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

[demagogue]

Wow, this had never happened to me in ANY game I played. Didn't startle at F.E.A.R.. Silent Hill never got to me.. Well those are nothing, but name ANY horror game..

 

Thanks for the cool comment and complement.

 

You may be interested in knowing that in the original draft

there was only Soren's lab and no missing pages part. But it felt a little short and I was thinking what else I could do... And then one night I had a very uneasy nightmare of walking down a hallway in an abandoned building, with these doors that I *really* didn't want to open because I was afraid of what might be behind them... and the farther I walked the more I didn't want to open them, imagining they were getting worse and worse, and sometimes I'd catch just little glipses in my mind's eye! And it was all building up to ... something; I didn't know what, but I was dreading to find out. Iirc, I woke up still feeling shaken up about it, and knew right off this had to be my coup de grâce!

 

I wanted to create exactly that feeling of increasing dread, so built it pretty much just as I imagined it ... seriously, lay-out and everything. I think a scene coming straight from the uncensored shadows of the psyche must carry more gravitas than one that's been checked over too many times by focus groups and project managers.

 

[Trickster]

Thanks for this great FM. Get me right in where T:MA left me ages ago. I was scared to death even with F.E.A.R., but this was realy intense too. After a loooong period of not playing games, TDM get me warm up my old GeForce again. Good to be here. Feels like home :-)))))))))

[BrokenArts]

I know what you mean Trickster. Glad you found TDM and the forum, welcome home!

[Johnny-Natrium]

Thanks for the cool comment and complement.

 

You may be interested in knowing that in the original draft

there was only Soren's lab and no missing pages part. But it felt a little short and I was thinking what else I could do... And then one night I had a very uneasy nightmare of walking down a hallway in an abandoned building, with these doors that I *really* didn't want to open because I was afraid of what might be behind them... and the farther I walked the more I didn't want to open them, imagining they were getting worse and worse, and sometimes I'd catch just little glipses in my mind's eye! And it was all building up to ... something; I didn't know what, but I was dreading to find out. Iirc, I woke up still feeling shaken up about it, and knew right off this had to be my coup de grâce!

 

I wanted to create exactly that feeling of increasing dread, so built it pretty much just as I imagined it ... seriously, lay-out and everything. I think a scene coming straight from the uncensored shadows of the psyche must carry more gravitas than one that's been checked over too many times by focus groups and project managers.

 

 

That is indeed very interesting, and it explains it all.. Even though I wouldn't have thought of it, because it was so well blended in... I mean.. The murderer was really a main factor in this mission, from the beginning.

Well, however uneasy it was, I'm glad you had the nightmare!

[Ishtvan]

But the point is, that you can complete the objective multiple times by carrying him out of and into the bed zone, no matter whether the subject is alive or not. This is not really an issue though. I just found it funny enough to be reported!!

Yeah, it's kind of a conundrum, because the objective is to leave him there, so if you drop him there once, it's complete for the moment, but if you move him out of there, the objective is not complete anymore. If the player drops him in there again, you still have to let them know that he's in the right spot, because otherwise you could be slightly off of the spot the author had in mind, and not know that the objective was incomplete until after finishing the mission (or when trying to get to the exit if it was a mandatory objective), which would be frustrating. I agree that completing/uncompleting/completing... the objective feels a bit silly, but I don't know what the alternative would be.

[xistenze]

great effort with this fm, given the size of the town area the 50 minute play time was quite reasonable, 1206 easily found loot so I will need to re run the mission to find the maximum amount.

 

The murder is rather twitchy if u trick him, following is the way i found to knock him out after killing him the first time and reloading

 

 

When you reach the top level send the elevator back down, then walk past his door backwards, as soon as it starts to open, sprint to the elevator and jump down then climb backup and sneak to the corner near his door, noise maker into the cupboard, and smack

 

[Ratty]

I declare TDM the true spiritual successor to Thief and Thief 2!

 

Patently Dangerous made me feel like I was playing a traditional Thief FM. It had the same atmosphere and feel. I found the guards' behavior very familiar. Sneaking and blackjacking were like old times. I felt just like I was good old Gar-, oops, never mind. Not supposed to say the 'G' word I guess. The enhanced lighting and textures were stunning, mantling is a million times better. Readables are awesome.

 

Even lock picking has won me over, and I had my doubts. I found myself with my head tilted slightly, left ear turned a bit toward the screen, listening at the clicks intently with held breath, and realized this is probably very close to how I imagine I might do it in real life. At first I was put off by the mundane visuals of lock picking until I realized it was meant to be an auditory experience. I also thought maybe it was a bit too easy after I got the hang of it but I've since come around. It's trickier than it was in the originals, and not as hard or complicated as in TDS or something like Oblivion. And that's fine. The game is about sneaking around and stealing stuff, not being confronted by the same puzzle over and over again. The difficulty level is just right. Bravo.

 

I still have some quibbles, but at this point it might just be a matter of playing more FMs and getting used to things.

 

- Lock picking and using a key seem awkward. I still like the visual of the pick or key moving forward with the first frob, and picking/unlocking and opening the door on the second. I guess I'm just not used to hitting the use key yet. I wish the door would open automatically after unlocking and picking, like in the old games. Though I also realize that takes a bit more control away from the player.

 

- I wish there were a more distinctive sound when using the wrong pick. The faint red flash is a bit too subtle for me.

 

- Dragging bodies is maybe more realistic, though real people aren't that rubbery. But it's more time-consuming plus it's impossible to get them up stairs. To me it's just frustrating and I don't like it. Maybe if I could have a firmer grip on them and not have them keep slipping out of my grasp if I turn wrong or move too fast I would be much happier. Bodies are heavy and I can see myself moving much more slowly when I'm dragging them, fine. But my hands aren't covered in vaseline, why can't I keep my grip?

 

- Yeah, some of the footstep sounds need work.

 

- I wish Escape always took me back to the main menu.

 

- Is there a hotkey for the map and for objectives?

 

Hard to believe those are the only quibbles I can come up with. They're all pretty minor.

 

Congratulations guys. This is definitely where Thief is at for the next few years. And beyond - I'm pretty pessimistic about Thief 4. Thanks for your years of labor.

[demagogue]

Thanks for the cool comments.

I can respond to a few things.

 

I wish the door would open automatically after unlocking and picking, like in the old games. Though I also realize that takes a bit more control away from the player.

 

This is an option in one of the menus that you can specifically turn on, just like you say, you unlock or finish the lockpick and the door opens automatically.

 

- Dragging bodies is maybe more realistic, though real people aren't that rubbery. But it's more time-consuming plus it's impossible to get them up stairs.

 

Dragging is more for fine or quick movement. When you are moving it a distance, push the "use" button after you start the drag to shoulder the body, then "use" again to drop it.

 

- I wish Escape always took me back to the main menu.

- Is there a hotkey for the map and for objectives?

 

The default hotkey for map is "m".

 

There is no hotkey for objectives yet because of a Doom3 restriction (it can be fixed when D3 goes open source). But like you noticed, Escape takes you back to the last menu you left. This lets you Escape and bring up the "Objectives" screen, then any time you want to look at it again, just push Escape and you're there.

[Springheel]

Thanks for the comments, Ratty. It's very gratifying to hear that kind of feedback. And your quibbles are cut in half already!

[Ratty]

Dragging is more for fine or quick movement. When you are moving it a distance, push the "use" button after you start the drag to shoulder the body, then "use" again to drop it.

Heh, I *just* now discovered that. I was dragging a body and brought up map and hit Use. What do you know! My map didn't come up, instead I was carrying the body! You guys thought of everything.

 

The default hotkey for map is "m".

As I thought. I remapped 'm' to mantle but now I can't seem to put it back to map.

 

This is an option in one of the menus that you can specifically turn on

Man you guys really DID think of everything!

[Nielsen74]

trojan horse SHeur2.BOWO

 

I had this warning from my anti-virus scaner when downloading from the first link on missions page here The Dark Mod hop it´s just a fluk in my sys bud i thourgt i´d better tell you guy´s!

[LeatherMan]

trojan horse SHeur2.BOWO

 

I had this warning from my anti-virus scaner when downloading from the first link on missions page here The Dark Mod hop it´s just a fluk in my sys bud i thourgt i´d better tell you guy´s!

 

What virus scanner? I feel pretty confident it is a false-positive, but it's not an executable, and Doom 3 can't use it to install anything to your system, so it would be harmless anyway. 

[demagogue]

Has to be a false positive. You can go through the .zip file and see every file in there, what it's for, and we could tell you where it comes from.

 

It's still a good question what's raising the false-positive warning though. It might be the file suffix, since Doom3 uses some strange suffixes for its files -- .script, .xd, .af -- and that might be associated with that trojan?

 

Thanks for the heads-up on it.

[bvanaerde]

I just finished this level... wow, I'm really impressed!

The atmosphere is just right!

 

It took me a while to make good jumps from one roof to another. I had some difficulties knowing exactly when to jump (meaning: right before falling). But of course, this has nothing to do with this map... more about TDM in general.

 

About the last part:

 

I walked backwards, and as soon as the door opened, I quickly ran behind the opening door. The murderer just stood still in the room. A quick tap on the head did the rest

I was really surprised the first time though, when hearing his creepy voice!

 

Edited November 17, 2009 by bvanaerde

[fhapgood]

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

 

Brilliant. Totally satisfying. I wish I was in the business so I could offer you a job.

 

Fred

[gold1]

Sadly , whilst commending Demagogue for a seemingly excellent mission , I'm afraid I've reluctantly decided to give it a miss for now. I managed to run the other ( smaller ) missions available successfully and had a lot of fun with them without any problems at all.But I have had nothing but problems with this one , slowing down , crashing etc. I only seem able to play it for a few minutes before it crashes with some runtime error or other , very frustrating. This malloc error thing. Being a complete dweebe with computers , can someone show me the easiest way to find the files to delete? Is it safe to do so? Maybe best to stay away from this mission until the problems are worked out?

[demagogue]

@gold1, I believe malloc errors occur when your computer runs out of memory.

What is your system?

I don't think this is the video card problem people have mentioned in other threads, if you run the other FMs fine (did you check that?)

Have you tried playing it on Easy level? It cuts out about 1/2 the AI (which is the biggest memory drain.)

Have you tried playing at a smaller resolution or in window mode and shrinking the window?

Sorry you're having trouble.

 

Brilliant. Totally satisfying. I wish I was in the business so I could offer you a job.

 

Thanks. I wonder, if I were actually in the business, if I could make what I want, though; I'd be afraid of being chained to making the uninspired, focus-group-approved crap of other people...

I sort of like being the autonomous author of my own vision (unless that's part of the deal).

But I appreciate the compliment all the same.

[gold1]

@gold1, I believe malloc errors occur when your computer runs out of memory.

What is your system?

I don't think this is the video card problem people have mentioned in other threads, if you run the other FMs fine (did you check that?)

Have you tried playing it on Easy level? It cuts out about 1/2 the AI (which is the biggest memory drain.)

Have you tried playing at a smaller resolution or in window mode and shrinking the window?

Sorry you're having trouble.

 

 

 

Thanks. I wonder, if I were actually in the business, if I could make what I want, though; I'd be afraid of being chained to making the uninspired, focus-group-approved crap of other people...

I sort of like being the autonomous author of my own vision (unless that's part of the deal).

But I appreciate the compliment all the same.

[gold1]

Thanks for your prompt reply and help. Yes , I have tried on easy level , no joy. Still trying to find the malloc temp file. As I said I'm not that great on computers , but I'll persevere when I find time. I have 1536 mb ram on board so guess this should be enough?

[Fidcal]

Isn't there a fix somewhere for eg, gamesave crashes, which I think related to malloc errors. If so, this is fixed in the next update release but there is a file to download from somewhere temporarily. I'll search to see if I can find it.

[Fidcal]

Yes, this is what I was thinking of but it may be totally irrelevant. But maybe worth a try? You can always backup and restore your original file...

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/10157-savegame-problems/page__view__findpost__p__200204

[gold1]

Yes, this is what I was thinking of but it may be totally irrelevant. But maybe worth a try? You can always backup and restore your original file...

 

http://modetwo.net/d...post__p__200204

 

Thanks ! Will give it a go.

[Crispy]

Still trying to find the malloc temp file.

There is no such file. When you close a program, all the memory being used by that program gets cleaned up automatically. (In rare cases, a reboot may be necessary to free up resources other than memory, but I doubt this is the problem in this case.)

 

1536 MB should certainly be enough.

[Mortem Desino]

Could this be related to the "massive savegame file" issue?

[Crispy]

Yes, it's possible. That's what Fidcal linked to.