Returning player, with some friends and feedback!

General Discussion is for anything related to Blackstone not covered in the other forums.
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Cometchaser
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Returning player, with some friends and feedback!

Post by Cometchaser »

I started on Blackstone Keep late last year and had an absolute blast, making several characters and getting a few of them to max level. Blackstone has easily cemented itself as some of the most fun I've had in NWN. Eventually though other games started monopolizing my attention so I didn't touch NWN for a while.

Recently I started getting that fantasy D&D itch again, so I started up a new character, and I was blown away at how much has been added to BSK since I last played! Random buff shrines, bounties, a few new quests, heroic events, and the part I was most excited about: strongholds/dungeons!

I've been having a blast once again, and a couple of buddies of mine expressed some interest in NWN, so I convinced them both to make new characters with me and experience Blackstone Keep together. So far they've had an extremely positive experience, and have both created their own solo characters to play outside of our group sessions.

Anyways, on to the feedback:

Bounties

I really like this system. It's a nice way to add some interesting mini-boss encounters to otherwise normal areas, with some nice rewards to boot. We couldn't seem to get the bounties to work as a group after the first one, though. Is this intended? The first bounty we picked up was correctly shared with the whole party, and we all received shared credit for it. But, any bounties afterwards would only go to the person who talked to the NPC, even if we were all standing in the same room. And since the bounties are randomized, it was impossible for us to end up with the same bounty. We tried each individually cycling through the bounties until we all had ones in the same area; the problem with that method is that every person had their own individual bounty target, and if you weren't the one who got the last hit, you didn't get credit. If these are intended to be able to be done in a group there is some sort of issue preventing it from properly distributing the quest to all party members.

Strongholds

For context, our party consists of myself as a tank cleric and my friends playing as a wizard and a rogue/assassin.

General: I think the level ranges of strongholds, as well as which zones actually are strongholds need to be made more obvious. When playing through solo on my Barbarian, most of the time I didn't discover a stronghold until I had already leveled past it. For example, I stumbled into The Unterwerks dungeon around level 7 or so (I accidentally mistook it for the sewers). I was excited to see a new zone, so I ventured forth and got my ass kicked by the first encounter. Okay, no big deal, I just stumbled into an area a little too high level for me. I'll come back later. So I came back at level 10, only to be disappointed that the zone was level locked to 7-9. If I had known, I would have tried again at level 9, but you're unable to see the level range of a stronghold until it's already too late. This happened with a few other strongholds as well. What I ended up doing was logging onto my level 40 monk (zoom zoom baby) and running through every single zone finding strongholds, making a list of their locations and level ranges so my party of 3 could tackle them when the time was appropriate.

Suggestion: Make it more obvious that you are entering a stronghold, and what level range it's for. Maybe add signage outside each stronghold with the level range? Or if that is too immersion breaking, I think the current message that prints to the log would suffice (the one that tells you the level range, and that a party is recommended), but it needs to print every time you enter a stronghold, not just when you attempt to enter one you are outside the level range for.

Skara Brae Cemetery: Virtually no complaints about this one. Well balanced for the level range, good rewards, and fun. The only issue I ran into was one time the gate to the cemetery closed and locked, and didn't unlock after completing the event (I assume it was supposed to) and I was forced to portal out. If I had no portal scrolls I think I would have been stuck.

Dark Hold: I think this has been my favorite dungeon so far. The difficulty felt about right, and there was an abundance of treasure. Perhaps even a little too much treasure? (heresy, I know) We got easily more than double the loot from this dungeon than we did from any other stronghold we've done so far. Halfway through our first run, all 3 of us were heavily encumbered, so we decided to take a pit stop and port back to town to sell. This is when we found out that either A. You can't teleport back into a stronghold or B. If everyone leaves the stronghold, it unloads the instanced zone and thus no one can go back in. Of course it wasn't until later that we realized this was exactly the sort of situation the Pixie Trader was meant to handle. Woops. At first glance the final boss encounter looked like it was going to be too difficult, but we managed to pull through, so I'd say it felt perfectly balanced to us.

The Lost Domain: Okay, I think I may be taking crazy pills here, but something really weird is happening with the Stirges at the beginning of this dungeon. When we went in as a group at level 8 (the max for this one), the stirges absolutely MURDERED us within a couple of rounds. This was with full buffs being cast right before entering. We checked the combat log afterwards and the stirges were attacking with an attack bonus of +25, and doing damage in the 20-30 range. My tank cleric with almost 30 AC got ripped apart almost immediately, and my rogue and wizard buddies dropped right after. We all decided that this place was perhaps overtuned and decided to continue on elsewhere. I came back later on my own on a different character, and the stirges were only attacking with AB of +10-15ish, and doing much more reasonable damage. A level 8 cleric (with buffs) was able to solo the whole first pack of stirges where previously a similarly built level 8 cleric along with 2 other people, all with full buffs, got decimated almost instantly. So I'm not really sure what is happening there. Sadly we have leveled past this dungeon so we haven't had a chance to try again.

The Unterwerks: This one was fun, and really challenging. We were all level 9 going in, and hit level 10 after the first couple of rooms, so technically we were overleveled for the majority of the dungeon (since 7-9 is the normal allowed range). Even with the extra level though, we had to rest after every 1-2 rooms because the fights were quite tough. The boss encounter spanked us pretty hard, and since we were now level 10, we couldn't enter the dungeon again to give it another shot. Overall this dungeon is great, but I think the allowed level range on it probably needs to be tuned upwards to 8-10 or even 8-11. I guess it depends on the size of party you are balancing for.

Wolf Tribe Stronghold: We have not quite reached this one as a group yet, but I did manage to do the dungeon solo on my Barbarian at level 16 with the help of the Skeleton Crew (I absolute LOVE this item by the way!). Right as I reached the boss, the crew expired, so I got to take on the boss 1v1. I won't spoil the encounter, but I enjoyed it a lot. I can't comment on how the dungeon plays out with a real party, though.

Overall we've had a very positive experience with strongholds so far, and we're looking forward to trying the higher level ones.

I appreciate all the hard work you do on Blackstone, driller. It's been compelling enough to keep me coming back for more. Also wanted to give a shoutout to DM One Eyed Omegon, I had my first experience with a DM event in-game the other day, and I had an absolute blast!!

Anyway, apologies for the long winded novel. Keep up the great work!
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Re: Returning player, with some friends and feedback!

Post by driller »

Thanks for the feedback. Glad you are had fun. I will look at tuning things you mentioned.

The bounties are setup for single player rewards. My party will cycle through the bounties until we all get one in the same area.
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Re: Returning player, with some friends and feedback!

Post by Cornflower »

Cometchaser wrote: Mon Dec 02, 2019 11:39 pm .... What I ended up doing was logging onto my level 40 monk (zoom zoom baby) and running through every single zone finding strongholds, making a list of their locations and level ranges so my party of 3 could tackle them when the time was appropriate....
Erm. Could you post those level ranges per stronghold? I'm maybe going to level up a new toon soon, so it would come in handy.
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Re: Returning player, with some friends and feedback!

Post by Cometchaser »

Cornflower wrote: Tue Dec 03, 2019 6:55 am
Cometchaser wrote: Mon Dec 02, 2019 11:39 pm .... What I ended up doing was logging onto my level 40 monk (zoom zoom baby) and running through every single zone finding strongholds, making a list of their locations and level ranges so my party of 3 could tackle them when the time was appropriate....
Erm. Could you post those level ranges per stronghold? I'm maybe going to level up a new toon soon, so it would come in handy.
Sure! I have not checked most of the high level areas yet, so this is most likely not a complete list:

Skara Brae Cemetery 4-6
The Dark Hold - Dark Forest South 4-6
The Lost Domain - Ettin Enclave 6-8
Unterwerks - Blackstone Keep 7-9
Wolf Clan Stronghold - Blackstone Mountains 12-16
(idk the name yet) - Wastes, Desolate Way 20-24
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Re: Returning player, with some friends and feedback!

Post by driller »

1.I have added a conversation to the Strongholds, so you know what you are getting into.
2.I adjusted the Unterwerks to levels 9-11.
3.I reduced the amount of chests in The Dark Hold.
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Re: Returning player, with some friends and feedback!

Post by Cometchaser »

driller wrote: Sun Dec 08, 2019 10:15 am 1.I have added a conversation to the Strongholds, so you know what you are getting into.
2.I adjusted the Unterwerks to levels 9-11.
3.I reduced the amount of chests in The Dark Hold.
Thanks, driller! The new stronghold transitions appear to be broken though, my group and I just tried to go into the Wolf Clan Stronghold, and we get the popup, but nothing happens when any of us clicks Yes. So we are unable zone into it at all.
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Re: Returning player, with some friends and feedback!

Post by driller »

It will be active after server reset.
Cometchaser wrote: Sun Dec 08, 2019 11:54 am
driller wrote: Sun Dec 08, 2019 10:15 am 1.I have added a conversation to the Strongholds, so you know what you are getting into.
2.I adjusted the Unterwerks to levels 9-11.
3.I reduced the amount of chests in The Dark Hold.
Thanks, driller! The new stronghold transitions appear to be broken though, my group and I just tried to go into the Wolf Clan Stronghold, and we get the popup, but nothing happens when any of us clicks Yes. So we are unable zone into it at all.
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Re: Returning player, with some friends and feedback!

Post by Apoliener »

Hello, I am quite new here, back to NWN after some time. I know this thread is old, but I hope is okay to leave my comment for strongholds here and not create new topic.

All of that strongholds I made solo with fight/WM.

Skara Brae Cemetery 4-6
-> Honestly this one was kind a boring, would prefer some change to spawn like another type of undead, different zombies or something like that. Difficulty was easy and reward normal.
The Dark Hold - Dark Forest South 4-6
-> This one was great, there diversity between enemy, some chests, mini-bosses (or champions?) and difficulty seems good. One of the best so far for me.
The Lost Domain - Ettin Enclave 6-8
-> This feel incredibly long with quite hard normal enemies and during whole stronghold I got almost +2 lvl, which is I think too much at the end there is manticora boss which was incredibly difficult, there was my first death insta pulse attack (crazy throw against reflex), rewards are okay.
Unterwerks - Blackstone Keep 9-11
-> This was quite good dungeon only I dont understand why final boss have knockdown and crit imunne, but still I think this final boss is easier than manticore. Reward seems low I think there were almost none chest.
Wolf Clan Stronghold - Blackstone Mountains 12-16
-> This was really something and for me was champions during stronghold harder than final boss. Even when I tried to lure them one by one still a lot of problems. Reward almost none.
Silver knight - Wastes, Desolate Way 20-24
-> This one was perfect, good balance reward, difficulty and boss.
Temple of Dragon - 24-28
-> So far the last one I made it twice and didnt find a single chest and in both time drop really low reward from dragon (like axe with 1d6 cold), boss is not that hard, or maybe just I am able to kill him during casting. At my second attempt I had issue with exit to "The pit" due to earn next lvl during first floor (29lvl) I had use "trick" with temple to lose some XP. Would be great have some better way to do that.

Its maybe not possible, but for solo member it could be bigger range of lvls I would love to repeat that but for solo I usually have to be at higher lvl possible to enter and during stronghold I will earn that another lvl and I am out from that moment.
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Re: Returning player, with some friends and feedback!

Post by driller »

Thanks for the feedback, I forgot to add chests to some of the areas, I will fix that part.
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Re: Returning player, with some friends and feedback!

Post by Garrett »

driller wrote: Sun Jun 14, 2020 5:01 pm Thanks for the feedback, I forgot to add chests to some of the areas, I will fix that part.
Hey driller, how hard would be to make all of these strongholds difficulty based on average party level? Instance based ofcourse.
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