Kaaiman
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Posts posted by Kaaiman
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8 hours ago, Bienie said:
Sounds like you thoroughly explored the mission! I'm glad you liked it.
Not too thorough, I only found
Spoilertwo or three secrets myself.
But through the years playing TDM there is a kind of default picture of what rooms and services different kinds of buildings should have.
For example:
Basic apartment: only one room (bed, chair and table or desk), shared loo in the hallway. For a meal the tenant has to go to the nearby inn, and to the nearby public bathhouse for washing up (can't remember having ever seen a public bathhouse in any mission, though. Maybe most inns usually provide bathtub service as well?). Lighting only by fire.
Comprehensive apartment: sleeping room, private loo, heated living/dining room, serviced apartment kitchen. Lighting mostly by fire.
Luxury apartment: multiple sleeping rooms, private loo, bathroom with tub, living room, dining room, study/library room, serviced apartment kitchen. All rooms heated. Lighting mostly by electricity.
Manor: multiple sleeping rooms, loos, bathroom with tub, living room, dining room, study/library room, staff rooms, stairway, kitchen, storage room, garden, guards. All rooms for the residents heated and mostly lighted by electricity, staff rooms heated scarcely and lighted by fire.
Fixed doors are a both credible and lazy way to 'hide' several rooms, while keeping the mission straightforward. All kinds of 'missing' rooms can be behind those doors, provided that the building is big enough to contain them. But regarding the organic Bridgeport way of building, most adjacent buildings got heavily intertwined by the years.
Your CoS series makes clever use of fixed doors and these organic building blocks, which makes it both credible and straightforward, saving yourself and the player a lot of time.
8 hours ago, Bienie said:Pell Street is visible in the game but not explorable. There is a sign that says Pell Street by the back entrance to the mansion (not the garden but the little back alley). It's mostly there to help players get their bearings in certain readables.
Ah, I missed that sign. If it's only for orientation, maybe put it on the map then?
Spoiler
8 hours ago, Bienie said:The hidden safe
in the wine shop, did you open the security gate and flick the little switch to open the painting? If so then it's a bug. Sometimes frobbing can be a bit finicky when it's controlled by a switch. Closing the painting and opening it again might resolve the issue. I had several people run into a similar problem in CoS 2 that was game breaking so I had to fix that quickly. In this case I'm not sure what I can do really.
As for the sleeping guard I did notice he is awoken easily, I don't know what that's about, maybe the floor type is too loud. I'll see if I can turn down his hearing maybe.
About the hidden safe: yes I did open the gate first. But at the safe there was no highlighting, no sound or whatsoever. I'm not sure if I did hide and unhide the safe after a number of unfruitful tries, though. I even noclipped to peek into the safe, to make sure it should indeed be frobable.
About the guard: I didn't find it disturbing that the guard was easily disturbed. I actually thought it was a kind of deliberate taffer's trap, set by you.
But seeing the guard glitchily strolling on the bunkbed I did find disturbing.
Spoiler
8 hours ago, Bienie said:All the CoS missions (except 1, working on an update though) have challenges the player can take on. They are readables that add new objectives, and they are usually well hidden but all together.
Your intuition is correct though about the Detective challenge. If you want to take it on, in this mission the challenges are found in the apartment high above the south end of the tunnel, you'll have to climb and jump around to get up there. Some of the things you found in the Priest's quarters are evidence you need to link them to the disappearing people around town. The girl in the dungeon is one of these and not the Guildmaster's daughter who is sleeping soundly in her room presumably.
I totally missed out that room, yes. I confess I have a habit of exploring the whole map by noclipping after finishing a mission, to see what I missed and to admire the mapper's work! Only then I discovered that room, and the attic with the secrets by the grass roof. So far I haven't replayed any mission, so when (if) I ever come to do that, I will have forgotten most afterplay discoveries I think.
8 hours ago, Bienie said:Thanks for the feedback, it sounds like you got quite some mileage out of this mission!
I have sore feet now, hehe!
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Played this mission on medium level and enjoyed it very much! Don't let my comments disappoint you, this is only minor stuff from perfectionist's perspective.
The architecture of the city is very clever and credible, however I actually missed a bath tub and perfume table in the mansion.
It might be behind the fixed door in the mansion
Spoilerwhere the thief is, but I thought that would be only the daughter's room.
In some readables Pell Street is mentioned, but it's not on the map. Is it outside the ward and inaccessible? Or did I just miss a street sign somewhere?
I stumbled upon the hidden safe
Spoilerin the wine shop.
I could not frob it at all. No (denial) sounds with the lockpicks, tried all keys, but none interacted. Very annoying! Reading this thread I seem to be the only one experiencing this, as it hasn't been mentioned before. I suppose it might be an incidental bug then.
Another bug I encountered in the mansion.
SpoilerIn the guard's room the sleeping guard is alerted very easily. He gets up and walks very glitchy on the top of the bunkbed and seems to get totally stuck walking and turning around there. It occurred multiple times (I reloaded some times to find out if I could find loot there without alerting the guard... didn't succeed though
)
In this thread the Detective Challenge is mentioned, but I can't remember reading about it in-game, for example in the objectives list. Did I miss something, or is it just
Spoilerfinding the occultist's hideout and opening up the priest's room?
Furthermore, I did not understand why I could pick up the loan paper
Spoilerin the storage behind the priest's room. It mentions a deposit of 5000 gold, but that's far beyond the available loot. But what's the purpose of it? Or the hint in it?
As mentioned before, it was a bit disappointing I couldn't liberate
Spoilerthe girl in the cellar. I don't know if this was a random lady picked up from the streets or the guildmaster's daughter, but in the latter case it would have been great to be able to return her safely to her bedroom (which is not accessible in the mission) and leave some evidence or a warning note to her parents. Well perhaps stuff to put in a version 2 if ever?
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It's been some months since I played this FM. What I can remember is the difficulty of the mission. Many secrets, high loot goals, many lights that are hard to pass by unnoticed, especially on ground level. Which is not so strange, given the exposed valuables.
But I also remember a few oddities concerning, er..., architecture.
SpoilerThat poor wife, she is locked into her bedroom, having a spacious bathroom... but she has to do her poo and pee in the bathtub? That's not appropriate to a lady!
OGDA, I command you to provide her a proper toilet!
And I think her husband and even the shop lady would also be grateful, as they might make use of it too because, well, the other option is going outside, bring a bucket and find a corner.
Furthermore, there is a huge basement with bar with a secret wine storage and so on, but no kitchen at all in the building? Do they order pizza every day?
Visually, the mission is great. Secret-wise, the mission is also very well thought out.
Though I think fixing the above mentioned oddities would really enhance the credibility of the mission altogether.
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Although I've never replayed this FM so far, every Christmas since its release it's still on my mind.
Back in 2018 I had a lot of fun playing it. So far I've never replayed any mission, because I'm not even halfway through the wiki FM list. But if I decide to replay some missions, this one would be on the list for sure.
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Even at the end of 2021 this FM is quite enjoyable, although with some years of TDM experience one can notice this is definitely an older mission. I think FM standards have increased over the years.
What I really like about this mission: nice atmosphere, no unrealistic sprawl of lit candles in empty/unused rooms (as many missions tend to have), many movable items (perhaps a bit too many), nice readables, good plot, alternative routes,
Spoilerand of course the operable main gate!
What I think could be improved: it's totally quiet! Ambient tracks would really add to the gameplay. Also,
Spoilerthere were many empty beds. Overall the place felt a bit too empty. It seemed the outpost priest had a room, but was totally absent (though leaving his candle burning). Poor bishop, left all alone in a remote outpost, and no one to discuss theology with...
At least the priest could just have been sleeping in his own bed...? And where did the (to be) punished cook, the other mentioned 'staff' and the forger hang out this night? Also, on the 2nd floor the clergy had to go to the bathroom in the basement and let the staff fetch water from the put to wash their bodies. I hope the architect of the mentioned new chapel would fix that too!
Then the chest in the forge room: I don't know whether the asset of the metal chest was already available in 2009, but using it would certainly add to the steely atmosphere of the room.
And finally, the number of items available in the shop is very abundant. I think one could easily do with just the initially provided equipment and the arrows that can be found in the mission itself.
So, I would really like to encourage the authors to pick up development and spend just one another week to improve the FM. With the above mentioned improvements, this already great mission would really stand out between other missions of this size!
I also found a texture bug on the forge, see attachment.
(Yes, I play on 21:9 (2560x1080) widescreen, which plays perfectly fine when ignoring the stretched menus and readables)
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Great mission! Turned out to be pretty sized and challenging.
I have some troubles finishing the mission, though. There are some objectives that I couldn't remember appearing in the objectives list, so I lacked some hints about completing them. It could be that they did appear as new objectives, but also that they appeared without any notice. Any other players having similar issues with objectives?
Hence, I had to browse this thread to find how to complete the
Spoilerthe snowman objective.
I also wonder why the spiders
Spoilerdon't get hurt by broadhead arrows. Here I read that they are ice spiders, apparently not affected by regular weapons? Can they be killed anyway? Or can they be knocked out with the earlier mentioned ice arrow?
But the objective that I have really no clue of how to complete is the
Spoilergranary objective. I have no clue what object triggered this mandatory objective (was it there at the start already? Can't remember that though...). I tried to get in the silo using two rope arrows in the nearby tree (died several times, LOL), but after numerous tries I couldn't get in properly. Then I noclipped in to explore the building to see whether I missed another entry, but I couldn't find another one one. However, after frobbing the grain Corbin mumbles something about the harsh winter and low food supply, but I have no idea what to do next. Any suggestions?
Last thing: the rendering of the trees was a bit ugly. They only appeared when I came fairly close. It would be less disturbing if they would appear on a greater distance or if they would be covered by slight fog.
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Fan Mission: The Hare in the Snare, Part 1
in Fan Missions
Posted
Great mission, a lot bigger than I initially thought. I also forgot to investigate a number of rooms (which I explored only after reading this thread), although I found 2 or 3 secrets.
But de Gallowsgate Bridge hint in the Moor's room (which I only found after reading this thread) and the phrase 'Why am I not surprised...' leaves me questioning. How should I know what is special about Gallowsgate Bridge? Did I miss something in the intro or in a readable?
I also found a glitch. The bay window of T's manor on street level is placed a little bit too far from the wall. One can peek beside the window frame and see just a continuous wall. And some items fell through a shelf somewhere, once picked up and dropped down. But I can't recall where it was.