So yeah, if you need to carry around purple healers and/or t3 sets to enjoy the new difficulty, I'd say something is going wrong.
Does anyone know how the new areas play from a fresh 60's perspective? Or the rest of the game for that matter?
I know mate.
I have a fresh SW (oh my poor thing:mad:), who was intended as a AD slave, but i fell in love with the class and was about to build her up before Mod 6 launch. She is mostly with rank 5s, only 3 rank 7s and a mixed lower standard gear.
Her other misfortune is, that she is or was a Temptation warlock, which paragon tree is dead now, as we all know, due to Life Steal nerf.
A consistent theme in these discussions is that those that are happy with Mod 6 solo content are pretty much all long-time players who went into the module with BiS (or near) gear and masses of AD. Of course they've been able to 'adapt' to the new difficulty. heck, if I had maxed gear and a bottomless pot of AD I'd be happy too.
Newer/poorer/less well equipped players are having a totally different experience.
There's also the effect of what class and build you're playing. My Sab TR is cruising through the levelling content; my Renegade CW likewise; my Archer HR? Not so much. And I haven't even attempted my SW yet.
Mod 6 has split the player base like never before.
My other problem with this new Mod is, that is was tailored after the ones like ...insert a famous SW Fury advocate..., who advertised here, how content should be made, for the worse obviously.
This dude has made himself a ton of followers on the forum, who look at him like a god.
Now they can kiss his hand for this <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> Mod, with the insane difficulty too, cause as i saw yesterday on MMOMINDS.COM on his screenshots, he became a Cryptic Developer Team member.
This is by no means wrong, but there is a hook in the story.
He is a wallet warrior, he can afford himself to be in full orange on day one, but can the majority of the NWO community? A big NO.
What i consider the biggest mistake regarding difficulty, that it is tailored after such persons, not the average user.
Let me give an example, i work for a company, that produces CNC made car parts too, now we have a standard. It should work on the cheapest car too, you should be able to reach your destination with the cheapest car too. Heck, where would we live, if you could only go from A to B in a Maybach and with an Opel you could only do like 10 miles instead of 1000. LOL
The real honest man is honest from conviction of what is right, not from policy.
Robert E. Lee
I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself.
Winston Churchill
The human race is a herd. Here we are, unique, eternal aspects of consciousness with an infinity of potential, and we have allowed ourselves to become an unthinking, unquestioning blob of conformity and uniformity. A herd. Once we concede to the herd mentality, we can be controlled and directed by a tiny few. And we are.
David Icke
Does anyone know how the new areas play from a fresh 60's perspective? Or the rest of the game for that matter?
Nope because I quit after they announced changes to regen and lifesteal. With mod six adding new difficulty. BLEH! w/e I'm out. I play solo, if im forced to team (in standard open zone areas) I'm done!
I have three new lv60s which I have no intention of spending any money or AD on as I've done with my main TR character. I'm not having any of such problems at all. I've decided to not enter lv70 zones for the time being and simply concentrate on finishing vigilance quests and getting them to lv70, as well as run daily WoD missions to get the lv65 blues. The only 'problems' I have, is that I die a bit more often than I used to in WoD, and that's it.
It's the L70 content that people are primarily talking about, so until you've tried your ungeared fresh 60's in that content you can't really make an informed assessment.
Just for interests sake I used my free respec to turn a Leadership alt Combat HR into a Trapper HR and started levelling her 60-70. She only had cheap 60 blues from the AH and a couple of Purple drops from DR lairs, mainly R4 and R5 enchants, no weapon or armour enchants, blue Artifacts, etc. She went into Drowned Shore in the gear that drops from the Minsc & Boo quest line and so far is having little difficulty - in fact she's having an easier time than my much better geared Archer HR. So class and build makes a big difference as well.
Levelling 60-70 is dull but nobody has particularly complained about the difficulty - at least in the early stages. L70 content is the issue.
Your supposed to be scaled at lvl 70 in lvl 70 areas right? So for S***s n giggles I logged on to test. Wow sharandar or however it's spelled lol. I got murdered, and I'm in purps mostly t2 granted im not all maxed in my HR but its <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> that my build doesn't perform scaled to lvl 70, there isnt gonna be a difference when im lvl 70. Lvl 60-69 lvling areas I dont call lvl 70. I'm sure I could solo to 70 fine, but I do not wanna I do not like the changes implemented to regen n lifesteal.
The thing that kills me (gonna go a lil offtopic) it's the fact some ppl abused those stats, which killed it for the rest of us. It was naive to think that everyone is min maxxing, or even looking around for max specced builds, and or abusing the system. I didn't abuse said stats I used them to augment my build and it helped me survive, now it doesn't. So for that I'm simply not gonna give this game the time of day. All the hard work (which prolly isnt or wasnt hard for most ppl) is and has gone down the toilet. I'm really really tired of having to change the way I liked to play a what used to be fun game. I'm sure it's still fun. I'm done with all the changing of mechanics. Some ppl might have the money ad time or w/e. I simply don't. For that cryptic can count me in the unhappy player category.
Yeah....It's sad it had to come to this, but I know I said it too but lets try to not turn this into a I quit thread. I do want to keep playing, but am frustrated with the current state of the game. I mean I really wan to enjoy/play it but cant bring myself to do so.
I don't understand now is why there are different paths, and feats if you can only ever run one single build. Seriously why is there even a skill tree if you can only run one or 2 effective builds? Wheres the variety? Wheres the customization? What seriously happened? What fun is it if everyone is always the same?
It's only gonna be the same group compositions, same type of builds, same min maxed <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> around now. At least with regen and life steal you could do some different things. And still survive some of the time, granted ppl abused ti to no end, and for that im pissed.
So you're boosted to lvl 70 with lvl 60 feats, powers, gear and you're surprised mobs lvl 71-73 are beating the <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> out of you ?
Your T2 lvl 60 has less than half the GS of blue level 70 <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> ... Once you'll have enough with being 'frustrated', try to think a bit and adapt ...
Many things are broken in mod6, but the difficulty is not one of them.
Olaf, freelance guardian fighter.
Enorla, Oh so devoted cleric.
I'm sorry but lvl scaling isnt supposed to be that crazy, I don't recall the call to arms events hurting that much running under lvl gear feats. In those spots where I was not effectied by team buffs or getting helped by the team. So 2-3 lvls higher should totally be doable, but not impossible. Even by yourself.
Also isnt lvl scaling supposed to effect your entire character, stats gear feats etc? Because I dont understand why scale lvl at all then? Because if it doesn't sure I can understand then why I get murdered, but why scale me to lvl at all?
<snip>
My other problem with this new Mod is, that is was tailored after the ones like ...insert a famous SW Fury advocate..., who advertised here, how content should be made, for the worse obviously.
This dude has made himself a ton of followers on the forum, who look at him like a god.
Now they can kiss his hand for this <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> Mod, with the insane difficulty too, cause as i saw yesterday on MMOMINDS.COM on his screenshots, he became a Cryptic Developer Team member.
This is by no means wrong, but there is a hook in the story.
He is a wallet warrior, he can afford himself to be in full orange on day one, but can the majority of the NWO community? A big NO.
What i consider the biggest mistake regarding difficulty, that it is tailored after such persons, not the average user.
Wow. Just wow.
Okay, I know that during software development, testing is and always will be a minefield. I develop software and I get that.
But, come on!
I'm reminded of something that Michael Abrash once wrote WAY back in the day: "Know Thy Data." He was writing about optimizing graphics algorithms, and the point was to tailor your algorithm toward the data that it would see most of the time.
Here, you could rewrite it as, "Know Thy Users."
I followed the link and the gear in those screenshots reflects at best the top 1% of the playerbase. If the game mechanics are "optimized" for that sort of build, then I can see how this came to be.
Harper Chronicles: Cap Snatchers (RELEASED) - NW-DPUTABC6X Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
Okay, I know that during software development, testing is and always will be a minefield. I develop software and I get that.
But, come on!
I'm reminded of something that Michael Abrash once wrote WAY back in the day: "Know Thy Data." He was writing about optimizing graphics algorithms, and the point was to tailor your algorithm toward the data that it would see most of the time.
Here, you could rewrite it as, "Know Thy Users."
I followed the link and the gear in those screenshots reflects at best the top 1% of the playerbase. If the game mechanics are "optimized" for that sort of build, then I can see how this came to be.
I feel compelled to point out 2 issues with those screenshots...those are from preview and the guild name was a joke play on words on preview. People need to to know that preview gear is not always near live.
With that said, there are lots of tuning issues still needing to be addressed across the board.
Very well said. The players who are in that 1 percentile of players who have the income, resources and equipment to adapt to the changes are those at the forefront of the pro-change movement. If the changes in this game are in no small part due to this player base giving the thumbs up - Then unfortunately the game will fall flat on its face and people will just leave before seeing the light at the end of the tunnel (end-game). Any mmorpg that is in some way motivated by the opinions of the wealthy in-game players and the well-geared veterans is almost always the birth pains of its death, because their opinions are not that of the majority of the player base. It's like the head of a major corporation saying how wonderful life is at the moment during the recession - because to him he is barely effected by any of it. Where as those who work and are far less fortunate find themselves miserable and having a terrible time. This is the case right now with Neverwinter.
Since the release of the update there has been a steady decline in users playing the game. Just check the stats. Anticipation was met with utter disappointment. Can you blame them. No.
Excellent mate +1!
Yes some people will never get it. I have in my office a belgian beer in a showcase, the beer is manufactured since 1366!!! This reminds me, how to plan for long at our own company.
While i know you can't compare a game producer to a beer manufacturer, they could learn something from them, namely a happy customer will come back!
The real honest man is honest from conviction of what is right, not from policy.
Robert E. Lee
I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself.
Winston Churchill
The human race is a herd. Here we are, unique, eternal aspects of consciousness with an infinity of potential, and we have allowed ourselves to become an unthinking, unquestioning blob of conformity and uniformity. A herd. Once we concede to the herd mentality, we can be controlled and directed by a tiny few. And we are.
David Icke
To the OP, I think the content in many respects can be solo'd. It may take longer, may take working with a companion, and such. It's doable.
However I am not saying it's easy, and adjusting from the ease of the of previous mods to Mod 6 will take a while to adjust. Plus we have the 4/23 patch, which I hope is a giant one that address a lot of concerns.
That being said, my apologies for not responding to this little diamond in the rough, which you will find below, as I was in Philadelphia managing a Card Tournament for the company I work for and then rocked out at an awesome beer festival at Yards Brewery. Which I highly recommend everyone go to! :cool:
My other problem with this new Mod is, that is was tailored after the ones like ...insert a famous SW Fury advocate..., who advertised here, how content should be made,
Just say my name bae... Sssaaaaaaayyyyy mmmmyyyyyyyy naaaaaammmmeeee!!!
It's not a secret, nut up and call me out. Though I'll state you've done it in a super sweet passive aggressive manner. I'm simply saying to be a grown up, and be direct.
Now they can kiss his hand for this <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> Mod, with the insane difficulty too,
I require nothing of the like... A simple thank you, and constructive responses so we can all become better players is fine by me, lil'mister Angry Pants!
cause as i saw yesterday on MMOMINDS.COM on his screenshots, he became a Cryptic Developer Team member.
You mean the guild on the Preview Shard? Ya, its one I found back in November of 2014 when I was testing Mod 5 stuff. Decent group of people who play the game, some have a superb grasp of ACT which is super helpful, and good to test things out with.
he can afford himself to be in full orange on day one,
Nah... Only new thing I have Legendary is my Mainhand. Offhand/Neck are Epic and belt will be Epic once I get done grinding Black Ice for it. But don't let me ruin your tirade, please go on and regal us with tales of your delusions! hehe
but can the majority of the NWO community? A big NO.
I'd agree with that for sure...
People do what they want with what they have bud. Quite simple, but then again just a FYI for you, this isn't some sort of hippie commune or Marxist Communist Nation. It's an MMO, on the internet, played by people around the world.
Thought I'd point that out in case you'd forgotten...
What i consider the biggest mistake regarding difficulty, that it is tailored after such persons, not the average user.
That's on the Devs, there are definitely tweaks that can be made on the current content via bugs/some adds hitting hard/etc.
However, I stand by my statements that the content being challenging is a good thing. It increases the enjoyment, for me at least. If that's not your bag, that's fine bud... Whatever floats your boat!
Thank you sovery much for this little gem. It was so entertaining, and I hope you enjoyed my responses as much as I enjoyed typing them out! lol
Keep on rocking bud, please never ever change... :cool:
To the OP, I think the content in many respects can be solo'd. It may take longer, may take working with a companion, and such. It's doable.
I'm already soloing everything but the dungeons with ease. I'm not maxed gear either. I do this awesome thing where I press the SHIFT key and step my big dragonborn hide out of the red circles on the ground, and I step away when the mobs do their slow-motion drawback that telegraphs their hard hits for an hour before they swing. They only way you could die in Icewind Dale is if you were missing a pinky, and even then, change the keybinding to something else. :cool:
Some other people like matthiasthehun76 just need to learn how to play now that the mobs don't show up to sword fights with pillows.
"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." ~President Theodore Roosevelt
I'm already soloing everything but the dungeons with ease. I'm not maxed gear either. I do this awesome thing where I press the SHIFT key and step my big dragonborn hide out of the red circles on the ground, and I step away when the mobs do their slow-motion drawback that telegraphs their hard hits for an hour before they swing. They only way you could die in Icewind Dale is if you were missing a pinky, and even then, change the keybinding to something else. :cool:
Some other people like matthiasthehun76 just need to learn how to play now that the mobs don't show up to sword fights with pillows.
"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." ~President Theodore Roosevelt
well it is easy to die in IWD, i just did that a few times...
on a lvl 63, 1400 ilvl cw that i havent really played since mod2 xD
To the OP, I think the content in many respects can be solo'd. It may take longer, may take working with a companion, and such. It's doable.
However I am not saying it's easy, and adjusting from the ease of the of previous mods to Mod 6 will take a while to adjust. Plus we have the 4/23 patch, which I hope is a giant one that address a lot of concerns.
That being said, my apologies for not responding to [... much non-quoteworthy stuff...] as much as I enjoyed typing them out! lol
Keep on rocking bud, please never ever change... :cool:
(a) Very enlightening - from a psychological point of view.
(b) Do the "soloable" stuff in IwD or WoD with what an untwinked char has after going through Shar, DR, EE. Like, the EE campaign blue's and greens, Shar and DR boons, and Rank 6 or 7 enchantments, and what random blue's you'd nowadays get on the AH or from the Herald Zerg Train runs. Just do the outdoor stuff. Or maybe to make it shorter and do Grimak with a such geared char. Bascally wih the kind of char we all loved so much as leechers on Tia's inside doorstep - plus what you get from EE.
That would be the newcomer's perspective.
And to get into your discussion opponents shoes, do it with SW or GWF. And probably with 50+ or 100+ ping, too (AFAIK Hungary _is_ a wee off the mainlines).
Then post your report.
Sure, with prefarmed stuff all is somewhat fine in the State of Denmark. Well, somewhat. Tried soloing out a bit with my RiDO DC - it felt like Mod 3 DC gameplay. Stuff would eventually die after the dodging orgy. Would that keep me going through that over 60, 80 days until I have my Eternal gear? Nope. Manageable? yes. Fun? Not really.
I'm quite happy not to need to do that part anymore. Will do that with my Pally eventually, maybe. I'm not really enthused to do that, though. Still, this is currently the almost sole source for mid-quality endgame armour.
The current state of this game is that the complete midfield has been removed, which makes gearing up or getting moderate AD wealth for newcomers somewhat difficult. Sure, you can go to GG, leech through 50, 70, 100 games until you've been lucky enough to have been on the winning team often enough to get your ugly Burning stuff - if and when you know about that. And unless it's the one-sided routine over and over again, as it had been often enough due to the side-prearrangements of the PvP guilds...
Is that fun? Or do you enhance your grasp of the game that way? Probably neither...
So, for newcomers the game is very tough. Will such a newcomer spend inordinate amounts of RL cash to get into fighting trim gear? Improbable IMHO.
Another thing might actually be much more relevant here, in this game, is age. Honestly, I do know quite some somewhat old-ish people people in here - way older than the typical gamerz, and after all the AD&D niche attracts many of these. And when you've never had had the lightning reflexes, and age makes you slower, that's another factor. Do these people have the means to pay for stuff here? Yes. Do they spend money here? Many do. Will they keep doing so? I doubt.
Another additional factor is the suddenness and steepness of this cliff. For the new players, there's little to no acclimatisation zone, EE doesn't really do the trick to get people into shape to face the >72 stuff in IwD and WoD, and gearing up currently simply isn't. For many oldies, the abrupt change is, mildly worded, somewhat drastic and rude. I've lived through several similar overworkings of games, and in many cases those were the beginning of the end, when that many base elements were simultaneously and radically changed. New char. Sweet. Lifesteal no longer a stable base, but erratic? well, OK, we'll cope. Level upgrade, and all our gear voided? <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>, not again. Narrowing of the level trough? Oh, well, other studios have nice brainchildren, too. Step by step - this would've been a much more diplomatic and customer friendly change. But as it is served now... ...nah. Might well trigger the "OK, it's their game, they can do with it what they want. But it's my money, and I can do with it what i want." with more customers than anticipated.
On the other hand, ofc, it might bring back all those 1337 ganerz who left, miffed over their bans for "using certain farming foundries too often". Might well be that this clientèle currently has their field day with DC and HR exploiting the **** out of the few remaining dungeons...
Will that stepping up of difficulty be good for the game and it's gross income? I don't think so. I think Cryptic's driven a big nail in this game's coffin by cutting off a big chunk of their more affluent customer base, while at the same time making the game somewhat newcomer-unfriendly...
Will that stepping up of difficulty be good for the game and it's gross income? I don't think so. I think Cryptic's driven a big nail in this game's coffin by cutting off a big chunk of their more affluent customer base, while at the same time making the game somewhat newcomer-unfriendly...
That's cool bro, we all have a right to our opinions... Pardon me if I disagree.
"Another thing might actually be much more relevant here, in this game, is age. Honestly, I do know quite some somewhat old-ish people people in here - way older than the typical gamerz, and after all the AD&D niche attracts many of these. And when you've never had had the lightning reflexes, and age makes you slower, that's another factor. Do these people have the means to pay for stuff here? Yes. Do they spend money here? Many do. Will they keep doing so? I doubt"
I can attest to that. I'm 52 and have enjoyed AD&D since it first came out in the late 70s. While I prefer the old 1st and 2nd edition rules I was kind of enjoying this 4th edition adaptation, and have been playing for a couple of years now. My wife and I both play casually, and honestly we were quite challenged by the content pre mod 6. I could solo the Sharandar and Dread Ring dailys but it was hard, the Well of Dragons we had to team for to get through and the Jailer still regularly kicked our butts. Still it was fun and challenging, now it's just frustrating for us. I certainly understand the desire for highly skilled players with great gear to have areas that challenge their skills, gear, and teamwork, but I don't want to go there. Are there not enough campaigns, for us lowly mortals to hae areas like we enjoyed before, while still giving the top end guys there areas of hard core challenge?
"Another thing might actually be much more relevant here, in this game, is age. Honestly, I do know quite some somewhat old-ish people people in here - way older than the typical gamerz, and after all the AD&D niche attracts many of these. And when you've never had had the lightning reflexes, and age makes you slower, that's another factor. Do these people have the means to pay for stuff here? Yes. Do they spend money here? Many do. Will they keep doing so? I doubt"
I can attest to that. I'm 52 and have enjoyed AD&D since it first came out in the late 70s. While I prefer the old 1st and 2nd edition rules I was kind of enjoying this 4th edition adaptation, and have been playing for a couple of years now. My wife and I both play casually, and honestly we were quite challenged by the content pre mod 6. I could solo the Sharandar and Dread Ring dailys but it was hard, the Well of Dragons we had to team for to get through and the Jailer still regularly kicked our butts. Still it was fun and challenging, now it's just frustrating for us. I certainly understand the desire for highly skilled players with great gear to have areas that challenge their skills, gear, and teamwork, but I don't want to go there. Are there not enough campaigns, for us lowly mortals to hae areas like we enjoyed before, while still giving the top end guys there areas of hard core challenge?
I think there's a lot to your point. I'm 45 and I *often* feel like one of the young'uns ingame.
Harper Chronicles: Cap Snatchers (RELEASED) - NW-DPUTABC6X Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
Not so sure about that M8. I am also an older gamer. I won't give an age but I played Steve jacksons' Tunnels and Trolls in the little plastic cases before the D&D (not AD&D) boxed set with the chits. PVE content has honestly been dead boring for the last couple of mods for me. The core strength of NWO is it's dynamic combat system. 'High end' play in WoW and many other MMOs involves hitting the proper series of buttons while auto-targeted. Which becomes nothing BUT a gear/stat test. Naturally oldfags like us are going to do better at stat maxing because we had to do it for so long. So the youngsters will be a little quicker on the response time. We'll be a little quicker on the math. When it comes down to figuring out how to run new content strategic thinking trumps tactical ability.
Sorry but people are blowing the difficulty out of proportion.
I was able to solo 70 content as a level 68 GF with T2, CN weapons, blue artifacts, and a few boons. Yes, it is harder than before, but it is not impossible. This is a new mod with new tactics. It is no longer just full dps throttle. You have to dodge more and pull in less mobs. Sometimes you will die, but you will get better at surviving once you see the mistakes.
Lag is a problem and hope they fix it soon.
Well that there is the problem with class imbalance. My lvl 64 GF wither her lvl 60 gear can solo IWD content. My HR can't take down a group of trolls larger than 4 at lvl 70 with lvl 70 gear and a legendary artifact weapon. That MIGHT change when I upgrade the corrupt black ice set that's collecting dust in my inventory, but for now, I dodge around those mobs and only seem to be able to fight dwarves, crag cats, and groups of undead barbarians that don't include deathlock wights. I can't even imagine taking on a black ice beholder at this point. Even with tier 2 epic gear it seems unreasonable, given that one barbarian in mod 5 could 2-shot any non-tank builds, and there were 20-30-of them on the screen at once. I have my doubts about anyone being able to survive it, but I guess we'll see. I tried tiamat and that doesn't seem doable anytime in the near future.
I am 2.8k HR trapper and doing fine soloing quest in wod,shardar,dread,iwd
it's still soloable if you talk about heroic it's different story.. and it's just how it's supposed to work because heroic is a group content
Why does someone go into lv70 zones while not even close to lv70 and complain about being killed by mobs that behave according to the new lv70 standards?
Look at the stat/specs of new items post lv60. The heavy, heavy emphasis on +HP is a clear announcement that all the 70-zones are intended for people who can handle mobs that are greatly boosted in damage.
Level-scaling is nothing but simple courtesy from the devs in that they are giving people under the recommended level a chance to try it as a challenge -- especially when some people were already in the middle of doing IWD, Sharandar, Dread, WoD campaigns before mod6 hit. As far as I can tell they could just have simply went, "sorry, the campaigns now follow the new guideline as post-max level content... so come back after you reach new max level" and kicked everyone out of it.
Instead, they gave us a chance to still try it with lv70 stat scaling. They didn't guarantee anything. "Campaign mobs", as I call them, (since they're mostly the 71~73 mobs in the four campaign content) are a notch or two above normal mobs from the start. You need to be geared and prepared with the adequate gear to face them handily. They're not intended for lv60 people with lv60 gear that operate under lv70 standards to face.
Yeah... I wasn't saying anyone should be able to solo HE's, especially not the Black Ice Beholder. Also 2.8k is way more than I'm running at this point. I think I'm at like 2.2k. That does make me hopeful that this mod gets more playable, I'm just not seeing Tiamat, or the the BIB anywhere in my near future, which is a shame, because i enjoyed those fights.
Yeah... I wasn't saying anyone should be able to solo HE's, especially not the Black Ice Beholder. Also 2.8k is way more than I'm running at this point. I think I'm at like 2.2k. That does make me hopeful that this mod gets more playable, I'm just not seeing Tiamat, or the the BIB anywhere in my near future, which is a shame, because i enjoyed those fights.
Well, I don't think anyone is seeing Tiamat in the near future, regardless of gear score. It might be possible right now, abusing certain 'questionable mechanics' introduced with Mod 6; maybe a few enterprising souls with maxxed current item levels managed to take her back down, I don't read the forums enough to know. But from what I experienced, I don't see how it is possible with current DPS levels and the current time constraint on the encounter.
Maybe they will lock it down to level 70 and add a stringent item level requirement on it; that would make it doable *maybe*.
And as for the campaigns, I seem to remember seeing something official stating that they were intended to be part of the level 61-70 levelling content; in their current implementation and with how weak the scaling is, that is most certainly not the case except for certain classes or certain previous gear levels. I know my tank spec GF in draconic templar gear has been able to do them without too much trouble (except for Phantasmal Fortress, LOL, that fight took me like 30 minutes, just didn't have the damage); my GWF in draconic templar charged one group of mobs and got a quick trip to the graveyard. My paladin in regular levelling greens and blues was able to kind of muddle through, but that wasn't happening at a pace that made sense so I left it until 70.
That's cool bro, we all have a right to our opinions... Pardon me if I disagree.
[Wall of Text]
I don't really know any of you or your histories in the game forum, especially after being gone for so long, but I wanted to chime in here. I think what suicidalgodot said above is spot on in several areas from my perspective.
While I played a lot in beta (as a Founder) and after the game first came out, I had to step away from the game. Life does that. I just now came back to see if I could pick things back up again. I am one of those older players suicidalgodot mentions, that if I wanted to I could afford to blow lots of money on the game. I have already spent some since coming back, but now have decided not to spend any more. Too many issues...
In my brief time back I have basically had to relearn everything from scratch (I expected that to some degree...), while encountering the nonstop game crashes, not to mention the starter dungeons being off line while they get updated to MOD 6. There goes the early quest lines.... I even created an HR to start from scratch so I could relearn everything. However, the confusion level/complexity and total lack of current reference material on the game has made this a very painful gaming experience.
Having been in many, many beta programs over the past 25+ years of gaming I like to think of myself as someone who can pick up on stuff quickly. Well.... the stuff that's going on in Neverwinter right now is simply not designed for new players. I am 100% confident in that. The changes to the game over the past two years have been extreme to say the least. It is very intimidating. I have spent a lot of time using my Googlefoo to try and find up to date guides, blogs, etc. to help an old man get back up to speed. My Googlefoo has failed. Very little current, useful data out there to remove the confusion. That's a major problem for complex games... the lack of community supported material that is current and relevant, especially for new players.
Join a guild you say? I looked into it for the past two days. Here's what I found... hardly anyone online in any of the guilds that I looked at that were Eastern Time zone. 9 out of 10 that I looked at had only one person listed as "online" and not a single one responded to my /tell asking about their guild. The 10th one had six people and the "founder" (GM of the guild I assume) didn't respond to the/tell either. Bad luck overall? Maybe. But think of it from a new player perspective if you can. Not a positive experience.
If I were a real "new" player I would be completely confused and lost in this game, and to me that is a core business problem. Over time the more experienced players will move on to other games, life, or what have you. Based on my experience in the gaming community for so many years, I am quite confident that if Cryptic wants the game to continue thriving they need to be closer to the middle of the player base. They have to create content (with less complexity) that can easily pull in a TON of new players into the game, enough content to keep them there, and enough high end content to keep the more experienced players happy. It’s a basic formula that has been proven over and over and over. Deviate from it at your peril.
From what I have been seeing over the past week while relearning the game is that there is not much to keep new players playing. Just to dam complex and buggy. IF that holds true the game is already heading to the bit bucket. You have to pull in new players (and payers?) to keep the game relevant and funded. With all the problems with the current mod (and I guess similar problems with mod 5) new players are going to be like "Squirrel!!" and go elsewhere. Long time players like yourself won't be enough incentive to keep the game going. No real business value in that.
Anyway, I have gotten the distinct impression that you are the games 1%'ers. Well, I am part of the 99%'ers and we have a <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> load more money than you do Our money will make or break the game. Simple truth. For that reason Cryptic should be focusing on the 99%, not the 1%. Just my $.02
[/Wall of Text]
...If you know what the "Pendrill Prophecy" is send me a private message.
From what I have been seeing over the past week while relearning the game is that there is not much to keep new players playing. Just to dam complex and buggy
I want to this that new players can never ever catch current players without spending a few house payments either in game or at 3rd party sites. The amount of refining points that can be gained legitimately in a day compared to the amount needed to have truly end game items and gear is "insert bad word". It is very discouraging to new players and the single most idiotic, backward and dumb business moves they made.
Join a guild you say? I looked into it for the past two days. Here's what I found... hardly anyone online in any of the guilds that I looked at that were Eastern Time zone. 9 out of 10 that I looked at had only one person listed as "online" and not a single one responded to my /tell asking about their guild. The 10th one had six people and the "founder" (GM of the guild I assume) didn't respond to the/tell either. Bad luck overall? Maybe. But think of it from a new player perspective if you can. Not a positive experience.
There are definitely dead Guilds out there... Some PvE, some PvP, etc. I know for a fact, absolute fact, there are some with 3-4 pages of players online at any given time and with upwards of 30-40 people in Teamspeak at peak hours. Luck of the draw I suppose.
Anyway, I have gotten the distinct impression that you are the games 1%'ers. Well, I am part of the 99%'ers and we have a <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> load more money than you do Our money will make or break the game. Simple truth. For that reason Cryptic should be focusing on the 99%, not the 1%. Just my $.02
I've already stated I've bought Zen, so have others, as that what makes this game go round... I hope people continue to join the game and enjoy it as much as we all have. At no point have I stated Cryptic shouldn't focus on the large majority of players, I've simply stated this '99%' versus '1%' argument is a socio-economic real world issue brought into the wild west of the Internet and I politely disagree that it should be 'a thing' that is referenced.
People are people, they choose how their money and time is spent. Example I am a PvE player, and I would like Cryptic to rock more PvE and not be overly concerned about PvP. However, do I think there should be more then 2 generic Domination maps, after 2 years? Phatty hell yeah I do! I mean those players, that group I don't associate much with, need it for their enjoyment... :cool:
I've already stated I've bought Zen, so have others, as that what makes this game go round... I hope people continue to join the game and enjoy it as much as we all have. At no point have I stated Cryptic shouldn't focus on the large majority of players, I've simply stated this '99%' versus '1%' argument is a socio-economic real world issue brought into the wild west of the Internet and I politely disagree that it should be 'a thing' that is referenced.
I felt the post you quoted read as referring to the "in-game 1-percenters", which imo, probably has only at most a modest relationship to how much Zen people have bought or their real-world income/wealth status. These are, imo, the players who've progressed their characters to very high levels of in-game capability. Maybe they bought a lot of Zen to get there; maybe they played until their fingers went numb, maybe they got very lucky with drops, or played the auction house well, or maybe they're just that good at working the interface and strategy they progress a lot further with much less time & effort than others do. I don't think it matter how one gets to that level or performance in the game. I do think it's worth noting that if a game update caters its difficulty level to those people, then it's not serving the majority of its players well. And that a person in that category can think the game is just fine difficulty-wise, and perhaps even more fun than before. But that person might not realize how much it might not be fun for those further down that in-game percentage scale. I don't think you are in this category, but I think some in the forums definitely are.
Comments
I know mate.
I have a fresh SW (oh my poor thing:mad:), who was intended as a AD slave, but i fell in love with the class and was about to build her up before Mod 6 launch. She is mostly with rank 5s, only 3 rank 7s and a mixed lower standard gear.
Her other misfortune is, that she is or was a Temptation warlock, which paragon tree is dead now, as we all know, due to Life Steal nerf.
I would like to cry out loud in my anger.
My other problem with this new Mod is, that is was tailored after the ones like ...insert a famous SW Fury advocate..., who advertised here, how content should be made, for the worse obviously.
This dude has made himself a ton of followers on the forum, who look at him like a god.
Now they can kiss his hand for this <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> Mod, with the insane difficulty too, cause as i saw yesterday on MMOMINDS.COM on his screenshots, he became a Cryptic Developer Team member.
This is by no means wrong, but there is a hook in the story.
He is a wallet warrior, he can afford himself to be in full orange on day one, but can the majority of the NWO community? A big NO.
What i consider the biggest mistake regarding difficulty, that it is tailored after such persons, not the average user.
Let me give an example, i work for a company, that produces CNC made car parts too, now we have a standard. It should work on the cheapest car too, you should be able to reach your destination with the cheapest car too. Heck, where would we live, if you could only go from A to B in a Maybach and with an Opel you could only do like 10 miles instead of 1000. LOL
Robert E. Lee
I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself.
Winston Churchill
The human race is a herd. Here we are, unique, eternal aspects of consciousness with an infinity of potential, and we have allowed ourselves to become an unthinking, unquestioning blob of conformity and uniformity. A herd. Once we concede to the herd mentality, we can be controlled and directed by a tiny few. And we are.
David Icke
Nope because I quit after they announced changes to regen and lifesteal. With mod six adding new difficulty. BLEH! w/e I'm out. I play solo, if im forced to team (in standard open zone areas) I'm done!
Just for interests sake I used my free respec to turn a Leadership alt Combat HR into a Trapper HR and started levelling her 60-70. She only had cheap 60 blues from the AH and a couple of Purple drops from DR lairs, mainly R4 and R5 enchants, no weapon or armour enchants, blue Artifacts, etc. She went into Drowned Shore in the gear that drops from the Minsc & Boo quest line and so far is having little difficulty - in fact she's having an easier time than my much better geared Archer HR. So class and build makes a big difference as well.
Levelling 60-70 is dull but nobody has particularly complained about the difficulty - at least in the early stages. L70 content is the issue.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
The thing that kills me (gonna go a lil offtopic) it's the fact some ppl abused those stats, which killed it for the rest of us. It was naive to think that everyone is min maxxing, or even looking around for max specced builds, and or abusing the system. I didn't abuse said stats I used them to augment my build and it helped me survive, now it doesn't. So for that I'm simply not gonna give this game the time of day. All the hard work (which prolly isnt or wasnt hard for most ppl) is and has gone down the toilet. I'm really really tired of having to change the way I liked to play a what used to be fun game. I'm sure it's still fun. I'm done with all the changing of mechanics. Some ppl might have the money ad time or w/e. I simply don't. For that cryptic can count me in the unhappy player category.
I don't understand now is why there are different paths, and feats if you can only ever run one single build. Seriously why is there even a skill tree if you can only run one or 2 effective builds? Wheres the variety? Wheres the customization? What seriously happened? What fun is it if everyone is always the same?
It's only gonna be the same group compositions, same type of builds, same min maxed <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> around now. At least with regen and life steal you could do some different things. And still survive some of the time, granted ppl abused ti to no end, and for that im pissed.
Your T2 lvl 60 has less than half the GS of blue level 70 <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> ... Once you'll have enough with being 'frustrated', try to think a bit and adapt ...
Many things are broken in mod6, but the difficulty is not one of them.
Enorla, Oh so devoted cleric.
Also isnt lvl scaling supposed to effect your entire character, stats gear feats etc? Because I dont understand why scale lvl at all then? Because if it doesn't sure I can understand then why I get murdered, but why scale me to lvl at all?
Wow. Just wow.
Okay, I know that during software development, testing is and always will be a minefield. I develop software and I get that.
But, come on!
I'm reminded of something that Michael Abrash once wrote WAY back in the day: "Know Thy Data." He was writing about optimizing graphics algorithms, and the point was to tailor your algorithm toward the data that it would see most of the time.
Here, you could rewrite it as, "Know Thy Users."
I followed the link and the gear in those screenshots reflects at best the top 1% of the playerbase. If the game mechanics are "optimized" for that sort of build, then I can see how this came to be.
Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO
Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF
Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP
The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
I feel compelled to point out 2 issues with those screenshots...those are from preview and the guild name was a joke play on words on preview. People need to to know that preview gear is not always near live.
With that said, there are lots of tuning issues still needing to be addressed across the board.
Excellent mate +1!
Yes some people will never get it. I have in my office a belgian beer in a showcase, the beer is manufactured since 1366!!! This reminds me, how to plan for long at our own company.
While i know you can't compare a game producer to a beer manufacturer, they could learn something from them, namely a happy customer will come back!
Robert E. Lee
I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself.
Winston Churchill
The human race is a herd. Here we are, unique, eternal aspects of consciousness with an infinity of potential, and we have allowed ourselves to become an unthinking, unquestioning blob of conformity and uniformity. A herd. Once we concede to the herd mentality, we can be controlled and directed by a tiny few. And we are.
David Icke
However I am not saying it's easy, and adjusting from the ease of the of previous mods to Mod 6 will take a while to adjust. Plus we have the 4/23 patch, which I hope is a giant one that address a lot of concerns.
That being said, my apologies for not responding to this little diamond in the rough, which you will find below, as I was in Philadelphia managing a Card Tournament for the company I work for and then rocked out at an awesome beer festival at Yards Brewery. Which I highly recommend everyone go to! :cool:
Go right ahead buddy... Cry it out bro! *pats your shoulder*
Just say my name bae... Sssaaaaaaayyyyy mmmmyyyyyyyy naaaaaammmmeeee!!!
It's not a secret, nut up and call me out. Though I'll state you've done it in a super sweet passive aggressive manner. I'm simply saying to be a grown up, and be direct.
"Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man."---The Dude
A god? Really... Meh, maybe a Demi-god of awesomeness, can we agree on that? *brofist*
I require nothing of the like... A simple thank you, and constructive responses so we can all become better players is fine by me, lil'mister Angry Pants!
You mean the guild on the Preview Shard? Ya, its one I found back in November of 2014 when I was testing Mod 5 stuff. Decent group of people who play the game, some have a superb grasp of ACT which is super helpful, and good to test things out with.
Anyone on test is welcome, more the merrier!
You think I work for Cryptic/PWE/Neverwinter?
Pardon me, please... My tummy is hurting from laughing bro. Seriously, that is some rich BS right there!
"Because the Hook brings you back
I ain't tellin' you no lie
The Hook brings you back
On that you can rely"---Blues Traveler, Four
I've bought Zen, sure... Gonna sue me for spending money on something I love and find entertaining? By all means go ahead! lol
Nah... Only new thing I have Legendary is my Mainhand. Offhand/Neck are Epic and belt will be Epic once I get done grinding Black Ice for it. But don't let me ruin your tirade, please go on and regal us with tales of your delusions! hehe
I'd agree with that for sure...
People do what they want with what they have bud. Quite simple, but then again just a FYI for you, this isn't some sort of hippie commune or Marxist Communist Nation. It's an MMO, on the internet, played by people around the world.
Thought I'd point that out in case you'd forgotten...
That's on the Devs, there are definitely tweaks that can be made on the current content via bugs/some adds hitting hard/etc.
However, I stand by my statements that the content being challenging is a good thing. It increases the enjoyment, for me at least. If that's not your bag, that's fine bud... Whatever floats your boat!
Thank you so very much for this little gem. It was so entertaining, and I hope you enjoyed my responses as much as I enjoyed typing them out! lol
Keep on rocking bud, please never ever change... :cool:
I'm already soloing everything but the dungeons with ease. I'm not maxed gear either. I do this awesome thing where I press the SHIFT key and step my big dragonborn hide out of the red circles on the ground, and I step away when the mobs do their slow-motion drawback that telegraphs their hard hits for an hour before they swing. They only way you could die in Icewind Dale is if you were missing a pinky, and even then, change the keybinding to something else. :cool:
Some other people like matthiasthehun76 just need to learn how to play now that the mobs don't show up to sword fights with pillows.
"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." ~President Theodore Roosevelt
well it is easy to die in IWD, i just did that a few times...
on a lvl 63, 1400 ilvl cw that i havent really played since mod2 xD
(a) Very enlightening - from a psychological point of view.
(b) Do the "soloable" stuff in IwD or WoD with what an untwinked char has after going through Shar, DR, EE. Like, the EE campaign blue's and greens, Shar and DR boons, and Rank 6 or 7 enchantments, and what random blue's you'd nowadays get on the AH or from the Herald Zerg Train runs. Just do the outdoor stuff. Or maybe to make it shorter and do Grimak with a such geared char. Bascally wih the kind of char we all loved so much as leechers on Tia's inside doorstep - plus what you get from EE.
That would be the newcomer's perspective.
And to get into your discussion opponents shoes, do it with SW or GWF. And probably with 50+ or 100+ ping, too (AFAIK Hungary _is_ a wee off the mainlines).
Then post your report.
Sure, with prefarmed stuff all is somewhat fine in the State of Denmark. Well, somewhat. Tried soloing out a bit with my RiDO DC - it felt like Mod 3 DC gameplay. Stuff would eventually die after the dodging orgy. Would that keep me going through that over 60, 80 days until I have my Eternal gear? Nope. Manageable? yes. Fun? Not really.
I'm quite happy not to need to do that part anymore. Will do that with my Pally eventually, maybe. I'm not really enthused to do that, though. Still, this is currently the almost sole source for mid-quality endgame armour.
The current state of this game is that the complete midfield has been removed, which makes gearing up or getting moderate AD wealth for newcomers somewhat difficult. Sure, you can go to GG, leech through 50, 70, 100 games until you've been lucky enough to have been on the winning team often enough to get your ugly Burning stuff - if and when you know about that. And unless it's the one-sided routine over and over again, as it had been often enough due to the side-prearrangements of the PvP guilds...
Is that fun? Or do you enhance your grasp of the game that way? Probably neither...
So, for newcomers the game is very tough. Will such a newcomer spend inordinate amounts of RL cash to get into fighting trim gear? Improbable IMHO.
Another thing might actually be much more relevant here, in this game, is age. Honestly, I do know quite some somewhat old-ish people people in here - way older than the typical gamerz, and after all the AD&D niche attracts many of these. And when you've never had had the lightning reflexes, and age makes you slower, that's another factor. Do these people have the means to pay for stuff here? Yes. Do they spend money here? Many do. Will they keep doing so? I doubt.
Another additional factor is the suddenness and steepness of this cliff. For the new players, there's little to no acclimatisation zone, EE doesn't really do the trick to get people into shape to face the >72 stuff in IwD and WoD, and gearing up currently simply isn't. For many oldies, the abrupt change is, mildly worded, somewhat drastic and rude. I've lived through several similar overworkings of games, and in many cases those were the beginning of the end, when that many base elements were simultaneously and radically changed. New char. Sweet. Lifesteal no longer a stable base, but erratic? well, OK, we'll cope. Level upgrade, and all our gear voided? <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>, not again. Narrowing of the level trough? Oh, well, other studios have nice brainchildren, too. Step by step - this would've been a much more diplomatic and customer friendly change. But as it is served now... ...nah. Might well trigger the "OK, it's their game, they can do with it what they want. But it's my money, and I can do with it what i want." with more customers than anticipated.
On the other hand, ofc, it might bring back all those 1337 ganerz who left, miffed over their bans for "using certain farming foundries too often". Might well be that this clientèle currently has their field day with DC and HR exploiting the **** out of the few remaining dungeons...
Will that stepping up of difficulty be good for the game and it's gross income? I don't think so. I think Cryptic's driven a big nail in this game's coffin by cutting off a big chunk of their more affluent customer base, while at the same time making the game somewhat newcomer-unfriendly...
I can attest to that. I'm 52 and have enjoyed AD&D since it first came out in the late 70s. While I prefer the old 1st and 2nd edition rules I was kind of enjoying this 4th edition adaptation, and have been playing for a couple of years now. My wife and I both play casually, and honestly we were quite challenged by the content pre mod 6. I could solo the Sharandar and Dread Ring dailys but it was hard, the Well of Dragons we had to team for to get through and the Jailer still regularly kicked our butts. Still it was fun and challenging, now it's just frustrating for us. I certainly understand the desire for highly skilled players with great gear to have areas that challenge their skills, gear, and teamwork, but I don't want to go there. Are there not enough campaigns, for us lowly mortals to hae areas like we enjoyed before, while still giving the top end guys there areas of hard core challenge?
I think there's a lot to your point. I'm 45 and I *often* feel like one of the young'uns ingame.
Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO
Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF
Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP
The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
Well that there is the problem with class imbalance. My lvl 64 GF wither her lvl 60 gear can solo IWD content. My HR can't take down a group of trolls larger than 4 at lvl 70 with lvl 70 gear and a legendary artifact weapon. That MIGHT change when I upgrade the corrupt black ice set that's collecting dust in my inventory, but for now, I dodge around those mobs and only seem to be able to fight dwarves, crag cats, and groups of undead barbarians that don't include deathlock wights. I can't even imagine taking on a black ice beholder at this point. Even with tier 2 epic gear it seems unreasonable, given that one barbarian in mod 5 could 2-shot any non-tank builds, and there were 20-30-of them on the screen at once. I have my doubts about anyone being able to survive it, but I guess we'll see. I tried tiamat and that doesn't seem doable anytime in the near future.
it's still soloable if you talk about heroic it's different story.. and it's just how it's supposed to work because heroic is a group content
Why does someone go into lv70 zones while not even close to lv70 and complain about being killed by mobs that behave according to the new lv70 standards?
Look at the stat/specs of new items post lv60. The heavy, heavy emphasis on +HP is a clear announcement that all the 70-zones are intended for people who can handle mobs that are greatly boosted in damage.
Level-scaling is nothing but simple courtesy from the devs in that they are giving people under the recommended level a chance to try it as a challenge -- especially when some people were already in the middle of doing IWD, Sharandar, Dread, WoD campaigns before mod6 hit. As far as I can tell they could just have simply went, "sorry, the campaigns now follow the new guideline as post-max level content... so come back after you reach new max level" and kicked everyone out of it.
Instead, they gave us a chance to still try it with lv70 stat scaling. They didn't guarantee anything. "Campaign mobs", as I call them, (since they're mostly the 71~73 mobs in the four campaign content) are a notch or two above normal mobs from the start. You need to be geared and prepared with the adequate gear to face them handily. They're not intended for lv60 people with lv60 gear that operate under lv70 standards to face.
So what the heck's the complaint again?
Well, I don't think anyone is seeing Tiamat in the near future, regardless of gear score. It might be possible right now, abusing certain 'questionable mechanics' introduced with Mod 6; maybe a few enterprising souls with maxxed current item levels managed to take her back down, I don't read the forums enough to know. But from what I experienced, I don't see how it is possible with current DPS levels and the current time constraint on the encounter.
Maybe they will lock it down to level 70 and add a stringent item level requirement on it; that would make it doable *maybe*.
And as for the campaigns, I seem to remember seeing something official stating that they were intended to be part of the level 61-70 levelling content; in their current implementation and with how weak the scaling is, that is most certainly not the case except for certain classes or certain previous gear levels. I know my tank spec GF in draconic templar gear has been able to do them without too much trouble (except for Phantasmal Fortress, LOL, that fight took me like 30 minutes, just didn't have the damage); my GWF in draconic templar charged one group of mobs and got a quick trip to the graveyard. My paladin in regular levelling greens and blues was able to kind of muddle through, but that wasn't happening at a pace that made sense so I left it until 70.
2) A properly built and geared Trapper is one of the best solo classes in the game.
Aelar Hawkwind - Archer
Karrin Feywinter - Mistress of Flame
Errin Duskwalker - Executioner
Darquess - Soulbinder
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I don't really know any of you or your histories in the game forum, especially after being gone for so long, but I wanted to chime in here. I think what suicidalgodot said above is spot on in several areas from my perspective.
While I played a lot in beta (as a Founder) and after the game first came out, I had to step away from the game. Life does that. I just now came back to see if I could pick things back up again. I am one of those older players suicidalgodot mentions, that if I wanted to I could afford to blow lots of money on the game. I have already spent some since coming back, but now have decided not to spend any more. Too many issues...
In my brief time back I have basically had to relearn everything from scratch (I expected that to some degree...), while encountering the nonstop game crashes, not to mention the starter dungeons being off line while they get updated to MOD 6. There goes the early quest lines.... I even created an HR to start from scratch so I could relearn everything. However, the confusion level/complexity and total lack of current reference material on the game has made this a very painful gaming experience.
Having been in many, many beta programs over the past 25+ years of gaming I like to think of myself as someone who can pick up on stuff quickly. Well.... the stuff that's going on in Neverwinter right now is simply not designed for new players. I am 100% confident in that. The changes to the game over the past two years have been extreme to say the least. It is very intimidating. I have spent a lot of time using my Googlefoo to try and find up to date guides, blogs, etc. to help an old man get back up to speed. My Googlefoo has failed. Very little current, useful data out there to remove the confusion. That's a major problem for complex games... the lack of community supported material that is current and relevant, especially for new players.
Join a guild you say? I looked into it for the past two days. Here's what I found... hardly anyone online in any of the guilds that I looked at that were Eastern Time zone. 9 out of 10 that I looked at had only one person listed as "online" and not a single one responded to my /tell asking about their guild. The 10th one had six people and the "founder" (GM of the guild I assume) didn't respond to the/tell either. Bad luck overall? Maybe. But think of it from a new player perspective if you can. Not a positive experience.
If I were a real "new" player I would be completely confused and lost in this game, and to me that is a core business problem. Over time the more experienced players will move on to other games, life, or what have you. Based on my experience in the gaming community for so many years, I am quite confident that if Cryptic wants the game to continue thriving they need to be closer to the middle of the player base. They have to create content (with less complexity) that can easily pull in a TON of new players into the game, enough content to keep them there, and enough high end content to keep the more experienced players happy. It’s a basic formula that has been proven over and over and over. Deviate from it at your peril.
From what I have been seeing over the past week while relearning the game is that there is not much to keep new players playing. Just to dam complex and buggy. IF that holds true the game is already heading to the bit bucket. You have to pull in new players (and payers?) to keep the game relevant and funded. With all the problems with the current mod (and I guess similar problems with mod 5) new players are going to be like "Squirrel!!" and go elsewhere. Long time players like yourself won't be enough incentive to keep the game going. No real business value in that.
Anyway, I have gotten the distinct impression that you are the games 1%'ers. Well, I am part of the 99%'ers and we have a <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> load more money than you do
[/Wall of Text]
...If you know what the "Pendrill Prophecy" is send me a private message.
I want to this that new players can never ever catch current players without spending a few house payments either in game or at 3rd party sites. The amount of refining points that can be gained legitimately in a day compared to the amount needed to have truly end game items and gear is "insert bad word". It is very discouraging to new players and the single most idiotic, backward and dumb business moves they made.
Always happy to see returning players, and my friends list hasn't been this full in well over a year...
There are definitely dead Guilds out there... Some PvE, some PvP, etc. I know for a fact, absolute fact, there are some with 3-4 pages of players online at any given time and with upwards of 30-40 people in Teamspeak at peak hours. Luck of the draw I suppose.
I've already stated I've bought Zen, so have others, as that what makes this game go round... I hope people continue to join the game and enjoy it as much as we all have. At no point have I stated Cryptic shouldn't focus on the large majority of players, I've simply stated this '99%' versus '1%' argument is a socio-economic real world issue brought into the wild west of the Internet and I politely disagree that it should be 'a thing' that is referenced.
People are people, they choose how their money and time is spent. Example I am a PvE player, and I would like Cryptic to rock more PvE and not be overly concerned about PvP. However, do I think there should be more then 2 generic Domination maps, after 2 years? Phatty hell yeah I do! I mean those players, that group I don't associate much with, need it for their enjoyment... :cool:
I felt the post you quoted read as referring to the "in-game 1-percenters", which imo, probably has only at most a modest relationship to how much Zen people have bought or their real-world income/wealth status. These are, imo, the players who've progressed their characters to very high levels of in-game capability. Maybe they bought a lot of Zen to get there; maybe they played until their fingers went numb, maybe they got very lucky with drops, or played the auction house well, or maybe they're just that good at working the interface and strategy they progress a lot further with much less time & effort than others do. I don't think it matter how one gets to that level or performance in the game. I do think it's worth noting that if a game update caters its difficulty level to those people, then it's not serving the majority of its players well. And that a person in that category can think the game is just fine difficulty-wise, and perhaps even more fun than before. But that person might not realize how much it might not be fun for those further down that in-game percentage scale. I don't think you are in this category, but I think some in the forums definitely are.