[Megathread] Neverwinter Online

[Valeron]

A soft launch is basically a launch without it being an official one. It sort of gives the developers an out by saying it's in beta.

Anyway, you can treat it as a launch pretty much.

[Deleted]

All of that would further encourage me to make the cleric my main as well, but again, it almost sounds like both that the cleric is too awesome right now and that guardian fighters need a buff themselves to reach comparable levels as tanks.

At any rate, while I was curious to hear the thoughts from people currently playing clerics, as well as see if anyone who'd been following Neverwinter longer than I have had heard anything about the cleric's ultimate future, it ultimately comes down to what the developers finally decide to do with them, and it will probably take until I can actually ask on the official forums before there's any possibility of getting a concrete answer in that regard...assuming the developers even know what they are doing with clerics, either.

Still, thanks for the responses, guys. So long as I'm still having fun playing a cleric, I guess I'll continue playing one, and if they receive or it seems like they are going to receive any massive changes, I'll figure out what to do if/when that time comes.

Let's put it this way: if the intention was to have an all-in-one tank and an a true healing class and a true aoe melee damage dealer as an intent in class design, then Neverwinter Online in its current state is very far away from that.

So, if they really are going to re-align the class design back to traditional MMORPG playstyles, it will be part of a radical redesign that will probably leave no class untouched, including the uber-popular Trickster Rogue class (which is probably perfect as is and it is the other melee classes that are inconsistent/need tweaking/in a mess, tbh).

In the meantime, I am not going to let it bother me since levelling is so fast in this game and I am in it more for the leveling journey than any endgame for now.

[RoninaThorstone]

What is a soft launch? never heard of the term before. It this like Allods Online? The game was technically in beta for over a year.

Vindictus was in "open beta" for like 2 years.
Firfall has been in "open beta" for like a year and will be in it for at least 1 more year.

It's basically a way of launching your game without having it be over hyped and zerged with bad community.
Soft launches tend to result in waves of new players (like when a major patch comes out and they advertise a little) and they build the player base slowly (and steadily). Its been very successful for a number of games that have tried it thus far.

[RoninaThorstone]

Anyone know what level Control Wizards start seeing real robes, instead of ripped shirts? I hate looking the same every level. :|

As soon as you fork over money! NOM NOM NOM!!!

(Or save up astral diamonds to get costume pieces)

[wombinator04]

Anyone else expecting the new classes to be paid classes. Oh look the 2 new classes are the Ranger And Warlock. Oh but you gotta pay for em.

[Luko]

Anyone else expecting the new classes to be paid classes. Oh look the 2 new classes are the Ranger And Warlock. Oh but you gotta pay for em.

Uh, no. That'd be pretty stupid. However I wont claim to be a fortune teller. It could happen, there's just currently no evidence suggesting that it would. =\

[RoninaThorstone]

Anyone else expecting the new classes to be paid classes. Oh look the 2 new classes are the Ranger And Warlock. Oh but you gotta pay for em.

They don't need to charge for that.
They are already charging for character slots. If they add a second paywall, they will lose money because people will feel like it's too much work to get a new class.

[Golden]

Anyone else expecting the new classes to be paid classes. Oh look the 2 new classes are the Ranger And Warlock. Oh but you gotta pay for em.

Or, it may be paid at first. Then, 60 days later, free.

[obdigore]

Anyone know what level Control Wizards start seeing real robes, instead of ripped shirts? I hate looking the same every level. :|

I literally came in to post this same question. I'M A WIZARD. I SHOULD HAVE ROBES AND A COWL. Instead I get some lacy bits and enjoy showing everyone my right hip?

[blackblade]

Couple of things:
2. Does Neverwinter require installing the nProtect Gameguard rootkit? It is not that I particularly care one way or another about specific anti-cheating technology, it is just that this particular one, despite the extremely deep integration and interference with other processes, comes with no Uninstall method. If uninstalling the game is anything like RaiderZ (another PW title), then Gameguard will not be removed too.

It's made by Cryptic, who's owned by PW. I don't think their titles have used it in the past.

[Vonix]

To all the people concerned about armor, I noticed as a Guardian Fighter my armor set changed a bit around 22 to a more full set of plate, very shiny and polished might I add.

[TranceMonster]

I have a 17 rogue and 13 cleric and my clerics heals are so weak in pvp lol

[Deleted]

I have a 17 rogue and 13 cleric and my clerics heals are so weak in pvp lol

You can't really expect much at level 13.

I did 10-15 last night in the BGs on my guardian which was pretty fun. Only one game was annoying because we were against trickster, wizard and 3 clerics.

Going to try the dungeon when I get home to see what it's like.

Also how do you unlock companions, I've seen a few people running round with them but I haven't had a quest for it?

[Deleted]

It's basically a way of launching your game without having it be over hyped and zerged with bad community.
Soft launches tend to result in waves of new players (like when a major patch comes out and they advertise a little) and they build the player base slowly (and steadily). Its been very successful for a number of games that have tried it thus far.

That may (or, in my experience, may not) be the case, but it's an incidental consequence and not the purpose of a soft launch. This open beta fad serves two purposes: 1) it lets the developer excuse every problem with 'it's still beta' and 2) it lets them release the game halfway finished. There's no conscious intent of it being the best way to build a community or anything like that, it's a way to save money and start taking payments as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, it tends to make the developers complacent and these games have a tendency to stay in "beta" for several years.

In every soft-released game I've tried, it always ends up with enormous bugs and problems never getting fixed because every complaint just gets the 'shut up, it's beta, complaints cannot be valid' response that just utterly kills not only discussions that might have helped improve the game but also actual development progress as the developers stop feeling like anything is urgent. Even a game as otherwise excellent as Path of Exile has been in supposed beta for over twenty months now and people still try to shoot down every forum post with the discussion-killing 'it's beta' which they seem to believe means no problem can ever be brought up.

[Deleted]

Also how do you unlock companions, I've seen a few people running round with them but I haven't had a quest for it?

I got the quest to unlock companions from Sergeant Knox (the guy who gives you most quest) at lvl 15 or 16 on my trickster rogue. Maybe you missed it or maybe some other quests are prerequisites for it. I finished the orc questline in the Tower District before getting the companion quest so if there are some prerequisites it's this one.

[Razael]

To all the people concerned about armor, I noticed as a Guardian Fighter my armor set changed a bit around 22 to a more full set of plate, very shiny and polished might I add.

Co-signing this, my gear looks have changed around the 20-23rd levels. Its a bit scary really, if the gear only changes every 20 levels. Needs moar Armor art!

[potis]

There wont be armor art or at least anytime soon.

The whole game is made around to eventually use the cash shop, aka buy costumes etc if you wanna look any different.

Game is really good but a bit annoying that some things are linked to the cash shop..like bag space..

[Deleted]

I got the quest to unlock companions from Sergeant Knox (the guy who gives you most quest) at lvl 15 or 16 on my trickster rogue. Maybe you missed it or maybe some other quests are prerequisites for it. I finished the orc questline in the Tower District before getting the companion quest so if there are some prerequisites it's this one.

Ok, I'll go take a look at him later, thanks.

[Rivellana]

So, since we are all rolling on Dragon.

MMOc guild.
Are the mods starting it?

Since there doesn't seem to be one going yet and no one else said anything about starting it, I guess I'll look into making one later. I still need to figure out how to do that and such though. I'll post info later.

[Arlee]

All of that would further encourage me to make the cleric my main as well, but again, it almost sounds like both that the cleric is too awesome right now and that guardian fighters need a buff themselves to reach comparable levels as tanks.

At any rate, while I was curious to hear the thoughts from people currently playing clerics, as well as see if anyone who'd been following Neverwinter longer than I have had heard anything about the cleric's ultimate future, it ultimately comes down to what the developers finally decide to do with them, and it will probably take until I can actually ask on the official forums before there's any possibility of getting a concrete answer in that regard...assuming the developers even know what they are doing with clerics, either.

Still, thanks for the responses, guys. So long as I'm still having fun playing a cleric, I guess I'll continue playing one, and if they receive or it seems like they are going to receive any massive changes, I'll figure out what to do if/when that time comes.

Honestly from posts the Devs have made they have said the clerics have agrro issues they want to fix... of course that was back before BW3 and they still haven't done anything to change it, so idk. I am hoping right now they are focusing on making the game stable and getting all the big things working reliably, and then hopefully they will do some tweaking of the class balance.

Since there doesn't seem to be one going yet and no one else said anything about starting it, I guess I'll look into making one later. I still need to figure out how to do that and such though. I'll post info later.

Oh you are playing Rivelle? \o/ I think you should definitely make a guild, it will be awesome