Introducing New Foundry: The Dark Secret at Highgate

phoenicianson

Hello everyone, thank you for reading and your interest in my foundry quest post, and I hope you enjoy playing through the quest should you choose to support my publication!

I would like to introduce my Foundry Quest:
The Dark Secret at Highgate
Short Code: NW-DP55VLER6

Edit 92613: 1. Moved Respawn Point in Crypt of the Mystics to a safe point away from mobs
2. Added DM note to first dialogue with Dungeon Master, same map, to read warning in
last dialogue box if you want to skip the dialogue rhyme.
Edit 92713: 1. Added Overworld Map transitions to each map so you can stop playing and return later should you want a break.
2. Added DM notes (in different colors to offset primary wording color so you would notice the message) informing when the dialogue is background and not plot crucial so you can skim or skip

This has been written by a published author in real life.

STATUS: This quest is PLAY READY. This is not the first quest I have written. I have spent a collective 250 hours writing this quest, of which the majority of that time was dedicated to testing and proofing the quest. I would appreciate playthroughs to RATE the quest so it can gain some traction for display within the REVIEW section, requiring at least 4 REVIEWED PLAYTHROUGHS.

STORYLINE: The story takes placed in a village called, Highgate. The villagers have been cursed by an unknown and faceless evil. Several days prior to their plight, a group of clerics arrived from Neverwinter and began escavating ruins outside the village (within village map). They unexpectantly disappeared, and with their absence, an evil had been unleashed upon the village. Mayor Elias Gabriel and his advisor, Mystic Horacio, are at their wits end, neither able to spare the villagers from this blight, nor capable of finding the means to discover the source of the evil that has befallen upon Highgate. The village enjoys its anonymity and causes to seek the assistance of the HERO OF NEVERWINTER by having a merchant post a plea for help on the JOB BOARD in Neverwinter, rather than alerting the Neverember Guard only for the guard to besiege their unassuming village. Will you come to the call and assist Mayor Elias and Mystic Horacio discover the blight that has gripped the villagers, or will your lack of progress result in you, yourself, falling victim to the evil powers that lay seige on village of Highgate?

REMAINING PORTION OF THIS POST IS OPTIONAL IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO LEARN MORE, OTHERWISE, YOU CAN SKIP READING THIS AND SPEND THAT TIME PLAYING THROUGH THE QUEST

I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT, AND WOULD BE HAPPY TO PLAY THROUGH ANYONE ELSE'S PUBLICATION. SIMPLY PM ME THE TITLE AND OR THE SHORTCODE. THANKS EVERYONE!

THEME: This particular quest plays consistent with the HANSEL AND GRETEL breadcrumb theme. The quest ends with a climactic ending on a map designed and dedicated entirely to the final confrontation.

HIGHLIGHTS: This is an EPIC QUEST, created for SOLO PLAY:

BACKDROP: Highgate Village
- A custom built environment designed from ground up on a blank mid-sized map. This map is redundantly used as the center of the storyline contributing to several portions of the quest as a whole.

MAPS:
- 15 total maps created, all of which are custom built, but one, with custom sounds.
- This quest has pushed the foundry to its limits. It is long, but a departure from the norm.
- Each map shares a purpose and importance to the story as a whole, and steadily unfolds the "bread crumbs" leading to the ultimate absolution of the village of Highgate

CHARACTERS:
- Over 50 customized skins for NPCs/Encounters
- Developed characters with their own backgrounds and crucial contributions to the storyline.
- Includes storyline companions who fight along your side as you progress through the story leading up to the climactic battle
- Defeat the undead, ghosts, giants, cursed, and even heroes of the quest from time to time based on dialogue choices.


PLAYTHROUGH
- Very balanced playthrough that includes all facets of objectives, fetching quests, dialogue, puzzles, and encounters. Puzzles present their own clues without offering points/areas to spoil their purpose. Every action nets a reaction in this quest, and leads you to the final tipping point where you unravel the evil behind the curse of the villagers at Highgate.
- Fourteen 14 total items have been customized and created for this adventure, of which, the player will carry no more than five (5) in any one map, and two (2) at any one time between maps.
- Up to six (6) friendly encounters at any one time that join you during various elements and maps of this quest
- Friendly encounters take advantage of the New ADVENTURER class.

*PLEASE NOTE, THIS IS AN EPIC ADVENTURE... THUS, I FOREWARN YOU THAT THE PLAYTHROUGH WILL NOT BE QUICK, IT WILL BE LONG, BUT I TRULY BELIEVE IT WILL BE WELL WORTH YOUR TIME IF YOU ENJOY SUBSTANTIVE QUESTS THAT OFFER A UNIQUE EXPERIENCE OUTSIDE MINDLESS HUNTS OR SIMPLE DESIGNS THAT SINGULAR OFFER THE PURPOSE OF COMPLETING FOUNDRY DAILY ALLOCATIONS... THUS, BASED ON THAT DISCLAIMER AND WARNING, I RESPECTFULLY REQUEST THAT YOU DO NOT PROVIDE A NEGATIVE REVIEW DUE TO THE LENGTH OF THIS QUEST. THERE ARE 15 MAPS, TAKING A CONSIDERABLE AMOUNT OF TIME TO COMPLETE THIS QUEST IS INNATE. AND AS EVERYONE FOREWARNS, I HAVE NO CONTROL OVER LOOT*

I have tested this quest by completing every map, redundantly, and with each proof, I have tested each map again. I am very confident that there are no "broken" elements or any causes within these maps that would lead to "breaking" the quest. In the unlikely event that issue does arise, please inform me by PM so I can fix the issue.

Feel free to post general comments, critiques or input regarding the quest on this forum chain. Thanks again!

lumicakery

Hey man, I'll take a look at your quest .

However, I think you might need to ease up on the texts a lil bit, can be a bit intimidating for some. Instead, put things like screenshots to describe the theme, etc.

lumicakery

I'm sorry, but I have to go against your warning. I got the hint that it would be long, but I recommend you splitting it up and putting it under a campaign. To be fair, your description of long is kinda vague.

The quest was good, but simply too long. After an hour plus of playing I got a bit disinterested and started skipping the dialogues. It would seemed I missed the part where the DM says something about the key and the crypts. I somehow spawned a whole ton of mobs at the respawning point which happened to be in the way, dooming the rest of my progress in the quest. This meant that every time I died, I respawned at the location where all the mobs are, and faced an almost instantaneous death. Not too sure of the design of that particular area.

Another thing I'd like to comment on is the dialogue. It would seem you used both mission info (yellow text) and OOC (bluish grey text) to describe events that are not spoken. In other words, you used two separate colors to pretty much describe the same thing. May confuse or distract some people. It's also preferable to have more dialogue options which are not related to the objective. This is more of a flavor/personality kinda thing, like a ruthless answer or a caring answer, etc. Would also be great to have a sort of 'skip the details' kind of option for those who are not interested or need to know some particular details.

To further enforce my statement about the quest being too long for a stand alone, I'm just gonna say here that I've spent about 1 hour and 45 minutes before I stopped.

I do hope you take my advice about splitting the quest, as it is an interesting one. But maybe other people can disagree? Either way, I wish you the best of luck .

phoenicianson

shortened the description... I know how to take screenshots, but any idea where they are saved when you take them in game? So I can post them on here.

phoenicianson

I appreciate the playthrough, lumicakery.

I understand about moving the respawn point, that is a good idea... I assume you quit from there since you could not survive... that DM note was important that you skipped, because it warned you that the map was bugged and I couldn't place the encounters down on the second floor where you searched for the key.

I apologize that the experience frustrated you and you lost that time because of that issue. After that, you were essentially at the last two maps of substance.

If you know how to split a published quest into a campaign, let me know, as I do not know how to do that once the quest is published, but, there are a ton of 15 minute quest, I Was going for something different. As far as the length, truly, what is the difference, you play one way or you play another, you get stuff no matter how or where you play?

however, if the consensus would be 15 minute lengths, then yes, I would break this up into a campaign, just need some help as to how.

boomba66

How to Split a Quest Into a Campaign
1. Figure out which maps make the best chapter breaks.
2.Copy the quest 4-6 times.
3. Create a Campaign tab.
4. Rename each of your progressions in the story. So Chapter One; Mystery in High Gate., Chapter Two: The tombs of High Gate....ect ect
5. Cut all of the Missions and maps from story not in that chapter. So say for chapter one you use your first three maps. Delete all the rest until you make a single chapter. ONLY DO THIS AFTER YOU MAKE AND RENAME THE COPIES AND LEAVE ONE ORIGINAL COPY.
6. Rework the end conversations of each map to reflect a chapters ending.


That should do the trick.

phoenicianson

I appreciate the instructions, I am looking to do that now to break it up.

EDIT - I TRIED TO DUPLICATE THE QUEST, WHEN YOU DUPLICATE THE QUEST, IT DUPLICATES THE INFORMATION ON THE QUEST TAB, BUT IT DOES NOT CARRY OVER THE STORYLINE OR ANY PORTION OF IT, RATHER IT STARTS AS THOUGH IT WERE A FRESHLY DESIGNED QUEST. WHAT AM I MISSING?

I did make a couple of adjustments to that particular map based on your input. See edited post at top.

boomba66

phoenicianson wrote: »

I appreciate the instructions, I am looking to do that now to break it up.

EDIT - I TRIED TO DUPLICATE THE QUEST, WHEN YOU DUPLICATE THE QUEST, IT DUPLICATES THE INFORMATION ON THE QUEST TAB, BUT IT DOES NOT CARRY OVER THE STORYLINE OR ANY PORTION OF IT, RATHER IT STARTS AS THOUGH IT WERE A FRESHLY DESIGNED QUEST. WHAT AM I MISSING?

I did make a couple of adjustments to that particular map based on your input. See edited post at top.

It could be a bug or due to the massive size of the quest. I have done this in the past with my own mega campaign. If not try and remind people that they can play your quest in multiple parts as long as you use over world maps. If you want to see how a campaign is broken into smaller segments try mine, will show you how to tell an epic story in small parts.

I may not be the most gifted writer but I do know good games(Gym Teacher), without a save feature most gamers wont be able to stick through much more then 30 minutes at a time. If I have a few free hours I will certainly be trying this campaign with further help to get you the plays your looking for.


What have you written? You can tell me in private if its in the fantasy Genre I may have read it.

lumicakery

With the screenshot, I usually take one and paste it in paint, then save it on my desktop. Then I upload to photobucket and put it here.

A quest doesn't have to be 15 minutes, it just needs to stop at the right moment. Sometimes a 30 or 40 minutes quest can be just as good. However I think an hour should be max.

As for the splitting quest thing, I'm not too sure on how to do that . Maybe someone around the forum has posted about it before? But essentially, they will become fresh new quest as you described. You just gotta sorta reintroduce the players on what's happening, but not too much introduction.

eskarine

I am willing to play it if you can trade back in return? Mine's also long, roughly 70 minutes average at the moment.

phoenicianson

Absolutely Eskarine, give me the name of yours, and I will play through later today. I need a playthrough and review so I can get the count up for mine, thanks!

eskarine

The name of the quest is in the sig (The absence of light), as is the code and link to foundry thread.

Adding yours to queue, gonna play either today in the evening of during the weekend, depending on my work time.

phoenicianson

Great, I will hit yours up, thanks bro! Let me know once you play through mine.

phoenicianson

ESKARINE, I got to the map where you have to activte the main steam pipe. I found two levers that activated the pipe, but not before I interacted with two symbols, one at the top of a very long path on floating mountains, and another one in a shrine.

I have been running around aimlessly for, probably 35 minutes, looking for whatever it is that I am supposed to do to "activate the main steam pipe", yet there are no more interacting objects. I have interacted with all of them, read through all of the dialogue, several times. I am not sure if I broke something since I may have not followed the proper sequence.

I have to quit the quest, as I am stuck. Nothing works.

You are going to have to tell me either by replying to this post, or PMing me what I need to do to get through that particular map. And, I will play through it again. However, I would like you to play through my quest as well, as you mentioned it was part of a que. Thus, I will play your quest twice, since I got stuck, but would like you to play through mine. So, let me know when you plan on playing it through, and I will again play through yours.

Thanks! I look forward to finishing the quest once you send me this answer, as I think I may have broken the quest but not following a proper sequence, I am really stuck.

I really don't want to lose all the time I have already put into your quest, so if you can reply over the next 5 or 10 minutes, I will still be looking for this missing interaction I seem to not be able to find to "Activate the Main Steam Pipe"...

I SAVED WHERE I LEFT OFF BY LEAVING THE MAP, SO I CAN GO BACK TO THAT SAME MAP. I WILL WAIT TO HEAR FROM YOU THEN RETURN.

eskarine

I'm sorry to hear that you had difficulties with the quest. I've sent you a PM with puzzle solution.

Like I said in the PM, if I come back from work at reasonable hour tommorow, then I will tackle it in the evening. If not, then Saturday morning. You're of course welcome to wait until I play your quest before you play mine again.

boomba66

eskarine wrote: »

I'm sorry to hear that you had difficulties with the quest. I've sent you a PM with puzzle solution.

Like I said in the PM, if I come back from work at reasonable hour tommorow, then I will tackle it in the evening. If not, then Saturday morning. You're of course welcome to wait until I play your quest before you play mine again.

Phoen you need to link your maps as overworld to allow a sort of "SAVE" feature to your quest. It is simply to long to finish in a single play through. I spent about 2hours and twenty minutes on it last night. Not sure how far I was I just was past the Moutain Giant Ambush and the conversation with the second guard captain(extremely long text). At the end I was tired and figured I would finish it the next day.

Was not able to return to the quest and it is without the ability to go back to it. It is well written, but even when I read the best authors I read them one or two chapters at a time. If you break it into chapter or use "Overworld" map transitions to allow for a type of save might make it so I can complete it.

phoenicianson

I Appreciate that Boomba66...

I Cannot break it into a campaign, so you mentioned about being able to save... how do I accomplish that again?

That is a great idea. I just want to confirm before I go into the quest to change the map transitions.

I change the map transitions to use overworld map and it will save your place in the quest for each map?

EDIT POST - I SET all map transitions to use overworld map, so if that is what you meant, now you should be able to save your place if you were to have to come back to finish. I had no idea that this was a save feature, great suggestion!

And I am happy you are enjoying the quest, and for your support, I added notices for non-crucial dialogue that the section may be skipped.

phoenicianson

thanks Eskarine... I trust you will do my quest. I will read the PM and get back to it tonight, thanks again!

boomba66

Make sure you play your live quest phoe. Gives everyone an idea how long it will take.

phoenicianson

Quick question, how do you upload pictures to the forum? It shows that you have to use a website. I tried from my dropbox, but that didn't work. Do you happen to know a step by step instruction?

eskarine

I also use dropbox for mine. Be sure to upload the pictures to 'public' folder, then just copy the link (use 'copy to clipboard') and then you can use the links to post pictures here.

I just came back from work. It's 1am - I'm going to start your quest and see how far I can take it before I fall asleep on my keyboard, then finish the rest tommorow.

EDIT: I stopped after the village getting restored back to normal for the first time (no idea if there will be any more episodes). I am liking the story so far, though I do already have one page of notes that I would like to adress, not all of them bad, just things I think might be improved. I will post is all when I am done with the quest. Would you like me to post it here or send it to you by PM?

phoenicianson

PM me the notes, thanks Eskarine. It may take you a long while to finish if you take notes throughout the whole quest, but I do appreciate your playthrough. There are 15 maps total, but some of which are quick one to three objective storylines. Most of them have substance though.

You are barely through to the good parts by the way, esk... it gets better as you go. I hope you enjoy.

eskarine

Getting back to it right now.

That's my style, you know? I get somewhat nitpicky over things and I always note down the stuff I want to mention, so I don't forget anything. I know that when I post something new, I want people to pay attention and tell me how can I improve... so yeah.

Gonna get myself some dinner and then back to Highgate. Will PM you my notes when I am done.

phoenicianson

Thanks Esk!

I appreciate your support!

xandria68

I've always loved the story based games over the basic dungeon crawl. This sounds like something that I would be interested in. I can't wait for the weekend now, so that I can play it. Length to me is no problem, most of the time.

eskarine

Ok, so I just finished it. 224 minutes.

I've sent you a PM with my notes - two PMs, actually, since it was too long to put it into one.

Overall, I really enjoyed the quest - it has wonderful storytelling, characters that you instantly like (or dislike...) and despite the length, you keep going, because you really, really want to know how it ends. Truly amazing, because foundries with good stories are so rare. You can be sure I am going to look forward to any more of your creations!

However, I do feel that you need to find a way to split the quest into at least two parts, if not more. 200+ minutes is just too long. Yes, you can take a break on map transitions (which I need to do as well, with next update of 'Absence'), but that option sometimes gets bugged and do you really want someone to go through 2 hours of your quest and then not be able to come back after taking a break?

phoenicianson

I appreciate the review, Eskarine... and yes, I wish I could break it up, and I actually had tried. I attempted to dupblicate the quest, and cut it into quarters, but ultimately, the quest only duplicated the Quest Tab, and none of the storyline.

The next long one will be surely broken into a campaign. I look forward to your notes!

phoenicianson

Thanks Xandria68... I look forward to your input and impression!

ephiroll

I would give this a go. I do feel bad for not returning a review, but there's simply no way I can review a 225 minute quest in return for a play through on a 20 minute one. All my quests together don't run this long, plus, I don't see how this could have been play tested very well at this length and I shudder at the notes I'd have to take. This needs broken in sections of no longer than 45 mins each to be manageable.

phoenicianson

Ephiroll, I can assure you that I spent the majority of that time proofing, and I do have a degree in English and happen to be a published author. I can assure you that there are very few mistakes, of which lack any substantive drawback in the gameplay.

Notwithstanding, if you are looking solely to do this quest as a job in exchange for a swap of foundry play services between authors, then play my other quest if you "shudder" at the thought of playing through. You don't have to take notes, I have already received a notation of fixes, both sugggested, and actual errors, that were minimal in scope and count.

Why don't you try my other quest, Fall of the City of Grumura, it seems that this quest may not be right for you if you are this reluctant. It is not a problem that you feel this way, I never thought this quest would be for everyone. It is clearly a niche.

As far as breaking it up, as you will read in the earlier posts, it cannot be done without rescripting the entire quest. The duplication process fails to copy the quest as a whole, and only copies the content on the Quest Tab.

I am posting a new page for the Fall of the City of Grumura, since the initial post lacks in game shots, and only presents foundry shots while I was editing the environement, but you can learn more about the quest reading here: http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?496621-New-Foundry-The-Fall-of-the-City-of-Grumura

And, I would appreciate a review on that quest so I can increase the count towards appearing on the face of the Review Tab, thanks!