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Fan Mission: Window of Opportunity by RJFerret (2014/01/01)


RJFerret

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Congratulation!! Perfect mission with great atmosphere and a few trully remarkable moments.. Must play for everyone!

He was sneeking silently in the night, moonlight was his enemy.

(Im not a native speaker, sorry for all miscleanous caused by my english..)

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Just started

I assume that you are English - no conking :D

Couple of minor points

the flagstone on top of the skeletons head at the beginning has the head poking through

Down in the tunnels under the grave there is a missing texture

post-8491-0-73508600-1388574986_thumb.jpg

I liked the fumaroles with the sound

It would have been useful if the edges of the ridge had been blocked - then I wouldn't have fallen off :blush:

Looking good so far

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Hey RJFerret,

 

Just finished this mission, and really enjoyed it.

 

Pros:

 

Great sense of place. - With the unique setting and attention to detail, I really felt the world you were creating and wanted to find out more about it. Worldbuilding at it's best :-).

 

Solid fundamentals - with the exception of getting stuck in the geometry once or twice (and one place in the mines where the game locked up for a few seconds), everything from the sound, to the performance, to the patchwork was solid and pleasant to look at/listen to.

 

Clever Gameplay - From the setup of the AI in the camp to

the layout of the caves, especially the starting section with no ambient light

was fun and interesting.

 

Cons:

 

Level design/loot goal setup -

I played on normal, getting all the way through the caves and back out again and couldn't find enough loot to beat the objective, getting only about 1,200 in gold. I'm pretty sure that I scoured the camp, which means the remaining loot has to be back in the caves. The downside to having a long tunnel/maze section that's hard to navigate and see in like the caves, combined with a loot goal, is that a lot of players won't feel like going back into it if they find their way out :-P. Personally, I would have been more generous with loot in the caves, or at a minimum added more hints as to where it was located, like you did in the camp section to help soften the problem.

 

 

Could have used more hints - I'm probably not the cleverest of players but I couldn't find the artifact without reading the spoiler in your first post. Also,

I don't know if there was a special way to defeat the spider queen, but I couldn't do it.

 

 

Really nice first mission, especially how you built the world and created a strong sense of place. Looking forward to more!

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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Thanks for the kind words all! :-)

 

@Oldjim: Sadly, I'm from the States. *hangs head ;p And actually, one of those "minor points" is meant to be that way. :-)

 

 

Pesky physics! I kept tweaking that rock with each revision, heh. The tiny guys wandering by there might also shift it I believe. (Now that I know more, if an update, I'll make it not move at game start in the future. Of course it'll still poke through if something bumps it, but less likely than now probably.)

 

Per the texture, actually that is intentional design, a rift in the cliff face. (It would have been more clear if there was the appropriately shaped rubble nearby akin to the one at the other end of the room you step over, but in my head it fell out instead of in, heh. It was also a bit of foreshadowing that this isn't a one-way journey, despite outward appearances, and a way to introduce light/orientation via moonlight without resorting to unnatural elements.)

 

 

Sorry you fell off, but as soon as I bump into an invisible wall my immersion shatters, I feel one should be able to fall/jump off if it appears you can!

 

@Moonbo: Aw, thank you, and now I'm self conscious about the sense of place in my work in progress, whereas this one started with that foundation. I'm not sure my next currently evokes it as much, but this is a great reminder and motivation to make efforts in that direction before I get lost in the minutiae. :-)

 

 

Yeah I boxed myself in a corner with the undiscovered paleolithic society under there, since disintegrated readables in a different language wouldn't help/make sense! I also provided some big ticket loot items along the beaten path to minimize searching, yet set the loot level so they could be skipped if most other stuff was gotten; at least that was my intention, but sounds like I missed the mark for you. Sorry about that. There's a limited number down there, and only one in the dark, I certainly didn't want it to feel like a key hunt. :/ (The good news is you don't have to go all the way through, you can return the way you came in?)

 

 

I know how you feel about needing spoilers, it seems most missions I have to do the same. I read a lot of comments on other missions of how people end up discovering things (and watched several gameplay videos of TDM missions). So I tried to make it discoverable via multiple methods (physical hint, physical exploration, object frob highlight, visual design, and readable--the latter increased per testers).

 

I did choose to err on the harder side in the mission, hence my providing spoilers in the release post, that way it's challenging for all, and those of us who don't find it for whatever reason have an available resource, while others don't have it too easy/given away in the game.

 

I'm not sure I hit the right balance here, as testers are likely more experienced players, so my judging their ability to find it or not might have been out of whack. I am glad I didn't restrict the stronger hints just to the easy/short level though.

"The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out."

- Baron Thomas Babington Macauley

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Completed on ghost including the optional objective (that took a bit of thinking out) including getting all the loot

I needed the hint in the readable to find the ring but didn't need the spoiler to achieve the main objective

Perhaps the most difficult was

getting the necklace off the girl

Overall a very interesting and different mission which I enjoyed.

Perhaps the loot objective on ghost was a bit too hard but at least it made me search everywhere

Regarding the cleft I reported earlier - I should have looked more closely as I can see the sky through it

Edited by Oldjim
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Congrats & thanks for this fine mission!

 

The gameplay is really nice and well done.

A few comments after completing on Ghost.

 

 

- I got stuck in the floor near the camp. Right at the spot where a rope can be found at the cliff near the horses.

- Nice horses ! They are really good. And even respond if you attack/hurt them.

Just in order to see if they are really 'alive' I attacked one with my dagger... and it fled to the campfire! Lucky me, that this does not seem to alert anybody.

- Excellent idea to let the lantern guard to patrol only the direct surrounding of the camp once you alerted those 3 AI. That got me into quite some well-deserved and realistic trouble!

- Unfortunately one can not really return through the caves as you got into it. There are a lot of places where the geometry simply doesn't allow it - at least not without a lot of failed and partially deadly attempts and reloads.

 

- Oh, and I was not able to figure out any to harm the spider queen, let alone some way to kill her.

 

 

Edited by gnartsch
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Cool, and thank you!

 

I did put a lot of time in making sure going both ways was reasonable, but having done it so many times obviously gave me practice at doing it, sorry your experience wasn't as smooth Gnartsch.

 

That's one way of doing the spider queen in, there's at least one other method to achieve the same result too.

 

I'm pleased my efforts on the AIs worked well for you, thanks for sharing that. :-) (The horses I can't take credit for, I just included them, but I had fun toying with them too!)

 

My WIP includes horses too, although likely more involving.

"The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out."

- Baron Thomas Babington Macauley

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Do you have to

climb the rocks to find the pesky cave entrance? I've been up there several times to no avail. Also tried moving the stones on the grave and firing the odd fire arrow at rocks , nothing.I'm obviously missing something obvious.

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I have found

 

The unusual object in the sleeping guy's chest.

 

But I don't know what I have to do with this unusual object...

Which unusual object??? Must be junk.

 

And what do you mean by

 

Three parts of the last line of the scroll.

?

Quote:

>>>Knock on wood<<<

 

The answer must be close by.

Edited by gnartsch
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This is a really nicely realised mission. I already quite enjoyed the setting and the smart puzzles, but got completely sold in the side area. No kidding about

the arachnophobia, that whole place gave off a loud 'WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!' signal. Creepy creepy, especially with details like the small spider-like idol with the skeletons, or the unfortunates trapped in a side-passage. Quite effective.

 

Did anyone else get the optional objective and just say, ''No. I am not doing it.'' :laugh:

 

 

It was a pleasure playing the mission, and I hope to see more from you. :)

  • Like 1

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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@jbert, the final spoiler in the original post at the start of the thread has your answer...

 

The unusual object doesn't need to be used, but what it appears like is a hint to what you seek. So don't get too hung up on it, but it matches what you want.

"The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out."

- Baron Thomas Babington Macauley

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Memory may be faulty but this should be a complete spoiler only to be read if having read the spoiler in the opening post you are still completely stuck

In the cabin the girl goes in climb on the bunk bed and look to the left at the wooden frame of the hut

Edited by Oldjim
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Thank you very much 161 for taking the time to reply. I'll try that out soon.

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Ray,

 

You have to move the skeleton aside and then open up the grave.

 

 

Now I have to say I'm really getting frustrated.I did try to move the skeleton aside before 161's kind advice.I've tried again but it doesn't seem to be frobable.GRRRR

 

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Now I have to say I'm really getting frustrated.I did try to move the skeleton aside before 161's kind advice.I've tried again but it doesn't seem to be frobable.GRRRR

 

 

 

Need to move closer perhaps? Crouch down? I need to move stuff aside to clear it, then crouch, move in, frob it, shoulder it, turn, drop it, clear anything remaining before opening the entrance.

 

 

Hope this helps!

Edited by RJFerret

"The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out."

- Baron Thomas Babington Macauley

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