I have ceased accepting or doing any Foundry Quests. Some are good and very enjoyable but; the placement on Map interferes with required Quest advancement. Example, Breuners Helm story line 3 had at least 2 foundry's map locations blocking the ability to continue this Quest line. This took me several weeks to figure out. There is plenty of room on map for these, they should not be on top of required story lines for character advancement.
I have ceased accepting or doing any Foundry Quests. Some are good and very enjoyable but; the placement on Map interferes with required Quest advancement. Example, Breuners Helm story line 3 had at least 2 foundry's map locations blocking the ability to continue this Quest line. This took me several weeks to figure out. There is plenty of room on map for these, they should not be on top of required story lines for character advancement.
While I know nothing will change until next year at the soonest, this can easily be fixed if Cryptic makes 2 versions of the world map - the "official" quest one and maybe a tick box for "foundry quests". Ticking the box hides all the official ones and shows only your current foundry stuff and vice versa.
I have ceased accepting or doing any Foundry Quests. Some are good and very enjoyable but; the placement on Map interferes with required Quest advancement. Example, Breuners Helm story line 3 had at least 2 foundry's map locations blocking the ability to continue this Quest line. This took me several weeks to figure out. There is plenty of room on map for these, they should not be on top of required story lines for character advancement.
While I know nothing will change until next year at the soonest, this can easily be fixed if Cryptic makes 2 versions of the world map - the "official" quest one and maybe a tick box for "foundry quests". Ticking the box hides all the official ones and shows only your current foundry stuff and vice versa.
Or, even easier, and without having to touch UI or write any special code they could simply reverse the order of drawing the map markers -- draw Foundry first and THEN draw Official locations -- then foundry would be the only ones "blocked" if author places them right where official locations reside.
...but, of course, that would involve actually changing (swapping) two whole lines of code.
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? Foundry And all UGC that i have ever played has always and will always be for the same reason. A company builds a game for the community. It fits the general needs of the whole. UGC is built by the players for the players. it is ever changing and adds new aspects that a company can not due. IE.. i got a group of friends and we want to do a hide and seek quest...there are 12 of us out of all of NW that want a quest like this....Cryptic wont do it cause it doesnt meet the needs of mass majority...but i can make that quest for thoes 11 others that want to do it.
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? Foundry fell short for the same reason most UGC dies. Illogical implementing. Foundry should NOT have items that drop in it. gold yes, maybe some AD. nothing that cant be easily obtained in the normal game that can NOT be equiped by a character.
What would you add to The Foundry to attract more authors and incentivize content creation? How would you like to see The Foundry implemented? Foundry should be seperated into 2 major sections. 1 being cryptic approved foundry lines. These would be full on quests and mini story lines. these would be quests that had a level requirement between # - #. these would be quests that cryptic could issue a chest at the end for unique Foundry gear, and fashion items. (i know i said nothing equipable by a character...but i also said drop) these would be those quests that are 4-6 parts long and actually take time and work to get through. the second section would be casual foundry content and this would be the best your going to get is maybe some coin and a small rough astral diamond reward. these would be short quests that are fun and quick that offer something other than normal game play to people if they want it. This makes it impossible to abuse the drop rates, the most someone could do is make a supershort foundry quest that people could run through in 1 min, that gave like 10 Rough astral diamonds.....and hey guess what you can run a skirmish for more rad in less time.
What are some other games you feel got UGC implementation right? What can Cryptic Studios learn from the UGC tools of these other games? The best game i have ever seen use UGC is an old 2d overhead game called Ashen Empires. they actually had a downloadable UGC program that allowed you to make and edit actual game code that could be uploaded into the game. they had two different versions. payed and free. payed content allowed for implementing the ability to get crafting materials in the game (and trust me it was never easy even in the UGC to get that stuff) and common drops that were just as easy to get in the actual game. Free uploads were literally nothing but story lines with no xp and no rewards.
The only other game That used UGC.........well it was a UGC based game called unique. the unique thing about unique was it was 90% UGC. and the world was........moded and customizable. ie...i didnt like that building there im going to tear it down using my sword until there is nothing left of it and then i will build my own building here. but that didnt mean that it would stay there cause someone else might come destroy mine and build theirs. literally the main city, and the terrain were the only things unique supplied. everything else was player created. and there were some miraculous cities that players built, added their own quests to, got people together to protect it, and it rarely changed....but the possibility was there that it wouldn't be. and if the quest i was on came from a town or city that got destroyed my quest would come up with quest giver died. Unfortunately the guy that kept that game running died and it vanished. i cant even find traces of it anymore.
On a side note for cryptic. Foundry can be a great way to make the company money and provide unlimited new ideas for cryptic to use as well and this is how.
1) implement Cryptic approved quests to have a special chest at the end that requires a zen key to open. the rewards could be a unique fashion item or maybe a special leveling item that are bound to account. this allows players the option to spend zen on something that not everyone in the game would have.....even if it is only for looks.
2) cryptic would need to pay attention. if a CAQ (cryptic approved quest) has 10k plays with a 95% or higher approval rating, i would be looking at it as a company and seeing if we could use it in the game. If it is something that would be in the game then maybe have a foundry reward system. zen to the creator for gratuity rights since they developed it and your using it. this is just an idea but something that i would pay attention to.
How about a foundry where the creation tools load the assets so that you can actually create custom maps, items, etc? Don't have that at the moment, and the ticket team doesn't care.
I have played Neverwinter during the Beta test, and I see on my Arc Profile says that I have played Neverwinter for None, as if I have never played it. What is the matter?
Wow, I was only looking for information about WHY the Foundry has been apparently DISABLED and found all of this. Which leads me to believe the foundry was disabled because nobody in a position to act on any of the ideas brought up here did act on same.
Personally, I believe the reason the foundry is disabled is simple economics. There is NO PROFIT to be had from the foundry system.
That being said, is there anything to be done about that? How about making purchasable foundry upgrades for the Zen store, and others that can only be purchased with CASH?
My mother ran a game server farm hosting the original NWN. Her game community spent real money to support that farm, even bought her multiple copies of software to upgrade the game, money for parts to upgrade servers and so on. If people love a thing enough, they will open their purses. (One of her group worked overtime for a month to donate a machine to run her housing feature.)
A system could be put in place to support content producers with in game currency, and for content players to gain that currency, with unique cosmetic awards for content producers to reward their players. Banjo's Cloak of Many Colors, anyone? And of course there would be a mechanic to convert a portion of your paycheck to foundry support currency/foundry improvements...perhaps even a way to "go fund me" development efforts?
One of my favorite things to do sometimes is to just sit around in a crowded area and inspect folks outfits. What if a system was in place to randomly drop a MOBs custom look equipment as a free appearance upgrade? I know a good number of people that would merrily run an hour long crawl to gain a fancier look for their boots or belt.
Of course, if the foundry is dead and gone, this is moot.
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?
I think most people aren't into level design, or up to the idea of getting behind the guts and glory to be honest. In this way, I believe perhaps the game should benefit those people by giving something a little more. Perhaps something like 2,000 astral diamonds, and let it make the record to get those people working on more than "just-a-game". That way they are clued in. 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?
Targeting. One area to another is clunky. It's really the toughest part in my honest opinion. What would you add to The Foundry to attract more authors and incentivize content creation? How would you like to see The Foundry implemented?
See above.
What are some other games you feel got UGC implementation right? What can Cryptic Studios learn from the UGC tools of these other games?
id Software, Q3 Radiant was great although it wasn't part of the game itself. Maybe follow that lead and offer your "UGC" similarly. I think, it would work besides for merits because: 1. The best program stands apart (let there be "open-ended" editing and the game is no longer suspect to behaving "wrong" or the editor. 2. The allowance of independent editing would be STUPENDOUS to game and editors so much that your fan-base would grow. Guild maps, fan review sites, et cetera. Thank you so much for your time.
This is a two year old thread and Spirals is no longer with Cryptic. Perhaps it should be locked?
Not sure, while Spirals is no longer with Cryptic, mimicking has peaked his head in to other foundry threads. It might still be a useful thread to have full of feedback. I have hope, a fool's hope perhaps, but hope.
Love yourself, and focus on the rest of the madness of life later.
I had recently returned to Neverwinter after a long stay from playing the game between February of 2014 and October of 2016. Prior to my leave of absence, I was an avid Foundry Developer. I spent more time developing Foundry Quests and playing through other author's Foundry creations for the pleasure, experience of playing through their quests, and for ideas for my own quests than I did playing through Cryptic's end game content.
I was extremely disappointed to read upon my return a few months ago that the AD gains had been removed from the Foundry, and then subsequently the Foundry itself had been decommission for a period of time. I had a few guild-mates play through one of my Foundry Quest that I had to go back to republish since all of my quests for some reason became unpublished upon my return; however, only one of the several quests would republish, the remaining quests continue and persistently give me publish errors and WILL NOT publish. Moreover, I was filled with excitement to see what new tools and content was introduced into the Foundry after my long stay away, only to find that not only was there no new content, but there is no content whatsoever. I cannot create maps, characters, items, nothing. All of the assets are gone. I thought initially there was something wrong with my particular version of the game, but after research, I discovered that Cryptic removed the assets.
I don't understand why Cryptic would completely abandon the Foundry. There were a great deal of people who were loyal to the Foundry, and I remember once I had published a quest I had to market the playtime for that quest by posting the information on the forum sites that people would frequent to look for new quests. I miss that aspect of Neverwinter sorely, and simply don't understand why the Foundry has been stripped apart and abandoned.
I would like to suggest the following to improve and reinvigorate interest into the Foundry, and please take into consideration that but for the success on the PC platform Neverwinter wouldn't exist on either console. Just because the Foundry tools are limited or otherwise incompatible with consoles, doesn't mean that the PC users have to suffer:
1. Restart the Foundry tools again and incorporate the new content from the recent mods since your abandonment of the Foundry and the content updates.
2. Remove and require players to republish their quests for those accounts that have been stagnant or have not been logged into for an extended period of time +6 months, unless of course that Foundry quest has been adopted as a Feature. This way people who have long since abandoned the Foundry and the game itself will not have quests published that may be bugged, cannot be played, clog up the database and the servers.
3. Reintroduce Astral Diamonds ("AD") daily reward with Foundry quest playthroughs so players who predominantly play solo have a means to gain AD without having to wait each week to perform weekly quests, and this will provide more variety as a whole. Increase the daily from the former 4 or 5 quests to 10 quests (double it to require more playthroughs, which will inherently create more interest).
4. Restructure the "Feature" to be used for Foundry Quests as eligible for AD, rather than for specific placement within the "Feature" tab. Reduce and or adjust restrictions for application for "Feature" to select those quests that are more substantive or have substance to them, and this will at least allow you to vet out what quests would be used for AD farming; i.e. a certain amount of NPC talking interaction to promote a storyline, a minimum amount of time for playthrough, a certain amount of maps for playthrough, or to simplify the selection, maps that are maxed out in assets. Alternatively, to reduce the amount of resources of Cryptic to monitor or vet out eligible quests as Features, what if we left it to the Players, and let them decide after they play through if the quest should be a feature as an option to select when reviewing the quest. Each week, the quests with the highest count of player votes to make the quest Feature will become Feature moving forward and eligible for AD rewards. All current Features will be automatically adopted Features under the new system [let me mention, I have no stake in this suggestion, as I never applied for Feature under the current system]
5. Charge for additional slots for quests and or campaigns as an additional resource for real money to help fund the continuing support of the Foundry. I would even go so far as to suggest that you offer a Zen store upgrade that a player can pay for in order to offer a chance for better rewards at the end of their quests, while requiring those quests to have certain time minimums to avoid publication of short quests simply for improved loot. Create a sliding scale for that purpose to increase the quality of the loot (i.e. levels of purchasable upgrades on Zen market for better loot, or chance for better loot even).
6. Update the available mobs for more difficult combat and to support party play, more specifically, higher level boss mobs. Update the maps to include newer content. Update the design same.
7. Enhance the Catalogue to make it easier to locate quests from authors, and refine searches, and or reorganize tabs to make it easier to find quests - perhaps even based on the amount of reviews the quest has received.
Cryptic, I rarely involve myself in crying out for something on the forum for the game, but I take exception in this case because the Foundry is/was awesome... people live to create, but other people want to be rewarded for participating in another's creation. In this game, that requires the ability to earn AD. No one cares about achievements in a game built around economy.
While I wholly understand removing AD from actions that can either be exploited through bots, or exploited by players creating 50 characters to benefit from farming AD through invocation and professions, there is simply little if any logic with removing AD as a daily reward from the Foundry, not at least any logic that I can discern. AD is was what made the Foundry relevant within the greater part of the community, because every author wants his/her audience, and to keep Foundry relevant and make it worth its upkeep as developers you have you maintain the incentives for the medium. In this case, and I reiterate, that is AD for playthroughs.
Whether you feel that my suggestions above lack merit or make sense what is important to me, and the many people who were and would like to again be avid Foundry supporters, is that you please reconsider the state that you have left the Foundry, Cryptic. Breathe life back into the single most unique aspect of your game that set it apart from every other MMO, the Foundry.
Please. Thank you for your consideration and review.
Would love to actually use Foundry but I have no assets to create missions with. I spent an hour working on dialog for the start of a quest just to find out that I can't continue working on it. It's really put me in a bad with game which is sad considering the excitement I had felt when I found out that player created quests were an option at all.
The Foundry is the reason I started playing this game. It seems development/management is pushing the game in the direction of being a WoW clone...which is just a shame and a waste.
I love the creative aspect and I REALLY miss the foundry. I hope it comes back soon.
I loved your Ancient Gamer before windows tag...my gaming started before the home PC as well. Foundry was my way of returning to the basement with a few six packs of beer, 4 or 5 good friends and a cup full of dice.
some designers made exploits for other cheaters by having long winding dungeons with mobs there and there in locations and put campfire in the end, i was told to run to campfire and let mobs kill me and just revive. it was suppose be timed for 30 mins or longer when it is qualified for ADs, and those made it exploitable, that reason why devs had to shut it down. it is on backburner for them so thay can redo foundery later and unexploitable.
@wylonus The simple fix to that exploit (using death/respawn at a campfire to essentially teleport to quest end and complete effortlessly) would be to make Foundry campfires work the same as the rest. You don't revive at them until you "find them" (i.e. are close). The starting spawn point should be the respawn until the campfire is "discovered".
I was extremely bummed to find this wasn't a thing anymore. I loved EQ2's dungeon maker until they went and removed all reason to use it. I had hoped to make many fun adventures as I did in NWN1 and NWN2
i do like player made dungeons from EQ2 also, still, there are some who can find the ways to abuse. i did same for NWN1 and 2, but i have problems with scriptings, i can create landscape and place the creatures, coding with doors and portals for exit-enter no problem. it was scriptings and dialogs for npcs.
Foundery lack way too much and limited resources, not enough to work with.
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demonmongerMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,350Arc User
Love foundry ♡ it has great potential
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I hate paying taxes! Why must I pay thousands of dollars in taxes when everything I buy is taxed anyways!
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mysticmarksMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 117Arc User
edited March 2017
First day foundry author: STILL never had real loot in chests OR real bosses configurable. Hell, make it a random generator for the boss like the new skirmish or something available. It also sucks that the drops for even basic gear and gold weren't just nerfed but nuked in foundry. I authored many and found that getting featured is never happening as farmers fed their own ratings with an army of characters. I've personally done many unknown foundries with amazing detail work that simply never had a chance. At in ception i remember entering foundry with the mindset of recreating old and new true AD&D Campaigns. Many exploits up front destroyed it as a focus, yet it was the highest of all sale points to buy for tabletop players. It would have been a way to build a digital reconstruction of those paper campaigns that could endure great time. The Rogue lockpicking and trap disarming have always been useless. A variety of traps are visble and make no sense as such. To match more closely to the book would be difficult given the lack of randomly generated content. If you code a random dungeon map generator similar to the populator tool i think it could really expedite less experienced players in their use of the tool. I also don't feel like many othe environments that i once used are still available. Assets are getting to be weird from an end user perspective.
Another thought not just for foundry, but for the whole game is mimic chests. Instead of set mimic encounters, make the chests random throughout dungeons, not only in placement but if it even is a mimic or not. Then up the chest contents. Maybe even expand on the mimic concept by spawning random mobs on top of random chest/mimic scenarios in both. the chest in paper Dungeon's and Dragons is a huge part of the Fantasy thirst. "What's in the box?" A few random mimics and chests each with possible encounters in any game content, and for foundry an actual boss and final chest award in line with any other boss fight, or based on the boss selected. STILL allow EVEN the bosses to be skinned. It would be even far more fun to allow from a list of selectable boss skills of a given quantity to creat true originals for our own quest lists. It also needs a way to share in the creation process collaboratively with other players. I also noticed the list of assets needs work. Make interactable lighting objects, add mini boss cut scene options, add a micro 3d preview window(low prerender) as well as an iso view editor. I could go on, but those are major things already. Of all things, the boss and the chest awards. Do that, and you'll have hardcore designers on foundry 24 hrs a day working on really killer content. All said, the Foundry editor is ar eally nice feature. Honestly, I've been sad it wasn't ever built into the tool it so easily could be for this game. Endless player created dungeons.. "new content" all day.. every day.. any day... so .. sad.
Sometimes you're your own best teacher. ~Me
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
From the improvements - the ability to disable the auto-balance mobs in the instance, namely, add the ability to make them a few lvls higher than the player who entered the instance. Up to 73, or 74, which is now the most severe. And in accordance with these lvls, the complexity of the passage increases, and the higher the complexity, the higher the reward. + The possibility of drop of the pet and unique armor from the enhanced versions of the instances. Set the minimum passage time. Not to farm. Enter the dependence of the difficulty of the instance on the number of players inside - an example - the fight of Kabal. When 3+ players inside the mob are stronger, more damage. When entering into 5 people and passing the instance, give out awards as for t1 dungeon, or slightly less valuable.
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demonmongerMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,350Arc User
Foundry has not been able to let people that join your quests with you in party, rate the foundry, donate to the foundry and more, ever since they removed quest share ability.
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I hate paying taxes! Why must I pay thousands of dollars in taxes when everything I buy is taxed anyways!
I'm sick&tried of player characters rushing through dungeon like their "hair-is-on-fire"! Dungeon should be travel thru slowly and cautionly for any clues, hidden passage. Give us traps: pits, fall-on, snake/monster fill and springtrap. Give us teleporting room that send us to the beginning again! I once had a Foundry idea that the character come out a cave and came cross a ancient small village. With "teleporting" to the site, "teleporting" to the inner-cave and "teleporting" out-the-cave to the ancient village... I run out of "teleporting" allowance to enter each hut(s) of the village....that's a bummer!!
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demonmongerMember, NW M9 PlaytestPosts: 3,350Arc User
I made a map like that...
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
I hate paying taxes! Why must I pay thousands of dollars in taxes when everything I buy is taxed anyways!
From what I can see... from older videos and blogs from when it was working, my one suggestion for The Foundry would be some way for the marketing team to encourage player-critique outside of the actual game.
For example, in-game, most players are going to "5-Star" the easy, quick, high-reward quests. However, the community of content-creators will be far more harsh, and more selective. So what if the featured campaigns and a weekly/monthly "Foundry Quest Not To Miss" were voted on here on The Foundry forums? Not replacing the current in-game "rate and review," just as a more refined curation of the content for a select few Foundry Quests that truly stand out.
The creator who wins such votes could earn some in-game AD or maybe even a little Zen, or a new title, or something. But it would drive more "quality" than just asking the average players to vote (who really just want more rewards faster, and who drove The Foundry into the exploits in the first place).
You'd be asking artists, who have done UGC and actually care, to give props to the other artists who do it well. Thus encouraging the people who take it seriously to keep doing what they do, and discouraging the exploiters. Without really being entirely unfair to all types of creators, since the in-game votes would still matter - there would just be an added "Connoisseur Pick of The Week/Month."
Comments
...but, of course, that would involve actually changing (swapping) two whole lines of code.
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
I created a race map and put out a call.. 1000 zen to anyone that can beat me.
Finally lost...
Foundry And all UGC that i have ever played has always and will always be for the same reason. A company builds a game for the community. It fits the general needs of the whole. UGC is built by the players for the players. it is ever changing and adds new aspects that a company can not due. IE.. i got a group of friends and we want to do a hide and seek quest...there are 12 of us out of all of NW that want a quest like this....Cryptic wont do it cause it doesnt meet the needs of mass majority...but i can make that quest for thoes 11 others that want to do it.
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?
Foundry fell short for the same reason most UGC dies. Illogical implementing. Foundry should NOT have items that drop in it. gold yes, maybe some AD. nothing that cant be easily obtained in the normal game that can NOT be equiped by a character.
What would you add to The Foundry to attract more authors and incentivize content creation? How would you like to see The Foundry implemented?
Foundry should be seperated into 2 major sections. 1 being cryptic approved foundry lines. These would be full on quests and mini story lines. these would be quests that had a level requirement between # - #. these would be quests that cryptic could issue a chest at the end for unique Foundry gear, and fashion items. (i know i said nothing equipable by a character...but i also said drop) these would be those quests that are 4-6 parts long and actually take time and work to get through. the second section would be casual foundry content and this would be the best your going to get is maybe some coin and a small rough astral diamond reward. these would be short quests that are fun and quick that offer something other than normal game play to people if they want it. This makes it impossible to abuse the drop rates, the most someone could do is make a supershort foundry quest that people could run through in 1 min, that gave like 10 Rough astral diamonds.....and hey guess what you can run a skirmish for more rad in less time.
What are some other games you feel got UGC implementation right? What can Cryptic Studios learn from the UGC tools of these other games?
The best game i have ever seen use UGC is an old 2d overhead game called Ashen Empires. they actually had a downloadable UGC program that allowed you to make and edit actual game code that could be uploaded into the game. they had two different versions. payed and free. payed content allowed for implementing the ability to get crafting materials in the game (and trust me it was never easy even in the UGC to get that stuff) and common drops that were just as easy to get in the actual game. Free uploads were literally nothing but story lines with no xp and no rewards.
The only other game That used UGC.........well it was a UGC based game called unique. the unique thing about unique was it was 90% UGC. and the world was........moded and customizable. ie...i didnt like that building there im going to tear it down using my sword until there is nothing left of it and then i will build my own building here. but that didnt mean that it would stay there cause someone else might come destroy mine and build theirs. literally the main city, and the terrain were the only things unique supplied. everything else was player created. and there were some miraculous cities that players built, added their own quests to, got people together to protect it, and it rarely changed....but the possibility was there that it wouldn't be. and if the quest i was on came from a town or city that got destroyed my quest would come up with quest giver died. Unfortunately the guy that kept that game running died and it vanished. i cant even find traces of it anymore.
On a side note for cryptic. Foundry can be a great way to make the company money and provide unlimited new ideas for cryptic to use as well and this is how.
1) implement Cryptic approved quests to have a special chest at the end that requires a zen key to open. the rewards could be a unique fashion item or maybe a special leveling item that are bound to account. this allows players the option to spend zen on something that not everyone in the game would have.....even if it is only for looks.
2) cryptic would need to pay attention. if a CAQ (cryptic approved quest) has 10k plays with a 95% or higher approval rating, i would be looking at it as a company and seeing if we could use it in the game. If it is something that would be in the game then maybe have a foundry reward system. zen to the creator for gratuity rights since they developed it and your using it. this is just an idea but something that i would pay attention to.
http://www.arcgames.com/en/forums/neverwinter#/discussion/1225889/foundry-campaign
Personally, I believe the reason the foundry is disabled is simple economics. There is NO PROFIT to be had from the foundry system.
That being said, is there anything to be done about that? How about making purchasable foundry upgrades for the Zen store, and others that can only be purchased with CASH?
My mother ran a game server farm hosting the original NWN. Her game community spent real money to support that farm, even bought her multiple copies of software to upgrade the game, money for parts to upgrade servers and so on. If people love a thing enough, they will open their purses. (One of her group worked overtime for a month to donate a machine to run her housing feature.)
A system could be put in place to support content producers with in game currency, and for content players to gain that currency,
with unique cosmetic awards for content producers to reward their players. Banjo's Cloak of Many Colors, anyone? And of course there would be a mechanic to convert a portion of your paycheck to foundry support currency/foundry improvements...perhaps even a way to "go fund me" development efforts?
One of my favorite things to do sometimes is to just sit around in a crowded area and inspect folks outfits. What if a system was in place to randomly drop a MOBs custom look equipment as a free appearance upgrade? I know a good number of people that would merrily run an hour long crawl to gain a fancier look for their boots or belt.
Of course, if the foundry is dead and gone, this is moot.
(Un)Academic Field Work Foundry Campaign: NWS-DAPZB2CTZ
My Art Site: www.dam3d.com
I was extremely disappointed to read upon my return a few months ago that the AD gains had been removed from the Foundry, and then subsequently the Foundry itself had been decommission for a period of time. I had a few guild-mates play through one of my Foundry Quest that I had to go back to republish since all of my quests for some reason became unpublished upon my return; however, only one of the several quests would republish, the remaining quests continue and persistently give me publish errors and WILL NOT publish. Moreover, I was filled with excitement to see what new tools and content was introduced into the Foundry after my long stay away, only to find that not only was there no new content, but there is no content whatsoever. I cannot create maps, characters, items, nothing. All of the assets are gone. I thought initially there was something wrong with my particular version of the game, but after research, I discovered that Cryptic removed the assets.
I don't understand why Cryptic would completely abandon the Foundry. There were a great deal of people who were loyal to the Foundry, and I remember once I had published a quest I had to market the playtime for that quest by posting the information on the forum sites that people would frequent to look for new quests. I miss that aspect of Neverwinter sorely, and simply don't understand why the Foundry has been stripped apart and abandoned.
I would like to suggest the following to improve and reinvigorate interest into the Foundry, and please take into consideration that but for the success on the PC platform Neverwinter wouldn't exist on either console. Just because the Foundry tools are limited or otherwise incompatible with consoles, doesn't mean that the PC users have to suffer:
1. Restart the Foundry tools again and incorporate the new content from the recent mods since your abandonment of the Foundry and the content updates.
2. Remove and require players to republish their quests for those accounts that have been stagnant or have not been logged into for an extended period of time +6 months, unless of course that Foundry quest has been adopted as a Feature. This way people who have long since abandoned the Foundry and the game itself will not have quests published that may be bugged, cannot be played, clog up the database and the servers.
3. Reintroduce Astral Diamonds ("AD") daily reward with Foundry quest playthroughs so players who predominantly play solo have a means to gain AD without having to wait each week to perform weekly quests, and this will provide more variety as a whole. Increase the daily from the former 4 or 5 quests to 10 quests (double it to require more playthroughs, which will inherently create more interest).
4. Restructure the "Feature" to be used for Foundry Quests as eligible for AD, rather than for specific placement within the "Feature" tab. Reduce and or adjust restrictions for application for "Feature" to select those quests that are more substantive or have substance to them, and this will at least allow you to vet out what quests would be used for AD farming; i.e. a certain amount of NPC talking interaction to promote a storyline, a minimum amount of time for playthrough, a certain amount of maps for playthrough, or to simplify the selection, maps that are maxed out in assets. Alternatively, to reduce the amount of resources of Cryptic to monitor or vet out eligible quests as Features, what if we left it to the Players, and let them decide after they play through if the quest should be a feature as an option to select when reviewing the quest. Each week, the quests with the highest count of player votes to make the quest Feature will become Feature moving forward and eligible for AD rewards. All current Features will be automatically adopted Features under the new system [let me mention, I have no stake in this suggestion, as I never applied for Feature under the current system]
5. Charge for additional slots for quests and or campaigns as an additional resource for real money to help fund the continuing support of the Foundry. I would even go so far as to suggest that you offer a Zen store upgrade that a player can pay for in order to offer a chance for better rewards at the end of their quests, while requiring those quests to have certain time minimums to avoid publication of short quests simply for improved loot. Create a sliding scale for that purpose to increase the quality of the loot (i.e. levels of purchasable upgrades on Zen market for better loot, or chance for better loot even).
6. Update the available mobs for more difficult combat and to support party play, more specifically, higher level boss mobs. Update the maps to include newer content. Update the design same.
7. Enhance the Catalogue to make it easier to locate quests from authors, and refine searches, and or reorganize tabs to make it easier to find quests - perhaps even based on the amount of reviews the quest has received.
Cryptic, I rarely involve myself in crying out for something on the forum for the game, but I take exception in this case because the Foundry is/was awesome... people live to create, but other people want to be rewarded for participating in another's creation. In this game, that requires the ability to earn AD. No one cares about achievements in a game built around economy.
While I wholly understand removing AD from actions that can either be exploited through bots, or exploited by players creating 50 characters to benefit from farming AD through invocation and professions, there is simply little if any logic with removing AD as a daily reward from the Foundry, not at least any logic that I can discern. AD is was what made the Foundry relevant within the greater part of the community, because every author wants his/her audience, and to keep Foundry relevant and make it worth its upkeep as developers you have you maintain the incentives for the medium. In this case, and I reiterate, that is AD for playthroughs.
Whether you feel that my suggestions above lack merit or make sense what is important to me, and the many people who were and would like to again be avid Foundry supporters, is that you please reconsider the state that you have left the Foundry, Cryptic. Breathe life back into the single most unique aspect of your game that set it apart from every other MMO, the Foundry.
Please. Thank you for your consideration and review.
it was suppose be timed for 30 mins or longer when it is qualified for ADs, and those made it exploitable, that reason why devs had to shut it down.
it is on backburner for them so thay can redo foundery later and unexploitable.
Guild Leader - Valindra's Demise
i did same for NWN1 and 2, but i have problems with scriptings, i can create landscape and place the creatures, coding with doors and portals for exit-enter no problem.
it was scriptings and dialogs for npcs.
Foundery lack way too much and limited resources, not enough to work with.
Another thought not just for foundry, but for the whole game is mimic chests. Instead of set mimic encounters, make the chests random throughout dungeons, not only in placement but if it even is a mimic or not. Then up the chest contents. Maybe even expand on the mimic concept by spawning random mobs on top of random chest/mimic scenarios in both. the chest in paper Dungeon's and Dragons is a huge part of the Fantasy thirst. "What's in the box?" A few random mimics and chests each with possible encounters in any game content, and for foundry an actual boss and final chest award in line with any other boss fight, or based on the boss selected. STILL allow EVEN the bosses to be skinned. It would be even far more fun to allow from a list of selectable boss skills of a given quantity to creat true originals for our own quest lists. It also needs a way to share in the creation process collaboratively with other players. I also noticed the list of assets needs work. Make interactable lighting objects, add mini boss cut scene options, add a micro 3d preview window(low prerender) as well as an iso view editor. I could go on, but those are major things already. Of all things, the boss and the chest awards. Do that, and you'll have hardcore designers on foundry 24 hrs a day working on really killer content. All said, the Foundry editor is ar eally nice feature. Honestly, I've been sad it wasn't ever built into the tool it so easily could be for this game. Endless player created dungeons.. "new content" all day.. every day.. any day... so .. sad.
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
From the improvements - the ability to disable the auto-balance mobs in the instance, namely, add the ability to make them a few lvls higher than the player who entered the instance. Up to 73, or 74, which is now the most severe. And in accordance with these lvls, the complexity of the passage increases, and the higher the complexity, the higher the reward. + The possibility of drop of the pet and unique armor from the enhanced versions of the instances. Set the minimum passage time. Not to farm.
Enter the dependence of the difficulty of the instance on the number of players inside - an example - the fight of Kabal. When 3+ players inside the mob are stronger, more damage. When entering into 5 people and passing the instance, give out awards as for t1 dungeon, or slightly less valuable.
I once had a Foundry idea that the character come out a cave and came cross a ancient small village. With "teleporting" to the site, "teleporting" to the inner-cave and "teleporting" out-the-cave to the ancient village... I run out of "teleporting" allowance to enter each hut(s) of the village....that's a bummer!!
For example, in-game, most players are going to "5-Star" the easy, quick, high-reward quests. However, the community of content-creators will be far more harsh, and more selective. So what if the featured campaigns and a weekly/monthly "Foundry Quest Not To Miss" were voted on here on The Foundry forums? Not replacing the current in-game "rate and review," just as a more refined curation of the content for a select few Foundry Quests that truly stand out.
The creator who wins such votes could earn some in-game AD or maybe even a little Zen, or a new title, or something. But it would drive more "quality" than just asking the average players to vote (who really just want more rewards faster, and who drove The Foundry into the exploits in the first place).
You'd be asking artists, who have done UGC and actually care, to give props to the other artists who do it well. Thus encouraging the people who take it seriously to keep doing what they do, and discouraging the exploiters. Without really being entirely unfair to all types of creators, since the in-game votes would still matter - there would just be an added "Connoisseur Pick of The Week/Month."
[Work in Progress]
"The Legacy of Shaylia,"
NW-DITFP6QSI