Paladin's Cove beta release, and feedback

How long is the summon? If it's a minute or few, then, yes, the undigested stuff would be dropped in a likely messy fashion.

 

Sorry, I found it rather dull.

This was a larger version of The Hidden Stronghold map, but this area in particular really reminded me of playing Pools of Radiance: Ruins of Myth Drannor.

One large dungeon crawl and a big battle in every room and around each corner, and no story to it.

How are all these things really living together?

If you know the path, then most can be bypassed, but this is a new game to us and it is not known about the path of least resistance and you don't know where you need to go to do the things that you need to do.

So this is the way: Battle - go rest/heal - go battle - go rest/heal - go battle - rinse and repeat - until you fight the boss at some point

it was not related to the main Cove story at all, so why did I do it?

I'd imagine that the XP and items would be needed if there is an even bigger battlescape introduced into Chapter 4, so that means that this area will need to be done just for prepping for Ch. 4 battles.

 

If you do the minimal path to do the deed and the place is no more, do you get the XP for all creatures that are in there and die in the process?

 

To each their own, I suppose I, for one, deeply enjoyed it. Ok, the battles "down under" were a bit repetitive ( I enjoyed how hard they were tho... ) but I loved all the cameos and storylines linked to the past, even if not relevant to the Paladin Cove itself

 

That dialog assumes the player has been to the The Archaic Society, and met Draskin Mancy (the curator), which is most likely.
But there's a chance they may have not.
I'll add an option that says "Who?", or "I've never met this person.", so the dialog doesn't look silly.

 

Typo noted and fixed, Thanks.

 

Oh, I have gone there and did questie things, but I just don't remember who it is by name.

I certainly remember stuff happening, but just not the details.

I'd have to look at the overall list of quests, but as far as I know the only quests I did not do is the "get rid of the three goblins" and "kill scutty" (or whatever his name is).

In my "logbook", those two quests are not even mentioned since, for eash one, I reloaded from before I spoke to Vendetta about them, and the Shady Character that is in the tavern waiting for me has been standing there for months now.

The only quest in my logbook that I have pending is that I am waiting for the pirate captives to arrive in the ship.

Will they ever arrive?

It has been months of in-game time that has elapsed.

 

Right now, it's a bit of a dungeon crawl. I have it set so most rooms have a 50% chance of having an encounter. Should I reduce this to 33%, or 25%, or 10%? Let me know, that's what this thread is for.

I think people may be losing track that this really is a first release, beta. And very unfinished. Eventually, there will be a completed sub-culture beneath the temple, with warring factions that make sense, and quests.

But even when finished, the encounters and treasure will remain randomized. This is so each time you might replay the game it will be different. Unlike the original game, where you know there are 5 trolls around that corner, and 10 ghouls in that room, and Hedrack with his mob at the end of the hall, etc. There's nothing wrong with that, but I was looking to make something that would still be fresh and surprising after multiple play-throughs.

For now, you can just think of it as an entrance from "the bowels of hell" having been opened beneath the temple remains, and trapped within by the seals put upon them. The undead ghosts of the 4 high-priests may be keeping them in check and prevent them from all killing each other, similar to how they did when they were alive.

Also, I hope people can appreciate the amount of time it took set up the individual X,Y spots in every room where the creatures are spawned, and to keep them in an interesting and challenging arrangement for a combat encounter. This meant making those spots applicable to any creature type or size that might randomly appear on that spot, and keeping the encounter as balanced as possible for the level of the group, including spell-caster powers. I did not just pick a random X,Y on the map and spawn the creatures in a random circle. (although that does happen for certain groups of mindless creatures, intentionally).

I guess whether you enjoy this part of the game, depends on your playing preferences. Do you want 50/50 role-playing/combat? Maybe some would prefer 10/90, or 25/75? Let me know.

It is 100% related to the main story.

I tried not to beat it to death in dialogs, for the sake of people getting tired of it. If it was not made clear, I need to get to work on making it more obvious.

Spoiler

There is a blight on the land around Paladin's Cove, which destroyed the ancient empire, and eventually consumes any civilization that takes hold there. It seeps in from the Temple in original game in the land of Greyhawk, where the Temple was never destroyed properly. When you arrive there, you can destroy the temple, renew it, or just leave it alone. That choice will directly affect the land where Paladin's Cove is. It will either free the land, damn it forever, and let it stay the way it is (respectively).

 

He he, yeah, that can look silly. I'll make him disappear at the end of the chapter if you don't talk to him.

They're waiting for you at the ship, past the caves.

They will indeed sail the ship home, but you need to meet them there on the ship, and make the journey with them. Once back in PC, they will be freed and the ship is yours to sell.

The quest description is misleading, and I need to clarify what it says.

Spoiler

Currently it says:

"The captives held by the pirates have asked you to free them from the island. They are making their way to the smuggler's ship, which they can sail home themselves.​

I'll change it to:

"The captives held by the pirates have asked you to free them from the island. They will meet you on the smuggler's ship, and they can sail it home for you."​

 

Yes, sorry, I didn't mean to sound disparaging about it.

I do appreciate all the hard work you've put into the module. It is just that this portion of the module didn't seem to fit in with everything else that's going. A big dungeon crawl for no apparent reason.

Thanks, yes, it was not clear for me.

You collect the 5 glyphs, go into a cave and do some battles to clear it out. Then find a ghost running around who is in anguish and teleports you to a different plane (at least I think it was referred to being on a different plane), and then do bigger/harder battles and clear out a bigger place. Then go back and the ghost is happy now.

Did I miss part of the ghost's ending dialog that the "blight around the Cove" is better? I thought she just said that she is feeling better. I guess I will need to reload to that point and see what she is saying.

 

what caves? where?

When I go back to those little islands and go under the tower and look out of that cave, I get a response "You see only open water through the cave exit. Someone has taken the smuggler's ship."

 

Ok, I don't know how things got messed up.

I reloaded from after I killed Gelwea.

One of the captives asks if I have a ship, and I respond "I actually do. [give him directions to the smuggler's ship]"

Then that captive responds, "i will gather the captives and make our way to that ship. Meet us there"

I missed the "Meet us there" part of that dialog.

I assumed that when I I asked if he can sail a ship, and he said that he has enough people for a crew, and I gave him directions to the ship, then I was done.

I never went back to the smuggler ship. I just moved on to other things to do. Then Chapter 2 ended, and I did all of Chapter 3.

Now in my current game, the ship is gone when I look out of that cave.

So either I did go back to the smuggler ship and did that stuff, which I do not remember doing and the quest was never marked as completed, or something caused the ship to disappear and now I can't complete it.

Maybe the end of the Chapter 2 caused the ship to disappear for Chapter 3.

 

I have a saved game "end of CH2" and a saved game "start of CH3"

In the "end of CH2" game, the ship is already gone, so it is not the change of chapters that caused the ship to disappear.

I don't have many saved games between "Gelwea dead" and "end of CH2", and those saved states between those two do not have descriptive names, so I don't really know what I did to cause the ship to disappear.

 

OK, i have discovered what causes the ship to disappear.

After you kill the boss, and go around and talk to the captives and send them to the smuggler's ship, so they are all gone.

Now if you go to the cave, you can go to the smuggler ship and complete the quest.

but if you do not go the cave (so you don't go to the smuggler's ship), but instead you go back to the Cove on your own, now the ship will be gone.

It is very repeatable for me.

So I killed/broke the quest by going back to the Cove on my own and the freed captives are lost at sea.

So in this scenario, this can be a botched quest because I never went back to the smuggler's ship to help them get back to the Cove.

 

I'll tighten up the timing on that. Perhaps a reminder when you go to leave the island by the little boat.

Something like:

"Are you sure you want to depart this way? You promised the captives you'd meet them at the boat." ​

But everything else will stay the way it is. That is, if you DO leave the island without meeting the captives at the boat, you can't come back weeks (or even days) later and find them there. It's assumed that some of the pirates out to sea returned, and either drove them off or killed them.