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

[id3839315]

thanks id3- I think you might have my first patch. I uploaded another.

Ok, I've tried the other patch but after pulling the lever there's only a small clearance and I can't enter the room.

[id3839315]

I've finished the mission by noclipping the keypad door in 1 hour 31 minutes.

A reason for the crash of saved games could be too many AI's because I had a crash when I tried to reload a save from the city watch with lots of guards.

[Fidcal]

Sorry I missed your earlier post and I keep forgetting there are two threads on this (TDM & TTLG) but we discovered that a quick fix for the half open door is to temporarily turn off open on unlock in the settings. What is happening is that my script is trying to open the door and that setting is also at the same time so they conflict. I have to work out a solution. This is a new bug introduced in the patch to fix the first bug which was not opening the door at all.

 

[EDIT] I think probably all I need do is read the cvar for open with unlock.

[Fidcal]

OK, I've updated the patch at http://www.fidcal.com/TEMP/alchemist_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.

 

Close Dark Mod

Extract the zip into your doom3\alchemist game folder (NOT the darkmod\fms\alchemist folder)

Restart the FM. Don't use an old gamesave.

Noclip through if you don't want to play again.

Try the combo lock again.

 

If we can confirm this is now OK I can update the FM and also we know this combo lock is OK and can be made available to other FM makers.

[id3839315]

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.

Nope, still the same result.

[Fidcal]

The door still only opens half way?

[PranQster]

I'm having a lot of fun playing this one. I'm stuck and taking a break, however. I set the skill to expert mode so I have the objective "Do not kill anyone"... sigh... I guess arachnids count as "anyone" rather than "anything", lol.

There is an item "well hid, but near at hand" which I need to find to complete the first objective. I'll try again later... need a break now

 

By the way... in the dining room, by the musician's area, is a step sitting apart from the others. Someone could break an ankle on that.

[Fidcal]

Thanks PranQster.

 

I've worked on the combo lock script more carefully this time and hopefully fixed the bug. I've tested it over and over and it is working here. I'd be grateful for anyone testing this to confirm it is OK.

 

I've updated the patch at http://www.fidcal.com/TEMP/alchemist_patch.zip

 

Close Dark Mod

Extract the zip into your doom3\alchemist game folder (NOT the darkmod\fms\alchemist folder)

Restart the FM. Don't use an old gamesave.

Noclip through if you don't want to play again.

Try the combo lock again.

 

If we can confirm this is now OK I can update the FM and also we know this combo lock is OK and can be made available to other FM makers.

[PranQster]

Thanks PranQster.

 

I've worked on the combo lock script more carefully this time and hopefully fixed the bug. I've tested it over and over and it is working here. I'd be grateful for anyone testing this to confirm it is OK.

 

I've updated the patch at http://www.fidcal.co...emist_patch.zip

 

 

The combo lock worked fine for me on the first try.... no patch. ... no probs with the door or the lock.

[PranQster]

OK, I made major progress. I finished in the mansion (awesome puzzle to solve there, btw) and am working my way through the town.

 

The jewelry shop was very cool. Now I'm in the inventor's shop, trying to find a key to the chest. I liked the new model of the combo lock he has downstairs which opens the miniature door.

 

[id3839315]

I've worked on the combo lock script more carefully this time and hopefully fixed the bug. I've tested it over and over and it is working here. I'd be grateful for anyone testing this to confirm it is OK.

Yep, looks fine now.

[Fidcal]

Thanks, that confirms it, I'll put that script in the FM tomorrow. And let that be a lesson to me!

[Tels]

Wowa, I need to find more time to play these missions

 

Just one quick note: bloodgate.com has a shortcut, instead of using htt p://www.bloodgate.com/mirrors/tdm/pub/pk4/fms/..., you can use htt p://bloodgate.com/fms/..., so this will work:

 

http://bloodgate.com/fms/alchemist.pk4

 

That's a bit easier to type and remember, isn't it?

[Fidcal]

Thanks. I've made a note but at the point and time of next use I'm not certain I'll remember this! I think I normally copy and paste from another on the download site. We'll see. Something might ring a bell. But then again, this is supposed to save me time remembering to copy and paste from somewhere else?

[Igor bes Thiefer]

Completed it yesterday, always in "one shot" attemps due to fear of the "savegame infection" bug. All i couldnt figure out is

who the hell is that "Candrell" guy? did i miss a written note or diary somewhere?

[Fidcal]

Completed it yesterday, always in "one shot" attemps due to fear of the "savegame infection" bug. All i couldnt figure out is

who the hell is that "Candrell" guy? did i miss a written note or diary somewhere?

 

 

Most of Vaydeth's victims came from beggars and criminals imprisoned by the city watch. But Candrell was a thief who actually entered Vaydeth's mansion to try to steal the tourmaline and was caught there - sort of cutting out the middleman (Captain Sutherland.) But the jailer carelessly let him die of thirst before Vaydeth could use him. Candrell wrote a note explaining what was happening and stuffed it in his left boot in the hope that if his body was found floating down the river someone might read it.

 

 

[Igor bes Thiefer]

hmph... whats with our protagonist, always stumbling into amateurs...

[raymeld]

Great mission , what a shame about the savegame crashes! Will there be an update to correct these?.

Saved in the area of the two archers guarding (maybe ) the guardhouse through the gate which you can unlock.

I say maybe because a guard noticed me then , I couldn't use the save , and I haven't had the chance yet to play my way back there and explore further. What a pity you can't save early on in view of the sensitivity of the AI. It has given me the chance though to

try lots of ways to get away from the guards at start point with varying success. I 've tried gassing them all in one go , noise arrows , waking up the guy in the room as a distraction. By the way , I usually take a hit from the archer there. Where is he hidden?

At least it stretches the playability of the mission out ! Thanks again anyway to the two authors for all the work put in.

Edited June 6, 2010 by raymeld

[Fidcal]

raymeld: Yes, the crashes are a pity. If you add your report to http://bugs.angua.at with a link to your gamesave then hopefully it might be dealt with.

 

 

The archer is in shadow up on the roof above the abandoned house.

 

[raymeld]

raymeld: Yes, the crashes are a pity. If you add your report to http://bugs.angua.at with a link to your gamesave then hopefully it might be dealt with.

 

 

The archer is in shadow up on the roof above the abandoned house.

 

 

 

Thank you Fidcal for your ( as usual ) kind and prompt reply. Is there somewhere in the mission where saves have been found from experience to work ? I only ask because , because of time constraints it's difficult for me to play long sessions hence I like to make saves rather than try to finish a mission in one go! I know some folk on here have had to complete The Alchemist in one go because of the save problem. I had a feeling the archer was where you said but haven't been able to hang around that spot long enough to find out !

[Fidcal]

I don't know. You see I don't get this problem so I can't really test it. I have been guessing that the problem is to do with alerts but we don't actually know. For instance, just now I started the game from the beginning. I immediately

crept into the abandoned building during the high alert and hit quicksave. A minute later I quickloaded without problem. I then went out the side window onto the roofs up onto the side wall and ran around towards the tavern. Looking down on the commotion I hit quicksave again. This still loaded fine so apart from one big crash I had around city watch during a massive alert (which may have been incidental)

I saw while beta testing I've never seen another crash.

 

I'll start another thread to see if we can find any common factors. Meanwhile I can only suggest you save every few minutes with a name save.

[greebo]

Great mission , what a shame about the savegame crashes! Will there be an update to correct these?.

The gamesave bug is already resolved in our development version: http://bugs.angua.at/view.php?id=2241

 

It was triggered by having spiked balls (which have timed stims on them) and having restarted the mission - once such a game is restored, the code crashes due to outdated stim references. The bug can be avoided by not selecting "Restart" after dying, but starting the whole game (TDM) afresh and loading the FM again.

[aidakeeley]

I don't know if y'all got my message in post (#12) here. I uploaded one of my crashing saves (and mentioned how all of them were crashing AND how the saves stopped crashing once I got inside). Anyway, don't know if you got ahold of the upload... but it's expired by now. I can re-up it (or a couple of them even) though. They didn't stop crashing even if I left TDM completely and came back in... they crashed again and again.

 

Anyway, anyway, just wanted to say that this was a great mission. Huge. Lots to do. Lots of new fangled happenings and gizmos. A fantastic end-game... and just, well... phenomenal! A shame about the problems, but I guess it is to be expected what with all the gizmos and triggers and vastness...

[greebo]

I don't know if y'all got my message in post (#12) here. I uploaded one of my crashing saves (and mentioned how all of them were crashing AND how the saves stopped crashing once I got inside). Anyway, don't know if you got ahold of the upload... but it's expired by now. I can re-up it (or a couple of them even) though. They didn't stop crashing even if I left TDM completely and came back in... they crashed again and again.

I tried that download but it was outdated already by the time I did.

 

Restarting the game won't heal your savegame. Once a savegame is corrupt, it will crash in any case. The savefile contains invalid Stim IDs and the code is not able to deal with them.

[aidakeeley]

Okay. Well I wonder if the timed stims are a problem all around? I was nowhere near the spiked balls. My crashes were set very early in the mission I hadn't really even got out of the first section of the game-space. But, I don't know if that matters? And, I don't know if you've had a chance to play the mission proper so let me explain:

 

 

 

There appeared to me to be a whole series of timed events. The high alert of the town guard in the beginning, of course; hardly even a spoiler.

 

But throughout the game there seemed to be other triggered actions, such as the running rampant of other AI (thieves and hoods) after a while; and, later, the emergence of some of the other AI (for instance from the homeless shelter) as you make your way finally back to the beginning to complete the final objective.

 

This was a huge mission, I repeat, with all kinds of stuff happening. Very impressive. Fidcal (I'm assuming it was mostly him, no offense Sotha) really went crazy putting all this together WHILE doing all the other stuff he does. Dude is obviously a MissionBuildingFreak...

 

I do mean that in the best possible way. Just phenomenal. If he wasn't so damned helpful and encouraging to everyone I'm afraid he'd be quite intimidating as an example of getting so much done so quickly.