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Fan Mission: Inn Business by RJFerret (2014/03/03)


RJFerret

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Not canned as much as postponed. But first, thank you very much, I appreciate the sentiment! :-) I removed it from my signature (very observant) as I didn't want folks to believe it was "pending", and another FM concept developed faster. However both are on hold as Spring arrived, and I'm no longer sitting at the computer for hours upon hours each day/night, heh.

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"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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  • 2 weeks later...

This mission was.. interesting.

 

 

 

 

On average, this mission was pretty average.

If each night is evaluated as individual missions, the result is different

night 1 - good mission

night 2 - good/average mission

night 3 - poor mission.

 

The BAD

*I absolutely hated the moveable shelf that I had to dismantle to get the health potions.

*The third night did not make sense on many levels. I was confused what to do. An obvious vulnerability (the buttress) was not a scroll drop-off point and the actual drop-off points felt really arbitrary. I was very familiar with the location, but still I had to check the locations from here. The objectives were generally weird. Who was the thief woman? Why would the owner instantaneously reward me for showing vulnerabilities? Why did I need to KO the owner? Why were the builders after the thief? Everything felt like it was quickly glued together. It was sort-of an absurd dream you see when you drink too much alcohol and coffee.

 

The GOOD:

*The first and second nights were nice and interesting stealth gameplay. Pretty solid, I'd say.

*I liked the key in the maids bosom, and how she reacted to me stealing it. "We've been ROBBED!" Then she marched straight to the guys playing cards and ordered them to look around. What a funny idea, heh! Master thief, indeed.

*AI's having sex? That was quite original, although they *begged* for better animations (I might try it later, gotta finish the hug/kiss first). Their vocals were apparently cut from their ordinary ones. I sort of expected them to be more... distracted and was surprised how quickly they reacted to me stealing their valuables. Anyways, very clever idea, and you pulled it off with the good job with the vocals!

 

 

 

So all-in-all: without the third night this would have been pretty good. Another lesson how The Mapper should really focus on one theme and one location and do it well. The first two nights were pretty cool.

 

Thanks for the mission!

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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I think that might be one of the least critical Sotha reviews I've ever seen for a mission, hehe, thanks!

 

There's a readable that explains one of those things, and another of your issues was due to a technical limitation...

 

 

I'm not sure where you might be referring to as the "buttress", but technical limitations required the scroll locations be choke points of limited size. Another key consideration was the physics of the environment, so players didn't have to fiddle with those objects unnecessarily. As you noted, there's more than enough object manipulation for some!

 

It does sound like you probably missed a readable on a subsequent night. The builder involvement is explained there in case the player doesn't get involved at the church, and may be a direct result of player actions the first night, since they may have lost their own goods, but they won't condone thievery regardless.

 

No self respecting thief will work free! The lady thief is a direct result of the public posters. Perhaps the "show him who is boss" is American vernacular for the intent of knocking out that inn keeper--it's a point of pride. There is a theme of hubris portrayed in multiple characters, including our main one.

 

 

Without the third night the story arc would've been lacking in my opinion, it needs the crescendo, climax and denouement. There's also a lot of character development and changes to witness as a result of our actions across the various nights. But of course I also conceived of it all as a whole, since the parts are so interrelated, I'm not sure I can relate to them separately.

"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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I'm a bit stuck. I'm on the first night, and I have 905 loot, but as far as I can tell I've gone everywhere inside the inn. Is it supposed to be difficult to find that last 200? There is one loot vase in a table in the hall that doesn't seem to frob, but that's all I can see.

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If you aren't finding harder loot within, perhaps collect some of the outside stuff? No, it shouldn't be too challenging, there's enough other challenges, loot requirements were lowered to be sure it was fun rather than frustrating.

"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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Finished the first night, so thought I would post before forgetting everything.

 

I've enjoyed the mission so far and I'm intrigued by the way you've used the different difficulty levels to tell a continuous story (already saw the auto-save at the end which is a very nice touch).

 

I did find the loot hunt too difficult (and in the end relied on show_loot), mainly because of the use of non-standard props as loot.

I missed both the massive stone bust and the regular-looking loot bottle in the inn-keepers room, and I don't think I ever would have thought to check them out if it hadn't been for show_loot. Not only are they regularly movable in other missions (so it wasn't a clue that they frobbed) but neither one even LOOKED like loot, IMO. Those perfume bottles made sense as loot even though they aren't usually, since they actually look fairly rich. But a regular old wine bottle with a ripped label? That made no sense to me, especially when we have loot wine bottles already.

 

Enjoyed the confusion with the mage's candles...that was creative and gave me a wtf moment.

 

 

Had a strange issue where the innkeeper somehow got on top of his desk, and was stuck treadmilling on top of it with his head half-stuck through the wall.

 

Something I noticed in this mission too was that lights seemed to have a VERY small radius. I could crouch in a corner across the hall from a light and my lightgem wasn't even fully lit up. That's a problem with some of our default entities too, so it may not have been your plan.

 

I've moved on to the 2nd night and I'm enjoying it a bit more thus far...you get high marks for creativity for the amorous couple, though it was hard to concentrate on lockpicking. :) New mage effect was cool too.

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You'd be the second person who didn't appreciate the non-standard loot items, so thanks for that feedback. I have the opposite problem, "don't even need to go into this room, I can see from the doorway there's no loot in there" with most other missions, since so many use the same loot objects--it just stops me from exploring. Or, I see an obvious loot bottle up there, move a crate over to go up to get it and ignore the rest of the room.

 

That wine bottle? If you'd looked closely at that old torn label, it's torn because it's been saved...special vintage! ;-) Hehe...

 

Thanks so much for the gracious feedback, again, my condolences I threw you with the loot that ended up encouraging using game commands to work around it instead of game-play. I expect that'll be less of an issue subsequent nights (*fingers-crossed).

"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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Finished the last night. I have to give you some major props for creativity with this mission! Some of the things I especially liked:

 

 

 

1. The whore in action.

2. The brilliant plate alarm system.

3. the creativity of stringing three nights together

4. The way the changes each night told a bit of a story (was highly amused by the crates blocking the doors)

5. Loved the mage's illusion!

6. The thief sneaking around on night 3 was intriguing.

7. The objective on night 3 was creative and made me really think about alternate ways in.

8. Scaring the horse was satisfying.

 

 

I was left without a clear picture of what was going on after it was over, though that's not necessarily a bad thing. I have no idea who the female thief was or what she was doing there...other guards seemed to ignore her even when she was checking out rooms they were standing in. I woke up the mage at the end trying to frob things in the chest and was forced to kill him. I then picked up the scepter and the mission ended. Was left not knowing what was going on with him either.

 

Also, what were you refering to here?

 

Springheel, if you find an optional objective you can skip...you might find it immersion breaking.

 

The only one I found was the mage mystery object one, I think.

 

 

 

I'll have to go back and read the comments in this thread and see if I missed anything. Thanks for a very creative, enjoyable mission!

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks so much!

 

And separately, I'd missed this detail previously Spring...

 

 

 

Also, what were you refering to here?

Springheel, if you find an optional objective you can skip...you might find it immersion breaking.

 

 

 

There's a part I don't recall anyone mention finding, where a hidden objective pops up to be completed (as compared to a hidden objective that shows up from having already completed it), which shows the map in a manner you have previously expressed as something you personally don't enjoy, that was all. :-) It's more out of the way than I anticipated apparently.

"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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  • 1 month later...

 

 

AE7Y5N.jpg

This mission was a joy to play! Thanks RJFerret!

The first two days I tried to ghost, but in the third I went berserk and killed everyone. xD

It was quite fun and challenging.

 

+The cover is awesome. It reminded me a lot of the logo of The Elder Scrolls faction called Dark Brotherhood.

+Very original idea of dividing the FM in 3 days.

+Very nice story, readables and map design.

+Some well hidden secrets and loot!

+Loved the idea of electric lights that could be turned off by destroying the power generator.

+Loved the hooker and her funny lines.

+Loved the snow progression through the days. (1st day: without snow. 2nd day: snowing. 3rd day:with snow. Loved the snowman).

+Loved all the signs indicating how I was really destroying the business of the innkeeper.

+Loved everything about the mage.

+Optional objective of escaping the game map is awesome and original.

+I managed to make the mage kill an elite guard with a fireball by having the guard between us. :D

+Realizing that the guys were having sex was absolutely unexpected, original and hilarious. Loved it!

+I really liked the use of the Spider Bot and its alarm that would alert the guards.

+I was able to lure some guards into the roof patio, close and wedge the door behind them. :D (http://imagizer.imag.../540/QCPTgQ.jpg)

 

*Optional objective of escaping the game map is also fourth wall breaking (literally).

*Sorry but I really hated the doll objective. :wacko: It is a nice idea, but badly executed IMHO. The description is confusing and vague and the solution is nonsensical and unintuitive. The worst part is that the objective becomes obligatory. It doesn't make any sense, it should be optional. I had to read this thread to complete the objective. Fortunately is an avoidable objective.

*It really is just nitpicking, but I can't help to think that there is just 2 different tombstone inscriptions.

 

Bug report:

-Is this room haunted or it just have a anti-gravity system? xD

(http://imagizer.imag.../633/ifcQ6V.jpg)

(http://imagizer.imag.../746/ZIZMs2.jpg)

-It's not really a bug, but it seems really weird that the Spider Bot can bleed. (http://imagizer.imag.../674/DZVv8K.jpg)

 

 

 

Congratulations for this very well crafted FM!

There will be a sequel? Because the last letter seems to indicate this.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

If I may ask for a hint:

 

 

Is the skeleton key in the inkeeper's room ? I've found a note talking about reflections and something hidden at ankle height or head height, so is that a reference to the wardrobe and mirror in his room ?

 

 

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

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Yes, you are correct (in part, see below, as it can be hidden in various different places--it's random).

 

 

If you don't find it where you mention, look more deeply at what you see in the mirror. About where in that, you already know from the hint.

 

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"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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Yes, you are correct (in part, see below, as it can be hidden in various different places--it's random).

 

 

If you don't find it where you mention, look more deeply at what you see in the mirror. About where in that, you already know from the hint.

 

 

Hmmm, I'll try it,.. Hopefully, it will do the trick. Thanks ! :)

Edited by Petike the Taffer
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been a while since I played this FM but I feel I should give some feedback anyway

good things first: I really liked the design of the FM and the way you used the AIs. The layout of the building and the surrounding, the way the AIs behaved, everything felt very alive just like a real inn, very immersive.

but after sneaking through the Inn searching loot for nearly 2 hours I lost patience and started shooting people in the face. Then I gave up and used show_loot and didn't feel like starting second night. I think what lead to this was I assumed my "mission" was to primarily steal from the guests so I checked the guest rooms over and over again not paying that much attention to the storage areas and outside the inn.

 

I think there's only a certain level of doing things in non-standard ways without people having trouble adapting. For example it's great to use non-standard loot objects but if they're needed for the objective they should be in places that are easy to come by. It would help making it crystal clear to players that they should think out of the box like stating in readables that you shouldn't be looking for gold and the like or maybe give them several clearly non-standard lootables in easily accessible places to show them what they should be looking for and then hide a few of the same type.

Using the difficulty settings to give the FM several playthroughs is a great idea but that way players can't adjust the difficulty to match their playing style. So you have to decide on a single difficulty: make it easy so everyone can play through your innovative mission or make it hard so that even the very experienced players are challenged. Just out of curiosity if you could have added difficulty settings and still have the 3 nights which difficulty would have been 1100+ loot?

 

I had similar problems with your other FM (*cough*bedpost, really??*cough*) so I think you should be a little more conservative with things concerning mission critical objectives especially if you are going to add optional objectives for the people looking for a challenge. I'd feel more compelled to replay a mission when I was able to complete it but noticed there is more to discover instead of not being able to complete it at all.

 

Please don't get me wrong. I really like both of your FMs. It's just because I had so much fun in the beginning of both FMs that it felt even more disappointing that I could not complete them on my own :( And obviously this is just my personal opinion so maybe I just suck at looking for loot ;)

Edited by PrinzEnrique
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Thanks for the constructive feedback, it is appreciated! (Also my condolences at the non-standard loot stuff, it's my personal thing, as I get bored with generic loot. I'm right with you though on difficulty finding stuff, or figuring out things on many a mission.)

"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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Just the non-standard loot alone wasn't that much of a problem. It was a combination of them with their hiding places and the mission story. If they were hidden in one of the guest rooms I would've probably found them but I was not checking every nook and cranny of the upper hallway, the innkeepers office and outside the inn. I thought why should loot outside the inn be relevant to the inn's reputation.

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