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On Removal of Content
hustin1
Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 3,467 Arc User
This is something that's been quietly nagging me for a while and the upcoming mod has sort of crystallized my thoughts on the matter.
Cryptic, you guys are way too flipping eager to remove content.
Whether we're talking about the existing Sharandar campaign, half a dozen dungeons, skirmishes, Call-to-Arms events, the old Gauntylgrym, or what-have-you, you've consistently shown a pattern of removing content that we clearly enjoy.
You guys need to knock it off.
There is no reason why the existing Sharandar campaign couldn't remain as a leveling campaign and when players reach 40k item level they could continue the story in the new one. I have no doubt that if you asked the playerbase their opinion, the overwhelming majority would feel this way. No doubt whatsoever.
Did you ask us? No, you didn't. You never do. You made an arbitrary decision that you *know* most of us would strongly disagree with, and there is no justification for it.
There's also no reason why a designer should be able to arbitrarily decide, "I think this content is lame and boring, so take it out." Maybe you think skirmishes are lame and boring, but did you ask us? Do you play the game day in and day out? What gives you the moral right to make that judgment for thousands of people?
The same goes for the old dungeons, and so on. I remember when Mod 6 launched: in the three dungeons you left in the game (because you couldn't remove them *all* and still have a game), you cut out the beginning portions. "We think it takes too long to run these dungeons so we're going to shorten them." Did you ask us? Nope. Someone made an arbitrary decision without considering what the *players* want.
If you wonder why we get so venomous on these forums from time to time, this is why. "We're taking the content away, and to hell with the players' thoughts on the matter."
When it looks, walks, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck.
Cryptic, you guys are way too flipping eager to remove content.
Whether we're talking about the existing Sharandar campaign, half a dozen dungeons, skirmishes, Call-to-Arms events, the old Gauntylgrym, or what-have-you, you've consistently shown a pattern of removing content that we clearly enjoy.
You guys need to knock it off.
There is no reason why the existing Sharandar campaign couldn't remain as a leveling campaign and when players reach 40k item level they could continue the story in the new one. I have no doubt that if you asked the playerbase their opinion, the overwhelming majority would feel this way. No doubt whatsoever.
Did you ask us? No, you didn't. You never do. You made an arbitrary decision that you *know* most of us would strongly disagree with, and there is no justification for it.
There's also no reason why a designer should be able to arbitrarily decide, "I think this content is lame and boring, so take it out." Maybe you think skirmishes are lame and boring, but did you ask us? Do you play the game day in and day out? What gives you the moral right to make that judgment for thousands of people?
The same goes for the old dungeons, and so on. I remember when Mod 6 launched: in the three dungeons you left in the game (because you couldn't remove them *all* and still have a game), you cut out the beginning portions. "We think it takes too long to run these dungeons so we're going to shorten them." Did you ask us? Nope. Someone made an arbitrary decision without considering what the *players* want.
If you wonder why we get so venomous on these forums from time to time, this is why. "We're taking the content away, and to hell with the players' thoughts on the matter."
When it looks, walks, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck.
Harper Chronicles: Cap Snatchers (RELEASED) - NW-DPUTABC6X
Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO
Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF
Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP
The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO
Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF
Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP
The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
16
Comments
We truly love this game ( or did ) and want to see it grow and become something worth our time, effort and money. But alas, it will be what it is..... for some, it will be great, for others, not worth playing.
There is no doubt, this is product provided to a customer (US)... as with anything in life, if the product is HAMSTER with a high cost, it will cease to exist, or, if enough of us just feel that we are not getting bang for our buck... this game will die.
I cannot imagine that anyone at Cryptic wants to see that happen.
Mod 6 and 16 changed this game forever..and now Mod 19.5 has done that again... sad to say but, there is no going back now. The Devs do as they are told, and we can either accept it, or reject it. If enough reject...then maybe changes will come. That is the reality of this game.
They will do what ever they want to milk us for cash. They will find the most popular build choice and Nerf it, so we have to spend to rebalance. They will even be "cute" and tease about how unprepared you are now in their launch videos on the new combat system.
I keep getting the feeling that those in charge of this game are trying to reduce the player count to those most invested so they can milk them heavily before axing the game entirely.
they didn't used to be like this. Before changes were made and they were easy to adjust to then you could drop back into enbjoyiing the game. Now the changes are more drastic, and it is taking longer and longer to find a balance again.
Mod16 threw me for a big loop. Gone was the flexibility, the choices, saying that they kept labeling 'illusion of choice' well guess what hamster pants, i made those choices work for me, but the stats were still understandable. Power was good, more hitpoints was good, keep your defense up. Now, now it is reworked into an unknown.
why am i talking about the system changes when the subject is content? Because it is much the same concept. Old Sharandar payed out good items. Items that people kept over multiple leveles. It was a interesting area to play and farm for rewards. They can't have that when they are moving forward on a wallet squeeze. Make it more difficult and tedious to get there witout paying and people will pay or leave. They pay, you win, they leave, you have one fewer person taking up your server space.
I am only still here because i am desperately trying to salavage all those years of emotional and monetary investment i put into this game when it was great, and i am really wondering if i should rethink that.
I too wish to be recreated, and to be loved long after my death.
I remember when there was such a thing as Lair of the Mad Dragon and the Throne of Idris. I never really understood why they removed those dungeons either. Did they ever give an explanation for taking those down? Were they getting exploited or something?
I have often felt that they ridiculed what people actually care about - or dimnished the extent of that care.
As in: Strongholds - nah we don't really see any reason to work on that, its not important.
Professions - nah, we just do not have the resources to constantly (as in, with every mod or every second mod) work on that
Dungeons - eh, we listen to what players want: HE, BHE, Grind-events.
People cared a whole lot about CDP, but look at what it is now - advertisement mostly.
There were players that we all have known over the years not taken seriously (I remember several instances of this on the CDP, but far more important people had something to say about that already) and others were shoved to the frontlines - here, this is the players we like
There is postings moved and postings deleted, and while mine deserve to be deleted (I know this) I have read others that VANISHED even tho they actually didn't Hamster around like me.
You cannot teach people to take their players seriously other than going to games where devs actually do that.
In the end Thats it. That was what I thought about for a while now.
What are you logging in for in the end? Obligation? Tradition? Fun?
And it's not like the devs can come on here and say "Hey guys, look... we hate to take away Sharandar, but the toasters we have running this beast can't handle any more zones. They can barely heat up Pop Tarts as it is."
Imagine the outcry from players who have poured all kinds of money into this game when they learn that Neverwinter is running on a 386 or something. lol There's no way that would fly for PR. Almost better to let your playerbase think you hate them or ignore them than for them to learn that you don't have the technical knowhow or some other necessary factor to migrate stuff to modern hardware.
I finally decided to get my female elf wizard in there because she is my only elf. Also the only female I role play on here. Because I role play, it is a good place for an elf to be role playing, just makes sense. I am going to get her leveled up to 80. Everyone (who actually knows about it) will get to run to Sharandar at 80 and get a fake item level of 40K for the first 2 weeks. This means; If you don't get into Sharandar between 2/9/21 and 2/23/21 then you lose sir, they take all your chocolate, turn your daughter into a blueberry, toss you down a garbage chute, and stretch you out like ... oh no, that is the movie ... never mind, you get my point.
Being a role player, I have less to say about the current changes, maybe you guys should try what I do. I have the most pathetic builds ever. Get some friends and run with them, offer your services as a meat shield! Get down to the basics scrubs!!
Just killing time...
Cryptic is doing awesome job the playerbase is happy everything is pink roses
Players can clear content easily and we have so much content (heroic encounters) to do you can never get over it
I dont want old sharandar removed it has its charms
I got my wizard elf girl up to 75 now down in the Undermountain. Fights are meh, here is what I did:
- AH bought junk armor "Gambler" was running under 100 AD and in most cases about 25 AD per piece.
- Got the rank 8 Azures on my elbows, knees, and head in those utility slots for the most XP.
- Heal pots ... lots of health pots!
- Went down to the catacombs and found player Bob7up (cleric) who kept me from dying a lot. Thank you Bob!
- Bob and I finished up in the caverns, and I plan to play again later and get her up to 80.
On topic -I remember, there was a lot more to do in this game, they always removed things and never replace them at all. So in my opinion, although we will lose all the cool quests, they are replacing (at the very least) it with something. Before it was like this, "Great news! We are going to delete the ZAX next week due to massive botting and exploits. I am sure no one was using it, other than the botters." Anyone saying anything about keeping it would be branded a botter/exploiter by the players here in the forums and on chat.
That is only an example, I don't think they plan to delete the ZAX for real. However that would be a massive AD sink!
Just killing time...
You know, like all those dungeons we lost and still haven't gotten back because someone had an idea...
▂▃▄▅▆▇█▓▒░ Drac ░▒▓█▇▆▅▄▃▂
There is supposed to be an image here, but the hamsters took it.
<div align="center">AKA Draconis of Luskan</div>
Take a backseat boy. Cause now I'm driving. ~ Give it up - Elizabeth Gilies ft. Ariana Grande
RIP Foundry: On that day, when the sky fell away, our world came to an end. ~Lifelight
@burnfin01#3796 AD maker, 4,500 + 50% bonus AD = 6,750 per week? I will miss the Arcane Resistor too. ... got to love that spell checker.
@auron#6793 I miss it too, never wrote a quest myself, I just like playing them because they were not the same story on loop.
@greywynd I know they brought them back as a replay but were not the original dungeons or level either. I remember us joking about Tales of Mold and the Grand Reselling.
Just killing time...
Negatives: I didn't like how the Paladin's Tank b) Sarandar became HORRIBLE. c) Stronghold (the quests with time)
Right now in particular I feel a "worst of both worlds" scenario where Combat changes require more careful maneuvering to complete quest fights, but the enemy density is much higher than the M20 Sharandar zone on Preview (last I saw.) Accidental pulls and Redcap Patrols in Current Sharandar are easily fatal, and easier to do on any DPS class with a dodge mechanic.
Just killing time...
> Yes it is a little known fact in MMO history, humans suck at repairing devastation. One time in an MMO, I left for town 2 years after it was obliterated, and returned found them living in tents! In two years, not one person King, Prince, or peasant bothered to pick up a hammer and nails and build a shack. Tents is something we do for weeks not years. I wouldn't have complained as much as I did, but when the title card reads "Two Years Later..." you expect some repairs, not tents and certainly not piles of human skulls.
Lonelywood.
These are 2 cuts put together but show you the opening then the destruction.
After a title card saying "Two Years Later..." this...
Just killing time...
I respect your opinion but companies will not. We players see removal as destroying things we liked to do. They look at this as an upgrade. You either like the reboot or not, and I like most of the coming reboot. What I don't like it licking it down and keeping people under level 80 + item level 40K lock out on the 23rd.
This is my opinion, since this decision was made months ago, they will not roll back anything. Will they will soft patch? Maybe, but just the recent issues with stats. Combat changes made Thursday are here to stay, Module 1 is gone and Module 20 is replacing it on February 9th. I don't like the fact they are dumping all the old quests. The quests could have been added within the new. I feel item level caps on Adventure Zones are wrong, players have the right to jump into areas too hard for them. On day one, if I jump into the Dread Ring as a level 10, and get creamed, I have no right to complain about it.
If large corporations owned classic works of art in a museum, they would ask some new artist to repaint Picasso.
Just killing time...
Also, with Sharandar, the drops are keyed to the Stronghold -you have 2 choices:
- One, keep Old Sharandar and let us use the drops to fill the SH coffer
- Two, Drop Old Sharandar and rework (date to be finished - 09 Feb., 2021) the new drops to take the place of the Old Sharandar Drops in both the Stronghold and in items that were purchaseble in Old Sharandar, e.g. Potions of Potency for 15 Gold Crescents.
You're right - Bring back the Good Old Stuff, If you're going to do a Grindy, Lameo, 3 Episodes of Sharandar, drop the Launch on Feb 9th, Grab your copy (or go buy one) of Rime of the Frostmaiden (again in 3 Episodes)- Xardoc's Castle (with the Chardalyn Dragon)
- Auril's Abode
- The Rise of Ythryn
Then you will have Good Content, a use for the Polar and Brown Bear Casnnoneers you gave out like Halloween Candy, a few new Monsters to learn, and fun for the players.THEN, you will have a whole year to work on (the few minutes you're not working on the Frostmaiden project) making the Sharandar content something the players will want to do..
Let's face it, as to the Stronghold, the developers don't have a clue as to how to initiate fixing low walls, building and/or improving Roads, fixing fences, or other items that make the Stronghold livable.and there are not enough building plots to build everything we could build. Isn't Socialism Wonderful??!?!