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Fan Mission: A Reputation to Uphold, by Springheel


Springheel

  

40 members have voted

  1. 1. Gameplay: Enjoyment. challenge, fun, ect. vs bugs. frustration, boredom, etc.

    • Poor
      0
    • Tolerable
      0
    • Good
      13
    • Excellent
      18
    • Near Perfect
      9
  2. 2. Appearance: visual pleasure, lighting, artistic style, deduct bad texturing etc.

    • Poor
      0
    • Tolerable
      1
    • Good
      4
    • Excellent
      18
    • Near Perfect
      17
  3. 3. Story & Text: story, texts, briefing, graphic storytelling

    • Poor
      0
    • Tolerable
      1
    • Good
      6
    • Excellent
      20
    • Near Perfect
      13


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Getting ahead of Larkin and Dawkins

I didn't pass them I ran in crouch mode at the start and they didn't see me. The only tricky bit was the guard standing just beyond the man knocking on the door so I killed the man knocking on the door with a broadhead and when the guard ran up to him I ran past all the way to the river and jumped in. The guards lost me at that point although two of them did start fighting each other. I then climbed out and crept through the gate then entered the sewer and ran to the end.

Edited by Oldjim
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Limit your search to

his room

and you should find it.

Whoops!

found Larkin and Dawkins waiting for me there some time earlier and locked them in using a bale against the door! Tried to lure them out with a noise arrow but no dice , so will have to abort I guess.

 

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I killed the man knocking on the door with a broadhead and when the guard ran up to him I ran past all the way to the river and jumped in.

 

Yeah, there's no good way to keep players from doing that. You could achieve the same thing by shooting a noise arrow right at the start--L&D will run over and investigate, along with the archer, and you can slip past them while they're busy, allowing you to easily reach the hideout before they do.

 

 

 

 

I guess it's mainly a challenge for people who want a low stealth score.

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I played it last night and it was a wonderful experience!!, impressive visuals and architecture (the uneven ground in particular), great gameplay, this fm has everything i like about TDM. I especially enjoyed the worldbuilding, i'm a big fan of fms that explore the various criminal groups in Bridgeport and your missions explore that theme very well.

 

Overall, a must play for thief fans :)

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Thanks! :)

 

There aren't tons of readables in this mission, but I tried to link this mission to a few other things going on in Bridgeport (and Braeden).

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So far, this mission has had the most "authentic" feeling of all. This does not just mean the dynamic, well-executed playing experience (Assassins is never a bad model to follow) and organic architecture, but all the effort that went into creating a believable crime-ridden slum area. It starts out in a fairly nice setting, but soon, your surroundings begin to suggest you are in dangerous territory, and the challenges are ratcheted up. I've got to say, the colour schemes and lighting were particularly top-notch, especially the scenes in the final area. It felt like a realistic criminal hideout; the associations I got were Hogarth and Doré.

 

This is a very hard mission to complete without knockouts, and the AI patrols are brutal. There are a few situations which are a bit unfair, since you've got to take your chances stepping out blindly into electrically lit and heavily patrolled passages, but the rest of the mission, and the pleasant viciousness of the opposition compensates for this shortcoming. The clues are helpful, although I ended up just barely 50 gp below the suggested loot limit - but it felt like a good time not to overstay my welcome, and get out of there while it was still possible.

 

As someone who is also working on a slum-based mission (although a very different one), this one set the bar mighty high, which is always a good thing.

  • Like 2

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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So far, this mission has had the most "authentic" feeling of all.

 

Coming from a mapper of your caliber that means a great deal. Thank-you. :)

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This is a very hard mission to complete without knockouts
I would agree with that - at least on middle difficulty so, as I really enjoyed the mission (first two levels as the timed one was too easy for me as I cheated a bit) and it will definitely be worth another play through trying for all the loot and no knockouts (note to self - just make sure you buy some noise arrows)

 

Update - completed with no knockouts

Now that was a truly difficult mission but very enjoyable

Edited by Oldjim
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Just finished on the setting where you have to trail them at the start.Completed but fell short of around 300 loot , no idea where that could be as I even pinched the dicing couples' purse in my efforts to boost the total.Can only say superb and immensely enjoyable ( and replayable.) thank you again.

Edited by raymeld
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re: loot

 

<p>There are at least two secret stashes in the map.<br></p>

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Very sweet mission. Played on Break-In, I haven't found all the loot yet. I loved what happened when I robbed the safe. This mission has absolutely excellent street designs, as usual from you, with a city full of life. The basement area felt oddly familiar. :P

I've noticed several errors though, if you ever want to fix them.

 

 

You can get out of the map here, this is close to Bull banging on the door, in an extremely dark area with a big machine:

fPs03w7l.jpg

 

f4TrvjGl.jpg

 

I got completely stuck here and had to noclip, this is directly when you exit the appartment with the letter from James about the inquisition:

NSA6hhSl.jpg

 

Floating geometry, first one is in front of the place you rob, second is next to the canal, on the other side from the gamblers.

MFvikxyl.jpg

 

ifVltZml.jpg

 

Visportal error?

OSuqin1l.jpg

 

Edited by skacky
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Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for the screenshots...it amazes me how thoroughly one can go through their own map and still miss stuff like that. :)

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Just played this masterpiece tonight. I had a great time playing this mission while remembering the original Assassins map from Thief. :)

 

I loved it, how lifelike the city feels and how you designed the ambient light colour that concurs with the flame and fire lights. The dialogues and animations were awesome and added lots of atmosphere to the game. Though it felt like the Inn could have been a bit larger, with more rooms. Maybe an estate or something bigger would have been a better choice. The situation where you get the main loot object was awesome and felt very realistic to me, nice!

 

All in all one of the best TDM maps. With each map you create, you set the bar higher for the next ones to come. Hopefully it will take not as much time again as in this case - because we all love your maps and simply cannot wait! :)

"Einen giftigen Trank aus Kräutern und Wurzeln für die närrischen Städter wollen wir brauen." - Text aus einem verlassenen Heidenlager

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This was a really cool mission, but I had some issues.

 

 

 

Giving meta-game info in the objectives felt a bit... I dunno what word to use. Wrong? Unpolished? Immersion breaking? Something along those lines. Objectives should be for objectives only. Meta-game stuff belongs somewhere else. Or better yet, the mission would not need to give meta information. Or the best scenario: the mission would deliver meta-game info through the story or narrative.

 

Shadowing the men was fun, and the graphics were incredibly nice-looking. Performance was good in the city area.

 

Oh, and I loved the Ludmilla references! What an honor! I really like it when one mapper generates a fragment of lore, then another mapper comes, pushes it a bit forward and does great justice for it. Really, really nice. :wub:

 

When we reached the house and the guys went to negotiate, the mission sort-of crumpled for me. It is not directly the mission's fault. I blame the Psychology of Urgency. It said in the objectives that I need to find the jewels BEFORE the men conclude their business. Not knowing if there is a time-trigger or not, I searched for the jewels frantically and made a lot of mistakes and the mission turned into a save/load festival which is not enjoyable for me. This has not been explored much, but from this mission I learned for the first time that the Psychology of Urgency is a dangerous element in a stealth game, because you cannot be careful. Meta-gamewise the player should always be convinced that there is enough time for proper stealth gameplay. Nothing prevents making Urgent situations, but then the obstacles should be easier. After completing the Urgent objectives, the player could resume normal stealth operations. It is important to carry the information to the player, through the narrative, that is the situation Urgent or not.

 

I think it would have been really good if there REALLY would have been a time limit for the deal, but it would have been REALLY generous, and that the player would have known in advance where to look for the jewels. Or that the jewels would have been in an easily guessable location: safe in the Boss'es quarters. Maybe the negotiation would have been a real conversation within earshot, so that the player could have used that to gauge how long he has time left.

 

I haven't tested the other game modes, but they didn't look very interesting. My humble suggestion would be to choose one theme for a single mission and do that well, and not have a meta-game decision on different alternatives. You can always do another mission with another theme.

 

Sadly, I had to quit the mission mid-way through because of various problems:

*The mission flow was terminated because the main AI's got permanently stuck in each other, blocking me into the cellar area. I was able to break the deadlock without failing any objectives by leaving a mine and shooting it with an arrow to distract the AIs. It was fun to see them run and it made me feel clever, but the game feeling was a bit busted because of this and the performance issues.

*Performance collapsed. The mission had really good performance in the start, but in the negotiation building it became very choppy. I did not understand why, as the tris count could not have been that high. When I opened doors there were 1 second lags, occasional stutterings and that kind of stuff. Really annoying. I am unsure what caused it, maybe some movables went into a permanent bounce? I noticed it the first time when I moved the moveable cloths in the bedroom cupboard, or maybe my computer was doing something in the background? Dunno.

 

 

 

 

I'm not rating this now, because of the bad luck I encountered. I'll cool off for a while and then I'm gonna replay it, and I am sure it is gonna be great!

  • Like 2

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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It's a shame you had some glitches. I don't know what could be causing the choppiness...no one else has reported that, and I usually get better framerates inside the hideout than in the streets (unless everyone is actively searching for me).

 

 

 

 

I think it would have been really good if there REALLY would have been a time limit for the deal, but it would have been REALLY generous,

 

That is actually how the default "Shadow" difficulty plays. The haggling lasts for about an hour, but they will eventually go to the safe if you haven't already. And they are negotiating the entire time...if you go up and listen to the study door you'll hear them arguing about the price. Under "Timed" difficulty, you have only 8 minutes, but that's recommended for a replay, so the player would know where to go.

 

Oh, and I loved the Ludmilla references! What an honor! I really like it when one mapper generates a fragment of lore, then another mapper comes, pushes it a bit forward and does great justice for it. Really, really nice

 

Glad you liked that. :) Linking missions together that way is good for world-building, I think, and it was also a bit of a shout-out to the first mission that used a following objective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I haven't tested the other game modes, but they didn't look very interesting. My humble suggestion would be to choose one theme for a single mission and do that well, and not have a meta-game decision on different alternatives.

 

I think the different gameplay options increase the replay value of the map. Most players don't especially like timed objectives for first play-throughs, for example (for precisely the urgency reason you mentioned), but a timed challenge can be fun once you know the map. And some people have enjoyed the extra challenge of the boosted lightgem, but I wouldn't have wanted to force that on everyone.

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Completed it now. What a treat.

 

Stealth score 55. Yep, I was fooling around with the AI, especially those two dice players to steal their gold...

 

No gameplay killing glitches this time around, especially the occasional stutter. Really don't know what was happening, but it seemed to get worse as the mission progressed. A runaway script perhaps? I haven't spotted anything like that in other missions, or testing my WIP.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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No gameplay killing glitches this time around, especially the occasional stutter. Really don't know what was happening, but it seemed to get worse as the mission progressed. A runaway script perhaps?

 

The mission doesn't use any custom scripts, so I can't say. When you say "especially", do you mean it also didn't happen this time around?

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The mission doesn't use any custom scripts, so I can't say. When you say "especially", do you mean it also didn't happen this time around?

 

I got the stutters on my both game sessions: when I first tried the mission and now when I played it.

 

The mission started okay, performance was good. Then when I got into the ganghouse, to the second floor lobby I noticed some mild stuttering. Once I had taken the jewels and returned upstairs, the stuttering got worse. Opening doors could have 0.5 second lags, for example.

 

I did save/load a few times... Could TDM leak memory? But I never had this on other missions. Puzzling.

 

Or maybe the AI following another AI behavior is "leaky" somehow? Anyways, if nobody else got this, maybe it is something on my end.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Awesome FM Springheel. I loved the really gritty look of the city. It was a real pleasure to sneak through. I found gameplay quite challenging but never frustrating so it was very satisfying to complete. Thanks for all your hardwork on this great FM.

  • Like 1

"I believe that what doesn't kill you simply makes you... stranger"

 

The Joker

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Finished at last! On about my dozenth attempt. This is a tough but satisfying mission. I managed to fall foul of the time limit several times even on Shadow difficulty, which of course meant my save games were useless too. I eventually completed it in 40 mins with 17 stealth score, although in reality I caused a lot more commotion than that suggests :) I was forced to change playstyle a bit and actually use my tools and blackjack which is refreshing. The city is stunning, with gorgeous detail. Not just the warped streets and interesting buildings, but the floating rubbish in the sewer and the little touches like an apple core under the water were great for atmosphere. I'm going to try another play through now on the no-perfect-shadow setting.

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Cool, glad you liked it! :)

 

 

I was forced to change playstyle a bit and actually use my tools and blackjack which is refreshing.

 

Yeah, I was trying to encourage people to use their tools a bit.

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  • 3 weeks later...

This mission starts out with some well written and well acted dialogue.

There was great dialogue between Larkin and Dawkins the whole time you follow them. I particularly like the line where Larkin says that they don't hide in their own territory, they rule it.

The first part of the mission was on the easy side, but it was still quite fun. I really got the feeling that I was sneaking through a run-down, gang-controlled part of town. The activity encountered along the way to the Keska Brotherhood base was entertaining

The piss break made me chuckle

:laugh: My favorite segment of gameplay during the following portion of the game was

going into the water and climbing onto a post to jump back to land, in order to bypass the noisy metal bridge

The stairway to the base and the big tree were really cool visuals that enhanced the feel of the mission. I liked that there were a few ways into the base. Options always make a mission more fun. The inside of the base was very challenging for me. i got caught a lot. There weren't a lot of shadows to hide in, and I'm not in the habit of putting lights out very often. This isn't bad design, I just need to be more patient, and learn patrols better, or use more items. The story told by both readables and voice acting was really good.

I loved the Madrasola/Lady Ludmilla tie-in :) The note about Edgar's daughter and the lost ring was fun to read and led to more fun gameplay in the sewers. It would have been nice to have some kind of enemy in the sewer, but that might be too cliche. The note about Morgan trying to take over the Keska Brotherhood was interesting, and the note about sweet Nell and her sweet bottom gave me a good laugh :D

This was a very fun mission that I will have to play again a few times until I can actually play through the base like a proper thief :P

 

Thanks for excellent mission Springheel!

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