Crushbone

My post yesterday made me want to play EverQuest again. But one of the last things I want to do in gaming, is to play EverQuest again. Maybe that doesn’t make sense. In order to play either EQ1 or EQ2, I’d have to get really deep into it, and for a long time, because neither EverQuest is a game you play lightly or casually. I’ve done my time and waited out my parole. I did say I would be first in line for a new EverQuest and I wasn’t lying. I’ll dive deep into the next one to come out (and maybe that will be Pantheon, though with Aradune’s death, who knows if non-streamers will ever be allowed to play it?) ...

It was suggested that, these days, it might not be a bad idea to make a little video about your new Foundry quests. I thought this was an incredible idea. So I made one for Crushbone’s Revenge…. [embed]

This is not a screenshot from the Neverwinter quest. This is from one of my EQ2 quests. Lanys hard adds actually made hard Extended the Janitor a little. By request, flirt option for Pham first meeting. Changed Josylyn fight to be a little harder Don’t require the player to accept Bealu to make use of the Priest of Discord’s power. Clerics apparently have a problem with this :) Change out the volume gate in the corrupted bear pen to one that actually works and fits in better with the fence. ...

Hey, hey, magical sleigh. I didn’t get this last year because I was saving up for the Frost Mimic. It’s been a full day since I released Crushbone’s Revenge into the world. I’ve gotten a little feedback, most of it good, some with stuff I need to address. I was kinda hoping, of course, that it would catch on fire, but it didn’t. Probably because the average playtime is creeping up toward AN HOUR. It was supposed to be a HALF HOUR QUEST. Holy crap. I am UNABLE to make a quick foundry with story and action good for the daily foundry quest. ...

Now, this IS relevant to EverQuest. I think I’m just about finished with Crushbone’s Revenge, the sort of sequel to Tempest in a Freepot. You’re on a mission to save Retlon Brenclog, a gnome who was last seen in Crushbone. But you uncover something much darker on your quest, and a gnome isn’t all you save. [gallery ids=“11217,11219,11222,11220,11221,11218”] The next step is optional, but it’s usually a good idea to get other foundry authors to weigh in on your quest before you make it widely available. This is semi-baked in, because you have to get five reviews before it goes live to everyone. Lucky me, I have four already, and need just one more. The unlucky bit is that I’ve been honestly reviewing people’s foundries for a few months now, and… some authors might want to be a little brutally honest with me. ...

Lanys T'Vyl and friend plot against the player Still figuring out what Ello is for… slow at work today, new projects are being specced but this close to the end of the year and a department-wide vacation, not much is getting done. We had a release early this morning which went fairly well. I was barely conscious. But since I was up so early, I decided to work a little more on Crushbone’s Revenge. I’ve spent so long on this now that it seems like there was never a time when I wasn’t working on it this year. In reality, I started development on it in October, I think, or early November, so it really hasn’t been that long. ...

Tomorrow, the first batch of Cult of the Dragon foundry quests will go live. I don’t know when mine will show, or if it will show. I kinda think the first few batches will have the advantage of player interest. I’ve been over and over the quest since the supposed deadline back on the 6th, ripping out stuff but more often, adding in new stuff. One disadvantage of coming up with the plot last is that by the time I figure out what the plot is, I’ve put too much work into the quest to make that plot clear to the player. ...