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Hi all, So I have a bit of an unusual request for the community. I'm currently nearing the end of my Master's degree, and need to complete my thesis before I can graduate. Being that I'm in a games program, I had to construct a level for user testing; since I'm very familiar with Darkradiant and didn't want to wrassle with Unity, I ended up building my level using TDM. After some preliminary user tests, I'm ready to begin a short iteration phase where I improve the level before final testing, and I thought I'd open my terrible tiny level up to the mod community for feedback from folks who are familiar with TDM and the stealth game genre. My research specifically pertains to environmental storytelling, so that's what I'm aiming to do well. Any advice on improving performance would also be appreciated (my exterior is kind of a mess), as would advice on creating good-looking diegetic lighting that sufficiently highlights both important narrative elements and where to go to progress (especially for inexperienced players).

Story Tease On the run from her husband, me and my girl. With a bribe to a ship's captain, we're away. What could go wrong now? Oh, dammit. Links "Away 1 - Air Pocket" Version 1.0 is available from the in-game downloader and its mirrors. As well as here. There are two extra documents contained in your installed .pk4 and also conveniently available here - For gamers needing hints, this Q&A uses "invisible ink" to selectively hide the answers: Air Pocket - Hints and Spoilers [Jan. 29, 2020].docx For understanding what's under the hood: Maintenance Guide to Away 1 - Air Pocket [Jan 29, 2020].docx For more about the innards and interations, see this FM's Beta Testing thread. Author's Note This is my first substantive TDM FM, a nautical adventure, and what I hope will be part of a longer story arc. Enjoy. Gallery Credits & Acknowledgements Thanks to TDM community members for encouragement - and assistance with newbie questions - while building this, my first FM (not counting an earlier nanoMission). Kudos in particular to Dragofer for the wonderful ship models (modified here), newly-created ship davits, and assets like kelp models from 'Down by the Riverside'. Also a custom cannon-ball hole through the hull, and much helpful guidance. The skybox is adapted from 'lagoon' by Hazel Whorley (CC BY-NC; hw_lagoon.zip at www.custommapmakers.org/skyboxes). Finally, my deep appreciation to all who tested or assisted during the beta: Biene, Cambridge Spy, Dragofer, duzenko, peter_spy, and stgatilov

Thanks so much to everyone who's volunteered, I appreciate it a lot! I'll go ahead and prepare a thread in the beta-testing forum

Good to hear. Yup, not running out of air is one of this mission's motivators. In earlier iterations of this FM, you could swim into the lower fully-immersed bunks and easily get stuck and drown. Those bunks are blocked with debris now (and player clip) to solve that.

Yeah, this website has more shots showing the ceiling and other details around the place: https://www.apotheke-adhoc.de/nachrichten/detail/apothekenpraxis/berlins-aelteste-apotheke-berlinapotheke-am-hackeschen-markt/

Sure

OMG, this is the Internet I'm on? No wonder I couldn't figure out where to stick the postage stamp! Yucks aside, thanks for the encouragement.

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Dopefish, glad you liked some aspects. I understand regarding "underwhelming". Some of the existing FMs have wonderful deep playability. I think of these as big novels, like "War and Peace". I'm only able to manage a novella at the level of effort and skill I can provide. This one took me a year (of calendar time, not manhours), and if it took significantly longer, I'd get discouraged and bag it. So, better a bit short (and quirky) than nada. That said, with more experience under my belt, maybe future episodes can offer more to do (but I still hope for some good quirkiness).

...or maybe not. I've "over-egged the custard" there with that PR poster concept. But thanks for the interest in further episodes of the story arc, where l hope to have more ship (and ashore) exploration. joebarnin, the getting-stuck issue you noted, in the waist hold next to the galley, wasn't reported during beta testing. Was it near the surface, or down in the debris?

Thanks, everyone for the congrats. @JackFarmer, @joebarnin, maybe I should hire you guys as blurb writers, say...

I also have a feeling that excluding some clearly non-EFX sounds won't take much time. I mean, at least, all menu/UI sounds, all ambients.

Yes. Maybe. I think there is not too many sound shaders, putting no_efx flag to some of them won't take much time, but testing them can take days. Mappers would have two options: Leave all sounds with EFX, as if this discussion never happened. Completely override every sound shader that they don't like to be affected by EFX. I.e. put same-named shader file info their pk4, which I suppose would create FMs with unchangeable sound shaders.I have a feeling that second options is even worse that the first one in the long run. Anyway, I need to know: should the "no_efx" flag be added to 2.06 or leave it for 2.07?