mamalion1234Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,415Arc User
edited August 2016
THe deisgn of the campaign is smart. IT seems it wants you to get first all the boons before you get in fbi. ALSO for some reason are tasks before fbi. I like it this way than to be like icewind. In ICEWInd campaign we skipped boons and tasks to enter kessel. Personal that requirement and slow progress campaign give time to my 5 characters to prepare.
AND i am 100% sure dungeon will not force you stay with the armor once you enter you change.
Hrm...the Manticore is new. The Dragon Turtle is new. Cattie-Brie and Wulfgar are new.
They've been using new "dynamic" animations in the world. The crows flying off in the fields, and the trees getting chopped down and falling over are new, or at least I've never seen it used before.
There's also new "classes" of giants that have different attack powers.
Plus you did get four new maps: Bryn Shandar, Lonelywood, Cold Run and Fangbreaker Keep.
So...yeah. You can gripe about a lot of stuff here, but complaining about everything being 100% recycled is a stretch.
I'm not complaining about maps, I don't mind. I'm just explaining why this module looks like a copy/pasta of some other stuff, it's because it is. Also, new cash shop items art doesn't count, that's how they make money. If you're playful, I have a little game for you: see if you can find an asset that hasn't been used already in the past multiple times on the new maps. Then see if you can't count them on your fingers. Again, I'm not complaining, but this is just the state of this game. We're talking about resources to develop the game, and it's obvious that they're extremely limited.
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mamalion1234Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,415Arc User
make brutalities to not proc with companion and then you will have one more reason to go to fbi for the new rings.
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ironzerg79Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,942Arc User
We're talking about resources to develop the game, and it's obvious that they're extremely limited.
If you're just talking about building environments, then it's incredibly smart to reuse assets. Did you ever DM D&D? Did your players complain when each and every goblin minature or dungeon tile on the map was completely unique? Did they flip the table when you pulled out the wizard figure to this encounter if it was the same wizard figure you used four or five encounters ago?
No. Don't be pednantic here. It's not the assets, it's how you use them. And it's one thing that makes Neverwinter great...they've built the engine and assets much like a set of D&D minatures or dungeon tiles, so they can roll out new updates and content at a pretty quick cadence.
10 major content updates in less than 3 years is actually pretty freaking fantastic as far as MMOs go these days. There's a lot of other games Neverwinter competes with that put something new out maybe once or twice a year. Given the size of the team that works on Neverwinter, compared with the hundreds that work on other MMOs, I'd say they're pretty freaking good at put out content given their "limited" resources.
And if you had a chance to step into Fangbreaker Island on test, you'll see they DID create new assets and they ARE using them in new ways. If you haven't already, then that's good. You're in for some pleasant surprises.
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thefabricantMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 5,248Arc User
We're talking about resources to develop the game, and it's obvious that they're extremely limited.
If you're just talking about building environments, then it's incredibly smart to reuse assets. Did you ever DM D&D? Did your players complain when each and every goblin minature or dungeon tile on the map was completely unique? Did they flip the table when you pulled out the wizard figure to this encounter if it was the same wizard figure you used four or five encounters ago?
No. Don't be pednantic here. It's not the assets, it's how you use them. And it's one thing that makes Neverwinter great...they've built the engine and assets much like a set of D&D minatures or dungeon tiles, so they can roll out new updates and content at a pretty quick cadence.
10 major content updates in less than 3 years is actually pretty freaking fantastic as far as MMOs go these days. There's a lot of other games Neverwinter competes with that put something new out maybe once or twice a year. Given the size of the team that works on Neverwinter, compared with the hundreds that work on other MMOs, I'd say they're pretty freaking good at put out content given their "limited" resources.
And if you had a chance to step into Fangbreaker Island on test, you'll see they DID create new assets and they ARE using them in new ways. If you haven't already, then that's good. You're in for some pleasant surprises.
My issue is not with the reuse of assets, since FBI is pretty new, its with the gating of said assets.
I would agree with @diogene0 that we need to realize what dungeon requirements truly are: Content gates. Neither do they tell what you need to complete the content or what you need to comfortably run it. It's just numbers unlocking content as you gear up.
And for FBI it's obvious they not only want to add an incentive to get to 3k item level, which quite frankly is a lot for casuals, but also want those that already own them to put significant time into the unlock. It's not only 28% EF, it's also part of the monetization strategy, because the resistance gate fits their pay-to-accelerate approach perfectly.
In a perfect world, no dungeon would need any requirement, because players easily figure them out themselves. But the devs need them for their progression system.
Epic and normal version make sense, though I suspect they lack the development resources for this. It's far easier to just tune the loot for one version while retaining the difficult entry requirements
This game has been obviously running on a skeleton crew since mod 6. I have yet to see a new prop in the new instances. Everything is something I've already seen somewhere else. There's also no new NPC. All of them are copy/pasta of some module, mostly 3. If there were a prize for the amount of time a gaming studio can recycle assets, Cryptic would win hands down.
BINGO!
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thefabricantMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 5,248Arc User
To add insult to injury take a look at these boots:
You need ~24k voninblood to keep the full set empowered and it has a combat time of 2 hours. It is literally not possible to farm enough to keep that empowered unless all you did was farm.
To add insult to injury take a look at these boots:
[image snipped]
You need ~24k voninblood to keep the full set empowered and it has a combat time of 2 hours. It is literally not possible to farm enough to keep that empowered unless all you did was farm.
I agree. Empowerment requirements are ridiculous. Comabt time should be extended to 12 hours AND the empowerment requirement should be cut by 80% so all anyone needs to keep the set up is the daily quests.
HE lag farming is just obnoxious.
Otherwise my plan is simply to get enough EF resistance to get into FBI, then change into my old Dragonflight gear once I'm inside.
This only makes sense if Everfrost is going to be a continuous mechanism for the rest of the game's lifetime. If the focus becomes Drow or Githyanki, or some other race that requires an entirely different set of gear to combat a future mechanic, then all the time spent empowering this equipment is moot. Past experience says we aren't going to be dealing with Everfrost in Module 12, 13, or 14.
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This only makes sense if Everfrost is going to be a continuous mechanism for the rest of the game's lifetime. If the focus becomes Drow or Githyanki, or some other race that requires an entirely different set of gear to combat a future mechanic, then all the time spent empowering this equipment is moot. Past experience says we aren't going to be dealing with Everfrost in Module 12, 13, or 14.
Well, there's another primary faction in IWD, so depending on whether wizards of the coast goes in another direction or not, Arcane Brotherhood will likely have some catastrophe that we need to help with (Mod 11). Then both factions will team up for something bigger (mod 12)...then maybe a new 25-person raid to kill some legendary giant god (mod 13 and maybe 14).....this is all guessing, and I dont pay attention to the WOTC stuff.
I still laugh that Valindra is still the main villian in the opening cinematic and tutorial, seemingly has significant power, and is reduced to a daily dungeon run that most groups can do with at wills.
We have a quote from dev that they prefer to avoid specific gear for specific content. We'll see how that goes. Perhaps instead of custom gear, they need to create an additional gem slot for a resistance gem? Say, half the RP needed for normal enchantments, with the slot being on armor pieces and shirts/pants? I dont know....save up gold now for moving enchants.
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ironzerg79Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,942Arc User
You need ~24k voninblood to keep the full set empowered and it has a combat time of 2 hours. It is literally not possible to farm enough to keep that empowered unless all you did was farm.
First, I agree the combat time needs to be extended. But to be accurate, it's 2k voninblood per level of empowerment for 2 hours at that level. So to keep your complete set empowered at level 3, it's 8k Voninblood for 2 hours.
I still think that's a lot, unless the Voninblood drops are substantial in Frangbreaker.
So yeah, it's a stretch, but it's not 24k/2hr.
EDIT: But thinking more...if you're in a great HE group, you can probably knock out 6-8 an hour, and that's constantly fighting. Let's be generous an assume 8 at 1/hr combat time. Or 1600 Voniblood. Assume some relic rewards in there, and call it an even 2k. You're at a net loss of 2k Voninblood.
So that does suck pretty hard. Combat time needs to be extended, probably to 8 hours. That's 1k Voninblood per hour, which means you'll still need to spend 1 out of every 2 hours of combat farming Voninblood...so...yeah. Even then, that's going to get old fast.
Honestly, I think that's your case right there for removing the empowerment system altogether. Unless a dev can come in here an otherwise tell us how that makes the game more fun, I'm totally not sold on the need to empower gear.
The trouble with Voninblod is that it is required in large quantities for so many other things beyond simply empowering the armour pieces. To get all five boons will take 65k of the stuff, though you will also need 500 Reputation so the time gating will sort of help with that. Opening/progressing through the campaign takes Voninblod in significant quantities, especially if you want access to all the initial gear you will need at the best price (which also involves spending Voninblod !!). And if you want to have more than one character kitted out ..... Someone, somewhere does not seem to have really though this all through properly...or at least not realistically.
The trouble with Voninblod is that it is required in large quantities for so many other things beyond simply empowering the armour pieces. To get all five boons will take 65k of the stuff, though you will also need 500 Reputation so the time gating will sort of help with that. Opening/progressing through the campaign takes Voninblod in significant quantities, especially if you want access to all the initial gear you will need at the best price (which also involves spending Voninblod !!). And if you want to have more than one character kitted out ..... Someone, somewhere does not seem to have really though this all through properly...or at least not realistically.
Farming the lanolin for the boots netted ~20k voninblood for me. 'Course that's hours upon hours per character. The rewards for FBI better be nuts or I just can't see anyone justifying the amount of work involved in getting through the door.
THe deisgn of the campaign is smart. IT seems it wants you to get first all the boons before you get in fbi. ALSO for some reason are tasks before fbi. I like it this way than to be like icewind. In ICEWInd campaign we skipped boons and tasks to enter kessel. Personal that requirement and slow progress campaign give time to my 5 characters to prepare.
AND i am 100% sure dungeon will not force you stay with the armor once you enter you change.
You'll only have 3 of the 5 boons unlocked by the time you can unlock FBI, and only the 2nd and 4th boons grant any resistance at all, and those are the only ones that are specifically tailored to anything in this mod. The boons are almost maximally irrelevant to running FBI.
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ironzerg79Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,942Arc User
So after spending more time farming HE's I've of the mindset that the empowerment should only affect the Everfrost resistance.
Otherwise, the armor should stay at it's pretty sweet 150 iLevel. As @thefabricant noted above, even with the reduced rate, there's no way you could possibly keep this armor empowered regularly AND still play the content it was intended for.
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feanor70118Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,170Arc User
This is going to end the way mod 3 did: Voninblood gates reduced by 90%, absolutely no one wearing their charged gear for an instant that they aren't required to, the whole thing reduced to less than a curiosity. This is looking like an even worse grind than the original 96 vigilance quests for mod 6, which as we know was the worst mod in the history of mods. Which is a shame, because apart from the blizzard effect I enjoy most of the new content. It's the same old problem: too much grind, not enough reward.
Make the EF non-compulsory, if people can handle the damage then what's the problem?
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I hate to have to say it, but the requirements for this latest mod have emphasised that this is a free-to-play game. You cannot buy Voninblod, Reputation, Secrets of Ostoria or Ten Towns' Supplies. All of these are required to progress in the current campaign and none of them can be bought with Zen or even AD. The only option is to spend hours and hours grinding through the content. So even people with real money to spend are having to deal with the same workload as those without if they want to reach Fangbreaker Island.
And a quick note to the nitpickers (like me ), I do realise that it is possible to buy Lanolin off the AH to restore the boots that provide some of the required Everfrost Resistance to save some time and that Tradebars can only be obtained from Lockboxes which require keys to open them which can only be bought with Zen or by buying into VIP which can only be obtained using Zen. I have VIP, so I have earned Tradebars with my 'free' keys. VIP cost me a lot of AD processed through the ZAX which took me some time spent in the Gateway Epic SCA Dungeons to earn. The point is, the main requirements that everyone has to obtain/meet cannot be bought only earned.
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ironzerg79Member, Neverwinter Moderator, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 4,942Arc User
Make the EF non-compulsory, if people can handle the damage then what's the problem?
@armadeonx I agree. There's enough hurdles to clear to get into Fangbreaker already. A 3.1k iLevel is not exactly easy, and you still need to put a lot of work into the campaign to get there.
Plus, there's no motivation like going into a dungeon and getting you butt kicked. Maybe after a few challenging runs in Fangbreaker, people might be more motivated to grab some Everfrost resistance.
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matiagronxMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 251Arc User
I am going to be quite clear and concise about this. I am sure most of us are not happy about the EF requirement on FBI, which forces us to acquire gear we do not need or frankly want to get in. We have the ilvl requirement, we can do the dungeon without ANY EF gear, in fact, we can do the dungeon with level 60 armor with no HP on (let alone gear with EF resist) AND we can finish the dungeon within 30 minutes. If you don't believe me, we can video it. I have absolutely 0 interest in spending 100's of thousands of AD on stuff I don't want to get into a dungeon that isn't even going to net a fraction of that value as returns.
Even if the only piece you needed were the empowered boots, it would still cost you 500k AD (the value of the lanolin alone) just to get through the door. You can't argue, "but no, you can just grind that out so it has no value" because it is still the opportunity cost of the next best alternative, which would be putting the lanolin on the AH. And that would be the cost for just 1 character. This is not even counting the cost of every other little thing you will need to get through the door. All in all, its ridiculous and we want it gone.
I don't care if through your internal testing you decided your groups can't finish it with less than that amount. Our groups can, our groups have and we aren't willing to go to such extreme lengths just to get inside the dungeon.
I m sure most of us want this game to change hands cause its already toxic as hell for almost all the people who are here since beta or in general since the first years. We are the ones who supported this game with all our heart cause it was quite close to the D&D feeling. But after so many awfully bad decisions you dear developers and managers, and ONLY YOU, managed to DESTROY this feeling and make the game TOXIC. This toxic enviroment alienated the player base and eventually left us with a couple of thousands who actively play this game. Fabricant's opinion is just another example of this toxicity that you created by simply removing the LOOT and DUNGEONS from this game. You made happy so many thousands of people by simply creating beautiful dungeons and making them drop over 20 BoE items that had an average good value, from best to worst. From the moment you removed BoE loot you made this game a sterile and selfish-centered facebook game. You removed all joy from running a dungeon as a PARTY. You are aware of all this demise you brought to this game but still somehow noone can do anything, your actions are dictated by a faceless demon that denies fun and promotes toxicity, sterility and anger. I will support this game for the sake of old times but i will oppose your actions with all my heart. I only wish i could somehow become a millionaire or maybe a billionaire and firstly remove this gem from your sloppy and malicious hands and second find a way to punish your ill way of thinking which is responsible for this abomination we have in our hands today.
As for the EF situation, its a good example of your lack of creativity. Rehashing old ideas that failed, gating content behind ridiculus demands with no future but most important, denying once again the FUN of LOOT by running a dungeon. You streamlined the dungeons and made them look like failed foundry projects with obsolete or non-existent loot, destroyed the AH economy by not being able to fight all those bots and exploits. These are the thoughts of someone who loved, supported and still loves this game but despises the random individuals who handled it with such ignorance towards everyone else who is playing this that the only feeling left to express is some kind of HATE. And this is a game that promotes teamplay and fun...how TOXIC are you dear Cryptic and whoever else is behind this abomination..
I think they need to remove the mechanic entirely. Or seriously rework it.
If theres no resistance req to get in and people grind the campaign, get in, and get wrecked and THEN find they need to grind all over again? They'll uninstall this money grabbing train wreck and play something else.
Grinding for a set of gear for ONE module is a complete waste of people's time and money. MMOs have largely given up on this concept because it does not work. The only reason they're rehashing this is to get get people to buy items from zen store or buy bag space to hold this gear.
There's a very clear reason why devs have not posted in this thread. They know exactly what it is and can't admit that they KNIW this is a bad idea but their hands are tied. The suits are dictating this mechanic not the devs.
These are the prices on Preview after 6 market tasks have been completed. The original prices for the epic pants and shirt was 10k Vs and 50 TT Supplies. They'll drop to 5k and 25 TT supplies when ya unlock all tasks.
Ye'll have to decide if it's cheaper to get the pants and shirt at original price or wait a couple more weeks to get at lower price.
can some one please tell me what unlocks what in the store? i clicked on restore bryn shanders economy to open market and resist cold which opened blue pants n shirt.. what does assist refugees and drive back giants open please?
You know what is worst in all of this? Stupid high vonin req. Basically we have to spend weeks just for vonin farm. Campaign, restore gear, fill it and keep tiers up... This is madness. I bought epic trowel, frostborn and realised myself its not worthy without remorhaz pet. Lanolin req push me to farm HE anyway. I hope devs lower this EF req at least of not remove. And lower damn vonin req for everything or/and extend tier timers on gear.
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jaysun1977Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 177Arc User
10 major content updates in less than 3 years is actually pretty freaking fantastic as far as MMOs go these days. There's a lot of other games Neverwinter competes with that put something new out maybe once or twice a year. Given the size of the team that works on Neverwinter, compared with the hundreds that work on other MMOs, I'd say they're pretty freaking good at put out content given their "limited" resources.
@ironzerg79 It's not quantity that counts (outside of boardrooms and revenue reports), it's quality. And when it comes to quality, NWO is severly lacking and has for a long, long time. The ideas basically came to a standstill with module 3. It's always just:
- More HEs - More extremely low-drop rate carrots - More dailies - More Refinement drops
gone are things like:
- Equipment choices - Diverse stat arrays for classes - Auctionable loot of value and interest - additional paragon paths or classes
Add to that: massive content recycling. Their sounds guys are good and their concept artists are great. Their 3d artists are okay, but lack passion, which shows in their work. What Cryptics NWO team lacks greatly however, are systems designers and game designers, specifically the latter ones. The ones they have right now (if any) are HAMSTER. I am not saying this to be rude but to point out where the major deficiencies lie. It is obvious, that from the orginal game design team for NWO not a single one is still working on the project. The current staff does not understand the mechanics or the synergy between them and is therefore unable to progress. That's why it's all a standstill and everything is just a copy of either earlier modules or mechanics from other cryptic titles using the same (HAMSTER poor) engine.
I do not doubt their passion for the project or their intentions for it, but their abilities quite frankly are not up to the task. They repeat rookie mistakes over and over again, unable to move beyond them. On top of that they have no grasp of the psychological aspects of their work, like reward management, expactation management as well as basic game theory.
And if all that wasn't enough, their creative freedom is caged by a silly brand contract with WotC, forcing them to create new themed content for each and every new WoTC D&D product Mike Mearls HAMSTER out and that's a bigger issue than most seem to realize, as WotC has no vision or idea for the future line of D&D. The group around Mearls is a group of untalented hacks with not a single clue about effective game design (which is why they released the worst selling edition of D&D in history, dwarfed even by 4th Edition D&D). It's that lack of vision that forces Cryptic to tie Modules together seemingly at random: Tyranny of Dragons followed by Elemental Evil, followed by Tales of the Swordcoast (Underdark), followed by Rage of Demons (Maze Engine), followed by Storm King's Thunder, all WotC Campaign books that needed selling.
What made NWO once great was an overarching storyline that tied it all together. It made it a complete and wholesale experience. That stopped with Module 3, however, and Cryptic hasn't been able to pick up from there.
Now, unable to continue a coherent storyline thank's to WotC's madness they are left to shine with gameplay and that's a bummer since that is where Cryptic's NWO team is mostly lacking. It's hard to create good rules. It's even harder to do it on a continous stress test (which every MMO is when it comes to mechanics) but it is what's needed to get the game back on track and not slowly dwindling away. Sure, the console sales are great and will probaböy be for another two or three years, given the lack of competition on the console market. But that lack of competition will cease to exist, given how profitable the market currently is and plenty of other F2P MMOs are currently turning their eyes to the console market. To remain at the forefront in that market will require good rulesets and good gameplay mechanics.
So, I can understad why Cryptic's NWO team is rehashing so many assets and mechanics and I can sympathize with them, but to call it good or to commend them on the modules they released is lying to yourself and to others. The module quality is not there. The mechanics are broken, the response to them lackluster (probably because they don't know how to fix them) and the transition from concept to 3d art is terrible (look at the difference between araj tower concept drawings and the final 3d art).
All hope's not lost, yet, but we must not close our eyes to the faults or it will be.
A sad example for what I am talking about are the ever recurring "new classes" and "new races" threads. Not only is their optimistic use of the plural form simply heartbreaking it's also the fact that these threads have been up since module 6 and probably will be forever. Adding a new race would be the easier of the two, it's "only" new artwork, new textures, new sounds, new particle effects and resizing every single piece of equipment in the game to be worn by the race while on the mechanical side, increasing two attributes (which are easily handled, given that dragonborn are already able to pick whatever they choose) and a baseline race mechanic that's not overpowered (easily achieved by making it meaningless). So, while it is most likely still leagues above the current capabilities of Cryptic's NWO team, given the need to release a module every 3 months to mantain CCUs, it's technically not that hard. Just terribly labor intensive. Designing a new class on the other hand is an entirely new monster. New tab mechanics, new powers, new equipment sets for all the levels, balance tests for the mechanics, two paragon paths, three talent trees heroic talents and all the while it needs to be mechanically and experientally different from already existing classes. The sheer amount of design work nescessary for such a thing is mind boggling. Sure a good and large team with competent game designers can do it, but Cryptic's NWO team has been on the financial and manpower backburners for quite some time. Thus, new classes won't happen in the foreseeable future, probably never. But they can't admit that to the public, maybe not even to themselves, so it needs to go up again, with each and every new module, for everyone to see. I didn't call it heartbreaking for no reason.
So, while I am hard on Cryptic and their work I can sympathize with them. That won't mean I will tolerate shoddy work, though, and you shouldn't either.
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jaysun1977Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 177Arc User
can some one please tell me what unlocks what in the store? i clicked on restore bryn shanders economy to open market and resist cold which opened blue pants n shirt.. what does assist refugees and drive back giants open please?
"Resist the Cold" - unlocks blue shirt and trousers "Assist Refugees" - unlocks Frost Resistance Reinforcement Kits (for underwear only); repeated task lowers shop prices "Drive back the Giants" - unlocks epic shirt and trousers, repeated task lowers shop prices "Secrets of Ostorian Relics" - unlocks green trowel "Restore Bryn Shander Economy" - unlocks lower shop prices
Comments
Personal that requirement and slow progress campaign give time to my 5 characters to prepare.
AND i am 100% sure dungeon will not force you stay with the armor once you enter you change.
No. Don't be pednantic here. It's not the assets, it's how you use them. And it's one thing that makes Neverwinter great...they've built the engine and assets much like a set of D&D minatures or dungeon tiles, so they can roll out new updates and content at a pretty quick cadence.
10 major content updates in less than 3 years is actually pretty freaking fantastic as far as MMOs go these days. There's a lot of other games Neverwinter competes with that put something new out maybe once or twice a year. Given the size of the team that works on Neverwinter, compared with the hundreds that work on other MMOs, I'd say they're pretty freaking good at put out content given their "limited" resources.
And if you had a chance to step into Fangbreaker Island on test, you'll see they DID create new assets and they ARE using them in new ways. If you haven't already, then that's good. You're in for some pleasant surprises.
And for FBI it's obvious they not only want to add an incentive to get to 3k item level, which quite frankly is a lot for casuals, but also want those that already own them to put significant time into the unlock. It's not only 28% EF, it's also part of the monetization strategy, because the resistance gate fits their pay-to-accelerate approach perfectly.
In a perfect world, no dungeon would need any requirement, because players easily figure them out themselves. But the devs need them for their progression system.
You need ~24k voninblood to keep the full set empowered and it has a combat time of 2 hours. It is literally not possible to farm enough to keep that empowered unless all you did was farm.
HE lag farming is just obnoxious.
Otherwise my plan is simply to get enough EF resistance to get into FBI, then change into my old Dragonflight gear once I'm inside.
If I decide to run it at all.
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I still laugh that Valindra is still the main villian in the opening cinematic and tutorial, seemingly has significant power, and is reduced to a daily dungeon run that most groups can do with at wills.
We have a quote from dev that they prefer to avoid specific gear for specific content. We'll see how that goes. Perhaps instead of custom gear, they need to create an additional gem slot for a resistance gem? Say, half the RP needed for normal enchantments, with the slot being on armor pieces and shirts/pants? I dont know....save up gold now for moving enchants.
So to keep your complete set empowered at level 3, it's 8k Voninblood for 2 hours.
I still think that's a lot, unless the Voninblood drops are substantial in Frangbreaker.
So yeah, it's a stretch, but it's not 24k/2hr.
EDIT: But thinking more...if you're in a great HE group, you can probably knock out 6-8 an hour, and that's constantly fighting. Let's be generous an assume 8 at 1/hr combat time. Or 1600 Voniblood. Assume some relic rewards in there, and call it an even 2k. You're at a net loss of 2k Voninblood.
So that does suck pretty hard. Combat time needs to be extended, probably to 8 hours. That's 1k Voninblood per hour, which means you'll still need to spend 1 out of every 2 hours of combat farming Voninblood...so...yeah. Even then, that's going to get old fast.
Honestly, I think that's your case right there for removing the empowerment system altogether. Unless a dev can come in here an otherwise tell us how that makes the game more fun, I'm totally not sold on the need to empower gear.
EDIT2: Bad math...200 per major HE, not 300.
Otherwise, the armor should stay at it's pretty sweet 150 iLevel. As @thefabricant noted above, even with the reduced rate, there's no way you could possibly keep this armor empowered regularly AND still play the content it was intended for.
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
And a quick note to the nitpickers (like me ), I do realise that it is possible to buy Lanolin off the AH to restore the boots that provide some of the required Everfrost Resistance to save some time and that Tradebars can only be obtained from Lockboxes which require keys to open them which can only be bought with Zen or by buying into VIP which can only be obtained using Zen. I have VIP, so I have earned Tradebars with my 'free' keys. VIP cost me a lot of AD processed through the ZAX which took me some time spent in the Gateway Epic SCA Dungeons to earn. The point is, the main requirements that everyone has to obtain/meet cannot be bought only earned.
Plus, there's no motivation like going into a dungeon and getting you butt kicked. Maybe after a few challenging runs in Fangbreaker, people might be more motivated to grab some Everfrost resistance.
As for the EF situation, its a good example of your lack of creativity. Rehashing old ideas that failed, gating content behind ridiculus demands with no future but most important, denying once again the FUN of LOOT by running a dungeon. You streamlined the dungeons and made them look like failed foundry projects with obsolete or non-existent loot, destroyed the AH economy by not being able to fight all those bots and exploits. These are the thoughts of someone who loved, supported and still loves this game but despises the random individuals who handled it with such ignorance towards everyone else who is playing this that the only feeling left to express is some kind of HATE. And this is a game that promotes teamplay and fun...how TOXIC are you dear Cryptic and whoever else is behind this abomination..
If theres no resistance req to get in and people grind the campaign, get in, and get wrecked and THEN find they need to grind all over again? They'll uninstall this money grabbing train wreck and play something else.
Grinding for a set of gear for ONE module is a complete waste of people's time and money. MMOs have largely given up on this concept because it does not work. The only reason they're rehashing this is to get get people to buy items from zen store or buy bag space to hold this gear.
There's a very clear reason why devs have not posted in this thread. They know exactly what it is and can't admit that they KNIW this is a bad idea but their hands are tied. The suits are dictating this mechanic not the devs.
It's sad really...
Edited some auto correct errors
i clicked on restore bryn shanders economy to open market and resist cold which opened blue pants n shirt..
what does assist refugees and drive back giants open please?
It's not quantity that counts (outside of boardrooms and revenue reports), it's quality. And when it comes to quality, NWO is severly lacking and has for a long, long time. The ideas basically came to a standstill with module 3. It's always just:
- More HEs
- More extremely low-drop rate carrots
- More dailies
- More Refinement drops
gone are things like:
- Equipment choices
- Diverse stat arrays for classes
- Auctionable loot of value and interest
- additional paragon paths or classes
Add to that: massive content recycling. Their sounds guys are good and their concept artists are great. Their 3d artists are okay, but lack passion, which shows in their work. What Cryptics NWO team lacks greatly however, are systems designers and game designers, specifically the latter ones. The ones they have right now (if any) are HAMSTER. I am not saying this to be rude but to point out where the major deficiencies lie. It is obvious, that from the orginal game design team for NWO not a single one is still working on the project. The current staff does not understand the mechanics or the synergy between them and is therefore unable to progress. That's why it's all a standstill and everything is just a copy of either earlier modules or mechanics from other cryptic titles using the same (HAMSTER poor) engine.
I do not doubt their passion for the project or their intentions for it, but their abilities quite frankly are not up to the task. They repeat rookie mistakes over and over again, unable to move beyond them. On top of that they have no grasp of the psychological aspects of their work, like reward management, expactation management as well as basic game theory.
And if all that wasn't enough, their creative freedom is caged by a silly brand contract with WotC, forcing them to create new themed content for each and every new WoTC D&D product Mike Mearls HAMSTER out and that's a bigger issue than most seem to realize, as WotC has no vision or idea for the future line of D&D. The group around Mearls is a group of untalented hacks with not a single clue about effective game design (which is why they released the worst selling edition of D&D in history, dwarfed even by 4th Edition D&D).
It's that lack of vision that forces Cryptic to tie Modules together seemingly at random: Tyranny of Dragons followed by Elemental Evil, followed by Tales of the Swordcoast (Underdark), followed by Rage of Demons (Maze Engine), followed by Storm King's Thunder, all WotC Campaign books that needed selling.
What made NWO once great was an overarching storyline that tied it all together. It made it a complete and wholesale experience. That stopped with Module 3, however, and Cryptic hasn't been able to pick up from there.
Now, unable to continue a coherent storyline thank's to WotC's madness they are left to shine with gameplay and that's a bummer since that is where Cryptic's NWO team is mostly lacking. It's hard to create good rules. It's even harder to do it on a continous stress test (which every MMO is when it comes to mechanics) but it is what's needed to get the game back on track and not slowly dwindling away. Sure, the console sales are great and will probaböy be for another two or three years, given the lack of competition on the console market. But that lack of competition will cease to exist, given how profitable the market currently is and plenty of other F2P MMOs are currently turning their eyes to the console market. To remain at the forefront in that market will require good rulesets and good gameplay mechanics.
So, I can understad why Cryptic's NWO team is rehashing so many assets and mechanics and I can sympathize with them, but to call it good or to commend them on the modules they released is lying to yourself and to others. The module quality is not there. The mechanics are broken, the response to them lackluster (probably because they don't know how to fix them) and the transition from concept to 3d art is terrible (look at the difference between araj tower concept drawings and the final 3d art).
All hope's not lost, yet, but we must not close our eyes to the faults or it will be.
A sad example for what I am talking about are the ever recurring "new classes" and "new races" threads. Not only is their optimistic use of the plural form simply heartbreaking it's also the fact that these threads have been up since module 6 and probably will be forever. Adding a new race would be the easier of the two, it's "only" new artwork, new textures, new sounds, new particle effects and resizing every single piece of equipment in the game to be worn by the race while on the mechanical side, increasing two attributes (which are easily handled, given that dragonborn are already able to pick whatever they choose) and a baseline race mechanic that's not overpowered (easily achieved by making it meaningless). So, while it is most likely still leagues above the current capabilities of Cryptic's NWO team, given the need to release a module every 3 months to mantain CCUs, it's technically not that hard. Just terribly labor intensive.
Designing a new class on the other hand is an entirely new monster. New tab mechanics, new powers, new equipment sets for all the levels, balance tests for the mechanics, two paragon paths, three talent trees heroic talents and all the while it needs to be mechanically and experientally different from already existing classes. The sheer amount of design work nescessary for such a thing is mind boggling. Sure a good and large team with competent game designers can do it, but Cryptic's NWO team has been on the financial and manpower backburners for quite some time. Thus, new classes won't happen in the foreseeable future, probably never. But they can't admit that to the public, maybe not even to themselves, so it needs to go up again, with each and every new module, for everyone to see. I didn't call it heartbreaking for no reason.
So, while I am hard on Cryptic and their work I can sympathize with them. That won't mean I will tolerate shoddy work, though, and you shouldn't either.
"Assist Refugees" - unlocks Frost Resistance Reinforcement Kits (for underwear only); repeated task lowers shop prices
"Drive back the Giants" - unlocks epic shirt and trousers, repeated task lowers shop prices
"Secrets of Ostorian Relics" - unlocks green trowel
"Restore Bryn Shander Economy" - unlocks lower shop prices
Hope that helps.