Need reviews on Challange Invitational: Maze

data314159 · June 2013

Hey folks, I need reviews on my new foundry mission Challange Invitational: Maze, NW-DMXDXKQGD. The foundry mission I created was one I did as a DM back in 1979. I have changed it much, but the basics are there. I feel it is a good foundry mission. But I need reviews from people who are just not trying to complete it just to get their dailies done and want one that is fast. It is anywhere from 18 min - 30 min, the longer is for those who get lost in the maze.

If you review my foundry, I will review yours. Just post here that you reviewed mine and which one of yours you want reviewed.

Thanks in advance!
Visarys
Robert

belberk · June 2013

Ah Ha an old school player like myself. Going to review now, be back in 18-30 min. to post comments. Find my quest details in sig.

belberk · June 2013

belberk wrote: »

Ah Ha an old school player like myself. Going to review now, be back in 18-30 min. to post comments. Find my quest details in sig.

I had fun with this quest. I loved the riddles (got'em all on the first try), the dancing Ogre, and really liked the touch with fixing the plumbing. Only thing I noticed that need the slightest attention is;

1. A few of the walls in the maze are out of alignment. (nothing major, but just in case you are a perfectionist)
2. In the final conversation with the Caretaker you have "you cats" and I think you meant "your cats".

BTW that was one tough Tom Cat

data314159 · June 2013

Belberk,
Thank you for your feedback! I fixed the wording error you mentioned. The walls in the maze are misaligned because it seems every time I make any change even adding a npc the foundry editor moves stuff just a little. I don't know. But hey Caretaker seems to not be such a perfectionist anyway.ha ha. Thanks for the review.

On to yours, I did it first thing this AM. was impressed with the content. Fighting was very good, just enough to keep you on your toes. NPC's were an added benefit and without them it would have been to hard to solo or close to it. I really liked it. Added you to my subscribe list.

data314159 · June 2013

Shameless bump

tarrocka · June 2013

Played with 39 level Devoted Cleric & Rank 15 Man-at-Arms

Overall impressions:
Good for a combat centric adventure.

Combat:
Challenging (for a DC) used 12 healing potions over the course of the adventure; some encounters were significantly more challenging than others, for example the Marsh Mystic and Bruisers. This encounter (due it its difficulty) made the 'final' encounter within the maze itself anti-climatic. Encounter spacing was perhaps a little too dense as, unless you were careful, you could accidently engage multiple encounters at the same time (thus increasing the difficulty even further).

Environments:
Maze (Inside) -- Impressive and not impossible to solve given the provided clues. Homer's warnings might be more affective if they were quest target objectives -- I honestly didn't even realize that he said anything until examining the log after finishing the adventure.

Maze (Underneath) -- Typical 'dungeon', good variety of room configurations but could have used some diversity in corridor construction and more decorations. As the majority of the adventurer really occurs here, you might consider having a more elaborate sewer system with multiple paths available to reach the caretaker's room.

Maze (Outside) -- Bland and boring; could be 1/4 the size without impacting the adventure's scope. The size of the area and the number of trees had little to do with the story than provide an environmental setting -- a small canyon clearing surrounded by wooded hills where the maze master resides within his cabin nearby the entrance to the underground maze would be more affective. Having the player/character walk halfway across the map (which is essentially devoid of points of interest) to reach their next objective serves little purpose except to increase the length of time required to finish the adventure.

Glitches -- Near the entrance to the maze, the texture on the maze walls flickered -- as if there were two or more overlapping wall segments.

Story:
Puzzles -- While I don't mind puzzles, these seemed out of place in that as far as I could tell from the single play-through they had little or no impact on the adventure. These could have been incorporated within the maze or sewer to provide alternate paths (correct answers allowing doors to be opened, battles avoided, etc.) or used to provide clues or other information about either the maze itself or the creatures therein.

Maze -- Based on the title, the maze should be the primary setting for the adventure (after all not everyone would have to acquire the spare key from the caretaker). Here, unfortunately, the converse is true. While we learn that there was at least one other hero whom entered the maze, there is only the one major clearing with few signs of an encampment beyond the campfire and no evidence of the former hero. What happened to this long lost hero? Why are the drow infiltrating the maze? If the maze master has been issuing the challenge for years, why have so few answered his call?

While story by itself isn't critical to a combat centric adventure, having a well developed story-line assists in explaining why the heroes are encountering certain creatures (like the Nashers and the undead in the Neverwinter Catacombs). Might as well just have the heroes in an arena if they are going to be fighting random groups of hostile creatures with little to no explanation.

- - -

Then again, knowing that many players have the 'now, now, now' attitude -- I am not sure that they would care about either what creatures they are facing or the reasons behind it; just that they can complete it in fifteen minutes.

data314159 · June 2013

Tarrocka,
Thanks for your review. I will take what you said to heart and implement your ideas on other missions I create. I have some things in mind and yes many of the things you talked about have been in my mind. Thank you so much for your input.

casten24 · June 2013

data314159 wrote: »

The walls in the maze are misaligned because it seems every time I make any change even adding a npc the foundry editor moves stuff just a little. I don't know.

I was wondering about this one ,too, for a while once I started. Took me a wihle to figure out, but there is a button, a little bit left of the "Play this map" button that tooltipped says "Enable translation snap to grid." Turn that off and moving it on the editor overhead map should stop the editor from making the small changes. Gonna try your map now... If I manage to find it. If it's still in the "for review" section... ugh... there's so much trash in there currently and without a search option... lol... but I'll find it. If you're up for it, give mine a review, too (pretty sure it's still in the "for review" section... sorry

casten24 · June 2013

So, I've had a chance to play this particular quest. I must agree with Tarrocka in that some of the encounters seemed a bit out of place when it concerned difficulty. I'd suggest using easier encounters and just changing the costumes of the mobs to fit what you want it to look like.

The story I think needs to be developed a bit more, as well. There was not a lot of things to actually see and similar to Tarrocka I missed a lot of the system messages that may or may not have appeared informing me of things such as that. A interactable bloodstain on the wall here, an old journal there, would go a long way to further fleshing it out and turning it away from something that a person just runs through. Also while, not bad enough to confuse the reader from what needs to be done, the grammar and spelling could use a bit of work in a lot of the conversation pieces.

As for the actual maze. I spent more time underground than actually in the maze. It would be good, since the maze is the center of the quest, if it was also the primary place where most of the quest is spent. As a side note, I'd also suggest covering the maze so that way a person can't just scan the map for a quick solution out.

Anyway, thanks for the adventure. Hope to see what improvements you make in the future.

Need reviews on Challange Invitational: Maze

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