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Official Feedback Thread: Maze Engine Campaign
commanderander
Member, Cryptic Developer Cryptic Developer › Posts: 93 Cryptic Developer
Hi everyone! Sean “Commander Ander” McCann here, and I’m excited to welcome you all to the Maze Engine campaign! The goal of this campaign was to deliver story content for solo players, but you can also team with any of your friends to complete these quests. Let’s get into the details!
Access
Any player level 60 or above can access the Maze Engine campaign. You can get started by either talking to Sergeant Knox, the Neverwinter Guard messenger, or Bruenor Battlehammer in Mantol-Derith.
Also, access to Mantol-Derith is now automatically granted for any characters who are level 60 or higher.
Features
- New campaign, “The Maze Engine”
- New directed and repeatable quests for the Maze Engine
- Quests that scale depending on the level when you enter them.
Known Issues
- No voice over or music has been hooked up yet. There are placeholder VO for our minicontacts
- Costume art is not final
- UI art for items are not final
Feedback Desired
We’d like you all to focus on playing these instances and finding any potential issues with them, both from a story and a mechanical standpoint. Does something in the story not make sense? Did the quest flow from each quest not work? Let us know!
If you find a bug or have feedback, please follow the guidelines below when posting:
• Respond to this forum post.
• Type: Bug/Feedback (Please only choose one)
• Spec: (Please enter the spec that you are providing feedback for here)
• Format: Please use “Bold” face text for the Type & Spec then type your feedback in the body of your post. If you are listing a bug please have this text in RED, if you are posting an opinion or feedback please use BLUE.
• (Bonus: Concise Feedback & Screen Shots are much appreciated)
Examples:
Bug: Quest: Aiding Bruenor Battlehammer
Bruenor started attacking me in a drunken rage!
Feedback: Quest: Aiding Bruenor Battlehammer
I didn’t think Bruenor and Drizzt sounded like they were lifelong buddies.
Feedback: Quest: Sword of Justice
I didn’t like how Minsc sounded when he called Boo all those terrible names.
Access
Any player level 60 or above can access the Maze Engine campaign. You can get started by either talking to Sergeant Knox, the Neverwinter Guard messenger, or Bruenor Battlehammer in Mantol-Derith.
Also, access to Mantol-Derith is now automatically granted for any characters who are level 60 or higher.
Features
- New campaign, “The Maze Engine”
- New directed and repeatable quests for the Maze Engine
- Quests that scale depending on the level when you enter them.
Known Issues
- No voice over or music has been hooked up yet. There are placeholder VO for our minicontacts
- Costume art is not final
- UI art for items are not final
Feedback Desired
We’d like you all to focus on playing these instances and finding any potential issues with them, both from a story and a mechanical standpoint. Does something in the story not make sense? Did the quest flow from each quest not work? Let us know!
If you find a bug or have feedback, please follow the guidelines below when posting:
• Respond to this forum post.
• Type: Bug/Feedback (Please only choose one)
• Spec: (Please enter the spec that you are providing feedback for here)
• Format: Please use “Bold” face text for the Type & Spec then type your feedback in the body of your post. If you are listing a bug please have this text in RED, if you are posting an opinion or feedback please use BLUE.
• (Bonus: Concise Feedback & Screen Shots are much appreciated)
Examples:
Bug: Quest: Aiding Bruenor Battlehammer
Bruenor started attacking me in a drunken rage!
Feedback: Quest: Aiding Bruenor Battlehammer
I didn’t think Bruenor and Drizzt sounded like they were lifelong buddies.
Feedback: Quest: Sword of Justice
I didn’t like how Minsc sounded when he called Boo all those terrible names.
Sean "Commander Ander" McCann - Content Designer
0
Comments
If these rewards are intended to be unbound and repeatable, then kudos. A new source of stronghold shards is appreciated, although it may be quite time-consuming to acquire the 5 Tales of Adventure. I received 1 from the first quest.
Logged me out when leaving the area at the end after defeating fury...could have just been disconnect issue except it didn't say disconnected from server
Feedback: Chapter 3
Fighting at the second holy symbol. The fight took a while and was getting the "madness" you get from skirmish or demogorgon and their seemed to be no way to stop it. Being next to the symbol didn't do anything. I did eventually die because I was looking for some way to get rid of the madness and Linu had left me high and dry.
I played through the first 3 chapters and the first daily quest, and encountered no game-breaking bugs - but a few minor annoyances (see below) Overall, the campaignn seems fair. The boons are reasonable (some useless as always, but others are useful and the repeatable campaign rewards are nice. However, I founds things a bit too easy. I am far from being a BiS player and there was not really a single really challenging flight in the first 3 chapters - General Fang and the Storm giant were trivial - I did not feel like I had accomplished anything after defeating them.
Now, the short initial area was really nice (going across the bridge to fight the demons), but the rest was....well, it felt like recycled content - killing demons and cultists in old and well-known places - not really anything to get excited about.
The storyline was a bit weak, and I found Lans somewhat confusing, but I guess that will get cleared up in chapter 4 or later.
The sound was irritating (silent cutscenes and wrong chat from Linu, Drizzt etc), but I see that is listed as a known issue so I will not comment on that.
Overall though, I think this will be a welcome addition for players leveling up from 60 to 70, and what I tried feels almost ready to release.
One minor bug
In the first part, after going across the bridge to fight the demons and returning I spoke to Linu - after that, the "sparkly trail" would lead in the wrong direction - right across the gap, instead of in the other direction, where I really had to go.
One annoying issue
So, for the daily task I get sent to Pirates Skyhold. I go down to the pier, use the travel map and see I have to go to PE - fine, except that I get sent to the Courtyard - and have to ride all the way from there to a proper exit portal so I can get tp Pirates Skyhold. This is kind-of pointless.
On the live server I would of course summon up my VIP signpost, but here...eh...this is an annoyance.
So that's it - what I tried was overall fine, nothing spectacular, but not bad, and only a couple of annoyances - no major bugs.
After killing the demons, the quest tells you to return to Gauntlgrym. At the time, I thought "Oh, they forgot to add a portal. Wow, this is a long walk back to the start." Of course, the walk back is intended to lead to the cultist ambush, but if I had my VIP sign post, I probably would have exited, and messed up the quest. Either the quest should give you a more compelling reason to walk back to the start, or the cultist ambush should happen more immediately.
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia
So like the idiot I am, when I saw that I had to go to the Fiery Pit I zoned out of Mantol-Derith and went to the Fiery Pit zone. I then ran all over looking for the quest. I finally thought to retrace my steps back to Mantol Derith and saw the trail pick up again. It was only then that I realized there are two unique versions of Fiery Pit. Maybe you could add some text clarification would prevent folks like me from making the same mistake.
(Un)Academic Field Work Foundry Campaign: NWS-DAPZB2CTZ
1. When returning to the retracted bridge after defeating the demon-'friend' guy, a Razorblast Cultist was trapped on the edge, about to fall into the chasm. I couldn't reach him with attacks, Bruenor and Drizzt had to kill him before next scene would start.
2. At end of mission, after talking to Linu, map shows going back across the bridge to finish the quest. (adinosii beat me to it.
3. Massive lag and rubberbanding throughout. I assume that it was related to the crazy disconnects earlier, however.
It was funny hearing all those different dialog bits from elsewhere in the game, including a bit about "The Protector's Speech". I was going to report it as a bug until I read: "Known Issues - No voice over or music has been hooked up yet. There are placeholder VO for our minicontacts".
BUG: Chapter 3
The same thing happens at the first symbol after meeting Lans: If Linu gets hit by a ranged attack or is threatened by the hulk's area effect, she will start running back to the campfire and doesn't come back until after all adds are cleared.
in the first wave of enemies, Luna gets scared when fighting enemies and goes back to the start of the quest.
GENERAL FEEDBACK:
reward is good, resonances and exp are nice, tokens too.
but way too easy (enemies have definitely too low HP.. they strike quite hard tho) and i hope those resonances are going to stay there if i decide to re rerun the whole campaign.
not like you did with salvatore's quests.
When I went to do my daily quest (in Pirates Skyhold), I noticed that monsters would drop loot like I was playing in a low-level zone - Rank 1 enchants and such. Not sure if those were regular random drops or Fey Blessing drops, but at least they were not appropriate for a level 70 player fighting level 70 critters.
If ya run thru each area too fast.....all the Character Voice chats can be one continuous repeated string thru-out.
Neverwinter Wonderland
Neverwinter Wet & Wild
Neverwinter 2nd Anniversary Montage
Neverwinter Anniversary Montage
Protector's Jubilee Speech
Oh the Carnage
Regarding difficulty - please specify the level you are and the enemies that you feel are too easy. It seems like so far all 3 bosses at the start seem to be too easy. There were some changes I've made locally that should make two of them a bit tougher.
Regarding Linu - we have a fix locally that should make her a bit braver and not run at the first sign of trouble
Regarding "Return to Gauntlgrym" - I can look into better alternatives to make sure it's a bit clearer the quest isn't over.
Regarding level - this is playable by anyone 60-70. The enemies in the maps will scale to your level.
Regarding XP - Right now the campaign tasks (not the individual quests) are granting too much XP and will be lowered a bit in an upcoming patch. Basically there was a hidden multiplier. The new amount will still be decent, but the amount now is about double or triple what was intended.
When I did the second symbol the second time Linu stayed close to the symbol so me staying by the symbol should have been fine. My point was that I think Linu left before the fight was over the first time but unsure. Ahh I see the devs comment that Linu can indeed leave the fight...so I wasn't just imagining it.
On 5th Feb I passed (solo) first three chapters of the campaign playing as a Trickster Rogue (70th level, gear 2515). The quests were quite easy. The Chapter III was the most outstanding and challenging among them. I think the Chapter III could be very difficult for solo players at 60th level. Quest rewards are good.
I also noticed known issue, i.e. Linu’s and Drizzt’s wrong voices and chat.
"Costume art is not final" is listed as known issue. Is there also known that Linu's and other NPCs' costumes are not displaying correctly at a distance?
Feedback: Quest: Chapter I
When the quest told me to return to Gauntlgrym I was starting to look for a portal. I was slightly mazed until I saw blue circles on the map. "There is something else to do here" - I tought. When going back I was slightly bored. I think, the appropriate music or any dramatic dialogue/comments would be very helpful there.
During the last battle (kill 0/20 demons) I was very surprised. I didn't kill all demons and the fight was disrupted. I thought about bug at first not about intentional scenario. Did Linu helped me?
Feedback: Quest: Chapter II
I could use a mount there. It was useful.
I followed the "sparkly trail" and succesively cleaned up places marked with blue circles. I was passing by groups of battlerages fighting against enemies and I thought should I have helped them? Minsc and Drizzt were not interested in help them.
Bug: Quest: Chapter I
1. After final conversation with Linu the "sparkly trail" led the wrong direction, i.e. to the right side of the map, where the "?" sign was placed, but the exit was very close to Linu.
2. When staying at the burning area I didn't get any wounds caused by fire.
Bug: Quest: Chapter III
In the second half (approximately) of the quest the "sparkly trail" led the wrong direction (back).
What would be idea is to add one's SH level into factoring the scales.
Neverwinter Wonderland
Neverwinter Wet & Wild
Neverwinter 2nd Anniversary Montage
Neverwinter Anniversary Montage
Protector's Jubilee Speech
Oh the Carnage
Bug: Typo (Lore: Featured Quest: Gauntylgtym - Forces of Destruction)
The text should read "The Princes have no desire" instead of "The Princes have no desie".
Bug: Chapter 1
When fighting back through the cultists, at the fight at the bridge (on the far end away from the zone exit), one cultist got stuck behind some sort of invisible barrier off the end of the bridge. I had to rely on Drizzt and Bruenor to kill him.
Blood Magic (RELEASED) - NW-DUU2P7HCO
Children of the Fey (RELEASED) - NW-DKSSAPFPF
Buried Under Blacklake (WIP) - NW-DEDV2PAEP
The Redcap Rebels (WIP) - NW-DO23AFHFH
My Foundry playthrough channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Ruskaga/featured
Completed the first 3 chapters of the ME quest and got the Your Legend-Interlude one and then couldn't figure out how to proceed. It was not intuitively obvious to open the campaign tracker and complete the first boon to get the reward so you can progress in the quest. Either that needs to be specifically stated in some of the dialogue (which I might have missed) or you are going to get a lot of my quest is broken comments especially since this is a departure from how past quests worked.
Bug 1 - Campaign Boon
Completing the "Aid Bruenor Battlehammer" campaign "boon" gave me 151,000 exp which was nowhere near enough overflow experience but I still got the reward dialogue and some enchants and a power point that I can't spend.
General feedback
So far this is pretty good, the Chasm part was challenging since Linua kept running away but finally figured out a strat for that. I can see that one being an issue with characters that rely on mobility and distance since they are locked into staying in the PoE circle. Will have to try with a HR to see how the battle works.
One of the elemental groups is on an inaccessible ledge, walled off with a visible fence and an invisible wall. I proximity aggro'd them, they jumped/ran around the fence, and upon defeating them I unlocked some lore. (I think it was "The Wicked of the World". The lore unlock may have been a coincidence because of quest progression.). If we're intended to be able to fight them, aggroing them through a wall is an awkward approach.
Bug: Lore: The Wicked of the World
The popup says "The flames shall purge of the world of its corrupt nature." The first "of" should be removed so that it says "The flames shall purge the world of its corrupt nature."
I played through the first 3 chapters as a TiL 2600-ish DC - I am not a DPS class, and I am far from having BiS - also keep in mind that because of the lack of Guild boons I am quite a bit weaker than I would be on the live server. The fights in the Chasm were actually the hardest - not really hard, but they could be a challenge for some. However, the boss fights were easy - too easy in fact - I really suggest beefing them up a bit. One reason for the lack of difficulty was due to having Drizzt, Minsc etc fighting beside me - I would actually have enjoyed the fights more if I had been alone, but maybe that will change once the voices are fixed and they might have something interesting to say.
Feedback: The Daily quests
I have done the daily quests in Pirate's Skyhold, Icespire Peak and Blacklake. They all share the same problems. The first problem is that you actually spend more time running around than fighting. This is in particular true for Icespire, with the second fight being at the far end. This is boring. I would actually suggest having something like four fights - not just two.
Second problem is that the fights are too easy. The big demon goes down in 10-15 seconds, and while the fights with the circle of cultists take longer, it is not because they are harder. After the fights you are just left with a "Huh? was that all?" feeling. You do not feel like you have actually accomplished anything. I would really suggest making that single demon a bit tougher.
Third problem is something I already reported as a bug - level-inappropriate random drops.
Feedback: Campaign progress
The daily tasks serve to slow down the progression through the campaign. Now, I don't know how long it takes people on average to get from level 60 to level 70, but it took me 10 days - I know others who spent a month. Perhaps you know what the average is, but if the campaign is supposed to help with the current "gap" (where people run out of quests around level 67 and have to gain the last few levels grinding vigilance quests), you need to be careful that the campaign does not actually take longer than the progression from 60 to 70 typically takes.
Feedback: Boons
Overall, I think the boons are fair - some are pretty useless for me as a DC, but my other alts would probably use them, so I think you did OK there.. BUT, they will make overpowered characters even more overpowered, with no content that really needs that kind of power.
People will not get the boons because they need or want them - but just because they are there and they feel (incorrectly) that they are missing out on something if they don't get them.
I have complained about this before, and I may sound like a broken record, but please, please give highly-geared players something that actually feels like a challenge.
Most of the enemies are level 70, but some are level 15. This explains the low-level loot bug described by an earlier post. It also makes some of the fights trivial.
Please continue posting your feedback on difficulty, including what your item level is and the piece of content/enemy you feel is too easy. It's very helpful to get specifics (especially the specifics on the overworld repeatables - thank you!), as I can address them and make changes much faster.
General Feedback
Was too easy, especially with a bunch of level 15 pirates. The final boss was a cake walk since Xuma (unlike every other NPC in the game) was able to keep his aggro while I burned him down. Didn't take a point of damage the entire run.
I run a 2.5k CW and have been to the Tower District and Skyhold dailies so far. The encounters are so easy that the most stressful part is traveling to the spots. I don't know whether it's solvable though, because "go there, kill x" is a pretty boring design to start with anyway. It would at least be nice to get a minor map addition or a new area-themed instance like Tyranny of Dragons.
Same can be said about the first three introductory quests. I loved that we started off on a completely new map since it's simply a breeze of fresh air, but other than that it was a complete walk-through that also the story aspect couldn't come up for.
Feedback: Quest Rewards
I like how much XP, RP and gold the quests give. As a minor upgrade I'd consider leaving at least the Resonance Stones intact as reward on replaying the quests and I'd do the same with the Dwarven King campaign and probably even quests in the Well of Dragons. The game needs a serious injection of RP for Artifact gear and since we already have Sharandar and Dread Ring handing out Artifact and Thaumaturgic Stones, at least one campaign should offer repeatable Resonances as well.
Neverwinter Census 2017
All posts pending disapproval by Cecilia