Old Magic

eldarth

Old Magic [NW-DGBLCWRFP]

Help an old Sage find some lost tomes from pre-Spellplague times in the Tower District.

• Adjustable difficulty
• A touch of parcour (interacting/climbing houses/ruins)
• New monster(?)
• Carefully detailed/animated final encounter

WARNING: NO SPARKLE TRAIL -- Involves actual exploration and investigation!



v2.2 02/19/14
- Fixed freed goblin archers
- Block out-of-bounds areas
- Clarified where Biscuit lives
- Signage to various buildings




Full Mental Gamers Playthrough
(Warning: Adult Rated Commentary)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A8zZ0Tj9c0

eldarth

Updated: Now Group Friendly
[I'd also suggest trying Hard or Elite Mode difficulty if in a group]

eldarth

v2.0 11/22/13

• Now Group Friendly (Hard Difficulty=group of 2+, Elite=group of 3+)
• Majorly Enhanced Hard/Elite final encounter
• Lots of new animations/sound effects and AI positioning for final encounter

Did some major work on final encounter in Sage Ramiel's Workshop.
Some "timed" (about every 20 seconds) adds of Easy,Easy,Hard mobs for Hard Difficulty
...and Hard,2xEasy,Hard mobs for Elite Difficulty.

I think it's pretty well balanced for groups of 2 and 3 now and would really like any suggestions and feedback from groups of 2 or 3 (or 4?) about the balance of the Hard/Elite group modes overall, but especially for final encounter.

melinden

Level 60 DC. Played on the easy setting. This quest is excellent and well put together. It makes me think I need to work on some movement puzzles myself. Whatever glitch or clumsy fingers that closed the review box on me last time did it again. I will play it again to make sure you get your stars and tip.

Play Through Notes: These are really nitpicky, the quest is very well put together and detailed.

-I think magical tea should be a regular for my character in most quests. Seems only civilized
-in Ramiel's first reference to the Registrar's Building he's missing his apostrophe
-on the walls in the upstairs room you need the scaffolding to get to (Antique Dealer?) in the first room with the bed it is not lined up right.
-I think the chanting loop and the area music was playing at the same time in the outdoor map
-the objective "Go to Sage Ramiel's Workshop" needs a space between Sage and Ramiel
-I loved the ooze but I would have preferred the old school 'pudding'. Still, I was very happy to see it!
-Ramiel's Workshop interior was very nicely done.
-the cut scene was great.

kvanvig

I was'nt able to finish the quest, because I kept falling through the textures on the registrar's building. Please fix that.

cerecdoctor

Stuck in quest. Sage asked for Tomes I collected. He took them then walked away. I couldn't follow him. Magic barrier still up. NOW the quest prompt says "Find an Arcane Tome". I already did that!
He asked for the number of tomes i found. 1, 2, or 3. I may have answered wrong. Is that the problem?

eldarth

cerecdoctor wrote: »

Stuck in quest. Sage asked for Tomes I collected. He took them then walked away. I couldn't follow him. Magic barrier still up. NOW the quest prompt says "Find an Arcane Tome". I already did that!
He asked for the number of tomes i found. 1, 2, or 3. I may have answered wrong. Is that the problem?

Probably. If you told him you had all three and didn't then he went inside to prepare. Once you had all three you would be able to follow him inside.

malcont

So I found a bit of a bug. I was jumping around the second house while looking for tomes and managed to jump through into an area I could not get out of. Had to suicide to get out. It is right next to the scaffolding that you put up to get into the room. Which by the way, did not have the tome in it..

eldarth

malcont wrote: »

So I found a bit of a bug. I was jumping around the second house while looking for tomes and managed to jump through into an area I could not get out of. Had to suicide to get out. It is right next to the scaffolding that you put up to get into the room. Which by the way, did not have the tome in it..

Added to my todo notes next time I edit that one.

And the circles are just "high probability" search locations, not guarantees. If they were absolutely known the Sage would merely teleport in and retrieve them and you'd be out of an adventuring job.

eldarth

v2.2 02/19/14
- Fixed freed goblin archers
- Block out-of-bounds areas
- Clarified where Biscuit lives
- Signage to various buildings

eldarth

v2.3 02/24/14
- Biscuit now has a collar tag
- Completely rebuilt/detailed collapsed cellar/cave
- New neighbors for Sage in Tower District
- New magic water fountain/bench for neighbors

eldarth

v2.4 02/25/14
- Sage Ramiel can magically re-mark search areas when asked
- Added more Orc Archers at Territory entry for Hard/Elite

eldarth

Added:

Full Mental Gamers Playthrough
(Warning: Adult Rated Commentary)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A8zZ0Tj9c0

chrissyiv

Ya.. I just spent almost an hour on this quest.. only to get to the part where I am supposed to help the sage start the ritual. He told me to sprinkle blue sapphire dust on it. I know where the dust is supposed to be (on the middle shelf of the bookshelf behind him) but it's not there.

reiwulf

Congrats on getting the quest featured, Eldarth!

eldarth

chrissyiv wrote: »

Ya.. I just spent almost an hour on this quest.. only to get to the part where I am supposed to help the sage start the ritual. He told me to sprinkle blue sapphire dust on it. I know where the dust is supposed to be (on the middle shelf of the bookshelf behind him) but it's not there.

D'oh!

Sorry - I just discovered a bug in Easy Difficulty that the final blue sapphire dust isn't obtainable.
v2.7 (non-featured) has fixed that problem.

eldarth

v2.7 07/22/14
- Fixed missing dust in workshop for Easy Difficulty

oddsock

eldarth wrote: »

v2.7 07/22/14
- Fixed missing dust in workshop for Easy Difficulty

Hi,

I have just done the quest on Easy difficulty and have reached the problem where I cannot find any Blue Sapphire Dust.

Cheers

mrgiggles651

oddsock wrote: »

Hi,

I have just done the quest on Easy difficulty and have reached the problem where I cannot find any Blue Sapphire Dust.

Cheers

Its possible you are still getting an old version of the quest, Eldarth you might want to consider an npc that you can ask for the version number, I've done that before so there's no version confusion.

eldarth

mrgiggles651 wrote: »

Its possible you are still getting an old version of the quest, Eldarth you might want to consider an npc that you can ask for the version number, I've done that before so there's no version confusion.

I PM'd them just to make sure they did the featured one (which we can't fix).
And I make sure the version number is clear in the main quest tab. I think I'll start putting current version as first line though.

rhoeli

Hi! I enjoyed this quest very much, except for the bugged ending. I played the old version, and the powder wasn't on the shelf. Today, I played v. 2.7, recieved the Easy key from the chest, redid the quest, saw the powder on the shelf. I was thrilled! But I got a "out of line of sight" error on the F key. I screwed around for a few minutes trying to line myself up, but couldn't manage to pick up the powder! So close

I don't know if this is useful to you, but I tried, amongst other things to get "in the line of sight" , discarding the key, which made the powder disappear, then tried the candle, but nothing doing.

Once again, I really enjoyed this quest, I hope I can play it again

watchingdwheels

Played the "Normal" version, I really enjoyed the entire Quest. Up to..............

Followed the Mage in his workshop. Mage told me to get the "Flask", and like "rhoeli" I was not able to take it from the shelf.

With no exit, 4K for a teleport scroll. I expect one or the other in my mailbox ASAP!(j/k)

I even reported the incident as a "Bug" to a GM, since the method used to ID the author does not allow for sending a message.

That being said, this is one of the most original "Foundry" quests I've had the pleasure to play. Up to.........

bardaaron

So far I have not been able to finish, but this has been due to a mix of difficulty and time. I haven't encountered any bugs as yet. On Normal difficulty, my level 34 HR (& rank 15 Man-at-arms companion) was finding it almost impossible to navigate the tower District map without getting mobbed by like, 3 encounters at once. I died 4 or 5 times. Maybe I just wasn't being careful enough. I made it into the workshop when I ran out of time & had to stop. When I manage to get it finished, I will give some more thoughts, but I did like the details that were changed on the map, and enjoyed seeing the magical effects on the ground. Which ones did you use? I have so much trouble figuring out what the effects actually look like, since the image for things like the magic circle looks very different from what appears in-game.

eldarth

bardaaron wrote: »

So far I have not been able to finish, but this has been due to a mix of difficulty and time. I haven't encountered any bugs as yet. On Normal difficulty, my level 34 HR (& rank 15 Man-at-arms companion) was finding it almost impossible to navigate the tower District map without getting mobbed by like, 3 encounters at once. I died 4 or 5 times. Maybe I just wasn't being careful enough. I made it into the workshop when I ran out of time & had to stop. When I manage to get it finished, I will give some more thoughts, but I did like the details that were changed on the map, and enjoyed seeing the magical effects on the ground. Which ones did you use? I have so much trouble figuring out what the effects actually look like, since the image for things like the magic circle looks very different from what appears in-game.

I believe Normal has a couple of normal difficulty "patrols" that circle the orc territory path, and one that goes from librarians down to entrance to orc territory. As long as you don't try to rush through or past the archers/gate guards, you should be okay without getting stacked up on.

Which magical effects did you like/want to know about? I think I've used a lot of different things.

Also - make sure you play the latest version (non-featured) as the featured one can be "difficult" to pickup the dust in the sages workshop.

bardaaron

With the teleport to tower district, I know the outer blue circle was "Magic Circle" but what was the yellow one inside? Also, what was the glossy black octagon that formed the base?

Also the ripply invisible wall with the glyphs. I know the glyphs were one of the chalk rune series, but what was the ripple?

eldarth

bardaaron wrote: »

With the teleport to tower district, I know the outer blue circle was "Magic Circle" but what was the yellow one inside? Also, what was the glossy black octagon that formed the base?

Also the ripply invisible wall with the glyphs. I know the glyphs were one of the chalk rune series, but what was the ripple?

Well, let me just check...

I believe the glossy black octagon is a drow ground plate flipped upside down - I discovered it had a nice glossy/black surface and thought that was perfect -- and kind of unique.
Yep: Drow Ground Plate 02 "flipped"

Ripple Effect: FX - Magical Distortion Wall (handle is about 20' away from ripple effect plane)
Yellow inner circle: FX - Divine Glow 01


So, when looking at assets - spin 'em around and see how the bottoms and sides look.

bardaaron

Ok, I thought that it might be a distortion wall. I'd never have guessed (or at least thought of) the others. Cool, thanks, eldarth.

eldarth

bardaaron wrote: »

I'd never have guessed (or at least thought of) the others.

You definitely have to eyeball nearly every asset in the foundry, otherwise you might mistake:

"Mm Bandstage 01" description is "A pile of black sludge"
or that Bottle 05 is really a Silver Bowl

mordeultboom

Hello. Im stuck in the end, i cant pick up the blue dust , and i cant help him complete ritual, it saying i cant do that right now.... help pls

kendaricv

Playing v2.8 and the problem with the unobtainable dust on easy difficulty struck.
Aside from that, great quest with a lot of interesting stuff. Looking forward to being able to finish it at some point.

eldarth

v2.8.1 08/22/14
- really, really made blue dust easier to pickup