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Bland Game Immersion - Random Companion(looks/gender/race), In Game Community & Life

artuvasartuvas Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild Users Posts: 30 Arc User
edited June 2013 in General Discussion (PC)
One thing I have always been searching for that I had found rarely throughout 17 years of MMO gaming is, a sense of immersion into the world or game that had been created. I found it heavily in Ultima Online in 1997, again in Dark Age of Camelot in 2001, in World of Warcraft in 2004, and Lord of the Rings Online also had it. Aside from those many games I've played feel like I'm playing a selfish single player game with a chat room attached to it, with hardly a sense of community within the game itself or a town/city life. I don't talk to the people I encounter physically as much, nor do I pay attention to much of it. Even the dungeoning and grouping leaves you without that bonding with other players. I would love to stroll through town recognizing players who I love, and hate, players that intimdate, and wow me, players that look weak and seeing people representing guilds that I love/hate or dislike or envy.

This game has such a great foundation but I think it could benefit greatly and be so much more if you were to try to add a little bit of immersion into the city of neverwinter.

First off, I understand the technical issues with having more than one instance of town, but first you should have as few as possible. Like the moonstone mask, people can go there to talk and meet and greet, but it's few and far between.

Also the companions and their skins are really really bland, town looks cluttered and cluster****ed with NPC's who all look EXACTLY the same, even with the different armor skins. Is there any way to make these companions a randomly generated physical model, like in the charactar creation menu? It would be nice to have halfling wizards, and tiefling clerics, brown and black and white wolves, cats, dogs. Fat and skinny models with different skin tones and hair colors for all the classes of the Companions. I can't see how this could be that hard to implement at all. It would do greatly into making the game look much richer and livelier, along those lines at least.

Thirdly, Perhaps creating a guild tabbard or guild cloak slot. Or the ability to have a guild Dye bottle, where players could identify who they are and who others are with their eyes, rather than just looking at their tags. I don't think this would be too hard to implement either.

I think that is something those games i mentioned above had, and what added to their community within the game, and it went a long way in me feeling attached or feeling part of the game I was involved in. They were living and breathing.

I put extra emphasis on the second part, because the world does look so very stupid with every single class companion looking exactly the same as the next person. Just my feedback, hope some of it helps and comes to fruition. Thanks for your time.
Post edited by artuvas on

Comments

  • gaatorgaator Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 104
    edited June 2013
    wow just wow, I would give you an applause if we were face to face. Excellent post.
  • antovarasantovaras Member Posts: 1 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    All good ideas for the future... Non-customisable companions is just weird after a while.
    A world to defend
    A city to protect
    innocents to save
    "Why?" They ask "they hate you"
    We're heroes it's what we do.
    *patiently waiting on Paragon City*
  • vheraunvheraun Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 180 Bounty Hunter
    edited June 2013
    Hello there!

    First of all, I couldn't agree more. I wish I could play a game like the one you desribed.

    Now, I have good news and bad news for you.
    Bad news is, as awesome as that sounds, I think it would be functionally impossible, due to the number of players, zones and instances that you mentioned yourself. I rarely ever see the same player twice in different places.
    Good news is, being a roleplayer myself, I can guarantee that this happens in the roleplaying community. We are not so many, and the Moonstone Mask, the primary meeting place of roleplayers, only has one instance. The result is, I constantly bump into people my character has met, knows, likes or dislikes. Sadly, outside the Mask, this doesn't happen all that often, almost never...

    I'm just glad there are people with your attitude, albeit a minority.
  • artuvasartuvas Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild Users Posts: 30 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    I don't see why they didn't think of this with the Companions, that's one of the worst aspects of the game for me. I mean how hard or difficult could it be, that when you buy a companion, whatever class you buy it spawns with a random look, skin color, hair style, physique, gender, race...it would make the city and the game looking 2 million times better, so easily. The game just looks silly right now, I think so silly that it depresses players and they don't even realize it, that they aren't even paying attention to the beautiful world created around them. The variety would make the look and feel of the immersion just exponentially better.
  • artuvasartuvas Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild Users Posts: 30 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    vheraun wrote: »
    Hello there!

    First of all, I couldn't agree more. I wish I could play a game like the one you desribed.

    Now, I have good news and bad news for you.
    Bad news is, as awesome as that sounds, I think it would be functionally impossible, due to the number of players, zones and instances that you mentioned yourself. I rarely ever see the same player twice in different places.
    Good news is, being a roleplayer myself, I can guarantee that this happens in the roleplaying community. We are not so many, and the Moonstone Mask, the primary meeting place of roleplayers, only has one instance. The result is, I constantly bump into people my character has met, knows, likes or dislikes. Sadly, outside the Mask, this doesn't happen all that often, almost never...

    I'm just glad there are people with your attitude, albeit a minority.

    vheraun, thank you. i have experienced those types of worlds in the games that I mentioned above. why would it be functionally impossible though, world of warcraft has millions more players all in one instance per server. At worst i wish they could minimize it.
  • vheraunvheraun Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 180 Bounty Hunter
    edited June 2013
    Well, I might just give LOTRO another chance if what you say is true...

    Anyway, the real problem is not in the instances, it's in the sheer number of players. Perhaps some conclusion could be reached regarding guilds, but, instances or not, there are few chances that you'd get to see the same player a lot of times.

    Once again, I think it would be great, I just don't really see it happening...

    On the companions, I totally agree as well.
  • artuvasartuvas Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild Users Posts: 30 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    I mean this is how ridiculous it looks. And these pictures are mild. Since it's 7am in the morning. During peak hour this just looks almost too stupid to seriously think of it as a mmorpg world. Think about how much different it would look with the random appearance/race/gender for the companions, I think it would actually look very rich and engrossing.
  • artuvasartuvas Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild Users Posts: 30 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Bump on the ridiculousness tip...come on agree with me and maybe the designers will take notice for this easy addition
  • quorforgedquorforged Member, Neverwinter Beta Users Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    The main problem there is a bug where companions stay behind when a player logs off or zones out. Without that, it wouldn't be nearly as absurd.

    Customizable companion appearance would be nice, but there's a lot of other things I'd rather they spend the time on.
  • fondlezfondlez Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Another option with regards to Companions, while they implement the appearance differences and customization, is that the Companions be invisible while in Towns.

    That way, you don't get the ridiculous, monotone, overlapping and depressing visual cluster. It also happens to instantly solve the Companion-only Orgy that seems to happen at every town entrance/exit, though that is technically a different problem, no doubt.

    Also, while they are at it, another way to get attachments from Mail or at least more than one Mailman in the entire universe would be nice...
  • artuvasartuvas Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild Users Posts: 30 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    quorforged wrote: »
    The main problem there is a bug where companions stay behind when a player logs off or zones out. Without that, it wouldn't be nearly as absurd.

    Customizable companion appearance would be nice, but there's a lot of other things I'd rather they spend the time on.

    Not even talking customizable, but at least just random, to add much more visual diversity to the world you're supposed to be immersed in.
  • kwequakwequa Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Clone wars.. :rolleyes: I applaud your idea. Random would be much better than the mess that is there now.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • grimhelmegrimhelme Member Posts: 19 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    As difficult as I find the socialization in the standard MMO, the action orientation of this game makes it more difficult to socialize, mostly in dungeon, where people are most likely to interact.

    From what I have seen and read, many are recommending joining guilds, but with the lower social interaction factor in this game, I find it even more difficult than the average MMO to get to know people enough to find/get invited to join a guild.

    Can anyone provide hints/tips to help out with this?

    Also, is the in-game voice chat broken? I can't seem to get it to work.
  • quoiskyquoisky Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Ya, that's pretty what I was thinking about the game. It's missing life! Everything looks "foggy/blurry" nothing attracks the eye at all. Lack of livid colors and everyone DOES look exactly the same! It's like I'm staring at my dupe at every corner I turn!
    Oh look, another cleric! But is it me? Can't tell because it looks just like me! The only way to tell them apart is when we turn a cheek in pyp, then you know who put money ingame!

    Oh btw, following the same pattern as the other Perfect world games (Pay-to-win) WASN'T a good idea! ----> :( sad face!
  • shybarbieshybarbie Member Posts: 12 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    Please fix female wizard's stance. It looks so awkward.
    Just shy, not antisocial.
  • sockmunkeysockmunkey Member Posts: 4,622 Arc User
    edited June 2013
    antovaras wrote: »
    All good ideas for the future... Non-customisable companions is just weird after a while.

    Especially considering this is a regression from previous games. STO gives you full reign to customize your companions all you want. Including the ability to give them basic instructions. NWs system, despite being imported from STO, left the best parts out.
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