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Good Core Gameplay, Terrible Casino-Style Content
arontimes
Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Guardian Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild Users Posts: 0 Arc User
tl;dr Neverwinter has some of the best controls I've ever seen in a video game. Very few people are frustrated by the controls compared to other games such as the Witcher with clunky control schemes. However, the content leaves much to be desired.
One of the things that I really, really dislike about Neverwinter is its overreliance on RNG, or what I like to call casino-style content. The content in this game uses cheap psychological tricks to frustrate you and make you purchase zen on impulse. Granted, it's not as bad as in other supposedly F2P games, but it's a far cry from the cream of the crop (DotA 2, TF2, LoL, and the like). Out of frustration with the rampant RNG in the game, I decided to take a break from Neverwinter to play other games so I can come back to a hopefully less-RNG reliant D&D MMORPG.
One of the games that I tried during my break is the Witcher: Enhanced Edition. All I knew about it was that it used Bioware's Aurora engine, the same engine that powered Neverwinter Nights 1, and that it was a "mature" game with "mature" story elements (read: SEX!). The Witcher's content is very well-written and fun to do, but the controls leave a lot to be desired. First, despite the acrobatics displayed by Geralt (the PC) in the intro movie, you can't jump. Insurmountable Waist-High Fence is in full effect here. Second, the combat is clunky and unintuitive. It looks like your typical third-person RPG, but you have to time your clicks on enemies with tiny hitboxes compared to their actual size to do hack-and-slash combos. What's worse is that the tutorial level doesn't completely prepare you for the real game, and you have to learn how to play the game properly through trial and error. Oh, and did I mention that your commands sometimes don't register, and you sometimes have to input them repeatedly?
I was close to rage quitting the game at the end of Chapter 1, where you fight a ridiculous boss fight. First, you are cutscene moved to a confined area where you have little time to buff yourself or otherwise maneuver around the boss and its endless adds. Whenever you die and then reload, you have to go through a lengthy NPC interaction and cutscene before getting to the boss fight again. If you were stupid enough to save right after you regained control of your character, your character will be helpless for a few seconds after loading (you can't do anything right after loading a game, though the game isn't paused during this time). This means that if you want to skip the lengthy conversation, you'll have to put up with the boss and its adds getting free hits on you for the second or two before you regain control. And in case you think about buffing yourself before the lengthy conversation and cutscene, time advances to the next midnight when you fight the boss, so your buffs will likely wear off by then.
(No, the boss fight is not impossible. There are ways to win, but they involve Guide Dang It since you as a new player probably wouldn't even think of doing it that way.)
Another annoying boss fight was one against a puzzle boss. Basically, you had to activate three pillars and catch the boss in the triangle that the three pillars form. Anything within the triangle is zapped by lightning. However, when trying to activate the pillars, sometimes Geralt will walk inside the triangle before activating it. This means that he zaps himself as well, resulting in a lot of frustrating reloads where you try to find the right distance to stand close to the pillars while staying outside the triangle. Sometimes, even if you're close enough, the stupid White-Haired Pretty Boy will still walk inside the triangle and electrocute himself. Ugh.
The annoying controls and those stupid boss fight made me long for the fast, fluid controls and combat of Neverwinter. When I left-click, I expect Aron Times to launch a Magic Missile. It happens without having to repeatedly click a small hitbox (not that the hitboxes of this game are too small; they're just right). When I shift-dodge, I expect my Netherese mage to dodge in that directly. No finicky controls.
This is perhaps the greatest strength of Neverwinter: its excellent controls and good core gameplay. Do you notice how few complaints there are about the basics of the game such as the controls? Most of the complaints are directed towards the content (RNG). Even the unbalanced PvP is fast, fun, and fluid, provided you get an even match; in this case, it's the matchmaking that sucks, not the gameplay itself.
What do you think?
One of the things that I really, really dislike about Neverwinter is its overreliance on RNG, or what I like to call casino-style content. The content in this game uses cheap psychological tricks to frustrate you and make you purchase zen on impulse. Granted, it's not as bad as in other supposedly F2P games, but it's a far cry from the cream of the crop (DotA 2, TF2, LoL, and the like). Out of frustration with the rampant RNG in the game, I decided to take a break from Neverwinter to play other games so I can come back to a hopefully less-RNG reliant D&D MMORPG.
One of the games that I tried during my break is the Witcher: Enhanced Edition. All I knew about it was that it used Bioware's Aurora engine, the same engine that powered Neverwinter Nights 1, and that it was a "mature" game with "mature" story elements (read: SEX!). The Witcher's content is very well-written and fun to do, but the controls leave a lot to be desired. First, despite the acrobatics displayed by Geralt (the PC) in the intro movie, you can't jump. Insurmountable Waist-High Fence is in full effect here. Second, the combat is clunky and unintuitive. It looks like your typical third-person RPG, but you have to time your clicks on enemies with tiny hitboxes compared to their actual size to do hack-and-slash combos. What's worse is that the tutorial level doesn't completely prepare you for the real game, and you have to learn how to play the game properly through trial and error. Oh, and did I mention that your commands sometimes don't register, and you sometimes have to input them repeatedly?
I was close to rage quitting the game at the end of Chapter 1, where you fight a ridiculous boss fight. First, you are cutscene moved to a confined area where you have little time to buff yourself or otherwise maneuver around the boss and its endless adds. Whenever you die and then reload, you have to go through a lengthy NPC interaction and cutscene before getting to the boss fight again. If you were stupid enough to save right after you regained control of your character, your character will be helpless for a few seconds after loading (you can't do anything right after loading a game, though the game isn't paused during this time). This means that if you want to skip the lengthy conversation, you'll have to put up with the boss and its adds getting free hits on you for the second or two before you regain control. And in case you think about buffing yourself before the lengthy conversation and cutscene, time advances to the next midnight when you fight the boss, so your buffs will likely wear off by then.
(No, the boss fight is not impossible. There are ways to win, but they involve Guide Dang It since you as a new player probably wouldn't even think of doing it that way.)
Another annoying boss fight was one against a puzzle boss. Basically, you had to activate three pillars and catch the boss in the triangle that the three pillars form. Anything within the triangle is zapped by lightning. However, when trying to activate the pillars, sometimes Geralt will walk inside the triangle before activating it. This means that he zaps himself as well, resulting in a lot of frustrating reloads where you try to find the right distance to stand close to the pillars while staying outside the triangle. Sometimes, even if you're close enough, the stupid White-Haired Pretty Boy will still walk inside the triangle and electrocute himself. Ugh.
The annoying controls and those stupid boss fight made me long for the fast, fluid controls and combat of Neverwinter. When I left-click, I expect Aron Times to launch a Magic Missile. It happens without having to repeatedly click a small hitbox (not that the hitboxes of this game are too small; they're just right). When I shift-dodge, I expect my Netherese mage to dodge in that directly. No finicky controls.
This is perhaps the greatest strength of Neverwinter: its excellent controls and good core gameplay. Do you notice how few complaints there are about the basics of the game such as the controls? Most of the complaints are directed towards the content (RNG). Even the unbalanced PvP is fast, fun, and fluid, provided you get an even match; in this case, it's the matchmaking that sucks, not the gameplay itself.
What do you think?
Post edited by arontimes on
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Taking a break from Neverwinter indefinitely...
The combat in this game is the best of any MMO I have played. It is responsive and immersive. The RNG is part of the fun for me.
The combat is actually pretty simple - click when your sword turns fiery. And yes, I have played the game when it was first released and more recently got the enhanced edition as well. If fights seem hard, use potions. (I assume by the first boss you meant the dog)
That being said, the game is story driven not combat driven. You play it for the beautiful story. Maybe you were looking for a different kind of experience.
That being said, I'm not sure I'd consider boss fights very interesting in Neverwinter. It's red spots to avoid, adds to kill. It's an MMO though, dedicated to a large audience of all ages, so the combat system is very easy to understand (accesible).
"Gambling, as defined by the bill, is “playing a game of chance for money or money’s worth”. The “game of chance” phrase is defined as any game that involves both an element of chance and an element of skill—pretty much any freemium game with a gasha [ i.e. lockbox] feature. Money’s worth, on the other hand, is defined as virtual objects, like coins, tokens, credits, or anything similar that is purchased within the game, as part of the game, or in relation to the game — again, pretty much any in-app purchase."
"Singapore’s Second Minister for Home Affairs, S. Iswaran, has said that the bill will not affect video games as long as players cannot convert in-game credits or tokens for money or real merchandise outside the game."
...sounds like randomized lockboxes are riding the razors edge of illegality.
Probably only a matter of time before other countries follow suite.
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
Let's say I want to refine an artifact. I have to find the control that popups the artifact window, that is hovering the mouse then right-clicking then browsing the menu options. Then I have to open my inventory, use the lift bar until it displays my enchants. Then the drag and drop grind begins. I may have 99 enchants; it will take only 5 at a time. Hours later the refinement is over, my purple artifact has gained half a level.
Let's take the Rappelz MMORPG where you're also refilling your equipment with your drops. There is one "refill all" button. You open your inventory ("I" key, same as here), you click the button. No refinement grind.
All in all I would not say that controls are the forte of NWO.
I love this game, I seem to be one of the few who likes the ToD module and it's content although I do wish the dragon timers would be halved, it's hard for most adults with money (ya know, we have to go out and work for this money 5-6-7 days of the week before we can spend it here) to devote 20+ minutes to 5 different areas each and every day to progress, would the dragon timers been reduced to half, 10 minutes I think their would have been a whole lot less complaints about this module.
There are only two reasons why I think the artifact belts and boon book drop rates were so horrifically low and they go as follows;
They had planned to eventually tie them in with existing cash-shop items to get those items purchased and increase game revenue.
Over all it was used as time gated fillers to extend far beyond the addition of the ToD module instead of giving us actually more content to run they just wanted us to run ToD content infinitely until the next mod was released.
Both in my opinion are pretty bad...
They have went on the record stating that the boon books and belts will get a drop-rate increase in module 5 but that leaves me to wonder if they will do the same damned thing in Module 5 with all the new shiny Artifacts, it would vastly suck if this was the case, I would not like to wait to module 6 to have any chance of collecting my module 5 goodies.
Overall the core of ToD is pretty enjoyable, the content is far quicker than Sharandar to go through, the dragons well, they aren't a challenge but I do enjoy killing them anyways, i just hate having to wait 20 minutes or be forced to beg on zone chat for invite to a zone where a dragon is soon to arrive. The artifacts are plentiful and I am really tired of hearing people complain about "omg it takes forever to level these artifacts QQ my life is so terrible because I can't have a legendary artifact within a couple of hours playing", It sounds to me like whiny little children who honestly feel they should get everything instantly with little to no work.
The artifacts are there to be a LONG TERM goal & the dev's even threw you a bone to help complete it sooner, the Dragon's Hoard Enchantments - Go farm, item farming is a MASSIVE ASPECT of every single MMORPG.
My 2 and a half cents, if that makes any sense.
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I object to your objection
But i aggree on the RNG and combat parts. Except that the combat actually is not that far away from - lets say - World of Warcraft. Only the autoattack and targeting is missing.
But they decided to go for 20 minutes, for whatever reason.
To prolong grinding, obviously.
7-10 players are waiting for the dragon to spawn
The dragon spawns, the battle begins
3-5 players die in the first minute, but are revived by other players
The adds around the dragon area re-spawn and attack the players
2-4 players die because of the adds, are revived or re-spawn themselves
10 minutes have passed, the dragon is at 60% health
The sparkling Perfect Vorpal toting, Soulforged wearing cavlary arrives (usually an additional 10-12 players)
Lag
The dragon is at 30% health and dropping fast
Lag
30 seconds later:
Great Success!
Massive exodus ensues to repeat in another instance
Featured Foundry Quest: Whispers of an Ancient Evil [v3] - NW-DQ4WKW6ZG
Foundry Quest: Harper Chronicles: Blacklake - NW-DCPA4W2Q5
And don't forget: Collect your typical dragon coins and sigil, because nothing additional drops from "great success" (except some cosmetics).
myles08807 said, "Back in my day, we didn't have any of this fancy Mulhorand gear while we were leveling . . . we walked uphill both ways while dying once every five seconds while leveling, and we liked it fine!" . . . Now, get off my lawn, you kids!"
pointsman said, "I don't rue the game. In fact I don't feel any regret for the game at all."
looomis said, "I don't like people changing to alts and then bragging about their mains like schizophrenic role players."
In total agreement. The gameplay is the reason I've not left the game completely at any point since I started playing. Even with my *****ing about AoE spam at higher levels I can still have fun with the game and enjoy it. I even play PvP and I am rather notorious amongst my friends for my disdain for that gameplay mode, especially in any game that isn't built for PvP specifically.
I got a blue grimoire to drop for a great success. True story.
Great Weapon Fighter: Because when is today not a good day to die?
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They reduced it from 30 mins iirc on preview :P
Perhaps it wouldn't be a problem that they are raising the progression gap so ridiculously high that people cannot achieve it, if only people weren't achieving it. Unfortunately, the "high end" community already has ridiculous amounts of AD stored from various previous methods that other players have not had the chance to utilize (a lot of which were against the rules). Anyway, best of luck to this game's future. I hope they can make changes and take it in the right direction to make it grow long term.
Recently I have unfortunately needed to revert back to older games, with not as friendly, community based individuals with much poorer, less developed PvP, but it was necessary to get the stability I need from a game to where I can just head out and enjoy PvP whenever I want without needing to worry about future grinds, massive game changes/reworks, new sinks, ect.
You're bringing something completely new to this discussion with the "running the numbers" bit assuming anyone would be foolish enough to completely gear up on cash alone, unless you're Richie Rich, retired with a damned good parachute or some other kid born of exceptional privilege I doubt anyone would completely gear up on ones wallet alone.
Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication
or other information which may be considered objectionable.
A Tool used by those with power to stay in power.
I object to your objection