wow. so many comments I didn't even bother skimming them to see if this was already mentioned. Yes, we want some more solo play available, and in dungeons... someone said something about "you're looking for solo play in an mmo? lolol"
yes, we are. why? possibly because almost every single player(or solo playable mmo, the few and far between there are) are either expensive for the same quality of gameplay, or loaded with windows chewing worms and space hogging rabbits, or otherwise malware that those of us with security concerns, don't want.
So, either we are forced to every time we want to finish a map/area(the dungeons and skirmishes at the end) put up with other players grabbing most of the goodies that we want/need for our own character development, or pay 25+ dollars for games that have no social functions, and frequently have nowhere near the graphics without doubling that price and buying a better console or hardware upgrades to already decent PCs.
the point in all of this? to keep the game developers who make the single player games in the money, whether through the players buying their games so they don't have to put up with others, or by the 'free' ones grabbing your info and going to the bank(your bank). No, I don't believe this is some sort of conspiracy, but it is business, and business is always a bit dirty for those not making the money.
I'm actually mostly happy with Cryptic's games(except the recent heavy nerfing of the epic baddies... just lame to do it to that degree). But the option to play those force-grouping dungeons and skirmishes in solo mode, at the level ranges specified and at the same difficulty, should be always available. Some of us actually like a challenge. Some of us have loads of money to burn on zen for buying the best equipment if we don't like the challenge, and a whole heck of a lot of us only check the social portions for ammusement purposes, or to engage in pvp and see where we rank.I'd be in two of the three categories. Your guess which two.
Cheers,
-Wolfy
(wulfenblu)
pfft!
My awesomeness comes not from studying psychology. It comes from being studied by therapists for decades.
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theycallmetomuMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,861Arc User
Re: Whether Underdark will be more solo friendly:
It's not that Underdark will necessarily be solo friendly. I mean, Elemental Evil wasn't. And I don't actually think they're going to raise the level again. Underdark will probably add in some gear that's marginally better than existing gear, but the differential will likely be closer to the differential between Sharandar and Dread Ring versus the old item sets (... except, without set bonuses that make the old gear better than the new gear despite better stats). Or perhaps Black Ice gear would be a better example.
While Underdark is part of WotC's release schedule, I am skeptical as to whether or not it's going to be as major of a release as Elemental Evil was. Underdark will almost certainly not invalidate the benefits of Strongholds. Strongholds was developed because Cryptic wanted to differentiate NWO from other F2P MMOs, and they explicitly went in a MOBA direction (GAG!!!). Huge mistake IMO but whatever. They also wanted to emphasize guilds, because of the belief that doing so will help with player retention as players form lasting bonds. Yeah yeah whatever, we've heard the counter arguments by now, no one cares.
Strongholds isn't going away. That's simply a fact. While you're likely able to complete solo content solo just fine in mod 8, the fact that you'll be at relative -8000 power or whatever the ridiculous value is is going to remain.
I... suppose that they could be in the middle of some absolutely ridiculous gambit, where they made the ridiculous +Xthousand powr type buildings just to try and convince the guilds to all rush into making buildings, and then they'll nerf them later on with a "Oopsies, sorry guys~" thing, but even then, non-guildies will still be at some disadvantage compared to guildies. It just may not be that they're dealing 70% of the damage that the guildies are dealing.
$tronghold$ is just pure cashgrab mod just look at the structures requirements and then at zen market.
Neverwinter is still a free2play game. Can you really blame the company for a bit more grindiness in exchange?
Yes "we" can... but we might see some changes to Strongholds, when they plan on releasing it to the Xbox crowd.
Looks like the fear of losing a lot of Xbox players got them to reconsider the [censored] they pulled with Elemental Evil.
Now we only have to sit back, invoke/do professions tasks/collect our VIP benefits daily, until Underdark is dumped upon us, then they might tone down the grind in Strongholds too.
It might even become possible to get at least some basic/small Stronghold on our own...
And with VIP they have something worthy to sell, if they want to sell more "products", they should adjust the prices for all those other packs as well, and change a lot of items (companions for example) to account wide instead of one per character...
I... suppose that they could be in the middle of some absolutely ridiculous gambit, where they made the ridiculous +Xthousand powr type buildings just to try and convince the guilds to all rush into making buildings, and then they'll nerf them later on with a "Oopsies, sorry guys~" thing, but even then, non-guildies will still be at some disadvantage compared to guildies. It just may not be that they're dealing 70% of the damage that the guildies are dealing.
Precisely.
And to anyone who says that a bad player will still be bad, boons or no, perhaps, perhaps, but let's do a quick and dirty breakdown.
I, Eravan, run into Joe-Bob-McSmashHuge of the Guild of Kill-Bloody-Everything. I have none of the boons, because Sufficient Velocity is a very small guild consisting of a sub-faction of a group of people who know each other from a certain sci-fi web board. McSmashHuge has all of them, because he's got one of the massive guilds that quickly ground/paidtheir way to the maxed out facilities and multiple maxed out boons. That means, all things equal, he's probably got double my attack power* or armor penetration or what-have-you, at probably 40% more hitpoints than me. So he's going to be hitting probably between 10-25% harder, even assuming we have the same equipment and enchants, and be almost half again as durable, and that's disregarding PVP bonuses he might have and utilities that he'll be using to get extra overflow levels/power points/glory/etc., meaning the odds of us actually being of roughly equal equipment loadout are laughably small.
Assuming McSmashHuge has an IQ above that of room temperature and is actually trying to play his toon, no matter how good I am, I am never going to be able to equal him. I'm never going to be able to make up for a stat difference that freaking huge. Which will then beg the question: why would any group in their right mind take me over him? I can look forward to the same trouble that undergeared players and certain HR/SW builds got when Elemental Evil was first released, namely, getting kicked from the group as soon as they realize I don't have these benefits, assuming they let me in in the first place and don't vet my character's stats. Which means I will continue to fall behind because now I'm not going to be able to Dungeon Run/Skirmish/etc. Assuming I can even complete them in the first place, since Mod 6 showed that if the Devs playtest their dungeons and skirmishes at all, they clearly do so in an idealized situation and under the assumption that everyone's got all the boons, all the powers, and have an ideal loadout (meaning they're probably going to be designing future content under the assumption that everyone and their mother has these stupidly powerful boons
And if it goes into PVP, it becomes even worse because now I'm having to face up against this guy that is significantly more powerful than me and will demolish me every single time if he's intelligent enough to remember how to breathe.
And as I've said before, NWO's player market/interactions/etc. are shockingly unregulated, and its Devs/GMs/etc. have shown no ability to control the soft/black market (or however you want to call it) of players using non-bound objects as currencies (like the GMOP) beyond a crude, retroactive attempt to BIP certain items (whereupon the currency promptly changes to something else and the whole messy cycle starts again). Given the faceless nature and general consequence free atmosphere, people are much more inclined to be jerks to one another than they otherwise would be, as has been my general experience (and to the people who do retain their civility and general niceness despite that, kudos to you, and thank you very much). Thus, once the powerful guilds like the one in our hypothetical realize the massive power they hold, I can guarantee you that some, maybe not all, but some will begin charging for the privilege of being a member, because they've got the would-be member by the proverbial you know what, and the player will have no choice but to bow to their demands or lose access to these tremendously powerful passive abilities and stat boosts.
So riddle me this: why should any player not already part of one of these huge guilds actually bother to stick around, pay for VIP, or otherwise spend Zen on this game, when there's a veritable glut of other MMOs out there that aren't designed by people that appear to be some combination of incompetent, hilariously short sighted, or possibly from another plane of existence in which the rules of reality and human nature do not apply?
*8000 points of an advantage, bearing in mind that a Rank 12 enchant offers 700 to a given stat, so it's literally like he's packing an extra eleven maxed out enchantments of the relevant type. With the added, enormous utility/force multiplier bonus that McSmashHuge will be able to switch between unlocked boons at will, something never before possible, making him much more flexible to fulfilling multiple roles and adapting to changing situations.
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theycallmetomuMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,861Arc User
The bottom line is that the game rewards participation over non-participation. Maybe if boons had to be slotted then we'd be in a different position.
In fact, why the heck boons haven't needed to be slotted from the very start is a complete mystery to me.
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rickcase276Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,404Arc User
And they already said that the armor that we will get in Underdark will be ilevel 142, same as the dragonflight armor. So there is not going to be an increase in ilevel there, now probably there will be new MH/OH too.
And they already said that the armor that we will get in Underdark will be ilevel 142, same as the dragonflight armor. So there is not going to be an increase in ilevel there, now probably there will be new MH/OH too.
In other words, you're even more borked if you're in a small guild or solo. Wonderful.
Strongholds: Where single players go to die.
Underdark: Exactly where their game is going to end up.
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rickcase276Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,404Arc User
edited August 2015
It is why they should have at least put somewhere in the game to be able to buy seals of the protector for AD or gold, so at least those that do not yet have their elven armor can get it easier. That or seals of the elements for the alliance armor. Either would work.
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theycallmetomuMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,861Arc User
And they already said that the armor that we will get in Underdark will be ilevel 142, same as the dragonflight armor. So there is not going to be an increase in ilevel there, now probably there will be new MH/OH too.
In other words, you're even more borked if you're in a small guild or solo. Wonderful.
Not sure how you figure. The armor from Underdark will be competitive with Dragonflight. So the "only" thing you're missing out on, aside from having to wait until Underdark and get Underdark gear instead, is the building boons.
Of course, those building boons are abjectly ridiculous.
And they already said that the armor that we will get in Underdark will be ilevel 142, same as the dragonflight armor. So there is not going to be an increase in ilevel there, now probably there will be new MH/OH too.
In other words, you're even more borked if you're in a small guild or solo. Wonderful.
Not sure how you figure. The armor from Underdark will be competitive with Dragonflight. So the "only" thing you're missing out on, aside from having to wait until Underdark and get Underdark gear instead, is the building boons.
Of course, those building boons are abjectly ridiculous.
Apologies, I should have been more clear. The idea was that if the Underdark gear was better, then, boons aside, the solo or small guilds could simply try to save up all possible resources in preparation for grabbing the UD gear as quickly as possible, and get a *slight* edge back. Or rather, at least not be so far behind for a little while.
So much for that plan.
Brilliantly done, Cryptic, brilliantly done. You've once again ensured that everyone must march in lock-step with your business plan in order to remain relevant, thus ensuring that they'll stick around that much longer and spend that much more money on your game. All it needs is an absolute monopoly of the high fantasy mmo genre in order to ensure that they don't just leave for a game that doesn't psychologically and monetarily browbeat them and...
oh....
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theycallmetomuMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,861Arc User
As i've speculated before:
They will (if they're smart) eventually institute a catchup mechanism for smaller guilds and guilds created later on in the game's lifeline. The most simple way of doing that would be to allow guilds to sell excess shards of power and the like. And heck, they WERE allowing that for a short period of time, but apparently that was a mistake, and now you can't sell shards because they're bound. Which is BS.
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rickcase276Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,404Arc User
Which is odd, as if you read the message on the starter pack in the zen store, it says all the shards etc you get from it are supposed to be tradable. So that should allow those to be sold on the AH.
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bigredbrentMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 155Arc User
edited August 2015
I hate what this mod is doing to guilds. It isn't just the solo players being forced out. The small guilds are being forced out as well. Even moderately sized guilds are suffering. This mod was for the very large guilds filled with mostly active players. Unfortunately I am not in one of those. I am in a very nice guild with very nice players, but not enough players for this mod to be very effective. Leaving my guild will be like leaving a family, and this mod is trying its best to split us up.
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beckylunaticMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 14,231Arc User
Which is odd, as if you read the message on the starter pack in the zen store, it says all the shards etc you get from it are supposed to be tradable. So that should allow those to be sold on the AH.
It says the pack itself is tradeable, not necessarily the contents.
I hate what this mod is doing to guilds. It isn't just the solo players being forced out. The small guilds are being forced out as well. Even moderately sized guilds are suffering. This mod was for the very large guilds filled with mostly active players. Unfortunately I am not in one of those. I am in a very nice guild with very nice players, but not enough players for this mod to be very effective. Leaving my guild will be like leaving a family, and this mod is trying its best to split us up.
...has alrdy happened to my 'family'
the numbers are simply too high for casuals - STO all over again only faster
i rly wanted this game to succeed and had high hopes
but since the decision has been made for me - good luck to all of you...
...has alrdy happened to my 'family'
the numbers are simply too high for casuals - STO all over again only faster
i rly wanted this game to succeed and had high hopes
but since the decision has been made for me - good luck to all of you...
Good luck to you as well.
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crypticnotionMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 45Arc User
$tronghold$ is just pure cashgrab mod just look at the structures requirements and then at zen market.
Neverwinter is still a free2play game. Can you really blame the company for a bit more grindiness in exchange?
Yes I can there is ways of making cash that don't cut the throat of the player base.
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crypticnotionMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 45Arc User
the level of disregard for the players who pay the way for this game is hard to imagine you could stop being F2P and not loose near as many people as the way they have went about it.....everyone who was a lvl 60 took a beating in this joke update you lost more gained less and have had to grind then grind some more just to be able to do what you were already doing before they upgraded it. The game is as buggy as the worst hack you could find. everything it seems is screwed up they have made HUGE amounts of the game unplayable to the lvl 60 player but guess what all the missions are still available to you....you just don't stand a chance in doing them. It would seem a child is running things and making the decisions a very young one.
well after a few days runing sh what i can tell is solo player is dead, small guilds are gonna be passing hell to upgrade the sh, im in a small guild with lots of active players but not the botlike ones and i see we dont have a chance in doing it in a reasonable amount of time... if they listen to the players but noooo....
the way things are i regret all the money i put in the game because they are kiling it.
i rather stop playing then leave my small guild and 3 or 4 months stuck in something that is not gonna be done its not for me... if they think meanwile im gonna get more slots with zens to make alts they are wrong if its not worth playing in my mains why should i get more alts to be stuck in the same a criptic fantasy...
i just wish dev´s play the game... solo player is like the sw now... sucks being one of them
wow. now it turns to the ones paying having problems with cryptic catering to the masses of freebies. OH OH OH!!! Mr Craaaabs! I have an ideeeeea! make two or more seperate games, one free to play, others that are pay. oh, they've already done that? well then... perhaps those with money should play the paid ones, and the tightwads should stick with this one? maybe? you think? possibly get the older games that have exactly the content you want, and play those, since you have money to sink into a f2p game??! well now, that just wouldn't be fair. how could those with money far surpass those that like to just be entertained... oh my goodness, whatever will we do if we segregate the rich from the poor? we'll keep on living exactly as the world is today. I'm personally annoyed by the lack of solo play, but more than happt with the fact that those paying contributors are the ones getting it stuck to them. what they don't realize, is that their opinions are all the same, and each one totally different. the same opinion: "listen to me, I pay, whaaaaah" the diffenet ones: each one's opinion about the gameplay. again I say, kudos on catering to the masses, devs, and keep on sticking it to the crybabies. we are all crybabies about something, so suck it up, be happy with what is going on here, or move on to the next expensive game, for those who have the money to pay for them. those that don't, I'd say keep on sticking in your two cents, because that is how the game will be evolving in one direction or the other, ad nauseum, until somehow there is, in the far distant future, a truly 'perfect' rpg.
pfft!
My awesomeness comes not from studying psychology. It comes from being studied by therapists for decades.
wow. now it turns to the ones paying having problems with cryptic catering to the masses of freebies. OH OH OH!!! Mr Craaaabs! I have an ideeeeea! make two or more seperate games, one free to play, others that are pay. oh, they've already done that? well then... perhaps those with money should play the paid ones, and the tightwads should stick with this one? maybe? you think? possibly get the older games that have exactly the content you want, and play those, since you have money to sink into a f2p game??! well now, that just wouldn't be fair. how could those with money far surpass those that like to just be entertained... oh my goodness, whatever will we do if we segregate the rich from the poor? we'll keep on living exactly as the world is today. I'm personally annoyed by the lack of solo play, but more than happt with the fact that those paying contributors are the ones getting it stuck to them. what they don't realize, is that their opinions are all the same, and each one totally different. the same opinion: "listen to me, I pay, whaaaaah" the diffenet ones: each one's opinion about the gameplay. again I say, kudos on catering to the masses, devs, and keep on sticking it to the crybabies. we are all crybabies about something, so suck it up, be happy with what is going on here, or move on to the next expensive game, for those who have the money to pay for them. those that don't, I'd say keep on sticking in your two cents, because that is how the game will be evolving in one direction or the other, ad nauseum, until somehow there is, in the far distant future, a truly 'perfect' rpg.
For the love of god, paragraphs, learn to use them!
Secondly, casuals and hardcores are both screwed by this mod. The only ones that benefit are large guilds (who may be casual or hardcore, f2p, choice purchasers like myself, or VIPs) which likely as not swiftly abuse the massive power they now hold.
Secondly, what makes you think the paying customers, the whales, are the ones getting screwed in this mod?
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theycallmetomuMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,861Arc User
wow. now it turns to the ones paying having problems with cryptic catering to the masses of freebies. OH OH OH!!! Mr Craaaabs! I have an ideeeeea! make two or more seperate games, one free to play, others that are pay. oh, they've already done that? well then... perhaps those with money should play the paid ones, and the tightwads should stick with this one? maybe? you think? possibly get the older games that have exactly the content you want, and play those, since you have money to sink into a f2p game??! well now, that just wouldn't be fair. how could those with money far surpass those that like to just be entertained... oh my goodness, whatever will we do if we segregate the rich from the poor? we'll keep on living exactly as the world is today. I'm personally annoyed by the lack of solo play, but more than happt with the fact that those paying contributors are the ones getting it stuck to them. what they don't realize, is that their opinions are all the same, and each one totally different. the same opinion: "listen to me, I pay, whaaaaah" the diffenet ones: each one's opinion about the gameplay. again I say, kudos on catering to the masses, devs, and keep on sticking it to the crybabies. we are all crybabies about something, so suck it up, be happy with what is going on here, or move on to the next expensive game, for those who have the money to pay for them. those that don't, I'd say keep on sticking in your two cents, because that is how the game will be evolving in one direction or the other, ad nauseum, until somehow there is, in the far distant future, a truly 'perfect' rpg.
For the love of god, paragraphs, learn to use them!
Secondly, casuals and hardcores are both screwed by this mod. The only ones that benefit are large guilds (who may be casual or hardcore, f2p, choice purchasers like myself, or VIPs) which likely as not swiftly abuse the massive power they now hold.
Secondly, what makes you think the paying customers, the whales, are the ones getting screwed in this mod?
Said it before, will say it again: Ideally, they'll make getting the top tier benefits hard at first, so the uber guilds have to use all their uber resources, then they'll make selling resources an option, allowing smaller guilds to catch up once the uber guilds have excess resources.
In the meantime, smaller guilds are at a disadvantage, but that's a natural thing. People need to be patient. Solo players are screwed either way though, yeah.
Just forget about upgrading the Stronghold for now, until they release Underdark, then they might change the whole grind to a more reasonable level.
Looks like NWO PC is just the beta test grounds for NWO Xbox. Tons of feedback about what is going wrong in Elemental Evil, but they only react, when they plan on releasing it to the Xbox crowd.
And not even some kind of sincere apology for all the mess we had to deal with...
Said it before, will say it again: Ideally, they'll make getting the top tier benefits hard at first, so the uber guilds have to use all their uber resources, then they'll make selling resources an option, allowing smaller guilds to catch up once the uber guilds have excess resources.
In the meantime, smaller guilds are at a disadvantage, but that's a natural thing. People need to be patient. Solo players are screwed either way though, yeah.
The problem with that is that it runs the risk of the smaller guild players deciding not to tough it out, not to form 'lasting player bonds that will allow for greater retention' but to go "screw it, there are better MMO's out there than this garbage, I'm done!" in the four months it will take Cryptic to actually respond to these issues. It's an incredibly shortsighted approach that runs the risk of alienating even more players, which given the huge swaths of people that quit the game in Mod 6, Cryptic absolutely cannot afford.
They need to rebuild their trust and rapport with their player base, by creating fun, in depth content that isn't bogged down by soul-crushing grind and boredom in a ham-fisted attempt to get people to purchase more Zen. They seem to have forgotten that people are more inclined to stick around and keep paying for a game that they enjoy, rather than simply to relieve the psychological punishment of a ridiculous grind. If they think their current approach is viable, they need to go ask the makers of Dungeon Keeper: Mobile how well that worked out for them.
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theycallmetomuMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,861Arc User
Ahh, I suppose you have a point there. I don't much like the design choice of Strongholds to begin with, but I was trying to play devil's advocate because I kind of understand their strategy, even if i disagree with it.
But I suppose you're right-the "It's hard at first and then kihihihihi we'll make it possible to sell resources" approach does kind of require small guilds to not just get super PO'd and quit.
Main reason why I think that that's their strategy is because the infrastructure is in place to sell resources. They had to explicitly override selling of adventurer's shards of power. Don't thinks normally need to be explicitly placed into categories to be searchable on the AH? It's like they had an oops and quickly tried to cover it up to spoil the surprise later on. "What? Buying things off the AH? No, you were never able to do that >>"
Said it before, will say it again: Ideally, they'll make getting the top tier benefits hard at first, so the uber guilds have to use all their uber resources, then they'll make selling resources an option, allowing smaller guilds to catch up once the uber guilds have excess resources.
In the meantime, smaller guilds are at a disadvantage, but that's a natural thing. People need to be patient. Solo players are screwed either way though, yeah.
The problem with that is that it runs the risk of the smaller guild players deciding not to tough it out, not to form 'lasting player bonds that will allow for greater retention' but to go "screw it, there are better MMO's out there than this garbage, I'm done!" in the four months it will take Cryptic to actually respond to these issues. It's an incredibly shortsighted approach that runs the risk of alienating even more players, which given the huge swaths of people that quit the game in Mod 6, Cryptic absolutely cannot afford.
They need to rebuild their trust and rapport with their player base, by creating fun, in depth content that isn't bogged down by soul-crushing grind and boredom in a ham-fisted attempt to get people to purchase more Zen. They seem to have forgotten that people are more inclined to stick around and keep paying for a game that they enjoy, rather than simply to relieve the psychological punishment of a ridiculous grind. If they think their current approach is viable, they need to go ask the makers of Dungeon Keeper: Mobile how well that worked out for them.
firstly, you misquoted this particular post. I didn't write that. theycallmetomu did.
secondly, on your previous comment of using paragraphs, yes, I occasionally brainfart those when I just blast out a rant. A lot of us do. We're gamers. It's in our nature to mess up on occasion.
thirdly, this, your assessmenty of the whole game's direction, is 100% accurate, as to strongholds in general. as well as much else of the game's direction.
This is exactly what I was hinting at. I played the old neverwinter. I liked it, because of the ease and the challenge mixed, wiothout having to blow a half a weeks pay per month on the game to be happy with it. things, in my opinion, started going down hill in the selling out department, with mod 4, but again, this is just an opinion.
-ahem, pardon whatever typos I juast left behind, was laying down typing-
Yes, there are better mmos out there, but most do not cater to the cheap and the poor in the gaming culture. I'd be a little of both of those. poor enough to be cheap, but capable of buying a seperate game if necessary. It's beginning to look like a stand alone, real rpg is going to have to be my path, as cryptic seems to be...yeah. I'll give it another few months of half-tailed effort, but honestly I'm enjoying text based games more and more these days, with gameplay, content, and very little to no graphics, unfortunately. I may try spending more time on NW again, but the past month or so of being away...it's opened my eyes to the fact that there is, indeed, more to life and entertainment, than having to babysit a shredding machine, or self-nerf to make it 'interesting' or 'challenging' to have fun, etc.
If you know of any that have a decent pricetag, or better yet free, feel free to inbox me a few titles, as long as that isn't a blatant violation of the terms of arc and cryptic(I honestly skimmed the T&C literature, it looked pretty much standard to me) I'm up for something challenging but still fun(not DS as someone mentioned in another thread[or this one?]... that game is just...no. that's beyond what I call fun, and into the realm of wth)
I'd like to remain a loyal patron of cryptic, but yeah... at the moment, I'm leaving this current account entirely free, until they decide to both evolve, and to step back towards the classic, content and gameplay based mmo that it started as, like EQ and WOW when they began. I'm just..none of the big names are like they should be, true adventure rpg's, because people no longer seem to want the adventure part, and are willing to not only pay for the games, but to continue payig and paying for nothing but advancement, rather than wanting something fun to play.
I love solo games. I love the occasional social games... and sometimes, I like to have the option for both in one game. cryptic did a great job there, but is failing in other aspects, as you mentioned and I reiterated. Oh well, as with so many before, looking like time to break out the old xp offline computer, and start reloading my old AoW and other little SP games, until something gets really going with Cryptic in some real direction, such as the direction they've been advertising from the start, true f3p gaming
pfft!
My awesomeness comes not from studying psychology. It comes from being studied by therapists for decades.
My apologies about the misquote, my friend, I'll be more careful in the future. And I'm presently hunting around for more. I'll let you know if I find one.
My apologies about the misquote, my friend, I'll be more careful in the future. And I'm presently hunting around for more. I'll let you know if I find one.
danka man. hopefully cryptic will try going back to the principals that started mmorpgs... but then their devs I guess wouldn't be able to make more in a week than I make in a year of hard labor? oh well... to each their own...
look forward to hearing something ghood.regarding a possible good game(preferrably f2p, or not extremely expensive, with decent graphics...but those I think after the past few hours of net searches, don't exist for pc, except actual old games)
like seriously... I found my old cd case of games... in the garage. on the shelf with all the automotive chemicals. will be lucky if any of them work anymore. none currently work on windows 7. doubt they'll work on the old pc. hopefully at least one will work. AoW2:Wt would be nice... but that one is too easy on easy, too hard on expert, and...yeah. basically predictable AI on the other two.
looking for challenge, content, and, should it be possible, graphics.
best set I have is the DND anthology from the late nineties I think for gameplay. graphics are. bleh, except in the cutscenes.
one of them, intriguingly, its the temple of elemental evil... lol
pfft!
My awesomeness comes not from studying psychology. It comes from being studied by therapists for decades.
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theycallmetomuMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,861Arc User
They did a CRPG for Temple of Elemental Evil near the end of 3.5e's run.
Game was abjectly awful, completely riddled with bugs. They had a good thing going and they blew it. They blew it!
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yes, we are. why? possibly because almost every single player(or solo playable mmo, the few and far between there are) are either expensive for the same quality of gameplay, or loaded with windows chewing worms and space hogging rabbits, or otherwise malware that those of us with security concerns, don't want.
So, either we are forced to every time we want to finish a map/area(the dungeons and skirmishes at the end) put up with other players grabbing most of the goodies that we want/need for our own character development, or pay 25+ dollars for games that have no social functions, and frequently have nowhere near the graphics without doubling that price and buying a better console or hardware upgrades to already decent PCs.
the point in all of this? to keep the game developers who make the single player games in the money, whether through the players buying their games so they don't have to put up with others, or by the 'free' ones grabbing your info and going to the bank(your bank). No, I don't believe this is some sort of conspiracy, but it is business, and business is always a bit dirty for those not making the money.
I'm actually mostly happy with Cryptic's games(except the recent heavy nerfing of the epic baddies... just lame to do it to that degree). But the option to play those force-grouping dungeons and skirmishes in solo mode, at the level ranges specified and at the same difficulty, should be always available. Some of us actually like a challenge. Some of us have loads of money to burn on zen for buying the best equipment if we don't like the challenge, and a whole heck of a lot of us only check the social portions for ammusement purposes, or to engage in pvp and see where we rank.I'd be in two of the three categories. Your guess which two.
Cheers,
-Wolfy
(wulfenblu)
My awesomeness comes not from studying psychology.
It comes from being studied by therapists for decades.
It's not that Underdark will necessarily be solo friendly. I mean, Elemental Evil wasn't. And I don't actually think they're going to raise the level again. Underdark will probably add in some gear that's marginally better than existing gear, but the differential will likely be closer to the differential between Sharandar and Dread Ring versus the old item sets (... except, without set bonuses that make the old gear better than the new gear despite better stats). Or perhaps Black Ice gear would be a better example.
While Underdark is part of WotC's release schedule, I am skeptical as to whether or not it's going to be as major of a release as Elemental Evil was. Underdark will almost certainly not invalidate the benefits of Strongholds. Strongholds was developed because Cryptic wanted to differentiate NWO from other F2P MMOs, and they explicitly went in a MOBA direction (GAG!!!). Huge mistake IMO but whatever. They also wanted to emphasize guilds, because of the belief that doing so will help with player retention as players form lasting bonds. Yeah yeah whatever, we've heard the counter arguments by now, no one cares.
Strongholds isn't going away. That's simply a fact. While you're likely able to complete solo content solo just fine in mod 8, the fact that you'll be at relative -8000 power or whatever the ridiculous value is is going to remain.
I... suppose that they could be in the middle of some absolutely ridiculous gambit, where they made the ridiculous +Xthousand powr type buildings just to try and convince the guilds to all rush into making buildings, and then they'll nerf them later on with a "Oopsies, sorry guys~" thing, but even then, non-guildies will still be at some disadvantage compared to guildies. It just may not be that they're dealing 70% of the damage that the guildies are dealing.
Looks like the fear of losing a lot of Xbox players got them to reconsider the [censored] they pulled with Elemental Evil.
Now we only have to sit back, invoke/do professions tasks/collect our VIP benefits daily, until Underdark is dumped upon us, then they might tone down the grind in Strongholds too.
It might even become possible to get at least some basic/small Stronghold on our own...
And with VIP they have something worthy to sell, if they want to sell more "products", they should adjust the prices for all those other packs as well, and change a lot of items (companions for example) to account wide instead of one per character...
Precisely.
And to anyone who says that a bad player will still be bad, boons or no, perhaps, perhaps, but let's do a quick and dirty breakdown.
I, Eravan, run into Joe-Bob-McSmashHuge of the Guild of Kill-Bloody-Everything. I have none of the boons, because Sufficient Velocity is a very small guild consisting of a sub-faction of a group of people who know each other from a certain sci-fi web board. McSmashHuge has all of them, because he's got one of the massive guilds that quickly ground/paidtheir way to the maxed out facilities and multiple maxed out boons. That means, all things equal, he's probably got double my attack power* or armor penetration or what-have-you, at probably 40% more hitpoints than me. So he's going to be hitting probably between 10-25% harder, even assuming we have the same equipment and enchants, and be almost half again as durable, and that's disregarding PVP bonuses he might have and utilities that he'll be using to get extra overflow levels/power points/glory/etc., meaning the odds of us actually being of roughly equal equipment loadout are laughably small.
Assuming McSmashHuge has an IQ above that of room temperature and is actually trying to play his toon, no matter how good I am, I am never going to be able to equal him. I'm never going to be able to make up for a stat difference that freaking huge. Which will then beg the question: why would any group in their right mind take me over him? I can look forward to the same trouble that undergeared players and certain HR/SW builds got when Elemental Evil was first released, namely, getting kicked from the group as soon as they realize I don't have these benefits, assuming they let me in in the first place and don't vet my character's stats. Which means I will continue to fall behind because now I'm not going to be able to Dungeon Run/Skirmish/etc. Assuming I can even complete them in the first place, since Mod 6 showed that if the Devs playtest their dungeons and skirmishes at all, they clearly do so in an idealized situation and under the assumption that everyone's got all the boons, all the powers, and have an ideal loadout (meaning they're probably going to be designing future content under the assumption that everyone and their mother has these stupidly powerful boons
And if it goes into PVP, it becomes even worse because now I'm having to face up against this guy that is significantly more powerful than me and will demolish me every single time if he's intelligent enough to remember how to breathe.
And as I've said before, NWO's player market/interactions/etc. are shockingly unregulated, and its Devs/GMs/etc. have shown no ability to control the soft/black market (or however you want to call it) of players using non-bound objects as currencies (like the GMOP) beyond a crude, retroactive attempt to BIP certain items (whereupon the currency promptly changes to something else and the whole messy cycle starts again). Given the faceless nature and general consequence free atmosphere, people are much more inclined to be jerks to one another than they otherwise would be, as has been my general experience (and to the people who do retain their civility and general niceness despite that, kudos to you, and thank you very much). Thus, once the powerful guilds like the one in our hypothetical realize the massive power they hold, I can guarantee you that some, maybe not all, but some will begin charging for the privilege of being a member, because they've got the would-be member by the proverbial you know what, and the player will have no choice but to bow to their demands or lose access to these tremendously powerful passive abilities and stat boosts.
So riddle me this: why should any player not already part of one of these huge guilds actually bother to stick around, pay for VIP, or otherwise spend Zen on this game, when there's a veritable glut of other MMOs out there that aren't designed by people that appear to be some combination of incompetent, hilariously short sighted, or possibly from another plane of existence in which the rules of reality and human nature do not apply?
*8000 points of an advantage, bearing in mind that a Rank 12 enchant offers 700 to a given stat, so it's literally like he's packing an extra eleven maxed out enchantments of the relevant type. With the added, enormous utility/force multiplier bonus that McSmashHuge will be able to switch between unlocked boons at will, something never before possible, making him much more flexible to fulfilling multiple roles and adapting to changing situations.
In fact, why the heck boons haven't needed to be slotted from the very start is a complete mystery to me.
Underdark: Exactly where their game is going to end up.
Not sure how you figure. The armor from Underdark will be competitive with Dragonflight. So the "only" thing you're missing out on, aside from having to wait until Underdark and get Underdark gear instead, is the building boons.
Of course, those building boons are abjectly ridiculous.
Apologies, I should have been more clear. The idea was that if the Underdark gear was better, then, boons aside, the solo or small guilds could simply try to save up all possible resources in preparation for grabbing the UD gear as quickly as possible, and get a *slight* edge back. Or rather, at least not be so far behind for a little while.
So much for that plan.
Brilliantly done, Cryptic, brilliantly done. You've once again ensured that everyone must march in lock-step with your business plan in order to remain relevant, thus ensuring that they'll stick around that much longer and spend that much more money on your game. All it needs is an absolute monopoly of the high fantasy mmo genre in order to ensure that they don't just leave for a game that doesn't psychologically and monetarily browbeat them and...
oh....
They will (if they're smart) eventually institute a catchup mechanism for smaller guilds and guilds created later on in the game's lifeline. The most simple way of doing that would be to allow guilds to sell excess shards of power and the like. And heck, they WERE allowing that for a short period of time, but apparently that was a mistake, and now you can't sell shards because they're bound. Which is BS.
It says the pack itself is tradeable, not necessarily the contents.
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
...has alrdy happened to my 'family'
the numbers are simply too high for casuals - STO all over again only faster
i rly wanted this game to succeed and had high hopes
but since the decision has been made for me - good luck to all of you...
Good luck to you as well.
the way things are i regret all the money i put in the game because they are kiling it.
i rather stop playing then leave my small guild and 3 or 4 months stuck in something that is not gonna be done its not for me... if they think meanwile im gonna get more slots with zens to make alts they are wrong if its not worth playing in my mains why should i get more alts to be stuck in the same a criptic fantasy...
i just wish dev´s play the game... solo player is like the sw now... sucks being one of them
My awesomeness comes not from studying psychology.
It comes from being studied by therapists for decades.
For the love of god, paragraphs, learn to use them!
Secondly, casuals and hardcores are both screwed by this mod. The only ones that benefit are large guilds (who may be casual or hardcore, f2p, choice purchasers like myself, or VIPs) which likely as not swiftly abuse the massive power they now hold.
Secondly, what makes you think the paying customers, the whales, are the ones getting screwed in this mod?
Said it before, will say it again: Ideally, they'll make getting the top tier benefits hard at first, so the uber guilds have to use all their uber resources, then they'll make selling resources an option, allowing smaller guilds to catch up once the uber guilds have excess resources.
In the meantime, smaller guilds are at a disadvantage, but that's a natural thing. People need to be patient. Solo players are screwed either way though, yeah.
Looks like NWO PC is just the beta test grounds for NWO Xbox. Tons of feedback about what is going wrong in Elemental Evil, but they only react, when they plan on releasing it to the Xbox crowd.
And not even some kind of sincere apology for all the mess we had to deal with...
The problem with that is that it runs the risk of the smaller guild players deciding not to tough it out, not to form 'lasting player bonds that will allow for greater retention' but to go "screw it, there are better MMO's out there than this garbage, I'm done!" in the four months it will take Cryptic to actually respond to these issues. It's an incredibly shortsighted approach that runs the risk of alienating even more players, which given the huge swaths of people that quit the game in Mod 6, Cryptic absolutely cannot afford.
They need to rebuild their trust and rapport with their player base, by creating fun, in depth content that isn't bogged down by soul-crushing grind and boredom in a ham-fisted attempt to get people to purchase more Zen. They seem to have forgotten that people are more inclined to stick around and keep paying for a game that they enjoy, rather than simply to relieve the psychological punishment of a ridiculous grind. If they think their current approach is viable, they need to go ask the makers of Dungeon Keeper: Mobile how well that worked out for them.
But I suppose you're right-the "It's hard at first and then kihihihihi we'll make it possible to sell resources" approach does kind of require small guilds to not just get super PO'd and quit.
Main reason why I think that that's their strategy is because the infrastructure is in place to sell resources. They had to explicitly override selling of adventurer's shards of power. Don't thinks normally need to be explicitly placed into categories to be searchable on the AH? It's like they had an oops and quickly tried to cover it up to spoil the surprise later on. "What? Buying things off the AH? No, you were never able to do that >>"
firstly, you misquoted this particular post. I didn't write that. theycallmetomu did.
secondly, on your previous comment of using paragraphs, yes, I occasionally brainfart those when I just blast out a rant. A lot of us do. We're gamers. It's in our nature to mess up on occasion.
thirdly, this, your assessmenty of the whole game's direction, is 100% accurate, as to strongholds in general. as well as much else of the game's direction.
This is exactly what I was hinting at. I played the old neverwinter. I liked it, because of the ease and the challenge mixed, wiothout having to blow a half a weeks pay per month on the game to be happy with it. things, in my opinion, started going down hill in the selling out department, with mod 4, but again, this is just an opinion.
-ahem, pardon whatever typos I juast left behind, was laying down typing-
Yes, there are better mmos out there, but most do not cater to the cheap and the poor in the gaming culture. I'd be a little of both of those. poor enough to be cheap, but capable of buying a seperate game if necessary. It's beginning to look like a stand alone, real rpg is going to have to be my path, as cryptic seems to be...yeah. I'll give it another few months of half-tailed effort, but honestly I'm enjoying text based games more and more these days, with gameplay, content, and very little to no graphics, unfortunately. I may try spending more time on NW again, but the past month or so of being away...it's opened my eyes to the fact that there is, indeed, more to life and entertainment, than having to babysit a shredding machine, or self-nerf to make it 'interesting' or 'challenging' to have fun, etc.
If you know of any that have a decent pricetag, or better yet free, feel free to inbox me a few titles, as long as that isn't a blatant violation of the terms of arc and cryptic(I honestly skimmed the T&C literature, it looked pretty much standard to me) I'm up for something challenging but still fun(not DS as someone mentioned in another thread[or this one?]... that game is just...no. that's beyond what I call fun, and into the realm of wth)
I'd like to remain a loyal patron of cryptic, but yeah... at the moment, I'm leaving this current account entirely free, until they decide to both evolve, and to step back towards the classic, content and gameplay based mmo that it started as, like EQ and WOW when they began. I'm just..none of the big names are like they should be, true adventure rpg's, because people no longer seem to want the adventure part, and are willing to not only pay for the games, but to continue payig and paying for nothing but advancement, rather than wanting something fun to play.
I love solo games. I love the occasional social games... and sometimes, I like to have the option for both in one game. cryptic did a great job there, but is failing in other aspects, as you mentioned and I reiterated. Oh well, as with so many before, looking like time to break out the old xp offline computer, and start reloading my old AoW and other little SP games, until something gets really going with Cryptic in some real direction, such as the direction they've been advertising from the start, true f3p gaming
My awesomeness comes not from studying psychology.
It comes from being studied by therapists for decades.
danka man. hopefully cryptic will try going back to the principals that started mmorpgs... but then their devs I guess wouldn't be able to make more in a week than I make in a year of hard labor? oh well... to each their own...
look forward to hearing something ghood.regarding a possible good game(preferrably f2p, or not extremely expensive, with decent graphics...but those I think after the past few hours of net searches, don't exist for pc, except actual old games)
like seriously... I found my old cd case of games... in the garage. on the shelf with all the automotive chemicals. will be lucky if any of them work anymore. none currently work on windows 7. doubt they'll work on the old pc. hopefully at least one will work. AoW2:Wt would be nice... but that one is too easy on easy, too hard on expert, and...yeah. basically predictable AI on the other two.
looking for challenge, content, and, should it be possible, graphics.
best set I have is the DND anthology from the late nineties I think for gameplay. graphics are. bleh, except in the cutscenes.
one of them, intriguingly, its the temple of elemental evil... lol
My awesomeness comes not from studying psychology.
It comes from being studied by therapists for decades.
Game was abjectly awful, completely riddled with bugs. They had a good thing going and they blew it. They blew it!