NeverWinter Noir - The Case of the Corsairs Signet

drnoesis

NeverWinter Noir #1 - The Case of the Corsairs Signet, by @DrNoesis
Short Code: NW-DDZMGM5F3
Mission Type: Story (Detective/Noir themed)
Average Duration: 30- 40 mins (very approx)
Amount of Combat: fair
Starts at: Young Street Urchin - Protectors Enclave.
Mission Summary: Neverwinter's most renouned private detective, Colonel Umbo, is needed out of town on an urgent matter, and finds himself in need of an assistant to help deal with a fresh case that has just walked through his office door.
Are you up to a challenge worthy of the great noir detective?

Author tips/hints:
- Best played with your graphics set to "High" as the quest was designed to run in black and white, which oddly requires higher gfx settings than standard play. Playing in full colour might not be such a pretty experience.
- Suffers from a bug with quest waypoints not always updating when moving between maps - closing the client and logging back in seems to resolve this in most cases. (Issue has been bug reported.)
- This is predominantly a story driven quest. Whilst there is some combat (as in, enough that you should bring pots) you probably aren't going to get much from this quest if you just want a creature farm.

Screenshots/attachments:

Any feedback welcome, and appreciated!

drnoesis

Known bugs:

Quest waypoints don't always update when leaving quest area's and returning to Protectors Enclave. Unsure if this is a quest issue or general foundry prob, but it's been bug reported. In the meantime looking at developing an alternate base map for use in this and/or future missions.
Restarting the client seems to resolve this.

Black & White noir theme only works with GFX set to high.

Update Info:

- Moved an encounter that kept falling through terrain.
- Character animations for Andre, elf bar patron and young urchin tweaked.
- Several objects renamed to show something other than an item ID tag.
- Various spelling errors corrected.
- A tent and its contents moved to align with terrain correctly.
- Item interaction text corrected or replaced where missing.
- Audio bugs tweaked on area changes.

karitr

Hi drnoesis, I just ran your quest and am so glad you're considering developing an alternative base map for this Foundry. The Protector's Enclave map just does not accommodate what you are trying to do and I had to re-log seven times whilst playing through.

There were still a few typos and I would have liked to have read Nathan's diary from the table rather than pick it up and have to read off the quest item in my bag. That way it won't be missed by someone who has rather got out of the habit of reading quest items as so few author's use them in this way I also think I must have had my back to the door the first time we were supposed to run into Mrs Moreley as I didn't see her leave.

But the big issue I had - and again, it may be entirely my fault for not reading something - was heading to Moreley's office to look for the ring when I already knew where it was/who had it. Particularly frustrating when I knew it might mean another relog...and of course that is exactly what happened.

I haven't left a review at the moment as although the bug is entirely out of your hands, it does mean that the flow and pace of the quest suffered and I would not want to penalise you for my frustrations. And if I feel frustrated, I can only begin to imagine how frustrated it must make you!

If it is any small consolation, the maps and characters looked fabulous in Black and White. Especially the female NPCs The combat difficulty was just right for my L60 CW too.

Good luck getting this one resolved. I look forward to playing it uninterrupted in future.

drnoesis

Thanks for your feedback, particularly that about the diary - not sure if ill change it for this q, but i'll definitely bear it in mind for future quests

I'm drafting up a new base map in my head at the moment, and need to consider how to apply it to the existing content, and what would need to change where, etc etc. Not going to pretend it'll be a quick thing, but either by replacing the map, or cryptic fixing their software, the issue should get cleared up eventually. And yup, frustration really doesn't do it justice, after the work that went into it


I'm glad you liked how things appeared in B&W though. I was worried that it would put people off, and a lot of effort went into picking colours for characters that in some cases look absolutely awful in full colour, but really good in B&W.

Most gratifying however, was your comment on the combat difficulty. With all the comments on the forums about difficulty often being stacked way against magic using classes, I really tried to make sure that ranged players would have enough room to maneuver, which was especially hard as I play a GWF main and so was trying to account for a play style I'm entirely unfamiliar with in Neverwinter.

The first encounter with Mrs Moreley seems to run strangely. On most play throughs, players get blocked by her on the way out and have to step to one side for her to leave... Every now and again, however, players have run past the npc before it's even spawned (I use a trigger on the door to spawn her because of needing to delay her patrol route till after the player has opened the door) I'll see if I can find a way to tweak that behaviour in future (may have a static version de-spawn as the moving one appears to try and counter things..)

I can completely appreciate the reasons you decided not to leave a review at this time, so no worries there, but I hope you enjoyed the story enough, beyond the relogging, that it didn't feel like a totally wasted effort