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My thoughts after the first day
hustin1
Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 3,460 Arc User
First let me cc the people who I think should most be concerned. If there are others, my apologies, these are all I know.
@nitocris83 @cwhitesidedev#9752 @noworries#8859
So far, I've run 12 out of 21 alts through the intro into Sharandar and I've run my main (with the help of the alliance) up to the point of maximizing the weekly haul. Here are my thoughts. Some will be constructive. Some will not. I suggest reading them anyway.
1. I like most of the hub area but I would suggest some improvements.
When I look into the distance at the tall rocks bordering the area, to me it appears too barren. I would place a lot more greenery for starters, even to the point of making it look overgrown. Life should be in great abundance in the Feywild, but the current barren nature of the surroundings makes it look more like a Fey oasis somewhere in Avernus. An oasis in Avernus is the *last* thing that should ever come to mind in Sharandar. To be honest, the final lead up to the Fey Crossing in the intro has much more of a Sharandar feel than everything else. If you captured that Feywild character in the hub area, I think you'd have a winner.
2. The ruins of Malabog region would benefit a lot from a healthy dose of the old Sharandar's character.
What I mean here are things like the huge glowing mushrooms, giant trees, floating wisps, and general overgrown nature that the old Sharandar areas had. Right now it doesn't look like the Feywild so much as just any other place in the Prime Material plane. It just isn't the Feywild, but it can be with the right touches.
Always try to keep this in mind: the Feywild is a pseudonym for the Plane of Faerie. It's a separate plane of existence.
3. We could use some better visual cues to differentiate between different types of redcaps.
This one is a little tricky because they're decidedly smaller than they used to be, but all afternoon my alliance friends were complaining that they couldn't tell them apart, and when you need to know which is the healer, which will steal your AP, which will stun you for several seconds, and which will knock you flying, that's a big deal. The feeling was universal -- the redcaps are too similar in appearance and it's making play frustrating.
4. You're overdoing it with the knockdowns, stuns, and knockbacks. Please tone it down.
This was also universal among alliance players: the enemy CC is overdone. I'll post an example that I'm now *extremely* familiar with: the grung and frog fights in the intro. In these encounters, all four enemies have AoE stuns and/or knockdowns. Four out of four. This means that there is never a moment that we aren't forced to dodge. We can hardly get attacks off before we have to dodge again. Half of the time we can't even manage that.
This is not fun at all, it's frustrating, and calling it "challenge" is, well, lazy. If this was a paper-and-pencil campaign and the DM was hitting us with encounters like this one after another after another, I'd long since have packed up my dice and my books, put my jacket on, and left. I can tell the difference between a PnP DM who wants both to tell a story and challenge us to play smart and one who simply enjoys being sadistic. I can't claim that's your motivation but that's how it feels from this side of the screen. A mod where I'm constantly forced to dodge because everyone and his grandmother has an AoE stun, knockback, or knockdown, is a mod I utterly refuse to play. I have other campaigns I can run and other MMO's installed on my hard drive.
You need to do better, and you *can* do better. A mod isn't TIC or LOMM or TOMM. The design goals are different. You need to always keep that in mind.
5. Attention to detail is important, and I'm glad you put in the effort on certain things.
Like getting the original voice actors for the Iliyanbruen elves. I know it's not always possible, but having a different voice actor for Merrisara, for example, would have been jarring. Thanks for getting that right.
6. We need an explanation on Master of the Hunt one way or another. Is it coming back or not? What's the yea or nay on it? There's a ton of uncertainty both in alliance chat and in zone chat. My thoughts on the matter: the Master of the Hunt has nothing to do with Malabog being defeated or not. I see no reason why that firbolg wouldn't still make himself a nuisance that we players need to deal with. And, there's the matter of taking away perfectly good content without some sort of absolute requirement that it must be nuked. Players generally dislike that, myself included.
Remember, guys, a wall of silence generally looks terrible. You would do well to communicate, communicate, and communicate.
7. I really think you should keep the original Sharandar campaign in place as an intro campaign.
I see no reason why the original Sharandar campaign couldn't be a "part 1" for low-level players and the current one be a "part 2" for high-level players. Call it "Sharandar: What came Before", "Sharandar: Introduction", "Sharandar: the Dawn" or something else appropriate. Simply saying "it is no longer available" without an explanation as to *why* it must no longer be available is simply unacceptable. You should respect your players more than that.
This of course segues into my thoughts into removal of content in general, whether we're talking about leveling skirmishes, CTA's, or a number of old epic dungeons. Taking content away without *at least* asking the players (your customers!) their opinion looks and feels wrong. From this player's perspective, it really, honestly feels like you don't care what our opinions are on the matter. If you're going to take content away permanently or turn it from having 52-week availability to only 2-week availability, at least have the courtesy to ask our opinion and explain *why* you make the decisions you do. Presuming to speak for us without at least *asking* us is simply wrong, and it looks terrible.
(I surely hope you care what we think on the matter, because, well, if you actually don't, then, do I need to say it?)
8. I like the original trolls more, for a couple of reasons.
- It was a lot easier to tell different kinds of trolls apart. Runts didn't have fangs, normal trolls had short fangs, and fell trolls had big fangs, a potbelly, and better clothes. Visual cues matter. These new-and-improved trolls lack those.
- They were more fun to look at. Whether we're talking about that ridiculous nose, the fatso Fell trolls, or that hunched stance, the original trolls were funny-looking in a way that made the area *more fun to play*. I don't know if WOTC stood on your necks to force a change or if you're just striving for lockstep accuracy with their sourcebooks, but something tangible has been lost. Fun **matters** and, frankly, is light-years more important than pure nerdy accuracy. Please bring back the old trolls, or make some changes to these new ones.
(And, yes, I get that it's D&D, lest I insult a few legions of D&D nerds -- I have a bookshelf full of 1e AD&D sourcebooks and modules, enough that I couldn't lift them all in one go. This is a computer game, and all games are meant to be fun first and foremost)
9. A cauldron mount is okay. A displacer beast companion is great. And a giant mushroom "throne" that I could dance on would be *awesome*.
We have lots of thrones that we sit on. At this point, to me, they're old hat -- Lion, Boo, Gamemaster, whatever. It's a throne. With a seat. One that we make a "rule the world" animation on. We get it. You've only made at least eight different kinds. One that we could dance on like the powries in the orignal Sharandar would be a cool change.
I'm just glad the mount isn't a Fey Wolf, or frankly, any kind of wolf. The wolf mounts in this game give me motion sickness when I try to ride them. No, I'm not roleplaying. They give me, sitting in this recliner, actual motion sickness. So, thanks for that.
But I want my mushroom. Not joking.
@nitocris83 @cwhitesidedev#9752 @noworries#8859
So far, I've run 12 out of 21 alts through the intro into Sharandar and I've run my main (with the help of the alliance) up to the point of maximizing the weekly haul. Here are my thoughts. Some will be constructive. Some will not. I suggest reading them anyway.
1. I like most of the hub area but I would suggest some improvements.
When I look into the distance at the tall rocks bordering the area, to me it appears too barren. I would place a lot more greenery for starters, even to the point of making it look overgrown. Life should be in great abundance in the Feywild, but the current barren nature of the surroundings makes it look more like a Fey oasis somewhere in Avernus. An oasis in Avernus is the *last* thing that should ever come to mind in Sharandar. To be honest, the final lead up to the Fey Crossing in the intro has much more of a Sharandar feel than everything else. If you captured that Feywild character in the hub area, I think you'd have a winner.
2. The ruins of Malabog region would benefit a lot from a healthy dose of the old Sharandar's character.
What I mean here are things like the huge glowing mushrooms, giant trees, floating wisps, and general overgrown nature that the old Sharandar areas had. Right now it doesn't look like the Feywild so much as just any other place in the Prime Material plane. It just isn't the Feywild, but it can be with the right touches.
Always try to keep this in mind: the Feywild is a pseudonym for the Plane of Faerie. It's a separate plane of existence.
3. We could use some better visual cues to differentiate between different types of redcaps.
This one is a little tricky because they're decidedly smaller than they used to be, but all afternoon my alliance friends were complaining that they couldn't tell them apart, and when you need to know which is the healer, which will steal your AP, which will stun you for several seconds, and which will knock you flying, that's a big deal. The feeling was universal -- the redcaps are too similar in appearance and it's making play frustrating.
4. You're overdoing it with the knockdowns, stuns, and knockbacks. Please tone it down.
This was also universal among alliance players: the enemy CC is overdone. I'll post an example that I'm now *extremely* familiar with: the grung and frog fights in the intro. In these encounters, all four enemies have AoE stuns and/or knockdowns. Four out of four. This means that there is never a moment that we aren't forced to dodge. We can hardly get attacks off before we have to dodge again. Half of the time we can't even manage that.
This is not fun at all, it's frustrating, and calling it "challenge" is, well, lazy. If this was a paper-and-pencil campaign and the DM was hitting us with encounters like this one after another after another, I'd long since have packed up my dice and my books, put my jacket on, and left. I can tell the difference between a PnP DM who wants both to tell a story and challenge us to play smart and one who simply enjoys being sadistic. I can't claim that's your motivation but that's how it feels from this side of the screen. A mod where I'm constantly forced to dodge because everyone and his grandmother has an AoE stun, knockback, or knockdown, is a mod I utterly refuse to play. I have other campaigns I can run and other MMO's installed on my hard drive.
You need to do better, and you *can* do better. A mod isn't TIC or LOMM or TOMM. The design goals are different. You need to always keep that in mind.
5. Attention to detail is important, and I'm glad you put in the effort on certain things.
Like getting the original voice actors for the Iliyanbruen elves. I know it's not always possible, but having a different voice actor for Merrisara, for example, would have been jarring. Thanks for getting that right.
6. We need an explanation on Master of the Hunt one way or another. Is it coming back or not? What's the yea or nay on it? There's a ton of uncertainty both in alliance chat and in zone chat. My thoughts on the matter: the Master of the Hunt has nothing to do with Malabog being defeated or not. I see no reason why that firbolg wouldn't still make himself a nuisance that we players need to deal with. And, there's the matter of taking away perfectly good content without some sort of absolute requirement that it must be nuked. Players generally dislike that, myself included.
Remember, guys, a wall of silence generally looks terrible. You would do well to communicate, communicate, and communicate.
7. I really think you should keep the original Sharandar campaign in place as an intro campaign.
I see no reason why the original Sharandar campaign couldn't be a "part 1" for low-level players and the current one be a "part 2" for high-level players. Call it "Sharandar: What came Before", "Sharandar: Introduction", "Sharandar: the Dawn" or something else appropriate. Simply saying "it is no longer available" without an explanation as to *why* it must no longer be available is simply unacceptable. You should respect your players more than that.
This of course segues into my thoughts into removal of content in general, whether we're talking about leveling skirmishes, CTA's, or a number of old epic dungeons. Taking content away without *at least* asking the players (your customers!) their opinion looks and feels wrong. From this player's perspective, it really, honestly feels like you don't care what our opinions are on the matter. If you're going to take content away permanently or turn it from having 52-week availability to only 2-week availability, at least have the courtesy to ask our opinion and explain *why* you make the decisions you do. Presuming to speak for us without at least *asking* us is simply wrong, and it looks terrible.
(I surely hope you care what we think on the matter, because, well, if you actually don't, then, do I need to say it?)
8. I like the original trolls more, for a couple of reasons.
- It was a lot easier to tell different kinds of trolls apart. Runts didn't have fangs, normal trolls had short fangs, and fell trolls had big fangs, a potbelly, and better clothes. Visual cues matter. These new-and-improved trolls lack those.
- They were more fun to look at. Whether we're talking about that ridiculous nose, the fatso Fell trolls, or that hunched stance, the original trolls were funny-looking in a way that made the area *more fun to play*. I don't know if WOTC stood on your necks to force a change or if you're just striving for lockstep accuracy with their sourcebooks, but something tangible has been lost. Fun **matters** and, frankly, is light-years more important than pure nerdy accuracy. Please bring back the old trolls, or make some changes to these new ones.
(And, yes, I get that it's D&D, lest I insult a few legions of D&D nerds -- I have a bookshelf full of 1e AD&D sourcebooks and modules, enough that I couldn't lift them all in one go. This is a computer game, and all games are meant to be fun first and foremost)
9. A cauldron mount is okay. A displacer beast companion is great. And a giant mushroom "throne" that I could dance on would be *awesome*.
We have lots of thrones that we sit on. At this point, to me, they're old hat -- Lion, Boo, Gamemaster, whatever. It's a throne. With a seat. One that we make a "rule the world" animation on. We get it. You've only made at least eight different kinds. One that we could dance on like the powries in the orignal Sharandar would be a cool change.
I'm just glad the mount isn't a Fey Wolf, or frankly, any kind of wolf. The wolf mounts in this game give me motion sickness when I try to ride them. No, I'm not roleplaying. They give me, sitting in this recliner, actual motion sickness. So, thanks for that.
But I want my mushroom. Not joking.
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
Post edited by hustin1 on
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Comments
This was also universal among alliance players: the enemy CC is overdone. I'll post an example that I'm now *extremely* familiar with: the grung and frog fights in the intro. In these encounters, all four enemies have AoE stuns and/or knockdowns. Four out of four. This means that there is never a moment that we aren't forced to dodge. We can hardly get attacks off before we have to dodge again. Half of the time we can't even manage that.
This is not fun at all, it's frustrating, and calling it "challenge" is, well, lazy. If this was a paper-and-pencil campaign and the DM was hitting us with encounters like this one after another after another, I'd long since have packed up my dice and my books, put my jacket on, and left. I can tell the difference between a PnP DM who wants both to tell a story and challenge us to play smart and one who simply enjoys being sadistic. I can't claim that's your motivation but that's how it feels from this side of the screen. A mod where I'm constantly forced to dodge because everyone and his grandmother has an AoE stun, knockback, or knockdown, is a mod I utterly refuse to play. I have other campaigns I can run and other MMO's installed on my hard drive.
You need to do better, and you *can* do better. A mod isn't TIC or LOMM or TOMM. The design goals are different. You need to always keep that in mind."
Yeah, agree. The New Sharandar reminds me of Soshenstar River area early on when I first went there to receive a good old knocking about
In regards to Master of the Hunt, we are hoping to turn it back on but need to run some additional checks.
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
The combat reminds me of Chult, kill one mob and another immediately appears.
My 31k IL, 6 boon Level 80 alt made to New Sharandar today, After he said ,"Hi." to Minsc _ may bring all my alts here just to be able to get them the appropriate armor.
5 gold is not going to pay for all the potions and Life stone uses to get here.
I agree about the identifiable Trolls and the same about the Red Caps.
They made STK a follow-on from IWD - you're right that there's no reason they couldn't do the same with Sharandar.
Question though (xbox player here) with the update, did you lose the boons earned from the old Sharandar..?
Xael De Armadeon: DC
Xane De Armadeon: CW
Zen De Armadeon: OP
Zohar De Armadeon: TR
Chrion De Armadeon: SW
Gosti Big Belly: GWF
Barney McRustbucket: GF
Lt. Thackeray: HR
Lucius De Armadeon: BD
Member of Casual Dailies - XBox
I played through it on Tuesday, and I'm not gonna bother with it again until Monday when the weeklies reset because what's the point?
At the very least this should have launched with some kind of skirmish or dungeon in place, and some form of additional currency to earn DAILY like those in the old Sharandar.
Or just SOMETHING that feels like actual content instead of one being big BHE farm.
Jade - Cleric - Healer Main - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone
Magnus - Fighter - 3rd main to be a tank - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone
Loverboy - Ranger - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone
Nomnomnommm - Wizard - Alt - Droppin Crits on Fools - Xbone
I Am The Wall - Paladin - Alt - Droppin Crits on Fools - Xbone
Xeros - Rogue - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone
RIP bad name - Warlock - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone
Bardholomew - Bard - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone
Sirona - Cleric - Alt - 9 3/4 Unbuffed - Xbone
Jade - DC - Shadows of Gauntlgrym - PC
Dead🔪how about you actually fix it so people can get to higher levels without having to sacrifice goats and spend 24/7 running through stuff in silence.
Having people run all stuff to get 100K AD a day and them maybe buy 1 enchantment every 3-4 days was maybe ok when this game was highly popular. Now with the small player base, that is just plain silliness.
Fix classes.. wizards!!! this last wizard "help" shows you have no clue.. lets make both loadouts be about the same mediocre (at best) level. (this made me extremely upset calling this a help for the wizard.. clueless!)
I have not played since this mod came out. and certainly will not give these people anymore money until they actually make it playable.
Let us spend a whole mod to give some bored people a weeks worth of non boredom and then back to complaining how bored they are.
How about help keeping the people who are not bored by making it possible to actually make it to 40K IL and give them a class which will be useful in groups or even solo.
Yeah,, Noworries..
all these scaling bs drained my will to play, i just started playing last october and every single day was fun until the rework, and it's not about getting 'gud', every dungeon became a chore, i adapted to it but the same shty rewards say that they're not actually worth running, why cant we enjoy the 'power' we earned for the same crappy rewards you'll never update?
i have never spent any time on this forum before the rework, and now im just here complaining for nothing, i know it wont be reverted to how it was, just saying that i had so much fun before the rework
1.
The New Sharandar looks great. Visually it is a masterpiece. The new models for the monsters, the environmental details, the whole back in nature feel, it all works very well, and it gives the player the sensation that they are not in a game anymore, but part of the world. Much much better than Avernus. That constant red/brownish background for the past 6 months has become tiring. New sharandar has nice fresh feeling to it.
2.
The story seems decent. Is it some kind of plague that is coming? Are we gonna see more new monsters? I actually got exctited about this one.
3.
Daily grind is grindy. Then again it is better than Avernus hunts. The weekly haul is short. Which is fine. Lots of daily quests available. Most of them are: go kill X number of enemies, or go gather X number of things. Simple. Gets a little boring. But still better than Avernus.
4.
The map is great. It could use a few more extra passages, or jumps. You know, make it a little more sandboxy. Overall good. I am excited to see the next areas. It has been a while since NWO has made me feel like that. Good job.
5.
Difficulty. Hmmm I dont know where I stand on that one. Normal enemies are fine and well balanced. As a paladib I can kill everything, by using dps gear and companions. The heroics are much harder though. Not undoable but it certainly helps to have one or two more people with you, so that it goes faster. At least now we do have a reason to team up with other players. And no in Avernus, it was never necessary, unless doing ASC or ENS or Hunts for the extra favor. I like Sharandar. I see lots of people complaining about mobs being CC happy. Although tanks dont have much of an issue with that, I can understand how frustrating it can be for dps classes. Maybe increse the intervals of CC abilities, that monsters use? Sometimes players get perma stunlocked.
6.
The new gear feels like am upgraded version of what we already had. Nothing special really. I noticed some extra awareness on a few pieces. Certainly great for tanks. The new set is magnificent. Weird that you guys went with Charisma instead of Constitution on the neck piece though. It is apparently a set for barbarians. Paladins can still benefit from it, but that deflect severity we have as a forte, is pretty much worthless. Nobody, and I mean nobody in their right mind would go for a 90% deflect chance on a pally. So deflect severity is kinda useless, and so is forte for us atm. Ill make a post about that in another thread.
I am excited to see what the gear from farming VoS is gonna be like, and If we get any new powerful weapon sets. In general I find the new gear, a small improvement on what already existed in the game. I havent seen all the appearnces. Hey, we gotta look good while killing stuff
7.
The new mounts (caulron leg and mythic) are pretty good. The buff they provide is gonna be great in trials, and it gives some extra versatility in what gear players use. No more need for skyblazer helm, unless people are like 45% CA. Which should not be the case for DpS classes.
Overall the new sharandar is, imo, better than Avernus. More relaxing at least. And we really needed a change of scenery.
Good job on this one. For bugs and fixes for the game as a whole, I will post in a relevant thread. There is a ton that needs to be adjusted, reworked and fixed in regards to monsters, classes and dungeons, but I trust you are already working on it? Make Neverwinter Great Again. I will even buy a hat.
Before I start with the new module, a few words about the state of Neverwinter. Whoever is responsible for your marketing is doing a very bad job. If you want to make money, you should sell a good product and above all motivate players to buy this product. This is exactly what you are failing at.
The Zariel campaign is an example of that. Many people bought the campaign and saw a purchasable item unlocked in the Zen Shop as a reward at the end of each module. For many players, that was a slap in the face.
1. the new Sharandar no longer has the character / charm of the previous. @hustin1 has made good comments about it. I recommend the Devs think about it.
2. The Devs are really overdoing it with the knockdowns, stuns and knockbacks. Change this to a more normal value or remove some of the knockings.
3. The opponents in the heroic encounters are too strong. Especially those in the big encounter. I've seen them healing up to 690k! Come on, this has to be a bug! Look at it and change it. Players should be able to do an encounter without being one shot.
4. Combat / Scaling / Change of Stats: Players want to make progress and not feeling weak and worthless in some Dungeon. Why would I even bother to buy something new, to get better gear, when the higher item level reduces my stat %? Change something, but do it quick! It aint funny at all to do stat maths for hours, when all we want is to have fun while playing a game.
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