Did Cryptic just remove half the game?

drtardis

Hi, all. I’m a founding member, who has played on and off since beta… and when I logged in (for the first time in a while) to check out the new stuff - I discovered that a lot of things have disappeared. My new Bard got directed straight to the Neverdeath graveyard, bypassing a bunch of content. My new Bard didn’t get the usual starting mission, The Hunt For The Crown, and neither Blacklake nor the Tower District are on the map.

Did this stuff get re-ordered and moved to a later point in the leveling process, or did flattening the leveling curve partly mean removing a bunch of the original game content?

drtardis

… and after reading the patch notes, I figured it out.

Yes, they did “vault” about a dozen zones. They are apparently going to bring them back later as campaign zones… but for now, that content is no longer there.

sieglinde

The leveling process may seem faster, but it also feels incomplete without a lot of those early zones

jules

They might reintroduce it as new mods, as events... whatever vaulted means. To put this into perspective:

hustin1 said:

Sometimes I think the devs like removing content more than they like adding it. The list of removed content is a long one.

- Skirmish: Blacklake Terror
- Skirmish: Orc Assault
- Skirmish: Storming the Keep
- Skirmish: Straight to Helm
- Skirmish: Defend the Temple
- Skirmish: Pit Fight
- Skirmish: Garrundar the Vile
- Skirmish: Storm Front
- Skirmish: Gate Crashers
- Skirmish: Defend the Village
- Skirmish: Battle for the Bridge
- Skirmish: Aberrant Assault
- Call to Arms: Orc Assault
- Call to Arms: Storming the Keep
- Call to Arms: Straight to Helm
- Call to Arms: Defend the Temple
- Call to Arms: Pit Fight
- Call to Arms: Garrundar the Vile
- Call to Arms: Storm Front
- Call to Arms: Gate Crashers
- Call to Arms: Battle for the Bridge
- Cloak Tower (Epic)
- Lair of the Mad Dragon
- Lair of the Mad Dragon (Epic)
- Throne of Idris
- Throne of Idris (Epic)
- Lair of the Pirate King (Epic)
- Icespire's Frozen Heart (Epic)
- Spellplague Caverns (Epic, original)
- Caverns of Karrundax (Epic)
- Dread Vault
- Dread Vault (Epic)
- Gauntlgrym (PVP/PVE map/event)
- Fardelver's Crypt
- Dwarf King's Crypt
- Castle Never (original)
- Portions of Cragmire Crypts, Grey Wolf Den, and Temple of the Spider
- Many, many equipment items (far too many to list)
- The Foundry

Soon to be added to the list:

- Sharandar

Why? I'll keep my opinions on their motivations to myself. They are far from flattering.

(And I don't want to hear a single word about Tales of Old. That Bravo Sierra won't fly.)

So.. the lvling zones are new on the list.
I would say, thats a lot of new Mods and Events waiting.
And lets not forget... Portobello ...

To be honest, this game has not much left in common with the old NW.

greywynd

They did put the zone Throne back into Ebon Downs.

sagakaiyume

They also made it so you can't hold forward while going into menu to change things, have to use the auto run button now and removed the ability to change skills while in combat without it going on a cooldown. The combat has definitely been ruined for me as a tank who loves switching to 5 different encounters during boss fights and changing things on the fly while keeping ahead of the party.

knightghost64

Retiring older sections of the game is an atrocious business move. Never, ever, remove software that works. Netscape tried that and it destroyed the company. Sharandar never should have been recycled, the new section should have been Upper Sharandar or such. It's throwing away equity.