Review Swaps! : Cloak and Dagger

hufflepuffs · July 2013

Hello,

I am looking for quality feedback on two quests of mine, one older and one I just published yesterday. Whoever finishes and reviews either (or both, if you are so inclined -- would really appreciate it!) I will in turn play and review your quest within an afternoon or two.

Both are dungeon crawls with a balanced mix of Story / Combat / Humor. Neither should take more than 30 minutes to complete, though as always your mileage may vary. I can plow through both very quickly, but of course I am the author.

Campaign Name: Cloak and Dagger

Chapter 1: Crow's Nest
Code: NW-DE32SJCQO

Chapter 2: Blackrock Penitentiary
Code: NW-DR676A3V5

I am especially looking for feedback with regards to the combat difficulty, so I know whether or not it needs adjustment. If you could post your class and level with your review, that would be a big help!

Also, if you would like me to review your quest, please post here with the name / code and I will attend to it asap. I will play quests in either French or English (or Spanish -- if anyone has any, lol).

Thanks!

nyghoma · July 2013

Ill do ya! My quest is in my sig.

Edit: Rated and reviewed!

thalazar1 · July 2013

just finished blackrock pen.
Good story and environment. very nice mash up of dungeon, mines, and cave tiles all decorated to seem natural. a few of the walls and doors need to be adjusted just a tiny bit to clean up seams but other wise it looks great.
as per, here is a few things i picked up.
-the first quest has you 'go to next map'
-when we first talk to dagger he says <nickname> instead of [nickname] (only instance of this occurring all others called me by name properly)
-the door behind the priestess the door jam is a one sided asset and facing the way it does its see through. (maybe turn it around or duplicate it and have them back to back)
-all the books and the gong are all f to interact.

and all of the dialog my answer was continue. the story is well written and full of unique speech patterns an flavour its a shame that my character had nothing to say

keep up the good work, I'm looking forward to finding out what dagger and his new friend have in store for us.

*edit* return review not required

*edit 2* i re-read your post and forgot to mention the combat. It was paced well and i had no real trouble with it. while my cleric bit the dust a few times i had enough room to move around and not need to chug potions.
*edit 3* my cleric pet not me, i'm a CW lol

hufflepuffs · July 2013

nyghoma wrote: »

Ill do ya! My quest is in my sig.

Edit: Rated and reviewed!

Hello nyghoma,

Wow! I have played and reviewed your quest Temple of Lloth and am very impressed. Truly deserving of the 5 stars I gave it. I will post my longer comment in the thread you created for it.

thalazar1 wrote:

just finished blackrock pen...

Thanks for the play through! I will work on addressing some of issues you brought up. A couple are oversights on my part.

hufflepuffs · July 2013

bump, I'm available to review

lolsorhand · July 2013

I'll trade your quests for my part 3 in Brethren of the Five

, either look up my sig or search for "Brethren" in the best tab.

saerrael · July 2013

I'll trade you and will run after this post! I'll try on a level 60 Cleric due to your question about combat.
(My quest details are in my signature.)

Edit : ran Chapter 2: Blackrock Penitentiary
Code: NW-DR676A3V5 and reviewed in game. There were some minor issues, but nothing big. Enjoyed it and didn't have all that much trouble with my cleric.

hufflepuffs · July 2013

lolsorhand wrote: »

I'll trade your quests for my part 3 in Brethren of the Five , either look up my sig or search for "Brethren" in the best tab.

Played and reviewed. Very good! I enjoyed it thoroughly, even though I've only played chpt 3. Great area design, I especially liked the black and white trial. Your listed completion time may be a bit off, however, as it took me nearly 2 hours to finish it. I was entertained the whole way through though like in nyghoma's above, so this isn't too bad. I'll have to go back and play part 1 and 2 now

lolsorhand · July 2013

Played through your quests, really liked them. Keep up the good work

Also, nice use of illusion walls. - Believe I left you a pm.

zenjenn · July 2013

Yours will be my next foundry quest! Please consider reviewing mine in turn - a first quest. NW-DKMJMQV8O

avistar001 · July 2013

This was a fun run will pm my review.
~Avi~

oortexplorer · July 2013

I guess I should play this one, since at one point I was working on a quest called Cloak and Dagger, and named my pub that in the one I've completed so far and ask you to play. It's a dialogue-driven comedy, info in sig. Fell down to a 14-minute play average, so just take your time lol (which can basically be accomplished by the novel task of actually reading the dialogue).

I'll play both of yours over the next 1-2 days.

hufflepuffs · July 2013

saerrael wrote: »

I'll trade you and will run after this post! I'll try on a level 60 Cleric due to your question about combat.
(My quest details are in my signature.)

Played and reviewed! Another fantastic adventure. I am really impressed with the quality of the quests I have played thus far.

Thanks for playing mine. I will review the rest shortly

pris23 · July 2013

Level 60, Righteous specced, Cleric.

Overall, I really loved this quest. I can't wait to continue your campaign. I will review the second part later tonight or tomorrow at the latest.

The only negative things that I had to say were really just personal preference or nit picks. My reviews are always honest and I give you a 4 for this one.

It did not have much dialog, but the dialog that was there was awesome. You gave a story and fun combat. I think you could add a few more encounters, but the ones that you had were well balanced and well placed in comparison to other encounters nearby. Nicely done!

SPOILERS BELOW! PLEASE DO NOT READ IF YOU ARE NOT THE AUTHOR OR HAVE NOT ALREADY PLAYED THIS QUEST.

The Crows Nest - NOTES:

- I would put a longer description in the main foundry page. Not huge, but a little more than one sentence. This is a personal preference, but I have a tendency to overlook quests that don't give enough info. Probably because I like story and I am always afraid that it is just plain old hack'n'slash if there isn't enough info.

- Guard Frinko was funny. I liked his dialog.

- Awesome intro dialog with Cloak as well. It came across very easily, made her point, and set the mood well.

- Braziers, doors, etc. all say foundry default names with numbers in them. you might consider renaming them.

- Normally, I do not really enjoy platformers. However your room with the pipes and the debris to climb up on was very well done.

- The chest at the end is floating about 5 feet in the air.

You can play my campaign if you like. Part 3 needs reviews the most. You don't need to have played the others to still have fun. However, I'll gladly accept your feedback on them all. They are in my signature and you can leave feedback here http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?407831-Part-3-Wind-of-the-North-The-Secret-to-Paradise-Will-trade-as-always&highlight=pris23.

pris23 · July 2013

Just ran Blackrock Penitentiary. Had an awesome time. Gave ya 5 for that one. I will PM you with my notes so as not to spoil anything.

oortexplorer · July 2013

Just played Crow's Nest. Thought it was solid all the way around, including map design, story and characters. Enjoyed the jumping puzzle, once I figured it out. Played with a Level 60 CW and found the combat to be very easy. Fine as is, but you may want to make the final "boss" battle a little more challenging.

I wouldn't mind seeing a little added depth to the story ... now being a campaign, this may be planned for the future already. Thought Cloak and Crow were good characters, wouldn't mind seeing Dagger's dialogue refined a little bit. Maybe a little more information regarding his motivations, perhaps a hint that he has a reason for doing all this (ie. that there's more to the story).

No big deal, but never a big fan of "Press F to Go To Next Map" type prompts. You can change those to "Press F to Enter the Guild Hall", if you want to. Also, you should rename the interactable objects (right now they show as Sewer Room Door 01, etc.)

I did enjoy it, and am looking forward to playing Part 2 within the next couple of days.

hufflepuffs · July 2013

zenjenn wrote: »

Yours will be my next foundry quest! Please consider reviewing mine in turn - a first quest. NW-DKMJMQV8O

Played and reviewed! Good first quest, I enjoyed it. Will PM my comments

oortexplorer wrote:

I wouldn't mind seeing a little added depth to the story ... now being a campaign, this may be planned for the future already. Thought Cloak and Crow were good characters, wouldn't mind seeing Dagger's dialogue refined a little bit. Maybe a little more information regarding his motivations, perhaps a hint that he has a reason for doing all this (ie. that there's more to the story).

This is fair criticism. Initially I planned to make one quest with 3-4 maps, but after seeing the limitations of the foundry and the emphasis on shortness, I decided to break the individual maps up into quests around 20 minutes each.

Thanks for taking the time to play it through. I will release new builds when I get a chance fixing many of the mistakes/oversights that have been commented on thus far.

talli0 · July 2013

Running through both of yours currently and will be back with comments in a bit.

When you get the time, I'd love you to check out mine; both if you can but chapter 2: "Paying the Piper" if you only have time for one. Info is in my sig.

Comments on Crow's Nest:

Thought it was a really interesting idea for a story and overall really well-done.

1) I thought some of the areas could use a bit of work and more detail added, mainly the rooms where you are lighting the 3 braziers. I don't want to say that this area was boring, but maybe uninspired? I'm mainly mentioning this because there was such a difference between this part and the part that came after it. I thought the room with the jumping puzzle and then Crow's room were really awesome, interesting and unique. So my advice would be to try to bring the awesomeness into the brazier rooms. If you can do this, your quest definitely turns into a 5-star, A#1, top-of-the-hill quest.
2)Minor things: Put different descriptive text into map transitions instead of the generic "F to Go to Next Map". Rename the items that people interact with. Too many "Sewer Door Gate 01" and Brazier - Ground 01". End chest is floating.

karitr · July 2013

Just played part one and wow, good job on those sewers.

Crow's nest was great and I was pressing Prtscrn to try and get some good shots of the fighting in there. Which is completely to blame for my dying to lack of healthbar telling me to drink a potion lol. It did bring up one possible issue that future players may have; there is no respawn point after the jump puzzle. It didn't bother me and actually you made the climbing part so sweet and short it was a pleasure to have another go, but be aware if someone doesn't like jumping too much and ends up dead, they may not look favourably on the fact they have to jump again. Just something to consider.

Talli0 mentioned that the braziers and at least one sewer grate still has placeholder labelling, but I will reiterate. I also noticed one typo in the last conversation with Dagger when he comments on his mother calling him a shrinking violet (was it? maybe wallflower). Anyway, a 'be' snuck in where it shouldn't be.

But overall this quest is extremely polished and the writing is crisp, with fabulous characters.

5*

karitr · July 2013

Part two.

I'm finally getting the 'gragarious' jibes directed at my character: too funny :cool: The music playing after reading the doc's note was perfect and different and definitely underused, loved it. The poison gas didn't give quite as many photo opportunities as Crow's nest, but the prison was cleverly devised; it felt much bigger than it actually was and felt maze-like minus the dead ends. The combat was well balanced too (played on L60 CW, 10.3k GS).

Some minor issues:
After speaking to Frinko the quests objective says "Cloak and Dagger". With no fairy trail (yaay!) you may want to direct the player to the guild hall.
In the conversation with Dagger re: the gas mark, the formatting needs a look at as he refers to our character as <nickname>
Lots of doors opening towards us yet we are using the pushing animation (mostly in the first half of the dungeon. Improves later).
Second arena fight typo - "we preset" instead of "present".
The Warden's Log - "Holded up here" should be "Holed up here"?
When approaching the doctor the 'Hello plaything' message displays <<>> not sure if intentional.

None of which detract from another 5*

hufflepuffs · July 2013

avistar001 wrote: »

This was a fun run will pm my review.
~Avi~

Played and reviewed. Well done, I enjoyed this one quite a bit.

oortexplorer wrote:

I guess I should play this one, since at one point I was working on a quest called Cloak and Dagger, and named my pub that in the one I've completed so far and ask you to play. It's a dialogue-driven comedy, info in sig. Fell down to a 14-minute play average, so just take your time lol (which can basically be accomplished by the novel task of actually reading the dialogue).

I'll play both of yours over the next 1-2 days.

Played and reviewed. I enjoyed this one as well, given the lighter tone of the quest. Nice change of pace from some of the heavier adventures around here.

karitr wrote:

Just played part one and wow, good job on those sewers...

Thanks for taking the time to play my quest! If you have an adventure that you would like me to play and review as well, please post here with the name and # and I'll review it shortly

casekuk · July 2013

I'll give it a go Hufflepuffs, I would appreciate a play of 'Part 2' of my campaign, which has a handy 're-cap' for those who didn't play part 1 incidentally, so there's no real need to backtrack, unless of course you want to.

Part 2 is in it's beta phase atm and corrections and crits are always welcome.

Click on my signature picture to jump to the foundry spotlight page, I would appreciate if you would put your review there.. Unless you HATE it, then I'd appreciate a PM :P

Thanks,

Art (aka Casek)

imperialmen · July 2013

Deleted.

EDIT: I will make a separate thread for mine, it will be easier to keep track and will give more exposure to quest. Trading requests can be sent there

oortexplorer · July 2013

Just played Part 2, Blackrock Penitentiary. Thought it was really good, a step up from the opening act. Interesting characters, and very well-written. I like the idea and design of the penitentiary, and quite enjoyed this quest overall.

Couple of minor issues: one somebody mentioned earlier is still there: "You didn't receive a mask, Nickname?" Probably put the period or question mark inside the nickname prompt. And after talking to the sickly guard, the sparkly points in the wrong direction for some reason until we leave that area.

Overall, nice work! Looking forward to the next installment.

ambitionxp · August 2013

I played and reviewed both quests. The visuals were great as were the characters and dialogue.

5 stars, though some of the doors and objects need to be renamed in the first quest.

Combat was better in the second map; the first map was easy even as a 59 DC.

Mr Tickles was a long fight, Scythe was weaker than the others. The 2 guard encounters got a little repetitive.

Please review my quest, NW-DNR5AK4ZK. I'm trying to get it daily eligible.