Since the gateway went down lag in game got worst. Blaming the gateway for lag or performance issues is ridiculous. Is the STO gateway online? Will it be taken down?
There are more than BIS players in this game RIP Real Tiamat, RIP Real Demogorgon RIP real Temple of the spider. Why remove non bis content to give to bis players ???? FORCING the majority of your player base to play 4 mod old dungeons and trial will have a bad result on player base Changes are getting so bad i would rather prefer no new changes (RIP ICE FISHING in winter fest)
I just hope they are able to place parts of the SCA into actual gameplay. When the gateway was open you had the chance of the Loyal Gear and the Lightfoot Thief for FREE, you just needed to be willing to put in the effort and some of your personnel time. If the loyal gear and the and companions now become part of the Lock Box, Trade Bar Store or Zen Market, these items are no longer FREE. They become part of the P2P mentality whether you use Trade Bars or obtain them in a newer lockbox.
The gain of Trade Bars and the opening of Lock Boxes are only available by purchasing Enchanted Keys or VIP access. Either way, these items are no longer free and will now require even more of your RL money to obtain, if they are placed in these markets/stores. I just hope through quests they are able to reward either Trade Bars or even the Loyalty Gear and companion without the usage of AD which will just fuel the need for these AD sellers even more. Also the new system would have to have the items BtA to eliminate bot involvement.
For a very long time, players haven't given a second thought to playing Foundry quests because "the loot sucks." Perhaps transferring the drops from SCA to eligible Foundry quests, (using the same 15+ minute requirement as it was for the old Daily Foundry AD,) as RNG drops would create an incentive for players to participate in Foundry content.
Probably there would be a lot of speedrunning Tired of Being the Hero, and not much else.
Perhaps some of the higher end drops, the Lightfoot Thief for example, could be tied to one of the Foundry Community Achievements in the same fashion as the Book Imp companion is tied to the Foundry Authoring Achievements.
"Fast Achievement" "quests" (I'd rather call them exploits) would become extremely popular. Everything else would still be ignored.
The Foundry being worth-while would be great, but it would need more than just adding rewards, because Foundry quests are very prone to exploits. Maybe it could work, if the eligible quests would be chosen random and change every day; or if you could claim a "real" reward only once per mission... but this probably requires more "ressources" than they are able/willing to invest. Maybe quests could give tokens as reward, based on average time and one could buy the gear with these tokens? But then again, nobody wants another currency, and they could simply add RAD as rewards this way, and one thing I really don't get is why they haven't done that already...
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jaysun1977Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 177Arc User
In other words - Andy didn't know a week ahead of time that they were going to do this. As Andy was away at PAX when the Gateway was brought down, I do not think he knew that it was even happening until after it happened. I could be wrong on this, but as someone who has near constant communication with him, I do not think that's the case here.
Even if that's the case, someone pulled the plug. That someone didn't do that out of a whim. That someone also didn't have to do it as an emergency reaction. In other words, that someone knew before hand. And that someone should have said something!
I understand you are trying to placate here, but let us at least be honest about the situation. There is enough PR PUPPIES coming from Cryptic and PWE already. Vacuous phrases with no real tangible content. Just "maybes" and "could haves" and "would like tos". There is no reason for you to add to it or to defend it.
EDIT: I recommend the team to familirize themselves with the concept of expectation management and it's effects and consequences. It could save a LOT of money in the long run.
Actually, there is no "workaround" for getting to play swordcoast adventures...or really anything during your lunch hour at work other than bringing a laptop, which i am not going to do. I meant it when i said that I was done spending actual money for arc games if the gateway did not come back up. So, since I was just paid today, as promised, here is a list of what I purchased in instead of buying some zen, like I normally would. today's purchase: 1 box of Warhammer Screamers of Tzeentch. About $22 and change. Really, the only thing Arc understands is money. They do not understand customer service or trust, or think that either of those items effect the bottom line. it is a pity.
very nice buy... i kind of want one now.
Thanks! I am putting them together now. I do like the way Warhammer minis come with a variety of parts to use, so you can customize them a bit.
gl mate. 22 dollars huh, i might get one. ill have to take a long term plan on it though.
i am currently asking for peoples stuff here in these forums =D so far no bites. cause if people are gonna quite the game they might as well get rid of their stuff and ill take anything that will help my fairly weak 3k character.
Oh, don't get me wrong....I do not plan to quit playing for at least some time. According to my payment history, I have already given $360.00 to Cryptic to play this game. So I plan to get every pennies worth..... I am just not going to give them any more of my money. Really...having spent that has still left my characters hanging around 2500 gear score. I am not really that much better off than those who have not spent any real cash.
fangbreaker was severly lacking in rewards... what if companion gear/ lf thief was added to the loot table?
Edit: i thought pc was being used for testing, but it seems the opposite. they see that consoles get by without certain things like gateway then strip them from pc. consoles dont have companion gear outside of adorable (of course you can use personalized but thats not everything). no foundry either. keep watching whats left out of consoles as an indictator what will be taken away next.
Post edited by silver11#9318 on
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bigredbrentMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 155Arc User
I'll add my voice to those who'll miss the guild tools on Gateway. As leader of a reasonably sized guild, one of the most useful components of the guild tab on Gateway was the ability to sort by the "last seen" date. You can check activity in-game, but you have to hover over each individual name, which adds a crapload of time to the previously simple task of finding out who has been idle, and for how long--especially when your members play often on some alts and not so often on others. If that functionality magically appeared in-game, you'd make some people happy.
I'll definitely miss other aspects of Gateway, but it's the Guild and AH sorting/interfaces that I'll miss most. SCA was a lot of fun too.
/ExportGuildMemberList C:/GuildRoster.csv
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santralafaxMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 2,896Arc User
edited September 2016
Hey, that companion has movement and regeneration--as well as a defense slot. I'll be sure to never use it.
Edit: Someday I'll make Squad Leader, tho.
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santralafaxMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 2,896Arc User
This has ALWAYS puzzled me. Question: Why do I need to know the name and handle of the player selling anything in the Auction House? Am I suppose to use this to write them a thank you letter? This is how gold spammers pass AD farmed by botting. All you needed to do was remove a name field from the Auction House table.
I think most people here would agree, remove the name of the seller and AD cannot be exchanged. You didn't need to tear down a website for that, unless you were just looking for an excuse to place free items in the zen store and trade bar store. But then they won't be "free" anymore will they?
I agree with this sentiment.
Making the AH "Blind" seems like a simple Bot barrier that would not affect legit players.
Blind Auctions have been proposed on this forum a dozen times in the past 2 years.
Also, "Captcha" checks on the AH and other exploitable transaction interfaces have repeatedly been recommended by this community.
I have never seen a dev comment on the feasibility of these solutions. (Please post a link if I am incorrect).
I'll miss it, never did get a lightfoot theif to drop. It was also good for thinking about your gear, and checking prices on the ah, particularly when trying to sell something expensive quickly.
I'm sorry to see the gateway go, but I understand the need. I do hope the devs will be able to implement some of the great features the gateway had to offer - Specifically superior guild management features and auction house searches.
@cushparl The fast achievements quests have been, and will likely continue to be a problem. Hopefully creating a time limit similar to the 15 minutes required for Daily AD in the past will cut most of those out of contention. The catalog also does need a rework, so that newer material gets visibility. But adding the companion gear to the Foundry still keeps it "free" just a grind like everything else. If there are that many concerns of botting, then the devs could bind the rewards.
"I don't know, I'm making it up as I go..." Featured Foundry Quest:Whispers of an Ancient Evil [v3] - NW-DQ4WKW6ZG Foundry Quest: Harper Chronicles: Blacklake - NW-DCPA4W2Q5
Logging in once a day, plus doing Professions from my cell phone twice a day while at work, allowed us to maximize our enjoyment of Professions ranking and tasks legitimately. If you are going to remove the site, then add a checkbox to tasks indicating "repeat automatically", such as "deep" gathering or "intensive" scrap gathering. Then, when it completes, it repeats itself, up to three times.
The next day, when we login to the game, we can do professions again and select "repeat automatically" on another task. It stops after 24 hours, so it won't go forever. We check a box saying "repeat automatically" inside the normally logged in game, and it repeats as often as possible up to 24 hours.
This will alleviate the loss we are experiencing from being able to do three professions things each day while at work. Thank you!
will you guys fix crafting so it doesnt take forever to progress a skill since you will not beable to work on it unless you are in game?
Improving professions is something near and dear to a few of us. I would like to have an update on it within the next few modules. There is nothing planned yet but there is a lot of missed potential with how it currently is in a number of ways.
@andorrabell We have not yet decided a place for the SCA rewards yet, we still need to review where they would fit and make the time to do it at a time that makes sense. I don't think the community would appreciate waiting another week just to hear where we will put the rewards that they can't get yet,
It's funny (well, not really) how fast some things get attention on one platform, but gets completely ignored on another...
Xbox haven't had access to any decent Companion-only gear since the start, and all topics, posts and tweets regarding that issue have gotten absolutely zero response from the developers.
Gateway gets closed, and pretty much instantly, there are developers working on solutions to get the SCA gear into the game...
will you guys fix crafting so it doesnt take forever to progress a skill since you will not beable to work on it unless you are in game?
Improving professions is something near and dear to a few of us. I would like to have an update on it within the next few modules. There is nothing planned yet but there is a lot of missed potential with how it currently is in a number of ways.
@andorrabell We have not yet decided a place for the SCA rewards yet, we still need to review where they would fit and make the time to do it at a time that makes sense. I don't think the community would appreciate waiting another week just to hear where we will put the rewards that they can't get yet,
Please be careful waht you ask for. The moment they "fix" Professions it will BARELY be profitable... they are on an Orchestrated Campaign to gut this game of the Free aspect of Free to place.. or at least make it technically a possibility...
“Improvise, Adapt and Overcome!”
― Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge
Guild Leader of Ardent Justice HQ: Always recruiting People not Pixels.
Awesome! So, since you're trying to provide the same features for players on consoles and PC, instead of making possible to link console's accounts to gateway too, you decided not to bother and just remove it from PC too, right? So, I also wonder, when are you going to add the rewards from gateway in game in both PC and console versions?
You know that all this changes that you made in game lately completely unbalanced the economy on the PC version, or you're just devs and don't actually play the game? Now, people that still have this Gateway equipment will sell it for a looot. The adorable companion gear that also have two slots and is the only companion equipment with two slots on the xbox version sells for over 400k ad. Imagine spending 400k ad on a companion piece of equipment when you have the possibility of only making under 30k per day, by spending a lot of time playing the dailies. And afterwards, you don't even have time to play the game anymore and just relax and do the in game activities that you enjoy, because you have to waste all your time in the run for ad and get the feeling that Neverwinter is just a second job and you must do what you must do to make in game money. And most of the people have jobs too, and a social and personal life, not all the spare time to play a game.
I haven't been a freeloader and I also made some in game purchases, but we don't all earn thousands of dollars to afford spending some hundreds monthly on a single game. Each decision you made this past months only affected the game in a negative way, from the time you decided to remove wards from the trade bar merchant. You know...is an mmo, you wanna get more players, not less. What's the point of an playing an mmo when you have to wait 30 mins for a queue to pop up because a lot of players already quit the game.
@panderus What does Cryptic plan to do about this?
This isn't a Communist/Socialist state.. no Price Caps... but.. what they are going to do is provide another means to get the items.
It makes me respect the human race less each time you people propose that the Devs force prices to be different on the AH.. it's free market.
I don't think that poster meant to imply that Cryptic should engage in price fixing of stuff like this- that would be silly. Merely that the pricing of loyal gear at least for now is getting out of hand, and hopes that Cryptic sees this as a problem (I assume they do judging by their communication here, but its still muddy as to what's going to happen).
Please thank the wonderful people who made and balanced the SCA dice game. I got 100s of hours of enjoyment through lots of health issues, and I think they deserve some praise.
...Assuming you haven't fired them already.
Did you really think anyone could steal the power of the god of thieves?
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torontodaveMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 992Arc User
For a very long time, players haven't given a second thought to playing Foundry quests because "the loot sucks." Perhaps transferring the drops from SCA to eligible Foundry quests, (using the same 15+ minute requirement as it was for the old Daily Foundry AD,) as RNG drops would create an incentive for players to participate in Foundry content. Perhaps some of the higher end drops, the Lightfoot Thief for example, could be tied to one of the Foundry Community Achievements in the same fashion as the Book Imp companion is tied to the Foundry Authoring Achievements. Perhaps the Damaran Shepherd could be attained after playing a first Foundry quest, since it was attainable in the SCA tutorial. These are just ideas, but they make sense, (which might be the problem.)
NW-DSQ39N5SJ - 'To Infinity, and BEYOND!' - Spelljammer Quest. Skyships, Indiana Jones moments NW-DC9R4J5EH - 'The Black Pearl' - Spelljammer! Phlo Riders and Space Orcs
Thanks for all the fish.
I must admit that I have not been using the NW forum before... And it is sad for me to be posting my first post because of such a sad occurrence, as closing of the Gateway.
Since a long time, playing the SCA have been a great relief for me, while working - a good pause and motivator to push the work forward (like, "correct another paragraph, reward yourself with playing SCA until losing one health point", or "start another computing task, reward yourself with another single challenge on SCA"), much easier and convenient than just starting the NW client (men at a certain age must devote more energy to earning for the living, than to pure virtual hedonism). I am utterly sure I spent more hours on the Gateway than in the "full" client, and it was the SCA that made me decide to buy zen (which I eventually did not, having noticed the Gateway is down), so I can get another companions. I am not sure if I continue to use the game, having lost the possibility to easily access the character, set auctions, manage professions, or just get some additional items from the SCA.
I am surely aware of the fact that botting was a threat to the in-game experience - but at the same time I am downright certain that this is going to spawn a lot of new cheating techniques. Nature does not like void. And, believe me or not, it is absolutely possible, and in the reach of anyone not better trained that, say, freshman's year in any of the natural sciences (which is really not much) to write an ugly but working, simple bot that farms the professions, operating on delays, using shortcuts, and some simple libraries for identification of the screen position. So closing the gateway is not going to help in any possible way. It is going to make all worse - as those new botters will actually log into the game, decreasing the servers' performance.
Concerning the argument that console players do not have ability to play on the gateway... I am sorry to say that it made me a little angry. It's not like someone forces you to use the console to play. My machine of choice is a PC with one of the Linux family systems - as it suits my work needs well. Running NW on such a computer means that I am not going to experience the same performance, as people playing on PCs with MS Windows - it is just an emulation. Does it mean that I should ask to decrease the overall performance of the game? Surely not! Moreover: whereas some of the players can enjoy PvP campaign, other do not: it is necessary to have a powerful PC, and a really fast internet connection to play these games without lags. Do we assume then, that PvP should be deleted from the game? I bet that no one would raise such an argument!
To sum up, I would just like to say that you have made a truly wrong decision. It is not going to help with the botting problem, it is not going to be "fair" for the console players, it is just unfair to the large community of people that used gateway in a decent way and it boosted their in-game experience.
Well that's obnoxious... here's I've been long absent and *trying* to get into the Gateway for the past 2 weeks, but haven't been able to, and now, so I guess I don't qualify for the "recent user" promotion.
"The man I was is the crucible which has forged the man I have become."
I for one do not accept this companion as compensation for the loss of the gateway. This is in NO WAY an adequate compensation for the time and money spent. Anyone who willingly accepts this as "payment" for the removal of the gateway is a fool.
I am going to say it again. This is feeling like bait and switch. I was sold on this game by the Foundry and Gateway. Things that are still being ADVERTISED on the never winter website, the ARC launcher, and the never winter launcher.
"bait-and-switch" noun: The action (generally illegal) of advertising goods and/or services, that are an apparent bargain, with the intention of substituting inferior or more expensive goods and/or services.
Even though I have been a loyal Cryptic customer for over 7 years. Filing hundreds of bug tickets, trying to help improving the game and in that helping them earn more money. I'm a lifetime subscriber of both Champions Online and Star Trek Online and would have been in Neverwinter Online as well if that had been an option. Instead I've been a VIP here for well over a year and poured way more money in to the game then I could afford. The Foundry was what got me hooked. The disappointment was immense when I realized it was discontinued. Left as only a terminated embryo of what could have been the breadwinner for the game.
The ability to access the in game mail and other functions are crucial to me, as well as the SCA, that accompanied me through some long commutes and travels over the years. Sure it had lag and disconnected quite often as well, but when it worked I found it very entertaining. Even though the Epic dungeons too way too long to complete. I was hoping they would add something like it for the Star Trek Online Gateway which is only a shadow of what the Neverwinter version was. I was even hoping for a Champions Gateway.
I'm going to disagree with gold, precisely because it's, as you say, trash, which would cause an instant devaluation in any attempt to put it on the AH. At least on the seal vendor, players have to run the content to get the gear. This makes sense, as the Loyal gear was, excepting certain rings, pretty much BiS. So, if you're running T2+ content, you should be able to select gear that is an applicable upgrade from whatever was on your companion previously. Given that, I'd would agree that it'd also make sense to add them to the loot table for T2 content (Protector's seals).
The Shepherd - I don't think it'll be missed that much. It'll become a status thing, but generally won't see much use outside of PE.
Lightfoot - I'd make it a rare (very rare) drop from something. Maybe rotate it through older content on a regular basis. Maybe a slim chance at it in weekly quests? (Just spitballing here).
The main thing, though, is that the Loyal gear was *very* good, so should command a similar price in play. Being able to have a level 4 alt wander in to PE, hit the shared bank, and walk away with 4500 stat points for some gold is pretty cheap. An investment of, say 1500-ish Protector Seals - that is something a player worked for, through gameplay.
i don't care about ah or its prices... if anything seeing the price drop dramatically on it would be great. so you can gear companions easily. that's why i suggested it be on a gold merchant, cause on seals vendor its gonna most likely be bind to account and if earned from dungeons gonna be another grind people are not gonna want but have to do. and i surely don't want to farm seals just to buy companion gear. though that's just my opinion.
maybe add shepherd to gold companion vendor?
As Cryptic is in full control of the in game economy, the could solve it by creating a new currency and at a fixed exchange rate players could exchange their old currencies to this new one. Then replace all the in game currencies with this new one. No AD, no Gold, no Seals, no Favors, no Tradebars, just the new currency.
prepare everyone for the botters will return to protectors enclave in the game... give it like a week to a month and they will all be back and if not all then most
What do you mean with "will return"? They never left. Nerfing invocations, removing AD from leadership and all other attempts have all been failures. The only 100% sure way to get rid of them is to remove all currency from the game. Make items only possible to get through actual playing. Making them all bind to account and usable for your character's class on equip would make trading unnecessary. Sure, you may argue that the bots will only start selling all ready leveled up accounts instead. Well sure, but I'm sure that would be way easier for Cryptic to monitor then the failed attempts we have witnessed over the years.
How about the fact that with very few exceptions the only content that is any good in this game is the old lvl 1 thru lvl 60 campaigns. Is that not reason to have more character slots?
Well your argument does not hold as you don't need more slots to do that. You can just delete that character and make a new one using the same slot to play lvl 1-60 all over again and again and again....
I really can't belive you did that. Yeah u want to stop otters and all.... but honestly for most of us it does just feel like u want even more of our money all while ruining the game. Prices did go WAY up in the last year I played all while the amounts of AD u earn from dungeons and stuff stayed the same. Wards got expensive, Enchantment stacks did, nowcompanion Gear goes through the celing. REALLY? And Zen store is way too expensive too by the way. Pople would NOT spend less money, if stuff was cheaper bzt would probably buy 3-4 mounts instead of 0-1. Would spend more money on Campaign completions so they can have more alts ompleted and all.... you just want more and more money of us I have the feeling... and If I was not leading a guild I would be gone already, that's for sure. SO disappointed by all the changes u do and all th stuff u do remove or make even harder to get...
@cushparl The fast achievements quests have been, and will likely continue to be a problem. Hopefully creating a time limit similar to the 15 minutes required for Daily AD in the past will cut most of those out of contention. The catalog also does need a rework, so that newer material gets visibility. But adding the companion gear to the Foundry still keeps it "free" just a grind like everything else. If there are that many concerns of botting, then the devs could bind the rewards.
The 15 minutes time limit is good. But they need to add more increments to it. Like a 30 minutes, 45 minutes and a 60 minutes limit one as well. So that if someone makes a complex, campaign like quest, the players would get better rewards from completing it. But this will never happen as Cryptic has abandoned the Foundry. They do not realize what a profit making tool it is for the company. Their customers are freely giving them content that make other customers enjoy their product and probably spend more money while playing it more. But as they have abandoned it (and I'm basing this conclusion on the fact they they do not flag new content added to the game so they can be used in the Foundry. They do not add new maps or functions to it either. They don't even bother to fix the "copy map/items placement coordinates change" bug.
This isn't a Communist/Socialist state.. no Price Caps... but.. what they are going to do is provide another means to get the items.
It makes me respect the human race less each time you people propose that the Devs force prices to be different on the AH.. it's free market.
A free market isn't the perfect solution either. Besides the game have never had a free market. It's 100% controlled by Cryptic. So your argument does not apply to the game economics
So we could theorize over why so little has been done to combat the bots and who actually profits the most by that. But all the punishing of new players with all the limitations and the old players with all the nerfs, really only increased the bots profit margin and pushed even more players in to the goldspammer's arms. So why again are these changes made? And why are these changes kept and not reverted when it hasn't done what was intended? Unless getting rid of the bots was not the real intention? We can theorize about this all we want but we will never find out the truth of what is fueling these anti-player/pro-bot changes to the game. All I know is that Cryptic has over these years made it increasingly more difficult to trust anything they say. Purple Owlbear only possible to get through community events... Yeah. Right.
All I know is that I can barely (and honestly some days I really can't be even that) be bothered logging in to the game any more to claim my VIP Daily Key.
the whole reason bonding pets are better then augmented ones is cause augmented are like normal companions stats wise and all but they don't fight or do anything. i love my bonded pet so i got no were to really complain here. but i can however complain a bit about augments.
i see no need to nerf bonding runestones. instead buff the overall augmentation pets or buff the augment effect.
Silvergriffon's Holistic Suggestion Agency
Augment companions used to be the vastly superior choice, and harder to get than regular companions. Bonding runestones were supposed to make people want to use the combat companions, but they were too good and made Augments greatly inferior. They recently reined in the Bonding stone a little bit, but they are still better than using an Augment companion.
Personally, I think that both should be good choices. Bonding stones are slightly less reliable and bursty, so it is reasonable that they grant more points when they proc. But, right now the gap is too wide. High rank Bonding runestones aren't really all that hard to get and the buff is up pretty much all the time in combat anyway.
I propose two changes.
First, I suggest that Augment companions be given an additional active bonus. Augmentation Affintiy: An active, but not summoned, Augment companion adds 10% of it's stats to the currently summoned companion. This bonus is increased to 100% of stats if the currently summoned companion is also an Augment.
Second, limit the total number of active Augment companions at any one time to two. Atempting to make a third one active will generate an error stating that you may only have two active Augment companions at one time and must make one of your currently active aguments idle before making this one active.
So, under my suggestions, if you have a summoned Augment plus an active Augment you get +100% of stats from each. If you have a summoned combat companion with Bonding runestones and two active Augments then your combat companion would have +20% of the Augment's stats making it more effective and survivable while also increasing the bonus to the character when the Bonding stones proc.
Numbers That Might Be Right (Excluding the companions base stats as this is a small number, probably varies widely, and I am lazy.)
Currently, a combat companion with 3 Rank 12 Bonding Runestones, Loyal Avenger gear with all Rank 12 enchantments gives the character 30,002 stat points when it procs. Currently, an Augment pet with all Rank 12 runestones, Loyal Avenger gear with all Rank 12 enchantments gives the character 11,517 stat points.
With my suggestion, if you have a summoned combat companion equipped as above along with two active Augments equipped as above the character gets 36,569 stat points when the stones proc. With my suggestion, if you have a summoned Augment companion equipped as above along with a second active Augment companion the character gets 23,142 stat points.
The Bonding stones could still deliver many more stat points but the ratio goes down from about 2.6:1 to about 1.6:1. I think that makes it more viable to chose either path.
Plus, from a revenue standpoint players will have two or even three companions that they will need to gear up for each character. Gearing up makes players spend money and/or play more (which ultimately causes somebody to spend money).
The Gateway was my main connection to the game since I used my commute on the train to use the gatway. I can only get a computer that can run it on the weekends. Why didn't suspend accounts that used the bots; Hit the botters with heavy pentilities so it wasn't profitable.
Comments
RIP Real Tiamat, RIP Real Demogorgon RIP real Temple of the spider. Why remove non bis content to give to bis players ????
FORCING the majority of your player base to play 4 mod old dungeons and trial will have a bad result on player base
Changes are getting so bad i would rather prefer no new changes (RIP ICE FISHING in winter fest)
For them, I enjoy crafting many, many pairs of pants.
When the gateway was open you had the chance of the Loyal Gear and the Lightfoot Thief for FREE, you just needed to be willing to put in the effort and some of your personnel time. If the loyal gear and the and companions now become part of the Lock Box, Trade Bar Store or Zen Market, these items are no longer FREE. They become part of the P2P mentality whether you use Trade Bars or obtain them in a newer lockbox.
The gain of Trade Bars and the opening of Lock Boxes are only available by purchasing Enchanted Keys or VIP access. Either way, these items are no longer free and will now require even more of your RL money to obtain, if they are placed in these markets/stores. I just hope through quests they are able to reward either Trade Bars or even the Loyalty Gear and companion without the usage of AD which will just fuel the need for these AD sellers even more. Also the new system would have to have the items BtA to eliminate bot involvement.
The Foundry being worth-while would be great, but it would need more than just adding rewards, because Foundry quests are very prone to exploits. Maybe it could work, if the eligible quests would be chosen random and change every day; or if you could claim a "real" reward only once per mission... but this probably requires more "ressources" than they are able/willing to invest.
Maybe quests could give tokens as reward, based on average time and one could buy the gear with these tokens? But then again, nobody wants another currency, and they could simply add RAD as rewards this way, and one thing I really don't get is why they haven't done that already...
I understand you are trying to placate here, but let us at least be honest about the situation. There is enough PR PUPPIES coming from Cryptic and PWE already. Vacuous phrases with no real tangible content. Just "maybes" and "could haves" and "would like tos". There is no reason for you to add to it or to defend it.
EDIT: I recommend the team to familirize themselves with the concept of expectation management and it's effects and consequences. It could save a LOT of money in the long run.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/85broads/2013/07/22/the-top-five-tips-for-managing-client-expectations/#1932e86d4ed8
https://www.entrepreneurs-journey.com/8750/expectation-management/
http://www.impgroup.org/uploads/papers/235.pdf
I recommend following one rule most of all: be honest! So far, we have seen none of that, ever, since the dawn of NWO.
For deeper reading:
http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/JCOM-02-2013-0012
Mod edit - don't circumvent the profanity filter.
Great Weapon Fighter: Because when is today not a good day to die?
PC and PS4 player. Proud Guildmaster for PS4 Team Fencebane. Rank 5 Officer for PC Team Fencebane. Visit us at http://fencebane.shivtr.com
Oh, don't get me wrong....I do not plan to quit playing for at least some time. According to my payment history, I have already given $360.00 to Cryptic to play this game. So I plan to get every pennies worth..... I am just not going to give them any more of my money. Really...having spent that has still left my characters hanging around 2500 gear score. I am not really that much better off than those who have not spent any real cash.
Edit: i thought pc was being used for testing, but it seems the opposite. they see that consoles get by without certain things like gateway then strip them from pc. consoles dont have companion gear outside of adorable (of course you can use personalized but thats not everything). no foundry either. keep watching whats left out of consoles as an indictator what will be taken away next.
/ExportGuildMemberList C:/GuildRoster.csvEdit: Someday I'll make Squad Leader, tho.
Mod 9- 4 Epic dungeons permanently removed.
Making the AH "Blind" seems like a simple Bot barrier that would not affect legit players.
Blind Auctions have been proposed on this forum a dozen times in the past 2 years.
Also, "Captcha" checks on the AH and other exploitable transaction interfaces have repeatedly been recommended by this community.
I have never seen a dev comment on the feasibility of these solutions. (Please post a link if I am incorrect).
@strumslinger ,
Thank you Andy for your efforts.
These sudden changes suggest a dis-investment in the game. I mean, perhaps PWE is preparing NWO for retirement?
Also, Andy, were either "Blind Auction House" or "Captcha checks" considered by your team?
If so, could you comment on the pros/cons of those options?
I am Took.
"Full plate and packing steel" in NW since 2013.
Also please save SCA as an in-game tavern based minigame or something. I need my dicerolls!
Featured Foundry Quest: Whispers of an Ancient Evil [v3] - NW-DQ4WKW6ZG
Foundry Quest: Harper Chronicles: Blacklake - NW-DCPA4W2Q5
The next day, when we login to the game, we can do professions again and select "repeat automatically" on another task. It stops after 24 hours, so it won't go forever. We check a box saying "repeat automatically" inside the normally logged in game, and it repeats as often as possible up to 24 hours.
This will alleviate the loss we are experiencing from being able to do three professions things each day while at work. Thank you!
Xbox haven't had access to any decent Companion-only gear since the start, and all topics, posts and tweets regarding that issue have gotten absolutely zero response from the developers.
Gateway gets closed, and pretty much instantly, there are developers working on solutions to get the SCA gear into the game...
Why is that?
It makes me respect the human race less each time you people propose that the Devs force prices to be different on the AH.. it's free market.
― Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge
Guild Leader of Ardent Justice HQ: Always recruiting People not Pixels.
FOUNDER and OWNER of the SKT3K Channel: SKT Only Content 3k+. http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/discussion/1228278/skt-content-for-the-non-elite-video-links-provided
Please be careful waht you ask for. The moment they "fix" Professions it will BARELY be profitable... they are on an Orchestrated Campaign to gut this game of the Free aspect of Free to place.. or at least make it technically a possibility...
― Clint Eastwood, Heartbreak Ridge
Guild Leader of Ardent Justice HQ: Always recruiting People not Pixels.
FOUNDER and OWNER of the SKT3K Channel: SKT Only Content 3k+. http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter/#/discussion/1228278/skt-content-for-the-non-elite-video-links-provided
You know that all this changes that you made in game lately completely unbalanced the economy on the PC version, or you're just devs and don't actually play the game? Now, people that still have this Gateway equipment will sell it for a looot. The adorable companion gear that also have two slots and is the only companion equipment with two slots on the xbox version sells for over 400k ad. Imagine spending 400k ad on a companion piece of equipment when you have the possibility of only making under 30k per day, by spending a lot of time playing the dailies. And afterwards, you don't even have time to play the game anymore and just relax and do the in game activities that you enjoy, because you have to waste all your time in the run for ad and get the feeling that Neverwinter is just a second job and you must do what you must do to make in game money. And most of the people have jobs too, and a social and personal life, not all the spare time to play a game.
I haven't been a freeloader and I also made some in game purchases, but we don't all earn thousands of dollars to afford spending some hundreds monthly on a single game. Each decision you made this past months only affected the game in a negative way, from the time you decided to remove wards from the trade bar merchant. You know...is an mmo, you wanna get more players, not less. What's the point of an playing an mmo when you have to wait 30 mins for a queue to pop up because a lot of players already quit the game.
<CO docs> .: Petco :. // Base DPS Sheet (needs revision) // PSA on Power Activation Delay
- Themed Tanks // Misc Build Dump // Ayonachan's Gift Horse (stat data)
- Be safe and have fun, champs - for science!
Please thank the wonderful people who made and balanced the SCA dice game.
I got 100s of hours of enjoyment through lots of health issues, and I think
they deserve some praise.
...Assuming you haven't fired them already.
NW-DC9R4J5EH - 'The Black Pearl' - Spelljammer! Phlo Riders and Space Orcs
Thanks for all the fish.
Since a long time, playing the SCA have been a great relief for me, while working - a good pause and motivator to push the work forward (like, "correct another paragraph, reward yourself with playing SCA until losing one health point", or "start another computing task, reward yourself with another single challenge on SCA"), much easier and convenient than just starting the NW client (men at a certain age must devote more energy to earning for the living, than to pure virtual hedonism). I am utterly sure I spent more hours on the Gateway than in the "full" client, and it was the SCA that made me decide to buy zen (which I eventually did not, having noticed the Gateway is down), so I can get another companions. I am not sure if I continue to use the game, having lost the possibility to easily access the character, set auctions, manage professions, or just get some additional items from the SCA.
I am surely aware of the fact that botting was a threat to the in-game experience - but at the same time I am downright certain that this is going to spawn a lot of new cheating techniques. Nature does not like void. And, believe me or not, it is absolutely possible, and in the reach of anyone not better trained that, say, freshman's year in any of the natural sciences (which is really not much) to write an ugly but working, simple bot that farms the professions, operating on delays, using shortcuts, and some simple libraries for identification of the screen position. So closing the gateway is not going to help in any possible way. It is going to make all worse - as those new botters will actually log into the game, decreasing the servers' performance.
Concerning the argument that console players do not have ability to play on the gateway... I am sorry to say that it made me a little angry. It's not like someone forces you to use the console to play. My machine of choice is a PC with one of the Linux family systems - as it suits my work needs well. Running NW on such a computer means that I am not going to experience the same performance, as people playing on PCs with MS Windows - it is just an emulation. Does it mean that I should ask to decrease the overall performance of the game? Surely not! Moreover: whereas some of the players can enjoy PvP campaign, other do not: it is necessary to have a powerful PC, and a really fast internet connection to play these games without lags. Do we assume then, that PvP should be deleted from the game? I bet that no one would raise such an argument!
To sum up, I would just like to say that you have made a truly wrong decision. It is not going to help with the botting problem, it is not going to be "fair" for the console players, it is just unfair to the large community of people that used gateway in a decent way and it boosted their in-game experience.
"The man I was is the crucible which has forged the man I have become."
The ability to access the in game mail and other functions are crucial to me, as well as the SCA, that accompanied me through some long commutes and travels over the years. Sure it had lag and disconnected quite often as well, but when it worked I found it very entertaining. Even though the Epic dungeons too way too long to complete. I was hoping they would add something like it for the Star Trek Online Gateway which is only a shadow of what the Neverwinter version was. I was even hoping for a Champions Gateway. I haven't quit the game. I have played two maybe three times since the new Module was released. The new content just isn't enjoyable. i don't care about ah or its prices... if anything seeing the price drop dramatically on it would be great. so you can gear companions easily. that's why i suggested it be on a gold merchant, cause on seals vendor its gonna most likely be bind to account and if earned from dungeons gonna be another grind people are not gonna want but have to do. and i surely don't want to farm seals just to buy companion gear. though that's just my opinion.
maybe add shepherd to gold companion vendor?
As Cryptic is in full control of the in game economy, the could solve it by creating a new currency and at a fixed exchange rate players could exchange their old currencies to this new one. Then replace all the in game currencies with this new one. No AD, no Gold, no Seals, no Favors, no Tradebars, just the new currency. What do you mean with "will return"? They never left. Nerfing invocations, removing AD from leadership and all other attempts have all been failures. The only 100% sure way to get rid of them is to remove all currency from the game. Make items only possible to get through actual playing. Making them all bind to account and usable for your character's class on equip would make trading unnecessary. Sure, you may argue that the bots will only start selling all ready leveled up accounts instead. Well sure, but I'm sure that would be way easier for Cryptic to monitor then the failed attempts we have witnessed over the years. Well your argument does not hold as you don't need more slots to do that. You can just delete that character and make a new one using the same slot to play lvl 1-60 all over again and again and again.... Please don't stop the otters... They are so cute.
So we could theorize over why so little has been done to combat the bots and who actually profits the most by that. But all the punishing of new players with all the limitations and the old players with all the nerfs, really only increased the bots profit margin and pushed even more players in to the goldspammer's arms. So why again are these changes made? And why are these changes kept and not reverted when it hasn't done what was intended? Unless getting rid of the bots was not the real intention? We can theorize about this all we want but we will never find out the truth of what is fueling these anti-player/pro-bot changes to the game. All I know is that Cryptic has over these years made it increasingly more difficult to trust anything they say. Purple Owlbear only possible to get through community events... Yeah. Right.
All I know is that I can barely (and honestly some days I really can't be even that) be bothered logging in to the game any more to claim my VIP Daily Key.
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Augment companions used to be the vastly superior choice, and harder to get than regular companions. Bonding runestones were supposed to make people want to use the combat companions, but they were too good and made Augments greatly inferior. They recently reined in the Bonding stone a little bit, but they are still better than using an Augment companion.
Personally, I think that both should be good choices. Bonding stones are slightly less reliable and bursty, so it is reasonable that they grant more points when they proc. But, right now the gap is too wide. High rank Bonding runestones aren't really all that hard to get and the buff is up pretty much all the time in combat anyway.
I propose two changes.
First, I suggest that Augment companions be given an additional active bonus. Augmentation Affintiy: An active, but not summoned, Augment companion adds 10% of it's stats to the currently summoned companion. This bonus is increased to 100% of stats if the currently summoned companion is also an Augment.
Second, limit the total number of active Augment companions at any one time to two. Atempting to make a third one active will generate an error stating that you may only have two active Augment companions at one time and must make one of your currently active aguments idle before making this one active.
So, under my suggestions, if you have a summoned Augment plus an active Augment you get +100% of stats from each. If you have a summoned combat companion with Bonding runestones and two active Augments then your combat companion would have +20% of the Augment's stats making it more effective and survivable while also increasing the bonus to the character when the Bonding stones proc.
Numbers That Might Be Right
(Excluding the companions base stats as this is a small number, probably varies widely, and I am lazy.)
Currently, a combat companion with 3 Rank 12 Bonding Runestones, Loyal Avenger gear with all Rank 12 enchantments gives the character 30,002 stat points when it procs.
Currently, an Augment pet with all Rank 12 runestones, Loyal Avenger gear with all Rank 12 enchantments gives the character 11,517 stat points.
With my suggestion, if you have a summoned combat companion equipped as above along with two active Augments equipped as above the character gets 36,569 stat points when the stones proc.
With my suggestion, if you have a summoned Augment companion equipped as above along with a second active Augment companion the character gets 23,142 stat points.
The Bonding stones could still deliver many more stat points but the ratio goes down from about 2.6:1 to about 1.6:1. I think that makes it more viable to chose either path.
Plus, from a revenue standpoint players will have two or even three companions that they will need to gear up for each character. Gearing up makes players spend money and/or play more (which ultimately causes somebody to spend money).
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