Sharandar Episode 2, and more Heroic Encounters.

tom · March 2021

Interesting Interview about Sharandar Episode 2

https://www.mmorpg.com/interviews/interview-talking-neverwinters-sharandar-episode-2-the-soul-keeper-with-senior-game-designer-noah-holmes-2000121266

"Neverwinter is set to release Sharandar’s second episode: The Soul Keeper soon, and with it comes a new Heroic Encounter named Waking Nightmares."

looks like the main selling point for Ep 2 is... more heroic encounters.... yay /s

plasticbat · March 2021

I did not read the link but I expect episode 2 would be opening up another area. Hence, new HE in the new area is expected by me.

jules · March 2021

Drawing out the end now - as long as people go and play that it will go on like this I guess.

xenocide · March 2021

Its nice of them to release an optional mod to allow their playerbase to take 6 months off and come back for mod 22 without really missing anything.

Its actually timed really well with Black desert onlines free trial promotion, well done

callumf · March 2021

xenocide#6577 said:
Its actually timed really well with Black desert onlines free trial promotion, well done

FTW

greywynd · March 2021

Old Sharandar was better. Do Area 1 for X number of days, get the key to unlock Area 2.

Not this HAMSTER of "wait until we feel like letting you unlock it".

maxzius · March 2021

In their defense, they were working on Part 1 and the Combat Update at the same time. With that said, Parts 2 and 3 are going to be the deciding factor of who stays.

darthpotater · March 2021

Heroic encounters are:

No fun
No rewarding
No challenging
Frustrating if there is something you need from them.

This is the feedback I can give on more heroic encounters. I hate them since mod 3.

I would preffer a new dungeon / trial / skimirsh more than 10 different HE.

I know the time for devs to make HE is very low compared with making a group content, but really if players dont like them... Or maybe there are players that like them after the first 2 days? Who knows.

What if you put some polls in-game to know what players think? we are in mod 20 and Im 100% sure you have no clue about what players think about different aspects of the game. And no, if you force players to do Heroics to get something, that doesnt mean we like it. The same as hunts.

And forum also is not a good way to get feedback. Most players dont enter here and when we enter is usually to complain (me included)

rainbow · March 2021

It's very nice that you posted an official news announcement at Arc Games

miliantricia · March 2021

craptics are masters of making useless "content" in the form of unnecessary HEs. They messed up the game and dnd. I'll go to ESO, there is at least a lot of content there.

blargskull · March 2021

greywynd said:
Old Sharandar was better. Do Area 1 for X number of days, get the key to unlock Area 2.

Not this HAMSTER of "wait until we feel like letting you unlock it".

There isn't anything wrong with waiting after you beat new content in any game, assuming you a have something else to do whilst you wait. Many players who have been with their games for years, know there is nothing to do here, until you get the green light to proceed. However if you have been there and done that, many people especially the new ones will pack it in and go home. They forget about the game because this module was about as unforgettable as Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, which I fell asleep watching.

maxzius#3795 said:
In their defense, they were working on Part 1 and the Combat Update at the same time. With that said, Parts 2 and 3 are going to be the deciding factor of who stays.

In their offense, I can't imagine that there are many people remaining here after they dropped this flop. I stop here on the forums more often than I boot up the game to play. Take a look at these forums. Either no one is talking all that much, or people are not here like they were before. I am done for now, out of their current 4 titles, I am more likely to boot up Champions than Neverwinter. I can wait until this fall come back and finish up parts 2 and 3... assuming I remember to return. They need filler, you don't eat hot dogs for the meat content!

vastano · March 2021

blargskull said:

greywynd said:
Old Sharandar was better. Do Area 1 for X number of days, get the key to unlock Area 2.

Not this HAMSTER of "wait until we feel like letting you unlock it".
There isn't anything wrong with waiting after you beat new content in any game, assuming you a have something else to do whilst you wait. Many players who have been with their games for years, know there is nothing to do here, until you get the green light to proceed. However if you have been there and done that, many people especially the new ones will pack it in and go home. They forget about the game because this module was about as unforgettable as Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, which I fell asleep watching.
maxzius#3795 said:
In their defense, they were working on Part 1 and the Combat Update at the same time. With that said, Parts 2 and 3 are going to be the deciding factor of who stays.
In their offense, I can't imagine that there are many people remaining here after they dropped this flop. I stop here on the forums more often than I boot up the game to play. Take a look at these forums. Either no one is talking all that much, or people are not here like they were before. I am done for now, out of their current 4 titles, I am more likely to boot up Champions than Neverwinter. I can wait until this fall come back and finish up parts 2 and 3... assuming I remember to return. They need filler, you don't eat hot dogs for the meat content!

there was an episode 2 of star wars?

greywynd · March 2021

vastano#2343 said:

there was an episode 2 of star wars?

Yes. It was called The Empire Strikes Back.

plasticbat · March 2021

greywynd said:

vastano#2343 said:

there was an episode 2 of star wars?

Yes. It was called The Empire Strikes Back.

Only if it is based on movie schedule time line. Otherwise, it should be Attack of the Clones.

blargskull · March 2021

plasticbat said:

greywynd said:

vastano#2343 said:

there was an episode 2 of star wars?

Yes. It was called The Empire Strikes Back.
Only if it is based on movie schedule time line. Otherwise, it should be Attack of the Clones.

I believe the subtitle should have been; Star Wars: Detective Kenobi and the Mystery Planet. Then of course the trailers should have a disclaimer: Note: All the fight and actions scenes have been reduce to this 5 minute trailer. I really did fall asleep twice on the movie, once at the theater and when it was rented on DVD. Still trying to wrap my head around, Queens being an elected office and not a totalitarian dictatorship.

Sorry to derail this thread about Lucas Arts: Sharandar.

greywynd · March 2021

Attack of the Clowns?

melechest · March 2021

There is nothing new in mod 20 except the dungeon. The campaign itself is Avernus painted green. The HE grind is just there to make players forget that there is nothing interesting in the game. This is also probably the reason why they keep throwing events and extra events, just to give players just a little something to occupy themselves with. There is just nothing to do in the game.
As for the combat rework, yeah they were occupied by it for around a year until its release on preview (official statement). And i dont know what they were working on this whole year, since it was a complete mess when it got on preview and its still a complete mess. And 2 of their offenses on that were that the same combat system went through many iterations while on preview, with some very big changes, and that they had players, not professional game testers, to test the system. And its a hot mess. Not even considering how many things are broken/not working properly, like damage resistance which doesnt work at all (still not fixed).

armadeonx · March 2021

I assume most of that year was spent on 'meetings' because precious little of it was spent on 'testing & balancing'.

lantern22 · March 2021

another HE - yay

ZzzzZzzzzZzzzzZzzzzzZzzzz

rikitaki · March 2021

melechest said:
There is nothing new in mod 20 except the dungeon. The campaign itself is Avernus painted green.

No, no, no! This time they forgot to insert a mandatory transition area that erases your stamina and action points. And throws away your pet. And no sandstorm! You theoretically can see what you play - even on higher settings than everything on low. This is nothing like Avernus.
(...my claim, however, might be based on insufficient experience - I still did not manage to force myself to finish episode 1 on at least one of my chars...)

melechest · March 2021

@rikitaki
Dont forget, there were 2 campaigns in Hell. "Descend into Avernus" and "Path of the Fallen". "New" Sharandar was "Descend into Avernus" panted green, "Path of the Fallen" was "Descend into Avernus" with the addition of said area. The mindless hunt farming was part of "Redeemed Citadel" event/campaign/whatever, which was just mindless grinding from start to fininsh.

rikitaki · March 2021

@melechest Oh, I see now what you meant.

But Vallenhas is not bad at all - there are no punches to your face, even the opportunities to drop through the map have eventually been reduced. And the campaign currency offers a chance on the widest variety of loot in the whole game. Weekly quests do not consist of a couple of minutes long watching of static picture... I mean, seriously, the Vallenhas is one of the most reasonable areas we have atm.
Insurgencies are an awful concept, but at least they have a visible timer, which is awesome. A feat from the Rise of the Tiamat times that devs were unable to reproduce anywhere else.
Some people like running Bel too. It is strange, but true.
So, as a whole, I consider Vallenhas as a good area - claiming Sharandar another Valenhas is kinda praise.

I mean, Vallenhas is not an area I spend my time in, but if you do, it is not a plain pita with no chance on any meaningful reward. Which is kinda unique in Neverwiter, and nice to have.

stryker80 · March 2021

rikitaki said:
@melechest Oh, I see now what you meant.

But Vallenhas is not bad at all - there are no punches to your face, even the opportunities to drop through the map have eventually been reduced. And the campaign currency offers a chance on the widest variety of loot in the whole game. Weekly quests do not consist of a couple of minutes long watching of static picture... I mean, seriously, the Vallenhas is one of the most reasonable areas we have atm.
Insurgencies are an awful concept, but at least they have a visible timer, which is awesome. A feat from the Rise of the Tiamat times that devs were unable to reproduce anywhere else.
Some people like running Bel too. It is strange, but true.
So, as a whole, I consider Vallenhas as a good area - claiming Sharandar another Valenhas is kinda praise. I mean, Vallenhas is not an area I spend my time in, but if you do, it is not a plain pita with no chance on any meaningful reward. Which is kinda unique in Neverwiter, and nice to have.

Let's not forget about Juma bags. Aside from those chickens, it was nice to actually have some hope of something interesting dropping from those.

Now, if HE's had a chance of dropping loot similar to Juma bags, they might actually be a tad more interesting after the first time.

blargskull · March 2021

rikitaki said:
@melechest Oh, I see now what you meant.

But Vallenhas is not bad at all - there are no punches to your face, even the opportunities to drop through the map have eventually been reduced. And the campaign currency offers a chance on the widest variety of loot in the whole game. Weekly quests do not consist of a couple of minutes long watching of static picture... I mean, seriously, the Vallenhas is one of the most reasonable areas we have atm.
Insurgencies are an awful concept, but at least they have a visible timer, which is awesome. A feat from the Rise of the Tiamat times that devs were unable to reproduce anywhere else.
Some people like running Bel too. It is strange, but true.
So, as a whole, I consider Vallenhas as a good area - claiming Sharandar another Valenhas is kinda praise. I mean, Vallenhas is not an area I spend my time in, but if you do, it is not a plain pita with no chance on any meaningful reward. Which is kinda unique in Neverwiter, and nice to have.

Mechanics aside, all these recent campaigns seem to be a homage to the "no reason" as clearly stated in the movie "Rubber".

We are suppose to go to Vallenhas to help people there, they get abducted to Hell (Avernus) and we don't help them escape, no reason. Instead we fight demons over property rights to a castle that is lost in Hell, no reason. Time to go home and call it a day. Why am I here again, no reason. Then Eeyore the talking elephant shows up, we are expected to go down to the surface and do stuff there, no reason. There are no people we need to save in Avernus, they all belong there and this part is the equivalent of home invasion. Now we are summoned back to Sharandar to play cowboy and kill more Indians because, no reason.

If you are seeking any meaning, you are looking for it in the wrong game. Because life itself is filled with no reason.

greywynd · March 2021

Because we were asked.

Nicely...

thefiresidecat · March 2021

darthpotater said:
Heroic encounters are:
No fun
No rewarding
No challenging
Frustrating if there is something you need from them.
This is the feedback I can give on more heroic encounters. I hate them since mod 3.

I would preffer a new dungeon / trial / skimirsh more than 10 different HE.

I know the time for devs to make HE is very low compared with making a group content, but really if players dont like them... Or maybe there are players that like them after the first 2 days? Who knows.

What if you put some polls in-game to know what players think? we are in mod 20 and Im 100% sure you have no clue about what players think about different aspects of the game. And no, if you force players to do Heroics to get something, that doesnt mean we like it. The same as hunts.

And forum also is not a good way to get feedback. Most players dont enter here and when we enter is usually to complain (me included)

it would be nice if they at least had a chance of dropping something rare instead of collecting a bunch of things for 1 chance at unlocking something rare. do this repetitive thing countless times for one chance. that's a hard pass from me. so many better things to do with my time. imo they would do well to add more currency for strongholds into things like this. like shards of adventure that are so limited in ways to get. if that kind of thing were added in baby guilds at least you can bet would be running in house raffles for donations of said currency which would give incentive to run it. people are running it rn. but you can bet that it's going to get old very very fast. I did exactly enough to open one diamond and was like oh hell no. and the lack of weeklies is also a hell no. i am NOT doing a fetch quest 99 times to get my weekly quota to advance in a pointless campaign in an ugly zone.

greywynd · March 2021

maxzius#3795 said:
In their defense, they were working on Part 1 and the Combat Update at the same time. With that said, Parts 2 and 3 are going to be the deciding factor of who stays.

The Fury of the Feywild, which they removed, was added complete when it was introduced.

melechest · March 2021

I apologize, you guys are right. "New" Sharandar is not just Descend into Avernus painted red. Its a bad copycat of Descend into Avernus, without anything useful or iteresting.

armadeonx · March 2021

I love the way they talk it up on that interview, like it's something amazing...

forumaccount · March 2021

Hey at least Descend into Avernus had rare mobs and juma bags and later Bel which make it more replayable than a lot of other areas. Sharandar has nothing to do once you have completed the campaign. Sure you could farm the heroic encounters for diamond shards but spending hours farming them for only a small chance of a good reward is a colossal waste of time.

blargskull · March 2021

I came into Vallenhas late in the campaign, as I hear Juma was originally all the way out back of the castle, and you had to run past all those nasty imps just to find him. Then they locked him up in the parrot cage and put him under guard in the courtyard. Seems like a rather mean thing to do, since he was basically just helping out the adventures with better armor. I had 3 ancestors (they were the Vernon brothers) who came to the US from England, they heard a war was brewing and traded the rebel colonist weapons for land. They didn't lock them up in parrot cages like criminals.

Sharandar Episode 2, and more Heroic Encounters.

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