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Forums > Home› Neverwinter Discussion › General Discussion (PC)

Neverwinter - Foundry to the rescue?

zagemoggazagemogga Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 0 Arc User
edited March 2013 in General Discussion (PC)
Are my expectations to high because of the franchise? I read Neverwinter with a Foundry (Tool-Set) as online roleplaying game and was really interested.
Here is what I observed in my time with Neverwinter (only ~3 months).

Beta1 was great:
  • The normal storyline is interesting and well written
  • Character models were kind of hmm, I like the dwarves :)
  • Classes are really narrowed down to class/role
  • Class specific items
  • Combat is something you need to get used to


Beta2 enlightened me a litte:
  • 10 different currencies
  • 80% of Foundry quests are hack and slay. I also found some really good quests, though.
  • People complain, you get too much experience
  • People complain, there isn't enough loot or the need/greed system doesn't work properly
  • My Founders' Astral Diamonds are worth ~800 Identification-Scrolls
  • Companions are really cool and fun to level :)


Between Beta2 and Beta3:
  • I get the feeling, the goal of the game is to reach some amount of XP on a level-scale to reach some number. Then run the same dungeon over and over as quickly as possible for loot to kill other players in some form of area or carry a blue item from some position to another while other players try to kill me.
  • I found out, this game is primary balanced for PvP and they slowly implement adjustments for PvE
  • I like the Novella, which was added to the Founders pack :)
  • Some people want more rules and some people want less rules, especially for loot.
  • Really looking forward to try all the Foundry quests and campaigns http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?85121-FOUNDRY-List-of-UGC-and-Authors
  • My Founders' Astral Diamonds were upped to over 2000 ID-Scrolls!


Even if this game turns out to be a nice online platform to do some nice quests in the realm of neverwinter every now and then, I will be happy with it.
Post edited by zagemogga on

Comments

  • kwsapphirekwsapphire Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 671 Arc User
    edited March 2013
    There will always, always be people who grind the same missions over and over for specific loot or rewards. It doesn't matter how well-written the missions are, or how many awesome things there are to do. That is a speicific type of gamer, they play every type of game, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop their behavior. (Not that I feel we need to stop their behavior, just saying, it would be impossible anyway.)

    I also got the impression that the "official" story arcs are really just to get you familiar with the game, and the majority of the content we're presumably going to run will come from the Foundry. (Assuming you want variety and novelty.)

    I didn't check out any of the Foundry content in BW2, but I hope to do so this weekend!
    qtPt2I
  • zagemoggazagemogga Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited March 2013
    The Foundry quests in BW2 were more a playground of the authors who literally just started with their Beta. There were actual some quests available in the Foundry named 'testing'.

    But even then, some quests were very good and interesting. Thank you for those.
    All type of Quests, like bar fights with rounds 1-10 and others totally without combat.
  • hopeless2hopeless2 Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users Posts: 73
    edited March 2013
    As kwsapphire pointed out, there will always be people who will try to level as past as possible. They should be allowed to do that if that's their piece of cake. Stories no matter how good will be nice the first time around. I am pretty sure it will be rare for people to repeat a quest just for the story. With that said, I am expecting there to be A LOT of foundry content, or at least I hope so. I just hope that the sorting system will be good enough to allow us to rate and choose the quests properly.
  • zaphtasticzaphtastic Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Silverstars Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited March 2013
    Unfortunately, there are quite a few serious problems with mass-produced UGC on a scale like Neverwinter, especially when it comes to rating and searching. I've listed a few (along with proposed solutions) in the post linked in my sig based on 3.5 years of COH Mission Architect experience --> http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?82731-Getting-good-content-to-players-in-the-Foundry-challenges-and-solutions-(long)

    Note that unlike other games, the Foundry is a cornerstone of Neverwinter. This is both good and bad; good because it ensures that the playerbase remains interested in player-generated content and a lot of dev attention will be focused on the system, and bad because players (and authors) who have bad experiences with it may just leave the game entirely instead of just ignoring the Foundry part of it. This effect is also why the call of "Foundry will fix it!" can be a two-edged sword...
    *ON HOLD* Mind Games UGC feedback thread
    Getting good content to players in the Foundry - challenges and solutions
    Handle: @zaphtastic
  • syberghostsyberghost Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users Posts: 2,474
    edited March 2013
    Keep in mind a couple of things:

    1) User-generated content is a staple of Dungeons and Dragons. Most groups play some "official" modules, but mostly their own stuff. That capability is arguably the single most important thing that makes a game D&D vs. not D&D.
    2) This isn't Cryptic's first rodeo. They invented MMORPG UGC, they made every non-browser MMORPG that features it except Everquest 2, and they've been testing things in Star Trek Online to see what works and what doesn't in terms of leveling and rewards.

    They'll stumble, but they won't fall. This is the one thing (other than chat) on which they are the cutting edge of the industry.
  • zagemoggazagemogga Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited March 2013
    What I learned about the rating is to be very careful. I read your posts a longer time ago for information. :)

    The first page should state what it is: Hack&Slash, Roleplaying, Dungeoneering etc. If it doesn't I don't bother any more and move on. Next I check for the comments to the individual ratings: 1 Star, SUCKS!!!111 Translates to: 4 Star, puzzles, little combat, probably good story.

    Once there are thousands of quests in the foundry, it will get more complicated.

    My point of view is very selfish in a way. If you are already subscribed to a good author, I would do his next quest as well. It is like following a book author. Why should I buy a thriller of some, to me unknown, writer if I could buy a Dean Koontz and know someone will be dead by page 10?
    Don't get me wrong, sometimes sneaking around a bookstore and look for other themes is fun. The best way to sell a quest will be mouth to mouth propaganda in the end. Like I read "Stiff, The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers". Totally funny and interesting. I would have never read it, if my collegue wouldn't have told me about it.
  • megatenistmegatenist Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited March 2013
    zaphtastic wrote: »
    Unfortunately, there are quite a few serious problems with mass-produced UGC on a scale like Neverwinter, especially when it comes to rating and searching. I've listed a few (along with proposed solutions) in the post linked in my sig based on 3.5 years of COH Mission Architect experience --> http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?82731-Getting-good-content-to-players-in-the-Foundry-challenges-and-solutions-(long)

    Note that unlike other games, the Foundry is a cornerstone of Neverwinter. This is both good and bad; good because it ensures that the playerbase remains interested in player-generated content and a lot of dev attention will be focused on the system, and bad because players (and authors) who have bad experiences with it may just leave the game entirely instead of just ignoring the Foundry part of it. This effect is also why the call of "Foundry will fix it!" can be a two-edged sword...

    Ah, the Mission Architect. That's what I'm hoping The Foundry will be like. But like you said, it can be a double edge sword.

    I remember finding some real gems in the Mission Architect that were sadly hidden under a mountain of fire farms and mediocre stuff that inexplicably were given 5 stars.

    Heehee this just reminded me of an old term from CoH I haven't heard in a while: AE Babies :)
    "All the things I really like to do are either illegal, immoral, or fattening." - Alexander Woollcott
  • syberghostsyberghost Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users Posts: 2,474
    edited March 2013
    That's the neat thing about the Neverwinter Foundry; if I play your quest and I like it, I can follow your ingame microblog, and when you find other good authors, you can tell me about them. This is going to be a huge change over STO; you won't have to rely on ratings, you can build social networks and find the kinds of quests you like.
  • zaphtasticzaphtastic Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Silverstars Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited March 2013
    syberghost wrote: »
    That's the neat thing about the Neverwinter Foundry; if I play your quest and I like it, I can follow your ingame microblog, and when you find other good authors, you can tell me about them. This is going to be a huge change over STO; you won't have to rely on ratings, you can build social networks and find the kinds of quests you like.
    The problem is finding good content in the first place (how will you find a gem among hundreds of thousands of unknown 4-star quests?)... but yes, I agree that the follow / microblog aspect is a good change. I listed many other changes that I think would really improve the situation in that megapost, such as recommendation lists, auto-generated recommendations, tags [!!!], etc.
    *ON HOLD* Mind Games UGC feedback thread
    Getting good content to players in the Foundry - challenges and solutions
    Handle: @zaphtastic
  • siskaxxsiskaxx Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 15 Arc User
    edited March 2013
    @Zaph, I read your posts about the search and options and it was a very good post.
    We as a community can help with putting a <Grinder>, <Role Play>, or whatever we come up with in the front of our modules to help with this. Like your tag idea but user generated instead of built in.
    And as long as we are vocal about this on the boards most people that are serious about building modules will normally check out the boards about it and would have a shot at seeing it.

    Just a thought of what the community can do on its own to help out.
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