The problem still is, that the AD costs for many important things are still the very same, but the "average" player has now less AD to spend.
As allready mentioned, it would help to know what AD changes we can expect on this matter before Underdark, or if more AD changes are coming after/with the release of Underdark.
Again, this only works for people running leadership armies. For the "average" player who was making $10/hr before the change and $10/hr after, reducing the cost of beer from $50 to $5 is a huge boost
Yes, the leadership change "hurt" players who had large leadership armies, there's not doubt about that. But overall it's better for new players and existing players who didn't enjoy the thought of investing 30 character slots and 6 months in order to have a "competitive" income, which long term is far better for the game.
They did not hurt the ppl with leadership armies bc they have millions of ADs and their ADs doubled in value. They did hurt normal players who did run leadership on their main and their alts, spending every AD to boost their chars/ guild stronghold. Furthermore their dungeonrework decreased the AD income for running skirmishes and/or dungeons.
I dont want to repeat myself or other posts for the 100th time. Ppl did the math in multiple posts. The changes decreased RAD income from leadership, dungeons and skirmshes. They did hurt everyone exept ppl with millions of ADs.
Furthermore the RAD for dungeon drops decreased, the dungeons to farm salvageable items got deleted, the AD sinks are all still in the game exept GMOPs.
If everything is a ok, why are they promising further changes, why did 20% of the players leave. An average player was able to earn 24k+ RAD running some dungeons/skirmishes while dungeon/skirmish time was up. Now you have to run MORE dungeons and skirmishes, to earn LESS RAD.
Chars: CW, DC, GF, GWF, HR and TR.
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plasticbatMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 12,378Arc User
Sorry, was just thinking about the mark costs...total cost has dropped from about 200k-250k down to 70k-90k depending on the enchantment...but the point is still relevant. As a percent of income, the new player is doing better now than he did before the changes.
The new f2p player (depends on how new you refer to) does not care about GMoP. Right now, new player has almost 0 AD income. The drop of mark cost does not mean much to new player (since they have not reached the level that needs it). MOP was cheap in AH before the leadership nerf. Leadership (for a char) gives them some AD. i.e. MOP was affordable with minimum pay. Now, no AD.
It is like telling the poor about the lobster price dropped 50% when they have no money to buy bread.
*** The game can read your mind. If you want it, you won't get it. If you don't expect to get it, you will. ***
If given the choice upfront, I'm sure even most new players would have preferred the old screwed up system over the brand new, even more screwed up system.
The old screwed up system only worked for those people who invested in leadership farms, and those farms required people invest 3-6 months of time to get a pay out.
You can't ignore that part and still argue the old system was better.
A fresh level 70 won't have access to leadership farms.
Would you prefer to have a Rank 8 enchantment cost 25,000 AD while being able to max out at 24,000 AD/day, or a Ran 8 Enchantment cost 100,000 AD while still only being able to max out 24,000 AD/day?
I completely agree that leadership farms were ridiculous, and destructive to the game's economy. Their solution to leadership, while lazy as all heck, should mostly fix the problems that leadership was causing.
But even when comparing a pre-mod 6 character that didn't use leadership at all to a current character, the pre-mod 6 character could generate significantly more AD in less time. The only improvement that I can see is if you were dead set on hitting the refinement cap on a character, without relying on salvage, it is now somewhat more convenient as you wouldn't have to wait for multiple skirmish hours... Though you'd likely end up playing a marathon session that would be about the same amount of time as two skirmish hours anyway.
So yeah, even if you carried over the leadership nerfage to the old system, for pretty much all players, new, old, casual, hardcore, it worked better than the new one. I'm not saying they should revert to the old system and bring leadership back, but I am saying that the new system SUCKS! And frankly, if they couldn't spare the time and effort necessary to make a better system, they never should have touched it in the first place. Players are likely going to be saddled with this garbage for months with no guarantee it won't get worse before it gets any better.
Also that enchantment comparison is neither here nor there. Enchantment prices have changed mostly due to increased supply.
The chages in leadership did help me a lot because prices got nomalized Since I have no leadershiparmee and the ammount i earned with it was very poor, and since my AD income did not drop it's nice all in all... Beside the other 1000 problems (PVP,Warlock, no content, endless bugs) that drive me away from this mmo
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mrvincent1959Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 740Arc User
"How much life left in the game?"
Well, there is always a lull between modules. I got my gear and Stronghold stuff, so I'm in a good place right now after having come back to the game several weeks ago. That said, I am very concerned about reports that alot of Feats and abilities, and such things are not working as stated. A full test of every class, artifact etc etc needs to be done.
I personally think the game has turned the corner in a good direction since the Mod 6 release, at least in terms of PVE for level 70 players.
I am hoping they get a big release to the preview server soon so I can check it out. Mod 8 has a lot of content coming, so I want to see how that plays. The solo player needs to be taken care of hopefully. If its filled with Heroic Encounters, then it's going to be a problem.
We also need a few more dungeons back with good Astral Diamond rewards and such. I actually like getting Rough AD from dungeons and skirmishes, but they forgot to lower the AD costs of many things. This needs to be looked at.
I keep leaving this game and trying others, but the combat system keeps bringing me back. I think Mod 8, if done well, will bring alot of people back and also bring in new players.
It looks like they're going to do the same to Leadership on Xbox with the next patch. It would be interesting to know the player numbers on Xbox now, and then compare them with the player numbers at the end of this month...
Sorry, was just thinking about the mark costs...total cost has dropped from about 200k-250k down to 70k-90k depending on the enchantment...but the point is still relevant. As a percent of income, the new player is doing better now than he did before the changes.
I'm a new player and I don't see how I'm doing better. I used to at least be able to make some AD doing a daily foundry, now my only source is just Invoking each day on every character, and the best way to quickly make something from that is to level every character slot I have to level 60 quickly so I can get a decent amount from that. Even still, with mark costs down and such, static prices aren't dropping at all. You know how daunting it is for me to make up 600k to upgrade my Erinyes companion to get 10% crit severity? Or even just make enough to appearance change an item I have? I won't even bother doing that since 38k AD for one appearance change of an item is more than I can earn in a single day and I've got 9 character slots now with 5 of them up to 60.
Sorry, was just thinking about the mark costs...total cost has dropped from about 200k-250k down to 70k-90k depending on the enchantment...but the point is still relevant. As a percent of income, the new player is doing better now than he did before the changes.
I'm a new player and I don't see how I'm doing better. I used to at least be able to make some AD doing a daily foundry, now my only source is just Invoking each day on every character, and the best way to quickly make something from that is to level every character slot I have to level 60 quickly so I can get a decent amount from that. Even still, with mark costs down and such, static prices aren't dropping at all. You know how daunting it is for me to make up 600k to upgrade my Erinyes companion to get 10% crit severity? Or even just make enough to appearance change an item I have? I won't even bother doing that since 38k AD for one appearance change of an item is more than I can earn in a single day and I've got 9 character slots now with 5 of them up to 60.
you have to run dungeons, all in all you can get easily 24k AD doing so in moderat time I have 3 toons and since you get lots of armor by running T1/T2 you even can transfer the loot to other chars, they can refine it so all in all taking one day on the weekend I do 72k AD+ RP+lockbox from VIP and i do not have the interest in gettng an army of 9 toons, I focus on one mainchar transfer the AD and RP and thats it, having 9 fully equipped chars is too much in case you do not invest any money to get at least VIP status it will take time beeing better geared its easy to run them, so you need a guild or better equipement otherwise you will not advance
and what definitely change with leadership reformation is, only the ones who play the game advance most time, not that ones who play with their iphone at work coordinating their leadership army instead of concentrating on their job that´s a huge difference imo, and the best decision since long time to get rid of some economy students with no intention to actually play this game, beside all other unsolved problems
Sorry, was just thinking about the mark costs...total cost has dropped from about 200k-250k down to 70k-90k depending on the enchantment...but the point is still relevant. As a percent of income, the new player is doing better now than he did before the changes.
I'm a new player and I don't see how I'm doing better. I used to at least be able to make some AD doing a daily foundry, now my only source is just Invoking each day on every character, and the best way to quickly make something from that is to level every character slot I have to level 60 quickly so I can get a decent amount from that. Even still, with mark costs down and such, static prices aren't dropping at all. You know how daunting it is for me to make up 600k to upgrade my Erinyes companion to get 10% crit severity? Or even just make enough to appearance change an item I have? I won't even bother doing that since 38k AD for one appearance change of an item is more than I can earn in a single day and I've got 9 character slots now with 5 of them up to 60.
you have to run dungeons, all in all you can get easily 24k AD doing so in moderat time I have 3 toons and since you get lots of armor by running T1/T2 you even can transfer the loot to other chars, they can refine it so all in all taking one day on the weekend I do 72k AD+ RP+lockbox from VIP and i do not have the interest in gettng an army of 9 toons, no focus on one mainchar transfer the AD and RP and thats it, having 9 fully equipped chars is too much in case you do not invest any money to get at least VIP status it will take time beeing better geared its easy to run them, so you need a guild or better equipement otherwise you will not advance
Like I said, I'm new, I don't know anything about that stuff yet. I just invoke, quest, and do dragon dailies.
The LS change was a huge boost for me playing 6-7 months now. Previously I was running LS on 3 characters pulling 12k ad per character via LS and capping out at 72k per day after doing dailies. Now I cap out at 40-48k, but everything on the AH is so much cheaper, and with the change to GMoP I can afford to upgrade.
That's wierd, cus old players all saying new players are fine.
I'm new player and I'm not fine
Please enlighten me how to upgrade pets, go tho campaigns, upgrade weapon armor enchantments(the problem is not gmop, it's C ward) and fill all my slots. Oh, and all other refinement
With 48000 ad income per day, no day off, no medical leave
Lmao. As new player I d like having a chance to build ad army
Well they've dropped the hammer on the x-bone, I wouldn't be surprised to see the PC leadership get it's rework in the next two weeks, and then pass the "balanced" version on to them after a few tweaks in the November X-bone patch. AD cost changes I suspect will wait for Underdark as will AD granting tasks. (I hope they will include AD generating quests into UD)
Honestly, I don't understand why this thread is so focused on AD only. I understand that AD is one of the key factor, but it cannot be the only reason to leave this game. Bugs, poor contents, game progression issues, insane grinding, SH for small guilds, disrupted PvP and unbalanced classes are rarely reported as the main reasons to leave the game. As an example, some problems can be solved in a different way. Players need AD to perform a number of activities: those can be supported using the game rewards. As an example: You need to upgrade companions: why aren't the companions coins a rare BoA dungeon/PvP reward? You need a valuable item like a mount. Why aren't blu mounts a BoA rare dungeon/PvP rewards? Some items may be given as the result of a series of activities: a blu mount can be given collecting vouchers coming from different game contents. As Cryptic uses to state, the game experience is a trade off of time spent on the game and real $. Players with time can achieve some good progressions investing time in playing the game instead of farming AD.
Oltreverso guild leader Maga Othelma - DC | Svalvolo - SW | Dente Avvelenato- GWF
This thread is probably so focused on AD as that is the most recent "crisis" we are having to deal with. If we weren't talking about AD right now we'd be discussing the leaps in difficulty from 60-70-t1dungeons-t2/ the lack of variety in items and content, BUGS, and of course the RP grind, these have all been put on the back burner as the a lot of peoples forseen route of progression was severely altered, and they're scrambling around trying to find alternate progression paths.
The LS change was a huge boost for me playing 6-7 months now. Previously I was running LS on 3 characters pulling 12k ad per character via LS and capping out at 72k per day after doing dailies. Now I cap out at 40-48k, but everything on the AH is so much cheaper, and with the change to GMoP I can afford to upgrade.
This is a perfect example for someone beliving the propaganda and ignoring the facts.
To make things easier, lets say, that he earns half of the AD, he earned before the LS changes.
He claimed, that he can afford more upgrades and buy more in the AH.
Take a look at upgrades: Boons (campain or Stronghold). Same price, half the income, doubled work. ALL rerolls (cubes, respec, etc). Same price, half the income, doubled work. Fortification kits. Same price, half the income, doubled work. Companion upgrades. Same price, half the income, doubled work. R 11. Old system 500k, now 200k, with half the income 100k cheaper. R 12. Old system 500k, now 400k, with half the income 300k more expensive, in time spent. R1-R10, at last, the prices dropped by half, if you take into account, that the income got nerfed. Artefacts, yay again, for half the prices (excluding preservation wards). Artefact gear. RP dropped more than 50%, so it is cheaper to level your gear up.
AH, depends. Some prices dropped more, than 50%, but the 'good stuff' did not drop 50% or more.
To sum it up, you get to a certain level faster, but if you want to exeed it or, god forbid, reach BIS, you are up for a rude awakening.
Granted, that the gap between BIS and average joe got smaller, but the work you will have to invest, to close it, after reaching a certain point, got more, not less.
Now take into account all the previous nerfs granted to us (power points from overflow XP, dragon hoard, salvage farming, sellable drops etc.) and the realistic conclusion is, that there is no way, that a new player can reach BIS in a year, without dropping some serious cash.
I heared someone say, 'yes, but they did hurt the ppl with leadership armies and exploiters even more'. Fact check. I did neither exploit, nor did I have a leadership army. I had 8 lvl 70 chars running leadership. Of this 8 chars, I play 5 and 3 I tried out and dropped. I did farmruns and I bought and sold stuff in the AH. A few month ago I started leveling an OP and two month ago I came to the conclusion, that with Stronghold pricing (2.5 Million AD for one Boon Rank 1), I need more income and started 11 more chars for leadership. Before they reached rank 20, leadersip got nerfed, so good luck there. To get to the point, even after dropping millions of ADs into the guild stronghold, gearing up 5 chars and investing millions of ADs into leadership, that never bore fruit, I still have some XX million AD left. While my income got nerfed, my ADs nearly doubled in value, making me richer.
Take the exploiter, He did get, lets say 300 million ADs from his exploit, did not get banned, the exploit got fixed, he did spent 100 million ADs on gear. His remaining 200 million ADs nearly doubled in value, so he BEBEFITTED from these changes.
The same goes for ppl with leadersip armies, who ran them for years. While their weekly income got nerfed, preventing more ADs in the future, the value of their accumulated wealth did nearly double, making it easier for them to stay bis and hurting them maybe in 1 or two years.
So in conclusion, this changes, while needed are not well executed. The riches got richer and the normal player got the boot and a band aid. IF they change the fixed prices and IF they make AD earning by playing the game a vialbe option, I would say, that it is a game with good chances for new players to catch up, making it interesting for a larger crowd to fill in the ranks of players who left the game. As it is, the changes are bad for new player, in the long run.
This thread is probably so focused on AD as that is the most recent "crisis" we are having to deal with. If we weren't talking about AD right now we'd be discussing the leaps in difficulty from 60-70-t1dungeons-t2/ the lack of variety in items and content, BUGS, and of course the RP grind, these have all been put on the back burner as the a lot of peoples forseen route of progression was severely altered, and they're scrambling around trying to find alternate progression paths.
...what also makes the game so meh currently is that the whole shebang revolves around the fekkin Pala bubble. Have a perma-bubble-adin and all is cheesecake easy, have none and it's quite brutal. Doh.
Variety? Meh, apparently C thinks that that's overrated...
Soloing? Oh, this is D&D and the party is always right! Be happy you can get to 70 without partying... ...after it's been softened somewhat over several months.
And the AD thing: Well, further changes might happen or they might not. We'll probably learn about this early next year - if other righting processes' speed is to be taken as a rule for guesstimation...
With mod6, strongholds, the rad removal from leadership, and no way to get any decent AD in game ( especially at lower levels ),
Are you kidding me? The removal of AD from leadership was an ENORMOUS boost to new players. Or do you think it was awesome to tell someone who's totally new to the game that earning AD is super easy...all you need is 30 character slots and 6 months of mindlessly clicking in a web browser. .
That is one way to look at it. On the other hand, Do you think a new player looks at the cost of Rank 10 -12 enchants + wards + GMOPS + SMOPS + resonance stones and says, at 24K AD per day yeah that is fun and doable?
It's like throwing rice farmers in with trust fund babies and expecting them to compete.
There is still no reasonable way PLAYING the game that the average player can earn enough AD.
The game is has not much left because they intentionally changed the design to prevent the new people to progress, they basically move the balance from "casual player friendly" to "unable to progress unless u pay". I would suggest that anyone that is trying to defend the new system just create an account from zero and try to make it progress without getting any help from your main account nor paying 100 dollars just to start. When you do that, you find yourself without artifact (new account dont get sigils to fill in the empty spots and now making alts just for sigils take a lot more time), without powerpoints farmed (check the amount of exp needed just to get 1 PP after lvl70 and the playing hours that you need just to pray the RNG god to get a PP instead of a few R4 enchants), with no AD to buy R7 enchants and without even green companions.
The people that defend the current state of the games and changes they made are the ones that they have already all that they need, but if you are a new player and you dont have any of that you are just not going to make it unless you pay real money. When ive started playing this game at the end of Mod2 I could recommend it to any of my friends (I actually did) but rigth now you really have to hate someone if you tell him that this is game to give a chance.
The game lost about 33% of the playerbase from the month before M6 to the month before M7 (33% on 4 months, ouch). You always get peak of players that try the new content during the launch of the new mods, but the problem is that the peak of players that returned when they launched the M7 was of 362 average and inmediatly after that month they already lost 483 and keep dropping. I know that those statistics are from the people that use the steam launcher only, but if you say that in term of percent that isn't representative of the actual situation you are just lying urself or you are not logging and checking your own friend list empty.
The problem still is, that the AD costs for many important things are still the very same, but the "average" player has now less AD to spend.
How much AD do you think the "average" player makes from Leadership each day? I don't think it is as much as you think. Also, many of the most important things to the average player has come down in price:
- gmops (25% of orig) for up to rank 10 - various RP stuff on AH is, on average, less than before (resonance stones are 1/2 price, R4 and R5 have dropped but rebounded lately probably due to changes to Ghost Stories) - CWards and PWards are tied to zen, so prices for those are down - many various mounts, companions, bags, profession assets and equipment on AH (available in zen store or not) have dropped in price
The average player doesn't have upgrading companion / mount, best armor kits, or unlocking MH/OH powers as their priority. I DO believe that the AD requirements for SH upgrades and feats respec should come down though. But many? I guess it depends on your definition of many, but regardless of that, it is still relatively few compared to all the stuff that did come down in price
Granted, that the gap between BIS and average joe got smaller, but the work you will have to invest, to close it, after reaching a certain point, got more, not less.
Let's be honest here, the smaller gap is the more important thing to the average joe. Pass that certain point you are referring to? Well, they wouldn't be the average joe now, would they?
At least another 5-6 years. Till the next gen consoles come out. Smartest move PWE/Cryptic did was get the D&D Neverwinter IP. It'll keep attracting new players because of that association. If this was a new IP, with the changes theyve made, the playerbase would of crashed and never been able to stabilize or recover.
The Neverwinter D&D IP and the expansion into consoles will keep this game here for awhile. The revenue generating systems are already in place, no real innovation, they are the same as any other MMORPG. But because of the name association, even if they keep making it unfavorable for players, itll still attract new blood.
Let's be honest here, the smaller gap is the more important thing to the average joe. Pass that certain point you are referring to? Well, they wouldn't be the average joe now, would they?
The thing is, that it was possible to gear up to beat all PvE dungeons before. The real difference is PvP here they 'closed' the gap in so far, that a new player will 'just' get half the stats of a BIS player and, oh joy, widened it by miles with stronghold boons, glyphs and active companions.
Get a OP or a faithful DC, slot a blacksmith and a renegade evoker and watch the DDs killing themself. The SW dares to move, get your cockatrice and beat him to pulp, while he is rooted. You dont want to get CCed and you dont want to lose the DR from your Tnegation, sylph, will o wisp and cankerous mage are your friends. For just 5 million ADs you can reflect dmg or CC or be tanky as you want with the right companions. Wait, you are a new player and you dont want to spent all the ADs you earn in 4 month on PvP specific companions, well, thats to bad.
Comments
As allready mentioned, it would help to know what AD changes we can expect on this matter before Underdark, or if more AD changes are coming after/with the release of Underdark.
A Dev response with more informations about
http://forum.arcgames.com/neverwinter/discussion/1203585/astral-diamond-changes
would also help.
I dont want to repeat myself or other posts for the 100th time. Ppl did the math in multiple posts. The changes decreased RAD income from leadership, dungeons and skirmshes. They did hurt everyone exept ppl with millions of ADs.
Furthermore the RAD for dungeon drops decreased, the dungeons to farm salvageable items got deleted, the AD sinks are all still in the game exept GMOPs.
If everything is a ok, why are they promising further changes, why did 20% of the players leave. An average player was able to earn 24k+ RAD running some dungeons/skirmishes while dungeon/skirmish time was up. Now you have to run MORE dungeons and skirmishes, to earn LESS RAD.
i.e. MOP was affordable with minimum pay. Now, no AD.
It is like telling the poor about the lobster price dropped 50% when they have no money to buy bread.
But even when comparing a pre-mod 6 character that didn't use leadership at all to a current character, the pre-mod 6 character could generate significantly more AD in less time. The only improvement that I can see is if you were dead set on hitting the refinement cap on a character, without relying on salvage, it is now somewhat more convenient as you wouldn't have to wait for multiple skirmish hours... Though you'd likely end up playing a marathon session that would be about the same amount of time as two skirmish hours anyway.
So yeah, even if you carried over the leadership nerfage to the old system, for pretty much all players, new, old, casual, hardcore, it worked better than the new one. I'm not saying they should revert to the old system and bring leadership back, but I am saying that the new system SUCKS! And frankly, if they couldn't spare the time and effort necessary to make a better system, they never should have touched it in the first place. Players are likely going to be saddled with this garbage for months with no guarantee it won't get worse before it gets any better.
Also that enchantment comparison is neither here nor there. Enchantment prices have changed mostly due to increased supply.
Okay, Panic.
Since I have no leadershiparmee and the ammount i earned with it was very poor, and since my AD income did not drop it's nice all in all... Beside the other 1000 problems (PVP,Warlock, no content, endless bugs) that drive me away from this mmo
Well, there is always a lull between modules. I got my gear and Stronghold stuff, so I'm in a good place right now after having come back to the game several weeks ago. That said, I am very concerned about reports that alot of Feats and abilities, and such things are not working as stated. A full test of every class, artifact etc etc needs to be done.
I personally think the game has turned the corner in a good direction since the Mod 6 release, at least in terms of PVE for level 70 players.
I am hoping they get a big release to the preview server soon so I can check it out. Mod 8 has a lot of content coming, so I want to see how that plays. The solo player needs to be taken care of hopefully. If its filled with Heroic Encounters, then it's going to be a problem.
We also need a few more dungeons back with good Astral Diamond rewards and such. I actually like getting Rough AD from dungeons and skirmishes, but they forgot to lower the AD costs of many things. This needs to be looked at.
I keep leaving this game and trying others, but the combat system keeps bringing me back. I think Mod 8, if done well, will bring alot of people back and also bring in new players.
It looks like they're going to do the same to Leadership on Xbox with the next patch. It would be interesting to know the player numbers on Xbox now, and then compare them with the player numbers at the end of this month...
I have 3 toons and since you get lots of armor by running T1/T2 you even can transfer the loot to other chars, they can refine it
so all in all taking one day on the weekend I do 72k AD+ RP+lockbox from VIP
and i do not have the interest in gettng an army of 9 toons, I focus on one mainchar transfer the AD and RP and thats it, having 9 fully equipped chars is too much
in case you do not invest any money to get at least VIP status it will take time
beeing better geared its easy to run them, so you need a guild or better equipement otherwise you will not advance
and what definitely change with leadership reformation is, only the ones who play the game advance most time, not that ones who play with their iphone at work coordinating their leadership army instead of concentrating on their job
that´s a huge difference imo, and the best decision since long time to get rid of some economy students with no intention to actually play this game, beside all other unsolved problems
Summed it all up in one sentence.
I'm new player and I'm not fine
Please enlighten me how to upgrade pets, go tho campaigns, upgrade weapon armor enchantments(the problem is not gmop, it's C ward) and fill all my slots.
Oh, and all other refinement
With 48000 ad income per day, no day off, no medical leave
Lmao. As new player I d like having a chance to build ad army
Bugs, poor contents, game progression issues, insane grinding, SH for small guilds, disrupted PvP and unbalanced classes are rarely reported as the main reasons to leave the game.
As an example, some problems can be solved in a different way. Players need AD to perform a number of activities: those can be supported using the game rewards. As an example:
You need to upgrade companions: why aren't the companions coins a rare BoA dungeon/PvP reward?
You need a valuable item like a mount. Why aren't blu mounts a BoA rare dungeon/PvP rewards?
Some items may be given as the result of a series of activities: a blu mount can be given collecting vouchers coming from different game contents. As Cryptic uses to state, the game experience is a trade off of time spent on the game and real $. Players with time can achieve some good progressions investing time in playing the game instead of farming AD.
Oltreverso guild leader
Maga Othelma - DC | Svalvolo - SW | Dente Avvelenato- GWF
Variety? Nope.
To make things easier, lets say, that he earns half of the AD, he earned before the LS changes.
He claimed, that he can afford more upgrades and buy more in the AH.
Take a look at upgrades:
Boons (campain or Stronghold). Same price, half the income, doubled work.
ALL rerolls (cubes, respec, etc). Same price, half the income, doubled work.
Fortification kits. Same price, half the income, doubled work.
Companion upgrades. Same price, half the income, doubled work.
R 11. Old system 500k, now 200k, with half the income 100k cheaper.
R 12. Old system 500k, now 400k, with half the income 300k more expensive, in time spent.
R1-R10, at last, the prices dropped by half, if you take into account, that the income got nerfed.
Artefacts, yay again, for half the prices (excluding preservation wards).
Artefact gear. RP dropped more than 50%, so it is cheaper to level your gear up.
AH, depends. Some prices dropped more, than 50%, but the 'good stuff' did not drop 50% or more.
To sum it up, you get to a certain level faster, but if you want to exeed it or, god forbid, reach BIS, you are up for a rude awakening.
Granted, that the gap between BIS and average joe got smaller, but the work you will have to invest, to close it, after reaching a certain point, got more, not less.
Now take into account all the previous nerfs granted to us (power points from overflow XP, dragon hoard, salvage farming, sellable drops etc.) and the realistic conclusion is, that there is no way, that a new player can reach BIS in a year, without dropping some serious cash.
I heared someone say, 'yes, but they did hurt the ppl with leadership armies and exploiters even more'. Fact check. I did neither exploit, nor did I have a leadership army. I had 8 lvl 70 chars running leadership. Of this 8 chars, I play 5 and 3 I tried out and dropped. I did farmruns and I bought and sold stuff in the AH. A few month ago I started leveling an OP and two month ago I came to the conclusion, that with Stronghold pricing (2.5 Million AD for one Boon Rank 1), I need more income and started 11 more chars for leadership. Before they reached rank 20, leadersip got nerfed, so good luck there. To get to the point, even after dropping millions of ADs into the guild stronghold, gearing up 5 chars and investing millions of ADs into leadership, that never bore fruit, I still have some XX million AD left. While my income got nerfed, my ADs nearly doubled in value, making me richer.
Take the exploiter, He did get, lets say 300 million ADs from his exploit, did not get banned, the exploit got fixed, he did spent 100 million ADs on gear. His remaining 200 million ADs nearly doubled in value, so he BEBEFITTED from these changes.
The same goes for ppl with leadersip armies, who ran them for years. While their weekly income got nerfed, preventing more ADs in the future, the value of their accumulated wealth did nearly double, making it easier for them to stay bis and hurting them maybe in 1 or two years.
So in conclusion, this changes, while needed are not well executed. The riches got richer and the normal player got the boot and a band aid. IF they change the fixed prices and IF they make AD earning by playing the game a vialbe option, I would say, that it is a game with good chances for new players to catch up, making it interesting for a larger crowd to fill in the ranks of players who left the game. As it is, the changes are bad for new player, in the long run.
Variety? Meh, apparently C thinks that that's overrated...
Soloing? Oh, this is D&D and the party is always right! Be happy you can get to 70 without partying... ...after it's been softened somewhat over several months.
And the AD thing: Well, further changes might happen or they might not. We'll probably learn about this early next year - if other righting processes' speed is to be taken as a rule for guesstimation...
It's like throwing rice farmers in with trust fund babies and expecting them to compete.
There is still no reasonable way PLAYING the game that the average player can earn enough AD.
Love to see how time heals game and changes people opinions. The post from Feb, 22 before mod 6 came into effect.
— (The unwritten rule)
http://forum.arcgames.com/neverwinter/discussion/554255/the-positives-of-the-leadership-changes
But half a year later, ad army is an evil thing from same mouths
Words are cheap
Seems they are agree every single change in game.
"We are represent players"
Lmao
The people that defend the current state of the games and changes they made are the ones that they have already all that they need, but if you are a new player and you dont have any of that you are just not going to make it unless you pay real money. When ive started playing this game at the end of Mod2 I could recommend it to any of my friends (I actually did) but rigth now you really have to hate someone if you tell him that this is game to give a chance.
Just check the steam charts:
http://steamcharts.com/app/109600
The game lost about 33% of the playerbase from the month before M6 to the month before M7 (33% on 4 months, ouch). You always get peak of players that try the new content during the launch of the new mods, but the problem is that the peak of players that returned when they launched the M7 was of 362 average and inmediatly after that month they already lost 483 and keep dropping. I know that those statistics are from the people that use the steam launcher only, but if you say that in term of percent that isn't representative of the actual situation you are just lying urself or you are not logging and checking your own friend list empty.
- gmops (25% of orig) for up to rank 10
- various RP stuff on AH is, on average, less than before (resonance stones are 1/2 price, R4 and R5 have dropped but rebounded lately probably due to changes to Ghost Stories)
- CWards and PWards are tied to zen, so prices for those are down
- many various mounts, companions, bags, profession assets and equipment on AH (available in zen store or not) have dropped in price
The average player doesn't have upgrading companion / mount, best armor kits, or unlocking MH/OH powers as their priority. I DO believe that the AD requirements for SH upgrades and feats respec should come down though. But many? I guess it depends on your definition of many, but regardless of that, it is still relatively few compared to all the stuff that did come down in price
The Neverwinter D&D IP and the expansion into consoles will keep this game here for awhile. The revenue generating systems are already in place, no real innovation, they are the same as any other MMORPG. But because of the name association, even if they keep making it unfavorable for players, itll still attract new blood.
Fox Stevenson - Sandblast
Oh Wonder - Without You
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
- Dylan Thomas
Get a OP or a faithful DC, slot a blacksmith and a renegade evoker and watch the DDs killing themself. The SW dares to move, get your cockatrice and beat him to pulp, while he is rooted. You dont want to get CCed and you dont want to lose the DR from your Tnegation, sylph, will o wisp and cankerous mage are your friends. For just 5 million ADs you can reflect dmg or CC or be tanky as you want with the right companions. Wait, you are a new player and you dont want to spent all the ADs you earn in 4 month on PvP specific companions, well, thats to bad.