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Fan Mission: The Alchemist by Sotha & Fidcal(2010/06/01)


Fidcal

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I'll have to check my log file later. But trying to load a save, it won't do it. This is another good FM, I'm really enjoying this one too! Every time I go to load a save, it won't finish, I bring it task manager, it crashes.

 

I love that there are soo many places to go, and explore. Got the sewer key, loved the inventor, lots of goodies! So much I wanna see yet.

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One more post, I feel really stupid for asking this but. Where is the potion? I am down by the Alchemist right now. This is a great FM, have had a lot of fun playing this one. So much to see and do, lots of details, job well done! Things just keep getting better and better with the FM's, thanks guys for all your hard work. :)

 

I do see a potion by

the body on the floor, I can't grab it. When you first open that door, that scream was unnerving, nice touch.

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

One thing I did, as a little experiment, I was hoping for better results. I was having fun with the arsenal in the inventory. I set down 3 mines, and lured some of the AI into the mines. I'd already taken out two of the skeleton's with holy water. I made enough noises with the mines, that brought down the guards. One was patrolling, searching for me, and yet he would do nothing to the Alchemist. I was so hoping he would. :rolleyes::P It was fun to try anyway. Damn those spiders are UGLY!

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Well, another post. I'm done for the night. I decided to try god mode, and no clip, I was finally able to snag the potion. I don't know if its intentional to make it difficult to grab, but it was difficult to grab it. Crouched did everything, Leatherman was watching too, he even said it seemed difficult. Flew out of there, took off god mode, and no clip, it must of broke that object. Drank the potion, nothing happened.

I'll just have to try it again tomorrow. Good clean fun!

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Firstly yes, there is a problem with drinking the potion because like all Dark Mod health potions they only work if you are weakened (to save waste.) So just hurt yourself first! Then drink the potion. It restores full health even if you are on your last drop of energy.

 

To actually get the potion you can either kill everybody or just grab it and run but the preferred stealthy way is this:

 

 

Find the control and activate it to lower the overhead gantry. Now go below and creep forward crouched in its shadow to the absolute limit of safety. Lean forward and grab the potion, lean back immediately and back off into shadow.

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Since finally getting around to opening the box & installing Doom3 a few days ago, I have been on a Dark Mod rampage. I'm a kid in a candy shop; I can't get enough.

 

Sadly, I can't get into this mission at all. The loading bar fills, switches to 'please wait' and then the game crashes, every single time. I've adjusted all my graphics settings off/down, to no avail. This isn't the save/quicksave crash, since I can't even get into the game TO save.

 

I don't think my machine would be suffering on the 'low end', yet? (Intel Core2 Duo E8400 3GHz, Win7, 8GB, ATI 4870.)

 

I may be the randomly cursed and hopeless one, or just so lost in all the new Thiefishness that I'm missing something as obvious as a shiny gold coin staring me in the face (I do that a lot). If you could toss some advice or further ideas my way, I'd greatly appreciate it!

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First, I am assuming you have first tried other FMs including the training mission and they work OK.

 

We need to establish what is meant by 'crash'. Is this a crash to Windows desktop? Or does Dark Mod lock up? If it is a lockup then note that after loading is complete and it says 'Please wait' then this can take several minutes on larger FMs depending on system.

 

If it is an actual crash to desktop then a few suggestions:

 

First check the FAQ at http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=FAQ#The_game_crashes_on_load

 

Another possibility is that somehow your Dark Mod is not fully or properly installed. Try running tdm_update again and make sure it says the install is up to date.

 

The FM itself might be corrupt. That is, some files in the pk4. This is very unlikely because it does try to load. Try another large FM (you should have played Heart before Alchemist anyway since the story proceeds from one to the other.) If the problem only affects Alchemist then it is worth downloading again I guess.

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I have played almost all of the Dark Mod FMs on the list so far (and the rest of the Thief's Den series, which is why I want to play Alchemist!) I'd played...oh, the Trainer, and then I got sucked immediately into the Thief's Den series, up until I was unable to play Alchemist. I then switched to a different FM to see if it worked, which wound up being the NHAT series- so I played those 3, and then dove into 3 more, and more, and,...then I realized I was almost through the DM FMs and I still hadn't played Alchemist. (Kid in a candy store, told ya.)

 

TDM is up to date, ran updater and got 0 file changes. I have the proper Doom patch. I have tried downloading and playing the Alchemist from both fidcal and bloodgate websites. I get a 'Doom 3 has stopped working' crash popup a short while after the loading bar completes and goes into the 'Preparing Mission, Please Wait' pause.

 

And then it's not until this very moment that I find via your link, a little note that 'Doom 3 does not like to be installed in a folder with a space in the name'. Mine is installed in Games/Doom 3. Why hello there, Space, are you the guilty party? I renamed the folder and removed the space, just to see if that would work, but no luck. I'm getting no error messages at any time (just the 'stopped working' popup), nor can I find any log in my game folder with error-looking messages or anything from that link. Just the space in the title is all that I can see is off from there.

 

Next step, complete reinstall with space removed from title? :/

..I have to go offline for several hours, but thank you for your help!

Edited by Shaz
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No need to re-install just to change the folder name. I have had many installs of doom3 just by copying the whole folder and renaming it any legal name and it runs immediately.

 

What it may be is the spiky ball bug. This is fixed in Dark Mod but I don't think yet released. Try my patch from http://www.fidcal.com/TEMP/alchemist_patch2.zip It makes the spiky balls passive - they don't do damage - but apart from that no difference.

 

Close Dark Mod

Unzip the patch into your game folder doom3\alchemist

Start the FM afresh, don't use earlier gamesaves.

 

Let me know if that fixes or at least alleviates it.

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Doom 3 folder renamed Doom3. Spiky ball patch added. Game still crashes.

Start the FM afresh, don't use earlier gamesaves.

Note...I can't use an earlier gamesave, I can't actually get INTO the FM at all. The 'mission loading' bar completely fills, then switches to the textual-only 'Preparing Mission, Please Wait'. After a short wait, the game crashes to desktop, with a 'Doom 3 has stopped working' crash pop-up message. I never see anything past the 'The Alchemist' loading screen.

 

I have had no trouble playing any other Dark Mod FM (over a dozen of them so far). Sadly...The Alchemist and my computer just don't seem to get along very well, since I'm the only one having this issue.

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What ATI Catalyst version are your running?

 

(Rage3d consensus seems to say that 10.4 was the last "good version"...)

 

Have you tried killing Aero before launching?

Edited by nbohr1more

Please visit TDM's IndieDB site and help promote the mod:

 

http://www.indiedb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

 

(Yeah, shameless promotion... but traffic is traffic folks...)

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Before launching the mission open the console and type: conDump example_name

 

After the crash look for that file in your Alchemist sub-directory.

 

Attach the text file to your next post.

Please visit TDM's IndieDB site and help promote the mod:

 

http://www.indiedb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

 

(Yeah, shameless promotion... but traffic is traffic folks...)

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Nothing that I can identify yet.

 

After invoking conDump,

 

type "map alchemist"

 

(do not close the console)

 

Please post the updated conDump text file.

Please visit TDM's IndieDB site and help promote the mod:

 

http://www.indiedb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

 

(Yeah, shameless promotion... but traffic is traffic folks...)

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Very mysterious.

 

The only time I've had this "ghost in the machine" type behavior was when I was using a newer (beta) atioglxx.dll and had AA and AF forced in the control panel CCC.

 

I presume that you have disabled Catalyst AI (prime suspect usually) so I can only suggest lowered AF (maybe 8x instead of 16x). Making sure that this is the in-game setting.

 

Finally, post your DoomCfg.cfg as well.

Please visit TDM's IndieDB site and help promote the mod:

 

http://www.indiedb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

 

(Yeah, shameless promotion... but traffic is traffic folks...)

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AA and AF have been set 'program controlled' and Catalyst AI has been disabled since I first installed TDM. In my attempts to get The Alchemist to load, I have tried every video setting, from highest to lowest, with no success.

 

Confusing thing, in game? AA is set as 2x and Texture Anisotropy is set as 1x. No 16x. I do not know why it's registering as that in the dump file.

DoomConfig.txt

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Ok, so, as you can see I registered on here just now -just- so I could post how utterly awesome this mod and The Heart Of Lone Salvation are.

 

I haven't actually played any of the other dark modlets (heh) yet but if they are even nearly as good who needs thief 4? :D Seriously, the level design, puzzles, atmosphere, you remind of the best thief levels.. it's this sort of stuff that should be shown to people who refuse to play videogames to prove to them they're missing out hugely!

 

There are but two minor quibbles I have and they are truly non-complaints almost, but still.. one, regarding both mods - loot requirements are way too easy! I mean, I easily found just about every loot piece in both mods and that totaled to almost double what expert wanted of me! Really should think about increasing this one to make it a little tougher :)

 

And that brings me to the second minor issue.. both mods have 1 annoying feature - in this one, on expert, you really should take non-humans out of the equation for the "don't kill anyone" requirement (that is how it always was in thief, and it makes sense that no one will consider you a murderer if you dispense righteous justice on over-sized spiders, for example).

 

In The Heart, the "best not anyone know you're here" requirement is just plain frustrating.. I managed it, and yes I realise it's fully optional but really it's a bit silly.. anyone for a second hears like.. an apple fall down a set of stairs at the other end of the mansion will ruin that objective for you. Also rules out blackjacking people unless they're perfectly still as even the non-suspicious "hmm I might have heard something but not sure" stance you get when following someone on anything but a completely silent surface (and in which you can still easily KO guards) STILL ruins the objective -.- To add to the silliness, you COULD bypass this by mossing out areas but that just kills the realism as the guards don't seem to care that something THAT odd happened but get their panties in a twist over some random noise at the other end of the map..

 

 

Oookay, now that that's out of the way, I have to once again say - this mod rivals the best missions ever made for Thief series and is some of the finest gaming I've had in years! Can I ask, is there a sequel planned? :D

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Glad you enjoyed them EbonKnight. :)

 

Yes, the alert objectives were a kind of test and that's why I made them optional for extreme ghosters. But there are still flaws in the alert code so don't take those objectives too seriously.

 

Similarly there is or was a bug with the objectives regarding kill types so I made it kill any type to get round that.

 

Yes, there are two more in this series in preparation; Den 5 is very small (a re-release upgrade of an old demo) and Den 6 is full size. Maybe ready together around Christmas.

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That is truly awesome news. I am actually looking forward to those more than just about any retail game that's coming out till then :>

 

It's kinda funny actually.. the no-kill requirement oddness actually works in the most hilarious way in making the endgame on expert -much- harder.. would explain the whole situation I got myself into, but don't know how to put spoiler tags :))

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