My map already has 87+ reviews, so this isn't exactly a call out to get it out of "beta" hell. I am looking for feedback on what to improve before submitting it for feature. Of course, there are a few things I can't fix due to the games programming (lighting, monster clip), but anything else, such as clarity, impressions, challenge, and detail is up for improvement.
At the time of writing this, the detail count is already at 1200+/1500 for the crypt map and I am at the point where I am adding godfrey dust particles under each light source in the hallways. If there is anything you think would improve the foundry, let me know.
The foundry itself is an exploration/puzzle foundry - every class skill has a different method in finding keys to the inner rooms. For example, Fighters have a maze they must navigate while Wizards have a rune puzzle to solve.
Author:
@leinahtanwc
Title: Doomguides' Folly
Code: NW-DTKLZ7899
Let me know what you think - that is what I am after most! In addition, if you want, I am willing to give everyone who sends me a mail a free Preservation Ward + a chance at a coffer upon completing the foundry (you must submit a review so I know you ran it, any stars is fine). Thank you and hope to hear from you all soon!
*Known issues*
1. Different versions of the quest sometimes appear in the search engine. The most up-to-date version is 0.9.650 as of today.
2. Currently, upon accepting the quest, the game will not tell you where to go anymore (it routes to a sewer entrance when it should say "Head to the Cursed District", which is on the overworld map) for the first step. Once inside the foundry, everything is working as is.
3. Legion has a clipping/Teleportation issue due to how the fight works. For a solution, I created ramps to where Legion likes to teleport so he can come back down and fight you some more instead of running away.
Comments
Could you run one of my short ones for me please? I am a couple reviews away from being on the Review Board so others can see it, and so far, it has gotten very good reviews by the people who have played.
I would greatly appreciate if you could help me out on both accounts, tell me what I am missing with the runes on your quest, and play through mine. Here is the name of the quest, and it is linked to its forum page:
Fall of the City of Grumura
Ah, you are a wizard if you had the rune puzzle. Every class gets an interesting theme for the second room. The wizard one is the hardest one to do, but once you do know it, its the quickest one to do.
Spoilers Ahead - cant seem to hide the spoiler text that well. Be careful when reading down!
1. "Abandon your fear, your envy, and your greed" - Do not use Yellow
2. "The length of all words if five" - 5 Runes must be used
3. "The Orange flames are split in two by the night" - Orange is used twice, separated by Black
4. "Blood Comes before anything else" - Red is First
5. "The sickly one, all alone, trails behind" - Teal is last.
6. "We are your creations! Sing our name" - Located on Altar - The colors spell the solution "somehow", think first letter.
Solution: Red, Orange, Black, Orange, Teal
Note: I never said you had to use each rune once. That is the trick people miss a lot.
I had no problem figuring out the first 4 colors but could not get the connection between sickly and teal. Finally, I started randomly guessing the last color and POP!
Very nice foundry.
Maybe work out the clues a bit, but really great quest. I will go back to it today... can you please hit up mine?
I have a link to it on my earlier post, Fall of the City of Grumura
So what adjectives do you think are associated with Teal and Yellow exclusively? The previous hint for teal was "Odd", but someone thought odd meant black, so I changed it to sickly - green/blue looks are usually associated with illness. The hint is basically supposed to say - Teal is last, used once.
I guess I could change teal to Tan, or some other "T" color.
I cant think of an adjective one commonly uses with the color “teal”. Perhaps if you had used “blue” it would have been easier to make the connection to sickly. I suppose it requires a bit of thinking and thus the puzzle accomplished its purpose.
When I think of yellow I think bright, warm and sunny.
By the way, Im not complaining…just making an observation about the puzzle. I think the foundry was very well done and I enjoyed the challenging end fight. Make more!
Don't worry about that I am not taking anything personal here when it comes to confusion. I understand clearly the confusion revolving around the wizard puzzle and I'm trying to make it easier. The puzzle a few versions back was quite a bit more vague - and just about no one got it then - different cultures view colors differently is all - and yellow/teal have been pretty difficult.
Please give Siren's Cove Castaways a play and quick review when you can. I added a shortcut to this one recently to reduce play time by about 1/3.
So enough of the technical stuff on the wizard puzzle Hope its easier to understand
As for the dialogue showing up after picking up the kits - the skill check items - there are pros and cons to it. The pro is it looks more professional while the con is that some people will talk to Martin first, pick up the item, and assume there is nothing else for him to say. Due to the number of people who do not read closely the first time, I feel its important to have things upfront in that case.
About the "Reach the Gate" objective. Its a waypoint objective to guide people to the exit point after they use a portal. In the early versions of the map I noticed a glitch with the foundry where the waypoint indicator for the exit/next map object would disappear if the player used a portal to travel (the one underneath legion's platform) - causing confusion and people leaving the map via the minimap force quit and returning via the world map. I was made aware of the issue when someone complained about no exit when there was one - looked at the minimap when it showed up and it disappeared .
As for direction - Both Martin and Sarah provide hints as to where to go based on the kit you are holding. The text they say is yellow accented for the critical instruction. For example, if you have the fighter's torch - Martin says a little bit about secrets and "Statues" is bolded in Yellow. There are 3 statues in the first room needing interaction, as well as a shield statue in the second chamber. For wizard, Martin says "Runes" in yellow, and tells you the runes are in the back. Sarah also tells you where to go, and provides some subtle hints about the wizard puzzle.
I can't have the questline follow individual keys since there are 5 in each room, 1 for each class skill - splitting questlines are not possible in the questlog - and it would become even more complicated with multiplayer if it was implemented.
Listening to NPCs is important if you want to get through quickly - otherwise you will likely wander aimlessly. I had someone crack the wizard puzzle in 25 seconds without help simply because they noticed the overall theme of the map. That guy shocked me.
There is/was a behind the scenes limitation involving direct skill checks when I laid it all out.
If you set an object to be "Interactable", then have it require an item/skill, and then set it to require a SKILL like Dungeoneering or Arcane, the foundry would report an error and prevent publishing. Its funny, because they have 2 categories of requirements - Items and Skills, yet selecting skills break it. I kept trying to have the game do a direct skill check but it wouldn't work. This was way back 3-4 months ago, I believe prior to Module 1. Things may have changed since then, so maybe I should try an experiment and see if it works now.
Anyway, back to how I approached this problem - while requiring skills to interact with objects caused errors, you could however have visibility of objects be restricted by class skill. Thus, I created 5 "skill bags", one visible to each class which simulate the class skill checks I would have liked. The con to this approach is that there is only 1 available. I could add more, but due to the nature of the foundry of poke-explore-solve, players would likely loot them all and wonder what was going on and get annoyed by carrying 5 skill bags when they only needed one.
Once I am done retroactively improving my first foundry (when I have time ), Bones and Brimstone, I will go back to Doomguides' Folly and place the finishing touches. I didn't expect to get 1000+ reviews all of a sudden and I have looked at all the feedback and some of it was pretty good. I will of course check to see if they fixed the require skill option and see if its working.
I intend to change the Ranger route a little bit, add more decorations, and fine tune some wording on the wizard puzzle, as well as a grammar pass. I also intend to reskin several monsters too.
As for person saying they could not interact with the color puzzle and such - There are 3 possible reasons for this. The first could be that you are not a wizard, as wizards are the only ones who can do the color puzzle. There are five unique event/puzzles in the second section. The second possible reason is that you are a wizard, but you are currently playing Multiplayer with another wizard who happened to loot the "skill" bag. The third possibility is that you are a wizard and you threw away the Special Arcane Gem skill check item.
Depends on your class skill.
If you are a Fighter (Dungoneering) - you have to activate the 2 small statues to allow pushing the big one.
If you are a rogue (Thievery) - the key is located on a small ledge on the right side off the stairs. *Rogue key is hard to find.
If you are a wizard (Arcane) - Behind the stairs on the wall.
If you are a cleric (Religion) - approach the large headless statue on the top floor and pray at its sword.
If you are a ranger (Nature) - approach the hidden flowers in the grass, summon the wolf, and answer his question.
Are warlocks unable to jump? I haven't touched the new class or the game much in the past month. It sounds like you got past the beginning part with a class skill (which I assume is Arcane?).
*For a thread with barely 3 pages, it sure has a lot of views...