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Fan Mission 48: A Score to Settle, by Springheel (2011/07/01)


Springheel

  

74 members have voted

  1. 1. Gameplay: Enjoyment. Fun duration. Smooth flow, ect. Versus Bugs. Frustration, Boredom, framelag

    • Poor
      0
    • Tolerable
      1
    • Good
      12
    • Excellent
      43
    • Near Perfect
      18
  2. 2. Appearance: Vertical use, Visual pleasure, lighting, visual style, deduct bad texturing etc.

    • Poor
      0
    • Tolerable
      0
    • Good
      11
    • Excellent
      32
    • Near Perfect
      31
  3. 3. Story & Text: Story. Text. Briefing. Graphic storytelling

    • Poor
      0
    • Tolerable
      1
    • Good
      16
    • Excellent
      29
    • Near Perfect
      28


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Glad you liked it. :)

 

re: rope arrow.

 

 

I didn't include one partially because the sky level of the map is a bit of a mess...you'd hit all kinds of playerclip and skybox walls if you did much climbing. But beyond that, it would probably have been too easy to get into the attic from the outside that way. The attic is this map's equivalent of a secret vault, so I'm not convinced it needs an alternate way in.

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Apparently, you CAN climb into

the attic from the outside

, unbeknownst to me:

 

(at about 5 min, though it's too dark to see what he actually did)

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(at about 5 min, though it's too dark to see what he actually did)

It looks like he manages to climb up from ground level - starts off using the vines (fails first time at about 3.25, then succeeds) and then mantles onto various ledges and wooden sticky-outy things. It's actually quite impressive climbing, especially as his gamma settings seem so low he can't see what he's doing without turning his lamp on. :P

 

Alternatively, there's this route that Siyah posted way back (the jump onto the attic roof is at 1.36; before then, there's lots of edge-of-skybox walking): http://forums.thedar...post__p__274683

 

Gotta say, I'm really tempted to give Jubbatron's route a go.

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  • 2 months later...

Great mission! It does exactly what it sets out to do: provide a challenging mid-sized map for experienced players. It took some getting used to with the heightened guard senses, but once I settled in it was a smooth ride. It made me really stop and think once or twice about how to get past a certain area (the main hall at the headquarters in particular), which is a hallmark of great design in Thief games.

 

One small glitch I encountered:

when I opened Syke’s door, he commented on it and got up, as if to come over and close it. But he never moved, and just stood there. It allowed me to creep into the room slowly and close it again, so his guard was lowered and I could blackjack him.

It undoubtedly made that small section easier, and I thought I’d point it out.

 

The objective about keeping the informant safe threw me off a bit.

I figured that to be in any danger, he'd need to come out of his house...so I thought to leave the level and complete the mission, he'd have to walk me through the streets to a gate or something. As such, I spent a fair amount of time clearing out the surrounding area of patrols in anticipation of this, only to have the mission end when I entered his place.

A small thing, though.

 

I didn’t realize some of the patrols were randomized until I read a review, but if this is the case, that’s awesome. Figuring out guard paths is still one of the “cheap” tactics we accept in nearly any Thief mission. Anything to jolt us out of that and add some realism is a good thing in my book.

The "new" guards patrolling once the body is discovered is another great touch.

 

Edited by Digi

"Fancy burricks are afraid of dogs, if they encounter each other the dog barks and the burricks poop." - Thief: Deadly Shadows Game Designer

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Great mission! It does exactly what it sets out to do: provide a challenging mid-sized map for experienced players.

 

Glad you enjoyed it! :) Thanks for the comments. If you liked this one you'll probably enjoy A Reputation to Uphold, which has some similar types of gameplay.

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There's something weird going on in this mission.

 

 

After finishing the mission objectives, and getting out of the rogue's house, all guards outside seem to be reset (which is ok if it was intended), but there's a really tough guard with a flare at the position displayed on the picture. I finally managed to knock him out by running quickly behind him, and blackjacking him (no idea how you're supposed to ghost there), but after hiding him in a dark place, whenever i pass the point marked with an X in the picture, every guard on the map seems to be alerted, even though noone saw or heard me. Is that supposed to be right?

 

post-3375-0-38416300-1399480962_thumb.jpg

 

Edit: Ok, i see now that it is the intended behavior. A bit confusing though that suddenly every guard is in alert state. Got 2 found bodies too, probably due to the respawn of the guards outside. You maybe expected people to ghost it.

 

 

Edited by chk772
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That's pretty much the intended behaviour. I've always though it's kind of unrealistic that in the middle of a city, you never have to worry about new people entering the area.

 

You maybe expected people to ghost it.

 

Naw, I never expect people to ghost anything. :)

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Ok, but then you have to keep in mind that, due to the respawn, and probable new routes of the guards, bodies could be found, and stealth scores could be messed up. People can't guess that there will be respawn, and that the entire map is getting alerted all of a sudden, therefor there probably won't be any place on the map suitable for bodies not to be found. Anyway, enjoyed most of the mission, sorry for the little rant. :)

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Ok, but then you have to keep in mind that, due to the respawn, and probable new routes of the guards, bodies could be found, and stealth scores could be messed up

 

Sure. But as I said, I've always found it unrealistic for people to assume that the AI they see in the streets are the only AI that exist in that part of town. You should always assume someone else might come along, and stash bodies appropriately.

 

I think people could have a valid problem with the

forced alert--there are definitely arguments for NOT doing that kind of thing, but in my opinion it makes retracing your steps a lot more fun if you're being actively hunted, rather than just strolling through empty streets.

 

 

Anyway, glad you enjoyed most of the mission. :)

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You have a point definitely by saying the city stuff is more realistic when it's more unpredictable. The thing is just with the respawn of guards, and the alert, which makes the guards search in places you could have hid bodies, could mess it up for you, even if you hid the bodies in places you considered as "safe". Anyway, just wanted to point that out, no big deal. :)

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  • 3 months later...

Just played this through with the difficulty set to hardcore/hardcore and I have to say that this is the most difficult mission I have ever played,

As an example

In the hideout trying to get up the stairs from where the two men are playing cards I had to attract them away from the table by throwing objects and then blackjacking them individually as any other way they either saw me sneaking up the stairs or caused a major alert and another three guards came running down to join in the search. Also opening the double doors at the rear entrance when the guard inside could see them as open caused him to go to alert and run into the courtyard

I suspect that 2.02 has made this FM much more difficult

Edited by Oldjim
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I suspect that 2.02 has made this FM much more difficult

 

Well, if you bump up AI hearing in the menu, then yes, since that option wasn't available before 2.02. :) Selecting the highest difficulty level in the objectives also gives the AI a slight boost to their hearing, so cumulatively they would be quite challenging.

 

The other two things you mention shouldn't be any different in 2.02.

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I should add in fairness that I really enjoyed finding a way round the problem as a noise arrow didn't work at all as everyone seemed to come running

It was also interesting to see the effect of throwing different objects and also firing a broadhead into a wall

This is the first mission where I have really had to change the way of completing the mission.

Edited by Oldjim
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Good to hear. It was supposed to be a challenging mission.

 

 

There is an alternate way up the stairs, btw...you can climb the chain and then mantle onto the landing...if you put out the downstairs torch (or time it really well) you can get up without being spotted

 

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  • 3 months later...

This is among my top favorite TDM missions! The city and map are well designed and of good quality, it's neither longer nor shorter than I think a mission should be, and has a few neat secrets and special areas. If Tears of Saint Lucia stopped being the default mission, I would probably vote for this to take its place. There are two things I loved in particular:

 

The first is that, unlike most missions, this bothered to have both an intro as well as an outro. It even went through the effort of recording a short film for both, directly inside TDM itself! I think outros should be more common... it's less motivating to finish a mission and only get a "Mission complete!" message without any following story elements or outcome being presented.

 

 

The second thing I loved was that, after completing the mission and heading away from the gang's headquarters, you hear someone yelling "Raise the alarm" and a script sets all guards on the map to a high alert level... forcing the player to immediately hide in a safe spot and wait until they cool down, while watching chaos unfold throughout the entire city. It's not only a nice extra challenge, but a fun unexpected element... which also creates the impression that NPC's aren't a bunch of brainless AI's who only catch you if they see you but aren't capable of any higher intelligence.

 

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Thanks for the comments MK; glad you enjoyed the mission!

 

 

 

 

The second thing I loved was that, after completing the mission and heading away from the gang's headquarters, you hear someone yelling "Raise the alarm" and a script sets all guards on the map to a high alert level.

 

Some people don't like that kind of thing, but I like last minute escapes like that where there are a few surprises, rather than just retracing your steps through territory you know is safe.

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Really great mission. Great work and great design on the gang hideout, lots of nooks and crannies. Really vile character you created in that boss, I felt sick reading his notes. Once I'd dealt with him I literally went round and assassinated his gang. It became personal. Psychopaths like that need putting down. Great too cos I'm usually very consientious about killing NPC's, it is always a moral issue. I don't just snuff out guards to make life easier... But these guys needed putting down. Its nice to actually use some broadhead arrows! Great writing in this one.

Edited by Wallace
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Glad to hear it! When players start reacting to the world in addition to just playing through it, I feel like the mission is a success. :)

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I finally got around to finish this mission.

 

I once started it at the beginning of having The Dark Mod installed, but it was too frustrating, with the AI always noticing me, hearing a step, etc. at the very start of the mission. Of course that had to do with me insisting on using the hardest difficulty.

 

So when I started it again, quite a bit later, i thought about what to use, but again used the hardest one - and ahd no big difficulties at all. Either TDM changed (with some things changeable), ot I changed something without noticing, or I just got better (now knowing how to creep for example).

 

So I went into this enjoyable mission.

 

 

 

The way to my contact was a bit frustrating, but only because I wasn't sure I was moving in the right direction, because few streets had signs, and the way had many corners.

After getting the map, I managed to get to the back entrance an unusual way (from what I read here): I climbed up were the planks are, but not using the planks, but climbing up to were the tree is, then up the tree, then on the wodden fence. From there on the metal fence and to the back door.

Then I made my way in, carefully snuffing out candles (and removing them / laying them to the side, for fear of them being relighted).

 

The basement mademe cringe, that really set the story athmosphere for me. Usually, I kill such guys. Not being allowed to do so, because it would upset the balance set a nice theme of hard choices to be made in some circumstances.

Of course it meant, that killing his men was no option for me (My philosophy is: When I cut through the hitmen / muscles of someone, the top guy / woman dies too. After all they are the main power behind them, why should I give the main guilty ones the option to survive.)

 

There were just enough guards, but always a manageable way as fas as I saw.

Kicking a lighted candle down with boradhead arrows is fun, and just alarmed the card players a little.

Found the metal chain after looking around for quite some time (the staris looked too lit for me).

 

My objective guy was bugged though, as someone mentioned, when opening the door he stood up, but did nothing else. That was also the case when I moved in, was seen, and the guy was stuck behind the stool, drawing weapon, putting it back ...

I can deal with Ai, but I hate to deal with bugged AI. I noticed the door in the back, thought maybe I ahd to get in this way and shot the target down for practice.

 

After loading i searched for a way to the "back door" (I didn't know it lead to a privy, thought there was only the one downstairs). the only way was following the moving guy in the room with the card players. so when he was downstairs, i moved out...side. I did a quick jumping and climbing to the left, to search for the door. Found not the door, but the outside entrance to the attic. Reached that and moved in.

Collected nice loot, wondered what the noise was when moving through the door, and tried to check - thought it was dangerous, but wanted to see it. Finally saw it - in the face. Then blocked it with a few packages.

Found the way down, but sadly there was no lever up here that I found.

 

So out again, took this chance to visit the house at the beginning were someone was knocking, heard about the attic, and finally moved in through the backdoor again, creeped slowly in the room with my target, took it (and the awaking girl) out with the blackjack, dumped him, and left again via attic.

 

Raised a alarm when dousing a carried flame with a water arrow, but interestingly all the guards ran towards my target area instead of more in the direction of me. I used that blind spot to cross a few lighted areas, and then waited for 5 guards to come back again.

Decided that I cannot raise a commotion closer to my contact, as that could put him into suspicion, so crept along slowly, but no problems (but wondered where they moved the horse to).

Only at the last corner I had to wait long to find a way through, as I found it hard to find a good opening as either the one with the torch or the other one was always in the small street, and there was a lighted area I ahd to cross in there.

Managed that finally, but was a bit frustrating.

 

Overall a great mission, nice freedom of getting mostly were I wanted to.

Missed a rope arrow on a few occasions, but on all there were other ways to get where I wanted to, but those were harder to see.

I am really satisfied, and now will see how the sequel plays out (seeing it was there was the reason to play this one finally.)

 

 

 

Edit: It just has to be said, and I forgot: Beautiful city part, I always look up City missions to find a way to make a city part myself that looks halfway decent, and this one really feels wonderful, with the noises around, the creaking signs, little corners, junk, interesting details etc.

Edited by DeusXIncognita
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Glad you enjoyed it! I have an update in the works that will hopefully fix the problem with the sitters getting stuck. Sitters are a pain. :P

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An updated version of this map should be going up soon. It's not a huge update, but if you were planning on playing the mission again anyway you should download the new version first. It makes some minor aesthetic improvements here and there, and tries to fix things so that the sitting AI get stuck less often.

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An updated version of this map should be going up soon. It's not a huge update, but if you were planning on playing the mission again anyway you should download the new version first. It makes some minor aesthetic improvements here and there, and tries to fix things so that the sitting AI get stuck less often.

Thank you very much.

"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.

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