Jump to content
The Dark Mod Forums

Fan Mission: In the North (by grayman) (2012/10/20)


grayman

In the North (by grayman) (2012/10/20)  

127 members have voted

  1. 1. Appearance

  2. 2. Gameplay

    • Poor
      0
    • Could Be Better
      0
    • Average
    • Good
    • Excellent
  3. 3. Story

    • Poor
      0
    • Could Be Better
      0
    • Average
    • Good
    • Excellent


Recommended Posts

@grayman

 

 

Okay thanks, grayman, I'll take another look tomorrow but I definitely visited that sarcophagus three times and tried twisting myself into many positions and I have a two crouch heights toggle plus stand and even tried squeezing on top also tried that little side gap. I'm kinda glad it wasn't me missing an obvious clue because I'd have got that skull for sure if it had clearly highlighted. I'm just wondering if that ground haze obscured the highlight. I can't remember but I thought I tried blind-frobbing it anyway.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great mission, finished in about 7 hours plus reloads. Stealth 2. Lots of interest throughout and well-paced. Clues were okay though it did seem a bit overloaded near the start with papers everywhere! Not sure how to make it more subtle, maybe the odd note tucked under a pillow or in a drawer and not a confession right on top of a cabinet for anyone to see? But then players would complain they never found a crucial note, I guess. Visually great. Navigation excellent and even with a map I kept getting lost just like in real life. I was just beginning to grasp the layout by the end of the mission. More stairs per square foot than I've ever seen in any mission. AI coped well moving about and I only saw one temporary traffic jam which eventually cleared itself. Busy with lots of enemy to keep it alive and keep the player on their toes. Enjoyed it a lot. Got stuck on one objective but now done (see spoiler.)

 

Thanks, grayman, I'll download the sequel. :rolleyes:

 

 

 

I was looking in the wrong sarcophagus! The skull was actually in the completely open one. I accept it was player error but I don't feel so bad now I can sort of understand why. I can only guess how I missed it, but here's my reasoning.

 

There were not what I'd call two chambers between the remains, there was one chamber and a passageway. Nevertheless, after failing to find it what I thought were the likely places, I searched 'everywhere' but somehow overlooked the 'easy' place because I was so sure it was empty.

 

First time I passed it, the fierce candlelight plus possibly the low haze might have offset the frob highlight of the skull after I'd already determined that the other skull was unfrobbable so maybe I assume that any bones anywhere visible as 'decoration' weren't important. I never actually saw the highlight 'switch on' because of the limited view it was (almost) always on if in sight. Once I snuffed the candle then it clearly highlighted. Serve me right for not snuffing candles unless I had to. Also, maybe one of the haunts came by so I only had time to glance in there.

 

Thereafter, I never went through that chamber, I bypassed it by squeeze-jumping through that 'window' in the wall which felt safer.

 

 

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Fidcal:

 

Whew! Glad you got past the issue you were having.

 

 

 

A (probably too subtle) clue is provided for the whereabouts of Grimmore's real skull. The name over the broken sarcophagus where it lies is "Grim". IIRC, there's a line somewhere in the readables that uses the word "grim" when referencing where the skull is buried. (I might be wrong about that; it was so long ago.)

 

 

 

Once you're through Home Again and ready to play Cleighmoor, let me know. I'll give you a temp solution for a game-killing bug there that perhaps 1 in a dozen people encounter. Just involves editing the *.map file w/o having to rebuild. I have an update ready for distribution, but I don't plan to do that until I release WS4 and WS5, which are nearly complete, but won't come out until after TDM 2.05.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@grayman.

 

 

 

 

Yeah, I did see 'grim' on the readable map but I was distracted because the relevant tomb (fenn something was it?) was deviously half-ripped away so I was trying to visualise it on the complete map.

 

I downloaded WS3 with WS2 this morning so you can tell me the edit if you want - so long as it's not a spoiler for WS2 and so long as I can do it in a plain text editor (not got DR installed at the moment.)

 

And since you plan on updating WS3 'soon', you've got me wondering if WS5 completes the campaign?

 

I assume the curious cut scene epilogue of WS1 leads onto WS2? I think maybe that needed a hint that the character was Steele? (if so?) But if he was on his way home from the WS2 heist, wouldn't he have a swag bag over his shoulder? And a bow? And should we have recognised the building that the camera lingered over?

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Fidcal,

 

 

 

 

I'll work on the WS3 adjustment. Hopefully I can simply provide an edited *.map file for you to place in a maps/ folder for the mission.

 

As for the ending cutscene, Steele is already on his way south to Bridgeport. The cutscene occurs "Later that night", and since you got to see it, you must have left Harckoff's journal on Trumble's bed. (Otherwise the mission ends when you return to your starting point.)

 

What's unsaid is that Trumble found the journal and read it. Since Harckoff had murdered Mary's predecessor, and Harckoff was interested in Mary--Trumble's daughter--Trumble tossed Harckoff off the castle's tower to end Harckoff's evil ways and protect Mary. Trumble had done a few nasty things in his own life, and had become somewhat remorseful. Killing Harckoff and making himself known to Mary was, he hoped, the beginning of his redemption.

 

Trumble then left the castle with Mary and the gold bar (if you also dropped that on his bed). Hopefully they settled somewhere where they could both live peaceful lives.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Bug report

 

 

http://imgur.com/a/au9e5

 

Stuck here in the library when attempting to jump up the shelves and unto the third floor.

 

 

Also the voice of Father Grimoire is muffled and almost impossible to hear. Almost as if his volume is set to 5% of the other game sounds (my settings are maxed on everything). Possibly an error in 2.04.

 

Edited by Anderson

"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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Anderson:

 

 

 

 

1 - Noted. (Though this happens from time to time in many missions.)

 

2 - No, that's a mission problem. Not sure what causes it. It's fine when I test it, but several folks have said it's hard for them to hear.

 

 

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll go on later today after some works and report on the rest of the mission. It's justifiably on solid grounds for the praise as an outstanding FM already.

"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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

A little late but finally done.

 

 

As some other people before, had problem figuring that the church isn't the chapel and the blue room has no connection to neither. Thus complicating the search of the catacombs. Found it in the end, admiring everything the map had to offer.

 

I did not encounter any issues with Father's voice down in the catacombs already when returning his real skull. His voice was as intended, but the first time, there is an issue with that.

 

 

Everything is as was mentioned by others - top notch!

The narrative is beautiful, readables abundandant and rich to give a sense of a real mansion with a life of its own with everyone trying to make ends meet their own hidden way.

The only critical outlook would be directed towards the pathing of the elite guards who were really a pain to my exploration, but their silence really does give away how professional they are. Kinda like the Keeper hunters from Thief 3. Loved that approach.

To note though that the lady guarded sometimes went to bed with the body glitching out and floating above the bed.

 

With a few tweaks for bug squashing this definately didn't lose anything in the way of being called one of the best FM's for TDM. Capital!

Edited by Anderson

"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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Best wishes in those steps and take care of yourself! All will come in due time. That is more than reasonable to understand for us.

"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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 years later...

While this is a fun mission and I'm greatly enjoying it, I have a bug report.

 

 

 

I can't frob anything in Harckoff's safe. I can open it but nothing will highlight for me.

 

 

Edited by The Dark One

Because in mystery novels, the first suspect is almost certainly never the murderer. No matter how much unmovable evidence there is, it will all be smashed in pieces by the wrath of the remaining number of pages of the story.

 

-"The Evil Spirit of the Zushi Clan" from Virtual Carnal Pleasure by Yamada Fuutarou

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

 

 

 

You're not doomed.

 

That key opens the blue bedroom where Lady Isabella is staying when she's not pacing.

 

The 2nd guard outside that bedroom has a duplicate key.

 

You can pick the lock to the bedroom door.

 

You can enter the room through a secret passage.

 

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Excellent mission, finished few minutes ago, stats say slightly over 3hrs playtime, actually many more spent in trials and errors...

This mission has an amazing layout, beautifully designed.

Maybe 2/3 of the total playtime i felt lost. Literally. I was pretty upset, because I couldn't get where I needed to.

 

Every door seemed to lead to another hallway with dozens of other doors....at least it seemed like that on first glance....

Only then I realized I have maps in my inventory!!!
Felt really dumb...

However, maps are hardly detailed...it takes time and effort to read them and use them for navigation.

 

But suddenly, the layout opened in front of my eyes and I realized the floors, the hallways, the old and the new

part...and wow, I felt like if I lived there for my whole life...

Now I enjoyed walking through the halls and floors and if I needed to get somewhere I immediately could tell two

or three different routes how to get there. Beauty.

 

From early beginning, there were lots of readings. Lots of them, everywhere.

 

I could hardly understand the story, lots of names, no clear information, just indications and brief sentences

without any further context. Wasn't giving any sense for a long time. Only once I had all the items needed to complete

the objectives (optional included) I got it.

 

This mission has a strong story behind, hats off, sir....

 

Although more than 6yrs from its release, the mission deserves highest valuation and I'm really looking forward to

all its successors...(downloading WS2 atm :-) )

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Glad you liked it. 4 Steele missions have been released so far, 4 to go.

So 8 in total? Strange, I thought I remember seeing a previous series plan of 6 missions total, not 8. Do you have a name for the future episodes? Also since ep 5 missed the end of year release, will it be ready in the following months?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • Recent Status Updates

    • The Black Arrow

      Any of you heard Age of Wonders 4's OST?
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0TcoMGq4iA
      I love how after all these years, Michiel van den Bos still conserves his "Melodic" spirit.
      · 0 replies
    • nbohr1more

      Moddb article is up:  https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/news/the-dark-mod-212-is-here
      · 3 replies
    • Petike the Taffer

      I've been gone for a while, but now I'm back, have a new desktop and I want to get back to making missions and playing missions. And doing other contributions. Waiting for my reset password for the wiki, but I'll take a look at it soon. Hello, all.
      · 4 replies
    • snatcher

      TDM Modpack 4.0 for The Dark Mod 2.12 released!
      · 1 reply
    • nbohr1more

      Congrats to all the busy Dark Mod developers! TDM 2.12 is here!
      · 4 replies
×
×
  • Create New...