151 replies to this topic

[Goldwell]

Pretty sweet mission so far. Love the vibe, music, and sounds of home. I just encountered a bug, though. Got a "Visual Studio Just-In-Time Debugger" pop-up saying, "An unhandled win32 exception occurred in TheDarkMod.exe [6956]"
 
Here is what I was doing:
 

Spoiler

I shot and killed a guard named Horace because he was alert for some reason. Maybe he saw me commit a crime earlier and I didn't notice him do that. Regardless, after killing him with two or three arrows, I grabbed his body and placed him off the beaten path. Then I went back to where I killed him and used a water arrow on the blood stain. After doing that, I then tried to grab his sword off the ground. (The way his sword landed, the edge was pointing to me, so I didn't know it was a sword; I thought it might be an arrow because of its narrowness.) Right after clicking the sword to pick it up, the game screen froze and the hard drive kicked in. In the middle of the game screen was a Windows spinning wheel popping in and out while my hard drive was thinking. I tried ALT+TAB'bing and ESC'aping back to Desktop, but they didn't seem to work -- or were just delayed in working. After right-mouse button'ing, TDM closed and I was able to see my Desktop. At Desktop, there is a "Visual Studio Just-In-Time Debugger" pop-up saying, "An unhandled win32 exception occurred in TheDarkMod.exe [6956]"

Well that’s a new one! Does the crash happen if you replicate the same scene? I’m afraid I can’t help with the more technical bugs like these as that goes beyond my understanding. Of course it shouldn’t have crashed though, and during testing no one had a crash either.

If you’re able to power through it without another crash then that’s good, but if you get a crash again doing the same thing please post your save files here and I’ll try to track down someone who can have a look.

[Goldwell]

I have really enjoyed this mission!
I've completed it, but the fact that I'm still missing one secret is driving me bonkers. I think if I were missing more than one, it wouldn't be quite so bad, but the whole 'You're only missing ONE!' is driving me batty. I wasn't keeping notes as I was finding them, and I can't recall one exactly (I keep remembering things that I don't believe were secrets) but I do recall these, and believe they were all actual secrets:

Spoiler

Coin bag under a desk in Walter's place

The hidden urn
A hidden chest in Wiverton's house
A coin bag in a room you have to rope down to

In bookcase in Garrett's shop

 

Plus loot 4085 out of 4404. On that, I say 'close enough!' and am very pleased. But the secret, OH the secret, that one secret!

 

The only issues I noted were that it felt strange to have to swim to my apartment, though I can understand after perusing this thread (looking for my missing secret), though I wish the guard would make snide remarks about my dripping wet clothes.    Also, the drunk's voice (Farnham?) is too quiet to really understand most of it, even if it is mostly drunken babble.

 

Edit: Ok, can I just add that a few things stopped me in my tracks due to their wonderful detail? Like that ritzy apartment in my apartment complex, with the sink that fills and drains. I loved that!! Completely inconsequential detail, but I LOVE stuff like this. 

 

I am so excited for the rest of this campaign!

 

I had to wait until I was at a computer to respond to this so I could check out exactly where all the secrets are.

 

Here's the list

Spoiler

Secret 1 - Golden dagger in a chest inside Jordan Wiverton's storage room

Secret 2 - Purse of gold in Walter's office

Secret 3 - Bottle of wine on the shelf inside the posh bar area (the one with the balcony on the thieves highway opposite Thomas Mafford's balcony

Secret 4 - Just around the corner from there is a thieves stash behind the steel grate (the one with the thief patrolling the outdoor patio in the thieves highway)

Secret 5 - Garrett's stash in his bookshelf under the staircase

Secret 6 - A spilled purse of silver coin in a secret area you need to rope down to near the candlemakers shop

Secret 7 - An urn stashed behind some boxes near the fences store (opposite the door that you need to rope arrow upto to get the key too)

 

Also that's great that you noticed the sink draining, I put a lot of little details like that into my missions and it always makes me smile when people notice it

[Darkness_Falls]

Well that’s a new one! Does the crash happen if you replicate the same scene? I’m afraid I can’t help with the more technical bugs like these as that goes beyond my understanding. Of course it shouldn’t have crashed though, and during testing no one had a crash either.

If you’re able to power through it without another crash then that’s good, but if you get a crash again doing the same thing please post your save files here and I’ll try to track down someone who can have a look.

I tried it again, but it is a hard situation to replicate perfectly. When I did get fairly close to replicating the original situation, the error does not happen. So perhaps all is well. I will try again later and if I'm able to reproduce the error, I'll post here. Otherwise, assume it was just a one-time thing

 

Now I may need help with one of the objectives. I can't find:

Spoiler

The Thieves Highway. I'll keep looking up and assume I need to rope arrow up from the city streets, but the one or two places I've tried that look like 'maybe' they are where I should get to the rooftops are not designed for me to be there. I get to the roof and I'm at the edge of the map sort of thing. One of the objectives says to access somewhere from the thieves' highway. Maybe there is a text/scroll somewhere explaining how to get to it.

Edited by Darkness_Falls, 08 April 2018 - 12:15 PM.

[Goldwell]

I tried it again, but it is a hard situation to replicate perfectly. When I did get fairly close to replicating the original situation, the error does not happen. So perhaps all is well. I will try again later and if I'm able to reproduce the error, I'll post here. Otherwise, assume it was just a one-time thing

 

Now I may need help with one of the objectives. I can't find:

Spoiler

The Thieves Highway. I'll keep looking up and assume I need to rope arrow up from the city streets, but the one or two places I've tried that look like 'maybe' they are where I should get to the rooftops are not designed for me to be there. I get to the roof and I'm at the edge of the map sort of thing.

 

Spoiler

You access the thieves highway from your balcony in your home. Just goto the door marked Corbin in the "Upper Northdale Apartments" or marked as simply "home" on your map and then your room is upstairs on the right. Open up the balcony doors and voila you are up on the thieves highway.

[Spooks]

Finished it a couple of days ago, brilliant mission! Reminds me why I'll never pass a Goldwell FM up. A dozen tiny details ensure this remains a memorable experience. I got about 2 out of 7 secrets, I thought the main part of the mission did not overstay its welcome and I enjoyed the varied locations you explore. Only problem was, paradoxically, that they could've been fleshed out way more. I got excited when entering the Thieves' Guild and the rooftops, but they were over before I knew it. Ah well, I suppose pacing trumps all. Best of all, it's not droll like much else of what be on offer in our selection of FMs. It's snappy and adventure-y, a refreshing change of pace from all the grimdark missions already published.

[Shaz]

Also that's great that you noticed the sink draining, I put a lot of little details like that into my missions and it always makes me smile when people notice it

 

Thank you for the secrets list, now I can soothe that itch.

 

And I will try to remember to point out when I find such things, because I love it when I notice them. They always make ME smile, and if it makes the creator smile to know I appreciated it, then it behooves me to make sure that they know 

 

Looking forward to discovering more little details in the next mission!

[NeonsStyle]

Just finished this mission. I really enjoyed it. It took quite awhile to realise that my bedroom balcony doors were not for show, I never even walked over

there, they just looked too good to open lol. So I wandered around blindly trying to find the next part of the map. In the end, it took noclipping around

to discover there was more to the map. Same with Wivertons bedroom, even after I looked on the forum for a clue, I still couldn't find the trigger, and

only found it by frobbing everything around there. 

 

Love the feel of the mission, and the intricate areas around the Thieves guild. Had some problem with the pipe when you go left out of your bedroom, and

go around the corner, I had some problems getting back on the pipe. If it continued another foot, that'd be solved. I died a lot trying to get back on the pipe. 

 

All in all, I really enjoyed this, loved the design, the story, and acting. Thanks heaps Goldwell

 

 

PS Oh yes I forgot to mention your amazing Intro video. Stunning work, really beautiful shots and beautifully directed. 

Edited by NeonsStyle, 15 May 2018 - 10:14 AM.

[Springheel]

Finished the mission and really enjoyed it. 

 

First of all, the intro vid was amazing.  I'll go on record as supporting replacing the old TDM intro movie with Goldwell's "powered by tdm" version.

 

As for the mission itself, I loved all the details that added to the immersion, especially the custom dialogue.  The way the shopkeeper would react to what you did really added to the feeling of interacting with the environment.  The city had a great, lived-in feel, with some nice little world-building touches, like the singing statue.

 

Great secrets.  I really liked being able to put food into my inventory and eat it later...it added another way to feel rewarded for finding things without really unbalancing anything.

 

Spoiler

I found a metal door at the west end of the map that was locked, and I couldn't pick it.  Is there a key somewhere to get in?  I could see a clear window far above it but couldn't get up there.

 

 

I did have one thing happen that I think is a problem with the AI suspicion script.  I tried lockpicking a door in my apartment while the guard was on the upper floor.  I failed to lockpick it, and stopped before the guard started coming down the stairs.  But when I walked past him looking innocent, he ran and attacked me.  Shouldn't he have to see me in the act of lockpicking to become hostile?  It was a big hassle trying to get past him--he kept chasing me out into the water, and without any shadows inside I couldn't hide from him.  I tried dropping a mine but he wouldn't step on it, so after four or five attempts I wound up having to lure him down onto the boat, and then climbed the ladder and ran past him. 

[Goldwell]

Finished the mission and really enjoyed it. 
 
First of all, the intro vid was amazing.  I'll go on record as supporting replacing the old TDM intro movie with Goldwell's "powered by tdm" version.
 
As for the mission itself, I loved all the details that added to the immersion, especially the custom dialogue.  The way the shopkeeper would react to what you did really added to the feeling of interacting with the environment.  The city had a great, lived-in feel, with some nice little world-building touches, like the singing statue.
 
Great secrets.  I really liked being able to put food into my inventory and eat it later...it added another way to feel rewarded for finding things without really unbalancing anything.
 

Spoiler

I found a metal door at the west end of the map that was locked, and I couldn't pick it.  Is there a key somewhere to get in?  I could see a clear window far above it but couldn't get up there.
 
 
I did have one thing happen that I think is a problem with the AI suspicion script.  I tried lockpicking a door in my apartment while the guard was on the upper floor.  I failed to lockpick it, and stopped before the guard started coming down the stairs.  But when I walked past him looking innocent, he ran and attacked me.  Shouldn't he have to see me in the act of lockpicking to become hostile?  It was a big hassle trying to get past him--he kept chasing me out into the water, and without any shadows inside I couldn't hide from him.  I tried dropping a mine but he wouldn't step on it, so after four or five attempts I wound up having to lure him down onto the boat, and then climbed the ladder and ran past him. 

Spoiler

I believe there is a bug in the script or possibly somewhere in the map with the guard. Possibly he heard the lockpick or somehow he saw evidence of it happening.

I did hear this happen to a couple of people, but it is also possible to have him act completely normal despite the player breaking into places. Id have to check it out, there might be a door should be closed spawnarg lying around or something.

Also in regards to the locked doors, all of those have keys inside to unlock them. And if you ever find a locked door it means that somewhere close by is a wooden beam or something similar for the player to rope arrow upto.

The locked doors and ways out were added as a way so that the player could get up somewhere high but get down without hurting themselves or losing their rope arrow.

[Cookie]

Wow, this is a really good FM, your work is steadily improving on an already high level.

 

Spoiler

Pros:

 

- visuals
- level design
- readables
- intro
- voice acting
- resembling "life of the party"

Cons:

 

- None

Questions:

- How long did it take you to implement the quest related stuff? Really impressive
- One of the flats on the first floor located near the players home only has a statue and some candles in it - did I miss some related stuff?

Edited by Cookie, 21 May 2018 - 03:26 PM.

[Goldwell]

Wow, this is a really good FM, your work is steadily improving on an already high level.
 

Spoiler

Pros:
 
- visuals
- level design
- readables
- intro
- voice acting
- resembling "life of the party"

Cons:
 
- None

Questions:

- How long did it take you to implement the quest related stuff? Really impressive
- One of the flats on the first floor located near the players home only has a statue and some candles in it - did I miss some related stuff?

Spoiler

Thank you for the kind words!

Implementing the contracts system wasnt too hard actually, Ive got plenty more contracts in act 2 coming too!

The apartment with the statue and candles expands throughout the campaign. The first mission is just to plant the seed of curiosity, in later missions you learn more about it.

[chakkman]

Nice nice. Actually, i think both the city hub, and the contracts add a LOT to the mission. If Looking Glass Studio still existed, and they'd make a Thief  now, i would really hope they make it semi-open world (city hub), and add a lot of side quests/contracts. I'm actually sure they would do, it's something which has become popular in games (one of the good things about games nowadays). 

[Kerry000]

Where is Act 2, dammit???

 

Hurry up! 

 

[Goldwell]

Where is Act 2, dammit???

 

Hurry up! 

 

 

[Ubersuntzu]

Spoiler

Thank you for the kind words!

Implementing the contracts system wasnt too hard actually, Ive got plenty more contracts in act 2 coming too!

The apartment with the statue and candles expands throughout the campaign. The first mission is just to plant the seed of curiosity, in later missions you learn more about it.

 

 

Part 1 was already the most finely polished Dark Mod mission I've played. Can't wait to see how the next installments turn out. 

 

Now I'm downloading the Accountant missions and Lord Edgar's Bathhouse in hopes that they're anywhere close to as good as Shadows of Northdale.

Edited by Ubersuntzu, 31 May 2018 - 08:02 PM.

[Goldwell]

 

 

Part 1 was already the most finely polished Dark Mod mission I've played. Can't wait to see how the next installments turn out. 

 

Now I'm downloading the Accountant missions and Lord Edgar's Bathhouse in hopes that they're anywhere close to as good as Shadows of Northdale.

 

 

Prepare to be disappointed. Plus those missions are a bit broken on 2.06, i'm in the process of updating and fixing them now though, while also juggling getting Northdale act 2 out the door.

[Dragofer]

Wonderful mission, I can say many good things about this. Overall I liked the cozy mood, from being a retired master thief living in a posh apartment to only being driven by one's curiosity to not being treated as a dangerous criminal.

I agree that this is much like Life of a Party: authentic Thief vibes and always enjoyable to explore down to the last nook, thanks in part to the humour strewn in here and there.

The polish of your missions has reached a high level. This starts of course with the briefing and voice acting, but also extends to the visual side: in the style of Thief yet in the framework of more modern technology.

And I have to say, I found the idea of making a lamp shop out of my assets quite amusing Now, I wonder if Act 2 will be the one that features the sloop...

In terms of feedback, I appreciate the idea of adding side stories as you've done with the contracts, but I'd have preferred to have performed such tasks out of my own initiative rather than being assigned them from a mission hub and then instantly receiving the money. I think this would've added another layer of authenticity to the Thief-like experience.

Edited by Dragofer, 01 June 2018 - 04:10 AM.

[Goldwell]

Wonderful mission, I can say many good things about this. Overall I liked the cozy mood, from being a retired master thief living in a posh apartment to only being driven by one's curiosity to not being treated as a dangerous criminal.

I agree that this is much like Life of a Party: authentic Thief vibes and always enjoyable to explore down to the last crook, thanks in part to the humour strewn in here and there.

The polish of your missions has reached a high level. This starts of course with the briefing and voice acting, but also extends to the visual side: in the style of Thief yet in the framework of more modern technology.

And I have to say, I found the idea of making a lamp shop out of my assets quite amusing Now, I wonder if Act 2 will be the one that features the sloop...

In terms of feedback, I appreciate the idea of adding side stories as you've done with the contracts, but I'd have preferred to have performed such tasks out of my own initiative rather than being assigned them from a mission hub and then money teleporting into my wallet. I think this would've added another layer of authenticity to the Thief-like experience.

 

Thanks for the kind words! And yeah those lamps of yours really helped with the detailing in that shop, glad you got a kick out of seeing it! 

 

As for your curiosity about Act 2, i'd say you are right on the money with that one I have one of your ships docked at the... well dock and it plays a role in the story too, I gotta say on that note you make some incredible ships, when I was rearranging the interior for the FM I noticed the amount of detail you've done with just patches and brushes mainly.. very impressive!

 

Re: The feedback, you raise a good point there, originally in my design document for the shop you had to bring the contract paper back to the fence and he would give you money, and back when I had the insane idea of releasing all 3 acts under one big campaign I had a setup where at the start of each mission you would receive a letter or a crate by your front door with the earnings from the prior nights contract. But because these are single releases I decided to go with the magical money in your pocket, it does break Thief tradition and believability but I felt it was a happy compromise to keep the game play flowing.

[nbohr1more]

I was able to cure the strange AI pathfinding issue at the beginning of this mission

by reverting  "cm_backFaceCull" to 0  (default).

 

I'll update the wiki to reflect the issues with this cvar.

[Goldwell]

I was able to cure the strange AI pathfinding issue at the beginning of this mission
by reverting  "cm_backFaceCull" to 0  (default).
 
I'll update the wiki to reflect the issues with this cvar.

Thank you for that! Ill add that to the OP.

[Ladro]

OH MY GOD!

 

This mission it's so complete, polished, and AMAZING!

You made my day!

 

Thank you so much for your effort, what you did is really incredible!!!

[CarltonTroisi]

OH MY GOD!

 

This mission it's so complete, polished, and AMAZING!

You made my day!

 

Thank you so much for your effort, what you did is really incredible!!!

 

Hello Ladro,

 

I haven't gotten to this mission yet, but next time I fire up TDM, I'll probably run this one first!

 

Can you give more specificity, as to what you liked about the mission?  What made it stand out, in your opinion?

[Ladro]

 

Hello Ladro,

 

I haven't gotten to this mission yet, but next time I fire up TDM, I'll probably run this one first!

 

Can you give more specificity, as to what you liked about the mission?  What made it stand out, in your opinion?

 

Sorry, but unfortunately english it's not my mother language, so I cannot express myself as I would like :-(

However I can say that in this mission I have appreciated very much:

- The Shop: a WONDERFUL thing that finally makes it, in my humble opinion, useful to steal gold around the level.
I remember that there was a level made by "sterlino" (a very good and visionary Italian FM designer, I loved all his FMs with a lot of strange innovations) with an FM for T2 (I think it was named "Horn of Canzo", but I don't remember exactly), also a very FM beautiful, where a shop similar (a live ingame-shop like this) had been created. Here in this mission, however, the Shop was made in an even more interesting way, because you have also side quests, to get even more gold and fun with optional missions (this is good to explore better).

- The City: I love being able to explore a City/Village, walking even in front of the guards without having to hide me (at least at the beginning of the exploration when you have to understand the main quest :-) ).

- The verticality: in this level I found a really mature use of the "verticality" to reach certain parts of the city, in full "Thief" style.

- Presentation video: outstanding. The quality in my opinion, we are almost at the level that seems to be made by a gamehouse for a paid game.

I have not finished the level yet but I can say that so far it's awesome!

Add to this that I'm playing with the game natively compiled to 64bit, with the menus translated into my language (italian), with soft-shadows active (what a beauty!) and with all the incredible improvements of the latest release TDM 2.06.

 

This too, probably, affected my (very very very good!) judgment of this mission :-)

[SuaveSteve]

Some issues I encountered:

 

Spoiler

 

I shot a rope arrow on this wooden beam, descended all the way down and was able to jump to the ground without death.

https://my.mixtape.moe/wlgbtu.jpg

 

Fireplace in Phillip Casso's room seems to have a builtin fire hazard.

https://my.mixtape.moe/cfirsu.jpg

 

This guy got stuck immediately in front of the pillar. He's animation was jittering.

https://my.mixtape.moe/zepojx.jpg

 

[Goldwell]

If I revisit the map i'll mark down 1 and 2 for bug fixes, as for your third bug that's unfortunately a new bug that only occurs when playing the mission in 2.06. But it can be fixed by following what Nbohr1more posted a couple of posts up.
 

This guy got stuck immediately in front of the pillar. He's animation was jittering.
https://my.mixtape.moe/zepojx.jpg

I was able to cure the strange AI pathfinding issue at the beginning of this mission
by reverting  "cm_backFaceCull" to 0  (default).
 
I'll update the wiki to reflect the issues with this cvar.