[Feedback] Suggestions What to Add/Change in the Foundry.

mllebean

Fully support 1, 4, 11, 16, 17, 47 especially. In general I would like to see more options for modifying costumes - some basic plain clothes or robes that can be coloured, option of adding existing objects to a costume (like an NPC with a goofy object on its head as a hat). Being able to move not only NPCs but also buildings in-map would be very helpful against those pesky floating houses. I would also like to be able to set up "combat" against inanimate objects, akin to the crystal smashing at one point of the main Neverwinter questline (if there is a way to do this that I have just not figured out, please, someone, let me know!) For the music selections, some more lighthearted and fun options would be nice - most of the current options are so grandiose and sinister. And finally, more flexibility on when NPCs appear and disappear (especially if they are related to a quest objective - currently that seems to limit the options significantly).

Oh, and this is slightly different, but I would also like some changes related to quest reviews and the in-game foundry search feature. e.g. being able to send a private message to the author as part of the review process (e.g. you don't always want to use your review to flag a typo or whatnot) - this should also be an option for quests that aren't completed (so we can flag quest-breaking bugs, for instance), and using parameters to search for quests e.g. length of time, number of players, focus on lore/fighting/comedy, etc.

eldarth

mllebean wrote: »

I would also like to be able to set up "combat" against inanimate objects, akin to the crystal smashing at one point of the main Neverwinter questline (if there is a way to do this that I have just not figured out, please, someone, let me know!)

Maybe NPC animations: charge, shake fist, kick ?

pocketcoppers

Support "or" logic. For example: I place an NPC and give it a dialog where the NPC's faction can either become offended (spawning hostile encounter) or negotiated by diplomacy (spawning friendly encounter).

eldarth

pocketcoppers wrote: »

Support "or" logic. For example: I place an NPC and give it a dialog where the NPC's faction can either become offended (spawning hostile encounter) or negotiated by diplomacy (spawning friendly encounter).

Couldn't you already do that scenario using "When Dialog Reached" to spawn the different encounters?
Ask the player which faction they support and maybe even have each response use Required Item for a faction related item given by an earlier NPC, or dropped by an encounter, etc.

boneninja03

I would like to see more assets added as well. Options for when you make costumes for usual enemy type classes. For instance, clothes/gear you can actually put on skeletons, that doesn't suddenly make them look like they have full meaty toned legs around their bones? And more casual options within the costumes. Just shirts, pants, aprons, hats, just actual clothes instead of adventuring gear.

I also think the foundry needs needs needs more details involving lab setups (maps, rooms, and details). Alchemical setups, instruments, devices, experiments, etc.

wuhsin

You need to make it so that quests only give a Daily Foundry bonus to a player once for completing them. The reason is that players are exploiting the Foundry by playing the same maps over and over to farm AD, when the Daily bonus was SUPPOSED to encourage players to play a broader range of content, not just the few maps at the top or the ones that are easy. Since players can only review a quest once, and most authors are struggling for reviews which is why the bonus was created to begin with, it's unnecessary to reward players for completing the same quest more than once. Please consider this idea.

ricktus1973

I have a few suggestions.
1. Better search function for foundry. Make it easier to search through foundry quests and filter stuff better.
2. Instead of having just a chest at the end, why not have a chest at the end of the adventure that gives you a token. Have really
nice level specific gear available to those who save up enough tokens (can be a massive amount of tokens). This would give people
who don't normally run foundry content more incentive to do so.
3. of course it would be nice to see a lot of other features implemented, but I'm sure without a doubt those have already been
covered by others if the ones I've listed havn't already been also.

Edit: on #2, only use this feature on quests that last more than 15-20 minutes.

zahinder

Distortion/heat shimmer.
Ability to make FX fogs of any (of the normal range) color -- I want a really dark, saturated blue fog, but what exists is almost pure white.
Low gravity. Hey, they have it in STO Foundry... would be good for Far Realms, dreamlands, cool jumping games...

Of course, I want all of that because I'm doing an underwater thing. Bloom and black fog will do. I guess. Sigh.

(What's weird/annoying is that if you teleport below water in coastal maps, you DO get water shimmer haze effects. You just can't... create it yourself.)

meedacthunist

wuhsin wrote: »

Since players can only review a quest once, and most authors are struggling for reviews which is why the bonus was created to begin with, it's unnecessary to reward players for completing the same quest more than once. Please consider this idea.

Player can review quest more than once. After 24h from its last play you can play this quest again and change your review.
This will be counted as the same review, but you may change given rating. This will be also counted as one more play on that quest. This is how it exactly works.

zahinder

Another for my wish list: more of the 'backdrop' as detail FX elements, like lighting and horizon.

We have a few, and obviously 'interior fog' has a big effect.

But it'd be nice to be able to, say, go from 'sunny bright' to 'doom/stormy/interior' without requiring a map change.

This could be useful for various game events (someone summoning up something nasty, sky shifts from bright day to stormy to vortex) or for location shifts (go from, again, bright outdoors to an 'interior' cavern structure within the map.)

maliciousmaxxx

I would really like to see a better reward system. Due to foundry event, most players are looking for quick zerg quests and short quests. These are fine, but those people that have worked long to maximize foundry quest/campaign slots often face difficulties with incentives for players to spend time in long and detailed maps. Those maps which are fun for killing's sake are great and I thoroughly enjoy them, but wouldn't it be better if there was a solid reward at the end of some of these foundry quests other than a "white" necklace or a pair of worthless boots? I also think that the addition of "boss mobs" with a limit on how many can be placed and to have them also have a higher end loot table would really enhance incentives to get more people involved in Foundry Quests. this could bring and maintain a healthy gamer population, especially for the long haul. There are some heavy hitter mmorpgs coming up and it would be a shame to see such a powerful tool such as the foundry stay so limited.

varik75

Definitely agree with several points already stated that I too came across when making my first Foundry. Not really reposting these ideas, simply agreeing with them to add another voice and why.

1) More mob types: While it does seem like there are already quite a few mob types, there are some that I think a LOT of players would love to be able to put into their quests. Beholders come right to mind (which was stated already), because I was a little disappointed to find they were not a possible encounter mob.

2) Branching quest: I assumed this was possible. My first Foundry took me 3 days to do, almost a day of it trying everything I could and thinking I was doing something wrong when I attempted to branch the quest. Basically, players had two doors they could possibly go through. Depending on how they answered the quest giver determined which of the two doors they were able to go through. One way would have been easier then the other, rewarding the player who took the time to find the lore that offered a clue to that answer. Finally realizing it wasn't possible, I had to amend the Foundry and make it more linear. The possibilities of branching storylines makes Foundry quests have much more replayability... players will want to do them again and again not just because they enjoy them, but also to see where all the paths go.

3) Multiple items option required for objectives: Not certain if this one was mentioned, but having multiple items required adds to the exploring. I'm thinking of a crypt with multiple branching rooms, where tough mini-bosses have items required to get to the end boss. This can already be done to a point I think, but right now it's very basic, as long as the item is in inventory then it places it where needed. I'm thinking more along the lines of interacting with the object, and get an option that says something like 'what order do you place the items?' with several options available. This is possible already to a point, where we can simple provide possible 'answers' but what I don't believe is possible right now is a 'wrong' answer simply has a fail, can't advance story right now. All that means is the player just has to keep picking answers until he/she gets the right one. There's no option like 'wrong answer spawns x mobs' or something to that effect (that I am aware of.)

4) Ability to give certain mobs invisibility attack: Very simply, I'm thinking certain mobs could be standing/patrolling invisible, and break out of it when they attack. Would love to see something like entering what looks like an empty room, and suddenly a group of spiders leaps at you from out of nowhere. A side thought on that would be to be able to have some mobs (spiders comes to mind) drop down from the ceiling, or perhaps they are placed above a doorway and leap down as the player(s) enter from the other side.


Just a few of my thoughts, which most have probably already been mentioned, but one or two may not have yet. Foundry is a fun tool, but this is still DnD, and the heart of DnD has always been having choices, and branching paths and storylines based upon the choices the players make. It's extremely linear right now, and other than the obvious wants of seeing more mobs available to put in our creations, I think one of the most important wants/needs is having that ability to give the players choices, and branching those choices off to different paths.

eldarth

varik75 wrote: »

4) Ability to give certain mobs invisibility attack: Very simply, I'm thinking certain mobs could be standing/patrolling invisible, and break out of it when they attack. Would love to see something like entering what looks like an empty room, and suddenly a group of spiders leaps at you from out of nowhere. A side thought on that would be to be able to have some mobs (spiders comes to mind) drop down from the ceiling, or perhaps they are placed above a doorway and leap down as the player(s) enter from the other side.

I'm basically doing this in my Tendrils of the Underdark quest now. I set a Reach Waypoint in a cave tunnel and when the player reaches that I have a spider encounter spawn 10' above the floor so they "drop down" in front of the player.

abaddonlive

The ability to choose "Friendly Encounter" in whatever encounter you are setting up.
-Yes, you could change the outfit of a guard to one of your own cuztomized characters, but that one will always have a sword/bow in hand and the same settings as the Guard-encounter. It would be fantastic to have the same options as when you

meedacthunist

A very handy feature would be an ability to place interior rooms on exterior maps. Just like it's done on Cryptic PE map, where Driftwood tavern interior is made on blank border of main map. Combined with use of teleporters it would allow us to have ability to enter/exit buildings without having a real map transfer. Though it would probably require deoing existing exterior maps by adding blank margin to them.

sourcreamking

I would very much like to change the direction of wind... As of now, the stormy clouds in the background go one way, the heavy rain blows another direction, and if I add the dust storm, it roars away in a third direction... No matter how many degrees I rotate the layers, they still blow the same way.

zahinder

Agreed. Wind, water waves... meh.

Also, refinement of the usual 'let us scale objects' request -- let us, at least, shrink objects. I can understand that Cryptic might not want really horrible giant versions of grass or something, where the low details become obviously ... bad.

I understand if there's a code reason why objects don't freely scale -- I can imagine a design where scale of objects would require significant recoding.

But if not... let us!

(And, repeating, let us scale nonhumans! There's a slider, let it work!)

oggbrox

Hey guys! I love many of these points. Pretty good work. Hope some of those elements will find a way into the foundry. You rock!

jaggeropth

Here's a quick example of the dynamic feature I'd like to see added to objects. In this example, the object will take 2.5 seconds to travel 100 feet and rotate 90 degrees during that same time. It would have the standard parameters for start/stop (Never,Immediately,Component Reached, etc). This would make for some very interesting quests.http://www.flickr.com/photos/16319106@N00/9036357935/

neverhof

How about, a Foundry Auction House.

Some players are great at storylines but not so good at making maps, others are great at making maps but not so good at storylines.

It would be great if you could sell designs for maps you have made in some way. Like; selling 'Large Cave Cavern basic/no/advanced decor, 4 funtioning switches.' 400k ad. The Foundry Quests could then give a shout to the author of the segments.

It could have a request/job tab where people could ask for something they want made and others can advertise what they've made with a screenshot, like a room or fighting area or puzzle, other players then accept the job or buy the map/piece.

And some basic voice Emotes to give our npcs, hello, farewell, no, yes etc

Brain-storming/farting.

**A Preview Map button next to the buy button so you could run around the map and check the buttons out and how it looks.

osadamask

neverhof wrote: »

How about, a Foundry Auction House.

Some players mare great at storyline but not so good at making maps, others are great at making maps but not so good at storylines.

It would be great if you could sell designs for maps you have made in some way. Like; selling 'Large Cave Cavern basic/no/advanced decor, 4 funtioning switches.' 400k ad.

It could have a request/job tab where people could ask for something they want made and others can advertise what they've made with a screenshot, like a room or fighting area or puzzle, other players then accept the job or buy the map/piece.

And some basic voice Emotes to give our npcs, hello, farewell, no, yes etc

Brain-storming/farting.

Interesting idea, I do see lots of room for griefing though. Perhaps along with that a rating system to hold them accountable.

neverhof

I was just changing that when you posted lol, if it gave a shout to the author of the segments in a credits section then there would be a record. And disable the 'duplicate' function on traded maps/segments.

**Probably need to be able to mail the completed files too so you can share them with friends and get a sort of Co-op Foundry going.

glantorx

Foundry Additions, Questions, Suggestions and Requests.

First off Thank you for fixing the sound – that is we hope.

Triggers:
Trigger at end of single patrol – to trigger next action.
Trigger Timer – Countdown.

Just those two above would allow a great deal of cut scenes to be added with ease.
–
Suggestion:
Give us the ability to hide all objects at a priority level - like layers.
–
Question:
Please explain why we can't save a map to disk and import it into another quest.
Please explain why we can't save quests to disk.

We can't exploit this because they still have to be published – in other words checked.
–
Requests:
Please fix portal x,y,z cords – why are they totally different from everything else? And change radians to degrees please.
Request for a large cavern room with a flat floor – so we can build in it with ease. (underground city/ arena/ etc.).
Can we have a sort by race of details – All Dwarf, Drow, Human etc. (I know you can type in search – but not everyone knows all the race types covered).

pris23

As for the costumes, I agree that we need some more costumes. Also, my biggest peeve so far with the costumes is that I cannot keep the preset costume and change the colors of it. Sometimes the preset costume is perfect, but I don't want the colors that are on it.

One monster encounters would be great and a couple of boss monsters as well.

Loot: I understand and agree that Cryptic should be in charge of loot. However, I think that there should be a treasure chest that can be placed here and there (with a limit of course) that drops random loot. It makes dungeons feel more like a D&D experience. If a boss monster is indeed added it would be cool if they had a small percentage to drop something blue at least.

Caves: I would like to see some smaller cave tile pieces. I understand that there are already small cave pieces, but they do not look like caves...they look like underground man made mines or something. I love the natural cavernous feeling to the large cave tile pieces, but I want the rooms/hallways to be smaller sometimes with a little less winding platforms.

I'll post more things if I think of them. Thanks Cryptic for making such an awesome tool for me to share my stories with.

vuelhering

I want tunable, scriptable monsters & encounters.

This means, a set of 1/2/3/4/5-mob easy/med/hard guards and monsters, with specific attacks and equipment. (That's easy, and is mostly in the game tech now.) I want a single elite, a single brute, a single whatever guard and monster.

I want to be able to make explosions or certain effects if I want. I want to be able to drop a red circle on the ground, and have a web hit it 1 second later. (This is in the game tech, but not in the foundry.)

I want to be able to have things happen when my boss monster is at 75% health or something. (In game, not in foundry.) Or have my monster teleport to a ledge, and the player has to go man the arbalests to get him down again.



Other things that aren't as significant as scripting battles:

I want to be able to say "Here's a good location for an nature kit spot". (In game, not in foundry)

I want to be able to say "Here's the [green] specially-named sword of the monster you just killed with these [calculated] stats of the [appropriate player level]". If we could create objects that were useful and persisted outside the quest, that'd be great. If we were limited to green items, we could have the engine weight the appropriate stats, and use it. Or somehow have a point system that we can distribute as treasure... 100 pts for a nature cache, 1000 for a green weapon with certain stats and name, with a chance of being upgraded as a blue (or even a purple?).

I want to be able to check for an arbitrary item like one from a previous quest during a campaign. If someone, e.g., pulls the sword from the stone, I want them to be able to present it to the townsfolk in a later quest and them react based on that.

Timers. 'nuff said.

Checkbox for physics/gravity with initial vector. That means if checked, items will fall to the ground based on their initial velocity.

Checkbox for collision. There's a kluge to handle this, but it's stupid. Binary logic (or De Morgan's rule) does not work on removing collision but being visible by adding NOT (visible if "has item")

eldarth

pris23 wrote: »

Caves: I would like to see some smaller cave tile pieces. I understand that there are already small cave pieces, but they do not look like caves...they look like underground man made mines or something. I love the natural cavernous feeling to the large cave tile pieces, but I want the rooms/hallways to be smaller sometimes with a little less winding platforms.

I've found that taking the larger cave rooms/pathways and using rock walls to "constrict" them and make them less spacious gives a nice restricted feel to them. If you take a look at my 2nd quest Tendrils of the Underdark there are some smaller passages and one where I took a larger cavern room and placed walls to make a tight, winding passage.

neverhof

glantorx wrote: »

Triggers:
Trigger at end of single patrol – to trigger next action.
Trigger Timer – Countdown.

This would save so much faffing around with escort type quests.
You meet your npc and follow, they lead to a point stop, have dialogue, continue on patrol path or could even change direction to patrol path 2. As it is the only way you can do it is with disappear/re-appearing npcs? Just looks clunky.

The ability to set patrol paths as a separate entity without an npc, and being able to assign npc to use that patrol path when ojbective/component complete etc would be useful.

Npc Options to show;
Use patrol path when: Never/objective complete/Component/dialogue complete/reached etc.
Patrol path number to use;
Stop Using when: ...
Patrol Speed: ...

Setting patrol paths in 3d editor, places blue and red(for direction)flags on your map that show up as blue or red flags on the 2d editor instead of another box.

Add a green flag in the 3d editor that shows up in the 2d editor and can be placed the same way, to use as a terrain marker for when you find something in your 3d map that is awkward to get right in the 2d editor(x.y.z etc). Able to change its text in the 3d editor too so you don't end up with a bunch of scattter flags you can't remember.

** Add More fields to the text an npc says while patrolling or in combat that for more variety.
For escort quests or story line quests, if you are escorting an npc, having a dialogue they can go through while your moving would add atmosphere.

Customizable OOC dialogue, your quest says to press a button, you press the button and that triggers your npc to say something OOC. Instead of having to use a dialogue cutscene to get further dialogue across. So you could reach a marker component, that would trigger your npc to say something etc.

jaggeropth

As an alternative to altering the structure of pre-existing entities to make them more robust, might I suggest adding a new (non-geometric) entity type called "Transformer" (no not the robots). This new entity can be directed at any existing entity and used to translate that target entity based on the transformer entity's parameters. It would have a "Start When" and "Stop When" feature, just like the standard entities, with the usual drop-down options ("Immediately","Component Reached",...,"Never"). It would have two sets of deltas (Dx,Dy,Dz for translation and Rp,Rr,Ry for rotation, once again the standard ones) as well as a Duration field (in seconds) for how long it takes to apply the full delta values. To make an object translate and/or rotate continuously, simply set the "Stop When" to never. Using this approach means there's probably a lot less, if any, changes that need to be made to the pre-existing assets to make them animated.

fallensbane

1. Authors need to be able to place side chests on the map. Put in a simple restriction of they need to be ATLEAST x distance away from each other for the quest to publish. This makes it harder for people to exploit with chest farming maps where all chests are in one spot.

2. Real bosses need to be implemented. Actual boss style encounters need to be added. Also these bosses need to have more dynamic ability sets. Instead of picking Beholder and having it do default abilities you should have three dropdown menus on the encounter detail. 1 Lesser Power, 2 Major Power, 3 Epic power. (AKA Will/Encounter/Daily). The dropdown for each should have a list of all attacks/powers in-game that would normally go in those slots so an author could build a truly unique baddie. Limit it to ONE boss per map, but also include 3 sub bosses along the same lines, with weaker versions of said powers, but still stronger than standards.

3. Custom loot needs to be available. Being able to create named loot (up to 5 items per map) that randomly drops in the dungeon would be a good idea. Some system that allows customization of these items within reason. Author has zero control over drop rate of these items, but they would be blue/purple. Blues only drop off sub bosses and purples only drop off main boss for the map. Again author does not control droprate, Cryptic would work out a system they like for it. Make a % increase drop for sub bosses to drop it and a somewhat larger one for main bosses to drop it.

4. Back and forth travel between maps needs to be added, there are too many reasons for this being a good thing to even try listing them.

5. Authors need to be able to place gathering node. Same restrictions as chests. They would need to be scattered and x distance away from each other. Now the best way to make this work is to have 1-5 of these nodes RANDOMLY activate upon entering map. So you could place up to 20 nodes, but only 5 would activate. Or maybe something more dynamic like 1 node activates in a map per 5 minutes of average duration? So longer quests would get more node spawns than short quests.

Making the foundry more rewarding for people who actually play more than the same 5 quests over is a must.

1. 1-10 tokens of your current level tier would ALWAYS drop out of the final chest
2. Bonus 500 astral diamonds the first time you do a foundry quest you have never done before, must be atleast an average of 15min long. This promotes people actually playing other content than just the top 5-10.

Also an overhaul of the daily system.

1. Normal daily stays the same
2. Add a weekly that requires you to play 5-10 DIFFERENT foundry quests to be eligible. Larger AD reward
3. Add a monthly that requires you to play 25 different foundry quests to be eligible. Larder AD reward

all those would require 15min minimum foundries.

And another idea is achievements for finishing foundries you have never done before.

10 unique foundries = Achievement + Common Dye Pack
25 Unique foundries = Achievement + Common Dye Pack + Special Cloak Skin
50 Unique foundries = Achievement + Common Dye Pack + Special Weapon skin
100 Unique Foundries = Achievement + Rare Dye Pack + Purple Lesser Enhancement + Title
150 Unique Foundries = Achievement + Rare Dye Pack + Special Armor Set Skin
200 Unique Foundries = Achievement + Rare Dye Pack + Special Companion Skins for all default companions

All these items would be Character Bound, Destroyable and reclaimable from the NPC for all characters on your account.

Thats just the start, many tweaks to control of the foundry will be needed as well.

pprandom

I love foundry quests, and i ve trying to make some but there is something that bothers me. Most people do the FQ for daily foundry and that is a great incentive to play them! The problem is if you have to finish 3 fq to recieve the reward then you will play only 20- minutes quests. What i think would be a benefit for longer and more varied quests is making a POINT SISTEM or something, where a FQ rewards you consistently with their lenght. That will make longer quest more feasable and desirable, intead of playing 3 17 minutes fq, you can play 1 56 minutes for example.