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Patch Notes: NW.55.20160106a.1

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  • rottersrotters Member Posts: 214 Arc User
    I can not load in today, since patching. can not get the client to load any tips?

    Tabatha@rotters // Scourge Warlock // Co Leader // Civil Anarchy



    Part of the -Fabled- Alliance



    We are looking for non elitist guilds to join our alliance.
  • kolatmasterkolatmaster Member Posts: 3,111 Arc User

    @strumslinger Any hints how mount system will be reworked?

    (Sin)cerely
    Kain

    Nothing I can share if I like it here!



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  • zebularzebular Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 15,270 Community Moderator
    edited January 2016

    @strumslingerWe all realize you are a for-profit company with finite resources and FTE hours.

    But some of the patch priorities are confusing.

    For example, why spend time on achievements/titles in Demogorgon instead of fixing the 2nd boss glitch?

    Who is begging for more achievements?

    If you made money on those I would be fine with that.

    But that's not even a source of revenue for you.
    I don't get it.

    Please describe the process for ranking patchwork jobs.

    Thanks

    We asked this before and the answer was simply that it takes almost no time and resources at all to implement achievements and titles. The longest part is getting WotC to sign off on them. If something can be done in a very small amount of time and resources, then yeah it's going to "get higher priority" than a fix that will take substantially more time and resources.

    Not that it actually "gets higher priority" but rather that it makes it in quicker because its easier and faster to implement/fix than something else. That's just common sense but many do not realize this and think that certain things are prioritized over other things when that actually is not the case at all. It's not that simple and not everyone works on the same things. For example, a team working on A may take 3 weeks to get something done while another team working on B may get done in a day... yeah, you're going to see the results of B sooner than A.


    Also, there are a lot of players that enjoy titles and achievements. I am one of them and having them in game, functioning properly, is a source of revenue for, in part, it keeps me and others like me happy and playing with very little time and resources needed to implement and/or fix. Just because there is no dollar amount attached to something, it doesn't mean it doesn't have value to someone, and certainly doesn't mean it isn't a part of revenue retention and attraction.
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  • zebularzebular Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 15,270 Community Moderator

    zebular said:

    @strumslingerWe all realize you are a for-profit company with finite resources and FTE hours.

    But some of the patch priorities are confusing.

    For example, why spend time on achievements/titles in Demogorgon instead of fixing the 2nd boss glitch?

    Who is begging for more achievements?

    If you made money on those I would be fine with that.

    But that's not even a source of revenue for you.
    I don't get it.

    Please describe the process for ranking patchwork jobs.

    Thanks

    We asked this before and the answer was simply that it takes almost no time at all to implement achievements and titles. The longest part is getting WotC to sign off on them. If something can be done in a very small amount of time and resources, then yeah it's going to get higher priority than a fix that will take substantially more time and resources. That's just common sense.
    I'm afraid that most people here have a very different understanding of the word "common sense" in relationship to priorities. Common sense to them means don't bothering with achievements you should have implemented when you launched the content and spend the effort -how little the effort may be- on something they consider useful. But that's just speculation on my part.

    And "retention" and "keeping people happy and playing"? Are you really going to pull that card when the biggest retention tool in this game hasn't seen a single bug fix or update in 5 mods? I hope not.
    I guess you glossed over the "in part" part but no, I don't play cards. I call it like I see it. Interpret how you will, as always.

  • blackjackwidowblackjackwidow Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 424 Arc User

    zebular said:

    @strumslingerWe all realize you are a for-profit company with finite resources and FTE hours.

    But some of the patch priorities are confusing.

    For example, why spend time on achievements/titles in Demogorgon instead of fixing the 2nd boss glitch?

    Who is begging for more achievements?

    If you made money on those I would be fine with that.

    But that's not even a source of revenue for you.
    I don't get it.

    Please describe the process for ranking patchwork jobs.

    Thanks

    We asked this before and the answer was simply that it takes almost no time at all to implement achievements and titles. The longest part is getting WotC to sign off on them. If something can be done in a very small amount of time and resources, then yeah it's going to get higher priority than a fix that will take substantially more time and resources. That's just common sense.
    I'm afraid that most people here have a very different understanding of the word "common sense" in relationship to priorities. Common sense to them means don't bothering with achievements you should have implemented when you launched the content and spend the effort -how little the effort may be- on something they consider useful. But that's just speculation on my part.

    And "retention" and "keeping people happy and playing"? Are you really going to pull that card when the biggest retention tool in this game hasn't seen a single bug fix or update in 5 mods? I hope not.

    Credit for your loyalty though. And I'm sure you told no lie either and that you really enjoy achievements. I do too. But if I have to choose between a real fix and doing something they should have done a month ago but does not affect gameplay, I know what I'd choose.

    I know you a little by now Zeb. You mean well, even if we don't always agree on things. You'll always try to give something a positive twist. And that's a good trait. But right now, you're defending something that clever language and personal opinion cannot defend: Cryptic's lack of real priorities for NW.
    I feel like I have to defend Zeb a bit here - he laid out a good explanation, and maybe you're not seeing the "common sense" because you're so frustrated with other things. I absolutely share your frustration, but having been on the receiving end of a few "why are you fixing this and not that" kind of discussions, I can tell you that just because a few little things get done first does not mean they have a higher priority.

    Maybe the answer is in who does what - really hard to believe that a network engineer or other server-side person or team would have anything to do with achievements and titles. Similarly, a team working on artwork/clipping issues are probably not the same ones working on a boss glitch. Different things are handled by different people/specialties, and even if the same person was doing all these things - why not take an afternoon and knock off 5 or 6 small things that you can get done while you're waiting for results on a build or whatever. At least there's something done and off the table.

    For all we know, the achievements were already in there when the content launched, but they couldn't turn them on since WotC hadn't signed off on them until this past week. Zeb did say that's something that can affect these.

    I personally enjoy the achievements, lore and "easter egg" type of things quite a bit. Would I rather not have to run my graphic settings on medium to low - well, yeah! - but not enabling anyone else's work until that is fixed is unwarranted as well, and personally, my Type-A, completest, idiotic personality will be very happy if someone fixes the "Polices Drunk Orcs" achievement in the Dwarven King quest line soon. Doesn't mean I think that's a higher priority, just figure it's a little thing that someone can probably fix easily, and then I'll be able to forget about that glaringly obvious achievement I don't have. :smile:
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  • zebularzebular Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 15,270 Community Moderator
    edited January 2016

    @zebular, please allow a few respectful rebuttals.

    "We asked this before and the answer was simply that it takes almost no time and resources at all to implement achievements and titles."

    And that answer is inadequate and inconsistent with good customer service.
    If your Internet provider said. 'Sorry. We just don't have time to fix the errors in our service. But here is a shiny trinket for you! Those are easy for us to make!"
    Would you find that acceptable?

    I am a paying customer. $100/month in zen.
    I have a right to expect errors to be fixed before fluff.

    "...That's just common sense but many do not realize this and think that certain things are prioritized over other things when that actually is not the case at all."

    Please pardon my lack of common sense.
    How insolent of me, the customer, to expect priority to be given to improving the product's function.

    "It's not that simple and not everyone works on the same things."

    They are a business, 'Zerg.

    They are not beyond reproach and they don't need apologists.
    We should be able to respectfully request better product/service.

    What does everyone else here think?
    Am I the only one who would prefer bugs being prioritized over all else?

    First, that's not a rebuttal. That's loaded instigation and insinuations. Regardless, I get it, you want bugs to be fixed. We all do. The reality is that things will get done when they get done, when they can get done within the time and resources available. It would be folly to think that PWE/Cryptic doesn't want to fix things too. They do, which should be evident in the increase in large patch notes as of late. Which I find saddening that it seems folks complain to the contrary despite the blatant increase in bug fixing.

    Again, not all the developers do the same things. So, what you're saying is that you'd like everyone else to stop working except for those who work on what you believe to be more important? What you want is developers who work on certain things to not do what they specialize in and instead work on things they do not specialize in? That doesn't mean anything will get done faster, it just means nothing else will get done in the mean-time or what does get done will be even buggier for if the latter, then developers who do not specialize in certain things will be doing things improperly.

    I just don't get why there's even this argument here when it's pretty clear to me that they are increasing the amount of bug fixing that is going on. I am sorry that what you feel is of high priority isn't able to be fixed in the amount of time you feel it should be but I have every confidence that what needs to be fixed, will be fixed, when it can be fixed. Anything more than that is just setting ourselves up for disappointment due to undefinable expectations.

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  • tassedethe13tassedethe13 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 806 Arc User
    Okay so if they set high priority to meaningless thing with no dev effort, let me ask this:

    Please give us the ability to buy potions by more than 20. Let us buy 99 potions.

    My request is quite simple isn't it?

    PS: We can buy augment cube by 99 ! 99 Who in the hell buy 99 cubes ?
  • eldartheldarth Member Posts: 4,494 Arc User
    magenubbie wrote: »
    And "retention" and "keeping people happy and playing"? Are you really going to pull that card when the biggest retention tool in this game hasn't seen a single bug fix or update in 5 mods? I hope not.

    Mind boggling isn't it? One of the four "pillars" of the title ("infinite content!"), something that could provide them hundreds of "free" content developers and even generate huge increases in Zen sales through product/coupon placement doesn't even have a single developer or artist assigned to fix even simple spelling errors.

    Maybe now that their "Jurassic World" based "Secret Project" turned into an epic failure/cancelation maybe a few of those developers didn't go down with the submarine.​​
  • rapo973rapo973 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 831 Arc User
    How PWE/Cryptic retain their players/customers is not my bussiness and it's not my role to walk in their shoes.
    As a player/customer, I'm bored: Module 8 is already over and not very excting. SH is what it is..I'm from a small guild and the SH is irrelevant in my game experience.

    What next? We don't know and some players will move away in the meanwhile.
    This forum is already full of inputs and recommendations: it's up to the management to take them into account.
    They will reap what they sow.

    Oltreverso guild leader
    Maga Othelma - DC | Svalvolo - SW | Dente Avvelenato- GWF
  • urabaskurabask Member Posts: 2,923 Arc User
    metalldjt said:

    so here we are in 2016 playin a game that was developed 3-4 years ago, launched 3 years ago , and the developers of 2016 do not have the resource or time to fix CASTLE NEVER door to not glitch out ? what's harder coding, to fix the door or add achievments? But hell yea i am no dev to know what is happenin behind.. for what i know they can use the excuses 'it's dificult ' 'soon tm' 'throw it in the patch, yet not fixed' , 'requires gathering data' etc. but IRL they did not even LOOKED AT IT, honestly , what type of SCHEDULE do they have?
    it should take 2-3 weeks for class balance, 2-3 weeks for class fixes , 2-3 for dungeon fixes and voila !!! you have a great merchendise that brings alot of customers...

    games like league of legends that have over 100+ characters succed in fixing what is broken, also resolving class balance issues.

    and for 8 damn classes for a handful of people at cryptic is impossible?

    or i am just livin in my tiny world , but i am here with ambros , i am also curious of how they prioritize their work , and if it's possible togheter with the players to create a schedule so that we get all the things fixed.

    Because Riot's balance team is bigger than the whole Neverwinter dev team ... and they still **** things up.


    They are a business, 'Zerg.



    They are not beyond reproach and they don't need apologists.

    We should be able to respectfully request better product/service.



    What does everyone else here think?

    Am I the only one who would prefer bugs being prioritized over all else?

    It doesn't work that way. They've only got so many developers that can do what you want. They can't have concept artists work on bugs.

    I8r4ux9.jpg
  • adinosiiadinosii Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 4,294 Arc User
    edited January 2016
    This is just how things are in any software company...bugs get prioritized...from minor fixes to showstoppers, but even if you have a major issue you do not throw all your resources at it.
    Hoping for improvements...
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  • urabaskurabask Member Posts: 2,923 Arc User
    metalldjt said:

    urabask said:

    metalldjt said:

    so here we are in 2016 playin a game that was developed 3-4 years ago, launched 3 years ago , and the developers of 2016 do not have the resource or time to fix CASTLE NEVER door to not glitch out ? what's harder coding, to fix the door or add achievments? But hell yea i am no dev to know what is happenin behind.. for what i know they can use the excuses 'it's dificult ' 'soon tm' 'throw it in the patch, yet not fixed' , 'requires gathering data' etc. but IRL they did not even LOOKED AT IT, honestly , what type of SCHEDULE do they have?
    it should take 2-3 weeks for class balance, 2-3 weeks for class fixes , 2-3 for dungeon fixes and voila !!! you have a great merchendise that brings alot of customers...

    games like league of legends that have over 100+ characters succed in fixing what is broken, also resolving class balance issues.

    and for 8 damn classes for a handful of people at cryptic is impossible?

    or i am just livin in my tiny world , but i am here with ambros , i am also curious of how they prioritize their work , and if it's possible togheter with the players to create a schedule so that we get all the things fixed.

    Because Riot's balance team is bigger than the whole Neverwinter dev team ... and they still **** things up.


    They are a business, 'Zerg.



    They are not beyond reproach and they don't need apologists.

    We should be able to respectfully request better product/service.



    What does everyone else here think?

    Am I the only one who would prefer bugs being prioritized over all else?

    It doesn't work that way. They've only got so many developers that can do what you want. They can't have concept artists work on bugs.

    with all honesty maybe its not dev fault, you know?

    it's just their LEAD DESIGNER , that is at fault, i dont want to bring accusations, but come on... maybe devs/community managers can't point who is at fault of makin this #noFIxes schedule, and it's actually the lead designer. Then we looked on this the other way... and if the lead designer can't take his job seriously, he should just leave and stop ruining a good game for thousands of players and more to come if the game would be fixed instead of leaving a pile of dirt behind each module or maybe the lead designer is tryin his best... but besides those not so usefull blog posts, we havent kept in touch with him.

    And all thess secrets "i can't tell yet" who in the world would copy or steal secrets from neverwinter? i mean it doesnt make sense.
    It doesn't matter how little value you attribute to those secrets. Someone between WotC, Cryptic and PWE has decided that they're valuable enough that someone will get fired if they're leaked. If you've been gaming long enough you've probably seen similar leaks and someone definitely got fired for them.

    Honestly, I think the real problem is that the game is a steaming mess and it doesn't really matter who the lead designer is because Cryptic/PWE isn't going to invest more than they are already trying to fix it.
    I8r4ux9.jpg
  • scaredstraitscaredstrait Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 42 Arc User
    i want a reply from the devs or you for the being stuck in a zone like last week i was stuck in IWD and could not leave now tonight one of my chars is stuck in the wells and can not leave the zone no matter what i try and i know for a fact many other players had or are having the same problem !!! just from what i hear its IWD the WELLS and ROTHE !! but yet there has been no notice / post even saying there looking in to the PROBLEM or even there is a PROBLEM !!!
  • urabaskurabask Member Posts: 2,923 Arc User

    i want a reply from the devs or you for the being stuck in a zone like last week i was stuck in IWD and could not leave now tonight one of my chars is stuck in the wells and can not leave the zone no matter what i try and i know for a fact many other players had or are having the same problem !!! just from what i hear its IWD the WELLS and ROTHE !! but yet there has been no notice / post even saying there looking in to the PROBLEM or even there is a PROBLEM !!!

    So just go to the GM help menu and defeat yourself ...
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  • hustin1hustin1 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 3,462 Arc User
    That doesn't get you out of the zone. I was stuck in Icewind Pass and nothing I could do would get me out of the zone -- "defeat me", direct VIP teleport to Moonstone Mask, VIP travel signpost, teleport scrolls, queuing for a skirmish, nothing. Thankfully my contract eventually expired and it moved me to Caer-Konig. That doesn't apply to places like the Well of Dragons; if I was stuck there last week, I probably would still be. He is reporting that he is stuck in WoD. That is a MAJOR problem. I would recommend trying to change instances, since WoD allows that (as opposed to Icewind Pass, which does not).

    As for the mount training manuals...

    Whatever is coming "soonish", as we were told, it has to be more involved than simply moving them to the tradebar store. If the change was that trivial, they would have implemented it already. Maybe your mount will gain XP as you ride it and you upgrade it like a companion? It's anyone's guess at this point. What I still don't understand is: why was it necessary to remove the manuals before the change was ready? This seems to me to be an utterly needless way to generate player angst. Even if the change turns out to be supercalifragilisticexpialidociously awesome, it still isn't necessary to inflict pain on the players beforehand.
    Harper Chronicles: Cap Snatchers (RELEASED) - NW-DPUTABC6X
    Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO
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  • urabaskurabask Member Posts: 2,923 Arc User
    hustin1 said:

    That doesn't get you out of the zone. I was stuck in Icewind Pass and nothing I could do would get me out of the zone -- "defeat me", direct VIP teleport to Moonstone Mask, VIP travel signpost, teleport scrolls, queuing for a skirmish, nothing. Thankfully my contract eventually expired and it moved me to Caer-Konig. That doesn't apply to places like the Well of Dragons; if I was stuck there last week, I probably would still be. He is reporting that he is stuck in WoD. That is a MAJOR problem. I would recommend trying to change instances, since WoD allows that (as opposed to Icewind Pass, which does not).

    As for the mount training manuals...

    Whatever is coming "soonish", as we were told, it has to be more involved than simply moving them to the tradebar store. If the change was that trivial, they would have implemented it already. Maybe your mount will gain XP as you ride it and you upgrade it like a companion? It's anyone's guess at this point. What I still don't understand is: why was it necessary to remove the manuals before the change was ready? This seems to me to be an utterly needless way to generate player angst. Even if the change turns out to be supercalifragilisticexpialidociously awesome, it still isn't necessary to inflict pain on the players beforehand.

    So go to GM help stuck-map transfer.
    I8r4ux9.jpg
  • asthazarfasthazarf Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 167 Arc User
    alpehansz said:

    No news on the insane lag/delay in IWD, DR, PE etc.... ??
    It's only getting worse and seems to be spreading to other zone aswell :/

    Well... either:

    1. It was worked on and not mentioned or...
    2. IWD is empty these days because of CTA...

    ... because lately I've experienced no lag at all in IWD. DR and PE are still laggy.

    I hope option 1 is the case, though I'm leaning more towards the 2nd.

    In any case, there are a few tweaks/fixes in here which are nice. Still a lot to go, though. I only recently returned, so... for now, I wait and see.
  • tassedethe13tassedethe13 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 806 Arc User
    The problem is there so much to do, than even if a patch is good people complain about the missing thing. Each week we should have a patch like this one.
  • regenerderegenerde Member Posts: 3,047 Arc User
    edited January 2016
    ... or just a few Devs notes added to it, that show what they have planed for the next patch.

    Or they could just use
    http://forum.arcgames.com/neverwinter/discussion/1194402/feedback-needed-top-issues-currently-in-neverwinter-pc
    and go through the feedback regularly (once a week or month), and give us some answers on what they can do, and what they can't do.
    I do believe in killing the messenger...
    Want to know why?
    Because it sends a message!
  • asthazarfasthazarf Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 167 Arc User
    Looks like it was indeed option 2. IWD is still a mess, unfortunately :p
  • asterdahlasterdahl Member, Cryptic Developer Posts: 1,258 Cryptic Developer
    hustin1 said:

    Mount Training Manuals are no longer available in the Wondrous Bazaar or at the Mount Merchant.
    Are they available from the tradebar store? Is something else going to replace them? This is a

    Big Deal

    .

    I wanted to apologize for the confusion caused by this change going live without additional notice that changes were coming. There are changes planned for mounts, a blog post in the near future will address those changes.
    zebular said:


    We asked this before and the answer was simply that it takes almost no time and resources at all to implement achievements and titles. The longest part is getting WotC to sign off on them. If something can be done in a very small amount of time and resources, then yeah it's going to "get higher priority" than a fix that will take substantially more time and resources.

    Thanks for this response Zebular, in addition to everything you mentioned, it's worth noting that just because two items may involve the same piece of content, doesn't necessarily mean that the individuals required to implement or fix them are even in the same discipline.

    In cases where you see something like an achievement added to a boss fight that may be affected by a bug, there are a few considerations.

    Firstly, that achievement may, as others have stated, already been implemented but was waiting on a sign off. Beyond that, it might have been a task that was being tracked for quite some time, but was low on the priority list, the designer tasked with that achievement may not have had time to ship the achievement with the content due to working on last minute tweaks at the time it launched.

    Secondly, although this is not always true, generally a content designer implements achievements, while a systems designer handles things like boss mechanics. In many cases, content design time might have become free enough for that team to work on lower priority issues while the systems team is hard at work on major issues or features.

    Finally, even within a given team, there are only a limited number of developers who may be able to fix an issue in a safe and timely manner. This is particularly true with content like end game boss fights which are frequently even more complex in their construction than their appearance in game.

    I know these reasons do little to soften the blow when an issue you care deeply about is not fixed, and you see a seemingly much more minor fix taken care of, but hopefully this sheds some light on why those situations can arise. By all means, please continue to bang drums when you see issues, thank you!
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