Chapter 1: The Gray Portrait

casten24

So, the first chapter to the story I started with the introductory prologue, Fort Neverember, is complete.
... and as such, here's the info.
I'm looking for some critiques and reviews, so I'm willing to trade. Just include your quest info here (of particular interest in the shortcode) and I'll get to it as soon as possible.

Chapter 1: The Gray Portrait
NW-DHGEFBMGD (you'll need this to find the quest)
Type: Puzzle-solving, medium story, few battles.
Average Duration: Not sure yet, guessing shouldn't be more than 25-30 minutes.
Starts at: World Map
Maps: 5 maps (1 repeat)

A missive from General Sarkis has arrived addressed to you. In it, he informs you that they have discovered what the Bandit King wants with Fort Neverember. He asks that you come as soon as possible and that he will fill you in on the details when you arrive.

Features!
Difficulty slider (You'll have two choices for each of the primary tests).
Boss difficulty slider (In the form of riddle answering. The more you answer correctly, the less mobs you'll have to fight).

Author's Note: If you're familiar with the prologue, you'll find another, different easter egg in the same place.

casten24

Some preview shots...


It's Nivram, the Massively Depressed Golem


The test of Courage and a close up of the Spirit of Courage.


Celeste jumping through some frozen, falling books.


The three spirits: Courage, Power, and Wisdom.

casten24

And a few more shots...


The Chess puzzle...


Mating the king to solve the chess puzzle.


The Gray Portrait in the Portrait Chamber.

eskarine

It looks really interesting - I'm going to give it a try. I'm always interested in story/puzzle quests.

I don't have any beta-stage foundries for review at the moment until my next quest is done. It will be a story/puzzle quest too, hopefully finished in a week or so. Puzzle quests are the best

docsc00ter

Just finished running the adventure. It's a nice little quest! It's a simple storyline that's easy to follow. You've provided "easy" and "hard" options at all the right places (and offered an alternative for those who don't play chess). Good stuff.

A couple of thoughts that I jotted down while playing, in no particular order:

* I liked having to talk to the folks in the keep to find out my next objective. There was some interesting design work and layout in the keep, and I wasn't sure if that was all custom or if there was a pre-made map that you enhanced. Still, I liked that part of the quest.

* Boy, there are a lot of doors in this fortress! Every hallway seems to be blocked off multiple times. Fire safety? AND it would be good if you went through and turned some of those doors around. The player's animation will always be to push the doors open. So the doors should open away from the player. I just looks odd to push and have some doors push away from me while others suddenly bumped me back because they were pulled instead.

* I liked the NPC details and wandering inside the fortress and in the outdoor area of the keep. There was enough NPC movement that gave the place a "real" feeling.

* I failed the 1st test. Painfully. I decided to go for the chess option, and then picked the wrong thing. The resulting combat (and quick death) was a brutal punishment for my failure. OUCH! However, it didn't really matter. Even though I failed, I was given credit for completing the test and advanced to the next part of the story. (Yay! I wasn't looking forward to going back and cleaning up that violent mess of monsters... ugh!)

* There's a weird empty dialogue moment when speaking with the spirit of courage. It's right at the end, and there's an extra blank moment where I click "continue" to close it out.

* I LOVED the hall of floating stuff. (Though I was embarrassed that my companion actually seemed better at the jumping puzzles than I did... how the little guy got in front of me at times I didn't know.) I can't begin to imagine how much time you spent making this room. It was great.

* I was able to skip right past the battle of power. I just hugged the walls, inched around the room, and went on to the next phase. The mobs never saw me, never moved, never attacked. (I'm just calling it my own personal "battle of yellow-bellied cowardice," thank you.)

* I don't know if this is intentional, but the spirit of wisdom actually provides the answer to its riddle in its dialogue box, along with notes about the alternate options. Perhaps you were encouraging players to try out some of the more humorous failures? But you also threatened me with combat if I failed (and I had already experienced a vicious death by failing the chess puzzle, so I decided to choose the correct answer and move on).

Good stuff! Thank you for all your hard work!



Oh yeah, one more thing: Nivram is so adorable, I wanted to see more of him. Heck, I wanted him to follow me around and offer commentary on my progress or something. I found myself curious what he would look like running through more animations in conversation mode.

casten24

docsc00ter wrote: »

Boy, there are a lot of doors in this fortress! Every hallway seems to be blocked off multiple times. Fire safety? AND it would be good if you went through and turned some of those doors around. The player's animation will always be to push the doors open. So the doors should open away from the player. I just looks odd to push and have some doors push away from me while others suddenly bumped me back because they were pulled instead.

I wish they gave us the option of turning doors around... I spent a few hours with that when making it for the prologue and every time I placed the door on the opposite room's wall, it'd still turn out the same exact way. That was something that was really bugging me, too. As for the amount of doors, I didn't initially want them, but it was either that or small little archways to go through making it not look like long hallways. Curse the limitations of the foundry and all that.

docsc00ter wrote: »

* I failed the 1st test. Painfully. I decided to go for the chess option, and then picked the wrong thing. The resulting combat (and quick death) was a brutal punishment for my failure. OUCH! However, it didn't really matter. Even though I failed, I was given credit for completing the test and advanced to the next part of the story. (Yay! I wasn't looking forward to going back and cleaning up that violent mess of monsters... ugh!)

Yeah, I was thinking of going back and adding a little dialogue extra with wisdom about that... something along the lines of "You show wisdom for letting yourself be killed knowing that you'd respawn in a safe spot." A sort of "cunning through (almost) avoidance" kinda thing...

docsc00ter wrote: »

* There's a weird empty dialogue moment when speaking with the spirit of courage. It's right at the end, and there's an extra blank moment where I click "continue" to close it out.

I noticed this, too, some of the times I've run it. It's, strangely enough, nothing on my end. I had it happen a few times with the Spirit of Wisdom during the chess puzzle, and when I double checked in the Foundry, nothing was there.

docsc00ter wrote: »

* I was able to skip right past the battle of power. I just hugged the walls, inched around the room, and went on to the next phase. The mobs never saw me, never moved, never attacked. (I'm just calling it my own personal "battle of yellow-bellied cowardice," thank you.)

This just gave me an idea for an extra bit of humour. Merci beaucoup!

docsc00ter wrote: »

* I don't know if this is intentional, but the spirit of wisdom actually provides the answer to its riddle in its dialogue box, along with notes about the alternate options. Perhaps you were encouraging players to try out some of the more humorous failures? But you also threatened me with combat if I failed (and I had already experienced a vicious death by failing the chess puzzle, so I decided to choose the correct answer and move on).

Unintentional... It's odd that it has yet to actually update that.

docsc00ter wrote: »

Oh yeah, one more thing: Nivram is so adorable, I wanted to see more of him. Heck, I wanted him to follow me around and offer commentary on my progress or something. I found myself curious what he would look like running through more animations in conversation mode.

Hahah, thanks... Maybe I'll make a Gaiden (sidestory) with him as the main focus. He does need a new master after all...

casten24

eskarine wrote: »

It looks really interesting - I'm going to give it a try. I'm always interested in story/puzzle quests.

I don't have any beta-stage foundries for review at the moment until my next quest is done. It will be a story/puzzle quest too, hopefully finished in a week or so. Puzzle quests are the best

Keep me informed. I'd love to give it a try when it's complete.

casten24

Quick note... Odd, I thought this post got deleted in favor of the one sitting in the Foundry Spotlight section.

kevinc55

Hi - tried to play your mod today. All went well til i went through the portal to the portrait room (vault). Wound up on a bridge to no where, no exit from either end, stairs go down to impenetrable curtains on each side, nothing to interact with except the portal, which returns you to the previous location. I am assuming something is broken and this was not planned. Thought you would want to know.

phoenicianson

Hey, I ran both of your quests. I am not sure if you are still an active player on Neverwinter, but the maps were truly incredible, particularly the first map of the Neverember Post. I thorougly enjoyed the quests, but I got stuck at the end of the second quest, where you "Traverse the Portal". It took me to the Royal Crypt map, but there was nothing to interact with on that map. Perhaps one of the updates moved or removed whatever what the next objective component? You may want to check that out. I ran all over the place looking for the next step to no avail.

Not much in notes really:
1. When you secure the gate on the Nevember Post map, you don't have any animation associated with that interaction
2. The interaction animation set for taking down the trees for their bark to set up barracades is kicking the trees. Perhaps consider switching their animation to "Hammering". I never seen anyone knock a tree down by kicking it

Please play through mine when you have a chance...

See Review Tab for Campaign:
"The Revenge of Asmodeus"

The quests have their own pages:
Fall of the City of Grumura
The Demi-God's Return

Thanks! Let me know what I am missing on that last objective, or perhaps if a recent update has potentially removed or set the object under the floor... it happens. I will be happy to run it again.