Campaign: Call Of The Wild

redneckronin · June 2013

Welcome to Call Of The Wild

Campaign Code: NWS-DJFGFU78R

A 3 Part Campaign that will take from Protectors Enclave, through the Sewers under Neverwinter, to a concealed and darkly oppressive Hidden Valley, on through a Cave System steeped in dark magic and patrolled by Werewolves and worse, and finally to an Ancient Crypt where a long dead king reaches out to fulfil a curse he made as he lay dying on a battle-field.

Part One

Quest Name: A Missing Man CotW Pt.1
Short Code: NW-DIVDJMFXJ
Duration: Approx 20 Minutes
Difficulty: Standard
Maps: 2
Style: Story driven Intro quest, with mixed combat and exploration.

An old man vanishes the day after a fullmoon. His recent behaviour had been strange. His former life as a Caravan Guard may hold to his whereabouts and to what is going on. His granddaughter is your first point of contact...

You will encounter a Mysterious Woman:

Follow a trail through the City Sewers:

Encounter dangerous creatures:

Quest Name: COTW Pt.1 : A Missing Man : Review Thread
Short Code: NW-DIVDJMFXJ - Published Eligible For Daily Foundry

redneckronin · June 2013

Part Two

Quest Name: A Hidden Valley CotW Pt.2
Short Code: NW-DE78IC96E
Duration: Approx 25 Minutes
Difficulty: Standard
Maps: 2
Style: Story driven quest, with mixed combat and exploration.

After several weeks searching and following the meagre clues found in Sarek's Journal, and a trek out in to the Vellosk Hills you find yourself at end of small, heavily wooded valley. The air is oppressive...

Finally get to meet the Missing Man:

Explore and face the dangers of a mysterious camp:

And brave an encounter with Water Elementals:

Quest Name: COTW Pt.2 : A Hidden Valley : Review Thread
Short Code: NW-DE781C96E - Published Eligible For Foundry Daily

redneckronin · June 2013

Part Three

Quest Name: An Ancient Curse CotW Pt.3
Short Code: NW-DIFWJQYC5 (Just Published)
Duration: Approx 40 Minutes, depending on how much of the story, side-quest you engage with.
Difficulty: Moderate.
Maps: 3
Style: Story driven quest, with mixed combat and exploration.

With warnings from Morgarav still fresh in your ears you head in to the Tomb Of Bolkhas to, hopefully, lay to rest an Ancient Curse.

Note On Maps: There are three maps in this Part but two of them, the first and last, are effectively only there to help set the scene.

Note On Duration: The main bulk of the Quest takes place in the Tomb. If all you do is follow the Quest Trail, ignore the Dialogue etc then the run-time will be 25-30 mins. However, if you choose to explore a bit, indulge the Dialogue and maybe even read the readable books in the Library (which will help bring the Story to life) then it could take as long as an Hour.

Find the entrance to the Tomb Of Bolkhas the Wolf-Cursed:

Explore the dark and dusty corridors and face the dangers that lurk there:

Discover long forgotten secrets in the Library of the Dead:

Quest Name: An Ancient Curse CotW.Pt 3 : Feedback Thread
Just Released

redneckronin · June 2013

Reserved for a potential part 4, depends how big part 3 gets

sphecida · June 2013

Hi there! I played Part 2 last night and enjoyed it. I especially like the background to the werewolf takeover of Vellosk, and I liked the various interactive objectives.

With the braziers, I was wondering if you could make them parallel objectives so that the player has to remember the proper order?

The boss fights were no problem for my lvl 50 CW, but the guardian fights were very difficult, as they were immune to most of my attacks. I didn't die because I managed to kite them all over, but it was a near thing. You might want to offer a difficulty choice through dialogue or interacting with an objects (though maybe there was one, and I missed it!).

Your cave map is great - I'm not talented in that department, and I liked how it twisted and turned and got a little confusing.

Now I have to go back and play Part 1

redneckronin · June 2013

sphecida wrote: »

Hi there! I played Part 2 last night and enjoyed it. I especially like the background to the werewolf takeover of Vellosk, and I liked the various interactive objectives.

With the braziers, I was wondering if you could make them parallel objectives so that the player has to remember the proper order?

The boss fights were no problem for my lvl 50 CW, but the guardian fights were very difficult, as they were immune to most of my attacks. I didn't die because I managed to kite them all over, but it was a near thing. You might want to offer a difficulty choice through dialogue or interacting with an objects (though maybe there was one, and I missed it!).

Your cave map is great - I'm not talented in that department, and I liked how it twisted and turned and got a little confusing.

Now I have to go back and play Part 1

Many thanks for the feedback.

The Cave Map took hours, probably 50 hours just putting the basic structure in place, and it is in desperate need of more detail and clutter. Although apart from Morgarav and the Soul-Tender most things in there are dead already so I don't think they need the comforts of home.

Using Cave "path" elements to make walls in the Small Cave set was very painstaking at times, and because there's often as much of a "wall" out the room as in it became the main "design" driver of the overall layout.

The Quest Trail seems to work in there in "Live" most of the time, but doesn't work at all in Foundry Mode, I got lost in my own map once - lol.

I tried to figure out a way to make the Braziers parallel, so the player needed to remember the right order, but that gives 24 possible "interaction" chains to map-out with dialogue, only one of which is the correct one which I felt players might think was taking the mickey a bit.

Feedback seems to be indicating that the Guardian (I assume people mean the Flame-Guardian) fight is a bit tight. And I am looking at changing that a bit. There's no "difficulty slider" in there at the moment, and TBH I'm loathe to add one, because while I see how they work I also feel that unless they are "stealth sliders" they break story immersion a bit, and for me the Story is paramount here. I think I'd rather tone down the fight than do that. And if I use "stealth sliders" then the player has no real choice anyway and may just choose the hard option randomly.

If its the Water Elemental fight people are having problems with then I'm at a loss, I need the Rimefire Golem for the effects, and that means taking the two Winter Wolves as well. Or I could take 2x Rimefire Golems, which would be quite a bit tougher.

Anyway, going to go see what I can do the smooth those fights out a bit.

Thanks for the feedback.

PS: Part 1 looks amateurish now compared to Part 2.

All The Best

redneckronin · June 2013

Eck, wrong Thread.

mosby1 · June 2013

Duo'd chapter 1 with a 60 TR and 55 CW. Combat seemed fine for solo or duo.

Good beginning to the story; I'm looking forward to the next part. Good use of decor, especially the barricades. Lots of authors leave too much empty. All of these maps were well decorated, with items that fit the story. The spider area was very well done.

I like how you spread out the dialogue/text with the combat; gave it a good pace overall. It did seem a bit heavy on the text, but not bad.

The beginning part with all the searching was fine, but we searched before triggering the first combat, so we had to go back and search the same rooms again. Not a big deal, but it might be nice to only make the objects searchable (like you did for the objects with pages) when you're on that part of the quest.

The "virtual" key was interesting; you could have gone with a lever to open the grate instead perhaps.

A few minor typos:
- "a( )vase"
- "mat(t)ress"
- Journal: "importan(t)"
- "There (are) a few"
- crumbled should maybe be crumpled?
- Abandoned Backpack: "(w)way"

Thanks for the fun!

redneckronin · June 2013

Just a quick apology.

I had been playing with my PC set at the "recommended" auto-detect settings.

I have been experimenting with settings because the game was under-utilising my GPU, and making my CPU do a lot of the work.
I increased a lot of the settings recently, and noticed that my GPU went up from 10-20% usage to 80%+ usage, and my CPu dropped from 85%+ to around 50% usage.

Which is all good for me, I get a better quality experience and better performance.

Problem is it has highlighted a lot of things that I need to take a second look at in both the published parts of my campaign. There are significant lighting changes I need to look at, as well as moving some "cluster generated" decor elements.

As soon as I see that the Foundry Publish is working properly again I'll get to addressing these issues.

Many Thanks

All The Best

redneckronin · June 2013

Version 1.4 (25/06/13) Uploaded

Fixed "floating" and misplaced objects in "Valley Approach" map that became apparent when I changed my graphics settings.

All The Best

gornonthecob · June 2013

Hey, redneckronin! Just wanted to let you know that I picked up your trilogy, and wanted to give you some feedback!

I have a pretty extensive list of fixes you might want to look at for part 1. Please check your inbox if you're interested.

I have to say I loved this quest. I felt like I was a detective trying to crack a case

I've only played part one as of now, and it's 3am, but I plan on playing the rest tomorrow.

Really great story telling! I loved the lore included in the books and journals. I cannot wait to see this "hidden valley"!

oortexplorer · July 2013

Really enjoyed Part 1. It is a little heavy on the text, but the story was pretty interesting so I think you pulled it off. Pretty flawless path through well-designed maps and encounters throughout.

Couple of very minor issues, if you are planning to go back in at some point for corrections. Heading into the sewers, it says "Go to next map" rather than a more personalized direction. Then the note in the backpack, 'the debt must be paid one wway or the other', obviously an extra "w" there and later in that same passage, "section fo the sewers" needs some "of".

Map take a couple of days to get to it, but I am definitely looking forward to playing Part 2. Nicely done.

redneckronin · July 2013

oortexplorer wrote: »

Really enjoyed Part 1. It is a little heavy on the text, but the story was pretty interesting so I think you pulled it off. Pretty flawless path through well-designed maps and encounters throughout.

Couple of very minor issues, if you are planning to go back in at some point for corrections. Heading into the sewers, it says "Go to next map" rather than a more personalized direction. Then the note in the backpack, 'the debt must be paid one wway or the other', obviously an extra "w" there and later in that same passage, "section fo the sewers" needs some "of".

Map take a couple of days to get to it, but I am definitely looking forward to playing Part 2. Nicely done.

Many thanks.

Yes, I need to revisit Pt.1 at some point and tidy a few things up, add detail, and play with lighting and sound.

I'll probably get round to it after Pt.3 is published, which should be soon, structurally (in terms of map and story) it is complete, just fine-tuning dialogues and details at the moment.

Will, have a screenshot or two up for Pt.3 hopefully today.

All The Best

redneckronin · July 2013

Have updated Page One to include preview screenshots of Part 3: An Ancient Curse

All The Best

redneckronin · July 2013

Updated information on Part 3: An Ancient Curse

All The Best

sarkany69 · July 2013

I just finished part 3.

I liked the stone henge you had at the entrance and the lava effects, I haven't seen that yet in a foundry map.

The first spider spawned inside a dissolving wall, you might want to move that either a bit forwards or backwards.

Otherwise I found the combat a bit easy up until the end boss fight, perhaps that's just me. The environments were well done with some great detail. I liked it and wish I played your other 2 quests first so I would have understood the story.

redneckronin · July 2013

sarkany69 wrote: »

I just finished part 3.

I liked the stone henge you had at the entrance and the lava effects, I haven't seen that yet in a foundry map.

The first spider spawned inside a dissolving wall, you might want to move that either a bit forwards or backwards.

Otherwise I found the combat a bit easy up until the end boss fight, perhaps that's just me. The environments were well done with some great detail. I liked it and wish I played your other 2 quests first so I would have understood the story.

Many thanks for the feedback Sarkany.

The first spider spawning part in the wall is deliberate.

When I first started working on this the illusory wall objects were new, and some Authors had received negative feedback because players didn't realise there were walls etc you could walk through.

So its there to try and clue the player in to that mechanic, I did the same with the first illusory wall by having the fallen wall disappear in to the rubble etc.

I agree it might not be necessary now, and will look at moving the spawn point.

Can I ask: what class and level you played through at, so I can have a better idea how to scale the combat encounters.

Many Thanks

PS: Part 1 was me learning how to use the foundry, it is very poor in terms of foundry-craft, when compared to Part 3; Part 2 is midway between the two.

All The Best

sarkany69 · July 2013

redneckronin wrote: »

Can I ask: what class and level you played through at, so I can have a better idea how to scale the combat encounters.

Sure, I played with my lvl 42 rogue with my lvl 15 cleric companion.

xpurpleinsanityx · July 2013

Hey.

Just got done with parts 1 and 2 and it looks great.

I did like part 1 a bit better...I felt that in part 2 there was just a bit too much running back and forth, and though it fit the story ended up feeling a little tedious most of the way through. I'm definitely looking forward to part 3 and will play that in a bit. Have to go afk for a little while. I saw nothing to really mention in part 1 that I had not mentioned already in a PM and the only thing that I can think of with part 2 is that I noticed the runes on the wall had default names still. Thanks again for some great quests.

I'll edit in my comments on part 3 tonight.

zbkolde · July 2013

Good story, and great maps for exploring. So much fire... had to turn the a/c up a bit.

lolsorhand · July 2013

Playing through part 3 tonight, loved it so far.

redneckronin · July 2013

zbkolde wrote: »

Good story, and great maps for exploring. So much fire... had to turn the a/c up a bit.

There were supposed to be two more rooms, one with a main quest line in it, and one with a side quest. But was running low on the budget, and the main storyline bit would have required me to be forcing 5 or 6 "items" on the players to achieve what I wanted to achieve, so I took that out, used the three keys instead, and save me a room and a couple of hundred points on my budget. But it also made the side-quest superfluous, so took that out as well.

lolsorhand wrote: »

Playing through part 3 tonight, loved it so far.

Many thanks.

Part 4, well actually part 1 of the next Campaign: The Wild Hunt, should be ready in a couple of weeks I would think.

All The best

Campaign: Call Of The Wild

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