I choose the Pirate's Skyhold mainly because of the Pirate King's Dungeon, one of my favourites because of design; not farmability. That being said I enjoy all of the adventure zones prior to Mt Hotenow. Decently written stories, nice adventures, little hidden areas, quests where you have to do more than just lay waste to the monster population. Mt Hotenow and the Whispering Caverns both seem to lack some the creativity in plot and scenery design that earlier ones had.
The Dread Ring is a nice zone that almost invokes the feeling of the earlier zones, but it is still a bit to straight forward. Aside from the hidden rooms in the Phantasmal Fortress everything is out in the open, plus it lacks any of the brain engagement that some of the earlier zones had. Sharander while visually creative is really just a straight up hack 'n' slash zone. Also while a small thing, I miss the pieces of lore you could find along the way in earlier zones. Particularly the backstories you could piece together in some of the areas. The treachery of Rohini, or the fate of the men left behind in the Skull Fortress on the Skyhold.
Trap doors, hidden areas, a well written story arc, challenging monsters, and cool scenery are things I look for in an adventure zone. The rewards are not the biggest thing for me, as long as it's not just a bent fork for killing an Ancient Dragon, any appropriate reward works for me. Now what would be really cool as a reward would be a sword of Dragonslaying +5 after killing the aforementioned Dragon.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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jimdenMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 27Arc User
edited March 2014
My vote, Sharandar, for two reasons.
First, The multiple zones and storyline. I can't get enough "Witch's Fen". I go in different each time, once I even started out trying to "bare knuckle" the zone!
Second, The first NPC down the hill, I try to start up a conversation, she seems shy and hasn't said anything yet, I'll keep trying.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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ambisinisterrMember, Neverwinter ModeratorPosts: 10,462Community Moderator
I don't play the game for rewards, I play for content. If the rewards allow me to continue progressing, great, but to say that an expectation of favor towards an area is based on rewards is demeaning to the player base.
Don't get me wrong, I am in the same boat as you as far as content goes. However especially in an MMO this is not really the standard. I have played many MMOs in my life and the desire for rewards tends to equal if not exceed the desire for quality content.
You wouldn't believe how many times I have seen quests torn apart because players didn't like the rewards or didn't want to do the quests for the rewards. I am sorry if you feel that is demeaning but that is the norm. Look around the forums.
Hence why I appreciate some voices for the other side of the equation.
Genus Draco Fad and the Muster@Jintortle
ID: NW-DD5FLOBTJ Cult of the Dragon Foundry Contest - Please participate and vote for your favourite - 26/6/2014 contest rating begins.
Sir Camps A Lot. Mr SlingShot Boom. XX Phantasmagorical. Jinn Dragonfeast.
SlingShot Boom Jr. Jocan Traders. Little Lord Forgatty, Dwarf Mean and introducing Necro Torquemada (The Warlock)
My favorite is Icespire, it just has an amazing epic feel to it, constantly climbing up the the mountain, the wind and the snow/sleet, tougher mobs, . . . just awesome.
I like Skyhold because it is a moment of brightness after several really dark/depressing zones. All of a sudden there is a vibrant jungle, she sun above, and blue sky. I am pretty sick of the dark zones by the time I get to it. Yes, I know Helm's Hold is sunny, but it feels like I am fighting in a hopeless ring of hell when I am there.
Pirate skyhold has a nice twist turning undead into the good guys.
What?
I like pretty much all the zones visually though Sharandar probably tops my list there. Honorable mentions going to Neverdeath/Ebon/Chasm.
The zones I enjoy running around/playing/farming in the most are probably Tower District, Rothe Valley or Sharandar. All of these have fun (IMO) enemies and feature little hidden areas on the maps, lairs and dungeons.
The one with the best quest line was Ebon Downs (despite a minor glitch that gives you quests all the same time if you're high enough level). I would otherwise subtract points for the horrific difficulty spike in Grimhollow that made that part a nightmare until my skill level really rose. I love the ED quests because they feature tons and tons of lairs without obnoxious add spewing bosses, and every lair has its own lore.
The one I have a sick attraction to is Mt. Hotenow. Love the flamespikers so much, love the mob audio (BURN WITH ME!!!!) love the visuals. Hate the lairs, the navigation/path choked with mobs in the Caldera, the insanity of the dungeon (sure kill that magma brute... I dare you) At least they got rid of getting proned every 5 secs.
"We have always been at war with Dread Vault" ~ Little Brother
Helm's Hold. Not in the poll sadly. NPCs are really interesting, they start to be a little challenging, so you have to think again to how you play the character you're levelling. Since I like new challenges, and since it's the first one we have in game, that's my favourite place. Props look great too, and the sky layer is awesome, it feels like a relief after the dark graveyard.
I also used to love the old epic lair of the mad dragon, with the billion of adds and the shocktrooper spawns during the boss fight. It would make a great heroic challenge, with more shocktroopers of course!
I like Graveyard because it is not a long tunnel (rail) as most other areas like Icespire, Skyhold, ...
and I'd love a Skirmish for the Graveyard, and a Dungeon!
This Zone is so neglected.
Did you read the story? There is a dungeon: Castle Never. The whole place is the conclusion of what you've seen in the graveyard. It's all about Valindra, red wizards and the dracolich. Why isn't there a normal and shorter version of CN is a mystery. I'm quite sure there's an interesting story about that. Maybe the artist went crazy and designed something so huge they decided to make it the ultimate dungeon; maybe it's the first dungeon they made when the game was still supposed to be a coop RPG and then made further content shorter for MMO farmability... But we'll never know, unless someone tells us why CN is what it is and why there's no normal version of it as it should be.
My hypothesis is that the Neverdeath Graveyard was originally set to be the final adventure zone and Castle Never the final dungeon. But when plans changed for whatever reason, and all of the other adventure zones were added on, this epic castle was too good to remain as "just another dungeon" and so became the ultimate end-game dungeon instead.
It does seem to me that a lot of the creativity in designing quests went downhill after Neverdeath Graveyard. None of the other mini-dungeons really compares to the Waterclock Tomb, that one is really awesome. And the quests in Neverdeath Graveyard all had interrelated stories, but all the others after that just seemed to follow a script: kill mobs, fight a mini-boss, move to next area, repeat. That's dull.
kill mobs, fight a mini-boss, move to next area, repeat. That's dull.
Well not all areas are similar. I don't remember well the storyline in Helm's hold (someone willing to spawn devils or something), but this isn't an area we play for the story, we play it because it's a great place to start using a great combat system.
The pirate skyhold story, on the other hand, is really interesting. I liked it. you help a mercantile (understand: capitalist) company to hunt down local inhabitants because they have ships, and those ships serves the needs of the city you're working for - if the company makes some profit on the way, no one will complain, right? It's probably one of the best stories in the game. Some people may hate it for the same reason, because it can make you step back from the computer for a minute and think "wow, am I really doing that?", provided you're reading the story, which isn't a given.
The zone with brains also have an interesting story to a lesser degree. If I remember it well it's about a laboratory, experiences that didn't go well - another metaphore but badly executed, because the story feels flat there. It feels like it's been kind of rushed, although there's definitely some potential.
The Vellosk zone also has an interesting storyline. I understood it as "we don't accept difference, please help us getting people on the right track". It feels like being a real life fanatic hunting down atheists, <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>, black people, or whatever comes to your mind. More food for thought, but still a bit less well executed than the pirates, because, even if it's less obvious, it's not more subtle, due to the astounding number of silly and irrelevant side quests interfering for no reason.
I haven't done Dread Ring or Sharandar yet. Chasm can get annoying, but they all can. It's just so freaky, it's interesting. I like Neverwinter Graveyard as well.
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ambisinisterrMember, Neverwinter ModeratorPosts: 10,462Community Moderator
An Adventure Zone is a persistent area meaning you can see players outside of your party in them.
Old Sharandar is an Instance Zone, not an Adventure Zone.
But I do agree that is one of my favorite areas for visuals.
I like the few zones that are wide not long. I loathe the pointlessly long run to get to the dungeon and then an even more pointlessly long run back afterward. Pirate's skyhold, chasm and the mindflayers/duergar maps are the worst offenders in this way.
Sharandar, the graveyard, helm's hold and a few others are exceptions as they are more "fans" where you can go in different directions to get to the different zones.
For visuals, the graveyard and sharandar. For enemies, sharandar. I LOVE the sounds the pixies and quicklings make. Great job on those npc voices.
on the topic of favorite adventure zones, i think it would be cool if they had events other than CtAs that would be centralized in specific zones. it'd be cool to have to fight new baddies or have an invasion or something in different zones.
on the topic of favorite adventure zones, i think it would be cool if they had events other than CtAs that would be centralized in specific zones. it'd be cool to have to fight new baddies or have an invasion or something in different zones.
My favorite and most played setting in all of PNP D&D is Ravenloft. If it weren't for the fact that it'd pretty much be impossible to do without severely tweaking canon (how would you randomly jump in and out of ravenloft to go to town, for example), I'd *kill* to see the Mists pop up in Neverwinter. The graveyard gives a bit of that gothic, oppressive, haunted feeling. I wish there were more like it in game, truth be told.
Side note: Fallen Axe Bridge is my very favorite thing in game. Bar none, period.
In game, I am @EvilTaco. Happily killing purple gang members since May 2008. RIP Caine
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ambisinisterrMember, Neverwinter ModeratorPosts: 10,462Community Moderator
edited March 2014
Okay, this week's poll has been put up so this is being de-stuck.
Thanks for all the feedback! I found it incredibly insightful.
I am going to leave the poll open for a while, though, and feel free to continue to discuss this poll and give feedback.
My favorite is Ice Spire Peak. Rough, expansive, visually SWEET and rich.
I agree with this completely, and want to add one other reason. The different obstacles that you have to traverse to get to chests and nodes. I would love to see these types of things more often in the other areas.
Obviously "other". Protector's Enclave, get used to it, you'll see a lot of it.
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doriangreighMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 707Arc User
edited March 2014
Despite the costs associated with things, I happen to favor Sharandar myself as the 3 areas to progress through keep things from getting stale too fast. Plus the look of Sharandar is kinda nice. I just wish it didn't hit my machine with lag, the lighting effects seem to cause me issues and I have an ATI 7970 3GB card. Malabog's castle I have to flat turn off lighting effects (rather set them all to low) or it chops so bad its unplayable for me, except for the actual inside of the Castle.
I do like the rewards of Dread Ring but the constant nagging of the NPC's does get irritating. I do like the vastness of Dread Ring.
I wish Gauntylgrym where more developed, I love the concept but the guild PVP never seems to queue, everyone has pretty much adopted one side to ensure that they get the T2 dungeon unluck it seems. But the couple of times I got into a 20v20 pvp it was pretty fun.
I just wish that maybe there was a short dungeon and a long dungeon in the areas, kind of like how t here are multiple solo dungeons. So many people have been in this game from the beginning that its hard to find skilled people to do some content because they have already done it a thousand times over.
I would also like to see something to allow for gear to be useful as opposed to getting gear that has a 4 - 10 point increase over a lower or older gear set. I mean seriously with the formula in place unless you are getting a 100+ point increase you aren't really getting any benefit unless new gear has a better more desirable set bonus.
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doriangreighMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 707Arc User
edited March 2014
I actually voted on Chasm because I loved the visuals of the area, I like the torn asunder effects of the spell plauge. If this game would actually lead to story content that took us into the outer planes that would be awesome. Or maybe make some events that do that.
Comments
The Dread Ring is a nice zone that almost invokes the feeling of the earlier zones, but it is still a bit to straight forward. Aside from the hidden rooms in the Phantasmal Fortress everything is out in the open, plus it lacks any of the brain engagement that some of the earlier zones had. Sharander while visually creative is really just a straight up hack 'n' slash zone. Also while a small thing, I miss the pieces of lore you could find along the way in earlier zones. Particularly the backstories you could piece together in some of the areas. The treachery of Rohini, or the fate of the men left behind in the Skull Fortress on the Skyhold.
Trap doors, hidden areas, a well written story arc, challenging monsters, and cool scenery are things I look for in an adventure zone. The rewards are not the biggest thing for me, as long as it's not just a bent fork for killing an Ancient Dragon, any appropriate reward works for me. Now what would be really cool as a reward would be a sword of Dragonslaying +5 after killing the aforementioned Dragon.
First, The multiple zones and storyline. I can't get enough "Witch's Fen". I go in different each time, once I even started out trying to "bare knuckle" the zone!
Second, The first NPC down the hill, I try to start up a conversation, she seems shy and hasn't said anything yet, I'll keep trying.
Don't get me wrong, I am in the same boat as you as far as content goes. However especially in an MMO this is not really the standard. I have played many MMOs in my life and the desire for rewards tends to equal if not exceed the desire for quality content.
You wouldn't believe how many times I have seen quests torn apart because players didn't like the rewards or didn't want to do the quests for the rewards. I am sorry if you feel that is demeaning but that is the norm. Look around the forums.
Hence why I appreciate some voices for the other side of the equation.
ID: NW-DD5FLOBTJ Cult of the Dragon Foundry Contest - Please participate and vote for your favourite - 26/6/2014 contest rating begins.
Sir Camps A Lot. Mr SlingShot Boom. XX Phantasmagorical. Jinn Dragonfeast.
SlingShot Boom Jr. Jocan Traders. Little Lord Forgatty, Dwarf Mean and introducing Necro Torquemada (The Warlock)
Skyold is much better: undead pirate !
Both the fun !
and I'd love a Skirmish for the Graveyard, and a Dungeon!
This Zone is so neglected.
I like pretty much all the zones visually though Sharandar probably tops my list there. Honorable mentions going to Neverdeath/Ebon/Chasm.
The zones I enjoy running around/playing/farming in the most are probably Tower District, Rothe Valley or Sharandar. All of these have fun (IMO) enemies and feature little hidden areas on the maps, lairs and dungeons.
The one with the best quest line was Ebon Downs (despite a minor glitch that gives you quests all the same time if you're high enough level). I would otherwise subtract points for the horrific difficulty spike in Grimhollow that made that part a nightmare until my skill level really rose. I love the ED quests because they feature tons and tons of lairs without obnoxious add spewing bosses, and every lair has its own lore.
The one I have a sick attraction to is Mt. Hotenow. Love the flamespikers so much, love the mob audio (BURN WITH ME!!!!) love the visuals. Hate the lairs, the navigation/path choked with mobs in the Caldera, the insanity of the dungeon (sure kill that magma brute... I dare you) At least they got rid of getting proned every 5 secs.
I also used to love the old epic lair of the mad dragon, with the billion of adds and the shocktrooper spawns during the boss fight. It would make a great heroic challenge, with more shocktroopers of course!
Did you read the story? There is a dungeon: Castle Never. The whole place is the conclusion of what you've seen in the graveyard. It's all about Valindra, red wizards and the dracolich. Why isn't there a normal and shorter version of CN is a mystery. I'm quite sure there's an interesting story about that. Maybe the artist went crazy and designed something so huge they decided to make it the ultimate dungeon; maybe it's the first dungeon they made when the game was still supposed to be a coop RPG and then made further content shorter for MMO farmability... But we'll never know, unless someone tells us why CN is what it is and why there's no normal version of it as it should be.
It does seem to me that a lot of the creativity in designing quests went downhill after Neverdeath Graveyard. None of the other mini-dungeons really compares to the Waterclock Tomb, that one is really awesome. And the quests in Neverdeath Graveyard all had interrelated stories, but all the others after that just seemed to follow a script: kill mobs, fight a mini-boss, move to next area, repeat. That's dull.
Well not all areas are similar. I don't remember well the storyline in Helm's hold (someone willing to spawn devils or something), but this isn't an area we play for the story, we play it because it's a great place to start using a great combat system.
The pirate skyhold story, on the other hand, is really interesting. I liked it. you help a mercantile (understand: capitalist) company to hunt down local inhabitants because they have ships, and those ships serves the needs of the city you're working for - if the company makes some profit on the way, no one will complain, right? It's probably one of the best stories in the game. Some people may hate it for the same reason, because it can make you step back from the computer for a minute and think "wow, am I really doing that?", provided you're reading the story, which isn't a given.
The zone with brains also have an interesting story to a lesser degree. If I remember it well it's about a laboratory, experiences that didn't go well - another metaphore but badly executed, because the story feels flat there. It feels like it's been kind of rushed, although there's definitely some potential.
The Vellosk zone also has an interesting storyline. I understood it as "we don't accept difference, please help us getting people on the right track". It feels like being a real life fanatic hunting down atheists, <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>, black people, or whatever comes to your mind. More food for thought, but still a bit less well executed than the pirates, because, even if it's less obvious, it's not more subtle, due to the astounding number of silly and irrelevant side quests interfering for no reason.
An Adventure Zone is a persistent area meaning you can see players outside of your party in them.
Old Sharandar is an Instance Zone, not an Adventure Zone.
But I do agree that is one of my favorite areas for visuals.
Sharandar, the graveyard, helm's hold and a few others are exceptions as they are more "fans" where you can go in different directions to get to the different zones.
For visuals, the graveyard and sharandar. For enemies, sharandar. I LOVE the sounds the pixies and quicklings make. Great job on those npc voices.
i agree this could be fun
My favorite and most played setting in all of PNP D&D is Ravenloft. If it weren't for the fact that it'd pretty much be impossible to do without severely tweaking canon (how would you randomly jump in and out of ravenloft to go to town, for example), I'd *kill* to see the Mists pop up in Neverwinter. The graveyard gives a bit of that gothic, oppressive, haunted feeling. I wish there were more like it in game, truth be told.
Side note: Fallen Axe Bridge is my very favorite thing in game. Bar none, period.
RIP Caine
Thanks for all the feedback! I found it incredibly insightful.
I am going to leave the poll open for a while, though, and feel free to continue to discuss this poll and give feedback.
I agree with this completely, and want to add one other reason. The different obstacles that you have to traverse to get to chests and nodes. I would love to see these types of things more often in the other areas.
AKA Cyber Troll and Euben Hadd
I do like the rewards of Dread Ring but the constant nagging of the NPC's does get irritating. I do like the vastness of Dread Ring.
I wish Gauntylgrym where more developed, I love the concept but the guild PVP never seems to queue, everyone has pretty much adopted one side to ensure that they get the T2 dungeon unluck it seems. But the couple of times I got into a 20v20 pvp it was pretty fun.
I just wish that maybe there was a short dungeon and a long dungeon in the areas, kind of like how t here are multiple solo dungeons. So many people have been in this game from the beginning that its hard to find skilled people to do some content because they have already done it a thousand times over.
I would also like to see something to allow for gear to be useful as opposed to getting gear that has a 4 - 10 point increase over a lower or older gear set. I mean seriously with the formula in place unless you are getting a 100+ point increase you aren't really getting any benefit unless new gear has a better more desirable set bonus.