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[Dev Journal] Neverwinter: Get Everything You Want By Playing

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  • DoogiehowserDoogiehowser Member Posts: 1,873
    Originally posted by spawn12345

    This is the future of mmo's and its a great future.

    its b2p or f2p for mmo's from now on. Except those that want to have p2p for the first months see that it fails and then go over to b2p or f2p

    All F2P MMOS still have the option for P2P and usually that gives you best bang for your buck.

    "The problem is that the hardcore folks always want the same thing: 'We want exactly what you gave us before, but it has to be completely different.'
    -Jesse Schell

    "Online gamers are the most ludicrously entitled beings since Caligula made his horse a senator, and at least the horse never said anything stupid."
    -Luke McKinney

    image

  • furbansfurbans Member UncommonPosts: 968

    what I've seen is that you have to use Astral Diamonds in the game.

    What to ride the lvl 40 or lvl 60 mount?  Need to fork of Astral Diamonds.

    Want to buy something off the AH?  Fork over some Astral Diamonds.

    Companion upgrades?  Astral Diamonds.

    Want wome good quality gear?  Fork over some Astral Diamonds. (There are some seal/token vendors)

    Want a new companion?  Give em some Astral Diamonds.

     

    Early impression is that one might be spending considerable money via their Astral Diamonds.  From what I say  I found only a Zen and Astral Diamond exchange, not gold to Astral Diamonds like in GW2.  And I have not come across any form of reliabely generating some Astral Diamonds beyone a cleric's evokation that is on an hourly CD and subject to diminishing return that starts at 1,500 but is reset on a daily basis it seems like.

    Not that none of the items are mandatory and technically they can be called 'cosemetic' and I have not found any use for gold or silver besides skill consumables or the lowest quality of gear that is only relevent till bout level 20. 

    I think we are gonna be in for a shocker of how the currencies will be and that the Cash Shop currency will be used in everything not restricted to Cash Shop items but in everything of quality in Neverwinter.

  • QuaidenQuaiden Member Posts: 19
    Originally posted by Benbrada
    In theory I love this approach as well but my concern is always how do they pay the salaries of their development staff? Assuming everyone who plays drops a 5 or 10 spot now and then maybe that's enough. Do players feel obligated to drop a 5 spot once in awhile? I do in GW2 in hopes of helping keeping the game moving forward, e.g. I've spent 5 to get gems to convert to gold to buy crafting mats, etc. I feel it's a worthwhile investment because it saves me some time plus hopeful helps propel the game forward on a financial curve.

    Don't worry about them paying their bills. Zen (PW's generic cash shop currency) will still be purchasable to be spent on itmes for this game. All he was saying in this article (and I think most people missed it) was EVERYTHING will be earnable unlike some F2P games where you HAVE to buy somethings (IE etra character slots, skins, etc). So if you want to still drop a 5 spot from time to time to support the cause then feel free. I probably will be right there with ya. I love what I am seeing and I will support it with some real money form time to time.

  • zzx81zzx81 Member Posts: 53

    as long as it does not limit the currency cap for free players, it wont go wrong.

    Like SWTOR. sell something for 20-50 bucks and limit free players to only carry 200k ingame money. So people will sell them in the auction for 1mil and continue to wait till the cows come home for people to buy.

    Only the 'oh yeah we are listening' type of company will do this type of f2p model.

  • aslan132aslan132 Member UncommonPosts: 619

    I was always fully against F2P in the early days. I was paying a subscription to avoid all the P2W that was being released. But those days are being left behind. Sure some people still think theres a stigma attached to F2P, and automatically assume if somethings F2P then its also P2W. Sadly those people are just ignorant, and unwilling to accept the truth. The industry is changing. 

     

     Even when games like EQ2 converted from Subs to Free, they put a major restriction on gameplay. I dont know if you ever played EQ2, but you cant raid or even do harder dungeons with Treasured armor and unleveled spells/abilities. Thats F2P the wrong way. When you have a glorified "free trial" with gated content, and still expect people to end up paying the sub anyways if they want access to the content, or to even be effective in the gated content.

     

    Now companies are seeing they dont have to gate content. People will pay for costumes and cosmetics or consumables, that dont offer advatange, just conveniece. The first real idea of "Truly Free" that I played was with Aion. I had played for the first 4-6 months of release, and stopped because the entire game was designed for PvP end-game. But what they did when they went F2P was not to gate any content. You still could hit level cap. You can wear all the end-game items. You could still be the most powerful player on the server, and you never had to spend a dime. More recently, I have heard the same thing from Tera. They have gone F2P, and nothing is gated. You can go anywhere, play the entire game in its entirety without ever paying. GW2 has done it with B2P. There is nothing you could buy that gives a player an advantage over another, but the game still makes plenty of income from the cosmetic cash shop.

     

    I applaude NW in recognizing the change. If they had tried to charge subs, they would have limited thier income, Im not going to make up a statistic, because we just dont know, but they would have severely limited the people who would be playing. And I guarantee they would have had to convert to F2P anyways, probably within 6 months. Then get laughed at for being a failure, and converting. I hope ESO recognizes this as well, and they are ignorant enough to charge a subscription. Other upcoming games are all seeing the same trends. P2P is just a death sentence. Converting will always be seen as negative, a sign of failure, but if you start F2P or even better B2P you skip that part. B2P is my new preferred since it still offers some barrier to entry which keeps alot of the riff-raff out, and generally makes people act more matured because if they get suspended or banned they have to pay for a new account. F2P seems like people are way more immature, because they know if they get banned they just create a new free account.

  • koboldfodderkoboldfodder Member UncommonPosts: 447

    A couple of things that are left out.

     

    You get Rough Astral Diamonds.  You have to refine them into the actual currency.  There is a daily cap on how much you can refine.  You only get rough astral diamonds from certain things, and some of those are on daily cool downs as well.

     

    You can exchange buyable ZEN for in-game currency (Refined Astral Diamnods)....guess who controls the exchange rate.  By controlling the actual price on EVERYTHING, and controlling the amount that can be gotten AND refined daily, PWE has turned it into a massive grind fest.

     

    By removing the actual subscription model (which in STO you got free points every month to spend) you will now be grinding away on every aspect of the game.  So you get your basic 5 classes and races, and have to unlock other classes and races...and items....and features...etc.

     

    I don't think people are understanding just how long you are going to have to play in order to acquire things without actually paying one dollar.  They control how much you can refine and how much you can get....

     

    In the end, if you want to get a sizable chunk out of the game, you are going to be paying a lot more than the normal monthly subscription....that is the entire goal of PWE.  To get YOU to pay more than the standard 14.99 per month you see in other games.  In order to do that, they provide you the basic game, take away any subscription and then control your currency refine rates.

     

    Just wait until the game goes live, you create your first character and open up the store and then start calculating your time invested VS currency acquired while factoring in the insane prices on certain features sub games provide for free.

     

     

  • Po_ggPo_gg Member EpicPosts: 5,749
    Originally posted by koboldfodder

    ....guess who controls the exchange rate. 

    I wrote the same thing, only I tried to remain optimistic :) we'll see the actual prices and items after launch, if it will cost below ~10 bucks for a month to play without any hiccups, that'll be good enough for a great game imo.

     

    And furbans "I found only a Zen and Astral Diamond exchange, not gold to Astral Diamonds" of course, since that way you could get way too many Zen for free, and Zen is the equivalent of real money. No company would tie it to an infinite in-game currency :) That's the point of "time currency", it's limited heavily, it's bind to you, and the amount can be controlled by the company. I'm pretty sure there will be a way to convert in-game money to Zen, it's in STO as well, through time-currency of course, this way implementing the limit to the converting process.

    in STO it's working through contrabands, contraband is a limited (not bind) item which you can trade. So you buy it for in-game money, then you can convert it to dilithium (astral diamond) via a process (which also has a time limit), and then you can sell the dilithium for Zen... and contraband is limited by numbers, it can only acquire via DOff assignments, in average you can get 3-4 per day if you have a klingon too. (Klingons can find more contrabands than the lawful Starfleets :) )

     

    Edit: on a second thought it's also good to push you toward spending. If you quickly need lots of dillys / astral diamonds for something, the only way is to spend real money, buying Zen, and with it buying the time-currency. (since both farming it or converting it from in-game currency are slow and limited ways)

  • DracondisDracondis Member UncommonPosts: 177
    I applaud their cash shop strategy.  I will probably play their game, once they put Dragonborn in.  Until then, they're, mechancially speaking, just another cookie-cutter fantasy MMO, and I play four of those already, including the other DnD one.  No need for a fifth.
  • McGamerMcGamer Member UncommonPosts: 1,073

    I have to admit that after watching the livestream, Cryptic may actually have a good game on their hands for once. I will definitely be giving this game a chance due to the action combat sytem with no tab-targeting like Tera and the ability to create dungeons and possibly make Zen currency as a result. 

    the game already will have mounts which I like, I am only hoping they add housing of some kind.

  • CypeqCypeq Member Posts: 66
    Wow congrats to developer I rly think this game might be 3rd or even 2nd mmo on the market.
  • GoldenArrowGoldenArrow Member UncommonPosts: 1,186

    I don't see anything positive in this system. If you can get everything through playing and you can get everything through paying it's not balanced, not by a longshot.

    You should be able to earn micro-transaction points in the game by itself not from other players and only allow people to purchase micro-transaction points not to trade them.

    Simply put,

    You should be able to get everything in the game through playing.

    You shouldn't be able to get everything in the game through paying.

  • LegendtriggerLegendtrigger Member Posts: 39

    agreed, whats the fun in being able to buy everything with real money.

    Its fun if u see someone walking with cool armour and know he accomplished that by playing the game and not thinking 'hey he might have bought that for real money.

  • Artair83Artair83 Member UncommonPosts: 48
    Originally posted by SuperNick

    It's a similar system to Guild Wars 2 - you can choose to invest immediately or farm your way up to get what you want by 'trading' currency.

    As long as they don't go nuts and have the best endgame gear purchaseable with diamonds, it'll be fine.

    I've seen systems like this before and sometimes what happens is you can choose to farm 200 hours and hope you get the best gear or invest 5 dollars for it.. sure, you can achieve it without paying real money but the system is engineered in such a way to make that task so daunting you'd sooner get your wallet out.

    The same thing could apply to the foundry, which will potentially cost diamonds (much like how it cost currency in STO) - sure, you can farm for it but you're still restricted because the amount of time you need to invest to reach that stage is ungodly.
     
    It's good to hear their model is somewhat decent but this article from the CEO feels evasive to me.
     

    As somebody that's played a significant amount of STO I have to say this is not that much like GW2. I like both games too so don't get me wrong. When GW2 came out I was hoping it's cash shop would be more accessible than it is, the fact is I've noticed that the cash->gold ratio seems really off, I think Arenanet is charging like 20% to change money into cash, which makes the inflation really bad, Cryptic doesn't have this charge, you can actually play it like a stock market when new stuff's coming out on STO.

     

    Personally I have a LOT of STO cash items I didn't pay a cent for and I love this system over there but I don't feel GW2's works as well. The other difference too I think is that on GW2 you're worried about your general money supply if you trade too much, on Cryptic's titles, the game currency traded for cash is a non-tradable specialized currency, much like what badges in wow use to be, or whatever they're calling those these days "justice points" or whatever goofiness it is I haven't played since Cataclysm lol. But yeah I feel that the rates for conversion on cryptic's games are much more realistic to regular play than GW2's.

    The other reason I like this too, is if I play enough I can earn things. It's a form of progression that keeps me having things to do without paying anything. And while it's mostly fluff that some people will bypass by paying cash directly, it gives me more play time to progress with by farming the currency instead, sometimes it can take a while but it can be worth it. I'm curious to see how NW will turn out, STO's recent Dilithium (astral diamonds, what have you) changes have made it a bit easier for me to afford cash points and I'm loving it.

     
  • EmrendilEmrendil Member Posts: 199
    I can't wait to get my hands on that game. I checked a couple of beta streams on twitch. The city looks so awsome.
  • rygard49rygard49 Member UncommonPosts: 973

    "Because you can put your Astral Diamonds up on an auction house and sell them for micro-transactable points."

     

    This is a dishonest article. What they're really saying is that a dedicated player can get someone else to pay for them. Someone had to pay for those MT points in the first place in order for them to be traded in an auction house, otherwise they don't exist. The system isn't "groundbreaking", and it isn't "free". It's just allowing players to benefit from someone elses wallet.

    I agree with the conceptof getting paid for your work, but you're trying to coax players by saying the game will be completely free to play, and you're basing this statement on a technicallity.  Okay, let's play your game Mr. Emmert...

    Let's say every single person to pick up this game wants to play without ever paying a cent in your cash shop. They all grind out Astral Diamonds and put them up on the auction house to sell for microtransaction points, only... wait there's no one who can buy those diamonds since no one has spent money in your cash shop. Weird, all those people who wanted access to everything for free now can't buy anything until someone shells out real money.

    I can't be the only person that sees it that way, right?

  • DignaDigna Member UncommonPosts: 1,994

    I suspect that, as some have already said, while you may be able to buy everything by playing, the time constraints will be prohibitively slow e.g. grind-centric (at least for the 'good stuff').

    Still debating one of the packs but I think the limitations on the classes at start will keep me from buying. Disappointing really. A ranger type class would have probably sealed the deal for me.

    Oh well. 2013 is the year of the AAA titles. Maybe one of them will have it all (well all that I need!)

  • thekzethekze Member UncommonPosts: 180
    Will you be able to purchase astral diamonds at any time? Can you buy items with these astral diamonds?? Will players have to work very hard to obtain what others got by spending money?? If yes is the answer to my three questions. This game is pay-to-win.
  • ArchveilArchveil Member Posts: 4

    *removed*

  • Po_ggPo_gg Member EpicPosts: 5,749
    Originally posted by rygard49

    Let's say every single person to pick up this game wants to play without ever paying a cent in your cash shop. They all grind out Astral Diamonds and put them up on the auction house to sell for microtransaction points, only... wait there's no one who can buy those diamonds since no one has spent money in your cash shop. Weird, all those people who wanted access to everything for free now can't buy anything until someone shells out real money.

    I can't be the only person that sees it that way, right?

    That's not gonna happen :) as it was posted a few times, getting / grinding time-consumable (at least based on STO and CO) is slow, tedious and very limited. Especially if you take into consideration the amount you need from that currency for the game. There will be always players who will say, damn I rather drop in 5 bucks for Zen and buy the dilly / questionite / diamond than grind it myself for 2 weeks...

  • SpectralHunterSpectralHunter Member UncommonPosts: 455

    Wasn't Emmert the guy that said he hated F2P long ago when he was in charge of CoH and later CO?  Now he loves F2P?

    I'll hold judgment until I see the game launch.  But I suspect the grind will be very prohibative that eventually you'll spend money.  I don't knock it; they have to make money somehow but I never consider F2P to be truly F2P.  It's one of my dislikes of F2P.  They know they have to make money somehow but they try very hard to convince you that playing without paying will have the same experience as those who pay.  It's so disengenious.

  • bcbullybcbully Member EpicPosts: 11,838
    Same model as GW2, EVE, AoW, PS2. In PS2 the the grind is so long it makes more sense to pay though.
     
     
    "We see fundamentals and we ape in"
  • vmopedvmoped Member Posts: 1,708

    Just to clarify some things I have read through the postings so far based on playing this past weekend:

    1) You get astral diamonds by invoking you gods power, which may be done every 60 mins.  You get 1500, 750, 375.  This skill can be done at any of the numerious campfires, with a portable shrine, or at a temple shrine.  It takes less than 3 seconds, and you also get a small amount of xp and a temporary buff.

    2) You get astral diamonds from completing open world events in various zones in the game.  The reward varied by your rank at the end.

    3) You get astral diamonds from certain instanced events as well, again, based on rank.

    4) Sometimes you get additional astral diamonds from the events/instances as well (saw 2x multiplier a couple of times).

    5) The most expensive (in astral diamonds) item I found on the vendors was a level 3 mount upgrade for just over 4 million astral diamonds (no clue what it did).

    If you do your invoking, and events in the zones/instances (expecially with a multiplier) I was easily getting 1500+750+375+~350(per event/instance, usually participated in 2/hr).  This did not consume my entire time, but was done while leveling and doing storyline quests.  So take what you want from that.

    MMO Vet since AOL Neverwinter Nights circa 1992. My MMO beat up your MMO. =S

  • rygard49rygard49 Member UncommonPosts: 973
    Originally posted by Po_gg
    Originally posted by rygard49

    Let's say every single person to pick up this game wants to play without ever paying a cent in your cash shop. They all grind out Astral Diamonds and put them up on the auction house to sell for microtransaction points, only... wait there's no one who can buy those diamonds since no one has spent money in your cash shop. Weird, all those people who wanted access to everything for free now can't buy anything until someone shells out real money.

    I can't be the only person that sees it that way, right?

    That's not gonna happen :) as it was posted a few times, getting / grinding time-consumable (at least based on STO and CO) is slow, tedious and very limited. Especially if you take into consideration the amount you need from that currency for the game. There will be always players who will say, damn I rather drop in 5 bucks for Zen and buy the dilly / questionite / diamond than grind it myself for 2 weeks...

    Of course it's not going to happen, it was a hypothetical. The intent was to show that he's being disingenuous when he says everything in the game will be free. The fact is that someone has to pay for it, whether you personally got it for free or not.

    The whole article is a dishonest spin, and should have been questioned and scrutinized before being posted on a major MMO gaming website.

  • evilastroevilastro Member Posts: 4,270
    Originally posted by allumo666
    i like to read some of the stuff posted here but regarding this fellow´s interview i must say what a bunch of junk speach. talking only on how free this game will be when they do the opposite regarding beta. i agree they have to get some sort of revenue but charging for beta is just wrong. beta is to put the game to test and get as much feedback as possible. trion worlds did that with defiance and they even gave keys everywhere. on the nwo foruns theres a thread for beta testers to answer ppl questions theres only one guy apart form the moderators answering. so if they make this sort of stuff for beta i can only imagine how it will be when game goes live 

     It's not really junk speech, they have adopted the same in-game currency / RL currency marketplace that GW2 has. It's already in the beta version of the game, so not sure what your point was.

  • evilastroevilastro Member Posts: 4,270
    Originally posted by thekze
    Will you be able to purchase astral diamonds at any time? Can you buy items with these astral diamonds?? Will players have to work very hard to obtain what others got by spending money?? If yes is the answer to my three questions. This game is pay-to-win.
     

     Astral Diamonds are in game currency. You can earn them in game by completing dungeons, competitive challenges, events or invoking your god every hour. You can also trade Zen (RL currency) for other players Astral Diamonds via a GW2 type broker.

    You buy items with those Astral Diamonds. You can obviously get items quicker if you just buy them with RL cash, but there is no need to.

    Thats not Pay to Win, its just convenience.

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