Arena of Calimport

eldarth

Arena of Calimport [NW-DQQRXNNUP]

You've heard stories your entire life about the spectacular combat events held there.

Now, a representative of the arena has provided you VIP tickets and a ship passage for you and your friends to visit them and experience the VIP suites and amenities they provide for discerning adventures as yourself.


Go challenge Sominator and Team Fencebane to a smackdown!

Three wave skirmish designed for 1-5 PCs

v2.1 - 08/03/13

• Added more marketplace dialog
• Made several mobs more agressive
• Added more city
• Sealed rear gateway; fixed non-ignored NPCs

v2.0c- 06/22/14

• Fixed Brutus

v2.0b- 06/11/14

• Marketplace vendor cleanup
• Added stray dog/companion Brutus

v2.0 - 05/31/14

• Arena Marketplace fully detailed with vendors selling useful items
• 4 mini-vendor "quests"
• A tiny "hint" of romance!
• Duruk's Magical Weapons now open!

v1.8 - 02/16/14

• Finished dialog for all Vendors
• Added two more special vendor items

v1.7 - 01/08/14
- Cleaned up description
- Added spellplague traps

Hint: Speaking with the Scribes' Enclave merchant might get you some help from afar.
Hint: If you are friendly and chat with the herbalist she may also help you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUoW9VKxCUs

orangefiree

I just played this quest. It was fun, however, it was really hard even for my 12,980 gear score rogue. I had one death on the first wave, I managed to get away with none on the second one, and like three during the lich queen fight. You might want to nerf the difficulty a lot if you intended this to work for one person. Four to five hard encounters at once is a bit much. Ok, it turns out I just misinformed some NPCs into thinking I had four people in my party, nevermind that part.


Would you mind playing my quest I also released today?

The Shadowfell Disciples: NW-DEBISCCCR

eldarth

orangefiree wrote: »

I just played this quest. It was fun, however, it was really hard even for my 12,980 gear score rogue. I had one death on the first wave, I managed to get away with none on the second one, and like three during the lich queen fight. You might want to nerf the difficulty a lot if you intended this to work for one person. Four to five hard encounters at once is a bit much.

Would you mind playing my quest I also released today?

The Planeshift: NW-DEBISCCCR
(This is the same quest I had the dephfade problems in, I got them worked out though. They are found in the sixth map I think.)

Four to five hard encounters at once?!? My gawd, how many times did you sign the registrars book????
Should be ONE signing per PC.

orangefiree

eldarth wrote: »

Four to five hard encounters at once?!? My gawd, how many times did you sign the registrars book????
Should be ONE signing per PC.

Oh, oops. I signed it four times. That explains my issue.

eldarth

orangefiree wrote: »

Oh, oops. I signed it four times. That explains my issue.

Whew. I did find one extra hard undead mob during the lich queen fight that I shifted to 2+ player.

Wow. Four has got to be pretty hardcore for a solo! :cool:

eldarth

Updated v1.1 - 12/28/13
- Shifted hard mob from solo to 2 player
- Added arena lighting
- Added Mage Sun to slightly offset skyfade fog black

eldarth

Updated v1.1b - 12/29/13
- Fixed map transition texts


Updated v1.1a - 12/28/13
- Fixed arena lighting to appear at correct time
- Fixed some NPC names, chat text

boomba66

eldarth wrote: »

Updated v1.1b - 12/29/13
- Fixed map transition texts


Updated v1.1a - 12/28/13
- Fixed arena lighting to appear at correct time
- Fixed some NPC names, chat text

I want revenge on who tricked me!!! Give me a pash sweet with one of the underworld leaders for my revenge! Great map but really would like to see a few things adde got greatness.

1. The invite to Calimport
2. The fight with what ever scum set me up!

eldarth

boomba66 wrote: »

I want revenge on who tricked me!!!

LOL. Now that I've got more quest slots maybe I'll have to create a Revenge of Calimport quest.

eldarth

D'oh! Just dropped below 15 minutes. If anyone else here runs this please try to "hang out" a few extra minutes before completing the final chest to try and nudge the quest time back up over 15 minutes.

vorphied

The lighting effects were a nice touch.

I really don't think the difficulty needs to be turned down, though. I purposefully signed in 5 times to crank the difficulty to max, and it wasn't challenging as CW. Even as a class/build with less AoE control and damage, the encounters should be doable since the enemies aren't set on converging paths and can usually be engaged in smaller groups if desired.

Note: Not a criticism regarding the challenge; it's just difficult to create foundry combat content that's genuinely challenging without throwing every red circle in the game at a player at once.

tipadaknife

The mead you get from the bartender has something like "Glass of Mead 01".

It's possible to get underneath everything and see all the wrong sides of things.

Still, had a fantastic time, loved the craftsmanship, the big fight was pretty challenging. The surprise fight was just fun I wasn't able to find the pouch left by a pool near the corner of a building. Wonder what was in it?

Thanks!

If you could play and review NW-DBQH5L5QB, The Sealing of Najena's Lair, I would be very thankful.

charononus

Ran it solo tonight twice, first time I signed the registry once.

That time it was very very easy, pretty much too easy but that's par for the course with the foundries. The main thing with that run was when the armor golem popped up. I wasn't expecting it and ran over to kill it. Then I realized that it was friendly. Wasn't really expecting it and honestly there was no real need for it to be there if it was something to help soloists.

Second time I signed the registry five times. That was fun, difficulty seemed really good, not terribly hard but I had to pay attention to positioning and my health bar. The only thing with that run was that the first fight seemed harder than the following two fights. I know there are things with spending limits on the foundry for placing mobs. My only suggestion would be to move some of that "money" (don't know what to call that limit) and shift a few mob groups from fight 1 to fights 2 and 3. That way it feels like there is progression with the waves from the easiest fights first to the hardest.

Overall it was fun and the final part with the chest made me smile.

eldarth

v1.2 - 01/01/14
- Slightly increased 2nd & 3rd wave difficulty
- Adjusted movement/AI nodes for 1st wave

eldarth

W00t! Thanks Sominator & Adventure hour!

If you'd like to see Sominator and Team Fencebane go up against Sominator and Team Fencebane in the arena, they met their dopplegangers and Team Fencebane was victorious!

Hmm. I wonder if some dopplegangers infiltrated Team Fencebane during the fracas. I guess we'll never know.

Here's Team Fencebane VS Team Fencebane

cristakat

OMG You did an AMAZING job with that quest. I'm recommending this quest to other friends I liked it so much. Great job!

if you have time I need plays/reviews on Stop the Rebels NW-DNP42HWRJ
thanks.

casmelak

Arena of Calimport
[NW-DQQRXNNUP]

=Played and reviewed=


Overall:

---

I played through this quest and was very pleasantly surprised. A lot of customization, a lot of design and graphical elements to enhance the experience. There were several little touches that I thought were inspired; the light above the entry to the 'suite', the mob of spectators in the stands above, I could go on. All in all, great job. I left a starred review and a tip and will likely pick this up as a daily from now on.

I've included some observations and suggestions. These are, in no way, intended as criticism, simply things that I noticed that I may have changed or added to.


Observations:

---

-If you go due north of the 'food and drink vendor' stall you can enter an area that looks broken. It's underneath the 'vip bar' area and wraps around behind the registrar's desk. I'd recommend throwing a wall there or an invisible wall if nothing else.

-There's an irony to this but I have to say it anyway. You did such an exceptional job building a rich and detailed setting in the little marketplace that it makes me notice the lack of something. Overall it's actually rather stunning how engaging the area is, I found myself wanting to shop there. The only thing that I can see that struck me as missing was animals. There are no chickens underfeet, cats curled up in patches of sun, etc.

-Loved the little light above the entry to the 'suite', awesome touch.

-When you're standing at the respawn point at the entry to the arena and facing west, the arch above the entry has a gap between the ceiling and the floor of the piece above, you can see part of the outer wall.

-In the arena, trap closest to the gate is under the ground, can't disarm. Don't know if that's on purpose.

Suggestions:

---

-Also at the respawn fire. I can tell that you used a chimney in the ceiling above the fire. But unless you know what it is -- from using the foundry -- it doesn't really LOOK like a chimney from below. I'd suggest something like a metal grate with a depth-fade black behind it. You can leave the chimney for the other perspectives, but from standing right there it just looks like a weird broken texture.

-I'd recommend having the 'VIP Concierge' have something different to say once you've beaten the arena. Some kind of wow you're a baddass grats on how awesome you are type of thing. As well as a 'farewell, your ship awaits at the end of the dock'.

-Maybe even have the enchanted weapons vendor using the players name as a marketing ploy. "That's right! [Nickname] purchased the weapons they used to defeat the Lich Queen here! Buy your own today!"


++++++++++

I hope that you have the time to look through my quest that's still in 'For Review' status.

My quest:

The Divinity of Lankeshire
[NW-DF7Y9QTCM]

++++++++++

eldarth

v1.5 - 01/04/14
- Added more interactables and cleaned up some dialog in the marketplace outside arena
- Made some dialogs into objectives to ensure understanding and help cleanup foundry events
- Walled in behind the food & drink vendor
- Added congratulatory dialog with Arena Organizer upon completion

eldarth

v1.7 - 01/08/14
- Cleaned up description
- Added more marketplace dialog
- Made several mobs more agressive
- Added more city
- Added spellplague traps

Hint: Speaking with the Scribes' Enclave merchant might get you some help from afar.
Hint: If you are friendly and chat with the herbalist she may also help you.

eldarth

v1.8 - 02/16/14
- Finished dialog for all Vendors
- Added two more special vendor items

eldarth

Need mini-review of working marketplace!

No need to go through Arena past VIP reception desk, no major changes to combat.

Now that we have "stackable" quest items, I fully implemented the Marketplace area
before entering the Arena. Would like to know how people like it.

v2.0 - 05/31/14

• Arena Marketplace fully detailed with vendors selling useful items
• 4 mini-vendor "quests"
• A tiny "hint" of romance!
• Duruk's Magical Weapons now open!

Should you actually want to go thru the arena as well, I added one mini bonus:
If you feed the dog (Brutus) some Boar Ribs instead of throwing them in the trash, he will sneak into the arena just before the 2nd combat (Team Fencebane)

bardaaron

Okay, a couple things: I tried playing through this & could not complete. What appears to have happened is that I died during the Lich Queen fight, and when I respawned, a bunch of mobs were inside a wall, and therefore I had no way to kill them. Not sure if there is anything you can do about that, but it stopped me from completing.

After reading through the posts in this thread, I feel like there were things I missed, too. Boar ribs? Where do you get those? And I didn't end up buying any weapons--I wonder how they help?

On the plus side, though, I absolutely loved the map & environment you created. It was beautiful, and really made a wonderful atmosphere for the quest.

eldarth

bardaaron wrote: »

Okay, a couple things: I tried playing through this & could not complete. What appears to have happened is that I died during the Lich Queen fight, and when I respawned, a bunch of mobs were inside a wall, and therefore I had no way to kill them. Not sure if there is anything you can do about that, but it stopped me from completing.

Hmm. Can you describe "where" this wall was -- were you still inside at the campfire or had you gone back out into the arena?
Could you see the mobs? The Lich Queen and a couple of guards do hide within a protective barrier until the purple portal spheres are destroyed.

bardaaron wrote: »

After reading through the posts in this thread, I feel like there were things I missed, too. Boar ribs? Where do you get those? And I didn't end up buying any weapons--I wonder how they help?

Boar Ribs - at the BBQ vendor - last vendor before entering the VIP reception area.
Weapons - Duruk's Magical Weapons can't actually be purchased (Way too expensive, and we can't have real "vendors" in Foundry).
BBQ, Herbalist, and Florist do have little "helpful" items that can be purchased with the gold coin given to you by the Concierge.
Scribes' Enclave merchant also has a "secret" message for you from Sage Ramiel that will lead to a helpful guardian follower.

bardaaron wrote: »

On the plus side, though, I absolutely loved the map & environment you created. It was beautiful, and really made a wonderful atmosphere for the quest.

Thanks! The VIP Garden Lounge actually won a screenshot of the week:

crixus8000

Hey Eldarth, i tried this foundry and got to the part where i had to enter the arena but it wouldn't let me. Is it something im doing wrong ?

eldarth

crixus8000 wrote: »

Hey Eldarth, i tried this foundry and got to the part where i had to enter the arena but it wouldn't let me. Is it something im doing wrong ?

Were you in the VIP lounge? There should be only one VIP suite you can enter and it should have a light at the top of the entrance when it is ready (You need to talk to the bartender, get an ale, and go into the garden area before it will be ready).

bardaaron

eldarth wrote: »

Hmm. Can you describe "where" this wall was -- were you still inside at the campfire or had you gone back out into the arena?
Could you see the mobs? The Lich Queen and a couple of guards do hide within a protective barrier until the purple portal spheres are destroyed.

Yeah I destroyed the Portals, and then all the mobs came streaming and surrounded me, & killed me. I awoke at the campfire just before the arena, & went out there, & the Lich Queen herself was there, along with 1 skeleton soldier, but the other 10? (Lost count) were nowhere to be seen. I saw the portcullis was raised on one side, so I wandered out past your depthfade to search for them (I was getting desperate) & found your sparkly ladder teleporter & took it. It dropped me down into empty space & I fell to my (second) death. This time when I respawned, I explored the holding cell area further, which is where I "located" them. They were inside the stone wall opposite the cells, or behind it. I couldn't see them, but I could hear them grunting, and swinging weapons, and their red AoE circles were on the ground across the floor.

eldarth wrote: »

Boar Ribs - at the BBQ vendor - last vendor before entering the VIP reception area.
Weapons - Duruk's Magical Weapons can't actually be purchased (Way too expensive, and we can't have real "vendors" in Foundry).
BBQ, Herbalist, and Florist do have little "helpful" items that can be purchased with the gold coin given to you by the Concierge.
Scribes' Enclave merchant also has a "secret" message for you from Sage Ramiel that will lead to a helpful guardian follower.

Scribe: Oh, I read he had it, but I got distracted by all the interactables.

Hmm, since I didn't finish, I may try again, & this time make use of all those "little helpful items." I only got Selune's Blessing the first time.

bardaaron

Not sure if you saw it yet, but I played through again, and was able to finish this time. Not dying helped. It ended up being try #3 that worked for me. The second time the game lagged out & disconnected as soon as I got into the holding cell, so I had to start over. Something that I noticed; I skipped talking to the Scribes Enclave guy & going through the scroll stuff since I already had the items in my inventory from the last time, but there was no noticeable help available from it, so I guess it's dependent on actually DOING it, not JUST having the item in your inventory. I did give Brutus the ribs, though, so I had a doggy helper! ^_^

eldarth

== R.I.P. Broken by NW.35.20150122b.3

charononus

eldarth wrote: »

== R.I.P. Broken by NW.35.20150122b.3

RIP one of the better foundries.

This is why I say that anti-botter changes only hurt legit players. The botters will just move onto something else where as foundries such as this get broken.

eldarth

charononus wrote: »

RIP one of the better foundries.

This is why I say that anti-botter changes only hurt legit players. The botters will just move onto something else where as foundries such as this get broken.

Yep. Why bother preventing exploits when you can simply hammer another nail in the coffin of one of your primary marketing features.

reiwulf

Ugh this makes me so mad, I can't believe they removed the asset instead of limiting how many enemies can spawn in a foundry... it sucks.