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Things I Learned the Hard Way
wininoid
Member Posts: 534 Arc User
I've made a few mistakes in my time, and I'm sure you have too. Lets share so everyone can learn from our mistakes.
Don't stack encounters!
When testing with the level 1 or 10 character, your quest is too easy, so you put a few encounters in one room. But you don't realize that encounters don't scale linearly with level. When you play it at level 30, what was just right becomes so hard it isn't fun. At level 60 it is unplayable. Or it goes from being a solo mission to being a group dungeon. If you want a solo mission, make sure players will only agro one group at a time. And do a mix of easy and standard encounters for most of it. Use hard encounters for the "boss" fights.
Write your dialog in an external program!
I use Google Docs. It has a spell checker. Write it there, then cut-n-paste it in. Kind of tedious, but better than getting dinged for spelling errors. Or having to redo conversations when you change your story or put the conversation on the NPC instead of in the Story Board. Also, you can later go back and review your dialog without having that quest open. And you can search the dialog.
Quests are shorter than you think!
If you think it will be a 30 min quest, it will likely be 15 min. Well, that depends on a lot, but expect your average play time to be shorter than you think it will be. Especially if you are making a quest that is good for people to run as a daily. Low level characters will breeze through fast. Players who have done it a bunch of times will know the shortcuts. Do yourself a favor and make it long enough so that once it gets plays, it will still be over the 15 min mark. That will likely get you more plays in the long run.
That's all I can think of right now. Anyone else have any lessons learned?
Don't stack encounters!
When testing with the level 1 or 10 character, your quest is too easy, so you put a few encounters in one room. But you don't realize that encounters don't scale linearly with level. When you play it at level 30, what was just right becomes so hard it isn't fun. At level 60 it is unplayable. Or it goes from being a solo mission to being a group dungeon. If you want a solo mission, make sure players will only agro one group at a time. And do a mix of easy and standard encounters for most of it. Use hard encounters for the "boss" fights.
Write your dialog in an external program!
I use Google Docs. It has a spell checker. Write it there, then cut-n-paste it in. Kind of tedious, but better than getting dinged for spelling errors. Or having to redo conversations when you change your story or put the conversation on the NPC instead of in the Story Board. Also, you can later go back and review your dialog without having that quest open. And you can search the dialog.
Quests are shorter than you think!
If you think it will be a 30 min quest, it will likely be 15 min. Well, that depends on a lot, but expect your average play time to be shorter than you think it will be. Especially if you are making a quest that is good for people to run as a daily. Low level characters will breeze through fast. Players who have done it a bunch of times will know the shortcuts. Do yourself a favor and make it long enough so that once it gets plays, it will still be over the 15 min mark. That will likely get you more plays in the long run.
That's all I can think of right now. Anyone else have any lessons learned?
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If a cirtain objects requires an inventory item, have a temporary object in your scene that gives it to you.
That way you wont have to "do the whole quest" to test the endgame.
Also place temporary stairs or ramps, these help you get through obstacles faster. I use these alot as i tend to enjoy making complex outdoor environments. Making and using your own "developer scaffolding" or teleporters is really usefull
Always remember to delete temporary objects before you publish though!
Note: these will be unnessesary if Cryptic adds flymode and "Give Inventory Item" commands
my Quests and Campaigns!
LINK
Please review my latest Quest:
Name Save the Princess
ShortCode NW-DBA7YIURL
Author Sabotender
Patrols are nice, because if a player just runs through, they risk getting in over their head--as it should be. But if they are careful, they'll be able to spread out the fights.
And as a caveat to your tip regarding aggro range, be sure to think about how players will move during a fight. If they are dodging one encounter, are they likely to activate another encounter? The two should have an appropriate amount of distance between them.
Also, to people who were planning on making a huge explorable map with nooks and crannies to hide thievery backpacks or dungeoneering thingies, you're gonna have a bad time. You can't make them lootable, so all that work you did to make a huge map with said nooks is wasted. I should've have seen that coming.
Also in relation to the above, if you do make a huge detailed map you will quickly hit the 1500 item limit. If you want a lot of detail and background scenery etc best start small.
WIP
God I want flying.
NW-DGXUGRSN6
Setting the Y-value on NPCs and encounter creatures doesn't actually change their Y position unless they have something to stand on. Otherwise they'll just fall to the ground.
If you have patrolling encounters, all mobs in the encounter will patrol in the same direction and will get stuck on even the slightest impediment. Make sure you observe the entire patrol path to check that your wandering forest spiders don't get stuck on a tiny tree root. :P
Chapter 1 - The Ruins of Webcrag --- Chapter 2 - Don't get your hopes up. Bored of the game.
Regarding XYZ: Y is vertical placement. That confused me, since Z is usually your 3rd dimension/height axis.
Turn off Snap to Grid and Angle before you duplicate a map/item/etc.
If you have snap on, your x,y,z, and angle values may/will get rounded off and you'll be very frustrated trying to tweak it all back to how it should be.
In what context is that? I've never seen anything other than X (Width), Y (Height), Z (Depth) being used for anything (Game Editors, Modeling Programs, Mathematics).
And here's a lesson learned: Copying objects will reset their height values, use duplicate instead. (I might have missed something, but this has been causing me a lot of headache when detailing areas)
I perhaps worded it incorrectly. By "height" I meant vertical/3-dimensional height. I have always seen the z-axis used as perpendicular to the flat plane/ground. (Including in math and modeling applications). But, I also know that there is some ambiguity in the usage.
Regardless, in this game/Foundry, Y is perpendicular to the ground. Or, more simply, it controls height/altitude.
Also, another Thing I Learned: Don't go above 900 on the height (Y), things get buggy beyond that.
Shortcode: NW-DM417VRJK
Combat orientated Mission, with a little bit of story to move you along.
If your mouse freezes, hit ctrl-s it will save and free up your mouse.
This has been happening a lot to me, recently. It seems to happen if I drag something from the right toolbar onto the map too quickly. Frustrating
WIP
Example: set your Y axis value, set your "appears" and "disappears" triggers, set your costume, and if you use it: set the custom group and encounter names - everything. *THEN* hit the duplicate button. All those setting will be duplicated at once. Rather than placing, duplicating what you need repositioning THEN going it to set the settings. On. Each. One. Ugh.
Build from the ground-up. get your map set and dressed with all your props. THEN do all your interactive objects and NPCs. Save encounters for last or you'll have to deal with them (even the CTRL=SPACE insta-kill) Every. Single. Time. you have to go into 3D mode. This makes it easy since you'll be jumping into your map often at these intervals to check-up on things and not have to deal with encounters around every corner you turn.
When placing encounters - start at end-quest area first and get that timing and balancing all set then work backwards from there. Same convenience as above - you don't have to deal with every. single. one, every. single. time. And each time you go in, it's a shorter trip to the encounter group you want to verify and test, knowing the ones further in are already set-up the way you want.
I've found Alt-F4 (yeah, I know, but trust me) works as well. It pops up a dialogue box asking if you want to quit with save, quit without save, or cancel. If you hit cancel, it frees the mouse and you go back to where you were. Not sure if ctrl-s gives you the options, but alt-F4 may be useful if you're working on something you don't want to save yet.
"No Prey, No Pay" - NW-DG2XDJH84
DANKE for the bump!
One of mine is: Name your encounters! There is nothing worse on a big map than not having an encounter named and having to scroll in and out, drag the map about to find it. Players never see the actual encounter name so it can be as specific as "gate guard" or "final boss" and it doesn't create a spoiler for anyone but your sanity.
Use broken language! I can't tell you the number of times I've seen an author write glowing dialog that jumps off the page, out of the screen, etc that screams "I use a dictionary and thesaurus too much"! If X is the right word don't go looking for a better word that means the same thing, say X. Make sure your OOC, and other non-dialog is spelled right and has proper grammar but sit and listen to people talk in a park before you write the actual dialog. No one talks in proper grammar, and it's not a "now a days" issue. They never have, the slang just changes. One of my favorite settings is the Battletech setting, and in it one of the primary aggressors in the later years of the setting are a group that use specific dialog techniques (proper grammar and never using contractions), it made the reader immediately identify them for it! Come up with slang, and mannerisms for your characters and use those in the dialog.
Name your NPCs when you can! Commoner 14 is very jarring to immersion in a heavy lore story. I go so far as to name all the monsters in an encounter (yes, I'm ocd like that). Naming the NPCs and giving them at least chatter if not full dialog fleshes the world out a bit. As Zovya said, players are like sand in your bathing suit, they get EVERYWHERE and touch EVERYTHING, the more things that are fully fleshed out the more alive the world becomes for them. Nothing breaks the fourth wall faster than a player getting lost and none of the NPCs can even be spoken with.
Last but not least: Think of WHY! Why is this hallway there, why is this monster guarding it, why is the player where they are... You must ask yourself why on all of this if you want your quest to feel alive within the game. When you send the player to collect the relics, why are there undead all around the relics? That dungeon, why was it built? What purpose did that room serve before it became a place for you to drop another combat encounter. Just like your story needs a beginning, middle and end so to does everything that touches the story. Where did that monster start, why did it come here, will it fight to the death or try to flee/surrender? If you don't know the answer to why you can't convey that message to the player and they lose immersion.
By @Stebss
Short Code: NW-DM900IFHK
Well said and very important. People should try to make it so there aren't any loose strings hanging. Unless of course you are trying to write a mystery.
By @Stebss
Short Code: NW-DM900IFHK
That is exactly how I built my current cave to have a close in roof and how I built a pit trap into a different map.
One other thing I thought of while talking to my wife about this post is geometry! Please by all the is holy do not leave everything where the snap to grid and snap to angle puts it! People are not exact creatures, and monsters are less so. Want to see how inexact real life is, grab a level from your work bench and check every doorway in your home. I can all but guarantee at least one of them is off if not from shoddy workmanship than from the fact your home has settled over the years. The world we live in is not exact, making your maps too precise nags at the player sub-consciously that what they see isn't right. A trick I have used is go in and adjust everything 1 to 3 degrees off or simply eyeball it, then later when putting in an illusion make it exact with snap to grid and you now have a built in puzzle clue to it's being an illusion.
You know you can change your avatar to be unable to be targeted when you play test and just walk passed encounters right? (Unless killing them is a quest objective and you're testing quest objectives you should be fine)
I've also been able to just return to foundry, then change something and press play this map again in the Foundry editor and my avatar will be where I left him. (I can use reset map to go back to start)
Fun 15-20 Minute Heavy Combat Quest with a difficulty slider. Hand crafted environments and encounters.
Code: NW-DSVCX8LD4
Thread URL: http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?257391-Protect-the-Caravan
You can also move the spawn point around the map to where you want to begin. So resetting the map puts you at that point. Good for detailing and encounter balancing, but if there were quest objectives earlier on the same map it won't complete them.
Shortcode: NW-DM417VRJK
Combat orientated Mission, with a little bit of story to move you along.