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Fan Mission: Pandora's Box by Jesps(2010/07/11)

Fidcal

By Fidcal
in Fan Missions

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ithel

ithel

Posted
Posted

My daughter and I played this mission together over the last hour. It's just about perfect for a daddy-daughter time, heh. The mission setting was quite convincing, and my daughter was especially queasy out on the upper walkway, my oh my. Because of the low ceilings below deck, we did have some trouble knocking the guards out down there. We had a freak-out moment in the first room of the middle-deck

when we put the candle out, we made a noise and the guard came right over to where we were....we managed to get into the corner and he relaxed, but it was pretty fun to see my daughter peeking through her fingers.

Yes, this is a very small map, but it was refreshing in design, and we still missed about 70 loot somewhere. Thank you Jesps and Fidcal for seeing it through. :)

  • Like 1
  • 1 month later...
TheUnbeholden

TheUnbeholden

Posted
Posted (edited)

Finally !! A mod set on a ship... I found it short but sweet, although the upper part felt a tad unrealistic for having those wooden boards spaced out so much, it looked like it wouldn't pass any safety tests to get to fly :D

It gets a lower score for having a captain that doesn't look like one, but gives us the raison d'etra of steam punk.

 

Its a shame the player doesn't get to look inside the Pandora's Box, feels a bit cheap as it is the selling point of the FM, or I would imagine.

 

Its a tad small, especially for a ship (actually an airship should be just as big as a regular ship although maybe more aerodynamic design (instead of hydrodynamic).

 

Not killing the captain is a good idea :)

Edited by TheUnbeholden
  • 2 years later...
Jon Irenicus

Jon Irenicus

Posted
Posted (edited)

Just finished this mission on medium.

 

+A flying steampunk ship! What's not to love in this?

+Premise of being smuggled on board of the ship is interesting.

+The engines are really cool.

+Feels like a real ship, but one that flies!

 

-Just one short readable.

-Lots of lanterns but not one of them is interactive.

-Suggestion: you could put a guard patrolling in that high platform below the balloon. That would be awesome!

 

Bug report:

-When frobbing this spyglass (http://img200.images...0/7730/tcpd.jpg) it makes the same sound when you take an item and it goes to the inventory. But as I already start the mission with a spyglass, I can't take the item to my inventory, but the sound is still there.

-The objectives on Medium says: "Do not let the captain die" and "Do not kill any one". So I decided to check if it's working properly. Unfortunately, it's not. When I drop the body of the unconscious captain in the black void, he supposedly dies, because the objective fails. But, I can drop a knocked out guard in the black void, and the objective doesn't fail.

 

Still, this mission was fun to play.

Thank you!

Edited by Jon Irenicus
  • 1 year later...
dw1

dw1

Posted
Posted

I know this is and old topic but...

 

Nice little gem of a mission. I thought the moving lights and the guard patrols were very well synchronized to make for a difficult but not unreasonable challenge.

 

One complaint relating to non interactable lanterns: I cautiously snuck up to the stern and approached the lantern, the sole light source up there, knowing that the patrolling guard was very close to turning around and looking in my direction. It turned out not to be interactable and so I was pretty much dead in the water when the guard approached my position.

 

I don't know if there is a design manifesto for TDM but there are a few principles I have noticed in the better missions that I think should be followed universally:

 

1. Consumable types of objects should always be interactable: for example one FM used the health potion model as a non interactable item on a kitchen shelf.

 

2. There should be non interactable light sources and interactable light sources, and by convention each should have a distinct look. It just doesn't make any sense in-game that the thief would run up to a lamp and find that... it's somehow beyond the powers of a human to turn it off.

 

3. Ideally guard types would have the same AI properties across all FMs, but I can see why this would not be worth the restriction it would place on the FM designers who are of course not working in concert.

  • Like 2
  • 5 years later...
thebigh

thebigh

Posted
Posted

Nicely constructed mission. It had some really cool touches, like the two swinging lanterns on the deck making moving shaded and lit patches. I finished with $553 on the hardest difficulty with a stealth score of 2. And I really liked the rickety walkway around the air balloon.

Spoiler

I couldn't figure out how to deal with the guy below decks guarding the secret compartment with the jewel bag without making him a slightly suspicious. Dousing his candle with a water arrow still made him look around.

 

My missions:           Stand-alone                                                      Duncan Lynch series                              

                                      Down and Out on Newford Road              the Factory Heist

                                The Wizard's Treasure                             A House Call

                                                                                                  The House of deLisle                                                                                                  

                              

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