Awesome feedback, awesome post ... i hope most of your points will be readed and taken to concideration ...
But there is a few things i would like to speak about, if you dont mind:
How does time work ? It doesn't pass, except it does.
On the one hand, the story and the dialogues clearly involve time ("we don't have time for rest", "two days have past, still no symptoms").
On the other hand, the rest of the game categorically refuses to take time into account. There are no day/night cycles, no guard shifts and dead sentinels renewals, not the slightest difference between long and short rest (the latter of which takes 0 rounds). I cannot tell how many days have passed since the crash.
Unsurprisingly, the two positions are not compatible. You have invested so much (in writing, voice acting, etc) on "time is a thing" that you can hardly change that. Also, you would have difficulty justifying a world where times does not pass. So, please, figure out ways to account for time, find the mechanisms, and deliver the explanations in-game.
I believe this problem is selfsolving ...
Once some implementation need of regular long rests will be there ... we also get some sence of time.
We will simply travel by day, and sleep by night ... kinda shame, that we would probably not be able to turn it around, but no gameplay is perfect.
Are waypoints part of the game world ? They are, but only for the players of the game.
On the one hand, you made Gale have a line about them, so they exist in the game world.
On the other hand, only the characters controlled by us players can use them. The tieflings don't consider this option to travel to Baldur's Gate. The goblins don't raise so much as an eyebrow when we casually we walk out of one, right next to them. The portals lie scattered in the wild when such a means of transportation would have major historical, economic and geopolitical implications.
Again, that doesn't work. Having them exist in-universe has world-building implications, which are a problem now that you have started writing a story that ignores their existence.
It would be a lot simpler to use them strictly as a quality-of-life feature that is not part of the world. So players can use them but it is implied that the characters walked the whole way in the game world. And then, don't have a character give us a tutorial about them in-game : this breaks the fourth wall. And you already have another way to give players tutorials.
Or ... they can add one or two sentences about why they cant be used.
For example when talking to Zevlor:
Why dont you use waystone? > Do you know how to find waystone in Baldur's Gate without previous visitation? > I dont. > Neither do we.
Or when talking to Minthara:
Why dont you use waystone? > Do you know how to find waystone in Druid Groove without previous visitation? > I dont. > Neither do we.
Why dont you use waystone? > Do you know how to find waystone in Druid Groove without previous visitation? > I acutaly allready visited it, you can join me on my way back. > Good thinking. But how could i know that this is not a trap ... i shall send army on foot anyway, its not that far.
About this im more sad about the fact that we are unable to ask Gale where from was he teleported to us.
Reasons to have any interest in the Absolute.
My characters have heard of no reason why they could want to join the cult of the Absolute, either genuinely or as a self-serving characters planning to use the cult.
We can somewhat gather that there's a link between the Absolute and our tadpoles. We seem to be True Souls pawns-to-be who failed to be properly created, because of the Githyanki attack. The Absolute then sent Edowin to destroy the botched puppets (or weapons) that we now are.
So, at the moment, I don't see why the characters could want to get any more involved with the Absolute, on their own initiative.
Note : as a player, I can think of reasons. The characters could want to go kick the Absolute' ass and force Her to remove the tadpoles or explain how to control them. But the characters don't seem to voice anything like that. I believe that, as a player, I'm not supposed to try to rationalise what happens in the world or make up explanations to fill gaps.
I believe that your character "have heard of no reason" is a good thing ...
Since not everything need to be told specificly, people should be able to read between lines, observe the world around them and make decisions based on what they see, hear, or believe ... i dont really need to see every tiny option to be highlihted and provided with enough encouraging to try it ... i have option, now its up to me if i use it or not, or why i use it or not.
My characters have found multiple reasons to join the absolute ... that dont mean that your characters are wrong, they simply dont fit to this kind of story, simmilar as mine dont fit to yours. I dont see that as problem, its just variety. :-/
You say what we can gather info ... but you seem to forget few things:
- we also can gather the fact, that the Absolute is promising better life for Drows, Duegars, Goblins, and other "evil" races ...
- we also can observe the fact, that every one of "important" people in this cult is tadpoled ... but they dont know it, we do, that gives us advantage ... also the same observation reveals to our character that reversed, it means that every tadpoled person in this cult, do have important role ... so logicaly, if we join them, we are starting between upper class ...
- we can also observe that none of those people is showing any sighns of health problems, or transformation ... so we can presume that they either have found a cure, or that our condition is not as crittical as it may seem ...
- and last but certainly not least, the best place to figure out what is happening with those tadpoles ... is logicaly place, where people do have tadpoles ... or if not best, its at least better than place where nobody knows what is happening to you, nobody ever seen anything like it, and everyone who will find out what happened to you will try to kill you on sight.
So i believe there is enough clues, you just dont have them served on silver plate ... and i like it to be honest ... i dont want to be pulled by hand, stick to the road every single step, i want option to rebel and go another way, now i have it ... and if there will be reasoning and encouraging added, i will loose it, since instead of have feeling that i have found hidden route, i shall stand on illuminated intersection with detailed signs.
Better reasons to join the goblins and destroy the grove.
We want a solution to the life-threatening tadpole problem, be it removal or control. We quickly find that there is no solution with the goblins, if we ever learned there could be one. And we most likely have realised this before we are offered to join. However, there might be a solution with Halsin, who we have most likely heard of. So we certainly cannot join the goblins on that ground : this will likely result in killing a potential solution, which is possibly our only remaining solution. So it's not just that there is no good reason to join the goblins, there is also an overwhelmingly good reason to prevent them from raiding the Grove.
If we just seek to fight the battle on the side that would pay us better, Zevlor promises to give us whatever he can get, Minthara promises only the gratitude of the Absolute : see above.
Conclusion : ... I see no reason to join the goblins. Saving Halsin and protecting the grove sounds like the only reasonable choice.
I shall probably repeat myself ... but i believe this conclusion is just result of limited point of view. :-/
> First what we quickly find out with the goblins is the fact that our condition is NOT life-threatening ... at least not now, and as it seem not in near future.
Since every single one tadpoled person we met, is perfectly healthy and dont show any signs of transformation ... we actualy will find out even before we enter goblin camp, and its by that dying Dwarf true soul ... he was send to kill us, therefore he was not on same Nautiloid as we were ... therefore he probably did have tadpole in his head longer than we did ... BUT! tadpole that crawled out of his head was normal, no signs of any transformation ... and since we know (and i presume that our characters do know too) that tadpoles actualy ARE mind flayers, that will alter our body and merge with it to single new entity, i think is quite logical to presume that tadpole should be looking differently, if there was any progress of Ceremorphosis in his host.
Also, we never find out that goblins are unable to help us ... all we find out is that Priestess Gut is quite unwilling.
> Second we find that there is potential solution to our problem, since only one thing that seem to bind theese people together, except the fact that they all were tadpoled, is the fact that they are all worshiping the Absolute ... our character can easily presume that the Absolute could for some reason somehow shield her believers against negative effects of being tadpoled.
> We cannot be offered to join ... its once aggain logicaly pesumed that we want to join, why else would we be in goblin camp to either join or attack them ... since we are clearly no merchants, or slavers, and since they allready have both presented in their own cute little halfling ... so, since we are not attacking, they are talking to us presuming we want to join them.
And it feels right to me, since what else could we do in that camp? Spy? On goblins?
What could we hope to spy out ... that goblins are ugly filthy beasts that plan to attack anyone and anything within their reach? That is common knowlenge.
> About Halsin ... yes i understand why so many people like this character, i like him too, and in mine WElf-Ranger gameplay i gived him as much thrust as you do here ... but i would like to advise agains doing it in general ...
First of all, the only person who knows about what do you need from Halsin is Nettie ... the wery same Nettie who tryed to kill you, once she find out your condition ... second, all she tells you is that Halsin
MAY BE able to help you, yes he is certainly better option than Nettie, but that certainly dont mean that he is best and only option you have ... and finaly, when you search whole goblin camp you dont find any druid, just caged bear. And unless you have animal speaking active, there is no way to say for certain (its quite obvious tho, i know) that is him. So your character can aswell presume that remains of Halsin is allready in some goblins belly. :P
- And just to add against Halsin ... if you want to pinpoint best solution to your problem, based on count of recomendations ... its Githyanki creche ... for one they are most familiar with mind flayers across whole Faerun and beyond, for two they make nasty habit to kill those things so they logicaly need to know something, for three Lae'zel dont shut up about it and mock every single other option, and finaly even Shadowhearth who hates Gith and all they do most, after few talks agree to try them.
Next point ... you say that Zevlor is side who will pay us better ... lets do some math:
First of all, in patch 3 we are able to persuate Minthara to pay us for help ... not sure if that was there before.
Then keep in mind that Zevlor is repeating us multiple times in our conversations that
"we dont have much" ... that is quite important, since it quite clearly tells you that you cant expect giant amount of gold, just little something they manage to withdraw between themself ...
Then keep in mind, that if you fail that persuation option i mentioned, Minthara specificly tells you that anything you manage to scrap of their corpses is entirely yours ... that mean you for certain will have everything they manage to withdraw between themself, since Zevlor logicaly have no clue about your betrayal ... and more, since they certainly will not give you litteraly "everything they have".
So ... logicaly, Goblin side is certainly offering much better payment.
Better reasons to go to the Moonrise Tower.
If we have sided with the grove : it's pretty clear. Halsin can't help us, but he points to a possible solution at the Moonrise Tower.
If we have sided with the goblins : well ... we spend a night with Minthara, she's immediately very in love with us (how cute !), then she wants to kill us, but she refrains from doing it if we ask her nicely (how kind ... typical Drow), so she says we must go to Moonrise tower. Why ? Er ... because the Absolute wants us to stop breathing and being alive and all that, so ... maybe we can go there, have a cup of tea with a representative of the Absolute and talk things out in a civilised fashion ? Or something. I confess, I really didn't understand that part.
How exactly did you find out how much in love with us she is? O_o
Since all i can see was her admiring our power, power that is not advisable to play with ... and out of her (for Drow so typical actualy) self-preservation, she decided to exhaust us, and try to kill us in our sleep ... then it all depends ...
- either she hate us, since we desecrate her, when we was diging in her mind ... and just try her luck.
- or she pitty what she must do, but we once aggain show her our power, and she understand that (once aggain, acutaly typical for Drow) ... then it depends on your point of wiev, either she is sending us to someone far stronger than her (just another threason where she save her own skin, and get rid of problem, by single move) ... or she really believe that we are Absolute favorite, and then consistently with her believes, she send us to her Goddess, to judge our worth (aka, admiting that she was wrong ... not so Drow, but undersandable).
- or she again pitty what she must do, but we push to her personal feelings ... quite simmilar result, the only difference here is it seem more personal, yet we still dont know if she really helps us, or simply betray us once aggain ... you know what i mean right? Even such thrustworthy race as Drow can lie.
Letting players have control over the story of their characters.
Please make sure that not too many major paths or quests are locked behind skill check bottlenecks.
Of course, to a very good extent, not every party can expect to solve every situation in the same way, and experience the exact same adventure. Especially in a tabletop setting where players would play the campaign only once. You have your vision of how this adventure should be experienced. But players should be able to enjoy the video game in more than one way. Some players will be happy to go with the dice : they may attempt to persuade X to do Y, and if it fails, they'll go with it. Other players will want to call the beats.
Could you add an option in the options menu to modify (increase or decrease) the DC of skill checks that have long-term effects in the game (story paths, camp followers, meet-again characters, etc) ?
Note that while I say "some players" and "other players", they may well be the same people. In my first playthrough, I'll be happy to take the story as it comes. In my second one, I'll be happy to discover how different some things could go when some dice land a bit differently and I make different decisions. But after some more playthroughs, I will want to tell my story : "this PC will have this personality, make these choices, succeed at this check but fail at that check, etc".
This certainly sounds like yet another part of "dificiulty settings" they should implement.
