“We stumbled with our vision and lost some of the fun. We reacted more than planned,” he writes. “Our Elemental Evil update didn’t deliver what we set out to build. There is a great story there and fantastic new adventures and encounters, but they were hidden behind systems designed smooth out some power curves, progression and allow for more growth in the future. The level cap increase was cumbersome and didn’t feel quite right. We were working to our goals and we hit them functionally, but we lost the spirit just enough to make it not fun to play the content.”
As for 2016, Overmeyer says the team will be rectifying that by focusing on “Neverwinter as a whole” — specifically, on class balance, endgame, guilds, crafting, and bugs. Following the release of The Maze Engine later this month, expect mount customization, the return of Castle Never, an improved queue system, economy updates for Xbox One, spring events, and tweaks for the Elemental Evil story. June will bring another campaign.
And what about the second half of 2016? “You can expect to see a big story coming in the fall and some new surprises. We want to go back to Icewind Dale and tell some original stories that will see some of our main characters struggle with a decision that will change their life.”
