Has the PC population dropped as much as I'm being told?

torch327 · September 2016

I downloaded this on my ps4 because I was hoping my wife would like it and she doesn't. I am considering starting over on pc even though I have $100+ invested in my ps4 account.

If my arc account functioned like my SE account it would be a no brainer,I would switch in a heartbeat.

juttetsu · September 2016

I have played pc for years and never have trouble finding people or groups. This in my experience holds true even in lower levels

torch327 · September 2016

juttetsu said:
I have played pc for years and never have trouble finding people or groups. This in my experience holds true even in lower levels

Thanks,now I need to decide if I really want to do this, I'm laid off so get to put alot of time into games like this. I've only go about 40 days in the game,but that equates to alot of hours at an average of 12+ hours a day. Luckily I have minimal money invested.

taitinhakkaaja · September 2016

I started playing with xbox and after month i decided to switch to pc. Overall this game is a lot better in pc and generally much easier/faster to use (chat,ah etc.)
Another huge bonus is gateway (when it works

)

tripsofthrymr · September 2016

juttetsu said:
I have played pc for years and never have trouble finding people or groups. This in my experience holds true even in lower levels

I agree with this.

If you're interested in a guild focused on newer players, check out my guild Caritas. We're active and part of an active alliance.

sasageru · September 2016

If you're planning to stay as a solo player you'll probably have a hard time finding groups for dungeon/skirmishes and the like especially at higher levels.

At this stage of NW PC a guild and alliance is highly beneficial for finding players to run group content with.

generaldiomedes · September 2016

The /LFG in protectors enclave is as active as ever (for folks with a decent item level)

The problem is that as they add more and more content, queues get diluted, so without an alliance you will probably have to stick with the most popular content and work the /zone and /lfg chat in popular areas.

sm0ld3r · September 2016

The player populations has been dropping every month. It will then surge a bit as a new mod comes up and then decline once again. Based on the steam numbers we are at all time lows. Just before Mod 10 the peak was around 2800. After Mod 10 came out it surged to just under 3500 which is an all time low for a new mod.

I'm not too surprised, this new Mod brings back all the things everyone hated and made it even worse. Gear that requires hours of digging relics to empower for 1 hour. That is simply nuts. I think most people took 1 look and ran. If I wanted to dig, I'd get a job digging ditches not play this game....

urabask · September 2016

Unless PS4 has died I'd stick with that. The PS4 economy in and of itself should be motivation enough to stick with the platform. PC has an economy dominated by bots and exploiters that have managed to generate so much AD that the zax is stuck around 490+ year round.

xxmantaraxx · September 2016

sm0ld3r said:
The player populations has been dropping every month. It will then surge a bit as a new mod comes up and then decline once again. Based on the steam numbers we are at all time lows. Just before Mod 10 the peak was around 2800. After Mod 10 came out it surged to just under 3500 which is an all time low for a new mod.

Steam is not a good metric for Neverwinter player population. Litteraly no one in my alliance uses steam anymore. Many dont even use arc. they just launch the exe form a desktop shortcut. Just based on PE traffic and how many PE instances are open at any given time I would say the population is actually increasing after the devistation that mod 6 carried with it.

As to OPs question, I belive the game is much better now than it was a year ago. I would reccomend starting a new character and coming back to your existing ones once you get a feel for the game. A lot has changed and the 1-70 campaigns are really entertaing and well put to gether now.

thevaliant · September 2016

xxmantaraxx said:

sm0ld3r said:
The player populations has been dropping every month. It will then surge a bit as a new mod comes up and then decline once again. Based on the steam numbers we are at all time lows. Just before Mod 10 the peak was around 2800. After Mod 10 came out it surged to just under 3500 which is an all time low for a new mod.
Steam is not a good metric for Neverwinter player population. Litteraly no one in my alliance uses steam anymore. Many dont even use arc. they just launch the exe form a desktop shortcut. Just based on PE traffic and how many PE instances are open at any given time I would say the population is actually increasing after the devistation that mod 6 carried with it.

As to OPs question, I belive the game is much better now than it was a year ago. I would reccomend starting a new character and coming back to your existing ones once you get a feel for the game. A lot has changed and the 1-70 campaigns are really entertaing and well put to gether now.

Agree! I feel the game is going strong and don't see that changing anytime soon.

kvet · September 2016

If it weren't for Cryptic and people paying them to mismanage the game (in the unfortunate and misguided idea that they're "supporting" the game somehow), Neverwinter would be much better than it is today. Still - it's a great free game - just stick to free though or not only are you wasting your money, you're actually contributing to the game getting worse by rewarding Cryptic's bad behavior with cash. It's like giving money to a political cause you absolutely oppose - you wouldn't do that, so why pay Cryptic to continue being a terrible company when you don't have to?

thevaliant · September 2016

kvet said:
If it weren't for Cryptic and people paying them to mismanage the game (in the unfortunate and misguided idea that they're "supporting" the game somehow), Neverwinter would be much better than it is today. Still - it's a great free game - just stick to free though or not only are you wasting your money, you're actually contributing to the game getting worse by rewarding Cryptic's bad behavior with cash. It's like giving money to a political cause you absolutely oppose - you wouldn't do that, so why pay Cryptic to continue being a terrible company when you don't have to?

I would have to respectfully disagree. I spend a lot of time and enjoy the game immensely. I don't spend much on the game, but what I do spend, I do so gladly because it is cheaper entertainment than most things I would go do. I know people who drop a considerable amount of money on a weekend bash, for example, more than I spend for a year of gaming. I like rewarding the company that makes this game available to me, even though it, just like all games, does have it flaws. That being said, I am enjoying the game immensely.

sm0ld3r · September 2016

xxmantaraxx said:

sm0ld3r said:
The player populations has been dropping every month. It will then surge a bit as a new mod comes up and then decline once again. Based on the steam numbers we are at all time lows. Just before Mod 10 the peak was around 2800. After Mod 10 came out it surged to just under 3500 which is an all time low for a new mod.
Steam is not a good metric for Neverwinter player population. Litteraly no one in my alliance uses steam anymore. Many dont even use arc. they just launch the exe form a desktop shortcut. Just based on PE traffic and how many PE instances are open at any given time I would say the population is actually increasing after the devistation that mod 6 carried with it.

As to OPs question, I belive the game is much better now than it was a year ago. I would reccomend starting a new character and coming back to your existing ones once you get a feel for the game. A lot has changed and the 1-70 campaigns are really entertaing and well put to gether now.

It shows the trend. There is no way to access the numbers from their regular servers. While the exact numbers are wrong, it shows the overall trend. I know a lot of folks that use steam. These numbers almost certainly DON'T include the botters. Considering half the players online are probably bots, I'd rather ignore those numbers when figuring out the overall real player trend.

I also know my friends list keeps getting smaller and smaller. I keep adding new folks but at this point 90% of my friends list doesn't log in anymore. The guilds I've been in, keep losing players - and I don't mean "new" players - players with 3k+ ilvls keep quitting.

The fact that they designed the Mod 10 gear the way they did, shows they know nothing about what the players want. Very sad.

ghoulz66 · September 2016

Population was massive back during mod 2. You could quickly find groups for even the leveling dungeons. Now you often wait for even the epics people grind, making it even more important to be part of a guild or community.

magpie · September 2016

I'm new, and had worried a teeny bit having seen games decline, but don't think that is a problem now. There seem to be many people in towns and afield. Totally a 'go'. I too had money in a PS4 char, and I liked PS4 NW, but I had a glitch so came here to the PC. The PC game is much nicer, especially the UI, and I haven't even started the Foundry quests.

xaansteel · September 2016

Some good comments about alliances. And I actually think that the new alliance system is part of the perception of fewer people. Also the advent of group-finding groups like Zerg_impact, basically people are more likely to ask in alliance or a special group than on LFG now.

Unknown · September 2016

This content has been removed.

lyaise · September 2016

The game was doing well - then came Judgement Day, (also known as Mod 6).

This was the day the artificial lack of intelligence took over and declared war on the player race. The first indications of disaster where the mushroom clouds, as classes and content where nuked. Some of the dungeon landscapes never recovered, but this was nothing compared to the resultant struggle to survive by various classes - eking out a desperate existence, unwanted and discarded.

Some say that this game world will recover - others say let ruin have it's way,
As the player race must have been truly terrible to deserve this Mod 6 Judgement Day

kemnimtarkas · September 2016

thevaliant#9250 said:

I would have to respectfully disagree. I spend a lot of time and enjoy the game immensely. I don't spend much on the game, but what I do spend, I do so gladly because it is cheaper entertainment than most things I would go do. I know people who drop a considerable amount of money on a weekend bash, for example, more than I spend for a year of gaming. I like rewarding the company that makes this game available to me, even though it, just like all games, does have it flaws. That being said, I am enjoying the game immensely.

And I have to disagree with your POV. I find little to no enjoyment playing this game at the moment. Mod 10 is just a rehash of IWD, except more complicated and more time consuming for even less gain that IWD offered. It's grinding literally for the sake of grinding. The new content isn't engaging enough to gloss over the blatant monetization aspects of the new mod.

I'm on hiatus until Mod 11, to see if the devs make it worth my while to come back to play. Just doing Arc quests in the meantime. And occasionally reading forum posts to see when news about Mod 11 starts to come out.

Has the PC population dropped as much as I'm being told?

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