I won't even suggest the methods for starting and finishing your Foundry creative process, but I will give these genuine, timeless and always useful tips - in no particular order of importance - and specifically related to Foundry mechanics (not story, etc.)
Once you have selected a prefab or created a custom map: play test it first - *before* you go placing objects and props. It's like apartment or home-shopping: you want to see the place before it's furnished - make sure it looks and works the way you want - see if there are any glitches you need to hide with props, etc. Also walking an empty map in 3D will help get your creative juices flowing: "Ooh that cubby will make a great hidden room! Oh, that nook is a great place for an encounter ambush!" And so on.
When populating your map: just because you get 15k objects doesn't mean you need to use them all. Dress your map so it doesn't look empty, but I recommend you stick with "just enough" to get the look you want. Fewer objects mean less work for the player's computer, means a smoother amusement park ride for them. And it allows you to focus on your story/combat/puzzles, whatever.
I recommend populating you map in this order because it will save you a lot of time and frustration:
1) - Props and dressing
2) - Non-contact, non-combat NPCs (like movie extras)
3) - Prepare all interactive objects and test them - such as hidden or locked or hidden locked doors and whatnot,
4) - Place friendly contact NPCs - those contacts the player will speak to
5) - Last, last, last: place your combat encounters. And place them in reverse order: end boss first, then work backward to beginning of your quest.
If you build-out your map in this order, you'll save a lot of time and frustration because you will be going into preview mode again and again and again during and in between all these steps outlined above. For example: it's a lot of fun placing encounters then going in to test-fight them. Now imagine having to do that *every time* you need to go into preview - especially when you need to get into room four to fix some glitch - and having to deal with five or six encounter groups along the way (even with the crtl-space auto-kill) - one word: UGH.
And finally: as everyone here can tell you: it is difficult to accomplish many creative things because of Foundry limitations: such as "appearing" an encounter mob at the right time and not have the player see the "poof-in", or blocking access to a teleport until just the right time, etc.
Do yourself a FAVOR: Bing or Google Stage Play practices. it's all about "sleight of hand" techniques: If I need to change set props on stage right, have the action happening at stage left, where the audience attention will be. They won't notice the changing of things happening at to other end.
So in Foundry - in the case of the above example: use a wall to hide the teleporter - have the combat occur in a way to position the player facing away from that wall when it goes away (disappears) - when the player achieves the goal and wall disappears revealing the teleporter: they turn around and suddenly there's a teleporter there. They don't have to see the wall doing its disappearing act.
There are a lot of really talented folks here - we all love helping each other because no matter how much experience you have in Foundry-making, it's a lot of "thinking outside the box" and someone has very often thought of a way you haven't considered yet that could be more efficient or easier to create, etc.
I say: always remember that we are not "competitors", but rather we all are colleagues in this.
crok2Member, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, SilverstarsPosts: 0Arc User
edited April 2013
Oh, and keep in mind that you will have groups of people playing your quests at times so make them group friendly. I spent days on an effect (There was a bug at that time that made creating it extra time consuming) creating an outdoor blackout type effect. Once I got it working, it was cheesy at best, and then I had 2 friends run it to see how group friendly it was. It just didn't occur to me that they would be 500 meters apart when playing it! So one of the people got locked out of the effect area. I had placed a spawn point inside just in case such a 'rare' occurrence ever happened. (It happened the FIRST time they played it) but the person who got locked out had never discovered the 2nd spawn point either! So he couldn't even /killme to get back there. I had to delete the entire thing and ended up using a different method entirely that took about an hour :P
Oh, and keep in mind that you will have groups of people playing your quests at times so make them group friendly. I spent days on an effect (There was a bug at that time that made creating it extra time consuming) creating an outdoor blackout type effect. Once I got it working, it was cheesy at best, and then I had 2 friends run it to see how group friendly it was. It just didn't occur to me that they would be 500 meters apart when playing it! So one of the people got locked out of the effect area. I had placed a spawn point inside just in case such a 'rare' occurrence ever happened. (It happened the FIRST time they played it) but the person who got locked out had never discovered the 2nd spawn point either! So he couldn't even /killme to get back there. I had to delete the entire thing and ended up using a different method entirely that took about an hour :P
I had an issue just about like this. My solution was to add a spot of dialog, cleverly disguised as part of the story, warning them that if the entire party isnt there, bad things will happen, and gave them an option "We are not ready yet." or something to that effect. Luckily I had an NPC closeby enough to make it believable, and had them interact with an object to start the conversation, to proceed with the quest.
I had an issue just about like this. My solution was to add a spot of dialog, cleverly disguised as part of the story, warning them that if the entire party isnt there, bad things will happen, and gave them an option "We are not ready yet." or something to that effect.
But some people don't read dialog... ever. I am pretty guilty of this myself usually. I start out with the best of intentions and then end up saying to myself, "Blah blah blah.. next". (Not Tilts "A Hidden Blade" though! I LOVED his writing.)
Anyway, I decided I wanted to make it work under all circumstances. Which is also why I am glad we don't have to place emergency exits anymore and I hope people get rid of them. (A door you just came in is ok of course as an exit usually) I can't tell you how many quests I ran that had the emergency exit in a bad location. IE a sparkly object just sitting there in the middle of the room as you are looking for an item. I am sure so many people exited accidentally in MANY quests.
My sole suggestion here is to tone down the amount of enemies in a group, facing 4 strong enemies is not fun at all, I had to use like 7 potions cause all 4 did a lot of damage in like 3 seconds 7 times. lol
I am all for challenges and all that, but there is a thing called overkill and you guys tend to go over the top and I suggest you tone down the strength or numbers of the enemies you face at once.
I am having issues with Objects (details) not wanting to stack on top of each other, or rather the wrong objects on top, and the one I want on top is underneath >,<. But yes I completely agree with everything you folks said, I do things a certain way, I like story, even if its just a little bit, and I am OCD with attention to detail, I completely redid one half of my first map because I noticed there was a floating drape just sitting in the middle of my room for no apparent reason >,<. Anywho, people who are of like mind, will like what I make, everyone else meh, whatever floats their two word boat.
Ignore this, I figured out how to stack, this was an old post of mine, I've progressed nicely with the tool-set now. Yes now I have a new set of issues I'm trying to figure out...lol, like how to get the marker objects to work etc, i.e. Ambush, Guardian, etc.
I am inclined to agree with Crok2 and rest here, that 3D edit, although glitchy at times is very useful for orienting things the way you want them. Keep notes like Crok2 said, if everything seems perfect, play your story and check it anyways! You never know when some odd graphical glitch, or something you may have missed will turn up.
And if your like me, and you seen the Story setup and was scratching your head, thinking what the....??? I just figured it out myself, and once I seen how it worked I smacked myself for how simple it could have been. After you create a map, go to the story tab and click on one of the little + symbols next to map on the left, after you see your map drag it to one of the Map sections where it says Transition and drop it there. Next depending on what you want to do, lets say quest wise you want someone to talk to an NPC, just make an NPC, no need to give them dialog in the map far as I know *now...ughh* just go back to the Story Tab once your NPC is made, and look to the right, in a box should be a icon that says Dialog, drop it in the Objectives slot under transition and viola! The rest is explanatory...yeah it was that easy >,< ughhh
Avoid standard maps unless they are necessary for story reasons (part of your quest takes place in this location), or are very generic, like detailed wilderness maps or unnamed city streets. The latter two choices needs to be customised with details anyway.
Play the game to 60 before starting with the foundry. This is the fastest way to become familiar with the game's themes and conventions, not to mention the types of artwork and encounters available in context.
Most people do not or cannot read the text of your quest. You will get more and better reviews if you accommodate these people. Your quest should still make some sense and be still be completable by people who didn't read a single word. Also keep your quest text short! Even literate people don't want to be crit by a wall of text.
I disagree an enriched story is one of the strongest parts of the foundry. The foundry is limited only by ones imagination. Will everyone care to read your text no. But discouraging people from writing extending stories is poor advice. Unless your referring to people just getting the most cookie-cutter 15 min fluff quest reviewers.
One of my favorite quests you get about 15-20 mins of story before you even kill 1 thing.
I disagree an enriched story is one of the strongest parts of the foundry. The foundry is limited only by ones imagination. Will everyone care to read your text no. But discouraging people from writing extending stories is poor advice. Unless your referring to people just getting the most cookie-cutter 15 min fluff quest reviewers.
One of my favorite quests you get about 15-20 min's of story before you even kill 1 thing.
I am of like mind on this one, I am a writer by trade, so I like story, but I am trying not to bog people down because I know how impatiencent this new generation of gamers are. But I'm sure once its done I'll be asking the same thing Drake just did >,<.
I am of like mind on this one, I am a writer by trade, so I like story, but I am trying not to bog people down because I know how impatiencent this new generation of gamers are.
Sometimes I'm surprised they can even be bothered to finish their own senta
Check out Adventuring College! A 20 minute male-centric comedic solo adventure.
Quest ID: NW-DPCZNUVQ7
Comments
Once you have selected a prefab or created a custom map: play test it first - *before* you go placing objects and props. It's like apartment or home-shopping: you want to see the place before it's furnished - make sure it looks and works the way you want - see if there are any glitches you need to hide with props, etc. Also walking an empty map in 3D will help get your creative juices flowing: "Ooh that cubby will make a great hidden room! Oh, that nook is a great place for an encounter ambush!" And so on.
When populating your map: just because you get 15k objects doesn't mean you need to use them all. Dress your map so it doesn't look empty, but I recommend you stick with "just enough" to get the look you want. Fewer objects mean less work for the player's computer, means a smoother amusement park ride for them. And it allows you to focus on your story/combat/puzzles, whatever.
I recommend populating you map in this order because it will save you a lot of time and frustration:
2) - Non-contact, non-combat NPCs (like movie extras)
3) - Prepare all interactive objects and test them - such as hidden or locked or hidden locked doors and whatnot,
4) - Place friendly contact NPCs - those contacts the player will speak to
5) - Last, last, last: place your combat encounters. And place them in reverse order: end boss first, then work backward to beginning of your quest.
If you build-out your map in this order, you'll save a lot of time and frustration because you will be going into preview mode again and again and again during and in between all these steps outlined above. For example: it's a lot of fun placing encounters then going in to test-fight them. Now imagine having to do that *every time* you need to go into preview - especially when you need to get into room four to fix some glitch - and having to deal with five or six encounter groups along the way (even with the crtl-space auto-kill) - one word: UGH.
And finally: as everyone here can tell you: it is difficult to accomplish many creative things because of Foundry limitations: such as "appearing" an encounter mob at the right time and not have the player see the "poof-in", or blocking access to a teleport until just the right time, etc.
Do yourself a FAVOR: Bing or Google Stage Play practices. it's all about "sleight of hand" techniques: If I need to change set props on stage right, have the action happening at stage left, where the audience attention will be. They won't notice the changing of things happening at to other end.
So in Foundry - in the case of the above example: use a wall to hide the teleporter - have the combat occur in a way to position the player facing away from that wall when it goes away (disappears) - when the player achieves the goal and wall disappears revealing the teleporter: they turn around and suddenly there's a teleporter there. They don't have to see the wall doing its disappearing act.
There are a lot of really talented folks here - we all love helping each other because no matter how much experience you have in Foundry-making, it's a lot of "thinking outside the box" and someone has very often thought of a way you haven't considered yet that could be more efficient or easier to create, etc.
I say: always remember that we are not "competitors", but rather we all are colleagues in this.
I had an issue just about like this. My solution was to add a spot of dialog, cleverly disguised as part of the story, warning them that if the entire party isnt there, bad things will happen, and gave them an option "We are not ready yet." or something to that effect. Luckily I had an NPC closeby enough to make it believable, and had them interact with an object to start the conversation, to proceed with the quest.
Himmelville - Are you easily frightened?
Click Here
On one side of the mountain, there were bones...
But some people don't read dialog... ever. I am pretty guilty of this myself usually. I start out with the best of intentions and then end up saying to myself, "Blah blah blah.. next". (Not Tilts "A Hidden Blade" though! I LOVED his writing.)
Anyway, I decided I wanted to make it work under all circumstances. Which is also why I am glad we don't have to place emergency exits anymore and I hope people get rid of them. (A door you just came in is ok of course as an exit usually) I can't tell you how many quests I ran that had the emergency exit in a bad location. IE a sparkly object just sitting there in the middle of the room as you are looking for an item. I am sure so many people exited accidentally in MANY quests.
Himmelville - Are you easily frightened?
Click Here
On one side of the mountain, there were bones...
I am all for challenges and all that, but there is a thing called overkill and you guys tend to go over the top and I suggest you tone down the strength or numbers of the enemies you face at once.
Ignore this, I figured out how to stack, this was an old post of mine, I've progressed nicely with the tool-set now.
E will allow you to rotate
/locvec is helpful as are the rulers in details for more precise measurement
Also, get up and stretch your legs after saving or switching to player mode
Bill's Tavern | The 27th Level | Secret Agent 34
And if your like me, and you seen the Story setup and was scratching your head, thinking what the....??? I just figured it out myself, and once I seen how it worked I smacked myself for how simple it could have been. After you create a map, go to the story tab and click on one of the little + symbols next to map on the left, after you see your map drag it to one of the Map sections where it says Transition and drop it there. Next depending on what you want to do, lets say quest wise you want someone to talk to an NPC, just make an NPC, no need to give them dialog in the map far as I know *now...ughh* just go back to the Story Tab once your NPC is made, and look to the right, in a box should be a icon that says Dialog, drop it in the Objectives slot under transition and viola! The rest is explanatory...yeah it was that easy >,< ughhh
WIP
One of my favorite quests you get about 15-20 mins of story before you even kill 1 thing.
Quest ID: NW-DPCZNUVQ7
I am of like mind on this one, I am a writer by trade, so I like story, but I am trying not to bog people down because I know how impatiencent this new generation of gamers are. But I'm sure once its done I'll be asking the same thing Drake just did >,<.
Quest ID: NW-DPCZNUVQ7