BlueSkyBullet

Oh, so steam powered guns ain't enough? TDM is going to outdo T4 by bringing multi-stage rockets into the ~Dark Age~? Oy. Vey!

rich_is_being_silly

News?

Hmmm... I know I've seen at least one pagan chicka. Was in one of Fidcal's missions. Locked in a room. Maiden made mad.

Maybe they're all too exhausted busily trying to trump each other on who can have the biggest freak-out over the Thi4f logo? Or who can be the most outraged by the surely inevitable and undeniable demise and ruination of all that is holy what with the utterance of "more than just stealth"? Hope. That's just optimistic hope. No. It's denial. This is no coincidence. We all realize what this cruel "more than just stealth" has wrought: a mess of slit wrists from sea to shining sea. The Core! The betrayal! The Canon! The evil! Our Precious! Fiddled with!

Oh, by the way, I've been meaning to mention this since I think I might have had a different experience than everyone else: Is that the way it was meant to be? Because that added to my enjoyment actually.

For me, needless to say, I'm sure.

Yeah, I didn't experience the problem grayman had... I heard her "haughtiness"... and, therefore and thence, thusly and whence, I too, had no qualms knocking her out after she started moving about and getting in my way of things. I would say the same. The mission you made really was quite enjoyable. If there are things about the process you dread going through again, then perhaps you needn't do those particular things? I think the essentials (gameplay, a bit {or a lot! yes! yes!} of story, & an inherent, stylish visual cohesiveness) are something you understand and enjoy? ... (what follows between these ellipses is not directed at you or anyone in particular but just a bit of a rant that sort of fits here) Much of the rest (bells and baubles) is usually not only unnecessary and burdensome on the creator but actually, in the end, a burden on the system. I think maybe there is too much over-reaching, over-stretching over-ambition going on. Not every mission needs to be a masterpiece of expansive, detailed, epic saga. The limits do not need to be pushed! TDM affords plenty of opportunity for great missions with out having to constantly try and break it's goddamned back. ... You were under time constraints... and in a competition... and it was also an every-single-step-along-the-way-is-a-study kind of thing. Next time can be purely at your own pace, with nothing to prove, and you've got heaps of know-how now!

I'll say this here instead of in the threads for each of the 3 FMs we have this contest to thank for (so far {still hoping to see one from Xarg? No? Eh?}): There is some criticism going on and some opinions being expressed; and that's good stuff; just I would hope that the authors don't take it all to heart and "adjust" their design/style/approach, rather, to mission building. We certainly will not all like Raspberry Ripple or Rocky Road, but some of us will. So let's let the different authors provide us with different flavors.

Consider: These things you discuss... They are quite obviously... Going to be more than tweaks. Game-changers, very muchly so. And... further, heavy, heavy weights on a system already much weighed down.

For someone who created a mission with such an obvious love for the crafting of gameplay and story and elegant beauty... I give your statement about not doing any more of it... about as much weight as I give Sotha's latest pronouncement of retirement. Y'all both love it. You get exhaunsted -- and who wouldn't, even and with the additional in the aftermath of responding to the praise and criticism --- but y'all both love it!

But I don't want PayPal to have anything on me... not a CC; not a bank account; nothing aside from me sending them a money order which is as good as gold (I pay everything else in this world that way when I can't simply pay cash)... It just such a pain in the ass, every mutherfucking thing about the way the money-grubbing money-shifting money-lenders dictate the system. Ya know?

Cape Ahsa?

Seriously, I think we might all agree on that. I have not a penny to spare or an "agreeable*" way to get the money I don't have online if I did. But if some system can be worked out wherein this New Fan Mission Authors Contest (xxxx-Annual Tradition!) might be run with this as a part of it, I'd be willing to listen and try a bit harder to get over the disagreeability of getting some dosh online. I bet you the coffers would fill and the only problem would be that they might fill up to much and ruin things the other way round. *My problem with getting money online: Apparently I can't just send effing Paypal a money order? And be done with it? Gotta tie some CC to it? Or -- just as bad, if not worse -- my other option is to buy some "service fee" gouging nonsense from WalMart or some such as an alternative to PayPal? I tried once half-heartedly (see: "not a penny to spare" after all, really) to get some money stashed online and ended up NOT BOTHERING because it was sucha hassle...

No. I didn't.

I do extinguish every flame I see (except those that can't be, which pisses me off... especially if there is no indication as to why they are "different", like candles that look exactly like other candles that I can extinguish... especially in the same goddamned mission! but I do digress...) I do extinguish every flame I see, and always have, all my Thief life which has been from the Gold old days. I do extinguish the light! And as you might imagine, because it goes hand-in-hand with my Thiefy ways, I do not use the lantern much at all (read: twice, ever, maybe). So, I just wanted to say that -- about the extinguishing -- because it gave me a chance to speak here in a thread that doesn't much concern me.

What a gorgeous and fantastic bit of synchronicity! That the seeming fact that "Sotha is right on this" just happens to be in accordance with the very fact that he was just parroting you! I love this world. It's indeed a wonderful world. Brings a tear to my eye, most often...

There is no gracious way for them to say what might need to be said though. Still...I don't think that it's hard to have paid a little attention and to have read the larger message between the lines... a little.

Yeah, maybe, moot and whatnot, but they did NOT build the trigate transistor for games.

Did some google-image searching for some examples of what I would like to see as the end result of a moss arrow deployment. There was lots of stuff of course. I'll just post one now: Say you shoot a Moss Arrow at a bed (or maybe a couch, settee, etc). ... I do honestly like the idea posed above about leaving a nice trail along the arrows path.

? ? er ?? Most of? Wha? ? The i5 25? Most? Who? ??? Come again? Really? ? Whasi? ?!?? ... Anyway, this sounds more like a giant leap to me! These actual systems engineers, the chip builders, are the actual geniuses. Sure it's always best to sit back for a generation or two but this does sound like an extremely promising tech.

Thanks for the reply. I am using the same (not a laptop) machine that I've been using all along, which is a Q8200 Quad CPU with a 8800GT with 512MB... XPSP3... 3GB Ram (4 really... but). As I say, I've had some lags in missions before, some due to obviously busy areas, some due to the garbage build-up that used to plague the engine (and still does maybe to a much lesser degree?) after some long-plays. So this right-off the bat and pesistent lagishmentalizationing is definitely something peculiar... and, I think, particular to my setup. Maybe a hint lies in the way... Anyway, my hardware is pretty adequate and on the good side of standard/compatible and has worked well with all the previous missions. But apparently no one else as yet has had my issues. I did try all 3 different ambient rendering modes, and knocked my AA and AI filters down too. To no avail. Maybe it was the textures killiing my 512? One of the nicest things here was your visuals; I think you did use all "high-rez" texures? Could be the thing that got me? Anyway, anyway, I really liked the mission. I'm certainly appreciative if the fact that you, as the others, went and blew us all out of the water with your efforts. And I didn't mean to add to any "drama" by trying to put forth my opinion that the contest should be bewtween ST and jysk. It was pure advocacy for them, not against you, of course (though, Brer Rabbitizings might have been better -- stop the flip-flopper flipping his flop?) ... Now, for some quick and straightforward critiques (as well as I am able to be quick and straightforward): I immediately saw that this was going to be a beautiful and stylishly coherent mission. And it was throughout. Hope to see so many more missions from you that we can all say, "Oh, yeah, this is a RPGista mission; just look at it." Not a big fan of the no-kills, no-knockouts, and such beyond optional or suggested objectives. But if there are to be such, I did like the fac that this was limited to high difficulty AND limited to those I wouldn't kill anyhow anyway. Only problem is recognizing the dastardlies by sight. You did do a ~pretty good job of iindicating who might be considered this or that, but, inevitably some of this comes down to our opinions. The narrative did help me understand your opinion and explained why I got a fail when I, though I tried... The only thing is, and this is a general suggestion to all FMAs from the player in me: As I mentioned, I guess there is no perfect way of recognizing who is who whilst an AI is milling about... but I do love to know... so I hope that authors are able to, and make it a habit to, "name" their characters by simply setting some property in DR? So we get "Captain Merc van Tool" rather than "Body" (or "Corpse") if and when we do eventually "move" them to a more expedient locale. I'd like to have been sure... I thought having no particular loot requirement worked great with the narrative and objectives framework you set out! We were able to not worry about stealing from those we mightn't have wanted to. This is very good -- and, again, especially in this kind of mission -- because it allows us to sympathize where we are (apparently) meant to. ...Really, really like that aspect here. Maybe, not always, in all missions, no. But defintely in this story. Minor glitches, you might address if there is going to be a v1.somethingorother: A couple of missing inventory icons (eg. the coinbox) And a final suggestion: Give the player a spyglass. I would say always in all missions -- but certainly this mission deserved (and kind of needed) it. I love to be able to look closer at fine visuals! And what with this being a bit of a platformer, it would naturally lend itself to spyglass zooming for "scoping" out paths... Thanks for the FM

Glancing through so as not to get spoiled... Am I the only one experiencing major, ever-lasting lag? I haven't gotten above ~8fps all game long -- indoors, outdoors, upstairs, downstairs, strange, charmed, surrounded, alone, forwards and back... I have played them all (TDM FMs) and never had such a persistently laggy go-round. Otherwise I have a lot of likes with this one. Most especially the manipulation gameplay aspects and the visual style (oh, and I quite like the readables too). ... Now... In fairness to the other contestants... their missions had to have gone through the same processes. If this one comes in a wins the contest, as it appears to be, it will be unfairness to the other contestants.