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May 7 Q&A Follow Up Part 1

nitocris83nitocris83 Member, Cryptic Developer, Administrator Posts: 4,495 Cryptic Developer
edited May 2019 in News & Announcements
Greetings Adventurers!

As part of our follow up to May 7th's stream, we pulled questions from chat that we originally missed during the stream. This is a practice we hope to continue for future Q&A streams (read more about our follow-up schedule here) so if your question doesn't get answered live, it may be answered in the written follow-up. This also allows us a chance to circle back with the different members of the team who worked on the question-relevant features.

Due to the variety of topics and volume of questions, we have divided the follow up into two parts. Part 1 covers questions regarding Strongholds, Companions, Refinement, HEs & MEs, Gear, and Content. Part 2 will answer questions regarding scaling and Classes/Powers/Stats/Feats. And for those with questions regarding PvP, we definitely have not forgotten you so you'll need to stay tuned for future news!

Note: In an effort to keep these write ups in conversational style (versus one-directional blog-style write ups), these questions are answered as if they were received on stream so some may have simple answers, others are more in depth, and others require additional information. Questions have been edited for clarity/grammar or condensed into one if multiple versions of the question was asked.


Q. Do we have any plans for Strongholds?
[Salim G.] There have been ongoing discussions about where we want to take strongholds, community feedback and requests, and how we want to address some of the long standing issues. We have no specific plans we can discuss at this time but hopefully we can formalize these talks to provide more insight to the community in the future.

Q. Are strongholds being looked at HE wise?
[Salim G.] We are actively looking into issues introduced with Undermountain. We are currently following up specifically on reports that players are still experiencing issues with Maurauder’s auto-completing after a fix was issued. We want to make sure the Stronghold content is optimal before introducing additional or new encounters.

Q. Can you guys please do something for those people who are still upgrading their guilds? Losing players has made this a bad hard ship on players!
[Salim G.] We are talking about ways to resolve these types of underlying issues related to system as big as Strongholds.

Q. Can we get a Day and Night cycle for Stronghold that transform the critters and make the stronghold events different depending on the day and night cycle?
[Salim G.] That’s an interesting request and something we can consider for future development!

Q. Are you in the next patch going to fix the issue with Healing type companions? For example Celeste no longer heals. She just stands there
[Salim G.] We will look into it!

Q. Will we get more and better companion gear?
[Salim G.] Yes, there will be more companion gear released in the next module. So much it will blow your mind. (Community Manager Note: I have confirmed that this is hyperbole and not meant to be taken as companion gear that actually blows adventurer’s minds. Unless it’s a mindflayer, then we can’t make any promises)

Q. Can you give opportunity to rerun some quest line expeditions for taking unreceived companion gear?
[Salim G.] This is not something we plan on doing, but we will be releasing more companion gear over time to make it easier to get your companion all geared up.

Q. Is the Heroic Encounter reward bug being fixed?
[Julia F.] The team is aware of the issue where players receive the “You already have all the items in this package” message, preventing players from receiving HE rewards and we are actively investigating.

Q. Why do bounty bags from low level areas that we buy from bounty masters give us error when farming those areas for the area boss unique drops?
[Julia F.] We need some additional details on this. What error is it? In which area do you get the error?

Q. Are you going to add a rewards chest for players that have already done their 3 Master Expeditions?
[Ryan H.] There is not currently a plan to add rewards for completing the three dailies.

Q. When are you planning to fix the Master Expedition bug where people are returned to the Yawning Portal when they disconnect? The same bug occurred in Barovia Hunts and Tales of Old, too.
[Ryan H.] I believe this should be fixed but we will be on the lookout for additional reports!

Q. Did you change the Barovia Gear from Rank 8 Enchantments to Rank 6?
[Jared S.] The first character on the account gets rank 8 enchantments, additional characters get rank 6.

Q. Did you realize that enchants have been narrowed even further with the balance?
[Jared S.] Need more clarification on this question. Is it asking which enchantments players want to use or their effectiveness or what?

Q. Is there going to be anyway of upgrading old equipment (ala STO) to benefit from getting equipment from any lower level areas (E.g. Barovia)?
[Jared S.] This is a topic we have discussed in the past, but there are currently no near term plans to implement an upgrade system for old items.

Q. Why does it cost the same gold to remove all ranks of enchantments? I can't afford to remove all enchants from the Companion Gear to sell it off.
[Jared S.] There is a scaling cost to remove enchantments but it does cap at a certain point to make sure it doesn’t get too high. This means after you progress far enough you will run into the capped removal cost.

Q. Why should a level 80 run 70 content?
[Thomas F.] This is a great question, and always a dilemma when you raise the level cap in a game - there is going to be a period between releases when max level players have completed most or all intended end-game content. There are many players who have hit level 80, but have not completed or even started any of the campaign zones available, which was the whole reason for the Challenge campaigns. The new Challenge Campaign system allows you to play content across all of Neverwinter and earn rewards for completion of weekly challenges. While completing weekly Challenge Campaign tasks, you can select a specific campaign currency to receive as a reward, even if that campaign currency is not specific to your current Challenge Campaign task. In a nut shell, get a chance to fill in your boons and get other high end gear.

Q. Some of us have played for years and don't have any other areas to play after Undermountain. What is there after that for us?
[Thomas F.] This is always a challenge when you make a level expansion in a game. Since the stream, the Lair of the Mad Mage Dungeon has opened up, and you have the Master expeditions repeatable content and currently the only place to get valuable resources necessary to achieve the highest quality gear! And, the Challenge Campaign, which allows you to fill in any missing boons as well as getting other

Q. Now with the foundry gone, is there anything roleplay community can look forward to, such as new hairstyles, fashion or dyes?
[Thomas F.] Good question! All that you mentioned are things currently on the docket. Now when I say that, I don’t necessarily mean the next module release, but on the calendar to be considered for this year’s development. Question back to you- Where as a roleplayer do you like to hang out in NW?

Q. Can time gates be removed from all campaigns?
[Thomas F.] Nope. Sorry

Q. Maybe a new 15 or 20 player raid? I know Tiamat is a strain, but it almost works, so 15-20 players might fly?
[Thomas F.] Raids are something we have been brainstorming, but as you know the challenge is scale. Our engine is really pushed to its current limits with things like Tiamat, so we are looking at doing something with less players, that can fill the queues faster and get a fun experience for all playing.

Q. What do you think of the idea of adding all dungeons which are now currently available at level 70 and lower in the form of a level 80 dungeon NEXT TO the old dungeons? No scaling of players here!
[Thomas F.] We have discussed this, but think that it might send the wrong message, as new players coming in would expect level 80 gear and rewards from them, among other things. We are looking into ways to make the Dungeon queues feel more appropriate, via item leveling and other systems changes.
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Comments

  • empalasempalas Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 802 Arc User
    I really think they just bit off more than they could chew here. What I don't understand is why someone isn't tweaking what IL the dungeons are being scaled at. They don't have to tell us they are even doing that(of course I would hope that wouldn't need a new client and could be a real-time db update to modify the IL) they can monitor all the data from the runs to see how things are going. Should be easy to see when they've gotten it right. I would hope they have someone with a traditional engineering background and not just software.
  • mdarkangel#4696 mdarkangel Member Posts: 442 Arc User
    empalas said:

    I really think they just bit off more than they could chew here. What I don't understand is why someone isn't tweaking what IL the dungeons are being scaled at. They don't have to tell us they are even doing that...

    They have been. The dungeons and a good bit of the areas have changed a few times since release. I expect more changes to be made as they continue to hone in on the sweet spot.

  • demonmongerdemonmonger Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 3,350 Arc User
    Good evening Cryptic Team,

    I was up in arms when mod 16 hit preview and furious when mod 16 hit live. However I found something that works for me.

    This said...

    Teneberous enchantments have stopped working since the patch on 5/13/2019.

    The last patch we just got made my briartwine armor enchantment stop reflecting damage back to enemies in the undermountain area.

    When can we expect these enchantments to work properly again?
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    I hate paying taxes! Why must I pay thousands of dollars in taxes when everything I buy is taxed anyways!
  • zerappuszerappus Member Posts: 138 Arc User
    Question to @mimicking#6533, @nitocris83

    Are there any plans to diversify player builds other than the currently overwhelmingly dominant Power-stacking build?

    examples:

    When are the developers going to clarify the final status of the Tenebrous Enchantment so players can see if Tenebrous + Health-stacking is viable?

    Are the developers going to buff stats of control effects damage bonuses from companions? Will control bonus be actually useful with it? One can easily notice that Mastery Insignia is cheap as dirt ( because how many players stacks Accuracy + control bonus?). Whereas one can stack power and it's always 1% damage bonus per 1000 stats.

    TIA

  • chiatzouchiatzou Member Posts: 47 Arc User
    The boons have very little use now. All they are now is IL so you can get into LOMM. It is so much though that its almost a requirement. So was the idea to make the boons essentially useless and required for IL purposes. Make them harder to get via scaling so it forces people to buy them off the Zen market. Seems like it to me.
  • cilginordekcilginordek Member Posts: 459 Arc User



    Q. Now with the foundry gone, is there anything roleplay community can look forward to, such as new hairstyles, fashion or dyes?
    [Thomas F.] Good question! All that you mentioned are things currently on the docket. Now when I say that, I don’t necessarily mean the next module release, but on the calendar to be considered for this year’s development. Question back to you- Where as a roleplayer do you like to hang out in NW?

    I go to the Moonstone Mask for Roleplay. Reason for that is that it's easy to find other RPers there. However with the recent mod, I feel like the instance capacity of the place have been reduced, which made meeting with other people more difficult. Also giving it other purposes such as quest start area or event exchange area, diminishes from its value as a RP Hub, and turns it more into just another map.
  • benyrbenyr Member Posts: 238 Arc User
    You currently cant exchange runestones at the exchange vendor. Given the sweeping changes in mod 16 initially balancing toons whilst you levelled them up and found better gear was trial an error.

    This has resulted in a people swapping high value enchants for runestones they thought they needed to cap stats at the outset, now finding those runestones offer no value as they just pull the stats in question way over cap.

    Please can you allow for runestone exchanges in the vendor whilst its there.

    Thanks.
  • chiatzouchiatzou Member Posts: 47 Arc User
    @dawndilion#7316. The developers are just catering to the newer players. Its bot a good idea though because their items will be item scaled. The amount of IL through the old boons is significant. If a person gears up and goes back to get them, it will be easier for them to do the level 80 content than the level 70. Now they are at a crossroads, grind mindlessly all those campaigns to have the IL to do LOMM. If they do this more than likely not many will help them due to the same IL scaling. They spend $ on Zen or AD and buy the campaigns. Probably the solution Cryptic wants. Or uninstall. I m sure if the player had no intent on spending money they would rather have them gone anyway. Look at us for example we dont spend money anymore, and they essentially want us gone.
  • demonmongerdemonmonger Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 3,350 Arc User
    > @chiatzou said:
    > @dawndilion#7316. The developers are just catering to the newer players. Its bot a good idea though because their items will be item scaled. The amount of IL through the old boons is significant. If a person gears up and goes back to get them, it will be easier for them to do the level 80 content than the level 70. Now they are at a crossroads, grind mindlessly all those campaigns to have the IL to do LOMM. If they do this more than likely not many will help them due to the same IL scaling. They spend $ on Zen or AD and buy the campaigns. Probably the solution Cryptic wants. Or uninstall. I m sure if the player had no intent on spending money they would rather have them gone anyway. Look at us for example we dont spend money anymore, and they essentially want us gone.

    There is always something to spend on here
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    I hate paying taxes! Why must I pay thousands of dollars in taxes when everything I buy is taxed anyways!
  • chiatzouchiatzou Member Posts: 47 Arc User
    @demonmonger I have 765k zen what would compel me to spend real money?
  • arcanjo86arcanjo86 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,093 Arc User
    "Q. Why do bounty bags from low level areas that we buy from bounty masters give us error when farming those areas for the area boss unique drops?
    [Julia F.] We need some additional details on this. What error is it? In which area do you get the error?"

    "error you already have all items of this bag/package" pirate skyhold bounty bags a stack of 10 on my warlock gives that error, opened 1 orc bounty bag(orc insignia used to buy these) it dropped the boots gear(good cosmetic not my fav but i like farming for similiar gear transmute) @nitocris83 until we can't get a gear transmute collection tab were we spend ad to use the transmute on our gear those bounty bag are my favorite places to farm and get gear transmutes.
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