WHAT!? No epic ones!? That is the biggest slap to the face. You have any idea how easy and boring the 3-man dungeons are? How does it take months to tweak and release easy fillers that already existed in the first place? You may as well not bother bringing them back.
To you easy is boring, for many many of us that equals enjoyment ...to each her own
Case in point. I started playing again in November after a long break. Made a new character and started fresh. Took me 4 days to get to 61. Ive been at 70 for 90% of my play time since I came back. I've already gotten past the point where any of the dungeons I can queue for are worth running. I really DID enjoy my time at 70 so far, but there's no where else to go. Adding more leveling dungeons and a new Castle Never that is still just Tier 2 is weak. We need something past all that. GG devs. Lights out for neverwinter it seems.
You dont get it. First we will have to get all the boons, mounts, boosts and stuff, so every class can solo every dungeon, then the Devs will see, that we are done with it and give us new dungeons. Sadly only the GWFs were up to the task so far.
Chars: CW, DC, GF, GWF, HR and TR.
0
Options
thefabricantMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 5,248Arc User
All I can say is that I am greatly ashamed to play to know I am associated with, by virtue of playing the game, the kind of people who whine and moan over nothing.
-"WAAA!!! we want to get stronger and have harder content!" Cryptic releases a higher level cap to allow for stronger monsters and skrims/dungeons. -"WAAA!!! Getting to 70 and end game is too hard!" Cryptic releases Underdark which gives people the Dwarven King storyline to fill in some of the gap, and drow armor, which is easy to get, and is some of the best armor in the game. -"WAAA!!! the 60-70 grind is still to much we hate having to do vigilance quests still!" Cryptic makes the 60-70 grind even easier with the upcoming Maze Engine module. -"WAAA!!! CRYPTIC DOESN'T CARE ABOUT US AND ISN'T LISTENING TO WHAT WE WANT!!!!" despite the fact everything from module 6-9 has been about doing what lots of people asked for.
To be honest, you people are abominable, and make the infamously whiny Star Trek Online crowd look tame by comparison. If any of you think what Cryptic is doing is bad, or going to kill the game, you should go take a look at other MMOs, they are FAR FAR worse, by miles.
I have played a lot of other MMO's recently, with the hope that 1 of them will hook me on, have nice endgame, a decent community and be a place I can move on to. I originally got snagged on NWO because of the combat system, I stayed because of the friends and communities I became a part of. With each module, those communities get smaller due to the lack of challenging endgame content, when mod 6 came along, I was one of the people who was fine with the difficulty. When the difficulty got toned down, I was one of the people complaining it should be left as is. To be honest, I DON'T CARE about the leveling process from 0-70, or the content available to new players, I care about endgame and that is what the devs should be focused on as well. Why? well, because 99% of this game is level 70, only 1% of it is level 0-69. It takes a new, casual player like 2 weeks to hit 70, then endgame starts. Those who aren't willing to stick through the grind from 0-70, will not be willing to stick through the grind at level 70.
The people who spend money on this game aren't the ones below level 70, its the ones at level 70, those are the ones you need to market the game to, those are the ones you need to retain. Dyes,transmutes? A new player won't be spending money on those until they are hooked into the game. Campaign unlocks? Meaningless to someone below level 70. Coalescent wards? Same as campaign unlocks. Respec tokens? people aren't going to buy these until level 70, when they working on their builds. Race rerolls? most people are happy with their race unless they are min/maxing, which occurs at level 70. Lockboxes? Appeals to people with a taste of gambling who know the value of the items in the lockboxes, new players do not.
In order to keep money in the system, you need to keep older players around, which means they need something to do. Gathering power purely for the sake of having it with nothing that requires the power...that is just killing off the game.
WHAT!? No epic ones!? That is the biggest slap to the face. You have any idea how easy and boring the 3-man dungeons are? How does it take months to tweak and release easy fillers that already existed in the first place? You may as well not bother bringing them back.
To you easy is boring, for many many of us that equals enjoyment ...to each her own
If you find the 3-man dungeons hard, just quit the game, it's not for you.
0
Options
zekethesinnerMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 805Arc User
edited February 2016
What a sad joke.
From the other hand if new epic dung would be next sad variation of t2 dung, i will pass on this too.
Exacltly. theFabricant is right. I understand that Neverwinter needs to pull in new shiny players so its profits grow so that it can continue to exist in the form that it does, but the majority of large dollar amounts being spent on this game, are most likely not from new players still leveling. Adding in tier 3 with epic versions of the upcoming mod9 dungeons, would give people at end game an actual reason to use all the super gear they have, and this would motivate them to spend more money on zen/AD. Personally I am not the best geared player by a long shot, but my motivation for thinking about spending money on the game, was coming from the idea that I wanted to get my ilevel and gear to an even higher quality. But after learning that mod9 adds no reason at all for such high ilevel, I'm not gonna be spending anything at all. Sigh.
Every single one, bar none, I have ever played, has had this EXACT same conversation every other expansion/content release.
There is no possible way to make "endgame" in MMOs not terrible because there is A. No way to churn out new end game dungeons in such a time-frame that people get new content before they have run the old content 1,000 times and gotten bored of it.
B. Despite what you think, endgame is not all the devs should care about, because they have to constantly draw new players in order to keep their numbers up, and new players dont like being told "all the cool HAMSTER is only available way down the line" they like to be told, "hey, here is some stuff pretty early on, or at least before the big grind" thats really cool and new".
C. Keeping old players around does not ensure people spend money. STO's playerbase, old and new, hate spending money on the game because they realize, like most everyone else, that all the stuff for have to pay for is of such trivial power increase, and costs so much, that its not in their best interest to ever spend money on the game. In fact, old players are the LEAST likely to spend money on the game because they know all the tricks to get around spending money to get better gear, while new players do not, and are thus more susceptible to buying stuff they wouldn't otherwise have had they known the secrets of the game.
These are the same broken arguments I've heard for over a decade now, over dozens of MMOs, from the same small vocal minority of people who think that just because they reached the end of the game, and wasted so many hours of their lives grinding for 4K+ IL, all new content should be focused around them and them alone, and everyone else should just go away.
Devs have never listened to those people, and never will, because its not in their best interest too, and all the DOOM! saying those people preach has been proven objectively false times beyond counting.
0
Options
lirithielMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 2,482Arc User
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the reason why Cryptic don't get rid of the bots is because half the instances in the game will be deserted as bots and gold spammers make up half the playerbase.
Our pain is self chosen.
The most important thing in life is to be yourself. Unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman.
0
Options
thefabricantMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 5,248Arc User
Every single one, bar none, I have ever played, has had this EXACT same conversation every other expansion/content release.
There is no possible way to make "endgame" in MMOs not terrible because there is A. No way to churn out new end game dungeons in such a time-frame that people get new content before they have run the old content 1,000 times and gotten bored of it.
B. Despite what you think, endgame is not all the devs should care about, because they have to constantly draw new players in order to keep their numbers up, and new players dont like being told "all the cool HAMSTER is only available way down the line" they like to be told, "hey, here is some stuff pretty early on, or at least before the big grind" thats really cool and new".
C. Keeping old players around does not ensure people spend money. STO's playerbase, old and new, hate spending money on the game because they realize, like most everyone else, that all the stuff for have to pay for is of such trivial power increase, and costs so much, that its not in their best interest to ever spend money on the game. In fact, old players are the LEAST likely to spend money on the game because they know all the tricks to get around spending money to get better gear, while new players do not, and are thus more susceptible to buying stuff they wouldn't otherwise have had they known the secrets of the game.
These are the same broken arguments I've heard for over a decade now, over dozens of MMOs, from the same small vocal minority of people who think that just because they reached the end of the game, and wasted so many hours of their lives grinding for 4K+ IL, all new content should be focused around them and them alone, and everyone else should just go away.
Devs have never listened to those people, and never will, because its not in their best interest too, and all the DOOM! saying those people preach has been proven objectively false times beyond counting.
Except other MMO's and online games have at least 1 or 2 dungeons or raids that are aimed at those people who do reach endgame, just to keep them interested. Here, there is nothing. I will use an example from another online game I play a lot, PoE, it is not an MMORPG, its more like diablo, but the point is, that right at the very end of all the games content, there are then 3 tier 15 maps (the highest and hardest tier) which hardly anyone ever does out of the general population of the game. They exist for that 1/2% that are at endgame, who do push beyond level 93 there, who are looking for a challenge. Most of the content in the game is not that difficult and is accessible for everyone, but the point is, there is a tier for everyone there. Here, there is a point that once you reach, there is no longer any content aimed for you, none, whatsoever and guess what, once those of us who are at this point finally move on, this game is dead. I stick around because my friends are here, but every mod more and more leave. You can measure the health of a game by the amount of theorycrafting/ player interest there is in the game. The players who most avidly support/advertise the game aren't the casual new players, its the old players who have invested time into the game.
Heck, this game is over once you reach 2.5k ilvl, there is a whole 1.7k above that where there are people with no content for them to play. You don't even need 4k for this game to be trivial, 3k will do that already.
Somtaawkha, you blew what theFabricant said, way out of proportion. The point isnt that Devs should focus on content only for max level, or content for overtuned ilevel 4000 players. But most of what you said is hogwash. Content needs to be mapped out through analysis of the player base for an MMO. In short, there needs to be content for everyone.
Yes sure, you are right, that in no way, will the devs ever be able to churn out enough end game content for people to always have something new. Thats not what anyone is saying. But the content thats been provided since mod 6 is light in scale with a wishy-washy endgame. Strongholds are cool, and a well thought out (imo) time sink that can provide some top of the line gear. Underdark added some cool skirmishes that required lower ilvl to grind out gear that rivals protectors seal gear, and added Demo and eDemo for an endgame event to farm. But the problem remains that for 3 mods now, they have given us an easier and easier way to hop on the item treadmill and grow far far stronger than any content in the game.
As I stated, there needs to be content for everyone of all play styles. But it also needs to make sense. If you are leaving the majority of your end game players with an easier and easier way to get top tier gear, and then, after several updates, fail to provide them with any incentive to use said gear, you've got a problem on hand.
And I dont agree that old players are least likely to spend money. Id say that they just need motivation to do so.
Except other MMO's and online games have at least 1 or 2 dungeons or raids that are aimed at those people who do reach endgame, just to keep them interested. Here, there is nothing.
Heck, this game is over once you reach 2.5k ilvl, there is a whole 1.7k above that where there are people with no content for them to play. You don't even need 4k for this game to be trivial, 3k will do that already.
Given that, due to how poorly IL works in this game, and all MMOs in general, what with things like utility enchants that dont increase your power giving you more IL, whereas things like companions and boons that do increase your power dont give you more IL, going by IL is a terrible way to measure if content is made for you.
That 410 IL you get from having 5 rank 12 utility enchant slots?..... zero increase in actual combat effectiveness compared to someone without it. Literally like 1/10 of the maximum IL you can have contributes nothing to how powerful you are.
And given how IL is based on item rarity, rather then item power, with higher tier items giving significantly less increases in power, but a significantly more IL due to the cost needed to make it, the gap between high IL players actual power is fairly small and trivial compared to the gap in the IL numbers.
There is no 4,000+ IL required content because 4,000+ IL doesn't mean jack beyond how much dosh, real or virtual, that you dumped into the game.
And you know what? EVERY SINGLE MMO I HAVE EVER PLAYED has this EXACT same thing going on.
IL is a scam for the easily distracted, who only care about MUH NUMBERS!, rather then what those numbers actually DO.
You wont ever get content that requires such high IL to get in because such small increases in power aren't enough to justify a brand new tier of monsters, and only really matter in PVP.
0
Options
thefabricantMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 5,248Arc User
Except other MMO's and online games have at least 1 or 2 dungeons or raids that are aimed at those people who do reach endgame, just to keep them interested. Here, there is nothing.
Heck, this game is over once you reach 2.5k ilvl, there is a whole 1.7k above that where there are people with no content for them to play. You don't even need 4k for this game to be trivial, 3k will do that already.
Given that, due to how poorly IL works in this game, and all MMOs in general, what with things like utility enchants that dont increase your power giving you more IL, whereas things like companions and boons that do increase your power dont give you more IL, going by IL is a terrible way to measure if content is made for you.
That 410 IL you get from having 5 rank 12 utility enchant slots?..... zero increase in actual combat effectiveness compared to someone without it. Literally like 1/10 of the maximum IL you can have contributes nothing to how powerful you are.
And given how IL is based on item rarity, rather then item power, with higher tier items giving significantly less increases in power, but a significantly more IL due to the cost needed to make it, the gap between high IL players actual power is fairly small and trivial compared to the gap in the IL numbers.
There is no 4,000+ IL required content because 4,000+ IL doesn't mean jack beyond how much dosh, real or virtual, that you dumped into the game.
And you know what? EVERY SINGLE MMO I HAVE EVER PLAYED has this EXACT same thing going on.
IL is a scam for the easily distracted, who only care about MUH NUMBERS!, rather then what those numbers actually DO.
You wont ever get content that requires such high IL to get in because such small increases in power aren't enough to justify a brand new tier of monsters, and only really matter in PVP.
These are the epic dungeons? The endgame content you talk about? Its not even a 4k group, more like a 3k group, so please keep telling me about those high level bosses. As for edemo, well, it 18 seconds to kill goristro and about 20 to kill the big puppy (edemo).
These are the epic dungeons? The endgame content you talk about? Its not even a 4k group, more like a 3k group, so please keep telling me about those high level bosses. As for edemo, well, it 18 seconds to kill goristro and about 20 to kill the big puppy (edemo).
I like how you completely ignored 90% of my post were I addressed this very thing.
I also liked how you posted videos of people using high powered buff/item stack exploits to quickly kill bosses instead of videos of people playing the game normally, or in pugs, that dont use such methods.
The actions of power gamers =/= that of the normal gaming population who don't care about a game that much to do such a thing.
Basically all single player games have the same faults, not to mention the history of MMOs which have it worse. All the videos you posted show is that cryptic needs to nerf overly powerful skill combos, that allow for obviously unintended damage spikes, not that the content needs to be harder.
There is no possible way to make "endgame" in MMOs not terrible because there is
A. No way to churn out new end game dungeons in such a time-frame that people get new content before they have run the old content 1,000 times and gotten bored of it.
Sure there is -- The Foundry.
...oh, no, wait -- they've totally destroyed that and made it completely worthless to play.
Nevermind.
So much for "infinite content" with hundreds and thousands of "free developers" creating end-game content.
And to think it could be fixed with a half-dozen lines of code.
Guess that's what happens when your Game Designer has no prior MMO Game Design experience... mod 6, mod 7, mod 8... the hits just keep on coming.
Somtaawkhar, get real. The "normal" gaming population can get above 2k ilvl without doing much more than trivial PoM or TotDG runs for a week or 2. And they do. Point is, that you dont need much higher than 2k ilevel to trivialize all the content. Much less have any reason to grow stronger. Forget the "power gamers". You actually think the "average" player has trouble reaching 2k ilvl?
The foundry only work within the confines of the leveling system of the game, if the game is too easy, the foundry wont be any better.
Whats more, is the Foundry suffers from the same thing games like Fallout and Elder Scrolls do, in that 99% of the modders have even less experience in making video game content then the "no experience" devs do, which only result is terrible content like the Falskaar mod for Skyrim.
The foundry would be a good idea if most people had good idea, and could make fun and worthwhile content to play, unfortunately, most people can't and the foundry would be no better then it is now, a thing with about .01% good quests, made by a small handful of authors, while the rest of the content is even more boring and poorly made stuff then the base game.
Also, the solution you posted in the link do nothing to fix the fundamental problems of foundry type systems.
These are the epic dungeons? The endgame content you talk about? Its not even a 4k group, more like a 3k group, so please keep telling me about those high level bosses. As for edemo, well, it 18 seconds to kill goristro and about 20 to kill the big puppy (edemo).
I like how you completely ignored 90% of my post were I addressed this very thing.
I also liked how you posted videos of people using high powered buff/item stack exploits to quickly kill bosses instead of videos of people playing the game normally, or in pugs, that dont use such methods.
The actions of power gamers =/= that of the normal gaming population who don't care about a game that much to do such a thing.
Basically all single player games have the same faults, not to mention the history of MMOs which have it worse. All the videos you posted show is that cryptic needs to nerf overly powerful skill combos, that allow for obviously unintended damage spikes, not that the content needs to be harder.
LOL. Exploits. Do tell. Into the Fray? An exploit, totes. MOF CW buffs? 10000000% an exploit, mhm. Forgemasters/Break the Spirit/Hallowed Ground/Divine Glow? WHAT ARE THOSE, ah wait, exploits. Daring Shout + Battle Fury? God forbid. Call the exploit police. This is downright outrageous! Someone tag the devs!
People like being big buffoons, while it's amazingly amusing, apparently buffs are exploits now and people using the wrong powers/not knowing what they're doing is now 'normal gameplay'. Do continue telling me more about your interesting views of 'normal gameplay' and how a dungeon premade is not considered 'normal gameplay' to you. Heck, if my group takes 30 seconds to kill ANY T2 boss, pugs will take a minute, minute and a half, no more than that and trust me, no casualties either. How is your point even valid? The content is a joke. I would bring up soloing T2's but then all I'd get is a "you don't count cause you're BIS", which is valid and true. I don't represent majority, but I represent the loyal players who know what they're doing and who are absolutely disappointed by this abusive relationship we have with this ridiculous company. There's only so much we can absorb, and personally I'm pretty sure I've hit my breaking point. While I enjoy helping the community out and my friends in-game, I just don't know if they justify staying anymore.
I don't represent majority, but I represent the loyal players who know what they're doing and who are absolutely disappointed by this abusive relationship we have with this ridiculous company. There's only so much we can absorb, and personally I'm pretty sure I've hit my breaking point. While I enjoy helping the community out and my friends in-game, I just don't know if they justify staying anymore.
If you really think Cryptic is being abusive, I honestly dont understand how you can stand MMOs at all.
Cryptic is uncharacteristically nice compared to most MMO companies, especially most free to play MMO companies.
0
Options
thefabricantMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 5,248Arc User
These are the epic dungeons? The endgame content you talk about? Its not even a 4k group, more like a 3k group, so please keep telling me about those high level bosses. As for edemo, well, it 18 seconds to kill goristro and about 20 to kill the big puppy (edemo).
I like how you completely ignored 90% of my post were I addressed this very thing.
I also liked how you posted videos of people using high powered buff/item stack exploits to quickly kill bosses instead of videos of people playing the game normally, or in pugs, that dont use such methods.
The actions of power gamers =/= that of the normal gaming population who don't care about a game that much to do such a thing.
Basically all single player games have the same faults, not to mention the history of MMOs which have it worse. All the videos you posted show is that cryptic needs to nerf overly powerful skill combos, that allow for obviously unintended damage spikes, not that the content needs to be harder.
Elaborate on exploits, there were none in those videos.
I don't represent majority, but I represent the loyal players who know what they're doing and who are absolutely disappointed by this abusive relationship we have with this ridiculous company. There's only so much we can absorb, and personally I'm pretty sure I've hit my breaking point. While I enjoy helping the community out and my friends in-game, I just don't know if they justify staying anymore.
If you really think Cryptic is being abusive, I honestly dont understand how you can stand MMOs at all.
Cryptic is uncharacteristically nice compared to most MMO companies, especially most free to play MMO companies.
Strawman huh? Here's what you clearly said:
"I also liked how you posted videos of people using high powered buff/item stack exploits to quickly kill bosses instead of videos of people playing the game normally, or in pugs, that dont use such methods.
The actions of power gamers =/= that of the normal gaming population who don't care about a game that much to do such a thing."
You clearly said two things - pugs are considered normal gameplay, a premade dungeon is not. You also said buffs being used by these parties are exploits. That's exactly what I commented on.
If you don't know what a strawman argument is, then don't mention it and save yourself the embarrassment. Also I don't know what kind of sad MMO's you're playing that makes you think Cryptic are acting fairly by deceiving the playerbase, making false promises and prompts to make it look like they do A while they deliver B. Your standards are pretty damn low.
For the sake of decorum and to avoid full scale ranting, I'm keeping this simple.
You're going to lose a ton of players (again) if you don't bring more content into play for the end game players (which, lets face it, is pretty much anyone who's been here a month regularly or more, cause 1-70 takes 2 weeks tops of regular playtime) and then its just grind for the win on campaigns and dungeons.
You've yet again set yourselves up for a fall. You're reintroducing 4 dungeons (and lets remember, this isn't new content, it's content you nuked without any detailed explanation and are just now, months and months later, redeveloping). You gave the impression that these dungeons would be along the lines of the current dungeon setups, that we'd have levelling versions AND epic versions. Now you've confirmed this isn't the case and only CN will be lvl 70 content, and once again you're getting the backlash of disapointed players.
I hope Mod 9 isn't just a 1 room map and a bunch of new quests like Mod 8 was, 'cause if that and the mount system are all we now have to look forward to, might as well start counting how many players are yet again going to jump ship or rage-quit.
DPS Rogue | Heal/Buff Cleric
0
Options
beckylunaticMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 14,231Arc User
All I can say is that I am greatly ashamed to play to know I am associated with, by virtue of playing the game, the kind of people who whine and moan over nothing.
-"WAAA!!! we want to get stronger and have harder content!" Cryptic releases a higher level cap to allow for stronger monsters and skrims/dungeons. -"WAAA!!! Getting to 70 and end game is too hard!" Cryptic releases Underdark which gives people the Dwarven King storyline to fill in some of the gap, and drow armor, which is easy to get, and is some of the best armor in the game. -"WAAA!!! the 60-70 grind is still to much we hate having to do vigilance quests still!" Cryptic makes the 60-70 grind even easier with the upcoming Maze Engine module. -"WAAA!!! CRYPTIC DOESN'T CARE ABOUT US AND ISN'T LISTENING TO WHAT WE WANT!!!!" despite the fact everything from module 6-9 has been about doing what lots of people asked for.
To be honest, you people are abominable, and make the infamously whiny Star Trek Online crowd look tame by comparison. If any of you think what Cryptic is doing is bad, or going to kill the game, you should go take a look at other MMOs, they are FAR FAR worse, by miles.
As far as I can see, what we've wanted is less grind in the same old zones, less godawful boring refinement grind, actual rewards for playing, pvp balance, less power creep, fewer game-breaking items and the return of the old epic dungeons, absolutely none of which came in mods 6-9. And the Dwarven King storyline could have been written in ten minutes, and probably was. Salvatore probably spent more time in chat talking about it than he did writing it. So congratulations on being the one player who got you wanted out of all this.
when i played i played hr archer...2.2-2,6ilvl could do all the solo contents in this game.i pug dungeons were too easy you get too much buffs critical chances +dmg boosts from power ingnoring armor no resistances no different elemental damage types...mobs just melt away...companion stat boosts there is just too much for everything boosting your damage and mobs just come they hit and die..they are always in the same position standing they do same things every time this system HAMSTER it is its not good at all....and they cant release harder dungeons cos in 6months you are too powerful and that content is too easy...becouse too much everything...
Comments
The people who spend money on this game aren't the ones below level 70, its the ones at level 70, those are the ones you need to market the game to, those are the ones you need to retain. Dyes,transmutes? A new player won't be spending money on those until they are hooked into the game. Campaign unlocks? Meaningless to someone below level 70. Coalescent wards? Same as campaign unlocks. Respec tokens? people aren't going to buy these until level 70, when they working on their builds. Race rerolls? most people are happy with their race unless they are min/maxing, which occurs at level 70. Lockboxes? Appeals to people with a taste of gambling who know the value of the items in the lockboxes, new players do not.
In order to keep money in the system, you need to keep older players around, which means they need something to do. Gathering power purely for the sake of having it with nothing that requires the power...that is just killing off the game.
From the other hand if new epic dung would be next sad variation of t2 dung, i will pass on this too.
(Sin)cerely
Kain
Adding in tier 3 with epic versions of the upcoming mod9 dungeons, would give people at end game an actual reason to use all the super gear they have, and this would motivate them to spend more money on zen/AD.
Personally I am not the best geared player by a long shot, but my motivation for thinking about spending money on the game, was coming from the idea that I wanted to get my ilevel and gear to an even higher quality. But after learning that mod9 adds no reason at all for such high ilevel, I'm not gonna be spending anything at all. Sigh.
Every single one, bar none, I have ever played, has had this EXACT same conversation every other expansion/content release.
There is no possible way to make "endgame" in MMOs not terrible because there is
A. No way to churn out new end game dungeons in such a time-frame that people get new content before they have run the old content 1,000 times and gotten bored of it.
B. Despite what you think, endgame is not all the devs should care about, because they have to constantly draw new players in order to keep their numbers up, and new players dont like being told "all the cool HAMSTER is only available way down the line" they like to be told, "hey, here is some stuff pretty early on, or at least before the big grind" thats really cool and new".
C. Keeping old players around does not ensure people spend money. STO's playerbase, old and new, hate spending money on the game because they realize, like most everyone else, that all the stuff for have to pay for is of such trivial power increase, and costs so much, that its not in their best interest to ever spend money on the game. In fact, old players are the LEAST likely to spend money on the game because they know all the tricks to get around spending money to get better gear, while new players do not, and are thus more susceptible to buying stuff they wouldn't otherwise have had they known the secrets of the game.
These are the same broken arguments I've heard for over a decade now, over dozens of MMOs, from the same small vocal minority of people who think that just because they reached the end of the game, and wasted so many hours of their lives grinding for 4K+ IL, all new content should be focused around them and them alone, and everyone else should just go away.
Devs have never listened to those people, and never will, because its not in their best interest too, and all the DOOM! saying those people preach has been proven objectively false times beyond counting.
The most important thing in life is to be yourself. Unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman.
Heck, this game is over once you reach 2.5k ilvl, there is a whole 1.7k above that where there are people with no content for them to play. You don't even need 4k for this game to be trivial, 3k will do that already.
Yes sure, you are right, that in no way, will the devs ever be able to churn out enough end game content for people to always have something new. Thats not what anyone is saying. But the content thats been provided since mod 6 is light in scale with a wishy-washy endgame. Strongholds are cool, and a well thought out (imo) time sink that can provide some top of the line gear. Underdark added some cool skirmishes that required lower ilvl to grind out gear that rivals protectors seal gear, and added Demo and eDemo for an endgame event to farm. But the problem remains that for 3 mods now, they have given us an easier and easier way to hop on the item treadmill and grow far far stronger than any content in the game.
As I stated, there needs to be content for everyone of all play styles. But it also needs to make sense. If you are leaving the majority of your end game players with an easier and easier way to get top tier gear, and then, after several updates, fail to provide them with any incentive to use said gear, you've got a problem on hand.
And I dont agree that old players are least likely to spend money. Id say that they just need motivation to do so.
That 410 IL you get from having 5 rank 12 utility enchant slots?..... zero increase in actual combat effectiveness compared to someone without it. Literally like 1/10 of the maximum IL you can have contributes nothing to how powerful you are.
And given how IL is based on item rarity, rather then item power, with higher tier items giving significantly less increases in power, but a significantly more IL due to the cost needed to make it, the gap between high IL players actual power is fairly small and trivial compared to the gap in the IL numbers.
There is no 4,000+ IL required content because 4,000+ IL doesn't mean jack beyond how much dosh, real or virtual, that you dumped into the game.
And you know what? EVERY SINGLE MMO I HAVE EVER PLAYED has this EXACT same thing going on.
IL is a scam for the easily distracted, who only care about MUH NUMBERS!, rather then what those numbers actually DO.
You wont ever get content that requires such high IL to get in because such small increases in power aren't enough to justify a brand new tier of monsters, and only really matter in PVP.
These are the epic dungeons? The endgame content you talk about? Its not even a 4k group, more like a 3k group, so please keep telling me about those high level bosses. As for edemo, well, it 18 seconds to kill goristro and about 20 to kill the big puppy (edemo).
good luck guys!
I also liked how you posted videos of people using high powered buff/item stack exploits to quickly kill bosses instead of videos of people playing the game normally, or in pugs, that dont use such methods.
The actions of power gamers =/= that of the normal gaming population who don't care about a game that much to do such a thing.
Basically all single player games have the same faults, not to mention the history of MMOs which have it worse. All the videos you posted show is that cryptic needs to nerf overly powerful skill combos, that allow for obviously unintended damage spikes, not that the content needs to be harder.
Sure there is -- The Foundry.
...oh, no, wait -- they've totally destroyed that and made it completely worthless to play.
Nevermind.
So much for "infinite content" with hundreds and thousands of "free developers" creating end-game content.
And to think it could be fixed with a half-dozen lines of code.
Guess that's what happens when your Game Designer has no prior MMO Game Design experience... mod 6, mod 7, mod 8... the hits just keep on coming.
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
Whats more, is the Foundry suffers from the same thing games like Fallout and Elder Scrolls do, in that 99% of the modders have even less experience in making video game content then the "no experience" devs do, which only result is terrible content like the Falskaar mod for Skyrim.
The foundry would be a good idea if most people had good idea, and could make fun and worthwhile content to play, unfortunately, most people can't and the foundry would be no better then it is now, a thing with about .01% good quests, made by a small handful of authors, while the rest of the content is even more boring and poorly made stuff then the base game.
Also, the solution you posted in the link do nothing to fix the fundamental problems of foundry type systems.
People like being big buffoons, while it's amazingly amusing, apparently buffs are exploits now and people using the wrong powers/not knowing what they're doing is now 'normal gameplay'. Do continue telling me more about your interesting views of 'normal gameplay' and how a dungeon premade is not considered 'normal gameplay' to you. Heck, if my group takes 30 seconds to kill ANY T2 boss, pugs will take a minute, minute and a half, no more than that and trust me, no casualties either. How is your point even valid? The content is a joke. I would bring up soloing T2's but then all I'd get is a "you don't count cause you're BIS", which is valid and true. I don't represent majority, but I represent the loyal players who know what they're doing and who are absolutely disappointed by this abusive relationship we have with this ridiculous company. There's only so much we can absorb, and personally I'm pretty sure I've hit my breaking point. While I enjoy helping the community out and my friends in-game, I just don't know if they justify staying anymore.
The Holy Crusaders guild leader ♚ Mod 10 PVE Destroyer GWF guide ♚ Founding member of the Relentless Alliance
▁ ▂ ▄ ▅ ▆ ▇ █ Gankdalf The Icehole █ ▇ ▆ ▅ ▄ ▂ ▁
Cryptic is uncharacteristically nice compared to most MMO companies, especially most free to play MMO companies.
"I also liked how you posted videos of people using high powered buff/item stack exploits to quickly kill bosses instead of videos of people playing the game normally, or in pugs, that dont use such methods.
The actions of power gamers =/= that of the normal gaming population who don't care about a game that much to do such a thing."
You clearly said two things - pugs are considered normal gameplay, a premade dungeon is not. You also said buffs being used by these parties are exploits. That's exactly what I commented on.
If you don't know what a strawman argument is, then don't mention it and save yourself the embarrassment. Also I don't know what kind of sad MMO's you're playing that makes you think Cryptic are acting fairly by deceiving the playerbase, making false promises and prompts to make it look like they do A while they deliver B. Your standards are pretty damn low.
The Holy Crusaders guild leader ♚ Mod 10 PVE Destroyer GWF guide ♚ Founding member of the Relentless Alliance
You're going to lose a ton of players (again) if you don't bring more content into play for the end game players (which, lets face it, is pretty much anyone who's been here a month regularly or more, cause 1-70 takes 2 weeks tops of regular playtime) and then its just grind for the win on campaigns and dungeons.
You've yet again set yourselves up for a fall.
You're reintroducing 4 dungeons (and lets remember, this isn't new content, it's content you nuked without any detailed explanation and are just now, months and months later, redeveloping). You gave the impression that these dungeons would be along the lines of the current dungeon setups, that we'd have levelling versions AND epic versions. Now you've confirmed this isn't the case and only CN will be lvl 70 content, and once again you're getting the backlash of disapointed players.
I hope Mod 9 isn't just a 1 room map and a bunch of new quests like Mod 8 was, 'cause if that and the mount system are all we now have to look forward to, might as well start counting how many players are yet again going to jump ship or rage-quit.
Get us all drunk first.
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia