minimum of 10 mythic companions for 100% bolster, and a good selection of mythic skills)
(i got screwed over by crystal golem on the collection list, it was on the mystic list but i only realized it was a creature when it popped up on my comp list) yeah i made a mistake but with the changes on the preview, mythic level being introduced, it's gonna screw over more players
Having taken a peek at the preview in its current state and seen just how nerfed my character (and companions) actually are, I respectfully ask: Please let us trade in [i][b]everything[/b][/i] at the Antiques Scholar for a corresponding choice box. In all seriousness... our enchantments (all types), runestones (all types), artifacts (all qualities), mounts (all qualities) and companions (all qualities) will need to be traded in.
Note: I am neither trolling by any means, nor am I trying to act "entitled" as some folks are saying. I have been playing video games ever since the 1979 APF TV Pong console and played D&D since the ancient pen-and-paper v1.0. I've witnessed the rise and fall of Atari, Colecovision, Intelevision, Amiga, and Vetrex. I still play the 8 Bit NES (with ROB and Zapper), NEC TurboGrafx 16, GameBoy Classic, Sega Genesis and Sony PSP 1000. I started playing PC games in 2003 up to present day. From that experience I can say with some confidence that a good game (like a building) must have a solid and stable foundation. Look at what happened to Star Wars Galaxies when they radically reworked the game... Neverwinter needs to lay off of the endless tweaking and bring back a solid foundation.
Mod 16 took away Neverwinter's heart. Mod 20 will take away Neverwinter's soul.
"Talent is a flame. Genius is a fire." - Sir Bernard Williams
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arazith07Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,719Arc User
Having taken a peek at the preview in its current state and seen just how nerfed my character (and companions) actually are, I respectfully ask: Please let us trade in [i][b]everything[/b][/i] at the Antiques Scholar for a corresponding choice box. In all seriousness... our enchantments (all types), runestones (all types), artifacts (all qualities), mounts (all qualities) and companions (all qualities) will need to be traded in.
Note: I am neither trolling by any means, nor am I trying to act "entitled" as some folks are saying. I have been playing video games ever since the 1979 APF TV Pong console and played D&D since the ancient pen-and-paper v1.0. I've witnessed the rise and fall of Atari, Colecovision, Intelevision, Amiga, and Vetrex. I still play the 8 Bit NES (with ROB and Zapper), NEC TurboGrafx 16, GameBoy Classic, Sega Genesis and Sony PSP 1000. I started playing PC games in 2003 up to present day. From that experience I can say with some confidence that a good game (like a building) must have a solid and stable foundation. Look at what happened to Star Wars Galaxies when they radically reworked the game... Neverwinter needs to lay off of the endless tweaking and bring back a solid foundation.
Mod 16 took away Neverwinter's heart. Mod 20 will take away Neverwinter's soul.
Empowered Runestones, Radiant Enchantments, and bondings will have an exchange vendor on live, we will also have a forced reset for our boons. More may be added, though will only be limited in what is actually needed. There is no need to exchange for artifacts, mounts, or companions as they still function the same on live as they do on preview.
This rework is actually a good foundation and will bring longevity to the game once people get over the fact that there are changes.
Having taken a peek at the preview in its current state and seen just how nerfed my character (and companions) actually are, I respectfully ask: Please let us trade in [i][b]everything[/b][/i] at the Antiques Scholar for a corresponding choice box. In all seriousness... our enchantments (all types), runestones (all types), artifacts (all qualities), mounts (all qualities) and companions (all qualities) will need to be traded in.
Note: I am neither trolling by any means, nor am I trying to act "entitled" as some folks are saying. I have been playing video games ever since the 1979 APF TV Pong console and played D&D since the ancient pen-and-paper v1.0. I've witnessed the rise and fall of Atari, Colecovision, Intelevision, Amiga, and Vetrex. I still play the 8 Bit NES (with ROB and Zapper), NEC TurboGrafx 16, GameBoy Classic, Sega Genesis and Sony PSP 1000. I started playing PC games in 2003 up to present day. From that experience I can say with some confidence that a good game (like a building) must have a solid and stable foundation. Look at what happened to Star Wars Galaxies when they radically reworked the game... Neverwinter needs to lay off of the endless tweaking and bring back a solid foundation.
Mod 16 took away Neverwinter's heart. Mod 20 will take away Neverwinter's soul.
Empowered Runestones, Radiant Enchantments, and bondings will have an exchange vendor on live, we will also have a forced reset for our boons. More may be added, though will only be limited in what is actually needed. There is no need to exchange for artifacts, mounts, or companions as they still function the same on live as they do on preview.
This rework is actually a good foundation and will bring longevity to the game once people get over the fact that there are changes.
i would have to agree that we will need an exchange like we had after mod 16. this new system is a little complicated and if you for example as a dps followed northsides initial video and swapped all your radiants for shiny, there is no going back from shiny as there is no facility to exchange those, moreover the shiny will now be account bound and not tradeable, and you figure you should have gone with assassins instead...your build is easily nerfed, your enchants now useless and worthless - fixing the build is going to be very costly. i can see a lot of players just giving up and leaving. im sure cryptic doesnt want another mass exodus on their hands, they are just trying to develop a new combat system which is welcome, but in test server if we mess up we can just redo the setup at no cost, once its live, we get one chance and one chance only to get it right - a lot of players are going to fall foul to that.
This rework is actually a good foundation and will bring longevity to the game once people get over the fact that there are changes.
That remains to be seen. We won't really know until 2-3 months after launch how the community receives the new system.
*if* they succeed it will be good in the sense that they will get the difficulty level in scaled content under control. Neverwinter is critically depending on re-using old content as they have so little resources to make new stuff.
I am however concerned on several issues: * Will there be enough feeling of progress left in game to bother gearing up? The reward for gearing up MUST be access to new content - that is progress. If everything is scaled, there will be no reason to gear up. * The new system is rather complicated - too complicated? It also establishes a dynamic target(your IL) to build against, that might not be too popular. In some ways upgrading your gear can actually push you backwards. * How many players will game lose as a consequence of this? It is not that long since mod 16, how much disruption will the playerbase take?
One week after this release the entire character development process was changed in the New Game Enhancements (NGE). Major changes included the reduction and simplification of professions, simplification of gameplay mechanics, and Jedi becoming a starting profession. This led to a number of players demanding their money back for the expansion. After a week or two of protests Sony offered refunds to anyone who asked for it. Many player towns became ghost towns due to the reaction of long term players who decided to depart en masse.
Admittedly, those most likley to leave are the old veterans. Since NW is not a subscription based game they probably are of little economic interest to Cryptic since veterans likely have less need to put money into game.
Well, why would a new player even consider spending money on the game, when they read from vet. players that's simply not worth it, and that anything they buy might turn into HAMSTER with a future update?
And here comes another reason for not spending any more money here: - start a 20% seasonal sale, tricking your customers into thinking that this is the best they can get for now - when the purchases slow down, run another 30% sale but only for 24hrs ding ding ding
Isn't it kind of funny how they always seem to find new ways in shooting themselves into the foot over and over again?
And here comes another reason for not spending any more money here: - start a 20% seasonal sale, tricking your customers into thinking that this is the best they can get for now - when the purchases slow down, run another 30% sale but only for 24hrs ding ding ding
I think these odd sales are because the suits have monthly/quartely income targets to meet
@regenerde I am an 8 year vet this year of Neverwinter and I haven't spent one dime on Neverwinter. When I came here I wanted to spend hundreds of dollars, I should have spent hundreds by now, but it wasn't in the cards. I have not found anything "worth it". If new players come here and read this, they might actually play and find something they want to spend their cash on, I don't think my words will sway their opinion to buy or not to buy. I am proof that Neverwinter is 100% free to play.
I did spend $10 or $20 on Star Trek while learning to use the Foundry. Beyond that, I played all the games 100% free.
As for these changes, I have been on preview and found my characters are suffering greatly from being "over capped". Still working on what to do about it, if anything at all. Companions now suck. They peck away at the enemies forever doing minimal damage, about the only character I have, with a decent companion, is Goro Thay. Phindar is a wayward wizard I use for role-play in the Well of the Dragons. Goro Thay (drow rogue) treats Phindar like dirt, "Now Phindar, when the dragon lands you will distract him by jumping down his throat. While he is choking on you, we will try to kill him before he swallows.". Then after the dragon run is complete, "Phindar! You are still alive? Better luck next time old monster.".
But now Phindar isn't too bad, I think his steal time spell slows the enemies enough to do some work on them. I honestly don't know. Xuna is a box of rocks now and I will keep her around to make sport of her. Maybe blame her poor performance on an old injury from the cutscene? Hladgerd will keep her ice weasel, that is what she calls her honey badger. She is a barbarian from the far north. The companions have become window dressing and fashion.
As for for switching to augment... Bwah haha haha haha! Oh, I tried some augment but the stats they added to me made the overcap worse! The upshot of this means, augment boost don't work on overcap. For example; if I have a 27,000 item level and my defense is 28,000 (+1000 overcap), tossing on an augment that gives +5,000 defense is a waste. Now I would be at 33,000 and wasting 6,000 points that are ignored. By the way try finding 2,000 worth of Critical Severity to pull off your character!
@caldochaud#4880 as for getting your items exchanged, frankly I am surprised Cryptic allows us to trade in our bondings, they forced us to buy 21 months ago. I don't spend money here (see paragraph 1) so I don't feel any pinch in my purse from the loss. I guess, if you spent cash on Zen, to get your stuff, you might feel differently, but most games change things up and tell you, "Caveat emptor!".
Have fun!
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arazith07Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,719Arc User
@regenerde I am an 8 year vet this year of Neverwinter and I haven't spent one dime on Neverwinter. When I came here I wanted to spend hundreds of dollars, I should have spent hundreds by now, but it wasn't in the cards. I have not found anything "worth it". If new players come here and read this, they might actually play and find something they want to spend their cash on, I don't think my words will sway their opinion to buy or not to buy. I am proof that Neverwinter is 100% free to play.
I did spend $10 or $20 on Star Trek while learning to use the Foundry. Beyond that, I played all the games 100% free.
As for these changes, I have been on preview and found my characters are suffering greatly from being "over capped". Still working on what to do about it, if anything at all. Companions now suck. They peck away at the enemies forever doing minimal damage, about the only character I have, with a decent companion, is Goro Thay. Phindar is a wayward wizard I use for role-play in the Well of the Dragons. Goro Thay (drow rogue) treats Phindar like dirt, "Now Phindar, when the dragon lands you will distract him by jumping down his throat. While he is choking on you, we will try to kill him before he swallows.". Then after the dragon run is complete, "Phindar! You are still alive? Better luck next time old monster.".
But now Phindar isn't too bad, I think his steal time spell slows the enemies enough to do some work on them. I honestly don't know. Xuna is a box of rocks now and I will keep her around to make sport of her. Maybe blame her poor performance on an old injury from the cutscene? Hladgerd will keep her ice weasel, that is what she calls her honey badger. She is a barbarian from the far north. The companions have become window dressing and fashion.
As for for switching to augment... Bwah haha haha haha! Oh, I tried some augment but the stats they added to me made the overcap worse! The upshot of this means, augment boost don't work on overcap. For example; if I have a 27,000 item level and my defense is 28,000 (+1000 overcap), tossing on an augment that gives +5,000 defense is a waste. Now I would be at 33,000 and wasting 6,000 points that are ignored. By the way try finding 2,000 worth of Critical Severity to pull off your character!
@caldochaud#4880 as for getting your items exchanged, frankly I am surprised Cryptic allows us to trade in our bondings, they forced us to buy 21 months ago. I don't spend money here (see paragraph 1) so I don't feel any pinch in my purse from the loss. I guess, if you spent cash on Zen, to get your stuff, you might feel differently, but most games change things up and tell you, "Caveat emptor!".
Have fun! </p>
Did you try out slotting a few of the Indomitable runestones or have the warlord's mount power? They greatly add to a companion's DPS. That being said, without those runestones, companions are intended to do 5-7% of a player's DPS.
As far as being overcapped, many will need different armor bonuses to move away from power in particular.
Empowered Runestones, Radiant Enchantments, and bondings will have an exchange vendor on live, we will also have a forced reset for our boons. More may be added, though will only be limited in what is actually needed. There is no need to exchange for artifacts, mounts, or companions as they still function the same on live as they do on preview.
This rework is actually a good foundation and will bring longevity to the game once people get over the fact that there are changes.
on preview companions do not work the same augment companions are just not worth using at all they are giving the same stat boost as fighters so batari xuna etc are way more usefull i had tro but 2 new artifacts as all my artis were power based and what about each and every legendary insignia i had to change
@sandukutupu i'm more active on Steam, and the question on what a new player should or rather could buy comes up every now and then... in the past i always suggested to them the Dragonborn/Gith packs for the account-wide unlocks and then ViP for the perks and of course the daily lockbox keys.
Nowadays i answer that question simply with "Nothing.", i suggest to them to play the game for free and IF they still enjoy playing it after reaching level 80 and the "endgame", may be invest some money into ViP to support the game and then exchange AD into ZEN for more ViP time, since these kind of repeated massive changes feel like trying to build something on quicksand, and perhaps some players are fine with living on sand, but i'd prefer a solid foundation to build something on.
I copied my Fighter to the PTS, and i'm close to 37k IL there, but i don't feel that "powerful", probably because my stats are just messed up or i don't have the right stuff equiped/slotted... but the point is, my Fighter works more or less fine for me in Avernus on the live server with the Abyssal Chicken as little helper, but i'm forced to switch to an Augment on the PTS or i'm simply melting away trying to do the same things i've no problem doing on live.
Not to mention that in the past i could move 3x R15 Bonding Runestones from one character to another if some patch just messed up that class i was currently playing, but that's not going to work after this update... any character switch will required a lot of real money or millions upon millions of AD to get that character into a playable state.
I'm not against changes, as long as they actually improve the game while also helping the players in some way - but the last part of this is just not happening around here anymore. The core idea behind every single bigger change seems to be "How can we squeeze more money from the remaining players?!". And i agree on the notion of spending real money on something that's actually worth buying - but that's not something they seem to be willing to provide around here either. Mount and now companion changes rather feel like "We take away some portion of what you've earned this far from you, and then you can either grind or pay us money to get it back.".
@regenerde I suppose I never will understand the "potential players" who ask about something validated as free. Just like the men who buy cars based on walking around it kicking the tires, like one them is going to explode. I am not picking on men, most women (such as myself) have purchased cars on color, design, and how the interior smells. My husband and I have reached the end of car buying and we now rent them. As little as we travel these days, it is actually cheaper. Any player asking me for my input on a free game, I am just going to give them a dumb look.
@arazith07 holy inflated prices Batman! Those Indomitable runes are running 350K to 400K!!
And here comes another reason for not spending any more money here: - start a 20% seasonal sale, tricking your customers into thinking that this is the best they can get for now - when the purchases slow down, run another 30% sale but only for 24hrs ding ding ding
I think these odd sales are because the suits have monthly/quartely income targets to meet
Like a R15 ench pack right after everybody started to go nuts on preview? I understand needing to make money, but their sales are often very weirdly related to big changes that are "needed to get this game on track" or "to balance it". In the history of changes and nerfs and reselling broken stuff... Mount packs? Expedition packs in certain cases?
@mentinmindmaker FANTASTIC call out of SONY and how their bowing down to the "I WIN" and "EASY" crowd destroyed an entire game. SWG was almost 100% player driven economy and so diverse in what to do that in the 6+ years I spent playing it I never heard anyone say they were bored...until NGE hit and everyone was cookie cutter.
This game is currently very bland, very cookie cutter. No one wants to learn how to play their toon, they only want to know "what is BIS" and do the same thing everyone else is doing. Lack of evolution leads to stagnation, stagnation leads to extinction. Whether the player base likes it or not NW must change and adapt in order to survive. Those who wish to grow will stay and play and others will drop off. I'll choose to stick around and see what happens...after all, why not?
And for those of you complaining about Cryptic and their "so called" money grab...you do realize this is a FREE game right? FREE does NOT make the company any money...if they do not make $$$, they cannot pay their expenses (i.e. employees, infrastructure, etc.) which means they cannot put out content, fix bugs, post on forums etc. etc. Nobody is forcing anyone to pay real $$$ to play the game, you can take your time and grind it out like so many other players do in other games. But if you want to be part of the "I WANT IT NOW!" crowd and willingly pay real $$$ to get ahead of others then stop yer belly-aching. Or look at it differently in that you are helping the game stay alive and developers able to feed their families.
And for those of you complaining about Cryptic and their "so called" money grab...you do realize this is a FREE game right? FREE does NOT make the company any money...if they do not make $$$, they cannot pay their expenses (i.e. employees, infrastructure, etc.) which means they cannot put out content, fix bugs, post on forums etc. etc. Nobody is forcing anyone to pay real $$$ to play the game, you can take your time and grind it out like so many other players do in other games. But if you want to be part of the "I WANT IT NOW!" crowd and willingly pay real $$$ to get ahead of others then stop yer belly-aching. Or look at it differently in that you are helping the game stay alive and developers able to feed their families.
Look at other FTP titles and how they make their money. There are others that are same age as NW doing far far better, for all the reasons people keep repeating here on the forum since they roll in change after change with no improving, just changing for the sake of making profit. If you actually develop and maintain a game that is so GOOD that it keeps people addicted over years, it also keeps people spending their money. It really is that simple. Happy customers = money. There is me, and several others like me, that spent on NW and are now actually spending that money on other games, even tho it is ftp. That has nothing to do with being part of the I want it now crowd, it is simple math: I buy any not-ftp game and look at how many hours of fun I can get out of it - I know what I would pay for a game, which correlates with how much money I actually have left over for "fun". I do not need a shiny glitter coat in the other games I am playing... But I realize that the devs needs money to keep those games going. They treat me like a customer, no matter if it is initially ftp, not like someone that turns the other cheek everytime.
If you enjoy this, this is your right. Just as it is my right to say: Been there, done that. Screwed over several times. Have fun with the evolution of the game, but do not get so hurt over others saying they have already seen their share of "evolution" (= start from scratch unless you are one of those)
@jules#6770 Well Met and Well Said, no debate from me on your view of the coin's flip side.
Really the only thing I have noticed between other FTP games (and I've played/play a bunch of them) they have a shared service model that supports fewer games than Cryptic (and don't forget that Cryptic is developing MTG, which already has failed and has had a very public security breach) so smaller spread of resources lets them focus better on the game. NW doesn't seem to get much love...Strongholds and Legacy areas get nothing (because of some sort of code issue that current team doesn't have that access which is totally insane) and really only content coming out is so darnned bugged it's a shame.
I guess the players who stay love the game so much they also hate it enough to complain loud and often, however we all must realize it is a CHOICE to stay and not walk away. If we stay, then play and accept and provide constructive feedback but to scream and shout and cry out to the heavens is not realistic.
I think it's kind of shady that you changed the ad values of some of the bondings for trade in without mentioning it anywhere. Rank 1 Bondings can now only be traded in for other enchantments and not for 50 ad like it was mentiones in the first version of the announcement. Also Rank 5 bondings can only be traded in for 1.5k instead of 3k ad.
Well, wouldn't be surprised if there's some kind of exploit going on, which left them with the options to either search & destroy those lower level Bonding Runestones or simply change the payout for them... btw. do Eldritch Runestones still drop?
I do believe in killing the messenger...
Want to know why?
Because it sends a message!
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greywyndMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 7,158Arc User
From the Quartermaster bags.
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
> To echo on that, I've never seen a persistent-world game that didn't have this discourse constantly on their forums. I've been on many over the years. It's always, "This promo was a bad cash grab, game is dying," or "Going Free to Play means it's dying," or "ANY CHANGE AT ALL = HUGE NERF QQ."
>
> We really don't know what new stat will replace Companion Influence on Insignias, Enchants, and Boons. Might be a mix - Boon might be better off as a combat supportive stat, but the other two could very well be something people really want, like Rough AD droprate. After all, there's a new collar for that one. But it's all Wild Mass Guessing, myself included.
>
> There's also a lot of assuming that the new benchmark for balance will be based on having 3 Bonding R15s. Many players don't have that. I was in the process of getting there, but stopped when I saw the news. Maybe they take a different benchmark, and as a result the other IL and stat adjusts actually buff us. It's not unheard of.
>
> Yeah, this was a bit of a surprise, but outside of a very vocal handful, I haven't seen much talk of this in-game. I for one will wait until it plays out. Sometimes, changes need to happen. I've personally seen a lot of Item Level inflation not representing stats, so maybe an adjustment will help. [/Quote]
Looks like Deepcrow is on the menu. Preview's up and it's a disaster.
(i got screwed over by crystal golem on the collection list, it was on the mystic list but i only realized it was a creature when it popped up on my comp list) yeah i made a mistake but with the changes on the preview, mythic level being introduced, it's gonna screw over more players
Note: I am neither trolling by any means, nor am I trying to act "entitled" as some folks are saying. I have been playing video games ever since the 1979 APF TV Pong console and played D&D since the ancient pen-and-paper v1.0. I've witnessed the rise and fall of Atari, Colecovision, Intelevision, Amiga, and Vetrex. I still play the 8 Bit NES (with ROB and Zapper), NEC TurboGrafx 16, GameBoy Classic, Sega Genesis and Sony PSP 1000. I started playing PC games in 2003 up to present day. From that experience I can say with some confidence that a good game (like a building) must have a solid and stable foundation. Look at what happened to Star Wars Galaxies when they radically reworked the game... Neverwinter needs to lay off of the endless tweaking and bring back a solid foundation.
Mod 16 took away Neverwinter's heart. Mod 20 will take away Neverwinter's soul.
This rework is actually a good foundation and will bring longevity to the game once people get over the fact that there are changes.
this new system is a little complicated and if you for example as a dps followed northsides initial video and swapped all your radiants for shiny, there is no going back from shiny as there is no facility to exchange those, moreover the shiny will now be account bound and not tradeable, and you figure you should have gone with assassins instead...your build is easily nerfed, your enchants now useless and worthless - fixing the build is going to be very costly. i can see a lot of players just giving up and leaving.
im sure cryptic doesnt want another mass exodus on their hands, they are just trying to develop a new combat system which is welcome, but in test server if we mess up we can just redo the setup at no cost, once its live, we get one chance and one chance only to get it right - a lot of players are going to fall foul to that.
*if* they succeed it will be good in the sense that they will get the difficulty level in scaled content under control. Neverwinter is critically depending on re-using old content as they have so little resources to make new stuff.
I am however concerned on several issues:
* Will there be enough feeling of progress left in game to bother gearing up? The reward for gearing up MUST be access to new content - that is progress. If everything is scaled, there will be no reason to gear up.
* The new system is rather complicated - too complicated? It also establishes a dynamic target(your IL) to build against, that might not be too popular. In some ways upgrading your gear can actually push you backwards.
* How many players will game lose as a consequence of this? It is not that long since mod 16, how much disruption will the playerbase take?
This is an infamous example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars_Galaxies Admittedly, those most likley to leave are the old veterans. Since NW is not a subscription based game they probably are of little economic interest to Cryptic since veterans likely have less need to put money into game.
I also found this:
https://massivelyop.com/2015/08/22/the-game-archaeologist-star-wars-galaxies-nge/
Read it.. the parallels to NW is scary: Massive failed changes for the best of intentions.
And here comes another reason for not spending any more money here:
- start a 20% seasonal sale, tricking your customers into thinking that this is the best they can get for now
- when the purchases slow down, run another 30% sale but only for 24hrs
ding ding ding
Isn't it kind of funny how they always seem to find new ways in shooting themselves into the foot over and over again?
I did spend $10 or $20 on Star Trek while learning to use the Foundry. Beyond that, I played all the games 100% free.
As for these changes, I have been on preview and found my characters are suffering greatly from being "over capped". Still working on what to do about it, if anything at all. Companions now suck. They peck away at the enemies forever doing minimal damage, about the only character I have, with a decent companion, is Goro Thay. Phindar is a wayward wizard I use for role-play in the Well of the Dragons. Goro Thay (drow rogue) treats Phindar like dirt, "Now Phindar, when the dragon lands you will distract him by jumping down his throat. While he is choking on you, we will try to kill him before he swallows.". Then after the dragon run is complete, "Phindar! You are still alive? Better luck next time old monster.".
But now Phindar isn't too bad, I think his steal time spell slows the enemies enough to do some work on them. I honestly don't know. Xuna is a box of rocks now and I will keep her around to make sport of her. Maybe blame her poor performance on an old injury from the cutscene? Hladgerd will keep her ice weasel, that is what she calls her honey badger. She is a barbarian from the far north. The companions have become window dressing and fashion.
As for for switching to augment... Bwah haha haha haha! Oh, I tried some augment but the stats they added to me made the overcap worse! The upshot of this means, augment boost don't work on overcap. For example; if I have a 27,000 item level and my defense is 28,000 (+1000 overcap), tossing on an augment that gives +5,000 defense is a waste. Now I would be at 33,000 and wasting 6,000 points that are ignored. By the way try finding 2,000 worth of Critical Severity to pull off your character!
@caldochaud#4880 as for getting your items exchanged, frankly I am surprised Cryptic allows us to trade in our bondings, they forced us to buy 21 months ago. I don't spend money here (see paragraph 1) so I don't feel any pinch in my purse from the loss. I guess, if you spent cash on Zen, to get your stuff, you might feel differently, but most games change things up and tell you, "Caveat emptor!".
Have fun!
As far as being overcapped, many will need different armor bonuses to move away from power in particular.
i had tro but 2 new artifacts as all my artis were power based and what about each and every legendary insignia i had to change
Have fun!
Nowadays i answer that question simply with "Nothing.", i suggest to them to play the game for free and IF they still enjoy playing it after reaching level 80 and the "endgame", may be invest some money into ViP to support the game and then exchange AD into ZEN for more ViP time, since these kind of repeated massive changes feel like trying to build something on quicksand, and perhaps some players are fine with living on sand, but i'd prefer a solid foundation to build something on.
I copied my Fighter to the PTS, and i'm close to 37k IL there, but i don't feel that "powerful", probably because my stats are just messed up or i don't have the right stuff equiped/slotted... but the point is, my Fighter works more or less fine for me in Avernus on the live server with the Abyssal Chicken as little helper, but i'm forced to switch to an Augment on the PTS or i'm simply melting away trying to do the same things i've no problem doing on live.
Not to mention that in the past i could move 3x R15 Bonding Runestones from one character to another if some patch just messed up that class i was currently playing, but that's not going to work after this update... any character switch will required a lot of real money or millions upon millions of AD to get that character into a playable state.
I'm not against changes, as long as they actually improve the game while also helping the players in some way - but the last part of this is just not happening around here anymore. The core idea behind every single bigger change seems to be "How can we squeeze more money from the remaining players?!".
And i agree on the notion of spending real money on something that's actually worth buying - but that's not something they seem to be willing to provide around here either. Mount and now companion changes rather feel like "We take away some portion of what you've earned this far from you, and then you can either grind or pay us money to get it back.".
To the Nine Hells with that kind of HAMSTER...
@arazith07 holy inflated prices Batman! Those Indomitable runes are running 350K to 400K!!
Have fun!
I understand needing to make money, but their sales are often very weirdly related to big changes that are "needed to get this game on track" or "to balance it".
In the history of changes and nerfs and reselling broken stuff... Mount packs? Expedition packs in certain cases?
This game is currently very bland, very cookie cutter. No one wants to learn how to play their toon, they only want to know "what is BIS" and do the same thing everyone else is doing. Lack of evolution leads to stagnation, stagnation leads to extinction. Whether the player base likes it or not NW must change and adapt in order to survive. Those who wish to grow will stay and play and others will drop off. I'll choose to stick around and see what happens...after all, why not?
And for those of you complaining about Cryptic and their "so called" money grab...you do realize this is a FREE game right? FREE does NOT make the company any money...if they do not make $$$, they cannot pay their expenses (i.e. employees, infrastructure, etc.) which means they cannot put out content, fix bugs, post on forums etc. etc. Nobody is forcing anyone to pay real $$$ to play the game, you can take your time and grind it out like so many other players do in other games. But if you want to be part of the "I WANT IT NOW!" crowd and willingly pay real $$$ to get ahead of others then stop yer belly-aching. Or look at it differently in that you are helping the game stay alive and developers able to feed their families.
If you actually develop and maintain a game that is so GOOD that it keeps people addicted over years, it also keeps people spending their money. It really is that simple. Happy customers = money.
There is me, and several others like me, that spent on NW and are now actually spending that money on other games, even tho it is ftp.
That has nothing to do with being part of the I want it now crowd, it is simple math: I buy any not-ftp game and look at how many hours of fun I can get out of it - I know what I would pay for a game, which correlates with how much money I actually have left over for "fun".
I do not need a shiny glitter coat in the other games I am playing... But I realize that the devs needs money to keep those games going. They treat me like a customer, no matter if it is initially ftp, not like someone that turns the other cheek everytime.
If you enjoy this, this is your right. Just as it is my right to say: Been there, done that. Screwed over several times.
Have fun with the evolution of the game, but do not get so hurt over others saying they have already seen their share of "evolution" (= start from scratch unless you are one of those)
Really the only thing I have noticed between other FTP games (and I've played/play a bunch of them) they have a shared service model that supports fewer games than Cryptic (and don't forget that Cryptic is developing MTG, which already has failed and has had a very public security breach) so smaller spread of resources lets them focus better on the game. NW doesn't seem to get much love...Strongholds and Legacy areas get nothing (because of some sort of code issue that current team doesn't have that access which is totally insane) and really only content coming out is so darnned bugged it's a shame.
I guess the players who stay love the game so much they also hate it enough to complain loud and often, however we all must realize it is a CHOICE to stay and not walk away. If we stay, then play and accept and provide constructive feedback but to scream and shout and cry out to the heavens is not realistic.
Link to the wayback machine with the original announcement:
http://web.archive.org/web/20201128073351/https://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter/news/detail/11481153-bonding-runestones-&-companion-changes