With The Maze Engine on the horizon, Perfect World Entertainment will be holding an Ask Me Anything event on Reddit. Users are already asking questions and the answering session is supposed to begin at approximately 7:30pm Pacific, or about 45 minutes after this post gets published. You can join in and ask your own questions, all you need is a Reddit account and an inquisitive mind.
MMO Fallout will be publishing the more interesting questions tomorrow.
(Source: Reddit)
Perfect World Entertainment has announced The Maze Engine, the next big update for Neverwinter, will be hitting home computers this Spring with Xbox to follow. The Maze Engine is set to introduce a number of much anticipated updates, including the long awaited return of dungeons. Four fan favorites are set to return with new graphics, a new design, with Castle Never returning as a high level dungeon.
Also available for level 60 players is a new single player campaign set after the events of Underdark.
Neverwinter: The Maze Engine continues the story of demons escaping from the Abyss that was started in Neverwinter: Underdark. I don’t want to give anything away just yet, so be sure to look for an upcoming blog where we’ll go over the story-thus-far, and give you a peak into what you can look forward to as overwhelming madness permeates the… /sigh right… no spoiling. I’ll just say for now that a lot of your favorite characters are making return appearances and ready for adventure!
The announcement details upcoming blogs covering a new mount system, queue improvements, famous faces, and more.
(Source: Neverwinter)
Perfect World Entertainment has announced with today’s update that multiple items have been removed from the Zen store in Neverwinter. We were first informed of this update back in October, with the publisher revealing that cosmetic fashions and dyes would be removed in an effort to make trade bars more useful. As part of a rolling set of updates, mounts from previous lockboxes will be added to the trade bar store, and epic versions will be added to the store.
Trade bars are obtained from lockboxes.
(Source: Neverwinter)
Those of you keeping watch on Neverwinter are well aware of the game’s ongoing issues with Astral Diamonds, a main trade currency and target for gold farmers, not to mention a direct line for players to obtain Zen without paying any real money of their own. In the most recent dev post, lead designer Scott Shicoff details upcoming plans to introduce new sources of Astral Diamonds.
Hey everyone, Scott here today with a quick note about Astral Diamond sources. As you know, we recently made a change to increase the AD players earn via queued content. We know that players can’t always participate in that content, so we are looking at more ways to get AD into your hands. These first changes will be coming very soon.
Starting soon, players will be able to complete weekly quests in exchange for Astral Diamonds. It is just the first update to address the situation, and Shicoff assures the community that PWE is monitoring Astral Diamond movement and will use that information to mold further updates.
(Source: Neverwinter)
Xbox One players have officially closed the gap in content with the latest addition to Neverwinter on the new generation console. Today marks the launch of four expansions, including the latest module Elemental Evil, bringing the total number of expansions to six. Players will enjoy an increased level cap, the Oathbound Paladin class, new adventure zones, as well as four end-game campaigns, and more.
Executive producer Rob Overmeyer praised the update for the amount of free content added to the game.
“With six expansions’ worth of free content released since launch, our team continues to support Neverwinter and its players with all new locations along and outside of the Sword Coast filled with challenging dungeons to crawl and wicked monsters to battle. We’re excited to continue our support with the Strongholds expansion in 2015.”
(Source: Perfect World press release)
Perfect World Entertainment has released details on an upcoming subscription system for Neverwinter. Dubbed VIP, the subscription plan acts as both a membership and running loyalty program at the same time in that it levels up the longer a player subscribes and offers more bonuses as the months progress. To top it off, you don’t lose VIP rank if you unsubscribe, you simply start off where you left off the next time you add another payment.
What caught my eye, however, is the fact that immediately at VIP rank 1, the first, the player begins receiving one enchanted key per day for the entirety of the 30 day subscription. At the cost of 125 Zen per key, this runs to 3,750 Zen or approximately $37.50 worth of keys if you log in every single one of the 30 days and manually claim the key. 3,750 Zen worth of keys for 1,000 Zen in investment.
To top it off, if you’re the kind of hardcore person who can conceivably make 1,000 zen in less than a month by converting Astral Diamonds, you can get VIP for free. And if you get lucky and get some rare drops from the boxes you open, you could sell those on the market for Astral Diamonds and fund another month.
Just something to think about.
(Source: Neverwinter)
I’ve talked about Neverwinter’s Gateway app, a handy tool where players can level up their crafting professions even while not in-game. Unfortunately the ease of access means that the professions tab can be used by bots to mass-produce astral diamonds via the leadership profession, which is exactly what bots have been doing in Neverwinter: Using the Gateway to mass produce astral diamonds, inflating the economy, and raising prices of goods in the process.
Last month, Cryptic decided to fight back by removing the leadership profession from the Gateway app, leading to further concerns that this would simply drive bots into the game, filling up the servers. After studying the servers, it has been concluded that there hasn’t been any significant increase in the amount of botting in-game.
We also understand your concerns regarding the cost of goods versus the amount of Astral Diamonds coming into the economy. In the short term, we are keeping an eye on the supply of Astral Diamonds to make sure it performs as expected. We will also be running multiple “2x AD” events to make sure adventurers are able to get the Astral Diamonds they need. In the long term, we are re-examining the various non-profession methods of earning Astral Diamonds. It’s important to us that playing the game rewards AD sufficiently.
(Source: Neverwinter)
When Neverwinter launched on the Xbox One, it did so with the promise that while most expansion content would not be available at launch, that it would be pretty soon after. In a press release sent out today, Perfect World Entertainment has announced the impending release of the four missing expansions: Curse of Icewind Dale, Elemental Evil, Fury of the Feywild, and Shadowmantle.
The expansions will bring extra content including an increased level cap (60 to 70), the four end-game campaigns, new dungeons, zones, and more.
Rob Overmeyer, executive producer, said “as our community continues to grow on consoles, we have continued our support with content including six expansions worth of dungeons and heroic encounters with dragons within six months. Our team is ecstatic with the continued support and can’t wait to give our Xbox One players control of their own strongholds with our next content update coming later this year.”
All four expansions come out in September.
(Source: Perfect World Press Release)
Perfect World Entertainment has announced that the Strongholds expansion for Neverwinter will be ready and raring to go on August 11th. In addition to the largest playable map introduced so far, Strongholds will also allow guilds to form up and take back the wilderness to make it a safe place once again. The initial launch will focus on the player vs environment portion, allowing guilds to build their strongholds.
Reminiscent of early Dungeons & Dragons gameplay, Neverwinter: Strongholds empowers guilds to reclaim a keep and its surrounding wilderness areas from monsters. As the lands are cleared, guilds will need to decide how to properly run their stronghold and which of the many paths it can take to fit the guild’s needs.
Later in September, players will be able to participate in PvP action on the map.
(Source: Neverwinter)
When I interviewed Perfect World Entertainment back in 2013, we were assured that despite servers shutting down in Europe and Korea, that business would continue as usual. That business, I assume was solely predicated on the continuing survival of MAIET Entertainment, the game’s developer. Well MAIET Entertainment as a company is dead and buried, and unfortunately that has lead to issues cropping up in the game that cannot be fixed.
As a result, Perfect World Entertainment has announced that the servers will go dark next month.
We have significant news to share regarding RaiderZ. Over the past weeks, RaiderZ has seen a few different instances where the game has had issues with the server. In the past, we have been working with MAIET, the developer of RaiderZ, in order to troubleshoot and solve issues to keep the game available for the players. Unfortunately, MAIET is no longer operating anymore.
Back in 2013, PWE expressed interest to me in a license similar to that of Neowiz in Japan, who were creating their own content. Whether that would have permitted the publisher to keep going should MAIET go out of business is unknown, especially since the Japanese server shut down earlier this year in March.
From my interview:
That’s a great question, but it’s not something that we’ve considered at this point. We’ve heard great things out of Japan, and are always open to new opportunities in order to ensure the continued success of the game, and making a positive experience for the players.
(Source: Perfect World Entertainment)
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