Ok, so first of all, sorry it took me so long to get to reviewing it - real life is a *****.
It was a very good dungeon crawler - I liked the story though I have to tell you - I am usually all for reading good dialogue, but your wall of text sometimes felt discouraging. Maybe break it down to 3-4 dialogue screens so that the reader doesn't feel overwhelmed?
- The cluster of arrows in the ground in the very first corridor you fight in - was it suppose to be a trap of a kind, blocking player from going forward? If not... well, it's exactly what happens xD
- Encounters were well-balanced but the shadow wolves, man! The higher you get, the harder stacked encounters get. I'm a lv55 cleric and those are HARD to beat if you don't have daily power activated. Let me tell you, I was running away from that horde down the corridor ACTUALLY yelling "What the f***!?!" as I spammed pots. It was not a good feeling - those three waves were WAY harder for me then final encounter. As the user above, I don't really like spammig pots in foundry quests (honestly, I hardly use pots at all in Cryptic maps, but somehow foundry gets the best of me).
- Nice scare with spawning copies of Deflection of despair on me - I actually thought for a minute that you stacked a group of ogres xD
- Pooche the Pooch = love
- Nice Shadow coil effects - it went dark all around and I actually stopped for a second with a 'whoa' on my lips.
- I have graphics on max and I couldn't see AOE markers around Shadowkeeper - which resulted in me zigging when I should have zagged and loosing 60% of HP (squishy clerics are squishy)
- Nice job on the timers, though I did get small bugs. During fight with demon twins the door that shut behind me cut off my cleric companion from me. During the golem fight the golems and ghosts stayed up while I fought a single golem downstairs. And during final fight my companion and the spiders dropped all the way down without me, had to wait until I dropped too.
Thanks very much for the detailed review, Eska! The cluster is definitely not intended to be anything more than a decal, but I did notice that it obstructs movement and also appears to change the quest objective line path. I left it in there because I liked the decorative value, but yes - it is annoying. I'll also think about breaking the dialogue down a bit - most of the earlier pieces are around the word limit.
I think I'll definitely avoid doing encounters like the Shadow Coil in future. I thought it was a worthwhile concept, but I definitely didn't do well on the execution. The idea is that the shadow wolf packs are a damaging encounter, but are avoidable because reaching each of the pillars with the red lights at the end of those corridors despawns the encounters, so that if you run or dodge forwards without fighting them, most of the damage should be avoidable. The issue is that the wolves are too easy for some (AoE-based) classes, so there's no need to run; and too difficult for other classes.
The same's true of the Perdition's Light encounter. It's interesting enough the first time through, but surviving for a few minutes by circle-running isn't a particularly interesting objective for repeated encounters.
Crimson Descent (NW-DRWNLMGYV) - Solo 15-20m combat-focused adventure
I'll go play it now and post my review when I'm complete. Please reciprocate by reviewing my quest, listed in my signature and post anything you would like to see done differently, in order to deserve a 5 star review from you, on my review thread.
First, how did you get monsters to spawn at a certain % of the Reflection of Death fight? IS that something unique to the mob itself? I've been trying to get something like that to occur in one of my fights.
The big death statue sticking out of the Alcove wall, right after the gauntlet, looks weird.
The teleport back into the room ,where Tannith the Lawgiver helps you, had me stuck in the rafters for a while.
Please send me a private message telling me how you did that spiderweb effect in the last room.
I wasn't able to finish the quest to review it - I got up to the backpack in the sewers, but I couldn't figure out how to progress once the backpack dialogue completed (this might be me being dumb - I tried looking around for interactions, but couldn't find any; what's the trigger?). Happy to re-run once I figure that bit out. Otherwise, I thought it was a good scene-setting quest for the campaign - I was in Sarek's house for quite a while to look for those pages, and though it look much longer, not having the objectives show up is certainly more interesting than following the breadcrumb trail to the next objective. There were quite a few typos - details below.
- In the objective, Sarek's "ganddaughter" should be "granddaughter". In her dialogue, "perosn" should be "person". Suggest changing "Now he doesnt work he sometimes sits" to "Now he doesn't work. He sometimes sits". "Vist" should be "visit".
- In missing page #1, the response "Coninue" should be "Continue". "Neice" should be "niece". In addition, this objective appears to have an Area objective marker.
- In missing page #2, "diappeared" should be "disappeared". "ranek's" should be "Ranek's".
- In missing page #2, "hhas" should be "has.
- In Danaeris's dialogue, "interferrence" should be "interference". The dagger interaction reads "Ciontine", which should be "Continue".
- In the last blood trail before the backpack, the line "passing leading has been partly" - delete leading, or change to "leading here". "tright the water and mist" should be "through the water and mist". The wererat encounter is also placed near enough to the trail that it triggered when I was reading - might be worth putting them a bit further away. In the backpack room, it might be worth adjusting the height on the crates - they float a little above the floor. In the backpack interaction, "Sarke" should be "Sarek", and "can not" should be "cannot".
- On my first run, I got to the sewers and tried interacting with the two gates and the pipe. Is the pipe an abort exit? When I used it, I exited the sewers and couldn't get back, and the quest appeared to be gone from my log (and I couldn't pick it back up from Foundry until I relogged).
Can't run anything more this evening to due outage - will try again tomorrow!
Crimson Descent (NW-DRWNLMGYV) - Solo 15-20m combat-focused adventure
First, how did you get monsters to spawn at a certain % of the Reflection of Death fight? IS that something unique to the mob itself? I've been trying to get something like that to occur in one of my fights.
The big death statue sticking out of the Alcove wall, right after the gauntlet, looks weird.
The teleport back into the room ,where Tannith the Lawgiver helps you, had me stuck in the rafters for a while.
Please send me a private message telling me how you did that spiderweb effect in the last room.
Overall, extremely enjoyable and great job!
You can use kill objectives as timers. This is a good tutorial.
First, how did you get monsters to spawn at a certain % of the Reflection of Death fight? IS that something unique to the mob itself? I've been trying to get something like that to occur in one of my fights.
The big death statue sticking out of the Alcove wall, right after the gauntlet, looks weird.
The teleport back into the room ,where Tannith the Lawgiver helps you, had me stuck in the rafters for a while.
Please send me a private message telling me how you did that spiderweb effect in the last room.
Overall, extremely enjoyable and great job!
Thanks - I'll check the statue and the teleporter again. The Reflection of Despair is a timer fight rather than a percentage trigger (which, as far as I'm aware, isn't possible). It's on a slightly longer timer than most of the other phase timers.
Crimson Descent (NW-DRWNLMGYV) - Solo 15-20m combat-focused adventure
I wasn't able to finish the quest to review it - I got up to the backpack in the sewers, but I couldn't figure out how to progress once the backpack dialogue completed (this might be me being dumb - I tried looking around for interactions, but couldn't find any; what's the trigger?). Happy to re-run once I figure that bit out. Otherwise, I thought it was a good scene-setting quest for the campaign - I was in Sarek's house for quite a while to look for those pages, and though it look much longer, not having the objectives show up is certainly more interesting than following the breadcrumb trail to the next objective. There were quite a few typos - details below.
Which Backpack?
The one in the first long tunnel, in the corner?
Or the one further in with the Letter from Danaeris in it?
I disabled Quest Tracker for precisely the reason you mention, it makes things more interesting.
It should work like this:
1) Backpack in long tunnel.
2) Wererat Combat at crossroads.
3a) Progress further in to room with Wererat Mugger, find Dagger at end of room (next to pile of rubble in corner), encounter "locked door" - return to crossroads, kill spiders, find key in chest.
3b) Kill spiders, find key, progress to Wererat Mugger, find dagger, go through unlocked door.
4) Continue to end.
Mmmmm, I see below you mention the typo on the Dagger Interaction. So I am kind of at a loss as to what you couldn't progress.
- In the objective, Sarek's "ganddaughter" should be "granddaughter". In her dialogue, "perosn" should be "person". Suggest changing "Now he doesnt work he sometimes sits" to "Now he doesn't work. He sometimes sits". "Vist" should be "visit".
- In missing page #1, the response "Coninue" should be "Continue". "Neice" should be "niece". In addition, this objective appears to have an Area objective marker.
- In missing page #2, "diappeared" should be "disappeared". "ranek's" should be "Ranek's".
- In missing page #2, "hhas" should be "has.
- In Danaeris's dialogue, "interferrence" should be "interference". The dagger interaction reads "Ciontine", which should be "Continue".
- In the last blood trail before the backpack, the line "passing leading has been partly" - delete leading, or change to "leading here". "tright the water and mist" should be "through the water and mist". The wererat encounter is also placed near enough to the trail that it triggered when I was reading - might be worth putting them a bit further away. In the backpack room, it might be worth adjusting the height on the crates - they float a little above the floor. In the backpack interaction, "Sarke" should be "Sarek", and "can not" should be "cannot".
- On my first run, I got to the sewers and tried interacting with the two gates and the pipe. Is the pipe an abort exit? When I used it, I exited the sewers and couldn't get back, and the quest appeared to be gone from my log (and I couldn't pick it back up from Foundry until I relogged).
Can't run anything more this evening to due outage - will try again tomorrow!
Yes the Sewer Pipe is the Abort Exit. Is there a mechanism for allowing people to decline using it? I tried to work something out but it escaped me.
Many thanks for the very thorough review, I'll get to fixing things in the morning, and run through it again to see if I can figure out what you mean by not being able to progress from the backpack.
Thanks - I'll check the statue and the teleporter again. The Reflection of Despair is a timer fight rather than a percentage trigger (which, as far as I'm aware, isn't possible). It's on a slightly longer timer than most of the other phase timers.
Ok, I'll have to play with that then. It's kind of annoying that they won't let you do % triggers, as that would seem to be the best way to make sure you can balance your fight, or punish your players for just burning down a main boss. :-P
Comments
Thanks very much for the detailed review, Eska! The cluster is definitely not intended to be anything more than a decal, but I did notice that it obstructs movement and also appears to change the quest objective line path. I left it in there because I liked the decorative value, but yes - it is annoying. I'll also think about breaking the dialogue down a bit - most of the earlier pieces are around the word limit.
I think I'll definitely avoid doing encounters like the Shadow Coil in future. I thought it was a worthwhile concept, but I definitely didn't do well on the execution. The idea is that the shadow wolf packs are a damaging encounter, but are avoidable because reaching each of the pillars with the red lights at the end of those corridors despawns the encounters, so that if you run or dodge forwards without fighting them, most of the damage should be avoidable. The issue is that the wolves are too easy for some (AoE-based) classes, so there's no need to run; and too difficult for other classes.
The same's true of the Perdition's Light encounter. It's interesting enough the first time through, but surviving for a few minutes by circle-running isn't a particularly interesting objective for repeated encounters.
Storming Monte Hall NW-DRAQHLR54
First, how did you get monsters to spawn at a certain % of the Reflection of Death fight? IS that something unique to the mob itself? I've been trying to get something like that to occur in one of my fights.
The big death statue sticking out of the Alcove wall, right after the gauntlet, looks weird.
The teleport back into the room ,where Tannith the Lawgiver helps you, had me stuck in the rafters for a while.
Please send me a private message telling me how you did that spiderweb effect in the last room.
Overall, extremely enjoyable and great job!
Storming Monte Hall NW-DRAQHLR54
I wasn't able to finish the quest to review it - I got up to the backpack in the sewers, but I couldn't figure out how to progress once the backpack dialogue completed (this might be me being dumb - I tried looking around for interactions, but couldn't find any; what's the trigger?). Happy to re-run once I figure that bit out. Otherwise, I thought it was a good scene-setting quest for the campaign - I was in Sarek's house for quite a while to look for those pages, and though it look much longer, not having the objectives show up is certainly more interesting than following the breadcrumb trail to the next objective. There were quite a few typos - details below.
- In the objective, Sarek's "ganddaughter" should be "granddaughter". In her dialogue, "perosn" should be "person". Suggest changing "Now he doesnt work he sometimes sits" to "Now he doesn't work. He sometimes sits". "Vist" should be "visit".
- In missing page #1, the response "Coninue" should be "Continue". "Neice" should be "niece". In addition, this objective appears to have an Area objective marker.
- In missing page #2, "diappeared" should be "disappeared". "ranek's" should be "Ranek's".
- In missing page #2, "hhas" should be "has.
- In Danaeris's dialogue, "interferrence" should be "interference". The dagger interaction reads "Ciontine", which should be "Continue".
- In the last blood trail before the backpack, the line "passing leading has been partly" - delete leading, or change to "leading here". "tright the water and mist" should be "through the water and mist". The wererat encounter is also placed near enough to the trail that it triggered when I was reading - might be worth putting them a bit further away. In the backpack room, it might be worth adjusting the height on the crates - they float a little above the floor. In the backpack interaction, "Sarke" should be "Sarek", and "can not" should be "cannot".
- On my first run, I got to the sewers and tried interacting with the two gates and the pipe. Is the pipe an abort exit? When I used it, I exited the sewers and couldn't get back, and the quest appeared to be gone from my log (and I couldn't pick it back up from Foundry until I relogged).
Can't run anything more this evening to due outage - will try again tomorrow!
You can use kill objectives as timers. This is a good tutorial.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csSYLpMUoCA
A short solo hack-n-slash: The Dirty Dwarf
Thanks - I'll check the statue and the teleporter again. The Reflection of Despair is a timer fight rather than a percentage trigger (which, as far as I'm aware, isn't possible). It's on a slightly longer timer than most of the other phase timers.
Which Backpack?
The one in the first long tunnel, in the corner?
Or the one further in with the Letter from Danaeris in it?
I disabled Quest Tracker for precisely the reason you mention, it makes things more interesting.
It should work like this:
1) Backpack in long tunnel.
2) Wererat Combat at crossroads.
3a) Progress further in to room with Wererat Mugger, find Dagger at end of room (next to pile of rubble in corner), encounter "locked door" - return to crossroads, kill spiders, find key in chest.
3b) Kill spiders, find key, progress to Wererat Mugger, find dagger, go through unlocked door.
4) Continue to end.
Mmmmm, I see below you mention the typo on the Dagger Interaction. So I am kind of at a loss as to what you couldn't progress.
I'll get to work on the typo's in the morning.
Yes the Sewer Pipe is the Abort Exit. Is there a mechanism for allowing people to decline using it? I tried to work something out but it escaped me.
Many thanks for the very thorough review, I'll get to fixing things in the morning, and run through it again to see if I can figure out what you mean by not being able to progress from the backpack.
Many thanks again.
All The Best
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Ok, I'll have to play with that then. It's kind of annoying that they won't let you do % triggers, as that would seem to be the best way to make sure you can balance your fight, or punish your players for just burning down a main boss. :-P
Storming Monte Hall NW-DRAQHLR54