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Fan Mission: The King of Diamonds by Spooks (2016/05/13)


Spooks

  

37 members have voted

  1. 1. Gameplay

  2. 2. Appearance

  3. 3. Narrative & Text



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I will try to answer them

I don't understand the pipe being a key - please clarify

You never do meet King

The remainder all follow on from the room over the kitchen

 

The kitchen is where the big fireplace is in the area where you first get into Marissa's courtyard.

I think, from memory that the door you unlock is on the left of the kitchen

 

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garette:

 

He is the guy in the white tabard pacing around King's house.

To dispose of him, you will first have to break into an upstairs room in the centre of the map. You will need a key, found nearby.

 

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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Really good for a first mission. Lots to explore. Plenty of objectives and everything works with few to no issues.

 

I suppose the only complaint I could have is certain things only appear on the map after reading certain notes meaning some backtracking occurs i.e. the Lute guy in the pub and the key for his chest in his home, as an example.

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Thank you for your compliment! Yes, the mission is a bit on the backtrack-y side, but I tried my best to not make things magically appear due to objectives. You can actually

pickpocket the key from the Lute player before you've been to his room, same with Stokes the mechanic and the maintenance station key.

Of course, knowing that those items are already there ahead of time requires meta-knowledge you'd only posses on, say, a second playthrough of the level, but I sort of like that.

 

The only thing I don't allow the player to grab ahead of time are items the PC wouldn't have the foresight of knowing they needed unless they had certain information. Specifically,

you cannot collect the ingredients for the occult ritual before you pick up the book even if you've read it before, since the PC wouldn't know what they'd need such specific items for. Similarly, you can break into King's hideout without having received your instructions from Birdie the informant, but the player character won't be able to frob the safe &c. since they do not yet know what is required of them.

 

My FMs: The King of Diamonds (2016) | Visit my Mapbook thread sometimes! | Read my tutorial on Image-Based Lighting Workflows for TDM!

 

 

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garette:

 

He is the guy in the white tabard pacing around King's house.

 

To dispose of him, you will first have to break into an upstairs room in the centre of the map. You will need a key, found nearby.

 

I killed him with an arrow to his face. Does that nullify the optional goal of framing him?

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If you're playing on easy where kills are allowed the quest should fail, but it might as well be I forgot to set the failure condition. Oh well, here's a note for whenever I release an update.

 

If it didn't fail, feel free to still attempt it, you won't break anything, as far as I'm aware! :P

My FMs: The King of Diamonds (2016) | Visit my Mapbook thread sometimes! | Read my tutorial on Image-Based Lighting Workflows for TDM!

 

 

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Thanks for the mission!

I like the diverse layout: Wide,open spaces and crooked, tight, maze-like sections - just like one would expect from a city mission, less detail

on the outer, city map parts, and intricate detail and things to do when inside target areas.

I, personally, feel the maze-aspect was a bit overdone here and there, because I really found myself gotten lost -

so many turns and back alleys - I felt a bit like a mouse in a maze at times, and was confused. Maybe I am just a bit

bad at navigating and way-finding, but it happened to me enough to find myself lost or in a dead-end that I sometimes was frustrated.

But this is only a minor issue, anyway.

Often I just stood there and enjoyed the lighting and light effects - I feel they are not too few, not too much, and always

greatly beneficial for the mood and setting.

This is a mission where you have to really seek out the detail in story and construction - it is full of good things, but they are not simply

given/shown quickly to the player; I feel an above-average demand is put on the player to find loot and experience the story, which forces

one to put a lot of effort and skill in handling this mission. I appreciated that, it is quite rewarding - finding loot or furthering the story feels

often like a real "accomplishment" - the author has great skill to make the player put in effort, which compares very favourous with

contemporary "dumbing down" of game design.

I especially enjoyed the transparent windows - while probably more difficult to design in, they greatly improved immersion (I love to spy inside) - and difficulty -

because the player has to take heed getting around inside not to be seen by those patrolling outside of a room or building; one cannot simply switch on

the lantern inside everywhere without risk, for example.

Readables and story were very good, and just like the "geometry", had to be really found out, worked for to get to and find more so than in

other missions. Very well! I think of myself of a seasoned Thief player, yet I overlooked many details and corners at first - I think that such

intricate design is especially enjoyable to more experienced players.

All around a delightful mission that I had enjoyable hours with, thank you very much, Spooks.

  • Like 3

"Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly while bad people will find a way around the laws." - Plato

"When outmatched... cheat."— Batman

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I feel bad asking this. I've got all the other bits ... but where's the

cauldron

?

 

Also, for what it's worth, I've got no clues on how to proceed with

identifying who I need to knock out

but as it's also optional I'm happy to let that one pass -- however, I'm nearly done with the first one.

Edited by Araneidae
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For your first question, that's in the pipe station yard, and for the second, well, the

 

person you'd want to knock out might have moved to ambush you near the warehouse you came from if you've read King's letter before discovering that optional objective

.

My FMs: The King of Diamonds (2016) | Visit my Mapbook thread sometimes! | Read my tutorial on Image-Based Lighting Workflows for TDM!

 

 

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Congrats Spooks!

 

I just gave this mission a run and really enjoyed it. I loved creeping through all the nooks and crannies of the map and the objectives felt dynamic and interesting.

Very well done!

Edited by kingsal
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Can someone post a clue as to the whereabouts of the diamond? I've been having so much fun wandering around this lovely map but am missing the obvious finding it I guess.

Wow , what a mission , so many nooks and crannies to explore.

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Thanks Oldjim !

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This is a great map.

It can be hard to navigate and you have to think a little to find out where to go and what to do next, but I liked that. There is a lot to explore and do, though most of the objectives are optional. I'm not even sure if I got all of them, but I

took that stupid food painting of the wall.

:)

 

Thanks!

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Oldjim ,presumably that's the landlord of the inn? Trouble is , all the AI'have scattered to the far corners of the map because of something I did (!)

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Ha ! Thanks , that should do it .Thought I'd given that area a good go over , obviously not!?

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One thing to note, if the AI have been spooked into running all around the map you might have to search for King's landlord as

 

the diamond is in a locked room and he has the only key to it on his belt. You may have pickpocketed it already, it's called the "Attic Key"

 

 

If you have trouble identifying him, he's an old man with white, noble's clothes.

My FMs: The King of Diamonds (2016) | Visit my Mapbook thread sometimes! | Read my tutorial on Image-Based Lighting Workflows for TDM!

 

 

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Thanks Spooks ! I have to say that this mission goes down now as one of my all time favorites.

What a map! So many areas I wanted to look into further , obviously great scope for expansion in the future.

I think my

main problem with locating the diamond was that I'd reached the attic easily before , went to unlock the chest and couldn't. I guess I was at the wrong angle with the lock picks if you see what I mean. I then left the house assuming I needed a special key and promptly forgot the chest!
I then stirred up the hammerite it seemed impossible to kill who spooked the rest of the AI 'S in the area of the inn. Still , it did make me explore the rest of the map in some detail looking for the elusive diamond! !

 

Loved the note saying

I'd strayed out of bounds in the area beyond King's house !

 

I've rated it excellent in each part , loved it!

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Haha! I knew at least one person would explore King's house before they got their quest from the tavern. The reason you couldn't

 

lockpick the chest is that the main objective's loot items (King's items and diamond) are unfrobable until you read King's Letter. I decided on doing it this very early on, because if I was to commit to a non-gated level where you could get to anywhere from the beginning, I had to have some way to prevent players from completely messing up the order of actions and it was a cheap way to not worry about half a dozen more permutations of the order in which players would progress through the mission

 

I do love hearing people's stories about where things went wrong for them and how they rebounded from adversity, because they're unique and interesting! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

My FMs: The King of Diamonds (2016) | Visit my Mapbook thread sometimes! | Read my tutorial on Image-Based Lighting Workflows for TDM!

 

 

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