Endgame

On the subject of Sorrow sort of snatching the spotlight: it was something I noticed I too - I tried reaching out to Erik and succeeded, Sorrow had a few moments with thalion, but I still couldn't figure out how to reach out to Amorith. However, that what was keeping me going, in a way. Sorrow's constant remarks, conversations, bemoaning, reflecting, musing - it was my sustenance. It was when Sorrow was Sorrow, and it allowed me to trudge on through the rest of the quest: The rest of the time, Sorrow was more of a bitter Endgame using his PC as a mouthpiece. It's something I won't do again - not with Sorrow, or any of my PCs that may follow.

This is going to be lengthy, so I apologize in advance. For those who are (understandably) not going to be able to read the wall of text that is about to follow, I did not enjoy Quest #93. Plot/Length/Pacing I'll start with the plot. Sandy, you've woven great stories in the past, but 93 didn't even really had one. There was some context given at the beginning, some information revealed at the end, and that was it. Hell, we even guessed the exact arch demon "working" with Jonah 3 months into the quest, essentially meaning we had the entirety of the plot figured out long before the quest even ended. The rest was blank space occupied by some of the most aggravating NPCs ever introduced in the game. The clan system introduced no realism and didn't benefit any of the characters, really - and it was never really emphasized enough to even make it a plot point. It was just a six month long chore. It transformed 70+ well designed NPCs into suicidal maniacs who wouldn't budge. Diplomacy? No. Intimidation? No. Logic? Nope. Basic common sense? Not gonna fly. Promiscuity? No dice. I'll explain more about why the system was flawed below, but first I want to talk about the other NPCs. It really is a shame, because there were a handful of NPCs that were good... They just got constantly trampled over, again and again, by the rest of the crowd. Noel was good, Drucilla was decent, and Sorsha was given depth by Kintobor... And that's it. Hawke got killed off in a sidequest, and Lyren and Nuitan didn't really contribute anything memorable. Almost the entire cast of the quest got objectified in one way or another. Either herd this person to safety, or focus on this person's stats in battle. By the end, the only NPCs who either didn't get fully objectified, dead, or constant annoyances were Noel and Sorsha. Like I said, it really was shame; there was a lot of potential here. Additionally, with no villain to really pursue, or no mystery surrounding said villain, we lost motivation too. Add in the constant NPC and battle issues, and they sealed the plot's fate. It just was too little, too bogged down with issues such as NPCs, battles, and length. You spread far too little far too much, and the NPCs and battles were the breaking point. Pacing was touch and go. I understand that you cannot always commit, Sandy, and bleieve me, I respect that - I've hosted 10 quests. But with six months, every absense just got magnified more and more. Additionally, the quest design itself was a little scattered. Or progress would either cruise or be completely sealed off at pretty random intervals, which was jarring every single time. Multiply that by six months, and it's not good. Additionally, memory about the little details faded. If you asked me 2 months in what a certain teacher wnated from his classroom, or who the Rogues were, or that there was even a intruder in the school... And I would've had no idea. In the future, I'd suggest an NPC keeping a journal of facts introduced that the party can refer to whenever. The six month skip was bizzare as well. it alrtered a few lines of dialogue and... That's it. It's biggest impact was that it had the potential to interfere with character development, albeit reparable damage. It was just... Odd. It felt thrown in at the last minute. Why not introduce it early, and have heroes ponder how much time they're losing in the real world? It could've given the plot a lot more depth, recieving letters from parents with returned children at last/parents whose kids are either missing or deceased... Instead, it's just kind of tacked on to the end. Escorts Everywhere The escort system, like I mentioned, commited the cardinal sin of making the escorts annoying or foolish. And there were 73 of them. You called it a quest long puzzle, but really, if the answer is just blurted out whenever we try to mix the wrong cliques, how is it a puzzle? Additionally, we'd run into the impasse where that students who we saved would immediately run away, just because we had no idea who would be in the classrooms. Additionally, although you said opposing clans would follow, just not get into the box; why did things like Mustard's dissapearance then? Or the cyclop's? Or the orc's? Too many exceptions happened to make it an even moderately consistent rule. Also, why did the escort system had to be designed to harm us if we messed up? Why not benefit us if we did it right? If I was forced to have 73 escortable kids of different alignments in my quest, the heroes would recieve benefits for mixing them correctly, and not be penalized for not doing so. Why not make the Chrls encourage us if we had four of them in a room at once? Why not have Foureyes tell us the enemies' attack patterns if there were enough in the room, making us Dodgy? Stuff like that. The escort system wasn't just a hindrance to us, Sandy - it was a hindrance to you and your plot as well. It made 90% of everyone encountered in a 6 month quest just... unbelievable. I saw next to none of the students as characters, and barely got attached to the ones that fought for us. Because of the way previous students acted and the clan system, it just made them objects and goals, not characters. Of course, Sandy, I can't expect anyone to introduce 70+ characters within six months. But perhaps that is one of the flaws of the system: There was just far, far too many. If you absolutely need 73 escorts, you probably should've made them, at the very least, not a constant aggravation. And perhaps worst of all was the fact that the escorts were kids. None of our characters - not even Heckz, really - could justify leaving so many kids to just die. We had to ride the rest of the quest through, or risk putting our character's development at stake. Battles The first three were good - in fact, very enjoyable. I liked the taxidermied animals, the Reaper puzzle was pretty good, and the gimmick behind the flower enemy was fresh. Everything else, though was less than enjoyable. Saga: Suddenly introduced passive specials for added difficulty. I understand you wanted Saga to appear menacing, Sandy, but were the rather scary side quests not enough? It almost would've been good irony, having the demon who wove such perilous stories getting stomped out so quickly. Instead a Gorgmas gift just wnet to waste, and a passive special suddenly thrown int to prevent Saga from going down too easily. It was pretty unfair move - I've had battles completely nullified by Pumpkin Bombs in the past, and I just sat back and let it happen. There was no reason or need for a QM intervention. Ghosts: I actually did like this one. It was a puzzle battle, and it ended quickly. Wyrdfire: The gimmick of this fight was okay, but I'm not sure why we had to spend two days prancing around to build it up. Why couldn't Drucilla tell us to do a pincer movement from the beginning and save us an update or two? Beyond that, it was the same case as Saga; the battle suddenly changed to challenge us more. Except this time, the enemy actually put up a pretty good fight before it was suddenly changed! Why? It was especially noticeable, since all the change did was keep the students in peril. We already took out the danger to them, there was no reason to continue. We strategized so that the students would stop getting hurt, and then... They kept getting burned anyway! Aureole: This is the quest caved, big time. There was no sort of choice against this beast. When the planets went done, Aureole was weak to nothing introduced in Heroica. It had a boatload of HP, and no strategical way to approach it. It got even worse when pleadies got suddenly killed, something we didn't even know could happen, and the demon turned into a TPKO machine. It'd kill our escorts, and possibly even us, in one fell swoop, and there really was no strategy or way around it. We just wailed on it and hoped. It was almost a brick wall by definition. Something that couldn't be approached, and if confronted, had a good chance of wiping us out. Battles should have meaningful choice. This one didn't have any, and the enemy was downright lethal, to boot. Rusulka: This one was okay, and a nice breather after Aureole. I'm guessing he would've escaped to the Girl's Room, and we would've had to fight him there? It would've been a bit tedious, but after Aurole, it was a welcome change. Armor: It felt like this battle was only there to waste time... I mean, the armor had next to no offesnive capability, and the entire battle revolved around hoping we wouldn't be unlucky enough to trigger another battle extending special. I don't see why it was included, other than for the sake of another battle. Cacophonia: This was my least favorite battle to ever appear in Heroica, and for so many reasons. It had a cool design, yes, but it was mathematically unbeatable. With 7 escorts in the room, 10% of our objective was liable to dissapear if we fled, so that wasn't really an option. This battle was insane - I know you intended for it to be beatable, Sandy, but it simply wasn't. I think the best case scenario was that we'd have 1 party memeber left at the end of round one, and... What then? Have them absorb 14 free hits? It didn't seem like it was proofread, really - just kind of rushed out the door. Especially after Aureole, it wasn't a good thing to see. But there was a second component to this. This was right after you told us to split up, and told us that it would make the quest move faster, and told us you had control over the battles. Then you did the exact thing that made us not want to split up in the first place. We lost a lot of trust in you after that - we didn't know what you woul do, what you would nullify, etc. This fight, beyond being impossible until being rebalanced, made the party lose trust in you, Sandy. Darkness Battle: This one could've really worked if you allowed communication, but other than that it became a guessing game. After Cacophonia, I was really afraid taht the party would all target Enemy A and get clobbered by free hits, but fortunately, the enemy was relatively nonlethal. Still, cutting off communcation like that was groan inducing. Forculus: This made the quest come to a screeching halt. it was another luck based fight, much like the Darkness. One bad roll set us back days upon days. This was the point where we all just wnated to get out of this quest, and this battle just kept stalling and stalling and stalling. Final Battle: Return of the mirror clones! Yay! "Special free hits" - not exaclt yay. Mirror Drucilla? Very not yay. Mirror Drucilla was insane. Any battle, whether a boss, a Threshold Monster, a boss of a stroy arc, a grand finale boss, the final boss of the whole game, should not have a TPKO Free Hit and Special. Combine this with the bizzare ruling of Special Free Hits, and you have a battle with so much potential it kind of loses its shine. Sealing has been around since I very first joined, back in the days where Quest 15 was still ongoing. To have its definition suddenly changed and altered for a single battle was just weird, not to mention a bit aggravating. There's ways to create a tough battle without altering the core of the rules. It's especially glaring as you're the one who made the effect and enforced it in the first place... Overall: A few good ones that are bogged down with the staggering number of subpar and downright unpleasant ones. Difficulty was all over the place and inconsistent. Plus, was there any need for so many battles? next to none relayed any real plot. Very few were even characters, or had speaking lines. You could cut the amount of rooms, students, and battles in half and get the same quest. Sidequests I'll speak for mine personally, and if I had to choose one word for it, it'd be "unintuitive." Players need to get a grip on their surroundings, especially when the rules change so suddenly. I needed to get a grasp on how this new world worked, and it all happened too fast with too many consequences to make it enjoyable. From the very beginning, any action I took more or less condemned Caloriel and Hawke. Fire an arrow? Some one dies! Think it's a one time affair and try again? More people die! Stop and hold your ground? Bad things happen. Try firing again? Nothing happens to the monster! Hold your ground and try nonviolence? pretty much everyone dies! Overall, it felt like It was a "damned if I do, damned if I don't" scenario, where I failed as son as I entered the archery competition. If there was a third option, I wouldn't know - I've never read the story of Robin Hood, and to stop metagaming, I didn't I wanted to react as Sorrow would, and ultimately, it seemed like there was nothing I could do. Similaritieas to Q50: -Huge, expansive, somewhat jumbled dungeon -A boatload of NPCs that go more or less undeveloped, with a counter in both to boot. -Battle after battle after battle -Occasional puzzle All while playing through 93, I had one recoccuring thought: "This is 50 all over again." They really are similar - it's more or less an escort mission flavor of Quest 50. We started to display the same feeling as the Quest 50 party did, and at some points, we thought the quest would end like 50 did: With the players so exasperated they just gave up and succumbed. Pictures For what it's worth: 93 had, in my opinion, the best sets/photography out of all of Heroica. :thumbup: The sets were large and expansive, not to mention detailed, the photography as crisp as could be, the editting great, and the designs for the NPCs and demons fantastic. HUGE in this aspect, Sandy! I loved the pictures, but the rest of the quest became too much to endure. The pictures kept me going for the first 25%, but eventually even they couldn't help that much... Experimentation: It was clear that 93 was your sandbox, Sandy - there were so many things introduced here, so many mechanics and gimmicks, that it would've been blatant even if you haven't come right out and said. But unfortunately, not a lot of them were enjoyable... The core escort system was flawed, the Rusulka gimmick could've proven annoying, Cacophonia was downright impossible due to this, the darkness room threw away some of Heroica's most basic core battle mechanics, Aureole's ordered planet thing was ruined by Aurole's unbalanced-ness, Wyrdfire's pincer movement gimmick was ruined by the sudden rule change, the armors were simply too cowardly, the Final Battle's "special free hits" violated some of the first and most consistent rules in the game... It was too much. I think part of the problem is that you decided to take every gimmick to the extreme as soon as you possibly could've. I think this is demonstrated pretty clealry by the sheer number of NPCs in the quest, and thing slike the dark room. Introduce in bite sized pieces first, then expand. And don't be afraid to talk to other QMs about it! We're all friends here, and a lot of us are QMs who'd be happy to listen to what you may try and offer feedback. We do it in the QM Lounge all the time. Hell, if you were to hand me a test battle and a gimmick to run it with, i'd gladly either participate in the test battle as a PC, or run it for you. Don't be afraid to reach out sometimes! In 93, you introduced so many things in their most radical form so quickly, it became too much. by the end, a lot of us were fed up being lab rats, more or less. Questions: What would happens if Djinnifer's offers were taken? (Taken/self explanatroy offers removed from list) -Thalion getting married -Karie getting her hair dyed -Sorrow getting skin I feel like I'm fogetting a few... Overall 66 is one of my favorite quests of all time, Sandy, if not THE one. When I first joined, my first thought was, "Wow - this Sandy person has a lot of good quests, I'll read those." This was before I knew you were the Head QM that started the game. I've followed your plot vigilantly, and I can't thank you enough for creating this game. It's clear that you put a ton of effort into 93, Sandy, but the issues just kep piling and piling and piling. i really wanted to love 93, Sandy. But it became too much. First I lost faith in the NPCs, then I lost faith in the quest, then I lost trust in you as a QM. 93 was my least favorite quest to date, but I wrote this entire wall of text in hopes that you'll be able to continue making great quests as you've almost always done in the future.

"School's out..." I mumble as I walk away towards the hall.

Hooray!

"I'll be certain to do that. Farewell, hero." In a burst of black light, Seerus vanishes from the hall.

I'm still kicking myself for suggesting that little gem.

"If you need reasons to be bleed, Em, I'll gladly make you bleed out. You can spend as many lives as you need, ranger. Did you look at the sign ups? I'm sure you noted the second name on the list - one Mr. Masson Cour. His life, his future wife's life, your comrades' lives, the lives of thousands will eventually fall onto your shoulders. Your resolve will collapse, and you will be crushed. I have seen your resolve, Em. And as well crafted as it may be, it won't be enough to survive the Citadel. To survive us. Now, have you anything else to say?"

"The living are rembered, "Em", and I can assure you that I will outlast you by dozens of millenia. Tell me. Em. When you first saw me, you were unnerved. On edge, perhaps even afraid. You were more willing to pass me off as hallucination than confront my existence. I can read minds, hero. I could practically see the aura of uneasiness - a tense blue glow. Tell me, Em, do you think I fear you? Do you think when I look at you, I see a mighty hero like those from legend, someone ready to stomp out a dragon and save the princess from the tower... Or do you think I see a sad excuse for a "protector of the weak?" I enjoy your presence, Em, but not for meaningful conversation. I like to see worms interpret their own fear as some form of bravery. Now, tell me, little worm; do you have what it takes to squrim all the way to my Master's big, bad, citadel, and confront him... Or are you going to fail, just like the rest?"

Nope. 8 major battles to be fought - all I know is it won't be as lengthy as 48. It's taking some cues from 36 in terms of structure for some of it.

"...Thank you, Provost." I sit back and wait for the signal to return to the hall.

I hope 48 was a decent enough prep for you - if you ever need me to run a round, just ask. I can usually bang out rounds in less than 20 minutes now, after 10 quests.

Hey, you, stop looking in my Google Drive.

"A hero once did support our master. He saw a vision: metal spires poking from an infertile, dead Olegaia, the planet's population extinct and all but unable to repopulate. Such is the fate you humans will incite. Not much of a blank canvas: More like a fine portrait that has been mauled and vandalized, shredded and torn to pieces; ruined. We won't let that happen - you've already desecrated this planet far too much. The druid I spoke of would've sided with us, but alas, he had his own matters he thought more important to resolve. Even the wisest of you aren't wise enough, it seems. Oh, and a bet yours is a garish red, Ranger. Ugh. That'll look tacky splattered across the walls of my gallery." "An Oculoid, the head Oculoid, in fact - I am Mastermind Seerus. "

Seerus is an artist. He went from arranging them in accordance to the light spectrum to making a mosaic. (And one of his abilities involves turning people into paintings, but I digress...)

"People just don't seem to enjoy the fact our plans involves their complete erasure. Pity. A truly perfect being would accept their fate to pave the way to a better world - but then again, if you were perfect beings, we would most certainly not have to cull you. We'll create a blank canvas on which Olegaia can once again try to create a less flawed species to dominate the planet. You know me to be the artistic type, "Em." How could I resist? I am still impressed by what you pulled off at the Colony. Then again, they were led by that weakling, Iris. My Master and I ensured she didn't get another shot at royally screwing everything up again - despite the fact that we claimed everything we needed from the Progg Colony, it was still her most astonishing failure. She's been sent to the backlines, left to pathetically mewl about how many "children" she has - the stupid harpy still thinks all of the Oculoids are her "children". Idiot. Many of them have already surpassed her. My blood? A very pleasant shade of ash black, if you must know. Sometimes I change it to suit my fancy - some days, black, others, azure, occasionally red, rarely green..."

"You'll be back, lad." says Seerus in regards to Arthur's remark. "And I'll show you just what an "abomination" really is. You'll be at the Citadel eventually. And trust me, Arthur - When you're there, you'll wish you chose an eternity trapped in Nevermore than whatever hell awaits you in our realm." Seerus turns to Atramor. "Is he always this cripplingly naive and arrogant?"

"Oculoids are being produced faster than ever - our numbers are better than ever. And the stronger our master gets, the stronger we get. And if you would recall, our master was more than powerful to begin with."

"For the love of... So many drinks, flying through the air! You're only inconviencing that poor barmaid, not me. I'm not the one who must mop that off the floor, as I'm sure you're aware. If you truly must know, my dearest druid, I have actually cleared up my backlog on executions today, thus allowing my presence here currently. I finally cleared out my queue - and yes, if you're still curious, I did take their souls." "Splendidly, if you must know. I can't divugle too many juicy details, alas, as that would throw a bit of a damper on things to come. And believe me, "Em", many things await. And not just for Heroica." Seerus never looks away from his drinks while entertaining conversation, still arranging them artfully.

Seerus looks at Em from the corner of his eye. "Nice to see you again, too."

The mellow demon had since rearranged his palette of multicolored beverages into something of a mosaic. "Hmmm... I'm in need of some red here. I'll have one too, if you don't mind..." Asking was a needless gesture - he was arranging the glasses with four of his tentacles and taking beverages with the other two, without the consent of the orcish barmaid.

"Hmph. Talk about a killjoy." Seerus returns to arranging his increasing number of drinks in accordance to their placement on the color spectrum.

The glass bottle bounces off the demon, half dissolved as it hit the floor. The other half simply got melted into ink. "The Temple of Zoot? Oh, that place is dreadful, simply dreadful. And not because the little tussle you Heroicans had down there, either. You see, you presume I'm a demon. I used to... I used to be a creature of the void. Hah. But I had that loathsome part of me cauterized away a while back. I demon I am no more, make no mistake. Besides, I'm not here for the booze, people watching is simply one of my guilty pleasures."

The doors to the hall once again swing open, and in drips a familiar face to some. Less of a face, really - a levitating ball of the blackest ink, a purple ey glowing out from the miasma. Six colorful tentacles emerge from his main body, swaying slowly behind him as he enters the hall. He checks the quest board. Current Sign-Ups for Quest #105: The Eternal Reaper -Erdathcath (The_Customizer) -Masson (At the request of the Sand Queen) -Em (Emjajoas) -Grimwald (LordOfTheNoobs) -Monk Pretzel (Palathadric) "Hrrrmmm... Things are coming along nicely, quite nicely." The Oculoid Mastermind takes a seat and yawns, watching over the heroes... Sitting in plain sight.

I'll have NPCs popping in every time a new sign up update is announced to hold you folks over! Some nice, some... less than nice.

For clarification, Palathadric, are you singing up for 104 or 105?