[UPDATE] Q&A Stream Follow up & Next Steps

nitocris83 · May 2019

UPDATE:
Part 1 of the written follow up has been posted here. The second part will be posted next week.
In addition, we have scheduled streams for May 21, May 30, June 4, and June 13. We are also planning a Reddit AMA for early June.

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Greetings Adventurers,

Thank you to everyone who tuned into the stream yesterday. While we tried to get to as many live questions as possible, the speed of chat added some challenges. We've gone ahead and pulled the chat log and we will be reviewing it, gathering more questions, and are aiming to have a written Q&A follow up posted next week.

We are also planning another stream for the week of the 20th (Final date and time TBD). We will be providing a game status update as well as addressing questions on powers, classes, feats, stats, etc. Stay tuned to the forums and our social media pages (FB/Twitter) for more info!

hastati96 · May 2019

Thanks for this. Communication is key. Games like Division are showing how it should be done. Don't be like Anthem though. Keep up the communication and tell us why things are implemented / done the way they are. People will understand if you tell the reasons.

yeancientone · May 2019

...and some folks... Well, some folks will never be happy. And they're louder than the happy ones. ;-)

Unknown · May 2019

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wilbur626 · May 2019

@nitocris83 Can you please have the devs add a transmute cape tab, just like they did with fashion and vanity pets? I have quite a large collection of awesome capes collected since Caturday 2013, and would really like to keep them without "destroying" them in the transmute process 👍

wemery · May 2019

thanks

murattti · May 2019

i want LOW ping server tyvm.

davidmoki · May 2019

So... we scream asking you to remove downscale but you still ignore us, really? Disrespect 1000%, that live stream was a massive hit on the player base, you just ignore the feedback and pretend everything is okay, your companies will get an even worse image (which is already awful), and your game will die. Remember everyone that warned you about it and you IGNORED IT.

kreatyve · May 2019

murattti said:
i want LOW ping server tyvm.

I think your problem is more with your geographical location, unfortunately.

Unknown · May 2019

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Unknown · May 2019

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aerthyn · May 2019

@nitocris83 Appreciate the quick follow up to the stream and look forward to the future answers. As others have said communication is so important, even if its not what people want to hear - bad news is better than no news.

kolatmaster · May 2019

Thanks for the update @nitocris83 and tentative date for another cast w/Foss, it's appreciated it.

Would we be able to get the topic of the cast in advance, that way our questions can be directed towards that? You might not have decided what it will be as yet, but knowing would be helpful, thanks!

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davidmoki said:
So... we scream asking you to remove downscale but you still ignore us, really?

I'm sorry mi amigo, but if you truly thought they would rollback scaling it was a delusional hope. Simply wasn't going to happen.

davidmoki said:
Disrespect 1000%,

davidmoki said:
that live stream was a massive hit on the player base, you just ignore the feedback and pretend everything is okay, your companies will get an even worse image (which is already awful), and your game will die. Remember everyone that warned you about it and you IGNORED IT.

ananxiousnoob · May 2019

There is a BIG BIG difference between scaling and having a hard cap on content. Whilst the former was arguably necessary the later is not and NEVER will be acceptable because it devalues all of the time and money your player base have invested in their toons. It doesn’t matter whether you raise the item level from 11,000 to 12000 or 13000 I will still be capped making the money I spent on insignias, enchants, mounts, companions, artefacts and levelling them up pointless above a certain point. I appreciate that every new mod makes certain items less valuable BUT before MOD 16 those items were still benefiting me in lower level activities. Now they don’t, so please tell me why you consider it is worth my money levelling and buying anything for one or two mods. I do not regard that as being very cost effective. Oh and finally Cryptic sold the Chultan tiger, YOU decided on its stats knowing that it would be BIS. It is very disingenuous to pretend that it’s popularity caused a problem because YOU knowingly created that problem. If you wanted other companions used then you should have made them more attractive by increasing their stats. I would have spent real money on them but now I wouldn’t buy another companion for that real money because only you know when you are likely to nerf them .

kreatyve · May 2019

animewatcha#6533 said:
Seeing as several people are complaining about server problems and lag and stuff. It isn't geographical location as much. I take it atleast half the chat was 'do away with the scaling' ?

No, he's been complaining about the lag even when others don't. I wasn't saying that lag isn't an issue, just that his is more because he's in Turkey.

dread4moor · May 2019

> @barbie#2808 said:
> ...while most of the things were answered

Were they though?

The entire stream was bracketed in restriction of topics.
There were dozens of important question about content, dungeons and scaling posted by known and respected founders, veterans, preview testers and theorycrafters that were ignored or equivocated.

Too bad, really.
Many of us really wanted to give Mr. Foss a chance to prove he was listening.

Even a token gesture, by incorporating at least some of the closed and open preview feedback.

Nothing. Just platitudes, micro bug-fix promises and validation of the current trajectory.

In his letter "I am sorry" apparently meant "I am sorry that you don't get it".

I ain't sweatin it. Karma was watching that stream.

kalina311 · May 2019

A note on scaling and "pvp people"

Note too All players spreading false rumors and conjecture that status balancing/scaling is exclusive and only because of "pvp people " and then to requote each other with more rumors and conjecture .. FYI half of the games revenue in the early Mods was from PVP people and that is a fact ..

I spotted 5 /6 post over the past days pvps players this... pvp players that... and twisting facts around

and also mis quoting what Mimmicking said and looking for scape goats

Scaling and getting weaker as we level from 60 - till 70 also happened in the game in past mods and in pvp / pve before and stats were on curves .. players were regularly scaled up and down to mixed effect

devs excuse/ logic reasoning we cant have good rewards if players are over geared and smash thru content .this has nothing to do with pvp (and there are no good rewards in pvp either)

Mobs dont complain when players are over powered so its only pvp players that complain about class balance when they get owned are to blame ? there for scaling was implemented ? .. ...false .\

and FYi there is no scalling system / class balance for player entering pvp at the moment (mod 16)

scaling was over the top and adjusted because it was broken not because of PVP people get it thru your heads

i mean we could barely beg the dev team to get a pvp with the devs twice ever ..

Mimmic King only said alluded to the fact that scaling also helps with balance in pvp as a side benefit of it
the main reason is balancing out PVE( the majority of player ) and stopping players from running ahead of the group/ enjoying old content at a reasonable level etc ... do you guy really think they made such a scaling change for the minority of players in the game
with 2 pvp maps omg LOL

if mimmc king personally likes pvp so much dont you think he is going at a very very slow pace to implements any pvp changes if that were his personal agenda ?...no he is doing what is best for the game by scaling thing for the majority of you PVEers ...yup you guys stumbled on a it a secret dev pvp conspiracy

You would still have scaling even if pvp was not the game guys at this point due to overpowerness and power creep
so find someone / something else to blame instead of pvp which is was ignored just like the foundry ..and just like creating new classes etc

I personally think there should be only upscalling for weaker players (at set zone/ level limits ) not down scaling for stronger players .
then no one would complain

if you think by blowing a smoke screen and saying scaling was / is / because of pvp people and that serves to distract you/ others from the real game issues and assign blame then all power to you

eolee · May 2019

It's at the 38mn time mark on the stream "the idea of a lot of the fixes and changes we've done to all the powers and classes are really so that pvp could be a lot more balanced". It's not scaling indeed.

kalina311 · May 2019

@nitocris83

Hi This is Kalina here who was a big advocate of pvp with the devs and mimic king green lit our request for the last pvp with the devs event

can we get a comment/update from @Mimic king to insure the Pve community that player scaling was
not implemented exclusively because of these "pvp people" but for the good of the game / pve
and as an extra side benefit it can help balance pvp if the devs chose to do so .

to clear some of this toxic air up

I feel what he said was severely misquoted and taken out of context ..and what he said was abridged

thxs

bpstuart · May 2019

I know i am not going to get the old power tree back, and it is unlikely that i will get to select which powers i unlock on level up like before, so i won't harp on that.
When it comes to powers i think a few explanations would be useful.

1. Magnitude system: Explain how the magnitude system works so we can understand how damage is calculated. This will make it easier to inform the Devs when a power feels weak, we can run the numbers and say " X-bonus magnitude from feats isn't applying" instead of "fire ball feels weak."

2. Why are feats linked to specific powers instead of giving over reaching bonuses like "At wills do more damage" or "do 10% more fire damage" or "Stamina drains more slowly" instead of " Summon puppies spawns one additional good boy." ( i can't rember the feats right now)

3. Will we be getting feat revamps that reintroduces some of the complexity that made the feat system so liberating to experiment with or Will feats be kept as simple as possible from now on?

4. Since At wills are being re-emphasized, will we be getting more at will to fit the situations that we used to be able to plan for with the Enounter powers and or add variety. Seriously some of the at wills can get a little old now that we are usning them constantly.

kalina311 · May 2019

eolee said:
It's at the 38mn time mark on the stream "the idea of a lot of the fixes and changes we've done to all the powers and classes are really so that pvp could be a lot more balanced". It's not scaling indeed.

+1 million

not once did he say scaling was because of pvp folks !!! and I will not quote anyone here that falsely said otherwise
in other threads you know who you are ...there are even beta testers of mod 16 with thousands of posts spreading this rumor and they are supposed to be good at reading / listening and comprehension and are supposed to be unbiased and not twist facts ..and those that did not even listen to the stream parroting other people and misquoting/ twisting like sheep

hustin1 · May 2019

kreatyve said:

animewatcha#6533 said:
Seeing as several people are complaining about server problems and lag and stuff. It isn't geographical location as much. I take it atleast half the chat was 'do away with the scaling' ?
No, he's been complaining about the lag even when others don't. I wasn't saying that lag isn't an issue, just that his is more because he's in Turkey.

Lag really has been an issue, though. I've been getting a lot of rubberbanding in PE, for instance, and I'm not in Turkey (Philadelphia isn't *that* far from the servers in Boston). I have Verizon FIOS, which means fiber right to my house. 150/150 net speed. My ping is usually minimal yet the rubberbanding of late has been atrocious.

I don't think it's just a Mod 16 thing, though; it started about a week before launch.

As for scaling vs. PvP, my impression was that the balancing was done more for PvP than the scaling. I haven't been hit by the scaling issues simply because I've basically stopped playing the game since I got my main to 80. I'm biding my time playing other games until the designers at Cryptic come to their senses. For me, scaling is a huge gripe but an even larger one is the decimation of valid builds that I enjoyed playing but were otherwise deemed "invalid" by someone at Cryptic. That is what is really keeping me from playing the game.

Regarding PvP itself and @mimicking#6533 pushing it: I'm glad, Tom, that you have an aspect of the game that you enjoy. I'm sincere when I say that it's important for a designer of a game to find the game itself fun to play. That said, I'll be straight: I'll never PvP -- ever. Simply put, I've met too many hardcore PvP'ers while doing my normal PvE gameplay. From my experiences over the past five years, that's a community of which I want no part whatsoever.

dawndilion · May 2019

Can we get...like an agenda? So we can submit questions that aren't way out in left field that other people are needed to answer? There were some great questions that weren't answered because the systems people were needed.

kolatmaster · May 2019

dawndilion#7316 said:
Can we get...like an agenda? So we can submit questions that aren't way out in left field that other people are needed to answer? There were some great questions that weren't answered because the systems people were needed.

kreatyve · May 2019

dawndilion#7316 said:
Can we get...like an agenda? So we can submit questions that aren't way out in left field that other people are needed to answer? There were some great questions that weren't answered because the systems people were needed.

Yeah, a several of the questions were systems questions.

Thomas is Lead Designer, I believe that mainly entails stories - like, where we go, what we do when we get there. Maybe that should have been explained a bit better before hand. I know he tried to answer some of the questions anyway, though a few were worded weirdly enough that I couldn't understand completely what was being asked either.

thefiresidecat · May 2019

ananxiousnoob#0947 said:
There is a BIG BIG difference between scaling and having a hard cap on content. Whilst the former was arguably necessary the later is not and NEVER will be acceptable because it devalues all of the time and money your player base have invested in their toons. It doesn’t matter whether you raise the item level from 11,000 to 12000 or 13000 I will still be capped making the money I spent on insignias, enchants, mounts, companions, artefacts and levelling them up pointless above a certain point. I appreciate that every new mod makes certain items less valuable BUT before MOD 16 those items were still benefiting me in lower level activities. Now they don’t, so please tell me why you consider it is worth my money levelling and buying anything for one or two mods. I do not regard that as being very cost effective. Oh and finally Cryptic sold the Chultan tiger, YOU decided on its stats knowing that it would be BIS. It is very disingenuous to pretend that it’s popularity caused a problem because YOU knowingly created that problem. If you wanted other companions used then you should have made them more attractive by increasing their stats. I would have spent real money on them but now I wouldn’t buy another companion for that real money because only you know when you are likely to nerf them .

the chultan tiger doesn't bother me. we got more than a years use out of him. although they should have made his bonus worthwhile still at least for certain people if not everyone. it's an utterly lackluster pet now. no one honestly expects a pet to be bis forever.

thefiresidecat · May 2019

hustin1 said:

kreatyve said:

animewatcha#6533 said:
Seeing as several people are complaining about server problems and lag and stuff. It isn't geographical location as much. I take it atleast half the chat was 'do away with the scaling' ?
No, he's been complaining about the lag even when others don't. I wasn't saying that lag isn't an issue, just that his is more because he's in Turkey.
Lag really has been an issue, though. I've been getting a lot of rubberbanding in PE, for instance, and I'm not in Turkey (Philadelphia isn't *that* far from the servers in Boston). I have Verizon FIOS, which means fiber right to my house. 150/150 net speed. My ping is usually minimal yet the rubberbanding of late has been atrocious.

I don't think it's just a Mod 16 thing, though; it started about a week before launch.

As for scaling vs. PvP, my impression was that the balancing was done more for PvP than the scaling. I haven't been hit by the scaling issues simply because I've basically stopped playing the game since I got my main to 80. I'm biding my time playing other games until the designers at Cryptic come to their senses. For me, scaling is a huge gripe but an even larger one is the decimation of valid builds that I enjoyed playing but were otherwise deemed "invalid" by someone at Cryptic. That is what is really keeping me from playing the game.

Regarding PvP itself and @mimicking#6533 pushing it: I'm glad, Tom, that you have an aspect of the game that you enjoy. I'm sincere when I say that it's important for a designer of a game to find the game itself fun to play. That said, I'll be straight: I'll never PvP -- ever. Simply put, I've met too many hardcore PvP'ers while doing my normal PvE gameplay. From my experiences over the past five years, that's a community of which I want no part whatsoever.

you aren't alone there. the vast majority of the gamers I know and have known hate pvp in this game and always have. the amount of people that pvp vs those that pve must be like 95 to 5% this game is wrong for pvp. honestly they should get rid of it. or at least make it so that no scaling or change specifically for that small subgroup of people gives grief to the majority of players. other games can separate the two. I don't know why this one can't.

Unknown · May 2019

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micky1p00 · May 2019

kreatyve said:

dawndilion#7316 said:
Can we get...like an agenda? So we can submit questions that aren't way out in left field that other people are needed to answer? There were some great questions that weren't answered because the systems people were needed.
Yeah, a several of the questions were systems questions. Thomas is Lead Designer, I believe that mainly entails stories - like, where we go, what we do when we get there. Maybe that should have been explained a bit better before hand. I know he tried to answer some of the questions anyway, though a few were worded weirdly enough that I couldn't understand completely what was being asked either.

Lead Designer - Is responsible for the teams under him, and gives them general direction or accept/deny suggested ideas in general, or in this case systems designers team in particular.
He is the Overall direction of NW Boss.

The question was understandable for everyone who understands the core issue with how scaling is implemented. Via Caps.

Unknown · May 2019

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galopikus · May 2019

Double AD weekend?!? What an insult to players! 100k AD/day takes almost no effort to make for someone who can run all 3 levels of random ques. And now you’re giving us double the amount of AD and NO WAY TO CLAIM THEM. We don’t need to be given double the AD amount; we need to be able to refine double the AD amount.
Before the daily AD was restricted down to 100k/day my minimum income was 200k/day up to 468k/day with salvage on 13 alts. Currently I make from 70-90k AD from running through the daily 3 random ques, and the rest is filled in with daily activities that reward some AD or running weekly campaign quests that reward 4,500 AD each. There are 6 quests that offer 4,500 AD per week and I have alts that can run most of them or at least enough of them to fill out the 700k AD allowance per week. My point is; if you knew what was going on in the game you would realize that we need a greater allowance of refining Rough AD/day. With the full rewards from Random Ques only applying once per account, 200k AD/day might be an acceptable challenge.

For those wondering how to maximize daily AD gains from the random ques, it’s all about using alts. Yes, surprisingly, try as they might the use of alts isn’t completely defeated. The point of alts nowadays is to invoke on them and gather the bonus AD. Now, with bonus AD gathered on multiple toons, the objective is to have a set (2 or 3 characters will probably be enough) to run the level up que, a set to run the intermediate que, and one is enough for the advanced que. Why a set? Because as one character diminishes its bonus AD the others build them up, and as one reaches 0 Bonus AD you switch to another alt prepared for that level of random que and the cycle continues.
In addition to the daily AD from Random que you also receive AD from the chest at the end of the dungeon (some might require a key), bonus AD is also applied to this. With all that effort you can pull 15-40k per random que, and that’s how you reach 70-90k/day just from random que. You can fill in the rest by running more dungeons or running alts through the weekly campaign quests the award 4,500 AD. If you don’t want to run alts through difficult campaigns just to unlock the weekly quests, I recommend doing Sharandar and Dread Ring as they are the easiest and don’t require campaign completion (from what I remember). If you do decide to unlock all weekly quests for maximum weekly AD, I think there are 6: Sharandar, Dread Ring, Portal of Tuern, another one in Well of Dragons, Icewind Dale, Maze Engine.

[UPDATE] Q&A Stream Follow up & Next Steps

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