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Chult - First Impressions

hirogardehirogarde Member Posts: 122 Arc User
I've spent some time in here now and wanted to add some of my feedback. Everything below is my opinion, but I'd love to hear if others agree/disagree with any of these points.

The good:
  • Mob density – This finally feels right. In most of the other zones, the mobs are so spread out it’s difficult to grab more than one group at a time. In Chult, they’re far enough apart that you can fight one at a time (barring an unlucky knockback direction), yet close enough that you can pull three or four groups at a time if you wish.
  • Mob difficulty – Finally, we’re given mobs that don’t die to the first encounter power. The Armor and HP levels seem appropriate, though I wonder how it will be when we’re all wearing the new armor sets.
  • Quest structure – So far, it feels good. Being able to grind out a whole week worth of quests in a day is good… but again, I wonder how fast we’ll reach the weekly currency cap when equipped with the new gear. As a side note: I was a little disappointed when I received daily/weekly quests after 30min in the jungle, but I’m guessing there’s more story as the campaign progresses.
  • Boons – They appear to be well-balanced. Choosing three from six to personalize a character is a good step towards diversification. With three of the boons giving a huge advantage only in Chult, it looks like the devs are taking advantage of the loadout system too.
  • Mount halting powers – I can’t remember which dinosaur did it, but forcing my mount to stop so I can’t train through everything is a good addition.
The so-so:
  • Map – The twisty, up and down paths scattered throughout the jungle almost force certain paths to be taken, giving the illusion of a large size. But I have a feeling it only feels big because of the mob density… and that I don’t know exactly where to go yet.
  • Fishing – Personally, I don’t like how fishing is accomplished in this game, so I’m glad to see it’s not forced on players. But having a “peaceful” and semi-relaxing way to earn a little extra rewards is good; and at least those SoMI treasures aren’t a complete waste.
  • River camp location – OK, I get that I probably don’t “need” to go there every day, but being forced to take a five minute horse ride through the jungle to check for new quests (and no “safe-spots” in between) seems like a way to add play-time to the campaign without adding any real content. Totally understandable from a developer point of view, but slightly annoying from a player’s perspective.
  • Interrupts, Knockbacks, Stuns, Fear – I think they’ve been slightly overused, but it did force me out of my “standard” encounter power set-up to gain a little more mobility and avoid all the interrupts. For that, I’m thankful; being able to use exactly the same powers and rotations everywhere has made the game rather dull lately.
The bad:
  • Opacity of the jungle – Maybe it’s just how it’s interacting with the new “zoom out” camera; but there’s a lot of places where a slight change in angle turns the foliage opaque obscuring all view.
  • Mob collision – This has always been an issue, but with the wide variety of mob size in the zone it’s become far more apparent. I’m talking about when two mobs are standing on top of one another. Usually it’s not a big deal, but in here some mobs are far more dangerous than others and need to be singled out. When the “high HP non dangerous ones” stand on top of the “low HP extremely dangerous” ones, it can turn the fight sour fast.
  • Terrain floor height – Area markers for player powers that leave the ground painted (e.g. Paladin Circle of Power) frequently end up below the ground. With all the knockback that these mobs have, it’s extremely difficult to know if you’re still “in” the area.
The ugly:
  • Knockdown – Giving nearly every mob the ability to knock us prone without giving any kind of defense to the players just feels like a “developer cheat” to make the combat seem more difficult than it really is. Either give us some defense against it, or increase the timers for this mob ability. The knockdown itself isn’t the issue, it makes sense for a T-Rex to knock you on your HAMSTER. The issue is that nearly every mob has a knockdown. Quite often, I’ve been knocked down immediately after standing up… then again, and again, etc. I’d love to see “Control Resistance” percentage be a flat chance to avoid knockdown, but it’d be acceptable to give a short immunity timer (one sec, maybe two) after standing up; although if there’s an immunity added, longer prone duration might be needed to maintain encounter difficulty.

Comments

  • beckylunaticbeckylunatic Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 14,231 Arc User
    hirogarde said:

    Mob collision – This has always been an issue, but with the wide variety of mob size in the zone it’s become far more apparent. I’m talking about when two mobs are standing on top of one another. Usually it’s not a big deal, but in here some mobs are far more dangerous than others and need to be singled out. When the “high HP non dangerous ones” stand on top of the “low HP extremely dangerous” ones, it can turn the fight sour fast.

    I'm not sure if my situation would be improved if I was better at using target lock, but even when mobs are not stacked right on top of each other, I find that the game will pull my attack that I'm trying to aim at something little that I want to kill ASAP onto the biggest mob on the screen, or the last thing I hit. Particular old-content annoyances when they "hide" at the feet of a larger critter: adds in Ballad of Baphomet, Black Dragon Cultists, Redcap Powries/Witherers.
    hirogarde said:

    Terrain floor height – Area markers for player powers that leave the ground painted (e.g. Paladin Circle of Power) frequently end up below the ground. With all the knockback that these mobs have, it’s extremely difficult to know if you’re still “in” the area.

    This seems to be a bug introduced around the last time they ran the Siege of Neverwinter event. Ground FX clip through or under terrain instead of being laid over it, partially or completely concealing areas you might want to know about, if the terrain isn't level.
    Guild Leader - The Lords of Light

    Neverwinter Census 2017

    All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
  • minotaur2857minotaur2857 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,141 Arc User
    My fire archon seems to have gone nuts which when combined with a t-lightning and the new mob density means I can be fighting 7 groups at a time or more without ever moving. This is fun on that character, but would be an absolute nightmare on something squishier. The KD is silly and seems to go through guard on some occasions, being killed by being chain KDd without ever executing a power is not fun.
  • time2011time2011 Member Posts: 125 Arc User
    Knockdown – Giving nearly every mob the ability to knock us prone without giving any kind of defense to the players just feels like a “developer cheat” to make the combat seem more difficult than it really is. Either give us some defense against it, or increase the timers for this mob ability. The knockdown itself isn’t the issue, it makes sense for a T-Rex to knock you on your HAMSTER. The issue is that nearly every mob has a knockdown. Quite often, I’ve been knocked down immediately after standing up… then again, and again, etc. I’d love to see “Control Resistance” percentage be a flat chance to avoid knockdown, but it’d be acceptable to give a short immunity timer (one sec, maybe two) after standing up; although if there’s an immunity added, longer prone duration might be needed to maintain encounter difficulty.

    the proning i get from those raptors are incredibly annoying especially with the range they have i can be half way past them and they still knock me down prone, and it spams me almost nonstop before i get a chance to move

  • altmerpoweraltmerpower Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 101 Arc User
    For me only 2 things is a problem right now.
    1 Knockdown that everyone is talking about.
    Annoying that enemies that I can kill with no damage to my helth at all suddenly can stun and overpower me to that extent that encounters don't work at all and I can not move or defend myself over and over again.
    2 Something is very wrong with fishing in the river. 10 min works just fine then 2 min can not land one singel fish at all.
    When you try to land the fish everything goes gray in display until you drop the fish or progress for catching the fish starts all over again, even though you already should have it over and over again.
    And what happened with rank 5/epic fish I guess we will catch it somewhere else because there is non in that river. I know because I was fishing for 4 hours yesterday :) and yes with glowing bate to...
  • altmerpoweraltmerpower Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 101 Arc User
    Overall I really liked it.:)
  • pteriaspterias Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 661 Arc User
    Everything having knockdown is a bit abusive, but it's nice being a little nervous again.

    Also, is it just me, or is the aggro range higher with these dinos? It seems they go hostile from further away AND more quickly than I'm used to. It certainly makes things feel more dangerous, but I find it mildly annoying not being able to avoid things like I'm used to. It'll just take a bit of adaptation.
  • pteriaspterias Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 661 Arc User
    Oh, another thought/speculation: I don't know who that tiefling-looking fellow is, but it's not the friend we remember. I'd put money on it.
  • muminekm#3459 muminekm Member Posts: 248 Arc User
    pterias said:

    Everything having knockdown is a bit abusive, but it's nice being a little nervous again.

    Also, is it just me, or is the aggro range higher with these dinos? It seems they go hostile from further away AND more quickly than I'm used to. It certainly makes things feel more dangerous, but I find it mildly annoying not being able to avoid things like I'm used to. It'll just take a bit of adaptation.

    I'm sure aggro is increased..I saw multiple times some pack far ahead and I thought "its fine I barely see them" when they started looking at me and rushed to kill me lol. And it's harder to lost your pursuers, you can't just outrun them sicne you will catch more and more group in your way.
  • callumf#9018 callumf Member Posts: 1,710 Arc User
    I cant say that any of the above particularly makes the new mod seem exciting more of a knockdown grind. I will wait a couple of weeks before venturing in I guess :)
  • forumnamesuxsforumnamesuxs Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 490 Arc User
    Knockdowns combined with aggro and follow range: Insanely annoying. I don't like it one bit.
    That periodical stun debuff I can't remember the name of: It ignores any CC resist/immunity available to me. Please don't add more to the "tooltips don't matter" philosophy you've got going on for all these years.
    Wolves, big as a horse! I need new pants!

  • schietindebuxschietindebux Member Posts: 4,292 Arc User
    edited July 2017
    I really like the new cc.
    Knockdown, charmed (those "Dancers" ), prone from the Yuan Ti etc.
    Somehow challenging, maybe annoying with a weaker toon, but my DC got endless dodges, GF got shield, warlock got shift
    ... only that charming seems to ignore all that stuff
    So I run CC myself to interrupt those mobs, like Arms of Hadar or sunblast...my GF has also tools to fight back like terrifying impact, indom. Strengths.
    Post edited by schietindebux on
  • forumnamesuxsforumnamesuxs Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 490 Arc User



    There, I fixed the tooltip for you, so that it is more accurate for this mod. You're welcome.
    Wolves, big as a horse! I need new pants!

  • dingoballzdingoballz Member Posts: 148 Arc User

    Knockdowns combined with aggro and follow range: Insanely annoying. I don't like it one bit.

    Totally agree way to jacked up . start out fighting 6 raptors and within seconds your swarmed with 30 of them and no running away . Other annoying thing is this weekly cap on the FT's . Why such a low cap? I'm not a power gamer and only play few hours a day ,I hit the limit in 3 days. Guess back to UO till sever reset .
    "What is the sense of living the life you're given if all you ever do is stand in one place?" Lord Huron
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