Melan
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Days Won
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Posts posted by Melan
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That's a nice shot, and it does have a good atmosphere - well realised. I also like the premise of the mission; these "escape" missions always tend to be fun.
Don't worry about your unfamiliarity with the asset library. Things will fall into place through practice. Also, very often, less is more - you can achieve good consistency with only a few objects, and that's good for mood as well.
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Welcome back, and hope we will see something from you again! Sadly, I have not been very active either; the last time I touched DR was in 2016 - I am planning to change that, but life always gets in the way. Whether you will make something or just play the new missions, it is great to see you again!
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Blade Runner Blues plays faintly in the background...
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Clearly, The Rats Triumphant was ahead of its time.
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It's dead, Jim.
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I have no idea how the treads could ever work, so I am content to describe it as
SORCERY!
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This has been a decent investigative mission. It is built and lit in a fairly plain way, and it is scaled too large, but finding and interpreting clues makes it flow well - it is well-paced and logical, neither too difficult nor too easy. A pleasant mission. I wonder, though:
SpoilerHow do you open the secret door midway the crypts? I could see the recessed, rectangular depression in the greenish wooden planks, but didn't find any opening mechanism.
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This was a very nice first release, and quite well realised when it comes to the balance of difficulty vs. clues. The secondary objectives are nice optional asides. Perhaps it was a bit light on AI (one or even two more guards would not have hurt), but exploring the judge's home was fun, and the mission had multiple individual touches which add to the experience. Visually, it is fine; the sewers are very plain (and look like early work), but the upper quarters are much better. I hope we will see more from you after this FM!
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I don't know. Every time I tried to make something new in DR (or even fix one of PD3's minor bugs), I got hit by terrible burnout. Also, PD4 was supposed to have features which have been covered in a better way by other authors since. So maybe, but not any time soon. Hopefully not as late as the ten-year gap between Disorientation and Rose Garden.
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I expected a small mission from this speedy collaboration, but it ended up both larger and more complex than I'd thought. There is a lot to do in a mission that grows beyond its boundaries (visiting areas which at first looks like distant scenery is a cool feature), and throws you a few unexpected curveballs. I did encounter the LOD popping a lot, and got hit with the hidden objective. I think this one is very badly communicated in the first version (no idea if it has been fixed since), since you expect one thing, and have to do something completely different. But apart from that, this was a very nice surprise. Got LEET+1 loot on my playthrough!
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That's fairly steady.
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That's a sleek gondola, Epifire! Very moody.
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If you would like to, go for it! The accent I had in mind was something like Edmund Blackadder, one of Shakespeare's villains, or one of the Thief aristocrats. As the description goes, "this is a character fit for a sinister nobleman, a corrupt merchant, a crime boss or an evil mastermind. He is sophisticated, pretentious, ruthless towards others, but cowardly at heart. He is given to dark, brooding thoughts, and feels at home in the City’s shadows."
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This was quite a nice Autumn surprise! Not terribly big or difficult, but well-realised, and with the plus of emotional investment. Definitely strong on mood. Many fine little details make the picture even better - I liked the subtle, unsettling little changes over the course of the mission. It was all just right.
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This has been a cool mission to get reacquainted with TDM after a long pause. Challenging, consistently well written and atmospheric, and always top notch in appearance. An excellent continuation of the nautical themes in your previous missions. Good to finally see Wrecker's Reach put to use, too. I hope the other side of town (which was not featured in this FM) also sees the light of day some time.
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Second batch:
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I am posting these on behalf of bikerdude (from Shadowhide's big city map). LONG.
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This specific map is also particularly finicky to work with. It is organic, detailed and confusing.
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The dilapidated old house at the western waterfront of Wrecker's Reach.
So this Crucible mission has found a new purpose? Great!
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I will be the contrarian, and interject that stepwise does not work for me. Roughing out the entire level, then doing another activity across the entire level would just lead to quick burnout. I build scene-by-scene, although with extra rounds of expansion and refinement. Good thing I am not part of the industry - just a fan.
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Spooks speaks from my perspective as well. I like Bikerdude quite a lot, and he has not only been instrumental in making my maps releasable (my building habits are often over-ambitious), he has also shaped them in good ways, helped me find the laptop I am currently typing on, and more. But I do treat creative ownership of a map seriously, way more seriously than he did. This actually includes his maps, which he reformatted and partially reused in ways I would have considered downright disrespectful if he had done it to someone else.
There was also an imbalance in our working relationship, in that he could build very detailed stuff very quickly, while for me, every brush and light placement could be a tortuously slow decision. He is also a much harder worker than I am. The things I have built did not come easy to me, nor are they freely interchangeable with something else. I make something to fit together in a particular way - a specific room is there because it belongs there, not because it could be any general room. To see days or weeks' worth of thinking and iteration being rewritten was not a pleasant experience. I had to learn to "hold" maps and camp on them to avoid our projects being overtaken and gradually turned into something unrecognisable. But apparently, it still didn't save them from post-release tampering. The PD2 fiasco started with a few innocent fixes - which actually looked cool - and ended with a redesign that would have completely subverted the way the mission worked. And PD2 is the TDM map I am the most proud of.
It was just as hard - and perhaps ultimately futile - to communicate a design intent to him, because he'd of course do his own thing. And that can be quite good! The current version of Return to the City is perhaps more his map than mine, and it is very good (not to mention it doesn't freeze randomly for seconds). But it is also fairly different in tone and scope to the mission I built and won a contest with. You can play that contest-winning mission (with the dogshit performance and half the content, mind you), but you'll have to dig deep to find it and make that comparison. Otherwise, you'll play an altogether different map. Whether you think that difference matters or not is at the heart of this discussion.
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This behaviour is not fucking acceptable, period. What the fuck.
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We have lost a member of the TDM development team
in The Dark Mod
Posted
I am very sad to hear of grayman's passing. I knew his battle with cancer had been long, and he was fortright about the possibility, but you always hope... This feels like losing an old friend, as he has been a member here for a very long time. It is not just his missions - which were justly cited as among the best - and not just his work on the core mod - which was essential. He was also a kind and friendly presence here, and that, especially, will be missed.
RIP, grayman! And condolences to @grayson and the entire family.