[UGC] "The Dweomerkeepers" Campaign - Feedback

zebular · February 2013

Please see the new Feedback Thread or Wiki Page

Old Update wrote:

. . . . . This is now being imported into the Official Wiki. Right now, the associated wiki pages are all still in preliminary layout setting up. I should have all the pages updated sometime this next week (week of April 28th).

Original Post wrote:

Howdy,

You may be seeing three (or more - TBD) missions nestled under the Dweomerkeepers Campaign. These are my missions I have created during my Foundry Testing for your enjoyment and testing pleasures. Please know, these are only the first of a series of planned 8 missions in that Campaign.

They are authored by @zebular
(note,my @handle used to be @Captain Zebular - I have since had it synced with my forum username, so it is now just @zebular)

Dweomerkeepers Campaign

A Discovery in Neverwinter Wood, Act I

Off The High Road, Act II

Dweomerkeep Temple, Act III

A Weave in Time, Act IV (TBD)

Dweomerkeep Library, Act V (TBD)

<unrevieled>, Act VI (TBD)

<unrevieled>, Act VII (TBD)

<unrevieled>, Act VIII (TBD)

These are LORE missions, meaning they will be and are meant to be lore-heavy. The first mission is meant as a simple introduction into the story-line and should be complete-able within 15 minutes, or less. Be aware, the invisible walls blocking players from leaving the forest are not working properly, so please stay on or near the path. The Statue is completely optional and just there for lore and flavour.

The second mission should take a tad longer but should not be too challenging until the Boss battle in the Cave and maybe a spawned battle on the, "On the High Road Again" map. So, take some potions with you!

The third mission should take significantly longer than the previous two and has a few spawn-able (but bypass-able) encounters that may prove challenging. There is at least one secret way to get past what seems like an un-bypass-able encounter on the last map in the Catacombs but the final Boss should be quite challenging.

Also, please know that we do not have the ability to place use-able campfires at this time, so take some portable altars with you!

Lastly, if an encounter is not listed on the Objectives, there might be a way to bypass it!

Thank you for playing my Missions, I hope you enjoy them and please leave me feedback here or at least in the feedback comments in game.

Most importantly, HAVE FUN!

In-game Mission Description wrote:

The Dweomerkeepers, Act I

Millan, a Cleric of Lurue in Protector's Enclave, is calling for adventurers to investigate the rumors of an old Mystrallan building discovered a day's journey into Neverwinter Wood.

- - - - - - - - - -
Version 1.3.2b
Language: EN-US
Mission Type: Campaign Mission, Lore, Retrieve
Maps: 2 + Protector's Enclave
Amount of Combat: Medium
NOTES: Acts 2 & 3 were taken down to completely overhaul them as well prior to releasing later Acts of the Campaign. This first mission has seen major overhauls and many adjustments since version 1.0b, enjoy!

For Updates & More Info, please see the official feedback thread for this Campaign at:
http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?42461
Short url:
http://goo.gl/HhznI

shaudius · February 2013

Very cool, I'll be sure to check them out when I'm done patching.

zentrasi · February 2013

Ha. That was the first mission I even did, the Discovery in the wood one. I ignored the main quests and went straight to Foundry. Got a really nice chest piece out of it that I'm still using at lvl 6 so far.

Really well written stuff, lots of dialogue if you go hunting for it. Thumbs up.

I did only give it 4 stars

Just because it seemed so short.. but now I realize it's part of a campaign so that isn't really an issue. Also I've now played through a couple of main quests and they don't seem any lengthier.

zentrasi · February 2013

Finished 'High Road'. Again, great writing.

The outdoor map looked a little 'sparse'?.. just a road with a tree and then a cave.

But I haven't seen much outside of the city so that may be a constraint of the engine.

Only thing I thought was odd was the first quest when you get ambushed by a Drowe. The first thing I saw was a spider and was like 'huh?' that aint no... OOOOHH you mean that guy! Maybe just remove the spiders?

Ogre fight took me 10 heal pots to get through, but I'm playing a fighter on my own so that's expected I guess.

Reward: +1 Smiting Defender's Greaves (green item).. Heck yeah!!

morhilane · February 2013

I've seen those, but I haven't tried it yet. I got a question though, can we do Foundry mission at any level? I haven't seen any level indication for those.

juggsernaught · February 2013

Did the first 2 quests tonight, quite enjoyable. I somehow managed to click the abort crystal in the house on the first one before clicking on the book and ended up having to start over due to not paying attention...

The 2nd quest, the outdoor area is pretty... bland and incredibly bright. Not sure if this is due to limitations of Foundry or other issues but would be nice if it was more developed and blended together so there wasnt a big rock cave thing in the middle of a giant plane and the city walls dont look like they end abruptly on the giant flat plane.

Otherwise great work. Did get stuck under ground in the ogre cave, had to jump towards the exit to get out.

zentrasi · February 2013

Last quest is great. Indoor area is really well done with some interesting mechanics. Makes me really excited to see what we can do as authors.

tinbender02 · February 2013

Have palyed the first two quests so far and I must say it gives me hope for this game. Your dialogue and setup was better then half the Dev quests I've done so far. Only one thing suprised me and it the Devs fault. A drow came through the wall.

andysdead1 · February 2013

I enjoyed it, but during the High Road quest, I first got stuck in the ground upon entering the ogre cave and then once finished with the cave it would not let me leave (pushing F on the exit had no effect). I had to contact support to get my character teleported.

zebular · February 2013

zentrasi wrote: »

Ha. That was the first mission I even did..

zentrasi wrote: »

Finished 'High Road'. Again, great writing.

The outdoor map looked a little 'sparse'?.. just a road with a tree and then a cave.

But I haven't seen much outside of the city so that may be a constraint of the engine.

Only thing I thought was odd was the first quest when you get ambushed by a Drowe. The first thing I saw was a spider and was like 'huh?' that aint no... OOOOHH you mean that guy! Maybe just remove the spiders?

Ogre fight took me 10 heal pots to get through, but I'm playing a fighter on my own so that's expected I guess.

Reward: +1 Smiting Defender's Greaves (green item).. Heck yeah!!

Thank you! I am glad you enjoyed them! Yeah, I meant for the High Road to be a bit sparse as from what I have read, that part of the road is pretty barren and flat. However, I do agree that it needs some extra work to make it "fit" better. Yeah, the spiders are meant to be a distraction from the ambush so it catches you off guard. Did it work?

juggsernaught wrote: »

Did the first 2 quests tonight, quite enjoyable. I somehow managed to click the abort crystal in the house on the first one before clicking on the book and ended up having to start over due to not paying attention...

The 2nd quest, the outdoor area is pretty... bland and incredibly bright. Not sure if this is due to limitations of Foundry or other issues but would be nice if it was more developed and blended together so there wasnt a big rock cave thing in the middle of a giant plane and the city walls dont look like they end abruptly on the giant flat plane.

Otherwise great work. Did get stuck under ground in the ogre cave, had to jump towards the exit to get out.

Oh man, I am so sorry! I tried really hard to make it so those abort crystals would be blocked until the books/pedestals/scrolls are read. However, I did have a heck of a time blocking off that one in the Inn so it looks like I need to go through it and touch it up some more! Thanks!

The ogre cave floor should be fixed in version 1.0b of the map. Unfortunately, my last updates haven't yet propegated to the Beta server and it looks like it pulled a version from some time back. This might explain why they are still being displayed as being authored by @Captain Zebular and not my new @zebular handle that I just changed last night. Please keep an eye out for any versions of those missions with a "B" in their numbers, as this will donate it has been updated specifically for the Betas.

Yeah, that is not at all how I wanted to represent the ogre's cave. I actually wanted it to be more of a burrow and a hole in ground but I was unable to find any good way to make it fit seamlessly into the ground. I plan on changing the entrance to the cave drastically when I am able to, to make it fit better and not be out of place.

morhilane wrote: »

I've seen those, but I haven't tried it yet. I got a question though, can we do Foundry mission at any level? I haven't seen any level indication for those.

Yes, foundry missions should scale to your level. However, you won't be able to start doing them until you've finished the tutorial mission.

zentrasi wrote: »

Last quest is great. Indoor area is really well done with some interesting mechanics. Makes me really excited to see what we can do as authors.

Thank you!

tinbender02 wrote: »

Have palyed the first two quests so far and I must say it gives me hope for this game. Your dialogue and setup was better then half the Dev quests I've done so far. Only one thing suprised me and it the Devs fault. A drow came through the wall.

Thank you! Do you remember which mission this was in? Was it in the first one or the third one? This is a bug but it is one that I can overcome if I can locate which Mob is doing this by re-positioning their spawn locations.

andysdead1 wrote: »

I enjoyed it, but during the High Road quest, I first got stuck in the ground upon entering the ogre cave and then once finished with the cave it would not let me leave (pushing F on the exit had no effect). I had to contact support to get my character teleported.

I'm so sorry for this, this should be fixed however in any version of the mission that has a "b" in its numbers. The "b" will denote that it has been updated specifically for beta. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like my latest updates have propagated to the beta server as it is showing me in game old version numbers from a while back.

I'd also like to note a clarification in some lore I wrote for Xinlenial - I had written that Ioulaum was the creator of the Ioun Stones, this is incorrect, it was Congenio Ioun that had invented the Ioun Stones - I am not sure how I managed to fubar that up as that is something that I have known for many years.

Also, for my records, Cymathetra has a typo in her 2nd dialog in which she states "suprised" this is missing an "r" and should be "surprised." This should be fixed in a future update.

Also, I see I failed to add a bit of ending dialog that tied in the "how she knew you" bit in the 3rd mission, which will become clear to those who played it. In the end of the 2nd mission, Millan is supposed to suggest that she had mentioned to him that she intended the reward for an adventurer who would come seeking her aid and he is supposed to suggest something mysterious that gets answered in the end of the 3rd mission.

Last note, it was asked if my missions' lore is actual canon lore or if it is homebrew. All the actual tidbits of lore are actual canon lore. What is my own devising is the story of a small group of Dweomerkeepers that never stopped worshiping the Goddess of Magic from her original teachings as the Goddess Mystryl, the original Goddess of Magic and Time. The Dweomerkeepers are truly canon and were Specialty Priests of Mystryl from the Arcane Age, so while the lore is true it is this single story of a small group of them that remained through out the millenia that is my own creation. Cymathetra Lyrstalk is also my own creation and in actual canon lore she does not exist and is not related to Amlaruil Moonflower at all. However, she is an NPC in my PnP Campaign that is, but of my own devising.

Once again, thank you all for this great feedback and I hope you all enjoyed them and will enjoy the future versions and later missions yet to come!

zebular · February 2013

Also, I've gotten word that in the third mission, some of the autmatic closing of gates is inadvertently separating players in a party, forcing them to have to abandon the mission and re-do it. I will try and find a way to make it so this doesn't happen while still giving the feeling of "no going back now."

I apologize to anyone who has been affected by this. It is on my top priority list to get fixed. I just hope they propagate foundry updates to the beta servers during the beta weekends.

valance74 · February 2013

Played the first part Zeb, its fun. Building was a little dark and the outdoor sorta looked a tad dated, but over all its fun.

askopdkapok · February 2013

I cleared the area and tried every option of interacting with the statue and nada. Interacting with the door when on the "Enter the building" objective did not work. I ran back to the exit and that wasn't working either. I then abandoned the quest thinking it would teleport me out and it didn't.

I then tied submitted a GM ticket under "stuck" and got an error that it "couldn't connect". I then selected the option to "Defeat Me" thinking that would spawn me outside of the dungeon at my closest campfire but I revived inside the dungeon.

Arg.....

Anyone else run into this? Kinda surprised since the content had 4 star rating.

Edit. Ok didn't think to try logging out.. So I did and now I'm at the city gate. whew.

blizzid · February 2013

happened to me first run as well, and was mad, but then i dropped it and did it again and really enjoyed it, did all 3 acts and thought it was better then a lot of the dev content :P

mrfoxx · February 2013

blizzid wrote: »

happened to me first run as well, and was mad, but then i dropped it and did it again and really enjoyed it, did all 3 acts and thought it was better then a lot of the dev content :P

Was expecting that, sort of like elderscrolls, the content that comes from the hardcore fans has always been superior to the dlc the devs try to charge for.

zebular · February 2013

valance74 wrote: »

Played the first part Zeb, its fun. Building was a little dark and the outdoor sorta looked a tad dated, but over all its fun.

Yeah, unfortunately this version is an older version that is calling for a lighting setting that no longer exists, so a few of the maps in the campaign have some very odd lighting choices that are not meant to be that way. Thanks for the feedback and playing!

princesslune · February 2013

so i learned something important today while doing UC "Halls of Justice" which i recommend doing only with a party since it's impossible otherwise. I was unable to proceed due to the sheer number of mobs I was expected to fight, so i abandoned the quest, which DID NOT exit me from the mission map. After waiting for a GM (who never came) I tried exiting and restarting the game. What I discovered was that during login, I was presented with a dialogue that asked me if i wanted to attempt "normal login" or "safe ogin" as the game was unable to port me back into the mission map, which is the only way i was able to actually get out of the UC map. So if you get stuck, try exiting, waiting a minute, then restarting the client and when you login you might get lucky and get this dialogue.

chaddiwicker · February 2013

princesslune wrote: »

so i learned something important today while doing UC "Halls of Justice" which i recommend doing only with a party since it's impossible otherwise. I was unable to proceed due to the sheer number of mobs I was expected to fight, so i abandoned the quest, which DID NOT exit me from the mission map. After waiting for a GM (who never came) I tried exiting and restarting the game. What I discovered was that during login, I was presented with a dialogue that asked me if i wanted to attempt "normal login" or "safe ogin" as the game was unable to port me back into the mission map, which is the only way i was able to actually get out of the UC map. So if you get stuck, try exiting, waiting a minute, then restarting the client and when you login you might get lucky and get this dialogue.

I had the same problem with the "Halls of Justice" foundry quest. Ridiculous level of mobs with no way to exit. Filed a gm request. First time I logged out and back in, still in the "Halls of Justice". Exited game completely, ate dinner, then logged back in. Don't know if the gm did anything or if it was the exit, but I was back in the main game. Steer clear of "Halls of Justice".

I want to do all the foundry missions before the end of the weekend. Haven't done Neverwinter Woods yet. Looking forward to it.

izatar · February 2013

All you need to do is abandon the quest and it should let you leave.

blizzid · February 2013

yeah didnt care for the hall of justice one, but i did get to at least see mindflayers up close :P

chaddiwicker · February 2013

izatar wrote: »

All you need to do is abandon the quest and it should let you leave.

Forgot to mention that I tried that and it didn't work.

mastrshadow · February 2013

In Neverwinter Woods Captain Zebular always has a Harper (sp?) item that you can use to exit. All you have to do is walk over to it and F it.

zebular · February 2013

This is the first report I have heard of the "Enter the Building" objective not working. I do not know what to say other than it had to have been either user error or a game bug. I would bet it was the latter. I am sorry you had troubles with it. I ran the missions again last night and had no problems, except for noticing that the Foundry is using an old back-up of my published missions and are not showing my latest 1.0b (b for beta) versions. I am still seeing my Alpha version numbers of the missions.

I'm merging this into my feedback thread for the Campaign.

vikingh3art · February 2013

This series is really fantastic and sealed the deal for me in regards to financially supporting Neverwinter. My enthusiasm after running your Foundry missions got a buddy of mine interested. We ran them today and just had a blast. Now a third friend is buying Neverwinter. Cryptic really couldn't have asked for a better way to sell this game. You really ought to be compensated. :P Great job and look forward to future content.

zebular · February 2013

mastrshadow wrote: »

In Neverwinter Woods Captain Zebular always has a Harper (sp?) item that you can use to exit. All you have to do is walk over to it and F it.

Indeed! In every map in the Dweomerkeepers Campaign, real close to the beginning where you start each map, should be located either an alcove, building, or room where there is a some sort of Harper marking (scroll, pedestal, book) that you must first read in order to be able to access the "Abandon Crystals" that I use for the emergency "Abort Mission" items that we have to place in our maps. I have it set up this way so players must actually read a DM dialog of what will happen if they use it, for it was far too easy to accidentally use them and leave the mission.

If you do leave any foundry mission prematurely, you will need to go into your journal and abandon it and then pick it back up from the Foundry menu in order to start it again. It is like this for all UGC.

zebular · February 2013

vikingh3art wrote: »

This series is really fantastic and sealed the deal for me in regards to financially supporting Neverwinter. My enthusiasm after running your Foundry missions got a buddy of mine interested. We ran them today and just had a blast. Now a third friend is buying Neverwinter. Cryptic really couldn't have asked for a better way to sell this game. You really ought to be compensated. :P Great job and look forward to future content.

Thank you very much! I am very glad you enjoyed it. Hopefully by March, I'll have at least one or two more ready for you all again!

pilf3r · February 2013

Looking forward to trying your campaign out when the server comes back online Zeb.

providentt · February 2013

Zeb, your campaign is so far the best piece of content in Neverwinter as far as I'm concerned. You need a job on the quest design team. If content of that caliber continues to be released on the Foundry, it's likely I'll do barely anything but UGC.

I especially loved the subtle lore-based foreshadowing. Brilliant.

Looking forward to your next installments.

zebular · February 2013

Thanks everyone! Also, thanks very much for all the Astral Diamond donations! These will help me level up my companions faster as I don't have a Founder's pack.

I've been paying attention to the in-game feedback too. Yes, I agree that the traps in the 3rd mission can be a bit obtrusive. They were supposed to be disarm-able but I am hearing reports that some of them are not able to be reached. I will give this another pass (I already did some updates that haven't made it to the beta server yet) between the end of this weekend's beta and March's weekend and try to make them how I intended.

My intention on the traps in the 3rd mission is to help you die if you try to zerg the mission yet be interactive for those who like to find a way around or disarm them.

Known Issue:
There is a game-bug right now with Companion Pathfinding that also makes these traps a bit annoying because the companions like to get stuck on them or just won't go by or through them. Unsummoning and Resummoning your Companions is the only way to remedy this at this time.

Also, keep in mind that almost every monster in my missions that is not a part of an objective MIGHT have a way to avoid combat with them completely. If it's not an objective, it's probably optional! I'll leave the how up to you to figure out!

Since my foundry updates aren't being propagated to the beta servers for this weekend, I won't be spending any more time updating them the rest of this weekend. Instead, I'm going get some actual Game Beta Testing in. I'll work on more updates in the interim.

psuedomonas · February 2013

Just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed your Foundry Campaign Zeb.
It really had a good old fashioned DnD feel to it. Had a few small pathing issues with my companion, but easily solved with a quick dismiss/Resummon!

Cannot wait to play the entire series once you complete it. Best foundry series for me. And really does show to me, that the foundry is one of the best features of the Neverwinter package! Thanks for entertaining me and even taking me back to my Pen and Paper days when I would dream of playing my character on a computer

zebular · February 2013

psuedomonas wrote: »

Just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed your Foundry Campaign Zeb.
It really had a good old fashioned DnD feel to it. Had a few small pathing issues with my companion, but easily solved with a quick dismiss/Resummon!
Cannot wait to play the entire series once you complete it. Best foundry series for me. And really does show to me, that the foundry is one of the best features of the Neverwinter package! Thanks for entertaining me and even taking me back to my Pen and Paper days when I would dream of playing my character on a computer

Thank you! I am glad you enjoyed them.

I am moving this to my feedback thread on my Campaign, feel free to leave me additional feedback and bug reports if you have them!

Check out some of my replies here also. They may answer some of your concerns and thoughts too.

[UGC] "The Dweomerkeepers" Campaign - Feedback

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