126 replies to this topic

[Sonosuke]

So, here is the first map (Great Christmas Contest) I have ever created. It was not easy but I had fun making it.

About: You have to break into a mansion and find the "special delivery"

Buildtime: less then 2 months




Version (1.01): (2012/01/10) http://www.thedarkmo...ndetails/?id=11
(English version 1.02 will be out soon)

Small changes, mostly to make it 1.07 compatible. If you have played it already you wont see anything new.




Get the German Version (1.02) here!

Edited by Sonosuke, 26 January 2012 - 11:06 AM.
added TDM download link

[Tels]

Mirrored here:

http://bloodgate.com...ng_expenses.pk4

[Fidcal]

Got it. Congrats Sonosuke, I'll start playing this tomorrow.

[STiFU]

Oustanding Mission. Kickass atmosphere and true thief feeling. I am seriously amazed. Nice to see what can come out of two months of work. I played it on difficult and it was really a high niveau FM. Found only 1500 in loot though. Gonna check it out again tomorrow. However it eventually got ridiculously difficult as the AIs started bugging. In the end, they blocked my way home, so I had to cheat my way outa there. (Any yet another reason to play it again tomorrow )

Congrats!

[Xonze]

This was quite a mission! I love the little details everywhere, including the ceilings, which looked awesome, and the water fountains were really well done. I wasn't thrilled with not having a blackjack (didn't find it either) but I was able to get through. The last door was close to being tedious with the lockpicking, I understand the reason for it, but it just seems to never end lol.

I loved the last room and all that happened in it, really well done. I'll be opening this mission in DR to see how you did the water stuff Also liked the brush objects you built (they at least look like brushes).

All in all a nicely done mission, and one of the better looking ones that have been released so far.

Great job!

[Sonosuke]

I'll be opening this mission in DR to see how you did the water stuff

That should be a question right?
edit: hehe, sure. We should share each other technics so we can build awesome maps in the future

Thanks for you kind words!

Edited by Sonosuke, 02 January 2010 - 08:32 PM.

[Xonze]

I should of phrased it differently, sorry. I'm not taking anything from it, just looking at it to see how it was done. You read or asked someone how to do it, I'm looking at it already done. If we can't look into other peoples maps then we're going to be moving a lot slower in our map building. It's easier to see how something was done in the editor than to read about it, especially as it's all vanilla TDM.

BTW: You should make a thread over at TTLG so that others can play this great map and see what TDM is able to do.

That should be a question right?
edit: hehe, sure. We should share each other technics so we can build awesome maps in the future

Thanks for you kind words!

[Sonosuke]

I should of phrased it differently, sorry. I'm not taking anything from it, just looking at it to see how it was done. You read or asked someone how to do it, I'm looking at it already done. If we can't look into other peoples maps then we're going to be moving a lot slower in our map building. It's easier to see how something was done in the editor than to read about it, especially as it's all vanilla TDM.

everything is fine by me . My post was meant to be a joke , sorry I am doing still a bit hard with writing english.

BTW: You should make a thread over at TTLG so that others can play this great map and see what TDM is able to do.

Hmm... I could not find a page for DM. I will look it up again later but i want to know first, what other players think.



Edit: btw, I can vote for myself too, can anyone tell me how to skip this so I can see the results right away? I don't really want to vote for myself

Edited by Sonosuke, 03 January 2010 - 04:34 AM.

[Chiron]

This mission has a lot of good qualities which reminded me of good old fashioned thief missions:

• They way you had to enter
• The interieur (fountains, compartments etc..)
• The timing - Number of water arrows, when you get the blackjack....
• Spoiler

  AFAIK the first frobable secret door book in a TDM mission.

Question:

Spoiler

Where is the delivery? I thought I'd find it in the secret chamber, but its empty

[Sonosuke]

Question:

Spoiler

Where is the delivery? I thought I'd find it in the secret chamber, but its empty

Spoiler

;-) it is in there, try closing the door

[greebo]

Very nice, I got exactly two hours of great gameplay out of this. Got 1952 loot and 4 pickpockets plus the optional objective. This mission feels larger than it is, I reckon, which is not a bad thing at all. Well done and thanks for the mission.

[STiFU]

I played it again today, but on medium instead of difficult. The AI didn't get stuck in doors this time, blocking my way through the mansion, so it was a lot easier...  I got all the loot now, but it was really hard to find. I only missed two secret places, one of them not being mentioned anywhere (I think). A little hint or at least some background information, why that loot was hidden there would've been nice, since that place is nearly invisible on lower gamma-settings in combination with an LCD display that suffers from bad contrast in dark places.

Anyway, I discovered a couple of smaller issues. The first of them might need fixing by the Dark Mod team itself:

• Spoiler

  The Vent
  by which you enter the mansion is so low, that the lantern appears to stick out of it at the top. The place is only lit up for brief moments although the lightgem is fullbright all the time. I assume this behavior is caused by the height of the lantern being linked to headbob. I guess this should be adjusted so that the player can light up any place he is capable of traveling through.
• I noticed some awkward effects on a tray. It seems like you wanted to fake a reflection or something, but it looks rather weird. Check out this screenshot.
• There are also a few other modeling and texturing issues, but I guess this is not the place to mention them. If you want, I can PM them to you though... You can also lean through a wall at one point of the map, looking into the blackness of the void.

These issues didn't decrease the fun I had with this FM in any way though. I have never been that immersed in TDM until now. Congrats again and thanks!!  

Greebo, what optional objective? Is there a secret bonus objective? I just checked the objectives on every difficulty and there is nothing listed to be optional.

Edited by STiFU, 03 January 2010 - 07:51 AM.

[Tels]

Anyway, I discovered a couple of smaller issues. The first of them might need fixing by the Dark Mod team itself:

[list=1][*]

Spoiler

The Vent

by which you enter the mansion is so low, that the lantern appears to stick out of it at the top. The place is only lit up for brief moments although the lightgem is fullbright all the time. I assume this behavior is caused by the height of the lantern being linked to headbob. I guess this should be adjusted so that the player can light up any place he is capable of traveling through.

Hm, maybe we can just lower the point where the lantern is attached, or the light to the lantern is attached? Could you make please a very small testmap and add a bug tracker entry? http://bugs.angua.at/login_page.php

[Chiron]

Spoiler

;-) it is in there, try closing the door

Wicked....great effect!
Thank you for this wonderful mission !

[STiFU]

Hm, maybe we can just lower the point where the lantern is attached, or the light to the lantern is attached? Could you make please a very small testmap and add a bug tracker entry? http://bugs.angua.at/login_page.php

I haven't setup Dark Radiant and all that right now and I also gotta start learning for an oral exam on 7th in a few, so I ain't got the time right now for experiments. I can add it to the bugtracker with reference to this mission though, but this might not be universal enough and we don't even know for sure yet if it is really an issue with the height of the lightsource or not.

[Sonosuke]

I played it again today, but on medium instead of difficult. The AI didn't get stuck in doors this time, blocking my way through the mansion, so it was a lot easier... I got all the loot now, but it was really hard to find. I only missed two secret places, one of them not being mentioned anywhere (I think). A little hint or at least some background information, why that loot was hidden there would've been nice, since that place is nearly invisible on lower gamma-settings in combination with an LCD display that suffers from bad contrast in dark places.

Anyway, I discovered a couple of smaller issues. The first of them might need fixing by the Dark Mod team itself:

• Spoiler

  The Vent
  by which you enter the mansion is so low, that the lantern appears to stick out of it at the top. The place is only lit up for brief moments although the lightgem is fullbright all the time. I assume this behavior is caused by the height of the lantern being linked to headbob. I guess this should be adjusted so that the player can light up any place he is capable of traveling through.
• I noticed some awkward effects on a tray. It seems like you wanted to fake a reflection or something, but it looks rather weird. Check out this screenshot.
• There are also a few other modeling and texturing issues, but I guess this is not the place to mention them. If you want, I can PM them to you though... You can also lean through a wall at one point of the map, looking into the blackness of the void.

These issues didn't decrease the fun I had with this FM in any way though. I have never been that immersed in TDM until now. Congrats again and thanks!!

Greebo, what optional objective? Is there a secret bonus objective? I just checked the objectives on every difficulty and there is nothing listed to be optional.

the tray is like that, i did not do anything on it.

yeah please pm me with the things you have found, i can use everything for the next map

for the optional objective...

Spoiler

you will have to play on difficult and visit the generals room again

edit: those guards only get stuck sometimes thats why i could not really find out how to solve it.

Spoiler

do you mean the secret place in the staircase?

Edited by Sonosuke, 03 January 2010 - 08:11 AM.

[Tels]

I haven't setup Dark Radiant and all that right now and I also gotta start learning for an oral exam on 7th in a few, so I ain't got the time right now for experiments. I can add it to the bugtracker with reference to this mission though, but this might not be universal enough and we don't even know for sure yet if it is really an issue with the height of the lightsource or not.

That's why a testmap would help

I can of course try to make a testmap, but it would take me much longer (because I only have a fuzzy idea what the probelem is) than actually solving the problem. And developer time is quite short here, sorry

[STiFU]

Secret:

Spoiler

No, the secret under the small stairs is revealed by a book next to the bed of the sleeper. I am talking about the one above the stairway to the 2nd floor, where you have to jump-mantle to.

About the optional objective, I played on difficult the first time and I didn't notice any new objective. Hmn... How is it triggered? Maybe it was broken due to all the bugged AI...

[Sonosuke]

Secret:

Spoiler

No, the secret under the small stairs is revealed by a book next to the bed of the sleeper. I am talking about the one above the stairway to the 2nd floor, where you have to jump-mantle to.

About the optional objective, I played on difficult the first time and I didn't notice any new objective. Hmn... How is it triggered? Maybe it was broken due to all the bugged AI...

in that room was actually loot, after rethinking i placed funny things like firearrows in it. While beta testing i was changed back to loot. Well you cant satisfy everyone....


yeah the objective was broken for sure^^ but you could try again searching at the

Spoiler

generals tabel, maybe you will find a (cliché) button

Edited by Sonosuke, 03 January 2010 - 08:41 AM.

[STiFU]

I no-clipped through the level to check for that objective and while doing so, I noticed that there is another secret room with loot in it that I didn't discover before, although the mission stats screen showed that I got 1976 of 1976 in loot. (damn it, I spoiled the secret to me myself, but I still got no clue how to open it) So either the total loot score is broken as well, or there is another bug in TDM here. Still couldn't find that darn objective though... Anyway, I really gotta continue learning now. Damn TDM-addiction...

And Tels, maybe I'll have some spare minutes this evening to setup a small testmap. But I can't promise anything, because I got some friends coming over and I somehow doubt they'll be interested in that...

[lowenz]

Little bug:

Spoiler

if i steal the general key and lock me (with the key) in the general chamber.....why the general can re-enter?

[STiFU]

That's no bug. There's an invisible retina scanner that unlocks the door for him! But seriously, if it was implemented that he couldn't open the door anymore, after you stole his key, the team would also have to implement that he gets alerted once he discovers that the key was stolen and that he starts calling for some guards to bust the door open or at least search the key or the thief for him. I guess this was a gameplay choice. It would make ghosting a mission way too hard or even impossible in worst case scenarios.

[lowenz]

That's no bug. There's an invisible retina scanner that unlocks the door for him! But seriously, if it was implemented that he couldn't open the door anymore, after you stole his key, the team would also have to implement that he gets alerted once he discovers that the key was stolen and that he starts calling for some guards to bust the door open or at least search the key or the thief for him. I guess this was a gameplay choice. It would make ghosting a mission way too hard or even impossible in worst case scenarios.

Reasonable but

[SneaksieDave]

@Sonosuke: is this a grand xmas contest entry?

[etdarkb]

About TDM bugs; it is already known, but in this mission is really effective:
When you move in the air vent try to bunny hop crouched: you'll go fast and silent!