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Neverwinter MMO

Started by Kazyth, May 03, 2013, 02:44:24 PM

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Chris Brady

Right, I should do those.

FYI, I am Slayer and, oh what was it called, something Blacklake are pretty good.
My O&Os Peruse at your doom.

So I make a A&A thread but do I put it here?  No.  Of course not.

Also, I now come with Kung-Fu Blog action.  Here:  Where I talk about comics and all sorts of gaming

Saerrael

I wrote and published a Foundry quest. It has been mostly just for practise and it is very short, but I have learned a lot from it. I also already had an idea for a campaign, so this short, open ended quest that leaves the player with more questions than they started out with will be followed by a longer, more interesting quest.

I've found quite a few bugs in the Foundry itself to work around, so I wouldn't advice it to anyone who'd wish to whip up a quick Foundry quest. But those who want to write out an Epic Story and don't mind to take a week or more to set such up should definitely look into it.

If you're curious about my very short 'let's see what this button does' kind of quest, you can find it at this short key;
nw-djs69cyz9

Blythe

I've played Saer's quest, so it's worth taking a look at.  :-)

Also, I finally get time to play and I had my character at level 20 and what happens?

They have a giant exploit in the auction house, and it takes the game down, essentially.

*grumbles*

Just when I finally stopped sucking at the game.  :'(

Slywyn

I've been playing on Mindflayer.

I got lucky in that when they did the rollback all I'd done was turn in a quest that was already finished and bought some stuff from a vendor.

Didn't miss much, only a few bars of exp.
What Makes A Shark Tick ( o/o's )

"True friendship is when you walk into their house and your WiFi automatically connects." - The Internet, Probably

I'm just the silliest, friendliest little shark that ever did. Sure, I have all these teeth but I don't bite... much.

Blythe

I'm on Dragon.

And woohoo, the rollback did not affect me remotely! <3

Oneiros

Published my first foundry quest today.

It was... rather ambitious, so it might be bugged >.> I've run it a few times and so has Saerrael and I think I've caught all the game-breaking bugs. Anyone who wants to try it:

NW-DC12XMKAC

I think it's... maybe 20 minutes? I'm not positive, the initial runs were VERY short but I've made it much longer.

Ebb

Have started playing around with this, as a GWF Halfling on Mindflayer (coincidentally; hadn't noticed the request on this thread when I picked him). I'm a longtime DDO player, but thinking of switching to something new, so figured this was worth a look.

A couple of questions for those who have played more. Some of these may be very elementary, or answered somewhere in the documentation that I haven't bothered to read:

1) "Skirmish" means what exactly? Is this the PvP area? And if so, is it even worth venturing in there, or will a new player get curb-stomped instantly, and then cursed out?

2) Are Foundry missions adjusted for your character's level, or are they set for a certain level? I didn't see an indication of "this mission is scaled for a party of 4 characters of average level 12", although I might have easily missed that.

3) For missons that do have a set level, is there an advantage to running something that's over your head? An xp bonus or the like?

4) Is the game set up so that re-running quests is expected or required for leveling? I'm thinking of DDO here, where for reincarnated characters the XP demands are so high that it's very typical to run a small subset of the available missions sometimes dozens of times in order to progress, and there's a whole metagame based around choosing quests to run so that you don't paint yourself into a corner down the road. (Not at all trying to start a comparison thread here, though.)

5) Do people tend to form groups? If so, how? I'm used to the LFG screen from DDO, and there doesn't seem to be anything like that. Is it just done through the open chat channel? Do you need to physically be next to a character in order to invite them to a group?

6) Is there an in-game benefit to building dungeons in the Foundry, as an incentive to get people to do so? I guess I'm wondering whether "dungeon crafter" is a reasonable career path, or if it's more of a player-level reward (prestige and honor, adoration of your peers, etc., etc.)

So far it seems fun, though maybe a little repetitive. Dive into the monster-filled areas, run around killing stuff until your hit points are low, and then haul ass back to a campfire. I can imagine that in a party there might be more along the lines of tactics, and my guess also is that other classes have more trickiness to them. But this seems like a good intro so far.


Oneiros

I've been playing a trickster rogue, I do a ton of damage but I can barely take any, so there is a lot of tricky maneuvering. I like it a lot.

1. Skirmishes are PvE. Basically a group against several waves of enemies, and a boss or several mini-bosses. It's worth queuing for them, especially if you do dailies.

Coincidentally, PVP is actually really fun in Neverwinter, and I generally hate PVP.

2. Yes, Foundry quests scale to the level of the person entering them. Most of them are doable solo.

3. Regular quests? I don't know for sure. I haven't tried to do a quest that was over my head, either solo or with a group.

4. I haven't gotten to max level yet, but I'm about level 40 and from what I can tell, you generally don't have to do repeatable quests to level up. There ARE some repeatable quests, and there are daily tasks (dungeon runs, skirmish, PVP, foundry) that are worth doing for Astral Diamonds, and you gain levels pretty quickly from those.

5. There are group queues, where you sign up and it will automatically form a team for you to do dungeons or skirmishes. However, these only allow you to queue for dungeons at your level, so if you're higher/lower than the recommended level for a dungeon or skirmish, you're restricted to using the zone chat to go 'Lfg for skirmish!'

6. I heard you can get special mounts or loot rewards from building a popular Foundry dungeon, but I don't know for sure. If people like your dungeon, they're asked if they want to leave a tip of Astral Diamonds. I always leave tips at dungeons I enjoyed.

For a free game, I honestly think it's really nice. There is a currency that you can buy with real money, but anything that uses that currency is attainable via grinding, which I like - you can either invest time or money, but you dont have to do both. I look forward to there being a bigger RP community setting up in game, myself. I love RPing and I miss doing so in an MMO setting.

Kazyth

Same here, Fedora, to the RP thing.

Now, one thing I do know to look out for for Foundry quests is that some of them are specifically designed with a group in mind.  While they will scale to your level, it will be a scaling to your level that unleashes baddies in numbers and power that are intended for groups.  Most Foundry quest descriptions will tell you if they are meant for just one player and their companion or not.

It hurts a whole lot not to listen to the "This is intended for a group of X or more" warnings, as a heads up.  There doesn't appear to be any sort of bonus for doing a quest over your head, besides the baddies being worth a bit more xp because of the higher level.  It's only really a negligable difference, though.  If you find yourself a few levels below the zone you end up in, you should very much give Skirmishes, Dungeons, and Foundry quests a go until you are the right level again.  Makes things smoother, gets you AD if you do the dailies, and you might meet some cool people in the bargain.
A rose by any other name... still has thorns you can prick someone with. - Me.


Ebb

Thank you, both Fedora and Kazyth. This is enormously helpful, and the kind of thing that's sometimes tricky to search for in a FAQ or forum.

As a reward... more questions.

1) In grouping, do people tend to use voice or typed chat? (Actually, I haven't even checked - is voice chat built into the game?)

2) I think I missed a bit of terminology, and this sounds stupid, but whatever. What is a "dungeon"? Is that distinct from the quests that I'm dutifully following along as they're handed to me? (Last one was wererats in the sewers of Blackwater, I think.)

3) Are there benefits to joining a guild outside of the obvious one of finding people to group with? Should one be wary of signing up with a guild -- are there any predatory practices going on?

4) When grouping, are there greedy actions you can take that are frowned upon? Here I'm thinking again of DDO, which rules out this kind of thing by having all treasure in chests be keyed to characters when the chest opens, so it doesn't really matter who does the opening. Is the case here similar?

I think roleplaying in the game would be fun. It seems to not exist in DDO, except in particular guilds, and to be fair it's hard to roleplay when everyone has been through the same quests umpteen-dozen times anyway. A new setting with no spoilers like this one has a lot more potential, at least for me. I haven't used my second character slot yet, so if anyone wanted to give a new level 1 party a shot, that could be fun.


Oneiros

#60
You're welcome. I'm a weird person who likes answering questions when I can ;)

1. There is a voice chat built into the game, but most groups either figure out what to do in silence or use the text chat.

2. The term 'dungeon' usually refers to a larger area with more enemies and bigger bosses (and better loot) that you generally proceed through in a linear fashion with the help of a group. You generally can't solo dungeons unless you're a very high level and the dungeon is a very low one. The areas where you go when you're sent on a mission or quest by an NPC is usually called an 'instance' (though that term can also refer to any map).

3. I'm honestly not sure about the benefits or risks of joining a guild. Anyone else have any help on that one?

4. When doing normal quests or missions as a group, it's generally good etiquette to figure out an order for looting chests and stick to it.

Loot that is green (uncommon) quality or above will have a roll, where you can either say you need it (going to use it) or greed it (going to sell it) or pass (don't want it). Needs get priority over greeds, but rude people can still ninja a piece of loot by rolling 'need' on something they aren't going to use. It's considered bad form but there isn't really anything you can do about it.  When a loot roll comes up,  I will usually wait to see what everyone else rolls to see if I'm grouped with a ninja.

In dungeons or skirmishes, chests usually respawn or are lootable by everyone - you all just take turns looting stuff. There are also smaller loot... objects, that are openable by class. You can either open it for 'free' by being that class, or you can buy a 'kit' to try and open it (a consumable object which isn't guaranteed to work). In a group, it's considered good form to only open class loot objects that belong to your class, and not use a kit.

RubySlippers

Well its a Cryptic game so that automatically means user friendly and usually graphics are suited to lower tier computers. And I play Champions Online and Star Trek Online so enough said I had to try this.

I have an Elven Trickster Rogue I find it freaking awesome it has a recharging ranged attack, is devastating in close combat if played right and how can you one not like the big attack called Bloodbath where you just stab lots of baddies in a ferocious attack.

I have a Human Control Wizard and find it just as evil between unlimited magic missiles, the ice ray, hurling a big icicle at baddies and sometimes they just shatter and the area ice storm power its cool as hell as well.

The issue I have is having to learn to block or defense rush out of the way prudently depending on my character.

So far I give this game a solid overall B+.

Hemingway

I decided to give the game a shot the other day, along with the girlfriend. We're actually having fun, though we haven't played very far yet. I'm playing a Guardian Fighter at the moment, and I'm thinking of making another character I can play by myself. I'm not sure what to make yet, though. My go-to class in games like that is the warrior-type, and I like the look of Great Weapon Fighters, I'm just ... considering if I should try something else, at the risk of getting stuck in just one class.

Ebb

Up to level 20 on my little Halfling Great Weapon Fighter now, and still having fun. So far I've found soloing much more fun than grouping randomly. Every grouping experience I've had has either been five people running off in random directions and getting slaughtered, or four people who've done the quest a hundred times racing through while I follow the little glowing trail and try to keep up. Hopefully finding a guild or starting to build a friends list will make those parts more enjoyable. Also it looks like if you don't pick "Need" you're never going to get any loot, which is unfortunate.

Meanwhile I'm still impressed by the Foundry system (the playing, haven't tried the creating yet), which looks like it'll go a long way toward relieving the boredom of doing the same missions over and over.

Level 20 also seems to be sort of a breakpoint where the need to spend money starts to become more pressing. There are mounts, but it looks like it will be difficult to afford them without kicking in a little real cash. I'm in favor of supporting a game that I'm getting some fun out of, but I don't want to throw money down a hole for something virtual that's going to get outdated in two weeks either. (Thanks for purchasing Mount(tm)! Would you be interested in upgrading to SuperMount(tm)?)




Oneiros

There seem to be some issues with GF abilities right now, just so you're aware. They seem to be working on it, but their blocking ability seems to be broken (you get it at level 10 I believe). I think GWF's have some problems as well, but not as bad as the GFs at the moment. These issues should be fixed eventually, but there's no telling when >.>

Rogues, clerics, and control wizards are all pretty fun though.

Also! It's really not necessary to spend real money. As long as you're diligent in picking up loot and identifying items before selling them to vendors, you can make the money for a mount pretty easily. The beginning mounts are kinda slow, but they get you around. That said, the mounts you buy for zen or astral diamonds ARE faster, but not necessary. You can upgrade to a better mount whenever you feel like, or never at all.

Plus you get three 'rental tokens' when you hit level 20, that let you rent a slower mount until you can scrape together the five gold for your own. Each token lets you rent a mount for five in-game hours - meaning five actual hours of playing the game. I was able to easily get five gold together before even my first mount token expired.

Ebb

It could be I'm missing something obvious on the moneymaking front. Currently I pick up just about everything, identify it and then if it's not useful to equip sell it. At level 20 I have just over 1 gold, I think, and the starting mounts go for 5. I don't think I've spent money on anything other than some healing potions early on, before I got my cleric companion / doc-in-a-box.

Does it matter to whom you sell things?

This might also be a side effect of the grouping I've been doing, which really has resulted in very little loot. Soloing Foundry quests has been more lucrative; I might just focus on that.


Hemingway

So, I've played through the intro as the most badsas half orc great weapon fighter ever. I mean, those guys are seriously kickass.

Half-orcs, I mean. The class ... ehh. I've played other MMOs for a long time, so I know the power of a class initially doesn't necessarily reflect its power later on, but I noticed right away the the great weapon fighter is less powerful than guardian fighter initially.

Oneiros

I actually found doing solo questing (not in the foundry) to be the easiest way to make money, especially since the foundry seems to have a bug with the loot chests right now. Those quests have better rewards and the random mobs running around drop coins, gear, scrolls, and whatnot. Plus your gear keeps up with you better as you level, you usually get a replacement for something as a quest reward right as your old piece is getting obsolete. Questing through areas had me at 4 gold and change by the time I hit level 20.

Chris Brady

GWF survivability is a still a bit rough.  Especially with the current level 15 cap for your healer (usually the best choice for soloists) minion.  Not impossible, but it can be something of a frustration.  Just an FYI.
My O&Os Peruse at your doom.

So I make a A&A thread but do I put it here?  No.  Of course not.

Also, I now come with Kung-Fu Blog action.  Here:  Where I talk about comics and all sorts of gaming

Blythe

Quote from: Ebb on May 29, 2013, 12:53:55 PM
It could be I'm missing something obvious on the moneymaking front. Currently I pick up just about everything, identify it and then if it's not useful to equip sell it. At level 20 I have just over 1 gold, I think, and the starting mounts go for 5. I don't think I've spent money on anything other than some healing potions early on, before I got my cleric companion / doc-in-a-box.

Quote from: Fedora on May 29, 2013, 01:02:17 PM
I actually found doing solo questing (not in the foundry) to be the easiest way to make money, especially since the foundry seems to have a bug with the loot chests right now. Those quests have better rewards and the random mobs running around drop coins, gear, scrolls, and whatnot. Plus your gear keeps up with you better as you level, you usually get a replacement for something as a quest reward right as your old piece is getting obsolete. Questing through areas had me at 4 gold and change by the time I hit level 20.

I'm going to second Fedora on this, except I had about 3 gold + change at level 20, because I'm an easily killed control wizard who buys healing potions to a crazy degree. Solo questing really lets you make money faster, and I admit that solo foundry quests on the side are letting me make some cash, too. I just replace my equipment as I go using quest rewards as well.  ;D

Kazyth

I think possibly the Cleric is the easiest one to make money on, all things considered.  With solid damage, solid healing, decent armor, a decent dodge power, and a tanky companion, I spent almost nothing except on the kits for resources.  And I stopped that fairly quickly as well, because they really aren't worth the money.  The professions generally have ways to gather needed resources without spending money.  And the Leadership profession itself when you level it a bit has some decent ways of getting you AD and cash for nothing more than an investment of patience, as you just send your mercs out to do things for you.

The main pressing "Need to spend money on" thing that I found has been Banks slots, really.  You quickly run out of bank slots, or inventory slots, if you try to hold onto much of anything.  I like to hold onto the runes and such, so I can build up bigger and better ones, but unless you've bought extra bags or extra bank spaces, storage very quickly becomes an issue.

Other than that, the free basic companion starts to be less useful the more you level, because the free basics can't level past 15 currently.  They will eventually be releasing training manuals for them that will allow you to level them further, but if you solo a lot and depend on your companion, in the mid 30's you'll start to feel that gap pretty hard.
A rose by any other name... still has thorns you can prick someone with. - Me.


Dovel

This looks interesting. I registered for the site so I shall download it and try it out. I play DDO from time to time so this should be a nice change while still keeping in the D&D rule set. Hopefully a good sized RP community takes hold.
Now we live, tomorrow not
Enjoy your pleasures, lest they rot
Let not them pass this very day
For on the morrow regret may with you stay



Oneiros

Quote from: Kazyth on May 30, 2013, 04:43:52 AM
The main pressing "Need to spend money on" thing that I found has been Banks slots, really.  You quickly run out of bank slots, or inventory slots, if you try to hold onto much of anything.  I like to hold onto the runes and such, so I can build up bigger and better ones, but unless you've bought extra bags or extra bank spaces, storage very quickly becomes an issue.

I actually get around that by mailing runestones/enchants to myself. They don't bind, so you can take all your extras, and put in just '@yourusername' as your recipient. The cool thing about the mail is if you send it to yourself like that (not specifying the character), you can pick up that mail on ANY character. Of course you only get two character slots in a free account, but it's still nice to be able to grab runestones on the character that needs them.

I assume mail times out eventually (like it does on WoW) so you probably want to grab them every once in a while. But since you'll probably be taking them out to fuse them occasionally, it's not difficult to make sure they stay active.

Saerrael

#73
Quote from: Fedora on May 30, 2013, 08:32:19 AM
I actually get around that by mailing runestones/enchants to myself. They don't bind, so you can take all your extras, and put in just '@yourusername' as your recipient. The cool thing about the mail is if you send it to yourself like that (not specifying the character), you can pick up that mail on ANY character. Of course you only get two character slots in a free account, but it's still nice to be able to grab runestones on the character that needs them.

I assume mail times out eventually (like it does on WoW) so you probably want to grab them every once in a while. But since you'll probably be taking them out to fuse them occasionally, it's not difficult to make sure they stay active.

That was a brilliant idea and I'm thus using it. <3
I used it in WoW, and I can't really say why I haven't been doing it in Neverwinter. *chuckles*

Quote from: Kazyth on May 30, 2013, 04:43:52 AM
I think possibly the Cleric is the easiest one to make money on, all things considered.  With solid damage, solid healing, decent armor, a decent dodge power, and a tanky companion, I spent almost nothing except on the kits for resources.  And I stopped that fairly quickly as well, because they really aren't worth the money.  The professions generally have ways to gather needed resources without spending money.  And the Leadership profession itself when you level it a bit has some decent ways of getting you AD and cash for nothing more than an investment of patience, as you just send your mercs out to do things for you.

The main pressing "Need to spend money on" thing that I found has been Banks slots, really.  You quickly run out of bank slots, or inventory slots, if you try to hold onto much of anything.  I like to hold onto the runes and such, so I can build up bigger and better ones, but unless you've bought extra bags or extra bank spaces, storage very quickly becomes an issue.

Other than that, the free basic companion starts to be less useful the more you level, because the free basics can't level past 15 currently.  They will eventually be releasing training manuals for them that will allow you to level them further, but if you solo a lot and depend on your companion, in the mid 30's you'll start to feel that gap pretty hard.

I'm now a level 60 Cleric with the tanky companion and I can honestly say that doing just about anything at that level solo takes about three times longer than the other classes. Sure, you don't die (and, if you're not distracted, your rank 15 companion doesn't die either), but, man... you need patience in abundance!
And, no, I'm not interested in running dungeons. At least, not with random PuGs... >.> I don't quite fancy to be the main tank and heal at the same time.



Trading AD to Zen is a nice way to get things you may or may not need. Like... a respec token (which is 600 Zen). This doesn't say you'll be able to make Zen easily. The rate last time I checked it was 350AD to 1Zen. But, it's there. And that is quite the thing for a F2P.


The Foundry is what is keeping me coming back, though. It has its flaws and utterly annoying bugs, yes, but creating ones own quests is very rewarding.
(Running Foundry quests also underlines the dullness of Cryptic's own quests...)

Blythe

I was utterly torn between purchasing additional companions or getting a mount. *sigh* I had to go with companions--I really needed the cleric companion. And I got a sellsword for good measure.

Now I'm broke. Back to saving for a mount again.  :'(