10 replies to this topic

[Lysan Lurraxol]

I've just nearly finished my 2nd playthrough of Classic Adventures, and I've enjoyed it a lot. A few things that could be improved though.

1) I think the Aesdale/Blush/Althon/Icar/Paraway/Kessa/Markessa storyline needs a little work. It's very confusing, especially is you miss dialouges. I think making sure the player sees all of the neccessary dialouges would help, otherwise some things don't make sense, like Althon telling you abour Icar and Markessa's involvement in the slaver fortress without the player having heard of either of them.

2) The Myth Drannor dialouge is a little info dumpy. The quest is good, but the dialouge with Ilewthary, and the dialouge with Pelja after that, spoils it a little. I think maybe summarising, and giving more NPC/PC interjections could make it a bit more interesting, and maybe give a personal viewpoint from Ilewtahryn/pelja, retelling it as they saw it. Some of Rihn's dialouges could do with that as well, making it seem more tragic, as the character describes how they felt, what it was like. The dialouge with Rihn outside the ruined shop works really well because it comes from her personal viepoint, and describes her feelings.

3) I've mentioned this before, but I think in Mistmoor manor, the player should be given a hint to look for Vildamyr in the basement, otherwise the player may never go down there, and maybe add a variable so Rihn only appears after you find Vildamyr. Makes things a lot less confusing.

4) The slaver series could do with a bit more direction. At first you know you have to escape, and get to the Temple, but after that you sort of wander about the Temple, then there's a hint that you could go to the Big Slaver Fortress, and then you sort of wander around the big fortress until you stumble onto plot events, which is a little confusing. Maybe have someone in your party coment that you have to get after the slavers to rescue the other slaves/ Chaarna. And once in the fortress have someone perhaps telling you where to go, or giving a hint about what needs to be done. as is, I don't really know what I'm supposed to be doing in the slaver fortress.

Apologies for the length, I got a little carried away
Thanks

[leahnkain]

1)Aesdale/ Althon storyline require only them (Blush is a tool of Althon?s who is not really important to the story,she just adds flavor) Icar is a nobody in this storyline, Altohn does have banters about Kessa/Markessa which may not have been included yet. As for Paraway he even states he doesn?t want anything to do with them. He is just suckered into staying with the group to show Althon?s spite.(he orders Icar to torch Paraway7s village) The story does make sense, hopefully all of my dialogs are there.


2) The Myth Drannor needs to be info dumpy. What if you are a newbe players who knows nothing about Myth Drannor history. Pel?ja?s dialogs are optional. I already summarized 3 books. It is hard because I want the player if they know nothing of Myth Drannor to understand it is a special area.

I leave questions 3 and 4 for Sir BillyBob.

[Sir BillyBob]

The sleeping/wandering monster issue is an engine problem. Areas can only have 1 defined setup for sleep encounters. Max possibility is 100%. Most of the areas are set at 50% day and 75% at night. However, some dungeon areas are higher. For example, in the goblin held area of the Sunless Citadel, both settings are at 70%. Mainly because you are underground so there isn't a difference between night and day. But even at 70%, I have had game sessions where I have to try 6 or more times before I can get the party to rest. So it isn't just you having this problem.

As for wandering monsters, Spawn Points are established on area maps to create 1 or more monsters at that location. This can be a one time encounter or multiple. However, this feature has always been buggy. In the case of the Silver Princess, the first indoor map has most of these points spawning all the time. But on the two maps upstairs, I can't get any spawn points to work. So I had to script in a few extra critters for you to fight. This does leave the area feeling empty. Not sure what to do about it other than script in a few more creatures but then it becomes a dungeon crawl.

Althon/Aesdale
All dialogs that I know about for these characters are in the game. The storyline can be confusing but that is mainly because you aren't supposed to know the truth about Althon until the end of the slavers.

Slaver Areas
I agree that you can wander around aimlessly in these areas. In some cases, you are supposed to. Remember that you are uninvited here. Even in the paper mods, there are no directions as to what or who you should go look for. I'm not sure what I can do to help you with this. Please give me some ideas. Perhaps a note in the temple saying who to look for in the fortress? An encounter with an escaped slave? There are possibilities, I just don't know what you want to see.

[leahnkain]

These modules we have included are pretty much the same as the pen and paper modules. Silver Princess has about the same floor space and the same encounters. Please remember in SP you are only first level. Right now some fights are incredably tough. An example is Catharandamus's encounter is hard is you choose to fight him. The slavers it is up to the player to find out what to do. As SBB said you are going into a place uninvited. if you check out the original modules you will see it is similar.

[Easthaven]

A comment regarding the "sleeping/wandering monster issue". In the first area of Myth Drannor, right after you're teleported there, resting seems to give a 100% encounter rate. And it is mostly 3 spectres or 3 mephits which my lvl 6 Kensai player character can easily kill without getting hit, and they give 2000-3000 exp per enemy... I ended up only killing them twice on my savegame cause otherwise it felt like abusing a bug... Maybe if it was lowered to 75% or so at least?

I'd also like to add that I really like getting to select which characters I wanted to summon, and the new NPCs there seems nice. But if you stupidly, like me, replace Althon after he is summoned the dialogue that follows when you teleport into Myth Drannor won't make any sense as Althon isn't there to reply. Maybe there should be a stronger indication that Althon should remain in the party, or modify the dialogue if he isn't there.

[Sam.]

or modify the dialogue if he isn't there.

I really like that idea. To put it in extraordinarily mild terms, I can't stand Althon. Every time I see him, I let him in my party, steal all of his equipment, beat him unconscious with my fists, and then turn him into a statue for the birds to crap on (I mean no insult to his creator; he is a very well developed NPC but he is completely opposite of who I would want to go traveling and adventuring with. In my mind, he is almost as bad as Entreri .).

Edited by Sam., 05 January 2009 - 02:43 PM.

[leahnkain]

or modify the dialogue if he isn't there.

I really like that idea. To put it in extraordinarily mild terms, I can't stand Althon. Every time I see him, I let him in my party, steal all of his equipment, beat him unconscious with my fists, and then turn him into a statue for the birds to crap on (I mean no insult to his creator; he is a very well developed NPC but he is completely opposite of who I would want to go traveling and adventuring with. In my mind, he is almost as bad as Entreri .).

No offense taken. Ilewtharyn does clearly state that he has chosen three members to ensure the success of the group. I might let the player have a choice between Icar or Althon depending on if the went through the swamp or Piney Bluff. If I go through that route it means Althon would only be available if you enter the swamp.

As for the pictures I will reuse Chaarna's old picture in Castle Amber. The other pictures can be found in a folder called portraits found in the Classics048 folder(i think) if you want to use the first versions of the NPC pictures.

Edited by leahnkain, 05 January 2009 - 09:46 PM.

[Easthaven]

Ilewtharyn does clearly state that he has chosen three members to ensure the success of the group. I might let the player have a choice between Icar or Althon depending on if the went through the swamp or Piney Bluff. If I go through that route it means Althon would only be available if you enter the swamp.

Yeah, I read that but perceived it as more of a recommendation than a must. It would make sense to present a choice, especially for my party where I had included Icar since Saltmarsh but had only met Althon once and never as a party member.

Some SPOILERS below.
Also, regarding that module, I think there should be some consequence in dialogue if I kill the leader of the School of magic in Myth Drannor. Maybe something from the dragon or when you speak to "what's-his-name" who gave you the mission. I also thought the lich had kinda boring loot for such a powerful enemy. In addition, maybe the mindflayers should react in some way to me killing that demon.

I also wonder regarding that ghost, was there anything else to do other than to guide her to the school? Cause it didn't disappear from the quest log, and I couldn't find anything else to do there.

It would be cool also if there was a way to double-cross the dragon. Maybe there was and I missed it.

However, in all, that area was really well made, and I really liked the reactions from the NPCs who had been to Myth Drannor before. Together with Silver Palace it is my favourite area of the mod so far.

[Sir BillyBob]

I have plans for the dragon later in the game. If you don't release him, he won't be there to help you out. Double crossing is easy enough, just go try to take his treasure!

Myth Drannor will probably go through some more adjustments after we get the Selgaunt city finished. I haven't had time to revise each area and some have already gone through several revisions.

BTW, the only area with 100% sleep encounters is the abishai cave area. Everything thing else inside is only 10%. Yes, ten. So it is amazing how broken that part of the IE engine is.