Escape from Underdark (NW-DK5S8HDJN)

shydelis

Hello and good evening fellow players. I've just published my first Foundry quest and it's called "Escape from Underdark" (NW-DK5S8HDJN). It's still up "For Reviews" and I'd really appreciate your opinions and reviews. I'll gladly trade reviews with those players who give me a hand.

Escape from Underdark by @shydelis

Short Code: NW-DK5S8HDJN

Mission Type: Reverse Dungeon Crawl

Average Duration: 30 minutes

Amount of Combat: about 20 encounters, some elite and a couple solo types.

Starts at: Drow Urchin outside Moonstone Mask, Protector's Enclave.

Mission Summary: You were captured by a drow hunting party and now you must struggle to survive some twisted ceremonial hunt. Do you have what it takes to escape from Underdark?

Thanks in advance.

stevedestiny

I will trade reviews. I need reviews for Blutsauger Cathedral [NW-DBCMMYX9M] under reviews tab. If you like gothic horror and vampires...this is the quest for you. Okay, off to play and review your quest.

stevedestiny

Sorry, but I can not finish your mission and review it. I can not defeat Kalum Bloodwhip (or whatever his name is) I have tried and tried and tried...all out of repair kits and potions and it is getting really old running all the way back from respawn point. Maps are awesome. Everything looks good. Locations and story are good. Just cant seem to solo this as lvl 33 Trickster Rogue for some reason.

shydelis

stevedestiny wrote: »

I will trade reviews. I need reviews for Blutsauger Cathedral [NW-DBCMMYX9M] under reviews tab. If you like gothic horror and vampires...this is the quest for you. Okay, off to play and review your quest.

As a matter of fact I love that theme, I'll give it a run tonight!

stevedestiny wrote: »

Sorry, but I can not finish your mission and review it. I can not defeat Kalum Bloodwhip (or whatever his name is) I have tried and tried and tried...all out of repair kits and potions and it is getting really old running all the way back from respawn point. Maps are awesome. Everything looks good. Locations and story are good. Just cant seem to solo this as lvl 33 Trickster Rogue for some reason.

Did you free the prisoners? They tend to give you an edge on that last fight. Either way, I'll see if I can add a priest-type elite prisoner to boost your chances instead of one of the tank ones.

EDIT: Done, prisoners buffed. Look for version 1.4 of the quest and tell me if it got any easier.

shydelis

stevedestiny wrote: »

I will trade reviews. I need reviews for Blutsauger Cathedral [NW-DBCMMYX9M] under reviews tab. If you like gothic horror and vampires...this is the quest for you. Okay, off to play and review your quest.

Here are my thoughts:

• Very well designed as well as very rich lore wise, it shows you really know tons about the vampire folklore. I must confess I spent the first 20 minutes talking with the NPCs alone, not to mention the vampire book, so it took me more than an hour to go through it all.
• Some typos here and there, but that's a given. The most notorious ones being wold at the Garou's vampire description, and Mayors' from various conversations.
• Difficulty wise I was greatly affected by the tightness of most of the encounters due to the fact I play a ranger, so needless to say I spent quite a few potions.
• The last encounter was handled beautifully, I never thought of having a boss spawn over and over until I felt it was really dead. Well played. I'm surely using your method on my own creations.

dtz

*It's a bit of an abrupt transition from traveling to the Delivery Spot to suddenly being in the Underdark. It feels like there should be another map in there where you get captured, even if nothing else happens beyond that.
*Typo: "Not even in the face of death the creature wields!" Should be "Not even in the face of death does the creature yield!"
*The Underdark needs some creepy or dramatic music.
*It feels like it ends a bit abruptly. Maybe go back to Neverwinter for a quick wrap-up with Guard Frinko, or just some exposition congratulating you for escaping, or something?

Anyway, overall, solid quest with room for improvement. The link to my Foundry thread is in my sig; Chapter 4 is the most recent one and is still in need of reviews, but I do suggest playing at least Chapter 3 as well if you want to get the whole story.

shydelis

Thanks DTZ, much appreciated. I too feel like the transitions feel a little abrupt and I'm thinking about adding a forest map before and after the main dungeon, transfering the last encounter to the later one.

You're right about the music and sound effects in general. I still need to work on that aspect of the entire quest chain.

I'll make sure to play your questline from the begining, I rather spend some time and get the whole thing done instead of skipping chapters and miss some important plot. So I should be reviewing your latest chapter this weekend. Rest assured!

myrmecoleon

I gave this a try (the concept is similar to a quest I'm working on!). It was a pretty good hack n' slash adventure - good pacing and well-balanced. A few more notes below:

- I'd agree with dtz that the transition to the Underdark map could have used a bit more exposition, since it was a bit strange being immediately surrounded by drow. In addition, there's a few NPCs which were labelled "Customized Drow Assassin" in that starting area.
- In Kolar Bloodwhip's dialogue, consider changing "we shall set this creature free in our realm, the first of you who slay it" to "we shall set this creature free in our realm. The first of you to slay it [...]"; "such honorous gift" to "honorable"; "bloodthristy fervour" to "bloodthirsty".
- In the first "miniboss" area, there were a mixture of Zombie Rotters and Drow Rotters - might be worth changing these so that they refer to the same group.
- Minor issue, but the first miniboss and the snipers on the bridge area didn't seem to engage after they spawned.

shydelis

Thanks Merm, tonight I'll work on all of these corrections. I expect to release version 1.5 without all of these grammar and spelling mistakes you've mentioned. And maybe I can squeeze the forest part into the next release.

I'll give your quest a run as soon as I can, and thanks for taking your time to run my little project (that goes to all of you helping me out).

stevedestiny

Thanks for playing Blutsauger Cathedral! I will be giving Escape the Underdark another go. Also, I will fix those typos.

shydelis

stevedestiny wrote: »

Thanks for playing Blutsauger Cathedral! I will be giving Escape the Underdark another go. Also, I will fix those typos.

I'd suggest waiting for version 1.5. I do intend to release the forest part with it.

shydelis

All of the suggestions above have been included on the latest version of the quest (1.5). Thanks again for your support.

shydelis

Anyone else had any issues with the Wights + Priest combo encounters? Are they too hard?

myrmecoleon

It was fine on a 60 GF (13.5k-ish GS), though it was one of the longer fights in the quest. A standard encounter plus an adventurer cleric could be challenging for some classes if they have mediocre gear, but I think it should be fine for the majority of players. I usually start having issues with three clerics, or two clerics and a standard.

shydelis

Alright, I broke the main dungeon into 2 and added a dialog with the final boss.