As mentioned, these have already been posted in the Foundry forum.
..and the (also excellent) idea for Foundry Campaign Tokens has been suggested by many, many people in this very thread. :-)
Spirals, I have to say that it appears that this thread isn't actually doing anything good. You guys have released a patch that in the effort to stop botters, went and broke countless legitimate foundries. It's that kind disservice to foundry authors that has generated a lot of the hard feelings expressed by many foundry authors.
In general we schedule and complete work on the game in these big chunks called modules, which you guys are aware of. Our schedule is planned a few modules out. So... M6 is coming up and I think we have plans through M8. What that means is all of the new features and planned improvements are usually roughly blocked out already. If the leads decided to implement some of these changes in upcoming modules, say M7, then they would have to take time from something else already planned in that module.
So the idea is to keep the change small for now so that we can implement it in a Module coming up soon (probably no earlier than M7) rather than waiting until many many months from now. That's not to say any of this is decided. I'm just giving you a roundabout way of saying that something like this takes time.
0
Options
torontodaveMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 992Arc User
edited February 2015
Quick! Spirals! While you're here.. ;D
I need sound FX added to the foundry for the following items -
- Coins Clinking (or change jingling)
- Teeth Chattering (brrrr)
- Exasperated Sigh (Like the NPC is bothered by the character)
- Angry Grunt (for .. less eloquent NPCs)
- 'Extra! Extra!' newpaper caller cry. Something for those street urchins to do.
and if we can get a male street urchin, that'd be nice. the female one on my map doesnt really fit her title of 'cabin boy' =X
thanks!
NW-DSQ39N5SJ - 'To Infinity, and BEYOND!' - Spelljammer Quest. Skyships, Indiana Jones moments NW-DC9R4J5EH - 'The Black Pearl' - Spelljammer! Phlo Riders and Space Orcs
Thanks for all the fish.
0
Options
torontodaveMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 992Arc User
In general we schedule and complete work on the game in these big chunks called modules, which you guys are aware of. Our schedule is planned a few modules out. So... M6 is coming up and I think we have plans through M8. What that means is all of the new features and planned improvements are usually roughly blocked out already. If the leads decided to implement some of these changes in upcoming modules, say M7, then they would have to take time from something else already planned in that module.
So the idea is to keep the change small for now so that we can implement it in a Module coming up soon (probably no earlier than M7) rather than waiting until many many months from now. That's not to say any of this is decided. I'm just giving you a roundabout way of saying that something like this takes time.
Is a foundry package (something more than just assets being added) in that M6-M8 blocking schedule? =D
Something about rewards for authors/players of foundry quests/integration into endgame? =D
i.e. changing Lord Neverembers Foundry Daily to like "0/2 UNPLAYED Foundry Quests" for 10kAD?
that way, people play new foundrys, more authors get plays, everyone is happy?
[edit: nevermind, after re-reading it seems you are saying that 'nothing except small changes, for now']
NW-DSQ39N5SJ - 'To Infinity, and BEYOND!' - Spelljammer Quest. Skyships, Indiana Jones moments NW-DC9R4J5EH - 'The Black Pearl' - Spelljammer! Phlo Riders and Space Orcs
Thanks for all the fish.
Things that could be added to greatly improve the foundry:
1) persistence. people should be able to join their friends inside a foundry quest without requiring them to reset the instance.
3) collaboration. there should be a way to allow multiple people to edit the same foundry quest (in sequence not simultaneously)
I am Spirals. I'm a sound designer for Cryptic studios. I am trying to do some research on The Foundry and gather data concerning the player community's thoughts on the design and implementation of The Foundry as a medium for user generated content (UGC). We are asking for your help in considering how we might improve UGC now and in future Cryptic projects.
Please take a few minutes to answer the following questions:
What do you feel The Foundry does right? What feels good to you and what do you have fun doing? Why are you glad The Foundry was implemented in Neverwinter?
The Foundry is unique as a low-barrier to entry method of developing and sharing content, in that it requires virtually zero knowledge to play a Foundry and very little to make one. The latter is a double-edged sword, because it results in a lot of dross within the Foundry itself. But it's better to have too much than too little. I've seen/used single player game editors that are far less powerful than the Foundry (even in its current state) and far harder to use. Really, a few bugs aside, the experience for Foundry authors is streets ahead of most content creation tools that cost a fortune. Your senior staff and leaders may have been burned on the Foundry, but in my opinion the people who created the interface deserve massive kudos (even more if they would let authors grow/shrink items).
How do you feel The Foundry fell short? What do you absolutely hate doing in The Foundry? What are elements of The Foundry that make you wish it was never implemented in Neverwinter?
Building a mansion with windows that you can look through. Manually. Using over a thousand details in an outdoors map. It shouldn't have had to be that way. How hard is it to include glass windows?
What would you add to The Foundry to attract more authors and incentivize content creation? How would you like to see The Foundry implemented?
Plenty of responses in this thread cover this. The issue isn't authors, they get self-actualization through publishing. The issues is getting players to play the content and make the self-actualization come through.
What are some other games you feel got UGC implementation right? What can Cryptic Studios learn from the UGC tools of these other games?
Unlimited Adventures
NWN 1 + 2
Thank you so much for your time.
- Spirals
Addressing the monetisation point. There are a couple of things I would like to see, personally, that I think you could monetise.
A way of raising the player cap in Foundries. Five people is not many people. I'd like to create Foundries that can cope with more people. Ideally twenty, maybe ten. I don't care if this costs me thousands of Zen: I want it because of why I play the game. However, you don't want to make authors pay for things. So as an alternative, let players buy a Zen store key that allows them to play in larger Foundries. As long as you deliver persistent Foundries (i.e. people can join after it starts), I'm fairly sure that people will buy such a key if it's not exorbitantly priced. Or tie it to a guild, with people able to donate AD or Zen towards it, with the ability to create/edit the Foundry tied to the account of whoever is the guild leader.
A Foundry-only equipment slot, but one that provides bonuses that work outside the Foundry. If it only provides bonuses that work inside the Foundry, most players won't care (it would be adding a grind to an area of the game they don't use and is not challenging anyhow, simply to get better at that area). Possibly an artifact levelled with a Foundry token system as described in many other posts, that encourages people to try different Foundries. Monetise through providing some awesome visual effects on the Zen market (and only the Zen market) that can be applied to sufficiently-levelled instances of this equipment.
Dramatic consumables. Consider giving away consumables for Foundry quests: for example, the Ring of Dust effect in the Foundry (shakes screen, makes loud noise, dust falls) could be put into a consumable item earned through the Foundry. Those have no real ingame effect (might make for some fun PVP surprises, at a pinch) but would be a far more satisfying reward than yet another green item. Monetisation option: provide same consumables, for a minimal amount of Zen, on the Zen market.
Temporary passes to the VIP area of the Moonstone Mask. The Founder's Pack (possibly only Hero of the North?) came with VIP access to the Mask. I've seen one other person in that VIP area in the last six months. I don't think you'll get many complaints if you allow temporary passes to that area, which can randomly drop from Foundries and only Foundries (include a minimum time requirement or a daily limit if you have to). You could always add an "outer sanctum" area and keep some part of the Mask for true Founder members only. Add some unique NPCs who give quests that lead to achievements (for completer-finisher personalities) and a title. Those can be rotated occasionally or as part of an event. Monetisation option: provide same temporary VIP pass, for a minimal amount of Zen on the Zen market.
Butler. Part of the quest reward for completing four different Foundries that each take over half an hour (or whatever your avoid-farm-map heuristic is, alternatively further use of the Foundry token idea) could be a temporary (one week) butler character. Like a non-interactable companion, he runs after you with various tea-making or cooking contextual emotes, wiping blood off the armour etc. Monetisation: sell skins for the Butler: male, female, golem, whatever, on the Zen store. Also sell emotes. I think that there would be a pretty good market for Jeeves-skinned butlers with tea-making emotes, as well as elven cheerleaders with pom-poms. No in game effect, but customisation.
My biggest concern right now is that "Guild Housing" will address some of these points but create tedious, static environments without the power of the Foundry, and are seen by the playerbase as a naked money-grab that takes away the reasons for the Devs to work on the Foundry. That will further compound the problems that already seem to be apparent.
What do you feel The Foundry does right? What feels good to you and what do you have fun doing? Why are you glad The Foundry was implemented in Neverwinter?
3d Editing
Room Construction (currently only dungeon tiles)
Campaign division
Subscribing to authors
Over all creative possibilities.
Since it's supposed to be Dungeons & Dragons, the foundry allows for some great online playing of what makes D&D fun, just a different format.
How do you feel The Foundry fell short? What do you absolutely hate doing in The Foundry? What are elements of The Foundry that make you wish it was never implemented in Neverwinter?
The search system is often painful to find something or see new content come up.
The review system seems a little odd/obsolete/unnecessarily high just for one quest to move from one tab to another.
Some of the rooms just don't fit together.
Remove projection assets and replace with the "decal" type ones.
Editing individual encounter asset appearances are sometimes tedious, but the least of the things I dislike.
What would you add to The Foundry to attract more authors and incentivize content creation? How would you like to see The Foundry implemented? I put in bold the biggest ones that I really want to see come from the foundry.
Improve the search system.
Add a few mini-boss/boss level encounters.
Do not put pvp capabilities on maps, it will just flood the Foundry will pointless maps and defeat the purpose of the Foundry in terms of D&D-ness, it's a pvDM game not a pvp one.
Add the ability to mark non-combat only maps, so players can create spaces for non-combat RP, i.e. their own guild spaces. And marking it as an RP only map would remove the option to place encounters to prevent farming/exploits. (This could/would/should go with the next suggestion.)
Add the capacity for more than five players to a map, up to 10 or 20. This could/would/should go with the above suggestion.)
Set up the ability to have group editing capacities to allow for collaboration.
Skill nodes, either limited number of placement by authors or randomly generated on maps. Only on combat enabled maps.
Increase the asset limit on large outdoor maps.
More "grouped assets", especially for work on outside maps.
Maybe a "cinematic" capacity to create cut scenes.
Entire encounter appearance editing.
Also lower some of the achievement numbers. Especially the number or reviews needed.
Add some more tiles to be used in the room construction besides dungeons.
Stackable rooms or tower like areas for places to have stairs and more than one story.
What are some other games you feel got UGC implementation right? What can Cryptic Studios learn from the UGC tools of these other games? I've only used STO's system before and the Landmark's beta. I didn't see anything there that wasn't already in or what I would want in Neverwinter UGC. Well, the persistent world stuff was pretty awesome in NWN...but Foundry is not the same as persistent worlds.
I need sound FX added to the foundry for the following items -
- Coins Clinking (or change jingling)
- Teeth Chattering (brrrr)
- Exasperated Sigh (Like the NPC is bothered by the character)
- Angry Grunt (for .. less eloquent NPCs)
- 'Extra! Extra!' newpaper caller cry. Something for those street urchins to do.
and if we can get a male street urchin, that'd be nice. the female one on my map doesnt really fit her title of 'cabin boy' =X
thanks!
If we're requesting sounds, can we get a woman wailing? Or failing that, a woman screaming? The quiet sobbing doesn't cut it.
I would like to chime in now that this thread has become somewhat akin to the beating of a dead horse.
The foundry needs a dedicated DEV team for it and it alone. That's the single most important feature that you could implement.
The reason I say this is very simple. MMORPG's are slowly dying off. Sony has sold it's gaming division, and Hearthstone has flat out left WoW sales in the dust. It is what it is, and what it is... is business. It's time that PWE open their pocketbook and hire some talent to address this feature. The investment will pay off.
If this game is too survive, it will be attributed to the development of The Foundry. This is the sole reason I stated as such prior to the DnD licensing being awarded to Cryptic, even at the behest of others.
You have advertised 'Unlimited Content' with the Foundry. Currently it is horribly limited, to the point that it has become a toxic joke to the gamers who play NWO.
Blending the classical MMORPG gaming world with the sandboxy potential of The Foundry can set this game apart from the others. There is this trend with 'in game housing' and other features as such which has been floating around the genre for many years. I do not concur with this route, but it isn't something I dislike.
Games like DCUO have worked their grind into collecting housing item drops. Sobeit, that's their route in lieu of crafting material grinding.
Something to set this game apart... would probably be The Foundry drops being converted into collecting 'unlocks' for housing, and even foundry authoring special unlocks. This would boost trade, and let long term authors slowly gain options for their Foundry Quests.
Simply put, people tire of grinding the same story line. Harness the masses, develop the foundry on all fronts, and actually give us the 'unlimited content' you have advertised.
Nuff said....
I might actually download again and play the next expansion if the Foundry is attended too.
I might actually download again and play the next expansion if the Foundry is attended too.
Then you might want to wait 6 months.
Mod 6 has no foundry updates.
Mod 7 is already in design/planning/resource assignment -- without foundry development.
So, perhaps mod 8 -- unless they're planning on betting the farm on their "new top secret" mmo in development by the majority of Cryptics development team(s).
Then you might want to wait 6 months.
Mod 6 has no foundry updates.
Mod 7 is already in design/planning/resource assignment -- without foundry development.
So, perhaps mod 8 -- unless they're planning on betting the farm on their "new top secret" mmo in development by the majority of Cryptics development team(s).
Then you might want to wait 6 months.
Mod 6 has no foundry updates.
Mod 7 is already in design/planning/resource assignment -- without foundry development.
So, perhaps mod 8 -- unless they're planning on betting the farm on their "new top secret" mmo in development by the majority of Cryptics development team(s).
Yes, I noticed that mmorpg.com had stated STO and NWO lost their leads for a 'new' Cryptic project. Gee whatever could it be?
*snores* Heroes of the Storm turned out kind of ..well... bad. Dota2 is getting old after 10,000 games. Not sure what to try. Maybe Albion Online for some UO'equeness?
One thing I havent yet seen mentioned. Is having Leveless monsters in the foundry. Similar to how there are leveless monsters in CTA's
having all damage scale to the player. This will really help with group foundries with mixed levels. So people can do foundries without worrying about what level they are.
New project? I'm scared, NW is the closest thing to my ideal game I've played so far, I can't think of another project I'd prefer. Unless it's too close to NW itself, but I don't see that happening.
Anyway we'll have to just wait and see.
I don't know; if this Sword Coast Legends has a proper way to share quests with others (need details on how the 1-4 players work); I'd try it. If it does UGC better than The Foundry does UGC, I might have to consider switching.
The Foundry really is the only thing keeping me here. The Devs have shown that they can't give us anything new (at least not with the deadlines they are given), and they can't or won't make time for the only thing that sets this game apart from every other MMORPG out there. Maybe Sword Coast Legends will, but that remains to be seen.
the game looks nice but it has a 3/4 view with small characters, that's not my kind of game. I don't feel immersed in the game when I'm seeing small little ants doing flashy powers all over the screen.
1- Add boss fights! (foundry creators can make their clothes and appearance designs the actual bosses are the same of every boss available in game there are many choices and it would be just AWESOME).
2- Add option for making enemies player level+1(and +2) that would make more sense for a dungeon scenary
3- Add Dungeons (Curated by dev/Game moderators) that can be done for actual rewards not just a fistful of nothing. just a normal rp/shard drop from the boss.
4- Advertise it ingame with a "foundry of the week" queue system (after you have some dungeons the foundry of the week will be changing)
5-Keep adding every asset of the game to it so the content keep on being current and engaging.
Done! You fixed foundry forever!
PLEASE CRYPTIC DO IT WE NEED SOOOO LITTLE TO BE HAPPY FOREVER
Also if you want to be just the "awesomest ever" make a "foundry seal" currency so players can buy fashion/transmutes in the store, make it expensive in seals but worth the while.
I would love new features and logic abilities of course, but I'd also love to see some general bugfixing. There's so many bugged assets (art, sound etc.) that just don't work properly. It would be nice if we could at least use everything the current Foundry has properly. So if I had to pick a direction above and beyond just adding new assets as you have been with each module, I'd prefer bugfixing then features.
Love yourself, and focus on the rest of the madness of life later.
I really loved Reiwulf's suggestion that Foundry Quests be able to provide campaign currencies, or else tokens that can be exchanged for such. This would allow people to use the Foundry to complete campaigns, instead of having to do the same Daily Quests over and over again. This would kill two birds with one stone:
1) The Foundry now has rewards that people care about
2) No one likes Dailies. We now have an alternative to all that repetitive content.
Would like monsters in foundries to be leveless, having them scaled like the monsters in CTAs. So I can do foundries with anyone and not have to worry about the levels and whatnot.
0
Options
imaginaerum1Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 378Arc User
Would like monsters in foundries to be leveless, having them scaled like the monsters in CTAs. So I can do foundries with anyone and not have to worry about the levels and whatnot.
That's already how it works. Monsters scale to level.
Unfortunately, they do not scale in any way to gear score, so most of the (overgeared) level 60s don't find much of a combat challenge in most Foundry quests.
Quite correct, which is why its so frustrating when you craft a well-structured solo foundry, and then get reviews that say "not challenging for group".
If they gave us larger encounter budgets, we could kludge up something with an interact at the beginning to choose number of characters in the party, and load more foes accordingly, but I'm usually pushing my budget as is (especially since some are almost always needed for timers or "or" functionality).
If they gave us larger encounter budgets, we could kludge up something with an interact at the beginning to choose number of characters in the party, and load more foes accordingly, but I'm usually pushing my budget as is (especially since some are almost always needed for timers or "or" functionality).
Limit your map sizes, think of alternative workarounds for timers/or hacks, etc.
Also look at perhaps overlapping patrol paths on harder settings.
Also, one trick I use on most of my scalable options is I put an underground "or" flag for "HardOrElite" type setting so I can use the same encounter for both hard and elite levels - takes a couple encounters for the or handling, but if you have several hard/elite encounters can really save in the long run.
You know, if the idea of tokens which can be turned in for ANY campaign currency doesn't work for the devs, then there is something else they could do that would be a bit more selective, though it would take more work from a Dev standpoint. With Tyranny of Dragons came the Cult of the Dragon Foundry contest. They could stage a similar Elemental Evil themed contest, and the featured versions of the quests could provide currency for THAT campaign. Then they could go back & add the ToD currencies to the CotD ones. This would really tie the contests into the rest of the Mod.
Positives
1. There are a bunch of Foundry quests with better rewards now, so people actually want to play.
2. The contest quests would really feel like a part of the campaign that comes with the Mod.
3. Players have an alternative to Dailies (or the hourlies coming with Mod 6)
4. Since authors can design content that provides advancement in the actual campaign, the Devs can maybe make content with somewhat less quantity at once, but of much better QUALITY, by relieving your workload. Lots of free campaign quests coming at you direct from the players themselves.
The Downside
1. Adding better rewards to specific foundry quests rather than to ALL foundry quests would probably be more work for the Devs.
2. Contest quests would be disproportionately favored forever (probably).
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
0
Options
imaginaerum1Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 378Arc User
Limit your map sizes, think of alternative workarounds for timers/or hacks, etc.
Also look at perhaps overlapping patrol paths on harder settings.
Also, one trick I use on most of my scalable options is I put an underground "or" flag for "HardOrElite" type setting so I can use the same encounter for both hard and elite levels - takes a couple encounters for the or handling, but if you have several hard/elite encounters can really save in the long run.
Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of tiny maps and multiple transfers. I prefer to tell my story on as few maps as possible.
I haven't found anything reliable for a timer that doesn't require player interaction, other than mob death. Everything else either requires the player to press a button, or requires the player to reach a point. On the rare cases when I use a mob death timer, it's usually because nothing else is appropriate. I really wish they'd let us use the completion of a timed FX detail as a "completed" component, as that would allow some really neat effects, as well as give us a workaround for timers that didn't involve either player interaction or mob death.
I did manage to get a decent difficulty selector going on "Karrilos Hills: Orc Raiders", but that was a straightforward daily combat quest, not anything in which I was really telling a story, so I didn't need either "or" mechanics or timers.
For the most part, I prefer to focus on telling my story the way I want to tell it as best I can, and not worry about whether or not the players are going to be a 5-team, or an overgeared 60, or an undergeared 10, or whatever. As such, I usually aim for a decently-geared solo.
0
Options
imaginaerum1Member, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 378Arc User
You know, if the idea of tokens which can be turned in for ANY campaign currency doesn't work for the devs, then there is something else they could do that would be a bit more selective, though it would take more work from a Dev standpoint. With Tyranny of Dragons came the Cult of the Dragon Foundry contest. They could stage a similar Elemental Evil themed contest, and the featured versions of the quests could provide currency for THAT campaign. Then they could go back & add the ToD currencies to the CotD ones. This would really tie the contests into the rest of the Mod.
Honestly, I'm not a fan of this idea, because it doesn't encourage players to play new foundries, it just changes the focus from only playing the same 15-minute daily to only playing the same contest entry. It still doesn't get longer stories, that potentially took months to craft, any extra plays.
If they're going to add a reward system, it need to be one that gives benefit from all quests, and encourages people to not only play Foundry quests, but to try new ones.
Comments
Yeah, I know. I just thought it bears repeating.
In general we schedule and complete work on the game in these big chunks called modules, which you guys are aware of. Our schedule is planned a few modules out. So... M6 is coming up and I think we have plans through M8. What that means is all of the new features and planned improvements are usually roughly blocked out already. If the leads decided to implement some of these changes in upcoming modules, say M7, then they would have to take time from something else already planned in that module.
So the idea is to keep the change small for now so that we can implement it in a Module coming up soon (probably no earlier than M7) rather than waiting until many many months from now. That's not to say any of this is decided. I'm just giving you a roundabout way of saying that something like this takes time.
I need sound FX added to the foundry for the following items -
- Coins Clinking (or change jingling)
- Teeth Chattering (brrrr)
- Exasperated Sigh (Like the NPC is bothered by the character)
- Angry Grunt (for .. less eloquent NPCs)
- 'Extra! Extra!' newpaper caller cry. Something for those street urchins to do.
and if we can get a male street urchin, that'd be nice. the female one on my map doesnt really fit her title of 'cabin boy' =X
thanks!
NW-DC9R4J5EH - 'The Black Pearl' - Spelljammer! Phlo Riders and Space Orcs
Thanks for all the fish.
Is a foundry package (something more than just assets being added) in that M6-M8 blocking schedule? =D
Something about rewards for authors/players of foundry quests/integration into endgame? =D
i.e. changing Lord Neverembers Foundry Daily to like "0/2 UNPLAYED Foundry Quests" for 10kAD?
that way, people play new foundrys, more authors get plays, everyone is happy?
[edit: nevermind, after re-reading it seems you are saying that 'nothing except small changes, for now']
NW-DC9R4J5EH - 'The Black Pearl' - Spelljammer! Phlo Riders and Space Orcs
Thanks for all the fish.
Those two get a whole-hearted endorsement.
The Foundry is unique as a low-barrier to entry method of developing and sharing content, in that it requires virtually zero knowledge to play a Foundry and very little to make one. The latter is a double-edged sword, because it results in a lot of dross within the Foundry itself. But it's better to have too much than too little. I've seen/used single player game editors that are far less powerful than the Foundry (even in its current state) and far harder to use. Really, a few bugs aside, the experience for Foundry authors is streets ahead of most content creation tools that cost a fortune. Your senior staff and leaders may have been burned on the Foundry, but in my opinion the people who created the interface deserve massive kudos (even more if they would let authors grow/shrink items).
Building a mansion with windows that you can look through. Manually. Using over a thousand details in an outdoors map. It shouldn't have had to be that way. How hard is it to include glass windows?
Plenty of responses in this thread cover this. The issue isn't authors, they get self-actualization through publishing. The issues is getting players to play the content and make the self-actualization come through.
Unlimited Adventures
NWN 1 + 2
Addressing the monetisation point. There are a couple of things I would like to see, personally, that I think you could monetise.
My biggest concern right now is that "Guild Housing" will address some of these points but create tedious, static environments without the power of the Foundry, and are seen by the playerbase as a naked money-grab that takes away the reasons for the Devs to work on the Foundry. That will further compound the problems that already seem to be apparent.
- 3d Editing
- Room Construction (currently only dungeon tiles)
- Campaign division
- Subscribing to authors
- Over all creative possibilities.
Since it's supposed to be Dungeons & Dragons, the foundry allows for some great online playing of what makes D&D fun, just a different format.How do you feel The Foundry fell short? What do you absolutely hate doing in The Foundry? What are elements of The Foundry that make you wish it was never implemented in Neverwinter?
What would you add to The Foundry to attract more authors and incentivize content creation? How would you like to see The Foundry implemented?
I put in bold the biggest ones that I really want to see come from the foundry.
What are some other games you feel got UGC implementation right? What can Cryptic Studios learn from the UGC tools of these other games?
I've only used STO's system before and the Landmark's beta. I didn't see anything there that wasn't already in or what I would want in Neverwinter UGC. Well, the persistent world stuff was pretty awesome in NWN...but Foundry is not the same as persistent worlds.
If we're requesting sounds, can we get a woman wailing? Or failing that, a woman screaming? The quiet sobbing doesn't cut it.
The foundry needs a dedicated DEV team for it and it alone. That's the single most important feature that you could implement.
The reason I say this is very simple. MMORPG's are slowly dying off. Sony has sold it's gaming division, and Hearthstone has flat out left WoW sales in the dust. It is what it is, and what it is... is business. It's time that PWE open their pocketbook and hire some talent to address this feature. The investment will pay off.
If this game is too survive, it will be attributed to the development of The Foundry. This is the sole reason I stated as such prior to the DnD licensing being awarded to Cryptic, even at the behest of others.
You have advertised 'Unlimited Content' with the Foundry. Currently it is horribly limited, to the point that it has become a toxic joke to the gamers who play NWO.
Blending the classical MMORPG gaming world with the sandboxy potential of The Foundry can set this game apart from the others. There is this trend with 'in game housing' and other features as such which has been floating around the genre for many years. I do not concur with this route, but it isn't something I dislike.
Games like DCUO have worked their grind into collecting housing item drops. Sobeit, that's their route in lieu of crafting material grinding.
Something to set this game apart... would probably be The Foundry drops being converted into collecting 'unlocks' for housing, and even foundry authoring special unlocks. This would boost trade, and let long term authors slowly gain options for their Foundry Quests.
Simply put, people tire of grinding the same story line. Harness the masses, develop the foundry on all fronts, and actually give us the 'unlimited content' you have advertised.
Nuff said....
I might actually download again and play the next expansion if the Foundry is attended too.
Then you might want to wait 6 months.
Mod 6 has no foundry updates.
Mod 7 is already in design/planning/resource assignment -- without foundry development.
So, perhaps mod 8 -- unless they're planning on betting the farm on their "new top secret" mmo in development by the majority of Cryptics development team(s).
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
Why? It could already print out 500 pages of feedback they've been given. How about:
"Cryptic Customers Want Cryptic to Take Action on Our Foundry Feedback"
Sekhmet@kvetchus_
Guilds: Greycloaks, Blackcloaks, Whitecloaks, Goldcloaks, Browncloaks, Spiritcloaks, Bluecloaks, Silvercloaks, Black Dawn
Tredecim: The Cloak Alliance
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/loadNews/29676/Dan-Stahl-Moves-On-to-Exciting-New-Project-at-Cryptic
Yes, I noticed that mmorpg.com had stated STO and NWO lost their leads for a 'new' Cryptic project. Gee whatever could it be?
*snores* Heroes of the Storm turned out kind of ..well... bad. Dota2 is getting old after 10,000 games. Not sure what to try. Maybe Albion Online for some UO'equeness?
I just don't know anymore.
having all damage scale to the player. This will really help with group foundries with mixed levels. So people can do foundries without worrying about what level they are.
Anyway we'll have to just wait and see.
The Foundry really is the only thing keeping me here. The Devs have shown that they can't give us anything new (at least not with the deadlines they are given), and they can't or won't make time for the only thing that sets this game apart from every other MMORPG out there. Maybe Sword Coast Legends will, but that remains to be seen.
2- Add option for making enemies player level+1(and +2) that would make more sense for a dungeon scenary
3- Add Dungeons (Curated by dev/Game moderators) that can be done for actual rewards not just a fistful of nothing. just a normal rp/shard drop from the boss.
4- Advertise it ingame with a "foundry of the week" queue system (after you have some dungeons the foundry of the week will be changing)
5-Keep adding every asset of the game to it so the content keep on being current and engaging.
Done! You fixed foundry forever!
PLEASE CRYPTIC DO IT WE NEED SOOOO LITTLE TO BE HAPPY FOREVER
Also if you want to be just the "awesomest ever" make a "foundry seal" currency so players can buy fashion/transmutes in the store, make it expensive in seals but worth the while.
1) The Foundry now has rewards that people care about
2) No one likes Dailies. We now have an alternative to all that repetitive content.
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?850801-Module-6-is-coming-and-the-Foundry-must-be-polished-at-last
Those are my thoughts as far as additions on the Foundry are concerned.
That's already how it works. Monsters scale to level.
Unfortunately, they do not scale in any way to gear score, so most of the (overgeared) level 60s don't find much of a combat challenge in most Foundry quests.
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
Quite correct, which is why its so frustrating when you craft a well-structured solo foundry, and then get reviews that say "not challenging for group".
If they gave us larger encounter budgets, we could kludge up something with an interact at the beginning to choose number of characters in the party, and load more foes accordingly, but I'm usually pushing my budget as is (especially since some are almost always needed for timers or "or" functionality).
Limit your map sizes, think of alternative workarounds for timers/or hacks, etc.
Also look at perhaps overlapping patrol paths on harder settings.
Also, one trick I use on most of my scalable options is I put an underground "or" flag for "HardOrElite" type setting so I can use the same encounter for both hard and elite levels - takes a couple encounters for the or handling, but if you have several hard/elite encounters can really save in the long run.
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
Positives
1. There are a bunch of Foundry quests with better rewards now, so people actually want to play.
2. The contest quests would really feel like a part of the campaign that comes with the Mod.
3. Players have an alternative to Dailies (or the hourlies coming with Mod 6)
4. Since authors can design content that provides advancement in the actual campaign, the Devs can maybe make content with somewhat less quantity at once, but of much better QUALITY, by relieving your workload. Lots of free campaign quests coming at you direct from the players themselves.
The Downside
1. Adding better rewards to specific foundry quests rather than to ALL foundry quests would probably be more work for the Devs.
2. Contest quests would be disproportionately favored forever (probably).
Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of tiny maps and multiple transfers. I prefer to tell my story on as few maps as possible.
I haven't found anything reliable for a timer that doesn't require player interaction, other than mob death. Everything else either requires the player to press a button, or requires the player to reach a point. On the rare cases when I use a mob death timer, it's usually because nothing else is appropriate. I really wish they'd let us use the completion of a timed FX detail as a "completed" component, as that would allow some really neat effects, as well as give us a workaround for timers that didn't involve either player interaction or mob death.
I did manage to get a decent difficulty selector going on "Karrilos Hills: Orc Raiders", but that was a straightforward daily combat quest, not anything in which I was really telling a story, so I didn't need either "or" mechanics or timers.
For the most part, I prefer to focus on telling my story the way I want to tell it as best I can, and not worry about whether or not the players are going to be a 5-team, or an overgeared 60, or an undergeared 10, or whatever. As such, I usually aim for a decently-geared solo.
Honestly, I'm not a fan of this idea, because it doesn't encourage players to play new foundries, it just changes the focus from only playing the same 15-minute daily to only playing the same contest entry. It still doesn't get longer stories, that potentially took months to craft, any extra plays.
If they're going to add a reward system, it need to be one that gives benefit from all quests, and encourages people to not only play Foundry quests, but to try new ones.