Cult of the Dragon Foundry Contest - Official Discussion Thread

kynveel

Will they take a break next week with the contest? Because it would be highly unfair to feature them with the upcoming Call to Arms-Event. Nobody will play a foundry to get a crappy unidentified green item if you can get an awesome shadow wolf mount from the CTA instead.

iandarksword

kynveel wrote: »

Will they take a break next week with the contest? Because it would be highly unfair to feature them with the upcoming Call to Arms-Event. Nobody will play a foundry to get a crappy unidentified green item if you can get an awesome shadow wolf mount from the CTA instead.

3/4 of the contest has had to compete with an event of some kind. The first week and the current week are the only two that have been event free. My own entry had to compete with 2x Refinement weekend, which didn't seem to affect the amount of plays as much as future events did other authors.

kynveel

True, but these were "passive" events. You could find refinement stones in foundry quests (especially with the dragonhoard enchantment) or farm XP during the double XP event. But the CTA takes place in another ini and it covers 5 of the 7 days.

sarlacc1979

They kept the contest up during The Siege event so I'm sure they'll keep it going during CTA too.

bardaaron

Some strong entries this week! Everyone go play!

tipadaknife

Click here for my reviews of the Week 6 contest entries

And, please click here for the UNOFFICIAL contest standings.

I guarantee the Cryptic folks are not using my spreadsheet to rank the entries, but I think it's pretty close.

tipadaknife

Well, there's an upset. Waryur's Well of Dragons might move into a prize position, the first non-week 1 quest to do so. I was thinking that was impossible!

iandarksword

No Events = More overall plays = more overall stars. All quality aside, this week's entries in terms of plays got way more than previous weeks. Also, the first listed entry every week has garnered more plays at the onset of each week (makes sense, no one wants to scroll, just click and go). As the week moves on, other entries farther down gain steam, but many times not enough in the overall plays to overtake the first listing in that particular week. This week and the first week were different, but it's almost like having a "control sample" where there are no extra factors in an experiment. It's just a random observation, but still can be critical in determining how well entries may do in the future. Also for the most part, anything over 30 minutes garners far fewer plays than those that are over. It may be safe to say that any weekly event affects the overall plays, which affects the overall stars for that week (prizes in this case) so by now the contest leaders should be settling into their respective places.

dtz

My week 6 reviews:
Faerun's Finest - 1/5
This quest was terrible on all levels. R. A. Salvatore must be rolling in his grave, because this quest has killed him.

City of the Lost - 4/5
Strong story, very impressive mapwork. Definitely room for improvement, though.

The Rise of a New Leader - 3/5
An entertaining quest. The first dungeon had way too much running around way too empty halls, though; more enemies and doodads are needed to fill it.

The Dragon has 3 Heads... or 5... - 5/5
One of the most hilarious quests I've played in a long time, and well-made to boot! Very epic conclusion.

Cults and Culture - 4/5
There were parts I really liked - the lore, some of the puzzles, the creepy bits below the prison and in the magic plane... But the platforming largely killed it. Neverwinter does not support precision jumping - it's not fun, it's frustrating.

Well of Dragons - 4/5
Very nice mapwork and a really cool story that ties into lore. I wish it were a bit longer, though. The dragons at the end also had a tendency to get in the way.

drakkenfel

My SHORT CODE was changed for the Contest. Please try "A Date with Destiny" (NW-DHFLDPWJV)? In this week's judging selection. Eligible for Daily Foundry Rewards. Thank you for your time.

============

"A Date With Destiny" by @Meth_Shadowstorm {NW-DHFLDPWJV} {was NW-DHYEX5NKR}

Short Code: NW-DHYEX5NKR
Mission Type: Rescue & Hunt
Average Duration: 50-68 minutes (short and long paths available)
Amount of Combat: four maps, potentially a lot of combat, clever player can use stealth
Starts at: Buffy, a Young Drow Girl, just outside the Moonstone Mask in Protector's Enclave

Mission Summary:

After your involvement in Sunnydale, your little friend Anya decided to stay in Protector's Enclave. Gabrielle set Anya up with a small apartment and encouraged Anya to seek a trade. Anya became so enamored with your heroics that she now wants to become an Adventurer and Hero just like you. You check in on her from time to time and look after her. Other friends from Sunnydale have started to visit and bring news. Anya refers to it as intelligence. Anya listens to too many stories in the taverns of Protector's Enclave, especially the Moonstone Mask, and she has begun to take an interest in the Harpers.

Anya's Drow friend Buffy has begun to visit regularly. This visit she is very worked up and insists on seeing you immediately. She insists it is a matter of life and death, and may result in the rout of Sunnydale. She has an important message from Gabrielle. Buffy is waiting for you outside the Moonstone Mask.

[Episode 2 in "The Sunnydale Campaign" {NWS-DKBEJ9OOM} & Cult of the Dragon Foundry Contest Entry]
[For Episode 1, seek "Missing Daughters" {NW-DCX9IZBJB}]

thane6000

Hi there guys. There's a new batch of quests featured this week; mine being one of them. However, it's under the ''For Review'' tab.

The name of the quest is: The Puppet

Author: @thane6000

The Short Code changed for some reason. Now it is: NW-DFGZLJBFH

I would like to hear your opinions on my quest after you've played it. Thanks!

eldarth

thane6000 wrote: »

The Short Code changed for some reason.

FYI-
"Featured" quests are copies of the original, hence, the Short Code always is unique. The original and the featured will coexist.
You will never be able to edit/fix the "featured" version, however.

breakinstuff

Looks like we've got another quest in the Review tab this week:

The Puppet by @thane6000
NW-DFGZLJBFH

thane6000

I didn't know that Eldarth, thanks!

And breakinstuff thanks for pointing out that my quest is in the Review tab, although I already said it.

I hope you both enjoy my quest.

drakkenfel

Thanks again to everyone that rated and reviewed my effort. You all are awesome! I have received some really great comments, and I have learned a lot from this experience. Time to get to work on Part 3 of the Campaign! :cool:

tipadaknife

Click here for my Week 7 Contest Reviews

And, Click right here for the very unofficial overall contest standings.

dtz

My week 7 reviews are as follows. To me, at least, it feels like the overall quality level has been going up over time. If this trend continues, the next few weeks should be amazing.

Of Kobolds and Cultists - 3/5
This quest was enjoyable, but the story was kind of all over the place. I'm also annoyed by being told to negotiate with the giants and then never given the option to even try to do so.

The Puppet - 3/5
Interesting quest with some cool mapwork, but the premise was a bit hard to swallow. Also, the end just kinda went on for far too long. The chain of betrayals went from angering to just eye-rolling.

Into the Dragon's Maw - 4/5
Awesome mapwork, very atmospheric. Ended pretty abruptly, though.

A Murder of Dragons - 4/5
A really cool investigative quest with great maps and varied encounters that seriously rewards exploration. it did feel a little bit long, though.

A Date with Destiny - 3/5
There was a really cool, detailed story here, especially at the end, but it was marred somewhat by an overly-long middle section.

Sharandar's Defense - 5/5
Phenomenal quest with a truly epic ending. A few spelling and grammar issues, but everything else is some of the best work I've seen in Neverwinter, Foundry or otherwise.

tipadaknife

People are always whining about "a game that feels like a spreadsheet" all the time -- EVE Online is the most famous example. But, I like spreadsheets.

I've been trying to get a handle on what people like about foundries. I went through this morning and, for every quest in the contest so far, captured all of its review details in my spreadsheet -- combat, lore, challenge and so on, and then looked for correlations. The biggest correlations seemed to boil down to just two stats -- Combat and Story. So I went and colored a column according to where on the Combat/Story spectrum a quest fell, and then sorted it by that value so that quests with similar Combat/Story balance would sort closely together. I tried using Lore as a third value, but Lore is only a factor in a couple of quests (for which it is a BIG factor, but not really generally useful).

I find it pretty personally telling. I probably rated To Rescue A Kobold and A Murder of Dragons too low. I like where my quest ended up. And I'm not surprised where my partner's quest ended up.

By this ordering, the most Story-based quests are Joining the Dragons, Cults and Culture, and Shadows of Purple Wings. The most Combat-based quests are Culling the Cult of the Dragon, Faerun's Finest, and The Artifact.

I could see something similar to this being used for a recommendation service, and I think I'll start putting this in future reviews -- if you liked this quest X, you might like these other quests Y and Z, that sort of thing.

That link again, Unofficial Contest Standings.

xetmk24

Thanks for the reviews tipa and dtz. I'm glad you liked it.
I finally managed to log in and saw my quest featured. Yay! 63 min. average play though? Wow is it really that long?
And according to your Contest Standings I'm last. Was expecting that
Thanks for playing.

dtz

xetmk24 wrote: »

And according to your Contest Standings I'm last. Was expecting that

Check back next week; the standings are ranked by total reviews, so the current week's quests are generally lower because they haven't had a full week yet. It sure as hell isn't dead last because it's worse than Culling the Cult of the Dragon, I can assure you of that.

tipadaknife

Quality has very little to do with contest standings. I've been doing a lot of analysis on the contest numbers, and I think I know why Sharandar's Defense isn't getting its proper notice.



Here's a scatter chart of the current contest entries. Left to right is Combat to Story focus; the vertical axis is Challenge. Typically, quests that make a splash are on the Combat/Low Challenge quadrant, or at least with some story but still low challenge. Players have rated Sharandar's Defense a high challenge and with a strong story focus. It's all alone up there. Players taking an hour to do it doesn't help much, either.

These are not things to worry about. Your quest was the best foundry quest I have ever played, and if the devs have any sense at all, they will feature it again after the contest is over.

iandarksword

I would venture to rate the game as a whole as Combat/Medium Challenge (this can be discussed at a different time and place.) Don't get discouraged because thousands didn't play your quest, it doesn't mean it was bad at all. If you notice, the story quests usually have higher overall ratings than combat quests. Part of the reason the longer entries aren't receiving the raw amount of plays and the corresponding star count of reviews is that much of the player base is so focused on dailies. They complain to no end about "having to finish my dailies so I can do more dailies" so their time is important to them. They literally see more than 45-60 minutes as a lifetime and would rather spend it running Castle Never for Epic loot to sell on the Auction House. The niche is there for story quests, but the majority of players don't seem to have an attention span that can stick with the story quests. I'm not saying by any means that story quests are bad or even bad ideas, it just doesn't have the majority following yet. What's sad is, the majority are looking for either refining loot or leveling experience points, (and a sparkly trail to lead them there because they have no sense of direction otherwise and they think the ending chest loot sucks.)

eldarth

iandarksword wrote: »

What's sad is, the majority are looking for either refining loot or leveling experience points, (and a sparkly trail to lead them there because they have no sense of direction otherwise and they think the ending chest loot sucks.)

Exactly. Currently the Foundry has negative-incentives for playing. Most people begrudgingly race through any "dailies" that they can speed-run faster than the required 15-minute minimum average.

Well, at least when Module 5:Rise of Tiamat releases about Nov 4th we can be pretty certain the Foundry is being phased out.

tipadaknife

Why do you say the Foundry is being phased out? It's why I play.

dtz

I'm also curious what your source is for a release date two weeks away despite nothing having even gone on the preview shard yet.

drakkenfel

My mission actually dropped from 68 minutes to 43 minutes, which can be much easier to swallow by most players. Many wanted 30 minutes of less. Most just wanted enough to get it over with fast at 20 minutes.

I would love to see a chart of Mission Placement in List versus Actual Plays. Anyone in the fifth and sixth slots pretty much got washed in both Actual Reviews and Actual Plays. From over 1000 (or more on some weeks) this week to only around 100 for one of the best designed missions, the slide is extremely noticeable. I aggressively promoted my mission, and the Actual Plays were lackluster. I am please at the high opinion most had of my mission though. This will be my takeaway.

iandarksword

dtz wrote: »

I'm also curious what your source is for a release date two weeks away despite nothing having even gone on the preview shard yet.

P&P Rise of Tiamat book is set to release on Nov. 4th. Off-topic, I read through Hoard of the Dragon Queen at BN last week. RoT is going to be a race against evil according to the ending DM material in Hoard. It seems the Realms are resurrecting many different evils from Bhaal to Tiamat. War seems inevitable in the P&P campaign in my opinion.

iandarksword

Here's the Link for Wizard's site and the release date for the Rise of Tiamat book:
http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/rise-tiamat

tipadaknife

drakkenfel wrote: »

I would love to see a chart of Mission Placement in List versus Actual Plays.

Not as much correlation as you'd expect. I captured that information for every quest, expecting to find the same thing. People are looking through the reviews and the tags to see what to play.

eldarth

dtz wrote: »

I'm also curious what your source is for a release date two weeks away despite nothing having even gone on the preview shard yet.

As iandarksword linked -- Wizards of the Coast is trying to keep PnP and Online games "in-sync" to promote cross-advertising or something. Module 4 released in conjunction with Tyranny of Dragons release by WotC.

Not a big stretch to imagine Module 5 is going to release nearly simultaneously with WotC PnP release.

tipadaknife wrote: »

Why do you say the Foundry is being phased out? It's why I play.

Nearly everything Cryptic has done lately?

• Foundry just vanished off the "landing page" for instance.
• "Foundry development push" supposedly between Mod 4 and Mod 5 (2 weeks from now?)
• Bugs an intern could fix still around after 2 years?
• Based on bugs that do get fixed, there must be a single developer only working part-time on Foundry?
• Have you ever seen a Foundry Developer post in the forums since launch?
• The Foundry "Producer" is also apparently in charge of several other projects -- like Champions Online, Gateway (which, by the way, has been in beta for over a year and a half now and also has ongoing long term bugs and can't even sort a column numerically properly).

So...we'll see if Foundry gets any updates when Module 5 hits.

...it's also the only reason I play as well.