As much as I like the frequency of new content, three month is awfully close with all the issues that are still lingering. GF and CW need a total revamp, there is the ArPen issue since ever, HR is announced to get another rework and TR its stealth nerf. And that's not counting all the minor issues with classes and content.
I would like to focus on current problems than another module in August.
So, nerf every class you mentioned, but the one you play, which I am assuming is a GWF of DC? I think from the point of when this was posted, that the changes they are proposing to some classes are great. Yet, NERF TR STEALTH? Might as well not have rogues in the game then. No stealth = no rogue. I have see some dumb comments, but this one is up there with, "NOT being thought out very well"
Albeit, there are known issues and I agree that fixes would be great before new content; I just can't find the logic to believe that GF and CW need a total revamp... I think the only thing I agree with is that HR's need a serious rework. Thier melee stance is absolutely worthless. It does hardly any damage and you get eaten alive by every other class while in melee. Even DC's with poor damage can outlive your strike; ALL DAY LONG.
Yep, I agree fixes before new content. Like FIX the Roar bug. I am tired of getting chain stunned by a very SHORT cooldown bug that does more than what it is supposed to do.
Other fixes, that I have read or heard are on the way, I am hopefull.
0
eruvatar0772Member, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 1Arc User
edited August 2014
Perfect Negation and other Armor and Weapon Enchantment Issues
Something needs to be done as soon as possible about this enchantment as well as some other armor and weapon enchants. I have a Perfect Negation Enchantment on my GWF and with my Armor in my opinion it is the coolest looking armor enchantment in the game… But its next to useless, especially compared to barkshield, soulforged, and most others. I can’t see how a designer could put so much intricate detail into the graphics of this item for it to be forgotten about for so long (or so it seems) the 25% damage reduction is very nice, but the fact that it only lasts 7 seconds and can only proc once every minute makes it so situational and random. It costs just as much and takes just as much work to make as any other armor enchantment yet compared to barkshield, which gives such an amazing defensive effect, it really is just not worth getting at all. My suggestion Would be to reduce the 60 second cd to around 25-30 seconds, or increase the duration. Or add some other effect to it if its going to still have a 60 second CD. For instance when it procs not only does it give you 25% damage reduction, but also makes you Immune to Control effects and/or gives you a 2500 point damage shield after the damage resistant buff expires. Then it would at least be close to useful. Even it it did what I suggest though and had a 30 second CD, barkshield and soulforged are still far superior. This makes it where almost every endgame character is using the same few armor enchantments right now. There are others that could be reworked. The perfect Elven is the first one that comes to mind since its perfect version is just completely broke. But not only could it have control resist. Maybe give it the ability to allow you to break free from one crowd control ability once a minute. I also have a perfect thunderhead enchantment I believe its called. I tried this enchantment out in domination pvp for quite a while, and never once noticed it proc. So im not sure if its not working against players or I just got unlucky. It is supposed to have a chance on getting hit to deal lightning damage and stun all surrounding enemies for a brief time. Maybe as a GWF every time it procced for me the only enemies that were close enough for it to hit I had already CCed. But I assumed I would see some lightning bolts shoot from the sky or from my character and some indicator that it had worked. I tried looking through the log I never could find where it had procced once. There are many more weapon enchants as well that when you compare them to perfect vorpals essentially as long as you have 33% crit chance or higher a perfect vorpal is gonna give you around 28-30% increased overall damage. Where as greater plaguefire which I believe is the next most damaging gives a 12.5% damage increase but also allows your team mates to do extra damage to the enemies. But that still isn’t nearly enough to make up for how strong the perfect vorpal is. I don’t think the perfect vorpal should be changed at all, just that other weapon enchantments should have their effects changed to be more unique offering bonuses that would benefit you and/or your group enough to not feel forced into using a perfect vorpal as a DPS class. I even see a lot of non DPS specced classes using them because they are just so superior over the others. Anyways I think I have got my point across and ive talked to a lot of players that completely agree that something needs to be done about these enchantments. I would hate to just see new weapon and armor enchantments added and the old ones forgot about and remain obsolete, especially one like the Perfect Negation Enchantment that looks soooo amazing. There are a lot of players out there like me that really take pride in creating a unique look for themselves and in all of the mmos I have played I always want to look as cool as possible and have as many options to customize my look as possible. And with the change armor appearance system you guys have it set up amazingly except I think the AD price for it should be lowered quite a bit. Anyways I hope you guys are looking into the Armor and Weapon Enchant issue and if not then please do. It is forcing a lot of max-level players to all have to use the same few enchantments and therefore have the same graphic effects. Which really takes away from the endgame experience in my opinion. Sorry for such a long post but this is something I am very passionate about and I think that Neverwinter is an amazing game that with a little more work has the potential to be one of the greatest MMOS ever made.
perfect negation and other armor and weapon enchantment issues
something needs to be done as soon as possible about this enchantment as well as some other armor and weapon enchants. I have a perfect negation enchantment on my gwf and with my armor in my opinion it is the coolest looking armor enchantment in the game… but its next to useless, especially compared to barkshield, soulforged, and most others. I can’t see how a designer could put so much intricate detail into the graphics of this item for it to be forgotten about for so long (or so it seems) the 25% damage reduction is very nice, but the fact that it only lasts 7 seconds and can only proc once every minute makes it so situational and random. It costs just as much and takes just as much work to make as any other armor enchantment yet compared to barkshield, which gives such an amazing defensive effect, it really is just not worth getting at all. My suggestion would be to reduce the 60 second cd to around 25-30 seconds, or increase the duration. Or add some other effect to it if its going to still have a 60 second cd. For instance when it procs not only does it give you 25% damage reduction, but also makes you immune to control effects and/or gives you a 2500 point damage shield after the damage resistant buff expires. Then it would at least be close to useful. Even it it did what i suggest though and had a 30 second cd, barkshield and soulforged are still far superior. This makes it where almost every endgame character is using the same few armor enchantments right now. There are others that could be reworked. The perfect elven is the first one that comes to mind since its perfect version is just completely broke. But not only could it have control resist. Maybe give it the ability to allow you to break free from one crowd control ability once a minute. I also have a perfect thunderhead enchantment i believe its called. I tried this enchantment out in domination pvp for quite a while, and never once noticed it proc. So im not sure if its not working against players or i just got unlucky. It is supposed to have a chance on getting hit to deal lightning damage and stun all surrounding enemies for a brief time. Maybe as a gwf every time it procced for me the only enemies that were close enough for it to hit i had already cced. But i assumed i would see some lightning bolts shoot from the sky or from my character and some indicator that it had worked. I tried looking through the log i never could find where it had procced once. There are many more weapon enchants as well that when you compare them to perfect vorpals essentially as long as you have 33% crit chance or higher a perfect vorpal is gonna give you around 28-30% increased overall damage. Where as greater plaguefire which i believe is the next most damaging gives a 12.5% damage increase but also allows your team mates to do extra damage to the enemies. But that still isn’t nearly enough to make up for how strong the perfect vorpal is. I don’t think the perfect vorpal should be changed at all, just that other weapon enchantments should have their effects changed to be more unique offering bonuses that would benefit you and/or your group enough to not feel forced into using a perfect vorpal as a dps class. I even see a lot of non dps specced classes using them because they are just so superior over the others. Anyways i think i have got my point across and ive talked to a lot of players that completely agree that something needs to be done about these enchantments. I would hate to just see new weapon and armor enchantments added and the old ones forgot about and remain obsolete, especially one like the perfect negation enchantment that looks soooo amazing. There are a lot of players out there like me that really take pride in creating a unique look for themselves and in all of the mmos i have played i always want to look as cool as possible and have as many options to customize my look as possible. And with the change armor appearance system you guys have it set up amazingly except i think the ad price for it should be lowered quite a bit. Anyways i hope you guys are looking into the armor and weapon enchant issue and if not then please do. It is forcing a lot of max-level players to all have to use the same few enchantments and therefore have the same graphic effects. Which really takes away from the endgame experience in my opinion. Sorry for such a long post but this is something i am very passionate about and i think that neverwinter is an amazing game that with a little more work has the potential to be one of the greatest mmos ever made.
Perfect Negation and other Armor and Weapon Enchantment Issues
Something needs to be done as soon as possible about this enchantment as well as some other armor and weapon enchants.
I have a Perfect Negation Enchantment on my GWF and with my Armor in my opinion it is the coolest looking armor enchantment in the game… But its next to useless, especially compared to barkshield, soulforged, and most others. I can’t see how a designer could put so much intricate detail into the graphics of this item for it to be forgotten about for so long (or so it seems) the 25% damage reduction is very nice, but the fact that it only lasts 7 seconds and can only proc once every minute makes it so situational and random. It costs just as much and takes just as much work to make as any other armor enchantment yet compared to barkshield, which gives such an amazing defensive effect, it really is just not worth getting at all.
My suggestion Would be to reduce the 60 second cd to around 25-30 seconds, or increase the duration. Or add some other effect to it if its going to still have a 60 second CD. For instance when it procs not only does it give you 25% damage reduction, but also makes you Immune to Control effects and/or gives you a 2500 point damage shield after the damage resistant buff expires. Then it would at least be close to useful. Even it it did what I suggest though and had a 30 second CD, barkshield and soulforged are still far superior. This makes it where almost every endgame character is using the same few armor enchantments right now.
There are others that could be reworked. The perfect Elven is the first one that comes to mind since its perfect version is just completely broke. But not only could it have control resist. Maybe give it the ability to allow you to break free from one crowd control ability once a minute.
I also have a perfect thunderhead enchantment I believe its called. I tried this enchantment out in domination pvp for quite a while, and never once noticed it proc. So im not sure if its not working against players or I just got unlucky. It is supposed to have a chance on getting hit to deal lightning damage and stun all surrounding enemies for a brief time. Maybe as a GWF every time it procced for me the only enemies that were close enough for it to hit I had already CCed. But I assumed I would see some lightning bolts shoot from the sky or from my character and some indicator that it had worked. I tried looking through the log I never could find where it had procced once.
There are many more weapon enchants as well that when you compare them to perfect vorpals essentially as long as you have 33% crit chance or higher a perfect vorpal is gonna give you around 28-30% increased overall damage. Where as greater plaguefire which I believe is the next most damaging gives a 12.5% damage increase but also allows your team mates to do extra damage to the enemies. But that still isn’t nearly enough to make up for how strong the perfect vorpal is. I don’t think the perfect vorpal should be changed at all, just that other weapon enchantments should have their effects changed to be more unique offering bonuses that would benefit you and/or your group enough to not feel forced into using a perfect vorpal as a DPS class. I even see a lot of non DPS specced classes using them because they are just so superior over the others.
Anyways I think I have got my point across and ive talked to a lot of players that completely agree that something needs to be done about these enchantments. I would hate to just see new weapon and armor enchantments added and the old ones forgot about and remain obsolete, especially one like the Perfect Negation Enchantment that looks soooo amazing. There are a lot of players out there like me that really take pride in creating a unique look for themselves and in all of the mmos I have played I always want to look as cool as possible and have as many options to customize my look as possible. And with the change armor appearance system you guys have it set up amazingly except I think the AD price for it should be lowered quite a bit.
Anyways I hope you guys are looking into the Armor and Weapon Enchant issue and if not then please do. It is forcing a lot of max-level players to all have to use the same few enchantments and therefore have the same graphic effects. Which really takes away from the endgame experience in my opinion. Sorry for such a long post but this is something I am very passionate about and I think that Neverwinter is an amazing game that with a little more work has the potential to be one of the greatest MMOS ever made.
Line breaks (and nothing else) added.
The right to command is earned through duty, the privilege of rank is service.
This might be the beginning of the end for neverwinter, they have completely ruined class balance and they still didnt increase the amount of people who can be in the same instance in icewindale and they didnt allow people to be able to switch instance. this is why open pvp is sooo hard and it is hard to get a massive war going. you devs need to get your priorities right.
This might be the beginning of the end for neverwinter, they have completely ruined class balance and they still didnt increase the amount of people who can be in the same instance in icewindale and they didnt allow people to be able to switch instance. this is why open pvp is sooo hard and it is hard to get a massive war going. you devs need to get your priorities right.
I totally agree. Plus we are getting lag sometimes in Icewind Dale with only a few people online. I can't even start to imagine how it would be on live server...
99 lines of code on the wall, 99 lines of code, add one line, compile it again....... 113 lines on code on the wall 113 lines of code on the wall, 113 lines of code, rewrite one line, compile it again....... Wait For It
beckylunaticMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 14,231Arc User
edited August 2014
Jeebus, they always warn that maintenance could take longer than scheduled, even when they're not loading an entire module. They'll be up when they're up.
(And then we have a solid chance of emergency maintenance later in the day. lulz)
Not to sure why they could not come up with a new map, it is not that difficult to make a start area. Should have had a foundry competition to make a new start area. It would cultivate more ideas and allow the players to get involved. Some of us really like to make our own maps and use all the detail available. Tera Online, created a Reaper Class, four new dungeons, but no new area. They lost 30% of their players. People are very fickle when it comes to online games. The wow factor is what keeps them playing as well as the classes that they enjoy playing. Messing around with the classes is never a good idea. Improvements or otherwise. World of Warcraft made that mistake and lost almost half of their regular player base.
The Solazar Chronicles
Part 1: The Rise of Solazar NW-DJDWTCHAA Part 3: The Voyage to Renford NW-DIHXKV9JA
Garden Maze NW-DK3RXTLKM The Legend of Bantheran NW-DFGGUD8UH
Over/under 1.5 maintenance/restarts within 48 hours of mod 4!?
LOL, I'll play. Who starts first?
99 lines of code on the wall, 99 lines of code, add one line, compile it again....... 113 lines on code on the wall 113 lines of code on the wall, 113 lines of code, rewrite one line, compile it again....... Wait For It
ladymythosMember, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 637Bounty Hunter
edited August 2014
Probably a stupid question, but what are the requirements for the new content? Do we still have to go to Icewind Dale first? And if so, how many months do we have to grind there before we are allowed into the new content? Just wondering if I should bother reinstall the game, as I never bothered grinding a single character into IWD, and never will.
Probably a stupid question, but what are the requirements for the new content? Do we still have to go to Icewind Dale first? And if so, how many months do we have to grind there before we are allowed into the new content? Just wondering if I should bother reinstall the game, as I never bothered grinding a single character into IWD, and never will.
No requirements , the new module can be started upon reaching Neverdeath graveyard at around lvl 30 , it's basically a campaign you can do while leveling but the enemies in the new areas are the type that scale to the level of your character with no set level , similar to the enemies in CTA's .
0
jman75nhMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 11Arc User
edited August 2014
I would like to know why we now have to buy Dragonborn or Moon elf ect? doesnt this like change the whole "
You don't have to pay to adventure. From level 1 to the level cap, all playable content in Neverwinter is free for everyone to experience.
" Cuase to play these characters u gotta pay... I say its unfair..
0
drakkenfelMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 71
I would like to know why we now have to buy Dragonborn or Moon elf ect? doesnt this like change the whole "
You don't have to pay to adventure. From level 1 to the level cap, all playable content in Neverwinter is free for everyone to experience.
" Cuase to play these characters u gotta pay... I say its unfair..
As much as I am not a big fan of payable races, it has been there since Beta. Renegade Drow had to be paid for in the Founder's Set. Moon Elf was a part of the Sharandar Pack. Now, Dragonborn is a part of the Dragons Pack. With the default FREE Races, a player can play the game from beginning to end, effectively FREE, though not with the prettiest toys. There should always be something that is exclusive and more rare. There should not be very many Renegade Drow, Moon Elves, or Dragonborn in game, anyway. I would honestly love to play a Minotaur, like the player race in DragonLance. Kender, Gully Dwarves and Gnomes would be fun too; A Duergar Dwarf would be a fun character. I do like how the new 5th Edition Player's Handbook is handling players and races. DnD Encounters in your cities starts next Wednesday evening, BTW, and are linked to Neverwinter, though will supposedly take place around the Moonsea.
There needs to be a carrot to encourage people to actually invest in the game to keep the devs employed. F2P does not pay the bills, and it is "Mostly" Cosmetic. I have never been a real fan of F2P, though it gets more folks to play the game. F2P always correlates to "Many more GoldSpammers" to me. If they have no cost associated with setting up an account or a character, macros will be set up to generate an unlimited supply of new characters and players that exist solely to spam. This is what currently happens in game. It is nice that we do not see there posts in our Foundries. Unfortunately there is not much chat with other players in Foundry either.
I would actually love to read the research done by MMO developers into tools designed to stem the flow of this problem. "Stopping GoldSpammers" has been unsuccessful for decades by many companies as it is not a new problem.
@METH_SHADOWSTORM - Foundry author of: "The Sunnydale Campaign" - NWS-DKBEJ9OOM
Episode 1: "Missing Daughters" - NW-DCX9IZBJB
Episode 2: "A Date With Destiny" - NW-DHYEX5NKR - Featured: NW-DHFLDPWJV
STO Foundry: "Safari So Good" - ST-HPRP2WFWI
0
ladymythosMember, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 637Bounty Hunter
No requirements , the new module can be started upon reaching Neverdeath graveyard at around lvl 30 , it's basically a campaign you can do while leveling but the enemies in the new areas are the type that scale to the level of your character with no set level , similar to the enemies in CTA's .
Interesting. Guess I better try out that new class after all. Thanks.
I would actually love to read the research done by MMO developers into tools designed to stem the flow of this problem. "Stopping GoldSpammers" has been unsuccessful for decades by many companies as it is not a new problem.
Solution could be actually very simple: With free playing you have only access to "Say" channel, heard by players near and perhaps "Party" channel, where the 5 players in party can hear you. To actually use "LFG", "Zone" or "Trade" channels, you must pay entry fee of 1, 5 or 10 €/$, which includes Zen or some basic stuff too. This is needed to pay once for account to get the channels open for all characters, but if you start to spam, you risk losing that account all together with the invested sum.
This basically enables free to play with enough communications to enable playing, although getting to parties would be harder outside of the que system, but won't allow spamming without creating a risk of loss...
Give us 4 or more power/item bar profiles so we can change powers and items with one click that are suited for the situation.
Comments
So, nerf every class you mentioned, but the one you play, which I am assuming is a GWF of DC? I think from the point of when this was posted, that the changes they are proposing to some classes are great. Yet, NERF TR STEALTH? Might as well not have rogues in the game then. No stealth = no rogue. I have see some dumb comments, but this one is up there with, "NOT being thought out very well"
Albeit, there are known issues and I agree that fixes would be great before new content; I just can't find the logic to believe that GF and CW need a total revamp... I think the only thing I agree with is that HR's need a serious rework. Thier melee stance is absolutely worthless. It does hardly any damage and you get eaten alive by every other class while in melee. Even DC's with poor damage can outlive your strike; ALL DAY LONG.
Yep, I agree fixes before new content. Like FIX the Roar bug. I am tired of getting chain stunned by a very SHORT cooldown bug that does more than what it is supposed to do.
Other fixes, that I have read or heard are on the way, I am hopefull.
Something needs to be done as soon as possible about this enchantment as well as some other armor and weapon enchants. I have a Perfect Negation Enchantment on my GWF and with my Armor in my opinion it is the coolest looking armor enchantment in the game… But its next to useless, especially compared to barkshield, soulforged, and most others. I can’t see how a designer could put so much intricate detail into the graphics of this item for it to be forgotten about for so long (or so it seems) the 25% damage reduction is very nice, but the fact that it only lasts 7 seconds and can only proc once every minute makes it so situational and random. It costs just as much and takes just as much work to make as any other armor enchantment yet compared to barkshield, which gives such an amazing defensive effect, it really is just not worth getting at all. My suggestion Would be to reduce the 60 second cd to around 25-30 seconds, or increase the duration. Or add some other effect to it if its going to still have a 60 second CD. For instance when it procs not only does it give you 25% damage reduction, but also makes you Immune to Control effects and/or gives you a 2500 point damage shield after the damage resistant buff expires. Then it would at least be close to useful. Even it it did what I suggest though and had a 30 second CD, barkshield and soulforged are still far superior. This makes it where almost every endgame character is using the same few armor enchantments right now. There are others that could be reworked. The perfect Elven is the first one that comes to mind since its perfect version is just completely broke. But not only could it have control resist. Maybe give it the ability to allow you to break free from one crowd control ability once a minute. I also have a perfect thunderhead enchantment I believe its called. I tried this enchantment out in domination pvp for quite a while, and never once noticed it proc. So im not sure if its not working against players or I just got unlucky. It is supposed to have a chance on getting hit to deal lightning damage and stun all surrounding enemies for a brief time. Maybe as a GWF every time it procced for me the only enemies that were close enough for it to hit I had already CCed. But I assumed I would see some lightning bolts shoot from the sky or from my character and some indicator that it had worked. I tried looking through the log I never could find where it had procced once. There are many more weapon enchants as well that when you compare them to perfect vorpals essentially as long as you have 33% crit chance or higher a perfect vorpal is gonna give you around 28-30% increased overall damage. Where as greater plaguefire which I believe is the next most damaging gives a 12.5% damage increase but also allows your team mates to do extra damage to the enemies. But that still isn’t nearly enough to make up for how strong the perfect vorpal is. I don’t think the perfect vorpal should be changed at all, just that other weapon enchantments should have their effects changed to be more unique offering bonuses that would benefit you and/or your group enough to not feel forced into using a perfect vorpal as a DPS class. I even see a lot of non DPS specced classes using them because they are just so superior over the others. Anyways I think I have got my point across and ive talked to a lot of players that completely agree that something needs to be done about these enchantments. I would hate to just see new weapon and armor enchantments added and the old ones forgot about and remain obsolete, especially one like the Perfect Negation Enchantment that looks soooo amazing. There are a lot of players out there like me that really take pride in creating a unique look for themselves and in all of the mmos I have played I always want to look as cool as possible and have as many options to customize my look as possible. And with the change armor appearance system you guys have it set up amazingly except I think the AD price for it should be lowered quite a bit. Anyways I hope you guys are looking into the Armor and Weapon Enchant issue and if not then please do. It is forcing a lot of max-level players to all have to use the same few enchantments and therefore have the same graphic effects. Which really takes away from the endgame experience in my opinion. Sorry for such a long post but this is something I am very passionate about and I think that Neverwinter is an amazing game that with a little more work has the potential to be one of the greatest MMOS ever made.
dat unreadable wall of text.
I dont even..
Line breaks (and nothing else) added.
..and the difference is day and night, the poster's point becoming far more obvious. /salute
I totally agree. Plus we are getting lag sometimes in Icewind Dale with only a few people online. I can't even start to imagine how it would be on live server...
*bummed*
The DEVs are playing while we cannot? LOL
113 lines of code on the wall, 113 lines of code, rewrite one line, compile it again.......
Wait For It
(And then we have a solid chance of emergency maintenance later in the day. lulz)
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
Part 1: The Rise of Solazar NW-DJDWTCHAA Part 3: The Voyage to Renford NW-DIHXKV9JA
Garden Maze NW-DK3RXTLKM The Legend of Bantheran NW-DFGGUD8UH
Why don't we play a game while we wait?
Over/under 1.5 maintenance/restarts within 48 hours of mod 4!?
LOL, I'll play. Who starts first?
113 lines of code on the wall, 113 lines of code, rewrite one line, compile it again.......
Wait For It
No requirements , the new module can be started upon reaching Neverdeath graveyard at around lvl 30 , it's basically a campaign you can do while leveling but the enemies in the new areas are the type that scale to the level of your character with no set level , similar to the enemies in CTA's .
You don't have to pay to adventure. From level 1 to the level cap, all playable content in Neverwinter is free for everyone to experience.
" Cuase to play these characters u gotta pay... I say its unfair..
As much as I am not a big fan of payable races, it has been there since Beta. Renegade Drow had to be paid for in the Founder's Set. Moon Elf was a part of the Sharandar Pack. Now, Dragonborn is a part of the Dragons Pack. With the default FREE Races, a player can play the game from beginning to end, effectively FREE, though not with the prettiest toys. There should always be something that is exclusive and more rare. There should not be very many Renegade Drow, Moon Elves, or Dragonborn in game, anyway. I would honestly love to play a Minotaur, like the player race in DragonLance. Kender, Gully Dwarves and Gnomes would be fun too; A Duergar Dwarf would be a fun character. I do like how the new 5th Edition Player's Handbook is handling players and races. DnD Encounters in your cities starts next Wednesday evening, BTW, and are linked to Neverwinter, though will supposedly take place around the Moonsea.
There needs to be a carrot to encourage people to actually invest in the game to keep the devs employed. F2P does not pay the bills, and it is "Mostly" Cosmetic. I have never been a real fan of F2P, though it gets more folks to play the game. F2P always correlates to "Many more GoldSpammers" to me. If they have no cost associated with setting up an account or a character, macros will be set up to generate an unlimited supply of new characters and players that exist solely to spam. This is what currently happens in game. It is nice that we do not see there posts in our Foundries. Unfortunately there is not much chat with other players in Foundry either.
I would actually love to read the research done by MMO developers into tools designed to stem the flow of this problem. "Stopping GoldSpammers" has been unsuccessful for decades by many companies as it is not a new problem.
"The Sunnydale Campaign" - NWS-DKBEJ9OOM
Episode 1: "Missing Daughters" - NW-DCX9IZBJB
Episode 2: "A Date With Destiny" - NW-DHYEX5NKR - Featured: NW-DHFLDPWJV
STO Foundry: "Safari So Good" - ST-HPRP2WFWI
Solution could be actually very simple: With free playing you have only access to "Say" channel, heard by players near and perhaps "Party" channel, where the 5 players in party can hear you. To actually use "LFG", "Zone" or "Trade" channels, you must pay entry fee of 1, 5 or 10 €/$, which includes Zen or some basic stuff too. This is needed to pay once for account to get the channels open for all characters, but if you start to spam, you risk losing that account all together with the invested sum.
This basically enables free to play with enough communications to enable playing, although getting to parties would be harder outside of the que system, but won't allow spamming without creating a risk of loss...