Assassination Contract - reviews needed! Calling all fellow assassins!

aaldaemon · July 2013

Hello everyone!

My new quest "Assassination Contract" NW-DOD6JMS5H needs reviews. Use the code to find it, or it might not show up. (although I guess since it qualifies for daily this is no longer the case)

I am willing to trade reviews!

EDIT: BECAUSE OF THE AGRO THROUGH DOORS BUG and the inability to open closed doors while agroed, I strongly recommend to pick easy mode if you are going to play this quest. (I have done countless runs on easy without experiencing the issue) No matter what I tried to fix this bug, such as boxing in mobs with invisible walls despawning when you reach place markers past the doors, this bug persists and can ruin the quest. Companions can also decide to teleport to other rooms and agro things, just because... Sigh. I will look into removing as many doors as possible and alternative solutions once the foundry filter issue is solved.

This quest is the prologue of my campaign "Legacy of the Fallen". The story is partly based on a book I've been writing - adapted to the setting, and made a bit more... light. Your character is about to become an assassin and undertake their first contract.

While story and dialogue are important to me, I decided early on that this quest should be able to function as a combat crawl for those who just want a 15-20 minute foundry run. If you're going to talk to people, inspect items etc, your quest time will increase quite a bit...(ever more so as I continuously add lore and dialogue)

EDIT: For those more interested in story and lore, and not so much into combat (like me:)) -> pick EASY MODE in the beginning. The amount of combat will be reduced. Provided you talk to some NPCs and in some cases choose the right options they will join you in your quest and help you out with combat making it even easier.

Suggestions:
-If you don't care about dialogue you can always choose to kill NPCs right away by taking the first orange option, white options lead to talking. You can ignore most inspect interactions, most are there just for the story.
-Take one room at a time. Don't rush forward or you might end up with loads of enemies on your tail.
-For a daily 15 minute run, pick easy mode, and skip all dialogue - or just do the companions dialogue to help you out. I am going to finetune this further, but I can currently finish the quest in 15 minutes.

I am constantly improving this quest, adding details, dialogue etc... so any feedback is appreciated!

Changes:
-MANY improvements! Each day should bring something new.
-Easy mode added.(if you prefer story over combat or want a quick daily pick this)
-New end scene added. (now improved) (and again) (will further improve it in the future hehe)
-Fixed(I hope) agro through doors bug issues -via workaround->mobs are now surrounded by inivisible walls ->they despawn when you get on the other side of the door.
-Some radical interior redesign in a couple areas.

P.S. This quest features a healthy amount of weird and sometimes obvious easter eggs! (Ahem Planescape) A couple of dialogues in particular will... test your gaming knowledge.

aaldaemon · July 2013

Just a bump.

lolsorhand · July 2013

I'll trade with you

, Part 3 of my campaign is in my signature. I'll give this a go straight away

aaldaemon · July 2013

lolsorhand wrote: »

I'll trade with you , Part 3 of my campaign is in my signature. I'll give this a go straight away

Very well, I'll play and review it later today. (The Trials of Five quest that is)

lolsorhand · July 2013

Will edit this later,

First, things look good. Nice work on the custumes, enjoy the story. - Though would like to either have a difficulty slider here, or easier mobs. Those guard mobs take long to kill, and hit quite hard. (Playing as GWF so can't be tricky to dodge.) But i'm enjoying it so far.

I see why they are hard as I read the story, but still it feels abit tedious to go through them. (Atleast make less guards and more something else, but perhaps add easier mobs to it.

Still like this one though, and you are the winner of a contest I have. My GWF hit 60, but I can't remember the AD I promised but I think it was 50k AD.

aaldaemon · July 2013

lolsorhand wrote: »

Will edit this later,

First, things look good. Nice work on the custumes, enjoy the story. - Though would like to either have a difficulty slider here, or easier mobs. Those guard mobs take long to kill, and hit quite hard. (Playing as GWF so can't be tricky to dodge.) But i'm enjoying it so far.

I see why they are hard as I read the story, but still it feels abit tedious to go through them. (Atleast make less guards and more something else, but perhaps add easier mobs to it.

Still like this one though, and you are the winner of a contest I have. My GWF hit 60, but I can't remember the AD I promised but I think it was 50k AD.

Well thank you! What contest was that?

On difficulty, yes I'm thinking of adding a slider in the future. I just happen to dislike minion mobs - they feel like toilet paper.

I'll probably add an easy difficulty in the future though and replace all non-dialogue mobs to minions or something like that.

Difficulty seemed easy to both my level 60 gwf and gf, but then again I know each fight by heart - and I've seen some overuse of encounter stacking in quite a few foundry quests - so in comparison it felt easy hehe.

I am also thinking of adding some non-combat alternatives, I have a few ideas about those.

I'll go try out your quest now.

lolsorhand · July 2013

For the AD reward send me a tell ingame and we can solve it quickly.

Enjoyed this quest, things looked good and the story was interesting. I would like it to have an option to be a bit easier however. I used up 35 pots and 4 injury kits after the pots went poff. At level 60, I got my gear and things became alot easier. (Think of all the clerics out there!)

But it was a fun romp, I would liked some epic music to the fighting, atleast the final encounter. Good job

aaldaemon · July 2013

lolsorhand wrote: »

For the AD reward send me a tell ingame and we can solve it quickly.

Enjoyed this quest, things looked good and the story was interesting. I would like it to have an option to be a bit easier however. I used up 35 pots and 4 injury kits after the pots went poff. At level 60, I got my gear and things became alot easier. (Think of all the clerics out there!)

But it was a fun romp, I would liked some epic music to the fighting, atleast the final encounter. Good job

Thank you, will contact you in game.

aaldaemon · July 2013

BUMP.

I have greatly improved this quest since last post.

---

Added an easy mode(recommended for those who are not into combat), although I feel combat is easy to begin with - depends on level/class/spec I guess. With my 60 gwf I can run it using 0 potions without any skilled playing. It is not as easy with my 60 df and tr but still too easy for _my_ taste. Sadly I do not know about cws or clerics...

Feedback of any kind needed!

Thank you in advance.

aaldaemon · August 2013

Bump!

More improvements overall. From my continuous daily addition of details to a major new NPC companion, story dialogue and more. Fixed a few minor issues.

Need some feedback on EASY MODE playtime length - I want that one to be doable in 15 minutes. The quest qualifies for daily so if you're in need of one, just try mine on EASY.

I am willing to trade reviews guys. So feel free to tell me about it.

I'll try your quests tomorrow when I wake up.

lolsorhand · August 2013

Much better now, and more fun

groshie · August 2013

lolsorhand wrote: »

Much better now, and more fun

I agree, keep up the good work it's getting better and better!

feuygar · August 2013

Normally I have feedback which points out a few typo's or under-populated areas. There was simply nothing wrong that I could see and give a pointer to; a very well put-together quest, if a little overly surreal for my poor brain.

The dialogue was interesting, and I liked that you'd hand-crafted all the NPC's.

The only pointer I can add (and trying to avoid spoilers) is that towards the end I was getting a bit frustrated about "not knowing", and then just when I thought I was to be illuminated.... we'll you know because you wrote it

.

Hopefully, you're up for a trade in exchange. I hope you'll enjoy my story too (like your quest, it's more story and visuals focused than endless combat)

422 - Yeenoghu's Bride

NW-DUMTEJ9KZ

http://nw-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?411131-Proud-to-present-for-reviews-422-Yeenoghu-s-Bride

aaldaemon · August 2013

Thank you for your kind words.

The prologue is there to introduce the mystery.

It's got a copious amount of hints at the moment, and all will make sense in time.

I was actually thinking I put way too much info in - especially with the two NPCs I just added right now - and I know you did not see those, but that's just me knowing what's actually going on.

They probably will not be that informative to people, just hints inside hints - a mystery within an enigma hehehe.

In any case it's going to take a while to find out what's going on - I daresay you'll need to travel to a few planes before that.

I am constantly improving this quest and it's going to get better - from environments to dialogues to whatever else my fancy demands - but I'm actually pleased with its current state, although I might add more story hints to it yes.

I promise I will check out your quest as soon as possible - right now I'm having major ISP issues and packet loss keeps booting me... In fact I could not even test my own new version because I keep getting booted... Being weekend my ISP might not get better till Monday... But I promise I will check out your quest as soon as I see my new version works properly - and provided my ISP cooperates.

(my ISP even went through a packet loss period when trying to post this had to copy paste it again hehehehe)

mrthebozer · August 2013

Hey aaldaemon,

No need for a trade review, as I have nothing new that needs it at the moment.

I just wanted you to know that I've reached a point where I cannot progress - after a fight in a very cool, ritual chamber style room (completing this fight gives me the "Inspect the Shield" objective). There is a mob directly on the other side of the door that has kept me perpetually in combat mode - and therefore, unable to click the closed door. You'll definitely want to take a look at their placement.

So far, I've had a blast playing this, and I'd love to finish it. I'll keep an eye out for an update and I'll replay it then.

aaldaemon · August 2013

mrthebozer wrote: »

Hey aaldaemon,

No need for a trade review, as I have nothing new that needs it at the moment.

I just wanted you to know that I've reached a point where I cannot progress - after a fight in a very cool, ritual chamber style room (completing this fight gives me the "Inspect the Shield" objective). There is a mob directly on the other side of the door that has kept me perpetually in combat mode - and therefore, unable to click the closed door. You'll definitely want to take a look at their placement.

So far, I've had a blast playing this, and I'd love to finish it. I'll keep an eye out for an update and I'll replay it then.

Oh!!! I'm very sorry to hear that.

It's the Cryptic curse of the agro through human interior doors bug again.

I thought I had put all mobs beyond any potential agro range... but I guess maybe some aoe or something might have gotten their attention. I am going to rectify this right now. Checking into it as we speak. Sorry again for the issue.

mrthebozer · August 2013

Haha - it's no big deal, really. There's a ton of trial and error involved in the Foundry, so expect stuff like this to pop up no matter how much care you put into preventing it. If I may, though - if placement of a mob like the one mentioned continues to be a problem, consider having them spawn on Component Complete: that door. Or if they are tied to an objective, you could box them in with invisible walls that disappear on Component Complete: that door instead. Either would be a surefire way to remove any possibility of this happening.

aaldaemon · August 2013

mrthebozer wrote: »

Haha - it's no big deal, really. There's a ton of trial and error involved in the Foundry, so expect stuff like this to pop up no matter how much care you put into preventing it. If I may, though - if placement of a mob like the one mentioned continues to be a problem, consider having them spawn on Component Complete: that door. Or if they are tied to an objective, you could box them in with invisible walls that disappear on Component Complete: that door instead. Either would be a surefire way to remove any possibility of this happening.

Thank you very much for your insight!

For now I believe I have fixed the placement - the mobs in that room are now basically on the extreme other side of the door near the wall... in the future I will probably implement your solution(s).

I have posted an updated version - just play it on easy imho(if you haven't already) to spare you some repetitive combat.

Still loads of combat on easy though, I need to probably trim it down in the near future.

aaldaemon · August 2013

Bump.

If anyone plays this on easy can they please (if possible) tell me how long it took them?(and if they read or did not read dialogue -although of course if you play it for the first time you should REALLY read the dialogue imho, that's kind of the whole point hehe) I am trying to make easy mode a viable 15 minutes daily foundry run. (well I guess it would have to be 15 minutes using orange dialogue killers but still)

ambitionxp · August 2013

I played through it on easy mode and it took me 18 minutes, though I didn't exactly rush through it. I ended up with 3 companions. 5 stars. The story was intriguing. Combat was challenging enough for me as a 60 DC even on easy mode.

If you can, review my quest. I'm trying to get it daily eligible. Here is the thread:
The Cursed Armor of Steele

Thanks!

aaldaemon · August 2013

ambitionxp wrote: »

I played through it on easy mode and it took me 18 minutes, though I didn't exactly rush through it. I ended up with 3 companions. 5 stars. The story was intriguing. Combat was challenging enough for me as a 60 DC even on easy mode.

If you can, review my quest. I'm trying to get it daily eligible. Here is the thread:
The Cursed Armor of Steele

Thanks!

Thank you very much for your feedback! 18 minutes is good.

I will of course play and review your quest today.

winterswitch · August 2013

Hey aaldaemon.

I completed your quest twice, and enjoyed both runs. The first time, I was reading all the dialogue and trying to accrue as many followers as possible. (Brainy is awesome--you've done a great job making the characters unique and believable.) The second time, I just blasted through it, and was able to finish in 17 minutes. (On a geared 60 TR.) I think this could definitely work as a daily.

I have just a few suggestions:

--in the seal of Kelemvor room, when the banner waves back and forth, it clips into the wall. Moving it out a bit would fix this.
--for the arch that is found early on, add a hyphen so "walled in" becomes "walled-in".

I'd appreciate your checking out the second quest in my signature. Thanks! @Sintered

aaldaemon · August 2013

winterswitch wrote: »

Hey aaldaemon.

I completed your quest twice, and enjoyed both runs. The first time, I was reading all the dialogue and trying to accrue as many followers as possible. (Brainy is awesome--you've done a great job making the characters unique and believable.) The second time, I just blasted through it, and was able to finish in 17 minutes. (On a geared 60 TR.) I think this could definitely work as a daily.

I have just a few suggestions:

--in the seal of Kelemvor room, when the banner waves back and forth, it clips into the wall. Moving it out a bit would fix this.
--for the arch that is found early on, add a hyphen so "walled in" becomes "walled-in".

I'd appreciate your checking out the second quest in my signature. Thanks! @Sintered

Thank you very much for your feedback! I will of course play and review your quest very soon -> most likely in the next couple hours or so. I just need to make certain something I've been working on for ages works right first.

-Fixed the banner thanks!
-Walled-in -> I did as you said (I am not a native English speaker so I am unsure) although googling it seems to even produce a movie called walled in (no -) and on wiki you get: Immurement (from Latin im- "in" and mūrus "wall"; literally "walling in") -again no -. So well I really am not sure lol.

I've just published a new version with a new end scene for the quest(which is so spoilerific in my book i'll probably withdraw it or adjust it soon lol) which I want to test outside the foundry, once I'm done with that I will most likely go straight to your quest.

aaldaemon · August 2013

BUMP!

Yesterday's update added a new end scene. (so those who played the quest before... well I guess without being spoilerific... seeing the vision - did not see this.)

Quite a few improvements in today's update. Some interior reworking, various improvements. The quest to reach the details cap is marching on.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

And yes, I'm forever trading reviews.

casekuk · August 2013

Hey aald,

I posted this over in my thread but thought it better here

I loved the mystery of it, it makes me want to know more and want to continue playing out the story. Your locations were really nicely done, and it was nice to have some followers; they turned out to have some great character about them also.

I detected a little of Planescape:Torment sneaking in there, nicely done. It was also nice to see someone else using Planescape chant. I always get a little worried about using too much of it, but hey my next part is in Sigil... So oh well lol.

Honestly, I can't fault it. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, noticed nothing out of place, nothing stuck out. All in all I would say you have a great foundry there my friend, well done.

Art

aaldaemon · August 2013

casekuk wrote: »

Hey aald,

I posted this over in my thread but thought it better here

I loved the mystery of it, it makes me want to know more and want to continue playing out the story. Your locations were really nicely done, and it was nice to have some followers; they turned out to have some great character about them also.

I detected a little of Planescape:Torment sneaking in there, nicely done. It was also nice to see someone else using Planescape chant. I always get a little worried about using too much of it, but hey my next part is in Sigil... So oh well lol.

Honestly, I can't fault it. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, noticed nothing out of place, nothing stuck out. All in all I would say you have a great foundry there my friend, well done.

Art

Thanks mate!

Aye, for one there's a gigantic Torment easter egg - the errr shall we say Morte wannabe?

Planescape Torment being the best game of all time as far as I'm concerned I intend to do some easter eggish homage to it in some parts.

And, I guess I'll see you in Sigil in the future.

aaldaemon · August 2013

BUMP!

Today's version improved the end sequence slightly - I am in the process of continously "epicizing" it -> till I'm truly satisfied with it. (besides a lot of minor additions/polishing etc)

Any feedback is appreciated!

Forever trading reviews!

thalazar1 · August 2013

played through on my rogue (who is played up as an assassin to start

) enjoyed the story and am interested in seeing where it goes. About half way through i stopped talking to some of the ppl as i had enough helpers following me lol. well not stop but told them to go away when it looked like dialog was about to end its run.
I didnt pick up anything wrong, but it did seem a little weird running through a bed room to get to another bed room. good use of effects!

aaldaemon · August 2013

thalazar1 wrote: »

played through on my rogue (who is played up as an assassin to start ) enjoyed the story and am interested in seeing where it goes. About half way through i stopped talking to some of the ppl as i had enough helpers following me lol. well not stop but told them to go away when it looked like dialog was about to end its run.
I didnt pick up anything wrong, but it did seem a little weird running through a bed room to get to another bed room. good use of effects!

Thank you for your feedback mate!

I constantly improve the environment and change some rooms entirely - I have it as my private goal to reach the details limit hehehe.(already reached the encouters limit, and I'm closing down on the NPCs) Although atm I don't see an issue with the bedrooms - there's only two of them in the whole map and they are currently separated by the shrine to kelemvor room. (which used to be a guards room hehe and is not entirely done to my satisfaction but still fine looking) I think of that area as the sort of bedrooms wing of the Car hehe... in anycase by the time i finish remodeling I might move them around. I wanted to do some drastic changes to the map setup recently, i just could not get the willpower to do it yet.

destinyknight · August 2013

I just gave your quest a play and reviewed it. Didnt quite seem like what you would think from the title. Didnt really match for the specific character I played it on. But I could imagine it would match for others.

aaldaemon · August 2013

destinyknight wrote: »

I just gave your quest a play and reviewed it. Didnt quite seem like what you would think from the title. Didnt really match for the specific character I played it on. But I could imagine it would match for others.

As the campaign description says: Expect the unexpected.

It's a very convoluted story that starts off as an assassination trial.

Assassination Contract - reviews needed! Calling all fellow assassins!

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