Foundry Files Episode 35: Valley of the Shadow Pt1

admiralmurphy1 · September 2013

This week Stahl talks foundry and we review a Fed/Rom mission "Valley of the Shadow Pt1"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruFuNOsJoH4&feature=youtu.be

paxfederatica · September 2013

I've not listened yet; however I have seen the reviews you posted on my mission after playing it.

Assuming your comments in the podcast are along the same lines, you (and your listeners) should know that I have nerfed the puzzle since you played it. More precisely, the puzzle itself is the same, but I got rid of all the false algorithm hints (i.e. only the real one is now shown). Once you know/figure out the real algorithm, the puzzle is fairly easy to solve, which is why I put in all the false ones in the first place, for misdirection purposes. However, you are not the first reviewers to say they couldn't figure it out, so finally I just broke down and nerfed it.

As for combat (or lack thereof), this was by design. Part I was meant mainly to build up the overarching plot of the series. Rest assured, Parts II and III will have loads more combat. That said, I'm not sure where your critique of the last combat in Map 6 is coming from. Most of the Imperial Romulan mobs waiting for you get taken out in the blast; you only end up having to fight two of them, a lieutenant-level and a (sub)commander-level mob. (I used to have a captain-level mob in there too, but I took that out weeks before you ever played it.)

Anyway, thank you all for playing and featuring my mission on your podcast.

ooiue · September 2013

paxfederatica wrote: »

I've not listened yet; however I have seen the reviews you posted on my mission after playing it.

Assuming your comments in the podcast are along the same lines, you (and your listeners) should know that I have nerfed the puzzle since you played it. More precisely, the puzzle itself is the same, but I got rid of all the false algorithm hints (i.e. only the real one is now shown). Once you know/figure out the real algorithm, the puzzle is fairly easy to solve, which is why I put in all the false ones in the first place, for misdirection purposes. However, you are not the first reviewers to say they couldn't figure it out, so finally I just broke down and nerfed it.

As for combat (or lack thereof), this was by design. Part I was meant mainly to build up the overarching plot of the series. Rest assured, Parts II and III will have loads more combat. That said, I'm not sure where your critique of the last combat in Map 6 is coming from. Most of the Imperial Romulan mobs waiting for you get taken out in the blast; you only end up having to fight two of them, a lieutenant-level and a (sub)commander-level mob. (I used to have a captain-level mob in there too, but I took that out weeks before you ever played it.)

Anyway, thank you all for playing and featuring my mission on your podcast.

No problem!

Like we said, its great mission and we can tell you're still working on it, but there is quite a bit of room for improvement on the gameplay part especially.

As for the combat, in the map where you have to escape from the Tal Shiar base, there is a patrol group that you have to clear. Both Murphy and I had the unfortunate incident of engaging it as the two Romulan mobs spawned in, thus we had to fight three off at once. If you want to keep multi-stacking, I'd suggest keeping lower level groups to make it easier, but if you want to keep higher groups, you'll have to get rid of the multi-stacking or it simply becomes too hard

I personally didn't mind the Space Combat at all (it also gave me a chance to fully test a full-specced Thalaron Pulse :P), but Murph didn't like it as much I don't think

paxfederatica · September 2013

OK, thanks. I just got through listening to the podcast. It sounds like Map 3 is the one that needs the most work, and Maps 6 and 8 could be revisited as well.

Re: Neverwinter stuff

In addition to tagging, another NW feature I'd love to have is campaign support. That would make searching for multi-part mission chains a lot more manageable than it is now.

Re: Ghosts of War series

I have begun to re-remaster the six missions in this series as well. The Part I re-remaster is already out. Part VI is currently offline because it uses the Ice Caves Interior 03 map, which got broken by Cryptic during the LoR upgrade and has yet to be fixed.

Re: Aaron Yates

Aaron is, in fact, Kasidy's nephew, not her or Benjamin Sisko's son.

Re: Taking the freighter instead of your own ship

In the grant-mission dialogue, your mission-giver (whom I will one day change to D'Tan, if ever he becomes available as a contact) explains why she doesn't want you using your own ship. Basically, it's an overabundance of caution on D'Tan's part - not so much about the possibility of being discovered, as about the consequences of that happening (i.e. full-scale war with the Tal Shiar). Granted, your very presence on the planet would have the same consequences, but having your ship in orbit all that time as well would be one more way for your cover to be blown, and the Tal Shiar can't detect your ship if it's not even there to be detected.

Re: Changing holo-disguises

When you enter the Tal Shiar base, your mining-official disguises are the only ones you have loaded onto your holo-emitters. That's why you have to go into the next room to change it - because that's where all the charging/downloading stations are, and you need access to one in order to obtain your new disguise.

On the other hand, you are still wearing your emitter even as it is being recharged and downloaded with the new disguise, so theoretically no one else in the room will ever see you in your real outfits anyway - and even if they do, they'll probably just assume your Romulan Republic uniform is just another holo-disguise anyway!

Re: The Map 6 ambush (mentioned by ooiue above)

OK, so that's what you were referring to. One other thing I could do there is shorten the patrol route of the patrolling mob, so you're 99.9% certain to fight them before you reach the two mobs lying in wait for you. That would at least make fighting those two mobs a bit more manageable.

Odds and ends

I have recently published a KDF version of this mission. The catch is that you need to be a reviewer in order to have access to it, for it has not had five plays yet.

admiralmurphy1 · September 2013

Re: Neverwinter stuff

In addition to tagging, another NW feature I'd love to have is campaign support. That would make searching for multi-part mission chains a lot more manageable than it is now.

As an author of many series, yes want!

Anyway it is a great story mission, as its in our top ten for story ones that we've played. Just needs a few refinements in other areas and it could be really awesome!

azurianstar · September 2013

Some interesting points in the beginning with the Foundry news.

I am happy that the STO Team wants to work on the Foundry, but I'm disappointed that they are putting it as a low priority. It's ironic that they hype the UGC Tool (especially at the conventions) and at the same time neglect it. It's like a car salesman hyping up a bad car he's trying to sell.

I feel for Crypticfrost who works hard in trying to help us, but not having the resources to fully accomplish this.

paxfederatica · September 2013

OK, per the comments by AdmiralMurphy and Ooiue in their review, I have just made several enhancements and fixes to "Valley of the Shadow I":

Map 2: Many of the buildings, especially those built on slopes, had their bottom corners sticking out of the ground, so I lowered them all slightly to get rid of this issue. (To explain the ones that now look partially buried as a result, I also added a bit of dialogue to point out that the buildings have been neglected for so long that they've been sinking into the ground.)
Map 3: As pointed out in the Foundry Files review, this map involved a lot of going back and forth across the map, which did admittedly get a bit tedious, especially down the long corridor. Fortunately, fixing this turned out to be fairly easy. I moved Gen. Breka from Ops to the engine room, and adjusted all the dialogue accordingly, so now you only have to make a single pass from one end of the map to the other to complete all the objectives.
Map 6: I've slightly weakened most of the enemy mobs on this map. I've also shortened the patrol route of one of them so that it does not pass by the point where you are ambushed. (This is so you won't have to fight the patrolling mob at the same time you're fighting the two ambush mobs.)

After making the above revisions, I also deleted and re-published the KDF version of this mission as a copy of the updated Fed version. Again, the KDF version is only visible if you have selected Become Reviewer.

markhawkman · September 2013

Another possibility when placing buildings on slopes is to put a foundation block or stone platform of some sort under them. Logically it makes sense. So it's just a matter of doing it and not having it look out of place or being too large to fit. Fortunately we have sand and mud colored foundation blocks.

paxfederatica · September 2013

markhawkman wrote: »

Another possibility when placing buildings on slopes is to put a foundation block or stone platform of some sort under them. Logically it makes sense. So it's just a matter of doing it and not having it look out of place or being too large to fit. Fortunately we have sand and mud colored foundation blocks.

I thought about doing that, but the slopes on this map are (strangely fittingly) grassy knolls, where rock faces would look somewhat out of place.

Foundry Files Episode 35: Valley of the Shadow Pt1

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