Please no trolling/fighting. This is intended to be constructive feedback, not an arena or a cryptic bashing thread - keep it open, thanks.
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Cryptic's justification for artifact gear is that it's fun to improve your equipment. With every module, we get more and more of this gear. Eventually, normal gear will disappear if they keep going in that direction. Is that something the playerbase wishes? Is that even fun?
bioshrikeMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,729Arc User
edited May 2015
The actual act of refining is *not* fun in my book, and all the related refinement items just take up more inventory space. Now, if gear increased in capability through USING it, (a la some sort of gear XP system), then I wouldn't have as much of an issue. The relative scarcity of good refinement items, coupled with the secondary bottlenecks of needing the marks, then some sort of preservation or coalescent ward, depending upon the chance of success, simply makes things tedious.
Let me play the game and directly work to improve my gear, with no other tricks or hurdles required.
<::::::::::::::)xxxo <::::::::::::::)xxxo <::::::::::::)xxxxxxxx(:::::::::::> oxxx(::::::::::::::> oxxx(::::::::::::::> "Is it better to be feared or respected? I say, is it too much to ask for both?" -Tony Stark Official NW_Legit_Community Forums
This poll is meaningless. Artifact Gear is the means by which Cryptic sells Blood Rubies to the public. Artifact Gear will continue to be released. Artifact chest, followed by head, arms and leg items will be released in lockstep with future Mods. Count on it. And.... start saving your money to pony up for the Blood Ruby packs you'll need to get them to Mythic.
This poll is meaningless. Artifact Gear is the means by which Cryptic sells Blood Rubies to the public. Artifact Gear will continue to be released. Artifact chest, followed by head, arms and leg items will be released in lockstep with future Mods. Count on it. And.... start saving your money to pony up for the Blood Ruby packs you'll need to get them to Mythic.
Actually, cryptic listens, sometimes, even if it takes time. Players asked for harder content. We got mod 6 and T2 dungeons (and I'm thankful for that). Players like new classes. Cryptic makes one with every module, which is a lot. Players didn't like too long dungeons, we got VT, then Kessell's, and with every module, group content is shorter. With Kessell's and tiamat, we're almost to the point that dungeons are a big room with three adds and a chest, lol. Players didn't like adds fests, dungeons now have mechanics. It took two years but it's there!
I know it takes time, sometimes years, but they do take feedback into account eventually. And they do things. But they have to know.
I voted no and I don't want more because to me it's not fun. They don't want to make content rewarding, and it's too much of a grind to be fun. The content I like (pvp, group content), has almost no RP rewards, or you have to pay twice or three times the market prices to get some RP in campaign chests (lol). And I hope that if everyone agrees with that statement, they will listen and stop.
0
khimera906Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 898Arc User
edited May 2015
I absolutely hate artifact gear. It's the single worse problem this game has imo. It's what ruined Neverwinter for me, and it's the reason why I stopped playing.
So yeah ... that's how I feel about artifact gear
I hate dancing with Lady Luck. She always steps on my toes.
I voted "I like and want more". Why? because artifact gear has cool bonuses. How else can you get more ability scores, AC, or the cool passive features? no way.
Also please toss your conspiracy theories aside. Refining artifact gear is progression, period. Remember pre mod 1 days, before the refinement system was introduced? People got there T2 sets and were left without anything else they wanted. And no, nobody cared about making perfect enchants besides the hardcore PVPers. Artifacts (mod 1) gave us a way to progress, but again nobody cared to make legendary artifacts. So they gave us artifact gear. Now people want to make legendary just for the bonuses.
The system works. Its not perfect but it works.
I voted "I like and want more". Why? because artifact gear has cool bonuses. How else can you get more ability scores, AC, or the cool passive features? no way.
Also please toss your conspiracy theories aside. Refining artifact gear is progression, period. Remember pre mod 1 days, before the refinement system was introduced? People got there T2 sets and were left without anything else they wanted. And no, nobody cared about making perfect enchants besides the hardcore PVPers. Artifacts (mod 1) gave us a way to progress, but again nobody cared to make legendary artifacts. So they gave us artifact gear. Now people want to make legendary just for the bonuses.
The system works. Its not perfect but it works.
... or we could have content progression. Like raids. It's much more fun than grinding mobs like a bot to get the much needed RP drops.
I like the idea of artifact gear (and weapons, artifacts) but IMO we have more than enough currently.
The theory of improving your gear as you play being fun is something I agree with. Improving my gear is part of improving my character and that's a fundamental part of why I play RPG games. The main problem is that the actual game interface and mechanics around improving gear (refining) is clunky and unnecessarily time consuming IMO. That's not including the time to upgrade item levels, just what's involved in the refining process.
I do think it would be much better if items passively gained RP (or XP, whatever) and the players only action was to upgrade at certain points, perhaps more frequently that current. Would depend on how the upgrade process was handled, especially cost. Another possible downside is that it may shift the focus onto game content and people might need other motivation to play, currently a lot of motivation seems to relate to rewards.
... or we could have content progression. Like raids. It's much more fun than grinding mobs like a bot to get the much needed RP drops.
Or don't grind like a bot. I just play the game and throw whatever RP I get into the arti gear.
Progression needs a counter. Till you reach max level, XP gets the job done. At max level you need something else - hello RP.
I actually like the artifact gear concept - in principle.
As it is done currently, I don't. Too much, too many, too expensive to grind, too little game-accessible upgrade material sources since Mod 6, too much more power in comparison to "normal" epics. Also the slot loss / late unlocking on belts and cloaks (This made _some_ sense when utility slots still helped its progression, but currently it's a grave disadvantage and a slap in every player's face!). Completely derailed.
There would be ways to ameliorate this - reduce the RP demand or increase the supply as a first, choice of slot unlocking order or a switch using AugCubes, offer specific upgrading quests for big leaps in progress, etc. etc. Heck, even ArtiGear in additional slots might be nice - if you limit the number of simultaneously wearable AG items to 3 + Weapon (or rather even three in total). Heck again, even the lean RP yields we see now would have been OK-ish - had those been in effect since the launch of artifact gear. Also this is mostly incompatible with the current gear's probably "best before" date :^/
Less would have been more.
TL;DR: Not a bad concept, just hideously executed.
Gear that levels up is a great idea. Gear that levels up faster for those who pay money or exploit or bot to make AD is a HAMSTER poor idea. It's sad that the opportunity to change to XP progression for gear was not taken (likely due to the lower profit expectations of such gear) when they released this mod. RP is a cancer and it is slowly killing this game.
o-b-v-i-o-u-s-l-y i dont want more artifact gear, and i also want to be removed what we already have.
I see it as an artificial and unnatural way to keep people playing.
Instead of adding pve and pvp content they invented artifacts, so you have to farm and farm for your items. Dont missundertand me, farming is ok (this is a MMO in the end) but the ammount of RP needed for upgrading is huge, and you dont enjoy very much repeating over and over again the same 1hour dungeon/foundry.
They have based the whole game in refinemet," refine your enchants & your items, but it wont be fun, you will need tons of RP doing the same 2-3 things day after day. Oh! and if you like pvp... you wont get any refinement from it, sorry".
As some1 said in other post, this game is a refinement simulator, its the only goal of the whole game.
PS: Same goes for campaings, doing same quest over and over again IS NOT FUN, it might be the first week, maybe the second, but doing the same dailys over and over again is OBVIOUSLY not fun. But you need them for the boons, so bad luck man! another boring stuff to do!
PS2: an advice to developers; first thing you should care is about making the game fun, very fun, second is make it newbie friendly (a new player need months to complete campaings and get some decent gear), third is remove everything remotely pay to win, such as all the refinement stuff (artifacts&artifact equipment&enchants), earn your money from fashion things, not placing a gap between players that payed and those who didnt.
It might sound weird, but it works; its better having 5 million of happy players that buy few things than having 200k players and try to squeeze all their money out (if you go to zen market you will see what im talking about, things that in other mmo are free or easy obtainable here worth almost like a brand new game), this must stop, avarice wont help you, a healthy relationship with your players will.
As a good thing to do for next mod, you can try to base this game in skill not in how much you have payed for refinement.
do everything artifact please. the gear, the trees , that rat thing with the giant , lord , the menus, the launcher.
make everything an artifact and give zero RP from drops that will be best for players
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lirithielMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 2,482Arc User
edited May 2015
I abhore the idea of artifact equipment BUT I would have been okay with just artifact main hand and off hand. I could at least justify them as magical weapons (eg. Icing Death and Twinkle or Taulmaril). However, Cryptic went overboard with it and introduced cloaks and belts as well, which I find very hard justifying.
The other problem is that Weaponsmithing and Artifacing have become the two most useless and pointless professions. I preferred the idea of crafting my own weapons before. There is speculation that rings will be next on the artrifact menu meaning that Jewellcrafting will also be rendered obsolete with companion gear being so superior to anything else at the moment.
Why anyone would waste money on Blood Rubies is beyond me. It's probably the most overpriced item in the zen store.
Our pain is self chosen.
The most important thing in life is to be yourself. Unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman.
I'm ok with artifact weapons and normal artifacts. Artifact equipment? No thank you.
0
ironzerg79Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,942Arc User
edited May 2015
I love the idea of having specialized equipment that you can customize and level up.
The idea. How it's implemented in Neverwinter right now makes it really tedious. Cryptic is dangling something very cool in our faces, but makes it extremely difficult to actually participate in.
If they changed the system so that RP was plentiful and your average player felt like they could participate in the system, it would be great.
But as it stands now, most of the cooler aspects of Artifact Equipment are simply out of reach for your average player.
And long term, I'd love if they'd be consistent with how players obtain top gear. I'd love to see a mix of Artifact gear, Dungeon gear and Crafted gear.
My thoughts? Totally PvE related (as I personally think all PvP gear should be ONLY for PvP, and PvE gear should ONLY be for PvE)
Right now we have 4 Artifact gear slots: Mainhand, Offhand, Neck, Belt. Keep those. BUT change the RP philosophy so that improving your Artifact gear is something that's meant to be done via the campaigns, epic quest lines or other solo play. Basically, you can get BiS (a long term task, but let's measure it in weeks or months, not years) in these slots if you're diligent in your solo play.
Armor Slots: Hat, Boots, Chest, Gloves. These are dungeon pieces. Other nice gear slots can be found or crafted, but the very best pieces come from dungeons. If you want to get the best, then you need to group up and get in dungeons. So that's the second aspect of the game you need to participate in.
Rings, Shirt, Pants. The best here are always crafted. You might need rare resources that drop via solo campaigning or in dungeons, but you'll need to level up your crafting to get these. Second tier stuff might be found in dungeons, or soloing, but the very best gear is going to require you to participate in a third aspect of the game, crafting.
To recap:
Mainhand, Offhand, Neck, Belt: Best is Artifact Gear (solo play), 2nd is dungeons, 3rd is crafted
Head, Gloves, Chest, Boots: Best is Dungeon Gear (group play), 2nd is crafted, 3rd is campaign/solo
Rings, Shirt, Pants: Best is Crafted Gear (solo/crafting), 2nd campaign/solo play, 3rd is dungeons
So there you have it. A gear system that lays out paths to BiS gear through different aspects of the game: Solo play, group play, crafting. If you want the best of the best, you need to participate in all three. Most players will amass of combination of all three, and fill in the gaps in other ways that suit their play styles.
i dont think the artifact is the problem. the problem is that you get it so easy and then have to refine it. what is missing is a super great weapon that drops very rare in a super very difficulty dungeon so we can wish so much to have it and we will never stop play until we get it.. the problem now is that you already get the artifact so dam easily and the refiniment system dont bring any motivation !
THE PROBLEM IS THE BORING TEDIOUS NOT MOTIVATING REFINEMENT SYSTEM !!
i dont think the artifact is the problem. the problem is that you get it so easy and then have to refine it. what is missing is a super great weapon that drops very rare in a super very difficulty dungeon so we can wish so much to have it and we will never stop play until we get it.. the problem now is that you already get the artifact so dam easily and the refiniment system dont bring any motivation !
THE PROBLEM IS THE BORING TEDIOUS NOT MOTIVATING REFINEMENT SYSTEM !!
I voted no but I want to see more. Ideally I'd like a different system to encourage us to play such as legendary rare drops that don't need refining. The way it is now favours demonetisation and botting and is just not fun at all. I have no motivation to run dungeons. A year ago I did, there were boe drops I could actually sell to those who want it. However it seems artifact equipment is here to stay even though it divides the community up in a way that doesn't even favour experience or skill. They've started it, they might as well finish it off. We're just missing rings and gear if they ever decide that is needed. Until they add more item slots at least. I've maxed my gear, though only on 1 character since it's single player unfriendly let alone alt unfriendly so maxing a pair of rings shouldn't be a problem.
People are entitled to their opinion, but it's a shame a fair amount of people voted that they like it when it could be so much better or even fairer. Granted the issues really pop up after you reach epic since that's just 10% of the way to BiS. 3% in the case of regular artifacts, I guess that makes it sound really bad if they release mythic quality equipment as the max rank.
I'd rather have good dungeons and raids and proper gear progression or a proper crafting system where crafting mats drop in dungeons and then you craft BiS gear using professions than rp nonsense.
i dont like artifact gears but i would propose something similar like powers you can enhance by reading magical books.
Every day you can a book for your class by completing a dungeon.
a chance more or less high to get a book completing skirmishes.
books buyable with glory too.
0
lazaroth666Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,332Arc User
edited May 2015
I like the artifact gear, what I don't like is that getting RP is a constant issue and the devs never seem to find an actual balance where they and us (players) are satisfied with the amount of RP gathered daily.
I would like to see Artifact Rings/Shirts/Pants crafted by players with very rare materials.
Comments
Let me play the game and directly work to improve my gear, with no other tricks or hurdles required.
"Is it better to be feared or respected? I say, is it too much to ask for both?" -Tony Stark
Official NW_Legit_Community Forums
Actually, cryptic listens, sometimes, even if it takes time. Players asked for harder content. We got mod 6 and T2 dungeons (and I'm thankful for that). Players like new classes. Cryptic makes one with every module, which is a lot. Players didn't like too long dungeons, we got VT, then Kessell's, and with every module, group content is shorter. With Kessell's and tiamat, we're almost to the point that dungeons are a big room with three adds and a chest, lol. Players didn't like adds fests, dungeons now have mechanics. It took two years but it's there!
I know it takes time, sometimes years, but they do take feedback into account eventually. And they do things. But they have to know.
I voted no and I don't want more because to me it's not fun. They don't want to make content rewarding, and it's too much of a grind to be fun. The content I like (pvp, group content), has almost no RP rewards, or you have to pay twice or three times the market prices to get some RP in campaign chests (lol). And I hope that if everyone agrees with that statement, they will listen and stop.
So yeah ... that's how I feel about artifact gear
Also please toss your conspiracy theories aside. Refining artifact gear is progression, period. Remember pre mod 1 days, before the refinement system was introduced? People got there T2 sets and were left without anything else they wanted. And no, nobody cared about making perfect enchants besides the hardcore PVPers. Artifacts (mod 1) gave us a way to progress, but again nobody cared to make legendary artifacts. So they gave us artifact gear. Now people want to make legendary just for the bonuses.
The system works. Its not perfect but it works.
... or we could have content progression. Like raids. It's much more fun than grinding mobs like a bot to get the much needed RP drops.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
The theory of improving your gear as you play being fun is something I agree with. Improving my gear is part of improving my character and that's a fundamental part of why I play RPG games. The main problem is that the actual game interface and mechanics around improving gear (refining) is clunky and unnecessarily time consuming IMO. That's not including the time to upgrade item levels, just what's involved in the refining process.
I do think it would be much better if items passively gained RP (or XP, whatever) and the players only action was to upgrade at certain points, perhaps more frequently that current. Would depend on how the upgrade process was handled, especially cost. Another possible downside is that it may shift the focus onto game content and people might need other motivation to play, currently a lot of motivation seems to relate to rewards.
Progression needs a counter. Till you reach max level, XP gets the job done. At max level you need something else - hello RP.
As it is done currently, I don't. Too much, too many, too expensive to grind, too little game-accessible upgrade material sources since Mod 6, too much more power in comparison to "normal" epics. Also the slot loss / late unlocking on belts and cloaks (This made _some_ sense when utility slots still helped its progression, but currently it's a grave disadvantage and a slap in every player's face!). Completely derailed.
There would be ways to ameliorate this - reduce the RP demand or increase the supply as a first, choice of slot unlocking order or a switch using AugCubes, offer specific upgrading quests for big leaps in progress, etc. etc. Heck, even ArtiGear in additional slots might be nice - if you limit the number of simultaneously wearable AG items to 3 + Weapon (or rather even three in total). Heck again, even the lean RP yields we see now would have been OK-ish - had those been in effect since the launch of artifact gear. Also this is mostly incompatible with the current gear's probably "best before" date :^/
Less would have been more.
TL;DR: Not a bad concept, just hideously executed.
Please NO MORE POWER CREEP
I see it as an artificial and unnatural way to keep people playing.
Instead of adding pve and pvp content they invented artifacts, so you have to farm and farm for your items. Dont missundertand me, farming is ok (this is a MMO in the end) but the ammount of RP needed for upgrading is huge, and you dont enjoy very much repeating over and over again the same 1hour dungeon/foundry.
They have based the whole game in refinemet," refine your enchants & your items, but it wont be fun, you will need tons of RP doing the same 2-3 things day after day. Oh! and if you like pvp... you wont get any refinement from it, sorry".
As some1 said in other post, this game is a refinement simulator, its the only goal of the whole game.
PS: Same goes for campaings, doing same quest over and over again IS NOT FUN, it might be the first week, maybe the second, but doing the same dailys over and over again is OBVIOUSLY not fun. But you need them for the boons, so bad luck man! another boring stuff to do!
PS2: an advice to developers; first thing you should care is about making the game fun, very fun, second is make it newbie friendly (a new player need months to complete campaings and get some decent gear), third is remove everything remotely pay to win, such as all the refinement stuff (artifacts&artifact equipment&enchants), earn your money from fashion things, not placing a gap between players that payed and those who didnt.
It might sound weird, but it works; its better having 5 million of happy players that buy few things than having 200k players and try to squeeze all their money out (if you go to zen market you will see what im talking about, things that in other mmo are free or easy obtainable here worth almost like a brand new game), this must stop, avarice wont help you, a healthy relationship with your players will.
As a good thing to do for next mod, you can try to base this game in skill not in how much you have payed for refinement.
make everything an artifact and give zero RP from drops that will be best for players
The other problem is that Weaponsmithing and Artifacing have become the two most useless and pointless professions. I preferred the idea of crafting my own weapons before. There is speculation that rings will be next on the artrifact menu meaning that Jewellcrafting will also be rendered obsolete with companion gear being so superior to anything else at the moment.
Why anyone would waste money on Blood Rubies is beyond me. It's probably the most overpriced item in the zen store.
The most important thing in life is to be yourself. Unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman.
The idea. How it's implemented in Neverwinter right now makes it really tedious. Cryptic is dangling something very cool in our faces, but makes it extremely difficult to actually participate in.
See my thread here on RefinementL
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?928421-Why-Refinement-Points-Should-Be-Plentiful-Good-for-the-economy!
If they changed the system so that RP was plentiful and your average player felt like they could participate in the system, it would be great.
But as it stands now, most of the cooler aspects of Artifact Equipment are simply out of reach for your average player.
And long term, I'd love if they'd be consistent with how players obtain top gear. I'd love to see a mix of Artifact gear, Dungeon gear and Crafted gear.
My thoughts? Totally PvE related (as I personally think all PvP gear should be ONLY for PvP, and PvE gear should ONLY be for PvE)
Right now we have 4 Artifact gear slots: Mainhand, Offhand, Neck, Belt. Keep those. BUT change the RP philosophy so that improving your Artifact gear is something that's meant to be done via the campaigns, epic quest lines or other solo play. Basically, you can get BiS (a long term task, but let's measure it in weeks or months, not years) in these slots if you're diligent in your solo play.
Armor Slots: Hat, Boots, Chest, Gloves. These are dungeon pieces. Other nice gear slots can be found or crafted, but the very best pieces come from dungeons. If you want to get the best, then you need to group up and get in dungeons. So that's the second aspect of the game you need to participate in.
Rings, Shirt, Pants. The best here are always crafted. You might need rare resources that drop via solo campaigning or in dungeons, but you'll need to level up your crafting to get these. Second tier stuff might be found in dungeons, or soloing, but the very best gear is going to require you to participate in a third aspect of the game, crafting.
To recap:
Mainhand, Offhand, Neck, Belt: Best is Artifact Gear (solo play), 2nd is dungeons, 3rd is crafted
Head, Gloves, Chest, Boots: Best is Dungeon Gear (group play), 2nd is crafted, 3rd is campaign/solo
Rings, Shirt, Pants: Best is Crafted Gear (solo/crafting), 2nd campaign/solo play, 3rd is dungeons
So there you have it. A gear system that lays out paths to BiS gear through different aspects of the game: Solo play, group play, crafting. If you want the best of the best, you need to participate in all three. Most players will amass of combination of all three, and fill in the gaps in other ways that suit their play styles.
THE PROBLEM IS THE BORING TEDIOUS NOT MOTIVATING REFINEMENT SYSTEM !!
THE PROBLEM IS THE BORING TEDIOUS NOT MOTIVATING REFINEMENT SYSTEM !!
People are entitled to their opinion, but it's a shame a fair amount of people voted that they like it when it could be so much better or even fairer. Granted the issues really pop up after you reach epic since that's just 10% of the way to BiS. 3% in the case of regular artifacts, I guess that makes it sound really bad if they release mythic quality equipment as the max rank.
Every day you can a book for your class by completing a dungeon.
a chance more or less high to get a book completing skirmishes.
books buyable with glory too.
I would like to see Artifact Rings/Shirts/Pants crafted by players with very rare materials.