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Keeping the endgame relevant and fun, including the foundry.
theromanticswb
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users Posts: 4 Arc User
First of all, while I realize there are kinks and flaws that have yet to be worked out, I think the game is shaping up great. It has an extraordinarily fun leveling experience in a living, breathing persistent world that I thoroughly enjoy participating in. And it has a decent amount of endgame content, with dungeon delves and arena PVP, and more on the way with GG. That said, as of right now, Neverwinter is running into the same issue with the endgame as many MMOs, but has great tools and potential to overcome said issue.
At 60, the leveling/adventuring/exploration experience stops. It grinds completely to a halt. Exploring new areas, questing, immersing yourself in the game world all ceases to be important when you hit the level cap, because you quickly tie up all your open-world quests and replace the open-world/questing experience with instanced dungeons and daily missions in the interest of further progressing your character. Which is not to say that the dungeons are not cool, or that players should be awarded mad purpz for doing plain-jane outdoor quests, but once you hit 60 there's really not much to do in the big, beautiful Neverwinter world, which is sad because questing and exploration are some of the stronger and more fun elements of the game.
Other MMOs have employed the use of endgame zones where players at the level cap can quest for reputations, tokens redeemable for unique gear and flavor items, etc etc. I think this is a good system, and a great way to reintroduce challenge and adventure into the endgame. It can be a challenge to keep these items relevant without having them replace tiers of dungeon gear, but it's doable.
Taking it a step further, though, NW has two unique systems that could really encourage players to keep exploring and keep experiencing exciting new content. One is the Event system. The other is the Foundry.
I'm not a game developer, but I can certainly see Events for outdoor questing designed to reward endgame players as well as characters currently working their way toward the level cap. Outdoor questing events could take place every so often, granting Seals of the appropriate level in a given zone (including maybe Unicorn/Drake/whatever seals for level-60 appropriate zones). This could be made to apply to repeatable quests tailored for these types of events, or just for getting out there and getting things done while the event runs it's course.
As for the Foundry, it is already an exciting way to introduce fresh content to players in a potentially unlimited supply. Unfortunately, the rewards aren't particularly relevant to the endgame. I find myself queueing for dungeons and then debating on whether I'd like to hop into a Foundry scenario and check it out, but generally wind up skipping it because I may not be able to finish before my queue is up, and then my progress is largely or entirely lost...and there's really just not a ton of motive for me to do them. Once again, I think adding Seals to Foundry quest completion, or possibly a separate way to work towards unique rewards (like cosmetic items or mounts) through this system exclusively would be a HUGE incentive for me to go check out more Foundry content.
You guys have a great game on your hands here, and I hope that reconciling the adventure and excitement of the leveling experience with the gear/character progression of the endgame is something the developers are looking at, because I believe it is this that will determine if players stick with the game after hitting the level cap and grabbing a tier or two of epic items. I for one would love to feel good about making a long-term investment in Neverwinter.
At 60, the leveling/adventuring/exploration experience stops. It grinds completely to a halt. Exploring new areas, questing, immersing yourself in the game world all ceases to be important when you hit the level cap, because you quickly tie up all your open-world quests and replace the open-world/questing experience with instanced dungeons and daily missions in the interest of further progressing your character. Which is not to say that the dungeons are not cool, or that players should be awarded mad purpz for doing plain-jane outdoor quests, but once you hit 60 there's really not much to do in the big, beautiful Neverwinter world, which is sad because questing and exploration are some of the stronger and more fun elements of the game.
Other MMOs have employed the use of endgame zones where players at the level cap can quest for reputations, tokens redeemable for unique gear and flavor items, etc etc. I think this is a good system, and a great way to reintroduce challenge and adventure into the endgame. It can be a challenge to keep these items relevant without having them replace tiers of dungeon gear, but it's doable.
Taking it a step further, though, NW has two unique systems that could really encourage players to keep exploring and keep experiencing exciting new content. One is the Event system. The other is the Foundry.
I'm not a game developer, but I can certainly see Events for outdoor questing designed to reward endgame players as well as characters currently working their way toward the level cap. Outdoor questing events could take place every so often, granting Seals of the appropriate level in a given zone (including maybe Unicorn/Drake/whatever seals for level-60 appropriate zones). This could be made to apply to repeatable quests tailored for these types of events, or just for getting out there and getting things done while the event runs it's course.
As for the Foundry, it is already an exciting way to introduce fresh content to players in a potentially unlimited supply. Unfortunately, the rewards aren't particularly relevant to the endgame. I find myself queueing for dungeons and then debating on whether I'd like to hop into a Foundry scenario and check it out, but generally wind up skipping it because I may not be able to finish before my queue is up, and then my progress is largely or entirely lost...and there's really just not a ton of motive for me to do them. Once again, I think adding Seals to Foundry quest completion, or possibly a separate way to work towards unique rewards (like cosmetic items or mounts) through this system exclusively would be a HUGE incentive for me to go check out more Foundry content.
You guys have a great game on your hands here, and I hope that reconciling the adventure and excitement of the leveling experience with the gear/character progression of the endgame is something the developers are looking at, because I believe it is this that will determine if players stick with the game after hitting the level cap and grabbing a tier or two of epic items. I for one would love to feel good about making a long-term investment in Neverwinter.
Post edited by theromanticswb on
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Comments
Even if the quests were to reward decent blue gear that you would use for dungeons, it's a lot easier to just go to the AH and buy a PvP piece for cheap that's much better than anything else you can get.
If featured Foundry rewards at endgame gave leveled blue bound rewards it would also keep them interesting, but again, all gear is BoE so it's pointless to do anything but just go to the AH and buy PvP welfare epics for 15k AD a piece.