Now trading reviews for The Secret to Paradise Part 2 - Into the Mist.

pris23

Hi guys! I am really excited to finally release Part 2 - Into the Mist: Shortcode NW-DIJXRI4NT. The quest takes about 30 minutes and is intended for 1 - 2 players. If you are soloing bring potions. I have tested this with my level 60 cleric and determined that solo combat is at a challenging, but reasonable difficulty level.

There is one NPC that floats. I have tried everything I can to make him not float, but it seems that I have no real control over this for some reason. I have set his x,y,z coordinates a million times and he just stands in the same spot. I will continue to look into this. It certainly should not ruin your experience in any way.

If you are interested in playing part 1 as well the info is all in my signature. Here is my thread for Part 1 if you wish to leave comments for Part 1 http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?330921-Will-trade-for-reviews-on-The-Secret-to-Paradise-Part-1-Paradise-Lost!&highlight=pris23.

Side note: Please ignore the first two ratings because I posted this for testing right before the foundry went down for almost 4 days. I wasn't able to fix anything or pull it from the campaign until the foundry came back up so a couple of people played this before it was even close to ready.

Thanks guys and have fun! I can't wait to see what your quests are like.

lolsorhand

I'll check it out when I get the chance

tripsofthrymr

Count me in!

When you review mine, I'm especially interested in how the final scene ("graveyard scene") works for you. I just finished an extensive rework based on feedback.

lolsorhand

tripsofthrymr wrote: »

Count me in!

When you review mine, I'm especially interested in how the final scene ("graveyard scene") works for you. I just finished an extensive rework based on feedback.

I'll add yours as well trip

bigglesvii

I'll give it a go tomorrow, Im already subscribed :P

tripsofthrymr

Into the Mist
NW-DIJXRI4NT

A review by TripsOfThrymr

NOTE: Picky comments will not affect the rating

- Talking to Nobleman Burkhard "Some time ago my daughter..." option 2 has a ":" at the start.
- Lighting in the lab is cool, but it is quite sparse. Could use some decorating.
- "Military funding" seems a little unlikely in the "ruined Neverwinter" campaign setting.
- Forcing me to leave the "Ghost Walker" potion feels very guided.
- While reading a journal in a werewolf camp two Warriors jumped me. Not fun to be under attack while reading.
- Overall level design very visually appealing.
- Once I have the Lunar staff, seems silly I can't use it yet, and especially "don't know what to do" with the lunar flames.
(I don't have the solar one yet).
- I walked right by the Solar Guardian to the Solar Staff (no encounters)
- Combat was pretty easy. Never really risk of death, no potions used. I'm a DC 60 with modest gear and a level 30 wolf.
- Tells me to prepare for final test, which does not happen.

** And with that, I'm stuck **

I really enjoyed the portion of the quest I could play. Post back when you figure out why the Test of Fire was bugged and I'll be glad to give it another go.

mee2002

Really nice looking environment. Felt like I was in a wolf den. Encounters were challenging, but very passable. 3 minor notes:

- All the interactives in the lab had default names (Stone Alter 01/FX Magical Swirls 01).

- Small typo in the collapsed wall. Says "pul" once instead of "pull".

- Last encounter I beat everyone but Astridr and it completed the encounter before I could fight her. Then 2 random wolves spawned when her NPC version appeared.

Was a lot of fun though. Looking forward to the vampires.

pris23

tripsofthrymr wrote: »

Into the Mist
NW-DIJXRI4NT

A review by TripsOfThrymr

- Lighting in the lab is cool, but it is quite sparse. Could use some decorating.

I agree that the Doctor's lab is dark, but he was working with illithids who are from the underdark so that is why I did that. In the first quest of the campaign he has quite a bit more lighting in there.

- Forcing me to leave the "Ghost Walker" potion feels very guided.

I agree with this too, however, I could not get it to drop the item if I had any contact dialog on the object at all. I would tell it to drop the item and then it would not. I didn't want anyone to get stuck. Sorry about that.

- While reading a journal in a werewolf camp two Warriors jumped me. Not fun to be under attack while reading.
- Overall level design very visually appealing.
- Once I have the Lunar staff, seems silly I can't use it yet, and especially "don't know what to do" with the lunar flames.
(I don't have the solar one yet).

I will take this into consideration. I guess I just assumed that a player would not return to the beginning until they had both.

- I walked right by the Solar Guardian to the Solar Staff (no encounters)
- Combat was pretty easy. Never really risk of death, no potions used. I'm a DC 60 with modest gear and a level 30 wolf.
- Tells me to prepare for final test, which does not happen.

** And with that, I'm stuck **

There is a specific objective to speak with the solar guardian. If you do not speak to her there will be no encounters, including the final test, because I didn't want to ruin the surprise. Sometimes I walk through a room to get the layout and create a strategy before it is time to fight. I was taking that into account here. Thanks for pointing that out though because I don't want the "Final test" dialog to show before this point either. If you play it again be sure to speak to the Solar Guardian to initiate the test.


Thanks for your input. I will take this into account when I load it up for some touch ups.

pris23

mee2002 wrote: »

Really nice looking environment. Felt like I was in a wolf den. Encounters were challenging, but very passable. 3 minor notes:

- All the interactives in the lab had default names (Stone Alter 01/FX Magical Swirls 01).

Thanks, I hate that and it is so easy to overlook. I'll fix those.

- Small typo in the collapsed wall. Says "pul" once instead of "pull".

Thank you. Another minor annoyance.

- Last encounter I beat everyone but Astridr and it completed the encounter before I could fight her. Then 2 random wolves spawned when her NPC version appeared.

This encounter is one that I have had problems with. I have not been able to figure out why it is doing that or how to stop it. Here is what is supposed to happen. Boss, warrior, and rangers spawn together. The boss is a separate encounter from the others and is set to fight until just before death. The Warrior and the rangers are a separate encounter from the boss mob. When they die 3 wolves and the court seer jump in to help the boss. For some reason though the boss submits when you defeat the warrior/ranger encounter so it kinda ruins the order that things are designed to happen in. If you or anyone reading this has any suggestions I am all ears.

mee2002

That's a really cool idea with the last fight. Only thing I can think off hand would be whether or not they're all tied to the kill objective. It SHOULDN'T matter, but it might. If they're not all tied to it, try making it all of them. If they are, who knows, making it jsut her might do something.

pris23

mee2002 wrote: »

That's a really cool idea with the last fight. Only thing I can think off hand would be whether or not they're all tied to the kill objective. It SHOULDN'T matter, but it might. If they're not all tied to it, try making it all of them. If they are, who knows, making it jsut her might do something.

I got it fixed. I figured out what I did wrong. I had originally had the main boss monster as part of the first encounter. However, when I changed her to be a solo monster I forgot to reflect that on my story board. That is why you didn't have to kill her before she would suddenly be hurt and dying. If you run it again after this foundry editor mess is through you should see the encounter properly. I am glad that you brought that up though because I had given up on trying to figure it out originally.

thalazar1

Over all not bad, need to set items to be removed once used, I carried the two staves and the potion through the whole quest.
Minor graphic stuff:
1) Entering the sun and moon caves from the mines the doors don't match up properly (as with most tiles that jump from a short roof to a large roof.) just need to add rocks or something to fill the void.
2) using the dead stick to enter the room with the tomb there is a door jam or arch when viewed from behind is see-thru. Maybe use two of the same item back to back to prevent this.
3) in the final boss room the seer and his pet wolf are standing in the air at odd angle due to geometry maybe just move them over a bit. (may also just be they game, I found some of my placed mobs move around once quest is published.)
Sorry I'm a terrible writer but keen on visual details.

tripsofthrymr

pris23 wrote: »

I will take this into consideration. I guess I just assumed that a player would not return to the beginning until they had both.

I assumed (I guess incorrectly) that I take the left passage for the "moon" stuff, and come back and take the right passage for the "solar" stuff. Figured as long as I'm back there may as well deposit the moon staff since inventory was low.

pris23 wrote: »

|
There is a specific objective to speak with the solar guardian.

If that is the guy standing in front of the solar challenge area, I could not interact with him for some reason. Tried to do that just as I did with the lunar guardian.

pris23

thalazar1 wrote: »

Over all not bad, need to set items to be removed once used, I carried the two staves and the potion through the whole quest.

I did set them to be consumed on use. Unfortunately the drop/consume item does not work if there is any dialog on the item that is intended to consume. I have not found a way around that yet.

Minor graphic stuff:
1) Entering the sun and moon caves from the mines the doors don't match up properly (as with most tiles that jump from a short roof to a large roof.) just need to add rocks or something to fill the void.

I see what you mean. It would be a giant step for my dwarven friends. I'll look into fixing that.

2) using the dead stick to enter the room with the tomb there is a door jam or arch when viewed from behind is see-thru. Maybe use two of the same item back to back to prevent this.

Yes I noticed this as well. Unfortunately that is cryptics door and I have no control over that. I'll see about adding my own door in the future.

3) in the final boss room the seer and his pet wolf are standing in the air at odd angle due to geometry maybe just move them over a bit. (may also just be they game, I found some of my placed mobs move around once quest is published.)
Sorry I'm a terrible writer but keen on visual details.

I haven't had them float when I have run the quest including after I published it. I will keep an eye out for that though. Maybe if I move them a couple of tiles forward it will fix that for you?

Thanks for leaving me some feedback.

pris23

tripsofthrymr wrote: »

If that is the guy standing in front of the solar challenge area, I could not interact with him for some reason. Tried to do that just as I did with the lunar guardian.

I do not think it was incorrect of you to go the other way. The quest trails do not always show up on my map so there was a place marker for you to "continue exploring" that is further in from the lunar room and it must not have triggered since you back tracked. I will look into trying to eliminate objectives such as this so that someone can go the way that you did. I believe that is why the solar guardian dialog never triggered for you. Thanks for letting me know that was possible. I don't want that to be an issue for anyone.

pris23

OK guys I have fixed a couple issues based on the feedback that I have so far. Hopefully it is now improved for you and anyone else who reviews it for me.

lumicakery

Hi trade reviews? Mine is in the sig (the second one needs reviewing), thx .
Although I can only play it later on

visigoth18

:] I'll try and make some time to check this out "I enjoyed the First part"

lumicakery

Hey man just played your quest. Wasnt bad. Anyway here are some of my comments.

1) Press F to go to next map. Might need to check that, it was on several transitions. Also after collecting the foundry reward, there wasnt a proper exit.

2) The backpack that Astrid (or something) drops is named Backpack 01. Might wanna check on that.

3) Killing Astrid in wolf form didnt kill her. When I defeated her, she was just sitting there, and there was another of her in the center with the dialogue.

4) The boss music when fighting Astrid was being played with the normal music. Might wanna remove the normal music when you fight her. Also, the sun and moon bosses could use their own special music as well.

5) The reward chest was floating a bit at the end. Might wanna check on that.

6) It was a bit long for me, I dunno. Maybe there was too much walking and fighting in between the moon and sun challenges?

Anyway, thats my reivew, hope it helped

krisrmurray

I got stuck trying to kill the Lunar guardians. I thought I killed them all, but the quest didn't progress. Any ideas?

Feel free to review my adventure in my sig.

pris23

krisrmurray wrote: »

I got stuck trying to kill the Lunar guardians. I thought I killed them all, but the quest didn't progress. Any ideas?

Feel free to review my adventure in my sig.

Not sure exactly what you did, but you have to take them out and then interact with the artifact. A dialog happens and then one final fight before you can pick the artifact up. I hope that helps you out. I'll be happy to review yours as well. Probably will not get to that until tomorrow though. It is late here.

pris23

lumicakery wrote: »

Hey man just played your quest. Wasnt bad. Anyway here are some of my comments.

1) Press F to go to next map. Might need to check that, it was on several transitions. Also after collecting the foundry reward, there wasnt a proper exit.

Good point about the proper exit at the end. I'll look into that for sure.

2) The backpack that Astrid (or something) drops is named Backpack 01. Might wanna check on that.

Thanks. I have tried to get better about that, but there are so many items to keep track of that sometimes I forget to name them right away.

3) Killing Astrid in wolf form didnt kill her. When I defeated her, she was just sitting there, and there was another of her in the center with the dialogue.

Hmm, that shouldn't happen. I appreciate the heads up.

4) The boss music when fighting Astrid was being played with the normal music. Might wanna remove the normal music when you fight her. Also, the sun and moon bosses could use their own special music as well.

I have posted a thread asking for help with sound. I did put music in the guardian chambers, but it never plays in the published version. I will look into the 2 themes playing at once at the end. That must have been annoying. Sorry about that.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for your review. I appreciate the feedback. Deception was fun as well.

visigoth18

@_@ I tried to play this and I guess the latest patch broke Foundry maps, it kept timing out while trying to download the map.

pris23

visigoth18 wrote: »

@_@ I tried to play this and I guess the latest patch broke Foundry maps, it kept timing out while trying to download the map.

Yeah, I have had issues getting booted entirely during map transitions on other people's maps as well. I guess the foundry is broken for now.

I would love for you to take a look at this later when it works though. I am gonna check out another one of your quests when the foundry is working properly.

midnightsigh

I played both parts to your quest today, hope you don't mind me reviewing both of them here Loved them both, have a few specific comments for each.

Part 1:
When looking for the Dr., instead of having multiple quests that all say to look for him, maybe change them to "Search the Library" or whatever room is being searched instead. I love the extra interacting in the bookshelves and blueprint. Your cage's in the Dr.'s lab, the interactable one is still labeled "Holding Cell 4". Perhaps with rescuing Iris, she should be locked in a closet or something and you get the key out of the chest-you can't really make her appearing out of thin air look like her getting out of the chest.

Part 2:
Akward transition in the first dialogue "What do you need me to do?" "Excellent" is the first response. I like that I can check and see if the body guard survived XD Like I said in game review, I love your environment. It feels alive and like there has been life there for some time. Like your first quest, I love the additional interactions along the way. All in all, I loved the both of them (barely finished the second, though, before the server came offline tonight!) When I get on tomorrow, I will try to remember to subscribe because I look forward to more!

visigoth18

I'll keep trying, I made it to the Doctor, and then to the gate room...trying to enter the Lycanthrope lab was where I got booted >.<

the dr's Lab looks awesomely sweet >D

pris23

visigoth18 wrote: »

I'll keep trying, I made it to the Doctor, and then to the gate room...trying to enter the Lycanthrope lab was where I got booted >.<

the dr's Lab looks awesomely sweet >D

I am glad you liked the Doctor's Lab. I redid it to fit the type of test subjects this time around. I think it will look a little different whenever he has different test subjects. I saw you made it through the quest finally. I hope you enjoyed it.

visigoth18

I did enjoy it, (Full Video Review)

Give it time to Upload/Render.



My quest "Anvilbreaker Forgeworks: Ch: 1.) Beginnings" needs 2 more Plays/Reviews to qualify for the Daily.

pris23

visigoth18 wrote: »

I did enjoy it, (Full Video Review)

Give it time to Upload/Render.

My quest "Anvilbreaker Forgeworks: Ch: 1.) Beginnings" needs 2 more Plays/Reviews to qualify for the Daily.

Hi Visigoth. I appreciate you taking the time to video review my quest. I was sad to see that you must have accepted the quest right before a more finalized version was uploaded. If you get a chance I would love for you to play it again. There is no need for another video review on it, but I think you will like the changes.

Quest trails/markers: Since I actually put that dungeon together the trails barely worked, if at all. I figured that since it all looped back to the beginning it would be hard to get lost.

Little graphic glitches: Thanks for pointing these out. Some of them I don't even see on my computer so I am going to use your video to place things to block them.

As for dialog: I laughed so hard when you stated that you thought English was not my first language. :P It is, but I have been practicing Japanese recently. There is a good point that you make about the stand alone quest. I will change that type of dialog to presume that the character has just forgotten what happened. That way it can still be stand alone, but not feel weird for a new player.

Also, I have a six year old daughter that every five minutes says "Mommy, can I...?, Mommy will you...? Mommy, Mommy, Mommy. This tends to break my concentration. Sometimes I jump to conclusions about what the player already knows about my story vs. my own knowledge.

Names: The names I chose for the Lycanthropes are Old Norse names. I wanted them to have a viking feel, but not be a perfect historical match. I wanted the Lycanthropes to have their own culture.

Dr. Dantario's Lab: I am glad that you liked the changes to the Doctor's lab. The first one is still the same, but the main lab will change from quest to quest. It is dependent on what type of creatures the test subjects are. This one was dark because the mindflayers live underground and the Doctor didn't want to damage their eyes before he had a chance to examine them.

The issue you ran into with the last statement about the purple runes. In the first section of dialog it explains that the runes are moving around and new runes are forming as you look at them. At least I thought that it did. I will read it again and make sure that I didn't leave that out. I wanted to give the idea that the Doctor was causing them to appear as his notes while he dissected the creature. That being said they would begin to fade if he broke his concentration (i.e. speaking with you) and pick up again when his concentration is returned to the runes.

The Late Jarl's Tomb: This has an entire rack of offerings that the forsworn have left for him next to his tomb, but it wasn't in the version you played.

Also, the prayer on the tomb is an Old Norse prayer. I added my own stance in the middle about Father Death. This is why some of the wording on that seemed odd.

You are correct in that moving the Late Jarl does not help. He will move up regardless of platform placement and his sword and shield just move with him. I tried to make the shield and sword higher, but it just didn't actually move them. I do hope Cryptic fixes that bug soon because it is not under my control.

The Entrance to the Throne Cavern: I agree with you that the caves were a bit bare. The first one makes sense as all digging has stopped. The second hallway now has several Elite Guard NPCs that all have chat dialogs with something to say to you as you pass them.

Encounters: I have been working on adding a difficulty slider and now that I have seen another class play through at level 60 I know that I need to. My 60 cleric takes quite awhile to defeat most of those encounters because I am specced for damage mitigation, not damage output. That first Warrior that you run into takes a few minutes alone for me to defeat because he heals up quite often. You tore through them like it was nothing. I am so jealous of that!

The Throne Cavern: The boss mob was intended to fight to submission and then the NPC dialog version appears. Also, for some reason all of the last fights were out of order. You are not intended to be able to fight anything until you have spoken with the Jarl.

As always, thanks for your thoughts. I will play through your suggested quests as soon as I can.

I do hope you have time to run through this again and see that it is better than the broken version that you played.

visigoth18

:] I hope you realize I really enjoyed the quest! "I'm a stern Reviewer" ;p

and as far as the names go "Old Norse names." I loved them ^^ the mispronunciation or confusion was all on my side "of which I am well aware"

and I hope that my intentions come across clearly "I'm never sure how people relate to my personality" when I talk about dialogue being weird or awkward. it's because I haven't take the time to fully gather my thoughts and put forth a good example of why the sentence structure or noun/ verb choices etc... come off as difficult for me to quickly make seance of. you know there is the "common tongue" the way we structure sentences/ phrases in everyday life, and then all the other "artistic" variations like "Old English, High Fantasy, Middle English" etc... and sometimes merging two/or more to varying degrees is difficult

"I have a six year old daughter" lol, I get it.

I'll run it again some time with an alt "It'll be fun to see the changes"

"There is no need for another video review on it"
lol, I always get the feeling Authors are only interested in getting more plays/ credit and see me making a video review as a hassle ;p but I honestly don't do it for others "I take a lot of joy from doing it, getting my reactions/ Opinions out through spoken word and without much extra thought is good practice for social interactions 'which I lack' so It's purely selfish and no one has to watch them, it wont change the fact >D

pris23

visigoth18 wrote: »

[COLOR="#808080[COLOR="#008000"]
"There is no need for another video review on it"[/COLOR]
lol, I always get the feeling Authors are only interested in getting more plays/ credit and see me making a video review as a hassle ;p but I honestly don't do it for others "I take a lot of joy from doing it, getting my reactions/ Opinions out through spoken word and without much extra thought is good practice for social interactions 'which I lack' so It's purely selfish and no one has to watch them, it wont change the fact >D

I love the video review. It is nice to have a fresh perspective on the quest. They just take you awhile to complete and I didn't want to make you feel like you had to. Your video review for my first quest helped a lot as some of what reviewers said was unclear to me. Then you did the video review and I noticed what some others meant by their comments as well as your thoughts. They are nice. Thanks!