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CDP Topic: Rewards & Progression

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  • tempus86#1158 tempus86 Member Posts: 165 Arc User
    Something I would like to see is a system to customise, or enhance gear we already have.

    We already have modifications Via crafting, but this is pretty limited and has been neglected for well over a year. The best options we have are still the pre mod 16 options like +power or + health etc.

    How about the ability to remove the equip bonus from one item, and transfer it on to a different item.
    You could have a system similar to the appearance system, where you destroy the item, but instead of retaining its appearance, you retain the equip bonus instead, which you can then use on a new item.

    Instead of a library of these bonus's it could be a one time thing, so each time you wanted to transfer an equip bonus, you would need to collect a new item to destroy.

    This could be added to the crafting system too, meaning you would need a certain item that has to be created, as a one time use, which would retain the equip bonus, and be consumed when you apply it to a different piece of gear.

    There would obviously need to be some limitations set in place, such as artefact bonus's can only be applied to artefacts, also some clarification on which bonus's can stack and which cannot. as far as i know, the only bonus that currently stacks is the sniper and swordsman perk, which is limited to x2, but it would be good to have some sort of indication as to if a bonus can stack, or if it is unique.
    Something as strong as the ebony chest bonus, could be unique, and only applicable to one piece, but anything that is say. +3% at will damage, or +3% encounter damage could be applied to multiple items.

    I think something like this would not only help with bulding a gear set more interesting, but also keep older items with decent bonus's relevant still, and hopefully avoid the issues brought about with items like the demon lord set.
  • burnthedead#7732 burnthedead Member Posts: 69 Arc User

    Feedback Overview

    To have my way about everything :)

    Functionality

    Simple changes/less waiting;

    An easier to read statistics bar, with red to indicate under capped; gold/over capped; green/optimal zone.

    A posted que group list with player names, so you don't waste time in que for a dungeon flies wouldn't touch.

    Add slots to armor, yes new slots, starting with 3-4, instead of a boon add a slot. Next mod add more if you like or intro a new one with more. Add customizable variety to cookie cutter builds, maybe not eliminating the BIS but giving options.

    Charge (nominally) to obtain colored name letters, all or one at a time, so everyone knows "Weenieboy" or "Pinkeye" are in the HOUSE!

    When I do invokes for example, I teleport to PE on a toon, then go to the next guy, same map same instance, and the map reloads; why? Can't I just pop in the next toon without the reload? Nothing else changed there? How about a toon drop down menu to select next invoker? It would certainly reduce server strain. We switch loadouts, mounts, pets, all without map switching. Anyways, map load times are always miserable, can they be faster?

    I want a build no one else has, or at least one that looks that way.

    Risks and Concerns

    Posting que lists of players may cause others to opt out because those waiting are under geared, and basically a "carry". Perhaps not showing stats of waiting players, just their readiness is enough.
    Also, this Whiteside person, are you sure that's not George Clooney in disguise? a guy that buffed seems overqualified for a mere Twitch stream.#Prettyboy. ;)
  • thefiresidecatthefiresidecat Member Posts: 4,486 Arc User

    First of all, so you know where I’m coming from : I’m a ‘new’ player, with 6 months under my belt and am currently at VIP Rank 9. As player-type, I tend to get into a game with the content-player mindset, but find myself often reaching towards the end-game, BiS goals.

    (snip snip for space)
    (*) How do you keep people spending AD ?
    Through the AH, lots of my proposals up will increase AH usage and fees will follow, also the collection fee is an AD sink, besides that… you still have a lot of current AD sinks that let you bypass grinds (tokens of patronage, companion upgrades, etc…)
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    It is easy to think ‘material gain/power gain’ when the word ‘reward’ is uttered, but I think it is much broader than that… That’s why I think you need to take into account the different kinds of players that populate Neverwinter or any MMO for that matter and the reasons they actually (enjoy) play(ing) the game. (These are just the ones I can think of, there may be many more I’m not aware of… also it is most likely that a lot of players fall into different, if not all of these categories, but that does not invalidate the thoughtprocess.)

    • The top-end player a.k.a BiS-player :
      These players strive to be the best of the best and will stop at nothing to get even the slightest edge for their character.
      Rewards needed : Very hard challenges (like ToMM) and bragging rights to show off besting these challenges.
      How ? Tiered content with Tiered reward structure (BiS items) and Cosmetic rewards (Titles, transmute items, unique skins on mounts/companions, …). Their grinds are besting the hardest content and getting the loot associated with it. (ToMM seems to be a very successful implementation of this, hats off ! I'm just going on hearsay though, I've never actually been there.)

    • The content player a.k.a ‘I’m the hero of my own story’-player :
      These players care less about the actual material rewards. (There is always some importance of course, but they are not in the race for BiS.) Instead the want to experience a story and be made part of it.
      Rewards needed : A good story throughout the leveling/questing. And at max-level, story driven dungeons. Content-wise there is so much good stuff in Neverwinter… but the lack of streamlining destroys the immersion (outleveling zones, campaigns and their stories run out of order, …)
      How ? Streamline the leveling experience story-wise. (Some players want to rush to level 80 (alts) that’s fine… but there should be an option to experience the story at is was meant to be experienced (turn of xp boosts, …).) Also, let them experience ALL the content. Yes, let them see ToMM… As some have suggested, make an entry level story mode for all content, without the phat loot, without some of the hard mechanics and that makes sense story-wise. (Don’t let them solo Halaster Blackcloak with a rusty dagger and come out on top, but have NPC’s assist them.. Makos, Celeste, Minsc/Boo.. as you do in the campaigns sometimes.. they are part of an army..)

    • The crafter/auctioneer player a.k.a ‘economy’-player :
      I know these are not exactly one and the same type of players, but both don’t really care about any of your ‘content’… any more than trying to find the angle to make a profit out of it 😊
      Rewards needed : Unique items, looks, … Something in-demand, that they can corner the market with. (But that doesn’t give them the ability to keep players hostage when it comes to experiencing content..)
      How ? Besides all the possibilities for appearance changes and buff items (potions, …), there could be an addition of specialized gear to run specific challenges (e.g. +5% dmg in Tier x dungeons, …) I’ve also always liked the idea of crafters having to work together, instead of being mastercrafters in everything themselves. (Same as other players don’t solo dungeons, but need to rely on others too.)

    • The social player a.k.a ‘I want to be part of’-player :
      To be fair, there is probably not a single player that falls squarely into this category alone… 😊 But it is an important part of an MMO. (Or we would all be playing plain RPG’s.)
      Rewards needed : Ways to be part of and fuction in a community. (Guilds, Alliances, Strongholds, Random Queues…)
      How ? There is a big opportunity here still in the entire Stronghold setup ! These players could be the ones working to get on a Stronghold/guild/alliance leaderboard…

    • The collector a.k.a the ‘hamster’-player :
      The player that wants every title, all full collections-tabs, every companion, every mount…
      Rewards needed : I don’t think we need to worry here… There is plenty to collect :P
      How ? Make items from the collection reclaimable from there ? (To avoid duplicating items across alts, you could make it similar to the appearance library as there could be a convert to reclaimable collection…) Collection stuff is neigh impossible if you want to keep the items now, as the inventory space to do so would be enormous.
      This could even be a (small) AD sink, you pay ONCE to convert the item, but gain the luxury of being able to claim it back later. (Some conversions should be free, like for story rewards… I know I have by accident discarded some of the artifact weapons from story and would like to reclaim them, but can’t… :s)
      Oh and on this subject : Gear appearance changes should not require AD !!! You have already put in the time to get the gear, you destroyed it to have the appearance.. and then you have to pay if you want to wear it, change it ? Talk about greedy !
    So this basically boils down to different paths/rewards for different types of players. This then also makes sense with the tiered dungeon/rewards approach. (Each dungeon comes in several difficulty levels…)
    I also very much like the idea of tokens/currency, but then simplified as already proposed by some before me. (1 type for the latest content and another for all the older content). As in the VIP-proposal, this offers versatility to the player and can be a bridge between categories, e.g. from content-player to BiS-player. (This store would be purely for gear… BoA. A bit as it is now, but then all in one single store with just two token categories. As already mentioned this could do away with all the zone specific currencies as well… I had two friends quit the game after a few levels because they got lost in all the currency/quests/zones…)
    --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Closing remark :
    The problem with Neverwinter though is that a lot of your character power does not come from your gear, but is sprinkled over :
    Enchantments on your gear : ranks up to 15
    Companions : Stats, skills, companion gear, bonding runestones, other runestones in the companion gear, all with ranks up to 15, companion rarity (up to legendary)
    Boons : I’m fine with the principle of it – Grinding for content (I don’t agree with supplementing the grind with those extra book drops, some of which have the lowest drop rate ever… *cough* Dwarven Spelunking *cough*… ) But for the love of god, make the grind more fun please… tie it in to something else… some of them like SKT sucks the soul out of you as a new player.
    Mounts : mount power, rarity (up to legendary), insignia’s (up to legendary)
    And with the exception of boons, almost everything exclusively translates to ‘grind for AD’ and/or ‘Buy Zen’. There are no alternative paths to take…

    And this system is not very transparent to a new player.
    I would like to see an easily obtainable ‘base’ power, that incorporates all of the above and is attained and explained throughout your levelling experience. The rest (top percentages) are then subject to the grind. (The fact that a player knows to use an augment or not, should not have been left up to veterans/guildies to explain…) (And yes, I still feel the effect of an augment, and as a result your bonding runestones, and companion gear/runestones is way too powerful. And counterintuitive to ‘you’ being the hero in this story.. and not your bulette pup, polar bear cub or deepcrow hatchling.)
    I’ve only been playing 6 months myself, and truly, without veterans taking me by the hand and explaining all these places to look… I’d still be lost. And tbh I still am sometimes, just so much complexity in the system.

    I missed this post the first time thru. there are definitely combinations of these as well and another type too. the crafter. I know people who do (did, not sure if they are still playing anymore) almost nothing but crafting in this game. it was their gig. we're touching this in the dig down so I won't elaborate more but good post! combinations of these things together in rewards would definitely be nice though.
  • thefiresidecatthefiresidecat Member Posts: 4,486 Arc User

    DM must say - look , these are the theme and characteristics of my campaign , we can work out a solution so you can enjoy the game but this is the frame-
    .
    -What is the frame in Neverwinter in 2020?
    If we consider the original setting and the game firsts quests, lore, atmosphere, difficulty- Neverwinter was tailored as a military campaign.
    In time, the grim, grindy, difficult gameplay was washed over. Plenty of concessions were made for pleasing some group or other, for some extra ZEN sells, or simply out of misjudging the implications.
    -
    If we stay true to the roots- the progression must be long, mainly vertical, the gameplay difficult, the random encounters deadly, the dungeons long, complex and hard, the rewards few and earned after victory.
    -
    There can be SIDE TABLES for crafting, army of alts, role playing in Moonstone Mask, currency brokers, AH traders, fashion contests, collectors of everything, zonechat propagandists and so much more.
    -
    So what is the frame for rewards and progression?
    We can have a pretty pony as reward for entering the dungeon and that fun musical animation when we click more than 2 keys in row. That can work too.
    .
    I close with a request - please bring back the original dungeons, trials and skirmishes. Plenty where removed , the others are butchered beyond recognition so they fit the medium time and difficulty in randoms. They might fit the medium now but they have no other value left in them.
    .

    I don't think staying absolutely true to d and d has ever been a consideration of this game.
  • theraxin#5169 theraxin Member Posts: 370 Arc User
    edited February 2020

    ✪ Part 4 – Itemization Philosophy.

    So, first, I will be cheating a little, because I quote you here, but I'll actually respond to your later post on janne's site, because it's probably more up-to-date, and only Part I. I also had to remove the content of the itemization, because the body of the message was 3600 characters too long for the forum to send out, but chunking parts out seemed pretty misleading. So for everyone else, read the original on page 1 of this topic. However, while your comment mentions HP and power left on the unique gears, the post on the site does not and that actually made more sense in the original comment. I like the idea of leaving some of the HP and power on the unique gear.

    So, while your idea is more general and can be implemented a lot of ways, I just shortly cut into my preferred implementation to explore the topic:

    Feedback Overview: Pushing non-HP/Power character stats from normal gear into companion items and making them only craftable. And also, redesigning companion gear slot unlocks with character progression.

    Feedback Goal: Clearly defined separation of items, item tiers and making professions (especially Mastercraft) have a clearly defined and separated role.

    Feedback Functionality: As written above, but also, the ways of gathering companion items are basically the most user-unfriendly RNG timesinks. Even before the WE's or the much needed Zok change, Illusionist's gambit was a whole mod of grind. Probably the best way to get comp items was the "Sword Coast Adventures" web gateway to the game, where you rolled the dices from your companions and heard a fun little story while doing so. Also, that part was botted pretty heavily and buggy as hell, but at least that was more interesting to interact with than the profession system as a whole. I would like to get minigames like that implemented into the professions or just into the game in general. But I'm off topic a little.

    The point is, acquiring companion gear was really just to grind something for 4 month without much content added. No one really liked it, so just putting it into the professions as craftables is just the sensible choice unless the point is to be a timewaster.

    However, while initially it would make a lot of sense, on it's own there is one more problem which is that stat sticks are things with only numerical values and thus only one of them is the best, but as time goes, the best items will get cheaper and cheaper and new items need to be introduced. This actually applies to unique items as well as the newer items should have better bonuses or at lest, more stats. But that's why I would keep (at least some) the Power on them, so the same effects can be reintroduced if needed especially if those effects are class-defining (like, Damage Reduction or outgoing healing). However, outgoing healing is kind of a stat AND an effect, but counting it as an effect would actually help to not artificially make difference in damage for classes by role-ing them but to make the different choices in gear.

    That means that all old and lower tier content retroactively have to be redesigned with the easier accessibility of the higher tier items and newly introduced items, which either needs the whole game redone every 2 years or... locking out certain stat stick slots until a certain level of progression reached. This means that higher geared content does not actually need to be given higher stat items, but retroactively just adding an extra slot and opening for those who reached the conditions and requiring those conditions to do the new tier.

    While this does not really save reworking the old stuff eventually as probably new and better stat sticks have to be added, it will make it significantly slower. As mod17, if you need to give the characters 40-50k extra stats, you just overstat new rings with +10k and the companion items with some more thousand. But if implemented, lock in an extra slot for a new companion gear slots and unlock for those who got X amount of trinket from ToMM. You make the content doable without the slots, but because the stat caps, the extra slot does not matter until Infernal Citadel.

    Risks and Concerns:
    That would mean to redo the profession system to fit in for the stat sticks, which I act like is a concern, not something that I really would like to be done and objectively is still a concern as it will mean more resources and messing with priorities. But I think the profession system is still a soulless RNG pay-to-wait system that is technically a part of the game and, but people would never "play" the professions in this game, but engage with it and do the chores of it.

    Also, it does not really makes sense with the current companion system, so it will need some rework too. And the UI will need to be redone for the new slots, but it can be foreseen and implemented in a way that could at least in the backend, handle infinite amount of slots.

    Artifacts as stats will be significantly changed, but I think that should need a change too. The tales of old set or the old heart of the dragon sets were way more interesting for me.
  • arcticblitzarcticblitz Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 126 Arc User
    @oremonger#9999 Great work sums up alot of my feelings towards rewards and progression.

    a couple things to add,

    For me story progression has always been a good motivator it helps keeping me pushing forward because i want to find out what happens it's been the cause of many late nights because i just had to finish the next few pages of the book i'm hooked on, There are some good stories in Neverwinter but i'm struggling to recall anything that has given me that burning need to continue the story.

    I think the stories could also benefit from some choice/consequences scenarios, as an example: oh you looted the chest of an NPC in a Hub zone, now during any combat the NPC randomly appears and attacks you until you pay back what was taken.

    The story conclusions also feel underwhelming/ not epic, Yay i've defeated X,Y,Z boss and i've saved neverwinter again , No parade , no statue , no adoring fans naming offspring after my toon.

    In terms of gear progression, the point i am at is Wards/ higher level enchanting stones are my roadblock where i have to build up AD to transfer to zen or wait for the Winter or Summer events


    Blitzy : PVE only Barbarian
    Martin ConDion PVE only Ranger

    Guild Founder: -HunterS-
  • thefabricantthefabricant Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 5,248 Arc User

    ✪ Part 4 – Itemization Philosophy.

    So, first, I will be cheating a little, because I quote you here, but I'll actually respond to your later post on janne's site, because it's probably more up-to-date, and only Part I. I also had to remove the content of the itemization, because the body of the message was 3600 characters too long for the forum to send out, but chunking parts out seemed pretty misleading. So for everyone else, read the original on page 1 of this topic. However, while your comment mentions HP and power left on the unique gears, the post on the site does not and that actually made more sense in the original comment. I like the idea of leaving some of the HP and power on the unique gear.

    So, while your idea is more general and can be implemented a lot of ways, I just shortly cut into my preferred implementation to explore the topic:

    Feedback Overview: Pushing non-HP/Power character stats from normal gear into companion items and making them only craftable. And also, redesigning companion gear slot unlocks with character progression.

    Feedback Goal: Clearly defined separation of items, item tiers and making professions (especially Mastercraft) have a clearly defined and separated role.

    Feedback Functionality: As written above, but also, the ways of gathering companion items are basically the most user-unfriendly RNG timesinks. Even before the WE's or the much needed Zok change, Illusionist's gambit was a whole mod of grind. Probably the best way to get comp items was the "Sword Coast Adventures" web gateway to the game, where you rolled the dices from your companions and heard a fun little story while doing so. Also, that part was botted pretty heavily and buggy as hell, but at least that was more interesting to interact with than the profession system as a whole. I would like to get minigames like that implemented into the professions or just into the game in general. But I'm off topic a little.

    The point is, acquiring companion gear was really just to grind something for 4 month without much content added. No one really liked it, so just putting it into the professions as craftables is just the sensible choice unless the point is to be a timewaster.

    However, while initially it would make a lot of sense, on it's own there is one more problem which is that stat sticks are things with only numerical values and thus only one of them is the best, but as time goes, the best items will get cheaper and cheaper and new items need to be introduced. This actually applies to unique items as well as the newer items should have better bonuses or at lest, more stats. But that's why I would keep (at least some) the Power on them, so the same effects can be reintroduced if needed especially if those effects are class-defining (like, Damage Reduction or outgoing healing). However, outgoing healing is kind of a stat AND an effect, but counting it as an effect would actually help to not artificially make difference in damage for classes by role-ing them but to make the different choices in gear.

    That means that all old and lower tier content retroactively have to be redesigned with the easier accessibility of the higher tier items and newly introduced items, which either needs the whole game redone every 2 years or... locking out certain stat stick slots until a certain level of progression reached. This means that higher geared content does not actually need to be given higher stat items, but retroactively just adding an extra slot and opening for those who reached the conditions and requiring those conditions to do the new tier.

    While this does not really save reworking the old stuff eventually as probably new and better stat sticks have to be added, it will make it significantly slower. As mod17, if you need to give the characters 40-50k extra stats, you just overstat new rings with +10k and the companion items with some more thousand. But if implemented, lock in an extra slot for a new companion gear slots and unlock for those who got X amount of trinket from ToMM. You make the content doable without the slots, but because the stat caps, the extra slot does not matter until Infernal Citadel.

    Risks and Concerns:
    That would mean to redo the profession system to fit in for the stat sticks, which I act like is a concern, not something that I really would like to be done and objectively is still a concern as it will mean more resources and messing with priorities. But I think the profession system is still a soulless RNG pay-to-wait system that is technically a part of the game and, but people would never "play" the professions in this game, but engage with it and do the chores of it.

    Also, it does not really makes sense with the current companion system, so it will need some rework too. And the UI will need to be redone for the new slots, but it can be foreseen and implemented in a way that could at least in the backend, handle infinite amount of slots.

    Artifacts as stats will be significantly changed, but I think that should need a change too. The tales of old set or the old heart of the dragon sets were way more interesting for me.
    I would like to respond to this a bit. Firstly, it was implied (but not outright stated) that pet gear would also have power and hp on them, so sorry for not being more specific there.

    Secondly, with regards to risks, there are actually people who enjoy playing the professions system, myself (and some other players) included which is why I wrote a couple of 1000 words about them. If I didn't care about them in some way, or feel that other players care about them as well, I wouldn't have written so much about them. There are actually people who "play" professions. But really, I think anyone who actually enjoys tinkering with professions would be fine with the developers trying to change the rewards so that they are actually desirable. It would be more about changing the rewards then changing the system (although I do have a section in there about redoing the system as well).
  • chunimbly#6436 chunimbly Member Posts: 2 Arc User
    edited February 2020
    I want to come out and say that I will be sneaking in an accessibility post, but will tie it to rewards in the end (hey, at least I’m honest).

    I really don’t understand why scaling and level progression is so hard of a topic in Neverwinter. To me it is very easy math, and post Mod 16, this game was supposed to be all about the math. Lets question a few items and then put it all together.

    Level caps:

    Why do you need to have level caps for so long? Why can’t every mod come out and increase the cap by 10 levels?

    Progression:

    Progression is broken. You outlevel areas before you get to them. It breaks the story, players don’t learn mechanics. Players are saying they want slower progression but Chris has stated multiple times that they want to consolidate the lower levels and make them quicker. These are competing ideas. What is progression exactly? It’s both level and content in this game but considered separate. Why can’t content be connected to levels?

    “Game begins at Level 80”:

    I hate this saying. No, the game begins at Level 0. (Current) Level 80 should be the end of game content, not the start. The goal is to get to level 80 as an accomplishment, not considered the end of the tutorial.

    Putting it all Together:

    So how can we put this all together? Also known as my Scaling/Content solution.

    First, let’s make the numbers easy. I’m going to use nice even numbers. I’ll leave it up to the big brains to sort the real numbers out. These are just hypothetical numbers so don’t read into them.

    Levels have meaning- Let’s say at the beginning of the game you start at level 0. By the end of Mod 18 you are level 100 (once again, made up numbers). When a new mod comes out, “cap” goes up by 10. So for Mod 19, it is Level 101-110 content.

    Stats are tied to levels- Base stats are tied to levels. As you go up, so do your stats. Choosing where to allocate 2 ability points has to be eliminated (sorry, this may make people mad). It has to be this way for scaling to work correctly.

    Boons are tied to content completion- Powers/Feats are tied to levels. Rework them, make them meaningful. This is where the player can create diverse builds. Create a better system, like Power/Feats unlock branches on the tree and Boons level up those branches.

    Areas are tied to and restricted to levels- Intro levels 1-10, Blacklake 11-20, Next 21-30, ect. You must be the appropriate level AND completed the prior level to unlock. This assures people don’t skip areas and mess up the storyline and don’t learn mechanics.All areas have a “storyline” solo dungeon. This teaches mechanics. A person must have completed the storyline dungeon to unlock the random queue version. The solo dungeon can be run as often as the player wants.

    Scaling brings a person’s BASE STATS down to the highest for the dungeon- Since the dungeon is the end of an area, a person’s BASE STATS should be scaled to the highest level of that area. For example, a level 75 person playing a level 40 dungeon has their BASE STATS reduced to level 40. Notice BASE STATS? This is to solve the main problem of what pissed people off the most about scaling, their hard work is wasted. Players feel punished when running lower content. Only scale BASE STATS, all other enhancements (enchantments, armor, insignias, companion powers, ect) carry over at full. This takes the edge off and doesn’t let a player be “God” but still lets them smash trash and feel powerful.

    Rewards Solution:

    See, I told you I’d be able to connect the two. Honestly, this was the missing link to making this all work. High level players feel that they don’t get rewarded for running lower level content and thus have no desire to. Random queues are a way to force players to do it and honestly, it’s a cheap move. Players should want to run content, not be forced to artificially.

    I assume Cryptic has a target RAD/time ratio. If not… shame on you. Let’s use made up numbers of 10,000 RAD/hour. Meaning, an “average” player should be able to do most activities that earn RAD at the rate of 10,000 RAD for 1 hour work. Now we can use the thought of skirmish,“normal”, and “epic” dungeons to efficiently give rewards. If a skirmish is completed in about 15 minutes, it should reward 2,500 RAD. If a “normal” dungeon is completed in 30 minutes, it should reward 5,000 RAD. If “Epics” are targeted to take an hour, then 10,000 RAD. This concept can work with RP too. All Cryptic needs is a reward/time ratio.

    Now the real question was always, how to make this work with both low level players and high level players. Low level players don’t need as much reward, high level players need more rewards as stuff like refining costs a heck of a bunch more. I propose a reward modifier per level. Something like every 10 levels, your reward modifier increases by 2%. So if a level 80 person is running a “normal” dungeon, they would get the base 5,000 RAD plus 800 RAD.

    Once again, this can work for RP with the amount of bonus RP going right to the players RP pool. This way, jems can still be sold on the Auction House at their base level but the player gets to keep the bonus.

    Sorry, I know it’s a lot of text, but this game has some work that needs to be done. To me, it almost needs to become Neverwinter 3.0 (others will have higher versions). Fixing it won’t be easy and I think that the players know that. There will be bumps and struggles, but if the players know what direction Cryptic is going (ie a roadmap) they will be more patient.

    Thanks for reading and the other great discussions!
  • skrewfaz3d#1482 skrewfaz3d Member Posts: 109 Arc User
    A thing that also needs to happen (based on what has happened with ToMM) is that the game should reward the veterans who help train people/players with hard content (current game state). 4k RAD isn't enough to encourage groups of experienced players to help new people learn mechanics so when they get their chase items or the profit dries up, they leave to go play other games until a new opportunity arises. New player bonus should maybe be improved rng rolls or like an extra scroll for their weapons.
  • cwhitesidedev#9752 cwhitesidedev Member, Cryptic Developer Posts: 253 Cryptic Developer
    edited February 2020

    PHASE 2 PHASE 2 PHASE 2

    Morning All,

    Happy Monday. I will be continuing to comment as necessary. Meanwhile if you all can move onto phase 2 then that would be great. Specifically it is time to drill into the areas and ideas you like, what you want to know more about, collaborate on, challenge (in a valuable way) and evolve.

    At the moment we are interested to know more of your thoughts in regard to Horizontal progression, evolution of vertical progression, what variation of current types of rewards you would like to see? This will do for now and of course this is on top of what you all would like to drill into as well.

    Looking forward to seeing the next phase of this CDP.

    Chris
    Post edited by cwhitesidedev#9752 on
  • cwhitesidedev#9752 cwhitesidedev Member, Cryptic Developer Posts: 253 Cryptic Developer
    hawkeyel said:

    Progression.
    One thing I have seen made very clear is that while leveling up people are getting flooded with too many areas all at one time. They just cannot do it all in any logical way.Why don't they just remove the extra areas in the game that often end up skipped and bring them back as more worked out level 80 zones. Some have even had their dungeon and the like removed .They could then go back and add them into the new reworked area. And when ever they might decide to raise the cap again they could then pull some of the then Level 80 zones at this time out and return them as even higher zones moving forward. This would give end game people more things to do while stopping newer player from being over whelmed as to what areas they need to focus on first, going forward. Just my 2 copper.

    I agree.

    Chris
  • cwhitesidedev#9752 cwhitesidedev Member, Cryptic Developer Posts: 253 Cryptic Developer
    rikitaki said:

    Feedback Overview
    Players are scaled down, rewards are not scaled up.
    Feedback Goal
    If you strive to make every dungeon/skirmish to take roughly the same time via scaling, you should make the drop on roughly same level. That goes for both what is found in final chest, and how hard is to get the key to the final chest (I am talking especially about SKT SVA in this case).
    At the same time, the drop in zones - if you are scaled down, the dropped treasures and refining items should scale up.
    Feedback Functionality
    If you force the player to match map level, you should force the drop to match the player's unscaled level. The goal should not be "maintain the same level of effort", but "maintain the same reward/effort ratio".
    Risks & Concerns
    The biggest risk is that all the tuning might be wasted time - the real issue lies within the scaling system itself, so you would be treating symptoms instead of disease.

    A little off-topic:
    I know that I might be a special case, but I avoid challenges that require to be "experienced with scrolls". I do not step into any new dungeon or trial till it is tuned down (or outgrown). Simply said, I am more casual - and, within the way the scaling system works, it might take another year (if ever!) to make me consider to move from the last pieces of 70lvl gear.
    The rewards from new zones have significantly negative effect on your performance in the scaled content. From the long-term perspective of your game, this is a terrible situation.

    Hi Rikitaki,

    Thanks for posting. Yes this is something we are currently looking into (Scaled Rewards). Would be a good topic to drill into.

    Chris
  • cwhitesidedev#9752 cwhitesidedev Member, Cryptic Developer Posts: 253 Cryptic Developer

    In regards to RNG loot, I'm kinda for and against it; RNG loot is a big part of D&D, but I do feel the pain of not being lucky. So yeah, I would agree perhaps that chase items locked behind RNG should be unbound, that way you can always buy one from someone else who stole your rng karma, and saving those AD/tradeables for it is your way of progressing. I haven't thought too much about it.

    Also, trading with the game for chase items might something, for example the Mysterious Merchant. You could implement a rare merchant that spawns in random locations throughout the game and who has a limited number of random chase items (bound or unbound I don't care) to sell to the world for a limited amount of time, kinda like the merchant in barovia that you get items for your undead hunter HAMSTER-pack .

    I agree it would be cool to have a different way to earn a subset of all the categories of items including some chase items.

    Chris
  • akta#9913 akta Member Posts: 93 Arc User
    Some of the scariest things i felt as a new player were "what if i pick the wrong paragon? What if I pick the wrong feats!?? What if i pick the wrong boons!!??" There is tremendous stress to new players that could be avoided by simply letting people swap feats and boons at will without needing reroll tokens. I would also let new players start with 2 loadouts, one automatically assigned to each paragon. i would also allow all feats to be chosen immediately rather than having to wait until level 80, so that players can get a feel for what the class actually feels like to play it full time. Those early levels without feats don't give a good picture of what the class is truly like.
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