Helping a friend get his puzzle ironed out

aliasday1

I have a friend who's making a series of quests. He's on the second one and it involves solving some puzzles and jumping. I played through once but since I know how to solve them I can't really tell how hard they are anymore. So I thought I'd get on here and try to get some people to give him some feedback. His author name is Eldritch05 and the quest is "The temple of Duwin"

It's not complete, he's still trying to fine tune the puzzle part (I thought it was a lot of fun). His first one is complete he just needs people to review it so feel free to run that one too.

Thanks.

huknar

I will take a look at this. Puzzles are great. Edited, searching the author name works.

huknar

Well, here is some more extensive feedback for your friend.

This quest was very good. I played both, but the second completely and utterly blew me away. The puzzle was really intelligently designed and it took me a while to complete. I really cannot wait to see more on the front of puzzles from Eldritch. He certainly has the knack to make them!

Story-wise, much like the first quest was a little weak. I know it carried on from the first, but it just felt a little bit dull up there. There wasn't much lore, or anyone to talk to and I think this could have completed it a little bit better. However, all the writing was really well written, and being a lover for fantasy science, I was really captivated by the whole idea of portal reconstruction.

Visuals were not as impressive as the first quest, but I really liked the "air plane" beneath the temple. It was quite well made. The temple itself wasn't awful, but it certainly was not inspired. Though that might have been due to technical limitations as I understand making content vertically on the same map is really tricky.

The only thing it really needs to be complete is a more logical start, like not teleporting straight to that realm at the very beggining. Though considering it is under construction still, I can see over this and continue to gawk at the awesomeness of that puzzle. For the good hour it took, I don't regret a minute.

Here are my notes as I played.

Grammar: "Aerin said this region connected" "Aerin said this region is connected"

Leap of faith was a very fresh idea! Loved it.

Fell off where you get the lightning. Was tricky to get back up. Had to use CW teleport dodge.

Nice subtle humour

Got stuck on the tree by the campfire drop. (Managed to escape through some jumping) Barely.

Hulk pulled me down the gap. Hilarious.

Managed to send him down the second time using Singularity. ^.^

Great use of effects. The lights on the smoke/dust/steam altar was cool.

Met Hulk a while later when I dropped down the wrong hole. That was scary.

shadoewrayth

I love puzzles as well... but after creating one and testing it out... I found that puzzles are a tricky add to a quest. They could be a fun addition, but could also kill the quest by adding an hour to it... It's because of the random nature of the player. A smart or lucky player may finish it and think it was cool and move on... average intelligence (or lower) or unlucky person, may end up spending quite a large amount of time working it out... they are a gamble...

eldritch05

Thank you, Alias. I'd wanted a few more "insider" tests before we unleashed the world on it, but this works too! For those just joining us, the quest under discussion is "NW-DUEJKZYDP".

Thank you so much, Huknar. I really appreciate all your feedback. As you noticed, the quest is yet incomplete. All the mission briefing/debriefing has yet to be added. I was mostly concerned with whether the puzzle worked and made sense to people not me. Since it did, and you appear to have enjoyed it, I'll call that a win on the test and get to work on the story.

Thanks for the other feedback also. Some are things I planned to add, some are good things that I should add. The bit about the lack of lore is especially useful; this is a continuation of a tabletop game Alias and I played, so introducing the outside world to the setting and characters deserves more of my attention.

And did the hulk really survive the fall? Most of them die when you drop them!

Also, I generally agree with you shadoewrayth. But I think being upfront with the player in the quest description fulfills my obligation.

huknar

The hulk survived yes. I was shocked too. We fought on one of the small islands and I was surprised I won. Being a Control Wizard I thrive on distance heh.

I didn't know that it was based on a story. I thought you'd constructed it from scratch. It is the sort of story I quite enjoy. Elemental associations, temples with puzzles, lots of magic, apocalyptic situations. You know, I forgot to add that the second quest reminded me a lot of a Legend of Zelda game.

One thing I forgot to ask about. There was a sparkly node above the tree at the campfire island. I tried to get it but I couldn't. What was this?

killz2many

shadoewrayth wrote: »

I love puzzles as well... but after creating one and testing it out... I found that puzzles are a tricky add to a quest. They could be a fun addition, but could also kill the quest by adding an hour to it... It's because of the random nature of the player. A smart or lucky player may finish it and think it was cool and move on... average intelligence (or lower) or unlucky person, may end up spending quite a large amount of time working it out... they are a gamble...

People who create puzzles in foundry are working hard to give new and enjoyable content. Something we probably wont see from Cryptic for awhile (Other than things that cost money in the market)

Besides if you're of 'average' intelligence, it wouldn't hurt to spend some time figuring out a puzzle instead of spamming chat so that you can upgrade to the best piece of armor.

It's sad today how many mmo players just hop to different mmos for the exact same thing. I say enjoy the game, enjoy the quests, players, the combat and foundry content. If you don't enjoy those things, maybe it's not the game for you.

huknar

I demo recorded that battle in hope to get some nice screenshots. If you'll agree, will you let me post one of these for the foundry screenshot of the week competition?

eldritch05

You are more than welcome to submit screenshots. I'd be honored. I'm partial to the second and third, personally.

The sparkles above the center island are the other end of the teleports leading out from the crystals on the side islands. I wanted those to be one-way, and the only way I could find to do that was to put the other end out of reach. Maybe I can put some clouds there to hide them.