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Foundry Reviews
joshrandhall
Member Posts: 72 Arc User
I'll be posting reviews of Foundry modules as I get to them for anyone interested.
Having done reviews for previous community created content sometimes it helps to hear from other community members offering constructive criticism and opinions.
I've created this thread for anyone else wanting a review.
Review details are only posted with authors permission, otherwise just generalities are posted for the community...
Ratings:
A - Too Easy (anyone with a brain cell)
B - Very Easy (any player with minimal gaming experience
C - Average (for experienced gamers 1-2 years)
D - Hard (For hard core players)
E - Group content only
1 - Needs quite a but of work
2 - Several broken items
3 - Not bad but needs some polish
4 - Good job - can use some clean up work
5 - Excellent - don't change a thing
Having done reviews for previous community created content sometimes it helps to hear from other community members offering constructive criticism and opinions.
I've created this thread for anyone else wanting a review.
Review details are only posted with authors permission, otherwise just generalities are posted for the community...
Ratings:
A - Too Easy (anyone with a brain cell)
B - Very Easy (any player with minimal gaming experience
C - Average (for experienced gamers 1-2 years)
D - Hard (For hard core players)
E - Group content only
1 - Needs quite a but of work
2 - Several broken items
3 - Not bad but needs some polish
4 - Good job - can use some clean up work
5 - Excellent - don't change a thing
Post edited by joshrandhall on
0
Comments
Overall rating: B+ - Well worth a play
Character class: CW level 23 1/2 (Ended Level 25) w/Man of arms companion
Race: Human
Difficulty level: C- - Soloed with level 23 Wizard - not too difficult, verging on very easy (but for the numbers in the encounters closer to average rating)
Mechanics: 4 - The overall game play is quite well done- mechanically there were no problems within the adventure
Encounters: 4 - The first few encounters were fairly easy, but as the progress continues the encounters increase in difficulty which was nice
Story line: 4 - The story line appears to evolve and is ongoing leading into another story which is nice and gives an opportunity for more immersion and an ongoing side storyline.
Loot: 4 - once the encounters kicked in the loot table was fair and plentiful - no complaints.
Special Requested by Author: Nothing requested
Pros:
The story line has the potential for an ongoing adventure - be prepared to read the dialogs for immersion
The encounters were not overly difficult, for new players I find this to be a good lvl, for advanced players it might be a bit too easy.
There were some options for different classes and races which is always a nice touch
If you read all the dialog this could take approximately 45 mins. (I'm a slow reader) which is both a pro and con to me.
Nice surprise towards end of quest.
Cons:
Not much happening in the beginning aside from the dialog - could have more interaction.
Sometimes the path isn't followable - not sure if this is an issue with the foundry or the author so it is mentioned here as a con either way.
Encounter Difficulty is also mainly out of the Author's hands. Foundry content automatically scales to the level of the player, and some encounter creatures unlock new abilities as they increase in level. So for any given level the main option the Author has to make any given encounter tougher (if already using highest difficulty encounters) is to throw more "mobs" at it. Which is a crude way of increasing difficulty at the best of times, and this seems to me to by why so many of the Foundry quests are story driven.
So it is a bit unfair too judge Foundry content on those areas.
All The Best
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Foundry mobs have 3 tiers; they start with a single ability, and at level 40, and again at level 60 they gain more powerful abilities. By the time you hit level 60, those easy encounters will be ripping you apart.
Sometimes the path isn't followable - this is a foundry issue. the path will go through locked doors, walls, impassable rocks, etc, and there is nothing we can do about it short of turning it off, or redesigning our entire level around the trail. DO the former and people complain that there is no trail. And if you do the latter you get very boring looking dungeons.
Last thing I want to mention is the 45 min playtime is only if you clear all the optional content. My gf and I run this quest for our daily in about ~10 min.
Feast of the Moon | Rising of the Dark | Shadow of the World | Everdark
1.) Encounters a kinda complex, "have 3 tiers" really doesn't cove it...Minions don't gain more abilities. only "Standard and Elite" gain abilities. Encounters for Dummies (and everyone else)
2.) [IMO] this falls on the Author to compensate for [Cryptics] bugs. if your map wont allow the use of the tracker turn it off and add what ever it needs to direct the Player.
"Life is not mandatory, life is what you make it"
I try not to insult the authors when I'm not sure whether an issue is due to the tool or whether the issue is due to the author - either way it becomes a con to me and not meant to insult the author but provide insight for players and other authors.
Personally, I'm not a fan of "pathing" in modules - I much more prefer free form, let me find my way around and get into trouble. But that's just me.
As far as loot - not knowing the foundry yet, I do believe authors have a little control over loot. While you may not be able to identify specific loot drops (which IMO is a failure of the foundry), you can add more loot items to the quest over all: Chests etc. always add additional loot.
Encounters - I have been in several encounters where there were mob triggers that sent wave after wave of mobs at me including several bosses at once. I believe, even with a weak foundry tool authors can control what they throw at the player and should try to establish a threshold if in fact the encounters scale at the various levels. Authors have to run through modules anyway and should be able to run through it with multiple chars at various levels to know if it's going to be too many mobs or not enough.
Good Thread this: Encounters for Dummies (and everyone else) thanks for the link
As for 10 mins running this module - I believe that's both because you know it and you wrote it. Having never seen it before and having read EVERY line of dialog it did take me 45 mins (I timed it as I always do). IMO this is not a bad thing - I personally like longer quests. I'm sure if I were to run through this again I would get through it in much less time since I wouldn't have to read the dialog, know exactly where I needed to go and know what to expect since I'm not looking for problems/issues and taking my time identifying the good and the not so good.
However, the purpose of the review is to give those who have not had a chance to go through the quest an idea if what to expect and hopefully provide authors with a greater audience.
Like I said, it was well worth the play and fun and I look forward to going through the rest of the story.
It was off. People complained that it was off, so I turned it on. If you don't like the look of it in quest, you can turn it off by pressing the Z key.
No offense taken. A 4/5 is a fine review in my opinion, for the first Neverwinter quest that I ever made. It is a bit simplistic because I was still learning the ropes.
As do I, but I must include design features that the general population wants as well, otherwise I will get bad reviews. That is why I added a gate to the hard mode path, so that people would stop complaining that the totally optional hard mode path was too hard. That is also why I hid the chain that opens the gate, because people still complained that hard mode was too hard, even after I added a note to the chain that said hard mode was too hard for them and they should find another way.
I have pretty much done everything people have asked to make the quest easier, except add invisible walls to all the edges to prevent people from falling off. That is an invisible line I will not cross. I did however add normal rock walls around most of the areas that mobs have knockback, and added lights to all the edges so you can see them better.
First version of the quest had no pathing in the cave or in the house; it made you dialog all of the npcs looking for clues. I got like a 2 star review that said "talking to all those people is stupid". After I turned the sparkles on.
The quest is a lot less hardcore now then it was when I first published it.
I am glad you liked it, and I agree with the 4/5 rating on Feast of the Moon. After all, if you gave it 5/5 you would have no way of showing how much better the 2nd and 3rd parts of the campaign are. Sure Feast of the Moon is good... but Rising of the Dark makes people cry.
^^
Feast of the Moon | Rising of the Dark | Shadow of the World | Everdark
True, some aspects I did rate as 4 out of 5 but you have to look at the whole rating to really get a sense of what to expect
And for a first it was worth the B+ (which I didn't know at the time)
BTW, seldom if ever do I give an A+ or 5 on anything and I tend to be generous with most reviews in favor of the author.
I believe if someone is willing to take the time to create something the community can enjoy, then they deserve a "curve" so to speak.
Likewise, I seldom if ever give an E- or 1 - it has to be really really bad for me to do that
Authors don't have any control over loot. There is only the one chest at the end of the quest and you can't put anything in it, only what the game automatically fills it with. You can place chest objects in the game, but there is simply no way to give the player any useable item at all. You can only give them plot items like a feather, rock, etc.
Authoring tool to test nearly all encounters in the foundry.