132 replies to this topic

[WoodsDweller]

I have to say that I was a bit disappointed with the magic crystals quest.

After collecting the shards and reporting to the Altmer priest we went to the fort. The dream scenes were interesting. I didn't understand the one with the deer - it looked like the Altmer kept getting blocked from his appointed positions by the wandering deer, so I just waited for a while and he moved on.

It looked like the quest was building up to a climax.

Then we get to the final chamber. "Here, fight some Draugr". OK, did that. And ... nothing. The bad guy on the far end of the room that I can't really see or hear very well just dies. Good thing the Altmer was there to tell me the quest was over or I would have had no idea. No boss fight, no loot, no powers, no spells, no artifact, no nothing. It all seemed pretty pointless.

[bullgod13]

I haven't got very far in this adventure, but I'm kind of disappointed in couple of things: first (and second actually)- well, dialogues. Like in Skyrim, player just doesn't have too many options. I can't play my character, I always play the designer's one. And those dialogues are simply... dull and gamey. "You must be Traveller" -how do I know that he's speaking it with capital "T"? "Well, actually, I've travelled here, so I must be, yeah -by the way, how do you know I just came through magical portal? Happens often?". Well written characters can do wonders for a story - otherwise it's just a boring clicking through, waiting for them to show you what's required of you.
So far NPC's seem to be flat quest dispensers. I can't say much about map yet, but it looks kind of gamey too (all those mountain meanders look like taken from Heroes of M&M map). I mean- the wall just outside portal tower looks like it's there to stop player from wandering off before introductionary quests ends, and for that purpose only. I mean, all this could've been designed in couple of ways - one of them: bandits are camping inside portal ruins (why did you need another cave, i don't know), player arrives there unexpectedly (and maybe unnoticeably) and A) rescues captive, therefore he's already involved B)sneaks through and he's captured by guards waiting outside. Then he has an option to help them defeat bandits, or not - in which case he lands in jail. There we can multiply other options how to involve the player by NOT leading him by hand and providing options, therefore giving a him a sense of freedom and participation in how story develops. In my opinion this is what makes the difference between Adventure game and Role Playing game.

"I hate to ask, but could you go and kill the bandits for me?". God. First of all - very creative. Second- well, people usually ask me for things like that, so that's nothing new, really; andventurer usualy is there to wipe all life from the face of the game, right? Third-what if i'm playing a thief, or scholar, or some other character that doesn't like to kill people if not forced to? Why not include some options? Maybe to bribe them, maybe to put a spell on their leader and force him to leave (frighten maybe), maybe poison them, or maybe let them know that there is freshly vacated (because I've killed previous ocuppants, sigh) cave full of silver veins, so they can become miners. Damn, there are tons of possible options, and all of them can even backfire and all this can end in bloodshed, but at least player has them (options) to choose from. Now I know it will be just fight, so it's boring like hell. I know a lot of people like mindless slaughter while playing their barbie dolls, but... well, f..them.

The city in the center of the map is closed now, because of the bandit activity (damn-some dude just asked one random guy to kill all bandits in the docks, while all the soldiers in this land just can't do anything about it, so they barricade cities), so again i'm led in general direction of main adventure (that is:killing). What is the sense of designing "open world" game, when it's not open?

I actually like that there are not too many monsters roaming the forests (landscape is quite nice actually) - just deer and wolves, although because of linear nature of your adventure (and monothematicity of quests - it doesn't matter what i'm supposed to do,get, or whatever- I'm always required to kill everyone), it's just boring "go there - get back" thing, with not much in between. The wounded soldier near caravan scene was very nice, but in the end all I've got was quest to go and kill the bandit leader. Damn, don't you see how boring it gets?

The same problem lies with vanilla Skyrim (although Skyrim is much better designed in my opinion, even if tad small for a country). No imagination, just boring quests given by pixel minded npcs. Game has potential, but the way it was designed and done is pathetic. It doesn't matter whether you're a waarrior, assassin, mage or thief, gameplay is the same.

Maybe this will work for you as a portfolio. It might even just work for someone as an additional adventure, but I think most people just like hack&slash, so actually a bot can design very long dungeons full of bandits for them. As for adventure... well, I'm going to play this little longer, but right now I'm not convinced it will be very interesting.

(I've written this comment in the main section, but I will repeat: Wulf's boat has an steering wheel, while it has steering oar on the starboard- it's a small nitpicking, I know, but it's just silly if you know what's what on a boat, and also viking longboats did not have steering wheels-too complicaded mechanism for such small boat)

Edit: I just played "Lady in the Lighthouse" sidequest. Although i didn't have to kill anybody, which always is nice change, this is a perfect example on how not to use diaries, or letters in an adventure. For me it was always a very "gamey" way to provide clues for a player, but usually it's allright if it just sheds some light on the background story. You've made parody out of it - a woman is leaving her sick husband to bandits and writes about it in her journal, incuding a note that they will never find hidden trapdor to where she hid herself and a treasure - then she leaves it on the table for anyone to find. Those must have been really stupid bandits, and probably they never learned to read, which actually would be quite realistic, although from other quests I know that bandits are quite literate and, like everybody, love to write diaries. I honestly thought it was some kind of trap set up for greedy adventurers until the very end of this extremely short quest.

Edited by bullgod13, 17 July 2013 - 02:56 AM.

[LizardSandwich]

On my way to talk to Henrik, I hear the faint voice of a wounded survivor (a guard). I'd like to help, but I can't. Is this just the wrong phase of the game for it? Otherwise, maybe it would be nice to make it so you can cure the man enough to enable him to go home, for example (or even take him home safely yourself).

Cheers

Liz

[datawais]

I liked the sweeping, epic, dlc-like focus of the mod. Besides a few minor issues, the mod worked as intended.

Constructively, I had major issues with the main story. Not in the way of bugs or conflicts, but the story itself. You did a great job with locations of quests that led throughout the island, all of the side-quests I've found so far were consistent with the rest of the game. The main story, though, toward the end involved two big plot holes and an anticlimax.

The first was the rescue of Agnar's family. The Traveler/Dragonborn and the Jarl's court cut down three dozen of Yngvarr's men and step outside the gates to find another dozen equally armed and prepared guards that were just as challenging as the last thirty six. Yngvarr had no compelling reason to stop the party's momentum, and shouldn't have had the element of surprise (besides the fact they were standing outside of the cell) because they'd have been noticed when the gate was opened. Agnar had no reason to stop and hand Yngvarr the keys. He already put his family in danger by overtaking the fort, so what was the risk of killing thirteen more people that he should have seen coming? There was no well-defined reason not to kill Yngvarr right there besides the cutscene prevented me from doing so. You have to develop a reason for Agnar to not a) fight or b) fall back into the fort and attack from the walls.

The second was the battle of Staalgarde. We fought our way to the keep, only to be held up by four guards. Again, nothing really preventing Yngvarr's escape besides a cutscene. In a castle overrun by Amber Creek forces, Yngvarr rides away, Thorvald(sic?) and the brothers are standing outside to tell you this in front of three horses. What prevented them or any of the guards from chasing, blocking, or otherwise stopping Yngvarr right there?

Plot holes are points in the story where the rising action can end before the author's intended conclusion. All stories will have them, but the bigger/more obvious they are, the faster you'll lose your audience.

So, to cap it off, the companions line up at the temple to confront Yngvarr and. . .he gets eaten by the dragon. End of story. Not only was that unsatisfying, but it made the whole story unnecessary. If we would have done nothing, Yngvarr would've been eaten by a dragon. I could've told Agnar to blow off, hung out at the hot springs with Klara and Helena and the story would've come to the same conclusion. The climax needs to be satisfying and challenging/complex enough for the reader/viewer/player to enjoy it, and provide a satisfactory resolution.

One of my old writing professors told me that the ending is the reader's reward for making it through the story. The bigger the scope of the composition, the more important it is that the ending isn't a punchline.

Again, the voice acting was great, the mechanics of the mod were mostly solid. Great job, just keep story structure in mind for future projects.

Edited by datawais, 17 July 2013 - 12:48 PM.

[BigDova12]

In response to post #8469312.

I agree the dragon eating him was not a good way to end it

[rilax]

I hope you read this but i really liked the mod.First of all i want to say that his is your work of art and you must be proud of it. it must have taken an enormous amount of time. All that landscaping, cluttering and of course all the quests. Quests are a pain to make in the CK i know that so you on that part did not only do a great job but you also just created your entire world just by yourself.

As for the story, the beginning was very good but after awhile it became a bit boring. The battle was a fun idea but you could have done it more civil war style. Spawn 15 on each side let them re spawn and let you take objectives. The climax of the story was also a bit of a downer. I was having my whole fight with the bad guy and suddenly he tried to go for the heart and i was like: Yeah the bad guy get's the power and we must find a way to defeat him. As i already noticed on the map you have a pretty big unused region to the north and i spotted one little fort on the map to the north east so i thought the quest is going to take me north. But sadly my dream was crushed when the dragon grabbed him. In the following cut-scene when the narrator said "and (dragons name) was very angry" or something like that i thought he had unleashed the wrath of the dragon upon the lands. But it seems the dragon just eats every bad guy in the cave and then goes on to starve itself for another 600 years so.

The land was well made in my opinion. I always thought Skyrim lacked big forests where when you would look around you you would see nothing but trees. This mod adds just that and for that i am very grateful. As i said before on the map i noticed a little fort in the north all the way north east on your map. Is there maybe soms expansion heading our way that will add that region? I for one would love that and it would be cool to have a BIG forest covered in snow and mountains and such.

One thing that i felt a little disappointing was that almost every mesh and texture is already there in vanilla Skyrim. If this is not one of your talents i can understand that but for the cities it would be nice to have some custom architecture. Some custom armor and weapons too . The voice acting was most of the time pretty good except i always had to laugh my ass of when Jarl Agnar speaks. Sooo Drrrragonborrrrn, we mmust taeke the forrrtresss. He was really pronouncing the R a lot longer then the other letters. Although it was only a minor thing that bothered me not game breaking or anything haha.

On a scale from 1 to 10 this mod would get in my opinion a 9. For it is the first bug free 100% big new lands mod that i know of and it even has a whole quest-line along with many side quests. It would have gotten the 10 if it already included the north, it had custom meshes etc, and the end of the story would be a better and my follower would be able to perform any animation after the final cut-scene. Now he just stands there in the default skeleton idle and it looks pretty creepy lol.

(ps: srry if my English sometimes looks weird it's not my native language so i don't know all the grammar rules and stuff)

[dankeekong]

is the northern hold not finished and is the group that are like the companions gonna have their own quest line

Edited by dankeekong, 17 July 2013 - 09:03 AM.

[655321DeLarge]

is the northern hold not finished and is the group that are like the companions gonna have their own quest line

I believe that the northern hold is one possible setting for a range of potential expansions. But don't hold your breath!

[JakeARoonie]

The Falskaar mod is clearly a work that took a great deal of time and effort on the part of the mod author. Since it took a great deal of time, I'll put a good deal of time into this review. Also, since the author is applying for a job at Bethesda, I will be subjecting the mod to more stringent standards, befitting an a-list game rather than a mod. I am not sure what job the applicant is seeking at Bethesda, so I'll look at each department as I review the mod. A word to Mr. Velicky: I will be tough in this review, but don't let that get you down. Remember to take each criticism as a chance to improve, and you'll do great. Some of these criticisms are things that would fix themselves just by BEING employed at Bethesda, such as access to higher-quality sound engineers and voice actors. That said, here we go.

 

SPOILERS FOLLOW.

 

Art (Textures)

It appears, according to the end credits, that the textures were done by someone else on the dev team, so this really has little bearing on Mr. Velicky. Few custom textures were particularly noticeable. I did examine the Key of Strength up close -- the bear design on it was a nice touch. And Ynggvar's custom armor drew my attention well enough to make him stand out as a "signature" character.

 

Sound: Music

Skyrim's own exploration music is employed during the course of this mod's exploration, but when the custom music comes in, it sounds thin and tinny by comparison. This is to be expected, though. Had Mr. Velicky hired an orchestra, I'd question his sanity! The musical composition is decent enough and has a nice, if understated, reading of some main themes. It's consistent with the mood and feel of the other music accompanying it.

 

Sound: Voice Acting

Obviously, the applicant didn't have access to truly professional voices and was working on literally no budget for equipment and engineering. In that light, what came out of this was great for a mod. Still, from a game design perspective, I would like to point out that while I've never actually witnessed real people die in combat, I'm fairly certain that the vast majority of those who do don't say "I have failed" or "too soon" when they do. There's nothing quite so immersion-breaking than plunging your sword into a khajiit's forehead in a finisher, only to hear him say, "are you serious?!" Really, simple cries of "augh" would have been fine, and if dying lines simply must be used, I'd suggest interspersing them among a large amount of "arghs" so they're more rare. Perhaps disable them during finishing moves. Additionally, asking the actors of the khajiit combatant and Brother Thorlough (maybe they were the same guy) to keep his voice down may have helped... every time either of these characters raised their voices, I could hear the echoes of the room the actor was in, another immersion breaker.

 

Story

This is what I like about stories: it takes no budget to craft a masterpiece, so your only limit is your own ability...which means in theory, any modder should be able to create a masterpiece regardless of professional resources. Unfortunately, the story here is very lacking. It feels stilted and forced. There is literally no explanation behind the dragon that devours Ynggvar in the end, and the scene felt anticlimactic. I kicked his tail in battle, only to have him pull a Mary Sue and freeze me in place while he ran for the artifact. Just as I'm bracing myself for an epic final boss fight, a dragon swoops in and carries him off for lunch.

 

I can forgive lack of moral choices in a mod, but when a clear moral situation is presented and a choice isn't given, I feel cheated. That's how I felt both times that cooperative people were killed (once by the housecarls, once by Agnar). I found myself saying, "well I can kind of see why Ynggvar would revolt against THIS..."

 

The placement of Borvald on the map also caused me a few eye-rolling moments when Agnar seemed SHOCKED that Ynggvar would attack it. Why hadn't he thought Ynggvar had already attacked it? It was on the way between Staalgarde and Amber Creek... So for that matter, why HADN'T he attacked it sooner? The natural logical progression of Ynggvar's invasion would run from east to west, spreading out from Staalgarde. Instead, we see his men arrive at Amber Creek and then find that they've already been to the priory...then they later hit Borvald...so he's moving west to east. Suggestion here would be to have Borvald already ruined and CRAWLING with his goons when you first arrive in your attempt to warn its jarl.

 

All in all, the story tries very hard to be epic but just isn't quite there. Unfortunately I can't recommend Mr. Velicky as a writer. This unfortunately also precludes quest design, since their quest design jobs include writing the story and dialogue of said quests.

 

Level Design: Overworld

Now we're getting closer to Mr. Velicky's bread and butter. The overworld in Falskaar is gorgeous, if a bit underpopulated. It could do with more features and map markers to visit, but the ones that are there are very nice indeed. Loved the high mountain overlook into the eastern valley. Also notably beautiful was the view from the docks, looking up at the fort on the hillside to the west. The archway visible from the docks creates an iconic and memorable landmark. Other than wishing there were more map markers to visit, my only other nitpick here is that just west of the Emerald Valley Gates, a gushing waterfall drops into a tiny pond that stops at the side of the road. Really felt that this stream should continue on to join with another, or go out to sea. Seeing a large waterfall pour into a pond that's barely ankle deep and maybe 10 feet across just isn't realistic. However, as those two small things are my largest complaints with the overworld, I'd say the applicant has presented something worthy of Bethesda, and I think with their guidance, he'd fit in very well with the overworld design team.

 

Level Design: Interiors / Dungeons

Now this is the creme de la creme. The introductory cave before reaching the Falskaar portal is fun and adequately gloomy, and in some aspects is better than Bethesda's own work. As soon as I got out into Falskaar proper, I saw unexplored map markers and began looking around. The first interior I dove into, to see how fleshed-out the caves were, was Watervine Chasm. (I think I hear Mr. Velicky laughing.) It's fleshed out VERY well, it's quite long, gloomy, and takes some thought to finish. A minor nitpick: I had to toggle clipping off to get through the gates leading down into the spiral stairs, as none of the gates seemed to work. Either I missed something, or the gates would only function when on the appropriate quest. Still, I completed the dungeon and it was very fun. Another minor detail... Ancient dwemer ruins probably should not contain books that seem as though they were written as recently as the 3rd or 4th era. But that didn't detract from the fun, of course. Mr. Velicky seems, to me, a top-notch designer for interiors, and I feel he would only get better if surrounded by the designers at Bethesda. This is the department I recommend him for, most strongly.

 

Gameplay

Generally, the gameplay was fun. There are no groundbreaking new systems, and some moments left me feeling like the sidekick, however, such as when I was sent on a fetch quest only to return and find the real action had happened in Amber Creek while I was away. Too many quests instruct me to follow a certain character as they do the heroics. This became a problem in Fort Urokk, when Agnar got stuck on a wall, and the objective arrow pointed to him. I went off looking, hoping I could force the quest to advance without him. Fortunately, it worked.

 

This was not the only time the NPCs had difficulty reaching their destinations, though. Several times I would arrive at a destination well before the NPCs and have to use the Wait function for an hour or two before they came. In the final quest, it took a day and a half before all 4 NPCs arrived at the Mountain Mist Temple.

 

Finally, after clearing the main quest, I fast-traveled back to Mountain Mist to see how well things had been cleaned up. Once again I was impressed with the interior. All 5 keys removed, the door into the Heart Chamber locked... But the door to get back outside was no longer functioning either. Had to reload an auto save. Staalgarde and Borvald were left burning... Some NPCs and bodies were cleaned up, some were not. An Amber Soldier stood staring off into the sky with nothing to do. Cleaning up details like this would be helpful, especially if you plan so well for the player trying to break your game that you even reward them with more content for doing so.

 

I would have been incredibly impressed if, upon my return to Staalgarde, I had seen bewildered citizens wandering around saying "what happened to our city? What do we do now?" The quest line clearly directs players from one place to the next, but be ready for players to try and go another path at every turn. Providing content that shows you anticipated their actions is what really sets a Bethesda developer apart from the pack. I can't tell you how many times in Fallout, Oblivion and Skyrim I thought I would make a quest bug out with some sly action here, or going to this person instead of that one when the quest didn't imply that possibility, only to find that nothing bugged at all, and that the quest was built to let me do exactly what I thought the developers had missed. That's the sort of thing where, when I encounter it, it makes me think Bethesda went the extra mile, because anyone could have forgiven a bug that obscure even in an a-list game. But if that sort of thing were even present in a mod like this, it'd seal the deal in my mind.

 

Overall Impressions

I highly recommend Mr. Velicky as a designer of interiors at Bethesda. His gameplay design is good, his overworld designs are great, but his interiors are exceptional. I hope this is helpful to whoever reads it, whether Mr. Velicky or staffers at Bethesda. Thanks for your time.

[datawais]

In response to post #8476059.

All of his lever- and puzzle-gates have the "open" dialogue option also. It took me a little bit to figure it out, but if a gate didn't open when I pressed "E", I started looking for a lever.