-Protect the Caravan-

nokturnel · May 2013

Just finished up my first foundry quest. It's a quick 15-20 minute heavy combat quest meant to be able to do for dailies. I have a difficulty slider in it so you can adjust the difficulty to your liking.

*Edit*
Version 1.1 is out! Scroll to see patch notes.
Now eligible for daily!

Version 1.2 is out! Patch notes here

Tsumoro did my quest and put a youtube up. Check it out!
Link

Code: NW-DSVCX8LD4

Here's the story.

"Have you ever wondered what your mercenaries do when you send them off to protect a caravan? Well why not join them? Accompany your entourage as you make sure the Caravan makes it to it's destination safe and sound."

It starts off on the road, due to Foundry limitations I couldn't have the Caravan actually move so it stands still but your mercenaries will join you for the first part. Eventually you'll enter a Bandit Cave and kill their leader.

Here's some pix.

Known Issues:
-Pathing on the guards can be very odd, I blame Cryptic.
-NPCs might not be spawning where I intended them to be, I tested it thoroughly in the Foundry, but once published, I've noticed my NPCs move from the location they were supposed to be... oddly enough.
-Lots of limitations due to how little we can do with the Foundry atm.

If ya leave me some feedback, things to add or change. I'll be sure to fix it up. If you want to trade reviews, reply with your map and I'll review yours, but please no quests longer than 35 minutes, I prefer quick Foundry quests to long drawn out ones.

Version 1.1 Patch Notes

-Added idle animations to most encounters
-Color coded the difficulty slider
-Added an optional cave that I created from scratch for those who wish to avoid the Barricade
-Minor Bug Fixes

The Spiders are waiting for you...

neurojam · May 2013

It was a very good quest. The amount of enemy spawn was just right (I played easy mode). The bandits cave and especially the head bandit's area were very good environments. This was one of the most fun quests I've played.

If you could check mine out I'd appreciate it
Ye Old Chuckle Hut
lINK: http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/sho...hlight=chuckle
NW-DQ1PGH6HW

great job on your quest

nokturnel · May 2013

I'll check out yours tonight, stuck playing Smite with some friends atm, but I'll play it right after

Thanks for the feedback

nokturnel · May 2013

neurojam wrote: »

It was a very good quest. The amount of enemy spawn was just right (I played easy mode). The bandits cave and especially the head bandit's area were very good environments. This was one of the most fun quests I've played.

If you could check mine out I'd appreciate it
Ye Old Chuckle Hut
lINK: http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/sho...hlight=chuckle
NW-DQ1PGH6HW

great job on your quest

Posted my review in your thread.

almostcool · May 2013

From the screen shots it looks like you took the time to add some cool details. I'm a sucker for detail. I'll check it out.

Here's mine
Quest Name: The Spellthief Trials
By @Stebss
Short Code:NW-DM900IFHK
Link to thread: http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?238661-The-Spellthief-Trials-Need-reviews-will-Trade-P

nokturnel · May 2013

almostcool wrote: »

From the screen shots it looks like you took the time to add some cool details. I'm a sucker for detail. I'll check it out.

Here's mine
Quest Name: The Spellthief Trials
By @Stebss
Short Code:NW-DM900IFHK
Link to thread: http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?238661-The-Spellthief-Trials-Need-reviews-will-Trade-P

Posted my review in your thread.

almostcool · May 2013

So I have to say this is one of the better foundrys I have done. It was short and sweet, story was simple but effective and not too much reading; straight to the point. Encounters were well placed, costumes were great, and the mobs even had idle animations, something that more foundry authors should do since realistically people don't just stand in place forever waiting for you to attack them. Even adding the pet croc (I think it was a crocodile, might have been an alligator) in between fighting bandits gives it that little bit of variation that is always welcomed. I especially liked the knight/golem encounter, I am actually using the same thing in my next quest.

I am a sucker for environmental details so it made me happy to see another author use them, adding the loot chests, stolen paintings, banners, trash on the floor, such small details, but together make something even more memorable. Although, I am curious about that one hallway with the dirty cloths hanging down and blood on the floor, I was thinking they were maybe showers, but now I don't know haha. Regardless, you gave some thought into how a mercenary cave would operate and I appreciate it as a player.

The only thing I wanted to point out is very minor but when you are freeing the scout the cage he's in says "Torture device - Cage 04." Not a big deal but may want to change it.

Overall pretty great. 5 stars, max tip, and subscribed :P

nokturnel · May 2013

almostcool wrote: »

Although, I am curious about that one hallway with the dirty cloths hanging down and blood on the floor, I was thinking they were maybe showers, but now I don't know haha.

It's supposed to be a bathroom, with buckets, but the buckets won't stay spawned for some reason. When I preview the map in the Foundry they show up fine but when I go into a combat situation they tend to disappear lol. I'll keep messing around with it to see if I can get the buckets to stay spawned there. Otherwise I'll try to like place broken barrels in the ground sticking out lol. (Since the foundry created blood stains were black instead of red I figured I might make use of them in a comedic situation)

almostcool wrote: »

The only thing I wanted to point out is very minor but when you are freeing the scout the cage he's in says "Torture device - Cage 04." Not a big deal but may want to change it.

I'll fix that right up

almostcool wrote: »

Overall pretty great. 5 stars, max tip, and subscribed :P

Sweet, thanks

If ya find anything else ya want me to change or add feel free to share.

BTW At the end of the mission if ya head back along the road you can see the bandit encampment up in flames hehe, a little easter egg.

almostcool · May 2013

I didn't go back to see but love detailed easter eggs like that. This will definitely become a great daily foundry and I will most likely will be playing it again and bringing friends.

nokturnel · May 2013

Just fixed up the bathroom in the bandit cave, it should definitely look like a bathroom now. Fixed a minor spelling error in the way I spelled Crocodile lol and fixed the Cage the scout was trapped in to read as "Open the Cage" instead of it's default interact.

Once sounds and music is reported to actually work in the Foundry I'll add those to the quest.

In the meantime I realized Flies actually do make a buzzing sound on trash piles so if anyone is interested in creating bathrooms of their own it'll be one of the few places in your quest to have sounds right now lol.

zefrimex · May 2013

I just reviewed your quest. Very well done. Even some fun dialogue. I don't really have any criticism.

Here is mine to review:
The Pack Man
by: Zefrimex
Short Code: NW-DE76NJPYV
Link to quest thread <If you do find the time to play and review, you can post in my thread here.

Thanks!

dugada · May 2013

Hey,
I played your quest and I have to say that it is really nice quest! GJ

Pls, test my quest NW-DDJJA7X98 The Cry from the Past
Thanks

nokturnel · May 2013

dugada wrote: »

Hey,
I played your quest and I have to say that it is really nice quest! GJ

Pls, test my quest NW-DDJJA7X98 The Cry from the Past
Thanks

zefrimex wrote: »

I just reviewed your quest. Very well done. Even some fun dialogue. I don't really have any criticism.

Here is mine to review:
The Pack Man
by: Zefrimex
Short Code: NW-DE76NJPYV
Link to quest thread <If you do find the time to play and review, you can post in my thread here.

Thanks!

I'll review both of your quests as soon as the server is back online

aggropotato · May 2013

I'm curious about your difficulty slider. How did you implement it?

nokturnel · May 2013

aggropotato wrote: »

I'm curious about your difficulty slider. How did you implement it?

At the beginning of each map I had the player have to start dialogue with an npc. (There's only 2 maps it was needed on) Depending on which dialogue choice the player chooses, different encounters appear throughout the map. I could still have specific encounters I wanted the player to kill for the quest by making those encounters always spawn.

The encounters tied to the difficulty setting I set to "Appear When" and selected the specific Dialogue choice. I placed easy, standard and hard encounters around the map and had each one only appear if the difficulty was selected for it. All the mobs you had to kill for quest were Standard difficulty. For the boss I had him always be the same, but stacked a standard encounter on him that only spawned if you chose standard and a hard encounter that only spawned if you selected hard.

For banter related to difficulty setting I placed an OOC text that said difficulty slider and I had the NPC ask simple things like "How are you holding up?" and the replies were "I'm kind of scared - Easy", "I'm alright how are you? - Standard" and "I feel like I could take on the world!- Hard" and had him reply differently to each one and tied the encounters to those replies.

aggropotato · May 2013

Ah, that is really cool. Thank you for sharing!

nokturnel · May 2013

dugada wrote: »

Hey,
I played your quest and I have to say that it is really nice quest! GJ

Pls, test my quest NW-DDJJA7X98 The Cry from the Past
Thanks

zefrimex wrote: »

I just reviewed your quest. Very well done. Even some fun dialogue. I don't really have any criticism.

Here is mine to review:
The Pack Man
by: Zefrimex
Short Code: NW-DE76NJPYV
Link to quest thread <If you do find the time to play and review, you can post in my thread here.

Thanks!

Reviewed both of your quests. Put my reviews in your threads.

nokturnel · May 2013

Just updated the quest with an optional cave I built from scratch, took all night, but got it finished. Added a couple other things as well you can check out the patch notes I edited into the original post.

nokturnel · May 2013

Good news everyone, Protect the Caravan is now eligible for daily, hopefully people will actually play it now, yay!

lol sad how few plays it's gotten just due to lack of daily eligibility and sheer number of Foundry quests there are.

nokturnel · May 2013

The reviews keep pouring in! So much positive feedback

frobeard: "Sweet fights, really well made environments and detailed enemy costumes. This is a quality hack n' slash. I heartily endorse this product and/or event!"

blkber: "Best....Foundry...Ever!"

teezax: "Good job, wasn't too long, nice scenery. I enjoyed it"

mklein: "very nice. quick and easy. adding to my rotation for dailies"

articusa: "Nice quest with some interesting tricks and editing elements"

joeskunkape: "The Quest's Fluidity and nearly straightforward design is wonderful. All the small details on the map really make it appealing visually; and my favorite thing would probably be the difficulty customizing."

Frogfone: "PROBABLY THE BEST PLAYER CONTENT I HAVE DONE. SLICK AND WELL THOUGH OUT. liked the multiple difficulty option and the story was nicely done."

lionhaert777: "Great designing and fantastic decor. It is really inspiring to see what a person can do with the foundry tool. I loved the difficulty slider too. It makes the game easier or more challenging if you choose."

tsummeyt: "I really enjoyed this, kept things active, not too difficult and I stole a mistress. Bonus!"

Mohrgan: "Well done, enjoyable quest. I love the addition of difficulty levels. It gives players a chance to repeat the quest and maintain the challenge level. Fine job. Completely viable for Solo Player. Carry on."

toadstool3: "quick and enjoyable. doing this again later lol"

Maxxemuss:" Fun quest. Text was a little lackluster, but the end guys was great. "Cuz I BREATHE FIRE!!! "Oh....kay...then." Classic."

TROCH22: "Fun and quick quest. The maps are designed very well and have some detail. Most foundry quests look unfinished. Goin to bookmark this author and looking forward to more."

baconses: "Ahhh! Loved it!! Such an interesting idea. It was well written, the maps were fantastically designed, the combat was good and I loved being able to pick the difficulty. Very well done!"

Thanks for your support guys. :cool:

nokturnel · May 2013

Patch 1.2
Added my avatar to answer frequently asked questions after you defeat the Bandit Leader.

Here's the questions you can ask and the answers.

Where's my phat lewt?

Foundry authors have no control over the loot you get from their quests.

Not from encounters/enemies you face, nor do they have any control of the loot you get from the last chest.

We can't even place tradeskill nodes or random chests with actual loot in them.

Please forward any problems you have regarding this to Cryptic and don't give authors bad reviews due to the problems with loot.

Why didn't you include class tradeskills or ability score checks?

I personally feel restricting quest options to a per class basis is very restricting, once we pick a class in this game, we are given a class tradeskill whether we want it or not. Which does not allow for us to have much customization in our characters.

If I restricted options to tradeskills or ability scores it would reduce the replayability of this quest on a per class basis and some people don't want to have to play a different class to see different options.

Hard difficulty was too easy

Foundry Authors are very restricted when it comes to designing challenging content. We don't have access to much enemies we can use for bosses. We can't even edit their abilities, we can only change their model pretty much.

Mobs also scale in difficulty depending on what level the character doing the quest is which makes designing content for every class and level to be able to solo very difficult, hence why I included my difficulty slider.

Making the enemies any harder than they are now via the Foundry is only possible by stacking encounters, aka making the player fight a huge amount of enemies at the same time. Which I find to be a very lame way to create difficulty and also hard to balance.

Oh, well how would you rectify that?

Personally, I'd give authors the ability to edit and change abilities of their mobs as well as give them access to boss abilities and boss models.

I'd have them able to give bosses defensive, offensive and utility abilities and select from a list which ones they want the boss to have. Which would allow authors to custom make their own encounters' abilities.

I'd also allow authors to change what weapons an npc or an enemy uses.

What's with the lack of an in-depth story?

I specifically designed this quest to be very light in the story department. It was my first Foundry quest and I wanted to test out what I could do while at the same time creating a fun replayable quest for dailies.

Once Cryptic gives Foundry Authors more tools at their disposal you can bet I'll be creating a crazy fun epic quest for you to complete.

There's an entire thread on the Forums detailing everything we authors have asked for and it's relatively simple things. Like the ability to make the story not so linear. (We currently can't even have map transitions that don't tie into the story)

But until Cryptic gives us more options in designing our quests you'll probably see me create more quests like this one.

Tell me more about what your plans are.

For quests like this one I plan on creating more quests tied into the Leadership tradeskill.

Once I have more free time I'll definitely be releasing another one soon.

Once Cryptic gives authors the ability to add temporary companions to our Foundry quests I'll be creating a grand saga that gives you party members each with their own personality which you can recruit at your will.

I also plan to create an entire city full of good and evil options for you to explore from scratch.

-Protect the Caravan-

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