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


Sotha

  

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

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    • Good
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    • Excellent
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  2. 2. Appearance: Visual pleasure, lighting, visual style, deduct bad texturing etc.

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    • Excellent
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      16
  3. 3. Story & Text: Story. Text. Briefing. Graphic storytelling

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    • Excellent
      35
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When I look at your avatar I can't help but feel "Thief - but augmented..."

 

Thomas Porter in the bookstore when the Lich enters "I never asked for this"?

Intel Sandy Bridge i7 2600K @ 3.4ghz stock clocks
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  • 1 month later...

Wow, I wasn't playing TDM now for quite a while and the first FM to start over again was this little gem. I enjoyed it from start to finish. In my opinion this is another brilliant FM from you. Thank you, Sotha!

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  • 1 month later...

Either I'm missing something blatantly obvious or I've got a glitch; when I go to sell the book, all that happens is

Grenefeld makes a little speech, then stands there while all my attempts to give him the book fail totally ('R' & RMB don't do anything). From scanning the forum, I get the impression it's meant to go to a cut-scene and then we get one of Sotha's little 'traps' :o

but I may have got that wrong. It's also possible I missed a relevant earlier post but I was trying to avoid getting any more spoilers than I've already got. :(

 

Apologies for any noob mistake I may be making. Any suggestions?

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Thanks Sotha. I had done just about everything to that chair except

frob it :blush:

(and then quickly confirmed that

even on normal combat difficulty and auto-parry enabled, I'm as much use with a sword as a fruit-bat with a grenade-launcher).

I'll get there eventually... B)

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  • 6 months later...

Thanks for this very cool mission. Weather-related features were great ideas, and/but made the FM impossible to ghost without reloading. I had to run away a lot. The

portal

was really inviting so I thought I had to do something. I also would have put something in the

basement

to avoid the player to guess there was going to happen something there. All the new stuff I found in this FM made it a really good experience. Thanks Sotha!

Edited by plotzzz
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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

namuh1

 

 

The Hag has only one hitpoint or so.

 

You need to hit her only once.

 

Just wait for her to hit you and simultaneously make an attack. She'll hit you and you take some damage. As you attack simultanously, you will hit her too and she goes down.

 

 

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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LOL

 

 

lmao... well she's killed me 7 times now... like I said, I simply can't kill anything with a sword... not bad with the Blackjack though. But thanks for the tip, I will press on until I get in the lucky shot!

 

 

BTW Ultimate kudos on this series of yours. I can't remember enjoying a thread of Fan Missions so much. Thanks for the effort and many thanks for the help.

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LOL

 

 

lmao... well she's killed me 7 times now... like I said, I simply can't kill anything with a sword... not bad with the Blackjack though. But thanks for the tip, I will press on until I get in the lucky shot!

 

 

BTW Ultimate kudos on this series of yours. I can't remember enjoying a thread of Fan Missions so much. Thanks for the effort and many thanks for the help.

 

I'm horrible with the sword also so you should be happy to know that the blackjack works also :D

 

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Well Sotha since there have been so so many reviews and analyses of your work, I can hardly add much to the mix. But I would like to offer an opinion on your 'philosophy' and 'design' of your missions. I, personally, find it delightful to explore the workings of another persons imagination. I don't see a 'mission' as something to provide a 'particular' experience, but rather to be taken at face value and enjoyed for what it has and not at all for what it 'seemingly' lacks. To me the whole point of these FM's is the fantastic multiple ways of playing them and the quite different results one gets depending on the path taken. This is a long winded way of suggesting that you keep right on making these FM's YOUR WAY while completely ignoring suggestions for content that others 'think' should be included. Not that you can't also be inspired by other's work, but I've never played any FM's that are any 'better' than these and I'm thoroughly hoping for more in the future. If the community starts setting 'standards' for what a FM should be the originality and often completely unexpected content will vanish. Thank you for your work.

  • Like 1
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And thank you for playing and taking the time to write that nice analysis. :)

I liked a lot the part with decisions with different outcomes and that is something I definately would like to learn to do more. It just needs me to learn the correct way of thinking and implementing those things.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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  • 4 months later...

+Atmosphere

+Visuals

+Love streets

+Robbing the builders

+A fight with the undead

+Hiding in abondoned places just gives me that real thief/outlaw feel.

 

-A bit to easy, having alot of torches around the streets scarcely makes up for this, but aslong as you trail behind a guard you won't have much problems. Killing all the builders (which is the only real way of doing this unless you want to waste those precious water arrows for whats about to come) upped the difficulty a bit but only because

-some of the difficulty was artificial (like builders and guards surviving a arrow TO THE FACE)

 

-The flaming undead guy only took 5 or so hits from my sword, seriously regular revenants are more challenging than him! (taking 7-8 hits). You should double his health.

Edited by TheUnbeholden
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As far as I remember Sotha said it has only 1 HP. So I guess you just didn't hit her :P

FM's: Builder Roads, Old Habits, Old Habits Rebuild

Mapping and Scripting: Apples and Peaches

Sculptris Models and Tutorials: Obsttortes Models

My wiki articles: Obstipedia

Texture Blending in DR: DR ASE Blend Exporter

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As far as I remember Sotha said it has only 1 HP. So I guess you just didn't hit her :P

 

This. The LQ has only 1hp. It was a forced melee situation in a stealth game. Many people around here are in for the stealth, so fighting is prolly not their forte. I deliberately made it easier.

The revenant armor can easily negate poorly aimed hits. It only takes one solid hit to kill her.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Just finished a few playthroughs of the Transaction. Wow, what a great mission. The contrast between interiors and stormy outdoors is beautiful. I had a few attempts at stealth foiled by lightning giving away my position. The guards are really clever, examining out of the way alleys and doorways. Some usually helpful areas are filled with water which is a nice devious touch. If you plan to stash a body, there will be consequences. The guards with torches are truly terrifying and not overused - really excellent placement. Seeing the shadows retreat as torchlight fills a narrow alleyway makes you act fast!

 

I love the penultimate goal in the game. It's so intimate, and paints a genuinely earnest portrait of a man on the run. It's a sublime moment. The Transaction is filled with fantastic moments of discovery, all instigated by the player. One of my favourite Dark Mod missions.

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Just finished a few playthroughs of the Transaction. Wow, what a great mission. The contrast between interiors and stormy outdoors is beautiful. I had a few attempts at stealth foiled by lightning giving away my position. The guards are really clever, examining out of the way alleys and doorways. Some usually helpful areas are filled with water which is a nice devious touch. If you plan to stash a body, there will be consequences. The guards with torches are truly terrifying and not overused - really excellent placement. Seeing the shadows retreat as torchlight fills a narrow alleyway makes you act fast!

 

I love the penultimate goal in the game. It's so intimate, and paints a genuinely earnest portrait of a man on the run. It's a sublime moment. The Transaction is filled with fantastic moments of discovery, all instigated by the player. One of my favourite Dark Mod missions.

 

Yup it was great, now go play the latest in this series, The lich Queen's Demise

  • Like 1

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just finished The Transaction mission. It seems that it's my favourite mission at all by now.

Sotha, thanks a lot for your work! So much fun! I LOVE street missions. This is my weakness.

But there are plot twists also... And I've complete it without killing anyone, so I've spend some time to hiding in shadows from guards...

I love almost all your missions.

Mandrasola -- mmmm... very nice. Still haven't found all mandrasolas, but I hope I'll found them all some day...

The Beleaguered Fence -- VERY GOOD!

 

 

Underground "secret" area is cool. But I just can't win the undeads. I'll use Holy Water, hit them with water arrow and thats all. They just kill me...

 

 

Thanks a lot again.

Sorry for bad english!

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  • 4 months later...

A great mission. I did find it somewhat difficult at first, but that was because I was unable to blackjack anyone due to vertical aiming problems which I've since resolved.

 

 

Finding the secret door in the shop was an amazing experience for me. After the fight with the LQ, I examined the shopkeeper's body, and saw his glasses on the ground (this was before finding the readable explaining the door.) I immediately picked them up and rotated and zoomed them as close to my face as possible to see how the lenses affected my view. After that, I saw the painting, and sadly, placing the glasses in front of it for comedic effect seemed the only prudent choice. When the glasses actually locked into place and the door opened, my jaw dropped in astonishment. Of course it was just a lucky fluke, but having a secret door open in response to my playing around with the glasses without any idea that it would be useful was one of most memorable moments I've had in the Dark Mod so far.

 

Also, picking up those stacked bars of gold in the locked Builder vault was incredibly satisfying.

 

Edited by Jaynesc
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Another great mission.

 

 

Though I really doubt Thomas' common sense. After being nearly killed by a flaming revenant in the middle of a bookstore, choosing to spend the rest of the night in the basement of the abandoned house (whose previous inhabitants died of plague) doesn't seem like his brightest idea ;)

 

I remember descending through these long, narrow stairs into the basement that could serve as a small crypt, with a huge fireplace in the center and unlit candlelights everywhere, already anticipating an ambush. Then an objective appeared: "This looks like a nice place to spend a night. Gather some firewood and light the fireplace".

 

I sighed. Some thieves will never learn...

 

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  • 4 months later...

I finally finished "The Transaction".

Which was a really awesome experience, I really love that there are scenes explaining stories, audible speech, and necessary quick thinking.

 

More detailed:

 

 

Frustrating points:

 

1) The forced fight with the revenant (lich queen) wasn't that nice, but really intense.

When the scene began I had one big problem: I "knew" I cannot kill undead with my sword, and had no Holy Water. So I ran in circles around the flaming thing, looting the hell out of the place and trying each door (one was locked, the other didn't work, I had though maybe to run out and get damaged, but sadly the door was "non existant"

After giving up and trying to fight, I died (no training with most missions, so I wasn't good at it) - read more and found out I just have to hit that thing.

One hit was doable, so I could play on, but at first it was frustrating, because all my experience showed, that I couldn't fight undead (maybe I just trested normal zombies, which I cannot seem to parry?). But it was hilarious to run around in circles and trying to think.

 

2) The visitor was another frustrating thing, because the way she reacted. I heard something, ducked behind the books where I was just looting the jewels and then tried to dart into the shadows. She saw me - and ran towards me shouting. I tried to silnce her (blackjack) but it wouldn't work at all, I even ran a bit behind her to do that, no use. I left it at that, but tried if it was possible, and from behind it was possible, but the first time it didn't work 8and she had weird running patterns around the room before she left.

That was a bit worrying, since it is stated in the wiki you ca blackjack "1. Unarmed civilian AI from any direction, any time."

I had to read it up to be sure, and i definitly hit her. Well, I left it with that state.

The scene itself was a nice setup, frustrating only because what i knew what should work, didn't.

 

3) The fate of the visitor. I didn't follow her, but she definilty left the map as far as I can tell, taking scroll and money with her. I would have liked the chance to find her again.

 

4) The town / torch bearers - everything else closed.

It didn't matter much, but became very frustrating with the torch bearers, since they saw every house entrance when walking by, and you could'nt make a hiding spot by opening the doors. once one even backed me into a stairway, where i couldn't escape, and couldn't even parry, maybe because I was standing to high on the stairs (he hit me anyway)

 

6) The low light in the abandoned house. It was the perfect dark for that house, athmospheric wise, but since I cannot use my tactile sense in the game it was too dark for me, when the torchers showed up. Since again, they lighted up every hiding spot - except the cupboard of which I had thought I was as deep as possible in was larger, and I could have hid - if I had seen the place.

 

 

Highlights:

 

1) The forced fight with the revenenant (see at frustrating points for more detail)

 

2) The builders watching the store, me taking out the guy to stop him seeing me entering.

 

3) The story behind the book store, and finding the portal, and knowing immediatly upon reading of the clue what it was.

 

4) The torture scene. I heard it through the door, drew my sword and jumped in, finishing the inquisitor before he was able to act. That was one great scene. Sadly I ahd to repeat it, because the guard coming after I freed her (took some time) was running around really weird in the area, and taking hard to predict swings all the while kiled me, seems the guard wasn't really good with the furniture down there, but it went the same way.

Took nice satisfaction from taking down the third one up there, and finally dragging in the unconcious one from the chapel and delivering this fate on him too.

Trying to get further away a guard spotted me in a really deep alcove at the side of the chapel, and I decided to frame the builders, dragged his body in and left it in the torture rack where the woman stood (she vanished where the guard saw me, thats why i hid there when I saw the torch coming...).

Seems they didn't really buy it ;-)

 

5) The guards coming for me, and not some other undead (I had enough of undead after Glenham, and had hoped I now had a break from them)

 

6) All the story and cutscenes and spoken bits. That was really nice.

 

 

All in all I really loved that mission.

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  • 2 months later...

 

I had major problems with the lich queen, I managed 1 shot with a holy water arrow out of 20 odd deaths and that didn't do anything, sword fighting for another 20-30 deaths also didn't do anything, flash bombs did zip for another 20 odd deaths, arrows yadda yadda...

, in the end I got so frustrated I cheated :angry: just to get past them, never ever done that before

, I hate forced confrontations

 

 

However, the rest of the mission was brilliant, some really nice scripted events

 

I would never have got the thing with the spectacles without reading about it in here though

 

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