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Fan Mission: Shadows of Northdale ACT I - A Curious Mind by Goldwell (2018/03/23)


Goldwell

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Can we have a complete secret(s) list?

 

EDIT: nevermind, found the list :)

 

 

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)

 

Edited by lowenz

Task is not so much to see what no one has yet seen but to think what nobody has yet thought about that which everybody see. - E.S.

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I have some questions about lore/setting (and maybe a couple of suggestions). First questions:

 

1) Why is this door frobbable but there's nothing (noclip! :D ) behind?

northdale1_2018-08-22_13.57.37.jpg

2) Explain this "Mathias Carver" (a shrine?), please:

northdale1_2018-08-22_13.47.23.jpg

Edited by lowenz

Task is not so much to see what no one has yet seen but to think what nobody has yet thought about that which everybody see. - E.S.

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@Lowenz

 

1 - That's an exit door, the entrance is elsewhere :ph34r:

 

2 - Matthias takes on more of a role later in the campaign

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Other questions:

 

1) final loot acquired can be maximized (~4400)? (cause of 1500 in the safe, it seems they are not counted)

2) here there's an invisible INTENDED ladder?!

 

northdale1_2018-08-22_20.55.02.jpg

Edited by lowenz

Task is not so much to see what no one has yet seen but to think what nobody has yet thought about that which everybody see. - E.S.

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Other questions:

 

1) final loot acquired can be maximized (~4400)? (cause of 1500 in the safe, it seems they are not counted)

2) here there's an invisible INTENDED ladder?!

 

northdale1_2018-08-22_20.55.02.jpg

1) yes that is a bug. Not sure how to fix it either sorry.

 

2) The image is too dark for me to see things clearly but I think youre up on a roof? If so there are pipes the player can climb. Apart from that there arent any ladders.

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Suggestion for the secrets: why not use the city HUB for the secrets (closed shops, inn, delivery yeard, etc. )? Now the HUB is nearly "empty" of interest.

Task is not so much to see what no one has yet seen but to think what nobody has yet thought about that which everybody see. - E.S.

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Because secrets are optional and I want to keep them spread over most of the mission. The hub evolves throughout the campaign so each act you'll find different shops open and places to go, eventually nearly every location within the hub gets used eventually.

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Hey Goldwell,

 

just wanted to hop in to say that the Northdale campaign is by far the most exciting thing that happened in this mod for me (well, the Crucible of Omens campaign was equally exciting, but, unfortunately, discontinued...). Not to talk down other's work, but, Act 1 really has been another level, because of the things mentioned in this thread, like, the city hub, the whole level design, and overal consistency of the mission. I just can say that i'm very hyped, also by your post here: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/10003-so-what-are-you-working-on-right-now/?p=424938 Can't wait for Act 2 (and the others, ofc). :)

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Hey Goldwell,

 

just wanted to hop in to say that the Northdale campaign is by far the most exciting thing that happened in this mod for me (well, the Crucible of Omens campaign was equally exciting, but, unfortunately, discontinued...). Not to talk down other's work, but, Act 1 really has been another level, because of the things mentioned in this thread, like, the city hub, the whole level design, and overal consistency of the mission. I just can say that i'm very hyped, also by your post here: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/10003-so-what-are-you-working-on-right-now/?p=424938 Can't wait for Act 2 (and the others, ofc). :)

Thanks for the words of encouragement! Im still plugging away at Act 2 which is getting closer and closer, just waiting on some really cool custom models and some voice acting and then I can piece it all together. My main focus with it and all of the acts is to keep choices open, like you have multiple ways to break into the bank each with their pros and cons.

 

Act 3 has also come much further since that post and is down to one final area which is the city watch compound but all other areas are polished and finished. Act 4 which is a cathedral snowy mission is about halfway done now too.

 

So theyre all making healthy progress but now Im stuck on how to release it all though. Part of me likes the original idea of releasing them close together, another idea I had was to release all three missions in a single campaign all at once like a trilogy, or I guess I could just go back to how it originally was where act 2 gets released faster and then I focus on act 3 getting done and so on.

 

Seeing as Act 2 is so close its tempting to just release that but then there will be a wait until Act 3. Albeit not too long.

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I think after all the positive feedback you've received for the first act the next one should come soon to relieve your eager audience. Besides, your argument for releasing them close together is that there'll be less waiting for the next installment, but this is paid for by waiting much longer for any installment.

 

The main advantage I'd see in releasing them en-bloc is that you're free to go back and make changes to the acts until they all fit together how you want them. If you're already 100% certain of how all your 4 acts will play out then this becomes a minor point.

 

Regarding release as a campaign: while it'd be nice to see this feature getting used, it'd restrict those who want to replay a specific act, especially if it's after a reinstallation/redownload. Maybe you'd want to release the acts as individual missions in addition to the campaign format anyway?

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  • 2 weeks later...

Contract: These Numbers....

I notice that fulfilling a contract requires that the contract be selected, otherwise the game crashes. It took me multiple attempts before I realized this. When scribbling in Garrett's Ledger to alter the numbers, the game would keep crashing because I had lockpicks selected (broke into his store). Once I scrolled to the specific contract, THEN frobbed his ledger, the game carried on and I was given the credits for completing the contract.



I guess I forgot how to complete these contracts properly, or is this a bug?

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Contract: These Numbers....

 

 

I notice that fulfilling a contract requires that the contract be selected, otherwise the game crashes. It took me multiple attempts before I realized this. When scribbling in Garrett's Ledger to alter the numbers, the game would keep crashing because I had lockpicks selected (broke into his store). Once I scrolled to the specific contract, THEN frobbed his ledger, the game carried on and I was given the credits for completing the contract.

 

 

I guess I forgot how to complete these contracts properly, or is this a bug?

What version of tdm are you playing on?

 

You shouldnt be required to have the contract selected in order to complete it.

 

Could you please post the exact step by step you did to cause this crash.

 

Also does the crash happen all the time or some of the time?

 

Going forward as contacts get more complicated I dont want to have any crashing going on so you might have stumbled onto something big here!

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What version of tdm are you playing on?

 

You shouldnt be required to have the contract selected in order to complete it.

 

Could you please post the exact step by step you did to cause this crash.

 

Also does the crash happen all the time or some of the time?

 

Going forward as contacts get more complicated I dont want to have any crashing going on so you might have stumbled onto something big here!

TDM version = 2.06 / 64

 

I had finished the core of the mission objectives and set about completing my "secrets" hunt including completing 2 missions I picked up at Finkel's Shop.

The first contract involved Garrett's Print Shop, so I went over there and lock picked my way in.

Snuffed out some candles and read some stuff on the counter.

Found the ledger on the shelf and frobbed it. Scribble noises indicated I was completing my task. But soon after the Completion Window popped up, the game crashed to desktop. Started TDM again and repeated the sequence, thinking it was a once-only problem, but same thing happened. Next time I quick saved after entering Garrett's Shop then went straight to the ledger without snuffing candles or reading the counter book. Crashed again. I tried a couple more times and was about to inquire here about my problem when I thought maybe I have to "initiate" the contract in order for it to work. So instead of having the lock picks selected, the Contract was selected. IT WORKED !!

 

So out of, maybe, 5 or so attempts, the ONLY time the game didn't crash was when I had the Contract selected.

 

No one else has experienced this ??

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TDM version = 2.06 / 64

 

I had finished the core of the mission objectives and set about completing my "secrets" hunt including completing 2 missions I picked up at Finkel's Shop.

The first contract involved Garrett's Print Shop, so I went over there and lock picked my way in.

Snuffed out some candles and read some stuff on the counter.

Found the ledger on the shelf and frobbed it. Scribble noises indicated I was completing my task. But soon after the Completion Window popped up, the game crashed to desktop. Started TDM again and repeated the sequence, thinking it was a once-only problem, but same thing happened. Next time I quick saved after entering Garrett's Shop then went straight to the ledger without snuffing candles or reading the counter book. Crashed again. I tried a couple more times and was about to inquire here about my problem when I thought maybe I have to "initiate" the contract in order for it to work. So instead of having the lock picks selected, the Contract was selected. IT WORKED !!

 

So out of, maybe, 5 or so attempts, the ONLY time the game didn't crash was when I had the Contract selected.

 

No one else has experienced this ??

In order to start a contract the player does have to open the readable at least once. Doing so makes the relevant entities in the world interactable (as now you know what to look for). After a contract is complete the loot is applied (shortly after the completion) window. Im thinking maybe something is going awry during that event.

 

This is something Ill take a deeper look at going forward. Thank you for your feedback on this all too, that helps to narrow things down.

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The Second Contract I had no problem with. But I had already read it. When it came time to frob the Cask I HAD to have the Sleeping Potion selected. So it looks like my issue was particular to the Contract of changing the ledger. I MUST of read that Contract prior to the crash otherwise I would have no idea to go to Garrett's Shop. Strange.

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Loved the mission.

I only got 3/7 secrets on my own though. The ones I didn't get were "nicely done" and, typical of secret hunts, make you explore every corner of the map.

Looking forward to the next installment.

 

One last note on the problem I encountered wrt Garrett's Ledger......The crash appeared to happen at the end of the sound/music that accompanies completion of the task at hand. Could be a coincidence but it sounded jerky or raspy, choppy, then whoosh....crash to desktop.

Edited by CountMorillonite
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Glad you had a good time! Im currently working on act 2 and act 3 but theyre both still quite a while off.

 

The bug you experienced is very strange, the mission was built and tested on 2.05 however it should still work on 2.06. When I get to the contracts in my current WIP Ill be sure to pay close attention to them.

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Glad you had a good time! Im currently working on act 2 and act 3 but theyre both still quite a while off.

 

The bug you experienced is very strange, the mission was built and tested on 2.05 however it should still work on 2.06. When I get to the contracts in my current WIP Ill be sure to pay close attention to them.

I noticed that you used "Custom" sounds. This comes from a fan mission web page under EFX Reverb. Maybe something is going on there.

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Fan_Missions_for_The_Dark_Mod

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I noticed that you used "Custom" sounds. This comes from a fan mission web page under EFX Reverb. Maybe something is going on there.

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Fan_Missions_for_The_Dark_Mod

Every dark mod mission uses custom sounds with some small exceptions. If that was the issue youd be seeing it a lot more missions.

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  • 1 month later...

So I hadn't had a TDM mission since 2 years and played some 2018 missions. But this one was the best I could remember.

I really liked the intro, the shopping system, the side missions!! The good clues, nice climbing possibilities. maybe a bit too easy, but a fantastic story driven and gameplay mission

;) When could we expect the second act?

 

Greetings

Edited by Berny
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So I hadn't had a TDM mission since 2 years and played some 2018 missions. But this one was the best I could remember.

I really liked the intro, the shopping system, the side missions!! The good clues, nice climbing possibilities. maybe a bit too easy, but a fantastic story driven and gameplay mission

;) When could we expect the second act?

 

Greetings

 

Thanks for the kind words!

 

In terms of a release date my current goal is to have both act 2 and act 3 out by spring 2019. They're both quite far along and I plan on releasing them very close together so at least the wait between act 2 and 3 wont be as long as the current wait is.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I loved this FM so much! This is AAA quality work, the sort of thing I would love to see more often in TDM. Two things stood out to me in particular.

 

The first is the way you defined the guard mechanics. Guards don't attack you by default, instead they will act if they catch you doing something you shouldn't do. I think this kind of enemy design for main areas is excellent! Firstly it makes more sense from a logical perspective, since unless you're a notorious criminal or the city is under curfew, there's no reason for the city guards to attack you automatically... and both of those are overused reasons in existing FM's. The second reason is that, although it might sound more challenging and exciting for guards to chase you all the time, this gives you a factor of consequence and introduces an optional penalty that forces you to better time your actions (mess up and you'll have the extra challenge of needing to hide from the guards). A third positive aspect is that it makes exploring the public areas easier... many FM's are a bit annoying for first timers as you have to dodge a lot of guards while learning the layout.

 

The second thing I loved was of course the shopkeep. Firstly this is the first time (as far as I'm aware) that a TDM mission implements an actual shop, which as a fan of open world city hubs is something I've long wanted to see; You gather all this loot yet never put it to any actual use, where's the fun in that?! As an extra bonus, the salesman has a lot of funny interactions: He will respond if you read his journal, turn off his candle, or try to open his door... I laughed when I saw those little details as I found them awesome :laugh:

 

You're truly one of the greatest FM creators. I'm eager to see part 2 of this once it will be out. Hopefully you're planning to make it an actual campaign rather than individual FM's: There aren't many of those even for existing series, the campaign system of TDM is seeing little love still.

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