Some suggestions to help solve the judging problem for 97 entries. Considering 10am deadline is now passed, I feel entries need to be whittled out to what is truly eligible for consideration.
1) Start with the criteria for the contest. a) All Entries Must Be Average of 15 minutes - I interpreted this rule as being accomplished before the deadline. If that is correct, Therefore, Akro, enter every short code into the Catalog. If the average is not 15 minutes, it's disqualified. I've found at least five that do not meet that criteria. If the correct rule interpretation was that after the deadline, they had until the final voting date to amass enough plays to get that average, that was not clear to me. Next contest, try to clarify. Maybe have it so it meets the requirements at least of Daily Foundry.
2) No more editing or republishing of contest entries. Make that as a hard rule. You can see in the quest description the last date it was edited. Anything edited after deadline is disqualified. Make it clearer next contest.
3) Define what is meant by the criteria "Must include the Cult of the Dragon". Is it creature based? Lore based? Layout based? People mentioned concern about people just making maps and dropping fifty encounters. Great for the participation reward, but not the judging award, in my book. These should not be eligible for the main prizes.
4) Define Criteria of Old quests that have been repurposed will be not considered. Who knows what old quests would be repurposed? How is that known? Did it mean published quests or content that was created/still being worked on within someone's foundry when this contest was announced? Some dev could use their higher access to check the quests against that user's foundry log, see if they duplicated then deleted a quest.
These four steps can narrow down eligibility without any community judging at all. Then your list will be slightly more manageable.
How to whittle further and efficiently? Akro, I suggest you pick a small team of anonymous judges/helpers. Other devs, employees of Cryptic. Forum moderators. Members of the community that really stand out to you as community members of fairness and objectivity who haven't entered into the contest. Swear them to secrecy and have them stay anonymous to avoid any backlash.. Assign each one like five contest entries to run in order to see if they meet the basic contest criteria of "adhering to rules of Foundry EULA". These people could also be used to check the suggestions I made 1-4, or any other contest criteria.
AFTER all this, then you can submit to the community at large a shortened list of truly eligible contest entries for community judging. The community should not determine the eligibility at this point, imo. With a dedicated group of anonymous helpers, this can be achieved in a day or two, not two months.
As far as how to present all the entries for judging... I personally would like to see a decision made before the module release. New modules all too often break foundries. But it also means access to new foundry content. And certain foundry bugs might be fixed. Entries could potentially be edited with different graphics and stuff people had not seen before in a foundry simply because it wasn't available before the mod. Higher voting could be achieved on those grounds because of new effects and graphics and players going "oo shiny". There'd be no way to track post-mod-release contest entries that were edited because the release messed them up, or edited with new things that weren't available that now made their entry "better".
Make all the final entries that are truly eligible for judging "featured". Make announcements on main forum pages, on the launcher screen. So people know where to go to find them.
Dragging this out two months, while a balanced idea, would also, I feel, lose the momentum this contest has already built in the community of playing these foundries and seeing who is the winner. As mentioned previously, some people will be too busy playing with the game dragons and the warlock to see what creative things came out of other players before dragons were more commonplace. After two months, once winners are announced, the impact of their foundry would be minimized.
just my two cents.
Hidden Valley Ranch - NW-DPNGENL6E D&D Adventures Part I House of 1000 Corpses - NW-DIEYVLCML D&D Adventures Part II Well of Dragons - NW-DTPJEKZCT Third Place Winner CotD Foundry Contest
It's Just a Flesh Wound Pt. 1 - NW-DM8GHAME2 Monty Python!
It's Just a Flesh Wound Pt. 2 - NW-DFADOS4EX Monty Python!
1st of all, try to avoid such things, they are annoying not viable and with unexpected behavior thus unreliable.
2nd, /loc usually returns relative height, especially in exterior maps. Relative to terrain height medium or max terrain height or min terrain height from author view. That cmd sux and does not reflect the expected to-zero height. As an example in one of the maps i used i have to subtract ~60ft to zero which /loc returns. Make ur own tests.
Exactly why I don't use "/loc" for height. It's always wrong. I use absolute x/y/z location relative to zero and verified by setting something on terrain and then "nudging" it up or down which turns it into relative to zero Y.
Unfortunately, we can't "avoid such things" if we have any need for...
Random numbers
AND different conditions
OR any conditions
Timed events
If we want "railroad track" story objective quests, then feel free to settle.
Here's the excerpt with the judging procedures:
"Starting Tuesday 8/19, we will start featuring the contest entries that are eligible for winning. We ask that all entrants make sure their Foundry quests are eligible for featuring and have been submitted for featuring. Due to the high volume of entries, we will be featuring the quests in batches to ensure all entries receive enough visibility. Each batch of entries will be featured for 1 week at a time and we will only count the stars accumulated during that week. Once a given entry's week is over, we will record the accumulated stars for quests featured that week in our super-secret ledger. When we have featured all of the eligible entries, we will declare the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize winners based upon their accumulated stars. We realize that this will result in us having to push back the date of our winner's announcement, so we've gone ahead and added 2 more "Judges Choice" prizes. These winners will be chosen by the Neverwinter team and they will each receive a Dragonborn Legend pack!"
Since originally the rules only stated that quests had to be posted in the forum thread, by when do we have to have submitted to Cryptic for featuring?
Since originally the rules only stated that quests had to be posted in the forum thread, by when do we have to have submitted to Cryptic for featuring?
Since submitted is separate from publishing, I'd say you'd better submit before they start featuring on 8/19.
...and apparently not publishing between now and then either.
Still not sure what happens when M4 breaks quests.
Since submitted is separate from publishing, I'd say you'd better submit before they start featuring on 8/19.
...and apparently not publishing between now and then either.
Still not sure what happens when M4 breaks quests.
The original post was extremely vague onto the rules of this contest. It seems they are changing them as they go. I was assuming that yesterday around 10am Cryptic saved the entry quests for reviewing. If they did not... well... that's entirely their lack of foresight. When I asked if we needed too submit the quest, I was told 'no'. Now they finally post that we are too submit it prior to the 19th. That means between now and the 19th... people will be updating their quests.
I'm a first time author, and i've had alot of fun making this quest. The top prizes would be nice, but i'm not thinking this is a positive experience anymore. People are just bickering now.
Like I said in an earlier post, I honestly think Cryptic should just give all the contestants a decent prize and an apology.
It's not shining a good light on the Foundry at the moment. Just my opinion.
Think about it outside the box for a minute. Let's say you're someone that's not informed about this contest or the game... all they know is a game company held a contest for player created content. They set dates, then at the end of those dates they changed the rules and everyone started arguing about disqualifying competitors.
If you're worried about competitors, you should be improving your quest. That's really pathetic.
If they are going to discard some entries because they put zero effort into it and didn't produce 15 minutes of content... that's fine. However if someone just popped 50 ecounters (very well) onto a map... with zero effort beyond that.... and the community voted it the best.... well that's an issue with the community, not the contest.
In the military we had a saying "HAMSTER Poor Planning equals HAMSTER Poor Performance". We call it the 3 P's equation.
Sorry to be blunt, but i'm standing behind Eldarth here.
I quit playing this game when Cryptic's Gauntlygrim expansion failed. It crashed the servers, didn't work right, and was actually offline (like chat is doing now in game). I came back almost a year later, and well they finally fixed Gauntylgrim and have other new content. So I stayed (for now).
I've already had errors occur in my quest. My quest worked fine when i submitted it yesterday morning, but someone told me they couldn't finish it in an email. So I went into my quest and a place marker for a storyline "reach point" had been moved. So either someone sabotaged my quest, or there's another Foundry bug out there. It's no longer a 'terrain' elevation. Not sure if that's what makes things go wonky or not. with changing elevation.
I'm still learning all the 'workarounds' for the Foundry, and learning their limitations. As an example, if I am too be disqualified for editing and republishing my quest for fixing a 'break'.... well. I got something too say to you that isn't very nice.
If the expansion breaks things even worse... yes i'm gonna go fix them and republish. If that disqualifies me, I will have something else to say that is even more 'not nice'.
So do you see my point about this no longer being a positive experience?
I gotta call bullpucky when I hear it, sorry if that offends anyone.
My reading of this is "Submit too be features by the 19th, it's ok too continue to work on your quest until then".
I honestly think Cryptic should just give all the contestants a decent prize and an apology. It's not shining a good light on the Foundry at the moment. Just my opinion.
I hear your frustration, and it's understandable. But I couldn't disagree more with your conclusion.
Let's face it: this contest has provided something of a learning opportunity for everyone... including Cryptic. We've discovered that hosting something like this is a bit complicated. So they've been quick to respond to the community questions and concerns, modifying the guidelines along the way in an effort to satisfy us and create a fair event.
Yes, that means the rules have morphed a bit, with more details being added. But I'm thrilled to see such responsiveness to the community, and I think the final set-up is about as fair as it can get.
Along the way the Foundry has received a lot of attention, with new Authors trying their hand at adventures and seasoned Authors having fun trying new things. The result is a whole bunch of new adventures for us to enjoy, and they're themed to the upcoming expansion. Awesome.
Has the implementation of the contest been perfect? Nah. It's a new endeavor that raised new challenges that needed to be solved. But at least Cryptic is offering us the event. And with some really, really great prizes, too. Heck, everyone who enters gets a companion at the very least, and that's just nifty. Plus you'll get an adventure featured, which will help toward those hard-to-get achievements. (Book Imp, anyone?) And even if we don't walk away with one of the top goodies, we're all winners because (and let me stand on my soapbox here)... the Foundry received some special attention! Woot!
Now consider how adding details to the rules actually affects an Author.
* We've known from the beginning what timeframe we faced. Quests had to be finished by a deadline.
* We've known the theme required for the adventures (Cult of the Dragon).
* We've known it needs to have an average playtime of 15 minutes.
* We've known it needs to meet the other Foundry criteria.
So we've had what we needed to create and publish our adventures. Obviously there was some wisdom to getting adventures published quickly and allowing time for feedback, pacing, tweaking, etc., and many Authors tood advantage of that.
All that's really changed in the rules is related to how the judging would take place to create a reasonably fair event that's still judged by the players. The fact that our adventures need to be submitted to be featured and judged isn't a big deal; just log in to the editor and hit "Submit." In fact, if you're reading this thread, you should go do that right now so everything's ready for the judging phase. There's certainly nothing in the rules addition that suggests Authors can continue tweaking their adventures past the deadline and submit them just before the 19th. And why would we? If we were ready by the deadline, then everything was published in its final form and it's just a 2-second exercise to make sure it's submitted to Cryptic now.
Oh, sure. There are concerns about the final judging. Leaving it to the players introduces a randomness and the opportunity to affect the results with recruiting friends to overload positive reviews or tank someone else with lousy reviews. But Cryptic knows this and will be watching for it.
But my bigger concern is that the entire experience would become so frustrating for Cryptic that they don't want to repeat it. If the Foundry community isn't supportive of their efforts to encourage us and promote this aspect of the game, why should they bother with another one down the road? And then we'd all lose out.
So, yeah, if you were expecting everything to be fully polished for the event, you're disappointed. I get it. But don't "throw the baby out with the bathwater" here. This whole event is a really GOOD thing for all of us.
Now, if you'll pardon me, I've got a whole lot of new Foundry adventures to explore...
I have to echo sc00ter here, changing the rules is confusing for sure but not a bad thing. It shows they care and they want to get this working fairly.
The new rules give everyone a better reward, being featured for one is one of the more difficulty achievements to get as a new author, and this will give you free publicity and 1000 more plays than you would have gotten otherwise. Including the pet these two things are more of a reward than the original (even with 3 weeks without being featured you are looking at 10-30 rates without guild help.) it also means sabotage is more difficult.
Getting new authors into the foundry is another great thing. I haven't played more than 15-20 of these quests and im excited to see what new foundry wizards are out there.
I've already had errors occur in my quest. My quest worked fine when i submitted it yesterday morning, but someone told me they couldn't finish it in an email. So I went into my quest and a place marker for a storyline "reach point" had been moved. So either someone sabotaged my quest, or there's another Foundry bug out there. It's no longer a 'terrain' elevation. Not sure if that's what makes things go wonky or not. with changing elevation.
I kind of fall into the "any publicity is good publicity" camp on this contest though. Yeah, there are some warts and possible issues, but there was no way of predicting the overwhelming response. I think they've done a fairly decent job triaging the contest. Consider the last foundry contest had ELEVEN entries. This one broke a HUNDRED I think.
The point of having the start date later is in case the new Module corrupts and changes some foundry and creates issues. It is so people can edit the foundry in case of the module corrupting it.
Genus Draco Fad and the Muster@Jintortle
ID: NW-DD5FLOBTJ Cult of the Dragon Foundry Contest - Please participate and vote for your favourite - 26/6/2014 contest rating begins.
Sir Camps A Lot. Mr SlingShot Boom. XX Phantasmagorical. Jinn Dragonfeast.
SlingShot Boom Jr. Jocan Traders. Little Lord Forgatty, Dwarf Mean and introducing Necro Torquemada (The Warlock)
If the quests need to be submitted perhaps a new announce thread should be posted. Not sure if everyone goes through this thread looking for annoucement (since its only a discussion thread).
Ok, sounds good, but I'm a little confused--are we now allowed to edit our quests up until 8/19? Or no? There are a few things I wouldn't mind improving on mine but I've been hands-off since the previously announced deadline of 8/6...
this stuff is also unclear, someone told me a copy is being made on cryptics end so you was free to edit but later edits dont count.
Listen man, Cryptic flaked out on us. They're trying to make things right, but they just didn't do any planning. There was probably a marketing meeting like "hey our Foundry is getting horrible reviews. Anyone got some idea to pump life back into it?". Now we have a contest (probably because of a meeting just like what I mentioned or something similar) that has around 100 entries from what I hear.
I wouldn't worry about being disqualified, I know that I'm not because even if my foundry was the best candidate... I would never receive anything from Cryptic. They have a ponzi scheme business model, and I doubt anyone will get a prize other than who they want too. If you want some related research try this link :
I'm not bashing the Asians. Just saying that you could blog about their gaming business models for years. They all boil down to a scam. They don't want to spend revenue on labour "ie competent software developers" or operating expenses (bandwidth leasing, server hardware ect), so they gouge for what little content they can acquire at minimum cost. We all know it takes a subscription model and a customer base with numbers to produce enough revenue to afford those things.
So don't worry about getting a prize from them for a 'player made content design contest', because even if you had the winning entry... you'll never collect unless you take them to court.
As I said earlier... they should just apologize and send prizes out too everyone. They wanted to shine a positive light upon the Foundry, and ended up with an even worse mess. Moreover... if they don't fix Dungeon Chests in today's patch (PONSI scheme anyone?) then I think things might get ugly for their income. Hard to say though... they picked the right IP to shove an item mall scam into. DnD fans are diehard suckers. Yes I'm talking about myself included.
I wouldn't worry about being disqualified, I know that I'm not because even if my foundry was the best candidate... I would never receive anything from Cryptic. They have a ponzi scheme business model, and I doubt anyone will get a prize other than who they want too. If you want some related research try this link :
I'm not bashing the Asians. Just saying that you could blog about their gaming business models for years. They all boil down to a scam. They don't want to spend revenue on labour "ie competent software developers" or operating expenses (bandwidth leasing, server hardware ect), so they gouge for what little content they can acquire at minimum cost. We all know it takes a subscription model and a customer base with numbers to produce enough revenue to afford those things.
So don't worry about getting a prize from them for a 'player made content design contest', because even if you had the winning entry... you'll never collect unless you take them to court.
As I said earlier... they should just apologize and send prizes out too everyone. They wanted to shine a positive light upon the Foundry, and ended up with an even worse mess. Moreover... if they don't fix Dungeon Chests in today's patch (PONSI scheme anyone?) then I think things might get ugly for their income.
Nuff said...
The contest is a friendly way to give builders the chance to share their creativity with the Neverwinter community and compete for a grand prize. There was nothing in the article linking Cryptic to shamming their audience with a phony contest and a trick prize. In regards to the article on false business models, there is no direct connection to Cryptic and I fail to see how the two are related in the least.
I agreed with the statement that because of the massive turnout, the contest was a triumph. I'm paraphrasing, but the comment was more or less to that affect. Judging the worth of the Foundry entries is a difficult task, but nothing comes easy. My advice is the gratification in building these quests to share is worth the wait, and renouncing your chances of winning to the whims Cryptic or anything else exposes a flaw in logic. I found after I had published, and not until the contest began, did I notice small spelling and grammar mistakes. I quickly went to edit my dialogues in case anyone else noticed, but it was too late. I spent so long editing my adventure to make it playable, and eliminate any bugs, that I forgot to check for grammar and spelling. I only found three minor errors, and I hope no one notices. I certainly don't think I'll lose any points for typos, and my entry is only as good as it is.
Amounting to something more is making a mountain out of a mole hill.
they should just apologize and send prizes out too everyone.
For those who are thinking along these lines I would just like to point out that, basically, they are giving prizes to every single eligible entry. On top of the green companion (which many already have) they are featuring every eligible entry, which was supposed to be a PRIZE for the best entry/entries. For those who haven't had a quest featured before, it almost guarantees a Book Imp. Those entrants who have created several quests before this and don't already have it would also likely end up with a Silverback Bear mount (less likely but for some it could push them over that hump).
So I am a little surprised to see complaints about this. Win or lose, every single eligible entrant will likely end up unlocking several relatively difficult to acquire achievements and find themself with several thousand plays, an account-wide purple companion, and possibly an account-wide purple mount. That IS giving out prizes to everyone.
Just pointing that out for the naysayers out there.
Edit: I may have rambled a bit and my point may have gotten a bit muddled. To elucidate my original point: everyone who entered the contest will end up "winning." It may not be one of the packs, but it will be more than was originally advertised. Further, the biggest winners will be new authors, who stand to gain much more from having their entry Featured than those who already have a lot of exposure. Don't worry so much about the big prizes and looks at this as what it is: a great opportunity with more rewards than a few packs. You can buy those packs with real money if they are that important. You can't buy the exposure or foundry achievement rewards.
I'd like to start by thanking you guys for sticking with me through all of this. Your support means a lot and like it's been said: we've all learned a lot from this. I've really enjoyed playing through your Foundry adventures (haven't gotten through all of them just yet) and I really want to do something similar to this contest again (though I'll probably be doing the judging).
That being said, entries need to be submitted for featuring by the 19th. Out of concern for M4-related Foundry bugs, I think it's only fair if we let people have a chance to edit their quests until 6AM PDT on the 19th. Hopefully there will be no issues, but I feel that this at least gives entrants time to adapt accordingly.
I truly believe that the Foundry is one of the greatest features Neverwinter has to offer and I look forward to experiencing more of your art created from it. Yes, the turnout was unexpectedly large and yes, we've had to adapt some thing. Will all participants get a green-level Mystagogue companion? Of course! Will we be featuring quests that are eligible? Yes! Will we be giving out prizes based on the stars accumulated during their featuring week in addition to our favorites (Judges' Choice)? Umberlee be praised, yes! Have I gained something that will help me run better Foundry challenges? You bet your Book Imps, yes.
Come to think of it...this would make an interesting story for a Foundry mission, eh?
If we were supposed to get that 15 minute average BEFORE the deadline then I hope next time it's specified more clearly. Speaking as one with a potentially short quest, it's a shame if Cryptic staff don't check out all the quests regardless - even if they don't get featured. If they're too short at least it will make for a quick run through right? :P
I'd prefer to get a "Hey, thanks for participating but your quest was too short," message from Akro rather than have my attempt just be ignored altogether.
If we were supposed to get that 15 minute average BEFORE the deadline then I hope next time it's specified more clearly. Speaking as one with a potentially short quest, it's a shame if Cryptic staff don't check out all the quests regardless - even if they don't get featured. If they're too short at least it will make for a quick run through right? :P
I'd prefer to get a "Hey, thanks for participating but your quest was too short," message from Akro rather than have my attempt just be ignored altogether.
I have obtained many energy drinks and some helpers to help make sure that standards are maintained with the Foundry entries.
I have obtained many energy drinks and some helpers to help make sure that standards are maintained with the Foundry entries.
Awesome. Be sure to give them cookies after too!
Also, just read about the extension now (is blind). Not that I can extend my quest much anyway given its nature but at least I can make it prettier? Haha! So just wondering, if we have hit the "submit to cryptic" button then press it again after edits, do you get the latest version of the quest or two versions entirely? If the latter do you just look at the submission date and go with the latest?
If you can't stand on a chest, it is a mimic!
0
drakkenfelMember, Neverwinter Beta Users, Neverwinter Hero Users, Neverwinter Knight of the Feywild UsersPosts: 71
I'd like to start by thanking you guys for sticking with me through all of this. Your support means a lot and like it's been said: we've all learned a lot from this. I've really enjoyed playing through your Foundry adventures (haven't gotten through all of them just yet) and I really want to do something similar to this contest again (though I'll probably be doing the judging).
That being said, entries need to be submitted for featuring by the 19th. Out of concern for M4-related Foundry bugs, I think it's only fair if we let people have a chance to edit their quests until 6AM PDT on the 19th. Hopefully there will be no issues, but I feel that this at least gives entrants time to adapt accordingly.
I truly believe that the Foundry is one of the greatest features Neverwinter has to offer and I look forward to experiencing more of your art created from it. Yes, the turnout was unexpectedly large and yes, we've had to adapt some thing. Will all participants get a green-level Mystagogue companion? Of course! Will we be featuring quests that are eligible? Yes! Will we be giving out prizes based on the stars accumulated during their featuring week in addition to our favorites (Judges' Choice)? Umberlee be praised, yes! Have I gained something that will help me run better Foundry challenges? You bet your Book Imps, yes.
Come to think of it...this would make an interesting story for a Foundry mission, eh?
We can't ask for much more than that. You are doing a great job. Thanks for the opportunity to do something fun!
On to my next Foundry mission. Where can I take it from here? There is a method to my madness, afterall... :-)
@METH_SHADOWSTORM - Foundry author of: "The Sunnydale Campaign" - NWS-DKBEJ9OOM
Episode 1: "Missing Daughters" - NW-DCX9IZBJB
Episode 2: "A Date With Destiny" - NW-DHYEX5NKR - Featured: NW-DHFLDPWJV
STO Foundry: "Safari So Good" - ST-HPRP2WFWI
Yes, I am pleased with the changes they've made. I look forward to the next challenge. I have fun with this one, and I am sure the next one will be even better.
So just wondering, if we have hit the "submit to cryptic" button then press it again after edits, do you get the latest version of the quest or two versions entirely? If the latter do you just look at the submission date and go with the latest?
The quest doesn't get copied until they decide to feature it - so submitting it is just a pre-approval for them to feature it should they chose to do so.
I'm not sure if the "submit to cryptic" flag gets turned off when you publish, but I'd publish and then hit submit again just to be sure.
The quest doesn't get copied until they decide to feature it - so submitting it is just a pre-approval for them to feature it should they chose to do so.
I'm not sure if the "submit to cryptic" flag gets turned off when you publish, but I'd publish and then hit submit again just to be sure.
From experience, I can tell you that yes, edits made after submitting will still be applied until they actually feature your quest, and no, the button is not turned off when you re-publish. In fact, as far as I can tell, there's no way to unsubmit once the button's been clicked.
For those who are thinking along these lines I would just like to point out that, basically, they are giving prizes to every single eligible entry. On top of the green companion (which many already have) they are featuring every eligible entry, which was supposed to be a PRIZE for the best entry/entries. For those who haven't had a quest featured before, it almost guarantees a Book Imp. Those entrants who have created several quests before this and don't already have it would also likely end up with a Silverback Bear mount (less likely but for some it could push them over that hump).
So I am a little surprised to see complaints about this. Win or lose, every single eligible entrant will likely end up unlocking several relatively difficult to acquire achievements and find themself with several thousand plays, an account-wide purple companion, and possibly an account-wide purple mount. That IS giving out prizes to everyone.
Just pointing that out for the naysayers out there.
Edit: I may have rambled a bit and my point may have gotten a bit muddled. To elucidate my original point: everyone who entered the contest will end up "winning." It may not be one of the packs, but it will be more than was originally advertised. Further, the biggest winners will be new authors, who stand to gain much more from having their entry Featured than those who already have a lot of exposure. Don't worry so much about the big prizes and looks at this as what it is: a great opportunity with more rewards than a few packs. You can buy those packs with real money if they are that important. You can't buy the exposure or foundry achievement rewards.
I have to admit, I didnt' think about the achievements. That doesn't change the fact that most people consider the Foundry in general of poor quality, and not worth playing. I didn't make that up, it's very true. The exploitation that occured in beta led Cryptic to severely limit the Foundry's offerings. It's hard to blame them when you see some of the maps set up for "easy and safe leveling area"... like a buncha of mobs boxed in by walls....with a stand for a mage to blast them safely from a distance. I don't blame them for making the rewards miniscule. However, this mostly revovles around their business model. Gold really doesn't have any use in the game, other than buying potions and injury kits. Few items that drop sell for anything other than a few Astral Diamonds. That's really second hand though, when you think about how long it's been since t2 dungeon chests have worked properly. What's the point of new players leveling up if they can't get the end game gear that veteran players have had for a year?
That discussion belongs in a different thread, I know, but things like this are ever-present in a Neverwinter players' mind. It just feels like they intend it too be this way because it's been this way for so long. This is why I consider it a ponsi scheme. They gouge us for horribly overpriced bundles instead of a subscription each month, and they have tied in a way for them to charge you for every bit of money that they can. They charge for inventory space. They charge for mounts. They charge for Enchants. They charge for anything that they can fit the asian ponsi scheme business model into. This isn't a new thing, games like this across asia have been around for a quite some time now.
So when those of us who are here to design some content get frustrated that they can't even put in skill nodes, or even have t1 loot drop in their chests.... it's disappointing beyond words.
My apologies if I ruffled too many feathers, but I thought I would elaborate for THE last time. I'm dropping the subject all together.
On the brighter side of things, for those that are actually going to submit their quests... good luck and I'm hoping to review as many as I can. I've already found a couple fun ones. My quest that I worked on is named Arselu'Tel'Quess it's published live now. I will be continuing my work on it as a campaign sometime in the future. First time author, but the maps are great from what i've been told.
Of course... yesterday I found about 200 objects deleted from it on the Foundry servers (including more than half my teleporters)....
but that's a different story. *grumble grumble*
All my characters already have one - can I get something different?
Genus Draco Fad and the Muster@Jintortle
ID: NW-DD5FLOBTJ Cult of the Dragon Foundry Contest - Please participate and vote for your favourite - 26/6/2014 contest rating begins.
Sir Camps A Lot. Mr SlingShot Boom. XX Phantasmagorical. Jinn Dragonfeast.
SlingShot Boom Jr. Jocan Traders. Little Lord Forgatty, Dwarf Mean and introducing Necro Torquemada (The Warlock)
So can we still edit our quests before 19? I'm a little confused.
Echo of the Ancient - NW-DT2ABLPD2 - The Wizards forces are pillaging ruins of the ancient, elven kingdom of Illefarn. In order to stop them, you need to lead your party through old, abandoned mines. But beware... you are not alone there...
So can we still edit our quests before 19? I'm a little confused.
Listen man, work on your quest and submit it for featuring before the 19th. That's exactly what the update on the official thread says. The cut off date to be an entry was the 6th at 10am PDT. They aren't accepting new submissions.
This was up in the air, nobody knew for sure. We all assumed that on the 6th at 10am... the contest would end. It's now officially extended to August 19th (unspecified time). A few posters mentioned that patches (like the upcoming Dragonborn expansion) usually break the foundry quests, and there was discussion about other things. So Cryptic has extended the deadline too the 19th.
That much is in the words that they posted.
I would like to point out since last night, the Foundry has been full of errors and isn't working properly. I can only assume this wasn't intentional, and the patch made things go wonky. I still haven't fixed all of the errors and deletions that happened to my quest last night. Some of my teleporters were simply missing like they were deleted... all of my reach points and place markers had their elevations changed (someone said due too being set on 'terrain' and not 'zero altitude') and I've had things moved around like some 5 year old went 'ape crazy' in my Foundry editor.
This is just an example of why they extended the contest. At the moment, if anyone else's editor isn't working correctly like mine, all I can say is... my patience is thinning and helpful ideas are appreciated.
Just so my positive side is out there for people to see, since I began this contest... I've had quite a bit of help from people using the foundry. Lotta great folks around to help. That's always a good thing. I've also become motivated to improve my quest, and I have learned to appreciate any feedback from people. Opinion's vary of course, but suggestions are always welcome. I think the overall experience of the contest has been a good thing (minus the bickering of certain people about disqualificaitons). I'm over that now, just gonna ignore them and grind it out till things in mine are back to 'working condition' so I can actually submit the quest for featuring.
I'm very glad they extended the date now, because I didn't realize how many errors patching would entail. You should probably read the whole blog, because I learned quite a bit from others' past experience here.
D'oh, I just realized I'll be away at GenCon during the "fix-it" period. Oh well. Hopefully nothing breaks. BUT, I always try to future proof my quests by not being too tricky with the tools, so I feel pretty confident.
D'oh, I just realized I'll be away at GenCon during the "fix-it" period. Oh well. Hopefully nothing breaks. BUT, I always try to future proof my quests by not being too tricky with the tools, so I feel pretty confident.
Comments
1) Start with the criteria for the contest. a) All Entries Must Be Average of 15 minutes - I interpreted this rule as being accomplished before the deadline. If that is correct, Therefore, Akro, enter every short code into the Catalog. If the average is not 15 minutes, it's disqualified. I've found at least five that do not meet that criteria. If the correct rule interpretation was that after the deadline, they had until the final voting date to amass enough plays to get that average, that was not clear to me. Next contest, try to clarify. Maybe have it so it meets the requirements at least of Daily Foundry.
2) No more editing or republishing of contest entries. Make that as a hard rule. You can see in the quest description the last date it was edited. Anything edited after deadline is disqualified. Make it clearer next contest.
3) Define what is meant by the criteria "Must include the Cult of the Dragon". Is it creature based? Lore based? Layout based? People mentioned concern about people just making maps and dropping fifty encounters. Great for the participation reward, but not the judging award, in my book. These should not be eligible for the main prizes.
4) Define Criteria of Old quests that have been repurposed will be not considered. Who knows what old quests would be repurposed? How is that known? Did it mean published quests or content that was created/still being worked on within someone's foundry when this contest was announced? Some dev could use their higher access to check the quests against that user's foundry log, see if they duplicated then deleted a quest.
These four steps can narrow down eligibility without any community judging at all. Then your list will be slightly more manageable.
How to whittle further and efficiently? Akro, I suggest you pick a small team of anonymous judges/helpers. Other devs, employees of Cryptic. Forum moderators. Members of the community that really stand out to you as community members of fairness and objectivity who haven't entered into the contest. Swear them to secrecy and have them stay anonymous to avoid any backlash.. Assign each one like five contest entries to run in order to see if they meet the basic contest criteria of "adhering to rules of Foundry EULA". These people could also be used to check the suggestions I made 1-4, or any other contest criteria.
AFTER all this, then you can submit to the community at large a shortened list of truly eligible contest entries for community judging. The community should not determine the eligibility at this point, imo. With a dedicated group of anonymous helpers, this can be achieved in a day or two, not two months.
As far as how to present all the entries for judging... I personally would like to see a decision made before the module release. New modules all too often break foundries. But it also means access to new foundry content. And certain foundry bugs might be fixed. Entries could potentially be edited with different graphics and stuff people had not seen before in a foundry simply because it wasn't available before the mod. Higher voting could be achieved on those grounds because of new effects and graphics and players going "oo shiny". There'd be no way to track post-mod-release contest entries that were edited because the release messed them up, or edited with new things that weren't available that now made their entry "better".
Make all the final entries that are truly eligible for judging "featured". Make announcements on main forum pages, on the launcher screen. So people know where to go to find them.
Dragging this out two months, while a balanced idea, would also, I feel, lose the momentum this contest has already built in the community of playing these foundries and seeing who is the winner. As mentioned previously, some people will be too busy playing with the game dragons and the warlock to see what creative things came out of other players before dragons were more commonplace. After two months, once winners are announced, the impact of their foundry would be minimized.
just my two cents.
House of 1000 Corpses - NW-DIEYVLCML D&D Adventures Part II
Well of Dragons - NW-DTPJEKZCT Third Place Winner CotD Foundry Contest
It's Just a Flesh Wound Pt. 1 - NW-DM8GHAME2 Monty Python!
It's Just a Flesh Wound Pt. 2 - NW-DFADOS4EX Monty Python!
Exactly why I don't use "/loc" for height. It's always wrong. I use absolute x/y/z location relative to zero and verified by setting something on terrain and then "nudging" it up or down which turns it into relative to zero Y.
Unfortunately, we can't "avoid such things" if we have any need for...
If we want "railroad track" story objective quests, then feel free to settle.
Me? I want better.
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter/news/detail/6002703-cult-of-the-dragon-foundry-contest
Here's the excerpt with the judging procedures:
"Starting Tuesday 8/19, we will start featuring the contest entries that are eligible for winning. We ask that all entrants make sure their Foundry quests are eligible for featuring and have been submitted for featuring. Due to the high volume of entries, we will be featuring the quests in batches to ensure all entries receive enough visibility. Each batch of entries will be featured for 1 week at a time and we will only count the stars accumulated during that week. Once a given entry's week is over, we will record the accumulated stars for quests featured that week in our super-secret ledger. When we have featured all of the eligible entries, we will declare the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd prize winners based upon their accumulated stars. We realize that this will result in us having to push back the date of our winner's announcement, so we've gone ahead and added 2 more "Judges Choice" prizes. These winners will be chosen by the Neverwinter team and they will each receive a Dragonborn Legend pack!"
Since submitted is separate from publishing, I'd say you'd better submit before they start featuring on 8/19.
...and apparently not publishing between now and then either.
Still not sure what happens when M4 breaks quests.
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
The original post was extremely vague onto the rules of this contest. It seems they are changing them as they go. I was assuming that yesterday around 10am Cryptic saved the entry quests for reviewing. If they did not... well... that's entirely their lack of foresight. When I asked if we needed too submit the quest, I was told 'no'. Now they finally post that we are too submit it prior to the 19th. That means between now and the 19th... people will be updating their quests.
I'm a first time author, and i've had alot of fun making this quest. The top prizes would be nice, but i'm not thinking this is a positive experience anymore. People are just bickering now.
Like I said in an earlier post, I honestly think Cryptic should just give all the contestants a decent prize and an apology.
It's not shining a good light on the Foundry at the moment. Just my opinion.
Think about it outside the box for a minute. Let's say you're someone that's not informed about this contest or the game... all they know is a game company held a contest for player created content. They set dates, then at the end of those dates they changed the rules and everyone started arguing about disqualifying competitors.
If you're worried about competitors, you should be improving your quest. That's really pathetic.
If they are going to discard some entries because they put zero effort into it and didn't produce 15 minutes of content... that's fine. However if someone just popped 50 ecounters (very well) onto a map... with zero effort beyond that.... and the community voted it the best.... well that's an issue with the community, not the contest.
In the military we had a saying "HAMSTER Poor Planning equals HAMSTER Poor Performance". We call it the 3 P's equation.
Sorry to be blunt, but i'm standing behind Eldarth here.
I quit playing this game when Cryptic's Gauntlygrim expansion failed. It crashed the servers, didn't work right, and was actually offline (like chat is doing now in game). I came back almost a year later, and well they finally fixed Gauntylgrim and have other new content. So I stayed (for now).
I've already had errors occur in my quest. My quest worked fine when i submitted it yesterday morning, but someone told me they couldn't finish it in an email. So I went into my quest and a place marker for a storyline "reach point" had been moved. So either someone sabotaged my quest, or there's another Foundry bug out there. It's no longer a 'terrain' elevation. Not sure if that's what makes things go wonky or not. with changing elevation.
I'm still learning all the 'workarounds' for the Foundry, and learning their limitations. As an example, if I am too be disqualified for editing and republishing my quest for fixing a 'break'.... well. I got something too say to you that isn't very nice.
If the expansion breaks things even worse... yes i'm gonna go fix them and republish. If that disqualifies me, I will have something else to say that is even more 'not nice'.
So do you see my point about this no longer being a positive experience?
I gotta call bullpucky when I hear it, sorry if that offends anyone.
My reading of this is "Submit too be features by the 19th, it's ok too continue to work on your quest until then".
Best of Luck,
Me.
I hear your frustration, and it's understandable. But I couldn't disagree more with your conclusion.
Let's face it: this contest has provided something of a learning opportunity for everyone... including Cryptic. We've discovered that hosting something like this is a bit complicated. So they've been quick to respond to the community questions and concerns, modifying the guidelines along the way in an effort to satisfy us and create a fair event.
Yes, that means the rules have morphed a bit, with more details being added. But I'm thrilled to see such responsiveness to the community, and I think the final set-up is about as fair as it can get.
Along the way the Foundry has received a lot of attention, with new Authors trying their hand at adventures and seasoned Authors having fun trying new things. The result is a whole bunch of new adventures for us to enjoy, and they're themed to the upcoming expansion. Awesome.
Has the implementation of the contest been perfect? Nah. It's a new endeavor that raised new challenges that needed to be solved. But at least Cryptic is offering us the event. And with some really, really great prizes, too. Heck, everyone who enters gets a companion at the very least, and that's just nifty. Plus you'll get an adventure featured, which will help toward those hard-to-get achievements. (Book Imp, anyone?) And even if we don't walk away with one of the top goodies, we're all winners because (and let me stand on my soapbox here)... the Foundry received some special attention! Woot!
Now consider how adding details to the rules actually affects an Author.
* We've known from the beginning what timeframe we faced. Quests had to be finished by a deadline.
* We've known the theme required for the adventures (Cult of the Dragon).
* We've known it needs to have an average playtime of 15 minutes.
* We've known it needs to meet the other Foundry criteria.
So we've had what we needed to create and publish our adventures. Obviously there was some wisdom to getting adventures published quickly and allowing time for feedback, pacing, tweaking, etc., and many Authors tood advantage of that.
All that's really changed in the rules is related to how the judging would take place to create a reasonably fair event that's still judged by the players. The fact that our adventures need to be submitted to be featured and judged isn't a big deal; just log in to the editor and hit "Submit." In fact, if you're reading this thread, you should go do that right now so everything's ready for the judging phase. There's certainly nothing in the rules addition that suggests Authors can continue tweaking their adventures past the deadline and submit them just before the 19th. And why would we? If we were ready by the deadline, then everything was published in its final form and it's just a 2-second exercise to make sure it's submitted to Cryptic now.
Oh, sure. There are concerns about the final judging. Leaving it to the players introduces a randomness and the opportunity to affect the results with recruiting friends to overload positive reviews or tank someone else with lousy reviews. But Cryptic knows this and will be watching for it.
But my bigger concern is that the entire experience would become so frustrating for Cryptic that they don't want to repeat it. If the Foundry community isn't supportive of their efforts to encourage us and promote this aspect of the game, why should they bother with another one down the road? And then we'd all lose out.
So, yeah, if you were expecting everything to be fully polished for the event, you're disappointed. I get it. But don't "throw the baby out with the bathwater" here. This whole event is a really GOOD thing for all of us.
Now, if you'll pardon me, I've got a whole lot of new Foundry adventures to explore...
The new rules give everyone a better reward, being featured for one is one of the more difficulty achievements to get as a new author, and this will give you free publicity and 1000 more plays than you would have gotten otherwise. Including the pet these two things are more of a reward than the original (even with 3 weeks without being featured you are looking at 10-30 rates without guild help.) it also means sabotage is more difficult.
Getting new authors into the foundry is another great thing. I haven't played more than 15-20 of these quests and im excited to see what new foundry wizards are out there.
and also the featured satirical comedic adventure "A Call for Heroes".
Oh, you mean like these two?....
11-03-2013 [intermittent] Patrol points/markers/trap emitters set to 0,0,0 when 3D edit enabled
11-12-2013 Foundry instability/data-corruption
I kind of fall into the "any publicity is good publicity" camp on this contest though. Yeah, there are some warts and possible issues, but there was no way of predicting the overwhelming response. I think they've done a fairly decent job triaging the contest. Consider the last foundry contest had ELEVEN entries. This one broke a HUNDRED I think.
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
ID: NW-DD5FLOBTJ Cult of the Dragon Foundry Contest - Please participate and vote for your favourite - 26/6/2014 contest rating begins.
Sir Camps A Lot. Mr SlingShot Boom. XX Phantasmagorical. Jinn Dragonfeast.
SlingShot Boom Jr. Jocan Traders. Little Lord Forgatty, Dwarf Mean and introducing Necro Torquemada (The Warlock)
this stuff is also unclear, someone told me a copy is being made on cryptics end so you was free to edit but later edits dont count.
/Confused
and also the featured satirical comedic adventure "A Call for Heroes".
I wouldn't worry about being disqualified, I know that I'm not because even if my foundry was the best candidate... I would never receive anything from Cryptic. They have a ponzi scheme business model, and I doubt anyone will get a prize other than who they want too. If you want some related research try this link :
http://www.sec.gov/News/PressRelease/Detail/PressRelease/1370541324305#.U-OGZ6NX4_Q
I'm not bashing the Asians. Just saying that you could blog about their gaming business models for years. They all boil down to a scam. They don't want to spend revenue on labour "ie competent software developers" or operating expenses (bandwidth leasing, server hardware ect), so they gouge for what little content they can acquire at minimum cost. We all know it takes a subscription model and a customer base with numbers to produce enough revenue to afford those things.
So don't worry about getting a prize from them for a 'player made content design contest', because even if you had the winning entry... you'll never collect unless you take them to court.
As I said earlier... they should just apologize and send prizes out too everyone. They wanted to shine a positive light upon the Foundry, and ended up with an even worse mess. Moreover... if they don't fix Dungeon Chests in today's patch (PONSI scheme anyone?) then I think things might get ugly for their income. Hard to say though... they picked the right IP to shove an item mall scam into. DnD fans are diehard suckers. Yes I'm talking about myself included.
Nuff said...
The contest is a friendly way to give builders the chance to share their creativity with the Neverwinter community and compete for a grand prize. There was nothing in the article linking Cryptic to shamming their audience with a phony contest and a trick prize. In regards to the article on false business models, there is no direct connection to Cryptic and I fail to see how the two are related in the least.
I agreed with the statement that because of the massive turnout, the contest was a triumph. I'm paraphrasing, but the comment was more or less to that affect. Judging the worth of the Foundry entries is a difficult task, but nothing comes easy. My advice is the gratification in building these quests to share is worth the wait, and renouncing your chances of winning to the whims Cryptic or anything else exposes a flaw in logic. I found after I had published, and not until the contest began, did I notice small spelling and grammar mistakes. I quickly went to edit my dialogues in case anyone else noticed, but it was too late. I spent so long editing my adventure to make it playable, and eliminate any bugs, that I forgot to check for grammar and spelling. I only found three minor errors, and I hope no one notices. I certainly don't think I'll lose any points for typos, and my entry is only as good as it is.
Amounting to something more is making a mountain out of a mole hill.
For those who are thinking along these lines I would just like to point out that, basically, they are giving prizes to every single eligible entry. On top of the green companion (which many already have) they are featuring every eligible entry, which was supposed to be a PRIZE for the best entry/entries. For those who haven't had a quest featured before, it almost guarantees a Book Imp. Those entrants who have created several quests before this and don't already have it would also likely end up with a Silverback Bear mount (less likely but for some it could push them over that hump).
So I am a little surprised to see complaints about this. Win or lose, every single eligible entrant will likely end up unlocking several relatively difficult to acquire achievements and find themself with several thousand plays, an account-wide purple companion, and possibly an account-wide purple mount. That IS giving out prizes to everyone.
Just pointing that out for the naysayers out there.
Edit: I may have rambled a bit and my point may have gotten a bit muddled. To elucidate my original point: everyone who entered the contest will end up "winning." It may not be one of the packs, but it will be more than was originally advertised. Further, the biggest winners will be new authors, who stand to gain much more from having their entry Featured than those who already have a lot of exposure. Don't worry so much about the big prizes and looks at this as what it is: a great opportunity with more rewards than a few packs. You can buy those packs with real money if they are that important. You can't buy the exposure or foundry achievement rewards.
Frozen Folly (NW-DEVSLU387, NW-DNETAP6GR)
Bargain Hunting (NW-DNFK5E9HB)
Draylor - 60 CW
Artek - 60 GF
Treponema - 60 DC
Tymber - 60 GWF
Borellia - 60 TR
Leptospira - 45 HR
Greetings adventurers,
I'd like to start by thanking you guys for sticking with me through all of this. Your support means a lot and like it's been said: we've all learned a lot from this. I've really enjoyed playing through your Foundry adventures (haven't gotten through all of them just yet) and I really want to do something similar to this contest again (though I'll probably be doing the judging).
That being said, entries need to be submitted for featuring by the 19th. Out of concern for M4-related Foundry bugs, I think it's only fair if we let people have a chance to edit their quests until 6AM PDT on the 19th. Hopefully there will be no issues, but I feel that this at least gives entrants time to adapt accordingly.
I truly believe that the Foundry is one of the greatest features Neverwinter has to offer and I look forward to experiencing more of your art created from it. Yes, the turnout was unexpectedly large and yes, we've had to adapt some thing. Will all participants get a green-level Mystagogue companion? Of course! Will we be featuring quests that are eligible? Yes! Will we be giving out prizes based on the stars accumulated during their featuring week in addition to our favorites (Judges' Choice)? Umberlee be praised, yes! Have I gained something that will help me run better Foundry challenges? You bet your Book Imps, yes.
Come to think of it...this would make an interesting story for a Foundry mission, eh?
I'd prefer to get a "Hey, thanks for participating but your quest was too short," message from Akro rather than have my attempt just be ignored altogether.
I have obtained many energy drinks and some helpers to help make sure that standards are maintained with the Foundry entries.
Awesome. Be sure to give them cookies after too!
Also, just read about the extension now (is blind). Not that I can extend my quest much anyway given its nature but at least I can make it prettier? Haha! So just wondering, if we have hit the "submit to cryptic" button then press it again after edits, do you get the latest version of the quest or two versions entirely? If the latter do you just look at the submission date and go with the latest?
We can't ask for much more than that. You are doing a great job. Thanks for the opportunity to do something fun!
On to my next Foundry mission. Where can I take it from here? There is a method to my madness, afterall... :-)
"The Sunnydale Campaign" - NWS-DKBEJ9OOM
Episode 1: "Missing Daughters" - NW-DCX9IZBJB
Episode 2: "A Date With Destiny" - NW-DHYEX5NKR - Featured: NW-DHFLDPWJV
STO Foundry: "Safari So Good" - ST-HPRP2WFWI
The quest doesn't get copied until they decide to feature it - so submitting it is just a pre-approval for them to feature it should they chose to do so.
I'm not sure if the "submit to cryptic" flag gets turned off when you publish, but I'd publish and then hit submit again just to be sure.
Encounter Matrix | Advanced Foundry Topics
Check out my Foundry questline, The Brightstone Explorers' Guild, now archived on Youtube!
I have to admit, I didnt' think about the achievements. That doesn't change the fact that most people consider the Foundry in general of poor quality, and not worth playing. I didn't make that up, it's very true. The exploitation that occured in beta led Cryptic to severely limit the Foundry's offerings. It's hard to blame them when you see some of the maps set up for "easy and safe leveling area"... like a buncha of mobs boxed in by walls....with a stand for a mage to blast them safely from a distance. I don't blame them for making the rewards miniscule. However, this mostly revovles around their business model. Gold really doesn't have any use in the game, other than buying potions and injury kits. Few items that drop sell for anything other than a few Astral Diamonds. That's really second hand though, when you think about how long it's been since t2 dungeon chests have worked properly. What's the point of new players leveling up if they can't get the end game gear that veteran players have had for a year?
That discussion belongs in a different thread, I know, but things like this are ever-present in a Neverwinter players' mind. It just feels like they intend it too be this way because it's been this way for so long. This is why I consider it a ponsi scheme. They gouge us for horribly overpriced bundles instead of a subscription each month, and they have tied in a way for them to charge you for every bit of money that they can. They charge for inventory space. They charge for mounts. They charge for Enchants. They charge for anything that they can fit the asian ponsi scheme business model into. This isn't a new thing, games like this across asia have been around for a quite some time now.
So when those of us who are here to design some content get frustrated that they can't even put in skill nodes, or even have t1 loot drop in their chests.... it's disappointing beyond words.
My apologies if I ruffled too many feathers, but I thought I would elaborate for THE last time. I'm dropping the subject all together.
On the brighter side of things, for those that are actually going to submit their quests... good luck and I'm hoping to review as many as I can. I've already found a couple fun ones. My quest that I worked on is named Arselu'Tel'Quess it's published live now. I will be continuing my work on it as a campaign sometime in the future. First time author, but the maps are great from what i've been told.
Of course... yesterday I found about 200 objects deleted from it on the Foundry servers (including more than half my teleporters)....
but that's a different story. *grumble grumble*
Peace.out,
Me
All my characters already have one - can I get something different?
ID: NW-DD5FLOBTJ Cult of the Dragon Foundry Contest - Please participate and vote for your favourite - 26/6/2014 contest rating begins.
Sir Camps A Lot. Mr SlingShot Boom. XX Phantasmagorical. Jinn Dragonfeast.
SlingShot Boom Jr. Jocan Traders. Little Lord Forgatty, Dwarf Mean and introducing Necro Torquemada (The Warlock)
Listen man, work on your quest and submit it for featuring before the 19th. That's exactly what the update on the official thread says. The cut off date to be an entry was the 6th at 10am PDT. They aren't accepting new submissions.
This was up in the air, nobody knew for sure. We all assumed that on the 6th at 10am... the contest would end. It's now officially extended to August 19th (unspecified time). A few posters mentioned that patches (like the upcoming Dragonborn expansion) usually break the foundry quests, and there was discussion about other things. So Cryptic has extended the deadline too the 19th.
That much is in the words that they posted.
I would like to point out since last night, the Foundry has been full of errors and isn't working properly. I can only assume this wasn't intentional, and the patch made things go wonky. I still haven't fixed all of the errors and deletions that happened to my quest last night. Some of my teleporters were simply missing like they were deleted... all of my reach points and place markers had their elevations changed (someone said due too being set on 'terrain' and not 'zero altitude') and I've had things moved around like some 5 year old went 'ape crazy' in my Foundry editor.
This is just an example of why they extended the contest. At the moment, if anyone else's editor isn't working correctly like mine, all I can say is... my patience is thinning and helpful ideas are appreciated.
Just so my positive side is out there for people to see, since I began this contest... I've had quite a bit of help from people using the foundry. Lotta great folks around to help. That's always a good thing. I've also become motivated to improve my quest, and I have learned to appreciate any feedback from people. Opinion's vary of course, but suggestions are always welcome. I think the overall experience of the contest has been a good thing (minus the bickering of certain people about disqualificaitons). I'm over that now, just gonna ignore them and grind it out till things in mine are back to 'working condition' so I can actually submit the quest for featuring.
I'm very glad they extended the date now, because I didn't realize how many errors patching would entail. You should probably read the whole blog, because I learned quite a bit from others' past experience here.
Peace.out
Me
Come by and visit us at the Wizards of the Coast booth!
http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter/news/detail/6007753
I'll be there Friday sometime.