You have been chosen, along with one other contestant, to participate in the Fifth Annual Kingdom of Kronica Scavenger Hunt Contest.
The first contestant to find all seven items needed for the contest will win the grand prize... an all expenses paid trip to the Sunset Isles and a bag of 10000 gold!
The module was play tested with all classes but sorcerers were the most difficult to play as. For Rangers, a good starting favored enemy would be Goblins. Races that have level adjustments (Deep Gnomes, Aasimar, etc.) were not play tested.
Scavenger Hunt v1.6 Changes and Fixes:
- Raised the prices of scrolls at Gera's market stall in the contest facilities. Playtesting with a mage and some spells were WAY too cheap and powerful.
- Changed the Fire Beetles in the Goblin & Bandit cave to look like Bombardier Beetles and changed their names to Giant Beetles.
- Made some goblins & kobolds in the Goblin & Bandit cave stationary so they won't wander around and get stuck in walls.
- Fixed the "check current time" response at campfires.
- Made the wands, available as loot at the start of the module for certain classes, indentified.
- Removed many healing kits and healing potions throughout the module. Players should stock up at vendors before venturing forth!
- The "Kill Gunther" quest is now available to all characters, good or evil.
- Gunther will no longer flee the graveyard if he is in combat.
- Changed the name of the treasure dirt mounds to "conspicuous" looking mounds of dirt.
- Increased the survival DC for swimming across to Sheffield Village and travelling from the Glenshire Woods to Bonnie Bay.
- Fixed the travel bug from the Glenshire Woods to Bonnie Bay. It's now possible to encounter enemies.
- Raised the Rat Race entry fee from 15 to 25 gold.
- Added a Lost & Found chest in the Sparking Anvil Pub, in case the player forgets their equipment after renting a room.
- Player now gains full hit points, reset memorized spells and feats after levelling up.
- After winning an arena challenge, any re-entry fees are waived.
- Added one "Potion of Survival" as loot (+3 survival for five minutes) for certain classes.
- XZ is now available as a companion regardless of Quesh's pickpocket success & to rogue characters.
- Added 8 new creatures to the ambush area.
- Added a Shambling Mound, a Treant and a Panther in the Glenshire Woods.
- Made the dire boar in front of the mines at full health again.
(The readme.txt file has additional changes/fixes but contains some spoilers)
Special thanks to the following authors who produced awesome areas and shared them with the community:
Small Diner
(Sparking Anvil Pub)
Link Author: Marcelo Lopes
Sharpstone Village
(Sheffield Village)
Link Author: Jezla9
Thank you very much Xydek. I'm glad you enjoyed it and I appreciate your vote!
Posted by Xydek at 2013-03-30 04:29:19 Voted 9.50 on 03/30/13
This module is based on a very special and original concept, a treasure hunt contest in a virtual world. The design of the module serves perfectly the concept, and the player is constantly put against breathtaking challenges. The mix of encounters, the skill demands, the resting restrictions, the economy of the game (gold, equipment, potions, shops), the XP / level progress, all are precisely measured and kept in a fine balance to keep the game thrilling for the whole duration of the story / contest. Much attention has been given to every detail and even though there aren't many areas, they are packed with action.
An important thing to mention is that since the contest world is open and many quests (main and side-quests) are available in parallel, some strategic planning is required, as it should be in such a game. Some interesting puzzles and tricks here and there complete the picture.
The difficulty level is always kept at a high level but without becoming overwhelming (at least for an experienced player). It could become somewhat painful though for magic users.
This mod really deserves to be in the high score table. Sadly, it only has 6 votes at the time. After I have played most high-score mods, I can say that this is one of the most overlooked mods. I hope in the future more people will discover this excellent mod and vote for it.
Posted by lesommer at 2012-04-27 01:08:09 Voted 9.00 on 04/26/12
I replay it. The problem is that I took the amulet before talking to the captain.
On my second try, I talk to the captain then I take the amulet. The pixie then talk to me. It is a problem with neverwinter night 2 when 2 evenement occur in a wrong order. I had a similer problem in the wizard apprentice 2.
Thanks lesommer! That's strange that Fizel didn't start his conversation after you picked up the Captain's Medallion... must be a glitch. I'll see if I can do something about that.
I don't think I tried testing the mod with a dinosaur companion. I'm giving it a try now to see how it plays through. So far, the dinosaur is kicking butt :)
Thanks for the vote and the comments. Much appreciated!
Posted by lesommer at 2012-04-26 12:13:18 Voted 9.00 on 04/26/12
thank you very mutch I was stupid to not go to the dock. I thought that the exit to the dock was closed like the first time. The pixie was here after I kill the captain but said nothing. I was not sent back to the zone with the merchant and the rat race.
About the mod, it is playable with a druid after the level 3 with the spell that increase the natural armor et chosing the feat dinosaur companion who is nearly as good as a fighter. The problem is the rest system who suppose that I bought survival kit. I am impatient to have henchmen. I need a rogue to open locked chest and disarm trap and a tank because the dinosaur is not as good as a real fighter.
Sorry about that... the exit to the South Shore Docks is in the southern part of the south shore area not the east. Also, Captain Collins won't show up until you get rid of First Officer Donny.
The ship you need to take back is in the docks area. There is an exit to that area from the south shore (where the beach house with the pirates is) in the east. Once you get to the south shore docks area, the ship is there, along with Captain Collins and a some more pirates. Captain Collins also shows up on the map in this area.
Hopefully that helps, let me know how it goes. Cheers!
Posted by lesommer at 2012-04-25 11:50:29 Voted 9.00 on 04/26/12
I don't understand. I do the quest where I must take back a ship. I killed 3 or 4 pirates in the house. The quest is not finished. But I don't know how to go to the ship. The small boat is not usable. I play a druid wook elf with a dinosaur companion.
There's another advanced workbench but not in Craynis's tower. If you were using the one that wasn't in Kronica, I'd be worried about a bug somewhere. I think if you check with the bookseller, it should work out. *fingers crossed*
I uploaded v1.5 and used some of your suggestions. There's an xp bonus if you injure a creature with an exploding barrel. I added medium & heavy armor to the vendor in the contest facilities (but they're only available after you reach a certain level.) Also fixed a big bug with the pirate captain fight that I just noticed a couple days ago... playtested the mod about a million times and I never noticed it until now :)
Posted by Avo at 2012-03-07 05:40:41 Voted 7.50 on 03/04/12
Hm, might be that I talked to the bookseller afterwards. I'll give it another shot.
I was planning to use the alchemy bench in the training facilities, yes. The only otehr one I vaguely remember is upstairs in the mages tower (?) which seems to be closed now.
Did you talk to the book seller? (the 1st character you meet when entering the outskirts of Sheffield Village from the woods) Tamara's dialog options won't include anything regarding the Glowclaw venom or alchemy training until you've read his book about dragons (or he reads it to you if your intelligence stat is less than 9.)
Not talking to the book seller first about his book on dragons is the only thing I can think of that would stop Tamara from not offering training... unless there's a bug.
Just out of curiosity, are you using the advanced workbench in the Kronica contest facilities?
Posted by Avo at 2012-03-06 23:51:35 Voted 7.50 on 03/04/12
That was the first thing I tried. I helped with the first problem and got the first badge. But now all she does is offer me potions for sale.
You can get training from an alchemist who needed help earlier in the game. Although, you need to help her with her problem first. Hopefully that helps!
Posted by Avo at 2012-03-06 12:45:00 Voted 7.50 on 03/04/12
Hi,
I gave it another shot and found all the roots. When I want to prepare the poison it suddenly says that I either need an alchemy score of ten, which I do not have, or a advanced badge of trainer. Could you give me a hint where to get the latter?
Oops, almost forgot to mention, I'm uploading a v1.5 this week. It fixes a bug where, if you start a conversation with Cpt. Jeffreys during the pirate captian fight, he'll just say "thanks for the help... good bye" and leave without helping in the battle.
The villoguile roots will show up with map-pins. They'll be on beaches and in wooded areas.
If you play through again, rogues will have a slightly different experience (they can join a "thieves' guild" and a couple of extra quests will be available to them.) Also, playing as an evil character will have the artist Fredrico offer another quest after you help him out. As for spellcasting characters, they can rent a room at the tavern at the docks, so resting is a bit easier... but more backtracking, I'm afraid.
The mod I'm working on now is for NWN1. I'm a little on the lazy side and I find making areas a lot quicker with NWN1, although the toolset interface is a lot clunkier. One good thing, there is no "survival" skill, so resting just requires a survival kit to be in your inventory... no skill checks.
I definitely appreciate your constructive criticism and honesty. Cheers!
Posted by Avo at 2012-03-05 00:32:45 Voted 7.50 on 03/04/12
Hey, I am glad you did not take my criticism personally. I always felt that just saying "Yay 10!" or "I died, tis sux 1" doesn't help anybody. You took months and months of developing this and the least I can do is take the time and come up with a reasonable review that reflects my experience.
When you say, the plant roots show up on the map, do you mean with map-pins? Any hint in which areas?
As for difficulty, I wouldn't say, that you made it too hard. Everything is manageable once you hit the apropraite level. It's just, that the distribution of monsters leads to too much backtracking in my opinion. First clearing out all Goblins everywhere, then do the next tour to clear all boars and wolves, then again for the mid level baddies and then again for the high level beasts.
I suppose it's probably more realistic this way. In a "real" fantasy world you would expect to run into something that is beyond your abilities at any given point. Unfortunately in this case I felt it didn't go well with the mechanics of a game like NWN2 and just needlessly lengthened the module.
I'll be happy to try anything else you put out. The puzzles and the different quest solutions where very well done.
I might even plow through Scavenger hunt again with a higher level char to see what other quest solutions are available.
Thanks Avo. In hindsight, I think I did make it too difficult in a lot of areas. I'll know better for next time.
In regards to the plant roots, they will all show up on the map. Should reduce the search time :-)
Thanks again! I'm starting another module and using everything I learned from this one. I appreciate the vote and the helpful ideas.
Posted by Avo at 2012-03-04 10:44:12 Voted 7.50 on 03/04/12
Err... given that this mod is rated 9+ I am somewhat underwhelmed.
The module has a number of very nice ideas and tries a different approach to sandbox playing, unfortunately most of what it does, simply isn't working for me. In the end, it's more frustrating than anything else.
Combat started nicely in the first cave but then balance went out for a walk and left the mod on it's own. That you get a lvl 9 companion for the second mission (at lvl4) should have given me a hint. Said companion dies rather fast against the first minor boss btw...
Combat is varies from easy to ridiculously difficult within the same area. Which means it is absoluitely possible to run into a bunch of goblins and the next second into a Frost Giant, Umber Hulk, then some bugbears or gnolls and after that a Huge Elemental or a Horned Devil for good measure. all of that within a few steps of the same map. I spend about 12 hours by now with "Scavenger Hunt" and it felt like 80% of that time were spent with "Die - reload - repeat" and figuring out how to survive certain situations.
There's a number of really interesting ways to beat enemies with explording barrels and such, but unfortunately these tactics are heavily discouraged, beause they are not rewarded with xp.
Also there is waaaay too much useless backtracking. Since areas are supposedly not to be cleared in one go, but rather in tiny bits that are ok for any given character level you spent endless hours of running back and forth between areas and tyring to take out monsters one by one. Overall I felt like I only spent about 10% of my gaming time with actual plot advancement and the rest with (re-)loading and running around.
Resting is restricted (good), but dependent on survival skills (bad). I play a fighter - go figure. I do not want to know what that does to spellcasters.
Plotwise it seems quite ok. A lot of things to do and see, I guess. Seemingly a number of different ways to solve plots as well, which is very good. Allthough the constant forced running around between ares reminded me in the most painful way of Tormented Hearts from NWN1. "Kill something in area 1, gain a level, now kill something in area 2, find item to use in area 3, use go back to 1 etc.".
At this point I am only missing the dragon scale and luckily I seem to have all of the ingrisdients for the poison except 4 missing plant roots. But by now I am so tired of this mod that I really can't bring myslef combing through the whole game world AGAIN to go looking for shrubs. Taking on a red drogon witha lvl 10 character is also not an option.
There were a number of good moments when I realised which puzzle item fit where (on the other end of the world map of course) but overall too much running, strange combat balance and all in all much more frustration than fun. It leaves the nagging feeling there are way better things I could have done with this weekend...
Loot is also weird, while there are a number of high level items there are no medium or heavy armors. The best thing is Studded Leather (up to +5 though). So all fighter and cleric types watch out...
Players that favour sandbox type games and do not mind dying a lot might want to give it a whirl. I recommend rangers, barbarians or druids as character classes. Fighter and rogue might be just about doable. Mages, sorcs and clerics are probably
screwed because of the resting restrictions.
On the plus side, it ran bug free.
I'll give anything else by gergmart a shot, though. He's on to a few very good ideas and has obviously put a lot of work into the module.
Even with the utmost amount of good will I cannot bring myself to give this more than 7,5 points ("deserves a look").
Posted by eL_PuSHeR at 2011-08-14 00:38:40 Voted 9.00
Nope. I never find him nor his corpse. He just vanished.
Awesome! Glad to hear that. I was going to start play testing some more today but they called me into work. I hate work. I guess you never found Dilbert? That's the main thing I want to work on.
Posted by eL_PuSHeR at 2011-08-12 06:34:56 Voted 9.00
At last I was able to finish it using the venom to get the dragon scale. I ended up at level 12.
Posted by eL_PuSHeR at 2011-08-10 09:41:29 Voted 9.00
Not yet. I have got the quest for a bottle of expensive wine for Claudia but I didn't finished it. I don't know where the key is. Also, I ran into the werewolf and killed it. I will keep talking to people because I don't know how to proceed right now.
I have a few ideas I want to test out in regards to the vanishing Dilbert and I'll do something about that elemental ...sounds like you tried everything but a nuclear bomb :) I won't be able to get around to it till the weekend and there's a few other bugs I need to fix.
Next time I make a module, I need to figure out how this "override" folder thing works so I can apply patches instead of uploading completely new versions... but for now, v.1.3 should be ready by Sunday.
Were you able to make the Glowclaw venom for the dragon?
Posted by eL_PuSHeR at 2011-08-10 07:38:30 Voted 9.00
Unfortunately I didn't have a savegame old enough when Mr. Dilbert was alive. Anyway I haven't been able to find his corpse anywhere.
And third attemp to bring down the mutated elemental. The quest is completely *bleep*ed up. I dropped an acid bomb on it. Stepped on a few hard traps. Shot about 200 arrows at it. Spent an entire magic missile wand. And, guess what? IT WAS STILL UNINJURED.
Posted by eL_PuSHeR at 2011-08-10 00:09:15 Voted 9.00
Thanks. I have another idea. I don't know if I still have some older save. I could try reloading an older one this afternoon to see what happens.
If he's dead, his corpse will remain and he can be resurrected. Let me know if you find him. I agree with the elemental idea. I'll make the changes and do some more play testing this weekend.
Posted by eL_PuSHeR at 2011-08-09 14:07:16 Voted 9.00
Damn. It seems there is no EDIT button.
About the mutated elemental. Maybe it's a good idea to lower the xp gained for completing this quest alongside with tweaking the elemental itself.
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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