Fan Mission: No Honor Among Thieves (2010/04/29)

[WReis]

Ok,

 

Thanks a lot you all for the tips. I was avoiding to turn the lantern on, trying to keep undetected by the zombies... Stupid.

 

Anyway, a very good mission, this first one, very well balanced, in good TDS style. I must confess I expected something like T1 cathedral mission, one of the best missions I ever played, but I enjoy Politics in its own way.

 

I noticed some issues, like a candle in one of the priest's room whose base vanished after clicked, some stuck characters (John and one of the guards in the inner garden) whom I had to help by eventually opening some doors, but nothing that could make the mission less tasteful.

 

Finally, 

 

 

 

 

hope I find that sewer to end it. I have no breath potions to take the way back to the caverns.

 

Edited May 8, 2010 by WReis

[WReis]

Wow!

 

Too beautiful this 2nd mission, although I can't almost move when in some parts of the city. Frame rate is too low. Is there a way to fix it? (I suppose my machine is a low-end one.)

 

 

 

 

Thanks

 

 

[Mortem Desino]

No, there really isn't a way to "fix" low frame rate if you're using a lower-end computer.

[AlarusLOL]

Great job on the campaign. My favorite parts were the city in the second level and the forest in the 3rd (although the forest made my hardware struggle a bit). It was also cool to see some talking NPCs.

 

I had an interesting encounter in the second level. I was spotted by

the two guards in front of the tavern

, and so I took off running. I ended up hiding in the warehouse building on the second floor, on top of some boxes. Sure enough, the guards followed me in, and I was surprised to see one of them use the lift to search the second floor! Kudos to the mod team for making such smart AI.

 

Edit: I almost forgot about the zombie pit. That was awesome too. Great to finally see the zombies in the mod, they're really cool.

Edited May 12, 2010 by AlarusLOL

[Thiefette]

Great campaign! Despite my crash problems in the 2nd one I thoroughly enjoyed them all. It's got me replaying the others just because. Look forward to more.

[Diego]

Just played the first part!

I'm just going to hide the whole thing so I don't let any spoiler slip.

 

 

 

First of all, it's really good! \o/ The whole structure of the mission is fun, it starts very linear, with that adventure feel to it, and becomes the typical thief mission where you have to roam non linearly inside the cathedral.

 

The pit of zombies is freaking awesome!

 

The cathedral wasn't as much fun as I would expect. I didn't know this, but it turns out large and wide environmente are not a lot of fun to sneak through.

 

It took me a while to find the keys on that guy's belt. And I didn't see them! I actually frobbed blindly and - jackpot - not one but two keys! I'm starting to like the idea of a "thief vision" where these kinds of things blinks from a distance.

 

 

 

Can't wait to play the next one! I'm just going to work a little before that to ease my conscience

 

By the way, the leg dragging zombies are *really* cool, but they are too peculiar to have more than one or two per level, in my opinion. Aren't there other kinds of zombies available?

Edited May 12, 2010 by Diego

[Igor bes Thiefer]

Has anyone had any luck with the

locked crate inside the warehouse´s secret room?

Perhaps there is some clue to it that i didnt find.

[Diego]

Well, the second part was much easier! But not less fun

 

@Igor bes Thiefer

 

There's a secret room?? :-o

 

[Igor bes Thiefer]

Diego, (this will work much better than a spoiler tag ), está sob um alçapão que encontra-se em um pequeno túnel de caixas, do lado oposto ao da cama de palha.

[Diego]

I hope people don't mind our own spoiler tag.

 

Pior que eu encontrei essas caixas! retirei elas, olhei pra cima, pros lados e... faltou olhar pra baixo Que burro! hehe

[Diego]

In the third mission I found something odd.

 

 

While searching for more evidence inside his room, when I tried to blindly frob something on the table there was this 'clunk' sound.. I eventually tracked the exact point where I could frob to make the clunk sound:

I couldn't see anything opening nearby, though.

 

 

[raymeld]

Can't find the

key to the cashbox found in the graveyard

in mission 3 .Would some kind person give me a hint? Thanks.

[Thiefette]

Can't find the

key to the cashbox found in the graveyard

in mission 3 .Would some kind person give me a hint? Thanks.

 

Here is a clue:

 

 

Upstairs in the house, one of the rooms with a note on the door, it is in a desk. Let me know if you need more help.

 

[raymeld]

Here is a clue:

 

 

Upstairs in the house, one of the rooms with a note on the door, it is in a desk. Let me know if you need more help.

 

 

Thanks for that , must have missed it in my search !

[aidakeeley]

Quoting MD from another thread but figured this best be asked about/ discussed here...

 

I actually custom-built this into anoott (NHAT 2/3). There's a mile-long script running where AI will determine the nearest friendly AI(s) within earshot, and shout for help. (It's not in regular TDM because it's very experimental and it's not very CPU-efficient at the moment.) You can probably see this happen most easily around the pub, by combatting the lonesome patrolling citywatch -- at the very least, the nearby guards will draw their swords in alert.

 

Just to let you know my experience and see if it it might be of use as feedback, MD.

 

As I recall I think I might have made a little commotion upon my approach to the pub(can't remember exactly what, but I do feel it was basically low-key). I don't think I knew the pub was ahead, but when I got there there were 3 or 4 guards (or patrol) (or a mix) standing outside the entrance to the pub as if they were anticipating a bit of trouble. It looked good (well, not for me, the thief, pragmatically; but aesthetically) -- "natural" considering the commotion I'd made.

 

So, I'm not sure if this is a result of your scripting, but it felt "organic" or "natural" or whatever word relays an appropriate thumbs-up.

 

[PranQster]

Those guys outside the pub were one of my favorite parts of the mission.

 

I went around the pub and climbed up on the boxes to the ledge of the building where you get the gem stash key. I waited for the 2 guys on patrol to get near the other two at the pub door and used a noisemaker on the ground. When all 4 were near the noisemaker, I used the gas arrow. It took a few tries, but eventually I got the 4 city watch down with one gas arrow

 

[Goldchocobo]

Quoting MD from another thread but figured this best be asked about/ discussed here...

 

 

 

Just to let you know my experience and see if it it might be of use as feedback, MD.

 

As I recall I think I might have made a little commotion upon my approach to the pub(can't remember exactly what, but I do feel it was basically low-key). I don't think I knew the pub was ahead, but when I got there there were 3 or 4 guards (or patrol) (or a mix) standing outside the entrance to the pub as if they were anticipating a bit of trouble. It looked good (well, not for me, the thief, pragmatically; but aesthetically) -- "natural" considering the commotion I'd made.

 

So, I'm not sure if this is a result of your scripting, but it felt "organic" or "natural" or whatever word relays an appropriate thumbs-up.

 

I'm really glad someone noticed the effects of MD's scripting. They took a while to write... It really helped a lot of the friendly/neutral AI behaviors and making them more realistic.

[nbohr1more]

As much as I like them, is there an easy way to disable the "Moon Beams"? It seems that the FPS drops to 5 when there is a open clearing in the Canopy where this effect is more prevalent. I gained a little performance by renaming canopy shadows texture but those beams still persist. I also disabled particles and fog lights via Doom 3 cvar...

[nbohr1more]

I found a related thread... I'll post my results soon... http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/10764-moon-ray/

[nbohr1more]

Ahh, so shaderParm7 = "0" should do the trick... will test when home... (sorry for the spam)

[nbohr1more]

Well... cvar's don't seem to fully remove these things. I was able to up the performance a little but I have a feeling I'd have to cut those moon beams out in Dark Radiant. The same for the Training Mission FM... renaming the glares material just produces weird animated artifacts of the moon beams in the Lock-Picking room... (and again fog lights and particle effects cvar's have no effect).

[aidakeeley]

I gained a little performance by renaming canopy shadows texture but those beams still persist. I also disabled particles and fog lights via Doom 3 cvar...

 

If you're going so far as to rename things couldn't you maybe (I don't know) find "the moon" (?atdm_light_bigOldLuna?) and rename that out of existence? Maybe?

[nbohr1more]

Thanks aidakeeley, I presume that's in the darkmod main rather than specifically in the mission (only tried renaming things in the mission until I re-tried some stuff for the training mission). I really hope ATI fixes their driver performance issues with Alpha channel, Fog, etc in OpenGL... I think they internally optimized these things in D3D for the HD2xxx and up (these have hardware capable of Order Independent translucency) because HL2's foggy areas SCREAM compared to any of my previous cards. (But an ATI optimized moon beam shader would help until this happens... if ever).

[aidakeeley]

"atdm_light_bigOldLuna"

 

I was just guessing at that. I totally made that name up. I just meant to give you an idea of maybe how you could, using your renaming method, kill the frame-eating beast by cutting off it's head... Sorry,I might have sent you on a bit of a wild goose chase there...

[nbohr1more]

No need to apologize... I'll find out if there's something akin to that reference soon enough (I have created my own goose-chases anyway). If I do finally disable these moon beams and the FPS is still really low near the lighted path then that part of the equation is likely the AI... but at least the inner Forrest and clearings will be smooth. I just have a hunch that this'll do it. The training demo is smooth as glass except for those darn rays in specific areas. If these glare/ray effects can be disabled easily, low-end ATI users will get to play at decent resolutions...