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Observations from a newcomer....
baranthus
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild Users Posts: 54
Hello 
I thought I'd share my feelings towards this game - a game I never, ever thought I'd play.
I had been a P+P player since 1983-84 and when the Baldurs Gate series started, I was mightily impressed. Neverwinter Nights and it's expansions followed and after the single-player content had been completed, I got stuck into multi-player. I ended up playing on a server called Lala Land - it was very difficult but had a large friendly community. I stayed there for about 8-9 years. :P However, all was not well in Lala Land. There were many bugs and many great ideas that were left (infuriatingly( incomplete). The ruleset that was followed was 3.5 - this was very important to me as I thought 4 was a monumental mistake. Anyways - Neverwinter Nights 2 was born and that was a catastrophe. ( i'm sure a tiny minority will try to say otherwise, but no DM client, zillions of bugs etc etc). And to compound things further for NWN, a number of other games had been released and were doing well - WoW, Guild Wars, Elder Scrolls etc etc. The final nails in the coffin of NWN were well and truly hammered in.
Meanwhile, in Lala Land, things were beginning to fragment. Official support for the game was pulled and this increased a certain amount of negativity towards the game - no new cointent, no new patches - all contributed to an underlying sense of sadness and inevitability - our beloved game and server was dying. The staff were slowly dwindling and disappearing as were a lot of the players - for me it was an incredibly sad time; seeing friends you have known for 8 years leave the game = no more incredible battles together, no one saving your a$$, no more buzzing seeming them find that select piece of gear they have alwats wanted. All that went. About a year ago, I went to Lala one last time. 3 people were on the server. I immediately logged out, gutted.
About 2 years ago, someone on Lala's forums mentioned that a company called Cryptic had purchased the rights to Neverwinter Nights and that NWN3 was going to be released. This was instantly shot down in flames by the community ("Cryptic SUCK!") and me ("they are using AD+D 4 rules? GTFO"). I then made an enormous mistake: "somethings that shouldn't have been forgotten, were lost." - I heard no more from Neverwinter/Cryptic apart from an occasional email. By this time, I had started my MMO wanderings, to try and find something that I could love like I did Lala Land.
Lord of the Rings Online came close but I joined the game very late - I've discovered that I like to start early with games, as they get released. With LotRO, I felt that the game was also starting to become neglected - new expacs were being released but with tons of bugs. I moved on to the Secret World - I like this game a lot but it has, again, lots of bugs. Then there was Star Wars: The Old Republic. Loved it at first but wow - that game has been killed by the greed of it's owners (I could go on forever about that but, hey, I'm going on long enough in this post! ).
Ok, so a week ago, my friend Vovinia says "Ijust downloaded Neverwinter. It's free - you should at LEAST try it." Ugh - I though. But Vo is super cool and knows her stuff and I trust her. I downloaded it. The next bit, for me is important:
I told myself I would only play for ONE HOUR. That was at 7pm on Friday. I logged out at 5am Saturday....
So here we are. The game has made a great initial impression. I have yet to discover many bugs although I'm just flying through the game solo while I get a 'feel' for it.
Things I REALLY like about this game is that the peripheral systems are firmly in place and complete (I'm not saying they aren't buggy but that's not the point of this post - these are just first impressions). Things like the deity system (rudimentary but it's still present all the same), crafting system (haven't tried in depth but looks full of potential) and the 'dailies' system - this in paticular has a really good feel and takes a lot of the effort out of finding a party - HOWEVER, the queuing system is obviously a work in progress and needs some refinement ("I KNOW I'm in the queue - I've been in one for nearly an hour!") to get it working more efficiently.
I like the way some stuff has been kept back until a later date (Ranger class etc) and I can only imagine how good any expansions may be.
Aesthetically, Neverwinter is very very beautiful to look at. I also get NO lag and that's ANYWHERE. That in itself is an obviously MASSIVE plus!
Things I'm not so enraptured with, luckily, do not outweigh the good stuff but I feel they are VERY relevant none the less. The Guild system feels really underwhelming - this is one area that does NOT feel completed and indeed feels very much like a work in progress. I always think that Guilds should be the cornerstone of MMO's. Obviously that's just a personal opinion, but I feel that when people are able to join with others who enjoy doing the same (Guilds that: PVP, trade/craft, RP, grind etc etc) it's really good for the game and servers in particular - it's Guilds that give the server real glue to keep the community close-knit, as well as identity. I also would like to see some foreign language servers introduced - at the moment, my chat box moves at about 3 million lines per minute!
Player housing would be a brilliant addition. Psychologically, I think when people own there own residence in game, it adds to the loyaltyfactor a player has towards that particular server (that and I can store some of the stuff i need to because my bags get full so quick!).
Astral diamonds and the Zen market/currency - no heres a topic of contention. :P Personally, I LIKE it. It may seem a little overpriced but on the whole it's not TOO bad. I'll try to elaborate. It's early days for a lot of players and some aren't in a position to buy a Hero of the North pack (it includes 2 million diamonds). However, just by playing the game and watching the market prices, I think it's not too hard to start with nothing and then make a bunch of AD's and Zen. I realise a lot of people thing the market is hideously over-priced and i can understand that initial reaction. But I firmly believe the opportunity and possibilities of earning a lot of AD/Zen are there to be discovered and when they are, the prices in the market won't seem so bad.
Ok. I'm finally going to "stfu ****" and put my anti-flaming helmet (+3) on. If you actually got this far without falling asleep, I salute you.
B
I thought I'd share my feelings towards this game - a game I never, ever thought I'd play.
I had been a P+P player since 1983-84 and when the Baldurs Gate series started, I was mightily impressed. Neverwinter Nights and it's expansions followed and after the single-player content had been completed, I got stuck into multi-player. I ended up playing on a server called Lala Land - it was very difficult but had a large friendly community. I stayed there for about 8-9 years. :P However, all was not well in Lala Land. There were many bugs and many great ideas that were left (infuriatingly( incomplete). The ruleset that was followed was 3.5 - this was very important to me as I thought 4 was a monumental mistake. Anyways - Neverwinter Nights 2 was born and that was a catastrophe. ( i'm sure a tiny minority will try to say otherwise, but no DM client, zillions of bugs etc etc). And to compound things further for NWN, a number of other games had been released and were doing well - WoW, Guild Wars, Elder Scrolls etc etc. The final nails in the coffin of NWN were well and truly hammered in.
Meanwhile, in Lala Land, things were beginning to fragment. Official support for the game was pulled and this increased a certain amount of negativity towards the game - no new cointent, no new patches - all contributed to an underlying sense of sadness and inevitability - our beloved game and server was dying. The staff were slowly dwindling and disappearing as were a lot of the players - for me it was an incredibly sad time; seeing friends you have known for 8 years leave the game = no more incredible battles together, no one saving your a$$, no more buzzing seeming them find that select piece of gear they have alwats wanted. All that went. About a year ago, I went to Lala one last time. 3 people were on the server. I immediately logged out, gutted.
About 2 years ago, someone on Lala's forums mentioned that a company called Cryptic had purchased the rights to Neverwinter Nights and that NWN3 was going to be released. This was instantly shot down in flames by the community ("Cryptic SUCK!") and me ("they are using AD+D 4 rules? GTFO"). I then made an enormous mistake: "somethings that shouldn't have been forgotten, were lost." - I heard no more from Neverwinter/Cryptic apart from an occasional email. By this time, I had started my MMO wanderings, to try and find something that I could love like I did Lala Land.
Lord of the Rings Online came close but I joined the game very late - I've discovered that I like to start early with games, as they get released. With LotRO, I felt that the game was also starting to become neglected - new expacs were being released but with tons of bugs. I moved on to the Secret World - I like this game a lot but it has, again, lots of bugs. Then there was Star Wars: The Old Republic. Loved it at first but wow - that game has been killed by the greed of it's owners (I could go on forever about that but, hey, I'm going on long enough in this post!
).Ok, so a week ago, my friend Vovinia says "Ijust downloaded Neverwinter. It's free - you should at LEAST try it." Ugh - I though. But Vo is super cool and knows her stuff and I trust her. I downloaded it. The next bit, for me is important:
I told myself I would only play for ONE HOUR. That was at 7pm on Friday. I logged out at 5am Saturday....
So here we are. The game has made a great initial impression. I have yet to discover many bugs although I'm just flying through the game solo while I get a 'feel' for it.
Things I REALLY like about this game is that the peripheral systems are firmly in place and complete (I'm not saying they aren't buggy but that's not the point of this post - these are just first impressions). Things like the deity system (rudimentary but it's still present all the same), crafting system (haven't tried in depth but looks full of potential) and the 'dailies' system - this in paticular has a really good feel and takes a lot of the effort out of finding a party - HOWEVER, the queuing system is obviously a work in progress and needs some refinement ("I KNOW I'm in the queue - I've been in one for nearly an hour!") to get it working more efficiently.
I like the way some stuff has been kept back until a later date (Ranger class etc) and I can only imagine how good any expansions may be.
Aesthetically, Neverwinter is very very beautiful to look at. I also get NO lag and that's ANYWHERE. That in itself is an obviously MASSIVE plus!
Things I'm not so enraptured with, luckily, do not outweigh the good stuff but I feel they are VERY relevant none the less. The Guild system feels really underwhelming - this is one area that does NOT feel completed and indeed feels very much like a work in progress. I always think that Guilds should be the cornerstone of MMO's. Obviously that's just a personal opinion, but I feel that when people are able to join with others who enjoy doing the same (Guilds that: PVP, trade/craft, RP, grind etc etc) it's really good for the game and servers in particular - it's Guilds that give the server real glue to keep the community close-knit, as well as identity. I also would like to see some foreign language servers introduced - at the moment, my chat box moves at about 3 million lines per minute!
Player housing would be a brilliant addition. Psychologically, I think when people own there own residence in game, it adds to the loyaltyfactor a player has towards that particular server (that and I can store some of the stuff i need to because my bags get full so quick!).
Astral diamonds and the Zen market/currency - no heres a topic of contention. :P Personally, I LIKE it. It may seem a little overpriced but on the whole it's not TOO bad. I'll try to elaborate. It's early days for a lot of players and some aren't in a position to buy a Hero of the North pack (it includes 2 million diamonds). However, just by playing the game and watching the market prices, I think it's not too hard to start with nothing and then make a bunch of AD's and Zen. I realise a lot of people thing the market is hideously over-priced and i can understand that initial reaction. But I firmly believe the opportunity and possibilities of earning a lot of AD/Zen are there to be discovered and when they are, the prices in the market won't seem so bad.
Ok. I'm finally going to "stfu ****" and put my anti-flaming helmet (+3) on. If you actually got this far without falling asleep, I salute you.
B
Post edited by baranthus on
0
Comments
Deity system......what system? it's a choice you make at character creation, and a title....that's it.
Crafting system..I like the idea, but feel it needs more fleshing out. I do not share your opinion that crafting feels complete. I want more return for my craft grinding than the ability to make a few AD and a set of pants and shirts. (I haven't tried alchemy, it may be a step further along since it was introduced late)
That being said, I am glad you find the game fun.
- JailBreak (in development)
Much to my surprise, I've been drawn into the game too. I don't like multiplayer games and I wasn't very interested in Neverwinter when they announced it was going to be an MMO. I prefer single player games and I was very disappointed that the new game wasn't going to be single player like its predecessors.
But I was bored and had nothing else to play, so I figured I'd give it a shot. I haven't stopped playing it since I downloaded it. Despite its flaws, it's one of the best MMO's I've played to date.
I don't think I've ever lasted this long in a MMO before. But yes, it certainly has its flaws.
I guess you're promoting that foundry quest in your sig this way?
Why? He had well written and coherent thoughts. The length of his post was just fine, because he had a lot to say. It also did have paragraph breaks so you can't really claim it's a wall of text.
Clearly you didn't actually read the post, and rather as was said above were just looking for an excuse to plug your foundry mission.
Thank you for your recommendation. If the wall of text is so bothersome, jog on and find something else more suitable to read. Thanks
As for the Astral Diamond situations...I don't mind it so much either. I work 12hr shifts and will set Leadership tasks. So all of my characters are not wanting for AD.
I totally agree re: crafting! I haven't tried it out myself in any depth - I have a leather worker who has been collecting pelts for the last39 levels or so haha
I do have a tendency to bang on. Apologies!
- JailBreak (in development)
Im a pretty relaxed guy...if i like something, i continue to play it. if i enjoy it more then a few hours, im willing to invest capital. I guess thats the nice thing about f2p...you can spend if you like, or not...but still play.
Crafting does need serious improvement...but its about a month away (dev blog), and it looks like they are doing much of exactly what the system needs. good stuff. overall, the next "content" patch looks like they are steadily improving the game. good enough for me. there are still a few things they need to fix (unbinding companions, companion leveling), so well see what happens with that. but it hasn't scared me away yet.
Gonna plug my sig as well.
Actually, since you appear to not know anything. Practically everyone with a foundry quest has the shortcode in their sig. Also, Clearly I stated that I felt it was TD:LR, but I guess you don't know about that either.
Anyway, I am sure he had a lot of good things to say, but that doesn't change the fact that the first paragraph is literally a blob of white.
- JailBreak (in development)
no tldr son im disappoint