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Post by thomascovenant on Apr 20, 2021 16:28:59 GMT
There are still a few of us who was on HG at the time when there were no bots (multi-accounts) and there were 3 hubs with so many players ( for what i remember this was per server: 111 for 64 players, 211 for 32, 212 for 16, 213 for 16, 214 for 16, 215 for 16, 311 for 32, 312 for 16, 313 for 16, 314 for 16, 315 for 16, this make a lot of rooms ) that it was often difficult to do a quest with a party of 6-7-10 players without having to ask some players to change servers because there were so many players online, at a point HG had to add to open a forth server with as much room as the hub 2 and 3 on weekends and even with it there was not always easy to be able to have enough room to do a run with a full party on a server.
This was when several guilds had active members who were online regularly. For those who have not known this golden age of HG take a tour in the guilds section on the forum here, you will see guild names that you did not even know they existed.
To tell the truth I miss this golden age on HG, these abundance of players with whom I had so much pleasure not only to play, but also to interact. Many have been good friends on the game. But they are no longer there.Some, finally for those of which we knew are even deceased like Gradorian, Flip Trip and Dets of which all three have a memorial in the cemetery on the part.
My point is that it is possible that some of us former players may still be in contact outside the game with players who are no longer active, and that maybe it would be possible. for them to try to interest them in coming back to play on HG. Likewise for newer players, if you have friends who might like to play why not try and get them interested in joining us on HG.
Funky, Acaos, Dms etc work hard to make HG to be a interesting, attractive and friendly place to play, Let's help them the best we can.
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Post by Deleted on Apr 20, 2021 18:57:17 GMT
HG has been a fun place to play NWN for a long time. It still can be fun.
However, it will probably never be the version you hope it will be again, TC. That's the thing. Gradorian, Flip and Detz are no longer around and that is one reason it will never be the same. But change is the true constant in life. We can choose to dwell in the past or create a new future.
People have come and gone in this game for years. There are cycles of playing fervor and times of doldrums. People move on to other things in their life. HG is a lot to take in and the time necessary to feel proficient is enormous. Many of the people that are still here have already sunk far too much time in the game and are just skating on that effort, playing here and there as time permits.
I personally don't see it ever being the draw it was at one time. It's an old game and people move on. Younger kids play more exciting and short investment type games. I know a bit about this because four of my kids played a bit and didn't feel the desire to continue.
There are a lot of other reasons the game has fizzled but others can state those. And of course there are still the good things about the game. You can still make the game how you want it. Most likely there will always be the hanger-on-ers.
Ray
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Post by desocupado on Apr 21, 2021 0:00:15 GMT
People have come and gone in this game for years. There are cycles of playing fervor and times of doldrums. People move on to other things in their life. HG is a lot to take in and the time necessary to feel proficient is enormous. Many of the people that are still here have already sunk far too much time in the game and are just skating on that effort, playing here and there as time permits. I personally don't see it ever being the draw it was at one time. It's an old game and people move on. Younger kids play more exciting and short investment type games. I know a bit about this because four of my kids played a bit and didn't feel the desire to continue. Truth be told taking long is fake longevity. Take how building characters and gearing is here - it takes 10000x more time to get the XP/gear than to plan a completely different build. Many things are straight out unreachable. There is also a deep difference in character power in terms of time spent grinding/questing. On top of these crazy long quest chains. I do have a memory of having a blue dragon rdd monk splash with dual wield and divine power and then HoU was released.
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Post by jazzadellic on Apr 21, 2021 2:15:22 GMT
Hi TC, good to see you are still active on HG. I've been gone for over 7 years, but I got the urge to re-install the game and come back and play a little on HG again. I'm having issues with lost CD keys though, so I'm waiting to get a response from one of the DMs. It always amazes me how when I look back at all the multi-player games I have played over the last 25 years, HG was probably the best server I ever played on! I got bored of WoW after 6 months, same with many other games. HG I played for several years though (5 years?) before I kind of got bored. I think it's natural for people to get bored with a game and move on though. Some people can be happy playing the same game for well over a decade (like many WoW subscribers), but others get bored of a game in a much shorter time. I'm usually one of those people. It's rare I ever play a game beyond 6 months or so many hours, so the fact that I played on HG for maybe around 5 years, is a testament to how great a server HG is. The game customization is amazing too. NWN as a single player vanilla experience was maybe a 3 out 5 star game, but HG Enhanced made it into a 5 of 5 for me.
Anyways, if I can get this CD key thing sorted out, you should see me in game in the near future. I don't have as much time to devote to it though as I used to.
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Post by thomascovenant on Apr 21, 2021 5:29:12 GMT
Welcome back Jazz, nice to see you coming back, in hope you will be soon log on the game.
Since i am on HG Acaos, Funky, DMs and dev team never stop to bring new things, or new runs, and then new challenges for thoses who are looking for challenges. This make this game in a perpetual évolution what should satisfy players who love changes.
Also depending the class toon we play, the build, the subraces, the gearings, the players who are in party with you on a run this also make a run never be as the other one you did.
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Post by starcore on Apr 22, 2021 0:16:14 GMT
I think if we ever make it to EE we might see a huge influx of players... HG is easily the best PW for long term playability and progression, but the issue is, any new NWN players are probably only going to see the easy to find EE servers... Right now its really hard to find HG in ANY server lists even random web based lists... The mod is awesome as is, but if we had a massive influx of new players, we could very well see a new golden age with runs in every timezone on every day I'm hopeful at least!
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Post by boroie on Apr 22, 2021 22:19:26 GMT
Right now its really hard to find HG in ANY server lists even random web based lists... I said this when we changed to cloud hosting and changed the server addresses. Can we not just get 111 listed again? You might get the odd person checking the server list and joining.
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Post by illandous on Apr 28, 2021 1:26:50 GMT
I also wanted to make a comeback here. So many great memories. But your right on the time investment. I realized very quickly I didn't have the time for this incredibly deep server, not so much from a story line. But from a player development standpoint.
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Post by epicwarding on May 21, 2021 11:05:31 GMT
ive been on NWN EE ever sense it came out / im avoiding playing in HG untill it comes to EE . if it dosent come to EE. im never gona play it again. but if it does come to EE . i will start playing instantly.
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Post by jazzadellic on May 22, 2021 4:47:01 GMT
ive been on NWN EE ever sense it came out / im avoiding playing in HG untill it comes to EE . if it dosent come to EE. im never gona play it again. but if it does come to EE . i will start playing instantly. The few player reviews I've read on NWN EE seemed to all be negative and basically say it wasn't really that much of an improvement and many said the original NWN was actually better for some reason which I can't remember. What in your experience is an improvement with EE version? I own both now since I purchased another copy from GOG (purely for another CD key to multi-box on HG).
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Post by gladi8or on May 27, 2021 12:31:38 GMT
I'm with Jazzadellic on this one. I don't understand the attraction to EE. I have tried it and there's nothing there that would make me want to switch over. I know the graphics are supposed to be better, but they're really not, especially for those of us running the advanced graphics hack, CQ I believe it's called. So, I would also like anyone with EE playing experience to please explain what makes EE so much better. Perhaps I missed something when I played it, but I've also noticed that most of the servers max out at lvl 40. HG has a ton more content. That said, I also do not have extensive experience with EE because it just wasn't appealing so the time spent on other servers and with EE is fairly limited. Thus, I'm looking to gain knowledge, not to argue with someone who likes it better. Please inform us.
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Post by tomaan on May 27, 2021 17:36:13 GMT
I'm with Jazzadellic on this one. I don't understand the attraction to EE. I have tried it and there's nothing there that would make me want to switch over. I know the graphics are supposed to be better, but they're really not, especially for those of us running the advanced graphics hack, CQ I believe it's called. So, I would also like anyone with EE playing experience to please explain what makes EE so much better. Perhaps I missed something when I played it, but I've also noticed that most of the servers max out at lvl 40. HG has a ton more content. That said, I also do not have extensive experience with EE because it just wasn't appealing so the time spent on other servers and with EE is fairly limited. Thus, I'm looking to gain knowledge, not to argue with someone who likes it better. Please inform us. I think it has some value as a replacement for GameSpy and to iron out some compatibility issues with newer systems. Otherwise, yeah...HG is still the best NWN 1 content server imho. Legendary and Paragon levels and associated content are unmatched.
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Post by desocupado on May 27, 2021 20:25:45 GMT
For comparison sake, anyone played Ragnarok online on private servers?
Basically servers there had multipliers rates - mobs grant more drops and xp. It's similar to those holiday bonuses sometimes happen here (in fact those servers also had such multipliers). Those rates made a grinding experience much more bearable for casuals. And to cplayers with more time simply create more characters.
My point being, this server could use this approach. Even if it costs some of the likelihood to use low level areas.
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Post by jazzadellic on May 28, 2021 19:01:31 GMT
For comparison sake, anyone played Ragnarok online on private servers? Basically servers there had multipliers rates - mobs grant more drops and xp. It's similar to those holiday bonuses sometimes happen here (in fact those servers also had such multipliers). Those rates made a grinding experience much more bearable for casuals. And to cplayers with more time simply create more characters. My point being, this server could use this approach. Even if it costs some of the likelihood to use low level areas. It seems to me that leveling is pretty fast here for at least the first 60 levels, then it slows down, as would be expected on any rpg game. New players generally prefer to take it slowly with their first characters anyways so they can learn the areas and the mod. Once you learn the mod & the areas well enough and have at least one high level character, gaining xp 1-40 is trivial via the quests, oltum, thids wands, or sapphires. Mobs may not drop much loot, but there are loot poppers and chests everywhere in low level areas. I think long time players forget that sometimes, because there is nothing of value for them in those loot poppers, but when I was a new player I remember thinking "wow! there's loot everywhere!". I would run around popping every single one of those things, and spent way more time hoarding loot then I did leveling. Now when leveling alts, I completely ignore them, unless I know there is a set loot item I need to help the lowbie. For a new player though, I don't think there is any perception of there being a lack of loot! For a long time player leveling a toon from 1-80 seems like a life time because we've already done the trip so many times we don't want to do it again! I don't think that's indicative of a flaw in the leveling system, but more a sign of our impatience at repeating the entire process for the hundredth time, to get the result we want: a shiny new level 80 with an XR sub! I think greatly boosting the xp or loot now would only serve to lessen the value of all that we have accomplished. New players could come on and achieve in months what we did over years. That wouldn't serve to make the core & longtime players happy. It might give satisfaction to the new players if they could level a toon to 80 and unlock xr subs in their first few weeks on the server, but it would undermine the true enjoyment of playing on HG: the epic journey. I can speak for myself, and I think many would agree, it's not having a level 80 xr sub toon fully geared out that gives me enjoyment, it was the entire journey to get there. It was learning how the mod worked. It was struggling and getting my ass whooped so many times and fuguing god knows how many times. It was finding secrets! It was being a packrat and filling up dozens of bank chests with loot that ultimately was pretty worthless (to my high level toons!). It was teaming up with other players and dieing or succeeding together! It was that "holy shit!" moment the first time you did a LL run and got your pants whooped off, and you realized level 40+ was entirely new game! Anyways, the point being, greatly shorten the time to get to 80, and you greatly shorten or even remove those experiences entirely for a new player, i.e. you're not really doing them a favor. For a longtime player, it's easy to forget the enjoyment of the journey, because after doing it dozens of times it loses it's appeal and all we care about now is the end result. But for a new player, that long journey is exactly what will get them hooked on HG and cause them to stay longer. If a new player could come on HG and level up a dozen 80 xr subs in a few months, guess what? They'll all leave in a few months because they'll be bored and there will be nothing left for them to achieve. Let's not forget that people need to learn how to play their characters, and if they can hit 70 or 80 in a week, do you really want to have that person doing Limbo runs with you? I'm sure you're not suggesting it be possible to do 1-80 in a week, but some exaggeration is warranted to show clearly how greatly altering the xp rate can greatly effect the game in a negative way. The only argument that it would be a positive change is "I don't have time to level yet another toon to 80, and I want it to take much less time, mkay, thanks."
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Post by desocupado on May 29, 2021 3:15:44 GMT
The experience I had in guild wars 1 is interesting. In the first campaign, it took like 60 hours to get to max level. In the second, it took 10. Both campaigns had a lot of end game content and carrots that weren't xp (you could farm skills, which would be equivalent to build changing gear here)
Surely you can have low complexity areas with high level mobs. After all what stops a goblin from having 100 ac and 110 ab?
I would gladly take a novice at adequate power in an area, that person could be playing a life threader or Dragon disciple or an assassin or weapon master. It much more interesting that learning the areas is what a novice lacks rather than grinding 400 hours.
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