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Fan Mission: Crystal Grave v2 (by ERH+ and Bikerdude) (2013/02/09)


ERH+

Crystal Grave v2 (2013/02/09)  

26 members have voted

  1. 1. Gameplay: Enjoyment. Fun duration. Smooth flow, ect. Versus Bugs. Frustration, Boredom, framelag

    • Poor
      0
    • Tolerable
    • Good
    • Excellent
    • Near Perfect. Outstanding.
  2. 2. Appearance: Visual pleasure, lighting, visual style, deduct bad texturing ect.

    • Poor
      0
    • Tolerable
      0
    • Good
    • Excellent
    • Near Perfect. Outstanding.
  3. 3. Story & Text: Story. Text. Briefing. Graphic storytelling

    • Poor
      0
    • Tolerable
    • Good
    • Excellent
    • Near Perfect. Outstanding.


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Congrats on the release :)

 

I've got some promotional work to do now...

 

Dropbox Mirror:

 

https://dl.dropbox.c...stalgravev2.pk4

 

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/17706561/crystalgravev2.pk4

 

Mission Page is up:

 

http://www.thedarkmod.com/missiondetails/?id=67

 

http://www.thedarkmod.com/missiondetails/?id=67

 

 

Screenshots... soonish...

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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I shouldn't be so impatient :blush:

Couple of nit picking minor points

"sited mechanical failure" should be "cited mechanical failure"

it says that I need to walk back because the boat is damaged but the first thing I found is another boat with only a bit of water in the bottom - will have to see if I can use it

No further comments until I have finished it on the hardest setting or I have got completely stuck

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No further comments until I have finished it on the hardest setting or I have got completely stuck

Bare in mind, this is ERH's mission and he isn't a native english speaker. I did work on the readables, but there is only so much that can be done without changing the way the original author intended it.

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Nearly finished on the hardest setting - I will need to go round again as I am missing one piece of food

Overall impression is that it is fairly easy in terms of avoiding haunts but there are so many different ways of getting to places some of which are not at all obvious so it retains the interest

Putting out the fires and using the chimneys is fairly unusual

I really liked the mirrors - I found the first one in the tomb and it was a bit of a surprise coming face to face with myself. One thing amused me is the slight lag between changing to crouch and the image in the mirror following

A couple of minor glitches

The keys #20040 and key #20039 aren't correctly identified

Overall a really nice mission - I will rate it once I have finished it

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Well I am stuck - obviously I am missing something because I never found out what the brass key was for but the real problem is food - one missing

Do not look at this spoiler unless you are really stuck with looking for the food

I found the two items in the kitchen/store room and the one in the study near the library - but where is the last one

 

Having played it again and finding a load of new ways of getting to places I am even more impressed with this mission for its flexibility and complexity.

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I'm REALLY loving this mission, but I've come across a game-crashing issue (which I might be able to sneak past). In the hallway

lined with traps, I picked up one of them, but still hearing the ticking sound and still seeing so many, I attempted to pick up another. The game locked up (I had to bring up task manager and shut down Doom3 to get it to close). I reloaded, and moved to the other side of the hallway, and attempted to pick up a different mine. The game locked up again.

I'm not sure if it's due to me attempting to pick one up, or just me getting too close. I'm going to try just to slip past and avoid the issues totally, but I thought I'd point out that it's a potential problem.

 

Also, I read really fast and I had no idea the briefing continued. Oops.

 

The only other questionable thing is the keys labeled as (pulling from memory, I might be off) #str_0039 (or some such). 2 of the 6 or so keys I have at the moment are labeled as such, while the others have actual names (brass key, old chest key, etc.) Were these oddly numbered keys supposed to actually have names?

 

Anyway, I'm off to attempt to slip past the aforementioned issue and continue on. I absolutely love the multitude of routes in this mission!

Edited by Shaz
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*#str_0039 (green key) #str_0040 (silver key) looks like repetitive issue but i was thought we got rid of it. It can't be file working from DR/TDM instalation instead of mission.pk4 , or can it?

*Mine trap is just an armed piece of equipment -no trigger zones... Someone else have this problem? And as far as I know you can not picklock an armed mine.

*some of keys are not necessary, but here is a list:

 

brass key -both bottom tower doors, and door next to food storage room.

dirty key -masonry room, room with clock.

green key -{unpickable} chest in bottom of N-W tower.

silver key -all wall locks in dissecting room.

iron key -{unpickable} courtyard door leading to prison area.

OldChestKey -{unpickable} chest behind "iron key" door.

 

*last piece of food is

on top of S-E tower.

 

Edited by ERH+
  • Like 1

S2wtMNl.gif

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I'm REALLY loving this mission, but I've come across a game-crashing issue (which I might be able to sneak past). In the hallway

lined with traps, I picked up one of them, but still hearing the ticking sound and still seeing so many, I attempted to pick up another. The game locked up (I had to bring up task manager and shut down Doom3 to get it to close). I reloaded, and moved to the other side of the hallway, and attempted to pick up a different mine. The game locked up again.

I'm not sure if it's due to me attempting to pick one up, or just me getting too close. I'm going to try just to slip past and avoid the issues totally, but I thought I'd point out that it's a potential problem.

Thought I'd mention that I also had this happen to me, except it just crashed to desktop. Thought it was strange since TDM rarely ever crashes. Didn't become a game breaker though and got past it.

Edited by quakis
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*#str_0039 (green key) #str_0040 (silver key) looks like repetitive issue but i was thought we got rid of it. It can't be file working from DR/TDM instalation instead of mission.pk4 , or can it?

With the amount of beta testing we did, I could have sworn we caught and found all the items showing up incorrectly in-game - bah.

 

Regarding the crashing, none of our testers, ERH or myself experienced this. Whats specs are your machine's? and what error did it through up if any..?

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There are 9 crystals:

 

3 in chest in cargo elevator bay;

1 in water below crane;

1 in chest, bottom of N-W staircase;

1 in chest in auditorium;

1 in masonry room;

1 in purple lighted room with clock;

1 in glass tube, in secret room near prison cell.

 

  • Like 1

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Regarding the last piece of food -

I have been all over the SE tower and even using no clip through all the upper rooms I can't find it

About the mines - I managed to pick up one and used it on the steam beast just to see what would happen. One of the others couldn't be picked up (it just exploded) and the rest didn't seem to do anything

Edited by Oldjim
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Regarding the last piece of food -

I have been all over the SE tower and even using no clip through all the upper rooms I can't find it

Just in corner of one of narrow windows.

 

 

About the mines - I managed to pick up one and used it on the steam beast just to see what would happen. One of the others couldn't be picked up (it just exploded) and the rest didn't seem to do anything

Yes, one is armed, one you can pick and use, and rest are just static models.

S2wtMNl.gif

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Re last food item

Now how did I miss that :blush: I must have been past there at least 6 times looking

 

Overall impression

A really well crafted mission which was a delight to play.

If you have been following the discussion about maps you will see that I rarely use them - this was a mission where I didn't in part at least because I didn't need to as I just explored each floor as I found it.

Readables -

I read the ones I found but I didn't need to as things were fairly obvious including the tools which I investigated to see why the area was lit up

Keys -

I didn't get them all but that wasn't a problem as I found the ones I needed

Access to the castle -

I liked the other option (other than lock picking)

Story -

The initial description was good for setting the scene and carried through into the objectives.

Questions -

 

I spent a bit of time searching round the dining room for the person who said "Help me" as I thought that it might be a hidden objective but gave up in the end as I assumed it was just for atmosphere even though the voice wasn't of a haunt

I didn't find the dangerous beast which has been locked in the dungeon other than the big spider in the cage which I killed

 

Frame rate -

 

The only place I hit a problem was trying to get from the roof through the upper window with a beam sticking out below it - frame rate dropped and it was worse when a haunt passed by the open window

post-8491-0-75916300-1360498419_thumb.jpg post-8491-0-42781500-1360498427_thumb.jpg

 

Loot items -

I had no problem with the general loot objective on hardest

Crystals -

No problem in finding them all but it was good that they could be seen from a distance otherwise one would have been almost impossible

Food -

No problems with three of them as they were in places where you would expect them. The last one (where I needed a specific hint :blush: ) was in a totally non obvious or logical place and must have been put there just to make it difficult :blink: - that was the only part where a got a bit annoyed

Graphics - I don't go around looking for minor glitches

 

Were very good. I specially liked the effect of loot items under water. The drawbridge giving access for loading crystals onto barges was very well done. The raise and lower bridges with the "lion" locks were a good idea although having not found the keys lock picking was a bit difficult

 

Overall - An excellent mission

Edited by Oldjim
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I've just finished this one on the highest difficulty level. The first thing I want to say is congrats on the release. This was a good mission, and I thought about posting a little review here (contains spoilers).

 

 

The mission looked quite promising to me. Getting some rations for a journey to make is definetely different from the typical "get the scepter" objective. Also the mission loading screen is quite nice and I was patiently expecting a good mission to come.

 

The first thing that I've noticed is that there is a pre game shop in this mission. That's a bit confusing, as the briefing says that you've lost your stuff and then you can just buy one?

 

After that the mission started quite good. The atmosphere and the tension was on a very high level. Geometry and detailing was not that high, but the FM looks good anyways. The only thing that bothered me after a while is that you've used the same textures almost everywhere, what makes orientation really hard.

 

I managed to climb up a pipe to get on the roof, from where I've entered one staircase just to run into an AI shortly afterwards. Anyways, I ran up the staircase, followed by the undead, and jumped over the railing running downwards leaving the AI behind. I managed to escape several confrontations, what was quite good as I really often was seen by the AI (stealth score 108 :blush: ).

 

Performance was great all the time and I neither had freezes nor crashes. I've noticed some misaligned textures, but not that often.

 

But the mission itself grew quite tiresome after a while, as I was just aimlessly wandering around searching for loot, crystals and supplies. Also finding the water was a bit strange, as I just stumbled over the secret entrance leading to the room (laboratory?) where it was, without having found any clue leading to it. Also afterwards I never found anything pointing to it, so I'm a bit curious how you expect the players to find it. Same goes for the crystals.

 

So to sum it up, I think this mission has a high potential. The atmosphere is very good and the optical site is ok, too. But unless someone plays the FM who loves exploration this mission holds a lot possibilities of frustration.

 

Gameplay: 3/5 The idea is quite good, but you can get stuck really fast. In addition you don't give the player much hints on where to go first or next, so the only option is to search room by room by room. Another point I dislike is that the crystal and loot objective on the highest difficulty seem quite harsh to me. 8 of 9 (hidden!) crystals and 2000 of 2195 loot is really, really high. Also, why is cheese the only food you can use as rations. I've completely overseen the first one as I just didn't expected them to be important. And again, you have to find all the 4 pieces.

 

Visual: 3/5 You've managed to create a good looking place with a relative low amount of details. The inner yard looked great btw. But your repetive use of textures is not on the good sight.

 

Readables/Story: 2/5 Basically I liked the idea behind your mission. But there is a dramatically lack of information what makes the chance to get stuck quite high. I also didn't understand why this place is haunted, but maybe I missed that.

 

So this was a mission that started very good, but due to a lack of hints in addition to very harsh objectives provided a lot potential of getting stuck. This dimishes the experience a bit. But after all a good mission, that is really worth beeing played. Thank you providing this. :smile:

 

 

FM's: Builder Roads, Old Habits, Old Habits Rebuild

Mapping and Scripting: Apples and Peaches

Sculptris Models and Tutorials: Obsttortes Models

My wiki articles: Obstipedia

Texture Blending in DR: DR ASE Blend Exporter

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Regarding the crashing, none of our testers, ERH or myself experienced this. Whats specs are your machine's? and what error did it through up if any..?

 

Not sure if you just want basic specs, so I'll just toss a few out: Intel Core i5-2500k @3.30GHz, Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 Ti, Windows 7 x64, 8GB Ram

 

The game locks up/stops responding. I have to hit the windows key to bring up the screen that gives me a list of options including bringing up task manager as CTRL+ALT+DEL does nothing. The 'error message' is just the generic pop-up 'application has stopped responding' one, and attempting to shut down the game ('end the process') by selecting that option on the pop-up also does nothing.

 

I just avoided going near the things and especially attempting to use any of them and I was able to continue on fine, though. Well, except now I'm spending way too much time trying to find the last 35 loot I need to be able to finish the mission. Arrrrrgh.

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I finished this on expert and I liked it. The location and story premise were interesting. The mission looked good and performed well. I only voted "tolerable" on gameplay (which is a bit harsch maybe). But playing on expert difficulty I expect challenging AI and not a hunt for hidden stuff with no hints how to find it. Having to look online where the last item is when you have done everything else is not fun.

 

That damn food item on the tower!

And how are you supposed to find the secret door in the hallway behind the metal door? I saw that just by pure luck.

 

 

The mission was otherwise very good apart from the easily evaded AI.

 

I have never seen the lantern bot in action. That was cool. :)

 

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I have enjoyed this mission very much, so much that I have given it a top rating in every category. In my mind, this is how a great medium/large-sized TDM looks like. The amount of care that went into details and neat little touches is nothing but stunning, with the use of stock resources to create creepy scenes, and the various pieces of machinery being especially notable. The mission flat out dispels some of the assumptions about the mod -- it has a huge exterior part, and only produces a slowdown very occasionally. And with such a huge presence from the outset, scaling the tower and defeating its challenges really feels like an epic undertaking. This mission has scale. It also has non-linearity up the wazoo. The various ways you can get around both inside and outside is exemplary, and everyone who makes maps ought to take notice. I also liked the secrets; in fact, the sense of discovery reminded me of The Enterprise, a very old mission (which has been released for both Thief games), and I mean it as the highest form of praise.

 

People who point out the sneaking is too easy are IMO missing the point - we are almost all very experienced Thief players, so of course it is going to be easy. There is no way around that. But this mission has lots of immersive stuff, visual storytelling, interesting non-standard objectives and creatively designed AI. Its weaknesses are that clues are maybe too thin, and object hunting can become too drawn-out on higher difficulties... but, well, that's what higher difficulties are for. And really, there is so much to praise that it should cancel out the criticism.

 

One thing I could not figure out:

 

Is there any secret related to the mirrors? They look too elaborate to be random decoration... are they?

 

Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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