Will the Foundry be key to the longer term success of Neverwinter?

kentheprogrammer · January 2013

I haven't been able to find a ton of information about the storyline or leveling campaign of the game including endgame, pvp, etc... which are usually features that define the longevity of a game. I wonder though with a system like the Foundry that Cryptic is obviously working long and hard on - does anyone think they will "rely" on the Foundry to keep the community happy and playing the game longer term and rely less on putting out new content (patches, modules, expansions, etc...)? Unless there is an engrossing PvE or PvP endgame that I haven't heard anything about as of yet, what is going to keep people around other than UGC?

I've been pretty excited about this game, but I'm also concerned at the viability of the game and keeping a robust community going longer term.

Any thoughts?

dizzy000 · January 2013

I think foundry will be in concert with regular content updates. There are some amazing minds out there and it only makes sense to let them add to the game. But im sure if they only relied on player made content it would not work that well.

pherephatta · January 2013

I personally think the Foundry will prolong the lifespan of the game immeasurably. There are still thriving Morrowind/Neverwinter Nights (1 and 2) communities, entirely because of the solid toolsets. Players can and will create content much more quickly than devs!

Despite being unable to actually create assets, I see no reason why that won't be the case with an MMO. It's D&D, you can create your own mods - what's not to love?

muzrub333 · January 2013

pherephatta wrote: »

I personally think the Foundry will prolong the lifespan of the game immeasurably. There are still thriving Morrowind/Neverwinter Nights (1 and 2) communities, entirely because of the solid toolsets. Players can and will create content much more quickly than devs!

I totally agree. I'd hope to see Foundry updates along with game updates over the coming months/years as well. Keep opening up the tool sets, and really let the Foundy/DM types get creative.

kalizaar · January 2013

Yep, I agree with the above. As long as they keep upgrading the Foundry (and frankly even if they didn't much) there will be an incredibly huge amount of player content, and not just simple "Go kil 5 oRcs y0u newB!" NWN and other games in the past that allowed users to create custom stories allowed some amazing adventures to be created by some very talented people.

lanessar13 · January 2013

Indeed. If you were to liken it to CO, imagine a new comic pack (1-2 hours playtime) being available every few weeks from a great author (who probably will do a better job than most of the in-game content, especially for story-telling).

If even 10% of the content creators from, say NWN get involved, you're looking at 2-3 days worth of content being added every week or two. So, making the foundry more robust could handle 90% of the "we need to add content" work for Cryptic. Having been in those communities as well, it sure made those games very appealing to play (moreso than regular dev content additions).

We'll have to see how it pans out, what options are available, etc.

pion01 · January 2013

Yes.

/890

mokah · January 2013

The only reason I'm interested in NWO is the Foundry. Everything else is so cookie cutter from every other MMO, I just don't see the point. The existence of the Foundry is the only thing that makes this game different.

Truth be told, there are still too many unknowns about the Foundry for my taste. I bet they would sell a lot more Founder packs if they had beta access to the Foundry available for free.

kentheprogrammer · January 2013

mokah wrote: »

Truth be told, there are still too many unknowns about the Foundry for my taste. I bet they would sell a lot more Founder packs if they had beta access to the Foundry available for free.

This is one concern of mine as well. I thought I had read somewhere that the foundry (or it's predecessor or something similar) existed for a couple of their previous games, so that might give us some indication if that's true; obviously we should expect it to be significantly upgraded if that's the case as well. I'm sure there are great content creators out there, but I'd guess that the community has to be rather large and robust too in order to draw the content creators in. I think it's much more motivation for the content creators if there is an expectation of thousands of people playing their creation rather than only hundreds.

gillrmn · January 2013

*giggles*

Foundry will be awesome

devoteoftempus · January 2013

pherephatta wrote: »

I personally think the Foundry will prolong the lifespan of the game immeasurably. There are still thriving Morrowind/Neverwinter Nights (1 and 2) communities, entirely because of the solid toolsets. Players can and will create content much more quickly than devs!

Despite being unable to actually create assets, I see no reason why that won't be the case with an MMO. It's D&D, you can create your own mods - what's not to love?

However those toolsets had immensive freedom. With the lack of Persistent World capabilities or DM events many will see the Foundry too restrictive. Some PWs denounce Neverwinter because of the restriction.

Foundry will prolong Neverwinter most likely but to what degree, who knows?

jdk2011 · January 2013

Brilliant if you ask me. No better way to bridge the gap between expansions than to give players tools to create their own playable content. I assume that since they are using modders from NWN as consultants, they will get it right. Even if it doesn't have everything out of the gate, the communities will provide plenty of feedback and it will just get better and better. I for one have some memorable PnP adventures I'd like to try and re-create.

zylaxx · January 2013

pherephatta wrote: »

I personally think the Foundry will prolong the lifespan of the game immeasurably. There are still thriving Morrowind/Neverwinter Nights (1 and 2) communities, entirely because of the solid toolsets. Players can and will create content much more quickly than devs!

Despite being unable to actually create assets, I see no reason why that won't be the case with an MMO. It's D&D, you can create your own mods - what's not to love?

Seeing as I burn out on every MMO released within 3-5 months because of a lack of meaningful things I want to do then I have to believe that the Foundry UGC will prolong my gamelife immeasurably.

Those things I like to most: Explore and run dungeons collect loot within a small group structure. Seeing as Foundry caters to both avenues then yea I gotta hope it keeps me occupied.

dequixotic · January 2013

mokah wrote: »

The only reason I'm interested in NWO is the Foundry. Everything else is so cookie cutter from every other MMO, I just don't see the point. The existence of the Foundry is the only thing that makes this game different.

Truth be told, there are still too many unknowns about the Foundry for my taste. I bet they would sell a lot more Founder packs if they had beta access to the Foundry available for free.

It is free. The only cost is playtime; you have to reach level 15 before it unlocks.

rustplayer · January 2013

To your question: Yes.

I already have some Ideas what adventures I'm gonna make. I would not be surprised at all if I spent a significant part of my NWO gametime making new adventures! From what I've seen the foundry is a powerful tool, simple and elegant to use and difficult to master. Just perfect :-D

bluesteel8 · January 2013

From what Ive seen on the videos, yes, for sure. It looks great, and even a feedback and star ranking for the builders.

trollolollol · January 2013

Hard to say as Ive not seen much, but I hope devs dont think this is going to be players "main" game to play. Kinda same mistake what AV did with Darkfall. I play this on and off, that means Im willing to use little time with this, but not much. But maybe thats just me. I drop this off if I need to grind my HAMSTER off or spend tons of time with it.

Yeah, Trion World Defiance is more suitable to be my main MMO.

jaffrojones · January 2013

pherephatta wrote: »

I personally think the Foundry will prolong the lifespan of the game immeasurably. There are still thriving Morrowind/Neverwinter Nights (1 and 2) communities, entirely because of the solid toolsets. Players can and will create content much more quickly than devs!

Despite being unable to actually create assets, I see no reason why that won't be the case with an MMO. It's D&D, you can create your own mods - what's not to love?

I agree totally. They have already said that they grabbed the best designers out there to make content before release. Think about they best people making Temple of Elemental Evil. We will probably see at least 10 people making a go a making that module set in the first month. That is a long adventure from beginning to end, and that's just one. People will rate the creators of these modules and they will get astral diamonds from people donating them because they love them so much. Hell, maybe Cryptic will hire some of these people because they are so good at it. The possibilities are limitless. Just take a look here...

http://nwvault.ign.com/View.php?view=Modules.HOF

mnatic · January 2013

great thread

castagyre · January 2013

Having played a couple of other MMOs with PCC I'm curious to see how this plays out. It looks better at a glance than what I've experienced so far. It could be great, it could be abused and nerfed into oblivion; either way I hope it is not what the devs are too heavily dependent on for the game's longevity.

huckili · February 2013

I do think foundry will prolong the life of the game just because it will be a source of fresh places to investigate and I can't wait to try it out.

As for overall game lifespan whilst the income from subscriptions, churn rate and the in-game shop will make money. When new games come along the population, after it's peak, will stabilize then drop thus less money will be available to develop new content - Unfortunately its the way of the MMO's - Developers have settled on a typical game flow of progression through increasing difficulty quests, grind the one's you've already done for crafting materials to move up a crafting skills tree and a complete the final end game. Hopefully the process keeps you playing and the special events, cosmetic add-on, friends and PvP keeps you hanging around.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this makes for a bad gaming experience the system is at the core of lots of great games but be honest who wants to run though the same old places to pick mushroom, gather crystals or whatever - The foundry is an opportunity to extend the life and interest in a game by easing the grind. If you want to add more interest add more places, this sort of works.

How about consequences for your actions - If you do something bad why would any good NPC even ask you to do his quest.

Whats wrong with a FAIL - I'm sorry you died during this quest the mighty quest item is not available to you EVER, here's a lesser prize and BUB-BYE you can never come back to this dungeon. Think of the economy this would create you can't get that item unless someone trades it or buy's the blueprint to make a single one.

ashrox10 · February 2013

muzrub333 wrote: »

I totally agree. I'd hope to see Foundry updates along with game updates over the coming months/years as well. Keep opening up the tool sets, and really let the Foundy/DM types get creative.

Completely this. Let us script boss'

kdawgenigma · February 2013

My only concern, and this partially comes from my time playing STO, is the the Foundry will be looked upon as a way for the DEVs to reduce how often they release story driven content and focus more on making grind fests. STO is certainly lacking in that aspect and if it were not for the Foundry and the Foundry authors doing what the DEVs should be doing, I don't think there would be much hope for STO.

bobcat1313 · February 2013

I think foundry will help them out with keeping players playing, but I believe they will be adding new content aswell.

foxtsilveruk · February 2013

Have to get to Level 15 to be able to create quest in the foundry? I read that somewhere

itsneo · February 2013

This is a great topic, so I will brief.

I fully expect the foundry to be an integral part of the game as a whole, and not just one of many defining factors of the successful longevity of Neverwinder. Lets consider, it IS Dungeons and Dragons after all, and Master Dungeon Creators will be hard at work customizing environments, encounters, trash mobs, boss fights, oh my, and then customizing the boss' themselves. I for one can not wait to get my hands on the foundry.

We have all had our fair share of MMO disappointment, promised content that is either late coming or never arrives. Content that was not quite what was promised, or... not even close. We've all reached End Game, some of us, completionists and have to explore every inch of the world, get every achievement, and them wait for a patch with some updated content. We have also all experienced the ever shrinking Dev team, the office closures, the re-structuring of game developers and or publishers. There have been a million and half reason given and it all boils down to one thing... MONEY. What drives the money? CONTENT. You can not have one without the other, so when the player base has consumed all the content? Then what?

Well, clearly more of the above. Right?

WRONG!.. Lets give the job of fresh new content to the players themselves. Lets just focus on creating TONES and TONES of assets for them to play with and dump them into a folder for the players to use in their own content, the way THEY want them to appear. Lets put the power, and the responsibility of fresh new ideas, content, encounters, heck, lets give them advanced tools so they can even change the appearance of the npc's, dress them up, change their geometry, short of letting them move the vertex points individually, lets empower the player to be all they can be and more... let's give them.....

The Foundry. YAY!

Cryptic has, I think, figured it out. There are far more creative minds that play the games they create, than there are in the desks under their roofs. Lets face it, it really did not take much brain power to figure out what we, the gaming community, have been SCREAMING for years. "I Have the most awesome idea for a dungeon, or some epic battle in mind... you should do this Mr. Developer of XYZ Gaming inc." , yes yes we have all had ideas. And now... we get to create them, play them, in REAL TIME .. omg how more awesome can it be? Okay, I'll stop there. hehe.

So, um.. in short.. YES! The foundry is VITAL to the longevity of Neverwinter.

Peace all.

apocrs1980 · February 2013

I believe that the Devs intend the foundry to increase the longevity of the game because it's content created by us, it also gives them insight as to what we like to play in our mmos it's genius really, make a game give them the tools and let them show us what they want in future titles to develop the best games going forward.

firesnakearies · February 2013

I think the Foundry is going to be THE thing that makes this game.

itsneo · February 2013

firesnakearies wrote: »

I think the Foundry is going to be THE thing that makes this game.

Indeed! I so agree.

chili1179 · February 2013

Check out the NWN2 Vault There are still modules being added/updated there and the game is how many years old? Granted, NWO is not NWN (by any stretch of the imagination) but it is a tool to create adventures in the D&D setting which is a lot of it's appeal. Add to that the MMO factor and you get a hefty chunk of motivation to create content.

While I believe the gang at Cryptic will supply their own great content for the players, they will in unison give the creators of UGC plenty of new material to work with, which as a creative person myself who will spend more time creating then playing, is a huge motivation factor as well.

So, I do not believe that the foundry will be the only key to NWO's success and longevity, it's definitely going to play a substantial part.

kentheprogrammer · February 2013

I thought I had read somewhere (don't have a source handy) that they had a dev team mostly dedicated to the features of the Foundry. That sounds encouraging. Obviously how many people they dedicate to Foundry assets and how many people they dedicate to continuing story content, classes, etc... is yet to be seen. Maybe they can strike the right balance.

I haven't played STO, so I don't know about how the Foundry worked there, but I believe that they said this version of the Foundry is much more advanced than it was in their previous games (stands to reason). So hopefully the issues people had with STO previously as they relate to the Foundry won't be as big of a deal in this game. Also let's hope that there is enough functionality in the Foundry that content creators can truly create different experiences and not basically the same dungeon over and over just re-skinned.

Will the Foundry be key to the longer term success of Neverwinter?

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