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A Veteran Gamer's Opinion....
samanthya
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users Posts: 98
I don't know about anyone else, but I've been spending a few minutes every couple of hours jumping on the forums to see what's up and make some comments(typically playing the devil's advocate :P), and thought I'd make a post as well to go over some good and bad in NW as well as some personal perspective. This'll likely be long winded. But seeing as how I just finished re-reading The Deverry Series and was hoping to get a hour or two of game time tonight which is no longer going to happen, I thought I'd share my thoughts(not that anyone cares, but let's face it, you're all just as bored as I am not being able to log on and do whatever it is we do on these games).
So without further ado.
The Good:
- Amazing combat system. Each class(yes, every single one), has a very unique feel and to me enjoyable play style. I love the fact that this game puts the tanks/fighters into a role requiring a very high skill level to play effectively. I know a lot of people aren't happy with the current state of required skill on these classes but it's a nice change of pace for me!
- Very in depth story lines, racial quests and various side quests. Obviously on my 3rd-5th time through them I kept hitting f then 1 as fast as I could, but the first few times playing through I read the quests and enjoyed the content for what it was.
- Incredible animations. I mean this for everything. Maybe I'm the only one, but I love to watch how the spider mount moves!!! All the player animations are smooth and very engaging. The mobs, npcs, companions(when they work), everything pretty much is just enjoyable to watch!
- The ability to customize your armor colors and look from day 1(albeit with a lack of options for armor appearances).
- The Foundry. I shouldn't have to even explain how amazing that can be for those who have actually followed some of the stories in there!
- The entire companion system(minus the lack of response or "time-outs" the companions take). When the companions are functioning they are fun to have, you can change their appearance(to a degree), pick one to compliment your play style and train it to make it stronger! I hope they add in an entire skill line to companions in the future to allow you to further customize them!
- The fact that this is Forgotten Realms! Even if it's not "DnD", it's still the world and I'm looking forward to future patches!!
- Non pvp focus. I like that pvp does exist in this game, but I love that pvp is not the focus in this game. I have Gunz I can go play when I want serious pvp action, let me keep this one for my pve fix!
The Bad:
- Exploits, cheaters and available hacks.
- A portion of our community. Throughout all of the countless MMO's I've tried, even going back so far as the different MUDs I've played. I've never seen a community with some of the people as bas as those that exist in this one. This isn't everyone, and all of us can be guilty of playing the troll from time to time. But honestly some people in game and on these forums make me sick.
- Lack of mid to large size raids. Having a party cap of 5 with no raid option or available raids does leave me a bit disappointed.
- Lack of a need for a tank. I don't mind adds being on me on my healer, rogue or wizard at all. Having to kite, switch targets and keep focus is very engaging. But the complete lack of a need for a tank on bosses let alone anything else makes it fairly annoying that one of my favorite roles in MMOs is not needed.
- Lack of the Drow being playable for non-payers. I realize that in the future they are releasing this for everyone, but I wish they'd just go ahead and open this line up for the base players(Please note I'm a founder saying this).
- Lack of a RP server. I mean a dedicated, enforced RP server! Achaea style(10 points to anyone who has played or still plays this gem, another 5 points if you get the pun!). This is "DnD", Forgotten Realms even!!!! I've been reading about this place since I was a little girl and honestly get so annoyed there isn't a server with dedicated/enforced RP.
- Lack of real feat system. I'm an old school table top gamer tho. So I'm not to sure what the new rule sets are, but if this game is the indicator of what the current board game looks like, I'm very glad indeed I walked away when I did.
So what does all of this mean? Honestly not much at the end of the day to most people. But with being able to point out things I immediately love and extremely dislike/borderline hate in this game, it gives me some ideas on what some good fixes would be(to me at least) if I was in the drivers seat.
While I know you didn't ask what those are, I'm bored enough to go ahead and share some of them anyway! And who knows, maybe some of these ideas are actually good(lol yea right!)!!
- Companion Advancement:
This would entail having a much needed overhaul of the entire companion system, but it would allow us to customize our companions with additional feats and abilities. Going so far as to make each one get their own class that we can level up and work on once we acquire certain in-game milestones. Similar to the AA system in EQ, but strictly for companions with a clearly defined cap.
- Raids:
I'm not talking wow vanilla style 40 man raids. 10-15 man raids tho would definitely be more enticing. While I realize the fab 5 from the Companions would(and pretty much could) take on just about anything together, I don't feel that as a general rule that us as a player base should be equal to their match.
- BoP gear:
For the love of all that is being a nerd. Please remove all pvp and t1+ gear from being BoE. I don't care if the random purples are BoE, that's fine, but seriously, best in game loot is able to be passed around?!? This means you need just one good team to equip each and every alt + farm out a small fortune(Obviously this has been done, ridiculously so). Honestly if all of this gear was BoP from day 1 a lot of the issues that are requiring all of this down time would have been void(not completely, but the overstatement does add something to at least imply my point).
- The Zen Store:
As a frequent shopper(I'm pretty sure it's just genetics), I have spent plenty on this game. Honestly, I'll spend much more(yes, I know the economy is shot, people have hacked, exploited, flooded and over-loaded our poor economy), I don't mind spending more just to support this game. But with a degree and an amazing job I can say this, you do realize that the economy of pretty much the entire RL world is hectic at best, and while I'm not a special snowflake having money to burn on a silly game, it isn't something the majority of the gamers can do.
I understand the company needs to make their money. But honestly, if you lowered your prices and/or made it so the purchases turned account bound(excluding keys, trade-able items, ect) that almost every single person would drop 25-50 dollars on this game to get full bag + bank slots. Not to mention companions, mounts and dye's for their characters.
At the very least, create a 1.5k zen bag that is account bound(ie, every character you create gets the bag BoP version), or better yet, fix your zen prices, make the account bound bags 1k zen, the single toon bags 500 zen and the little bags 300 zen. Do the same thing for companions. I'll place money that your company will bring in more money this way.
Let's face it, people who have the cash to drop on these F2P games are willing to drop it, but then we get bored and move to a different game or stick with the one that is the most enjoyable and our financial investment means next to nothing, while those who spend less tend to play longer. 10k people spending 1k or 100k people spending 100 is a wash initially. The main difference you run into is those 10k of us will have pretty much everything we want from your game and need to not bother spending more, while those who spend 100 will likely spend another 25-50 down the road(I didn't study economics past my freshman year tho, so maybe the silly prices that currently stand net you more?!?!). Just my thoughts anyway.
Anyway... Hopefully a lot of the issues... ok let me rephrase that, hopefully the main issues are fixed/being fixed and I can go back to not caring what's happening on the AH and just enjoying this game while not caring what anyone outside of my circle are doing.
TL/DR: There once was a man from Nantuckit, whose... oh wait...
So without further ado.
The Good:
- Amazing combat system. Each class(yes, every single one), has a very unique feel and to me enjoyable play style. I love the fact that this game puts the tanks/fighters into a role requiring a very high skill level to play effectively. I know a lot of people aren't happy with the current state of required skill on these classes but it's a nice change of pace for me!
- Very in depth story lines, racial quests and various side quests. Obviously on my 3rd-5th time through them I kept hitting f then 1 as fast as I could, but the first few times playing through I read the quests and enjoyed the content for what it was.
- Incredible animations. I mean this for everything. Maybe I'm the only one, but I love to watch how the spider mount moves!!! All the player animations are smooth and very engaging. The mobs, npcs, companions(when they work), everything pretty much is just enjoyable to watch!
- The ability to customize your armor colors and look from day 1(albeit with a lack of options for armor appearances).
- The Foundry. I shouldn't have to even explain how amazing that can be for those who have actually followed some of the stories in there!
- The entire companion system(minus the lack of response or "time-outs" the companions take). When the companions are functioning they are fun to have, you can change their appearance(to a degree), pick one to compliment your play style and train it to make it stronger! I hope they add in an entire skill line to companions in the future to allow you to further customize them!
- The fact that this is Forgotten Realms! Even if it's not "DnD", it's still the world and I'm looking forward to future patches!!
- Non pvp focus. I like that pvp does exist in this game, but I love that pvp is not the focus in this game. I have Gunz I can go play when I want serious pvp action, let me keep this one for my pve fix!
The Bad:
- Exploits, cheaters and available hacks.
- A portion of our community. Throughout all of the countless MMO's I've tried, even going back so far as the different MUDs I've played. I've never seen a community with some of the people as bas as those that exist in this one. This isn't everyone, and all of us can be guilty of playing the troll from time to time. But honestly some people in game and on these forums make me sick.
- Lack of mid to large size raids. Having a party cap of 5 with no raid option or available raids does leave me a bit disappointed.
- Lack of a need for a tank. I don't mind adds being on me on my healer, rogue or wizard at all. Having to kite, switch targets and keep focus is very engaging. But the complete lack of a need for a tank on bosses let alone anything else makes it fairly annoying that one of my favorite roles in MMOs is not needed.
- Lack of the Drow being playable for non-payers. I realize that in the future they are releasing this for everyone, but I wish they'd just go ahead and open this line up for the base players(Please note I'm a founder saying this).
- Lack of a RP server. I mean a dedicated, enforced RP server! Achaea style(10 points to anyone who has played or still plays this gem, another 5 points if you get the pun!). This is "DnD", Forgotten Realms even!!!! I've been reading about this place since I was a little girl and honestly get so annoyed there isn't a server with dedicated/enforced RP.
- Lack of real feat system. I'm an old school table top gamer tho. So I'm not to sure what the new rule sets are, but if this game is the indicator of what the current board game looks like, I'm very glad indeed I walked away when I did.
So what does all of this mean? Honestly not much at the end of the day to most people. But with being able to point out things I immediately love and extremely dislike/borderline hate in this game, it gives me some ideas on what some good fixes would be(to me at least) if I was in the drivers seat.
While I know you didn't ask what those are, I'm bored enough to go ahead and share some of them anyway! And who knows, maybe some of these ideas are actually good(lol yea right!)!!
- Companion Advancement:
This would entail having a much needed overhaul of the entire companion system, but it would allow us to customize our companions with additional feats and abilities. Going so far as to make each one get their own class that we can level up and work on once we acquire certain in-game milestones. Similar to the AA system in EQ, but strictly for companions with a clearly defined cap.
- Raids:
I'm not talking wow vanilla style 40 man raids. 10-15 man raids tho would definitely be more enticing. While I realize the fab 5 from the Companions would(and pretty much could) take on just about anything together, I don't feel that as a general rule that us as a player base should be equal to their match.
- BoP gear:
For the love of all that is being a nerd. Please remove all pvp and t1+ gear from being BoE. I don't care if the random purples are BoE, that's fine, but seriously, best in game loot is able to be passed around?!? This means you need just one good team to equip each and every alt + farm out a small fortune(Obviously this has been done, ridiculously so). Honestly if all of this gear was BoP from day 1 a lot of the issues that are requiring all of this down time would have been void(not completely, but the overstatement does add something to at least imply my point).
- The Zen Store:
As a frequent shopper(I'm pretty sure it's just genetics), I have spent plenty on this game. Honestly, I'll spend much more(yes, I know the economy is shot, people have hacked, exploited, flooded and over-loaded our poor economy), I don't mind spending more just to support this game. But with a degree and an amazing job I can say this, you do realize that the economy of pretty much the entire RL world is hectic at best, and while I'm not a special snowflake having money to burn on a silly game, it isn't something the majority of the gamers can do.
I understand the company needs to make their money. But honestly, if you lowered your prices and/or made it so the purchases turned account bound(excluding keys, trade-able items, ect) that almost every single person would drop 25-50 dollars on this game to get full bag + bank slots. Not to mention companions, mounts and dye's for their characters.
At the very least, create a 1.5k zen bag that is account bound(ie, every character you create gets the bag BoP version), or better yet, fix your zen prices, make the account bound bags 1k zen, the single toon bags 500 zen and the little bags 300 zen. Do the same thing for companions. I'll place money that your company will bring in more money this way.
Let's face it, people who have the cash to drop on these F2P games are willing to drop it, but then we get bored and move to a different game or stick with the one that is the most enjoyable and our financial investment means next to nothing, while those who spend less tend to play longer. 10k people spending 1k or 100k people spending 100 is a wash initially. The main difference you run into is those 10k of us will have pretty much everything we want from your game and need to not bother spending more, while those who spend 100 will likely spend another 25-50 down the road(I didn't study economics past my freshman year tho, so maybe the silly prices that currently stand net you more?!?!). Just my thoughts anyway.
Anyway... Hopefully a lot of the issues... ok let me rephrase that, hopefully the main issues are fixed/being fixed and I can go back to not caring what's happening on the AH and just enjoying this game while not caring what anyone outside of my circle are doing.
TL/DR: There once was a man from Nantuckit, whose... oh wait...
Post edited by samanthya on
0
Comments
I wouldn't go so far as to say desperate. Let us go with bored, annoyed and wanting to level my honey badger!!!!
funnily enough, I used to get paid to do exactly that, amongst other things.
Great post 10/10
Concerning the Zen store. I'd be more than willing to buy an epic mount for 25 or the odd companion for 10. But 40 for a mount is asking a bit much in these times. Same goes for the bag prices...bit too much.
The other pet peeve I have is for the prices on AD items like removing gems or feat respecs. I can understand having some things as am AD sink for like the cat companion. But the everyday stuff is a bit pricey. Also the lack of a full respec from AD is rather disheartening as well.
Bound gear and far toooooooooooooooo many currencies hurt the game far more than they help. If you don't enjoy trading or market games there is zero need to participate, trying to deny them to everyone that does enjoy them seems meanpirited at best.
I agree with nearly everything you said except for this. Excuse me, but for someone who said they have experience with MUDS, I would think you understand how important and big a role PvP has always played in MMO's. Also, the focus of the game should be flexible, players should have options about what they want to focus on. Perhaps you play Neverwinter for a PvE fix, fine, but I don't, if anything I play PvE as means to PvP, ie. getting gear to make my character more powerful. Or hey, maybe I like both equally, maybe I just want to be able to PvP as much as I PvE. Who knows, everyone is different.
Unfortunately the state of PvP is quite empty, literally there isn't any to really be had and if you decide to you need to get gear from PvE to make any real impact. This is a big mistake, atleast when it comes to battleground type scenarios. Neverwinter could learn a thing or two from GW2 in this area.
* TWITCH * YOUTUBE * MY GUIDES *
I hate the fact that I am so bored and eager to get any NW fix, till I can play, that I read your entire OP....
@Daranar
Adriana - 41 Control Wizard - 10 Tailor - 4 Leader - Mindflayer
Daranar - 6 Guadian Fighter - Mindflayer
Old school D&D didn't have feats.
Tooltips and Descriptions: Many of the tooltips, descriptions, and information in the game itself are very vague, and sometimes misguiding. Its hard to fully understand all of your abilities, and what they fully do. You're left guessing many things. For example, im a Trickster Rogue, and i have an ability called Smoke Bomb which is described as "Drop a smoke bomb in front of you, Slowing and Dazing opponents while inside of it." I think that is an "ok" description but typically, from my experiences in 5 different MMO's, 3 being P2P and two being F2P (this is the 6th one), descriptions are more descriptive, and this one would specifically include how long it lasts. Now this is one example where you could actually use it and test how long it lasts, but other things like the Executioner Feat called "Overrun Critical" are even harder, here's the description: "When you land a critical hit, one of your next attacks strikes with 30% of your crit severity." So my immediate question is, one of my next hits? As in one of my next 3? 4? 6? 10? And how will i know. With armor penetration and defense playing a factor in how much damage i do, the 30% more damage I do could just look like my armor penetration worked at a higher amount, meaning any hit could look like it did or did not trigger the 30%. These are only very minor examples, but there are MANY descriptions that are terrible and leave you completely confused. I'd provide some of the best ones i could find, but i cannot remember them without getting into the game, which is down right now. Moving on...
Quest Path's: I'm assuming this is just mostly an anomaly of the "quickest route" algorithm used in their code to get you places, but more often than not i find myself running into impassable walls, not being able to find the path because its starting location is too far away and for some reason will not draw itself up to my feet, or just not showing up at all. This can all be fixed, and as a programmer myself, i have a million ideas.. Dont worry, i wont share them here!
Auction House: I see mixed feedback on the Auction House here in the forums. People saying how it works right, others that it doesnt. Well if i use the Neverwinter Gateway, it works beautifully!! But in game, i cannot search by starting level, or use a level range. I've used every method people are saying, in the order they are saying works for them, but in the end, there's definitely problems with the AH. If it works for some and not all, there's a bug somewhere. I have a desktop PC and a laptop, and i have this problem on both. However on my desktop, i have 3 monitors, so i play on the center monitor, and browse the auction house on the left. Also, the lack of things (not all are necessary) such as a history of prices on the last 10+ of each item sold, values for each searchable stat (like 100 power instead of just power), search by buyout only, and a search to restrict the cost range (searching for rings with specific search results to include only those rings that cost up to 1000 AD, everything that costs more then that will be omitted from the results) would all make the auction house a much more useful system, causing people to spend more of their Astral Diamonds, which means all of those selling fees would really eat up a lot of the currency and help to provide a balanced economy. i'd die for these features!
Macros: I have not seen anything to do with Macro's in the game, but i think this would allow for more diversity in the game. Allowing people to change gear so that they may better equip themselves for certain skills and abilities. However i'm not quite sure if skills are dependent on attributes (not DEX, STR, etc.. but Crit, Power, Def, etc...), but if they are, this would be an incredible system and would allow PW/Cryptic to add some incredibly tough epic dungeons that would make it imperative that you switch gear to make every spell, skill, and ability as strong as possible. It would also be useful to use this to switch skill sets (outside of combat only). For example Ctrl+1 or Ctrl+F1 could switch to PvE combat skills. Ctrl+2 or Ctrl+F2 would switch to the Boss skill set. Ctrl+3 or Ctrl+F3 would switch to Dungeon Run skill set. Ctrl+4 or Ctrl+F4 would switch to dungeon run boss skill set. And Ctrl+5 or Ctrl+F5 would switch to PvP skill set. Of course, each skill set is optional, and would be a list of 7 or more command lines that would be run that automatically change the skills, such as "/daily 1 'Shocking Execution'" whicih would change the daily in your first slot to Shocking Execution, as long as you were a Trickster Rogue with Shocking Execution unlocked anyway. But this sort of customization would give players more control, more power over their build, and its relatively simple since these commands would be sent through the engine as a typical console command, its just a set of them.
Equipment: One of the biggest things i've noticed in MMO's is your character's appearance. Games where you look "more awesome" with better equipment as you level helps differentiate you from players. Right now, at level 60, i look just like several people that are level 10. At level 60, basic equipment should mostly look more complex than that of the lower level equipment. This is very apparent in games like World of Warcraft, but in this game, everything looks extremely similar.
Ok last one; Targeting: This, in a way, piggy backs off of the last one. Lets say your a new player. You've reached level 20 and you see somebody walk by looking totally insane like they could squash you with their pinky toe. Trying to inspect this person can be tricky. Being able to target them, so you can right click their portrait and choose the inspect option would make this easier and help lower level players see how other players are equipping themselves so they can get psyched up for the higher levels and getting that equipment themselves. It can also be useful in boss fights where you have certain debilitating spells and effects on the boss that last a short duration. Currently you can only see this incredibly tiny little box next to their constantly moving name, but targeting them would allow you to put your mouse over the icons on their portrait and see what effects are applied, allowing each user to learn other classes spells and abilities as well since the tooltip would also show a short description. There are many useful things for being able to target everything. But i understand this game's system is not about the traditional target based fighting, so even with targeting, it would still not be so. Targeting would be strictly for informational purposes to help empower the players with more information.
Sorry my response was quite long. I really enjoy this game and have spent quite a bit of money on it. What i've mentioned above, if added to the game, would almost force me to spend twice as much or more than i do now. It would be well worth the investment! Of course, including what the OP said applies too.
My name is Yiannis and i am from Greece,37 years old.I am also a veteran player of MMOs and RPGs and i took the opportunity to also post my opinion about the game.
Before that,however i would love to say that people should not take seriously THE FORUM TROLLS and QQrs,not only in this game but in any game.Try to make your honest opinion and try to listen to old and experienced players.
So lets start:
1. First of all this is still BETA,many people complain about the game,like it is allready completed.No,guys,this is BETA.Our job here is to test the game and help them improve it.I played every single MMO since Beta and so far i can say that Neverwinters Beta is the best so far.Also an ancient MMO rule says....Every MMO,needs at least 6 months after release to be totaly fixed.Said that,i really dont understund,how all those new and propably young MMO players,go to every new MMO
This is where I always reach the crossroads, if you will!
Let's take Achaea for example(since this is one I will occasionally log onto from time to time still, ok, I can't say still since it's been about 10 months to a year since I last played but you get the general idea here!!), if this game could incorporate pvp to this level I'd be all for it.
The problem with pvp in a game like this is the inevitable nerf hammer that must come out. If this game stays focused on pve, then they can buff up classes rather then nerf them to obliteration. I hold very little faith in most games that offer pve/pvp on an even footing. Hence the Gunz reference(swords, guns, shotguns!!!). For anyone who's ever played that fun little game they'll understand what I mean. 100% pvp there vs 50% pve 50% pvp and all that!!
Now if, -if-, they could balance things out and make it where I can get my pve AND pvp fix from one game I'd be a very happy lil girl!!
But please, tell me a single MMO that does that and I'll pour half a years salary into it!
Ok, when I say old school I'm talking 15ish years ago. That isn't "old school" to some, but to me that's half my life!!!! My brothers introduced me to dnd when I was like 7 or 8, and let me tell you I made quite the little cleric(ok, ok, maybe I was terrible at it, but dangit I had fun!!!!). I quite when I was around 15 due to discovering boys and didn't get back into dnd in any form til my ex and I started playing nwn... not that you need a personal history lesson of yours truly, but I wanted to at least express where I was coming from :P
For the love of all that is being a nerd. Please remove all pvp and t1+ gear from being BoE. I don't care if the random purples are BoE, that's fine, but seriously, best in game loot is able to be passed around?!? This means you need just one good team to equip each and every alt + farm out a small fortune(Obviously this has been done, ridiculously so). Honestly if all of this gear was BoP from day 1 a lot of the issues that are requiring all of this down time would have been void(not completely, but the overstatement does add something to at least imply my point).
all this means is I got my gear already so make it harder for anyone else to get there's
troll is bad 0/10.
Umm... I farmed mine on the toons...
Therefore your argument is invalid.
If you're buying pvp gear, t1 or t2 off the AH(or rather were), then you my good gamer need to re-evaluate yourself.
It's not that hard to farm. Only requires 4 other people with a modicum of skill to pull off.
Keeping the dev team from being focused, and HAMSTER up the pve balance of the game when pvp whining gets abilities & classes ruined?
Yea, my thoughts exactly on it. Even the great MUDs were and are unbalanced. But it's also not possible(nor allowed) to just gank people without cause in those games either so it's a balance.
Plus when you're dealing with a community of a few hundred vs a hundred thousand....
I really do wish they -could- make a pve/pvp game that was balanced for both sides tho.
I doubt they'll remove tradeable epics, though. It gives people a reason to buy zen to get astral diamonds - it's probably baked into their model. And, really, if you've got an amazing degree and job, I'm sure the cost benefit tradeoff must be tempting occasionally! It's easier to spend an hour's pay on getting a full T2 gearset than it is trying to grind it out with groups of pubbies.