Q: Will we be able to design quest that award non-combat rewards, such as talking your way out of a fight or solving a puzzle or answering a riddle? A:- You can create entire campaigns without combat if you like. You won't get the usual rewards from drops, but you still get a loot chest at the end regardless.
Q:-What about exploiting this by having just one empty room with one chest for the loot? Can these kind of missions be monitored by 'official people' to certify the rewards according to non-combat difficulties? A:-Since rewards are based off of the average completion time of the quest, this kind of exploit wouldn't work, and you would just get trash from the chest. This is also why we don't allow authors to directly reward XP for completing tasks. It exposes the Foundry to heavy exploitation.
Q:-Can Foundry use recorded speech for dialogues? A:-No
Social
Q:-Is there LFG/LFM panel; automatic ques for dungeons? A:-Yes to all of the above.
Q:-Are there mystery based events/quests? (like a detective story) A:-Quite a few actually!
Gameplay/ Mechanics
Q:-Can we visit motes like Moonstone Mask? A:-Absolutely.
Q:-Will environmental audio get much attention in Neverwinter? A:-The ambient audio is being done really well IMO. We've got a great team of audio engineers on this project.
Q:-Will there be night/day cycle? Or weather? A:-There is weather, but no dynamic day/night cycle. I'm a fan of day/night cycles too, but speaking from an artist's perspective it's a nightmare to set the mood/lighting of an environment if it keeps changing. The tech is certainly there (with its share of graphical problems) because we did it in Champions, so it can be done if it's something players feel would drastically improve the game.
Q:-Will the game have any in-game narration or character voices for NPCs? A:-I think so but the details are fuzzy because they're still figuring out how much voice to add to the game. We most likely will not be fully voicing the game though.
Q:-Can the great weapon fighter use scythe as a two handed weapon? A:-Yes
Q:- What about crafting? A:- The crafting system is still in its early implementation stages, so I can't give specifics on it but I can confirm it exists
The framework UI is already working and it's looking pretty slick.
Marketing/Finances
Q:-How can your game be f2p? *shocked* A:-We have no plans to sell the +5 Radiant Vorpal Sword of Immediate Dragon Slaying in Neverwinter. There are no plans to make a quick dime off of players who just have to have that +5 suit of magical plate armor that just so happens to be wearable as cloth armor, and have a ridiculous amount of health regen and the ability to store any 6 spells of your choice for a 24 hours period of time. Nor will will be selling other types of "power". In short, pay to win is not what we want Neverwinter to be.
Thanks to the OP. I have read the entire thread and learned so much about this game.
I have several questions I will ask in the areas you linked.
I still play the original NWN and I am looking forward to NWO.
Thanks.
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iamtruthseekerMember, Moonstars, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
Again, do NOT ask questions on the game here. Ask questions for Q&A here instead. Secondly, please take the time to read the sticky threads in this topic. Posters who did would have noticed both the New Users FAQ as well as the Q&A I just mentioned. Any questions not specifically related to a Dev answer may either be moved to another thread or deleted.
Though out of scope of the thread(as these were not answered in forums),
a few new questions were raised regarding monetizing the game. I am adding the text here as a record but not yet adding them/linking them to first post:-
Given that you're exploring the free-to-play space, how are you approaching monetizing the game?
Very, very, carefully. Cryptic Studios has now had two games, Champions Online and Star Trek Online, that were initially subscription-based model; they've now been converted to free-to-play. We?ve been running them as free-to-play games for over a year now. We?re published by Perfect World, which is one of the premier free-to-play MMO publishers in the west, so we get to tap into obscene amounts of data whenever we need to make a decision like, how many day-one or month-one items do I want to have and at what type and what category? Traditionally a studio would just have to take their best guess and do some research but I actually get to look at hard data and see what sells in these other games, what is palatable for the western market, how are we packaging things that make it make sense? I think we're approaching it very cautiously but with a lot of backing that will make it pretty successful.
So you're thinking along those lines of pieces of content that players could purchase in a microtransaction format?
Yeah we'll be micro-transaction based. When you say content, if you mean items and boosts and other things, yes. In terms of missions and maps and all of that-absolutely not. We expect that as a free player you will be able to play game in its entirety without having to pay anything. You'll be able to access all of the classes without having to pay anything, and we will not be selling powers. It's not like you can just go to the store and buy a level 30 sword as a level 10 character. So we haven't talked too much in terms of the details yet but that's our high level approach. It's interesting; we found again going back to that data side of things, what makes successful free-to-play monetization is perfectly aligned with what makes a game that your users are going to like. You actually look at the data and you have to evaluate it: "What are my players looking to do right now, what are they looking to buy, what could they want?" It's an interesting perspective because normally as developers you go into your think tank and think about what you want to make and all these cool things in your mind, so I think our games that have been free-to-play have gotten infinitely better because of their transition to free-to-play.
The microtransaction-based title will include items such as armor and weapons that the player can purchase for real-world money; However, in-game content such as missions and maps will "absolutely not" be based around a system of microtransactions, says Velasquez.
"You'll be able to access all of the classes without having to pay anything, and we will not be selling powers. It's not like you can just go to the store and buy a level 30 sword as a level 10 character. So we haven't talked too much in terms of the details yet but that's our high level approach," said Velasquez.
According to data studied by Velasquez, successful free-to-play monetization is aligned with "what makes a game that your users are going to like."
"You actually look at the data and you have to evaluate it: 'What are my players looking to do right now, what are they looking to buy, what could they want?' It's an interesting perspective because normally as developers you go into your think tank and think about what you want to make and all these cool things in your mind, so I think our games that have been free-to-play have gotten infinitely better because of their transition to free-to-play."
p.s. thanks ryvvik for keeping us up to date.
Also, previously by SS on these forums - in case anyone missed:-
We're making a D&D game, and we want to remain true to the D&D experience. This doesn't mean recreating a ten year old game. This means working with WOTC to make sure that we're staying faithful to the spirit of D&D, and the wonderful lands of Faer?n. This means that the people making the actual game, and designing the content you'll be playing through are not just game designers, they're also Dungeon Masters with a deep love for D&D. They're some of the biggest D&D geeks, and most passionate DMs that I know.
For those who have read SS a lot but don't know who he is, SS is the marketing guy from cryptic team - here.
I think it is a good Quote to explain any outsider about what NW really is and what makes us forum users excited about the game.
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iamtruthseekerMember, Moonstars, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
Though out of scope of the thread(as these were not answered in forums),
a few new questions were raised regarding monetizing the game. I am adding the text here as a record but not yet adding them/linking them to first post:-
p.s. thanks ryvvik for keeping us up to date.
Also, previously by SS on these forums - in case anyone missed:-
For those who have read SS a lot but don't know who he is, SS is the marketing guy from cryptic team - here.
I think it is a good Quote to explain any outsider about what NW really is and what makes us forum users excited about the game.
BTW, the first quote lists information from Gameinformer and the article is here. Note: this article not only has gramatical errors (eg, too instead of to,) they have an entire question listed as an "answer font." Took me two reads to get that. I'm referring to (part not bolded as a question in the article is highlighted in blue for your reference:)
Given that you guys are shooting to be in the MMO space, even though you?re going free-to-play, you?re wanting to maintain the heritage of really high-end subscription based MMO, are you including some of those what some people would say are staple features of MMOs? Things like PvP arenas, large scale raids, and auction houses, or are you trying to move in a different direction than that?
For the most part it is almost everything that you would expect from a MMO. So, large persistent areas where you?re running around and seeing other people, PvP arenas, you mentioned banks, auction houses, vendors in the main city, bars where you e-dance. What you play, you should think, ?Oh this is just like an MMO.? It?s free-to-play, it?s action-combat, but it?s pretty much an MMO.
However, I can say the article (grammar and format aside,) appears to be accurate in what was answered.
Just a reminder to everyone - this is not an exhaustive list of what devs have said. It is the list of answers to the questions asked to the devs before on this forum only and answered by them.
There may be a lot more info in the new interviews, promo videos released which is not included here as it is out of context.
--Pets, mounts and items-- Q: Miniature giant space hamster social pet. Yes or HELL YES? A: I'm not 100%, but Bioware may hold the rights to Boo. I'll suggest looking into this though.
60 lvls?
woaw! that's innovative! that's creativity! and that's total respect to the ad&d spirit!
I am so dissappointed by this game!! friends told me that as soon as it was cryptic / perfect world it was going to be a fail, but still i had a certain hope...
so many games behind you and still no lessons learned...
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ranncoreMember, Moderators, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 2,508
60 lvls?
woaw! that's innovative! that's creativity! and that's total respect to the ad&d spirit!
You don't seem able to grasp this: it's not based on AD&D. It's based on 4e.
And I honestly can't think of one number that's more innovative or creative than another.
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iamtruthseekerMember, Moonstars, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 0Arc User
edited December 2012
Do I have to explain this is using the currently released system and not old editions? Unfortunately it seems I do.
But for those who don't understand 4th edition and tiers and why the game system's tabletop levels don't port in an MMO first...
D&D 4th edition uses three tiers: The Heroic covers character levels 1-10, Paragon 11-20 and Epic 21-30. While this works all fine and dandy for sitting at a table for several hours once a week, it doesn't work for frequently connected possibly playing a week's worth of tabletop gaming in an single online session. So after testing it privately the developers upped the levels to a 3-1 ratio based on this system. They also only went up to the end of the second Paragon tier. SO thus instead of the traditional levels 1-20, it's now 1-60 using a 3:1 ratio. Which makes perfect sense when you look at the above and the overall level options of most MMOs at release. And yes epic tiers will very likely be added at a later post-release time
And it hasn't been AD&D since third edition started, so that "AD&D" knowledge is two editions outdated. Respectfully, if you can't bring current knowledge to the discussion, please don't criticize the game based off of a 4th edition theme. If you have actually tried the edition and love/hate it or are between extremes and are commenting how it impacts the MMO, that's another thing.
But you don't hear me criticizing the way automobiles operate if all I ever learned was the steamboat, unless I wanted people to criticize my lack of understanding on a current advancement in that area. The same holds true when we are talking about rules based off of a currently released version and people only have past rules understanding. If they want to test using old rules in a new D&D system, the D&D NEXT play-test tabletop game might be a better fit. Even then, you have to learn new rules.
But for better or for worse, this is an MMO that uses influences (if not sometimes pure rules translations) from 4th edition. It's been planned and developed with this agreement for almost 4 years now, so it's too late to go back to an earlier edition or beta test a new rules edition.
So, if you don't want to learn the system, then don't complain about it "not working right" that's all.
60 lvls?
woaw! that's innovative! that's creativity! and that's total respect to the ad&d spirit!
I am so dissappointed by this game!! friends told me that as soon as it was cryptic / perfect world it was going to be a fail, but still i had a certain hope...
so many games behind you and still no lessons learned...
Actually it is still less lvls than DDO. In DDO, every level has 5 sub levels. So it has 20x5=100lvl before epic.
Cryptic, instead of having sub levels decided that having just levels would be easier and not confuse players. But they only have 3 sub levels. So 20x3=60lvl.
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ambisinisterrMember, Neverwinter ModeratorPosts: 10,462Community Moderator
edited December 2012
And basically what this does, is scale the feel of PnP to video games.
Just due to the nature of the differences between PnP and Video Game gameplay even if there is a 100% direct translation video games experience gets rewarded differently.
For the amount of actions a players does in video game adaptations, truely, players should be able to get level 1-20 in less than a day of doing quests. Obviously this speed is a bit too fast to even enjoy or savor the game so the experience is drastically lower even in truly faithful translations such as Baldur's Gate or NWN.
The new issue became that there were extremely content and time large gaps between levels even at lower levels. Time-wise it's where it should have been but enjoyment-wise it was too slow and a common complaint.
Both DDO and NW have opted to change and give sub-levels not because they're attempting to stray from the rules but to give the correct power and emotional advancement. This was done with full support from Wizards of the Coast because, at the heart of it, the game advancement rate is not designed for Video Games.
If there's one thing which shouldn't/can't be complained about in NW/DDO it's the changes to leveling.
And basically what this does, is scale the feel of PnP to video games.
Just due to the nature of the differences between PnP and Video Game gameplay even if there is a 100% direct translation video games experience gets rewarded differently.
For the amount of actions a players does in video game adaptations, truely, players should be able to get level 1-20 in less than a day of doing quests. Obviously this speed is a bit too fast to even enjoy or savor the game so the experience is drastically lower even in truly faithful translations such as Baldur's Gate or NWN.
The new issue became that there were extremely content and time large gaps between levels even at lower levels. Time-wise it's where it should have been but enjoyment-wise it was too slow and a common complaint.
Both DDO and NW have opted to change and give sub-levels not because they're attempting to stray from the rules but to give the correct power and emotional advancement. This was done with full support from Wizards of the Coast because, at the heart of it, the game advancement rate is not designed for Video Games.
If there's one thing which shouldn't/can't be complained about in NW/DDO it's the changes to leveling.
Do we know how the leveling pace will be in NWO? I'm for the slowest possible system
Do we know how the leveling pace will be in NWO? I'm for the slowest possible system
They haven't revealed it yet (though I doubt they have decided it themselves) but it will most probably be logrithmic to let players feel good at low level though at high level it will take much more time.
Because there would be lots of content - the game's plan of being co-op before and due to foundry, the grind won't be unbearable.
why u dont let players create a char of their own imagination? maybe the game is good- but again u add ugly races like in other mmos/ i think u must to make character editor same like in CO
i will play this game only if u make a character editor like CO/ i dont want to play ugly races like that))))
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ambisinisterrMember, Neverwinter ModeratorPosts: 10,462Community Moderator
edited December 2012
Because that wouldn't be D&D.
If you don't want to play an ugly race like a Tiefling then don't play a Tiefling...
But this isn't a superhero game. This is a Dungeons and Dragons Game.
The information isn't pulled out of thin air (or stolen from D&D) like other MMO's. They're not making the lore, the races or the setting up. Everything can be found in the D&D Player Handbooks that, although have been updated/expanded over the years, are older than personal computers.
Want to complain about other MMO's with ugly races, blame D&D. Their attempts at hiding just how much they based their ideas off D&D is laughable.
Comments
Good idea! I can make a foundry mission when the game comes out and put npc's named like that in my missions who drop you hints for difficult quests.
You're reading my mind!
ARRGH! GET OUT OF MY [CENSORED] HEAD!!!!
Q: Will we be able to design quest that award non-combat rewards, such as talking your way out of a fight or solving a puzzle or answering a riddle?
A:- You can create entire campaigns without combat if you like. You won't get the usual rewards from drops, but you still get a loot chest at the end regardless.
Q:-What about exploiting this by having just one empty room with one chest for the loot? Can these kind of missions be monitored by 'official people' to certify the rewards according to non-combat difficulties?
A:-Since rewards are based off of the average completion time of the quest, this kind of exploit wouldn't work, and you would just get trash from the chest. This is also why we don't allow authors to directly reward XP for completing tasks. It exposes the Foundry to heavy exploitation.
Q:-Can Foundry use recorded speech for dialogues?
A:-No
Social
Q:-Is there LFG/LFM panel; automatic ques for dungeons?
A:-Yes to all of the above.
Q:-Are there mystery based events/quests? (like a detective story)
A:-Quite a few actually!
Gameplay/ Mechanics
Q:-Can we visit motes like Moonstone Mask?
A:-Absolutely.
Q:-Will environmental audio get much attention in Neverwinter?
A:-The ambient audio is being done really well IMO. We've got a great team of audio engineers on this project.
Q:-Will there be night/day cycle? Or weather?
A:-There is weather, but no dynamic day/night cycle. I'm a fan of day/night cycles too, but speaking from an artist's perspective it's a nightmare to set the mood/lighting of an environment if it keeps changing. The tech is certainly there (with its share of graphical problems) because we did it in Champions, so it can be done if it's something players feel would drastically improve the game.
Q:-Will the game have any in-game narration or character voices for NPCs?
A:-I think so but the details are fuzzy because they're still figuring out how much voice to add to the game. We most likely will not be fully voicing the game though.
Q:-Can the great weapon fighter use scythe as a two handed weapon?
A:-Yes
Q:- What about crafting?
A:- The crafting system is still in its early implementation stages, so I can't give specifics on it but I can confirm it exists
The framework UI is already working and it's looking pretty slick.
Marketing/Finances
Q:-How can your game be f2p? *shocked*
A:-We have no plans to sell the +5 Radiant Vorpal Sword of Immediate Dragon Slaying in Neverwinter. There are no plans to make a quick dime off of players who just have to have that +5 suit of magical plate armor that just so happens to be wearable as cloth armor, and have a ridiculous amount of health regen and the ability to store any 6 spells of your choice for a 24 hours period of time. Nor will will be selling other types of "power". In short, pay to win is not what we want Neverwinter to be.
Instead I would refer to this and this thread so your question can be replied by the community or mods.
Edit: Like this thread is now stickied. Congratulations gillrmn!
I have several questions I will ask in the areas you linked.
I still play the original NWN and I am looking forward to NWO.
Thanks.
Question post moved to Q&A thread.
Again, do NOT ask questions on the game here. Ask questions for Q&A here instead. Secondly, please take the time to read the sticky threads in this topic. Posters who did would have noticed both the New Users FAQ as well as the Q&A I just mentioned. Any questions not specifically related to a Dev answer may either be moved to another thread or deleted.
a few new questions were raised regarding monetizing the game. I am adding the text here as a record but not yet adding them/linking them to first post:-
p.s. thanks ryvvik for keeping us up to date.
Also, previously by SS on these forums - in case anyone missed:-
For those who have read SS a lot but don't know who he is, SS is the marketing guy from cryptic team - here.
I think it is a good Quote to explain any outsider about what NW really is and what makes us forum users excited about the game.
BTW, the first quote lists information from Gameinformer and the article is here. Note: this article not only has gramatical errors (eg, too instead of to,) they have an entire question listed as an "answer font." Took me two reads to get that. I'm referring to (part not bolded as a question in the article is highlighted in blue for your reference:)
However, I can say the article (grammar and format aside,) appears to be accurate in what was answered.
[*]
[*]Can we explore Gauntlgrym at some point in main plot
A few days back craig tweeted that he is exploring the Gautylgyrm (You lucky...!).
I just so happen to have that tweet retweeted, here is the tweet.
[ Support Center • Rules & Policies and Guidelines • ARC ToS • Guild Recruitment Guidelines | FR DM Since 1993 ]
Personally, I'm gonna take that as a yes. Though the dwarfs might not look kindly on you stumbling into their freshly found homeland.
There may be a lot more info in the new interviews, promo videos released which is not included here as it is out of context.
How about "normal" giant space hamsters as rideable mounts?
woaw! that's innovative! that's creativity! and that's total respect to the ad&d spirit!
I am so dissappointed by this game!! friends told me that as soon as it was cryptic / perfect world it was going to be a fail, but still i had a certain hope...
so many games behind you and still no lessons learned...
You don't seem able to grasp this: it's not based on AD&D. It's based on 4e.
And I honestly can't think of one number that's more innovative or creative than another.
But for those who don't understand 4th edition and tiers and why the game system's tabletop levels don't port in an MMO first...
D&D 4th edition uses three tiers: The Heroic covers character levels 1-10, Paragon 11-20 and Epic 21-30. While this works all fine and dandy for sitting at a table for several hours once a week, it doesn't work for frequently connected possibly playing a week's worth of tabletop gaming in an single online session. So after testing it privately the developers upped the levels to a 3-1 ratio based on this system. They also only went up to the end of the second Paragon tier. SO thus instead of the traditional levels 1-20, it's now 1-60 using a 3:1 ratio. Which makes perfect sense when you look at the above and the overall level options of most MMOs at release. And yes epic tiers will very likely be added at a later post-release time
And it hasn't been AD&D since third edition started, so that "AD&D" knowledge is two editions outdated. Respectfully, if you can't bring current knowledge to the discussion, please don't criticize the game based off of a 4th edition theme. If you have actually tried the edition and love/hate it or are between extremes and are commenting how it impacts the MMO, that's another thing.
But you don't hear me criticizing the way automobiles operate if all I ever learned was the steamboat, unless I wanted people to criticize my lack of understanding on a current advancement in that area. The same holds true when we are talking about rules based off of a currently released version and people only have past rules understanding. If they want to test using old rules in a new D&D system, the D&D NEXT play-test tabletop game might be a better fit. Even then, you have to learn new rules.
But for better or for worse, this is an MMO that uses influences (if not sometimes pure rules translations) from 4th edition. It's been planned and developed with this agreement for almost 4 years now, so it's too late to go back to an earlier edition or beta test a new rules edition.
So, if you don't want to learn the system, then don't complain about it "not working right" that's all.
Actually it is still less lvls than DDO. In DDO, every level has 5 sub levels. So it has 20x5=100lvl before epic.
Cryptic, instead of having sub levels decided that having just levels would be easier and not confuse players. But they only have 3 sub levels. So 20x3=60lvl.
Just due to the nature of the differences between PnP and Video Game gameplay even if there is a 100% direct translation video games experience gets rewarded differently.
For the amount of actions a players does in video game adaptations, truely, players should be able to get level 1-20 in less than a day of doing quests. Obviously this speed is a bit too fast to even enjoy or savor the game so the experience is drastically lower even in truly faithful translations such as Baldur's Gate or NWN.
The new issue became that there were extremely content and time large gaps between levels even at lower levels. Time-wise it's where it should have been but enjoyment-wise it was too slow and a common complaint.
Both DDO and NW have opted to change and give sub-levels not because they're attempting to stray from the rules but to give the correct power and emotional advancement. This was done with full support from Wizards of the Coast because, at the heart of it, the game advancement rate is not designed for Video Games.
If there's one thing which shouldn't/can't be complained about in NW/DDO it's the changes to leveling.
I want flying skulls too, apart from miniature sized giant space hamsters
Do we know how the leveling pace will be in NWO? I'm for the slowest possible system
Because there would be lots of content - the game's plan of being co-op before and due to foundry, the grind won't be unbearable.
If you don't want to play an ugly race like a Tiefling then don't play a Tiefling...
But this isn't a superhero game. This is a Dungeons and Dragons Game.
The information isn't pulled out of thin air (or stolen from D&D) like other MMO's. They're not making the lore, the races or the setting up. Everything can be found in the D&D Player Handbooks that, although have been updated/expanded over the years, are older than personal computers.
Want to complain about other MMO's with ugly races, blame D&D. Their attempts at hiding just how much they based their ideas off D&D is laughable.
*Turns off lantern, taunts the darkness, and is eaten by a Grue. Don't taunt the darkness kids. Fortunately he had a forum extra life.*
Gets a message,
*iamtruthseeker is eaten by Grue*
Picks up incense and a scroll of resurrection and starts off at nearest moon temple.