LD Map Update + Event: Lyra & The Lost Heirloom

[Jae]

Dec 6, 2018 13:41:07 GMT -5 Kaljinyu said:

I don't need much as far as puzzles or battles or participation. If this plot is 95% story, I'm fine with that. As long as I can somehow say I was there.

After TWR, I'm inclined to agree. I'd rather have fewer steps that are unique than a bunch of steps that are just doing the same thing over and over again. And let's also not overlook the fact that the writing and the art are improving here. Even if we don't end up doing much in this event, the next thing we do get to participate in will likely be more fulfilling with a better story and better art.

[Herdy]

I mean, each to their own, but I don't feel the improvement of writing or art. If you didn't notice Lyra's wall climbing face, power to you. And the writing is full of stuff like Times have moved on, old guy. You are no longer the commander of the city’s armed forces. You are talking to the one who is!
Both are still on the level of TWR, personally.

[Jae]

Dec 6, 2018 16:02:27 GMT -5 Herdy said:

I mean, each to their own, but I don't feel the improvement of writing or art. If you didn't notice Lyra's wall climbing face, power to you. And the writing is full of stuff like Times have moved on, old guy. You are no longer the commander of the city’s armed forces. You are talking to the one who is!
Both are still on the level of TWR, personally.

It's more the fact that they're trying. Lyra, Aurrick, Aymos, and the Kougra guy all have unique designs compared to the unnamed faeries and the Jetsam, Shoyru, and Skeith from TWR. I would, in fact, consider struggling with drawing unusual facial expressions at weird angles an improvement over reusing the same image of Kaia and only changing which limbs are bent, yes. As for the writing, I never said it was perfect. Some of the dialogue is clunky, true, but I do appreciate that they're attempting to do more with plot and character development. I think we've already gotten more exposition and non-dialogue text as we did the entire length of TWR. As my old film production teacher once wrote on a prop paper, a D- is an improvement over an F.

[Herdy]

I mean, part of Lyra's clunkiness while climbing is that it *is* reused art. If you compare 3 to 4, it's the same artwork with the sword badly cut out. The standard pose you see in 2 for Lyra and 1 for Aurrick will reappear with minor alterations later on, I would put money on it. It's exactly the same treatment that Malum, Fyora, and Kaia got.

I also don't see the character development -- beyond the one addition they've made to Dacon ageing. The majority of Lyra's dialogue so far has been variations on telling Aurrick to shut up. In terms of exposition/non-dialogue, we're one Neopedia article up so far. And both of those Neopedias we've had have, essentially, been event chapters pushed into the Neopedia to keep the story on the hub page focused on Lyra. They are heavily dialogue driven and use the same candence of talky-talky-now how does the hero character feel about what the bad man says-talky-talky that the chapters are using. The newspapers, while original compared to TWR, I would consider a step backwards. As they are giving us short, vague impressions of the far more interesting side of the event's story while what we're actually experiencing over on the hub page is boring.

[Kaljinyu]

It's not just that I have TWR to compare it to, I've never really felt a need for deep plot steps. They keep from what I'm REALLY here for, watching this story go down.

[charming thievery]

Hmm, seems they finally got that new chapter up today.

SPOILER: Click to show

I wonder what Lyra wants in Altador?

In my attempt to try to find the other non-Lyra story updates for this plot, I realized that they don't have a link on the hub to the Neopedia articles. They should probably do that since those make up a pretty significant portion of the plot's story.

Also, a quick link index for the Lost Desert Daily articles would be nice, as it's sort of annoying to have to click through each article to get to the newest one. Like that would be a pain once there are several articles published.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

Well, finally, we get to do something with this plot/event. After reading part 7, you can now access the Ruins of Thanyros

[Jae]

This game is way too poorly optimized for 25 seconds to be realistic omg x__x

[Rabbit ♠]

After the latest part, I figured that there would be something to do, so yeah, that's good.
However, I cannot seem to get it to load for me. That's not so good.

EDIT: Nevermind, I think I got it.

[June Scarlet]

I kept getting 26 seconds for the Timer achievement, finally got it down to 25 seconds.

[Breakingchains]

I'm having an awful time getting the dungeon doors to open and apparently I'm not the only one--people are commonly experiencing them getting completely stuck. Mashing all 4 arrow keys seems to help but I can't do it consistently enough to get the timer achievement.

[Zoey]

my god it's like playing Goparokko except every other square will randomly lock/unlock D:

[Carolyn]

Oookay, this is the glitchiest game I've played in a while. I keep finishing in the 30's because the game isn't registering my block push. >.> What do I even do?

[charming thievery]

Omg...The third door is constantly stuck for me, and when it *actually* budges, the next door refuses to let me through!

Edit: *SCREAMS* I almost had it in 25 - all the doors moved for me and everything - BUT I STUMBLED GETTING OUT THE DOOR and that cost me that precious second!!! 

Edit x2: ...I finally got the timer achievement, ugh. Now time to go wander around trying to find all the collectibles...

[Duke Pikachu]

So finally after several weeks and 7 pages of story we get a plot step... and it's a maze with a not very programmed well mechanic.

The maze itself is fine in layout considering what the gimmick is supposed to be: some parts of the wall that are "L" shaped move/spin on the center block. In addition to treasure lying around there's also hidden blocks containing scarabs/treasure you uncover by touching them. With an Achievement for finding all the treasure, finding all the hidden treasure, getting out under 25 seconds, and finding the shortest route this looks like a nice step on paper (still wished we got a step sooner, there could have easily been a wall climbing step but whatever).

HOWEVER there's just one problem with the maze: the movable walls don't always move. I think they're supposed to move in the direction you "push" them in, but some just don't activate. Some feel like they only work when they want to. Obviously, while it makes completing the maze without a map annoying (thank goodness its the same layout for everyone), the one that requires it to be completed in 25 seconds goes from just knowing the optimal path to a game of luck! Are you going to get lucky and the game decides to let the problematic walls spin or are you going to get stuck on one or two for 10-20 seconds?

Apparently some people found that oddly zooming out sometimes work, and indeed it worked for me and that's how I got 24 seconds. But still, did JS not test this? Is there something on the player's end causing the game to be glitchy? Why not make the walls activate by pressing the "spacebar" instead of us having to run into it, there's been a few cases where I sort of got juggled because I was too close to the center block and the wall didn't know which direction to go.

Also I haven't really had much to say about the story overall. It's going at a snails pace and I am finding the dialogue a bit clunky at times. We may have 7 pages of story but it honestly only feels like 2 chapters worth of story by old plot comic standards. Chapter 1 was getting over the wall, Chapter 2 was Lyra & Aurrick finally teaming up and escaping into the desert (and I'd still stay Chapter 2 isn't over yet).

Interesting this is going to have more of a direct connection to Legends and Letters aside from both having Aurrick. Hopefully they don't make playing the app required to completing this mini-plot...