Hello! I am enjoying NW. Thank you for creating such an engaging and immersive game. I have two conceptually simple suggestions for you that I think will improve the game going forward.
The Quest Problem: So, one major critique of NW has been that most of the quests are not implemented very well–they are repetitive, boring, and predictable. This is, in my estimation, due to the sandbox meets theme park nature of the game. The fix here is simple in concept. Quests, in NW, should only be main story and tutorial. The rest should have been left as sandbox, meaning leveling, for the most part, should come from farming mobs, dungeons, PvP, gathering, and crafting. I believe this would have been the best approach. Going forward, you could fix this, making the expanded lands’ quests tutorial (if necessary) and main story only. Then, they increase xp (when raising the cap) from mob kills, PvP, dungeon completion, gathering and crafting. Town board quests should be just turning in requested resources only, and faction quests should be reduced to “heads” (or ears, scalps, whatever) that you collect off certain mobs for faction xp. The “quest problem”, then, is solved.
Crafting and Gathering–Everyone can do everything, making the market/economy problematic: Fixing this is also simple in concept. Going forward, require players to select a set number of gathering and crafting types to progress passed level 200. For example, players could select 3 gathering and 3 crafting professions, and only 3 of each, to progress past 200. In that way, you will increase interdependence, player niche, and create a really interesting and dynamic economy. You can allow for a reroll of the choices, meaning that if too many people select skinning, for example, then they could respec to different gathering options via a cost and requiring a time limit.
These two fixes could be implemented moving forward, which means that you will not need to go back and change anything for the first 60 levels (specifically relating to these two, of course). NW should lean into its sandbox aspects, whilst remaining a “sandpark”, because that is where it is the strongest. I hope these help. Thanks for reading.
The only problem with quests is: story quests that once you have finished them you cant help others with.
there is no problem with everyone being able to craft everything. Smart companies still have their dedicated players unless you want to desperatly craft something bind on pickup on a certain profession. Still then having dedicated players makes it much more efficient.
As an omnicrafter in many games where i max out every profession or trade craft. I can tell you this game does NOT let you do everything crafting or gathering wise.
You really need to focus on certain things or you will, and i mean WILL go bankrupt. It is way too time consuming to do everything trade skill wise in this game and if you think i am wrong it just shows that you haven’t got everything past 100 yet, let alone 150.
Even once you reach max on every one of them you are most likely just going to be focusing on one. It is just too expensive and time absorbing to do everything and profit off everything. Sticking to one market is just SO MUCH more profitable in this game than expanding out into everything. Since i hit 60 i think it has cost me well over 20k gold leveling up my crafting in refining and crafting tax alone, not to mention the cost of refining components.
Perhaps you are correct. Maybe, the deeper you go, the more specialization it requires, as you say, and it become prohibitive to craft at a higher level. However, so far, that doesn’t seem to be the case (at least when looking at the market, some extreme high end products and materials not withstanding). It could be the economy will right itself, but I do think there is something lost when it comes to niche and interdependence when no meaningful choice is required. But, then again, maybe the effort and cost is just too much to push a high level on multiple fronts. I hope you are correct.
Yeah it is really prohibitive. The bright side is if you level it and someone has the mats you can make it for them for tips. But yeah its a pain to level it. And the worst part is you can’t do it really as you level so you can’t use the lower level gear you make which kind of frustrated me. Only just reached Ori armor and i have been 60 over a week or more.
Crafting really only has one problem and its the exp to mats ratio, the amount of mats needed to craft things compared to EXP and crafting cost is so so so so harsh on the player. If you were to try pay your way to max level i think for just one tradecraft it might cost you close to 60-90k gold. That is how crazy it is.
I would love the quest to be more optional if the design will continue that way. Is one of the last enjoyable ways to level and farm gold/territory standing/faction reputation.
I don’t bother and don’t think it hurts the economy. I prefer to make it a bit harder on higher levels of crafting and the quality of items continue to increase with the amount of craft you do, it will force players, even with the option to level all professions, to have time to specialize in only a few.
Having trouble walking due to bad shoes?? Simple fix, just cut off your legs, and you won’t need shoes anymore!
Sorry to be mean, but that sums up your “Fixes” perfectly.
You get better questing by writing better quests. And you fix the economy by implementing better Gear/Resource-Sinks. You can do both at the same time, if you make use of resources/gear in the Quests.
Also, PVP-players complain about PVP, (they often don’t realise it themselves) but that’s because faction combat is poorly implemented in the lore/story of the game. Why fight each other, if you have such a dangerous enemy on your door steps. Quests, that make the root of distrust and hostility reasonable, can fix that.
For example: what if the quest to chose a faction wouldn’t be “hey talk to them and chose” but instead: “Hey you are a wild card as newcomer, help us set up peace talks between the factions!” and then while setting up the peace talks, you can witness the agents backstabbing each other and then have to chose the faction with the knowledge, that peace is not an option.
I disagree. My understanding is that the development history of NW shows a path through a sandbox MMORPG (perhaps through survival, which basically comes from sandbox) that was later (much later) converted into more a sand park (theme park elements added). I have no problem with a “sand park” in fact I like them, but the lack of role/meaningful choice/character niche in gathering and crafting, as well as the needless repetition of inadequate questing (due to practical issues I am most certain), show that Amazon didn’t get the whole theme park elements nailed, whilst forsaking some of the stronger sandbox elements.
To a large extent, this was a mistake–it is the proverbial changing horses in the middle of a stream. Countless dollars and hours will be wasted just to get passible questing in the game, which conflicts with the basic foundation of this MMORPG, and which most players will not be satisfied with, as to be counter productive. I suggest that NW should stand on its merits, not flail about to replicate other games.
Yes, the main story should be worked on. The depth and breadth of faction lore needs to be improved upon, but niggling, forgettable quests are useless in a game with a strong sandbox foundation. In fact, they are worse than useless, as they require resources that would serve the game much better going elsewhere.
EDIT: Further, if you want to create more of an incentive to PvP and create more a faction rivalry, make opposing faction heads as items to turn in at the faction npc for rep, and place better gear in the faction store.