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Feedback Overload - An analyze about Neverwinter
karakla1
Member Posts: 1,355 Arc User
Note: My first Posting of this was pushed directly to the Lower Depths. I ajusted the text and trying to repost it.
Some players and mods know it already, I like to generate walls of text and here is a new one, a masterpiece I would say
I want to give the developers a complete feedback about the games that is the most reason why I wrote this text.
In the text below I compare Neverwinter with other similar MMORPGs not to bash or for advertisement but to explain some points of the categorys and where Neverwinter stands between this giant landscap of the Genre of MMORPGs.
Ambience (Includes Graphic and Design)
Neverwinter is a really good looking MMORPG. All the details, effects and filters are nice. The game looks really lively!
Link to nice looking Screenshot: >Push Me!<
Other MMORPs are looking good too, but some of them look kinda “sterile”. I mean not this over styled look some of them have (I will it recall later) I mean the graphic itself look plain, maybe some kind of missing dynamic lighting or filters… I don’t know.
The other thing I like on Neverwinter in this category is the fact it has style and it is classy. The most MMORPGs like have -in my opinion a major problem: They are some kind of random.
I mean they mix up different settings and designs. In Asia MMORPGs you have areas that are designed to look more realistic with grumpy enemies and a dark ambience. But then you have areas with little cartoon like frogs as enemies that doesn’t match the rest of the Art-Style or world/setting itself (or characters that run around with giant cat heads as masks that doesn’t suit the setting at all).
Western MMORPGs has problems too. Well, the Art-Design is streamlined and match, but they have a high fantasy Settings mixed with Sci-Fi Setting which make their MMORPG random too (this and that some Epic/Legendary Weapons are shooting Unicorns that farts rainbows or a gun that shoots confetti).
But Neverwinter has some minor problems too. If I look in the sky of Neverwinter the clouds are grainy and have really low resolution. I know, most of you will think now: “WTF is wrong with you?! It’s only the sky!”
But it makes up 50% of that what I can see in the game and it should look as good like the other parts of the game and in addition the background looks bad too. Asia MMORPGs seems to focus of this kind of issue i saw in some of them like 4 different layers of clouds with own wind directions and animations and HD textures and really good background with real 3D (some kind of eye candy), in Neverwinter most of the time we have plain paint textures, that would not be a problem if they would look good or match the atmosphere but most of the time they are grainy as the sky and you can see the blending in which it reach the ground (big white line).
Screenshot: >Proof<
Another problem is the modular build areas. Most of the time I don’t mind it or didn’t even recognize it. It only happens if something glitches together or floating over the ground (Sharandar is a good (bad) example for it).
Screenshot: >Sharandar<
The most problem I have with Neverwinter in this category is the map design itself.
As example: Dread Ring
The map looks good and is big, but it lacks of the feeling of the last battle against Valindra and the Tay. Yes there are spawning undeads in front of the two camps that attacking the guards, but if I go 20 feet away of it; there is only an empty road that leads to the next “hot spot of action”. If I move on this map I have not the feeling that I going into the “lair/base of the enemy”.
This is a major problem. You want to suggest us that there is an enemy force but all what you are present is some kind of a random mob spawn. Most of them are missing proper idle animations too (Personaly i would prefer some kind of trench warfare like in the intro quest).
In general: Neverwinter is lacking of immersion.
Quests
All quests are plain: Kill X Monster
Most players, testers, magazines and other people would say: What a shame, you could do more of it!
But I think it is okay because the fight-system makes fun. In addition I don’t must read any texts, they have all a voice over (In Germany we have the Voice of Vegeta from Dragonball Z that introduce us in the game, HELL YEAH! )
The dialogues are well written and have a good story as background and end in an own -well designed- personal dungeon.
But what I missed the most was a personal story for my character. I mean… we make some settings at the very beginning of the game of our characters origin. It would be cool if we had an additional quest/storyline in the game with some multiple choices. Nothing big, maybe 5-10 hours or like small episodes every 10 Levels.
I think it is not a big deal to include such a small story in the game for our characters. It would be a great addition to the normal Quests: Kill X Monsters
Classes
I like the basic class design and the feeling that every class plays different.
But to say it honestly (Attention! Personal opinion!): Shame on you! You missed a great opportunity for a good multi class system.
Dungeons & Dragons has many basic classes that can be combined to create more unique characters. Multiclass + Prestigeclass and other Stuff… I mean… you could put your players busy as hell by only keep them theory crafting and try different types of class combinations. In addition the character someone leveled up would feel really unique.
Yes, balancing could be a problem, but ALL OTHER MMORPGs has the same problem with normal character-class-systems too; not to say that we currently have balancing problems too, but at least we had a cool class system in which the player really decide what he want to play. And it is nothing that is impossible. There exist already MMORPGs with a working multiclass system. Okay I understand that you wanted to keep it simple, because you could catch more mainstream players (maybe a marketing decision).
But if I look at our current situation of the class system and balancing I would say: Delete the current class system and replace it with a multi class system, to come up with a few ideas and create new class system shouldn’t be that hard.
Technique (Bugs and similar stuff)
How to begin with…?
Good game idea, bad execution. It really often lags and Events doesn’t work properly or are in such a bad shape that it can be exploited easily. Last and best example was the Event: Alchemist Extravagance where some players exploited the Event to generate an infinite amount of Alchemist Experimenter that was sold via Auction House for 100.000 – 200.000 astral diamonds.
And it doesn’t stay at Events. Some players remember on Catursday. A major Bug in the auction house that allowed the players to generate an infinite amount of astral diamonds from nothing by simply adding negative numbers. This Bug was not only known on your Preview-Server and reported several times via forum and support it was also known on the Star Trek Online!
But you only acted as it was too late. You make a rollback of a few days instead of fix the problem at the beginning!
Seriously, who is in charge of these issues? A single person (Supervisor, etc…) or a whole department? It’s a mess!
Okey, *calm himself* maybe I am overreacting… maybe you learned your lessons and do know a better job in fixing bugs…
Let’s see,… *looks at his list and mumbling* several month of astral resonator abuse that destroyed the economy, breaking the right click on chat-links with the last update, increasing DirectX crashes with several module releases, time to fix the chest bug -major issue that blocks the progress of every player in the game- about some weeks, some strange retrieving time to finish profession tasks ingame till the last patch…
In fact, it doesn’t look good for you if we look at technical issues. I really often have the feeling you are including more errors in the game with every patch instead of fixing them. I think most player wouldn’t be annoyed if this is some small unknown errors or issues of minor incident from time to time, but you generate such a huge mess that it affects the game experience itself.
But not everything is bad (more like 80%). Like I said it in another thread the last module brought a big enhancement to the FPS. Okey, we have now some ugly graphic artifacts (I think it’s an issue with the capes) but it’s running smoother than before.
PLEASE, improve in this category first instead of advance in another one. Neverwinter is such a great game, but the bugs and technical issues are increasing and it makes less and less fun to play. And it is the only MMORPG I know with such heavy technical issues and failures (Maybe Star Trek Online, but it’s from Cryptic as well).
Campaigns
I like the campaigns but I dislike this artificial time sink with a cool down on the quests, because the quests are the only thing to make a progress in the campaign. In my opinion a better way could be that via the quest you can finish the campaign much faster, but if you grind you get progress as well.
Sharandar
The first campaign. A real big campaign with three different areas where every looks different, with his owns dungeons that you can participate every day.
I like it the most, because after I finish the campaign it is still useful. I can gather keys for the instances and grind it for shards and enchants. And every day I can make a quest to get two lesser enchants (Rank 8) per week.
The skirmish is pretty simple but I like the idea to grind it to get shards of the bark shield enchantment.
The new dungeon “Malabogs Castle” is good but only the last boss fight is outstanding. I hate the low drop rate (common blue drops after boss fights? Seriously?!) and like the idea to craft the new and best weapons.
Dread Ring
The campaign started really good (introducing quest). The overall changes in the game were good too (Companion Game and other stuff). But I only go in this campaign back to make the daily dungeon to get my Eye Of Lathandar Artifact and I still don’t get it (played every day till the module 2 was released, does somebody know the drop rate of this item?).
If I would get this item I would never go back to the dread ring, the only thing I get from the quests are XP and a lot of currency that I don’t need and are spamming my currency bag (and I can’t discard it!).
The skirmish is a simple arena battle without purpose.
The new dungeon “Valindras Tower” is well designed and a real challenge and I enjoy the fight against Valindra, but It has the same problem as Malabogs Castle.
Icewind Dale
A big campaign which brings us open PvP, several changes and addition in PvP in general. Really nice! For PvE we got Heroic Encounter. I really like the idea. I only have a problem with the immersion. Most of the encounter popping out of nothing and then the whole action take place. We have Invasion, Merchants in trouble and stuff, but I don’t get the reason. “Why is the merchant driving through a field of trolls and barbarians? And where is his tradeline, here is nothing!” Or the barbarian robbers. It’s only some kind of random spawn.
Another problem is what purpose has the new gear? For the most classes it is useless. Because the Statpoints are spread everywhere and it has no real good Setbonus even the two overload slots can’t make it better.
The only purpose I see is to run the skirmish or participate in the heroic encounter properly because it adds a huge amount of black ice resistance, but this seems a no-brainer because I only participate in both to get the armor which means: its useless scrap that is currently not needed.
Tyranny of the Dragon
Coming Soon…
Crafting
After leveling up every profession I must admit it is handy. But I hate the fact to produce <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> to increase my level of my profession and I can’t use the profession if I level my character, because It take to much time to increase the level and then I get better drops or rewards from quest.
Every profession is legit to be leveled up.
Alchemy produces dyes and good potions.
Leadership gives you a lot raw astral diamonds.
The 4 armor professions (Leatherworking, Tailoring, Mailsmithing and Platesmithing) give you the best shirt and pants (And after Modul 4 we get the Armor Kits).
And the 2 weapon professions give you the best weapons in the game.
The only downer is that I need epic assets to build the best stuff, but I think this is okay, its free2play and you as developer and publisher need a way to earn money. But I don’t understand why you doesn’t make separate profession kits for every profession? Instead of this you create two big packs for EVERY profession. That is really annoying, I buy a kit from the store, I want a epic smith but get a hero or adventurer or an assets I don’t need.
Please change this.
Companions
I really enjoy collecting companions and to level them up. But to be honest 90% of the companions are useless <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>.
To have an augmented companion is a must have, all other companions are only as good as the active bonus that they gave you.
Striker Companions are offensive companions that should do a lot of damage, but every striker I leveled up and tested deals less damage as one the small one bar monsters. I set up a fight between such a monster type and an epic full equipped Striker and he lost and he wasn’t even close to kill this monster and my character only needs 1 to 3 hits to kill such a thing.
Striker Companions are the most common and it is sad that the damage of this is so low (sometimes it’s hard to recognize if the health bar of the monster was reduced by a Striker).
Leader/Healer Companions are a good option if you are soloing PvE Content like your Dailys.
Controller has a similar problem as the Strikers but is at least entertaining.
Another problem is the upgrade system. You offered us a new method of upgrading the companions what suggested us it is cheaper and easier. You lied. The new currency in the companion enhancement lockboxes is really rare; I opened over 100 of these boxes and only got one set of 30 marks. For information you need 30 to get from white quality to green, 60 from green to blue and 90 from blue to purple. This feels like a sick joke!
The Gateway
I really like the Gateway; it is one of the best features in Neverwinter! But the performance is bad.
Like I said before I am collecting companions and have a really big collection (89 total) and on my Computer it has problems to display it properly (Lagging, Flickering and Stuff) and on my Smartphone (Galaxy S3) my phone freezes if I want to choose some companions for the sword coast Adventures.
I already had the same problem as I had only like 50 or 60 companions. This needs improvement!
What I dislike as well is that every time my screen on my smartphones locks it kicks me out of the gateway.
What I really would like to see in the future is an App for the Neverwinter Gateway made by Cryptic/PWE that is small and fast.
The Foundry
I don't know how to start with it. The first time i saw Neverwinter and advertising with THE FOUNDRY i thought: ****ing Awesome *puking ranbow*! After i was Ingame and took a look i was disappointed. The Foundry seems to be a mere "side effect" of Neverwinter, a feature that was abandoned by his developers. This feelings increase with every Module.
Working with the foundry and generating own content is really fun, escpacially if other players are rating your quest and leave a comment. But only a few players are using the playing foundry quests and a fewer player base is generating content for the foundry.
It could be such a cool feature if you, the developer, would focus and fix and add stuff to the foundry and give more benefits to the players as only raw astral diamonds.
The End
Some players and mods know it already, I like to generate walls of text and here is a new one, a masterpiece I would say
I want to give the developers a complete feedback about the games that is the most reason why I wrote this text.
In the text below I compare Neverwinter with other similar MMORPGs not to bash or for advertisement but to explain some points of the categorys and where Neverwinter stands between this giant landscap of the Genre of MMORPGs.
Ambience (Includes Graphic and Design)
Neverwinter is a really good looking MMORPG. All the details, effects and filters are nice. The game looks really lively!
Link to nice looking Screenshot: >Push Me!<
Other MMORPs are looking good too, but some of them look kinda “sterile”. I mean not this over styled look some of them have (I will it recall later) I mean the graphic itself look plain, maybe some kind of missing dynamic lighting or filters… I don’t know.
The other thing I like on Neverwinter in this category is the fact it has style and it is classy. The most MMORPGs like have -in my opinion a major problem: They are some kind of random.
I mean they mix up different settings and designs. In Asia MMORPGs you have areas that are designed to look more realistic with grumpy enemies and a dark ambience. But then you have areas with little cartoon like frogs as enemies that doesn’t match the rest of the Art-Style or world/setting itself (or characters that run around with giant cat heads as masks that doesn’t suit the setting at all).
Western MMORPGs has problems too. Well, the Art-Design is streamlined and match, but they have a high fantasy Settings mixed with Sci-Fi Setting which make their MMORPG random too (this and that some Epic/Legendary Weapons are shooting Unicorns that farts rainbows or a gun that shoots confetti).
But Neverwinter has some minor problems too. If I look in the sky of Neverwinter the clouds are grainy and have really low resolution. I know, most of you will think now: “WTF is wrong with you?! It’s only the sky!”
But it makes up 50% of that what I can see in the game and it should look as good like the other parts of the game and in addition the background looks bad too. Asia MMORPGs seems to focus of this kind of issue i saw in some of them like 4 different layers of clouds with own wind directions and animations and HD textures and really good background with real 3D (some kind of eye candy), in Neverwinter most of the time we have plain paint textures, that would not be a problem if they would look good or match the atmosphere but most of the time they are grainy as the sky and you can see the blending in which it reach the ground (big white line).
Screenshot: >Proof<
Another problem is the modular build areas. Most of the time I don’t mind it or didn’t even recognize it. It only happens if something glitches together or floating over the ground (Sharandar is a good (bad) example for it).
Screenshot: >Sharandar<
The most problem I have with Neverwinter in this category is the map design itself.
As example: Dread Ring
The map looks good and is big, but it lacks of the feeling of the last battle against Valindra and the Tay. Yes there are spawning undeads in front of the two camps that attacking the guards, but if I go 20 feet away of it; there is only an empty road that leads to the next “hot spot of action”. If I move on this map I have not the feeling that I going into the “lair/base of the enemy”.
This is a major problem. You want to suggest us that there is an enemy force but all what you are present is some kind of a random mob spawn. Most of them are missing proper idle animations too (Personaly i would prefer some kind of trench warfare like in the intro quest).
In general: Neverwinter is lacking of immersion.
Quests
All quests are plain: Kill X Monster
Most players, testers, magazines and other people would say: What a shame, you could do more of it!
But I think it is okay because the fight-system makes fun. In addition I don’t must read any texts, they have all a voice over (In Germany we have the Voice of Vegeta from Dragonball Z that introduce us in the game, HELL YEAH! )
The dialogues are well written and have a good story as background and end in an own -well designed- personal dungeon.
But what I missed the most was a personal story for my character. I mean… we make some settings at the very beginning of the game of our characters origin. It would be cool if we had an additional quest/storyline in the game with some multiple choices. Nothing big, maybe 5-10 hours or like small episodes every 10 Levels.
I think it is not a big deal to include such a small story in the game for our characters. It would be a great addition to the normal Quests: Kill X Monsters
Classes
I like the basic class design and the feeling that every class plays different.
But to say it honestly (Attention! Personal opinion!): Shame on you! You missed a great opportunity for a good multi class system.
Dungeons & Dragons has many basic classes that can be combined to create more unique characters. Multiclass + Prestigeclass and other Stuff… I mean… you could put your players busy as hell by only keep them theory crafting and try different types of class combinations. In addition the character someone leveled up would feel really unique.
Yes, balancing could be a problem, but ALL OTHER MMORPGs has the same problem with normal character-class-systems too; not to say that we currently have balancing problems too, but at least we had a cool class system in which the player really decide what he want to play. And it is nothing that is impossible. There exist already MMORPGs with a working multiclass system. Okay I understand that you wanted to keep it simple, because you could catch more mainstream players (maybe a marketing decision).
But if I look at our current situation of the class system and balancing I would say: Delete the current class system and replace it with a multi class system, to come up with a few ideas and create new class system shouldn’t be that hard.
Technique (Bugs and similar stuff)
How to begin with…?
Good game idea, bad execution. It really often lags and Events doesn’t work properly or are in such a bad shape that it can be exploited easily. Last and best example was the Event: Alchemist Extravagance where some players exploited the Event to generate an infinite amount of Alchemist Experimenter that was sold via Auction House for 100.000 – 200.000 astral diamonds.
And it doesn’t stay at Events. Some players remember on Catursday. A major Bug in the auction house that allowed the players to generate an infinite amount of astral diamonds from nothing by simply adding negative numbers. This Bug was not only known on your Preview-Server and reported several times via forum and support it was also known on the Star Trek Online!
But you only acted as it was too late. You make a rollback of a few days instead of fix the problem at the beginning!
Seriously, who is in charge of these issues? A single person (Supervisor, etc…) or a whole department? It’s a mess!
Okey, *calm himself* maybe I am overreacting… maybe you learned your lessons and do know a better job in fixing bugs…
Let’s see,… *looks at his list and mumbling* several month of astral resonator abuse that destroyed the economy, breaking the right click on chat-links with the last update, increasing DirectX crashes with several module releases, time to fix the chest bug -major issue that blocks the progress of every player in the game- about some weeks, some strange retrieving time to finish profession tasks ingame till the last patch…
In fact, it doesn’t look good for you if we look at technical issues. I really often have the feeling you are including more errors in the game with every patch instead of fixing them. I think most player wouldn’t be annoyed if this is some small unknown errors or issues of minor incident from time to time, but you generate such a huge mess that it affects the game experience itself.
But not everything is bad (more like 80%). Like I said it in another thread the last module brought a big enhancement to the FPS. Okey, we have now some ugly graphic artifacts (I think it’s an issue with the capes) but it’s running smoother than before.
PLEASE, improve in this category first instead of advance in another one. Neverwinter is such a great game, but the bugs and technical issues are increasing and it makes less and less fun to play. And it is the only MMORPG I know with such heavy technical issues and failures (Maybe Star Trek Online, but it’s from Cryptic as well).
Campaigns
I like the campaigns but I dislike this artificial time sink with a cool down on the quests, because the quests are the only thing to make a progress in the campaign. In my opinion a better way could be that via the quest you can finish the campaign much faster, but if you grind you get progress as well.
Sharandar
The first campaign. A real big campaign with three different areas where every looks different, with his owns dungeons that you can participate every day.
I like it the most, because after I finish the campaign it is still useful. I can gather keys for the instances and grind it for shards and enchants. And every day I can make a quest to get two lesser enchants (Rank 8) per week.
The skirmish is pretty simple but I like the idea to grind it to get shards of the bark shield enchantment.
The new dungeon “Malabogs Castle” is good but only the last boss fight is outstanding. I hate the low drop rate (common blue drops after boss fights? Seriously?!) and like the idea to craft the new and best weapons.
Dread Ring
The campaign started really good (introducing quest). The overall changes in the game were good too (Companion Game and other stuff). But I only go in this campaign back to make the daily dungeon to get my Eye Of Lathandar Artifact and I still don’t get it (played every day till the module 2 was released, does somebody know the drop rate of this item?).
If I would get this item I would never go back to the dread ring, the only thing I get from the quests are XP and a lot of currency that I don’t need and are spamming my currency bag (and I can’t discard it!).
The skirmish is a simple arena battle without purpose.
The new dungeon “Valindras Tower” is well designed and a real challenge and I enjoy the fight against Valindra, but It has the same problem as Malabogs Castle.
Icewind Dale
A big campaign which brings us open PvP, several changes and addition in PvP in general. Really nice! For PvE we got Heroic Encounter. I really like the idea. I only have a problem with the immersion. Most of the encounter popping out of nothing and then the whole action take place. We have Invasion, Merchants in trouble and stuff, but I don’t get the reason. “Why is the merchant driving through a field of trolls and barbarians? And where is his tradeline, here is nothing!” Or the barbarian robbers. It’s only some kind of random spawn.
Another problem is what purpose has the new gear? For the most classes it is useless. Because the Statpoints are spread everywhere and it has no real good Setbonus even the two overload slots can’t make it better.
The only purpose I see is to run the skirmish or participate in the heroic encounter properly because it adds a huge amount of black ice resistance, but this seems a no-brainer because I only participate in both to get the armor which means: its useless scrap that is currently not needed.
Tyranny of the Dragon
Coming Soon…
Crafting
After leveling up every profession I must admit it is handy. But I hate the fact to produce <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> to increase my level of my profession and I can’t use the profession if I level my character, because It take to much time to increase the level and then I get better drops or rewards from quest.
Every profession is legit to be leveled up.
Alchemy produces dyes and good potions.
Leadership gives you a lot raw astral diamonds.
The 4 armor professions (Leatherworking, Tailoring, Mailsmithing and Platesmithing) give you the best shirt and pants (And after Modul 4 we get the Armor Kits).
And the 2 weapon professions give you the best weapons in the game.
The only downer is that I need epic assets to build the best stuff, but I think this is okay, its free2play and you as developer and publisher need a way to earn money. But I don’t understand why you doesn’t make separate profession kits for every profession? Instead of this you create two big packs for EVERY profession. That is really annoying, I buy a kit from the store, I want a epic smith but get a hero or adventurer or an assets I don’t need.
Please change this.
Companions
I really enjoy collecting companions and to level them up. But to be honest 90% of the companions are useless <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>.
To have an augmented companion is a must have, all other companions are only as good as the active bonus that they gave you.
Striker Companions are offensive companions that should do a lot of damage, but every striker I leveled up and tested deals less damage as one the small one bar monsters. I set up a fight between such a monster type and an epic full equipped Striker and he lost and he wasn’t even close to kill this monster and my character only needs 1 to 3 hits to kill such a thing.
Striker Companions are the most common and it is sad that the damage of this is so low (sometimes it’s hard to recognize if the health bar of the monster was reduced by a Striker).
Leader/Healer Companions are a good option if you are soloing PvE Content like your Dailys.
Controller has a similar problem as the Strikers but is at least entertaining.
Another problem is the upgrade system. You offered us a new method of upgrading the companions what suggested us it is cheaper and easier. You lied. The new currency in the companion enhancement lockboxes is really rare; I opened over 100 of these boxes and only got one set of 30 marks. For information you need 30 to get from white quality to green, 60 from green to blue and 90 from blue to purple. This feels like a sick joke!
The Gateway
I really like the Gateway; it is one of the best features in Neverwinter! But the performance is bad.
Like I said before I am collecting companions and have a really big collection (89 total) and on my Computer it has problems to display it properly (Lagging, Flickering and Stuff) and on my Smartphone (Galaxy S3) my phone freezes if I want to choose some companions for the sword coast Adventures.
I already had the same problem as I had only like 50 or 60 companions. This needs improvement!
What I dislike as well is that every time my screen on my smartphones locks it kicks me out of the gateway.
What I really would like to see in the future is an App for the Neverwinter Gateway made by Cryptic/PWE that is small and fast.
The Foundry
I don't know how to start with it. The first time i saw Neverwinter and advertising with THE FOUNDRY i thought: ****ing Awesome *puking ranbow*! After i was Ingame and took a look i was disappointed. The Foundry seems to be a mere "side effect" of Neverwinter, a feature that was abandoned by his developers. This feelings increase with every Module.
Working with the foundry and generating own content is really fun, escpacially if other players are rating your quest and leave a comment. But only a few players are using the playing foundry quests and a fewer player base is generating content for the foundry.
It could be such a cool feature if you, the developer, would focus and fix and add stuff to the foundry and give more benefits to the players as only raw astral diamonds.
The End
Platypus wielding a giant hammer, your argument is invalild!
Post edited by Unknown User on
0
Comments
My English is not the best, maybe full check, check up or inspection would be better.
- Dualspec
- Better rewarding foundry and foundry pvp maps
- Custom PvP leagues with leaderboards instead of the current 'matchmaking'.
- Armory
- make jumping cost stamina (to reduce hopping in pvp)
What is to be considered :
- a system that allows 1 v 1 chalange (I want to duel my rl friends and have great fun)
- a system that allow a pre-made to duel a pre-made ONLY (most of the pvp guilds are harvesting pvp for fun)
And most of all : a feature that will allow a toon to STOP gaining experience (some people will ask about this "why?" - just because I want to explore properly every single level or I want to pvp more at level 19 - when you having the most fun, you lvl up and the fun turns into agony)
P.S. 2 - edited for no reason, but ofc I am forced to accept that
I like how you presented the review *cough* issue *cough* and separating it category by category.
Despite the tall wall of text you wrote, it really does make it easy to absorb with such a neat writing.
And ofc, the review *cough* issue *cough* are spot-on and really depicts the goodness of NW, and the things that still need improving.
PS - Good read honestly!
Here is another Potato
The cockatrices were used for a while before open world pvp became dead due to stupid restrictions and lack of rewards
I like the campaign. I like the idea to slay some dragons and have competition with other players for the loot and the fact that even small characters can participate in it.
The new dungeon Lostmauth lair is a bit short, but totally awesome and I like the idea of three different pathes and hope you will continue dungeon designs like this. I really enjoyed the jumping parts of this Dungeon because it is something different from the normal gameplay, I would really appreciate if your Dungeon Designer could include similar stuff in other dungeons as well; maybe overhaul all old Dungeons with different pathes, jumping puzzles and some riddles.
I also liked the new skirmish but if I look at the cool new Top Dungeon it is kind of a small disappointment because there is nothing special in it like in the new dungeon.
What I begin to dislike is that the voids/telegraphs/template on the grounds. I would wish that they have a special design instead of plain red, because in a fight with a dragon they are nearly impossible to see.
As a melee class you are literally standing IN the dragon and the big dragon circle. Then you have several red templates that are hard to see. In the Dungeon it’s much harder because the ground itself makes it near invisible itself.
Some other MMORPGs had a good idea to give such templates a whole design with borders and a fine tribal texture. In some cases you already solved such issues, like the net of the spiders; more of such specific design would be cool.
PvP
I totally forgot about it in my Feedback, because I gave a huge Feedback about it in another thread.
Summarized: The current PvP is only a match of Power. If you have more (Battle)power you simply win. There is no real room for tactics and this is the reason why matches are so easily decided and you have problems to keep balance between the classes.
MMORPGs are trying to be more like Shooters in their PvP which is impossible to work. They are more like MOBA Games. Some classes are carries, other are gankers, supporters, etc…
If you would include similar maps from MOBA games it would really help Neverwinter.
The Future
What do I want for the future?
Number one is that like 75% of the current technical issues should be fixed. Another thing is to keep the players busy. I would like some PvE Competition between the guilds/players in this game.
Some kind of endless dungeon or dungeon with 100 levels which every level is harder then the other and grant you with higher drop chance of loot.
It would be good if the difficulty increases to such a level that it is impossible to get further in the dungeon, which means we need modules with better Gear to go further in this dungeon (which would be a purpose to earn a higher Gearscore in this game).
That was the last Part of my Feedback Overload. I am now total exhausted talking to a wall... *has simply not the feeling that any of the stuff reach the developers*
In another attempt to get some peoples head right by PWI marketing division I want to make explain some “bugs” in the Store and I will make some suggestions about it.
Overall the Zen-Store is really expensive. Of course we, the players, can earn astral diamonds and change them in Zen to buy stuff in the store. This is cool and I think 500 AD to 1 Zen at max is pretty good. The main problem is the $ or € to Zen ratio. For 50 Bucks I get about 5.000 Zen.
At the current state I can get an account wide epic mount for 2.500+ Zen. The first time I saw this (over a year back) I was a bit shocked. Yes it is account wide but 25 Bucks for the cheapest epic mount. But I got familiar with the pricing and in the current state of the game I think it is okay and almost fair, but I still don’t get the pricing.
Wouldn’t it be better to keep the pricing low and make it only usable to one character? Something like 2.50 to 7.5 Bucks for epic mounts. Every character would need a new mount and a low price is more likely for a player to pay for this item instead of 25+ Bucks for the whole account. In the basic I can understand why you choose the current system, it was the though of how much characters has the normal player and how much mounts he would buy. I assume the normal player has 1-3 characters he like and plays and a pricing of 5 Bucks would be like 5-15 Bucks from an average player while now you can get 25 to 40 Bucks from nearly every player.
But there is a main problem: It is not sustainable! By selling every player account wide epic mounts you only can sell more mounts for new accounts/players. Of course you have some collectors out there that want every mount but this is a minority. In addition an MMORPG is more likely to stay by a certain level of players, which means this is some kind of a dead market. It would be better if you had chosen the one time item. The reason is simple you get money from new players AND regular player because it’s pretty common to develop new classes + change some balance and to this changes the player react and create new characters that they get to the end content and these characters need a new mount. In addition it has some nice side effects for us, we can individual choose our mount for different characters.
The mount category is not even a main problem. Some kind of “problem” with the Zen-Store is the Profession Packs. Who the hell came up with the idea to make one or two packs for every normal profession? As example: I need a weapon smith for a new weapon or the quality assets for this profession. I open the pack and all I get is a green alchemist. I can understand if you made some kind of random drop in this packs if the asset is green, blue or purple (or quantity differs) so people buy more packs but to make it total random sucks. The reason is simple: You annoy your players/customers and earn not more money! I mean if I get a wrong profession asset I go to the auction house and sell it. With the profit I buy the asset I want. In addition you create an oversupply of some assets which means they are cheaper to buy over the auction house instead to buy a profession pack in the Zen-Store which means: You lose profit!
Another “problem child” are the items: Stone Of Health, Greater Stone Of Health, Scroll Of Life and Scroll Of Mass Life. That are consumable items and I only “needed” them in the high end dungeons like in the old times Valindra or currently epic lair of Lostmauth or epic shores of Tuern because the incoming damage is so high that a normal health potion can’t compensate one hit and sometimes a greater stone of health is a nice thing (I have the feeling the Dungeons are purposely made to use these kind of items, because of instant skills (not able to dodge) that make up to 30.000 Damage). But the main problem is I don’t really need them. I play in a guild, we are all well equipped and if we go in with a DC and GF it’s a piece of cake to finish these dungeons/skirmish (in my opinion a group for the new dungeons needs more an GF then an DC because he catch up like 90% of the lethal random instant damage).
Overall of this you charge these kinds of items with 3-10 Bucks. Are you nuts? These are consumables. If you look at the auction house you can see the real worth of these items:
Stone Of Health = Store-Price: 500 Zen which means 250.000 AD in exchange but you can buy it via auction house for mere 60.000 AD.
Greater Stone Of Health = Store-Price: 1500 Zen which means 750.000 AD in exchange but you can buy it via auction house for mere 75.000 AD.
Scroll Of Life = Store-Price: 300 Zen (5 Scrolls) which means 150.000 AD in exchange but ?
Scroll Of Mass Life = Store-Price: 500 Zen (5 Scrolls) which means 250.000 AD in exchange but you can buy it via auction house for mere 32.000 AD.
This mean the pricing in the Zen-Store is ridicules. 1-3 Bucks would be okay, I mean in the current state I can buy them for 1/10 of the price you offer in the Zen-Store, which means you earn Zero money with such kind of items because they are too expensive. And for the note: I only used 1 greater stone since half a year, the one we get for free and it still has 140 charges remaining and I only recently used all of my 5 scroll of lifes which I also carried like 3-6 month in my backpack (which was also free because of a promotion).
You could easily make decent money with these items if the pricing would fit. I mean we have a ton of random PUG players out there that have not the time or the interested to play in a guild which means they most likely lack of experience, gear score or a good class combination in the group. These items would be really helpful for starters if they weren’t so expensive. If we had a really high end class raid dungeon for 20.000 gear score characters which every mistake could be your last it could be necessary for these kind of players to equip their character with scrolls of life and stone of health.
Another thing which I don’t understand are the refinement stones in the Zen-Store. The best offer for the blood rubies is to buy 3 rubies for 2.000 Zen. Which mean each ruby cost about 666 Zen they would cost 330.000 AD. Each ruby has 50.000 refining points (RP) which makes a ratio from 6.6 AD to 1 RP. If we now look at the auction house I can buy items for refinement for a ratio of 1 AD to 1 RP or 0.5 AD to 1 RP if make am patient and fast enough. No sane person would ever buy your blood rubies. The Zen-Store ratio is so bad I would more likely burn my money instead of sell some blood rubies. Even if we take in account that it is only a short trend of the market the normal ratio is still worse. If I buy refinement items from the wondrous bazaar I have a ratio of 6 AD to 1 RP, which is also better then the Zen-Store.
The whole problem is you are competing with your own game and the community. Which leads to the conclusion that you will not earn any money or you players are getting annoyed by the pricing you are creating if the market will get up again (above 6 to 1). In addition (my personal opinion) is that you will include more artifact weapons and armors (I totally like the way of belt and weapon). Which means the player will need more refinement points. Now you can act as some kind of shady drug dealer and give them what they need and to a really cheap price. But there would be some major problems. First one is that a huge mass of players wanted to change their AD into Zen, which leads again to a backlog of the ZAX. Another problem would be that a big part of the player driven economy would crumble and be useless or trying to make a better deal than you can offer.
This all means you can’t make proper money with items/resources that is already ingame and impossible to separate from game. But you can make money to help players to get easier to what they want. Some suggestions would be to sell refinement gear or enchants over the Zen-Store.
Imagine an overload enchantment that last 2 hours and grant you an additional chance to get refinement stones like the dragon hoard enchantments. The player would buy it because they get more refinement items and it will burn out which means they need to buy it again which creates a constant flow of players buying these kind of overloading enchantments for their own profit or “level process”. Important is that you sell it not expensive. I mean it makes no sense to sell it for 2.000 Zen if you get stuff out that is only worth 1.000 RP. It should be in some balance and feeling like it is worth to invest some money or transfer a bit of AD.
A personal problem for me is that you connect the Events with the Zen-Store. I am totally IN if I can buy special event currency to speed things in the Event up. But I totally dislike that you design the Events that player can’t complete the tasks. I mean you Wonder of Gond! It was literally impossible for a player to get one epic doheky for free. We must spend money in the process of the Event to progress.
And that is the whole problem. You FORCE the player to spend money if they want to complete the Event. That includes summer and winter event, because I must spend precious Tarmalune bars to get the Event currency in addition you deleted these kind of currency out of my bag which left a feeling of despair because it seems nothing is save till the next update, even the stuff I spend money on. Seriously, some kind of warning would be cool with the option to transfer the currency back to trade bars. I have totally no problem if the currency is vanishing after a few days the event ends. Deleting stuff out of my inventory without informing me and without give me some kind of compensation is bad style and leaves a bad taste).