Here is another Hack'n' Slash taking place in the Midpoint area. There are 6 quests of various difficulty. Three are taken directly from the first three episodes of the Midpoint Series. There are again 6 companions provided. You will find 5 of them in the Inn and one of them in the Temple. This is a beta, so let me know of any bugs.
The traps in the Hobgoblin quest are as deadly as ever, so be careful.
You should start with a new level 1 character. By the end of the module you should be at level 7 or 8.
Survival rate for PC's should be around 85%. In other word about 8 1/2 times out of 10 you should be able to play thru the entire mod without your main character dying. Even if he/she does die if a companion survives and runs away you can go to the temple and purchase a raise dead spell.
No vote because I can't play with a crashing bug in the savings. In the firts quest, there are too many opponents even if they do little damages...
Posted by Blazerking at 2009-01-23 13:09:07 Voted 5.50 on 01/23/09
I forgot to mention that for every single quest, only the PC with the item received the XP. Consequently, making this a single player module. After every quest, we had to go into DebugMode and give the same amount of XP to the off PC. I don't know if this was something that was broken with 1.21, but it is not playing like a MP module.
Posted by Blazerking at 2009-01-23 13:03:50 Voted 5.50 on 01/23/09
I played this with a friend of mine, and we did enjoy it. It may not seem it if you see a rating of 5.50, but I feel as though the voting standards ought to be adhered to, so as not to skew the real value of a module. There are a lot of modules out there, that just flat do not deserve the rating they are given.
Also, I appreciate that Maytl enjoys your modules, and provides her feedback and votes. However, a 10 is described as a masterpiece. Even if the author is biased, but has an honest bone in his body (which I truly believe he does), he knows that this is not a groundbreaking masterpiece.
Also, I saw that the author replied that he felt his module deserved a 7 - Very Good, Deserves a Look. Even that tends to be higher than the module should be rated. I note that the author's work is greatly improved from his original series, and that there are more quests. But, if the author were to tie together a storyline of why these tribes are gathering outside the town, and throw in at least a few side quests, I would have voted 6 + for sure. A little more tweaking with other areas and more people to talk to in the town (if nothing else, at least to elaborate on a storyline), and I could see a 7 or even higher.
That is to say that I think the author is in his initial learning stages of the tool set, and has nowhere to go but up. I also note that the author states specifically that this is a hack n slash module with no storyline. He delivers what he says he will, but some direction and storyline goes a long way for gameplay.
After playing his original series, I pretty much knew what I was in store for, and was pleasantly surprised with the town of Midpoint, but there is always room for improvement. And, I don't see a 7 - 10 rating for a basic hack n slash module with no storyline.
Still, we did enjoy the module. I will definitely play modules from this author in the future, and I expect that I will continue to see significant improvement in his module building skills. And, please before anyone comes back to me and says that I have not built modules and, I should not be so critical, please note that I built 8 modules in NWN, and posted them to the community. All of them were vastly larger in scope, had story lines, and many quests. One of the modules had 52 if I remember correctly. Right now, I am learning the NWN2 toolset, before I put out my first module intended to be a series. The story line has been complete for quite some time, just need the time to learn the toolset and actually build the areas, write scripts, develop NPCs, etc....
Posted by Blazerking at 2009-01-20 15:38:51 Voted 5.50 on 01/23/09
Also, as regards voting corruption, all the modules have some voter corruption with votes. There is always someone who knows someone who made a module and will vote far higher than they know the true quality of the module to be. Although, I like Roland's modules, they are nowhere near an OC, which in my opinion is a 10.
Hell, look at the Ravenloft: Dreamscape module. The scripting is terrible. The module is nearly unplayable due to PvP settings, and yet it is ranked 11th. I must say, that even though Roland's modules have little to no story, they are better than Ravenloft!
Posted by Blazerking at 2009-01-20 11:39:07 Voted 5.50 on 01/23/09
Roland, I have not played this or any of the other Midpoint series. I am going to play this one later today with a friend of mine. We, based on the comments, will take two 3rd level characters to start, with appropriate items. The reason for that is the henchmen in your Seaside series just charge into battle, and I do not like puppet mode.
Anyway, even before playing, I would like to say that based on what I have seen from your work, you are missing many opportunities. I know that this a hack and slash series, as are the others, and I love hack and slash. However, some interaction with various specifically named PC's would be fantastic. I recommend that you add approximately 5 - 10 areas with 5 side quests for the PC's.
Just that alone would significantly increase playing enjoyability. Also, if you could expound a little on the story line, and tie the encounters together. You would definitely have a 7 - Very Good, Deserves a Look, or even higher!
I am contemplating right now opening the toolset and adding a couple of areas, NPC interaction and quests myself. I made 8 modules with the original toolset, and I understand the basics. I will have to tinker before I do any saving. Also, I agree with the other feedback, that there are WAY TOO FEW multi-player modules out there. And, we need many more to enjoy.
I am going to be working on a module series of my own, when I learn some more extensive scripting and how to use the toolset a little more fully. Unfortunately the story line was conceived while still playing NWN, but have not developed the modules yet, and it is single player.
Thanks for you constructive comments. I credited the other authors in my original series, but forgot to include it in this. I will correct that when I next update. I appreciate the kind remarks also and intend to continue to make multiplayer mods with companions so that single players can play and smaller groups can add needed companions. I have a large multi-player only project in the works, but I don't know when it will be completed. Hopefully before year end. Meanwhile, I intend to try and flesh out the companions in this module if time permits.
Thanks again for playing my module.
Posted by Ocanthus at 2008-04-13 00:06:50 Voted 6.50 on 04/13/08
This module delivers exactly what it claims: hack and slash. I think some minor tweaks here and there would greatly improve it (such as using area transition waypoints instead of "transition to a door," for example). I found the encounters and rewards to be more appropriate for higher level characters (3rd to 5th), although if you have enough 1st level guys and don't mind respawning, you can finish it. I'm not a big fan of pure hack/slash, but I wanted to try it because there aren't many multiplayer mods available. I'm giving it a 6.5, which is a little higher than the Voting Standards might dictate for a few reasons: 1. we need more multiplayer mods and this is pretty good compared to the rest out there, 2. if you think of this as a beta, then you can see a lot of potential, 3. and there were some bright spots scattered around that were entertaining.
Two first level characters are not enough. If you pla with only one other person, take four companions with you. Then these encounters are much easier.
Posted by Ocanthus at 2008-04-10 07:12:23 Voted 6.50 on 04/13/08
I tried this last night with one other player...
I'm going to hold off on voting until I get a chance to play it again.
Initial thoughts:
Our first level characters were slaughtered in every encounter. It looks to me like we need at least 3rd level characters, maybe even higher, to have a chance at surviving the encounters. Thankfully, there is no death penalty, so we were able to eventually defeat the monsters by respawning lots of times.
The areas are pretty nice, especially some of the interiors. I didn't see any notes about who made them, and some other comments lead me to believe some areas were borowed from other authors. I don't have any problem with doing that, but you should credit the original authors in the documentation.
There were some "polish" issues, such as doors that open but don't go anywhere, poor placement of area transition waypoints, and stilted dialogue.
The townsfolk are pretty impressive from an appearance perspectiveve. We were confused why you would bother making so many unique NPCs (complete with unique outfits and individual names) and yet not include any interaction with them.
****** SPOILER ALERT ************
The spiders in the warehouse were nearly impossible to hit as a first level character. After dying a few times, we retreated and tried the hobgoblins. The hobgoblins killed us both with a single strike. So we retreated again and went to the bugbears and dire wolves. Needless to say, they killed us quickly too. Then we retreated and went to the lizardfolk tribe. There were at least a dozen or more of them, and they dispatched us in a nanosecond.
************ END SPOILER ***********
After that, we decided to end our gaming session and create a couple of 4th level characters to try this mod again this weekend.
Posted by Filgrind at 2008-03-31 22:46:27 Voted 7.50 on 03/31/08
More constructed than the others mods.
I'd appreciated a greater end with the last quest, the sword of Baal. I didn't know if the mod was finished ord not. I'd like a conversation with the soldiers at the orcs' forteress before they help me to fight. Thanks
Look, Maytl and RolandGR, I don't make movies or television shows but I certainly know what I like. Not putting up content doesn't preclude one from leaving comments. Tellner would have left more of an impression if he (she) had expounded on his vote, but in all honesty, I have played through many of your mods and a 3 to a 6 is about right from what I've seen.
The bad is no NPC interactions at all, most areas are all borrowed (no problem with that at all, but can't vote on something someone else does), the stories are simple at best, there is nothing special about these mods.
Now to the positive, your mods are becoming progressively better as you goes. The stories are getting better, slightly. I think if you put some effort into the NPCs and companions, both conversations and appearance and maybe put a little more twist into the stories you could really have something.
I hope you don't lose heart from some mediocre and hard criticisms, some of it mine. You put out a lot of effort and it's nice to see some new stuff on the vault regularly. A lot of people are working on the High and Mighty mods, lots of custom content, many episodes etc etc. In my experience, many of these will never see the light of day because they are too expansive, people lose interest in finishing. At least you put out some solid, if simple and flawed, mods with some regularity. That's really good to see. Keep on working and improving. _________________________ Failure is not an option
Thanks for coming to my defence Maytl, but I would like to know what areas Telmer feels need improvement.
Posted by Maytl at 2008-03-23 10:34:21 Voted 10.00 on 03/16/08
It is interesting that people who have never submitted any work for the community to judge and enjoy are the most critical. But at least you voted, telmer. Sorry you did not like it, but you failed to mention why. But dont bother, your critique would not be constructive or helpful.
Posted by tellner at 2008-03-22 20:59:21 Voted 4.00 on 03/22/08
Maybe its a case of vote system corruption :(
sounds perfect for building my new char' if its hack/slash and 3hours
I will play it and vote accordingly _________________________ Bulmer OakenKeg of Clan Ciderbasher
Defenders of the Sacred Orchard
Gee, Maytl, are you married to this dude or what? You vote a 10 on everything he puts out, claiming this new thing is the best he's done. I am all for enthusiasm, but give it a break okay. I am impressed with this guys work too, to a degree. It does not rate a "10 - A Masterpiece, Genuinely Groundbreaking" by any stretch. _________________________ Failure is not an option
Posted by Maytl at 2008-03-16 15:57:41 Voted 10.00 on 03/16/08
This is the best Midpoint mod yet.
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10 - A Masterpiece, Genuinely Groundbreaking 9 - Outstanding, a Must Have 8 - Excellent, Recommended to Anyone 7 - Very Good, Deserves a Look 6 - Good, Qualified Recommendation 5 - Fair, Solid yet Unremarkable 4 - Some Merit, Requires Improvements 3 - Poor Execution, Potential Unrealized 2 - Very Little Appeal 1 - Not Recommended to Anyone
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