Tutorial Adventure Chain - in Detail

[Grunthex]

Having just gone through this chain (in the editor, and in game) in detail, I have some thoughts in general, and in specifics.

 

General: I like the chain. There's a lot of basic information in the first 6-8 steps, and most of the rolls are reasonable (see exceptions below). While a little long, the final reward is certainly worth it. There are a few chances near the end to cut the chain off due to failure, but given the low difficulty rolls, it's not likely, and you can't ALWAYS succeed. The only thing I would like to see is a few more of the early steps being automatic to force the player to learn some things. If the first ... 6 or 7 steps were triggered to start 4 days or so after the completion of the prior step, it would ease the player in a bit easier.

 

Specifics: Most of these criticisms come from digging through the guts of the chain in the editor, and I admit I didn't really notice them in-game, so don't think of them as horrible failures, please! I'll refer to step based on the steps in the editor.

 

Step 3: The Brute Strength check seems a bit high for such an early-game adventure. Given the end of the chain checks only go up to 6, a 5 in the second step is a bit unreasonable. Now, the Merit is a nice reward for that step, but I'd drop it to 4.

Step 4: I reported several bugs in this step, in a thread that Legate already caught.

Step 12: The success rolls are a bit too easy (2). This is easier than the investigations in this step, and easier than the rolls back in step 2/3 of the chain. I suspect they're lower than usual because they follow a successful investigation, but one of the investigations is automatic, and the other is still easy. I would raise these at least 1.

Step 14: This becomes the first risk of failing the entire adventure. If you fail both investigates at 5, you're done. Not unreasonable this far in perhaps, although I would consider dropping the investigate difficulties by 1, and raising the other 2 by 1. At least if you fail AFTER a successful investigation, you can come back and try again another day. Alternatively, make one of the investigates an auto-success (this is done in Step 15), which precludes the player from being locked out of the chain. 2nd alternative, make the Refuse option only end the adventure for the day, not permanently.

Step 15: This is basically Step 14, done better, and where I stole my ideas from above.

Step 16: There is a climb based option to discover clue 2. However it requires that you have already found clue 2. Basically it's a chance to hurt yourself for nothing!

Step 17: There are 2 options (other than quitting forever). Both are identical. Same skill checks, same rewards, same punishment on failure... I dunno, change one of the skill checks to another skill?

Step 19: There are 4 options in this phase, but you'll only ever see 2. Options 1 and 2 basically unlock options 3 and 4, but since they're exits not investigations, you automatically advance to the next phase. Options 3 and 4 actually appear to unlock ... something (they set memories), but they aren't referred to anywhere in the chain I can see.

 

Continuity: There are forced-pauses between steps 14-15, and 18-19 (forcing you to re-select the adventure on another day). I'm not sure if these are to draw it out for balance reasons, but the text strongly implies they continue immediately after each other. They should either be linked, or the text implying more of a break. In total, this adventure uses up 12 time periods (assuming you succeed at your rolls, and don't have to re-try anything), and the rewards seem good for that. If it were possible to make the first few tutorial steps automatic as I suggested, you might want to re-write some later phases to insist on a few more breaks, or the rewards might be a bit too good.

[Legate of Mineta]

Grunthex;

 

Thanks for the comments! I'll send this feedback along to the Content Team- on the whole, it looks good!