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Fan Mission: Penny Dreadful 2 by Melan and Bikerdude (2014/07/8)


Melan

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Thanks esme, I was also stuck trying to find the exit. By the way, the loot objective worked as optional - I only found 295 or so, but was still able to finish.

Now that I have completed the mission, it would be interesting to have a map to see all the areas I missed. I found it to be a complicated layout and was never quite sure where I was going. That's also what I liked about it though!

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  • 2 months later...

First of all, thanks for this wonderful mission: love the atmosphere and the intricacy of the map, and the way that the map and the story and the characters mesh together. Magnificent, really. I've just recently started looking at Dark Mod and other FMs again after a very long break: honestly, I'm so impressed by this.

 

Unfortunately, I'm also stuck...

 

 

I've got all the objectives except the Grail; I've got 8 keys (power station, delicate, jail, jail cell, armoury, wine cellar, sewer, fancy); I've been into most of the locations in the trailer. But I have not found the Locksmith (possibly because graphics quality is turned right down on this machine - there is one sign above a locked door that could be almost anything...). I have two locked doors in the arcade, alongside the butcher, and I haven't found a way of climbing past either.

 

 

Any hints (not too subtle!) for me?

 

 

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Welcome to the forums!

 

You will not find the Grail in this mission. I think, with the keys you have, you will need to

 

break into the jail (behind the gallows at the starting area), and continue upwards to the mansion. All objectives except the loot goal can be accomplished there.

 

If you need equipment,

 

there is some along the way up, in the bailiff's house (the one with the skylight), and finally in the mansion itself.

 

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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  • 1 month later...

It's absolutely beautiful and extremely detailed, but very confusing too. I stopped playing (for now) when after walking for a while and thinking I was making progress I ended up to where I was before, making it official that I was walking in circles. A rough map just to give me a general direction I should head would be great.

Edited by Diego
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  • 2 weeks later...

Lovely work! Part 1 was an average mission, but I really liked this one.

 

What I liked most is the city design and the gameplay. In terms of appearance, it's pretty detailed and has a nice rustic feel to it. There are otherwise quite a few different areas (more or less secret and unusual) and you must progress through them and unlock them in a nice and precise order. There's also less focus on finding loot (even the objective is optional) and avoiding a pile of guards all the time, but rather on progression. I wish there were more TDM missions like this :)

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Thanks for your comments! There will certainly be more TDM missions like this (with player maps, too).

  • 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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  • 1 month later...

Amazing mission.

The first part felt more plain but this has a very strong Batman feel to me, the music, the presentation, the ambiance - all of it creates a very strong impression. I didn't expect such a strong follow-up honestly to what seemed another type of genre it seemed.

Once again, rarely does such high quality content come up. One of the best missions that I played here.

"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.

badge?user=andarson

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks for your comments, Atomic! My other missions have a lower difficulty level; this one was a conscious departure and an attempt to do something different. I understand how it can become a problem. My next release will once again be on the easier side.

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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Never change!

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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  • 4 months later...
  • 2 months later...

FenPhoenix has posted an (almost) exhaustive, and entertaining LP of this mission on Youtube:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

  • Like 2

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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  • 3 months later...

I found this a mix of brilliance and confusion. Great non-obvious climbing. Non-linear progress, but in the end I was blundering through, and objectives ticked off sometimes without me fully knowing why. Probably I should have studied the readables more.

First, I progressed the roofs and streets until I'd covered what seemed to be the main layout available. At some point I bumbled inside some large, rough passages and rooms. Come across two guys, one of which I suspected was one of the guys I wanted, maybe both. I had to use broadheads. Got one but one ran off. An objective checked off anyway. (btw, kill and discredit objectives seemed to be duplicated - never did figure that one out.) Only later did it dawn on me that was probably the mansion (I think) and I ran around the streets trying to find it again but couldn't even though I'd been in it. (Even after finishing and noclipping around the sky, I had trouble conceptualising the mansion from above because it was so entwined with the labyrinth of buildings and no front door or sign anyway. In fact no street access at all that I found.)

Anyway, I reached that horrible sensation of diminishing returns where you've discovered the main areas but are no longer progressing and missing all useful tools. Yes, I'd lots of keys and locked doors but they didn't match up. I was about ready to give up or at least I skimmed this thread and saw a few tempters but nothing concrete. Then I uncovered one little 'secret' then another so it got interesting again, until I ran out of those. Finally, I had a certain named key, unlocked a certain door, something happened, and an objective checked off.

  • So, lots of interest and a huge amount of good stuff but not quite satisfying at the end. For me, this would be transformed into higher greatness with:
  • Some way to make the mansion stand out better at street level. I'm not suggesting big white slabs, but some special trim or whatever, and a big sign, all to form a more structured picture in the player's mind of where he is.
  • The player found a cartographer or even that pawnbroker shop with a rough map indicating at least the main streets and the outline of the mansion.
  • Optional player notes (as I've mentioned elsewhere) to summarise the complexity of all the story readables, to help the player plan his strategy.
  • An up-front message (maybe even an optional objective)in the game to indicate there were lots of optional tools, and other goodies (everything but rope arrows, I think, and the climbing was so good it didn't need ropes) to be found, but some access was subtle, tricky, fiddly, etc., to encourage the player to persevere. I'd only found most of them by the end when it was too late to use them - still it was fun and satisfying to find them, most especially a lantern which I missed all the way through.

Summary: excellent mechanics, but a little of my above suggestions would go a long way to oil the bearings. The story plot was good but I guess I lost the plot somewhere! Despite that, I think you can finish anyway without knowing what you're doing! :D

 


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Thanks for the detailed criticism, Fidcal!

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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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks, will watch one of these evenings! :)

 

"Almost done" is a bit of a stretch, but it is getting into the phase where the pieces start to fall into their intended places.

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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  • 2 months later...

Edit: Oh whoops, this is actually on the wrong Penny Dreadful, my mistake.

If someone could delete this post that would be nice.

Edited by V-Man339
  • Like 1

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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  • 2 months later...

I have an issue.

In the butcher's shop, I can't seem to loot the coinage on the window sill.

Restarted, reloaded from save, doesn't seem to change or become frobbable.

Edit:

I believe I have the same issue as Thiefette did.

First off, congrats on the release. Loving all areas to explore but have encountered this at the

butcher shop. 1st pic is the coins on the window sill. 2nd pic is me checking that they were actual loot to be picked up and 3rd pic is of the window view from outside. In the 1st and 2nd pics I could not get the loot to highlight no matter what angle or however close I was from inside the shop. I took the 3rd pic after I went and stood outside the window and was able to collect the loot from there (there was still nothing highlighting to show the loot). attachicon.gifpenny2_2014-08-16_13.10.58.jpg attachicon.gifpenny2_2014-08-16_13.10.54.jpg attachicon.gifpenny2_2014-08-16_13.12.41.jpg

Just thought I'd mention it. Will write more when I finish.

Edited by V-Man339

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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I found this mission to be the hardest mission I've ever played. I loved the design. Very cool level

I have an eclectic YouTube channel making videos on a variety of games. Come and have look here:

https://www.youtube.com/c/NeonsStyleHD

 

Dark Mod Missions: Briarwood Manor - available here or in game

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18980-fan-mission-briarwood-manor-by-neonsstyle-first-mission-6082017-update-16/

 

 

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Odd question,

but why are the slow matches there?

 

I can't seem to find a use for them and I've otherwise explored and finished the level perfectly, so go nuts with spoilers, causes and effects.

 

Aside from that, narrative question

the wine merchant was killed by spiders, and the locksmith was killed by the maniac, but I can't seem to find the ultimate fate of the blacksmith.

I also can't figure out the reasoning behind the plant infested house, nor can I really piece together who the corpse is within it.

Mind spoiling?

 

Edited by V-Man339

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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Spoilers:

 

 

  • The slow matches are useful to relight doused light sources. No other special function.
  • The blacksmith was killed by the thugs in the underground area (you can find the body).
  • The burnt-out house filled with plant matter is incidental to the main story.

 

 

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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