The only reason that I'm not playing Neverwinter anymore is because I really miss the Gateway. I mean, I like the game itself, even though it has some hardcore p2w I like atmosphere of D&D which you capture quite nicely with some solo dungeons.
But I really, really liked the Gateway. As silly as that minigame was, I really enjoyed it. I bought lots of companions to make myself better in it. It was something I could do on my phone goofing off at work or at home watching TV and still earn some stuff for my characters in a game I really enjoy. And most of all: It was fun. I actually thought the minigame was really, really fun. Why not add a randomized code or something that bots couldn't pick up that you have to enter ingame to get the rewards? I wouldn't mind. I just really want it back.
It was pretty unique for an MMO to have that connection, that I could be active elsewhere and still earn stuff for my characters. So... are you ever gonna bring it back?
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> Not to mention the server load that the gateway was causing.
Easily fixed...very easily fixed. Set a request limit on data requests. Done.
Anyways don't hold your breath.
That basically means that at least everything gained from Gateway would have to be BtA, or most likely no rewards could be allowed to come from Gateway. Also no crafting, no AH interface, etc since you do not want those to be automated. That probably would reduce the attractiveness of it dramatically
Since Gateway was a PC only service, it would have to be expanded to also cover PS4 and XBox, or the effort put into it would have to little benefit to be worth it. I guess the bigger number of users are on the consoles these days.
I also would like to see Gateway back, but I think Cryptic were right when they concluded it is more trouble than it is worth. It actually was a sad lession for the game industry.. you cannot make useful supplementary services for games on the Web since it will be automated to hell and back.
Really sad that it's gone, would definitely make me start playing again. I was going to but without the gateway I just felt like I lost a huge part of the game that I really liked. Plus as mentioned I actually thought the minigame was super fun. I don't really care too much about AH and crafting and mail, well a little bit of course, but I would be happy with just the minigame. And well, obviously managing crafting was really sweet since you could do it from work etc.
When there is a bot, it does not even have to be 100% fully automatic bot. e.g. you as a person login manually. Run the program. When there is a reward, it alerts you to do something interactively.
And I mean, people are gonna bot everything they can, I'm sure there are people with gliders playing the game itself as well. But I do think they have options to make more of a permanent solution to eliminate the need to keep chasing the bots around.
It's just sad really, they totally broke it I found it incredibly enjoyable.
Would love to see it come back with only "viewing" of Character Information, Equipment, Inventory, and Guild Data if its not an option to have professions, mail, and inventory management.
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This of course is referring to the fact that they claimed the Gateway was removed ONLY because people were making huge amounts of requests, causing server lag. Bots, automation, etc were never raised as concerns by the dev team (course, the bot companion does seem to indicate otherwise).
Whatever that is not in console, it will not come back.
* No Gateway for the consoles so benefit only for the 'small' PC player group
* Massive botting, both of minigame, professions and AH
* Better things to use limited development resources on
I miss the sword coast adventures.
The team faced the option to dedicate additional resources to solve the various issues the Gateway created, or close it down to focus development time on new content and game system improvements. Unless something significant happens to justify additional resources, the Gateway won't make the priority list. So, tell your friends to come play Let's have a look at what the Gateway opened up to automation.
Professions
The design of the professions system rewards players for spending long hours in-game repeatedly kicking off tasks. That's not exactly compelling game play, and creates a problem for customer service to decide, "Is this a really dedicated player or a bot?" That leads either to some bots being allowed, or some legitimate players being punished, or both. In order to alleviate concerns about a hypothetical Gateway 2.0 being used to give some players an unfair advantage via automation, professions would need a rework to remove the many-small-tasks approach.
Auctions
Rumor has it that players were able to place a bid via the Gateway for several seconds after the game client closed out bidding. That disparity would have to be eliminated. It may be desirable to prohibit Gateway bids in the closing minutes of the auction to reduce automated auction sniping.
The Gateway was also used to scrape price trends for commodities. In private hands, that information allows serious traders an advantage. If the information is public and available to all, it's a cool feature that players can use if they want to get deeper into the game economy, or ignore if they just want to kill monsters and sell loot.
SCA
That was a cool mini-game. I played many times while binge-watching Netflix or waiting for a queue to pop. Never did find that Lightfoot Thief. In order to reduce the potential for automation, link the ability to make a run to in-game actions (e.g. complete a dungeon, get an SCA key. Complete a quest line, get a dozen SCA keys.)
I appreciated the Gateway and wish we had something like it again, but I don't expect to see it back any time soon.
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I do seriously miss Sword Coast Adventures though. I don't like many mobile games but I did like that one, quite a lot too. Plus it was really cool to earn ingame rewards while goofing off at work or while watching TV or on the train/bus etc. Or while driving (probably shouldn't say that).
I mean, they can limit it as much as they want, I don't care. I just want the minigame back