THE FINAL SPIRE JUDGING
Gizmo
Overview: Having played the scenario before, making suggestions, and being promised improvement, I replayed this scenario with highest hopes. Unfortunately, going through it all again seemed more of a chore then a reprieve, and the bug workaround I anticipated so greatly was not implemented to it's full potential leaving me a bit disappointed. I'm going to rate it based on this playing experience without reminding myself of my previous rating at the CSR.
Positives:
+Noding is top notch. There are many 'special effects' that add to the scenario and all are implemented rather well.
+Special spells for special times and you have to decide which to use. The sheer number of spells seems overwhelming at first sight, but it's a great tie-in for the story and adds to the game play.
+Spelling is great and grammar is good as far as sentence structure goes.
+Combat is hard (for me) but not too hard. You can't just plow through with what you're given, you have to be on top of your game if you don't want to die. It's balanced well.
+The overall storyline was believable and interesting in itself.
+Nice Easter Egg for blades enthusiasts.
Negatives: (The list looks long but it's really not. I just explained them more thoroughly)
-I was really distracted by the redundancy in the wording. The dialogue did not flow very well and a Thesaurus could have been utilized better. For example, in the opening information you are told that you are 'shocked' about your father's death, Alfred is 'totally shocked' and looks on 'in absolute shock', Alfred is 'horrified', the townspeople are 'horrified', the townspeople are in 'shock' and are 'revolted, just as they are shocked'. When you come back to blow up the gates, the woman at the food stand is 'shocked' and Alfred is 'shocked' again. At the end of the opening you are told twice how you distracted the mage to escape him. And in the ending dialogue in adjacent paragraphs the 'lawlessness and corruption' are mentioned, and it seemed like the fourth and fifth time the phrase was used(I didn't actually count). So while storyline has improved greatly for this author, storytelling is still one aspect he needs to work on.
-I was really frustrated with how much I could carry. Many times throughout the scenario, I had to choose between picking up the gems that I was told I would need, collecting the cameo books, or keeping my power geodes. I think I remember tweaking the party in the character editor the first time I played it. I resisted the urge this go around. This time I opted to drop my geodes since 70 (annoyingly) "long wait"s could fill my tank anyway. imho, When the cameo books were included in the scenario, the amount of weight that could be carried should have been increased by 50lb.
-Even though the scenario is rather short, I don't like how the author set it up that the player could 'get stuck' and have to start over. When this is done inadvertently it is called a fatal bug and I frown on using it purposefully. The instance that most stands out is the making of the potion to fix the medallion. If you pick up the ember flowers or the purple berries before you know what you need them for and then drop them because you have to choose between it or a gem, then you change floors (of which there are many), you're plumb out of luck. You can't move forward without the medallion intact, even to lose against your foe.
-I came across one small bug. The Meddium Healing Potions can't be 'used'. I was quite distraught when I realized it in the final fight with only 23 hp left and no sp to heal myself. Lucky enough for me it only took one more special spell to win. (It also made me mad because I had dropped a power geode to pick the last med. healing potion up.)
-Finally, my gripe about the bug workaroundd. I had hoped that the custom party would have been altered more to better fit the description of what the player is told happened. Change Name is a rather simple edit that could have made all the other players 'Ulrike' or 'Ghost of Ulrike'. Change Icon could have easily changed all their pictures to be the same has hers and instead a rather unattractive black square is used to represent her 'ghosts'. And if changing the pre-fab party was not something the author wanted to do, then the explanation would have been better to say something to the effect of 'ghosts of other people that the mage has killed appear to cheer you on'. Whatever is used though, I do expect the two to go together, and it didn't.
Conclusion:
It might be my disappointment in the workaround (my own brainchild) has made me biased against this scenario. I expected more but was given less. I don't plan to play this scenario again and now feel 'meh' about recommending it to anyone. I am willing to hear arguments to change my score, but ultimately I did not have fun playing this scenario again.
Rating: 6.7
Kelandon
This plotline was good, but very hard to follow. It might have been better had the original scenario actually been made, because I was suddenly cast into the role of a character that the designer knew but I didn't, and it was quite jolting. This scenario should have been made as a stand-alone scenario, but it really played like a sequel, which hurt it a lot.
Also, random people and things kept acting and happening. Introductions to characters were jarring and too rapid.
The final quest (including the quest to repair the medallion) annoyed me, and the special spells weren’t used until the end, and even then, they were disappointing.
The Mac-PC dialogue bug is present.
Rating: 7.1
Terror's Martyr
It's of decent size and the combat's not bad, but I just wished those special spells could have been used more often. The pacing isn't awful, the graphics are good, and everything fits into place well enough. I'm not sure if the plot really *moved* me, but I was having enough fun playing the scenario as a whole that I didn't quite care-- which is a good thing.
Rating: 7.9
Overview: Having played the scenario before, making suggestions, and being promised improvement, I replayed this scenario with highest hopes. Unfortunately, going through it all again seemed more of a chore then a reprieve, and the bug workaround I anticipated so greatly was not implemented to it's full potential leaving me a bit disappointed. I'm going to rate it based on this playing experience without reminding myself of my previous rating at the CSR.
Positives:
+Noding is top notch. There are many 'special effects' that add to the scenario and all are implemented rather well.
+Special spells for special times and you have to decide which to use. The sheer number of spells seems overwhelming at first sight, but it's a great tie-in for the story and adds to the game play.
+Spelling is great and grammar is good as far as sentence structure goes.
+Combat is hard (for me) but not too hard. You can't just plow through with what you're given, you have to be on top of your game if you don't want to die. It's balanced well.
+The overall storyline was believable and interesting in itself.
+Nice Easter Egg for blades enthusiasts.
Negatives: (The list looks long but it's really not. I just explained them more thoroughly)
-I was really distracted by the redundancy in the wording. The dialogue did not flow very well and a Thesaurus could have been utilized better. For example, in the opening information you are told that you are 'shocked' about your father's death, Alfred is 'totally shocked' and looks on 'in absolute shock', Alfred is 'horrified', the townspeople are 'horrified', the townspeople are in 'shock' and are 'revolted, just as they are shocked'. When you come back to blow up the gates, the woman at the food stand is 'shocked' and Alfred is 'shocked' again. At the end of the opening you are told twice how you distracted the mage to escape him. And in the ending dialogue in adjacent paragraphs the 'lawlessness and corruption' are mentioned, and it seemed like the fourth and fifth time the phrase was used(I didn't actually count). So while storyline has improved greatly for this author, storytelling is still one aspect he needs to work on.
-I was really frustrated with how much I could carry. Many times throughout the scenario, I had to choose between picking up the gems that I was told I would need, collecting the cameo books, or keeping my power geodes. I think I remember tweaking the party in the character editor the first time I played it. I resisted the urge this go around. This time I opted to drop my geodes since 70 (annoyingly) "long wait"s could fill my tank anyway. imho, When the cameo books were included in the scenario, the amount of weight that could be carried should have been increased by 50lb.
-Even though the scenario is rather short, I don't like how the author set it up that the player could 'get stuck' and have to start over. When this is done inadvertently it is called a fatal bug and I frown on using it purposefully. The instance that most stands out is the making of the potion to fix the medallion. If you pick up the ember flowers or the purple berries before you know what you need them for and then drop them because you have to choose between it or a gem, then you change floors (of which there are many), you're plumb out of luck. You can't move forward without the medallion intact, even to lose against your foe.
-I came across one small bug. The Meddium Healing Potions can't be 'used'. I was quite distraught when I realized it in the final fight with only 23 hp left and no sp to heal myself. Lucky enough for me it only took one more special spell to win. (It also made me mad because I had dropped a power geode to pick the last med. healing potion up.)
-Finally, my gripe about the bug workaroundd. I had hoped that the custom party would have been altered more to better fit the description of what the player is told happened. Change Name is a rather simple edit that could have made all the other players 'Ulrike' or 'Ghost of Ulrike'. Change Icon could have easily changed all their pictures to be the same has hers and instead a rather unattractive black square is used to represent her 'ghosts'. And if changing the pre-fab party was not something the author wanted to do, then the explanation would have been better to say something to the effect of 'ghosts of other people that the mage has killed appear to cheer you on'. Whatever is used though, I do expect the two to go together, and it didn't.
Conclusion:
It might be my disappointment in the workaround (my own brainchild) has made me biased against this scenario. I expected more but was given less. I don't plan to play this scenario again and now feel 'meh' about recommending it to anyone. I am willing to hear arguments to change my score, but ultimately I did not have fun playing this scenario again.
Rating: 6.7
Kelandon
This plotline was good, but very hard to follow. It might have been better had the original scenario actually been made, because I was suddenly cast into the role of a character that the designer knew but I didn't, and it was quite jolting. This scenario should have been made as a stand-alone scenario, but it really played like a sequel, which hurt it a lot.
Also, random people and things kept acting and happening. Introductions to characters were jarring and too rapid.
The final quest (including the quest to repair the medallion) annoyed me, and the special spells weren’t used until the end, and even then, they were disappointing.
The Mac-PC dialogue bug is present.
Rating: 7.1
Terror's Martyr
It's of decent size and the combat's not bad, but I just wished those special spells could have been used more often. The pacing isn't awful, the graphics are good, and everything fits into place well enough. I'm not sure if the plot really *moved* me, but I was having enough fun playing the scenario as a whole that I didn't quite care-- which is a good thing.
Rating: 7.9