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ate0ate

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Everything posted by ate0ate

  1. Yeah, I wishlisted this a bit ago but haven't bought it. I think it looks pretty great. I did play Bloodwash before though, made by the same guy, and it was a really good retro horror game reminiscent of those 80s slasher flicks.
  2. My god. This was an absolutely amazing experience. I tested a very small portion of the beta quite a while back and this has come a long long way since then. This ties with my personal favorite mission easily. I'm probably going to gush about this quite heavily so please bare with me. I'll try to at least provide some feedback and I have a couple little issues I noted that I'll place towards the end. I completed my first run at just over seven and a half hours. I loved literally every second of that time. Experiences like these are rather rare. The complexity, density and length are staggering yet you've somehow manages to maintain the high level of quality throughout. I have to praise the writing as well. Some remarkably beautiful works here and the readables really added to my sense of immersion as well as neatly tying together the many people and events occupying this "little" world you've made. I usually try to ghost missions and this was an absolute pleasure to do that with. I should clarify that my concept of ghosting is probably quite pathetic compared to someone like Klatremus, but I like to give it a go without excessive quickloading and accepting minor alerts in rougher areas where my patience wanes. I always try again the second a weapon is drawn though and always shoot for zero KOs and kills with hardcore AI.. I managed a score of 35 here thanks to the well placed guards and very well thought out patrol routes. It really felt like each encounter and the pathing of the AI was considered at length. Excellent work. The unusual combination and sheer amount of hostile areas right next to safe zones was quite fun and executed in an excellent manner. Quite improved since the beta. The level design and verticality were impressive. I found myself looking up constantly and more often than not there was an area containing great wonders up above me just out of reach. Finding my way to these areas and the treasures they held was quite fun. The only nitpick I could comment on regarding level layout was that things felt very square. I don't know how else to really describe it. The density was great, the complexity was stellar and all of the areas felt authentic and lived-in where appropriate. Its just that roaming the streets, while gorgeous, was very angular. Felt like a lot of 90 degree angles and that made it a little difficult to build a mental map for me at first. I don't want to make it sound like this was a huge problem or anything, just a bit of feedback. I think a little less squareness to the layout or flow of the level would go a long way to making areas more distinct from one another. Its helpful when going into such a dense wonderland blind. The mechanics used to gain access to your essential equipment, start side quests and purchase extras were excellent additions. They all greatly added to the immersive factor for me. Reading the various newspapers and bulletin boards helped flesh out the world immensely and seeing things referenced on them that were actually present in-world was really nice. Adds that layer of believability and makes the location of various items and equipment feel logical. I never felt like an item was located in an arbitrary spot. Things felt very purposefully positioned. It wasn't just the main items though, it was the little details I really appreciated. Like the reference in Tobin's log on helping the Blacksmith move crates to the alley behind her shop, then finding those crates and some loot when I looked. One that really was a neat touch was something I thought was a bug at first. The little Builder kiosk would sometimes have the note that drops after you press the button already in the slot before I interacted with it. I assumed it was a minor bug until I later found a note expressing concern that literally anyone could walk up and press that button. So I watched the kiosk for a bit until the shop guard actually came up and pressed the button! Blew my little mind. The mission is full of those moments and details. It felt like a real space occupied by real people with all sorts of various motives for their actions and sometimes even bringing about their own fates. Finding all of the threads and mementos was something that I felt compelled to do. Figuring out the little mysteries and finding pieces to some of the much larger and obscure puzzles made the seven plus hours I spent in the world just fly on by. You've really made something quite special here. Okay, gushing aside, I noticed two very minor missing textures in two spots. The first was the ceiling area on the top floor of the burgage house. Its along the edge of the hall area looking up just outside of the door to the room that the archer roams in and out of. The second was towards the very end of the level by the Basilica Gate. Not the gate that you can open but the one next to it with the gravestone for Lady Grey resting against the wall. If you look ate the pillar framing the gate you'll see the left side corner of it is invisible. Both things are very minor but I did notice them. I also had a couple patrolling guards get stuck. One was patrolling just outside the gated door to Pump House 86. I think he heard me make noise in the area behind that door before I turned the valve to open it so when I went outside he was just walking into the wall right there. The other was the guard patrolling the Quarantine Checkpoint. The guard that usually walks up and down the stars was walking into the false door at the bottom of the stairs. I think that Continental imports is on the other side of that wall and I know I made a loud noise in there. Not sure if that's what triggered him. Not sure if this is really anything on your end or if its just a quirk of TDM in general. No big deal either way and it seemed inconsistent/unrepeatable. Well, that's about it I think. Sorry for the wall of text and thank you for the amazing mission!
  3. ate0ate

    Dying Light 2

    The whole not being able to save thing is a real turn off for me. It discourages me from trying anything at all and playing insanely cautious/conservative. It also blatantly throws away the player's time and disregards the inevitable and unpredictable intrusion of real life that happens. As for DL2, I'm really really disappointed with it. Especially compared to the first game. It may be a silly thing, but the trees growing out of an inch or two of soil, or sometimes even plain concrete, really really irks me:) Overall the whole tone of the game has changed from the much more "realistic" and horror themed action RPG to a Saturday morning cartoon. The combat feels slow and easier compared to the briefer and more fast paced fights from the first game. The human AI is, well, retarded. Literally. I actually started playing the first game over again thinking maybe I misremembered things but nope. Even the voice acting is better in the first. I don't know, I hate to be so negative about it, and even though I really enjoyed the original it certainly had flaws. But this game is just not good. The magic x-ray vision was bad in the first game and its only more egrigious now in the sequel. Rips me right out of the world when I do get immersed and its a blatant necessity since the game does so little to communicate things to the player using level or world design. The narrative choices are of minimal consequence and ultimately the two factions, your relationship with them and their relationship between each other is static and unchanging despite your actions. They feel like window dressing and never actually interact in the world nor exist outside of their safe zones. Sorry to rant lol. Its just that the game was high on my list of anticipated releases and I thought it just may be different than the depressing trend in AAA gaming. The praise kind of boggles me a bit too. If this were Ubisoft, which it almost looks like from the open-world bloat and genericness, everyone would be calling them out but for some reason Techland gets a bit of a pass.
  4. After playing with the presets for quite a while now I personally vote for preset 6. The vast majority of the time the black outline is not noticeable at all since the missions tend to be mostly dark obviously. The highlighting is essentially visually the same as it has always been so that looks nice. The outline does make things easier to see in bright, especially very bright, situations and just sort of makes the highlight itself stand out under those conditions. So to sum it up, for me, things look about the same as ever in the dark and I can actually see things in the light now. Its a win-win in my mind. I love what's been done here but I know many hate change so I am most likely in the minority. Still, preset 6 has my vote.
  5. If you are still looking for beta testers, I would love to give your mission a try:)
  6. The whole concept of protecting "historically persecuted groups" just seems like nonsense to me. Go back far enough in history and everyone has been both the persecutor and persecuted. So long as actual violence and threats of violence remain illegal what does it matter what words any group speaks against another? Its just words and ideas not action. I cannot understand how people can so willingly give up their freedoms in order to "protect" people that have already been protected legally for decades. It all just keeps certain discussions from even happening. Look at racial relations in the US right now. You cannot hope to reach any actual decisions or make any real progress when you cannot even have a remotely honest or open discussion about the topic when some groups are deemed protected and others privileged. And to say that words lead to actions is just silly. Someone who has chosen to commit a certain action will almost certainly speak or write words about it prior and after. That does not mean that the words created or caused the action though. Silence would not prevent any action in any way.
  7. I'm about as conservative as they come and I definitely do not think you should feel guilty for voting for Biden. I don't think that it was a great thing that you felt pressured to do so though. You should always vote for whomever you sincerely think is the better candidate. Personally I feel Biden came off just as senile prior to election as he does now, seems slightly more corrupt than the average politician and significantly more incompetent. That said, Trump wasn't exactly a great choice either but he sure was not the absolute hitler-esque madman that the media painted him out to be. Typical politicians, the both of them, by today's standards. Fortunately the role of President in America has been rendered effectively impotent over the years and the the elected are little more than scapegoats or figureheads there to provide the illusion that the people have any influence over the direction of the country, so neither candidate can really do that much damage. I am being a bit hyperbolic obviously, but there is some truth there. Overall, to answer your question, you should not feel guilty for voting for the candidate you feel is best and you have no control over what that candidate does or does not actually do. On the topic of the Taliban and Afghanistan I do not see any easy or "good" answer. The region has historically been unstable for many reasons, internally and externally. Speaking very generally, I do think that governments essentially have no business policing other countries but the reality is that is a somewhat naïve stance when tested. I do think that if the people of a country blatantly ask for help, are facing some atrocity or similar, depending on the exact circumstances, that there can obviously be a moral obligation to intervene. It should not be done lightly or on a whim. Regarding the current administration's actions, I don't see how it makes any sense for America to have started an intervention only to abandon it halfway through. That can only ever make things worse as opportunists love power vacuums. That said, is it realistic or helpful to occupy a country for decades to maintain stability? Is it really even stable at all if things swiftly devolve upon exiting the region? I don't know. As I said, no easy answers. As long as humans remain human then conflict is inevitable.
  8. As an amusing aside to this, does anyone remember those little "find the differences between these two images" puzzles that would appear in the newspaper or various magazines at times? I learned that you could do the eye-crossing maneuver on those two images and easily spot the differences in seconds. I would try to defocus my eyes to get the two images to "overlap" thus making a third combined image where the differences kind of shimmered and stood out so you could see them really easily. I never found any use for this other than nifty childish party-trick, but I thought I'd share.
  9. Magic Eye! Oh man does that bring back some memories. They were most commonly bundled in a glossy print collection and sold as a book called "Magic Eye" here in Pennsylvania. They were hugely popular when I was in elementary school. I remember begging my Mother to purchase all three books each year when one came out. We had a little shop in the school that sold them and they always sold out rather quickly. I would spend hours crossing my eyes just right to make out the hidden images. Some of them were rather impressive and the effect could be quite clear when done properly. I do recall that many of my friends couldn't perform the eye movements to see the images at all and I myself struggled initially. Success was often determined by holding the book at exactly the right distance from yourself and crossing your eyes to a specific point where just a millimeter off either way meant failure. That's how it felt as a child at least lol. Sure would give you a nasty case of eye strain going through the whole book in one sitting too! That would certainly be a really cool easter-egg to see in a game somewhere but it would be rather mean to hide mission critical information in something like that. Still, I would personally love to see it. EDIT: Looks like the book had a 25th anniversary special lol. There are some pretty cool sample images here you can check out for free too and find out more about the books. Sorry. The nostalgia got me on this one.
  10. The dreaded black square bloom thing is rearing it's ugly head once more. Though, to be fair, it is definitely not like it was before. Same squares but different conditions for appearance. They actually only appear in one specific spot that I have found thus far, in the Pagan cave area of the new Hidden Hands: The Anomaly FM. They don't seem to be appearing in the training mission nor in Tears of St. Lucia as they were before. Very strange little thing and certainly not a huge deal but I thought you should know nonetheless. I thank you for your work and wish you luck in the (shudder) job hunt.
  11. I look back on the late 80s to late 90s quite fondly. I was born in 81 so those years were some of the best in my life. I don't know if things were actually better then or if memory is selective as Zerg Rush said. We tend to forget painful things and exaggerate the good times. It is human nature. I think some of what may give the illusion of things generally being worse is the connectedness of the world now. The ease with which information flows to every corner of the earth. The internet, cell phones all make it easier for information to spread and for people to individually share their feelings or gossip to the masses. Misery does love company and people love to spread the latest bad news rather than share joyful events. We also seem oddly drawn to it in general as well if you follow internet and youtube trends. Negativity and drama get the most attention. I feel its almost created a feedback loop of sorts where many people hyper fixate on themselves and their problems since that is what they see most being shared by others. It gets attention and it just breeds more and more of it. I do think, at least in the US, that movies, games and many other forms of entertainment have been impacted by the current culture war. Call it wokeness or political correctness or give it whatever label you wish, but the end result is that offense has become taboo and cancel culture pushes all of the various entertainment mediums towards sterilization and blandness. Collectivism doesn't exactly foster creativity after all. There's also the obvious profit motive that drives games to focus on accessibility to boost sales. Get the game in the most hands possible. Ultimately gameplay gets simplified and difficulty gets driven into the dirt. I don't think a good game can possibly appeal to everyone. We all have individual tastes and prefer different games but the genres of games have decreased and the differences between genres has become less distinct. Many games attempt to be a jack of all trades rather than taking a risk on an idea that may only appeal to few.
  12. Thanks for the answer. Yeah, that doesn't seem like something that would be done intentionally. I wonder how many maps things like that happen on or if its a one off fluke. I always play with maps personally, but I never considered that the actual lighting (and therefore difficulty) could be affected by the decision. You always find some interesting things messing around with the shaders lol.
  13. What causes the light gem to brighten when the shadow maps/ssao are toggled on in the above gif?
  14. Okay, I've been playing around with the latest build and so far the new system for moving objects is absolutely amazing! At first I felt as if I was cheating a bit by how easily objects could be manipulated silently, but the more I played around with it and gave it some thought it made a lot of sense. I'm just so used to objects behaving rather unrealistically. It doesn't make any sense for a candle being slid ever so slowly across a table to make a cacophony of noise, but I sure do expect it to. I get hung up with not wanting to see the challenge compromised in any way, but ultimately it isn't exactly a challenge to struggle with physics that are behaving unintentionally unpredictable. With the new system you do still get punished for carelessness and banging into things trying to move too quickly but it is much easier to predict and control. That is a very positive change. I have always struggled moving the metal grating in the Full Moon Fever FM. I really liked the concept of a vent cover behaving more like it would in life and requiring manual removal rather than the usual door-like behavior, but the idea didn't work too well in practice with the old object manipulation system. It would always result in the cover hanging on an obscure bit of geometry as soon as I attempted to move it or repeatedly clanging into the floor no matter how gently I set it down on the stone floor. Now, with some care, I can remove them completely silently every time if I take my time. It's even doable without holding creep to move things completely silently. This change fits my preferred playstyle of ghost really nicely. I cannot comment on the body moving mechanics as I am rather unfamiliar with them in general. I haven't had anything rocket into space occasionally like it would before either. There are a couple small things unrelated to the move/drag mechanic that I noticed but I am not sure where to bring them up in the forums so I'll just mention them here really quickly. I'm not sure they are even issues at all or just things currently WIP so I'll spoiler them as to not take up space...
  15. The effect in bright areas is quite helpful. It especially functions nicely when frobbing candles and light sources. There are at least two cvars that I noticed you can use to swap between frob effects, newFrob and frobOutline, which allowed me to take the screenshots I did. While I left the outline settings at default, there are a bunch of options adjusting the appearance of the effect in the config... seta r_frobOutlineBlurPasses "2" seta r_frobOutlineColorA "1.2" seta r_frobOutlineColorB "1.0" seta r_frobOutlineColorG "1.0" seta r_frobOutlineColorR "1.0" seta r_frobOutline "1" seta r_frobDepthOffset "0.004" seta r_frobIgnoreDepth "1" I was just trying to show that the outline option, in its current state, sort of breaks the combination locks the way they are implemented in most maps since they rely on the brightening effect of the highlight to make the numbers on the dials visible. The outline effect isn't finished so I was mostly just curious is all.
  16. I had a question regarding the implementation of the frob outline as it is in the dev builds. I know it is deemed unfinished so my question is is there going to be a highlighting function also implemented or is the system going to change per object? Certain things, well mostly one thing, like the combination locks, don't function as intended with an outline system. The dials are only visible with a highlighting system. I really love how the outline looks even in its unfinished state. I can very quickly see if an item is selected even in rather well lit situations. So far this seems to be the only downside. Screenshots in the spoiler showing more clearly what I am referencing...
  17. Congratulations on the release! One of the most beautifully lit missions I've ever played.
  18. Yeah, a good point. Things are still working great after cranking up the settings on 2.09. Even works in the 2.10 dev build, for now at least. Since you cannot seem to recreate it on your end if you have anything you want me to test to see if the squares come back just let me know. I'll happily help you track down whatever the culprit was if I can. It was definitely somehow tied to the in-game bloom setting as turning it off would always "fix" the issue and turning bloom on promptly brought the squares back.
  19. Well, whatever you did you fixed it! That new update there works perfectly it seems. I'll test a bit and turn up my settings again but so far it looks good.
  20. I just did a fresh install of 2.09 using the default generated config. All I did was turn on the bloom and the squares in the training mission that I pointed out earlier are still there. Thought that might make some things a bit easier. To answer some of your questions though I do not modify anything externally at all. No reshade or Nvidia control panel settings or anything else like that. I do usually have everything cranked up to max like AA and Anisitropy at 16x, Very high LODs, very high soft shadows, shadowmaps on instead of stencil, SSAO on high usually with the darkmod.cfg adjusting it's radius to 128. The only thing I don't usually have turned on is the sharpen. I seem to get the same results using the settings mentioned above as well as just default settings with bloom on. I also got bored and tested things on the 2.10 dev build and while the shaders worked perfectly well the squares were still present when the bloom was enabled. I am using Windows 10 with an Nvidia 2080super with a fresh driver update that released today I believe.
  21. I went through the Training Mission and I did not notice any squares in the areas you mentioned above. I did notice them in some odd spots that seem mostly like they would be unrelated to bloom, like the ends and edges of various models as opposed to around lights or windows. I don't know if this information will be helpful in any way, but I figured I'd point it out just in case since it seemed kinda odd. There are a couple spots of note in the jumping/mantling section around the central construction scaffolding you are meant to practice on. I'll spoiler the images to save space... Wheelbarrow Board Definitely not places where bloom would even be a factor in my opinion. Oh well, hope these are at least helpful in some capacity:)
  22. I am also seeing the squares now as well. They don't seem to be as common as before. Best mission I find to test for them is simply Mission 2: The Tears of St. Lucia. Turn right at the start and you cannot miss them. As a note to your prior response: I really appreciate the detailed answer. It is helpful to someone who is mostly unfamiliar with shaders and how they function. My original question was just referring to your darkmod.cfg settings for the mentioned variables. I don't use reshade myself and almost never touch my graphics panel either but I have used ENB for things in the past, mostly Skyrim. EDIT: Commenting out the line you mentioned above did not have an effect on the black square artifacts. I'm fairly unfamiliar with much of this but I thought it would be worth a try:)
  23. Might I ask if you personally adjust the color curve bias or color correction bias and, if so, what you recommend their values to be?
  24. I mostly agree with @freykabout this. Also much like @roygatostated above, the sound is used frequently and has become one of those iconic TDM sounds, even if a bit quirky. Much like Thief had. I guess its grown on me is what I'm trying to say, and I'd miss it were it gone. Its definitely a personal/subjective thing so I respect whatever decision is made regarding changes, obviously. If something absolutely must be done about the sound and tweaking is out of the question, then my vote would be to leave that track as it is and ideally add a new version entirely.
  25. Kinda related, kinda not, but one thing that I notice about TDM vs Thief is how quiet all of the sounds made by the AI are, especially compared to music and ambient sounds. I find myself listening for the sword unsheathe sound a lot since it is loudest and footsteps are so quiet compared to thief. The alert shouts of the guards are almost inaudible from any distance. Its like distance muffles more than it should? I don't know, just an observation really, but the ambient sounds are often easier to hear than the sounds of walking or AI alert at a distance.
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