Jehauri
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Posts posted by Jehauri
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Okay, finally found time to finish it, and the last part was the best!
SpoilerIt was really neat seeing the rooms of the mansion, formerly empty and smashed, given enough context to identify them, and I loved the little details like the note on the history of the place changing after you steal the painting (I actually went back a couple times to see what it would do depending on who I knocked out/killed, and it looks like it gets messed up in certain configurations and cuts off, but the idea is great) and the new paintings the museum has to replace Now and Then since it was now never discovered. The bodies of the former painting thieves and their note even vanish from the bunker, which is great attention to detail. I love the whole time travel thing, and I could easily see a future level or two built around this idea. I hope someone does!
Ended with only 7 of 11 secrets, but after cheating and finding the remainders, I think 8 would have been the absolute maximum I'd ever have discovered- some of them were practically impossible to spot! Anyway, aside from the tedious frustration when I couldn't find the clue I needed as mentioned earlier, I enjoyed it a lot. It does an amazing amount in a relatively small space.
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I don't mean to be overly critical, of course. It's a great level, and I should have some more positive things to add once I have time to wrap it up.
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I haven't finished quite yet (ran out of time today), but I had a couple problems:
One, the
Spoilernote that tells you what the combination actually is
becomes completely invisible and virtually impossible to find if you open the drawer above it in the dark and don't realize there's a note there. It's just... gone, and I scoured the entire house for hours, messing with the light switches and trying to find any clue besides the one in the music room. I don't think it's at all reasonable to expect the player to find such a vital clue in a place where it's so easy to lose and never even realize.
Second, it's a minor thing, but the hallway outside Franklin's apartment door had a lit window on the outside, but on the same spot on the inside there's no window, just a wall with a lamp.
Other than that, I've been enjoying the mission so far. Love the museum exhibits and such and the abundance of secrets to find, some rather tricky even after you find clues
Spoiler(though the clue regarding the lady's missing ring is extremely misleading- shouldn't it be in the middle of the floor somewhere if she dropped it? It's nowhere near any of the exhibits)
, and great use of vertical space without requiring rope arrows.
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That was great- I had to take three nights just to finish it, and thought it was very well put-together! The puzzles were actually challenging in a way that I don't think any other mission I've played has managed to pull off. In particular,
Spoilerfinding the bomb
was very tricky, and the solution was more subtle and detailed than I realized the engine was capable of. I do have one complaint though, which is that
Spoilerthe objective to "dismantle the bomb before entering the airlock" is extremely misleading. It's a separate objective than just finding it, so I didn't want to go in there until I was absolutely sure it was done, yet there seemed to be no way to do it- I scoured the whole building for a good hour trying to frob toolboxes, or maybe smash it against the side of the submarine that you can move back and forth, before finally giving up and actually believing the character's statement that he can go in the airlock now... at which point it completed automatically. If the stakes are exploding, it's kind of unfair not to be as clear as possible about what must be done.
Other than that, there were only some minor issues- getting stuck on terrain a few times (mostly in the citadel towards the end), and
Spoilerright after the big golden doors I was able to open the metal gates to the right and left simply by reaching through the bars and hitting the switch- was that intentional? I'm assuming not, because it looks like there's a gap where you're supposed to shoot an arrow to hit the switch, at least for the left gate. Also, in that same area there were tiles in the floor that looked like they were supposed to set off traps on the walls, but when I stepped on them nothing happened.
Considering how huge, complicated and dense the level was, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself missing only 95 loot at the end- and 80 of that turned out to be a single gold brick that I somehow overlooked despite thoroughly searching the cabinet it was in. Anyway, I really enjoyed the puzzles, the scattered poems, and the insight into just how screwed-up and brutal the Builder's religion is! I'll never feel guilty robbing a church again.
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Unfortunately, I don't remember which mission had the curtain. I think it was in front of a toilet, possibly one that you can use to infiltrate via the sewers, and it was probably either a mission from the Chronicles of Skulduggery series or Hidden Hands series, but I can't remember for sure.
Knowing how to turn off the boop sound is good, but is there anything I can do to fix the actual issue? I'm still not sure what causes the sounds to be missing. If it's fan mission authors making an oversight, why did it never happen until 2.08? Is it possible my install glitched and I'm just missing the actual sound files for a few things?
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I've been noticing that sometimes, instead of a sound playing, I get sort of a weird electronic "BOOP". A few examples I can remember off the top of my head are hitting an oil lamp with a blackjack, walking through a curtain, and most recently, the latest update for the mission Volta 1: The Stone, where it goes "BOOP" once on the menu screen instead of playing music. This issue never happened before I updated to 2.08.
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I assumed that since I'd been downloading all the updates from the in-game downloader it would fix these issues, but sure enough, once I deleted the folder manually and re-downloaded it, it works fine. Thank you!
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I decided to replay the first two before starting this one, to refresh my memory, only to find that the first one no longer works. Partway through loading I get this error message:
Any idea what's causing this? Chapter 2 loads just fine.
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Spoiler
Thanks, I was finally able to find it. The flickering firelight does a good job of hiding it, and even when I saw the edge of it I had a devil of a time getting it to actually activate- it didn't seem reachable for the first five tries, then, without anything apparently changing, it suddenly was. Feels good to see the last hidden part of the level though!
Tried the keyhole again, still crashy, unfortunately. I'm using 2.07... as far as I know, there isn't a 2.08? I don't see any mention on the Dark Mod page, and the updater doesn't update to it either. But don't get me wrong, the issues were minor in the end and I had a great time playing the level. Thanks for all the hard work!
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I'm running the 64 bit version of The Dark Mod and the keyhole feature instantly crashed the game when I tried it. I didn't really miss it (in fact, this is the first I've heard of it, do any other missions have this?), but I'm really curious what it looks like and why it's not working.
I also ran into something kind of weird when I started the mission- when I tried to blackjack the two guards walking the streets (with the black and white uniforms), it just passed harmlessly through them, not making a sound. They turned around and killed me, and the problem persisted when I reloaded, though I could still kill them with arrows. Later, when I blackjacked Stefan, there was no trouble at all, and when I tried the same guards again later, they also were felled as normal. It's really weird- I've played dozens and dozens of missions and never had that happen before.
As for the mission itself, I enjoyed it very much, and everything felt really well put together. I enjoyed finding the secrets- I was able to find 4 out of 5 on my first try. However,
SpoilerI still haven't been able to find the neighbor's hidden treasure. It was obvious from context that there must be something there. Other people on this thread have mentioned that it's one of the secrets, and that it's got something to do with the bookcase. But I've absolutely combed every square inch of that room looking for some kind of switch or lever or loose book, and there. Is. NOTHING. Where on earth is the secret??
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13 hours ago, JackFarmer said:
@Jehauri:
What difficulty level are you playing? The trapdoor might be useful if you have to take out all three spiders. If you have already cleared the pest control objective, than you do not have to worry about the trapdoor anymore as it does not fulfil any other purpose (there are three other possibilities to take out spiders, two with collectable resources and one with another "switch".)
Otherwise I am afraid I have no solution for your problem.
SpoilerI'm playing hardest difficulty, and I was trying to use it to take out the spiders, but when it opened under them they just hovered in midair, and after doing this several times I was able to gradually jitter them downward and into the pit, though there seemed to be a weird piece of metal hovering over the middle at the end of it. I probably should have saved right there, but I wanted to make sure I could still actually get into the pit in case there was something down there, and fell off the ladder and died.
If the only purpose of the pit is to kill the spiders, maybe I can find another way. I assume you're referring to the flame jet elsewhere in the basement, but I can't get the spiders to walk in that particular area, whether it's on or off- it's like there's an invisible crate there that they avoid. At this point I'm thinking of taking them all out with a gas arrow, then dragging them to the flame if possible (I don't remember if you can pick up spider bodies), or drowning them outside, or shooting them with an arrow (they take FOUR arrows each when awake, which I don't have, but maybe when they're knocked out it would be less?)
In any case, I mostly needed confirmation that I'm not missing anything vital in the pit, so thanks!
UPDATE: Okay, this is weird. I took them out with a gas arrow, and the objective immediately succeeded with no further action needed. I tried this before and it didn't work, I assumed because they were just unconscious and not dead.
So after that I was able to finish the mission, and I enjoyed it a lot! I had a few minor problems with it:
SpoilerAside from the difficulties with the trap door, I'm not sure why the objective named the spiders as "spidermen", that was just confusing. I was actually saving my arrows for a while because I thought that some actual spider-human hybrids were going to show up later. Also, there were a few weird inconsistencies- why can I put out most candles, but not the ones in the Builder area, or a few on shelves in corners of the bathrooms? Why can I not open that one chest in the room with the trap door in the ceiling? I also got stuck a couple times and had to reload, once on that same chest (just stepping towards it froze me in place and I couldn't move) and once in the dumpster where you toss Gilbert.
But for the most part it was great. I particularly liked
Spoilerthat you had a few non-traditional puzzles- starting without the spyglass or lantern and having to find them, then having to use them to get past specific areas later, finding Applefinger's gems using clues, that sort of thing. Having to use the spyglass to see a code through the window was great- such a simple setup, but I don't remember seeing that done before, and I felt really satisfied when the solution suddenly clicked in my head. Same with the moment I suddenly realized how I was going to make sure Gilbert was out of the way. The level made me think, but wasn't so frustrating that I had to look at any hints, so it was just right. I also loved the design of Applefinger's room, with the low bed and the leafy wallpaper to make it as "outdoorsy" as possible.
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I seem to have run into a bug of some kind- the red button that
Spoileropens the floor hatch in the basement
won't open anymore. I opened and closed it a few times, then died and reloaded from an earlier quicksave, and now the button won't work, even though I loaded from a point before I ever pressed it in the first place. I tried reloading, quitting the game and coming back, even loading another fan mission and going back to this one, and the button still is broken! I haven't tried starting a new game, as I'd made a lot of progress. Is there some console command or something I can enter to fix the button?
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I'm also having problems with the compass- namely, it doesn't exist. Even in a level the creator confirmed has a compass in it, even in levels that let you select your equipment at the start. It's not a white texture or anything like others were describing, it just isn't there. Pressing V key does nothing, scrolling through inventory shows nothing.
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A compass - you have it in your inventory from the beginning!
In most missions, it's there by default. In yours, though, I only have a spyglass. I just checked and this is true even with version 1.1. Not really a big deal, though!
EDIT: It appears to be some kind of bug, and not your fault! I just tested a couple other levels, and the compass is missing in all of them. Even a level that lets you select your starting equipment and gives the compass as an option doesn't actually have the compass in your inventory when you begin. I wonder if this is an issue with Dark Mod 2.07?
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readme.txt file:
Version: 1.1 BUILD TIME: about 6 months.
this info is literally one line above what you just quote.
Except it's not. There's nothing there at all when I open the file. It looks like this:BUILD TIME: about 6 months.Description: Horror themed exploration of seemingly deserted keep in the middle of swamps. Spiders, undead, darkness, gore.
CREDITS & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
Beta-testers: Amadeus, Bienie, Boiler's_hiss, Dragofer, Filizitas, Judith, nbohr1more, s.urfer.
Proofreading: Amadeus.
That's it!EDIT: I just saw there's an updated version available for download through Dark Mod. That one says it's Version 1.1 right on the notes, without even opening a text file, and immediately looks different because it has a title card (blue with horses) when installed. I'll give that a try and see if anything's different!
EDIT EDIT: My saves from the old version started me over from the beginning, so I used noclip to speed through again just to test it, and- sure enough, there was a little cutscene at the end! I guess it just hadn't been implemented yet in the version I originally played, which now means I've played TWO fan missions with cutscenes. I'm a little surprised so few people have done this, but at least there's nothing wrong with my installation or anything. Now that that's resolved, let me give you a little feedback- though most of it will be based off my full-length playthrough of the old version, so forgive me for that- I know you made some improvements that I saw while rushing through the second time, like adding a glow to a key and putting in a bunch more loot. This is also my first time posting a review and I have no experience making levels, so it's purely from a player's perspective.
Pros:
I liked how immediately and dramatically different this mission was. By this point, one typically has some idea what to expect when starting a Dark Mod mission, so getting suddenly dropped into a dark, desolate marsh instead of the usual back alley sets a very ominous tone right from the beginning. The intimidating size and difficult entry to the keep once you find it was also a departure from the norm, as was the vast scale of the rooms and building in general.
Seeing all that loot and being unable to take it because it belongs to your family made sense from a story standpoint and also added a bit of a strategy element- you know that you're going to be allowed to take it sooner or later, so you're already trying to make a mental map of everything you saw so you can find it again later. Being able to take loot found out in the marsh right from the beginning was also good attention to detail. Similarly, having a mercilessly pitch black level and only being able to use light sources as objects in-environment instead of just picking up a lantern and hitting the L key was an interesting choice, and I liked that there were different light sources with different properties- no way to relight the candle if it goes out, no way to switch off the red crystals, etc. Having to navigate such a vast, dark environment while avoiding guards would have been insanely time-consuming, so I also appreciate that you found other ways to add an element of danger while allowing the player to run most of the time.
The atmosphere was terrific- finding things like the
guillotine
looming out of the mist while exploring gave me the chills, and stuff like
the ONE set of double doors that open on their own when you approach or the room completely filled with spiders
kept things tense and spooky. Considering the very small number of readable items, the story is surprisingly frightening and compelling. The many secret passages and ventilation shafts were fun to discover and made getting around a little simpler.
Cons:
I had extreme difficulty finding
the entrances to the sealed-off section. I thought I'd found it when I pried up the loose floorboards with the crowbar, but this just led to an empty room, then back out a window onto the balcony above the hedge maze. I had to look up spoilers to discover the open hatch and the chimneys, the latter of which I actually knew about, but had forgotten about long ago since the level is so damn big and there are so many things to keep track of. I DID look up to see if there were more open windows I could enter through from the balcony, but the mist is so thick you actually can't see them from down there! Similarly, I never would have guessed that you need to use the crowbar on the drill, and it was very difficult to find the sharp shovel in the dark with all those plants (it was easy the second time, but I don't know if that's because you changed it in the new version or it's just that I knew what to look for.) When the level is so huge and contains so many objects, it's hard to know what is and isn't important and what might be usable later- the glowing red gems look extremely important, for example, but are just light sources. Also, with the maps, I found the first two easily enough because the attic is mostly empty, but the one in the library is unreasonably difficult- at that point it's one scroll out of dozens and dozens that you've seen throughout the building!
A lot of things that looked like loot weren't, and vice versa, and a lot of the loot was insanely well hidden. On the one hand, this is interesting because you're constantly surprised by things like a nearly-invisible jewel just lying on the floor or a book that turns out to be valuable, but it's a completionist's nightmare.
Some of the objectives are described as being in a certain direction from the keep, but as far as I can tell, there's no compass to be found. The marsh area was small enough that I was able to find them just by running around and looking, but it seemed odd to consistently be given useless directions.
As much as I liked the light mechanics, it got tedious carrying around a light source absolutely everywhere to be able to see anything at all. It would have been nice if there were a way to fix the generator late in the mission and restore light to at least some areas.
Thanks for this mission, and for replying to my question!
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It doesn't say what version anywhere I could find. Just has some stuff about "Mission build time: 6 months" and such.
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You mentioned that a "short cutscene" will play when all mission objectives are complete, but as soon as I finished it went right to the victory/stats screen. Come to think of it, I've played pretty much every Dark Mod fan mission and I remember a grand total of ONE that had any kind of ending cutscene (I don't recall which, this was years ago). The rest all went straight to the victory screen.
Is this... a thing that missions have? Is there just something broken with my Dark Mod and I've been missing out on dozens and dozens of cutscenes that conclude the missions this whole time?
Fan Mission: Seeking Lady Leicester, by Grayman (3/21/2023)
in Fan Missions
Posted
That mission made for an enjoyable evening, though I'm annoyed I lost track of
the ship in the otherworld and only realized I hadn't come back to it when I finished the level and a large amount of loot was missing. I could have sworn I'd scoured EVERYTHING, yet there was an entire quarter of the otherworld area I'd missed.
I did have a pretty serious issue where the
hint for how to open the big safe
was completely unfrobbable. No matter what angle or state of the box it was in, it was impossible to get. I eventually had to turn on noclip and jam my head into the box while it was closed, and even then it took many tries before it finally let me pick it up.
Really amazing work, though! After playing many dozens of missions, I'm always amazed how people manage to keep coming up with new surprises.