Cryptic's Neverwinter morphs into a MMO and goes F2P

Daehawk · Post by **Daehawk** » Wed Oct 05, 2011 9:45 pm

You heard me...Neverwinter turns itself into a MMO and goes free to play.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/119/1198498p1.html" target="_blank

Paingod · Post by **Paingod** » Thu Oct 06, 2011 9:32 am

I don't know how I feel about this.

On one hand - Free to Play D&D is cool. D&D Online was fun for a while, but lacked the spark to keep me interested past 5 hours of play. I'd love to try some D&D in a different setting.

On the other hand, Cryptic is owned by Perfect World, a company that seems devoted to "by the numbers" derivitive gameplay and churning out as many of these MMO's as possible. Think generic Korean MMO's and you've got their number.

Either way, it's free. I'll give it a whirl when it's out and keep my fingers cross that the characters don't look like this.

Lagom Lite · Post by **Lagom Lite** » Tue Feb 19, 2013 2:34 pm

Arise!

So, Neverwinter has gone into Beta Weekend Events, and might release as early as end of March. Judging from some of the press BWE videos it's actually looking like a pretty fun game. I have no doubt they will try to ram microtransactions up our collective keester, but I generally play games for the fun of gaming and not for power-leveling, and I don't roll alts so I won't need to buy character slots. And the content is all alledgedly free, so...

Has anyone played during the last BWE? What's your impressions?

Kasey Chang · Post by **Kasey Chang** » Tue Feb 19, 2013 4:08 pm

To be honest, Neverwinter D&D verse was always better as a MMO. Remember Neverwinter Nights on AOL?

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Wed May 01, 2013 10:09 am

Apparently this game has for all intents and purposes now launched, even though they are calling it a beta. Is anyone here playing it that could share some firsthand impressions?

It looks like the game include a content editor that allows you to create content for others to play. This makes the game instantly appealing to me. How does that work exactly?

Everything I've read seems to indicate that the game is fun to play and that the F2P aspects don't seem to overwhelm and ruin it. I'm seriously considering giving this one a go pending any positive feedback from people here. So, what say ye, Overlords?

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Wed May 01, 2013 10:15 am

I played in one of the earlier betas and it didn't grab me. I did not try the scenario builder side to speak to that. It just seemed like yet another bland fantasy MMO.

I understand that I am jaded beyond belief and that impacts my opinion. I also play MMOs as single player games so I don't know anything about player interaction.

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Wed May 01, 2013 10:19 am

If you played Star Trek Online from Cryptic, there are alot of similarities. I played Beta and I'm playing a bit until I get bored. It's not great, but not terrible for free. It's also a very dumbed down D&D ruleset with few choices characterwise. More of an action-y MMO.

tru1cy · Post by **tru1cy** » Wed May 01, 2013 1:36 pm

There's a five page thread over at GamingTrend with impression from some of the closed beta testers and also impressions of the Foundry

Tao · Post by **Tao** » Wed May 01, 2013 2:22 pm

The biggest problem the game is facing at the moment is the INSANE queues. At 5:30am MST this morning the queues on all 3 servers were well over 10,000. There's also some concern over whether the game is simply pay to win. There's a multi-tiered monetayr system, in game gold, in game "Astral Diamonds", Pefect World currency "ZEN" and obviously hard cash. You can purchase some incredibly nice weapons and armor in game using Astral Diamonds. How easy it will be to amass Astral Diamonds through play remains to be seen. My biggest trepidation is many of the logistical items, such as identify scrolls, appear to be only purchasable via Astral Diamonds. Also Perfect World is far less than forth coming with their ZEN pricing matrix. From what I can tell you have to enter you credit card info BEFORE you can see how much anything costs.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Wed May 01, 2013 2:46 pm

If I understand it right, the Astral Diamonds are in-game currency and you can get plenty of that easily enough. The Zen is the cash shop currency. From what I've read, the game does not appear to be pay2win and is more like GW2 in philosophy.

John Walker has posted his impressions over at RPS and he likes it. I'm surprised because he doesn't like anything.

I think I'm going to give this thing a try. It's free after all and as burned out and jaded on MMOs as I currently may be, there's nothing really to lose except a bit of my time. I think I might like playing around with the Foundry if nothing else.

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Wed May 01, 2013 3:48 pm

The foundry is what has me curious about this game. The most tiresome thing about WoW and every other MMO is replaying the same content over and over. The foundry could be a great way to ensure a constant flow of new content - assuming enough people create quality content.

I'll probably download when I get a chance - hopefully they get the queues under control.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed May 01, 2013 4:04 pm

Tried it in the afternoon yesterday and got right in. Tried it after 5pm again and was immediately placed at the end of a queue of about 7500 people.

...I'll wait a while longer on this one.

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Wed May 01, 2013 5:44 pm

Que was crazy yesterday and the que numbers were all wrong. They did maintenance this am and the que seems to have disappeared.

skystride · Post by **skystride** » Wed May 01, 2013 6:25 pm

Exodor wrote:The foundry is what has me curious about this game. The most tiresome thing about WoW and every other MMO is replaying the same content over and over. The foundry could be a great way to ensure a constant flow of new content - assuming enough people create quality content.

People can only create quality content if the tool allows it. Granted I haven't tried too many foundry missions yet and I only dabbled with the editor but I am not convinced yet that the editor is flexible enough. Probably have to give it more time though since only the founders have had some time to play with it.

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Wed May 01, 2013 7:15 pm

Jag wrote:Que was crazy yesterday and the que numbers were all wrong. They did maintenance this am and the que seems to have disappeared.

Queue.

Que is Spanish and pronounced profoundly different.

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Wed May 01, 2013 7:30 pm

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed May 01, 2013 8:48 pm

TiLT · Post by **TiLT** » Thu May 02, 2013 12:53 am

skystride wrote:
Exodor wrote:The foundry is what has me curious about this game. The most tiresome thing about WoW and every other MMO is replaying the same content over and over. The foundry could be a great way to ensure a constant flow of new content - assuming enough people create quality content.
People can only create quality content if the tool allows it. Granted I haven't tried too many foundry missions yet and I only dabbled with the editor but I am not convinced yet that the editor is flexible enough. Probably have to give it more time though since only the founders have had some time to play with it.

You could try my campaign (what has been published so far anyway), From the Shadows, to get an idea of what can be done. Of course, I don't explore everything, but I do things that you won't see in many other Foundry quests. I have the advantage of having had access to the Foundry since early March, so I've been able to learn every little detail of the tools available.

The first quest in my campaign, A Hidden Blade, got featured and now I'm earning enormous amounts of Astral Diamonds through tips. Since the game became officially available I've earned more than 150,000 AD from this alone. That's a very respectable amount.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Thu May 02, 2013 12:14 pm

Downloaded last night and have created a Control Wizard on Mindflayer. I have not noticed any queues or lag at all so far.

TiLT wrote:You could try my campaign (what has been published so far anyway), From the Shadows, to get an idea of what can be done.

I'm certainly going to try A Hidden Blade, TiLT. It was your posts on GT that helped get me really interested in this game and the Foundry to start with.

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Thu May 02, 2013 1:12 pm

I saw a Foundry quest from TiLT, but didn't realize it was you

Manage characters, professions, auctions, etc here:

https://gateway.playneverwinter.com/" target="_blank

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Thu May 02, 2013 2:25 pm

Well, I suppose I'll pay the free and give this a whirl - although I'm not sure I'm really wanting an MMO right now.

PLW · Post by **PLW** » Thu May 02, 2013 3:33 pm

Im in, too. Just downloaded. I'll check it out tonight.

PLW · Post by **PLW** » Thu May 02, 2013 10:10 pm

Are the servers down for everyone? It was working well, but then it suddenly crashed. Now I can't even get the launcher going.

Tao · Post by **Tao** » Thu May 02, 2013 10:41 pm

Apparently the majority of Perfect World is down, Dev post said all their games were currently unavailable, think the term he/she used was "exploded".

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Thu May 02, 2013 10:49 pm

Some IT dude on the forums traced the problems to their colo which apparently went down hard.

An easy way to tell if they go back up is this link. Every time the server is down, the page times out.

https://gateway.playneverwinter.com/" target="_blank

Exodor · Post by **Exodor** » Thu May 02, 2013 10:53 pm

I'm literally installing the game as I type this. This outage is probably just my usual gaming luck.

Sorry everyone.

PLW · Post by **PLW** » Thu May 02, 2013 10:53 pm

Ehh.. it's for the best. I had some work to get done tonight, anyways.

Baroquen · Post by **Baroquen** » Thu May 02, 2013 10:53 pm

TiLT wrote: The first quest in my campaign, A Hidden Blade, got featured and now I'm earning enormous amounts of Astral Diamonds through tips. Since the game became officially available I've earned more than 150,000 AD from this alone. That's a very respectable amount.

I tried out the Foundry for the first time today, and happened to pick Hidden Blade. No idea it was your quest TiLT. Well done!

(I didn't get a chance to finish it yet, as the kids and dinner interrupted, and then the servers exploded, but was really enjoying it.)

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Thu May 02, 2013 11:43 pm

How in the 9 hells do you create a user ID for Perfect World so you can log into the game??? No matter what I typed in, it was used or invalid. Zebraskaztor7676 was used??? Seriously??? (That was when I was getting more desparate).

EDIT: so maybe the servers are down, possibly affecting all PW logins or something. If that's what's causing the problem, could they possibly give a slightly more directed message rather than leaving me to think my user name is already used no matter what I put?

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Fri May 03, 2013 9:01 am

I played my Control Wizard up to level 8 last night. So far I'm enjoying it overall.

I'm still trying to get used to not being able to mouse target anything. You just have a fixed targeting reticule and you have to move your body around instead of the mouse to put it on target. Not what I'm used to in MMOs. I'm also not used to not being able to set the camera zoom to something I like. I keep wanting to zoom in or out and you can't with the fixed camera. Thanks to the below tip, which I got on the Broken Forum Neverwinter thread, the game looks nice. However moving causes things to blur somewhat which is distracting.

-Go into the Video section of your Options. Turn off Post-Processing. Tada, the Vaseline is removed from your monitor.
-While in the Video section, scroll down to Troubleshooting. Click it. Choose your video adapter, select DX11 (beta). Enjoy the completely different (and way better) looking game... assuming your card is DX11 compatible ofc.
-If you're playing on a laptop that uses nVidia Optimus and your framerate sucks, it's because it's defaulting to the integrated video card. Force it to the High-Performance card in the nVidia options. An amendment to this: You need to set \Cryptic Studios\Neverwinter\Live\GameClient.exe to use the High-Performance card, not just the launcher.

The combat itself is quite fun. Like GW2 you need to dodge to avoid getting crushed by multiple mobs. Playing as a wizard (who uses blink teleports) this is challenging because you only get about 4 blinks before your stamina runs out and the blinks don't move you very far. Unlike GW2 you can't fight on the move which makes it all a bit problematic. It can get frantic. But it is fun.

The story and quests are typical MMO fare but presented well and they are fun to do. Voice acting is not a strength here, the rest is fine. I enjoy the setting for nostalgia reasons alone. After playing NWN1 way back in the day, it's fun to wander the streets of Waterdeep and see the City of Splendors up close and personal. Deekin Street is a nice touch and nod to the past.

The skill system seems to be designed to keep you from gimping your character. I haven't had much in the way of choice so far at level 8 but that's not really unusual for level 8. We'll see what the future holds for skills at higher levels.

I really don't like that they only give you 2 character slots but hey, F2P after all, what else is new. I guess I'll be trying out and then deleting a lot characters to see if I like them. And the number of bank slots is pathetic but see above. These are the only 2 areas that I might normally feel a little pressure to buy upgrades for from the store but will not unless I really, really still like this game a month or two from now.

The dungeons are nice and I have the itch to create something of my own with the Foundry. When I get to level 15 and it unlocks I will be playing around with it for certain. Lots of storytelling possibilities here and I think the community will create some real gems to play. Wading through the crap to find the gems is always the issue.

Overall I like it just fine and look forward to when I can login and play some more.

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Fri May 03, 2013 9:19 am

ColdSteel wrote:I enjoy the setting for nostalgia reasons alone. After playing NWN1 way back in the day, it's fun to wander the streets of Waterdeep and see the City of Splendors up close and personal. Deekin Street is a nice touch and nod to the past.

There are also a set of novels dealing with the events in the game. I actually started reading them before I even knew about Neverwinter. While it is your standard Drizzt D&D offering, I still enjoyed them.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Fri May 03, 2013 10:07 am

So, when I started it up last night (just before the explosion), I had several shards to choose from (I haven't heard that term since UO.) Does it matter? Are OOers congregating on a particular shard?

Jag · Post by **Jag** » Fri May 03, 2013 10:10 am

I don't think shards matter. I read that they are probably going to merge them all. I'm on Mindflayer. Think most of GT/QT3/BF are as well.

Tao · Post by **Tao** » Fri May 03, 2013 10:42 am

Free targeting seems to be the wave of the future. Tab targeting has been the standard for quite awhile now, but once I adapted to the newer system (ala TERA) I find I like it better. Feels more natural and immersive.
I whole heartedly agree 2 character slots totally sucks and the bank is a joke. The only upside is the game is free so making multiple accounts is a quick solution. Bank isn't shared either which also reinforces the multiple account option.

skystride · Post by **skystride** » Fri May 03, 2013 11:21 am

ColdSteel wrote: The combat itself is quite fun. Like GW2 you need to dodge to avoid getting crushed by multiple mobs. Playing as a wizard (who uses blink teleports) this is challenging because you only get about 4 blinks before your stamina runs out and the blinks don't move you very far. Unlike GW2 you can't fight on the move which makes it all a bit problematic. It can get frantic. But it is fun.

I can only blink 3 times. It gets a lot easier once you get a tank companion. I think this happened around level 16 when you get to choose a free companion. The tank guy holds aggro pretty well.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Fri May 03, 2013 11:46 am

Jag wrote:I don't think shards matter. I read that they are probably going to merge them all. I'm on Mindflayer. Think most of GT/QT3/BF are as well.

Alrighty, Mindflayer it is. Even though I hate mindflayers, and rather like beholders and dragons. I bow to peer pressure. Mindflayer, bring me your tentacly love.

/edit - watched the intro. How the hell did Sindragosa get to Faerun? Wrath of the Lich Queen?

Tao · Post by **Tao** » Sat May 04, 2013 3:54 am

Im guessing servers crashed again. Pretty odd for this time of the night but I guess it's Friday. Think the game needed a bit more time to percolate in closed beta.

TiLT · Post by **TiLT** » Sat May 04, 2013 7:24 am

Tao wrote:Im guessing servers crashed again. Pretty odd for this time of the night but I guess it's Friday. Think the game needed a bit more time to percolate in closed beta.

There were no issues like this in the entirety of the closed beta, not even during the stress test hour in beta weekend 3. This is open beta, and that's when issues like this are discovered and sorted out.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Sat May 04, 2013 11:13 am

TiLT wrote:
Tao wrote:Im guessing servers crashed again. Pretty odd for this time of the night but I guess it's Friday. Think the game needed a bit more time to percolate in closed beta.
There were no issues like this in the entirety of the closed beta, not even during the stress test hour in beta weekend 3. This is open beta, and that's when issues like this are discovered and sorted out.

Hey, are you TiLT42 (I think), that made "The Lost BladeA Hidden Blade" or something like that?

EDIT: NM, I just read above - you are! Awesome! I will play it ASAP!

I started off as a Devoted Cleric, but then rolled a Guardian Fighter and found it to be more fun and dynamic. Yes, I take more damage and use more healing potions, but it feels more raw power than the Cleric. Besides, my friend decided - despite the fact I already said I was a Cleric - to be a Cleric himself, so this will be better for grouping.

I'm on Mindflayer, @bitobah.

ColdSteel · Post by **ColdSteel** » Sat May 04, 2013 11:34 am

So far I've tried the control wizard and yesterday I decided to create a devoted cleric and try that out because I was getting tired of running from everything as a wizard. So was born my red bearded dwarf named "Clerik the Red". I played him up to level 10 and I like him better than the wizard. He actually has more DPS, does AOE and takes less damage because he gets self heals.

So, I like him but I was very unhappy to learn that he can't actually use a weapon. I was hoping to be able to get in there and smite my foes with a holy hammer. But no, he's just another caster. Next I'm going to try the greatsword warrior and see how that goes. I crave being able to actually wield a weapon of substance.

Turns out you can't even mail anything to another character on your own account until you hit level 15. And no account shared bank slots either. Really Crypic? REALLY? I still like the game a lot though.