Seldan's Tower

forumuser3 · September 2013

Seldan's Tower - Trading Reviews
NW-DLZLEFX4N

I'll be happy to que up the adventures of anyone who'll give this a play through. I'm trying to make sure all the mechanics work okay before back-filling in the rest of the story items.

Plot: While Feruchi Seldan was off taking care of mercantile business in Neverwinter the top of his tower exploded into the sky. Your adventuring party has been contracted to find out what happened and retrieve his daughter, the heir to his trading empire.

Adventure Type: Hard Solo, Two Player Party, Hack & Slash
Difficulty: Combat is challenging for a solo player and should be somewhat challenging for two players
Dialog: Dialogue is light. More backstory will be added in through optional objects. You'll be able to skip it if you'd like.
Play Time: About 20 minutes.

version 1.004

angrysprite · September 2013

I'm making a concerted review-run on Saturday.
So, one question: Are you sure it's ready?

I refuse to be a Foundry beta tester. It you really think it's ready for public consumption, here I come. But I also won't hold any punches, I'll tell it like it is and you'll have to work hard for a fourth star. (I consider three stars to be neutral ground). I'll be running through on my level 30 Foundry-Reviewer alt. Oh, and I have given five stars before. But I have to be impressed.

In that case, I run a Foundry work twice with maximum AD tips on both runs.

You have until Saturday morning until curtain.

Good luck.

winterswitch · September 2013

Ran, reviewed, and tipped. I'm not a big fan of pre-baked maps, but this is shaping up to be a solid hack and slash. I was able to complete the quest solo (60 TR, 10.5K GS) with just a few potions. Some things to consider as you polish it up:

--A few of the encounters felt too static--one in particular, on the upper level, with their backs to the wall just standing around.
--The map transitions will need to be renamed to something more descriptive than "Go to Next Map".
--In Lili's opening dialogue, add an apostrophe to "clients" so it reads as "client's".
--A couple of Lili's mates have stock names "Cleric Disciple 4", "Sun Elf Warrior 03".
--And last...what kind of overall vibe are you going for in the Tower? I got hints of celestial magic/demon-y stuff. Which is great. But you'll need more details/fx to really make it feel lived in.

I'd appreciate it if you could give "Hive Mind" a run-through. Thanks!

nimzowitch · September 2013

Challenging, but fair. I thought it was a nice little slaughter romp. I noticed as well at the beginning that "Sun Elf Warrior 03" and "Cleric Disciple 4" need to be renamed. Also, I would avoid ambushing players like that when going through portals. I think most people like to get their bearings before jumping into combat. Make sure to add the "hard solo, two player" warning to your quest description. Good work.

Please give one of mine a try:

Into the Drow Helix - 20 min.
Siren's Cove Castaways - 30 min.

mrthebozer · September 2013

hey there Seldan,

Just ran through, and PMing notes. And thank you for the playthrough of my new one!

Edit: whoops... you're not Seldan. Seldan is the guy with the tower...

Anybody have any coffee I can borrow?

forumuser3 · September 2013

winterswitch wrote: »

--A few of the encounters felt too static--one in particular, on the upper level, with their backs to the wall just standing around.

Ah, yes. I couldn't get wandering to work. After some reading it looks like that's just a prototype server issue but works in live. I'll have to live test it, as much as I hate to. It *should* be changed, but I'll make sure I tweak it

--The map transitions will need to be renamed to something more descriptive than "Go to Next Map".

Think I caught all the generic references now. I'll keep an eye on it.

--In Lili's opening dialogue, add an apostrophe to "clients" so it reads as "client's".

Fixed

--A couple of Lili's mates have stock names "Cleric Disciple 4", "Sun Elf Warrior 03".

Yeesh. Re-adds. Why I needed fresh eyes on it, don't know how I missed that.

--And last...what kind of overall vibe are you going for in the Tower? I got hints of celestial magic/demon-y stuff. Which is great. But you'll need more details/fx to really make it feel lived in.

I am adding in plot and items currently. Hadn't thought to have more active effects in the story to add to the realism of the summoned creatures, it's a good idea.

Thanks for taking a look at it and the great suggestions. I'll try out Hive as my next foundry quest!

forumuser3 · September 2013

nimzowitch wrote: »

Challenging, but fair. I thought it was a nice little slaughter romp. I noticed as well at the beginning that "Sun Elf Warrior 03" and "Cleric Disciple 4" need to be renamed. Also, I would avoid ambushing players like that when going through portals. I think most people like to get their bearings before jumping into combat. Make sure to add the "hard solo, two player" warning to your quest description. Good work.

Thank you for the kind words and suggestions. I've corrected the generic names.. they slipped on one of the edits while I was creating it. I toned down the immediate attacks to be more about flavor than a hard fight. I liked it as a mechanic, but you weren't the only person that didn't... I think I'll stick to using that if I add a "hard" mode in the future. Description added!

I'll give Into the Drow Helix a whirl next in my que. Thank!

ephiroll · September 2013

Play: This was indeed challenging for my lvl 29 GWF. I can handle a lot of combat with him, but had to drag the cleric buddy along for this ride and still used a few potions. Didn't go down, but was close in some places. Plenty of room to move gives some options on tactics which I like.

Story: The story was basic, but worked with everything well. The visuals throughout were well done.

Tech: Some looping patrols would liven things up some. Especially, if that big guy was trotting around that round room when coming up to the door. At the beginning, one of the objectives says to 'clear' the courtyard, but the objective was complete before I'd actually cleared it. Maybe renaming that objective something like 'clearing a path' through the courtyard would go better with what happens. I was expecting that large group at the beginning to follow or something, but was disappointed not to see them again.

Great job!

marakthemauler · September 2013

I am glad to see that you took the advice of the other reviewers and made it known in the beginning dialogs that this is geared toward duo or group play.

Here are a few things I noted along the way both good and bad.

Have the spawn point for the PC in front of the guards at the gate. Initially I expected I had to go through the gate to reach my next objective instead of having to turn back around and go up the hill. Also have some of the guards facing the road up the hill to "keep watch".

Dialog with the captain:
- Just use white text for the responses until you get to the last interaction.

Outside of the tower:
- Consider adding lore items near the NPCs out in the grass areas so the PCs are rewarded for their effort.

Inside the tower:
- I like the column of floating material in the first room
- I did not like the general names for the encounter NPCs, especially when they are suppose to be "corrupted servants".

Nista's bedroom
- Add some books, papers, or something to the bed so it matches with the interaction dialog.
- The "bedroom" is just a bed in the pre-fab map. It would be better to call it her office, workshop, or something like that.

The "Defeat the Summoners" objective does not mesh with the daughter's dialog at the end. Change the name to something like "Defeat the summoned fiends". If they were really summoning something, I would expect to see environmental objects reflecting the summoning action.

I am glad to see that you have sound effects, ambient noises and some music in your mission. I find a quiet mission to be a very boring one. There were some wierd sound cutoffs and it made for a jarring experience.

All in all it was decent mission, but still needs some work to be a good or great mission.

Seldan's Tower

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