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Fan Mission: The Transaction by Sotha (2011/03/04)


Sotha

  

76 members have voted

  1. 1. Gameplay: Enjoyment. Fun duration. Smooth flow, ect. Versus Bugs. Frustration, Boredom, framelag

    • Poor
      2
    • Tolerable
      2
    • Good
      16
    • Excellent
      39
    • Near Perfect
      17
  2. 2. Appearance: Visual pleasure, lighting, visual style, deduct bad texturing etc.

    • Poor
      0
    • Tolerable
      1
    • Good
      14
    • Excellent
      45
    • Near Perfect
      16
  3. 3. Story & Text: Story. Text. Briefing. Graphic storytelling

    • Poor
      0
    • Tolerable
      1
    • Good
      10
    • Excellent
      35
    • Near Perfect
      30


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my opinion: don't change the fact that a client is coming, but insert an audio file of the player: "Maybe I should clean up this mess until the next client comes"

This would help a lot!

... and a blue line on the floor to the next objective?

... a glint over the hidden loot?

... or a big red arrow over the secret doors??

 

Please DON'T! :ph34r:

 

... never take away from players to deal with unexpected situation as they like to do and see fit.

my opinion: put the player in more of such gameplay situations like with the bookstore customer!! :)

"To rush is without doubt the most important enemy of joy" ~ Thieves Saying

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@fllood:

Whoa! Thank you very much. Firstly, I am very flattered for the long analysis you wrote about the mission, I'm sure it took quite a lot of your time. Thanks, much appreciated!

 

I'm very happy that you enjoyed the mission. More Thomas Porter will come once I get some new ideas and the connection to my muse and motivation source is re-established.

 

This kind of reviews definately will not harm my mapping motivation part. ;) Thanks again!

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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I need to start making a habit of grabbing a notebook & pen before I play FMs. :mellow:

 

It's easier to write down thoughts in stream-of-consciousness while playing, and organize them later. It's also harder to "forget" frustrations, notes, and praise.

yay seuss crease touss dome in ouss nose tair

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally made time to play this and it's a very enjoyable FM. :) Almost two hours of recorded time (nearer three with reloads and thinking) over two close sessions. Very polished. Interest held throughout. Played on medium. Found 5555 loot so I must have missed something. One readable mentioned a

portal through a painting

but I assume that is in a later level?

 

My first real stealth score was 37. I played stealthy but not absolute. I got into one or two fights and let them go. I hadn't realized the value is not so much a score as a fail, a kind of negative score. I understand we can't subtract from what could be an unlimited high. Maybe we should reword that stat but I don't know what to.

 

No major flaws. I'd have included a

slow match because it makes more sense to light a fire without having to use a fire arrow. What do you do if you haven't got a fire arrow anyway?

 

 

Another winner! :)

 

I'll have a read of this thread now to see what I missed.

 

 

[EDIT] Once again I wanted to vote between good and excellent, eg, 'very good' on one or two choices.

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Great map! I had fun :)

 

Even though the gameplay in general was excellent there were a lot of trial and error, and I'm a very careful player. Not enough safe places to observe the guards' routes.

 

About the polemic part..

 

The fight with the ghost fire guy. It caught me by surprise. That's good in my opinion!! My first instinct, as everyone else's, probably, was to run. So I ran and both doors were locked, which lead me to conclude I had to fight him. And before I draw my sword I was dead. Have I mentioned my thoughts on the quicksave/quickload kind of gameplay? It's not very fun.

 

So the idea is awesome! But, IMO, to be perfect it had to be redesigned a little bit. Probably giving more time for the player to realize he is going to have to fight would do the trick.

 

 

Also, it bothers me a little that..

 

.. I had a hard time finding wood in a place I was literally stumbling on wood.

 

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No major flaws. I'd have included a

slow match because it makes more sense to light a fire without having to use a fire arrow. What do you do if you haven't got a fire arrow anyway?

 

 

Well,

 

the place was full of unlit candles and the streets were full of lit torches, so... :D

 

 

Nice you guys enjoyed it!B)

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Nice you guys enjoyed it!B)

 

This mission gets top marks from me! I had a bit of trouble here and there but the level as a whole was stunning - and larger / longer than I expected, which was a nice bonus. I'm really, really enjoying the Thomas Porter series - they're the very first missions I played through on The Dark Mod and I love it as a story arc.

 

Thanks, Sotha!

 

(Also, first post, hurrah!)

"No proposition Euclid wrote,

No formulae the text-books know,

Will turn the bullet from your coat,

Or ward the tulwar's downward blow

Strike hard who cares—shoot straight who can—

The odds are on the cheaper man."

 

From 'Arithmetic on the Frontier' by Rudyard Kipling

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A very nice mission!

 

 

- looks pretty (esp. poly count not too high and also not too low; good usage of colored lights )

- has atmospheric cutscenes/"events"

- offers a smooth gameplay (meaning f.e. that important objects, like keys, where not hidden that good, that they become almost unfindable)!

so: at least in my eyes this mission is a little jewel! it was a honour to play it! smile.gif

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Thanks!

 

Nice to see a new face (avatar? :blink:) around here.

 

Welcome aboard!

 

Cheers!

 

I fear you've already taken the most interesting "face" in Looking Glass, with the exception of Shodan of course =-P

 

I was overjoyed to see that Thomas Porter was a series on finishing the Vertial Contest mission from you - and immediately went and played the others - pretty much felt like "the real deal" of what the ambition of The Dark Mod was all about - really using interesting things in the engine to make a complex level.

 

 

I liked lighting the fire - I thought it was a great touch - and having to wake up and escape was genius, added some nice tension to what would be an easy end if you'd blackjacked the guards in the streets.

 

 

<Xerxes Voice> Please respect the will of the Builder... </Xerxes Voice>

"No proposition Euclid wrote,

No formulae the text-books know,

Will turn the bullet from your coat,

Or ward the tulwar's downward blow

Strike hard who cares—shoot straight who can—

The odds are on the cheaper man."

 

From 'Arithmetic on the Frontier' by Rudyard Kipling

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A question: what's this talk of a

lich queen

, anyway?

 

I made a fire in the abandoned house,

got woken up by the guard

, and made my way back to the starting area where the mission promptly ended. No

lich queen

of any sort anywhere along the way, not even in the bookseller's house where I've dropped in before leaving.

Edited by Premier
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A question: what's this talk of a

lich queen

, anyway?

 

 

 

The mission cannot be completed without you running into the lich queen. You know, the undead that kills the bookstore owner, then tries to kill you.

 

If you completed the mission without Grenefeld getting killed, that is a major bug and I need you to tell me exactly how you did it so it can be fixed.

 

If I remember correctly, Grenefeld must be dead for the cellar firewood objective to be active.

 

 

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Oh, THAT!

 

I thought that was a revenant sent by the

lich queen

to harass the player. I mean, it looks like the ordinary flaming undead model, wears masculine-looking gear, IIRC doesn't sound particularly feminine, and was carrying a scroll - I'd think the L.Q. would just say its message instead of writing it down then dropping it.

 

So yeah, I think the mission didn't really communicate the idea that it was the L.Q. itself in person. But otherwise it's really excellent!

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Oh, THAT!

 

I thought that was a revenant sent by the

lich queen

to harass the player. I mean, it looks like the ordinary flaming undead model, wears masculine-looking gear, IIRC doesn't sound particularly feminine, and was carrying a scroll - I'd think the L.Q. would just say its message instead of writing it down then dropping it.

 

So yeah, I think the mission didn't really communicate the idea that it was the L.Q. itself in person. But otherwise it's really excellent!

 

Phew! I was already freaking out I overlooked something critical. Going back to fix old missions is always a chore.

 

 

I have to work with the models I have available as I cannot create them myself. If you played Glenham Tower you should remember the LQ from there.

Plus if you have been burned to death you probably do not have vocal cords (to talk) nor fat tissue (feminine shape) anymore, I suppose.laugh.gif

 

 

I'm glad you liked it.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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I knew it, from start. I'd hate and love this mission, the same I felt for Glenham Tower, moreover because I didn't come to the forum before finishing the map. So, I did the objectives as they were called and went to the bookstore to get my money...! Not before taking care of city watch, naturally: Damn! It seemed they came forever, almost all with torches. The first two I knocked down, but the remaining three I simply stripped out of my way, Yeah, I was playing Doom instead of TDM, I who made every effort to be totally 'polite' in stealth games, who didn't kill but one single zombie in Glenham Tower (the one using the door behind the throne). You made me lose my finesse, Sotha.

 

Then, the book store: like an idiot I watched all the cut scene just to be killed by the lich queen - well, I hadn't killed her before, I admit. I restarted my quick save and took the way to the hamm..., say, the builders, sold the book and entered the abandoned house. I knew there were a final gift, but my bet was vampires = I expect anything from TDM fms. And I found the bed, the lumber and the fire, hoping to finally see the 'mission complete' on screen, to get a new nightmare. S.O.B. (please, read 'son of Baltona')! Didn't you realize I was completely tired? I indeed needed a rest after two huge adventures and had to fight the ones I had killed just one hour ago.

 

Wow! I just wanted to share a tiny part of my feelings while playing the 'glenham' series. I fear they are able to show you the pros, but also the cons of the map. Notwithstanding, you're simply superb Mr. Sotha.

 

Once I thought about paying back all the fun TDM fms give to me and almost added something on 'I want to help'. But how to help? You guys simply don't need any help, moreover mine.

 

 

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Hi and welcome to to forums. Thanks for the feedback, I always love reading player impressions of my missions, especially when people have been enjoying time.

 

Once I thought about paying back all the fun TDM fms give to me and almost added something on 'I want to help'. But how to help? You guys simply don't need any help, moreover mine.

 

I'd say everyone is welcome to help to the best of their ability and if you really feel you want to help the mod, there is nothing holding you back. If you cannot voice act, model, code or do something in that regard (like me), you could always pick up DR and check the A-Z tutorial in the wiki and give a shot at mapping. It is not that hard once you get the basics.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Sweet mission, but I wish it didn't include that in-game cutscene. Cutscenes and non-interactive scripted sequences in general have no business in games anymore IMO, much less a thief clone such as TDM.

Thief what? Thief enhancement :o:D

Edited by lowenz

Task is not so much to see what no one has yet seen but to think what nobody has yet thought about that which everybody see. - E.S.

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Thief what? Thief enhancement :o:D

 

lets face it, its a clone. if thief3 wasn't so god-awful with its rediculous 3rd person and no rope arrows / swimming etc etc for another thread, we'd be playing t3 FM's right now. it is the purpose of the mod existence to replace (read: clone) new-gen thief gaming for the fan base to something more... appropriately thiefish.

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  • 6 months later...

I'm glad you liked it.

 

Maybe it is a mod bug.

 

I'm not sure if the undead are supposed to bleed or not. Probably not...

 

 

 

Skeletons definitely not. Not sure about Zombies,but I'd say they should not bleed, either.

 

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man." -- George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)

 

"Remember: If the game lets you do it, it's not cheating." -- Xarax

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Thief what? Thief enhancement ohmy.gifbiggrin.gif

 

When I look at your avatar I can't help but feel "Thief - but augmented..."

"No proposition Euclid wrote,

No formulae the text-books know,

Will turn the bullet from your coat,

Or ward the tulwar's downward blow

Strike hard who cares—shoot straight who can—

The odds are on the cheaper man."

 

From 'Arithmetic on the Frontier' by Rudyard Kipling

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  • 3 months later...

I enjoyed this one so much that I played it again with the intention of getting all the loot.

The hidden ones in the bookshop was a nice touch although I spent a while frobbing the corpse to no effect.

I am however stuck. I can't find the last two pieces of gold which appear to be located to the

north of the plague house

and I can't see how to get anywhere near them

 

Solved - simple when you realise how

Odd thing according to tdm_show_loot I have it all but the stats at the end show that I am down 50 from the maximum

Edited by Oldjim
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