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Some issues that 'open' beta people are going to bring up...
joeldgn
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users Posts: 76
Just some thoughts after so much time spent so far.
Once this opens up to the world at large I think there are going to be a few issues that will come up, a lot.
1) "Companions": these are almost a why bother, there are not any controls for them and the AI has some major issues, in some dungeons (the level ~45 pirate ship) they actually screw everything up because the boss can heal from them. They can also jump through walls (throne of Idris) and make it where you have to exit and restart a dungeon because you get the "You cannot do that at this time" thing where you have aggro through a wall. Seriously, this is a noticeable issue and people are used to companions and pets now in their games.
2) "Other classes": like, where is a Ranger? where is a Druid? why does the cleric have a 'symbol' and not a mace? This is D&D, where are the multi-classes? What about paladins? Turn undead, where is that skill? Why don't mages have fireball spell, what kind of mage is this again? How about simple cantrip emotes? etc.. There is basically zero fan service on classes which are always fan favorites and even the 'standard MMO' ones have been 'tweaked' to where hardcore MMO people have been confused (what do you mean the cleric is an off-tank and does more damage than a GWF?)... Alignment at least?!?! no. Where is the thieves guild? no. This is going to make hardcore D&D people insane.
3) "Crafting": The crafting system is really strange, I don't even know what is going on and I have been through all the early beta weekends and early access. I have not seen any blueprints or similar... It does not work on a phone, is strange to do in game etc. I am typically not a crafter, but usually it is clear what is going on. Open beta folk are going to be lost and a lot of people are really into crafting.
4) "Gameplay": Speaking of the D&D crowd ... Is this D&D? If this is D&D where is the story? I have played a lot of games and I not felt compelled by the storyline in NW so far. For contrast, in the first 20 levels of Age of Conan it was awesome the first time through and it was a blast going through the story, later parts felt more like grind but yea it had a beginning like Aion did which was great. In SWTOR I played a bounty hunter and having to steal your ship and all that (in spite of some issues with the ships on rails) it was super engaging and I always felt it was well thought out all the way through, in fact I would list SWTOR leveling as my favorite gaming experience ever (the end game is what killed it). Anyway, why is this whole game ran through 'one' boring NPC in the starting town? How come I am never thrown in more instanced story lines besides the Linkletter one? And a whole multitude of standard D&D tripe: Locked chests? no. Random encounters? no. Bar fight encounter? no. Disease? no. Sleep spells? no. Class trainer? no. etc.. Anyone playing a lot of D&D knows all of these.
I should say that I have enjoyed myself so far and like what I have played. That said, I did not expect some perfectly done D&D world and I did not expect things to be polished. I feel this is a jumping the gun kind of thing, the classes should be the FIRST thing done (especially for a F2P), otherwise you risk having to 're-balance' everyone later which means everyone has to respec which gets old fast. The entire server I was on in AOC left because every week you had to redo all your feats and learn to play a 'new' end-game class. The game Allods had the same thing, they made major re-balance changes and everyone left because you had to burn incense (CS buff), one day packed the next day ghost town and they never came back. I played Sword of the New world and Runes of Magic F2P as well as many others that I have tried, and typically leave because of re-balancing, P2W issues with cash shop (CS items like wings giving good bonuses where you have to have them etc)
I think the open beta is great but these forums are going to be a mess of posts about these.
Once this opens up to the world at large I think there are going to be a few issues that will come up, a lot.
1) "Companions": these are almost a why bother, there are not any controls for them and the AI has some major issues, in some dungeons (the level ~45 pirate ship) they actually screw everything up because the boss can heal from them. They can also jump through walls (throne of Idris) and make it where you have to exit and restart a dungeon because you get the "You cannot do that at this time" thing where you have aggro through a wall. Seriously, this is a noticeable issue and people are used to companions and pets now in their games.
2) "Other classes": like, where is a Ranger? where is a Druid? why does the cleric have a 'symbol' and not a mace? This is D&D, where are the multi-classes? What about paladins? Turn undead, where is that skill? Why don't mages have fireball spell, what kind of mage is this again? How about simple cantrip emotes? etc.. There is basically zero fan service on classes which are always fan favorites and even the 'standard MMO' ones have been 'tweaked' to where hardcore MMO people have been confused (what do you mean the cleric is an off-tank and does more damage than a GWF?)... Alignment at least?!?! no. Where is the thieves guild? no. This is going to make hardcore D&D people insane.
3) "Crafting": The crafting system is really strange, I don't even know what is going on and I have been through all the early beta weekends and early access. I have not seen any blueprints or similar... It does not work on a phone, is strange to do in game etc. I am typically not a crafter, but usually it is clear what is going on. Open beta folk are going to be lost and a lot of people are really into crafting.
4) "Gameplay": Speaking of the D&D crowd ... Is this D&D? If this is D&D where is the story? I have played a lot of games and I not felt compelled by the storyline in NW so far. For contrast, in the first 20 levels of Age of Conan it was awesome the first time through and it was a blast going through the story, later parts felt more like grind but yea it had a beginning like Aion did which was great. In SWTOR I played a bounty hunter and having to steal your ship and all that (in spite of some issues with the ships on rails) it was super engaging and I always felt it was well thought out all the way through, in fact I would list SWTOR leveling as my favorite gaming experience ever (the end game is what killed it). Anyway, why is this whole game ran through 'one' boring NPC in the starting town? How come I am never thrown in more instanced story lines besides the Linkletter one? And a whole multitude of standard D&D tripe: Locked chests? no. Random encounters? no. Bar fight encounter? no. Disease? no. Sleep spells? no. Class trainer? no. etc.. Anyone playing a lot of D&D knows all of these.
I should say that I have enjoyed myself so far and like what I have played. That said, I did not expect some perfectly done D&D world and I did not expect things to be polished. I feel this is a jumping the gun kind of thing, the classes should be the FIRST thing done (especially for a F2P), otherwise you risk having to 're-balance' everyone later which means everyone has to respec which gets old fast. The entire server I was on in AOC left because every week you had to redo all your feats and learn to play a 'new' end-game class. The game Allods had the same thing, they made major re-balance changes and everyone left because you had to burn incense (CS buff), one day packed the next day ghost town and they never came back. I played Sword of the New world and Runes of Magic F2P as well as many others that I have tried, and typically leave because of re-balancing, P2W issues with cash shop (CS items like wings giving good bonuses where you have to have them etc)
I think the open beta is great but these forums are going to be a mess of posts about these.
Post edited by joeldgn on
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Comments
I'll give you a brief run through of some information.
1) Thanks for the feedback. That wasn't a big thing to come out of Closed Beta but it's certainly coming up a lot since the Headstart.
2) More classes will come in time. This has been a common theme for years. Not days, weeks, months. Years. They'll come in time. There are at least two more in the works for post launch release that we know of now.
3) At first I agreed. It's not crafting like I was used to. But after I got over the initial wth and realized I can use the gateway to craft it became a much better concept. Give it some time and it may win you over.
4) This depends on your definition of D&D. First and foremost please forget everything you know about D&D. Throw it in the trash and forget past concepts.
Then read 4E rules. 4E is not the D&D I grew up and loved in my younger years but it's Official D&D. So in order to answer the question/concerns you have brought up you first half to accept that this is based off Fourth Edition and not Third. That's half the problem there.
Second thing is, MMO's can't use D20's and such for mechanics. They don't balance well at all. Neverwinter simply does not hide the lack of standard D&D rules behind a veil like DDO (Which is actually taking down it's veil too)
The game is very much D&D. It still needs polish in some rougher areas but it's D&D. It's just not Minimus Maximus the Third.
This is a feedback thread. Throwing it in with the feedback
As much as I enjoy the game, I agree with everything you said. Except the crafting. I can't say much about it as I haven't experienced it enough.
The Dire Crow - Tiefling TR
Alice L'ddell - Human GF
Ludovique - Tiefling DC
I know these have been brought up already, the subject line should have pointed out that this is what is to come from opening this up to the masses. These are also things while talking to gaming friends who didn't get in that have been brought up and are downloading it now in anticipation.
As for tossing the 'old school' D&D in the trash, that is rules and such, I am not specifically bringing up at will powers or paragon paths, it is the standard D&D _story_ tripe I brought up. Gamers have certain expectations about D&D and that includes pretty basic encounters and fairly standard expectations which give players reference points that they 'know'. For instance: 4TH ed still has 'alignments', that is a reference point, you know how your character should react. And speaking of that, there is no role for your character to play, you have no choices, anywhere. People are going to point it out.
My post was just pretty much one of those Game of Thrones memes: "Prepare yourself, the open-open beta players are coming". And with them, the points above which are a summary of my experience, even though as I said, I like what I see and have played but I am concerned you guys are going public too soon.
What Class Are You?
To tell you the truth I'm kind of sick of the forum and can't wait to play my F2P MMO. :cool: