Well, i finally decided to try the new content (i didnt want to because i tend to just overrun content and i wanted it to last, but after understanding the way the new content works, i thought it would be worth the try) and i played a couple of sesions.
There is one thing that overwhelms everything... is stupidly easy, no, seriously, this game has always been, but this is borderline insulting, i made all the quests and dailys avalible the first 2 days (twice the dung too), and not even a single time my life bar dropped below 70%... i cant take any damage, i cant die, to the point of having a phone call during one of the quests, picking up the phone, letting the toon there, in the middle of the scenario... the call was more than 2 minutes long, i did not touch any button...when i came back i was surrounded by 4 of those redcaps... and my life was barely under 50%... the mobs werent unable to kill my toon even without moving, that's just not logical, please do something about it
The campain system is fresh air, the scenarios are nice, the crafting and the rewards (lots of enchants) are perfect, the items and overall feeling... really really good...
But the difficulty is just insulting, i mean, there has to be any kind of challenge, i know, i have a powerful toon, but nothing out of the normal (GF, stalwart, 7/8s, ancient stuff) and there are thousands of players who have t2 equiped toons, there has to be some sort of challenge, the grinding structure of the new campaign (you must repeat the content to open new zones) will be really boring if its impossible to die, please, please... please... please... make it harder!!!!!!
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kingculexMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
Well, i finally decided to try the new content (i didnt want to because i tend to just overrun content and i wanted it to last, but after understanding the way the new content works, i thought it would be worth the try) and i played a couple of sesions.
There is one thing that overwhelms everything... is stupidly easy, no, seriously, this game has always been, but this is borderline insulting, i made all the quests and dailys avalible the first 2 days (twice the dung too), and not even a single time my life bar dropped below 70%... i cant take any damage, i cant die, to the point of having a phone call during one of the quests, picking up the phone, letting the toon there, in the middle of the scenario... the call was more than 2 minutes long, i did not touch any button...when i came back i was surrounded by 4 of those redcaps... and my life was barely under 50%... the mobs werent unable to kill my toon even without moving, that's just not logical, please do something about it
The campain system is fresh air, the scenarios are nice, the crafting and the rewards (lots of enchants) are perfect, the items and overall feeling... really really good...
But the difficulty is just insulting, i mean, there has to be any kind of challenge, i know, i have a powerful toon, but nothing out of the normal (GF, stalwart, 7/8s, ancient stuff) and there are thousands of players who have t2 equiped toons, there has to be some sort of challenge, the grinding structure of the new campaign (you must repeat the content to open new zones) will be really boring if its impossible to die, please, please... please... please... make it harder!!!!!!
You do have a point about how easy it is to play. I play as a 12.2GS TR with ancient daggers. It did seem easier than Whispering Caverns. I think they should raise the difficulty level to almost equal Castle Never and add a GS score level requirement like the Epic dungeons. Possibly a GS score requirement of 7000, right in the middle because the Epic dungeons go from 5700 to 9200. Just an idea that is possible and the GS score requirement is reasonable.
Every class has advantages and disadvantages. Learn the disadvantages of you class to overcome them. Learn the advantages of your class and the disadvatages of other classes to use them in pvp to win.
There is no point to whine for nerfs because you win some and loose some. Crying just makes a player look like a crier and no one, especially the devs, should take them seriously. Have a nice day!:)
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powereddjinnMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian UsersPosts: 1Arc User
You do have a point about how easy it is to play. I play as a 12.2GS TR with ancient daggers. It did seem easier than Whispering Caverns. I think they should raise the difficulty level to almost equal Castle Never and add a GS score level requirement like the Epic dungeons. Possibly a GS score requirement of 7000, right in the middle because the Epic dungeons go from 5700 to 9200. Just an idea that is possible and the GS score requirement is reasonable.
Why? It does not reward T2 equivalent gear, and it certainly does not reward 'ancient' gear, so why should it be harder than the stuff it is similar to?
Because rewards are not the key, doesnt matter if the rewards are good or not, its a matter of game survivality and replayability, and at this moment, there is none, the feywild must give us food for at least 3-4 months till new content appears and is built under a sistem that requires replay zones to advance... if the zones are so easy that there is no fun in playing them... then is a failure and it would be extremely unfair for the devs first of all, they put a lot of work in a game, years! and adjusting difficulty for all the player base is hard, but right now its just waaaaaay too easy... What about a diificulty ladder? where you can choose the difficulty as in some foundries??? that would be the best implementation for the module, let us choose the toughness of the challenge and give us rewards in consonance with it... for example, leave the current level for "just made" 60s, put a "medium" (6000-8000 Gs), "hard" (8000-10000 GS) and "nightmare" (+10000 GS) difficulty scale and make it rewarding, via titles, via better rewards... that will mean months of replays for most people, and millions for the company.
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ranncoreMember, Moderators, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 2,508
edited August 2013
I also thought that everything in the expansion was insanely easy. I didn't get to Malabog yet, tho. I get that the expansion isn't just for characters who already have BiS items, but shouldn't there be something there for the crowd who are looking for a new challenge?
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glokatosMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 1Arc User
edited August 2013
Just a few parting thoughts....
I had very high hopes for another Dungeons and Dragons game. Maybe that was the issue. There are so many games out there now with so much better graphics, player choices, and gameplay, this is like a huge step backward. Dungeons and Dragons Online, for example, had better graphic quality when it came out 7-years ago, and the combat system and options to make unique characters far surpasses what is currently Neverwinter. At the very least, why didn't we build off of that model? Dungeons and Dragons players from pen and paper days had to use their imaginations to picture the settings. Do you really think our imaginations created flat branched trees and flat headed dwarves? No. We imagined things as real as possible. Why then, I ask you, are we digressing to less than cartoon quality graphics? With games like Skyrim on the market with graphics so real you can almost smell the sweat on your character, and the flavorful renderings of Warhammer Online...Neverwinter's offering pales in comparison.
Graphics aside, with the multitude of flavors of mankind and the various walks of life in the world, what makes anyone think I fit into one of 6, or whatever, choices available in Neverwinter? And the system of hitting a dice roll button until I come up with 20's in my perspective areas of expertise? C'mon. Either make it random, or let us choose. Otherwise it's just a waste of time rolling until I get what I can work to the benefit of my very limited character creation.
Gameplay: stand and fight? Really? As old and arthritic hands and lessened reaction times oft hinder my gaming of high end FPS games, I still can't fathom an RPG using this kind of combat system. Let the kids with the quick reflexes have their day on the front lines tumbling and two-hand wielding some weapon combos to their advantage. I have no qualms playing the time consuming ranged destruction of a mage or stalwart shield-barer or the healing cleric. If I'm going to stand and hit a button to attack, I might as well be playing a real-time strategy or turn based strategy games. Combat should be fluid, instinctive and immersive...without too many silly sword swinging graphic "blurs" or special effects. Might as well have "Pow!", "Bam!", and "Clang!" pop up over the graphicly challenged characters and environment. Take hints from DDO or Skyrim on combat fluidity. Especially take notice of the character creation and advancement of Skyrim where anyone can do whatever they want and experience can still be generated to advance a character in whatever direction the player chooses.
One more thing.
I recently received a survey asking me why I hadn't played in a while with 3 questions to which I could only have one response. Do you devs really think my issues fell into those three, one answered questions?
In conclusion:
Keep in mind, I love D&D to the point that I've spent time seriously playing and critiquing Neverwinter in hopes of creating a better game for tomorrow's generations. The game(Dungeons and Dragons) needs to live forever, and it deserves the best in representation and evolution.
In Gygax' name...I hope.
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powereddjinnMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian UsersPosts: 1Arc User
edited August 2013
Personally I find it: easy (CW), average (TR), boring as hell, (DC) due to not being able to do any damage and taking about 2x as long as any other class to do anything!
All 3 have similar gear scores, so it's a balance thing...
Glotakos, i'm sry, but as a veteran (30 years of PnP DnD) i really feel this is a good ACTION DnD game, i can understand your feelings, but i can't share them, if you feel like that, it's easy, stop playing NW, is not your thing, wait for ESO, or keep playing PnP if you have that privilege (at my age, after losing my group due to families and real life, its really hard to get another one) the game has his flaws, but the graphic setup is not one of them (have you tried to play at max graph quality?) and obviously the combat is the BEST EVER in MMO fantasy genre, i can understand people not liking it, but there are other games for them, is not a "fault" for the game, just a different style.
Customization and character creation, well, i can agree with you there, even when you are missing some points due to not understanding the formula, the dice roll is not a dice roll but a serie of different presets you can choose, there is nothing random about it, the lack of class and paragon paths is hurting, i know, but is still a work of progress, an MMO CANNOT have a random dice roll stats generation, for obvious reasons, and if the game already have a gazillion QQers for the lack of PvP balance, imagine what would have been in the case of another set of rules that benefit toons customization to no end, 3.5 or 5th edition (the beta looks really promising), yet, in a year, with more paragon paths for each toon and new clases to choose, there will be a lot more freedom for it, you have a point.
Btw i had the privilege to speak a couple times with G.Gygax in Gen Cons (not easy here in Barcelona) and i have the feeling that he wouldve apreciated this game, or at least, wouldve understood it, so, please, as i said, man up and play other games if you don't like this one.
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shunterinoMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited August 2013
The new war seige/catapult destroying quest in Moonlight area seems a bit unbalanced. Three of each is a bit much (either catapults or seige machines would be better), the mobs respawn very quickly and the way it's designed is quite cramped so you tend to pull lots of mobs at once leading to getting mobbed (excuse the pun).
I like the extra mission and the general idea but it seems like you had a bunch of options and decided to just use all of them at once. Could do with a slight paring back.
In general, as well as the redesign of the scenery (all very nice) you seem to have upped the difficulty a little which I think is good, but maybe space the encounters out a little so we're not facing three groups at once.
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s32ialxMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited August 2013
OK so my concerns are that:
Knight of the Feywild Pack Items
Unicorn Mount is unfinished
Eyes need to either be more then white or have a glow.
Mane is very stale not very clean also static
Slyph Compaion
Doesn't seem to always attack sometimes just stand there going derp.
Lesser Loamweave Enchantment
why not at least a Loamweave Enchantment or Greater Loamweave Enchantment (specifically for the glow as currently only chest piece glows.)
Doesn't seem to function as intended either (for the rooting effect)
Stone of Earth
stats are horrible even for starter gear
the stone stands in front of you like nobodies business and is very annoying
Says it's a ring but goes in neck slot
unless you have a cape you can't transmute your 60 gear to it as necklaces are not transmutable which they should be regardless.
Moonsilver Regalia Bottoms (and all others that have frill)
still get glitched just no longer as often or as bad
complete fail when on mounts the patch fixed nothing for the front pieces of them
Mid Summer Festival (Event)
Sunite Pants (Female)
They are pants whats with the frills?
How about just frills no pants or vice versa
Mid Summer Feast (Timed Event)
Once it's live this will be challenging maybe you can add more ways to gather... like the watermelons on the ground maybe? or more corn/corn fields.
Sunite Orb
Description says you can see what it looks like on the wall behind the vendor but no orb is there to view.
The Blooming Boughs
The kolbolds here often pull when your not even close to them
seem pretty hard for a Cleric is doable but very hard and lots of potions.
Possibly more Fireblossom Flowers Nodes +/ everyone can pick the Fireblossom Flowers as current the Fireblossom Flowers nodes are only collectable by one person per spawn.
Experience
No kills get you or your companion any experience just the dailies of which there are only two.
Zone
Can this zone remain active as a social area when the event ends so we have a zone that we can go and hang out that's not overly crowed and it's safe for any level for role play.
Why can't the unicorn mount look like this?
I Have more I think but I'll add it when I remember.
Goddamit! Are you searious?! The campfireguards at Moonlight Gate are so weak... that's horrible bad! 2 Hits incoming and the guard die. =( Are they so slapped by the dark fey creatures, that they are so weak? =(
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shunterinoMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited August 2013
I remember when they first told us about this module they said they'd heard what people had said about boss mechanics and would be coming up with something new. Well, I saw the Castle Malabog final boss vid and the fight seemed fairly similar to other boss fights. Can anyone who's done Malabog confirm if any of the other bosses have new mechanics? I think they said they would have environmental features with stuff coming out of the walls. Any follow through on this?
It would be nice if you could ESC out of the quest dialog boxes, instead of searching for which number the NPC wants you to hit to close the box. Small change, I know, but it would improve my experience.
It would be nice if you could ESC out of the quest dialog boxes, instead of searching for which number the NPC wants you to hit to close the box. Small change, I know, but it would improve my experience.
Correct. That change is annoying... I hope they change it back like you admit!
I remember when they first told us about this module they said they'd heard what people had said about boss mechanics and would be coming up with something new. Well, I saw the Castle Malabog final boss vid and the fight seemed fairly similar to other boss fights. Can anyone who's done Malabog confirm if any of the other bosses have new mechanics? I think they said they would have environmental features with stuff coming out of the walls. Any follow through on this?
Try Gnarlroot Cave. Then you see how wall will attack you.
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shunterinoMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
Try Gnarlroot Cave. Then you see how wall will attack you.
I've done Gnarlroot Cave, don't recall any difference in the boss mechanic. Calls adds, AOE all over the floor. The boss does hide behind some roots every now and again, but a lot of boss fights have a slight variation in the boss (like Spider Queen changing forms).
I'm more interested in the big dungeon though, since they said they'd made an effort to switch it up.
Hi good day I am new to the game and wanted to know about the company in relation to the Brazilians who want to play if there will be any subtitles in Portuguese PT BR must therefore considers Brazil as a country of great public gamer anyway Riot Games LevelUp Games and other more are translating their games altogether to be properly recognized. grateful
Not a big one at all but the new graphic for riding a horse looks a bit weird on the half elf. Arms are really flared out. As a positive though, they actually reign in the horse when stopping.
If you're going to gate content make that content accessible within a reasonable amount of time. If you require items that can only be obtained from a daily reward then make sure that the dailies actually offer those things. Or if you're playing silly buggers with random quests then mention it in the quest text, campaign tabs tooltips, somewhere.
Avoid making the npc's tell you it as the voice actors are just terrible and moving away a certain distance will cut them off mid flow. AND stop making dwarves scottish if you can't be arsed getting people with the correct heritage to voice them. They belong to more germanic mythology anyway.
So far I'm still stuck in the first section of the map due to the sparks not being offered up and yet other players have already got access into other parts as well as the dungeon. I either have to find a few more virgins to satiate the rng gods or wait for a weekly from what I've read, though I suspect the weekly is locked behind door number 2.
Gearwise I see cryptic are still intent of foisting deflection onto wizards, a ranged class that generally will be avoiding hits that would require being deflected. A controlled pack will rarely get more than a few swings at you so it's a waste of time statting towards that tiny chunk of a fight.
But throughout the game gear as rewards just shows a lack of communication in the cryptic offices. Players outlevel zones stupidly fast due to getting far too much xp from quests and invoking and yet at the same time every quest that rewards gear will be giving the player gear that is of a higher level than the quest they just did to obtain it. A very badly designed system.
I'd also like my character to go back to the look they had before you broke them. My drow had white hair and fairer skin, now they're darker with slate grey hair.
All right, thank you OP for the opportunity to give some feedback! I really appreciate, it's nice and all to hear back from you, but some more info on what decisions you make out of this thread could be useful to spark some interest in your cause. I know from many years of experience that the crowd tend to you if you tend to the crowd.
What your guys really need - is better storytelling end game. It kind of waters down a lot after only a few hours of content (from the very beginning).
So here is what I would like to see change in terms of content:
More personalities (NPC quest lines and origins) If you add more personalities and NPC's to the game, the content would feel more true and the world would seem more vibrant. If there is something I have learned from years of GM-ing it's that people tend to get bored when you have the same grey dude in the shop selling you stuff. I have lost many a table of players over the years just because of this.
What I found interesting, was that when I developed many different encounters which gave different views on everyday life and how they go about their day in the village or town I placed them, people started to pay more attention to the actual story and we could game for many more hours before they got tired. More personalities.
Unique quest-lines (Player/Race/Class/Alignment quests)
When it comes to quest giving, I found WoW boring, it's the same over and over again with slight variations as to which class you choose and what race you want to be, you start in different areas of the world and have a few quests to fulfill. But the representation and emotional glow is near non-existent. You also catch a few race/class specific quests over time that makes the game seem more unique, but really isn't.
What I truly believe in, is something a bit more complex, but will give the player a new experience even when selecting the same class and race. Every time. This is not something I would like to explain here, as I would like to get paid for it. But unique quest-lines are features you definitively should look into.
Personalized content
While dyes and transmutation is cool, it's really not everything. If we go back to the golden days of AO (Anarchy Online) we had many options as to transplant, build and make our own. We even had contested areas, where guilds could build their own cities and place their own shops where other guilds and even travelers could come and shop THEIR homemade content based on the in-game engineering system.
While AO was futuristic with implants and the like, you could really allow your players to immerse themselves in the game by figuring out a similar system (again I have very unique enchanted key on how to go about this). More personalized content guys, you can really only limit yourselves here.
Ecosystem
I have tested games for a living longer than Moradin believes, and I have always said to myself, where is the thoughts behind the ecosystem? How can everything feel so static? You could definitively use some more work on the levels and dungeons in terms of details, fauna, lightning and sounds. But this is just a trivial thing more than anything, but good can always be better.
Balance the economy
I paid 400 EUR for ZEN.. While I do feel like being ripped of due to the prices on AD, and I don't really feel that my gaming experience got a 400 EUR boost. I can understand how some people spend more.
With all this AD/AH problems and insane prices on items (some of the Enchants are now going 9000K AD on AH, I do start to feel, how much time do you want us to spend on this game? I will never be able to have a fully stacked, top geared Guardian Fighter, unless I spend thousands of Euro on your your game, or the equivalent in years of gaming.
More and more people start noticing this, and soon you will loose these people. If I have learned something from the business, it is that more is merrier, and I'm not talking about the amount each person is spending. But the amount of people spending.
If you changed the system to allow for more rewards for less cost, I can assure you that more people will spend money, and less people will leave the game in frustration.
If you allow people to buy themselves to glory, my suggestion is to make it a tad bit cheaper.
I will anyway chose to spend money on the game, to get quicker access to content or level faster. But I also believe that one should have the same opportunity when choosing not to pay. It's a fine balance I know, to make both worlds happy and still make money, but forcing people is not the way to go and will eventually make people leave the game for better pastures. When the non-payers leave, the amount left will not be able to sustain your ecosystem and the game will die slowly. This is not new science, trust me.
Summary/Ending words
I have been game master for many years in D&D, and I have made huge worlds and populated them with everything from possible partners to massive castles and cities with hundreds of personalities.Myself and the people I have mastered have entered into my worlds, doing proper RP for years. I just want to add to the end here: It all boils down to story, which you did very well in the beginning with these small "Cut-scenes" but I can see that you slowed down and the content turned more and more into repetitive side-quests with little depth. I might sound harsh, but this is not the first game I have seen I suggest you spend your profits to improve the main quest-lines and maybe add some more races, race/class specific quest-lines and change the content of each level to something different. Right now we have the same over and over again. Knox gives you directions to a place, you go there and kill everybody, then you come back and get more. Become the Game Master I would like to play more with.
If you need help; I have many ideas on how to improve the content from the beginning (from an story architect point of view), and I also have 5 years in-house localization experience for content adaption towards specific demographic profiles and ages (on the side of testing games). And I truly love organizing and shaping stories. Maybe you could allow me to earn my money back
Comments
There is one thing that overwhelms everything... is stupidly easy, no, seriously, this game has always been, but this is borderline insulting, i made all the quests and dailys avalible the first 2 days (twice the dung too), and not even a single time my life bar dropped below 70%... i cant take any damage, i cant die, to the point of having a phone call during one of the quests, picking up the phone, letting the toon there, in the middle of the scenario... the call was more than 2 minutes long, i did not touch any button...when i came back i was surrounded by 4 of those redcaps... and my life was barely under 50%... the mobs werent unable to kill my toon even without moving, that's just not logical, please do something about it
The campain system is fresh air, the scenarios are nice, the crafting and the rewards (lots of enchants) are perfect, the items and overall feeling... really really good...
But the difficulty is just insulting, i mean, there has to be any kind of challenge, i know, i have a powerful toon, but nothing out of the normal (GF, stalwart, 7/8s, ancient stuff) and there are thousands of players who have t2 equiped toons, there has to be some sort of challenge, the grinding structure of the new campaign (you must repeat the content to open new zones) will be really boring if its impossible to die, please, please... please... please... make it harder!!!!!!
You do have a point about how easy it is to play. I play as a 12.2GS TR with ancient daggers. It did seem easier than Whispering Caverns. I think they should raise the difficulty level to almost equal Castle Never and add a GS score level requirement like the Epic dungeons. Possibly a GS score requirement of 7000, right in the middle because the Epic dungeons go from 5700 to 9200. Just an idea that is possible and the GS score requirement is reasonable.
There is no point to whine for nerfs because you win some and loose some. Crying just makes a player look like a crier and no one, especially the devs, should take them seriously. Have a nice day!:)
Why? It does not reward T2 equivalent gear, and it certainly does not reward 'ancient' gear, so why should it be harder than the stuff it is similar to?
What Class Are You?
I had very high hopes for another Dungeons and Dragons game. Maybe that was the issue. There are so many games out there now with so much better graphics, player choices, and gameplay, this is like a huge step backward. Dungeons and Dragons Online, for example, had better graphic quality when it came out 7-years ago, and the combat system and options to make unique characters far surpasses what is currently Neverwinter. At the very least, why didn't we build off of that model? Dungeons and Dragons players from pen and paper days had to use their imaginations to picture the settings. Do you really think our imaginations created flat branched trees and flat headed dwarves? No. We imagined things as real as possible. Why then, I ask you, are we digressing to less than cartoon quality graphics? With games like Skyrim on the market with graphics so real you can almost smell the sweat on your character, and the flavorful renderings of Warhammer Online...Neverwinter's offering pales in comparison.
Graphics aside, with the multitude of flavors of mankind and the various walks of life in the world, what makes anyone think I fit into one of 6, or whatever, choices available in Neverwinter? And the system of hitting a dice roll button until I come up with 20's in my perspective areas of expertise? C'mon. Either make it random, or let us choose. Otherwise it's just a waste of time rolling until I get what I can work to the benefit of my very limited character creation.
Gameplay: stand and fight? Really? As old and arthritic hands and lessened reaction times oft hinder my gaming of high end FPS games, I still can't fathom an RPG using this kind of combat system. Let the kids with the quick reflexes have their day on the front lines tumbling and two-hand wielding some weapon combos to their advantage. I have no qualms playing the time consuming ranged destruction of a mage or stalwart shield-barer or the healing cleric. If I'm going to stand and hit a button to attack, I might as well be playing a real-time strategy or turn based strategy games. Combat should be fluid, instinctive and immersive...without too many silly sword swinging graphic "blurs" or special effects. Might as well have "Pow!", "Bam!", and "Clang!" pop up over the graphicly challenged characters and environment. Take hints from DDO or Skyrim on combat fluidity. Especially take notice of the character creation and advancement of Skyrim where anyone can do whatever they want and experience can still be generated to advance a character in whatever direction the player chooses.
One more thing.
I recently received a survey asking me why I hadn't played in a while with 3 questions to which I could only have one response. Do you devs really think my issues fell into those three, one answered questions?
In conclusion:
Keep in mind, I love D&D to the point that I've spent time seriously playing and critiquing Neverwinter in hopes of creating a better game for tomorrow's generations. The game(Dungeons and Dragons) needs to live forever, and it deserves the best in representation and evolution.
In Gygax' name...I hope.
All 3 have similar gear scores, so it's a balance thing...
What Class Are You?
Customization and character creation, well, i can agree with you there, even when you are missing some points due to not understanding the formula, the dice roll is not a dice roll but a serie of different presets you can choose, there is nothing random about it, the lack of class and paragon paths is hurting, i know, but is still a work of progress, an MMO CANNOT have a random dice roll stats generation, for obvious reasons, and if the game already have a gazillion QQers for the lack of PvP balance, imagine what would have been in the case of another set of rules that benefit toons customization to no end, 3.5 or 5th edition (the beta looks really promising), yet, in a year, with more paragon paths for each toon and new clases to choose, there will be a lot more freedom for it, you have a point.
Btw i had the privilege to speak a couple times with G.Gygax in Gen Cons (not easy here in Barcelona) and i have the feeling that he wouldve apreciated this game, or at least, wouldve understood it, so, please, as i said, man up and play other games if you don't like this one.
I like the extra mission and the general idea but it seems like you had a bunch of options and decided to just use all of them at once. Could do with a slight paring back.
In general, as well as the redesign of the scenery (all very nice) you seem to have upped the difficulty a little which I think is good, but maybe space the encounters out a little so we're not facing three groups at once.
Why can't the unicorn mount look like this?
I Have more I think but I'll add it when I remember.
Goddamit! Are you searious?! The campfireguards at Moonlight Gate are so weak... that's horrible bad! 2 Hits incoming and the guard die. =( Are they so slapped by the dark fey creatures, that they are so weak? =(
Correct. That change is annoying... I hope they change it back like you admit!
Try Gnarlroot Cave. Then you see how wall will attack you.
I've done Gnarlroot Cave, don't recall any difference in the boss mechanic. Calls adds, AOE all over the floor. The boss does hide behind some roots every now and again, but a lot of boss fights have a slight variation in the boss (like Spider Queen changing forms).
I'm more interested in the big dungeon though, since they said they'd made an effort to switch it up.
Avoid making the npc's tell you it as the voice actors are just terrible and moving away a certain distance will cut them off mid flow. AND stop making dwarves scottish if you can't be arsed getting people with the correct heritage to voice them. They belong to more germanic mythology anyway.
So far I'm still stuck in the first section of the map due to the sparks not being offered up and yet other players have already got access into other parts as well as the dungeon. I either have to find a few more virgins to satiate the rng gods or wait for a weekly from what I've read, though I suspect the weekly is locked behind door number 2.
Gearwise I see cryptic are still intent of foisting deflection onto wizards, a ranged class that generally will be avoiding hits that would require being deflected. A controlled pack will rarely get more than a few swings at you so it's a waste of time statting towards that tiny chunk of a fight.
But throughout the game gear as rewards just shows a lack of communication in the cryptic offices. Players outlevel zones stupidly fast due to getting far too much xp from quests and invoking and yet at the same time every quest that rewards gear will be giving the player gear that is of a higher level than the quest they just did to obtain it. A very badly designed system.
I'd also like my character to go back to the look they had before you broke them. My drow had white hair and fairer skin, now they're darker with slate grey hair.
Really wonder why you need feedback at all? At the end of the day, you just fix what you want to and ignore everyone else...
You still havent addressed all the major issues players have with this expansion (whether they were created because of the expansion or pre-existed).
What your guys really need - is better storytelling end game. It kind of waters down a lot after only a few hours of content (from the very beginning).
So here is what I would like to see change in terms of content:
More personalities (NPC quest lines and origins)
If you add more personalities and NPC's to the game, the content would feel more true and the world would seem more vibrant. If there is something I have learned from years of GM-ing it's that people tend to get bored when you have the same grey dude in the shop selling you stuff. I have lost many a table of players over the years just because of this.
What I found interesting, was that when I developed many different encounters which gave different views on everyday life and how they go about their day in the village or town I placed them, people started to pay more attention to the actual story and we could game for many more hours before they got tired. More personalities.
Unique quest-lines (Player/Race/Class/Alignment quests)
When it comes to quest giving, I found WoW boring, it's the same over and over again with slight variations as to which class you choose and what race you want to be, you start in different areas of the world and have a few quests to fulfill. But the representation and emotional glow is near non-existent. You also catch a few race/class specific quests over time that makes the game seem more unique, but really isn't.
What I truly believe in, is something a bit more complex, but will give the player a new experience even when selecting the same class and race. Every time. This is not something I would like to explain here, as I would like to get paid for it. But unique quest-lines are features you definitively should look into.
Personalized content
While dyes and transmutation is cool, it's really not everything. If we go back to the golden days of AO (Anarchy Online) we had many options as to transplant, build and make our own. We even had contested areas, where guilds could build their own cities and place their own shops where other guilds and even travelers could come and shop THEIR homemade content based on the in-game engineering system.
While AO was futuristic with implants and the like, you could really allow your players to immerse themselves in the game by figuring out a similar system (again I have very unique enchanted key on how to go about this). More personalized content guys, you can really only limit yourselves here.
Ecosystem
I have tested games for a living longer than Moradin believes, and I have always said to myself, where is the thoughts behind the ecosystem? How can everything feel so static? You could definitively use some more work on the levels and dungeons in terms of details, fauna, lightning and sounds. But this is just a trivial thing more than anything, but good can always be better.
Balance the economy
I paid 400 EUR for ZEN.. While I do feel like being ripped of due to the prices on AD, and I don't really feel that my gaming experience got a 400 EUR boost. I can understand how some people spend more.
With all this AD/AH problems and insane prices on items (some of the Enchants are now going 9000K AD on AH, I do start to feel, how much time do you want us to spend on this game? I will never be able to have a fully stacked, top geared Guardian Fighter, unless I spend thousands of Euro on your your game, or the equivalent in years of gaming.
More and more people start noticing this, and soon you will loose these people. If I have learned something from the business, it is that more is merrier, and I'm not talking about the amount each person is spending. But the amount of people spending.
If you changed the system to allow for more rewards for less cost, I can assure you that more people will spend money, and less people will leave the game in frustration.
If you allow people to buy themselves to glory, my suggestion is to make it a tad bit cheaper.
I will anyway chose to spend money on the game, to get quicker access to content or level faster. But I also believe that one should have the same opportunity when choosing not to pay. It's a fine balance I know, to make both worlds happy and still make money, but forcing people is not the way to go and will eventually make people leave the game for better pastures. When the non-payers leave, the amount left will not be able to sustain your ecosystem and the game will die slowly. This is not new science, trust me.
Summary/Ending words
I have been game master for many years in D&D, and I have made huge worlds and populated them with everything from possible partners to massive castles and cities with hundreds of personalities.Myself and the people I have mastered have entered into my worlds, doing proper RP for years. I just want to add to the end here: It all boils down to story, which you did very well in the beginning with these small "Cut-scenes" but I can see that you slowed down and the content turned more and more into repetitive side-quests with little depth. I might sound harsh, but this is not the first game I have seen I suggest you spend your profits to improve the main quest-lines and maybe add some more races, race/class specific quest-lines and change the content of each level to something different. Right now we have the same over and over again. Knox gives you directions to a place, you go there and kill everybody, then you come back and get more. Become the Game Master I would like to play more with.
If you need help; I have many ideas on how to improve the content from the beginning (from an story architect point of view), and I also have 5 years in-house localization experience for content adaption towards specific demographic profiles and ages (on the side of testing games). And I truly love organizing and shaping stories. Maybe you could allow me to earn my money back
Just my two ZEN