27-07-2015, 05:55 PM
Lots of problems at the moment, i'll summarise them once again, against my better judgement...
NI was in my opinion at its best when low-mid tier craftables were the stapples for a run, and legendarys were indeed...legendary. there was once a time when SKS's and other like typed shields were considered the end game for most players, and royal shields/aegis shields were owned by only a select hardworking few. Strange Greatswords and flamburges were a welcome sight to runs and almost every player owned one at some stage. now it seems, these weapons have lost all purpose, being out moded by the now cheaper high tier items of the past. legendaries like the Aurora blade, fiendish bow, wormbane, thunderpike, sun pike etc were badass and considered top grade for their time (a substantial step up from flamburges and SGS's) most of these dropped in normal mode, and gave incentive for more geared players to return to the lower waves imparting knowledge and inspiring others to keep on grinding. During this time, the only public outcries were for the lack of green drops, or power hungry admins filling up servers passed the 20 player mark, but those were better days where the player base was capable of such, now a server with 16 people is a sight to behold. What changed between then and now to cause such a decline in interest in the mod? many things...i'll list a few of the ones i think to be most cataclysmic.
1) increased legendary item drops.
not something a budding NI player would be caught dead complaining about, but none the less, I believe this to play a large factor in playerbase decline. Post introduction of the Retaliation mode patch, legendaries began to drop like flies and not just any legendaries, these were big ones, we're talking the cream of the crop from Odin himself. Prior to this many of these top tier legendaries that i can only assume were in the game for months and months but had yet to be looted were now dropping two or three times a week sometimes even during the same day. naturally the community took full advantage of this and went on a ragnarok marathon spamming the once impossible game mode, recently made a walk in the park. a lot of new wealth was made during this period, and this sent much of the old wealth down the crapper. hurricane bows dropped in value drasticly as the newer and better ullrs banes became more common and readily available and that's not counting the other item trees also affected, this in my opinion sent a shockwave down the NI economy where people would drastically try to sell their previously expensive legendaries at new low prices in the hopes to squeeze what little money was left in their beloved items before prices dropped even lower so just maybe, they could afford to purchase some of the newer schmiker items. as items continue to drop, people become richer and richer, but what's left to achieve in such a linear grind game when you reach the top? you get to be the standout guy with all the cool gear? think again, you're not alone, everyone is reaching this status, people are getting bored and fed up. people start to moan, the game is boring, the game is too easy, etc etc until they get fed up and stop playing giving their gear away to some other guy thus continuing the downward spiral.
2)Challenge
as it stands, I find that the game is becoming more and more spoon fed to us as time goes on. there was once a time when the devs didn't want us to beat the final waves and the maps were far more ill catered to our current shieldwall tactics than they are now. old maps had three or four possible cade spots, and people would argue over which one to use because they all had their merits, now there is no thought process, everyone knows the best spot to cade because it's the only spot made available and the rest of the maps beauty is locked away behind ugly and oddly placed barriers and walls. a map should NOT be a maze with one start and one finish, it should be a canvas were people can paint their adventures freely without restrictions. This maze minded approach to map making killed off what was one of the last real challenges let to be had in NI...Kitting and with that another chunk of the player base but that's been covered a lot recently, and i won't bother dabbling there again. moving on to what was perhaps NI's most ingenious creations turned sour, ragnarok mode was previously the greatest test of skill for 16 of NI's most daring. even the most veteran and well geared players would struggle passed the first four waves let alone the next 16 to come. the mode was only attempted on the best of maps to give people every edge they could get before the difficulty of the waves facing them ahead. Now, there are probably more fingers on my hand then players left in the community who have experienced this challenge which is in my opinion sad, to see that players of the current NI will likely never experience the thrill of. Much of the challenge posed by ragnarok mode, whittled away every map update but more drasticly, by the new vast wealth which has spoilt not only the economy but also the game, making runs far too smooth and easy to complete where previously a successful run came down to the use of a last dep shield or an archer filling in for a fallen shielder on the last boss wave.
I think for NI to move forward and continue it has to remember it's glorious past and make changes accordingly and stop trying to become something it simply cannot be.
NI was in my opinion at its best when low-mid tier craftables were the stapples for a run, and legendarys were indeed...legendary. there was once a time when SKS's and other like typed shields were considered the end game for most players, and royal shields/aegis shields were owned by only a select hardworking few. Strange Greatswords and flamburges were a welcome sight to runs and almost every player owned one at some stage. now it seems, these weapons have lost all purpose, being out moded by the now cheaper high tier items of the past. legendaries like the Aurora blade, fiendish bow, wormbane, thunderpike, sun pike etc were badass and considered top grade for their time (a substantial step up from flamburges and SGS's) most of these dropped in normal mode, and gave incentive for more geared players to return to the lower waves imparting knowledge and inspiring others to keep on grinding. During this time, the only public outcries were for the lack of green drops, or power hungry admins filling up servers passed the 20 player mark, but those were better days where the player base was capable of such, now a server with 16 people is a sight to behold. What changed between then and now to cause such a decline in interest in the mod? many things...i'll list a few of the ones i think to be most cataclysmic.
1) increased legendary item drops.
not something a budding NI player would be caught dead complaining about, but none the less, I believe this to play a large factor in playerbase decline. Post introduction of the Retaliation mode patch, legendaries began to drop like flies and not just any legendaries, these were big ones, we're talking the cream of the crop from Odin himself. Prior to this many of these top tier legendaries that i can only assume were in the game for months and months but had yet to be looted were now dropping two or three times a week sometimes even during the same day. naturally the community took full advantage of this and went on a ragnarok marathon spamming the once impossible game mode, recently made a walk in the park. a lot of new wealth was made during this period, and this sent much of the old wealth down the crapper. hurricane bows dropped in value drasticly as the newer and better ullrs banes became more common and readily available and that's not counting the other item trees also affected, this in my opinion sent a shockwave down the NI economy where people would drastically try to sell their previously expensive legendaries at new low prices in the hopes to squeeze what little money was left in their beloved items before prices dropped even lower so just maybe, they could afford to purchase some of the newer schmiker items. as items continue to drop, people become richer and richer, but what's left to achieve in such a linear grind game when you reach the top? you get to be the standout guy with all the cool gear? think again, you're not alone, everyone is reaching this status, people are getting bored and fed up. people start to moan, the game is boring, the game is too easy, etc etc until they get fed up and stop playing giving their gear away to some other guy thus continuing the downward spiral.
2)Challenge
as it stands, I find that the game is becoming more and more spoon fed to us as time goes on. there was once a time when the devs didn't want us to beat the final waves and the maps were far more ill catered to our current shieldwall tactics than they are now. old maps had three or four possible cade spots, and people would argue over which one to use because they all had their merits, now there is no thought process, everyone knows the best spot to cade because it's the only spot made available and the rest of the maps beauty is locked away behind ugly and oddly placed barriers and walls. a map should NOT be a maze with one start and one finish, it should be a canvas were people can paint their adventures freely without restrictions. This maze minded approach to map making killed off what was one of the last real challenges let to be had in NI...Kitting and with that another chunk of the player base but that's been covered a lot recently, and i won't bother dabbling there again. moving on to what was perhaps NI's most ingenious creations turned sour, ragnarok mode was previously the greatest test of skill for 16 of NI's most daring. even the most veteran and well geared players would struggle passed the first four waves let alone the next 16 to come. the mode was only attempted on the best of maps to give people every edge they could get before the difficulty of the waves facing them ahead. Now, there are probably more fingers on my hand then players left in the community who have experienced this challenge which is in my opinion sad, to see that players of the current NI will likely never experience the thrill of. Much of the challenge posed by ragnarok mode, whittled away every map update but more drasticly, by the new vast wealth which has spoilt not only the economy but also the game, making runs far too smooth and easy to complete where previously a successful run came down to the use of a last dep shield or an archer filling in for a fallen shielder on the last boss wave.
I think for NI to move forward and continue it has to remember it's glorious past and make changes accordingly and stop trying to become something it simply cannot be.
Going Deep