R.A. Salvatore on the Foundry

tripsofthrymr · September 2015

R.A. Salvatore was asked on the Twitch Livestream whether he feels the Foundry is an important part of Neverwinter.

His answer (at the 21:35 mark)

It's hugely important... it's the highest level of what a computer game can be.

Most players feel the Foundry is currently dead because rewards have been almost completely removed to combat exploitative foundries.

If Cryptic were to invest some time to combat exploits with a tool other than the Forgehammer of Nerf, and were to add meaningful rewards, how often would you play Foundry quests?

theycallmetomu · September 2015

Never, because I cannot find entertaining Foundry quests

The foundry is susceptible to Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is HAMSTER.

silverkelt · September 2015

Never, for other reasons

I used to play many foundry quests, as they have repeatedly made the reason to ever enter one into zil.. Ive stopped.

You cant even get a simple drop out of them anymore.

Thanks for that green shiny.

You cannot have a progression grind game and then remove all reasons to spend your time in it. Back when you could do them with both rhix and lords weekly, I would pop in and do some of the ones (searched) that were supposed to be the 15-25 min ones. I actually found some that were really well put together, but it was ALSO hard to search the criteria.

Unknown · September 2015

This content has been removed.

iandarksword · September 2015

Often

I put often because I check the running time, I'd play more, but lately I have to play parent more in real life. They do need to provide more incentives for people to play Foundry quests, and we've given them plenty of suggestions over the past two years and more. I am glad @StrumSlinger chose my question for Mr. Salvatore. I'm also glad it was the last one asked because as the saying goes: "It's not who you bring to the dance, it's who you leave with that matters..."

tripsofthrymr · September 2015

Often

silverkelt said:
I used to play many foundry quests, as they have repeatedly made the reason to ever enter one into zil.. Ive stopped.

You cant even get a simple drop out of them anymore.

The poll asks how often you would play Foundry quests if there were meaningful rewards (with a link to a proposal). I agree, in the current form there is little incentive for most players.

beckylunatic · September 2015

Often

The last time I binged on Foundry was right before the LP dailies were removed, trying to get AD for doing something I really liked while the gettin' was good.

Now:
No AD at all (needed in huge quantities for both personal and stronghold progression)
Nerfed RP drops (each character requiring millions upon millions of this)
Poor XP gain (needed for astronomical overflow requirements even after you hit 70)
No campaign currency (needed by the truckload for strongholds even if you have finished all your boons)
Nothing for strongholds (except basic loot drops which I can get anywhere else while doing something that does directly help the stronghold)
Final reward will be a piece of green trash loot the same as any mob drop (so what's the point even?)

I would *love* to play more Foundry. I have a solid idea of who the good authors are, so finding quests isn't a problem, but finding time for it is with all these other things that I appear to be expected to do. I even sort of enjoy bad quests so I can laugh at them, but really don't have time for that.

karistiana · September 2015

Often

I voted often because I don't do anything in game every time I play whether I get rewards or not. Which probably has more to do with me getting bored with the game as of late. Rewards don't even entice me to do all I can within a day on the game anymore.

kreatyve · September 2015

Often

I am still doing foundry content on occasion. I'm currently 2 "Tip any amount" away from Rank 7 dungeon master.

So yeah, I should get on that.

darkstarcrash · September 2015

Often

I would love to run the Foundry more, and using the model of "first two runs gets you 2k AD, subsequent runs get you 200 AD (or whatever amounts make sense)" would be a great incentive.

Doing the foundry dailies became less frequent as I leveled up and the number of foundries required increased: having to do 4 foundries at 60 meant I limited myself to 15-20 minute foundries so it wouldn't take over my play time. As more and more campaigns were added to the game and as I leveled more alts, foundries got pushed to the back burner for me. While Lord Neverember weeklies still existed, I would try to do the Neverember and Rhix daily once -- spreading the 4 foundries over the week. Once the Neverember dailies stopped, I pretty much stopped running foundries at all.

There would have to be strict safeguards, such as only allowing featured foundries to give you rAD.

beckylunatic · September 2015

Often

darkstarcrash said:
There would have to be strict safeguards, such as only allowing featured foundries to give you rAD.

I had suggested using the same guidelines as the former qualification for daily Foundry, or they'd need to feature a lot more different quests. There's also the consideration that a featured quest is locked in, while a dedicated author might keep updating a version of the same quest. Featured quests can even end up in a broken state.

"Daily" is open to some abuse, but it's still a bit self-regulating since too many speedrunners will make it un-qualify again. And it's a bit hard to get a new quest qualified for daily, but probably easier than netting a feature since featuring is 100% dependent on squeezing into Andy's schedule.

How about daily or featured? (Since I know a quest can end up featured without the total plays for daily.)

lhachmacar · September 2015

Often

The Foundry system is the one thing that Neverwinter has that makes it unique among MMOs. Cryptic literally has a system where new content will write itself without them dropping a dime or hiring more developers - if it's properly incentivized. It's a huge opportunity to both lend the game longevity, attract people to their game, and free up limited developer resources to focus on game balance and fixing bugs. How it has never been properly supported or made the centerpiece of promoting the game is a mystery to me.

kreatyve · September 2015

Often

I truly hope that the devs give the foundry some love soon.

Though I personally am not great at making story quests, people seem to enjoy my mazes (or they really hate them). It is my belief that if Cryptic would reward the people doing the quests better, people would do the quests more. The hardest part would be figuring how to prevent people from exploiting them.

tripsofthrymr · September 2015

Often

kreatyve said:
I truly hope that the devs give the foundry some love soon. Though I personally am not great at making story quests, people seem to enjoy my mazes (or they really hate them). It is my belief that if Cryptic would reward the people doing the quests better, people would do the quests more. The hardest part would be figuring how to prevent people from exploiting them.

The community of dedicated authors that produce great stuff is not huge. I have to think a trust-but-verify system can be put in place for authors that have already created great, exploit-free content while a verify-then-trust system can be put in place for up-and-coming authors.

instynctive · September 2015

Occasionally

I just posted a new Foundry today... because it runs differently on the live server than it does on the "unpublished" server, I wanted to get a feel for how everything was actually working... (a lot of times things are hit or miss on how they *should* work vs. how they *actually* work).

Regardless.. the lag was omg horrible. As in "can't play this due to lag" horrible.

I really wish the Foundry would get some love. And a lot of it. There's a list of bugs a mile long in the Foundry forum... and it's discouraging to authors and players alike who enjoy building and playing quests.

And, truthfully, the Foundry is half the reason I downloaded this game. The other half is because of the D&D logo emblazoned all over it. Once here and realizing that the Foundry is near useless and hasn't been updated in what, 4 Mods, and how unlike D&D this game is, fooled me twice, shame on me.

mattsacre · September 2015

Occasionally

I did a lot of foundries on my first couple of toons, right up to about the do 4x for AD point. There after I didn't do them on those toons so much, both the drops were sad and the time sink was over much (almost all were at least 15+min each/ so 1+hr sink). Some of the foundries were just plain inane or boring, some were good, I'd say 20%ish.

I see some folks whining about foundries that were designed for combat/lvling, don't know why, sometimes that's all you are in the mood for, mindlessly slaying some monsters, why not a bit of coin and xp while doing so?

I see others the yak yak foundries, don't know why, sometimes your toons aren't the type up to the rigors of combat and a foundry here or there would tide you over, why not some coin and xp for that as well?

Personally I think there should be a bigger role for foundry, it's sort of a think tank, players idea for the players forum. I also think some small AD and stuff should be a small added incentive to engage it a bit. But not the do it 4x to get this incentive, that's enducing boredom and making decent foundries suffer thereby.

While I think the authors of foundries should have control a bit more, maybe making the end reward a blue item, that would be incentive enough for some, giving them purple is too much. Don't make all the stuff leet but don;t nerf it as well.

2 penny worth

reiwulf · September 2015

Every time I play, as many times as I can earn a reward

I would play it a lot. The foundry is basically the reason why I came to NW. and the reason I still check the forums daily to see if there's anything new around for it.
It makes me mad that the devs can't the the huge potential in it and instead decided to completely ignore it and leave it to rot.
Bettering the rewards would be a huge step in a right direction and would make people play it much more.

kreatyve · September 2015

Often

I think that "Featured" foundry content should offer much more rewards than unfeatured ones. And those empty "fast achievement" maps should all be removed. Kinda sucks that you have to run them to report them though.

fogtripper · September 2015

Every time I play, once

I will willingly apply myself to any group content that is not simply a hack and slash hallway.

Currently beyond foundry, I have the choice of cragmire, cragmire or cragmire. And those 3 are hallways. Speaking of hallways, can there be an option to play content without the shimmering path silliness?

darkstarcrash · September 2015

Often

If you don't want to see the quest path, hit "Z". That toggles it on and off.

tripsofthrymr · September 2015

Often

kreatyve said:
I think that "Featured" foundry content should offer much more rewards than unfeatured ones. And those empty "fast achievement" maps should all be removed. Kinda sucks that you have to run them to report them though.

If Andy clones himself a few times to make sure that deserving foundries get that status :-)

gomok72 · September 2015

Often

The foundry is dead because you can't finish your damn achieavements. I can't finish "Work Week.", after doing it 10 damn times. I mean what's the point? A better question that Strumslinger should have asked RA would have been, "Have you achieaved your "Work Week.", foundry completion yet?". It would have been real interesting to see what he would have answered.

On a note, I love the foundrys in this game, I like them better than a lot of the Cryptic made quests ingame, too be honest.

valcontar73 · September 2015

Often

kreatyve said:
I think that "Featured" foundry content should offer much more rewards than unfeatured ones. And those empty "fast achievement" maps should all be removed. Kinda sucks that you have to run them to report them though.

100% agree.

luks707 · September 2015

Often

The sad truth is that a lot of people were using the foundry solely as a farming tool. I never saw the appeal myself.
I would love to see a vetting system that assures good writing = good rewards. There are a lot of good foundries out there already and basically it is free content from the Dev's perspective. Especially right now when content is light while the other dungeons get reworked this could really keep the community happy.

essenti · September 2015

Every time I play, as many times as I can earn a reward

kreatyve said:
I think that "Featured" foundry content should offer much more rewards than unfeatured ones. And those empty "fast achievement" maps should all be removed. Kinda sucks that you have to run them to report them though.

I fully agree as well. Foundry quests that are less than 15 minutes average play time should have a graduated rating penalty for how far below the 15 minute requirement they are... that might at least keep those 0 minute quests buried at the bottom of the best tab.

Although I really like the idea of Foundry quests improving the end chest rewards with each "objective" and encounter completed along the way, this may promote ye-old farm-grind foundry quests again. Perhaps basing the rewards on both the "building rewards" idea and average duration could help balance Foundry quests around enjoyable and interesting content?

Edit: And I also really like @tripsofthrymr 's idea for improving the rewards for Foundry quests!

davejustdave · September 2015

Never, because I cannot find entertaining Foundry quests

Foundry is a great concept but lacks quality control.
Trying to find a good one is like trying to find good fan fiction. You end up wading through lots of dross in search of the occasional gem.

The review system should help but I've played some highly-rated ones that are just not that great in my view. Too many shabby bits of construction and/or too many grammar/spelling errors or just daft plot lines. I just end up spending too much time noticing the lack of polish. Writing a great foundry mission requires a multiplicity of skills. A great idea and enthusiasm need to be supplemented with attention to detail and lots of testing.

The other bad aspect of foundries is the way it can show multiple versions of the same mission. It's confusing and unnecessary.

beckylunatic · September 2015

Often

davejustdave said:

The other bad aspect of foundries is the way it can show multiple versions of the same mission. It's confusing and unnecessary.

This is largely because of the Featuring mechanic that removes the author's ability to edit that quest. And you can't argue that authors should only submit perfected quests for Featuring, because Cryptic's own patches tend to break stuff. So you'll often see a Featured version and then also the version with the most up-to-date bugfixing.

I think there can also be some duplication when viewing quests in a Foundry campaign. I'm not sure how easily the author can control this.

reiwulf · September 2015

Every time I play, as many times as I can earn a reward

if the farming quests and quick review quests would be deleted, then it would be much easier to find the better ones

rayrdan · September 2015

Never, for other reasons

never, there is no reason to

draqkonis · September 2015

Every time I play, as many times as I can earn a reward

Foundries are an awesome addition to the game that makes it unique. The only reason I don't play as much as I would like is because of all the grinding needed for character development. I think now is the time for a great opportunity for a rework to them and help stabilize the game a little. How about adding in a Foundry Coin reward? This could be a bound currency used to get neat stuff like companions, mounts, appearance items, consumables, or even timed gear (like Black Ice Enchantments) that can help boost a character while they do main game dungeons for that BiS gear.

The rewards could be based on the time it takes to complete the foundry and the difficulty. There could be two stages to help determine the amount of coins given by each Foundry.

-Stage 1: New Foundries will need to go through a testing phase by players. The test will take into account the character level and current IL of the gear they have, as well as companions and party strength. During the testing phase, the Foundry quest taken is not completed at the end, but rather stays open until the testing phase is done, as well as the character name being added to the list of testers for the Foundry. After a predetermined amount of runs, the system calculates the overall difficulty of the Foundry, and suggests a reward to be confirmed by a developer.

-Stage 2: The reward is set and you go and complete your quest. You get your Foundry Coins and some other nice special item, like a Tester Voucher ( x amount of vouchers given based on the Foundry Coins determined for the Foundry such as 1 voucher for up to 5 coins, 2 vouchers for up to 10 coins, etc.) Tester Vouchers could by used for fun stuff for those who dedicated their time to the testing (appearance items or even items to be used specifically in Foundries like a scroll of resurrection for those harder Foundries). The Foundry reward is now live, and anyone who runs it after this gets the Foundry Coin reward, but not the Tester Voucher.

I think this would help bring a new, fresh face to Foundries that would bring players to the game, old and new alike.

grimah · September 2015

Never, because I cannot find entertaining Foundry quests

As a foundry author i rarely if ever play them now. I used to play them very often, but now i can't seem to find anything i want to play, the list is the same as it was a year ago, with 1-3 exceptions (which i have played). I treat them like regular games and will no continue playing them if i don't think its enjoyable.

I think over the past 3 years ive only played 3 quests that have really resonanted on the level i'm looking for. I'm sure theres more but im, not going to navigate the mess of a database and play every single one trying to find it.

R.A. Salvatore on the Foundry

R.A. Salvatore on the Foundry 122 votes

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