R Soul
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Posts
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Posts posted by R Soul
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Care for some official merchandise?
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4
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What the hell is a "choke arrow"?
It's a broadhead with a chicken bone on the end.
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Call it The Dark Mood
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Note: All the spoilers make this post look longer than it really is!
This is the first mission I played since the training mission. For that reason, I started on Casual. First I tried to go uphill, but there were too many guards and the open fire put me off exploring that area. Just as well. It didn't occur to me that it was Sykes' place, but I wanted to explore the easier routes first. I tried the other direction. I managed to knock out a couple of people,just because that's what I do. I found the little room with the straw hat
and some loot.
At first, I'd avoided Down Street because having seen the sign in the intro movie, I thought that was the way to Sykes. It was now the only north route I hadn't tried, so I tried it. I then went right, down the dark narrow passage, and saw the
horse
through the gap in the fence. Needless to say, I
knocked it out. I think it should have put up more of a fight, but I don't know if that's just a TDM issue.
I saw a woman,
probably a seamstress right? She showed me her leg. Phwoar!
It was quite easy to find what's-his-name. This is where I have a minor criticism - the mission is very linear, but that's perfectly understandable for someone's first mission. As for the torch-guard patrolling the area,
I knocked him out.
After looking at the map it was easy to work out where I should be to access the back door. In the
narrow path next to the yard I thought about laying a plank across the two walls but it wasn't long enough. I then tried thowring it up onto the little wooden beams jutting out of the building at the end, but I didn't like the noise alerting the guard. I'm a coward/perfectionist who reloads at the first sign of trouble, so I reloaded, and mantled onto the far wall via the canopy on the other side.
I was then able to climb onto the wooden supports without the aid of any planks, which was a relief. I dropped down into the yard, and practiced my object moving skills by moving the crate from behind the guard and putting it down without making a racket. Then I was able to knock him out.
I explored downstairs, but missed the
torture room
, though I found it later on. I got the
privy
objective but it wasn't obvious to me that that's what I'd found. It didn't look
brown enough in my opinion.
I got upstairs by climbing onto
the lift.
In the main hall, I put out all of the wall lights, but did not knock out
The two people sitting down
I waited for the archer to enter the kitchen, but I didn't see him
eating the carrots
becuase I
knocked him out.
I went upstairs and put out the candle, but I'd forgotten we can 'use' them to put them out. I'd just been laying them down till they went out on their own. This got the attention of the people below, but they calmed down fairly quickly.
I then got into
Sykes's
room and
knocked him out
. This is where I had lots of trouble (my fault entirely). I'd forgotten/not realised that bodies could be picked up, so I tried for ages to drag him into the you-know-what. I briefly gave up and read his diary, and found the
secret attic entrance.
I read the warning about the
nails
but still got caught by them. I was a little disappointed that we couldn't use
the nearby boxes to block the trap (more on that in a moment) because there seemed no fair reason to make them immobile. I tried using the bundled sacking to cushion the blow, but it wasn't any good. In the end, I just took the punishment and ran in when the nails swung back up. Good job I had two healing potions.
I then had a torrid time trying to deal with
Sykes.
I actually went to the basement in case I could
get him through the bars, but that didn't work. The objective was completed however, but I still wanted to do it properly.
Once I realised bodies could be picked up, I restarted (no decent savegames after lots of frustrated arsing about), but used the middle difficulty level.
I'm not sure what to think of guards relighting torches. It's good for realism, but it risks wasting a water arrow. On the other hand, as one guard stopped to relight a torch, I took the opportunity to
knock him out.
I may try to make a habit of that; it seems like a good tactic.
This time I made the effort to get the boxes from under the stairs, and used them to
block the nails trap
. I don't know if there was a switch for it, but if I were Syke's, I know I'd have one.
I didn't like the idea of dropping
from the attic window
so I headed back downstairs and used the
gas arrow from the attic to knock out the two servants.
Before leaving, it occurred to me that since Sykes had dealt with
the other what's-his-name, the ring would either be in the torture room or the privy, so I found that quite easily.
After getting out, I wasn't too keen on the scripted
alert sequence.
I don't mind that sort of event but I think it should have been more randomised. The trigger point was very obvious, and made it seem like I'd done somethig wrong. But as others have said, it ensure that getting to the
exit point was still a challenge.
In short, despite forgetting how to deal with bodies, I did enjoy this mission, and because it's small I think it was a good mission to get started with.
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When standing:
When crouching:
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So let's say I have key_rusty1, key_silver1 (just a guess) and key_gold1
Then say pumphouse_door is used by key_rusty1 and key_gold1
house_door is used by key_silver1 and key_gold1
key_gold is then a sort of master key as it opens both doors.
If I gave the same inventory name (say 'Stolen Key') to key_rusty1 and key_silver1, when the player has both of them, they'll stack, and one of the editor_names will be lost, rendering one of the keys useless. So I know not to do that, but just out of interest, which key's editor name would be kept? The first on the stack or the most recent?
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The next/previous group buttons sound good.
Come to think of it, the item names issue shouldn't be too much of a problem. Most people making FMs for Dark do tend to give appropriate names so I'm sure the habit will transfer over to TDM.
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I did a search but I didn't find anything about this:
With the Dark engine, I find the inventory a bit cumbersome when I have lots of things. At least with the official items (flashbombs, mines etc) we can have keybinds, but if a mission has lots of keys and scrolls, finding the right one becomes a bit tedious.
How will the inventory work in TDM?
I was thinking there could be one object for 'Your Scrolls' which when opened, reveals a list of all the scrolls they player has. Something similar for keys perhaps. It would also be nice to be able to rename them if the author has been a bit vague. In the Thief OMs items were often just left as "Key" or "Scroll", and it's possible that authors could do the same.
Also it would be nice to be able to assign a key(board button) to an inventory object in case it'll need to be accessed frequently (say a scroll containing a list of instructions).
Things that could be improved
in The Dark Mod
Posted · Edited by R Soul
Sometimes realism has to take a backseat to gameplay. If a window highlights, but cannot be opened with lockpicks, players will assume there's a key somewhere. I think the novelty would wear off quite soon. If a window does not highlight, I think you should assume outside there's a long drop straight down, so there's no reason to use it.
If you can see in through a window, again, the player will assume there's a way in.
In both cases, as in life, it's usually impossible to prove a negative (e.g. no way in) so the player would have to search exhaustively. At the back of their mind would be the question "was there no way through, or did I give up too soon?"
If a door doesn't highlight, you could assume the player's character knows that that building doesn't lead anywhere, or any other assumption that suits you.
To compensate for such restrictions, mission authors can make sure there are plenty of genuine routes to take, including some that don't provide much of an advantage over others.