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Purity: Foundry Feature Episode Series - FEEDBACK THREAD
cerberusfilms
Member Posts: 40 Arc User
Hello everyone,
Today we released the first episode of our Purity Foundry Mission Series!
You can read about it here!
This thread is for feedback on all the episodes, whether it be on the story, or on bugs or glitches that you encounter, praise or constructive criticism, we're open to it all
So please post away and I hope you enjoy the series!
Cerberusfilms
P.S. When posting feedback about specific episodes, please say in the title of your post or at the top of it, which episode it is (espeically if it's a bug) so we can track it down easier
Today we released the first episode of our Purity Foundry Mission Series!
You can read about it here!
This thread is for feedback on all the episodes, whether it be on the story, or on bugs or glitches that you encounter, praise or constructive criticism, we're open to it all
So please post away and I hope you enjoy the series!
Cerberusfilms
P.S. When posting feedback about specific episodes, please say in the title of your post or at the top of it, which episode it is (espeically if it's a bug) so we can track it down easier
Foundry Enthusiast
Machinima Person
Did some things back in the day
Now a Games Developer and Researcher
Machinima Person
Did some things back in the day
Now a Games Developer and Researcher
Post edited by cerberusfilms on
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I've gotten a couple reviews where the player couldn't figure out how to dock at Orbital Station Delta. Did anyone else have a similar issue?
Foundry Mission Database
Check out my Foundry missions:
Standalone - The Great Escape - The Galaxy's Fair - Purity I: Of Denial - Return to Oblivion
Untitled Series - Duritanium Man - The Improbable Bulk - Commander Rihan
that was a bugger.. I thought the docking "spot" was above the structure in the area that looked like a shipyard.
It took a few attempts flying through the <spoiler> but i did managed to hit the marker.
Foundry Mission Database
Check out my Foundry missions:
Standalone - The Great Escape - The Galaxy's Fair - Purity I: Of Denial - Return to Oblivion
Untitled Series - Duritanium Man - The Improbable Bulk - Commander Rihan
First of all i just really wanted to say just how much i liked the scenery. Everything was really well put together and looked pretty amazing, the only problem i had with the world was that anytime i clicked on anything to sit down, i would sit on the floor, and lose the bottom half of my legs.
There were a few other things which i'll list as spoilers, even though they're not really that.
Spoilers
1) when talking to the Captain about her music, she says it's a radio station, to which my response is "you need better taste in music" or "Will do" But will do what? when going through that, there was nothing that would require me to say that at that time, making it an odd response.
2) there was a part where i'm looking at a painting of a ship in an asteroid field, heading towards a planet. The story tells me i'm looking at a group of people. Why not just say, it was a rendering of the first contact? Or generalise it so it says "while looking at various paintings, one is--" rather than "This specific painting of a ship, is actually a painting of people" I get what you're doing, but it struck me as odd.
3) The story was way too obvious. I don't know if it was supposed to be that blatant, but i was coming to the conclusions way too fast. It would have been nice to have it be a little more ambiguous either in the telling, or at least morally. It really took away from a lot of the hard work that went into making it visually impressive. Also it felt like there were a few places where commas could be used to make the writing read a little clearer.
4) The Ending was amazing. Once i beamed aboard the ship the mission became a lot better for me. I loved being in combat from the bridge, as well as the things going on. Very cool to have all that happen after the disappointment of the story. that last little bit really did stick me with that cliffhanger moment of " TRIBBLE, now i have to play part two, just to find out what happens next."
The only gripe here is that the Fire could have been pulled back a little more, just so its not coming through the force field and again, the chair thing from 1), but otherwise, the feel of being on a bridge in combat was perfect.
5) There were a few other things that could have been cleared up like the dilithium thing in the first part. I can understand giving it to the other captains, but am i giving them ALL, or just my reserve. Am i at 60% warp capabilities due to damage or giving away ALL of the dilithium, because if it's the latter, i shouldn't have ANY warp capabilities. Also they tell me to refuel at the station, but the Dilithium isn't the fuel. That's the Matter/Anti-matter, so that might need some clarifications as well.
6) "What does it matter, as long as i keep the ships running?"
GAH! Where have i heard this before? its sooo familiar, yet i can't recall. Either way, it was a good line that is going to bug me until i find out where i've heard it before.
But yeah, overall, the writing seemed really weak, which took away from the amazing level designs, but the real redeeming quality for me was that last little bit. I was a little disappointed that there were no unique rewards, yet this is being called a Featured Episode series, but that's all on Cryptic. As i said in the announcement thread, this would have been a perfect series to get an updated TR-116 rifle, but i'll post that to it's own thread.
Either way, it was enough to make me want to tune in next time to find out what happens.
"Critics who say that the optimistic utopia Star Trek depicted is now outmoded forget the cultural context that gave birth to it: Star Trek was not a manifestation of optimism when optimism was easy. Star Trek declared a hope for a future that nobody stuck in the present could believe in. For all our struggles today, we haven’t outgrown the need for stories like Star Trek. We need tales of optimism, of heroes, of courage and goodness now as much as we’ve ever needed them."
-Thomas Marrone
Will the use of "..." be a recurring theme? :P
There are a few misspellings here and there, and one oddity (not really an error, as it doesn't appear to have been avoidable): After defeating the ambush miners, the next interact button says "Scan the bodies", but by that point the dead miners have already disappeared, as killed NPCs usually do.
There are a couple of points where you fight the Obani, but afterward your tactical officer refers to them as Sajan. Also, during one of these incidents (the one after speaking with Shrall) I died and respawned on the floor below. As I ran back up the stairs, some of the remaining Obani ran down the other way and didn't even see me - at least, not until I had already unleashed my Mk XII AP assault minigun on them.
On the bridge when your BOff says "She's dead, sir", I couldn't help but think that as an homage to Dr. McCoy, you should have used the [FirstName] tag instead of "sir"... just that once.
Overall, I love how you worked the game's backstory into the mission storyline - idiosyncrasies and all. (For example, Shrall being incredibly young and inexperienced for a captain - I guess 2409 has lasted as long for him as it has for us!) Most importantly of all, you have succeeded at your most important task, which was to suck me into the series for good. I can't wait to see what fate awaits my crew as they evacuate the Resnik!
My Foundry missions | My STO Wiki page | My Twitter home page
*Bang head on desk*
Foundry Mission Database
Check out my Foundry missions:
Standalone - The Great Escape - The Galaxy's Fair - Purity I: Of Denial - Return to Oblivion
Untitled Series - Duritanium Man - The Improbable Bulk - Commander Rihan
Overall, the story really didn't grasp my attention. But I really liked the ending and how it ended on a climax. But pretty much what I got is, disgruntled Ambassador and some angry workers.
The First Part: Didn't make sense at all to me that the True Way just leave a Federation ship disabled, instead of destroying it.
And then the part about the Cargo Ships....okay so they lost Dilithum and making me pay up for it? Or else they going to complain to my boss? That really didn't make any sense to me. It's like some cargo ship captain asking the US Navy for reimbursement after he just had ship ship hijacked by pirates. I could imagine sharing some of my Dilithium reserves to a ship that was in distress, but not for them to go fork it over and then given an IOU in hopes someone would honor it.
The Station: Okay we meet the Admiral, but her dialogue just doesn't really spell out the rest of the series. To me it was like "What you doing here? Go away!" Compared to other similar Bad Admiral episodes in Star Trek where it starts off where everything is peachy and we are all on the same side.
The Station itself, I had a little trouble finding that spot on the map, even with that nice circle saying "Go here". But I wasn't high enough on the 3D plane to trigger the objective. I would suggest you add an visual aid to help guide players into that position.
When talking to the Station guy, the dialogue was stuck in an endless loop and only way to exit was by closing the window. Granted this is mostly a Foundry failure in programming in not giving a proper exit to end dialogue loops.
The Mining Camp: It was okay story wise, though would've felt like it was more of a mine if we had some kind of mining operation like a cave or a strip mining operation to add to the ambiance.
The Ambush, I had to go back for the dialogue, another failure of the Foundry since dialogues don't pop up during Red Alert.
But the Administration building itself...........really didn't make sense to me. Why is the locked door behind the receptionist..........a cafeteria?
That had to be the biggest WTF moment I experienced in a long time. Normally there are offices behind receptionists, not lunch rooms for multiple people. So is this a society that loves to eat while negotiating? :P
The Bridge: This was done well, I thought myself of doing such a thing as part of my Flying-from-the-Bridge proposal. But the thing I didn't like was the gopher work. It felt like you could've stringed the dialogue and action in a way that it could've had constant action without stopping (the interaction). That would've made the action more believable.
BTW, bit too much STO in those options. Emergency Engines might work as a player in a STO ship, but if this was Star Trek and you were running on thrusters or damaged Engines, I'm pretty sure any Star Trek Captain would've had diverted power to the shields than sending them to the engines.
So I personally felt you could've done without the STO Dialogue and kept it Trek.
Overall, it was pretty okay. I gave it 4 stars.
Stuff that could be improved:
Honestly, this seems like kind of a flaw. I guess you guys are trying to roll them out officially with a big bang, but if that means there's no chance for editing then I think that's a mistake.
I would suggest that it would be better to publish it without it being spotlit and have like a one or two weeks for people to review it and offer feedback/suggestions prior to it being locked in.
Click here for my Foundry tutorial on Creating A Custom Interior Map.
I did go to the top of the station to dock, only cost me ten seconds or so to fix. No worries.
I liked the big stairs, and I'm not certain there are many options for big doorways to match.
I didn't think the upstairs room was a cafeteria as much as a conference room or multi-purpose area that was normally not locked up. They needed time to decide what to do about us. There may have been a smaller office we didn't see, along with this board room type area.
If I were on another captain's ship, a highly decorated one, I wouldn't take his chair. If that same ship had taken losses recently and was short-handed, I would definitely take a console and help rather than "observe" while the ship disintegrated around me. My ego would demand a console, but you don't take a Captain's chair unless he's being reassigned off-ship or something.
As far as the Obani/Sajan usage for the same group, I took that to mean they had brought in their enslaved thugs. I fought some Sajans that were fighting on the behalf of the Obani. These were different than the local miners.
I liked how the dominant race was portrayed as likeable. We have Earth precedents for that. I kinda like how the corrupt Admiral started off a cranky witch. I've met these people. Not everybody has to change gears.
Summary: no game breaking bugs unlike many cryptic episodes, I can remember the story a few hours after playing, will play the next one.... and I like wide stairs. Also, stupid people don't carry hypos.
I've worked with a lot of game editors on a lot of games. And while I recognize that there are limitations of those editors, it's important that we encourage authors to stretch those capabilities when things feel or look wrong. Pointing out "that doesn't look right" is a good thing to do. For one thing, the author may not have noticed it; for another it gives them that opportunity to stretch. Telling people their that their comments are "silly" and implying that they lack imagination that you apparently have is short-sighted and insulting.
The wide stairs are a good example. I also like the wide stairs, but it still looks wrong to enter them from a doorway set in the middle of them. This could have been remediated to look right in a number of ways. Here are two suggestions, but I'm sure there are more:
The "cafeteria" comment made by Azurianstar was not in reference to the upstairs office, but to the downstairs room that you first enter after you have been granted access from the lobby. I have to agree -- it looks like a mess hall of some kind. It's not that a mess hall in that structure was inappropriate, but it did feel odd that you accessed the administrator's office by going through it. Normally a room like that would be off of a hallway -- it wouldn't be the main path.
I congratulate you on being able to negotiate the gate in ten seconds. But the comments that it was difficult to find the sweet spot are not only valid, but they are common. A number of people found that it was difficult and commented on it. Some of them were likely not as patient and quit a good story because of a simple mechanical flaw. The comment is valid and should be raised, not trivialized.
In a similar vein, a good number of people have commented on the fact that they didn't like being given busy work on the bridge. This is the kind of comment that an author should take note of for future or corrective work. The fact that it didn't bother you, doesn't change the fact that it bothered a number of others and should be taken into consideration when building new missions.
As to the starbase captain, I was very clear that her being difficult and a maverick is fine. Cranky is even fine. But the hostile defensiveness exhibited by the character on a first meeting -- especially when her secret was well-guarded and apparently supported within the upper echelons of Star Fleet -- was out of character. It felt wrong. Again, many people commented on this so it's something that the author should take into consideration. If it didn't bother you, that's fine, but discounting the comments of others as being "silly" is unfair to both those making the observations and the author who requested the criticisms in the first place.
The criticisms here, as far as I've seen, have not been those of armchair quarterbacks casually throwing stones and looking to see what color bruises show up. They've been the comments of people who, generally, work in the trenches of the Foundry and are looking to make a good story better. That's certainly the perspective I come from with my comments -- and I know it to be true for many of the others who have made critical comments in this chain.
Yeah one thing the group decided was that if we did this again we'd complete the missions months before even announcing the series. Instead I kinda mashed this out in a couple months on my free time and there are definitely a few places I'd like to revisit. Some of the dialogue especially.
The weekend before release I spent a couple long nights testing and re-testing the mission, and I'll admit I had a dream where I was working for Cryptic (good lord!!!!)
Foundry Mission Database
Check out my Foundry missions:
Standalone - The Great Escape - The Galaxy's Fair - Purity I: Of Denial - Return to Oblivion
Untitled Series - Duritanium Man - The Improbable Bulk - Commander Rihan
In a way, I'm sort of pleased that a lot of the major criticisms are somewhat minor, as the "feel" of the dialogue for "Of Denial" seems to be one of the major issues. In a way, putting out this series is one big fat experiment for us -- nobody has ever put together something like this before (much less have the episodes "release" weekly like we are) so we're bound to hit some of these speed bumps like the dialogue and this reach marker issue.
Keep the feedback coming -- at the very least we can stem some of these issues for the upcoming episodes, and at best we can get some ideas on any future series - done by StarbaseUGC or anyone else!
Other then that, the mission was pretty well done, the only real stumbling block I had was at the mine, it took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to advance the mission after I talked to the people and scanned the equipment.
Heaven help you, Zorbane!
I've been thinking further on the Bridge scene and I think Azurianstar hit on a solution -- though I didn't get what he was saying at first. If the player were more in a mode of "Let me take care of that" than "Aye-aye, mon Capitan", and if the player's BOFFs were engaged, I think it would have flowed better.
For example, rather than being asked to take the console to do a couple of rudimentary tasks, you might consider having the problem stated and then having your player instruct the Tactical BOFF to carry out the station actions.
When the console explodes and kills the one crew member, the Science BOFF could report that the crew member has been killed and that the vent needs to be closed. Then the player could interact with the vent.
Of all the interaction points, the fire part plays best as-is -- the player, who is already standing closest to the fire, just jumps in and takes care of business.
I know it's only a slight perspective shift, but it can turn what feels like step-n-fetchit tasks into something that has a more narrative feel. And besides, the triggered effects are just too cool in this scene. It's worth finding a way to make something similar work in another mission.
Again, I like the concept and am anxious to see where this tale goes as the other authors take their turns at telling CaptPFDennis's story.
EDIT/PS: Does anyone else see a similarity in how this is being approached to The Thirty-Nine Clues series of books for tweens?
Overall the story is pretty good, but it kinda fails to draw me in. Still not a bad mission though.
First space map:
Ok number of enemy ships, not too hard as a VA, but as a lower lvl char, this is challenging.
Did feel weird to give away dilithium, why not just tow the freighter like you do with the other Fed ship in there?
Second space map:
Not much to say really, other than the exact point for getting the dilithium is a bit of a pain in the nacelles to find first time round. The Admiral you talk seem very defensive imo.
First ground map:
Nice map. Maybe a bit too many interactables, wich leads to a lot of running about. The ambush feels weird, since they spawn behind a hill, instead of on the path the player is on. Might consider to move the enemy spawn point to the same path as the player is on.
Before entering the admin building, I did notice that my science officer also acted as my engineering officer, despite me having my engineering officer with me. Do not know if this might be because of me playing as a Fed alligned Romulan or not though. Just felt weird.
Interior ground map:
Nice map again, well designed. The fight in the bar/cafeteria is ok as both a VA and low lvl char. The fight upstairs though is bloody hard as a lower lvl char, infact I wiped 4 times on a lvl 34 char. My BO's had good equipment for the lvl I was at, and so did my char. That needs to be adressed.
Bridge map:
This part was really well done. Felt like it might be from one the shows. Felt a tad odd to be ordered around as a VA by an officer lower graded than my char.
Here ends the review.
I know spotlights can't be altered after submission, but I hope some the issues I mentioned above can be fixed somehow. Nice mission, if a bit on the long side time wise, and reading wise...
Pretty much you got a good portion of my thoughts. And you made a nice point in having your BOFFs dialogue being part of the action. But my viewpoint comes from me being the character than me playing the character. I.E. like this was in a real Trek Episode.
As someone mentioned previously in this Feedback thread, your character outranking the Captain of the Resnik, which is true. But my Captain would've acted just like in the story in jumping to help in the time of crisis. Like Kirk did in Generations or Worf in First Contact. Because my character isn't the type that strips command on a whim in the middle of a battle, but instead lets the Captain run his ship, because that Captain knows his ship better than you do. Perhaps this would've been a good opportunity for branched dialogue, one going for the authoritative Admiral that would've took command, or the current option to help where you can.
Though let me try to explain about the gophering (jumping out of your seat to render aid and fix the holes). If this was real, I would've stayed at that console, because vacating that console very well could've meant life or death of everyone else on the ship. (Which apparently was the case given the options in the dialogue). Or likely one of my crew members (BOFFs) would've jumped into action in my place and I stood behind, ready to offer suggestions.
Again, like Don suggested, the BOFFs could've played a role in the story and been the ones to render the aid or take over the position of a fallen Resnik crewmember.
I could see the flow of the story being near continuous with dialogue of action after dialogue of action occurring in a steady flow than: "Give Aid to Fallen Crewmember" <render aid> Fix leak <fix leak> repeat. That to me felt like it was putting the brakes on the action.
Granted you couldn't have the explosions going off during that dialogue, but perhaps you could've reduced the downtime if you had nearby triggers that you move a little bit and the next set of dialogue pops out and X BOFF does Y Job, while you are still at the console, doing what you can.
I'm quite certain a number of the developers are from Greater Vancouver, BC.
N.C.C. 171867
Sovereign Class
Saint John Fleet Yard
"A Mari Usque Ad Mare"
I don't know what you're talking about :cool:
Foundry Mission Database
Check out my Foundry missions:
Standalone - The Great Escape - The Galaxy's Fair - Purity I: Of Denial - Return to Oblivion
Untitled Series - Duritanium Man - The Improbable Bulk - Commander Rihan
I'd give the story 4 stars (kind of a slow start, but caught my interest on the planet), set design and use of Foundry 5 stars, but game/dialogue mechanics only 3 stars. Combined 4 stars.
I felt the lack of multiple dialogue options held the experience back in several places, and I did not like the generic responses (ie: "Get your officer under control"). I would have rather selected a real sentence response from a list, even if they all had the same result. I was left wishing there was a more conciliatory/understanding response to Fautner's arguments. Obviously we can't agree with her overall, but I was still sympathetic to her views, at least as far as the Federation not living up to its ideals. As I recall one of the opposing NPCs made the argument about "The needs of the many..." which under the circumstances of the STO galaxy was actually a pretty strong argument. I think the player should have been given the latitude to be a little bit more accepting of the justification, even though I know in the end we have to oppose Fautner.
I get the sense that the scenario was almost designed to be black and white, but in the end I still felt there were some shades of gray (which I actually think is good!), but then I was prevented from expressing that view point by the limited dialogue choices that were presented to me.
Click here for my Foundry tutorial on Creating A Custom Interior Map.
You know it occurred to me while reading this. Maybe it would've been better to have the NPCs pre-spawned and locked behind an invisible wall than having them suddenly appear?
After all, we know how people aren't too fond of NPC spawning right on top of them.
Normally this wouldn't be a huge issue, since you can post updates after the fact, but with the missions apparently going straight to being uneditable, it becomes quite problematic.
I thought it was OK under the circumstances. but I was struggling with even remembering how to play. I might have died either way, but it was worse with being out of practice. I was also playing my Tac captain, which wasn't even the character I'd played most recently, so I struggled doubly to get back in the saddle.
I actually think a sudden attack can sometimes be a good thing, just as long as it doesn't interrupt someone reading a dialogue. I think some people may have trouble with that part, but personally I don't mind having an occasional challenge.
Click here for my Foundry tutorial on Creating A Custom Interior Map.
Even in Canon Trek, the Admirals always seem to lose their marbles.
N.C.C. 171867
Sovereign Class
Saint John Fleet Yard
"A Mari Usque Ad Mare"
I liked the plot and the moral play, and I'm really looking forward to part two. Perhaps as a concept a little over-used but I'll reserve judgment on that till I see what you do with it. At this stage though I'm bugged by the thought that with so many centuries of people trying to ignore the prime directive, how can the Federation not have some damn good checks and balances against this happening? Seems a little contrived. Especially with the speed you uncovered it, it is almost like they wanted you to find it so they had an excuse to kill you (and perhaps just a slight moral quandary from someone - maybe the Captain - going from breaking the Prime Directive to murdering a Starfleet captain and a ship full of Starfleet officers. Not everyone has the same line, some cross it far sooner than others and it seemed like for such a moral institution everyone was on the very same - wrong - page). Maybe you could have kept a little mystery sooner, or strengthened their argument? But anyway, I did really enjoy it and I'm sure I'll love where you take it in the next part
Yes I just had the same problem. I flew up the marker. I flew above the station, below the sttion and around the station. No dice.
Parallels: my second mission for Fed aligned Romulans.
Yea you need to fly IN the station between the two pylons
Foundry Mission Database
Check out my Foundry missions:
Standalone - The Great Escape - The Galaxy's Fair - Purity I: Of Denial - Return to Oblivion
Untitled Series - Duritanium Man - The Improbable Bulk - Commander Rihan