Module 18 news???

putzboy78 · October 2019

It is October and no announcement for module 18 has come. Module 17 added almost nothing to the game. Should I be worried?

Note that the only module announcement to come after September was module 2, back when there was a lot more staff and money in the game. Ever since then, the announcements came in August and September.

I can't imagine a module being released in the holiday season since support seems to drop heavily at that time.

Even if an announcement comes today we are looking at a November launch. I haven't even heard that people are alpha testing the new module yet.

What's up?

stark760 · October 2019

Who knows. It is a bit discouraging how long it takes to get any answer on a bug report, TOO, etc. Listed a bug report on off hand crit sev not being 10%, it's 7.5%, Easily testable, and already a thread from a few months back as well. Asked to provide screenshots and which off hand? All of them? Companions bugged...takes 1-2 months to get a response, we're working on it. TOO, no response. Not to mention the black hole of reporting a bug in game. They give you a ticket number, which support then says doesn't exist. Heads up, if you want to report a bug, go on forum and wait, or goto support on this site and post the ticket. Otherwise, never happened that it was reported.

Also noticed earlier, nothing past Halloween event it looks like.

nathanjm · October 2019

There's only one item on the game calendar past mid November.

thefiresidecat · October 2019

mod 17 was light because it's really a b mod. I expect they are still cleaning up all the stuff that needs to be cleaned up. given the absolute failure in reviving pvp there might be some revising behind the scenes of planned expenditures.

hustin1 · October 2019

thefiresidecat said:
mod 17 was light because it's really a b mod. I expect they are still cleaning up all the stuff that needs to be cleaned up. given the absolute failure in reviving pvp there might be some revising behind the scenes of planned expenditures.

There's a video on Youtube that I can't seem to find where the streamer talks about the original Gauntylgrym. His point is that it was a much better way of handling PvP because it also brought in PvE players without forcing them to PvP themselves. It was interesting and had complex mechanics. I never PvP'ed in it but I did kill a LOT of elementals and delivered a whole lot of food to the giant.

autumnwitch · October 2019

I predicted in the spring if the numbers don't get better both player wise and income wise (which they haven't), NW won't make it to the end of the year. Now, I am hoping I was wrong (really I am) but IDK, things feel shaky to me. Let's hope people spend on the big sales coming up at least they can pay the bills.

putzboy78 · October 2019

@hustin1

https://youtube.com/watch?v=t3uUFrQkmS8

djnasty93 · October 2019

i rlly want another total change, more focused on what game was before.... Hr buffer can perma buff only if he was good... this is how i wanna play, with my hands... hr right now its 'watch buff bar, wait for flurry to go down, okee use another encounter' you totally ruined his soul, every chicken can play hr now, i dont like it, Mono classes are cool because they know everything of that char.. hr was really efficent even if low Gs, he can buff, we are using buff artifacts in Tomm to buff each other every 1 minute!! this is crazy... i can buff with my hr using soul crystal/atropal, thats how i wanna play

frogwalloper · October 2019

Please
no more mods this year
I'm not sure I can take much more

- been like going through the paddywhack machine this year

stark760 · October 2019

Hell pit... looks interesting. Leg mount and insignias? Looks almost like Tales of Old setup, but maybe they didn't want aggravation of 4th stage? Either way, looks promising.

sandukutupu · October 2019

autumnwitch said:
I predicted in the spring if the numbers don't get better both player wise and income wise (which they haven't), NW won't make it to the end of the year. Now, I am hoping I was wrong (really I am) but IDK, things feel shaky to me. Let's hope people spend on the big sales coming up at least they can pay the bills.

As I have expressed elsewhere, the game cannot fail, due to the fact that Perfect World supports this company. The money trail works like this;

Player buys Zen from Perfect World, this goes directly to the Chinese based company.
After they take their cut for whatever it is, Cryptic gets paid by them.

Champions has been running on fumes, roughly about 5% of the players this game had before the ebb in population. Now it is closer to 10% because of the loss. Star Trek population is still lower than this game. They have a decent population but when STO exceeds NW for more than a few days, Neverwinter will be in trouble. It will be up to Cryptic on how they deal with the financial goals and revenues received from PW. Any loss of income will definitely affect the development of all the games under Cryptic. But I would not call it "game over" until you see Champions go down first.

siggstar · October 2019

Question is, do I and the people I play with wan't to continue play a "Dying game" if it contioniuos as it is right now? Yes it's playable and yes you can beat all instances but hey, last two "mods" gave us one instance and one trial... and endless of Expeditions.... and ofc all the bugs.

At the moment it's dead silent and compared to mod 16 realease there haven't been much twitch activity either. I keep logging in and try to find new projects for my toons but it is slowly getting under my skin that this ain't fun anymore...

pitshade · October 2019

There is an important difference between Champions and Neverwinter. Cryptic bought the Champions completely from Hero Games whoever was the last to have it. Neverwinter is licensed and besides whatever they're paying for that, has a requirement for 3 modules a year as per the deal Champions can be kept alive on a shoestring budget but Neverwinter has an actual overhead.

However, on the plus side for this game's longevity, Cryptic's expanded relationship with WotC gives them a strong interest in keeping this product afloat.

mentinmindmaker · October 2019

If the 3 modules a year fails to show up, it means the game is in maintenance mode with probably a single dev at 20% time tasked with fixing the worst bugs.

Then the running costs of the game will be servers, network bandwidth, some ops staff(common ops for all games) and that 20% dev. Not very expensive opex-wise, and game can continue for a long time. The really expensive part is always manpower.

But with no new mods the playerbase is likely to crash. Not much point in levelling up in a game with no new challenges coming.

Depending on the deal with WoTC though.. it could force Cryptic to terminate rather than mothball it. WoTC might not see themselves benefit from a D&D game in maintenance mode.

sandukutupu · October 2019

pitshade said:
There is an important difference between Champions and Neverwinter. Cryptic bought the Champions completely from Hero Games whoever was the last to have it. Neverwinter is licensed and besides whatever they're paying for that, has a requirement for 3 modules a year as per the deal Champions can be kept alive on a shoestring budget but Neverwinter has an actual overhead.

However, on the plus side for this game's longevity, Cryptic's expanded relationship with WotC gives them a strong interest in keeping this product afloat.

Hero Games is akin to Wizards of the Coast, as in they are just the IP holder as CBS is for Star Trek. Normally in these situations they only give permission to use their IP(intellectual properties) and there may or may not be money changing hands. Back in the day, many times all I needed to do was type up a sweet letter and ask written permission to use named places, characters, and events in a publication. They can always say no, but most of the time the answer was yes. A scant few wanted to a script to approved before going off to any publisher. Now I am talking about the days before the word processors. If the answer was no, you had to rewrite the whole novel changing all the names. As an author, you learned to appreciate the ones who let you run with it.

Champions Online the game is their software, as they wrote it. Champions the table top game still belongs to Hero Games. I am unaware of this deal of 3 modules per year contract, who made this deal and where can I read more about it? All I can find is vague speculations on this forum and reddit and cannot find anything solid about a contract for 3 modules per year. I am not saying it is false, I would just like to read the official statement.

Spiderman was loaned to Marvel by Sony, although Marvel created it. Sony repealed the Spiderman because Disney/Marvel wanted more money. Sony owns Spiderman for everything except comic books, they owe Disney/Marvel nothing. It is a crazy new world and I don't pretend to understand the new rules on simply asking to use an IP in a book, game, or movie. This is also why I prefer not to use other people's characters, landscapes, and works.

xenocide · October 2019

I wouldn't be worried. The game is still fun and I don't even have maxed enchants yet

greywynd · October 2019

sandukutupu said:

Hero Games is akin to Wizards of the Coast, as in they are just the IP holder as CBS is for Star Trek. Normally in these situations they only give permission to use their IP(intellectual properties) and there may or may not be money changing hands. Back in the day, many times all I needed to do was type up a sweet letter and ask written permission to use named places, characters, and events in a publication. They can always say no, but most of the time the answer was yes. A scant few wanted to a script to approved before going off to any publisher. Now I am talking about the days before the word processors. If the answer was no, you had to rewrite the whole novel changing all the names. As an author, you learned to appreciate the ones who let you run with it.

Champions Online the game is their software, as they wrote it. Champions the table top game still belongs to Hero Games. I am unaware of this deal of 3 modules per year contract, who made this deal and where can I read more about it? All I can find is vague speculations on this forum and reddit and cannot find anything solid about a contract for 3 modules per year. I am not saying it is false, I would just like to read the official statement.

Spiderman was loaned to Marvel by Sony, although Marvel created it. Sony repealed the Spiderman because Disney/Marvel wanted more money. Sony owns Spiderman for everything except comic books, they owe Disney/Marvel nothing. It is a crazy new world and I don't pretend to understand the new rules on simply asking to use an IP in a book, game, or movie. This is also why I prefer not to use other people's characters, landscapes, and works.

Cryptic bought Champions out in its entirety. They own it. They then, in turn, gave rights back to Hero Games to produce content for the role-playing game in perpetuity.

hustin1 · October 2019

Foss mentioned during one of the livestreams that they had to release three modules per year and at least one had to be in sync with one of WotC's releases.

As for the next mod, my money is on Avernus, especially with this upcoming Hell Pit event. That would satisfy the synchronization term in their contract for the year.

I don't think the game is "dead" but Mod 17 has put it in greater danger. I'd estimate that half of the active playerbase in my alliance has dropped off compared to say Mod 13. Now, if you want to see an MMO that really feels "dead", look at Runes of Magic. It still gets updates, but seeing another player anywhere is rare. Playing that really feels like a single-player game, which is a shame because some parts of the game are very good, and the music is **world-class**. We're not anywhere near there yet but Neverwinter really needs something to attract players back and the devs have got to do something to ease all the bad blood that's built up over the last year or two.

dread4moor · October 2019

autumnwitch said:
I predicted in the spring if the numbers don't get better both player wise and income wise (which they haven't), NW won't make it to the end of the year. Now, I am hoping I was wrong (really I am) but IDK, things feel shaky to me. Let's hope people spend on the big sales coming up at least they can pay the bills.

NW is not dead. It is on life support though.
But you never put down your horse until you have another one to ride.

They are not going to shut down NW servers until MtG is up, running and stacking cheddar.

pitshade · October 2019

greywynd answered it but according to Wikipedia, Champions was bought out by Cryptic in 2008.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champions_Online

" On February 28, 2008, Cryptic announced they had purchased the entire Champions intellectual property, licensing the rights to publish the 6th edition back to former owner Hero Games."

I've heard it from people in the m16 tests as well that the three modules a year is fixed in the contract. Assuming this is so, maintenance mode isn't an option here.

mentinmindmaker · October 2019

pitshade said:

I've heard it from people in the m16 tests as well that the three modules a year is fixed in the contract. Assuming this is so, maintenance mode isn't an option here.

Such contracts can be easily renegotiated and often are. Such a deal only is good as long as both parties benefit from it, and it usually will have an exit clause.

So the big question is if the exit clause is WoTC withdrawing the IP rights, or just that NW no longer will produce mods that match WoTC's releases of new D&D content...

frozenfirevr · October 2019

Enough with the doom calling! Not gonna happen...

Module 18 news???

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