Custom Story suggestions/comments/general constructive criticism

[bobbo]

I'm thankful for any additional content anyone releases here. The creators do this in their spare time so you just can't expect something super professional. If a loaded custom story then turns out to be very well made (I'm sure everyone can think of the few stories that really stand out in the showcase) then that's great - but I don't feel I should rant about all the others because someone has spent a lot of time to create something that entertains me a little while for free.

However, despite this there some things I don't really like of course.

The cliche part of my response was more directed at Kyle, who said that hiding things behind a painting is too cliche.

To me the problem isn't the cliché but that it has just become very likely to find a missing item behind a painting. After the first stories that had hidden stuff behind paintings I simply started to move along every painting in a new room to see if the hand cursor comes up. It's just not a good hiding spot anymore. Instead, items could be hidden behind other objects that are movable anyways, for example behind a food sack, a bed or a barrel. Of course the player should be warned somehow that he'll have to search very accurately in this case.

Monsters spawning when picking up an item: This can be somehwat good when it's prepared well. For example if you are in a dungeon and you know that somewhere has to be an important item. On your way through the rooms towards the item you can hear the monster, maybe even see it wandering around in the distance - but it will only go after you when you finally found the item. Instead, some custom stories simply spawn a monster without "warning" when you picked up a key. So you hide in the nearby closet till it's gone and everythings calm again. When you find the next key there spawns another monster and you hide in another cabinet. In the worst case there's no monster situation in between these two events. To me this is very boring.

Monster hallucinations: Unfortunately, after playing a lot of custom stories I can often tell if a monster is a hallucination or not. Many custom stories let the hallucination spawn in such a way that the player has no chance to escape, e.g. in a narrow hallway between the exit door and the player. In such cases it's obvious that the beast is either a hallucination or that the player is meant to "die" in order to wake up in a prison.

Unlabled doors: These can get very annoying when the levels are large. Running around trying each new key on every single locked door you encountered before can be very frustrating.

No ending: I don't like it when custom stories end with a CTD because there is no map file to be loaded when I leave through the exit door. Even if it is a WIP, an ending screen telling the player that this is the end is much better. Else, the first thing the player will have to ask on the forum is wether this was the intended ending or just a bug with his installation.

This is it for now, maybe I can come up with more later.