Fan Mission: Patently Dangerous (2009/10/31)

[demagogue]

I am happy to announce the release of the first post-release Dark Mod FM: Patently Dangerous by demagogue.

 

http://www2.thedarkmod.com/missiondetails/?id=6

 

Briefing:

 

"Nobody said hypocrisy didn't have its uses. The Inventor's Guild, always so secretive about its own inventions, isn't beyond a little espionage when it comes to the inventions of others.

 

They've hired me to steal the design notes from a young man named Soren Rikk, just on the outskirts of the Highlands Ward. He's reputed to have made a huge discovery in a field the Inventors have some interest in.

 

It should be an easy job. Soren isn't known to be a dangerous person."

 

Notes:

 

- Thanks to my beta-testers: Fidcal for early testing, Broken Arts & Leatherman, and everybody else that gave comments (basically most of the Dark Mod team ). Thanks also to alacazam for permission to use his cool ambient.

 

- Notice there is a map in your inventory. The default key-bind "m" will bring it up.

 

- There have been some reports of a little slow-down near the start on some systems, but it should pick up after that. If performance is slow for you, see the Performance Tweaks wiki entry.

 

- Enjoy! Happy Halloween everybody.

 

Screenshots:

 

[Carnage]

It looks really good! I'll test it out immediately. When I'm done I'll give some feedback of course. Glad to see a new FM so soon.

[Melan]

Congrats on the release! I will check it out in the evening.

[STiFU]

Hehe good to have Email notice activated on the FM-Forum. Gonna play it directly...

[Sonosuke]

Congratulations!!! I will try it right away

[Carnage]

Well what can I say..... It's amazing! The atmosphere is great, a real Thief like mission. It took about 15 minutes (after I cleared the streets and all the things I could enter) to find out how to get of the streets, which is quite okay. I hate missions where I have to walk around too long to find that one thing, but that wasn't the case. One part is also really creepy and that's saying much, because I didn't shiver when playing FEAR and other games alike but I did with this one. I'm not gonna say anymore about that because otherwise I'd would spoil the fun . Good job on that as well. In total it took me about 1 hour and 15 minutes and got about 1,600 loot. If this is going to be the quality of other FM's as well, I'd say keep them coming .

[STiFU]

Damn, took me too long to type. I wanted to be the first reviewer... This was a very fine mission. Great atmosphere, a lot of mantling and a good playtime.

 

However, I noticed a couple of things worth mentioning:

1. As I mantled onto that sleeping guy's bed, the sleeper and the guard instantly went nuts, although the lightgem was completely dark.
   
2. The
   Hangman in the warehouse
   has no playerclip. (Those where the textures that indicate, that the player can't walk through an object, right?)
   
3. Not really something to worry about, but I found it really funny that
   the murderer spawns behind the player out of a "cupboard". I asked myself, why would one sit in a 2 sqauremeters large completely dark room?
   :-)
   
4. Now about these lamps: It looks a little weird that the lamps are still glowing bright, when they are actually turned off. I guess this is a problem with the entity, since it worked so very (!) nicely with the lamps that had projecting lightsources attached.
   
   
5. There's a little texture misalignment shown on the screen, maybe you wanna fix that sometime. You might also wanna think about another rooftile-texture in general here... ;-)
   
   

Edited October 31, 2009 by STiFU

[peispud]

Thanks demagogue. This mission looks and plays exactly like Thief3 should have. The fact that it plays smooth at full settings on my Arch Linux desktop is awesome. The lockpicking, blackjacking, visuals, and sneaking are spot on. It is an absolute pleasure to have fun playing fan missions once more. Thank you.

[Melan]

Some nice creepy segments, although I can't progress beyond a point (after finding the journal) due to a savegame bug: if I reload a quicksave, the game crashes with the following message (spoilered to save space):

 

--------- Game Map Shutdown ----------

WARNING: Door atdm_mover_door_sliding_1 is not within a valid AAS area

WARNING: Door atdm_door_104x56_2hinge_19 is not within a valid AAS area

WARNING: Door func_static_233 is not within a valid AAS area

WARNING: Door atdm_door_104x56_2hinge_21 is not within a valid AAS area

WARNING: Door atdm_mover_door_4 is not within a valid AAS area

WARNING: Door atdm_mover_door_5 is not within a valid AAS area

WARNING: Door secretdoor is not within a valid AAS area

WARNING: Door atdm_mover_door_6 is not within a valid AAS area

WARNING: Door atdm_door_104x56_2hinge_23 is not within a valid AAS area

WARNING: Door atdm_mover_door_sliding_6 is not within a valid AAS area

WARNING: Door atdm_mover_door_sliding_7 is not within a valid AAS area

WARNING: idClipModel::FreeTraceModel: tried to free uncached trace model

--------------------------------------

reloading guis/mainmenu.gui.

reloading guis/restart.gui.

reloading guis/msg.gui.

reloading guis/takeNotes.gui.

reloading guis/intro.gui.

reloading guis/netmenu.gui.

reloading guis/map/patently_dangerous.gui.

reloading guis/tdm_hud.gui.

reloading guis/pda.gui.

reloading guis/cursor.gui.

reloading guis/readables/books/book_print_stone_world. gui.

reloading guis/playertools/spyglass.gui.

reloading guis/readables/sheets/sheet_paper_hand_popsies_world. gui.

reloading guis/readables/sheets/sheet_paper_hand_ellianerelle_world. gui.

reloading guis/readables/sheets/sheet_paper_calig_mac_humaine_world. gui.

reloading guis/readables/sheets/sheet_paper_hand_ellianerelle_world. gui.

reloading guis/readables/books/book_hand_andrew_script_world. gui.

reloading guis/readables/sheets/sheet_paper_calig_carolingia_world. gui.

reloading guis/readables/sheets/sheet_paper_calig_summertime_world. gui.

reloading guis/readables/sheets/sheet_paper_calig_mac_humaine_world. gui.

reloading guis/readables/books/book_print_stone_world. gui.

reloading guis/readables/sheets/sheet_paper_calig_camberic_world. gui.

reloading guis/readables/books/book_hand_andrew_script_world. gui.

reloading guis/readables/sheets/sheet_paper_calig_mac_humaine_world. gui.

reloading guis/patent_map.gui.

reloading guis/readables/sheets/sheet_paper_hand_andrew_script_world. gui.

reloading guis/parchment_stone_print_pd_world.gui.

reloading guis/playertools/spyglass.gui.

reloading guis/scoreboard.gui.

reloading guis/spectate.gui.

reloading guis/chat.gui.

reloading guis/mpmain.gui.

reloading guis/mpmsgmode.gui.

--------- Map Initialization ---------

Map: patently_dangerous

idRenderWorldLocal::InitFromMap: retaining existing map

------- Game Map Init SaveGame -------

Compiled 'E:\doom3\patently_dangerous\ maps\patently_dangerous.script': 5.7 ms

---------- Compile stats ----------

 

Memory usage:

Strings: 43, 5168 bytes

Statements: 21618, 432360 bytes

Functions: 1189, 122884 bytes

Variables: 85344 bytes

Mem used: 1132296 bytes

Static data: 2277552 bytes

Allocated: 2808644 bytes

Thread size: 7068 bytes

 

map bounds are (3761.0, 2445.0, 906.0)

max clip sector is (117.5, 152.8, 113.3)

7 KB passage memory used to build PVS

5 msec to calculate PVS

62 areas

160 portals

11 areas visible on average

496 bytes PVS data

[Load AAS]

loading maps/patently_dangerous.aas48

[Load AAS]

loading maps/patently_dangerous.aas96

Keeping maps/patently_dangerous.aas32

[Load AAS]

loading maps/patently_dangerous.aas100

[Load AAS]

loading maps/patently_dangerous.aas_rat

119 0 1024 768

Regenerated world, staticAllocCount = 0.

--------- Game Map Shutdown ----------

--------------------------------------

Shutting down sound hardware

idRenderSystem::Shutdown()

Shutting down OpenGL subsystem

...wglMakeCurrent( NULL, NULL ): success

...deleting GL context: success

...releasing DC: success

...destroying window

...shutting down QGL

...unloading OpenGL DLL

------------ Game Shutdown -----------

--------- Game Map Shutdown ----------

--------------------------------------

Shutdown event system

--------------------------------------

malloc failure for 262144

 

 

If I install a different mission, I can save and load without problems.

 

Otherwise, my only complaint is that nobody should use the roof texture that's seen all around the place. It looks seriously bad from up close.

[demagogue]

Thanks for the good reviews so far, guys.

 

Yes, we could use some roof-tiles that look better up close. I was just going with what we had. (And I actually fixed that mis-rotation once, but then lost that version and had to revert; it's easy to miss doing stuff you've already done.)

 

[*]As I mantled onto that sleeping guy's bed, the sleeper and the guard instantly went nuts, although the lightgem was completely dark.

 

Lol ... sleepers are sensitive to sound and if you're mantling onto the bed they're supposed to hear it and wake up. (The guard probably went nuts when he heard the sleeper).

 

[*]Not really something to worry about, but I found it really funny that

the murderer spawns behind the player out of a "cupboard". I asked myself, why would one sit in a 2 sqauremeters large completely dark room?

:-)

 

Now originally I had some

readables up there that let you know the guy was super paranoid, and as soon as he heard someone entering he'd hide, sneak up behind them, and slit their throat (and some of that still exists in the readables for Soren and Damuddy, and there's the graffiti wall) ... also it was a kind of in-joke on the "hide in a closet" trope. But I found that the whole upstairs area felt creepier to me without any readables, just stark with the bodies. So that's how it ended up like that.

 

 

[*]Now about these lamps: It looks a little weird that the lamps are still glowing bright...

 

Yes another Dark Mod quirk on the list of things to get fixed (the bulb is easy to turn off, but the shell is harder). I think (hopefully) it's the kind of fix that works automatically with a TDM update, so when you play this same .pk4 on like TDM 1.6 or whatever, it will turn off like it should. That's a really awesome thing about how TDM works.

[Fidcal]

The thing about getting on the bed - remember that Dark Mod AI can feel the player touching them even in total dark. You need to be careful crouching at the side of narrow corridors for instance!

[Sonosuke]

Not thats a nice map, i loved that

 

hidden Gas Arrow in the treasure chest ^^

 

i have found a shadow casting "ambiant light" in the warehouse on the upper floor, every thing else was mentioned by the other thiefs

Edit: A few ambient sounds would have been nice

I have missed a lot of loot, like 400 or something, i am going to replay it tomorrow.

 

Thank you for this really cool map!

Edited October 31, 2009 by Sonosuke

[MannOhneGitarre]

Seems like a really nice map, but when I get out of the backdoor of Soren's house after 5 minutes of play TDM crashes. Everytime.

Does anybody have any suggestions?

[Serpentine]

Good stuff, really enjoyed it!

The focus was on story and it did that excellently

 

Did run into something else, managed to get a guard to open the Fressard front door on street level, which isnt meant to be openable, he was greeted to a solid brick wall which he spun around a few times then closed the door and walked off, also the guard path bumps into the corner of Sorens house between Bensons, but thats really minor

[Fidcal]

Note to demagogue: AI can still open doors even if unfrobable to the player. Make such doors func_static.

[demagogue]

Edit: A few ambient sounds would have been nice

 

There were ambient sounds, wind outside and music in 3 of the buildings, or did you mean a few more? Or could you not hear them (your ambient volume isn't too low in the volume settings, is it?).

 

Did run into something else, managed to get a guard to open the Fressard front door on street level ...

 

Haha ... well I missed that!

I'll remember the func_static trick next time.

 

Seems like a really nice map, but when I get out of the backdoor of Soren's house after 5 minutes of play TDM crashes. Everytime. Does anybody have any suggestions?

 

Does the same thing happen when you walk around Soren's house to the same place? I'm guess here, but in the Training Mission, some people had the game crash when the column object came into view, and there are some of those columns in this FM, too, which you might see from that area. Does it also crash if you walk through the tunnel West of Soren's house (beyond the tree you see at the start)? If so, I think it's those columns, and I don't know how to fix it.

[Mortem Desino]

I think he means drippy faucets, rhythmic clicking of machines, the sound of a creaking building in an attic, etc. Something to make individual rooms a little more unique in sound.

[Havner]

Think I need some help :-(

 

 

I've managed to blackjack all 5 guards, open Edgars and Sorens house. I hear another guy in Sorens house but can't get to him All the other doors on the map are immune to lockpick and I haven't found any keys. None of the guards had any. Found few readables but the only hint I could get from them was that the murderer got into Benson's house by window. And Bensons windows are not 'clickable' for me, at least those 3 I can get to.

 

 

Any hints?

Edited October 31, 2009 by Havner

[Diego]

Amazing mission! Played in expert for two hours and appreciated every detail of it. I didn't ran into any bug, weird light or weird texture whatsoever.

 

A few personal impressions on the mission:

 

Maybe I just didn't look well wnough, but I felt the mission to be linear. Go from house x to house y and so on.

Loved the warehouse! CREEPY. What's with the snail and the coffin? I remember reading about the snail, but don't remember what was it.

 

[Fidcal]

Havner:

Check your map to make sure you have the right house for Benson. The window is high up you have to climb.

[Fidcal]

Diego:

That's the snail dolly and coffin of the little girl who died

[STiFU]

The thing about getting on the bed - remember that Dark Mod AI can feel the player touching them even in total dark. You need to be careful crouching at the side of narrow corridors for instance!

I wasn't on the mattress next to the sleeper but on top of the bed, so it could only have been the sound that awakened him. But the awkward thing was that they didn't just go like "oh what was that sound?". They acted as if they had seen me and were shouting at me.

[Diego]

This is weird. This was probably an exception, because I climbed the same bed and they didn't noticed me. (the candles were out, btw)

[Sonosuke]

There were ambient sounds, wind outside and music in 3 of the buildings, or did you mean a few more? Or could you not hear them (your ambient volume isn't too low in the volume settings, is it?).

 

Ok, i checked. There are ambient sounds but they seem to be very silent, maybe just my taste. Volume is on max. Well thats ok, i really enjoyed your map anyway

[demagogue]

Now that you mention it, ambient volume has been a little quirky. Some people can barely hear ambients at all, and other say they are so loud that their speakers shake. So I think something's going on there.

 

Unlike graphic quirks, where you can show a screenshot and describe what's going on better, though, sound quirks are harder to pin down.