Knowledge is Power

lewdug

Knowledge is Power
By lewdug

Short Code: NW-DF4G5MYRG
Mission Type: Combat with a small amount of story
Average Duration: Short?
Amount of Combat: A fair bit
Party Size: 1-2
Starts at: Protector's Enclave
Mission Summary: Some important books were stolen from Alrica Fenta's house and it is your task to retrieve them. However, this simple errand may not be as easy as it first seems.
Author tips/hints: Try not to fall off of the Mountains as is will probably not allow you to get back up.
Screenshots/attachments: Coming Soon

If you do play my map please comment on it bellow. I would really like to know details of play-time, difficulty and and tips and improvements. It is my first quest so please keep this in mind. Thanks, in advanced. In return I will review your map if you leave suitable details below.

All fixed and rebalanced!

ceylokrinn

Wow....

Sorry lewdug - I had serious SERIOUS issues with this one. I'll try to be as constructive as I can. Initial encounters were easy, too easy on the mountain trail. (I played it with a 25 GF). The first thief cave room posed credibility problems if a player (and most will) did things out of your assumed order of events. Store room locked, previous cavern room searched and found empty, leave, return, now find a "secret lever", unprompted.. that sort of thing. Add some interaction (and failure (the storage room door)) text to help the player understand what's happening, a bit.

You had some nice ambushes setup in there, but the overpowered ending took all the fun of that away for me, I'm afraid.
Make sure you play through on your own during development and look for 3D Geography opportunities for ambushes, such as walls to side of doors that the player steps through, raised surfaces above the player for archers, etc.

Add a trap or two, especially in those areas where those pesky, nonconformist players tend to wander away from the sparklies (like I do.. a LOT <grins>)


The biggest problem with this quest was the ending and the tendency to have necros who spawned in mobs literally 20 at a POP, over and over again - we went from pushover thieves to near impossible ending encounters. I blew through about eight heals before this one was done (and one rare 'restore all health' item, too). It was way too much, I'm afraid, and for no apparent role play/story purpose, either.

I SHUDDER to think what a high level would experience here (Cryptic scales up for higher levels in a strange way and what's easy at lower levels can be near impossible in a foundry quest for a level 50+)

You need to limit yourself at the end to some of the more powerful 'standard' encounter characters, I'd suspect: or at the very least have one necro spawning in mobs at 20 a pop, not three of them.

Some spelling issues and the such were scattered throughout the story. Some of the plot elements you introduced would have been a lot more effective had they been worked into the story more ('fight three times, I give you books' at the end, for example). Players will willingly suspend disbelief at the drop of a hat, if you give them a REASON for something that happens, or some place to exist.

It was a nice dungeon crawl, really: I don't want to make this sound all negative. Had that wickedly overpowered ending been balanced better, this would have been quite nice.

Don't quit on this one. Create yourself a mid level avatar, if you don't have one, and try playing it through with a sharp, critical eye. This can still turn out to be an awesome, epic quest with a little fine tuning.

For the record: I played it through with a 25th level GF with a Cleric companion of 13th rank.

Good luck with this.

lewdug

Thanks for the review. I am franticly working to solve the problems now:)