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Fan Mission: The Warrens (by grayman) (2018/9/1)


grayman

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As Benson says in his monologue, the maps are on the pillar to his left.

 

Here's the pillar:

 

post-3633-0-30332900-1536848806_thumb.jpg

 

After the monologue, his men approach the pillar and each picks up his map.

 

When it's clear to move near the pillar, you should see this:

 

post-3633-0-96833900-1536848820_thumb.jpg

 

The highlighted (frobable) scroll is your copy of the map.

 

 

 

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Quality from you as always, grayman! However, throughout the entire mission I felt like there was scant little to go on. I just wandered around through the city, hoping for clues, and basically just stumbled across the theater after checking out all the things. And then finding Deacon also was just walking around town and hoping I'd run into him. For me he turned out to be the poor man, but I had no idea where this fella was going. I came across him earlier in the mission in the Inn, but he wasn't there. I ended up finding him near the chapel.

 

I think the first part (no information) works fine from a narrative perspective, but then finding Deacon was just frustrating. I'd give the player more information on that, though that's tricky with the differing possible diguises.

 

You did a great job with telling the story of the Warrens, not very many words needed! It really does feel like a desolate place where plague has hit. Some nice verticality in there. Overall good time.

 

 

 

Also

 

 

 

I don't know what's going on with these people and their maps, it's so blitheringly obvious!

 

 

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You can call me Phi, Numbers, Digits, Ratio, 16, 1618, or whatever really, as long as it's not Phil.

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Finished this up on the weekend and really enjoyed it (replayed the whole series just because).

The sneaking was good in this one. I liked discovering the "over the top" pathways to avoid bright spots and unexpected people. Nice tribute by the way. I discovered the canal wasn't toxic when I fell in lol, which made accessing some areas a little easier.

All in all a great mission. I look forward to the next installment. Thanks for all your hard work.

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Quality from you as always, grayman! However, throughout the entire mission I felt like there was scant little to go on. I just wandered around through the city, hoping for clues, and basically just stumbled across the theater after checking out all the things. And then finding Deacon also was just walking around town and hoping I'd run into him. For me he turned out to be the poor man, but I had no idea where this fella was going. I came across him earlier in the mission in the Inn, but he wasn't there. I ended up finding him near the chapel.

 

I think the first part (no information) works fine from a narrative perspective, but then finding Deacon was just frustrating. I'd give the player more information on that, though that's tricky with the differing possible diguises.

 

You did a great job with telling the story of the Warrens, not very many words needed! It really does feel like a desolate place where plague has hit. Some nice verticality in there. Overall good time.

 

 

 

 

It's just random ...

 

 

His disguise, that is. Also when you discover the info about him and what he is disguised as, all of the guards end up dead and he just wanders the map on a route, singing. It doesn't really seem to matter what his disguise is, just that if you knocked out the NPC that he was disguised as before the body will be gone and he'll be up and about.

 

 

I agree though that there's not much in terms of clues. It's just that when you reach the correct point you'll find all you need.

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That was gorgeous, lots of twisty, turny little alleys with the odd wide open space, lots of blind corners and some non obvious rooftop access as well, nicely designed, I can well believe it took 4 years

 

Once I figured out who the bad guy was

 

 

I realised I'd already put him to sleep

 

So I was expecting to go find the slumbering body & stick something sharp in it a few times, I was quite surprised to find him wandering round town with a large hammer

 

This makes him the first ever AI who's woken up after I KO'd them

 

 

As soon as I spotted him I gassed him & dropped him in the canal

 

 

I waited patiently but he was taking waaaaay too long to drown so I fished him out & put an arrow in him then I put him back in the canal, maybe I should have dropped him in the sea

 

 

Nice little tribute to Sir T as well

 

Quick question. is there a way to turn those players off again ?

I had a bunch of cylinders & I had to wait for each playback to finish before trying the next, I probably missed something simple there

 

Excellent mission

Edited by esme
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Deacon - I had to take some liberty with the "KOed AIs stay down" mechanic. It was necessary for the story line, because I wanted people to say, "Hey! I saw Deacon wandering around earlier", instead of just hiding him until it was time for him to appear. Knowing that some people like to KO everyone, I needed to account for that. I like to think of him pretending he was KOed, cause he's such a sneaky taffer. And, of course, I couldn't let people kill unarmed AI, because one of them is Deacon, and he needs to appear later.

 

Gybbs player - Moving the disc away from the player will end the sound when it's finished. Easier than monitoring the distance between the disc and the player and killing the sound when it becomes too great.

 

 

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Excellent detail, as usual.

 

I appreciated all the stories the player could piece together; but I couldn't help but feel the map was screaming for more side quests. Perhaps that's just my preconceived notions of what to expect from large missions.

 

Now that you've let loose the next mission is a bank job, I must ask you to hurry the hell up, it's my favourite type :)

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Finished this today.

 

What a terrific mission! The city looked gorgeous--I think this is the best-looking city mission to date. Great texture choices. Terrific mix of modules and brushwork. I couldn't help but stop and take pictures of things, including some terrific sets of stone steps, and that awesome interior wall piece with the peeling wallpaper. Lots of nooks and crannies and although everything was twisty and maze-like, I could usually tell pretty easily where I was on the map. I never felt lost.

 


I was a little confused at the beginning in terms of objectives. I had no idea how I was supposed to figure out Deacon's disguise, so I spent a lot of time just wandering around aimlessly looking for things to steal and hoping I'd find some clues.

 

I'm curious--is there more than one place to end the mission? Could you go to one of the rowboats? "out of the warrens" seemed open to interpretation.

 

Played on Medium, and had a ridiculous amount of equipment at the end, including 3 gas arrows and half a dozen mines. I was planning on using a mine on Deacon, but then he wandered down some stairs right in front of me and turned around with his back to me and started singing. Couldn't resist putting an arrow through the back of his head.

 

 

 

Thanks for another enjoyable experience!

 

 


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One thing that continues to plague me is tool/weapon counts. I've never been able to master this aspect of a mission, so I just take a best guess and hope it works out.

 

 

 

This was intended to be one of the first missions after 2.05 that used your architectural models, so I wanted people to wander around and take in the sights, see what could be done with all the new assets. So I didn't put many clues in as to where Deacon could be found, because I didn't want players skipping large sections of the district. Little did I know that it would take another 1.5 years to finish it. You don't start to get some directional clues until you hit the theater.

 

Some folks have spent a fair amount of time trying to find Deacon once they know who he is, but I think that's okay, since I didn't want them to figure it out and then go back to the streets and--bang!--there he was: Mission Over. Walk around a little more! Find someplace you hadn't explored. I did two things to make it easier to spot him: have him sing a little song and have people cry out that they found a dead body somewhere in the vicinity of where he was. But I removed the latter, because there were times when the disembodied voices didn't look "real" enough. I just let him sing his little song, even when he was hiding in a spot hoping to catch you off guard.

 

As to finishing the mission, I should have said "Go back to where you started." Climbing into a boat wouldn't have been believable, because the boats at the dock will only take you out to sea, which is probably not where you want to go.

 

 

 

Glad you liked it. The models really provide a step up in mission quality, IMHO. Thanks for making them.

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One thing that continues to plague me is tool/weapon counts. I've never been able to master this aspect of a mission, so I just take a best guess and hope it works out.

My experience as a blackjacker that finished all but a few missions available though the ingame downloader on difficult:

Most missions are pretty okay at hardest difficulty if using only the blackjack, lockpicks and rope arrows. The spyglass and lamp improve life a lot and there really is no reason to not give them to players. The compass is rather useless in most missions but it also does not hurt giving it to players. Same for the sword - that is also used to finish off knocked out assassination targets (always knock out your targets first to avoid the insult *g*).

 

When it comes to consumables, i would (on hardest) default to

- three to five broadheads (they are lightweight, cheap and good for remotely triggering actions)

- two water arrows (they are pretty usefull from time to time but look bulky)

- one or two noise makers (for when someone wants to get through with a perfect stealth score - otherwise he could just jump or throw around stuff until the AI starts moving)

- mission-specific stuff like rope arrows or holy water as needed (assume that the player recollects rope arrows after use).

 

I would also add two odd pieces of equippment, that are not needed or even useless in the mission.

- The flash bomb/mine (pretty useless)

- A moss arrow (convenient sometimes)

- A health potion (nice if rope arrows are scarce and targets are high above ground)

- Another noisemaker

- Another water arrow

- Holy water (useless if there are no undead in the mission)

 

More broadhead/water/rope/moss/noisemaker arrows could be stored at appropriate spots. Of other equipment one or two to find in the mission are more than enough most of the time. Also don't forget, that the player can reuse his broadheads used for killing AI. And each archer AI provides an additional broadhead.

 

Gas arrows are only needed if there are elite guards or other unknockable AI. But if you play on hardest some ghosting abilities are expected - so if the elite guards are easily avoidable there is no need to hide more than the odd gas arrow in the alchemist's workshop.

 

The loadout at start and what can be found in the map should obviously be more generous for medium and easy difficulties...

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Hey Grayman- Thanks for the incredible mission. I agree with Springheel - this is one of the best looking city missions I've played. I loved the variety of architecture and the overall tone and feel of the warrens.

 

I especially dug the lead up to the lighthouse with those twisting high walls followed by an eerie view over the water. Also the entire Empire Theatre location was so well done, that place genuinely gave me an uneasy feeling. The extra attention to detail and atmosphere really made this mission memorable.

 

I didn't have too much trouble with the objectives or finding clues, maybe I stumbled on deacon's lair earlier than some folks. The funny bit is when I emerged back on the streets, he was the first person I ran into not more than 20 feet away. So from my play through, it all went pretty well and almost felt too straight forward so its interesting to see some people have very different experiences. Overall I felt like it was pretty balanced, but yeah I could see it being less friendly to some player's who might accidentally miss critical information.

 

 

I hear the next mission is already in the works. I'm definitely looking forward to it!

Edited by kingsal
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Did you exit onto Empire Street from the room above Deacon's lair, or did you go back up through the Theater?

 

His appearance is specifically designed to NOT be so close to you when you emerge, so I'm curious how this happened.

 

 

 

Glad you liked it!

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He was rather close to me too. I went up the ladder into a store-room. Outside the storeroom was a set of stairs going up. After I was there for a short time, deciding where to go next, he came half-way down the stairs and stood there with his back to me. I hadn't even had a chance to go looking for him yet.

 

 

 

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Okay, that's not supposed to happen. He's spawning way too early if he's nearby when you come up from his lair.

 

Given that some folks have needed more time to find him, it appears it doesn't happen all the time.

 

I'll put that on my list of things to look at if I do an update.

 

It doesn't wreck the mission; it's just not what I intended.

 

Thanks.

 

Edit: Just double-checked the script and the map and it should work as I intended. Don't know what happened.

 

 

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He was rather close to me too. I went up the ladder into a store-room. Outside the storeroom was a set of stairs going up. After I was there for a short time, deciding where to go next, he came half-way down the stairs and stood there with his back to me. I hadn't even had a chance to go looking for him yet.

 

 

 

 

Same scenario for me.

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Hey guys, somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but there was some mention of sudden fps drops throughout the mission, and I noticed that I was experiencing severe fps drops around some specific models used in the map. Specifically, while looking at the wooden doors and windows models, such as the doors right at the start of the mission where you pick up the map and the windows used around the lighthouse. Are those Sprignheel's custom models that were at some point criticized for using too much CPU while being drawn in line of sight?

 

Don't get me wrong, it was a fun little mission, one I enjoyed a lot. Cool atmosphere, a chilling villain with his creepy hidden base, and a dozen little connected stories of personal misery that tie in quite well with each other (like all the fuss with the docked ship and how it affected the whole neighborhood).

 

The design of the docks made no sense to me at first, but then it got me wondering. The way the docks are made makes no sense for a lighthouse to be placed where it is, but then again, it could be that he lighthouse was older than the current design of the docks, and at some point as the docks were built around in a different fashion, it was no longer needed and got replaced with a new one on a different position, one we cannot see but can presume is there since there is an opening through which ships can still come in and leave. That would explain to me at least why the top floor room of the lighthouse was all bricked up.

 

Grayman, am I just musing too much at 1 in the morning or is there some specific reason why is it made that way (other than saving processor time it would take to load a fully developed model of a coast instead of a blank white wall)?

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I finally had a chance to play this today and I gotta say, excellent mission grayman! The unique city layout and the immense amount of exploration you get to do was wonderful and refreshing. Can't wait for the next installment ;)

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Specifically, while looking at the wooden doors and windows models, such as the doors right at the start of the mission where you pick up the map and the windows used around the lighthouse. Are those Sprignheel's custom models that were at some point criticized for using too much CPU while being drawn in line of sight?

 

 

Individual models by themselves aren't going to cause severe FPS drops unless they're being hit by a large number of lights. I didn't notice any performance problems, personally.

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Simply beautiful mission!

I started now the mission, it's an incredible city, and what a story!

 

Thanks a lot Grayman, you made my day with this! :-D

Edited by Ladro
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