There are three dungeons not doable by everyone. That's a very small part of the content. Not all the content is for everyone. You admitted it youself earlier. Why should everyone be able to play the hardest content in-game? Why does the hardest content in-game has to be a walk in the park so that everyone can complete it with random strangers?
When a tier of content is too difficult for you, it's not "too hard", it's "not for you". Once the old dungeons return at lvl 70, there will be more stuff to do for everyone. But not everyone must own the purple infused 137 gear, which has nothing more than the blue T1 gear except the fact that it's purple and merely means you've killed quite <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> bosses.
Which content? I have to agree with a poster above, are we in the same game?
We were promised to see new dungeons, now not that we don't have anything new, we got way less dungeons to do, than in Mod 5.
What do you think, what shall guildies keep entertained, if there isn't much to do?
The real honest man is honest from conviction of what is right, not from policy.
Robert E. Lee
I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself.
Winston Churchill
The human race is a herd. Here we are, unique, eternal aspects of consciousness with an infinity of potential, and we have allowed ourselves to become an unthinking, unquestioning blob of conformity and uniformity. A herd. Once we concede to the herd mentality, we can be controlled and directed by a tiny few. And we are.
David Icke
Glad to see a new lead designer. I hope we can get some attention on the topics that are causing more uproar among the community.
Still, not a single thing about the foundry, could we get any words on if there's anything planned for it?
We didn't even get any new assets with the new module.
I'm happy they're taking an active approach to making updates, and I'm also very pleased with the level of communication - something I've been more than a little unhappy about in recent months. Yes, there's bugs and inconsistencies and all that, but the areas need to be PLAYABLE in order to... you know... play them. I managed to finally get through all of the areas, but Spinward Rise was awful. Not because it was hard (it was), but because the performance of the game in that area was simply terrible. I like that it was hard, I don't like that when I run up and start attacking something the game stutters and then suddenly I'm dead. So, Scott, if you happen to see this, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE put performance at the top of your list.
Well, welcome to Scott Shicoff, I will attempt to be helpful (just for the record, have deleted my initial thoughts over and over in an attempt to not violate ToS, so here goes. ) Although I appreciate the "new guy is going to get stuff done" message, I'm afraid I'm not encouraged by the way in which the first actionable item is being dealt:
Action Item:
XP rewards in the new zones and campaign zones: ...The amount of XP being rewarded by repeatable quests in our campaign areas is not consistent.
Solution:
We are only reducing XP given by repeatable quests in the Tyranny campaign areas. Other quests are unaffected.
Bone:
...to help compensate for this change we will be running our double XP event for an entire week, starting Thursday, April 23 and ending Thursday, April 30.
My reaction/viewpoint:
This points to the end goal. Things will become 'more in line' with a mind-numbing grindfest, and players will be conditioned to appreciate "bonus" time periods. We really are easily manipulated - this is the equivalent of starving someone for days, then giving them a couple of days to eat and having them eternally grateful for your generosity. They don't think about how you're starving them afterwards, they're just waiting for you to give them those precious eating days, and thank them profusely when they deem it's a good time to do so.
It's the same with refinement/artifacts/artifact equipment - increase the amount of things that need to be refined, increase the amount needed to refine to top level, decrease the ability to gain refinement items except through repetitive tasks. Once in a while do a double refinement weekend and everyone thanks you and congratulates you on how nice it is that you've given this gift.
I do hope that I am wrong. I do fervently hope that this feedback is taken in the manner in which it is given - to provide my feedback as requested, and hopefully give some insight into one player's perception of the intentions.
TLDR:
I absolutely understand that walking that fine line between user and management is a soul-sucking, thankless job. I applaud Mr. Shicoff's tenacity, given his background, and hope that he can advocate for the player base in a way that increases profitability by building a happy, growing player base.
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icefalcon9Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero UsersPosts: 12Arc User
edited April 2015
As a free to play game, without attracting new players who spend their $$$ in the store, how will you continue to be profitable? Are there sufficient high level players spending enough to keep the servers and salaries paid? I suspect not...
It seems to me that Mod 5 and 6 were focused on adding higher end content and complexity. Not much in the way of content focused on attracting and keeping new players. Especially since there are no current public reference sources new players can read to figure out the more complex aspects of the game. There is no Wowhead for Neverwinter on the web. If there is I am an abject failure at finding it. What little is out there is fractured and very outdated.
If a new player wants to play a HR for example, how do they learn the in's and out's of the class, chose the right talents and feats as they level, know what zones and dungeons they should focus on, what gear they should look for (stats), what runes and enchants to focus on, what pet to use and when, etc. etc. etc. This kind of information, which is in part contributed to by the community, would help new players immensely.
This is my long view of the game, not the short view to just satisfy the high end 1%'ers. If the game is to continue to be profitable it has to attract and retain new players. They are the 99%'ers. They have a hell of a lot more money combined that they could be spending on the game than the measly 1% of the current player base.
Think about it...
...If you know what the "Pendrill Prophecy" is send me a private message.
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imagreatMember, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 1Arc User
edited April 2015
Thank you for looking into the difficulty issue, because for the new class, Oathbound Paladin; it is VERY difficult to participate in the ELoL, VT and MC dungeon's since we don't have the added bonus of having the previous Dragonic gear and have to do these dungeons to get good gear!
Even the Epic Skirmishes seem unwinnable by people who just newly leveled their character and have just over the required Item Level!
Thanks again for looking into this and fixing it so we can finally get gear!!
Thank you for looking into the difficulty issue, because for the new class, Oathbound Paladin; it is VERY difficult to participate in the ELoL, VT and MC dungeon's since we don't have the added bonus of having the previous Dragonic gear and have to do these dungeons to get good gear!
Even the Epic Skirmishes seem unwinnable by people who just newly leveled their character and have just over the required Item Level!
Thanks again for looking into this and fixing it so we can finally get gear!!
... levelling dungeons at lvl 70 give you lvl 70 blue gear and it's good enough to play T1s.
Asking in zone chat would have saved you the effort of writing such a post.
This was the response I was hoping for but didn't expect. I knew a complete roll back of mod 6 just wasn't going to happen, but a new lead and correcting the direction is a positive step. I love this game and I want it to succeed but I stopped playing a few days after mod 6 dropped. I have been watching things very closely though because I care what happens!
As an AD&D player I know that story is everything! I enjoyed the first part of mod 6 quests but when I hit the repeatables and recycled zones it killed my soul... I've never experienced such a let down with a nearly full expac in my life!
I hope they revert the invoke system to its less obtrusive original form...
I hope at the very least they decide to voice act the repeatables in the "new" zones...
I hope the original campaigns revert to lvl 60 and they release NEW campaigns for lvl 70! (in what universe did people think this was a good idea?)
As ive said recently, the community is watching, my entire guild left after mod 6... thats 60+ people that evaporated from the game but they still follow forums and I'm sure there are others that are experiencing the same thing.
To sum up, I think this blog from the new lead is a strong message and a positive step in the right direction (and surprised me actually) my fingers are crossed, I want this game to succeed!
Nice to have you Scott, at the very least, please get rid of the bugs, the difficulty is fine, xp can be reworked to make more sense based on difficulty. Maybe your team can calculate based on time played to kill a mob, dungeon, skirmish, etc. with the best gear and make that maximum xp and then decrease xp based on total gear level. The decreasing to certain levels in lower areas just isn't normal and kind of ridiculous, just make it that there is very little xp to be had for higher levels and I'm pretty sure they won't stick around to get zero to no XP. As it is, a lvl 70 can go to Rothe and brought to lvl 55 and easily do the areas still and get close to 7k xp while in the Rise areas, you get like 1.3k for quests to 3k, it just doesn't make sense for higher levels to do the new content.
p.s. don't lower the difficulty, at least now there is a little bit of a challenge and the free respec works wonders if you change from dps a little to some defence, level 70 mobs should be tougher and get more xp, lower level mobs should be easier but much less xp
Writing from my husbands account:
Me and my husband both play SW as main character and after mod6 we have problems in both PVE and PVP. I'm level 70 and after mod6 I could forget playing the maps and pvp all together. Getting tired og playing the same 3 dungeons over and over. SW was made not that long ago and already forgotten, nerfed or whatever happened? I never see anybody in looking for groups asking for a SW, they become pretty useless in the game and if nothing is done they will not be used by players anymore. Lifesteal was our thing and when you nerfed it, you made SW not count in a lot of gameplay, both PVE AND PVP. You fixed, buffed and nerfed on all the others, but feel liked you just destroyed SW exsistence in NW. I leveled the 60 to 70 in dungeons, don't believe i had the patience but it worked. Not happy about it though. I don't wanna complain, but i really do work very hard to get stronger in every way. I read all i can find online, i ask and follow the game chat and still nothing. Dobbel xp is super, but still have to use the same 3 dungeons, but happy to hear from you guys never the less!
Most other things that need fixing has been said by others, i'll post was hasn't that regads my gameplay.
DCs need a looking at.
It took 5 mods to finally have any real/useful change to the DC class and with mod 6 it was once again ignored. Please read through the Mod 6 DC Feedback Thread for bugs/suggestions on what to do with DCs in general.
Now I have a gripe against the new stat curve. Mod 5 brought about a great DPS (Righteous) tree for DCs, but in the next mod (6), this build/tree was practically made obsolete. The stat curve killed the Righteous, specifically the crit stat and its new relation to crit chance.
Some options could be giving Righteous feats that increase their crit chance, and/or reduce the points needed to increase the crit chance. In mod 5 it was a high damage output class that was squishy. In mod 6 it's a moderate damage output but still squishy.
In regards to the new feats and powers, those two Righteous feats are a joke, and the new powers, i don't even used them as they are terrible. Again read the feedback thread.. Better yet, play as Righteous DC from level one and to level 70 and you will see what I and the testers have said about the stat curve, feats and powers.
Honestly look at all Mod 6 Class Feedback threads to get a good idea on what is needed for balance. There, you will get a look at what classes are too weak, too strong, and broken.
I show player support, by only playing Neverwinter as F2P
So... WoD XP nerfed - is fine with me, I doubt I'll have the patience to grind experience for extra power points - btw, are those still available? and to what amount, until we get all powers to R4?
But making greater bags bound so Zen store can push Runic bags, and deny players the chance to sell their older 500k AD bags for even half that? So in mode 7 some Mythic bag with 8 more slots will pop up, along with 24 other unnecessary refining stones immediately filling up the extra space?
Bad business model. Really bad.
Despite what they said in the notes, or at least how I interpreted it, I found the GBHes I already had equipped were NOT bound. So, if you intend to sell them and are currently using them, you should be OK, you just can move them or re-equip them (they are character bind on equip now). So, if you intend to sell and of them you have, you still can unless you equip it going forward.
jadence80Member, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 5Arc User
edited April 2015
Well here we go again with another double XP event (as if leveling wasn't already way too easy). There hasn't been one character of mine that took even the entire original content to reach max level, much less with skirmish XP and PVP XP added to the mix. Sadly, I created a new Paladin the day after release and at the rate in which I am leveling will be level 70 before I finish the original zones. This greatly reduces the entertainment value for any new players coming into the game. I know this doesn't sound like the typical "I need everything given to me right away" ignorant gamer but from someone who enjoys being challenged with a game. I think the overall view of XP should be to minimize it to where all zones should be a new challenge and eliminate XP from PVP and only award XP for the first time a skirmish is completed. The reward of glory for PVP should be sufficient and will keep players playing content to earn their levels. The would help in keeping each area they progress to more of a challenge.
Well here we go again with another double XP event (as if leveling wasn't already way too easy). There hasn't been one character of mine that took even the entire original content to reach max level, much less with skirmish XP and PVP XP added to the mix. Sadly, I created a new Paladin the day after release and at the rate in which I am leveling will be level 70 before I finish the original zones. This greatly reduces the entertainment value for any new players coming into the game. I know this doesn't sound like the typical "I need everything given to me right away" ignorant gamer but from someone who enjoys being challenged with a game. I think the overall view of XP should be to minimize it to where all zones should be a new challenge and eliminate XP from PVP and only award XP for the first time a skirmish is completed. The reward of glory for PVP should be sufficient and will keep players playing content to earn their levels. The would help in keeping each area they progress to more of a challenge.
But then the pvp-only players would have to do pve content! *gasp* oh the humanity! The alternate universe that was created by this suggestion is filled with much wailing and nashing of teeth, and it's all your fault!
Scott, thanks for the letter. As a developer myself i KNOW that sometimes you just cant do it NOW. As a start: filing in a ticket and getting the message "ticket #3,395,357 successfully submitted", brings the AAAND, IT'S GONE-meme into mind. Please provide us with some sort of bugtracker. Knowing that the reported bug has been received, someone confirmed it and someone is at least moving it onto the todo-list is a big step forward.
... I also think they messed up, they wanted them to be bound if slotted already...
Agreed - I think that was their intention as well. It only binds when you actually equip it though, and intentional or not, is the way it SHOULD be. I have several bags on a few alts and none of them NEED the bags since I don't really *use* my alts for anything much, they just have it because that's where it ended up at some point. I'm glad to have the opportunity to at least get those bags unequipped so I can sell them or allocate them to a toon permanently -- choice is good.
Nerfing XP further while adding more goals to the quests we're already sick of grinding after 2 weeks. Fabulous. Can't play dailies by myself on my main who was tough as nails before mod 6. Can't level in a timely fashion. At this point I'd have more fun swimming in an open sewer fighting off <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>-piranhas with a flail made of soiled diapers. Is a double (read: normal) XP week supposed to make up for this? Are you trying to kill the PC side so you can focus on Xbox? Not accusing, just asking a question that's about as fair as ruining the fun of playing a powerful character that an ungodly amount of time and a much more moderate amount of money went into.
socialistcommieMember, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 17Arc User
edited April 2015
My biggest gripe with mod 6 is going to have to be difficulty. Nothing is scaled. Every re-worked Epic dungeon just had the difficulty jacked up to 10-Man levels with a 5-Man cap. Unless you have a perfectly setup team you WILL fail the 1600 IL dungeons. From my POV, the 1600 level dungeons are there to farm gear for the 2000 level dungeons. Problem is, the 1600 dungeons are impossible to do via the group finder (unless you get really lucky on class and spec), which forces most people to either sit around grinding, or spend real money to purchase what they need to get artifacts, artifact gear upgraded to help offset dungeon difficulty (which may have been intended as a money grab on the Developer's part).
Realistic item level requirements with the current dungeon difficulties: 1600 requirement would need to be 3000 and 2000 would need to be 3500+. You can't farm gear for a specific set of dungeons if you are required to run those same dungeons to get the gear to run those dungeons (horrible circle of failure right there).
These opinions are not taking into account the exploits and bugs that people were using to kill, at least, the last bosses in these dungeons. If your players have to resort to exploits and bugs just to finish your new dungeons, then you did something wrong.
If dungeons difficulty doesn't go down then a couple of things would need to happen:
1. Tanking needs a huge improvement. My tank is full Bulwark spec at 2300+ item level with a mix of rare/epic Alliance gear, 116k unbufffed HP and GOBS of DR% (I don't know how DR scales but just going off tooltips i am somewhere around 106% in combat while using SHIFT) and the only way I don't die on every pull is because of a DC ability that was allowing players to maintain 100% AP and I could spam Divine Protector, and even then with all the DR AND 80% less damage through that shield, plus my tab shield and shielding strike shield every once in a while a single trash mob would 2 shot me.
2. PVE crowd control needs to be strengthened. Allow CC abilities to work on boss adds that are currently immune to it. All of our resources are going to keep up with a 10 minute+ boss fight and then we have to deal with adds that are uncontrolable.
3. Loot. If you are going to make people drudge through the mess of dungeons we have now, the least you could do is make it rewarding. Most bosses drop nothing most of the time. you MIGHT get a pridot. you might RARELY get an Aquamarine and once every couple of runs you will see an epic drop just for you! Until you pick it up and find it isnt the one you needed.
I was really excited for the Paladin as it finally gave me a glimmer of hope of getting a legit meatshield for a tank, but so far it requires a bugged DC spell to even keep up in dungeons.
The level 60 versions of Valindra's Tower, Malabog's Castle, and Castle Never were great. They were hard, people would occasionally die, but they were manageable. They provided a challenge that left you feeling like you were almost there, just one more attempt and we got this. Then when the boss dies everyone claimed their loot and felt better.
When you finish a dungeon now, its so frustrating and takes so much time (if I remember correctly, a comment was made about re-working dungeons so they didn't take so long...epic fail there) that when it's over you just want to hang up your hat and go level an alt because the mind numbing monotony of grinding the same <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> over and over is preferable to spending another 60+ minutes and 30 injury kits killing bosses that mostly drop NOTHING. I have a stack of freaking peridot.
I have far less motivation to keep gearing my tank because no increase in HP or Defense or, especially, life steal will mitigate the shockingly high amount of damage I take. I understand the importance of a healer, especially for bosses, but if I charge into a small group of trash and instantly die then either the mobs are too difficult, or you failed to make a playable tanking class, and I really wanted a legit tank.
You are making a bunch of changes in the game today that seem trivial compared to the massive mechanics overhaul that needs to take place.
Lastly, if your mindset was to have content that is going to last for a while before the next mod and you didn't want people hitting the proverbial end-game wall in 2-3 months, you have gone about it in the wrong way. Don't make content so hard that it takes a year for people to make progress, ADD CONTENT so people have things to work on!
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jadence80Member, Neverwinter Beta UsersPosts: 5Arc User
I share this view of double xp. However this is rather rare view and people who have it look at game and think of challenge and satisfaction. Most of people will be glad about double xp because it will be easier for them to level up, without any thoughts like how overleveling affects their gameplay experience, so view like this is not popular and is more developers thing who see bigger picture, and there are players who level up another alt and know all quests already or lev 60+ who has to grind repeatable quests. For new players double xp may not be the best gaming experience, but there are others.
Think about it this way however, if you start a new alternate character and can zip through leveling without challenges then when do you learn your characters weaknesses and strengths? You will already gear them up using your main characters resources making the challenge easier, normally. Working through the same content with a different class has it's new challenges and trials even if the story is the same. Working my up with my TR was a much different method of play than my DC. Same with my GF, CW, and OP.
My main question is, what caused the huge turn of events with the level 60-70 balancing and difficulty? There was little discussion and philosophy behind the major changes. There so far has been very little communication as of late and it needs to change. I can understand it was necessary to increase the difficulty somewhat, but it's now on the extreme end other spectrum. I have leveled my CW to level 70 and now I'm wondering what is there left to do after the grind? Since the campaigns are now geared to level 70, all features and functions should have been changed accordingly with new armor instead of the same level 60 armor sets I currently see now. Event the campaign tasks in the UI have not been updated with anything new, so why should I continue to grind away at them?
I have T3 black ice armor and do reasonably well in the first two campaigns, but IWD and WoD are very difficult without dying many times. If I upgrade any armor to the new black ice sets, I mainly see a significant increase in HP but not much else in the way of useful stats. I could only imagine the frustration new or under geared players face for gearing up without having to be carried through the end tier dungeons. I can understand that dungeons should be hard, but leveling areas and dailies should be solo friendly along with something to work for (similar to the pre mod 6 play style). To date it is not in the 60-70 tier. Why? What happened?
At any rate, I have supported this game since beta monetarily and play wise. I have to ask, where is the beef in the latest mod? Even after a delay of several weeks, it still seems half rushed and numbers based on some Excel spreadsheet for balance. From a business process standpoint, there is a lot of work to be done both game balance wise and from what your future expectations are looking forward with the game. I am not sure what happened with the layoffs and the current team that appears to have new folks involved, but something really went wrong during the development process recently. Perhaps in retrospect, the mod should have been cancelled until everything was finally worked out.
In closing, you won't get far with the cash shop if people are frustrated with playing the game and leave. Please don't let yet another good MMO go down the tubes. At this time, this is what will occur is something doesn't change sooner rather than later. I'm not sure what has to be investigated, but time is of the essence. The essence of evil will not work in your favor for long!
+1
all of this.
if there was a spectacle of poor performance and layoffs in process this mod should have been delayed until YOUR house was in order. Now it is up to US as players to suffer on behalf of the gong show you had going on behind the scenes. You bit off way more than you could chew, and now we're all digesting this regurgitated crud you call a mod.
I don't understand, really I don't. I usually have a GREAT tolerance for 'learning curves' ... this is not a mistake, it's not a coaching moment. It is a business destroying critical error. If you survive this, I will still be here to play. I know that other die hard friends of mine will be here too, but as each minute passes you are losing dollars and players. I want you to fix this and I want to support you...BUT I need further honesty and forthright communication from YOU and the dev's. When your dog takes a <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>, you pick the <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> up, you don't leave it to fester and get dragged around on the shoe of a poor passer by.I have <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> on my shoe, called Mod6.
The only complaints about difficulty come from people who don't want to get the new gear with more hit points. OF COURSE you're going to struggle if you don't get up to 80-100k hit points. When you have that gear heroic encounters can be done solo again, even in icewind dale. And yes I did it...
creating character
control wizard :1 month ago
lvling him to lvl 60: 2 weeks
getting blue gear for lvl 60: 3 days
learn to survive in sharandar first map: 1 hour
doing the lvl 60-70 grind lvl: 3 days
gearing in full lvl 70 blue gear excepting cloak given when hitting lvl 70, including green MH and OH: 2 days
getting one shot killed by a witherer in Sharandar: &$#&!%# priceless
Think about it this way however, if you start a new alternate character and can zip through leveling without challenges then when do you learn your characters weaknesses and strengths? You will already gear them up using your main characters resources making the challenge easier, normally. Working through the same content with a different class has it's new challenges and trials even if the story is the same. Working my up with my TR was a much different method of play than my DC. Same with my GF, CW, and OP.
Well, you're welcome to wait for the double XP weekend to end before leveling your character. Also, many of us have been playing mmo's for a while and get a sense of what works and what doesn't fairly quickly. Frankly I'd rather do my retconning and such when I have access to all of my skills (at level cap), and once you've done the grind for more than say... 6 or 7 characters, shooting passed all the fetch missions and such can be a nice reprieve.
FearOfADiscoPlanet
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icefalcon9Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero UsersPosts: 12Arc User
creating character
control wizard :1 month ago
lvling him to lvl 60: 2 weeks
getting blue gear for lvl 60: 3 days
learn to survive in sharandar first map: 1 hour
doing the lvl 60-70 grind lvl: 3 days
gearing in full lvl 70 blue gear excepting cloak given when hitting lvl 70, including green MH and OH: 2 days
getting one shot killed by a witherer in Sharandar: &$#&!%# priceless
LOL Dear God. That was priceless. Well done Sir, well done!
...If you know what the "Pendrill Prophecy" is send me a private message.
Think about it this way however, if you start a new alternate character and can zip through leveling without challenges then when do you learn your characters weaknesses and strengths? You will already gear them up using your main characters resources making the challenge easier, normally. Working through the same content with a different class has it's new challenges and trials even if the story is the same. Working my up with my TR was a much different method of play than my DC. Same with my GF, CW, and OP.
Sadly I'll have to stop levelling my paladin for this exact reason. Double xp hurts my levelling, which is a learning experience. Double XP makes bad players complaining that they can't kill a boss with lvl 50 greens and die in one hit from adds in dungeons...
Comments
Which content? I have to agree with a poster above, are we in the same game?
We were promised to see new dungeons, now not that we don't have anything new, we got way less dungeons to do, than in Mod 5.
What do you think, what shall guildies keep entertained, if there isn't much to do?
Robert E. Lee
I only believe in statistics that I doctored myself.
Winston Churchill
The human race is a herd. Here we are, unique, eternal aspects of consciousness with an infinity of potential, and we have allowed ourselves to become an unthinking, unquestioning blob of conformity and uniformity. A herd. Once we concede to the herd mentality, we can be controlled and directed by a tiny few. And we are.
David Icke
Still, not a single thing about the foundry, could we get any words on if there's anything planned for it?
We didn't even get any new assets with the new module.
Oh, then add Guild Strongholds.
Sekhmet@kvetchus_
Guilds: Greycloaks, Blackcloaks, Whitecloaks, Goldcloaks, Browncloaks, Spiritcloaks, Bluecloaks, Silvercloaks, Black Dawn
Tredecim: The Cloak Alliance
Action Item: Solution: Bone:
My reaction/viewpoint:
This points to the end goal. Things will become 'more in line' with a mind-numbing grindfest, and players will be conditioned to appreciate "bonus" time periods. We really are easily manipulated - this is the equivalent of starving someone for days, then giving them a couple of days to eat and having them eternally grateful for your generosity. They don't think about how you're starving them afterwards, they're just waiting for you to give them those precious eating days, and thank them profusely when they deem it's a good time to do so.
It's the same with refinement/artifacts/artifact equipment - increase the amount of things that need to be refined, increase the amount needed to refine to top level, decrease the ability to gain refinement items except through repetitive tasks. Once in a while do a double refinement weekend and everyone thanks you and congratulates you on how nice it is that you've given this gift.
I do hope that I am wrong. I do fervently hope that this feedback is taken in the manner in which it is given - to provide my feedback as requested, and hopefully give some insight into one player's perception of the intentions.
TLDR:
I absolutely understand that walking that fine line between user and management is a soul-sucking, thankless job. I applaud Mr. Shicoff's tenacity, given his background, and hope that he can advocate for the player base in a way that increases profitability by building a happy, growing player base.
It seems to me that Mod 5 and 6 were focused on adding higher end content and complexity. Not much in the way of content focused on attracting and keeping new players. Especially since there are no current public reference sources new players can read to figure out the more complex aspects of the game. There is no Wowhead for Neverwinter on the web. If there is I am an abject failure at finding it. What little is out there is fractured and very outdated.
If a new player wants to play a HR for example, how do they learn the in's and out's of the class, chose the right talents and feats as they level, know what zones and dungeons they should focus on, what gear they should look for (stats), what runes and enchants to focus on, what pet to use and when, etc. etc. etc. This kind of information, which is in part contributed to by the community, would help new players immensely.
This is my long view of the game, not the short view to just satisfy the high end 1%'ers. If the game is to continue to be profitable it has to attract and retain new players. They are the 99%'ers. They have a hell of a lot more money combined that they could be spending on the game than the measly 1% of the current player base.
Think about it...
...If you know what the "Pendrill Prophecy" is send me a private message.
Even the Epic Skirmishes seem unwinnable by people who just newly leveled their character and have just over the required Item Level!
Thanks again for looking into this and fixing it so we can finally get gear!!
... levelling dungeons at lvl 70 give you lvl 70 blue gear and it's good enough to play T1s.
Asking in zone chat would have saved you the effort of writing such a post.
As an AD&D player I know that story is everything! I enjoyed the first part of mod 6 quests but when I hit the repeatables and recycled zones it killed my soul... I've never experienced such a let down with a nearly full expac in my life!
I hope they revert the invoke system to its less obtrusive original form...
I hope at the very least they decide to voice act the repeatables in the "new" zones...
I hope the original campaigns revert to lvl 60 and they release NEW campaigns for lvl 70! (in what universe did people think this was a good idea?)
As ive said recently, the community is watching, my entire guild left after mod 6... thats 60+ people that evaporated from the game but they still follow forums and I'm sure there are others that are experiencing the same thing.
To sum up, I think this blog from the new lead is a strong message and a positive step in the right direction (and surprised me actually) my fingers are crossed, I want this game to succeed!
p.s. don't lower the difficulty, at least now there is a little bit of a challenge and the free respec works wonders if you change from dps a little to some defence, level 70 mobs should be tougher and get more xp, lower level mobs should be easier but much less xp
Me and my husband both play SW as main character and after mod6 we have problems in both PVE and PVP. I'm level 70 and after mod6 I could forget playing the maps and pvp all together. Getting tired og playing the same 3 dungeons over and over. SW was made not that long ago and already forgotten, nerfed or whatever happened? I never see anybody in looking for groups asking for a SW, they become pretty useless in the game and if nothing is done they will not be used by players anymore. Lifesteal was our thing and when you nerfed it, you made SW not count in a lot of gameplay, both PVE AND PVP. You fixed, buffed and nerfed on all the others, but feel liked you just destroyed SW exsistence in NW. I leveled the 60 to 70 in dungeons, don't believe i had the patience but it worked. Not happy about it though. I don't wanna complain, but i really do work very hard to get stronger in every way. I read all i can find online, i ask and follow the game chat and still nothing. Dobbel xp is super, but still have to use the same 3 dungeons, but happy to hear from you guys never the less!
DCs need a looking at.
It took 5 mods to finally have any real/useful change to the DC class and with mod 6 it was once again ignored. Please read through the Mod 6 DC Feedback Thread for bugs/suggestions on what to do with DCs in general.
Now I have a gripe against the new stat curve. Mod 5 brought about a great DPS (Righteous) tree for DCs, but in the next mod (6), this build/tree was practically made obsolete. The stat curve killed the Righteous, specifically the crit stat and its new relation to crit chance.
Some options could be giving Righteous feats that increase their crit chance, and/or reduce the points needed to increase the crit chance. In mod 5 it was a high damage output class that was squishy. In mod 6 it's a moderate damage output but still squishy.
In regards to the new feats and powers, those two Righteous feats are a joke, and the new powers, i don't even used them as they are terrible. Again read the feedback thread.. Better yet, play as Righteous DC from level one and to level 70 and you will see what I and the testers have said about the stat curve, feats and powers.
Honestly look at all Mod 6 Class Feedback threads to get a good idea on what is needed for balance. There, you will get a look at what classes are too weak, too strong, and broken.
Despite what they said in the notes, or at least how I interpreted it, I found the GBHes I already had equipped were NOT bound. So, if you intend to sell them and are currently using them, you should be OK, you just can move them or re-equip them (they are character bind on equip now). So, if you intend to sell and of them you have, you still can unless you equip it going forward.
Sekhmet@kvetchus_
Guilds: Greycloaks, Blackcloaks, Whitecloaks, Goldcloaks, Browncloaks, Spiritcloaks, Bluecloaks, Silvercloaks, Black Dawn
Tredecim: The Cloak Alliance
But then the pvp-only players would have to do pve content! *gasp* oh the humanity! The alternate universe that was created by this suggestion is filled with much wailing and nashing of teeth, and it's all your fault!
Sekhmet@kvetchus_
Guilds: Greycloaks, Blackcloaks, Whitecloaks, Goldcloaks, Browncloaks, Spiritcloaks, Bluecloaks, Silvercloaks, Black Dawn
Tredecim: The Cloak Alliance
Agreed - I think that was their intention as well. It only binds when you actually equip it though, and intentional or not, is the way it SHOULD be. I have several bags on a few alts and none of them NEED the bags since I don't really *use* my alts for anything much, they just have it because that's where it ended up at some point. I'm glad to have the opportunity to at least get those bags unequipped so I can sell them or allocate them to a toon permanently -- choice is good.
Sekhmet@kvetchus_
Guilds: Greycloaks, Blackcloaks, Whitecloaks, Goldcloaks, Browncloaks, Spiritcloaks, Bluecloaks, Silvercloaks, Black Dawn
Tredecim: The Cloak Alliance
Realistic item level requirements with the current dungeon difficulties: 1600 requirement would need to be 3000 and 2000 would need to be 3500+. You can't farm gear for a specific set of dungeons if you are required to run those same dungeons to get the gear to run those dungeons (horrible circle of failure right there).
These opinions are not taking into account the exploits and bugs that people were using to kill, at least, the last bosses in these dungeons. If your players have to resort to exploits and bugs just to finish your new dungeons, then you did something wrong.
If dungeons difficulty doesn't go down then a couple of things would need to happen:
1. Tanking needs a huge improvement. My tank is full Bulwark spec at 2300+ item level with a mix of rare/epic Alliance gear, 116k unbufffed HP and GOBS of DR% (I don't know how DR scales but just going off tooltips i am somewhere around 106% in combat while using SHIFT) and the only way I don't die on every pull is because of a DC ability that was allowing players to maintain 100% AP and I could spam Divine Protector, and even then with all the DR AND 80% less damage through that shield, plus my tab shield and shielding strike shield every once in a while a single trash mob would 2 shot me.
2. PVE crowd control needs to be strengthened. Allow CC abilities to work on boss adds that are currently immune to it. All of our resources are going to keep up with a 10 minute+ boss fight and then we have to deal with adds that are uncontrolable.
3. Loot. If you are going to make people drudge through the mess of dungeons we have now, the least you could do is make it rewarding. Most bosses drop nothing most of the time. you MIGHT get a pridot. you might RARELY get an Aquamarine and once every couple of runs you will see an epic drop just for you! Until you pick it up and find it isnt the one you needed.
I was really excited for the Paladin as it finally gave me a glimmer of hope of getting a legit meatshield for a tank, but so far it requires a bugged DC spell to even keep up in dungeons.
The level 60 versions of Valindra's Tower, Malabog's Castle, and Castle Never were great. They were hard, people would occasionally die, but they were manageable. They provided a challenge that left you feeling like you were almost there, just one more attempt and we got this. Then when the boss dies everyone claimed their loot and felt better.
When you finish a dungeon now, its so frustrating and takes so much time (if I remember correctly, a comment was made about re-working dungeons so they didn't take so long...epic fail there) that when it's over you just want to hang up your hat and go level an alt because the mind numbing monotony of grinding the same <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> over and over is preferable to spending another 60+ minutes and 30 injury kits killing bosses that mostly drop NOTHING. I have a stack of freaking peridot.
I have far less motivation to keep gearing my tank because no increase in HP or Defense or, especially, life steal will mitigate the shockingly high amount of damage I take. I understand the importance of a healer, especially for bosses, but if I charge into a small group of trash and instantly die then either the mobs are too difficult, or you failed to make a playable tanking class, and I really wanted a legit tank.
You are making a bunch of changes in the game today that seem trivial compared to the massive mechanics overhaul that needs to take place.
Lastly, if your mindset was to have content that is going to last for a while before the next mod and you didn't want people hitting the proverbial end-game wall in 2-3 months, you have gone about it in the wrong way. Don't make content so hard that it takes a year for people to make progress, ADD CONTENT so people have things to work on!
Think about it this way however, if you start a new alternate character and can zip through leveling without challenges then when do you learn your characters weaknesses and strengths? You will already gear them up using your main characters resources making the challenge easier, normally. Working through the same content with a different class has it's new challenges and trials even if the story is the same. Working my up with my TR was a much different method of play than my DC. Same with my GF, CW, and OP.
+1
all of this.
if there was a spectacle of poor performance and layoffs in process this mod should have been delayed until YOUR house was in order. Now it is up to US as players to suffer on behalf of the gong show you had going on behind the scenes. You bit off way more than you could chew, and now we're all digesting this regurgitated crud you call a mod.
I don't understand, really I don't. I usually have a GREAT tolerance for 'learning curves' ... this is not a mistake, it's not a coaching moment. It is a business destroying critical error. If you survive this, I will still be here to play. I know that other die hard friends of mine will be here too, but as each minute passes you are losing dollars and players. I want you to fix this and I want to support you...BUT I need further honesty and forthright communication from YOU and the dev's. When your dog takes a <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font>, you pick the <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> up, you don't leave it to fester and get dragged around on the shoe of a poor passer by. I have <font color="orange">HAMSTER</font> on my shoe, called Mod6.
creating character
control wizard :1 month ago
lvling him to lvl 60: 2 weeks
getting blue gear for lvl 60: 3 days
learn to survive in sharandar first map: 1 hour
doing the lvl 60-70 grind lvl: 3 days
gearing in full lvl 70 blue gear excepting cloak given when hitting lvl 70, including green MH and OH: 2 days
getting one shot killed by a witherer in Sharandar: &$#&!%# priceless
Well, you're welcome to wait for the double XP weekend to end before leveling your character. Also, many of us have been playing mmo's for a while and get a sense of what works and what doesn't fairly quickly. Frankly I'd rather do my retconning and such when I have access to all of my skills (at level cap), and once you've done the grind for more than say... 6 or 7 characters, shooting passed all the fetch missions and such can be a nice reprieve.
LOL Dear God. That was priceless. Well done Sir, well done!
...If you know what the "Pendrill Prophecy" is send me a private message.
Sadly I'll have to stop levelling my paladin for this exact reason. Double xp hurts my levelling, which is a learning experience. Double XP makes bad players complaining that they can't kill a boss with lvl 50 greens and die in one hit from adds in dungeons...