Jump to content
The Dark Mod Forums

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


Fidcal

Recommended Posts

Two questions:

 

 

 

How do I open the grill with the guy stuck in it near the mansions basement?

 

And where is the gem? I know it must be somewhere in the ceremony hall, but I just cannot find it. I read somwhere to check the pillars, but so far I haven't found anything.

 

 

Edited by Chiron
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gem:

Remove the bowl and climb up inside the pillar. I can't remember if you need to stand on something like the head basket.

 

Grill:

The thug guard is carrying the key on his belt. If hard to see you might want to get the brightener - see http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/11637-important-small-items-brightener/page__view__findpost__p__228632

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Mmmm... maybe it had got pushed into the wall or floor. It can happen sometimes. I can't even remember it there - I just grabbed everything and ran.

 

It seems that the map has the plate embedded within the back wall section.

 

See this screenshot from DarkRadiant.

 

ohup6.jpg

 

 

Moving the plate forward, or even the wall back, seems to fix this issue.

Edited by pmw57
Link to comment
Share on other sites

First I have to say how fun, really great is this mission. Bravo! But

what is the use of opening that little door at the engineer's lab? I thought the key to the chest upstairs were inside the safe.

 

 

It was to act as a introduction to the idea of a combination lock. The key to the chest is nearby, on the mantlepiece

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Exactly. It's the

inventor's test rig. He hand-builds these and tests them on his own demo before installing them in customer's homes. So it also acts as an introduction of the combo locks to the player.

 

Also demonstrates TDM can have multiple combo locks in one mission whereas Thief can have only one (officially, dunno if someone found a way but Dromed only provides one number variable.)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Just finished replaying Alchemist and what a totally different experience. Wondering if its due to 1.03 updates?

 

 

I played on medium difficulty again as I know there is a spider to kill. Right from the beginning the AI's were running around like chickens with their heads cut off. When I got to the city watch there was about eight of them along with the inventor and the jeweler all circling the bottom of the stairs. Took a long time to figure out how I was going to get the keys I needed. I ended up gasing most of them and then battleing my way through the rest. When I got to the mansion there was another group stuck at the entrance to the sewer so thankfully I remembered the other way in. There were no guards in the house so picken was pretty easy. When it came time to leave I shot the group outside with a fire arrow, went back to the basement and just opened the door. Everyone ran out so I was able to clear the basement.laugh.gif Some areas were really frustrating and others were very easy. All in all I did enjoy the challenge.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seems to be a problem with 1.03. I had the same experience, and since it totally killed immersion, I stopped playing. Maybe Fidcal or Sotha can have a look and correct the bugs? That would be most welcome. Oh, and I played on max difficulty, as usual.

My Eigenvalue is bigger than your Eigenvalue.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Seems to be a problem with 1.03. I had the same experience, and since it totally killed immersion, I stopped playing. Maybe Fidcal or Sotha can have a look and correct the bugs? That would be most welcome. Oh, and I played on max difficulty, as usual.

 

I've only made the basic geometry for the map: AI and plot are Fids' creation, so I won't be touching the problem, which I didnt fully get from the post. Erratic AI behavior due to the way AIs are constantly alerted in the map? That resulted in some sillyness too when I first played the map on 1.02.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

If you have not finished this FM then do not read this post as it will spoil *something cool* later on.

 

 

Fidcal or Sotha - whichever one of you is responsible for putting a bloody zombie in an unassuming wardrobe is a GIT! (and a horror genius!)

 

I opened the offending wardrobe and then jumped out of my skin when I was hoping to find some loot, but instead found the alchemist's pet zombie ready to gouge my brain out.

 

Shocks like that come few and far between for me, the last game that made me make a sound like a *sissy girl* was Resident Evil 2 - and I was 14 at the time - So congrats :blush:

 

Edit:

 

 

 

Just finished the mission - storywise very good although a I do have a few criticisms as well as positives:

 

Criticisms:

 

The main annoyance is that when an alert happens every guard in the mission goes into alert and MAJOR FPS lag occurs. One of the main causes of these alerts are the rogue like characters, I have no idea where they are based in the map but on several occasions during my playthrough I saw these rogue like characters running from about 6 guards, and found thier bodies regularily. When this happened the FPS went from a flat 30 right down to about 5. I suggest the rogue characters are made neutral to the guard. The same applies to the Undead in the alchemists basement. I caused an alert while stealing the potion and when the guards came from the upper levels to chase me there was a mass battle between the guards and undead which pretty much brought the game to a standstill!

 

 

A minor criticism is on the layout of the town itself, as its all a bit all over the place to start with, its a bit confusing and I had no sense of direction until I had run around the town for a good few hours and learned the different quarters, perhaps a simple map is needed for a future update?

 

A second minor criticism is the visual style of the buildings in town... its all a little plain and looks quick and "no frills" in comparison to the Alchemist's area. Obviously there are slums, but it still looks rough around the edges compared to the care taken with the alchemists home. It does literally look as if two different mappers have made this FM IMO. However, I can understand this as the mission is rather large and cuts may have needed to be made somewhere.

Positives:

 

The Alchemists mansion on the otherhand is faultless. Visually appealing and the layout makes perfect sense. Good use of shadows, and the contrast between the living area and the basement dungeon is sublime. Architecture in the mansion was some of the best I have seen in an FM, and made good use of brushes. The green fog and lighting in the basement made it possibly the creepiest FM I have played and the ceremonial room had my heart racing (mainly because by this point I had only one water arrow left so couldn't off the undead and could only take out one light!). Again the Zombie in the Bedroom Wardrobe was a nice touch that saw my heart skip a beat.

 

As always - Thief's Den related FM's always have great stories behind them so cannot fault this either :)

 

 

Nice one guys, apart from its minor issues its a sound FM and I will be playing it again :)

Edited by Scope
-Scope
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agreed. The alerts are intentional but the wide effects are a problem and performance is really a low end system problem. Yes, much of the city 'style' is not ideal but this was effectively an abandoned shell - a first attempt at mapping by Sotha I think. Even an abandoned Sotha map is pretty damn good so I could see the potential and I felt it was worth salvaging the FM but I couldn't face rebuilding and upgrading the entire city so fudged over that just to get something finished fast. :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

My only gripe was that the "painting" that is frobbable after flipping the hidden switch was a bit obscure, even after I found the switch, when I saw that nothing opened I ignored it :D had to come here to figure it out.

 

Also for some reason the potion that you could supposedly steal without being seen, can't seem to 'highlight' the potion, tried leaning forward and still couldn't get it to highlight, had to stand right over it and be seen by all the monsters, ran out screaming and jumped over the spider :D

 

Also saw a corpse there behind the grill, noticed there's a note sticking out of his boot, is it possible to pick up? couldn't get it to highlight.

 

---also is there any ambience sound, while being in the city or mansion, cause it seems like its dead quiet, apart from the sound of torches burning once and a while.. to be honest I wish there was some sounds, like the sound of the wind in night air... or idle chatter amongst guards.. anything.

Edited by TheUnbeholden
Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

The potion can be reached without an alert by lowering the gantry to cast a shadow.

 

 

 

 

I already did lower the gantry, couldn't get the potion to highlight until I was standing directly over it. Weird I know, I tried at least 5 times taking one stop closer and leaning forward to try to get it to highlight..,.

 

 

The thief's body and his note ought to be frobable. Did you unlock and open the grill and go inside?

 

 

 

No I frobbed his body, then I press 'use' to pick him up and he magically went out of the grill. Didn't have to open it :D But I can't get the note to highlight :/

 

apart from this everything else seems to highlight and frob fine.

Edited by TheUnbeholden
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very strange.

There is a feature to stop the body and the note being frobbable until the gate is open. Somehow you have got the thief but the note remains unfrobable. Seems impossible but there it is. Maybe update 104 changed something so bodies can't be made unfrobable. Anyway, if you drag the body back into the cell and stay inside then close the door (fully, not jammed) you should find the note is now frobable so you can grab and read it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This FM is a bit problematic in places, but it was an interesting change of pace especially with the chase that often starts at the beginning (not sure if that's intentional or not). The openness of the city was nice with the back alleys and such and it felt like there were enough enterable buildings.

 

A couple possible issues I noticed:

 

 

The mansion window on the second floor is a bit strange. I wasn't able to break it with the blackjack or the sword at all. I gave up and looked elsewhere and came back to try again. I often use broadhead arrow to help adjust my aim before using rope arrows. I ended up accidently breaking it when the broadhead flew a bit too high and went throught he window :blink:

 

Also, I wandered the underwater place in the sewer leading to the little basement room with the bandits/thieves. They spotted me and I ran back into the water to escape, but they followed me by walking underwater. :blink:

 

The cabinet in the jewlery store is a bit difficult to open even after you use the key because you have to be so close to frob it that it runs into you the moment it tries to open. I had to try a few times with a bit of leaning at odd angles to finally get it open.

 

 

 

 

I was also wondering where I could find the fast-paced music that plays at the beginning of the FM.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was also wondering where I could find the fast-paced music that plays at the beginning of the FM.

 

I think the filename is something like designi02.ogg or something similar, starting with a 'd.'

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

Just finished this map (with a little help from this thread).

 

I also liked the intro music and was looking forward to more but that never happened :(

 

Things I liked:

- Storyline

- Large city + mansion map

- I had to go change my underwear at one point! :)

 

Things I didn't like:

- Not much really. I found the perma-alert guards to be a problem at first because I'm not used to it.

- THIS IS NOT A BEGINNER MAP! (Good thing I'm not one!) I would have never found the gem without the hints in this thread. VERY sneaky. Also you have to read the readables VERY carefully!

 

Other issues (not directly related to this map)

- I put off playing this mission because it was subtitled "Thief Den 4" but I had a hard time figuring out which maps are considered 1-3. Neither the in game mission downloader or the download page make this easy to figure out.

 

There's probably more, but it's time to put the kids in bed!

 

Richard

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • Recent Status Updates

    • Petike the Taffer

      I've finally managed to log in to The Dark Mod Wiki. I'm back in the saddle and before the holidays start in full, I'll be adding a few new FM articles and doing other updates. Written in Stone is already done.
      · 4 replies
    • nbohr1more

      TDM 15th Anniversary Contest is now active! Please declare your participation: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22413-the-dark-mod-15th-anniversary-contest-entry-thread/
       
      · 0 replies
    • JackFarmer

      @TheUnbeholden
      You cannot receive PMs. Could you please be so kind and check your mailbox if it is full (or maybe you switched off the function)?
      · 1 reply
    • OrbWeaver

      I like the new frob highlight but it would nice if it was less "flickery" while moving over objects (especially barred metal doors).
      · 4 replies
    • nbohr1more

      Please vote in the 15th Anniversary Contest Theme Poll
       
      · 0 replies
×
×
  • Create New...