A Nobleman's Request (Quest)

slaidz · May 2013

Hey there. This is the thread for 'A Nobleman's Request'. It starts off with the player talking to Nobleman Linus and the quest directs you from there.

Handle - @Senatis
Search code - NW-DIYMYKKVY
Average Duration - 33 minutes

In game description:

"After a night at the Driftwood Tavern you overhear some men talking about a noble that's looking for someone special. They tell you of a house that's tucked away... away from prying eyes. The next day you poke around Neverwinter until you find a house that seems to be invisible to all others, even the guards. You knock on the door."

**
Version 2.4 changelog
-Cut out superfluous dialogue
-Changed dialogue order
-Logical removal of sound
-Added some music
-Changed S. Lake District backdrop
-Fixed 'Guppy'
-Added dialogue as well as lore to the Hideaway
-Fixed wall in S. Lake District

Version 2.3 changelog
-Remade South Lake District
-Enemy changes
-Dialogue tweaks
-Cosmetic tweaks

Version 2.2 changelog
-Added custom interior to replace original 'Poor Man's House'
-Greatly adjusted difficulty inside above map
-Added a small optional quest

Version 2.1 changelog
-Tweaked ending choices
-Tweaked ending dialogue
-Tweaked waypoints

Version 2.0 changelog
-Removed Burkhard as starting point so no more "I can't find the way to a gate"
-Created a house for the noble
-Added maps after what was originally the final battle
-Added to the quest
-Took out some enemies
-Cosmetic changes

Things to work on
-Add a few more quest options
-Continue to tweak enemies
-Add dialogue to various NPCs
-Add lore
--

If you leave a review I will repay the favor and to the same. Thanks!
--

Quests reviewed

Into the Mind's Eye - Chapter 1 - The Ruins of Webcrag - NW-DEU18DHO6
The Three Dials - NW-DMEWA2PW3
The Saga of the Dark Creed: The Dark Creed - NWS-DOF3BARMD
Order of the Five Flights: Intro - NW-DJIL95DV2
Vertigo: Lethalia Lost - NW-DBLUCGR2T
Rock Bottom - NW-DBK2BZ7VC
Those Steamy Neverwinter Nights - NW-DI8PEGHIB
All I Wanted Was A Drink - NW-DUAPDDXWP
At the Inn of Clift Rock: Driven to the Brink - NW-DRYVJ3YMK
A small dwarvish grudge - NW-DUI8A8I7R
Different Seasons - The Lady and the Worm - NW-DPQPJSVTH
Damsel's Inn Distress - NW-DB8OXX3R5
The-Fear-That-Freeze - NW-DNUZSYEEY
Tomb of Wernar - NW-DJGYNI7NH
Heaters Gonna Heat - NW-DN9RWCCFA
Tale of a key-losing Rat - NW-DLNI2LJDW
Power of the Loc-Nar - NW-DCPWC4FTI (@merryblues)
Memnon: Invoking the old gods - NW-DJC4R9H3R
Any cave can lead to adventure - NW-DQF4T7QYH
The Legend of Adlez - NW-DDZ6NDJ9W
--

Quests to review

Return to Neverwinter - NW-DJIL95DV2
Elderlock Deeps - NW-DLMMM9UBE
Descendants of Delehna: Bringing Truth to Words - NW-DDE386E52
Zamzah's Legacy - NW-DQF8ZRN5X
The Darkness Within: Chapter 1 - NW-DH8L54PIK
Where has Justice gone? - NW-DSN2VHDYL
Kail and Clyve: Go At Sea - NW-DSEGBOHCC

slaidz · May 2013

Quick Bump

chinspinner · May 2013

I'll do a trade with you.

Quest name: The Three Dials
Shortcode: NW-DMEWA2PW3
Author: @Pioneerscarfe
Type: story
Estimated time: 15 minutes
Thread URL: http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/sho...ials-New-Quest

It is an entirely bespoke quest, bespoke maps and characters. It is story-driven and the combat is fairly easy (no stacking or anything).

I will take a look at yours when I am back on in an hour or so.

slaidz · May 2013

chinspinner wrote: »

Just played through it and it has a good number of encounters/ difficulty level and decent dialogue, a few comments: -

1) I have no idea what triggered the door when I had to find the way inside, but it did involve me blindly running around for a while.
2) The corpse of the dead man stands up when you enter dialogue (I know this is the fault of the foundry). Try putting a dagger or something in him and interact with the object rather than the corpse to prevent this happening.
3) The back pack is out of LoS unless you start jumping around on barrels.
4) The black and white is a nice effect but creates some difficulties in identifying when to dodge etc.
5) Also the maps are all standard, and it is nice to see some new player designed locations now and then.

1. Odd bug, I fixed it though
2. Totally my fault, fixed it as well.
3. I just put the backpack on the ground.
4. Ahh, I didn't even know that, thanks!
5. Yeah... I'm actually working on a few custom maps now. Maybe I'll come back and update this with the same in the future. Especially the final part, I hate that house.

duchessofkvetch · May 2013

chinspinner wrote: »

I'll do a trade with you.

Quest name: The Three Dials
Shortcode: NW-DMEWA2PW3
Author: @Pioneerscarfe
Type: story
Estimated time: 15 minutes
Thread URL: http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/sho...ials-New-Quest

It is an entirely bespoke quest, bespoke maps and characters. It is story-driven and the combat is fairly easy (no stacking or anything).

I will take a look at yours when I am back on in an hour or so.

I clicked on this out of curiosity, but the link is bad for me.

slaidz · May 2013

http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?236272-The-Three-Dials-New-Quest

It's a good quest, you should try it out.

worndown · May 2013

A noble wants to see you

Issue 1: Unable to locate quest objective waypoint.
I started in Protector

slaidz · May 2013

I thought I had made it clear enough that you have to go to the Driftwood tavern, but I removed the initial "Find the noble" objective in favor of those sparkles leading you to him.

slaidz · May 2013

seanc84 wrote: »

Ok, next up is...

A Nobleman's Request by @Senatis (NW-DIYMYKKVY)

Geralt made me laugh. :P

Pretty tough first encounter... my cleric companion almost went down... but it was manageable.

The map looks pretty cool... maybe one suggestion is to have the encounters patrol a little. They look kinda bored standing in one spot. :P You also might want to mix up the encounter types. I see a bunch of groups all with an enforcer and two archers. The enforcers are pretty annoying to kill... not looking forward to having to clear a path to my objective.

"Way to the South Lake courtyard" - not sure what this objective means.

Yay, more dogs!

The inside of the house looks cool... but as I keep fighting I'm thinking that you need more varied encounters. Some without enforcers would be nice.

Hooooly bejeezus that end fight was a pain. I lost track of how many times my cleric hireling went down due to all the AOEs. At least it was a different mob type - that part was cool, I admit.

Overall, the story was interesting, but the sheer number of combat encounters with the same mobs and the difficulty of the fights kinda wore me down. Tone the combat down a little and this would be a great quest!

Thanks for the feedback. I've deleted a bunch of enemies and (finally)thrown in some variety so it's not all 'Sniper, Sniper, Enforcer'. I've also taken out some enforcers all together. Thanks!

seanc84 · May 2013

slaidz wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback. I've deleted a bunch of enemies and (finally)thrown in some variety so it's not all 'Sniper, Sniper, Enforcer'. I've also taken out some enforcers all together. Thanks!

Cool - I'll have to run it again sometime and check out the changes to re-rate it.

slaidz · May 2013

offstudio wrote: »

slaidz: Nobleman's Request

Played, rated, and reviewed. Nicely done. Final boss fight was almost too much though. I died once and had to use several potions as a lvl 50 cleric which is something I am not used to doing lol. Nice story as well.

Thanks for the feedback. As for the final battle, well, he is trying to kill you after all, but I'll tweak it a bit. Thanks again.

slaidz · May 2013

I've fully customized the enemies at the end and I'm going to be making custom interiors soon.

voivodak · May 2013

Your adventure seems interesting. I'll play it for sure this evening. Link for mine quest is in signature.

Please, return the favor, i need feedback on how improve it

eulerdmoogle · May 2013

Just finished your mission. Thoughts:

1) You're stacking standard or hard encounters. At low levels this is fine, but at higher levels it will make it impossible for some classes, such as clerics, to do your missions. Please remember combat gets significantly harder after lv 25 or so. (BTW, I'm doing this review with a lv 10 GWF for exactly this reason)
2) You may want to consider changing the blackdrop on your blacklake map to night or adding more npcs wandering, cowering, etc. The place feels empty.
3) The transition from the blacklake map to the upscale city map just felt weird and artificial. I'm was expecting a dock or peer on the other end.
4) In the upscale city map, "south lake courtyard", I was disappointed when the seven npcs with the contact icon actually didn't have anything to say except one or two words. Maybe flesh them out a bit, or at least remove the contact icon.
5) Why is the poor man's house decorated in orc doodads? And why are there nearly naked men fighting me?
6) Once again, you're stacking encounters in the poor man's house.
7) The ending was less that satisfying. It felt like it ended to early.
8) You missed a map transition. I got "Press F to go to next map" a couple of times.

Either way, it was a good first attempt at a mission. I'm sure as you get better at doing missions you'll be doing wonderful things.

slaidz · May 2013

eulerdmoogle wrote: »

Just finished your mission. Thoughts:

1) You're stacking standard or hard encounters. At low levels this is fine, but at higher levels it will make it impossible for some classes, such as clerics, to do your missions. Please remember combat gets significantly harder after lv 25 or so. (BTW, I'm doing this review with a lv 10 GWF for exactly this reason)
2) You may want to consider changing the blackdrop on your blacklake map to night or adding more npcs wandering, cowering, etc. The place feels empty.
3) The transition from the blacklake map to the upscale city map just felt weird and artificial. I'm was expecting a dock or peer on the other end.
4) In the upscale city map, "south lake courtyard", I was disappointed when the seven npcs with the contact icon actually didn't have anything to say except one or two words. Maybe flesh them out a bit, or at least remove the contact icon.
5) Why is the poor man's house decorated in orc doodads? And why are there nearly naked men fighting me?
6) Once again, you're stacking encounters in the poor man's house.
7) The ending was less that satisfying. It felt like it ended to early.
8) You missed a map transition. I got "Press F to go to next map" a couple of times.

Either way, it was a good first attempt at a mission. I'm sure as you get better at doing missions you'll be doing wonderful things.

Thanks for the feedback.
1. I've cut down the encounters, but I'll continue tweaking them.
2. Well, it is under siege, so I can't really have NPCs wandering around. I could add some more life by adding details, so I'll definitely look into that. Or maybe make a custom map.
3. Yes, I must admit that is a bit of laziness on my part. When I designed that area I didn't really know what I was doing so I'll definitely go back and change it to something that feels more natural.
4. This is one of the things I'm working on now to add more life to the city.
5. The naked men/women were slaves that rebelled against the poor man. I'm beginning to make a custom interior so those orc things should be gone.
6. I somewhat agree as I am going to add another area right after that to tie up loose ends, what would have satisfied you as far as the ending goes?
7. I'll look through the maps and the transitions and change whichever one it was.

Thanks a lot for the feedback and I'll definitely put it to good use.

I just hope my client can retake your quest so I can get all the way to the end.

slaidz · May 2013

I'm hesitant to bump this since I'm working on adding to the quest, but it's buried deep.

So....

slaidz · May 2013

Version 2.0 changelog
-Removed Burkhard as starting point so no more "I can't find the way to a gate"
-Created a house for the noble
-Added maps after what was originally the final battle
-Added to the quest
-Took out some enemies
-Cosmetic changes

Things to work on
-Add a few more quest options
-Wait for Cryptic to put music in
-Continue to tweak enemies
-Add to the South Lake district
-Create another custom interior

slaidz · May 2013

A very shameless bump.

slaidz · May 2013

slapthathog wrote: »

Slaidz - just finished yours. I didn't save the slaves. Might run that again if there are other outcomes. It was cool to switch from the fire to b&w ghost at the end. Combat had some tough fights - sucked a few pots but not too many

Thanks for the feedback.

Well, the other outcome would be that you save them and you get new dialogue at the end. I'm working on making the choice more significant. I'm also continuing to tweak the combat to find the perfect balance. Again, thanks for the feedback. I'll play through your quest and review it soon.

slaidz · May 2013

duskdweller78 wrote: »

Just reviewed your quest.
You've got the basis for a good quest, but currently there are some issues (just my opinion!):
1> encounters, "more of the same" all over the place, 75% of the encounters are mixed nasher's rebels as base, and it gets boring fast. Also some fights were really unbalanced at high levels, mainly the first and the last in the poor men's house (and my char equip is almost full epic).
2> The blacklake district part felt a bit 'redundant', I don't think it's worth it to have a whole map just to go and click the tower, also it's filled with the usual base looking nasher rebels. I think you should give it a better purpose, more customization, or just get rid of it.
3> The poor men's house could use some more real customization.
4> The story gets a bit confusing and convoluted at the end.

Thanks for the feedback.

1. I'll work on adding more variety. And yes, like 75% of combat is comprised of rebels, so that's definitely something I'm looking at as well as redoing the entire 'Poor Man's House'.
2. While I don't think removing it would be a good idea, changing it is definitely on my list of things to improve on.
3. Yes, I'm working on a custom interior to replace that map all together.
4. I'll see if I can do a bit more to clear up any confusion.

Thanks again for your feedback.

slaidz · May 2013

rixenatorz wrote: »

Woo, I was the 20th play so you're now daily eligible.

I'm currently level 50 on my cleric and a few of the encounters seemed a bit punishing. The first encounter after entering the Poor Man's house with ~5 standard-hard mobs was particularly though, I resorted to standing on the upper level and just knocking anyone off who came close. Several of the encounters just seemed a bit too tough for my level and I'd like to see them nerfed a bit.

Thanks for sharing.

Yay, it's a daily foundry now. Thanks for playing & for the feedback. I'm currently working on recreating the house so I can "fix" the encounters. Thanks again for the feedback.

lunchtimenow · May 2013

I played your quest as a level 43 TR. I found it interesting. There was a lot going on and it was hard to follow. Here's my review starting with notes then pros and cons:

Use of Dialog: I was frustrated with the Loyal Servant's dialog because it did not cycle back after choosing failed routes. I feel like frustration towards the servant is ok because of his roll in the story, however I was more frustrated at the dialog choices constantly bouncing me out of conversation than the Loyal Servant.

Use of Effects: I like your use of fire and particularly how it spread. Looked good. The second room to the Hideaway had a shining curtain which was interesting.

Pros:
- Lots of abstract ideas, felt like an experimental film so it's hard to feel justified about my 'cons'
- The potential for a great story
- Good use of effects

Cons:
- Story was difficult to understand. I feel like I didn't know what was going on, not necessarily because the information wasn't there, but maybe how it was presented. Maybe it was difficult to understand because there were too many similar choices.
- Combat was rough, too many stacked groups for my level.
- The Hideaway could use more detail (chairs, pictures on the wall, booths, a bar, maybe a pig fight pit

)

End of the day, I gave it five stars. I like the experimental approach (whether that was your intention or not). I think there is a lot going on in the quest and it could use some tuning and tinkering to bring in the story as well as some more map details.

Overall, keep it up and it'll be really cool!

slaidz · May 2013

Removed the Poor Man's House and replaced it with a custom interior that contains a variety of monsters as well as a small optional quest continuing the theme of slavery. Difficulty has been lowered on that map.

Version 2.2 is in the process of publishing as I type.

Version 2.2 changelog
-Added custom interior to replace original 'Poor Man's House'
-Greatly adjusted difficulty inside above map
-Added few optional quests

slaidz · May 2013

lunchtimenow wrote: »

I played your quest as a level 43 TR. I found it interesting. There was a lot going on and it was hard to follow. Here's my review starting with notes then pros and cons:

Use of Dialog: I was frustrated with the Loyal Servant's dialog because it did not cycle back after choosing failed routes. I feel like frustration towards the servant is ok because of his roll in the story, however I was more frustrated at the dialog choices constantly bouncing me out of conversation than the Loyal Servant.

Use of Effects: I like your use of fire and particularly how it spread. Looked good. The second room to the Hideaway had a shining curtain which was interesting.

Pros:
- Lots of abstract ideas, felt like an experimental film so it's hard to feel justified about my 'cons'
- The potential for a great story
- Good use of effects

Cons:
- Story was difficult to understand. I feel like I didn't know what was going on, not necessarily because the information wasn't there, but maybe how it was presented. Maybe it was difficult to understand because there were too many similar choices.
- Combat was rough, too many stacked groups for my level.
- The Hideaway could use more detail (chairs, pictures on the wall, booths, a bar, maybe a pig fight pit )

End of the day, I gave it five stars. I like the experimental approach (whether that was your intention or not). I think there is a lot going on in the quest and it could use some tuning and tinkering to bring in the story as well as some more map details.

Overall, keep it up and it'll be really cool!

Thanks for your feedback.

Dialog: The dialogue options are set up so you choose a certain path and only that path. You choose your own "persona" and run with it. I've tried to incorporate enough options to satisfy the majority, though I'm always looking to expand on that.

Effects: Thanks! I hope I can find more areas to incorporate effects.

Pros: In terms of being "experimental"... well, this quest was much shorter with much less content, so as I came up with more ideas I put them in. Though you aren't the first person to say that.

Cons: Yes, I need to condense the story to make it easier to understand or change the way it's currently presented. I've eased up on the combat in the Poor Man's House and changed the way the combat goes in the final area depending on choices. I left the Hideaway barren as an atmospheric choice, though I will look into adding more items. Such as a pig fight pit.

Again, thanks for the detailed review. I look forward to playing your quest.

tabris82 · May 2013

slaidz wrote: »

I will try your quest out. Mine is in my sig.

Edit:

Short code: Check sig

Name: A Nobleman's Request

Author: @Senatis

Est. Time: Avg. 20 minutes, solo

Url: Check sig

Hello!

So i just finished your quest. Did it solo with a Cleric, the combats were a bit hard but nothing overwhelming. It was fun and i liked how there was plenty of dialog options that would fit different personalities.

A few things i noticed that you might want to change should they not be intended:

The first encounters ventured too close to Geralt, so they started attacking him while i was still talking to him, then while i was resting at the camp (maybe the patrol goes too close, or the wander radius is set too wide).

The Whole lighthouse was interactable - maybe put a small invisible interactable in front of the door.

Most of not all the interactions just say interact.

After killing the loyal servants the quest still say "loyal servants" instead of something like "go back to the hideaway" or something. On the same note, i thought that the descriptions of your quests were odd, like "loyal servants", "slaves", "home" instead of find and kill x, go to back y to z.

Also the whole part with the mute was a bit weird. But you did some very nice tricks, like when he died and the skeleton with the same rough shape appears, very nice!

Keep in mind those are just my opinion

I hope this helps.

zocat1 · May 2013

Hi, I played 2.21 as a 40 GF.

After talking to Linus and then to the Loyal Servant it says "The Loyal Servant" where I need to go to the Southlake District. From inside Linus' house I dont get the "You have to go here" marker on the location (the location is present, just takes a bit of searching ^^). on the World Map. (Exiting the room via the escape button and then visiting a normal city gate shows it).

South Lake courtyard. As someone mentioned, the dialog options could be a bit better than a single 1-2 word reply. Also what's up with those spiders & their victim?

You mentioned in this thread that the slaves revolted against their master - this somehow wasnt really clear to me. There were 2 guards outside the house, and then I assumed inside those guys were guards as well (and wondered why they were marked as slaves).

After returning to Linus, you get the option to free the slaves in the backroom. I'm pretty sure I selected the option to free them, but still the room went up in flames and the slaves in their cages didnt despawn. I also could only get a broken lever handle from the lever near the brazier. At the Mute I did have an option to say "I saved them", but them not despawning & talking felt strange.

Fight difficulty wasnt a problem for me. Felt good.

I liked your usage of the BWeffect and the fire everywhere. Overall quite good

notaurious · May 2013

Traded Review:

1) I think there are too many "quit this quest" chat options. One or two for dramatic effect, fine, tons of them makes it possible to misclick and have to start the convo over again (since you effectively have no choice but to continue).
2) I like the detail you placed with NPCs. Not sure it is necessary to have them dialogue interactive only to have them say the same thing they say out loud.
3) Lots of maps = lots of loading.
4) You certainly like that enforcer (I think that's the one) mob.
5) Encounter to the room on the right when looking for documents is sort-of like an issue you had with mine. Easy to get stuck in an area where you have to take the hard hitting roomwide attack. Doable.
6) Choices for backpack are odd. I am unsure what I have found to take to proceed with the next part until I have taken it. If this triggers different events depending on what I took, you might rework that so a player has say in what they are taking instead of vague descriptions.
7) Tried to free slaves, ended up clicking on one of several clickys that wasn't the lever apparently, advanced to next part, didn't save them, was disappointed.

4 Stars. Overall decent run. Got tired of fighting that one type of mob over and over and over in different skins, but it proved to be a challenge, so I wasn't bored. I never felt like I understood my choices nor the implications of them. To a degree, that's fine, as it helps leave things more open-ended. I would put more emphasis on where the lever is, though. I, being a little hasty, clicked the first clicky I saw in the area I was told to go, which ended up advancing me to the final room. That's just as much a me thing as any, but certainly could be reworked a little. I thought maybe those items were what you were using as a lever.

slaidz · May 2013

Well, I took a few days off to do other things. Anyway...

Version 2.3 is in the process of being published. The major change is I've removed the blacklake map and replaced it with a new 'South Lake' map. I've also replaced the encounters on this map and streamlined it a bit. There is no longer a boat either.

Tabris:
-Yes, Geralt was supposed to be attacked. There is dialogue if you talk to him again that talks about enemies charging the area.
-Good idea on the lighthouse.
-I will look through the objectives and change any that seem off or odd.
-Thanks, I will try to clear up any confusion that seems to go hand in hand with a few parts of the quest.

Thanks for the feedback!

Zocat:

-Linus does tell you to go to the South Lake district, but I've added dialogue anyway. You can go there through the door where you come in.
-Yes, I am working on giving those NPCs full dialogue. And someone found the spiders! Haha, I just put them there as a bit of an easter egg. If you wandered around the old South Lake map you would have found kobolds.
-The guards didn't know what was going on inside the house, but I'll do something to clear that up.
-Yes, the place goes up in flames and the lever that spawns is supposed to give you a broken handle. Whether or not you have the handle determines the difficulty of the final fight. There is only one slave that stays and that's on purpose. He's the one that says 'My ghost will haunt you' or something.

Thanks for your feedback!

Notaurious:
-I was actually thinking about there being too many "quit" dialogue options so that is definitely something I'm going to change.
-I am working on giving almost all the NPCs full dialogue.
-Yes... I hate loading screens, but the use of teleporters and the like doesn't seem like it'll go well. Except for maybe the final part.
-Yeah... enforcers galore, but I've added more encounter variety, so less enforcers than before.
-I'll take a look at tweaking enemies as well as their placement.
-A decal appears of **** to the right of the PC.
-I can't add waypoints or anything to the lever, so I'll make sure it's clearer where it's located.

Thanks for your feedback, I really need to add in explanations and clarity/transparency.
--

Thanks a lot for your reviews guys. I'll play through your quests as well if I haven't already. Sorry about the short absence!

slaidz · June 2013

Version 2.4 changelog
-Cut out superfluous dialogue
-Changed dialogue order
-Logical removal of sound
-Added some music
-Changed S. Lake District backdrop
-Fixed 'Guppy'
-Added dialogue as well as lore to the Hideaway
-Fixed wall in S. Lake District

After another prolong absence, I believe I'm finally "back". I'll be knocking out the remaining reviews that have to be done as well as looking at new quests posted in recent days.

A Nobleman's Request (Quest)

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