> @"emese#4731" said: > Seriously DO YOU EVER PLAYED THIS GAME????? I am so furious at the moment about these hamsters you do over and over, You removing Skyhold and Mount Hotenow????? The most valuable explorer maps area for crafting resources. You already removed the Sharandar and pretty much trolled every new guild by locking up their new members to help with fey currency. And do you know that several of these areas are also part of Maze engine campaign... or you are going to remove it too? And your excuse is a BS about graphics.... LOL ... Skyhold is 1000x better looking than the new Sharandar. I just have no words for you guys any more. It is not about that things should not progress, it is about you make 1 step forward and 2 step backwards. You are butchering this game. allianeting long time players and not providing incentive for new players.
Yeah because Trolls that look like 1950's collegiate football players are so much more graphically stunning than reptiles that look like reptiles. You're preaching to a group that doesn't know the difference between recommend and required (or and and or for that matter)
> @"chaderickrax#3780" said: > The ones you're keeping - especially Whispering Caverns and Vellosk - are among the least visually appealing, the weakest in terms of overall narrative, and the most combat intensive. It genuinely feels like your true motivations are far removed from those you list.
I happen to enjoy the calm of Vellosk and it's overall design. I could totally do without the monotonous droning of Amazing Grace being hummed by the Whispering Caverns AND certain Undermountain areas. Seriously that song stays in my head for hours and not in a good spiritually uplifting way.
I joked about how Mod22 was probably going to just give you're character a one shot kill all get all so you didn't even have to go past the gate. Seems not much of a joke now considering my LVL13 character will just be bumped to LVL20 (max) without the need to quest any further. Which kind of sucks because I was looking forward to keeping her as a workshop build. Creating equipment for her on my main as she progressed. Looks like that's shot.
Seems to me the company strategy is LESS about actual creative story-lines and MORE about creating flashy mounts with particle inducing lag, that has no bearing on plot, and the must have annoying companion of the week.
If my tabletop Dungeon Master gave up on the story and concentrated on mindless, reason-less combat, we'd drop him and find a new one. Oh wait he did and so did we.
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greywyndMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 7,092Arc User
> @chaderickrax#3780 said: > The ones you're keeping - especially Whispering Caverns and Vellosk - are among the least visually appealing, the weakest in terms of overall narrative, and the most combat intensive. It genuinely feels like your true motivations are far removed from those you list.
I happen to enjoy the calm of Vellosk and it's overall design. I could totally do without the monotonous droning of Amazing Grace being hummed by the Whispering Caverns AND certain Undermountain areas. Seriously that song stays in my head for hours and not in a good spiritually uplifting way.
Turn the music off.
I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
> @vordraxian said: > Hello. Beta player here. I've got some general and specific comments.
> Several years ago you killed a whole bunch of the dungeons. That went over like a lead balloon. > Remember Call to Arms? Those were fun. Gone.
Worse yet. They killed it but didn't remove references to it or hints of it or even a need for it. I thought I screwed something up in Blackdagger because I couldn't find the call to arms, something about getting to a seige tower to invade the stronghold. Turns out it was just a "look at the fun others had but you can't".
I started playing Neverwinter at the release of MOD 20. Since then I have levelled 6 characters to 80, all over 30k item level. The reason I have spent more time on new characters than maxing a single one, is because levelling through this game is INFINTELY more fun than grinding on the same 6 quests over and over and over and over again. I would rather invest in the world and overarching stories of the Sword Coast and the plight of the various inhabitants of the zones, gaining prestige as you complete more questlines.
The absolute mindlessness of endlessly grinding the same repeatable garbage in Vallenhas insurgencies for Juma bags, Zariel's favor in Avernus and the absolute garbage tier Nu-Sharandar... Why do you want your players to be doing the same repetitive content ad infinitum? Don't even get me started on the "Demon heroics" that plague the game. Or the absolutely lazy system of every class have the EXACT same gear as BIS.
I do love the fact that you are reworking the levelling system away from XP, and bringing the content in line with a traditional lvl20 cap. But what is the point of removing exceptionally good content in favor of lazy game development?
I guess MOD 22-28 are just going to be repetitive combat grinds of these old zones. I log into Neverwinter to go on an adventure, not to do chores. Honestly, we dont need new content if it is going to be this half-assed.
This is going to be just another game where the developers did what was easier for them, instead of what was best for the player base. RIP Neverwinter, I hardly knew you at all.
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someonediesMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,257Arc User
Make the Succubi mask available in every class it is too good. Make more half-naked transmogs like archon gear? (Archon bracers, spiked collar are my fav). Some of vaulted transmutes I have in my bank/inventory: 1 of my fav daggers is mancleaver after elven spier whatever it named:
@someonedies I really like that mask. I am wearing that belt with the eye right now. I changed the colour to Ethereal Skies (same as the rest of my gear) with the center of the eye Red Oxide. It looks really nice. Are you saying it's going?
Apparently pointing-out the bleeding obvious is a 'personal attack'.
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someonediesMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,257Arc User
@rockster I played CW before appearance changes came out, looks like I need to post Amodeus look too; CW/SW have the best transmogs IMO, easier to build what you want. I invest in cleric, my new toy, tbh transmogs suck here; also in barbie-doll, unfortunately every single class transmog = trash and I forced to forget about cloak.. cause Devs were never interested in fixing custom item animations between/classes/races: greatsword just pierces cloak as you run, that sucks.
Removing zones that establish the backstory for the zones you decided to keep creates continuity issues and leaves players without their sense of purpose for being in Neverwinter. There has to be more to the story for players to feel invested in their characters. It's almost like ripping the first 200 pages out of a 400 page book, it's less fulfilling and you don't understand the reason for the conclusion when you get there. Obviously, from a design and development standpoint the decision to remove these story elements has been made, the train has left the station. Remember, players choose to play this game, always be grateful that they choose to spend their time and money here as opposed to elsewhere, because that may not always be the case.
I came here to write this.
NeverWinter used to be such a well-constructed story. Valindra had an arc that led through to the end of Dread Ring. What you did in Rothe Valley led into Whispering Caverns. There was an actual story where you were fighting to defend NeverWinter from actual enemies that had motivation and organization.
With these pieces removed you have a series of disjointed encounters ("adventures") without an overarching plot...
Pretty much this. I remember the OG Gauntlygrym PVP area - it was actually fun, and I hate PVP. Why anyone would think the story on EE maps is better than the OG maps is being dishonest.
EE maps have been a ghost town seemingly forever, in large part because their story was always lame. The grinding was lame, the plot was lame - now it's 'preferred' over the OG zones like Helm's Hold and Mt Hotenow? I don't think so.
Tell us what you want us to think - but the facts are you are downsizing/simplifying the game to minimize time on task for the future custodians of this maintenance mode bound relic.
The Artifact Recovery quest has you go to Blackdagger Ruins so how are new players/alts supposed to complete that quest now that you are removing that zone?
The Artifact Recovery quest has you go to Blackdagger Ruins so how are new players/alts supposed to complete that quest now that you are removing that zone?
It's taken care of in the Adventurer's Guildhall.
You're discussing Preview. Log into it and check things out.
I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
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arcanjo86Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,093Arc User
how come they didnt thought of ranking up these zones to same item level as sharandar and make us farm for those pieces of gear through the shards farm and make them have equip bonuses, im sure these zones would increase in popularity and players would be thrilled to play these zones for the storyline quest and the farming of the reworked gear that we use as transmogs
I'm not sure I get all the rage about removed content. The leveling experience was bad and only a fraction of the zones had to be completed to get to 80. I think the decision to rework them and bring them back in a more meaningful manner is decent.
BUT they should have done it immediately or with a more concrete timeline so that players have less to complain about. Plus the story arc has to make sense. Flashbacks to when they removed the original Castle Never and the main fight against Valindra disappeared.
To extent a little bit on my initial thoughts:
I have completed the leveling campaign up to level 20. I still think the rework makes sense and there are no obvious holes in the story line. Granted, I'm not obsessive with these kind of things, but I don't think within the main story line there's a reference to a removed area or something that the player allegedly has done in a now removed area. So that within itself is fine. Plus I still am very much in agreement that a rework had to be done because most areas became obsolete over time.
I do however want to touch on an issue that relates to the historical context of the game. Completing the campaign you fight Valindra in her tower. It's essentially the same fight as in the dungeon, just without the cask mechanic. I somehow was very disappointed that Valindra now has been demoted to be just the main villain in the intro campaign. I think it's important to understand that tweaking the story in such a fundamental way it makes it harder for veteran players to still identify with the game. For the devs this might be hard to anticipate, because quite frankly most players are probably here much longer than any dev currently working the game. So most don't know the historical context.
For me emotionally Valindra has always been the main antagonist. This dates back to 2013/2014 of course. She was part of the first three endgame dungeons (original Castle Never, Malabog's Castle, and Valindra's Tower). She's in the intro, at the end of beta in 2013 she send troops to the Protector's Enclave in a one-time event, and Castle Never is still often glorified as the most challenging and rewarding fight. This all contributes to the fact that, although the story has long moved on to different cornerstone dungeons, Valindra retained a special place.
I don't think newer players feel this connection because they never experienced the same content or story progression back in the day. So this doesn't apply to probably 95% of the population. But just know that you are taking away a pretty important piece of familiarity for veteran players. It's like coming home from work someday and the table from your living room has been removed. It's simply not the same. Of course MMOs evolve and for many reason I'm glad the state of the game is not the same as eight years ago. But there should be a constant in the ever-changing world, and story can be that.
I never actively played the old Sharandar other than the weekly quest for AD sometimes, but went to the zones every now and then just for the sake of the good old times. It sucks that old Sharandar is now gone, although I agree it was necessary. For the same reason I extremely enjoyed replaying the old zones that are still there after the rework. I did this exactly once back in 2013. So I was looking forward to leveling my Bard and coming back to the content I literally hadn't seen in years. It was a blast. Coming back to content you've played almost a decade ago feels great. It brings back good memories, it's familiar.
So whenever you remove content you not only change the game today, but also permanently remove historical context that might be important to players. You need certain emotional links to feel this is still "your game". And if too much changes, this slowly diminishes. I know this is probably not the most important aspect in game design, but I felt like I had to get it off my chest.
All hail to Valindra and what she once was!
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greywyndMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 7,092Arc User
Valindra is also in the Clockwork Dungeon. It's where she gets the ritual for the dracolich.
To me, it is and always has been, that each zone is a fixed point in time during the adventurer's career. Even with the addition of the demons.
I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
For the devs this might be hard to anticipate, because quite frankly most players are probably here much longer than any dev currently working the game. So most don't know the historical context
This.
Apparently pointing-out the bleeding obvious is a 'personal attack'.
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arcanjo86Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,093Arc User
The removal of some zones will be covered in an upcoming blog but it will be a major topic for a lot of players so I wanted to take the chance to provide some direct information here. These are the zones we have removed from the leveling flow:
Blacklake District Tower District Blackdagger Ruins Helm's Hold Pirate's Skyhold Rothe Valley Mount Hotenow
We did not make this decision lightly and we know there are players out there that enjoyed each of these spaces, so here are some of the reasons behind this selection. Some of these zones were selected because they are later reused in the Elemental Evil content, which is now a more accessible Adventure. Some, like Pirate's Skyhold, were selected because we didn't feel the visual fidelity and content flow were up to standards and there was real potential to reimagine these spaces in the future. And others showed that many players would not complete them according to our analytics.
With the new Adventure system, it will be much easier for us to reintroduce content as we identify the opportunity or need. Compared to the new Sharandar, bringing these zones back would look more like a new Epic Adventure at level 20 that has refreshed rewards, a smoother questing experience, various fixes, and more polished visuals. We currently have no plans to evolve other existing adventure zones the way we did with Sharandar.
We understand these kinds of changes have a cost, but we believe we are moving the game in a positive direction for all of our players.
Thank you for playing!
@eminnerdev#8159 you forgot of the vaultedchasm -spellplague cavern dungeon(this one last boss is the tentacle boss) was removed from queued content menu, you guys put the river district master version of spellplague cavern( this one is nostura as last boss) in there, you need to move river district master spellplague to advanced queue and add leveling spellplague caverns(unlock this dungeon when doing last chasm quest) to dungeon queue menu, this leveling spell plagues version was returned to players dont remove it, it already sad see 8 zones go away not dungeons aswell
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arcanjo86Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,093Arc User
Make the Succubi mask available in every class it is too good. Make more half-naked transmogs like archon gear? (Archon bracers, spiked collar are my fav). Some of vaulted transmutes I have in my bank/inventory: 1 of my fav daggers is mancleaver after elven spier whatever it named:
would love to get all the zones with these transmute(no class locked gear) to have higher item level and farm these for their equip bonus and these zones later could have new threat that spawned there, the lizard pieces from pirate skyhold would look good on barbarians with equip bonuse that benefit the class mechanics, they could have kept these zones and raised the item level to end game item leve and make player have more content to run as endgame, the man cleaver having a damage bonus agains humanoids type enemies xD, archon bracers damage bonus to fire, water, earth and wind damage powers, succubi mask- chance your damaging songs will charm their targets(bards seduction skills ^^), collar of command - +10% control bonus, belt of the spider control - when using a control power chance to cast web on enemy target, hellfire armor - when dealing 10% of you hp as damage your fire based powers deal +5% more damage, robes of asmodeus - when your soulweave is full u gain +10% ogh for 10 sec(20s cd), when your soulsparks are full gain +5% damage for 10 secs(20s cd), so much can be done.
Apologies if this issue has already been brought up, but I was doing the intro questline for River Dist the other day and was sent to Blacklake I think it was (I forget but I know it was one of the maps going to be deleted) as part of that questline. It's the one where you first go to the Tower of Alteration and have the option to change your appearance and get two appearance change tokens if you elect not to change. You then go to the persistent map and then to a door and speak to the guy on the door for which you can get a title, I think it was 'Kind of a Big Deal', you go in and complete the quest and on the way back out you can get another title 'Just Alright'. You then exit and run back to the main gate and go back to PE to continue. So what is going to happen to that quest if the map is gone. Are they going to still have an empty version of it launched at the time to do the quest?
Apparently pointing-out the bleeding obvious is a 'personal attack'.
0
greywyndMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 7,092Arc User
There are several titles you can get from the guard. All depends on how many times you kick him when he's down.
I'm not looking for forgiveness, and I'm way past asking permission. Earth just lost her best defender, so we're here to fight. And if you want to stand in our way, we'll fight you too.
@eminnerdev#8159 Perhaps over the years this subject has already arrived in the topics of this forum, but I would like to address it here now as it is pertinent to the moment of change we are experiencing and I have complained a lot to friends and guild members about it, let me know if you also agree with that.
Why in the name of Jesus the fight against Baphomet is not a Trial?
I think it's a simply beautiful fight with a well-crafted map arena, and it's really sad to see that it's turned into a miserable weekly quest that no one cares about. I will not go into the problematic details that have already been mentioned regarding this new leveling, in general I tend to give a positive note to this initiative, however I would like to propose a review in this line of development. Can the Baphomet account fight be placed as a Trial unlocked in the new Maze Engine adventure?
When Sharandar EP2 was released I felt the same old sadness that plagued me in the fight against Baphomet, it's Matilda's lair, another semamal quest that could easily be a new Shirmish, by the way I think it would be the best shirmish in the game , just add creative mechanics in that beautiful final area of Matilda's lair, adding some dps/tank/heal checks, I'm really sad to see so much development power being thrown in the trash on one weekly quest, this happens on other weekly ones too, including one of the TOD weekly, and I know it should happen similarly in Sharandar 3. I think this new stage of the NW with the M21 could solve this waste of content.
- ALQUImist-WL@alquimistgg#0914
0
arcanjo86Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,093Arc User
Apologies if this issue has already been brought up, but I was doing the intro questline for River Dist the other day and was sent to Blacklake I think it was (I forget but I know it was one of the maps going to be deleted) as part of that questline. It's the one where you first go to the Tower of Alteration and have the option to change your appearance and get two appearance change tokens if you elect not to change. You then go to the persistent map and then to a door and speak to the guy on the door for which you can get a title, I think it was 'Kind of a Big Deal', you go in and complete the quest and on the way back out you can get another title 'Just Alright'. You then exit and run back to the main gate and go back to PE to continue. So what is going to happen to that quest if the map is gone. Are they going to still have an empty version of it launched at the time to do the quest?
this intro quest shows that nasher supporters that survived lake district are supporting gyrion as the heir to neverwinter crown, later we found out its a scapegoat for their evil plans, recently a movie license summary gave hints on another plot on the neverwinter crown that a certain red wizard thief(rumours seems to aim lord neverember) infiltrated neverwinter higher ranks, this is enough to leave lake district map untouchable but questline reworked to fit leveling experience, that later evolves to riverdistrict plot, and at future project with hints from movie summary were we discover the infiltrated thief and the plots with red wizards at end of this module story line player becomes lord of neverwinter or we discover other thief that isnt lord neverember and giving us the Lord of neverwinter title for saving the city of the red wizards plans for now.
1
arcanjo86Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,093Arc User
@eminnerdev#8159 Perhaps over the years this subject has already arrived in the topics of this forum, but I would like to address it here now as it is pertinent to the moment of change we are experiencing and I have complained a lot to friends and guild members about it, let me know if you also agree with that.
Why in the name of Jesus the fight against Baphomet is not a Trial?
I think it's a simply beautiful fight with a well-crafted map arena, and it's really sad to see that it's turned into a miserable weekly quest that no one cares about. I will not go into the problematic details that have already been mentioned regarding this new leveling, in general I tend to give a positive note to this initiative, however I would like to propose a review in this line of development. Can the Baphomet account fight be placed as a Trial unlocked in the new Maze Engine adventure?
When Sharandar EP2 was released I felt the same old sadness that plagued me in the fight against Baphomet, it's Matilda's lair, another semamal quest that could easily be a new Shirmish, by the way I think it would be the best shirmish in the game , just add creative mechanics in that beautiful final area of Matilda's lair, adding some dps/tank/heal checks, I'm really sad to see so much development power being thrown in the trash on one weekly quest, this happens on other weekly ones too, including one of the TOD weekly, and I know it should happen similarly in Sharandar 3. I think this new stage of the NW with the M21 could solve this waste of content.
baphomet trial, the last drow questline in whispering cavern were we go inside that "dungeon" should have been 5 player dungeon, the elemental evil water zone last quest on boss fight should have been a Dungeon, earth zone last boss dungeon aswell, fire zone same, and the air zone big Heroic were we fight the air boss should be transformed into a trial at end of the quest line, the zones dragon from tyranny of dragons that were removed should have been tranformed into 5 player dungeons, the neverdeath zone that has gates dungeon starts there with harper at entrance and giving the party the quest we usually do for the daily quest + the agent quest to kill the dragon(we complete all req quest after completing those quest requirements it triggers the dragon summoning cinematics and we have the 5 player boss fight, the rothé valley agent npc giving us the quests and later on when finishing rescuing agents summonic cinematic for the dragon fight, the ebons down black dragon zone same after doing quests that ends with mini dungeon from the zone when leaving the mini zone black dragon summoning cinematic, icepire peak same with agent near white dragon zone entrance quest finishes when we leave mini dungeon and white dragon summoning cinematic, whispering caverns agent in the entrance after the stone bridge grab dungeon quests and the hole to the right to enter the dragon arena gets closed, we go to the left to finish quest until mini dungeon after leaving mini dungeon play one of the most amazing dragon summonig cinematics bone dragon fight, the cta queues transformed into trials and transform the weapons transmutes into weapon sets a plus on saving time on development,the dread ring lairs tranformed into new dungeons and add the marks to end dungeon chest, like we had in tong, the weekly quest in omu transformed into a trial the snake boss arena is so good for a trial when swarmed with adds ^^ and more cages to unlock each phase(2 cages per phase), better have rng of that ring inside a trial chest than on a weekly quest reward.
@eminnerdev#8159 Perhaps over the years this subject has already arrived in the topics of this forum, but I would like to address it here now as it is pertinent to the moment of change we are experiencing and I have complained a lot to friends and guild members about it, let me know if you also agree with that.
Why in the name of Jesus the fight against Baphomet is not a Trial?
I think it's a simply beautiful fight with a well-crafted map arena, and it's really sad to see that it's turned into a miserable weekly quest that no one cares about. I will not go into the problematic details that have already been mentioned regarding this new leveling, in general I tend to give a positive note to this initiative, however I would like to propose a review in this line of development. Can the Baphomet account fight be placed as a Trial unlocked in the new Maze Engine adventure?
When Sharandar EP2 was released I felt the same old sadness that plagued me in the fight against Baphomet, it's Matilda's lair, another semamal quest that could easily be a new Shirmish, by the way I think it would be the best shirmish in the game , just add creative mechanics in that beautiful final area of Matilda's lair, adding some dps/tank/heal checks, I'm really sad to see so much development power being thrown in the trash on one weekly quest, this happens on other weekly ones too, including one of the TOD weekly, and I know it should happen similarly in Sharandar 3. I think this new stage of the NW with the M21 could solve this waste of content.
baphomet trial, the last drow questline in whispering cavern were we go inside that "dungeon" should have been 5 player dungeon, the elemental evil water zone last quest on boss fight should have been a Dungeon, earth zone last boss dungeon aswell, fire zone same, and the air zone big Heroic were we fight the air boss should be transformed into a trial at end of the quest line, the zones dragon from tyranny of dragons that were removed should have been tranformed into 5 player dungeons, the neverdeath zone that has gates dungeon starts there with harper at entrance and giving the party the quest we usually do for the daily quest + the agent quest to kill the dragon(we complete all req quest after completing those quest requirements it triggers the dragon summoning cinematics and we have the 5 player boss fight, the rothé valley agent npc giving us the quests and later on when finishing rescuing agents summonic cinematic for the dragon fight, the ebons down black dragon zone same after doing quests that ends with mini dungeon from the zone when leaving the mini zone black dragon summoning cinematic, icepire peak same with agent near white dragon zone entrance quest finishes when we leave mini dungeon and white dragon summoning cinematic, whispering caverns agent in the entrance after the stone bridge grab dungeon quests and the hole to the right to enter the dragon arena gets closed, we go to the left to finish quest until mini dungeon after leaving mini dungeon play one of the most amazing dragon summonig cinematics bone dragon fight, the cta queues transformed into trials and transform the weapons transmutes into weapon sets a plus on saving time on development,the dread ring lairs tranformed into new dungeons and add the marks to end dungeon chest, like we had in tong, the weekly quest in omu transformed into a trial the snake boss arena is so good for a trial when swarmed with adds ^^ and more cages to unlock each phase(2 cages per phase), better have rng of that ring inside a trial chest than on a weekly quest reward.
it's a lot of content that ends up turning to waste so quickly, and could at least serve as a subtle farm and increase the diversity in our random queues. Some of them as I mentioned are so beautiful and full of mechanics that if well dimensioned they would give great mid/end game challenges, you mentioned Chult well, the weekly Soshenstar River and Lost Omu are amazing, practically every campaign has a final weekly that doesn't it makes sense to be just a weekly.
We already have a number of Heroic Encounters without any scaling/reward system that makes the encounters age very quickly, some with mechanics that even try to be interesting. Coming to newly released content and seeing a BHE melt in 30 seconds or less is pretty anti-climactic. but that is another question.
- ALQUImist-WL@alquimistgg#0914
0
arcanjo86Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 1,093Arc User
@eminnerdev#8159 Perhaps over the years this subject has already arrived in the topics of this forum, but I would like to address it here now as it is pertinent to the moment of change we are experiencing and I have complained a lot to friends and guild members about it, let me know if you also agree with that.
Why in the name of Jesus the fight against Baphomet is not a Trial?
I think it's a simply beautiful fight with a well-crafted map arena, and it's really sad to see that it's turned into a miserable weekly quest that no one cares about. I will not go into the problematic details that have already been mentioned regarding this new leveling, in general I tend to give a positive note to this initiative, however I would like to propose a review in this line of development. Can the Baphomet account fight be placed as a Trial unlocked in the new Maze Engine adventure?
When Sharandar EP2 was released I felt the same old sadness that plagued me in the fight against Baphomet, it's Matilda's lair, another semamal quest that could easily be a new Shirmish, by the way I think it would be the best shirmish in the game , just add creative mechanics in that beautiful final area of Matilda's lair, adding some dps/tank/heal checks, I'm really sad to see so much development power being thrown in the trash on one weekly quest, this happens on other weekly ones too, including one of the TOD weekly, and I know it should happen similarly in Sharandar 3. I think this new stage of the NW with the M21 could solve this waste of content.
baphomet trial, the last drow questline in whispering cavern were we go inside that "dungeon" should have been 5 player dungeon, the elemental evil water zone last quest on boss fight should have been a Dungeon, earth zone last boss dungeon aswell, fire zone same, and the air zone big Heroic were we fight the air boss should be transformed into a trial at end of the quest line, the zones dragon from tyranny of dragons that were removed should have been tranformed into 5 player dungeons, the neverdeath zone that has gates dungeon starts there with harper at entrance and giving the party the quest we usually do for the daily quest + the agent quest to kill the dragon(we complete all req quest after completing those quest requirements it triggers the dragon summoning cinematics and we have the 5 player boss fight, the rothé valley agent npc giving us the quests and later on when finishing rescuing agents summonic cinematic for the dragon fight, the ebons down black dragon zone same after doing quests that ends with mini dungeon from the zone when leaving the mini zone black dragon summoning cinematic, icepire peak same with agent near white dragon zone entrance quest finishes when we leave mini dungeon and white dragon summoning cinematic, whispering caverns agent in the entrance after the stone bridge grab dungeon quests and the hole to the right to enter the dragon arena gets closed, we go to the left to finish quest until mini dungeon after leaving mini dungeon play one of the most amazing dragon summonig cinematics bone dragon fight, the cta queues transformed into trials and transform the weapons transmutes into weapon sets a plus on saving time on development,the dread ring lairs tranformed into new dungeons and add the marks to end dungeon chest, like we had in tong, the weekly quest in omu transformed into a trial the snake boss arena is so good for a trial when swarmed with adds ^^ and more cages to unlock each phase(2 cages per phase), better have rng of that ring inside a trial chest than on a weekly quest reward.
it's a lot of content that ends up turning to waste so quickly, and could at least serve as a subtle farm and increase the diversity in our random queues. Some of them as I mentioned are so beautiful and full of mechanics that if well dimensioned they would give great mid/end game challenges, you mentioned Chult well, the weekly Soshenstar River and Lost Omu are amazing, practically every campaign has a final weekly that doesn't it makes sense to be just a weekly.
We already have a number of Heroic Encounters without any scaling/reward system that makes the encounters age very quickly, some with mechanics that even try to be interesting. Coming to newly released content and seeing a BHE melt in 30 seconds or less is pretty anti-climactic. but that is another question.
the undead t-rex he in omu is another good trial idea, the wod dragon run is also a nice 25 player raid idea were 5 players party are split within the map and all 5 dragons need to be killed at same time, similar idea for the sh dragons run 20 players trial, the rework of queue list is needed, all queues are public queue, premade party will have the match option "keep party together", we would have normal queue instead of public queue tab (all dungeons/skirmishes/trials have a 20k il version, keep new player in the game, rewards are green quality and enemies ratings capped at 50%), advanced queue tab (all dungeons/skirmishes/trials have a 30k il version, rewards are blue quality(upgraded versions of the green quality reward in 20k il queues), enemies ratings capped at 60%), epic queue tab(all dungeons/skirmishes/trials have a 40k il version, rewards are purple quality(upgraded version of the blue quality in 30k queues), enemies ratings capped at 70%), legendary queue tab(all dungeons/skirmishes/trials have a 50k il version, rewards are orange quality(upgraded versions of the purple quality in 40k queues), enemies ratings capped at 80%), hardcore tab(all dungeons/skirmishes/trials have a max item level values, Mythic drops and enemies ratings capped at 90%)
I was around for Day 1 of Open Beta. When the game launched, a lot of the marketing was done towards fans and players of the Neverwinter Nights games. Blacklake, Tower District/Cloaktower, and Helm's Hold feature prominently in the first Neverwinter Nights, for example. Deekin, of which Deekin Street in Protector's Enclave is named, is a character found in Neverwinter Nights 2. Having begun my PC gaming interest with Bioware's Baldur's Gate in 1998, followed by it's sequel, games like Icewind Dale, Planescape, both of Neverwinter Online's predecessors, there was a way to draw familiarity with those locations and it was interesting to see them imagined in the MMO space as opposed to the RPG space. Am I sad to see them go, even if temporarily? Yes. There's also a lot of storyline context in terms of the Cloaked Ascendency, Elemental Evil, and even the Redeemed Citadel with regards to Asmodeus, of whom the Ashmadai worship, that is discarded. I fear that new players will reach those adventures and not understand why they are going there. When players feel their character serves a purpose within the world or setting, they feel much more invested. It's easy to follow the sparkling trail, but if you don't know what purpose you serve following it are you playing or piloting the character?
"I don't know, I'm making it up as I go..." Featured Foundry Quest:Whispers of an Ancient Evil [v3] - NW-DQ4WKW6ZG Foundry Quest: Harper Chronicles: Blacklake - NW-DCPA4W2Q5
@iandarksword I have always been a fan of D&D the table top game. I grew up with TSR and never cared for WoC. I neither have liked or hated any of the PC games, they simply are too limited and lack the imagination a human dungeon master can bring to the game. I fully understand what you are saying there. If I sat my players down at the table and told them to gear up and head to the graveyard, giving them no backstory, no reason, just go to the graveyard, they would look at me pretty strange. Okay now you are in the graveyard, a man asks you to go kill 15 undead. Why? Who is this man? I don't think anyone would return to my table after a PC version of D&D.
They seem to be catering to the unimaginative crowd, ones who play games to see how many bullets they can spend on a given enemy. I recall feeding the video arcade quarters as a youth, the games were fast paced and required little to no imagination. This is what I am seeing with this version of D&D, it is some hack and slash for people who use gamer tags for character names, they don't fill out biographies because that would be too much like role-playing. The idea of reading about a quest or learning the lore, they find repulsive.
If you ever do find a computer game with good imagination, I would like to know.
RIP Neverwinter zones in Neverwinter. It was a great experience reading the Neverwinter novels and then playing the game from day 1 of open beta. Y'all had a good thing going for a long time. Unfortunately Cryptic Studios has gotten too comfortable removing content over the years.
Comments
> Seriously DO YOU EVER PLAYED THIS GAME????? I am so furious at the moment about these hamsters you do over and over, You removing Skyhold and Mount Hotenow????? The most valuable explorer maps area for crafting resources. You already removed the Sharandar and pretty much trolled every new guild by locking up their new members to help with fey currency. And do you know that several of these areas are also part of Maze engine campaign... or you are going to remove it too? And your excuse is a BS about graphics.... LOL ... Skyhold is 1000x better looking than the new Sharandar. I just have no words for you guys any more. It is not about that things should not progress, it is about you make 1 step forward and 2 step backwards. You are butchering this game. allianeting long time players and not providing incentive for new players.
Yeah because Trolls that look like 1950's collegiate football players are so much more graphically stunning than reptiles that look like reptiles. You're preaching to a group that doesn't know the difference between recommend and required (or and and or for that matter)
> The ones you're keeping - especially Whispering Caverns and Vellosk - are among the least visually appealing, the weakest in terms of overall narrative, and the most combat intensive. It genuinely feels like your true motivations are far removed from those you list.
I happen to enjoy the calm of Vellosk and it's overall design. I could totally do without the monotonous droning of Amazing Grace being hummed by the Whispering Caverns AND certain Undermountain areas. Seriously that song stays in my head for hours and not in a good spiritually uplifting way.
I joked about how Mod22 was probably going to just give you're character a one shot kill all get all so you didn't even have to go past the gate. Seems not much of a joke now considering my LVL13 character will just be bumped to LVL20 (max) without the need to quest any further. Which kind of sucks because I was looking forward to keeping her as a workshop build. Creating equipment for her on my main as she progressed. Looks like that's shot.
Seems to me the company strategy is LESS about actual creative story-lines and MORE about creating flashy mounts with particle inducing lag, that has no bearing on plot, and the must have annoying companion of the week.
If my tabletop Dungeon Master gave up on the story and concentrated on mindless, reason-less combat, we'd drop him and find a new one. Oh wait he did and so did we.
> Hello. Beta player here. I've got some general and specific comments.
> Several years ago you killed a whole bunch of the dungeons. That went over like a lead balloon.
> Remember Call to Arms? Those were fun. Gone.
Worse yet. They killed it but didn't remove references to it or hints of it or even a need for it. I thought I screwed something up in Blackdagger because I couldn't find the call to arms, something about getting to a seige tower to invade the stronghold. Turns out it was just a "look at the fun others had but you can't".
Since then I have levelled 6 characters to 80, all over 30k item level. The reason I have spent more time on new characters than maxing a single one, is because levelling through this game is INFINTELY more fun than grinding on the same 6 quests over and over and over and over again. I would rather invest in the world and overarching stories of the Sword Coast and the plight of the various inhabitants of the zones, gaining prestige as you complete more questlines.
The absolute mindlessness of endlessly grinding the same repeatable garbage in Vallenhas insurgencies for Juma bags, Zariel's favor in Avernus and the absolute garbage tier Nu-Sharandar... Why do you want your players to be doing the same repetitive content ad infinitum? Don't even get me started on the "Demon heroics" that plague the game. Or the absolutely lazy system of every class have the EXACT same gear as BIS.
I do love the fact that you are reworking the levelling system away from XP, and bringing the content in line with a traditional lvl20 cap. But what is the point of removing exceptionally good content in favor of lazy game development?
I guess MOD 22-28 are just going to be repetitive combat grinds of these old zones. I log into Neverwinter to go on an adventure, not to do chores. Honestly, we dont need new content if it is going to be this half-assed.
This is going to be just another game where the developers did what was easier for them, instead of what was best for the player base. RIP Neverwinter, I hardly knew you at all.
Some of vaulted transmutes I have in my bank/inventory:
1 of my fav daggers is mancleaver after elven spier whatever it named:
Dead🔪I played CW before appearance changes came out, looks like I need to post Amodeus look too; CW/SW have the best transmogs IMO, easier to build what you want.
I invest in cleric, my new toy, tbh transmogs suck here; also in barbie-doll, unfortunately every single class transmog = trash and I forced to forget about cloak.. cause Devs were never interested in fixing custom item animations between/classes/races: greatsword just pierces cloak as you run, that sucks.
Dead🔪EE maps have been a ghost town seemingly forever, in large part because their story was always lame. The grinding was lame, the plot was lame - now it's 'preferred' over the OG zones like Helm's Hold and Mt Hotenow? I don't think so.
Tell us what you want us to think - but the facts are you are downsizing/simplifying the game to minimize time on task for the future custodians of this maintenance mode bound relic.
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I have completed the leveling campaign up to level 20. I still think the rework makes sense and there are no obvious holes in the story line. Granted, I'm not obsessive with these kind of things, but I don't think within the main story line there's a reference to a removed area or something that the player allegedly has done in a now removed area. So that within itself is fine. Plus I still am very much in agreement that a rework had to be done because most areas became obsolete over time.
I do however want to touch on an issue that relates to the historical context of the game. Completing the campaign you fight Valindra in her tower. It's essentially the same fight as in the dungeon, just without the cask mechanic. I somehow was very disappointed that Valindra now has been demoted to be just the main villain in the intro campaign. I think it's important to understand that tweaking the story in such a fundamental way it makes it harder for veteran players to still identify with the game. For the devs this might be hard to anticipate, because quite frankly most players are probably here much longer than any dev currently working the game. So most don't know the historical context.
For me emotionally Valindra has always been the main antagonist. This dates back to 2013/2014 of course. She was part of the first three endgame dungeons (original Castle Never, Malabog's Castle, and Valindra's Tower). She's in the intro, at the end of beta in 2013 she send troops to the Protector's Enclave in a one-time event, and Castle Never is still often glorified as the most challenging and rewarding fight. This all contributes to the fact that, although the story has long moved on to different cornerstone dungeons, Valindra retained a special place.
I don't think newer players feel this connection because they never experienced the same content or story progression back in the day. So this doesn't apply to probably 95% of the population. But just know that you are taking away a pretty important piece of familiarity for veteran players. It's like coming home from work someday and the table from your living room has been removed. It's simply not the same. Of course MMOs evolve and for many reason I'm glad the state of the game is not the same as eight years ago. But there should be a constant in the ever-changing world, and story can be that.
I never actively played the old Sharandar other than the weekly quest for AD sometimes, but went to the zones every now and then just for the sake of the good old times. It sucks that old Sharandar is now gone, although I agree it was necessary. For the same reason I extremely enjoyed replaying the old zones that are still there after the rework. I did this exactly once back in 2013. So I was looking forward to leveling my Bard and coming back to the content I literally hadn't seen in years. It was a blast. Coming back to content you've played almost a decade ago feels great. It brings back good memories, it's familiar.
So whenever you remove content you not only change the game today, but also permanently remove historical context that might be important to players. You need certain emotional links to feel this is still "your game". And if too much changes, this slowly diminishes. I know this is probably not the most important aspect in game design, but I felt like I had to get it off my chest.
All hail to Valindra and what she once was!
To me, it is and always has been, that each zone is a fixed point in time during the adventurer's career. Even with the addition of the demons.
Perhaps over the years this subject has already arrived in the topics of this forum, but I would like to address it here now as it is pertinent to the moment of change we are experiencing and I have complained a lot to friends and guild members about it, let me know if you also agree with that.
Why in the name of Jesus the fight against Baphomet is not a Trial?
I think it's a simply beautiful fight with a well-crafted map arena, and it's really sad to see that it's turned into a miserable weekly quest that no one cares about. I will not go into the problematic details that have already been mentioned regarding this new leveling, in general I tend to give a positive note to this initiative, however I would like to propose a review in this line of development.
Can the Baphomet account fight be placed as a Trial unlocked in the new Maze Engine adventure?
When Sharandar EP2 was released I felt the same old sadness that plagued me in the fight against Baphomet, it's Matilda's lair, another semamal quest that could easily be a new Shirmish, by the way I think it would be the best shirmish in the game , just add creative mechanics in that beautiful final area of Matilda's lair, adding some dps/tank/heal checks, I'm really sad to see so much development power being thrown in the trash on one weekly quest, this happens on other weekly ones too, including one of the TOD weekly, and I know it should happen similarly in Sharandar 3. I think this new stage of the NW with the M21 could solve this waste of content.
We already have a number of Heroic Encounters without any scaling/reward system that makes the encounters age very quickly, some with mechanics that even try to be interesting. Coming to newly released content and seeing a BHE melt in 30 seconds or less is pretty anti-climactic. but that is another question.
Featured Foundry Quest: Whispers of an Ancient Evil [v3] - NW-DQ4WKW6ZG
Foundry Quest: Harper Chronicles: Blacklake - NW-DCPA4W2Q5
They seem to be catering to the unimaginative crowd, ones who play games to see how many bullets they can spend on a given enemy. I recall feeding the video arcade quarters as a youth, the games were fast paced and required little to no imagination. This is what I am seeing with this version of D&D, it is some hack and slash for people who use gamer tags for character names, they don't fill out biographies because that would be too much like role-playing. The idea of reading about a quest or learning the lore, they find repulsive.
If you ever do find a computer game with good imagination, I would like to know.
PSN Zen AD Exchange - Forecasting Spreadsheet