Neverwinter Turns Eight

You wouldn't be able to tell from the below image because nobody bothered to update the decorations in the stronghold, so they still have the number seven on them.

Also, the random text on this screenshot is there because for some reason my in-game screenshot functionality stopped working, so I had to use an external programme which doesn't automatically hide certain pieces of text. Such is life with Cryptic - they mean well and some of their content is very fun, but everything's always a bit of a mess.

In the Protector's Garden they took away the number on the floor and just replaced it with a lion logo. I also didn't see any numbered banners there - I guess that should future-proof the celebrations against forgetful developers at least.

I had misunderstood part of the post about the levelling revamp by the way and it's not live yet. In fact we don't have a date yet, but it's probably going to be in a few weeks.

New Class + Surprise NGE!

Apparently Neverwinter is going to go live with some huge changes next week, and they announced them... only two days ago.

The addition of bard as a new class is the least surprising bit of news, as this was already hinted at some time ago, and is very welcome (though I'm surprised they are dropping it on such short notice and with no real hype). Everything else, however...

• To be more in line with tabletop D&D, the level cap will be squished from 80 to 20.
• XP in the classic sense will go away; instead you will gain a level every time you complete a set piece of content called an "adventure".
• Some existing content will be re-tooled for this, but other zones will simply be removed. Officially they might come back later, but Cryptic has a bad track record on that front, so I'd advise anyone not to hold their breaths.

And those are only the most major of the changes.

I have no idea what to think of any of this; it just feels completely out of the blue. I only know that I struggle with it when a game that I've been playing for years decides to make major systems changes like that, and it's only been two years since Undermountain turned my Neverwinter world upside down and actively turned me away from the game for the better part of a year.