Neverwinters 5th module, Rise of Tiamat, released today. How did I know, apart from the giant patch and the fact that it's been advertised on the launcher for weeks? Because I logged in for my daily profession update and noticed that they redrew the icons for the treasure chests! OMG! Somehow that reminds me of the Blizzard joke of old about how every set of patch notes contains a bit about Mage Armor having received a new and exciting icon.
But yes, I'm still in "just doing my daily round of invoking" mode. Nonetheless it's nice to see Cryptic add new content at a steady rate. Means that there'll be all the more for me to do when I get back into the game properly.
19/11/2014
28/09/2014
Playing Without Playing
The reason I haven't been posting on here as of late is that SWTOR's housing and associated features have sucked me back into that game without leaving much time or enthusiasm for anything else. So I just log into Neverwinter for five minutes at the start of each day to invoke on all three of my characters and to work on their professions.
It's never good if interest in an MMO drops to the level of "just logging in to do the chores". I sure stopped playing WoW quickly when I realised that my brief re-visit there had deteriorated into paying a sub just to grow some vegetables for no real reason. However, Neverwinter is free, doing the "chores" doesn't take long and they are very rewarding for the amount of time invested. I'm pretty sure that eventually my interest in the game will be rekindled (presumably when SWTOR hits its next major content slump) and then I'll be all the happier that I kept working on it and that I will be that much closer to getting my purple companion for 365 ardent coins.
It's never good if interest in an MMO drops to the level of "just logging in to do the chores". I sure stopped playing WoW quickly when I realised that my brief re-visit there had deteriorated into paying a sub just to grow some vegetables for no real reason. However, Neverwinter is free, doing the "chores" doesn't take long and they are very rewarding for the amount of time invested. I'm pretty sure that eventually my interest in the game will be rekindled (presumably when SWTOR hits its next major content slump) and then I'll be all the happier that I kept working on it and that I will be that much closer to getting my purple companion for 365 ardent coins.
29/08/2014
In The Shop
I just came back from a holiday in Austria and was quite surprised to see Neverwinter in the gaming section of an electronics store there. "But what are they selling?" I thought. "The game is free to play from the ground up, there isn't even a subscription option!"
The answer? For ten Euros, you would get a code for a forest bear mount and two hundred Zen. I guess they wanted some sort of presence in the shops, even with digitial distribution being on the rise.
It's only after I came home that I found out that the High Forest Bear is actually an account-wide mount that's exclusive to these German "starter boxes". Almost makes me wish I had bothered to spend that tenner.
The answer? For ten Euros, you would get a code for a forest bear mount and two hundred Zen. I guess they wanted some sort of presence in the shops, even with digitial distribution being on the rise.
It's only after I came home that I found out that the High Forest Bear is actually an account-wide mount that's exclusive to these German "starter boxes". Almost makes me wish I had bothered to spend that tenner.
16/08/2014
Vendor Trash
For a game that makes money from selling bag space (among other things), I've never felt that Neverwinter particularly tries to clog up your bags with junk. Things like currencies and crafting materials go into their own, seemingly limitless inventory tabs, and most things you pick up while questing are actually useful. There's never been a whole lot of vendor trash in Neverwinter.
Today while questing on my lowbie great weapon fighter, I killed a bunch of dragon cultists associated with the new module and they dropped junk like crazy. I seemed to get a useless white quality item on every other pull, and Cryptic appears to have created a whole bunch of new grey items purely for the dragon cultists to drop some rubbish. Even as I stopped to sell things whenever I could and refined enchantments away on the go, my inventory kept filling up over and over again.
Someone clearly wants to sell more bags.
Today while questing on my lowbie great weapon fighter, I killed a bunch of dragon cultists associated with the new module and they dropped junk like crazy. I seemed to get a useless white quality item on every other pull, and Cryptic appears to have created a whole bunch of new grey items purely for the dragon cultists to drop some rubbish. Even as I stopped to sell things whenever I could and refined enchantments away on the go, my inventory kept filling up over and over again.
Someone clearly wants to sell more bags.
14/08/2014
Pay To Campaign
Module 4 released today, but I haven't actally looked at any of the new content yet. I did however log in to invoke and update my professions. Since the Zen store icon was flashing, I had a quick look at that as well.
Two of the newest items: buy instant completion for the Sharandar and Dread Ring campaigns for five thousand Zen each.
I really shouldn't be surprised, as it's perfectly in line with their theme of letting people pay for every advantage possible. Somehow I still find it disappointing however.
Two of the newest items: buy instant completion for the Sharandar and Dread Ring campaigns for five thousand Zen each.
I really shouldn't be surprised, as it's perfectly in line with their theme of letting people pay for every advantage possible. Somehow I still find it disappointing however.
12/08/2014
Professions
Professions in Neverwinter are a "click and wait" game, similar to the duty officer system in Star Trek Online or the companion crew skill system in SWTOR. Your character doesn't do anything herself, she just sends out her minions and reaps the rewards after a few hours.
The thing that feels weird to me is how your "minions" in this case are just really generic items that sit in your crafting inventory and can be traded on the auction house. At least the duty officers in STO have names and personalities, and it makes sense for a starship to have a large roster. As for why my half-elf cleric and my tiefling rogue have random guys doing all their work for them... who knows.
Professions are also really grindy. While levelling my cleric I focused pretty much exclusively on leadership, while ignoring all the other professions. Yet after two and a half months of playing and logging in every day, her profession level is still only 16 of 20.
The profession system is also one of the areas of the game where spending real money will give you huge advantages. Special workers who can cut a mission's time in half are only available from random packs that you buy for real money, while training up the basic white quality workers that offer no speed bonuses takes literally days and weeks of time.
While leadership at least is a very useful profession to have (I don't really have enough experience with any of the others to judge them), it does have a strong pay-to-win flavour to it that can be somewhat discouraging if you get a chance to compare your progress to that of someone who paid real money to gain advantages.
The thing that feels weird to me is how your "minions" in this case are just really generic items that sit in your crafting inventory and can be traded on the auction house. At least the duty officers in STO have names and personalities, and it makes sense for a starship to have a large roster. As for why my half-elf cleric and my tiefling rogue have random guys doing all their work for them... who knows.
Professions are also really grindy. While levelling my cleric I focused pretty much exclusively on leadership, while ignoring all the other professions. Yet after two and a half months of playing and logging in every day, her profession level is still only 16 of 20.
The profession system is also one of the areas of the game where spending real money will give you huge advantages. Special workers who can cut a mission's time in half are only available from random packs that you buy for real money, while training up the basic white quality workers that offer no speed bonuses takes literally days and weeks of time.
While leadership at least is a very useful profession to have (I don't really have enough experience with any of the others to judge them), it does have a strong pay-to-win flavour to it that can be somewhat discouraging if you get a chance to compare your progress to that of someone who paid real money to gain advantages.
04/08/2014
Levelling without really playing
When I originally abandoned the game about a month after launch, my rogue was in her thirties. When I picked the game up again and rerolled as a cleric this summer, I also started logging onto my rogue again, though only to invoke (pray to the gods) and receive the associated benefits of currency and experience points.
Now my rogue has hit sixty, with most of the last couple of levels gained purely by invoking. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the fact that you can fully level a character to max simply by logging in every day, without actually playing "properly". On the one hand it's a nice way of getting an alt to the level cap without having to put a lot of effort into levelling, plus it's one way of skipping questing content that you've already repeated one to many times.
On the other hand it feels weird that you can't really "pause" playing a character, to later pick it up again where you left off, unless you're willing to forfeit the (considerable) benefits of invoking every day. It can also be somewhat challenging to get back into actually playing the character if you've gained twenty more levels (plus associated new powers) since you last went out into the world and your gear is now hopelessly outdated for the content that you should be doing.
Now my rogue has hit sixty, with most of the last couple of levels gained purely by invoking. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the fact that you can fully level a character to max simply by logging in every day, without actually playing "properly". On the one hand it's a nice way of getting an alt to the level cap without having to put a lot of effort into levelling, plus it's one way of skipping questing content that you've already repeated one to many times.
On the other hand it feels weird that you can't really "pause" playing a character, to later pick it up again where you left off, unless you're willing to forfeit the (considerable) benefits of invoking every day. It can also be somewhat challenging to get back into actually playing the character if you've gained twenty more levels (plus associated new powers) since you last went out into the world and your gear is now hopelessly outdated for the content that you should be doing.
02/08/2014
Dragonborn Legend Pack
Just like I was late commenting on the Tyranny of Dragons trailer, I'm also a week late with commenting on the release of the Dragonborn Legend pack that is meant to go with the new module. Telwyn from GamingSF pretty much summed up my thoughts exactly, namely that this pack offers very poor value compared to previous releases that included both account-wide mounts and companions for considerably less money.
Commenters in the Reddit thread mostly seem to agree with this sentiment, though at least one person piped up to defend the pack, saying that it still offers good value for money compared to the (imaginary) option of buying all the items separately. The problem is that most people wouldn't care to buy everything in the pack separately anyway, and the Dragonborn race alone makes it hard to justify the price of nearly a hundred euros.
A self-identified Cryptic employee also chimed in defending the decision, arguing that they needed to offer expensive things to give the big spenders in the game the option to actually give them as much money as possible. (Quote: "For every 100 people that refuse to pay for it or threaten to quit the game, there's 2 or 3 who'd happily fork over twice as much.")
I guess we'll see whether it works out for them of it future releases will try to offer a better value-for-money ratio again.
Commenters in the Reddit thread mostly seem to agree with this sentiment, though at least one person piped up to defend the pack, saying that it still offers good value for money compared to the (imaginary) option of buying all the items separately. The problem is that most people wouldn't care to buy everything in the pack separately anyway, and the Dragonborn race alone makes it hard to justify the price of nearly a hundred euros.
A self-identified Cryptic employee also chimed in defending the decision, arguing that they needed to offer expensive things to give the big spenders in the game the option to actually give them as much money as possible. (Quote: "For every 100 people that refuse to pay for it or threaten to quit the game, there's 2 or 3 who'd happily fork over twice as much.")
I guess we'll see whether it works out for them of it future releases will try to offer a better value-for-money ratio again.
26/07/2014
Tyranny of Dragons Trailer
I'm a bit late commenting on this, but about ten days ago IGN posted a gameplay trailer for Tyranny of Dragons, the upcoming fourth module (mini-expansion) for Neverwinter.
It doesn't really show anything amazing, just some characters fighting a couple of new monster models in familiar-looking locations. The implication to me seems to be that this module won't follow the "new area with dailies" model but will instead add new content to existing zones. This is neither particularly good nor bad in my eyes; it just makes me wonder about how exactly accessing the new content is going to work.
Also, a small detail I really liked: "The Scourge Warlock uses forbidden lore and long-forgotten ancient secrets to power her magic." I suppose it's sad that I still have to find this remarkable at all, but too many gaming companies still default to always casting their heroes as male characters.
It doesn't really show anything amazing, just some characters fighting a couple of new monster models in familiar-looking locations. The implication to me seems to be that this module won't follow the "new area with dailies" model but will instead add new content to existing zones. This is neither particularly good nor bad in my eyes; it just makes me wonder about how exactly accessing the new content is going to work.
Also, a small detail I really liked: "The Scourge Warlock uses forbidden lore and long-forgotten ancient secrets to power her magic." I suppose it's sad that I still have to find this remarkable at all, but too many gaming companies still default to always casting their heroes as male characters.
23/07/2014
PvP in Icewind Dale
There are no factions or world PvP in Neverwinter... except in Icewind Dale. You have to sign up with one of two competing factions to quest there (though you can switch between the factions every day if you want), and in a dedicated PvP area you can then fight people of the other faction if you so desire. Occasionally said area will also transform into an objective-based PvP game, resulting in a heroic encounter that rewards you with a lot of Black Ice if you win.
The whole thing bears remarkable similarities to SWTOR's Gree event on Ilum, and not just because the place is snowy.
- It's a daily area with a smaller, dedicated PvP zone inside it.
- You get quests that don't actually require you to PvP but can only be done in the PvP area.
- Said quests give worse rewards than the regular dailies, so as not to feel mandatory for progression.
- However, you can also do at least one pure PvE daily in the PvP area and finish it more easily/quickly that way.
I like the way SWTOR handles PvP during the Gree event and I like this implementation in Neverwinter too. Unlike in SWTOR, I'm useless at Neverwinter PvP however and always die if I actually get attacked.
The whole thing bears remarkable similarities to SWTOR's Gree event on Ilum, and not just because the place is snowy.
- It's a daily area with a smaller, dedicated PvP zone inside it.
- You get quests that don't actually require you to PvP but can only be done in the PvP area.
- Said quests give worse rewards than the regular dailies, so as not to feel mandatory for progression.
- However, you can also do at least one pure PvE daily in the PvP area and finish it more easily/quickly that way.
I like the way SWTOR handles PvP during the Gree event and I like this implementation in Neverwinter too. Unlike in SWTOR, I'm useless at Neverwinter PvP however and always die if I actually get attacked.
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