I finally sat down to try and sort out my enchantments as per the last post and it was one horrifying realisation after another. Basically Cryptic massively raised the floor in terms of financial investment to even equip enchantments, and is low-key scamming more casual players in the conversion process.
The first point is evidenced by the fact that no enchantments lower than rank ten can even be converted. If you were wearing less than that, you can just grind the old stuff into a few refinement points - which are as good as worthless - and leave your new enchantment slots empty. I don't know how much power this actually causes you to lose, but even if it's not that much, it feels terrible. Imagine if they did this with gear - making you vendor your old kit and then forcing you to fight naked until you're willing to pay up.
The second point is rooted in the fact that the only hint the game gives you about how to get new enchantments is to see the antiquities scholar in Protector's Enclave to trade old for new. You trade in old enchantments for "medallions" and then can use this currency to buy new ones. The cheapest thing you can buy is a new rank one enchantment for 30 medallions. At one point after the trade-in I had 17 medallions left. There is also an option to buy one medallion for 40k astral diamonds. So I bought 13 of them for 13x40k = 520k AD, so I could buy one more rank one. Later I found out that I shouldn't have bothered with this trade-in at all, as Bradda the Sage just outright sells the new rank ones for 100k AD in her shop, but of course nothing in the game tells you that! I only found out through an off-hand comment in a forum post.
But even if I hadn't fallen for this nonsense, 100k AD as the bare minimum to fill even one of your enchantment slots is way too high, even if it's something that you can grind out in a day at max level. That's not to even mention the new astronomical costs of upgrading just to rank two (of five). After the conversion, my item level isn't even high enough to do the new module (according to the game's recommendation anyway). The message I'm getting here is to pay up or not play. Which is a shame because I've never minded giving Cryptic some money for things, but I've always refused to outright pay for power, and I won't do so now either.
It did not work.
ReplyDeleteI'd been gone from Neverwinter during the change-over, and was baffled by the opaque "conversion" process which left me with next to nothing in enchantments. Like you, I'll pay willingly to support a fun game, but I will not pay for power directly. Looks like I'm leaving Neverwinter behind. Thanks for the worrd on all this!
ReplyDeleteI believe the husband and I did complete Dragonbone Vale at least partially, but that was it. Before that, we'd already had a friend drop the game because he would find himself compulsively giving in to the predatory monetisation over and over and he realised that was bad for him.
ReplyDeleteFor a few more months I wasn't playing actively, but still logged in every now and then to tend our guild stronghold, as had been my habit for years. After all, it wouldn't have been the first time that an unattractive content release turned me away from the game away for a while, just for me to feel the itch again after a few months.
It's been over two years now though, and I think I may just be done with Neverwinter for good. Never say never and all that, but even when I find myself missing my old characters every now and then, I remember how "naked" they were left after the enchantment changes and it's just too discouraging. Never mind all the other, sometimes strange, changes Cryptic had made to the game just before that, such as the completely redone levelling system and removal of old content. It's not like I can go back and do old Sharandar or a low-level dragon event for nostalgia now.
What's also worth noting is that the same friend group that used to play Neverwinter with us now plays Dragonflight together (including the guy who couldn't deal with Neverwinter's monetisation) and it seems a better fit somehow.
To make me look less random, this was originally posted in reply to Pallais asking "I'm curious if you've played Neverwinter much, if at all, since you made this post. If the game fizzled for you, it would be interesting to read your views of what caused you to lose interest."
Delete(I deleted the previous comment because for some reason Firefox posted a link and not the text. Oops.)
ReplyDeleteThat's sad Cryptic changed the game so much that it's no longer fun for you. It's always a bit depressing when the game is still there, but not enjoyable.
It is good to hear that your friend group has found a new home you are all enjoying. That's always cool to hear about. :)