As above. I'll start saying that I had tried briefly the game at Gamescom and got a good first impression back then, and I was showed the Foundry at that time which seemed impressive. 

Having now played the game for a few hours on my PC, I can definitely confirm the positive impression. The graphics is quite lovely (even though not all options could be pushed to maximum yet) and the art style is vaguely reminiscent of Fable. Even from the start, the D&D roots are immediately visible: you can choose your character's origins, submit a background bio for your character, choose a deity; while in-game you can pray to get the God's favour which may give bonuses and "astral diamonds" which seem to be a currency for items. The action combat is enjoyable and the animations are smooth; the first few quests are really easy but I expect the difficulty to spike since everyone is supposed to have a companion on for most content (they don't fill up party slots though). 

Do not expect to find a seamless world, though. There are many (short, at least on my PC) loadings between areas and even moving from a district to another in Neverwinter brings up the map ala NWN and there's a loading screen. PvP was available to queue up but unfortunately not many other press colleagues did so, and I couldn't try it yet. 

I met Bill from MMORPG.com, he had a lovely dwarf and was more than willing to chat some. Hi Bill!

Originally posted by cybertrucker
UBC is that user built content? Because of so city of heroes had it as does EQ2. Did not really mess around much with the  EQ2 one but the COH one pretty much lead to AOE  power level instances being made. Which will probably end up being the majority of what we see with the mentality of the newer gamers these days. 

Yes, City of Heroes had it (it was Cryptic's first MMORPG). But Foundry is much more fleshed out, not to mention that UGC heavily depends on how many people are interested in the game in the first place, and Neverwinter has much more appeal than City of Heroes in terms of IP to attract players and therefore, potential Foundry creators. It has also the history of UGC through NWN 1&2, although those game used the Aurora Toolkit, but it's likely that at least some of those who tinkered with NWN 1&2 could be back for this game.

Originally posted by reploidx
did they mention putting more classes in? I.E. Barbarian, Paladin, Ranger and the other staple classes from the core rulebook?

5 Classes will be in at launch, you already know them by now. They added in the Q&A that they will release other classes "continously post launch". I guess one of the first if not the first to be added will be Ranger, seeing as there's no option for bow lovers at the moment (a friend of mine  is very pissed for this).

I'll add that I asked them if they planned to release some large-group oriented content postlaunch, and they actually answered that they have "awesome large-group oriented content" already in, although they have not announced it yet, and that they're also pretty excited for it. This is pretty big news as there were no hints of this whatsoever.

I guess as the saying goes time will tell. And while neverwinter will have a following due to it being DND and because of NWN franchise. It is also going to have a lot of competition this year. Also DnD overall has jaded a lot of its fanbase in general due to its constant edition swaps . There is a reason it is no longer the number 1 RPG in the world any more. 

I know I myself was burnt out on 3.5 and was actually enjoying 4th which this from what I understand is based off of. However when wizards abandoned 4th I decided to stop supporting them. It's all shadowrun, deathwatch, or iron kingdoms for me.

While I might keep an eye on this as its based off 4th edition. There are definately other titles that have me  more interested. EQNEXT first on that list.

Originally posted by cybertrucker

I guess as the saying goes time will tell. And while neverwinter will have a following due to it being DND and because of NWN franchise. It is also going to have a lot of competition this year. Also DnD overall has jaded a lot of its fanbase in general due to its constant edition swaps . There is a reason it is no longer the number 1 RPG in the world any more. 

I know I myself was burnt out on 3.5 and was actually enjoying 4th which this from what I understand is based off of. However when wizards abandoned 4th I decided to stop supporting them. It's all shadowrun, deathwatch, or iron kingdoms for me.

While I might keep an eye on this as its based off 4th edition. There are definately other titles that have me  more interested. EQNEXT first on that list.

Well, without a doubt it's not going to be the "savior" of MMORPG genre or even an amazingly innovative title, for sure. But at the same time it seems a good game and it's F2P, so I reckon it will be a no-brainer to at least try for almost every D&D/fantasy fan out there. Whether there will be enough meat to make people stick with it, is hard to tell right now.

Other questions: yes, it's pretty instanced and actually SWTOR has some decently large worlds. Right now I've only been inside the city of Neverwinter, so the districts are relatively small, however areas outside Neverwinter might be bigger. 

About level scaling, I very much doubt it's in, but cannot confirm it 100%.

Since these Classes do not even remotely resemble what D&D character creation is about, how much can you customize each class roughly?

Will it be the usual skilltree in a different shape, maybe even a more open approach like STO (where ship and officers actually defined your class, rather than one of the three "classes") could you even go as far as to wear a shield as rogue?

Thanks for any information.

Originally posted by XAleX360

Right now I've only been inside the city of Neverwinter, so the districts are relatively small, however areas outside Neverwinter might be bigger. 

The zones outside have the same size. You can ride from one end to the other in less than 3 or 4 minutes.

Originally posted by sea.shell

Since these Classes do not even remotely resemble what D&D character creation is about, how much can you customize each class roughly?

Will it be the usual skilltree in a different shape, maybe even a more open approach like STO (where ship and officers actually defined your class, rather than one of the three "classes") could you even go as far as to wear a shield as rogue?

Thanks for any information.

Unfortunately, not. WIth the Guardian I am able to specialize in damage dealing, defensive or "tactics" (threat/control) trees, but there isn't really the opportunity to choose the weapons and such. 

Sad to hear that even outside Neverwinter the zones are really small.

Originally posted by XAleX360

Originally posted by reploidx
did they mention putting more classes in? I.E. Barbarian, Paladin, Ranger and the other staple classes from the core rulebook?

5 Classes will be in at launch, you already know them by now. They added in the Q&A that they will release other classes "continously post launch". I guess one of the first if not the first to be added will be Ranger, seeing as there's no option for bow lovers at the moment (a friend of mine  is very pissed for this).

I'll add that I asked them if they planned to release some large-group oriented content postlaunch, and they actually answered that they have "awesome large-group oriented content" already in, although they have not announced it yet, and that they're also pretty excited for it. This is pretty big news as there were no hints of this whatsoever.

 

 

This really bugs the crap out of me! How can they even think of releasing the game without a ranger class in it? That is freaking staple D&D (at least IMHO). I supported cryptic in STO by buying the lifetime sub right up front but there is no way in hell I am buying the founder pack in a game that  sounds like its being half-assed released. While I enjoyed STO and still do to a certain extent, at least when it released you did have all the playable classes there lol.

can you dual class or is it just one class and that is it?

what is the leveling like.  super fast or kind of slow where you get a feel for the class by level or do you just jump to level 10 or 20 real quick?

Is it fun?

is it solo friendly or does everything require a group like ddo?

In your limited playtime does the game feel like it will be pay 2 win or can a free player aquire everything a paying player can get?

Did you play a control wizard and if so does it feel like a wizard or just a controller from coh?  Does it have any power or is it just gonna be a support toon?  I really like the wizard class in dnd games but I want the wizard to be able to hold his own and not just be a support toon.

is the cleric just a heal bot or can they actually fight?

http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/11/neverwinter-the-races-and-classes-of-the-game/

The website only has 5 races but this seems to show more than 5 races.

Also how destructive is the cash shop?

I know nothing is free,  but i do not like getting monetarially raped to play a subpar mmo.

I dont mind loading screens at all so that is fine...

Tho i must ask, was there a limit to how many people could be in the same area till another instance of it was made?