Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
[General Article] Neverwinter: Open Beta Diary #3
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
As we continue our journey through Neverwinter, we come to the third installment of our Beta Diary. This week, we take a closer look at the Neverwinter cash shop and game currencies as well as PvP. Check it out before leaving your thoughts in the comments.
Being open beta, this is our, the players’, chance to influence the final release of the game. Constructive criticism is always a good thing in any game and Cryptic has shown willingness to listen to its community. I love Neverwinter. I really, honestly do. But there are things that need to be changed to give it a chance at a long and healthy life and I only bring all these up, because aside from these issues, Neverwinter is a fantastically fun experience.
Read more of Suzie Ford's Neverwinter Open Beta Diary #3.
)
Comments
I heard something about end-game enchants, which you either have to farm ~7 months or pay $160 to get. That certainly doesn't seem fair from a p2w perspective. I still have my doubts about this game. Hmm.
This is by far a "worst case scenario", someone just trying to sell this part of the game short. Playing the Zen market(buying/selling with Astral Diamonds/Zen) or selling items on the auction house for astral diamonds (loot is plentiful and Bind on Equip) , can get you a ton of AD in a hurry. I spoke in another thread about me buying the Guardian pack and went through my 600k ad quick, I bought some zen then played the market, between playing the market and auction house sales I have accumulated near 10mil Astral Diamonds. Just so you know, it's really easy to get AD. That thread about 7mos or $160 was referring to only converting "rough" AD to regular AD is a maximum of 24k a day........it was very biased.
The game is very easy, but the most fun I have had in mmo's in years, I just finally got my first 60 , Trickster Rogue, yesterday and still very much having fun. I am typically a very casual player, but admit I have been playing a lot since early access open beta. I'm sure my game time is longer than most at about 3 days to reach 60.........that's a lot of game time in 3-4 weeks for me.
As far as gold being unnecessary as stated in the article, I think it really is until late in the game, then health pot consumption starts adding up quickly. I go through a ton of pots In some areas. Ugh Mindflayers give me a really tough time.
respecs very much need to be accessible in game. i have not invested any of my skill points for fear that i am going to mess up my character. they have definitely gone way over board with the cash shop. so while fun, it is also a prime example of everything that can go wrong with f2p. i'm enjoying it though, and can't wait to get my hands on the foundry (though i fully expect them to throw up some hideous pay wall on it).
EDIT: i also think the game lends itself to RP, which is a new one.
$15 more isn't worth the fastest mount speed in a F2P game, really?
True, but people are spending a fortune on keys, I have nearly 60 of these boxes in my inventory or on the auction house. I had sold a ton of them already , but I can't even seem to sell them on the auction house anymore. I'm not to cheap to buy things from the auction house or the cash shop, though I've made a fortune without paying hardly anything (20 dollars after the 600k I got with Guardian Pack), but the prices are insane, and I don't like to gamble. People seem to be spending money like crazy though.
I'm a Level 60 Cleric, Heal Spec. I love it and gained T2 items in the first 2 days of being 60 because of the insta-que as a Healer. But I love to PVP and there are many essential things that I'm missing to fulfill my needs in order to be PvP friendly. I'm not going to spend 6$ for a days worth of pvp, then 6 more to get back to my PvE spec...
I guess on that note, yes the prices are high for the Mounts, but if they were 15$, everyone would have them and they wouldn't be "Epic". You can also Trade/Sell these mounts on the AH, so there's more ways to get them if you're filthy rich in game, rather than Out.
So looks like a lot of kids with rich parents around lol. No problem with that (if this way they pay my gaming experience I better shouldn't complain). It's just the whole presentation of these packs that bothers me: as if something really really big and special would happen (mind you, every pick up is announced to everyone) when in fact these chests are literally raining from the sky. Things like this destroy the tiny rest of immersion to me. Don't get me wrong, I understand very well why and how companies try to fight the p2w trap. But at the end of the day I need to ask if the whole f2p concept will ever be able to generate a decent game with longevity. I doubt that, but let us talk again 3 month later...
(right now I'm paying a 15€ sub for another game so I'm not against spending some money in general)
The lock boxes take up bag slots. Items like potions wont stack with the same potion if its bound to your character taking additional bag slots.
Small and sneaky ways to push you to paying real money.
This, too. Makes me want to fight the companies right to reach for some income in a similar sneaky way (which is no problem since the game is so easy, no fluff needed). The fight for inventory slots is a small challenge at least.
While I'm a fan of Neverwinter I agree it has its short comings ( I personally enjoy the 3rd edition and 3.5 rule set more) The large number of different currencys most with little actual worth being one. (One can buy healing potions with gold but other then that and kits or crafting supplies gold has little value.)
Don't forget WoW also charges you $15 a month just to play so if you want that to play for say 6 months and want that Epic horse it cost you way more. ($115 for 6 months of WoW with a mount but not including buying the game verse, unlimited play time of Neverwinter that includes the the client download and hourse for $40)
Many people just don't look at the big picture when it comes to what they are actually spending. Saying WoW or even GW2 is cheaper is fairly inaccurate when one looks at what one MUST pay to even play those games before adding in cash shops extras like mounts.
The wards that cost the $10 scared me at first as well. I briefly played Runes of Magic and left immediately before dropping a dime after I heard about their rune cash sink. While grinding out the Astral Diamonds to convert to Zen can take a long time, you can currently buy them on the AH for between 100-150,000 AD. This means if you collect AD each day to the cap on only one character you can pick up a rune a week. In addition, each day you can invoke for a Celestial coin. Turning in 7 coins gives you a box with a chance of containing a ward.
So it can be time consuming to get all of your wards, and you can certainly take some shortcuts if you have some cash, but you can get to endgame without spending a dime. To be honest though, I'd suggest a small investment ($20-$50) to support the game and grab extra character slots (which will increase your chances of getting your wards, as each character can invoke once daily) and on other fun stuff.
I dropped $30 (I also purchased the $60 Founder's package) on Zen. I've used 1000 to buy a superior Bag of Holding (the 24 slot bag), I bought 2 assets packs for 300 Zen each (they giving you crafting assets and materials), 3 Nightmare Keys for 125 Zen each (one box contained a Ward, the other two contained idols worth 40k AD), and 500 Zen for 2 additional character slots. I still have some Zen left.
Hope this helps.
Wow, good job on those. I have opened 3 so far, getting a Ward (the $10 one), and 2 idols worth 40k in AD
easy solution sell the potions you get from whatever pack that don't stack and simply buy potions from the npc's in game for gold thats otherwise fairly useless and easy to come buy. All healing potions that drop in game and that can be bought for gold in game with gold stack
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
Complete fallacy and exaggeration. I have most of my Tier 7 runes on my main now. T6 is also very easy to get, and not much lower in power. Havent spent a cent on the cash shop coalescent wards (which guarantee fusion). Its what, 2 weeks into the game? Yeah such a P2W grind.
Here is the deal with T7 runes:
- Getting to Tier 6 is easy.
- There is a 1% chance to go from Tier 6 to Tier 7. That's where most of the P2W claims come in.
- You only lose one of the four runestones when you try to fuse and fail.
- Remember how I said getting Tier 6 was easy?
- You can get coalescent wards by logging in for 7 days in a row to help boost your chances.
- You can trade AD for coalescent wards on the auction house.
The lower tier runes drop like candy. It really isn't difficult to get max level gear with gameplay alone. All the cash shop does is speed it up and get rid of the randomness.
Considering how worthless gold is in the game, I am surprised that they bothered to make the levelling gift ones no trade and unstackable. Like someone is going to keep making newbs to get low level potions and ID scrolls to sell.