Originally posted by oboc

Let's be serious here. It's a PWE game. You'll have to play 15+ hours aday forever to stay remotely close to the person who drops hundreds or thousands of dollars on the cash shop. It's a fact and always will be with all PWE products. 

The first couple of months may hide the fact that you will have to be a heavy cash shopper to stay competitive, but it will show it's ugly head soon after launch. 

The game looks worth a try, but make sure you play hardcore as possible at start and learn the best way to get that loot before things get nerfed ! 

Best of luck to all who play ! 

Originally posted by Burntvet

Originally posted by oboc

Let's be serious here. It's a PWE game. You'll have to play 15+ hours aday forever to stay remotely close to the person who drops hundreds or thousands of dollars on the cash shop. It's a fact and always will be with all PWE products. 

The first couple of months may hide the fact that you will have to be a heavy cash shopper to stay competitive, but it will show it's ugly head soon after launch. 

The game looks worth a try, but make sure you play hardcore as possible at start and learn the best way to get that loot before things get nerfed ! 

Best of luck to all who play ! 

 

And bets on when the "Locked treasure chests" go in, with keys that must be purchased from the cash shop?

Since currency earned by playing the game can be exchanged for cash shop currency, it's not really the problem some try to make it.

they should have never added astral diamonds, those just lower the games quality by far.

Only cash shop with cosmetic,mounts xp and gold boosts etc.

Originally posted by Torvaldr
This model sounds good on paper.  If you have time to spend you can pay your way in that fashion.  If you have money to spend you can accelerate yourself.  If you have a little of both you can play a little each way.  If it actually works out that way then I'll like it.  We'll see how it pans out in reality though.  Implementation is a whole new beast.

works fine in gw2 don't see why it wouldn't work here as long as the CS is setup in a similar fashion

Originally posted by Torvaldr
This model sounds good on paper.  If you have time to spend you can pay your way in that fashion.  If you have money to spend you can accelerate yourself.  If you have a little of both you can play a little each way.  If it actually works out that way then I'll like it.  We'll see how it pans out in reality though.  Implementation is a whole new beast.

It already works that way in STO.  The game has very, very few limits to content, classes, etc, and you can get Zen for the store by trading the dilithium you earn by playing.  It's one of the most accessible F2P games out there, and it looks like Neverwinter in following the same path.

Originally posted by Burntvet

Originally posted by oboc

Let's be serious here. It's a PWE game. You'll have to play 15+ hours aday forever to stay remotely close to the person who drops hundreds or thousands of dollars on the cash shop. It's a fact and always will be with all PWE products. 

The first couple of months may hide the fact that you will have to be a heavy cash shopper to stay competitive, but it will show it's ugly head soon after launch. 

The game looks worth a try, but make sure you play hardcore as possible at start and learn the best way to get that loot before things get nerfed ! 

Best of luck to all who play ! 

 

And bets on when the "Locked treasure chests" go in, with keys that must be purchased from the cash shop?

Some people will just buy items and unlocks from the cash shop.

Some people will buy keys and open chests.  They will keep the rewards they want and sell the items they don't for AD.  People who game and farm will earn AD and buy items from the npcs and from the player market (lock boxes).

Some people will do a little of both.

You can play for free, especially if you just want to run stories and foundry missions.

This is exactly how it works in STO, except in that game you can rent or buy a premium account status that gives you some perks.  From what I understand there won't be a subscription option for this game.  It will be all based on Zen purchases.

edit: @rohn and aerowyn, Yeah, that is exactly what came to my mind.

Originally posted by grim1234

Facepalm. How can he not tell people, that every piece of equipment you'll want, you'll be able to buy at the Auction House, and not with Astral Diamonds, but with the normal currency. And you cannot buy the normal currency with real-life money, or even exchange Astral Diamonds for the normal currency. So THAT is why it's not P2W, because everybody will have the same ways of earning normal money and they won't be able to boost it in any way.

...

That is how Star Trek Online is constructed, and hopefully they won't change a thing in Neverwinter.

Don't get me wrong, as I said it earlier I have no problem with the model, just every once and a while I like to correct factual mistakes, especially with facepalm :)

Of course you can buy normal currency with real money, in fact you can convert any currency into the others, sometimes directly, sometimes with one extra step. Even that totally worthless GPL is convertable... (Ok, Lobi is not, but that's a pretty new currency.) You think PWE would miss such a big chunk of the market and let it slip to gold-seller's hands? No way :)

So, for example in STO's case the official goldselling (Zen for EC, the in-game currency) is happening via lock box keys, it has a pretty much fixed rate, $1 is somewhere between 1.3-1.5 million EC. The exchange is constantly filled with it.

Originally posted by Aerowyn

Originally posted by Torvaldr
This model sounds good on paper.  If you have time to spend you can pay your way in that fashion.  If you have money to spend you can accelerate yourself.  If you have a little of both you can play a little each way.  If it actually works out that way then I'll like it.  We'll see how it pans out in reality though.  Implementation is a whole new beast.

works fine in gw2 don't see why it wouldn't work here as long as the CS is setup in a similar fashion

I like the way it works in GW2, but it doesn't seem like it is going to work the same way in this game.  First, there is an extra layer of currency in between that is only obtainable at a maximum rate per day.  Meaning you can get as many unrefined diamonds as you want but you can't do anything with them until you refine them, which is a fixed amount per day.  This wasn't the case in GW2 because you could farm as much gold as you could and there was no set fixed amount.  This is a fairly large difference and not a good one (to me).

Well in guild wars 2 u couldnt get much gold for gems.

You would rly have to spend alot of real money to get some decent gold.

So it didnt rly make sence to exchange gems for gold.

+ their auction house worked with normal ingame gold and their lockboxes only contained

small things like xp boosts etc not real worthy items (wich is a good thing).

Originally posted by Falcomith

Originally posted by Kilrain
This is what I was hoping for and wish more game companies would do the same. The only thing I have to say is, I want to play a Drow without paying cash. Hey, he said I could do anything without paying, right?

 

You might have missed this...

"And please note that last sentence -- you can get everything you want by playing. Everything. This includes mounts, costumes, etc. Why? How? Because you can put your Astral Diamonds up on an auction house and sell them for micro-transactable points. Then you can purchase anything you'd like in our micro-transaction store. "

It looks like we might be able to purchase the Drow using that method. Assuming the Drow will be in the store eventually. I hope so.

You don't have to purchase drow at all. Every player can make a drow for free at launch. The exclusive in the Hero of the North founder's pack is just an exclusive background called Menzobarranzen Renegade. The background origins are just a block of text in your bio. You do get Faerie Fire instead of Darkfire, but that is just a similar power with a different skin. Functionally, darkfire gives a debuff to attack/damage for the enemy and the faerie fire gives a buff to attack/damage for the PC.

ROFLMAO this is priceless, they are doing EXACTLY wat they did with tier other games nothing new at all exept no sub option cause they relize subs was costing them money casue people wernt forced to buy anything if they had patence,

go play CO or STO and tell me how long you can go without spending alot of m,oney for basic things if ya wnt to compete in high end game, it takes months to gets a single thing

oh and somewhere in the thread someone asked how they are going to pay the employees, its simple CO has only about 10 people running the whole game, GMs Devs maintnece everything is 10 people, most of thier games run like that basicly once they finish a game they drop it and start worknig on the next quick cash grab. perfect world has been following this pattern for awhile now

CO is a great game and their F2P model is fair.  Out of all the MMOs I play, that is the only one I come back to regularly.  I like my characters; I like the game; and they make it very easy to just jump in, play for a little bit, and actually accomplish something. 

Because this game is F2P; I have a lot of friends who might not otherwise play who will end up giving the game a chance.  They don't even hit you with an upfront cost.  Will they spend a lot of money at the store?  Probably not, but I've already purchased a pack for the game. 

Originally posted by udon

You do know that Astral diamonds are the currancy used by the aution house right?  If you want to play this game for free you will be selling in game gold for Zen to other players than buying Astral diamonds with Zen from other players and both tansactions makes Cryptic/PWI money.  You will be able to earn rough diamonds by doing in game events and such but you are capped on how many you can refine to ensure that the grind stays consistent to everyone.

This game is designed from the ground up to insert Zen into nearly every aspect of it though the use of astral diamonds as a intermediate currancy regradless of what lip service the devs may give to otherwise.  They have a vested interest in keeping the value of that Zen in time to earn high to keep it's value in trade high enough so that those who value time more than money will buy it with cash and sell to others who don't.  

The whole system depends on Zen being valuable and hence a pain to earn by free means to work.

 

Really? Is this a first hand confirmed info from a beta player?

And ONLY Astral Diamonds will be used in the Auction house?

And BOTH currencies can be exchanged for ZEN?

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

Deducating from this sentence it looks like only Astral Diamonds will be used for earning ZEN. Just like in Star Trek.

But I ask again: is what you say a confirmed, first hand information from a beta player? If not, then I still have hope that what you say is a misinterpretation and they won't ruin the game like that.

Originally posted by grim1234

 

Originally posted by udon

You do know that Astral diamonds are the currancy used by the aution house right?  If you want to play this game for free you will be selling in game gold for Zen to other players than buying Astral diamonds with Zen from other players and both tansactions makes Cryptic/PWI money.  You will be able to earn rough diamonds by doing in game events and such but you are capped on how many you can refine to ensure that the grind stays consistent to everyone.

This game is designed from the ground up to insert Zen into nearly every aspect of it though the use of astral diamonds as a intermediate currancy regradless of what lip service the devs may give to otherwise.  They have a vested interest in keeping the value of that Zen in time to earn high to keep it's value in trade high enough so that those who value time more than money will buy it with cash and sell to others who don't.  

The whole system depends on Zen being valuable and hence a pain to earn by free means to work.

 

 

Really? Is this a first hand confirmed info from a beta player?

And ONLY Astral Diamonds will be used in the Auction house?

And BOTH currencies can be exchanged for ZEN?

 

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

Deducating from this sentence it looks like only Astral Diamonds will be used for earning ZEN. Just like in Star Trek.

 

But I ask again: is what you say a confirmed, first hand information from a beta player? If not, then I still have hope that what you say is a misinterpretation and they won't ruin the game like that.

i've played the beta and yes Astrals are for Aution house and varous other AD vendors.  You can get AD from events, some quests etc  Also its been verified by many videos, interviews with cryptic

Originally posted by Laross

i've played the beta and yes Astrals are for Aution house and varous other AD vendors.  You can get AD from events, some quests etc  Also its been verified by many videos, interviews with cryptic

Um.... and you can't pay with normal currency at the Auction House, only Astrals? If  so, then what is the normal money even for?

Originally posted by grim1234

Originally posted by Laross

i've played the beta and yes Astrals are for Aution house and varous other AD vendors.  You can get AD from events, some quests etc  Also its been verified by many videos, interviews with cryptic

Um.... and you can't pay with normal currency at the Auction House, only Astrals? If  so, then what is the normal money even for?

NOrmal ir for other vendor, equipment etc.  probably crafting as well but don't quote me on crafting i'm only guessing there.  But there is plenty to spend with Gold.

Originally posted by Laross

NOrmal ir for other vendor, equipment etc.  probably crafting as well but don't quote me on crafting i'm only guessing there.  But there is plenty to spend with Gold.

Um, but why would anyone buy anything from vendors. I mean, in Star Trek vendors sell worthless piece of crap, you just go to the Auction House and, using normal money, buy the best stuff people offer and your wallet allows you to.

So are the players in Neverwinter forced to use worthless crap from vendors until they grind enough Astrals? I ask again: what's the purpose of the normal currency, when the Astral Diamonds seems to be the real deal? Is there anything really worth buying with Gold that you won't find at the Auction House?

Originally posted by furbans

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

...but you also make a decent amount as a totally free player, at least, from my time in the beta. I earned at least 10K diamonds over the beta weekend, and I wasn't trying very hard.

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

The mounts for 40-60 cost gold (10g and 20g). If you want a 40-60 Nightmare mount, or a mount that looks like a tiger, then you pay AD. But a "level 3 mount" can be bought with in-game gold. I was at 20g by level 30 in the beta, waaay before I needed a L2 mount, so they aren't stingy.

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

That's the currency for the AH. But you do realize you can stand in a field and hit CTRL-I and get 1500 AD, right?

Companion upgrades?  Astral Diamonds.

Upgrades get dropped in the world as well. And are also awarded as quest rewards. If you want a higher-ranked Rune, you can combine the ones you find as drops (no cost) into a higher-ranked Rune.

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

Or just earn it from questing. Or buy blues from a vendor for gold. Heck, a 20-minute instance run netted me gear better than what they were selling for AD for a level 20 cleric, that's for sure.

Want a new companion?  Give em some Astral Diamonds.

You get them for free from quests, don't have to pay anything for them. By level 30 I had gotten three, and you don't have to pay a single AD for them. 

 If you want a hawk, or an elemental, or a ghost companion, you pay AD. But a standard man-at-arms is just as good as an ele. So, again, pay AD for the skin.

Originally posted by Lanessar

Originally posted by furbans

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

...but you also make a decent amount as a totally free player, at least, from my time in the beta. I earned at least 10K diamonds over the beta weekend, and I wasn't trying very hard.

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

The mounts for 40-60 cost gold (10g and 20g). If you want a 40-60 Nightmare mount, or a mount that looks like a tiger, then you pay AD. But a "level 3 mount" can be bought with in-game gold. I was at 20g by level 30 in the beta, waaay before I needed a L2 mount, so they aren't stingy.

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

That's the currency for the AH. But you do realize you can stand in a field and hit CTRL-I and get 1500 AD, right?

Companion upgrades?  Astral Diamonds.

Upgrades get dropped in the world as well. And are also awarded as quest rewards. If you want a higher-ranked Rune, you can combine the ones you find as drops (no cost) into a higher-ranked Rune.

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

Or just earn it from questing. Or buy blues from a vendor for gold. Heck, a 20-minute instance run netted me gear better than what they were selling for AD for a level 20 cleric, that's for sure.

Want a new companion?  Give em some Astral Diamonds.

You get them for free from quests, don't have to pay anything for them. By level 30 I had gotten three, and you don't have to pay a single AD for them. 

 If you want a hawk, or an elemental, or a ghost companion, you pay AD. But a standard man-at-arms is just as good as an ele. So, again, pay AD for the skin.

Very well stated.  The "cost" of playing the game appears to be consistently exaggerated.  It appears that just about everything can be earned simply by playing the game.