Tower of the Lost Wizards: NW-DSE9JPUCV Review Trade

melinden

Hello everyone! I finally managed to finish my first foundry. Everyone on this forum and in the Foundry chat has been wonderful and patient in answering all my questions, thank you so much.

To show for it I give you a short, easy combat story based on specific Forgotten Realms lore.

Tower of the Lost Wizards: NW-DSE9JPUCV

A group of freelance loot....er, um, academic professionals would like you to explore an old Tower to Azuth in the ruins of Neverwinter. What happened to these wizards when their god was killed?

I put in lots of interactable details, feel free to explore even in the Academic Commons. I played lots of foundry quests before I started. I also made a point to play "THIS is a 1-Star Quest" to make sure I did not make those mistakes. With any luck, I succeeded! Please let me know if I did not or what I can do to improve the quest in general.

I've figured out how things work here so I know my next job is to get out and review your quests! I've already started on some and posted in those threads. If there is one you specifically want me to look at, please let me know here.

-@DoctorBadger

nightmareoftruth

You asked nice so I'll trade a review with you NW-DUO2XCWXI

nightmareoftruth

Alright, so I played through to the "enter the tower of Azuth quest", The Academic commons is really nicely done, good detail but you missed a name on the door to the lab. Once I got to the tower, killed the encounters, I ran around for 20 mins looking for a way in. Found the blood stain holding the door description, found the little playhouse but I couldn't find whatever lever or trap door you had hidden, tried seeing how far up I could climb, got permanently stuck falling between the gap between some cave rocks and the courtyard wall.

Given your attention to detail and that this is your first foundry I assumed if there had been a secret/trick to getting into the tower the academic commons would have a hint so I had a good look around there. Didn't find a hint so I didn't expect an overly difficult puzzle at the door. My next thought was perhaps you had published, then later patched the bugs then saved but failed to publish the fixed version (something I'm guilty of myself)

Either way I couldn't find any visual clues as to how to get in after 20 mins. I'll try again later,

melinden

I did resave and republish after catching a few errors the first time around, so let me go through again. Did you try the door to the tower? Did it let you try it?

Edit Update: No, it would not have let you try the door since the map transition was lost in the publishing. Other authors told me that they have had this happen before so I will know to look for it.

I appreciate your persistence in trying to figure that out!

Your comments also made me realize the logic for that part of the story was a little weak, so added a small element to smooth that out.

Thanks!

nightmareoftruth

The door did not switch to an interactive state. I played twice to be sure it wasn't a one time bug out. The only things that were interactive were the blood stain and the little house as I described. Something may be triggering out of sequence or incorrectly selected as the door object.



good luck bug hunting!

runebane

Very nice work. Lots of detail and lore.


The only off thing I noticed was a small typo. Talking to the Magister (about his family iirc) he said 'was' instead of 'we' came here.

thalazar1

finished and enjoyed this. just found a few small things one big thing

the big thing. the very first door at the start of the quest the spawn placement is a bit too close and i spawned into the door and had to /killme

the small things
-all your invis clickys still say invis clicky half sphere 01
-the first mention of the Spellplague is not capped. (i only picked this up as it was pointed out to me in my quest
-the meat rack is floating in the kitchen instead of being attached to the roof. if intentional (it is a magic school) maybe add an effect
-the dragonling is called dragonling 01 (not a big issue as you have to look the right way while jumping and have your tongue hanging out the left side of your mouth, not the right, to see this as a quick flash )
-the phoenix 'Guy' is a nice Easter egg.
-the play house when interacted is called human building - roof piece 01
-magister Acubens, family question, "This is why was came here"

that's it. good job and great story. I haven't played too many mage-centric foundries so this was really unique and enjoyable.

duur

did you pull the quest back?

answer no you didn't I couldn't make a decent copy paste on the right spot

I was stuck in the garden at the bloodstain... decided to trash the quest to try it again in case it had bugged on me.
(couldn't find a door that opened)

the university part was more then nice enough to want to finish it

melinden

thalazar1 wrote: »

finished and enjoyed this. just found a few small things one big thing

the big thing. the very first door at the start of the quest the spawn placement is a bit too close and i spawned into the door and had to /killme

This is the door into the Academic Commons? I'm working on these edits now. Thanks for taking the time to write these up.

melinden

duur wrote: »

did you pull the quest back?

answer no you didn't I couldn't make a decent copy paste on the right spot

I was stuck in the garden at the bloodstain... decided to trash the quest to try it again in case it had bugged on me.
(couldn't find a door that opened)

the university part was more then nice enough to want to finish it

Durr, did you pick up the key at the Academic Commons that the Chancellor indicates in his dialogue? I can make sure it is required before you can leave that map.

Edit Update: I had already made it required that you picked up the key in order to advance in the story, so I'm not sure what happened. I'll be reloading updates shortly and I'll do another live play there to see if I can duplicate that.

duur

I think I did, but I am going to try again (doing that now I will make sure I do that
quite possible I was looking too much to al the nice details and info on the different parts in the university

I saw that the door in the back (class?) room had a missing name? (it was called human door something)

and yes, you make so much shiny stuff that I missed it

thalazar1

melinden wrote: »

This is the door into the Academic Commons? I'm working on these edits now. Thanks for taking the time to write these up.

yes as soon as i entered i was stuck, on /killme i spawned a foot or so in front of the door and was fine. didn't get stuck any where else

duur

I think that after I got myself stuck because I looked into all the nice and very detailed extra's, once inside the tower I was so much wanting to see what was going to happen, that I forgot to check for bugs.

great job

I hope to play it on my wiz too, did it on my cleric now

melinden

OK, I am publishing the new version. Hopefully (fingers crossed) all the changes upload and work properly. It is still publishing so I haven't had a chance to test it live yet. Since it was right at the 15 minute mark I added one small encounter. I did my best to make it make sense in terms of the story and hopefully some Forgotten Realms fans will appreciate it.

Thanks for all the feedback. Typos always haunt me in writing, but now in Foundry it is typos AND names AND floating objects! Thanks for helping me track all of them down.

Update: Looks like everything is working except for glitched music on the second to last map. I'll see if I can get that sorted out.

theninja0

I'll play your quest. My quests are in my signature.

Edit: It was a decent quest. I did find it a little text heavy, which is a personal preference thing, so others would probably be fine with that.
Personally if I were making this I would have a prequel that is a lot less text heavy that introduces the setting and such to get the player invested in the setting; as it is, it kind of throws you in the deep end.

mufaasa43

I will be home from being out of town on Monday. I will trade reviews with you. Please only rate it if you liked it as it is more of a beta right now. Mostly interested in feedback and ways I can make it better. Thanks and looking forward to doing some testing!
My quest: NW-DON9PH2V8

melinden

theninja0 wrote: »

I'll play your quest. My quests are in my signature.

Edit: It was a decent quest. I did find it a little text heavy, which is a personal preference thing, so others would probably be fine with that.
Personally if I were making this I would have a prequel that is a lot less text heavy that introduces the setting and such to get the player invested in the setting; as it is, it kind of throws you in the deep end.

Thanks for the comments! I sent you a PM with my notes from The Banished Realm. They are not complete since my DC and Dire Wolf could not defeat the boss. Amped up boss + many adds and I'm dead, even with Greater Health Stones. When they put a decent tank on the market I'll probably do better, but until then the Dire Wolf can't keep the adds off me which is a bummer. If I can get my guild tank I'll run it again. Lots of atmosphere in your map!

melinden

mufaasa43 wrote: »

I will be home from being out of town on Monday. I will trade reviews with you. Please only rate it if you liked it as it is more of a beta right now. Mostly interested in feedback and ways I can make it better. Thanks and looking forward to doing some testing!
My quest: NW-DON9PH2V8

I couldn't find yours, is it up?

mufaasa43

melinden wrote: »

I couldn't find yours, is it up?

Yep, you have to make sure you are on the best tab though bc there is a search bug. Search for NW-DON9PHZV8 from that tab and you should get it.

melinden

Great mufaasa43, I will play it this morning.

I was thinking about theninja0's comment about setting. People are playing NWO for lots of reasons, of course, so they may not be familiar with the Forgotten Realms. Most everyone in my guild has been playing FR since 2nd edition and our goal is to have a series of campaigns: (UnAcademic Studies 1, 2, and 3) that are all very clearly in FR. The Sword Coast Academicals shell is mostly to "house" them in a standard starting point and to get to make jokes about academics.*

To that end, we can 1. Add more optional background items in game ( ex.: Where is Calimshan?) and 2. Take requests for bits you might want to see appear in the stories. I think the three main authors have been DMing for at the very least 15 years each.


*And yes, at least 3/4 of what you see in the Academic Commons has happened to me. Like the nose picker? Front row desk every.****.day for an entire semester.

imperialmen

Here's my first foundry. Feedback needed

"The Bank Heist" NW-DFF41RK2X
Fast-paced Adventure. Meant for soloing.

Give me two days to review yours. I haven't had sleep in 2 days, and I better rest.

melinden

Hey Mufaasa43, I finished your quest gave you a short public review and a longer PM with thoughts and suggestions. I have to say, I really did like that show so it was fun to see in the game!

I'll keep working my way through the others. By way of explanation, I sometimes can't finish with my DC so I can't give you a public review, which I know everyone really needs. I will always try and send you notes.

melinden

imperialmen wrote: »

Here's my first foundry. Feedback needed

"The Bank Heist" NW-DFF41RK2X
Fast-paced Adventure. Meant for soloing.

I couldn't finish it because the last guard set wouldn't spawn in the Defeat the Guards objective in the bank vault. I sent you some more notes in a PM. Let me know once you figure out what is going on with those guards and I'll play it again.

edvai

Id be glad to trade with you! I'll start on yours now, here is mine-

It is story driven, a fun, self imagined story line. It is not overly long, only takes about 20 minutes, but it can get pretty challenging at the end.

Name: The Wizard's Pride
ID: NW-DRMKXUIDT
Author: @edavi

Thanks!

melinden

I've published some more fixes. I hope I have the music sorted out in the second to last map. I won't be able to do a live play for a few hours, however.

melinden

edvai wrote: »

Name: The Wizard's Pride
ID: NW-DRMKXUIDT
Author: @edavi

Thanks!

I sent you a PM with some small notes, very well put together story

imperialmen

Done! Great quest man!

Very detailed!

But one thing I noticed - that magical wall sealing the room where the 3 gems are kept, I ran right through it without disabling the wall. Is that normal?

Also combat was very light.

Also which map did you use for the school? And which map did you use for the tower(the place you enter after beating the monsters outside the tower)?

PS: I fixed my quest. You can try it now.

PSS: I did send you a PM a while back, but it doesn't show up in the "Sent Items" option. I have lost it to the internet I guess.

melinden

Thanks for playing! Let me do another live test. There should be an invisible wall there until you have the key, did you have it in your inventory at that point? I'm thinking I might need to move some invisible walls and triggers around. Or just add another wall.

The school is one of the tavern maps. I have placeholders for the lab and faculty meeting hall in place but no doors there yet.

The lowest level of the tower is a map I made myself. I like the layout of buildings in the game to make sense with their layout outside. Of course normally buildings are made so it is very easy to get from one place to the next so I blocked off some rooms and hallways after I built it.

imperialmen

Thanks for the information! And yes I did have the item as I passed through, but i didnt interact with it.

And I have fixed my quest, would love your feedacks on it :-)

melinden

Hey everyone, new update:

-you should no longer be able to run into the chapel without opening the barrier
-two new BIG lore pieces, one on Calimshan and one on Azuth. They are optional, fret not.
-added some more detail in the tower per reviewer notes.

It's getting there and thank you to all my kind reviewers! I'm off to review more myself.

winterswitch

Melinden,

I ran and reviewed it (as @Sintered). The Tower is appropriately spooky, and I don't mind at all that it's more story-based than most 15-minute-ish Foundries. It's fun; it feels like an adventure. I noted a few small details in-game. If you get a chance, I'd appreciate a run-through of the second quest in my sig. It's been around a while, but has lately been extensively redone. Thanks.