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Fan Mission: Requiem by Gelo "Moonbo" Fleisher (2013/10/6)


Moonbo

Poll: Requiem (by Gelo "Moonbo" Fleisher)  

127 members have voted

  1. 1. Appearance

  2. 2. Gameplay

  3. 3. Story



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Finished it, on Easy difficulty. Really, really excellent and thorough design, with some great use of ambient music, a well-paced gradual revealing of the narrative, plenty of originality in the environments, new types of adversaries and their weaknesses. It deserved its win in that SE/Eidos official contest you sent it too. B)

I think the mission only has two flaws (subjective from my point of view):

 

1.) The cursed warriors guarding the citadel that turn invisible in the dark are a conceptually very neat enemy, but by the end of the FM, I realised evading them is also very difficult and demanding. It started seeping out the fun from my experience and even got me seriously annoyed at one point. I think the issue is that TDM doesn't have much directional audio, so other than rough distance, it's hard to estimate what direction the enemy is approaching from.

2.) The puzzles were a bit tricky to figure out. Lighting the coloured flames confused me at first, because I didn't realise they're also located on some of the side platforms that were accessible via a bit of lucky mantling. I also felt the readables I've found (I read every single one) didn't adequately explain or hint at what the player has to do in order to destroy the Soul Jar. At first, I wasn't even sure where to locate the furnace and it took me a few minutes to realise I need to visit the adjacent wing and try my luck there. Also, that's when I ran into the most problems with the invisible warriors.

 

Also, P.S.:

 

The epilogue parts of the FM are phenomenal, from the background music to the short cutscenes, it just comes together so perfectly. Once the peaceful music kicked in, it felt like a genuine relief, after all that effort to defeat the curse of those necromancers. B) True story: To further the catharsis factor and deal with my previous frustration from the temple parts of the FM, I actually gathered all the deceased undead warriors and threw them in the lava furnace, then locked it again. :P Might seem pointless and excessive, but I felt they needed a burial of some sort now that their souls had found peace. :D

My stealth score for this mission wasn't exemplary by a long shot, but after having finally finished it, I'm sure I'll do a bit better when I retry it some time in the future.

Edited by Petike the Taffer
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I think the mission only has two flaws (subjective from my point of view):

 

1.) The cursed warriors guarding the citadel that turn invisible in the dark are a conceptually very neat enemy, but by the end of the FM, I realised evading them is also very difficult and demanding. It started seeping out the fun from my experience and even got me seriously annoyed at one point. I think the issue is that TDM doesn't have much directional audio, so other than rough distance, it's hard to estimate what direction the enemy is approaching from.

2.) The puzzles were a bit tricky to figure out. Lighting the coloured flames confused me at first, because I didn't realise they're also located on some of the side platforms that were accessible via a bit of lucky mantling. I also felt the readables I've found (I read every single one) didn't adequately explain or hint at what the player has to do in order to destroy the Soul Jar. At first, I wasn't even sure where to locate the furnace and it took me a few minutes to realise I need to visit the adjacent wing and try my luck there. Also, that's when I ran into the most problems with the invisible warriors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1) Actually I thought the invisible warrior was one of the most innovative things in terms of inverting things gameplay wise.

The immediate issue when speaking in a perfectionist way is that the voice cues of the invisibles are the same of those of regular Haunts if memory serves me right. This breaks the effect for me a little (considering how much original music and sound were used in contrast to how little found its way from the non-stock repository of regular TDM files).

The only thing that would help here would be adding for the invisibles a new voiceover. But that probably means adding an entirely different type of an NPC too because the trigger for their visibility is one thing. Doing voiceovers and a new NPC model for all this - is a totally different level of work. However, just making some custom, or improvising some other voiceovers from little known horror movies, zombie, ghoul, supernatural monster sounds would go a long, long way to help the feel that this is truly a NEW enemy and not a recycling (albeit a really clever one).

I understand and must all stress this: having invisibles make the SAME sounds as Haunts makes these enemies feel old really, really quick. I did not enjoy them feeling the same way in a short while after understanding that it's the same haunt made 100% transparent.

 

The directional sound issue with warriors is hopefully going to be fixed with 2.05 and if EAX works properly for everyone.

 

2) Probably a problem inherent to us puzzle problematics. I'm not too bright at it either and I don't hesitate using walkthroughs.

 

Edited by Anderson

"I really perceive that vanity about which most men merely prate — the vanity of the human or temporal life. I live continually in a reverie of the future. I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active — not more happy — nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. The result will never vary — and to suppose that it will, is to suppose that the foregone man has lived in vain — that the foregone time is but the rudiment of the future — that the myriads who have perished have not been upon equal footing with ourselves — nor are we with our posterity. I cannot agree to lose sight of man the individual, in man the mass."...

- 2 July 1844 letter to James Russell Lowell from Edgar Allan Poe.

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This works fine in 2.04, the sounds just need to be mono.

Ah, awesome! I'm using for 15 years stereo.

"I really perceive that vanity about which most men merely prate — the vanity of the human or temporal life. I live continually in a reverie of the future. I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active — not more happy — nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. The result will never vary — and to suppose that it will, is to suppose that the foregone man has lived in vain — that the foregone time is but the rudiment of the future — that the myriads who have perished have not been upon equal footing with ourselves — nor are we with our posterity. I cannot agree to lose sight of man the individual, in man the mass."...

- 2 July 1844 letter to James Russell Lowell from Edgar Allan Poe.

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Hey Petike,

 

Thanks for the detailed feedback!

Yeah, a few people had the same critique as you. I was trying to create an "end boss" feeling with the increased ending difficulty but I guess I pushed it a little bit too hard. I tried to make the ending of A House of Locked Secrets a bit more manageable as a result though.

 

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But you should walk having internal dignity. Be a wonderful person who can dance pleasantly to the rhythm of the universe.

-Sun Myung Moon

 

My work blog: gfleisher.blogspot.com

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  • 2 months later...

There seems to be a bug with a lot of the locked things in this mission; if you don't have the "automatically open unlocked objects" option turned ON, a lot of them can't be opened after being unlocked.

 

That was the main thing I came to post, but since I voted "poor" for gameplay while I was here, I guess I should expound more:

 

The overall structure of the mission felt very "stringy"/"chokepoint-y", like it was a series of very small setpieces joined together by doors and short hallways. I've always thought the Thief games thrived on interconnectivity in level design -- the ability to move around a space in lots of different ways and pick your routes through it -- and I just wasn't getting that here. Also, I thought that the invisible dudes were incredibly annoying (basically a save/reload spam-fest), and I don't know why the holy water was so plentiful, since it seemed to have no effect on anything in the level other than the basic zombies (and you don't have enough water arrows to kill a meaningful number of them, anyways). The "Lost City" style rope arrow climb up the side of the tower was also annoying, doubly so since a single bad rope arrow shot was a forced game reload.

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  • 3 months later...

Hey moonbo, I just got a copy right strike on my requiem video on YouTube. They're claiming RM_5240_20 Ominous Winds-13954 is theirs.

Does this sound clip sound familiar? Let me know if you added any non mod sound assets before I dispute the claim.

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

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Hey Aluminum,

 

I just checked and nope, no custom wind sounds. Thankfully I made sure to document where I got each custom sound in the soundshader files bundled within the pk4 and in Requiem all the custom sound effects are just remixes of existing TDM sounds.

But you should walk having internal dignity. Be a wonderful person who can dance pleasantly to the rhythm of the universe.

-Sun Myung Moon

 

My work blog: gfleisher.blogspot.com

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Hey moonbo, I just got a copy right strike on my requiem video on YouTube. They're claiming RM_5240_20 Ominous Winds-13954 is theirs.

Does this sound clip sound familiar? Let me know if you added any non mod sound assets before I dispute the claim.

Copyright strike or Content ID claim? If it's a Content ID claim and your video is still up, don't bother trying to dispute it as it will always lead to a strike. My experience with Content ID claims is occasionally they will disappear and reappear.

 

EDIT: Just check my Content ID claims for my House of Locked Secrets Part 2 video, and this same claim is listed along with RM_5240_19 Celestial Winds-13954, and my video is still up (haven't got these on my Requiem video, however). If your video hasn't been removed, it shouldn't be really much to worry about.

Edited by Cambridge Spy

"Let me guess - little blue men with three heads stole your sweetroll?"

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  • 2 months later...

Got another copyright infringement notice for a song you used in this mission:

 

  • RM_5240_20 Ominous Winds-13954 - Leonardo Badinella, SCD
  • Sound recording
  • 0:01 - 2:14

 

I'm assuming it's the ambient track used in the background. I don't mind that much as this is just an issues video, but did you get permission to use that song?

 

EDIT: Nevermind, I see you already replied that you didn't use any external sounds. Alright I'll look into it and dispute it.

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

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I just checked the PK4, that sound file is "The_Town.ogg".

 

Checked the soundshader:

The_Town
{
//Sound File: The_Town
//Original Song: The Town
//Author: Leonardo Badinella
//Source: composed for Requiem: http://leonardobadinella.com/

looping
leadin sound/Soundtrack/The_Town_Intro.ogg

sound/Soundtrack/The_Town.ogg
volume -3
}

So......did you get permission from Leonardo Badinella to use this song?

If you commissioned it (paid for it), what license did it come with? Are you allowed to use it as you see fit?

 

 

EDIT: Also, another video had a copyright claim for

 

 

The_Church
{
//Sound File: The_Church
//Original Song: The Church
//Author: Leonardo Badinella
//Source: composed for Requiem: http://leonardobadinella.com/

looping
leadin sound/Soundtrack/The_Church_Intro.ogg

sound/Soundtrack/The_Church.ogg
volume -1
}

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

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Hey Aluminum,

 

Yes, Leo is a friend and was the composer I worked with to make the custom soundtrack for Requiem. So this is just another false strike.

 

-Gelo

But you should walk having internal dignity. Be a wonderful person who can dance pleasantly to the rhythm of the universe.

-Sun Myung Moon

 

My work blog: gfleisher.blogspot.com

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Okay, well if he composed that one for you only, then he's submitted it to the automated content ID that youtube uses.

If that's the case, and you have permission to disseminate it as you see fit, then I'll dispute it with:

 

I have a license or permission from the proper rights holder to use this material.

 

EDIT:

Okay, it's been disputed that we have permission to use the song in the context of the video.

But this is going to be a problem for the mod in general.

 

Any large youtuber that reviews/plays these missions will get account strikes or revenue removed.

Which means we'll never get large/medium channels reviewing our product due to these issues.

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I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

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  • 10 months later...
  • 5 months later...

Without a doubt one of the single best missions I've ever played. I would pay for this as a standalone game, I'll be recommending it to many people from now on.

Hope this run helps others in the future.

I tried to embody in my playthrough the skill and effort you put into your mission. I hope my video is your ideal Bolen, Gelo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlUvCz0Icrw

Edited by V-Man339
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I like to record difficult stealth games, and right now you wonderful people are the only ones delivering on that front.

Click here for the crappy channel where that happens.

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Wow V-Man, thank you for the high praise! Looking forward to watching your video.

 

Edit: just finished watching it. Really good stuff - I appreciated all the effort you put into making everything seem like you'd never been there. You're giving Klatremus a run for his money :-).

 

 

 

There's actually a hidden optional objective you missed: try to think of who might be interested in the contents of Markus's hidden journal and try leaving it in his office.

 

 

-Gelo

Edited by Moonbo
  • Like 1

But you should walk having internal dignity. Be a wonderful person who can dance pleasantly to the rhythm of the universe.

-Sun Myung Moon

 

My work blog: gfleisher.blogspot.com

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  • 1 year later...

Terrific mission

I'm not sure about all the loot though. There's no loot objectives, which is great. But the loot amount is overwhelming. I'd say the treasure hunt is even kinda distracting from the plot.

Rename the game to The Loot Mod?

Visuals are great. Though  I wonder why not add the actual portal view to the teleport arc?

Also, the cut cenes could use subtitling (do we support that?)

 

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