New Foundry: The Fall of the City of Grumura

phoenicianson

I would like to introduce a NEW FOUNDRY QUEST:
COMPLETELY REVAMPED 10-13-13, SEE BOTTOM SECTION FOR INFORMATION ON UPDATE
(Always happy to swap plays for reviews - scroll down for in game pictures)
(Search for the Quest on the "NEW TAB" on the job board. Only 5 more reviews to make it a daily)
PLEASE HELP AND SUPPORT A FELLOW FOUNDRY AUTHOR REALIZE HIS DREAMS TO HAVE A DAILY! SEARCH FOR IT UNDER THE "NEW TAB".
Updates Published Under Pictures

Fall of the City of Grumura
NW-DDKOR82LQ

SHORT AND SATISFYING, MAKES FOR A NICE DAILY
Completion Time Average: 24 Minutes

Story: The City of Grumura has been besieged by an unknown evil. An ancient force that has overtaken the town and the townsfolk are no where to be found. Neverember is stumped. The town is now crawling with patrols of evil spawns, as more pour in through the portals. Only the Savior of Neverwinter can save the city by rebinding the broken Kelemvor wards surrounding the city to close and rebind the rift. The Clerical Order of Neverwinter sends in you, the Savior of Neverwinter, accompanied by a Priestess of Kelemvor, Priestess Taco, to discover the source of the city's fall.

BACKDROP: The story takes place on a 1024x1024 blank map, fully customized hosting the City of Grumura. Great detail, 1500/1500 used to give the City of Grumura a life and its own character.

THEME: This is a #combat concentrated quest, and #challenging, yet not overwhelming. It is filled with skinned themed encounters to support the story. Dialogue at start of the story to set theme. Non-objective NPC offers detailed storyline for players interested in added depth. Storyline NPC's dialogue choices, and length at player's discretion. The quest includes a series of simple interactions to balance out gameplay and support storyline. It is a very fluid quest that takes place on one instance, and is a great candidate for a daily. Please help me realize its potential by playing through, and feel free to send me your quest to run through to reciprocate.

PLAYTHROUGH: You can safely play through SOLO or with a SMALL GROUP (2 players); I don't recommend larger, but it is up to you. I ran through this quest within 25 MINUTES solo while taking notes. I played through without dying, and no battle companion other than the storyline character, as I have an Augment for my companion. (Gear Score 12500 and a Level 60 Mage).

ENCOUNTERS: The mobs are all STANDARD and DIFFICULT. Please note that the mobs are not compounded, but they do patrol the streets of the city. Their patrol paths are NOT overlapped, but many end near similar points. Part of the playthrough is that you are mindful where you engage the mobs as to not aggro another patrol at their meeting points. Not to worry though, if you did aggro another patrol, you would still be limited to no more than two encounter mobs.

PICTURES OF QUEST: Here are pictures I took from my 3rd or 4th playthrough:










CURRENT UPDATES:
10.27.13_Rev: Fixes to spelling in dialogue, and lack of option to continue dialogue with non-objective NPC, Priest Pius

10.16.13_Rev: Changed Secure Gate Encounter by splitting up the 4 encounters in a single objective into 2 separate objective with 2 encounters. Adjusted Friendy Encounter and NPC spawn to match the additional objective chain.

10.13.13 COMPLETE REVAMP: Redeveloped the entire quest. Created new map, smaller, 1024x512, 1500/1500 Details Allocated. Complete storyline revamp. More effects, better design, combat leans more on patrol strategy from first version. Map created around combat strategy. Be mindful where you engage encounters to avoid multiple patrols, no more than 2 connect at ends any one place on map, except two locations where 3 patrols connect at ends.
- Removed Taco from Storyline to add more encounters to fill map
- Made Encounters more progressive, few ultra elites used
- Made ending battles climactic, adding additional layer of challenging combat
- Tested with all Foundry 31 Level Builds
- WARNING - Strongly Advise Level 60 Clerics to bring friends, all other builds can SOLO map
*NOTE - map is still clean, as the storyline provides, the lack of fire all over the map is intentional.
NEW QUEST PICTURES FORTHCOMING

FORMER MAP UPDATES:
10.8.13_Rev: Major Update: Fixed Issue where closing box after sealing 5th seal caused quest to break by adding another objective to acquire Empowered Seal of Kelemvor.
Added More Sound Effects
Changed Encounters to offer more variety, not abominations (later update)
Changed a Massive Amount of Scenery by shifting resources adding new content
Changed Some Patrols to make it more difficult to navigate around them, and added more invisible barriers forcing players away from walls

10.6.13_Rev: Major Update: Includes new NPC to add more depth to storyline. Added dialogue, outside storyline, optional based on player's discretion. Dialogue with Priest Pius sets the backstage for the instance at Grumura.
Additional OPTIONAL dialogue chains added to storyline NPC for shortened version.
Changed the environment signifantly, backdrop more consistent with storyline, shifted details to add more off-map content to remove "bare map" feel at entrance.
Added More Sound effects.
Enhanced some encounters, and adjusted skins.

9.30.13_Rev: Added foliage to the Guard Camp, and more guards
Added an End Quest Interact Module to Leave Map (for effect)
Added more FX, sounds, foliage, and a Volume Gate into City
Changed the Entrance Gate to City
Fixed few minor dialogue spelling mistakes
Added Additional Backdrop

9.27.13_Rev: Added more Guards for aesthetic appeal, and tent wires
Changed default name for magic barrier to "Magic Barrier"
Added more sound effects
Added a few more foliage details

phoenicianson

phoenicianson

phoenicianson

Just to let you know, if you are interested in playing through. I played through this several times, and it runs smooth. I played through with my Level 60 Mage, with no companion (I use an Augment), and had no problems. Didn't die once during the campaign. Very balanced combat for solo, but sufficient to bring a friend.

Let me know what you guys thinks, and thanks to @Eskaline for telling me how to add pictures of a quest to the Forums!

winterswitch

Hey Phoenicianson.

I had a blast playing your quest. I totally got into running around the city, dodging patrols. Sorta like Splinter Cell, but, you know, without the stealth and the cool gagdets. I really don't have many suggestions for improvement.

--Frinko's dialogue: change "what make this" to "what makes this"
--The tents outside the city: There's a separate asset for the tent wires; you can lay it right on top of the tents and they'll run down to the stakes in the ground. (Sorry, can't remember the exact name atm.)
--Some of the Stonehenge pillars are floating a bit off the ground.
--The barrier to the controllers has the stock "magic barrier 01" name.

I'd like to see more foundries like this. Please give "Hive Mind" a run-through when you get a chance. Thanks.

phoenicianson

Absolutely, Winterswitch... I will run your quest tonight. Thanks for the glowing review, and I appreciate you catching those issues, I will fix them as well.

I am happy you enjoyed the quest!

phoenicianson

Winter, I made the adjustments that you suggested, good call... took me a minute to find the grammatical error until after checking all the dialogue several times I figured out you were referring to a response to the dialogue, nice catch.

Adding the tent wires wasn't easy, but I got them alligned as best as they could with all four tents, and I also added more guards for better ambient aesthetics. I am impressed you noticed the pillars off the ground, it took me a minute to see that, nice eyes.

Thanks for the playthrough and the suggestions, hopefully others will follow your lead. I actually enjoy playing, it is like farming with a storyline, sprinkled with interactions to balance it out.

rumrunner711

Hey Phoenicianson,
I ran through your quest, thoroughly enjoyed it! Lot's of challenging battle with a good mix of story and mystery.

Here's some notes:
Played with: 44.DC + companion

When accepting the quest, the quest shows up in the tracker, but doesn't have any text about who to talk to.
Not sure if this is a bug or something missed on the story tab in the foundry.

On the left and right sides of the guard encampment, maybe add some foliage up to the cliffs.
First battle had me running, felt it was a good challenge.
I ran into the guard encampment training some devils, but the guards all cowered... chicken guards. Heh.
Far side of the city, all the trees look the same - try rotating some or using different ones.

Quest Description
- change "Neverwintever" to "Neverwinter"

Guard Frinko
- change "Gaurd Camps" to "Guard Camps"

Mysterious Being
- change "hass" to "has"

Guard Frinko (at the end)
- change "liesure" to "leisure"


Love the little bits of humor in this. Priestess Taco, hahahah!

Good job!

phoenicianson

Thanks bro! I am not sure why it does not say anything for the first quest task... I will check into that when I make the other adjustments. I cannot add anything to the map though that is not already there, as it is pressed to its quota for objects, 1500/1500 on that map. As you can tell by the detail of the city, it is quite expansive.

Did you like the city?

rumrunner711

Yeah, the city is pretty cool, has a good layout.

phoenicianson

Thanks brotha! I added new shots to replace the 3D Edit shots, they are in game playthrough shots for everyone to get a feeling of what they would experience playing through the quest!

phoenicianson

By the way, that was a bug that the quest only showed up on the tracker... The quest line reads: Speak with Guard Frinko

boudiccia

I just ran through the foundry The Fall of the City of Grumara.

This was a very epic zone and I can tell a tonn of work went into it. However I think it feels a bit sterile like something out of Minecraft. Some basic suggestions would be changing the sky to something more ominous so it fits the story. There is also a backdrop feature that help can with alleviating the infinite plane on the horizon. When looking at the view behind Mr Ed (horse) kind of breaks the immersion. Consider adding more trees, a path, or a gate here. (see picture) Not sure how close you are to the 1500 object limit you are at so this might not be possible.

Combat - Was very well balanced and not difficult if one was careful but could be punishing if one tried to go Leeroy Jenkins with it. It did get a little repetitive after a while and took about an hour to go through it all.


Story seemed pretty solid as well. The one thing that didn't seem to flow was Priestess Taco. She died in combat several times but then would end up coming back to life at various points. Really if she dies she should stay dead unless their is a reason for her to come back to life. This sets up the possibility for different endings to the story. There could be one ending where she makes it and another where she doesn't. This does not have to be big event. Just a different dialogue queue from Guard Frinko would suffice. This would add to the replayability of the zone.


Overall it is still 5 star material and was a lot of fun. Good job on this.

phoenicianson

boudiccia, I appreciate the playthrough... I think you may not have read through her dialogue, or possibly skimmed it, because she explains how she is resurrected in her dialogue, so her resurrections would not seem arbitrary. She explains how should she fall, each rebinding of the seal will resurrect her by the aide of Kelemvor.

Not sure why it would take you an hour to finish this quest, the average is 25 minutes, but ok... yes, the map is massive, as it is really set to start a campaign.

The shot that you took is the map end. I tried to set pieces deep out, but although they would take in the 3D, when I went back to them, they disappeared because they were outside the map... I will try again, but remember, the entrance is supposed to be at the road leading up to Protector's Enclave. I set the backdrop for trees, but for some reason, there aren't that many in the backdrop. I also did try to use a more sinister sky, but it seemingly took away from the lighting of the town making it look too dim, so I used the standard afternoon again.

I am at the limit, 1500/1500 details, so placing more will mean placing less detail within the map. What I think the developers should do is reduce the total map allocation per quest from 15 to 10 and add 50% more details to each map. I wrote another quest, The Dark Secret at Highgate, which is a full quest, not campaign, and 225 minutes. You can leave each map to save your place and return, but it pushed the foundry to its limits, and no one else does that with a single quest. Thus, 15 maps is kind of stupid as a limitation to each quest rather than reducing to 10 maps and having 33.3% to 50% more details to each map by that reduction. But, that is a developer thing for the foundry itself.

Thanks for the playthrough! I appreciate your support! And, I am happy you enjoyed it!

gravman213

I enjoyed the mission. Lots of fighting was a fun go. Running from the patrol and sneaking by was good fun also City looked really nice. I like how you colored some of your text gave it a great feel. I was able to get through it with no deaths but some parts were a little tough. Please check my mission at your earliest connivance.

Name of Mission Save Lilyana 1.5
Search @DRAKKO213
Short code is NW-DUF7HTHDQ

phoenicianson

Gravman... I greatly appreciate the playthrough and your support. I am also very happy that you enjoyed the quest!

I am just logging on now, and I will be sure to play through your quest as well. If you have a page on the forums for your quest, please reply with the link so I can also post to your page as well.

Thanks so much! And if you have friends that enjoy this type of quest, please suggest my quest to them to play through as well. I am trying to get it to the daily tab. Thanks man! I look forward to playing yours!

lumicakery

Hello, I thought the quest was nice. But, it looked a bit colorful and sunny for a supposedly doomed town. Also, I don't really see the Ashmadai working together with the Shadarkai. From what I know, the Ashmadai are ritualists doing ritually stuff for Asmodeus, a demon lord. While Shadarkai are mostly necromancer/undead stuff. Why not create your own lore or group?

Or perhaps the story is not meant to be taken seriously?

Well if that's the case, you might wanna tone down on the dialogues. Make them less detailed/instructive. I did see some funny bits though. Put more if you can. I suspect players with little motivation for story will get a bit disinterested if the dialogue box pops with texts more than five lines (could be a bit of an exaggeration, but you get my point). I also don't think it's absolutely necessary for an explanation of what the npc is doing, just go straight to the point. These points are only if you do not plan to make the quest to be story focused.

Only bug thingy I could find was one of the controllers was named Prophet Rohini, as in the final boss for the Helm's Hold questing area.


I have a quest that's in the early stages if you have the time. It's called 'Fate'. I don't have a thread for it yet though. Just getting some input first. Thanks
NW-DFCBAEYRH

phoenicianson

I appreciate the playthrough, lumi...

I will playthrough your quest tonight when I get home from work. Once you have the thread up, let me know, and I will post to the thread as well.

The intention of the quest was to be quick and dirty, and fun.... not necessarily based on D&D Lore. However, if the quest gains traction, and becomes a daily, then I will spend a lot more time on it making it more consistent. I didn't want to run into the same problem I had with The Dark Secret at Highgate, where I spent 250 hours scripting and proofing only to have it fall on its face for lack of playtime.

I will check the skin on the controller, do you recall which grouping? If do you, that would be great, maybe even the region, west/east of the city.

Is there any particular D&D Lore that you refer to whereby these two groups could not assume control in tandum, or is this an opinion based on their backgrounds? Obviously, if the D&D Lore is inconsistent, then I will definitely make that change to be more consistent with the lore, as I did in The Dark Secret at Highgate?

Thanks again.

lumicakery

For the controller's skin, I think it was towards the end, by the portal.

I'm not much of a lore expert myself and I based my opinion from playing the cryptic campaigns. Imo, demons and undead/shadows are two separate themes. It's much safer to make your own lore like you did with the other one. All the best

phoenicianson

I am working on a series of significant updates to the quest that should be published soon. Mostly dialogue elements, that are not required in the storyline, but for those players that do enjoy more substance and background to these stories, it will add that layer of entertainment for those who choose to expand upon their experience.

Additionally, I am revising the backdrop due to the overwhelming input to make it more magical, rather than the normal "Sunday afternoon" look it currently presents. I also shifted detail resources around to add more folliage and environment details so the end map does not look as bare.

The storyline dialogue refers to the optional dialogue, so the player knows where to learn more about the history of the Seals of Kelemvor, and how they came to exist, as well as a very short, and oprtional, paraphrased version available as dialogue with one of the storyline NPC's to tantalize the player to want to learn more about how the rifts were opened.

Also, added a new NPC for the optional dialogue, Priest Pius, along with a Sixth Seal that had already been bound and where the NPC Priest Pius is positioned.

I am only about 4 away from a daily, so I would greatly appreciate more support from fellow Foundry authors, and as always, I am happy to trade reviews.

reiwulf

Hey, I just played through your quest.
First of all, congratulations on making a full city, I know how hard it can be to make one.
That being said, it felt a bit empty in various places, I was mainly going near the borders of the city to avoid patrols, and there wasn't much to see besides trees and grass. You could add more flowers and stuff so it doens't look so empty.
If you're too close to 1500 assets, you could optimize them, I notices you used a very small wall for the town border, wich uses a lot of assets and also it being so small I can see the neverending grass to the other side. I would advice to use bigger and taller walls, it would make it look better IMO and would give you much more assets free to use on other stuff.
The battles were hard for me, lots of elite enemies just everywhere. Granted, I'm just playing with my lv 8 GF, but It was still hard, not impossible but hard. Died once or twice.
Some houses were floating (just a few cms) over the floor too, it's barely noticeable, but you might want to change it.
I enjoyed it though, too bad my internet connection went down near the ending and I had to start over

phoenicianson

Sorry to hear about your internet connection. Yes, I am actually going to be logging back on later to shift some assets. Another Foundry Author, and a master of the Foundry, Eskarine, gave me some ideas for some replacements within the city that can free up some detail assets.

I didn't see any houses floating, but I had just updated a few items, and sometimes these updates cause some bugs, do you recall where on the map the houses were "floating". Thanks for your support and playthrough!

It was meant to be challenging, hence the tag in the publication. I wanted to create the quest so that a single player could play through, but it would still be an effort with a small group.

ephiroll

Urgh, review system says I've tipped enough already today so I'll double it next time I come your way.

Play: The play went smooth and was challenging as said, but not too much for my GWF.

Story: The story is lore heavy and gets a little wordy but is goes with the combat pretty well. The environment and setting was well done for the most part.

Tech: The gate seems unneeded since there's no wall and you can just walk around it. A detail or two could be picked up to use elsewhere by doing away with it.

I've always disliked the blank space around the perimeter of the map. It's a pain to do something with it, but it always looks odd if nothing is done and the player can see forever.

The front camp is well done, but has a claustiphobic feel since everything is so close. It could be spread out some to do away with that close feel, and also to fill in some of the empty space on the borders of the camp.

Some building foundations are above the ground. Nearly half the large houses have at least one corner in the air. I normally set them to -2 or so to do away with that. The houses with the large front porches can be set up to -3 or -4 before they start looking weird.

Not liking the name 'Taco'. Sorta anachronistic, parody like and doesn't fit with the heavy lore. The same with 'Mr. Ed' at the end.

Most the patrolling encounters aren't a threat. I killed them just for loot. Can't avoid the ones I'd want to.

The heavy battles got a little dull. It was the same encounters and tactics over and over. The skins would be fine, but the mobs need more variety.

The ground looks really smooth without any additional detail grass.

Good luck with it!

phoenicianson

I appreciate the playthrough... you are the second person to mention the problem with the houses... they were all grounded before my last major update. I am actually about to start working on the details, as there are too many assets used for the wall and floor, and eskarine showed me a couple of tricks I plan on implementing to free up assets. I will check the houses, as they should all be grounded.

The dialogue has optional speed tracks so you don't have to listen to more than you want, I assume you went the long route with the Cleric to have commented on the length.

My wife's nickname is Taco, she is that character. So it wasn't arbitrary... anachronistic, huh? Mr. Ed is just a humor, not a parady... I guess it is either a hit or miss, you don't like it, another does... as they say, "To each their own". You don't have to worry about tipping, but I appreciate that, I didn't make this for the AD, I made it because I like to create things, and it would be great to have a successful foundry.

Hopefully, Cryptic gets off their behind, and cycles out the heavily played Quests from the New Tab for the newer quests, since they are now redundantly listed on the New, Best and Featured, since the update. Thanks again!

Any particular quest you would like me to play through on your end? I see you have a ton of publications?

runebane

phoenicianson wrote: »

I would like to introduce a NEW FOUNDRY QUEST:
(Always happy to swap plays for reviews - scroll down for in game pictures)
(Search for the Quest on the "NEW TAB" on the job board. Only 5 more reviews to make it a daily)
PLEASE HELP AND SUPPORT A FELLOW FOUNDRY AUTHOR REALIZE HIS DREAMS TO HAVE A DAILY! SEARCH FOR IT UNDER THE "NEW TAB".

Just ran and reviewed this. Pretty neat. Great combat quest with challenging fights. The town looked great.

By the way, its the plays that make it daily qualified. Not reviews. You need 5 reviews to let people search it without the shortcode I think. But you only need 20 plays to be daily qualified. When they had reviews turned off I had a couple get daily qualified with 0 reviews.

Would appreciate a trade-review for Sins of the Past NW-DHBGJEOMB or A Diversion Below NW-DIH2R2JJA.

phoenicianson

I appreciate the playthrough, Rune. I was actually in Foundry all night making changes to the city, freeing up assets to make adjustments. I should have it published in the next day or so.

I will definitely play through your quests... tomorrow for sure. 2:30am already, done for the night. I appreciate the heads up on the daily... I always thought you needed 10 or 11 reviews, not 20 playthroughs. if it weren't for the update, I would probably already have logged 20 myself. Each time I update, it clears my part from the count and resets my playthrough contributions.

Thanks again, do you have a post for your foundries? So I can post on its wall? Shoot me the links!

phoenicianson

Runebane, dont forget to shoot me over the page for your quest, so I can hit it up with a post, thanks!

grimah

Just played it, i gave you a review (5 stars since i know its still a work in progress.) The combat was surprisingly tough for a foundry but thats a good thing. but a bit repetative (mob type) and predictable. What i did like about it was the way you had to approach sneaking around the outside, however you used alot of details yet it is very bland on the paths you do take. I would delete a bunch you dont see and use those resources to make the quest parts nice. I would also advise hiding any invisible barriers, some just broke the immersion for me, as well as the layout of the city. it is just one big square. Maybe its because im european but i prefer my streets and roads curving and winding, like in most fantasy/D&D.

Thats the useful feedback i can give you. But i enjoyed the style you was going for.

Feel free to play mine.

phoenicianson

I appreciate the glowing review, grimah. I am a little pressed for details, I had to use them all, the map is simply too big. I will rectify that next time by creating a city on a smaller map, thus the detail may be lacking in certain sections. The invisible walls are there so you cannot run around the map to avoid the encounters... however, the map was built to make the place look cosmopolitan, not homely or have a old character. It is supposed to be a newer city, very structured, and pragmatic.

All maps have that fantasy feel to them, I wanted to create something a little more utilitarian. I would add details to "hide" the invis barriers, I just don't have the assets, as they were all used up designing the city, Your quest sounds familiar, I may have played it already, but if I haven't I of course shall play through it and reciprocate.

What I plan on doing is actually redoing the entire map from scratch and then replacing all of the assets. If I use a smaller map, I can use more detail.

Do you happen to have a page for it?

ephiroll

phoenicianson wrote: »

I appreciate the playthrough... you are the second person to mention the problem with the houses... they were all grounded before my last major update.

Any particular quest you would like me to play through on your end? I see you have a ton of publications?

Certain buildings reset to default if you set it where you want it and then move it and sometimes they do it with patches. Have to place them and not touch them again. I even test my quests that are 'done' once in a while just to make sure there's no such things introduced due to a patch. I've found a few, and had one quest unplayable bc of a patch until I went in and fixed it.

This was in return for one you did for me, so don't worry about it.

grimah

My foundry map is found here http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?501581-Grimah-s-Debut-foundry-quot-The-Silence-of-Haydenwick-quot-CO-OP-%28Challenge-solo%29

What i meant was, all the details you do not see (due to invisible walls, you can use to be done. Ulitarian is fine but it does not look, real. the floor is dead flat (i know you cant do anything about that) no blood, no corpses for a city that got invaded. buildings are perfectly intact, no fire/smoke destruction? Just things to give the place a bit of life.