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(Spoiler) Black Wizards/Orc Brutes
Armin:
Thanks for taking the time to reply Lalaith and Talan, a few more comments:
As for the Blackfeather Mountains moongate however, To be fair, Xora does warn you about the dangers of this place. She states somthing like:
"I should warn you about Blackfeather Mountains though... you will be hard pressed to find many willing to travel there with you. Too many have heard the story of The Shaman of Blackfeather Mountains to take steps to close."
You also recieve a journal entry that specifies how dangerous the mountains and the shaman are: "She warned me about the dangers of the mountains though, saying that many find the rumours of the shaman alone reason enough not to tread there."
Xora gives you 3 main quest to go and *explicitly* warns you about which to do last (that one's a clear hint for the player). IIRC, the one "Vial Quest" linked to the Blackfeather area is actually the first she mentions. The rest, for me, is just the usual flavour text I'm afraid. ;)
I've been playing D&D and assorted other RPGs for 20 years now, and my alter egoes have been to more "they never return" places than you can shake a stick at. That's the whole *point* of an RPG, to go where no one has gone before... :P
That's why in a non-linear module you need a few electric cattle prods, or "doorkeepers" for lack of a better word. There's many ways to do it, some more and some less discreet, but all is better than realizing you've been running into a dead end for the last 30 minures. A "doorstop" encounter at the very beginning of an area is a classic, place one encounter that's an indicator of things to come right next to the entry, so players notice after a minute if they are in over their heads and can easily back out. For the pirate quest, the alchemist could be out of water breathing pots and tell the player "I need some time to make a new batch, please check back later", and they'd become available after an undetermined time (aka: once the players has sufficient levels). Elsewhere, a caravan driver could tell you "Sorry, the road is unpassable during this time of the year (flood, draught, snow - you pick it ;)), come back in a few weeks (so, again, once the PC is high enough). "Escape points" are another option, shortscuts you discover in an area from where you can flee and to where you can return later.
1. If you didn't meet the Shaman to get the key to the moongate, this is a bug, and I can understand then that there wasn't warning. You shouldn't be able to get the key without speaking to the Shaman. I'm pretty sure we fixed that though.
The first time I met the shaman was *after* I returned through the beam of moonlight behind that spirit guardian, *then* he handed me some key and disappeared and I was stuck in an area with no exits... (and that was when I quit for good). The moongate simply appeared somewhere in the foothills where I was looking for a way to vial ingredient #1, I entered and could not get back the same way. So, probably some bugginess remains here.
One general suggestions remains: Enemies that stick to the same rules as the player tend to make for a more enjoyable fight in my opinion :P
Talan Va'lash:
--- Quote ---Armin - 2/19/2007 10:06 AM
One general suggestions remains: Enemies that stick to the same rules as the player tend to make for a more enjoyable fight in my opinion :P
--- End quote ---
I strongly agree with this, the only exception being when I'm trying to simulate something from PnP that isn't quite implemented fully in NWN.
I will be rebuilding the creatures you mentioned with inappropriate feats (either that or actually giving them WM levels :P something appropriate.)
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You definitely encountered a bug in the flow of the Shaman quest. You should not have been able to pass through the moon gate without talking to the shaman first and getting the key. This is most likely a one line error in the script (like, "if PC does NOT have key let them in", while it should be "if PC DOES have key let them in.")
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I'm learning two lessons from the feedback I've gotten since releasing this:
1.) In a non-linear mod, make encounters way more scalable than you think they need to be
2.) Whatever you do, don't do your playtesting with a cleric! (I've played through most/all of the module with a cleric and managed to whoop most everything's butt with only moderate difficulty, but of course, with default NWN spells thats like pressing the I win button... not sure why this didn't occur to me at the time.)
Armin:
2.) Whatever you do, don't do your playtesting with a cleric! (I've played through most/all of the module with a cleric and managed to whoop most everything's butt with only moderate difficulty, but of course, with default NWN spells thats like pressing the I win button... not sure why this didn't occur to me at the time.)
What? Full Plate, Tower shield, a full load of buff spells and Hammer of the Gods overpowered? Never! ;)
Try my favourite character build for testing: Bard/Arcane Archer... That's the opposite of overpowered. :P
But when talking clerics: The cleric henchman suffers enough from the abysmal NWN AI, no need to cripple him further. I'd suggest to take away 2 points of pointless (in his silver full plate) dex and 2 points of rather useless charisma (bringing both to "only" 12) and giving him 14 strength in exchange. So he won't be a *complete* loss in combat.
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