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What is the Arc Client?
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Multitude of Issues Encountered and Possible Solutions
sedaiyus
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
First off I want to start by saying thank you, myself and friends/family find it a very refreshing game to the traditional rpg's like WoW and Warhammer. Interactive and engaging combat system while not as immersive as Guild Wars 2 or Tera bring a very needed change to the traditional behind the curtain dice roll and predetermined animations that are purely cosmetic with no actual impact to combat. The art and graphic again not at the same level as some other MMO's and its to be expected at the current development of the game but considering (not sure if its true) I heard compared to some games you guys are kinda understaffed, the obvious financial dilemma of dealing with start up costs with a F2P game= no guaranteed payment from consumers, well 
my god bravo. You did a considerably wonderful job and I have only seen improvement. Foundry IMO was a genius implement that other games don't offer and as a fan of D&D I love the story thus far. Couple all this with the fact that at the end of the day you don't have to pay a dime to enjoy any of this as it is a true free to play, I just can't thank you enough.
Problems & Issues
1. Dungeons- I put this first because this is a "Dungeons" and Dragons game. The majority of your time is working towards getting to and completing the dungeon at the end of each zone and is one of the main ways to enjoying playing with the other people online if you are a solo quester. Its incredibly necessary for endgame as its the main way to get your end game gear. Even GG the battleground zone put into the game for endgame content features dungeons. So one begs to ask the question, why isn't the whole system from queue to in dungeon bugs dealt with by now.
Fact: *Neverwinter ran closed beta testing from February 8, 2013 to April 14, 2013. Open beta began on April 30, 2013* This game has technically been out starting tomorrow a year and 3 months and the main appeal and part of the game is still in need of desperate repair. I find that incredibly discouraging as we are about to hit module 3, the third major update to the game and have had releases of a many number of updates that should have waited before this got fixed like PVP though admittedly can be considered eaqually as important as if you arnt doing the main story and dungeosn you are pvping, it should be secondary as its not PVP and dragons.
A. Queue- The queue system IMO is not messed up or buggy or in need of a update; its broken. As in it doesn't work the way it is suppose to period.
(Wait Times)Upon trying to queue for a dungeon, especially at level 60, you get sometimes insane wait times, but more so than not long at best.
(Group Making) When you finally queue in with a group, if 1 person denies or isn't active/AFK to accept then you get sent to the dungeon without a full group. Besides waiting for the game to auto invite someone else queueing which seems very unreliable there is no way for you to invite someone yourself once your in with a group without leaving and regrouping which is dreadful if you only have the final boss to complete and a guild full of members who wouldn't mind lending a hand. It is one thing to encourage pregrouping with friends or guild mates to enter a dungeon but its a whole other thing to force it to reliably enter a dungeon.
Most MMO's its self explainatory, you get a healer, a tank, and 3 DPS. I haven't tried it in the last month or two outside of pregrouping so maybe its changed but I have entered dungeons without a tank or healer before. Hasn't happened too often, its frequent however in skirmishes.
2.#'s adding up:
Odd title I know. But let me explain. From astral diamond prices at merchants to damage/damage modifier stats & abilities I have found that they either don't make any sense or serve a purpose or are so horribly done they don't really function at all.
A. (Astral Diamond Merchants) I feel like who ever decided to make the prices for the game pulled a number out of a hat then rolled a D&D die to multiply that number and then that result is what they put down. Why does it cost tens of thousands of Astral Diamonds to get low level gear for characters that you can pick up better gear for free, find same item in auction house for sometimes literally 1% of the price, or straight up don't need as its practically worthless? Pretty much any merchant that deals in Astral Diamonds is not just overpriced because I'd get that, encourage questing for items, AH to promote economy growth in game, or dungeon runs but they are unreasonably impracticable and early on impossible to achieve even if you wanted to. Also whats their purpose, I would be willing to guess almost anything that no one uses the astral diamond merchant on purpose at all. The game would literally not change 1 hint if you removed them, so thats saying something.
B.(Abilities and Feats) I have read and noticed myself that some abilities and feats that say they are going to do something, multiply something to make it stronger, or anything of that nature either make the increase so small there it virtually does nothing to benefit stated description (I.E. Severe Reaction- repel attacker 5ft, 5ft is pretty much unnoticeable and ineffective). Some of them increase stats or power damage so small they don't actually change them really. Also the caps on stats are irritating to deal with, especially since its so expensive to respec if your trying to pour a bunch of points and stats into power for overall damage for example its discouraging to find at a certain point its not really doing any noticeable change despite what it says.
3. Astral Diamond Prices On Some Key Objects- (Banks & Bags) I have 4 guild bank slots and each slot has costs an additional increase of hundreds of thousands of Astral Diamonds per slot for the same exact storage space that IMO was already originally overpriced. Same with personal bank. Now Bank slots are pretty optional but the next issue isn't really. There are not enough bags to buy, there are currently only two a uncommon and rare both of which are incredibly expensive. You only get 3 bags I believe via game start and quest lines and they are pivotal to game play as running to the closest merchant if ones even available, sorting out what you are willing to destroy to make room, or the frequency of having to move something to bank or mail to another character to make a action like trading can be very frustrating and more importantly very time consuming overall, a waste of time really.
(Mount Upgrades) Another pivotal part of the game especially if you need to get back to Protectors Enclave as the game offers to teleportation method to do so unless you spend money on teleportation scrolls. Also for general questing they can improve the feeling of progression greatly as your not spending most of your time running slowly and fighting off random mobs to just get to the area where your quest starts. However the upgrade costs for mounts both to upgrade to uncommon and rare are insane. The cost to do so is often more expensive than simply buying a new mount of that same type. When you save money by buying a rare mount or higher verse upgrading your current one, there is a problem.
(Companion Upgrades) Issues have already come up on the effectiveness or better put uselessness of companions beside Ioune Stones and Cat, a issue that has admittedly somewhat impressively been addressed to a degree, but still is kind of current for some. And like the mounts its often cheaper to buy or win a companion of that same rarity than it is to upgrade a current one. Its just doesn't really make sense, its not even close more times than not.
(Transmutation Cost) (I.E.To change the appearance of my level 50 armor piece to that of a level 1 common piece I need to pay around 36,000 AD.....and it only raises for that same situation as my level increases.) If I wanted to keep the appearance of my starter weapon all the way up until I was level 60, I honestly couldn't. I have developed ways to effectively make A.D. Not as well as allot but a good 20k on a lazy inactive day to an average 200k on a more progressive day. And I can honestly say I couldn't afford to do it with everything else I feel I need to buy. This whole system again ill say isn't in need of adjustment, isn't in need of repair, it is broken. It needs to be completely redone. Its pointless unless you get a specific transmutable item that changes for free to do this at any level over 40 if not lower. Which is sad because I have come across some really great looking items that arn't rare or significant, that I personally just like the look. I don't understand what made something believe that it would make sense to tie transmutation to your character level verse the level/rarity of the items themselves but it saddens me. Being able to enjoy not just gameplay but the appearance of your character and take pride in how he looks is very important to further enjoy the game.
(Service Costs) Respecing your character, changing their appearance, renaming them, any kind of service token really is I can say honestly manageable, for players like I who can make a decent amount of A.D. , but even for me and most that can't or new guys...Its discouraging and irritating to realize you made a mistake whether out of ignorance, accident, or because you were not provided with reasonable information regarding the changes you were trying to make yet cannot change them. Even if I have the money to fix it I get so bummed out when I realize I put a single point in the wrong place whether accident or misreading and clicking especially if I have a ton of already points where they need to be. I remember when I first started playing I was just putting points into abilities that sounded useful and good. When I finally started doing researching, learning of bugs and poorly made abilities & effects, and so on I was upset I had to redo everything. But I did and know better know. My biggest issue was I bought and paid with real $ the hero of the north pack. I didn't just want the items it gave but wanted to support the game and did it. One of the items offered, an item I had already paid for, were renegade tattoos. I was unable to use them and they didn't show despite making tickets in game and posts in the forum until finally after months it was fixed. Because of ""Neverwinters"" mistake I paid for a appearance change token simply to put on tattoos that I already paid for and should have had on. As said, it can be frustrating.
4Server Load, lag, and kicks- I am not exactly sure specifically whats going on here. It might be on my end, I hope its on my end, though an incredible amount of others complain daily about the same issues so I don't know. I understand there were 3 servers which eventually merged into one server. I can only hope this was done after getting better hardware and software for the server. But I still find pockets and periods of lag and random high load times and issues again randomly with the auction house and don't really have any apparent cause. I have experienced no problems in an instance maxed out and had problems doing the same task or activity in the same area in an instance that was relatively low populated so again I have no idea whats going on with this. The auction house manditory wait time for searches only seems to serve as a great great annoyance. I still experience high load times for searches and everyonce in awhile ill buyout a item and that entire page goes blank and im forced to research or wait cause ive "searched too many time = 2-3 time ?!??!" so first off that system of wait time doesn't work. But again allot of times even when the server is highly populated I don't experience issues.
(Personal TroubleShooting) I really like taking pride in the games I play so before I make accusations I check myself. Computer specs are key for uninterupted gameplay, neverwinter isnt crazy demading, but it does require a bit more than even the recommended hardware it lists for it. I believe I am above and beyond that. I have:
Processor: 3rd Gen i7-3630QM @ 2.40-3.4GHz. 6mb cache. 4 core, 8 thread processor.
Ram: 16 GB DDR3
Graphics: SLI 650m GT (Performance roughly = 670m gtx)
Internet: I have Cable @ 60mbps download and 5mbps upload.
Games superior to Neverwinter I run with NO issues:
Online:
Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer
Tera MMO
Guild Wars 2 MMO
Stand Alone:
Witcher 2
Skyrim (W/ a ton of mods)
And yes I have run many anti-virus/Anti-spyware programs and have a solid security system w/ both physical and non windows based firewall software so I know its not malware related. I have uninstalled and reinstalled neverwinter once before though not recently just to make sure as well. Given all this I am fairly certain its on your end. I don't know what the issue is but getting kicked off the server and having to re-log while running a dungeon is devastating especially when you log in and find you are no longer part of the group. Getting stuck on the loading screen or even before that where it loads your characters is annoying especially when someone is already on waiting for you.
Possible Solutions
1. Dungeons- Whats needed to be said already has. Games been out out for over a year and queuing for dungeons in Dungeons and Dragons is not just hard, but sometimes not possible, this hopefully will be fixed. The funny thing is a 'symptom' of this was addressed in a update. People were sent to dungeons without a full group but then couldn't leave the dungeon. You guys fixed that why not just fix the problem itself which makes it a little embarrassing I guess that you overlooked a major issue while you were practically staring at it dead in its face?! lol
A. Queuing
(Wait Times) I get it, and this isn't a neverwinter exclusive issue, its happened in my experience on World of Warcraft a much older and more developed game who has had way more time to work on this as well as other games especially new games like Star Wars Old Republic I have tried. So I want to clarify I do understand, I am not possitive how to fix this. I imagine better software or hardware support for the server to increase its capacity capabilities but keep the allowed # of people that can log in the same? Maybe its part of the actual programming of how it searches and forms the group that needs to be modified. I don't know if it can be fixed now or not but what I am really asking for is not to create fast grouping times because its always going to be a issue I think. But I do believe there is no reason that I wait over a hour, albeit dungeon delves gets heavy with the queuing, but over a hour. Please look into this, ensure your programming or coding or what ever it is that makes up this system is correct and solid. Because the wait time is excessive.
(Grouping) Pretty easy, you don't even have to change the current system of grouping really. Just enable the ability to manually invite someone to the party from the dungeon. The class specified thing isn't game breaking if not implemented but I do believe the game would benefit from a more accurate system of grouping classes and roles. WoW for example when queuing you check your role tank, healer, dps. Given you just enabled GWF the ability to paragon into a effective tank and GWF to do the same into a more DPS oriented paragon I.E. it would only make sense and will mitigate issues with future class/paragon releases.
B. (Astral Diamond Merchants) Pretty easy, change prices to something more reasonable. Or remove them entirely from the game. As they are now, at least the weapons and armor Astral Diamoond Merchants, they are completely unnecessary.
(Abilities and Stats) Was more of a FYI still needs to be looked into than a huge issue really. I know there have been a bunch of updates adjusting and fixing this issue. Its a new game, working out bugs and formulas, I got it. But issues are still present, there are plenty of threads reporting them here in the forums, I hope you continue to read and address these. Even seasoned MMO's make occasional changes to abilities, classes, and effects so I hope you guys continue to as well. I don't expect perfection but I do expect the desire to pursue it especially towards an important element which directly effects game play like this. Keep up the good work.
3.Astral Diamond Prices On Key Objects- First off note I understand this is not just a F2P game but a F2P buisness. You need to make money some way, not just for the progression of this game but for adequate income to survive off of. So I hope you don't feel I am just ranting that Astral Diamonds are too high or there is some kind of money oriented secret agenda the developers and staff are tying to force onto players because thats not the case at all. But certain aspects of this definitely need to change and I really don't see it effecting the income the game is making. If I want to keep my plaint brown horse I start off with for some reason, but desire a faster mount why should I pay as more than the price of rares and epics of the same speed? Alternatively if you want a unique Zen offered mount, there is no way to obtain it via upgrading a current mount, so people who want those mounts that have buy Zen, will still buy Zen from you to get them. This way you simply arn't punishing those who don't wish to do that. Honestly there is no reason mounts should be different prices because of cosmetics, thats just crazy. Prices should be based on rarity/speed period.
(Banks and Bags) As stated I can live with the bank system, I still things its unfair that I pay more and more money for the same spaced bank tabs but hey thats okay. What isn't okay is the necessity of bags and their general lack of availability. You can have up to 5 bags I believe total. You can only obtain 3 free and one of them is pretty small. Uncommon Bag of holding is over 200,000 AD worth of zen. Make common bags as small as the ones available via quests available for maybe 100k AD via one of your crazy AD merchants. Or maybe release 1 more quest line to give a small bag, even a tiny 10 space one would help honestly. Or make lesser bags (common bags) dropable items in dungeons or events. Doing this will provide options without taking away the desire to spend $ on your uncommon and rare bag in the zen market which will hold much more than the common bags you would release while ensuring those who do not arn't punished.
(Mount Upgrades) I mentioned this in the opening statement. Like most MMO's prices should be based on rarity/speed period. Perhaps with a small amount of exceptions. Limited time mounts, special mounts like emperor beetle that might be made available through zen market, obviously these can be a bit more. But over all rarity/speed based. At the very least make the cost of upgrading your mount equal to the price of the rarity your upgrading it to. It makes no sense if I can buy a rare mount cheaper than upgrading a uncommon mount to a rare rank. And as stated since the only difference and real thing your paying for is cosmetics, doing this will NOT take away your profits because people will still pay for zen based mounts that they really want. I know, I did it and I have the hero founder pack which grants a free epic yet I have bought inferno steed and spend a ton of AD in the AH to get an Emperor Beetle. People will still pay you for these but you shouldn't punish those who don't want to. This is a good way to do that.
(Companion Upgrade) I'll be honest, this really isn't high on my personal list of things I hope get fixed. Frankly even with the nice companion update and new abilities I find them useless even useful ones that have a decent impact like my lvl 30 Ioune stone I tend to forget I don't have summoned in dungeons and don't tell all the time while still maintaining top DPS often. However I find the issue with these pretty much ditto to the mount problem listed above. The only issue is Mounts have a significant impact on gameplay where as pets really don't too much. Something to look into and fix the same way you would the mount situation.
(Transmutation Costs) This one is pretty easy to fix. Why the price is based on player level is beyond me but remove that and make the cost of transmutation based on the level/rarity of the item you are transmuting and/or item you are transmuting to.
(Service Costs) Really I think what you are doing with the whole weekly discounts on the zen market for items like these are absolutely wonderful but also absolutely necessary. Its so expensive to fix small mistakes and in certain instances like the one I had with tattoos not being available that I paid for, thats on neverwinter, thats their mistake, and now I have to pay for that? Not cool. When you added the second paragons and gave a free respec that too was good on ya. But I feel like the whole system is based on people already knowing how to spec their character and trying to force people to ensure they don't put themselves in a position where they must respec. I get that to a point. But in a game where abilities, stats, and classes can change at the blink of an update. The fact that the only way to "know how to spec" a character is to play around and see what works first, and a newer game like this where paragons and classes will be coming out from what we already have, heck ive seen in some games a new class release that forces small adjustments to a existing class. This being said doesn't it make sense to make more reasonable priced costs for repecs or appearance changes? Solution to appearance changes maybe make a cheaper option to change just one appearance category. If I want black hair instead of blond it would be nice if I could just pay for a head change or haircut change verse an entire appearance change thats pricey.
4.Server lag, load, and kicks-New game I know. Its a F2P so I don't expect the same budget to work with even if needed when it comes to server maintenance and upgrades that games that get paid for people to use said servers and play their games do, especially older games that have had years to obtain money from consumers to dedicate to these things. So again I know its a work in progress and I know you have already made a server upgrade I think from 3 small one to one more efficient one?.. But I listed my personal troubleshooting. I don't have malware bogging me down, my systems more than capable of handling the internet load and graphic demands, and superior demanding games have functioned better on my system than neverwinter so I am pretty sure its not on my end at least not all the time. I won't offer any solutions becuase I am not about to ask you to pay for a new server or a upgrade or find better software. I am sure you are on that and get it. I just wanted to make it very clear that cudos to the upgrade but there are some serious issues still. I.E. Getting kicked in the middle of a dungeon run for no reason at all, getting stuck at the character selection page then loading protectors enclave page so that logging in take 10 minutes, I hope its a process being worked on and not put off because you have already made a upgrade.
Hopefully my solutions can be considered and used if not already thought up and are a work in progress for implementation already. I really do appreciate everything you have done bringing a wonderful world of D&D to life something I have yet to see in other D&D games at least in my opinion. And D&D aside a rpg MMO in general enthusiast I know would love this game. My cousins now play daily with me and they not only are NOT fans of D&D but they haven't played MMO's before in general and they are absolutely hooked on this so I know. A true F2P game of this magnitude and quality is impressive. I want to thank you so much neverwinter to the developers, artist, and staff in general. And really I understand this is no doubt in my mind for a single second an enjoyment for you, a hobby, and a work of art but also a business. By all means make sure you are well and families are taken care of before changing things. Its not worth changing a marketing aspect of the game that might negatively effect income and hurt you guys on a personal level just so we can enjoy the game more. Find what works and make it happen. I just though this was a good FYI and offer some feedback and possible fixes.
my god bravo. You did a considerably wonderful job and I have only seen improvement. Foundry IMO was a genius implement that other games don't offer and as a fan of D&D I love the story thus far. Couple all this with the fact that at the end of the day you don't have to pay a dime to enjoy any of this as it is a true free to play, I just can't thank you enough.Problems & Issues
1. Dungeons- I put this first because this is a "Dungeons" and Dragons game. The majority of your time is working towards getting to and completing the dungeon at the end of each zone and is one of the main ways to enjoying playing with the other people online if you are a solo quester. Its incredibly necessary for endgame as its the main way to get your end game gear. Even GG the battleground zone put into the game for endgame content features dungeons. So one begs to ask the question, why isn't the whole system from queue to in dungeon bugs dealt with by now.
Fact: *Neverwinter ran closed beta testing from February 8, 2013 to April 14, 2013. Open beta began on April 30, 2013* This game has technically been out starting tomorrow a year and 3 months and the main appeal and part of the game is still in need of desperate repair. I find that incredibly discouraging as we are about to hit module 3, the third major update to the game and have had releases of a many number of updates that should have waited before this got fixed like PVP though admittedly can be considered eaqually as important as if you arnt doing the main story and dungeosn you are pvping, it should be secondary as its not PVP and dragons.
A. Queue- The queue system IMO is not messed up or buggy or in need of a update; its broken. As in it doesn't work the way it is suppose to period.
(Wait Times)Upon trying to queue for a dungeon, especially at level 60, you get sometimes insane wait times, but more so than not long at best.
(Group Making) When you finally queue in with a group, if 1 person denies or isn't active/AFK to accept then you get sent to the dungeon without a full group. Besides waiting for the game to auto invite someone else queueing which seems very unreliable there is no way for you to invite someone yourself once your in with a group without leaving and regrouping which is dreadful if you only have the final boss to complete and a guild full of members who wouldn't mind lending a hand. It is one thing to encourage pregrouping with friends or guild mates to enter a dungeon but its a whole other thing to force it to reliably enter a dungeon.
Most MMO's its self explainatory, you get a healer, a tank, and 3 DPS. I haven't tried it in the last month or two outside of pregrouping so maybe its changed but I have entered dungeons without a tank or healer before. Hasn't happened too often, its frequent however in skirmishes.
2.#'s adding up:
Odd title I know. But let me explain. From astral diamond prices at merchants to damage/damage modifier stats & abilities I have found that they either don't make any sense or serve a purpose or are so horribly done they don't really function at all.
A. (Astral Diamond Merchants) I feel like who ever decided to make the prices for the game pulled a number out of a hat then rolled a D&D die to multiply that number and then that result is what they put down. Why does it cost tens of thousands of Astral Diamonds to get low level gear for characters that you can pick up better gear for free, find same item in auction house for sometimes literally 1% of the price, or straight up don't need as its practically worthless? Pretty much any merchant that deals in Astral Diamonds is not just overpriced because I'd get that, encourage questing for items, AH to promote economy growth in game, or dungeon runs but they are unreasonably impracticable and early on impossible to achieve even if you wanted to. Also whats their purpose, I would be willing to guess almost anything that no one uses the astral diamond merchant on purpose at all. The game would literally not change 1 hint if you removed them, so thats saying something.
B.(Abilities and Feats) I have read and noticed myself that some abilities and feats that say they are going to do something, multiply something to make it stronger, or anything of that nature either make the increase so small there it virtually does nothing to benefit stated description (I.E. Severe Reaction- repel attacker 5ft, 5ft is pretty much unnoticeable and ineffective). Some of them increase stats or power damage so small they don't actually change them really. Also the caps on stats are irritating to deal with, especially since its so expensive to respec if your trying to pour a bunch of points and stats into power for overall damage for example its discouraging to find at a certain point its not really doing any noticeable change despite what it says.
3. Astral Diamond Prices On Some Key Objects- (Banks & Bags) I have 4 guild bank slots and each slot has costs an additional increase of hundreds of thousands of Astral Diamonds per slot for the same exact storage space that IMO was already originally overpriced. Same with personal bank. Now Bank slots are pretty optional but the next issue isn't really. There are not enough bags to buy, there are currently only two a uncommon and rare both of which are incredibly expensive. You only get 3 bags I believe via game start and quest lines and they are pivotal to game play as running to the closest merchant if ones even available, sorting out what you are willing to destroy to make room, or the frequency of having to move something to bank or mail to another character to make a action like trading can be very frustrating and more importantly very time consuming overall, a waste of time really.
(Mount Upgrades) Another pivotal part of the game especially if you need to get back to Protectors Enclave as the game offers to teleportation method to do so unless you spend money on teleportation scrolls. Also for general questing they can improve the feeling of progression greatly as your not spending most of your time running slowly and fighting off random mobs to just get to the area where your quest starts. However the upgrade costs for mounts both to upgrade to uncommon and rare are insane. The cost to do so is often more expensive than simply buying a new mount of that same type. When you save money by buying a rare mount or higher verse upgrading your current one, there is a problem.
(Companion Upgrades) Issues have already come up on the effectiveness or better put uselessness of companions beside Ioune Stones and Cat, a issue that has admittedly somewhat impressively been addressed to a degree, but still is kind of current for some. And like the mounts its often cheaper to buy or win a companion of that same rarity than it is to upgrade a current one. Its just doesn't really make sense, its not even close more times than not.
(Transmutation Cost) (I.E.To change the appearance of my level 50 armor piece to that of a level 1 common piece I need to pay around 36,000 AD.....and it only raises for that same situation as my level increases.) If I wanted to keep the appearance of my starter weapon all the way up until I was level 60, I honestly couldn't. I have developed ways to effectively make A.D. Not as well as allot but a good 20k on a lazy inactive day to an average 200k on a more progressive day. And I can honestly say I couldn't afford to do it with everything else I feel I need to buy. This whole system again ill say isn't in need of adjustment, isn't in need of repair, it is broken. It needs to be completely redone. Its pointless unless you get a specific transmutable item that changes for free to do this at any level over 40 if not lower. Which is sad because I have come across some really great looking items that arn't rare or significant, that I personally just like the look. I don't understand what made something believe that it would make sense to tie transmutation to your character level verse the level/rarity of the items themselves but it saddens me. Being able to enjoy not just gameplay but the appearance of your character and take pride in how he looks is very important to further enjoy the game.
(Service Costs) Respecing your character, changing their appearance, renaming them, any kind of service token really is I can say honestly manageable, for players like I who can make a decent amount of A.D. , but even for me and most that can't or new guys...Its discouraging and irritating to realize you made a mistake whether out of ignorance, accident, or because you were not provided with reasonable information regarding the changes you were trying to make yet cannot change them. Even if I have the money to fix it I get so bummed out when I realize I put a single point in the wrong place whether accident or misreading and clicking especially if I have a ton of already points where they need to be. I remember when I first started playing I was just putting points into abilities that sounded useful and good. When I finally started doing researching, learning of bugs and poorly made abilities & effects, and so on I was upset I had to redo everything. But I did and know better know. My biggest issue was I bought and paid with real $ the hero of the north pack. I didn't just want the items it gave but wanted to support the game and did it. One of the items offered, an item I had already paid for, were renegade tattoos. I was unable to use them and they didn't show despite making tickets in game and posts in the forum until finally after months it was fixed. Because of ""Neverwinters"" mistake I paid for a appearance change token simply to put on tattoos that I already paid for and should have had on. As said, it can be frustrating.
4Server Load, lag, and kicks- I am not exactly sure specifically whats going on here. It might be on my end, I hope its on my end, though an incredible amount of others complain daily about the same issues so I don't know. I understand there were 3 servers which eventually merged into one server. I can only hope this was done after getting better hardware and software for the server. But I still find pockets and periods of lag and random high load times and issues again randomly with the auction house and don't really have any apparent cause. I have experienced no problems in an instance maxed out and had problems doing the same task or activity in the same area in an instance that was relatively low populated so again I have no idea whats going on with this. The auction house manditory wait time for searches only seems to serve as a great great annoyance. I still experience high load times for searches and everyonce in awhile ill buyout a item and that entire page goes blank and im forced to research or wait cause ive "searched too many time = 2-3 time ?!??!" so first off that system of wait time doesn't work. But again allot of times even when the server is highly populated I don't experience issues.
(Personal TroubleShooting) I really like taking pride in the games I play so before I make accusations I check myself. Computer specs are key for uninterupted gameplay, neverwinter isnt crazy demading, but it does require a bit more than even the recommended hardware it lists for it. I believe I am above and beyond that. I have:
Processor: 3rd Gen i7-3630QM @ 2.40-3.4GHz. 6mb cache. 4 core, 8 thread processor.
Ram: 16 GB DDR3
Graphics: SLI 650m GT (Performance roughly = 670m gtx)
Internet: I have Cable @ 60mbps download and 5mbps upload.
Games superior to Neverwinter I run with NO issues:
Online:
Mass Effect 3 Multiplayer
Tera MMO
Guild Wars 2 MMO
Stand Alone:
Witcher 2
Skyrim (W/ a ton of mods)
And yes I have run many anti-virus/Anti-spyware programs and have a solid security system w/ both physical and non windows based firewall software so I know its not malware related. I have uninstalled and reinstalled neverwinter once before though not recently just to make sure as well. Given all this I am fairly certain its on your end. I don't know what the issue is but getting kicked off the server and having to re-log while running a dungeon is devastating especially when you log in and find you are no longer part of the group. Getting stuck on the loading screen or even before that where it loads your characters is annoying especially when someone is already on waiting for you.
Possible Solutions
1. Dungeons- Whats needed to be said already has. Games been out out for over a year and queuing for dungeons in Dungeons and Dragons is not just hard, but sometimes not possible, this hopefully will be fixed. The funny thing is a 'symptom' of this was addressed in a update. People were sent to dungeons without a full group but then couldn't leave the dungeon. You guys fixed that why not just fix the problem itself which makes it a little embarrassing I guess that you overlooked a major issue while you were practically staring at it dead in its face?! lol
A. Queuing
(Wait Times) I get it, and this isn't a neverwinter exclusive issue, its happened in my experience on World of Warcraft a much older and more developed game who has had way more time to work on this as well as other games especially new games like Star Wars Old Republic I have tried. So I want to clarify I do understand, I am not possitive how to fix this. I imagine better software or hardware support for the server to increase its capacity capabilities but keep the allowed # of people that can log in the same? Maybe its part of the actual programming of how it searches and forms the group that needs to be modified. I don't know if it can be fixed now or not but what I am really asking for is not to create fast grouping times because its always going to be a issue I think. But I do believe there is no reason that I wait over a hour, albeit dungeon delves gets heavy with the queuing, but over a hour. Please look into this, ensure your programming or coding or what ever it is that makes up this system is correct and solid. Because the wait time is excessive.
(Grouping) Pretty easy, you don't even have to change the current system of grouping really. Just enable the ability to manually invite someone to the party from the dungeon. The class specified thing isn't game breaking if not implemented but I do believe the game would benefit from a more accurate system of grouping classes and roles. WoW for example when queuing you check your role tank, healer, dps. Given you just enabled GWF the ability to paragon into a effective tank and GWF to do the same into a more DPS oriented paragon I.E. it would only make sense and will mitigate issues with future class/paragon releases.
B. (Astral Diamond Merchants) Pretty easy, change prices to something more reasonable. Or remove them entirely from the game. As they are now, at least the weapons and armor Astral Diamoond Merchants, they are completely unnecessary.
(Abilities and Stats) Was more of a FYI still needs to be looked into than a huge issue really. I know there have been a bunch of updates adjusting and fixing this issue. Its a new game, working out bugs and formulas, I got it. But issues are still present, there are plenty of threads reporting them here in the forums, I hope you continue to read and address these. Even seasoned MMO's make occasional changes to abilities, classes, and effects so I hope you guys continue to as well. I don't expect perfection but I do expect the desire to pursue it especially towards an important element which directly effects game play like this. Keep up the good work.
3.Astral Diamond Prices On Key Objects- First off note I understand this is not just a F2P game but a F2P buisness. You need to make money some way, not just for the progression of this game but for adequate income to survive off of. So I hope you don't feel I am just ranting that Astral Diamonds are too high or there is some kind of money oriented secret agenda the developers and staff are tying to force onto players because thats not the case at all. But certain aspects of this definitely need to change and I really don't see it effecting the income the game is making. If I want to keep my plaint brown horse I start off with for some reason, but desire a faster mount why should I pay as more than the price of rares and epics of the same speed? Alternatively if you want a unique Zen offered mount, there is no way to obtain it via upgrading a current mount, so people who want those mounts that have buy Zen, will still buy Zen from you to get them. This way you simply arn't punishing those who don't wish to do that. Honestly there is no reason mounts should be different prices because of cosmetics, thats just crazy. Prices should be based on rarity/speed period.
(Banks and Bags) As stated I can live with the bank system, I still things its unfair that I pay more and more money for the same spaced bank tabs but hey thats okay. What isn't okay is the necessity of bags and their general lack of availability. You can have up to 5 bags I believe total. You can only obtain 3 free and one of them is pretty small. Uncommon Bag of holding is over 200,000 AD worth of zen. Make common bags as small as the ones available via quests available for maybe 100k AD via one of your crazy AD merchants. Or maybe release 1 more quest line to give a small bag, even a tiny 10 space one would help honestly. Or make lesser bags (common bags) dropable items in dungeons or events. Doing this will provide options without taking away the desire to spend $ on your uncommon and rare bag in the zen market which will hold much more than the common bags you would release while ensuring those who do not arn't punished.
(Mount Upgrades) I mentioned this in the opening statement. Like most MMO's prices should be based on rarity/speed period. Perhaps with a small amount of exceptions. Limited time mounts, special mounts like emperor beetle that might be made available through zen market, obviously these can be a bit more. But over all rarity/speed based. At the very least make the cost of upgrading your mount equal to the price of the rarity your upgrading it to. It makes no sense if I can buy a rare mount cheaper than upgrading a uncommon mount to a rare rank. And as stated since the only difference and real thing your paying for is cosmetics, doing this will NOT take away your profits because people will still pay for zen based mounts that they really want. I know, I did it and I have the hero founder pack which grants a free epic yet I have bought inferno steed and spend a ton of AD in the AH to get an Emperor Beetle. People will still pay you for these but you shouldn't punish those who don't want to. This is a good way to do that.
(Companion Upgrade) I'll be honest, this really isn't high on my personal list of things I hope get fixed. Frankly even with the nice companion update and new abilities I find them useless even useful ones that have a decent impact like my lvl 30 Ioune stone I tend to forget I don't have summoned in dungeons and don't tell all the time while still maintaining top DPS often. However I find the issue with these pretty much ditto to the mount problem listed above. The only issue is Mounts have a significant impact on gameplay where as pets really don't too much. Something to look into and fix the same way you would the mount situation.
(Transmutation Costs) This one is pretty easy to fix. Why the price is based on player level is beyond me but remove that and make the cost of transmutation based on the level/rarity of the item you are transmuting and/or item you are transmuting to.
(Service Costs) Really I think what you are doing with the whole weekly discounts on the zen market for items like these are absolutely wonderful but also absolutely necessary. Its so expensive to fix small mistakes and in certain instances like the one I had with tattoos not being available that I paid for, thats on neverwinter, thats their mistake, and now I have to pay for that? Not cool. When you added the second paragons and gave a free respec that too was good on ya. But I feel like the whole system is based on people already knowing how to spec their character and trying to force people to ensure they don't put themselves in a position where they must respec. I get that to a point. But in a game where abilities, stats, and classes can change at the blink of an update. The fact that the only way to "know how to spec" a character is to play around and see what works first, and a newer game like this where paragons and classes will be coming out from what we already have, heck ive seen in some games a new class release that forces small adjustments to a existing class. This being said doesn't it make sense to make more reasonable priced costs for repecs or appearance changes? Solution to appearance changes maybe make a cheaper option to change just one appearance category. If I want black hair instead of blond it would be nice if I could just pay for a head change or haircut change verse an entire appearance change thats pricey.
4.Server lag, load, and kicks-New game I know. Its a F2P so I don't expect the same budget to work with even if needed when it comes to server maintenance and upgrades that games that get paid for people to use said servers and play their games do, especially older games that have had years to obtain money from consumers to dedicate to these things. So again I know its a work in progress and I know you have already made a server upgrade I think from 3 small one to one more efficient one?.. But I listed my personal troubleshooting. I don't have malware bogging me down, my systems more than capable of handling the internet load and graphic demands, and superior demanding games have functioned better on my system than neverwinter so I am pretty sure its not on my end at least not all the time. I won't offer any solutions becuase I am not about to ask you to pay for a new server or a upgrade or find better software. I am sure you are on that and get it. I just wanted to make it very clear that cudos to the upgrade but there are some serious issues still. I.E. Getting kicked in the middle of a dungeon run for no reason at all, getting stuck at the character selection page then loading protectors enclave page so that logging in take 10 minutes, I hope its a process being worked on and not put off because you have already made a upgrade.
Hopefully my solutions can be considered and used if not already thought up and are a work in progress for implementation already. I really do appreciate everything you have done bringing a wonderful world of D&D to life something I have yet to see in other D&D games at least in my opinion. And D&D aside a rpg MMO in general enthusiast I know would love this game. My cousins now play daily with me and they not only are NOT fans of D&D but they haven't played MMO's before in general and they are absolutely hooked on this so I know. A true F2P game of this magnitude and quality is impressive. I want to thank you so much neverwinter to the developers, artist, and staff in general. And really I understand this is no doubt in my mind for a single second an enjoyment for you, a hobby, and a work of art but also a business. By all means make sure you are well and families are taken care of before changing things. Its not worth changing a marketing aspect of the game that might negatively effect income and hurt you guys on a personal level just so we can enjoy the game more. Find what works and make it happen. I just though this was a good FYI and offer some feedback and possible fixes.
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