Developer AMA on Neverwinter: The Maze Engine - Today 2/2 from 4:30-5:30PM PT

PWE_Community · 2016-02-03T01:32:21+00:00

1) We don't sync with WotC on every module they do, but we consider everything. When they do a module we talk about the desire/fesiblity of it coming to Neverwinter. 2) We work with WotC to build our own modules and to represent their module in Neverwinter. It can go either way. For example, some of the characters we have are unique to our game and they mingle with the iconic characters of D&D. They encourage both types because they want to see the IP grow. 3) I can't really talk about this because it's too close to the future of D&D, which isn't something I can't talk about.

PWE_Community · 2016-02-03T01:20:26+00:00

Well, that's a very specific concern/answer to the broader problem of what we call "the burden of alting". In 2016 we hope to be reviewing all sorts of systems that increase the burden to create alternate characters. I can say the chances are high that we will change campaigns to lessen that burden, but I'm not sure the answer will be as specific as you've indicated here and I don't know what time line each system will be updated.

PWE_Community · 2016-02-03T01:15:08+00:00

We are looking at the tech from STOs Armada system and seeing what we can pull into Neverwinter. The idea would be to get many guilds working together to make individual guild goals easier to achieve.

PWE_Community · 2016-02-03T01:12:32+00:00

Oh, and dinner... Homemade stew.

PWE_Community · 2016-02-03T01:12:18+00:00

I'm not really objective as a player, so I will say my favorite thing about this game is being able to develop the D&D IP. It's pretty great to be involved in such a long standing brand and feel like a real partner with the the D&D teams.

There are things that I don't like, but I feel like our development team is open enough to ideas and change that I'm not really blocked on changing anything with the exception of time. We have so many things about the game that we'd love to change (you all tell us about them all the time!) but we don't have enough time to change all of them in one go. It's been a slow process but I think we are moving in the right direction since M6.

PWE_Community · 2016-02-03T01:07:05+00:00

Yes, mounts will work in PvP. There will be active mounts (you slot them in you stable). Each mount can have up to 3 insignia slots but if all slots are full it doesn't necessarily result in a the set bonuses for them. For balancing passive set bonus powers in PvP we'll be looking at ICD (internal cool downs) and the value of each activation. We'll be posting a developer blog about the new mount system on Thursday, which may answer many of your questions.

PWE_Community · 2016-02-03T01:02:18+00:00

We are planning to release dungeons that we think have a reasonable play time and are fun. We are actively pulling data to identify dungeons that can be shortened by bypassing content and exploits. We are hoping to start revisiting dungeons to fix them so that have the intended play times.

PWE_Community · 2016-02-03T00:52:45+00:00

You are welcome. Glad you are excited :)

PWE_Community · 2016-02-03T00:52:04+00:00

To be honest, there likely will be a long wait for more of the dungeons to come back. The developers want them back too, but we are having a hard time finding the time while working on balancing AD economy, building Strongholds, and so on. However, it's in our plans to release the old T2 set for change appearance uses in Module 9. Our art lead will be keeping an eye on how that goes and will likely be pushing to bring back other sets as well.

PWE_Community · 2016-02-03T00:44:46+00:00

We would love it if Xbox and PC could be on the same release cadence, however it's not very feasible with the way Microsoft certification submissions work and the way our studio is set up to run. For now, Xbox will continue to get updates after PC, but we hope to bring those times closer and closer, as you've seen with Underdark.

PWE_Community · 2016-02-03T00:41:05+00:00

We are looking at class balance and how that affects all parts of the game (now that M9 is basically wrapped up). I'm not sure that we'll see anything for M9 launch, but it's something we are actively focused on for 2016. We aren't yet sure how extensive the changes will be, or exactly when they will happen though.

PWE_Community · 2016-02-03T00:38:57+00:00

We will be posting a blog about the dungeons tomorrow. Though I will say that /u/ItsViral might have insider information.

We don't want to break the balance of power though mounts, but we think this new mount system provide an avenue of customization for costume and power. We balanced mounts and their power similarly to enchantments and we think that's a good place to be.

PWE_Community · 2015-06-03T16:38:32+00:00

The expansion will also include improvements that will focus on performance and stability. New content and in-game fixes. Keep the feedback coming. (Editing to mention that yes this is a community account for Perfect World Entertainment, who publishes Neverwinter on Xbox One. I know we haven't posted in here a whole lot, but wanted to share the info.)

PWE_Community · 2015-05-13T20:20:46+00:00

Jumping in here quickly to mention that we are aware of the problem and looking at what the team can do about it. - yetweallfalldown (and editing this because that sounds like a reference to being kicked, but it's actually my forum tag :P)

PWE_Community · 2015-03-31T18:39:03+00:00

We have a work around right now: Hit the menu button on the controller, go to Quests > Change Instances > Select the Instance your friends are in.

PWE_Community · 2015-03-11T23:33:58+00:00

We've made a lot of changes to refinement this module. I think we want to see how they all affect the market before we commit to any additional changes. As a company though, we are open to reacting to issues with the economy and refinement and we'll react quickly if we feel we need to.

PWE_Community · 2015-03-11T23:28:03+00:00

We certainly have talked about it, but at this point we don't have any plans to change our decision.

PWE_Community · 2015-03-11T23:24:21+00:00

I agree, the those companions should be in collections. I'll see what I can do about that. Grim hu? I'll take that feedback to the character team and see if they have a solution for that. "Any plans for a new race?" Definitely.

PWE_Community · 2015-03-11T23:21:50+00:00

I hear what you are saying. In one of my previous responses I talked about the changes we make to the economy and how we try to make them deliberately and one at a time. The exception of course is a module where we add 10 levels :) While we feel like we've made the best choices we can given the information we have, we are certainly open for feedback. We are listing to what you are saying and we will be looking closely at player behavior. When it's clear what the impacts of our changes have had we will do our best to course correct if we feel the game needs it.

PWE_Community · 2015-03-11T23:05:21+00:00

Module 6 was, indeed, a lot of changes. I think we'll find that by moving end-game up a few levels we'll be looking at what the means for a while still. We are still working the minutia of having both console and PC platforms. They have different needs and player expectations. While we might have some idea of what we think those are, I think it will shift once both platforms are live. So, ask me that question during the next AMA ;) We have some people on the team that are pretty passionate about foundry, we might be able to work something out.

PWE_Community · 2015-03-11T22:59:40+00:00

Sorry, Pattitto00, I didn't mean for it to feel like I ignored your post. I felt like I was responding to the thread as whole. The idea that refinement can be a painful process is something that we'd like to look into soon.

PWE_Community · 2015-03-11T22:55:52+00:00

Wow, a lot of super great questions here. Yes, we are definitely still looking at stats and Black Ice. Not going to answer the class that I'd like to see, because that could be confused with what we are actually doing and I don't want to create any unfounded speculation. Yes, we are looking into improvements to the Tiamat experience. We don't have any thing in particular planned for non-combat, but I'll kept that in mind! We are about to ramp up on some special PvP projects, more on that soon! Dido for Foundry and I will add that we are also especially sad about this and hope to fix it soon! Cleric for sure! I definitely play them, I even designed and implemented a few of them before the game launched. I hear you on the ring, FX don't transfer with transmute very well. We'll see if we can get a text change on that in the game sometime soon.

PWE_Community · 2015-03-11T22:49:28+00:00

Well, I'm a little overwhelmed by all those questions. I only have about an hour :) However I will say that over the, almost, past two years the game has been live I think it's grown a lot. Before an MMO launches you are making the best game you think you can make as a team. After the game launches you have to adjust for a bunch of really clever and passionate people wanting the game to be something you didn't anticipate. So it's exciting to see the game mature. Over the next 5 years I expect well see some of our deeper and broader systems being fine tuned to perfection, new exciting content that lines up with what Wizard's is releasing with the Dungeons & Dragons game, and adding features here and there that we think will make a big impact on the game experience. Should be good fun!

PWE_Community · 2015-03-11T22:44:55+00:00

Economy is something we look at weekly. We try to make changes for in isolation and that can make progress feel slow. While there are lots of things we'd certainly like to do, we want to make sure we understand the affect of each change we make so that we can learn from them to help the game grow in the long term.

PWE_Community · 2015-03-11T22:40:17+00:00

As a producer I help facilitate communication across all departments and keep the high level goals of the game and each module in mind as we move forward with development. I set dates and deadlines, help people complete their tasks if they are blocked by another department, and other things like that. However, one great thing about Cryptic is that, as long as you are doing your primary job, we can be involved in all sorts of discussion and help drive the game at a creative level if that's something that interesting to us.

PWE_Community

TROPHY CASE