Neverwinter Dev Tracker

This topic I have been waiting for and I have a lot to say on this topic but I don't know where to start. I also just want to say, there are no bullet points this time because I want to express my experience to make my points on these topics. So if I sound salty, or attacking, it is just the frustration I have behind these experiences. A1. First I suppose I want to get this idea out of the way. Why should a character that has spent a lot of time, astral diamonds or even money on progression, to have all that effort and success taken a way? My main character is a Cleric and if I run Lomm on my Devout build, I can actually do significant damage to the monsters. Even though technically the Devout build isn't meant to deal damage, it can. But if I run Cragmire Crypts, my damage goes to basically nothing even thought this dungeon is so old, I shouldn't be reduced to nothing. You have stripped the fun out of progression or any progression by stripping the character running older content. ... Read more

I'd like to focus on a very important point raised by @thefabricant on part 6: bound items should absolutely not depend entirely on RNG. Feedback Overview: Important Bound on Pickup items/gear should always have at least one way to be obtained deterministically (i.e. not depending luck) Feedback Goal: Reduce frustration caused by bad luck, always rewarding players with some progress after they complete some piece of content Feedback Functionality: All content that has a chance to drop bound gear or other useful bound items should also have a system tied to it where players can get the same items deterministically. Many different approaches can be taken to create such a system, like: - Currency/store approach: completing the content will always grant players a certain currency and, if you didn't get your desired item by luck, you can use your collected currency to buy it. This approach already exists in-game for the Lionheart (ToMM) Weapons. - Quest approach: completing the content... Read more

✪ Part 7 – Slots in Items. Feedback Overview. This is not directly related to rewards and progression, but it goes hand in hand with streamlining by making it more convenient to use multiple items, thus actually promoting item choice. The current slot system for enchantments is antiquated and can be greatly improved. Feedback Goal. Make it easier to swap between items. Make the user interface for changing enchantments more friendly. Make the user interface helpful for colour blind people. Feedback Functionality. Remove slots from items, instead embed them into the UI. Changing items changes the type of slots available or enables/disables slots. For example, if you have a radiant enchantment slotted in an offensive slot and you switch to an item with a defensive slot in that area, it swaps the effect from offensive to defensive. If an item is not slotted, the slots are disabled for that piece. Its recommended with this system, to remove the gold cost from unsock... Read more

✪ Part 6 – Chase Items. Feedback Overview. Improve the design for chase items, both through crafting which currently has no chase items and through item drops. Feedback Goal. Ensure that the hunting of chase items is a fun process and not a frustrating one. Provide incentive to go after chase items. In some areas, add an element of risk and reward for the creation of chase items. Allow for the revitalization of old items. Feedback Functionality. Whilst the M17 implementation of chase items is good, it is possible to do it better, especially in the implementation of crafted chase items which Neverwinter has never really had. Here are (in my opinion) some important rules. Chase items should not be gated behind drop RNG unless they are also unbound. Going after items like Shadowstalker rings is frustrating, not fun. ToMM rings are an excellent implementation. Chase items should not be rewarded from levelling content and should be adequately challenging in contrast... Read more

✪ Part 5 – Crafting. Feedback Overview. Make crafting a more satisfying process long term, which both rewards players who craft and players who collect resources. Feedback Goal. Make gathering of resources rewarding to both new players and endgame players. Make crafting rewarding long term. Hopefully, make farming resources unreasonable to do for bots. Make the gathering of resources more interesting and less of a chore. Feedback Functionality. I have linked this before, so I won’t write it all out again, just link to it again. https://www.arcgames.com/en/forum... Read more

✪ Part 4 – Itemization Philosophy. Feedback Overview. Clearly delineate the purposes of crafted gear vs gear with unique effects vs gear with a set bonus, as well as target the general intended power level of gear vs content. Currently whenever a new piece of gear is added, it either automatically invalidates every other item on that gear slot, or it is already invalidated itself. For meaningful itemization this needs to change. Feedback Goal. Make both crafted items and dropped items useable in the long term. Make chase items more interesting and in some cases more expensive. Add back an element of choice to itemization. Structure rewards better, to make planning future rewards relative to content easier. Feedback Functionality. Currently, crafted gear and dropped gear compete for the same slots. Crafters are faced with the frustration that often anything they create does not persist for longer than a single module and they spend more time than not being unable to ... Read more

✪ Part 3 – Campaigns as optional content. Feedback Overview. Old campaigns have the problem that, for the most part, once you have the boons you have no reason to go back to them. In addition to that however, they also have the problem that until you do have the boons you feel compelled to run them. Feedback Goal. Provide a reason to run old campaigns after obtaining the boons, without feeling compelled to do so. Provide a reason for new players to run campaigns. Make campaigns feel optional and fun, rather than compulsory activities. Feedback Functionality. The way I would resolve this issue is by adding new rewards to campaign daily quests after a player has completed the campaign. These rewards would either be in the form of RP, RAD or materials used for guild upgrades. The purpose of this is twofold, one to incentivize a player to run through this content and keep it relevant post its sell by date and the second is to provide an upgrade path to new players. In ad... Read more

Hi Fabricant, First of all thank you very much for all the time you invested here and also for the formatting. I actually agree with every single goal with the caveat of (and i am sure you are thinking this) still including vertical progression but in wider intervals. Could you give an example in regard to this point please? 'Allow for meaningful player choices in terms of item use.' On to your next sections (-: Chris With regards to this, it has to do with the way itemization currently works in Neverwinter where there are very clear obvious choices in terms of what items a player at end game should be using. A lot of the choices that exist are "non choices" in the sense that yes you could use them, but you would be consciously deciding to use something worse in favour of a better option. An easy example I can use, from a DPS players perspective is the Ebony Chest body armour, which increases your power by 10%. Sure, I could use something else as a DPS, but I would be choosi... Read more

✪ Part 2 – Boons Rework. Feedback Overview. Boons are the only long term reward a player obtains from campaigns. They play a role in character progression and are currently extremely lacklustre, while at the same time acting as a major chore for older players wanting to level up a new character. They also add up over time, leading to eventual power creep due to the way they are structured and the longer the game goes on, the more “catch up” a new player must do as a result of them. Feedback Goal. Change boons progression to horizontal rather than vertical, to help curb future power creep. Make boons more meaningful and feel more impactful. Currently they are extremely lacklustre. Bring back an element of player choice in character customization, by pitting meaningful boon choices against each other. Make “alting” less of a chore, due to the reworked boon functionality. Reduce the amount of catch up a new player must do. Feedback Functionality. Change the way camp... Read more

Apologies for the (extremely) long post. This is a subject I have a very strong opinion on, so I am breaking up my feedback into a general overview and then each sub section for readability purposes. Table of Contents. In order to quickly access any parts of my post, you can Control F and search for the following, just copy paste this text in to get that section. ✪ Part 1 – New Progression and Reward Paradigm. ✪ Part 2 – Boons Rework. ✪ Part 3 – Campaigns as optional content. ✪ Part 4 – Itemization Philosophy. ✪ Part 5 – Crafting. ✪ Part 6 – Chase Items. ✪ Part 7 – Slots in Items. ✪ Part 8 – Potential Implementation and Conclusion. ✪ Part 1 – New Progression and Reward Paradigm. Feedback Overview. Reworking the way character progression and rewards are structured internally, to have a consistent paradigm going forward both for item design and the rate at which player power progresses relative to content. Feedback Goal. Prevent unnecessary clashes betw... Read more

Hi All, I know I said I would be jumping in today but it just wasn't possible due to today ending up being a very busy day for me. I should have more time tomorrow. All i would say is keep the ideas and thoughts coming. Whilst conversation about ideas is good I wouldn't drill to far down into any specific area just yet. We will do that as part of the second phase of this CDP. Sorry I haven't engaged sooner and I am very much looking forward to doing so. Chris

Hey folks! Thank you to everyone who has participated so far. A special nod to @thefabricant for the extensive (but clear/bullet point) posting. It definitely highlights one of the aspects of the CDP – creating a broad topic in order to then distill it into priorities and subtopics! It provides an informative and constructive starting point for future discussions. While people are participating in this discussion, I'd love it if folks could also keep in their back of the mind how they would divide this this topic into different ones while still keeping it a comprehensive discussion. For example, @krumple01 asked why should players feel all their progress is taken away after spending a lot of time and resources. This is a secondary theme that came up during the accessibility CDP discussion as well; it might be useful to be aware of recurrence of themes and if they should be their own topic or if they are naturally just embedded in multiple aspects of the game.

Hi All, Just a quick note to let you know that we are still working on the high level road map but likely will need another week on it. As always output from the CDP is intent and therefore timing around delivery and content are subject to change. We want to make sure we can achieve high quality with this plan therefore we are currently discussing options in regard to development logistics and release cadence. Thanks for your patience, Chris

If you manage to get half of this done you will be my hero :P We are going to do our very best and we will be in communication all the way through this and past this year in regard to how we evolve the game. Chris

A general question: How it is planned to go from here? I mean that there are a lot of topic even in the summery, and their implementation, and scope can vary differently. Will there be a discussion per topic? A drafted ideas posted before the start spec is closed? IMO a lot of the development teams ideas, goal and targets were/are understood, and the more significant disagreement or disappointment was usually in the details of the implementation (due to deadlines, limited resources or whatever reason). There are many ways to solve each problem, and the results can differ greatly, some will be loved, others will be a disapointment. To add to the things above, with limited resources will we get a "vote" of the scope and at what price some things will be. Seems that there is a lot there on the list, and many things can be refined more and more but it will come at the cost of other things, perhaps the community will agree to compromise on one way of implementing something over anot... Read more

This looks like a great start, and I look forward to more transparency and working hand in hand to make an even better game. But I do have a request: Seeing that "Progression and Rewards" is the Next CDP topic and is something of a spin of: "- We will be making existing content more relevant to players across the board with some rewiring of rewards,activity's and progression." Can we please get some better info prior to or at the start of that CDP with the current loots tables/ the number of total loot tables managed by the team, this would help inform prior to starting that topic and allow the community to stay a bit more focused. Let me check on that and get back to you. But yes probably. Thanks Lordaeolos, Chris

Hi All, Thanks so much for your patience and putting in all the effort in what is our first CDP! (Many more to come). Things have been really busy of late and we hope in future we will be able work with you on the CDPs more efficiently (Logistics and CDP schedule). On top of this we will have more direct communication about CDP outcomes, actions and discussion in streams. I was going to frame things as a proposal but I think we are all mature enough for me to actually communicate what we are planning to work on (or are actively working on) with the caveat that all features and content are subject to change. If there is ever a big course correct we will let you know. I hope that sounds ok. I would say about 50+ % of the team has read the CDP and about 90% have skimmed through it locking on areas that are closest to them. The team is already aware of the areas listed below and in most cases we are about to start work (brainstorming, planning) on the areas or already have (unless state... Read more

Greetings folks! Chris apologizes for the delay in the proposal but we've begun discussing the next topic which we think will be of great interest to many of you. We are hoping to make Rewards and Progression the next focused topic for the CDP! Stay tuned for more developments as we wrap up Topic #1 and continue on with some more great discussions!

Greetings! Some amazing discussions came out of this inaugural CDP topic - we strongly encourage everyone to read through the comments but we've also put together a topic summary. This summary is meant to cover the overarching themes and relevant subtopics so may not encompass discussions that are better suited for their own CDP. The proposal for this topic is still being worked on and we are aiming to have it available later this week. CDP – Topic #1 Summary Background For the inaugural CDP topic, players were asked for their thoughts on the accessibility of Neverwinter in regards to the different types of players (hardcore, casual, veteran, beginner) and the difficulty and ease of content. Note: This CDP discussion did not include accessibility for disabilities or impairments as that is intended for its own separate topic. The topic thread spanned 13 pages with a total of 388 replies and 9,087 views. Discussion Summary The following major themes emerged from the comments: Mu... Read more

Thread is now officially closed. Thank you all! EDIT: Thread will re-open for a short time for additional comments when proposal is posted on Wednesday.