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Fan Mission: The Alchemist by Sotha & Fidcal(2010/06/01)


Fidcal

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That is truly awesome news. I am actually looking forward to those more than just about any retail game that's coming out till then :>

 

It's kinda funny actually.. the no-kill requirement oddness actually works in the most hilarious way in making the endgame on expert -much- harder.. would explain the whole situation I got myself into, but don't know how to put spoiler tags :))

haha! The spoiler tags are as secret as ermm... spoilers themselves. Don't tell anyone but they are hidden in the 'Other Styles' drop down list at top left of the full editor.

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Ha, hah! So here goes...

 

 

Alritey so..the engine has enough sense at least to not hold it against me when I holy arrow the undead.. just as well, our necro-buddy isn't quite..well..dead, yet, so he is quite happily put to sleep without the need for all them fire arrows. So what did I do? Well.. I figured, okay, I'm a thief not a murderer but the..well..already dead don't really count now do they? And hell if I can't start up a little melee and grab the goods in the confusion eh? So I took out a few of our necro friends with holy arrows in the corridor leading up to the ritual room and then decided to "call in reinforcements" by placing a nice little strategic noisemaker just above the basement stairs while hiding in the grate where that other amateur sod bit it :D Surely enough, both our alchemist buddy AND the two full-plate guards rushed in and were promptly gassed with a little something I save only for such special occasions. And just when I was about to give myself a huge pat on the back it hit me that the blasted spider has gotten its ugly hide stuck in the very corridor I littered with undead earlier and since it was now on some kind of perma-alert there was no way I could get past it into the ritual room even though -everyone else- had been taken care of. So it hit me.. the alchemist must have known about this bug and how Farrell cannot be anything short of an -expert- thief so he decided the very last line of defense would be a spider our dear hero could not kill or get past! But alas for the lich-wannabe I had another noisemaker, and there just happened to be a few more guards about.. R.I.P spidey... mission complete! :D

 

Edited by EbonKnight
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  • 2 weeks later...

OK, I've updated the patch at http://www.fidcal.co...emist_patch.zip I'd be grateful if some of you who had the problem would test it. You cannot use a previous gamesave so you'd have restart and noclip through to test the combo lock again.

 

I deleted both the 'doom 3/alchemist' folder and the 'darkmod/fms/alchemist' folders and then reinstalled the mission but the door with the combination lock still doesn't open. I tried both 5607 and 5602. I tried pulling the lever twice. My settings are right.

 

Fred

Edited by fhapgood
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An overall excellent mission... really had the feel of the old "Dark Guy With A Blackjack" games. Loved going rooftopping (though I miss the old city roofs where you look down 100 feet to the pavement!), the feel of the environments was great, and there were some nice twists in the plot. Some folks said that loot was too easy to come by; I say the loot felt realistic. Not everybody wedges a secret coin beneath a step in their basement... sometimes it's actually the change in the cash register!

 

Some raves:

 

Rooftops, sewers, streets, mansions, and a dungeon... that about sums up a whole experience!

 

 

Guards: check! Civilians with meaningful jobs: check! Snooty snoring nobles: check! Villains on par with Dracula: check! Undead: check! Annoying-ass spiders: check!

 

 

Some rants:

 

Stuck spiders that destroy three soldiers ruin the ending. If only the undead and the friggin' spider didn't count as people, the mission would have felt MUCH more polished. As it was, it ended in the massacre of every last soldier and civilian (somehow they ALL managed to follow me to the basement!) where the spider killed off those that the undead didn't finish.

 

 

 

Some serious texture/poly issues... I managed to climb up to and around every section of the map, and clearly most of these places should not have been accessible. There were unfinished roofs on the mansion, invisible walls on easily reached battlements, and untextured polies in various places. Mind you, if a player doesn't set out to reach these spots the issues would never come up! But, I'm a notorious climber always looking for a new way in and a new view, so I inevitably end up off the map if there's a hole.

 

 

All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable mission! Really great work once again. :D

Edited by Maethius
207115_1788633687853_1599901965_31729336_1424191_n.jpg
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  • 3 weeks later...

Sorry if this has already been asked, but I'm having a minor problem with breaking glass and don't want to read all the spoilers to find my answer.

 

 

In the jewellery store, only one of the glass display cases on the counter is breaking for me. The rectangular one is just staying intact no matter what I hit it with. I see the loot in there, but can't get it! Am I being an idiot? ;)

 

"We were travelling in the night of first ages, of those ages that are gone, leaving hardly a sign — and no memories" - Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

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@bambini:

I cannot explain it. Both of the horizontal display cases have breakable glass although the rectangular one is tougher and might need more hits. Try a jabbing forward sword thrust; perhaps the default overhead is hitting the frame whereas the angled one is easier to hit the glass. The tall cabinet with glass doors has unbreakable glass and you need the key.

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@bambini:

I cannot explain it. Both of the horizontal display cases have breakable glass although the rectangular one is tougher and might need more hits. Try a jabbing forward sword thrust; perhaps the default overhead is hitting the frame whereas the angled one is easier to hit the glass. The tall cabinet with glass doors has unbreakable glass and you need the key.

 

OK, thanks Fid. It's weird, but I'll keep on it. Maybe it's operator error.

"We were travelling in the night of first ages, of those ages that are gone, leaving hardly a sign — and no memories" - Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

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Hey Fidcal, this one has a popular-star too! Makes you proud, eh? :laugh:;)

 

I haven´t started yet, so I don´t understand this:

[EDIT] updated with debugged combination lock script 5 June 2010

 

No need to re-install just to change the folder name. I have had many installs of doom3 just by copying the whole folder and renaming it any legal name and it runs immediately.

Change folder-name?

I downloaded the actual version and copied/overwritten the pk4 in the Doom3/alchemist-folder.

I also downloaded and installed the patch. I guess I´m prepared now?

-> Crisis of Capitalism

-> 9/11 Truth

->

(hard stuff), more
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I don't know how that doom3 rename folder thing got there. Sounds like a bad copy and paste. I've changed it now. Basically just make sure all the previous install is removed before installing again is what I would do.

 

BTW no need to use the spiky ball patch unless you get crashes within the first minute. They are not critical either way but without the patch you get active spiky balls and can use them as weapons. But you always need to start from the beginning if you add/remove the patch; you can't use any earlier gamesaves.

 

I hadn't realized this has got a popular sticker too - though the build is 90+% Sotha's remember. But I'm pleased to have got it finished off and released!

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Following on from my last post, I managed to do what I couldn't do earlier straight away today - dunno what went wrong :)

"We were travelling in the night of first ages, of those ages that are gone, leaving hardly a sign — and no memories" - Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

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finally got around to 'almost' finishing this mission tonight, but my quicksave got corrupted after a crash while quicksaving directly after i nabbed the holy healing potion. Guess i'll need to restart again *sigh*.

 

Never found:

tourmaline, but i'm guessing its in the basement with the monster party.

haystack stash, high up from rats...? never found one.

 

 

 

Awesome work btw. This mission was hella fun apart from one of the city guards got stuck on a barrel permanently, and some texture alignment issues. Also,

 

closet zombie made my blood run cold for a full minute. nice one on that. Very competitive with closet hang-man.

 

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http://modetwo.net/d...post__p__233736

 

I only had once a save-crash during the beta-test for NHAT2/3, but were constantly in the cave at the end. But recently I replayed the final version with this quicksave-method and had no problems at all, and I saved often. Though I had no alerts, by my first crashes that time during beta I hadn´t alerted AI´s anyway, so it´s not completely related to alerts.

 

I have no idea if it is related, but now I always wait until AI´s are finished with their bark or closing-door-animation until I hit 'QuickSave'. Just in case. :laugh:

 

About the Alchemist: Hmm, due to my actual cold I had a hard time with this mission(it seems I´m not in the mood these days), again this calmness almost everywhere. I hate that stillness-noise I can hear through my headphones. But it´s the engine, or that stillness.ogg, I don´t hear it during saving/loading and it changes during moving through areas...

Anyway, through thread-searching I know that I have to find

some zombie in closet, a shame that I spoiled that now, but I never found that place, because I need to get into the alchemists room, but don´t have a code. Is there a basement-entrance from inside the house? Or do I have to go back into the sewers? I thought I was everywhere down there...

 

Edited by LEGION

-> Crisis of Capitalism

-> 9/11 Truth

->

(hard stuff), more
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@ LEGION:

 

Hint:

There is a big clue in Nancy's note in one of the bedrooms.

 

 

Nudge:

Go upstairs in the library and search around at the far end

 

 

Total Spoiler:

Upstairs in the library, far end is a switch near the wall. Frob it and the painting becomes frobbable for about half a minute. Frob it and go through.

 

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Thanks Fidcal. I already had

that note, but wasn´t capable of seeing the hint for the library in it, just didn´t realized that that locked door is the master bedroom. Well, I can shove that part to my cold. biggrin.gif

 

Finally I´m done, and against my fear I really got surprised by the zombie because I never would´ve thought he would be alive! (sidenote: I played with my cat sleeping on my legs and as I discovered the zombie I must´ve scared her, or she could hear the zombie-noise through my headphones, anyway, the result was her staring at me for two minutes with wide-open-eyes :laugh: I couldn´t concentrate on playing until she finally closed her eyes again. And began snoring...)

And even more in the basement!! I wasted all my water arrows for the zombies, at the end only Voydeth or what his name was and one bloody skeleton were left. I thought it was a tooooo low frobbing-distance for the holy healing potion, it was like you pick it up with your head... But they got alert-triggered anyway upon picking up the potion, right? So I gladly remembered that I picked a lot of Fire-arrows in the city-guard-house and this was the first time I used fire-arrows on AI´s and hell, it was impressive, though the Fire-arrow would need more of a glow, because the LightGem is very much affected, a glow would be nice. smile.gif

I even found the green gem (under a big bowl in a piller, ungoliant) but still 700 missing. At the end it was more fun, the basement was the only place I felt atmosphere, because of the racket the guys down there made. And the nice fogging of course. Ohh, and I really loved that black/red-spider, glad that this spider again came without sound, makes them more scary, but I was in kill-all mode.

Really Fidcal, I hope your future missions will have more ambiance, like in your re-release of Thief´s Den 1, I guess in that re-release you discovered the power of ambiance, not music but different sounds (street, city noise) I mean?

 

There were some cool details in this mission (like the code-locks, though the number-movement wasn´t perfect), but I didn´t understood the spiked balls. I started again without the patch and well, they hurt a little and I got it even working that a guard was standing upon one but after three minutes of 'Ahh, Urghhh' he still was alive and there wasn´t much of a throwing distance either, so it wasn´t really a weapon. That was bad, because I had no water-arrows left, oh hell, I completely forgot I had flashbombs!! Damn, now I realize, just great. Well, I just started to run, and locked the laboratory-door and ran by the guard before the master-room-door, and guess what? He didn´t reacted!! Not a sound! But he wouldn´t allow me to blackjack him, strange. Oh, apropos strange, I got several, especially at the end, dead guards in the streets and in the mansion. Must be a problem with massive AI-use. I only experienced that here and in Heart. In the Mansion it was critical, because two dead guards blocked the only door I could get in after I came through the window. Oh, I thought it was the only way in, but there was another beside the main entrance. That was nice with the cough´s of the player, including shaking view! Well, I wasn´t aware of that way that time but gladly I was aware of 'noclip'.

 

I got some questions in screenshot-form:

 

Is that a coin in there? If so, I couldn´t frob it, although I am the master of frobbing... rolleyes.gif

post-3744-128646573135_thumb.jpg

 

What´s that apparatus in front of the pillar good for?

post-3744-128646583397_thumb.jpg

 

Oh, not a question, not even your doing (maybe?), but I just loved this texture; this is the magic of bump-mapping, right? (I´m sure Nils will rush in and will tell me that it is sth completely different...) All those shadows around the skulls and bones, looks so vividly... wub.gif

post-3744-128646595555_thumb.jpg

 

 

I won´t make a scoring this time, mainly because I suffer from a cold atm (my thievish mood suffers from it) and also my gameplay-value is highly decreased by missing ambiance, I don´t know why this is so critical to me these days, must be influence of playing the Penumbra-series, I don´t know. But I wasn´t able to have fun in this mission until the ending-area. Most of the time I had the feeling of an un-finished mission released too early, sorry, but that was my impression. (maybe caused by your comment in the first post) :mellow: A LEGION is not that easy to satisfy... ;)

-> Crisis of Capitalism

-> 9/11 Truth

->

(hard stuff), more
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It is possible to get the holy health potion without alerting anyone but not easy. You need to do something first. That apparatus you referred to is a gantry.

 

I didn't try the spiky balls on guards but they quickly killed the undead when I used them.

 

There are three ways into the mansion including the front door.

 

 

I can't recall what or where that broken plate is. That round thing looks very strange. I don't think it is a coin.

 

Yes that texture you posted is entirely done with bump mapping. I think greebo made those. As I recall the texture image is completely blank except for the stone texture so the same relief work could be applied to other materials like metal.. It's all done with light.

 

Strange you didn't enjoy the rest of it much though. I thought the start was exciting and dramatic and many interesting areas around the city.

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Yes, the start was cool, but as soon as the music faded away and only the running guards clicky shoes were hearable I couldn´t get into the mission. It´s just only the ambiance that counts so much to me. Instead of sneaking around I rushed into everything, I saw the detail in the places I found but still wasn´t able to find the right mood. My health condition played it´s toll too of course. I don´t have anything to say against the design, I just couldn´t get into fun-mode and I blame the calmness for that. I´m over-sensitive to ambiance these days, or ever was... <_<

 

That plate was in the kitchen, btw.

 

Oh, it´s dinner-time, gotta go...

-> Crisis of Capitalism

-> 9/11 Truth

->

(hard stuff), more
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About that gantry, I get different translations for it, but I guess it is sort of a shooting-ramp for the spiked balls? :blink: WoW!

When I feel better I´ll definitely try that out, but first I think I´ll add some music to the map...

Edited by LEGION

-> Crisis of Capitalism

-> 9/11 Truth

->

(hard stuff), more
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