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Fan Mission: Mandrasola by Sotha (2011/04/10)


Sotha

Please grade this mission  

81 members have voted

  1. 1. Seasonal Theme

    • No Season
      0
    • Barely Defined
    • Season is Clear
    • Season is Captured Well
    • Near Perfect
  2. 2. Gameplay: Enjoyment. Fun duration. Smooth flow, ect. Versus Bugs. Frustration, Boredom, framelag?

  3. 3. Aesthetics: Visual pleasure, lighting, visual style. Audio, use mood. Storytelling and consistency?



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Didn't find the

 

so I gotta head back and finish.

 

 

Got busted and just ran back into sewer. So my stealth score won't be great but we'll see.

 

Overall impressions (keeping it short)

 

This mission is a great example that it doesn't take a long time to make a fun/small mission. Sure, maybe Sotha is quicker than others, etc... But even if someone just plugged away for 3-4 months a little here and there they could do a map like this that would be really fun to play.

 

Overall not tons of detail, but I think a good balance of enough detail everywhere. Nothing was super fancy, but nothing was overly plain either. No major scripted events, but it wasn't any less fun for lack of them.

 

Nice little town area, only about 4 buildings to enter but many ways to do so, useage of tools and whatnot. light/shadow/lockpicking/ai paths, all done pretty well. Soundscapes were done well.

 

Biggest nitpick is probably the moving city gate being only vertical bars, no cross bars so theoretically they'd be very weak and look a bit odd. And I guess it did lack a bit in the weather category. Like others said, for being snowed in, etc.. some particle snow/fog would've been a nice touch. (don't recall hearing wind)

 

All in all probably a solid 3.5-4 (based on vote categories), though I have to finish before I cast a vote.

(probably : Season is clear, fun 4, Aesthetics 3)

Dark is the sway that mows like a harvest

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I think there is something different with this mission that makes it re-playable.

 

 

The dialogue between smuggler and lady ludmilla is variable. In the first try, he offered a dirty deal to her. On the next try, she end the conversation immediately after learning prices are too high.:huh: That was very unexpected. I may be wrong but I think patrols of AI are changing too. There are many ways to reach to goal that makes it more enjoying. Besides, I really liked voices. We definitely need unique dialogues for fms.

 

 

This is really stunning mission especially in a very short build time. I wonder how many weeks he did spend in order to finish it. ??

btw. My stealth scores are always lowest, so don't expect any screenshots from me.:)

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I think there is something different with this mission that makes it re-playable.

 

This is really stunning mission especially in a very short build time. I wonder how many weeks he did spend in order to finish it. ??

btw. My stealth scores are always lowest, so don't expect any screenshots from me.:)

 

@Swordbreaker

 

 

You are right about the patrols:

I wanted to try some 'emergent' gameplay features by having the citywatch troopers target a random path node of their patrol cycle upon map start. This means that each time you start the mission, the AI are in a slightly different phase in their patrol routes. Also there are some patrol nodes for some of the AI, which the AI do not go to every time, increasing randomness a bit. Just to keep the missions more interesting between replays.

 

 

 

Mandrasola was built during 13.03.2011-10.04.2011, so that means 28 days. During this time, I contributed almost all my free time on mapping, since I map best in intensive-obsessive bursts. Really rough time estimation in hours would be something like 80-90hrs.

 

I'm glad people seems to enjoy the mission!B)

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Ah, my Sotha mission backlog just keeps growing.

 

I'm beta testing another mission so this is kinda a shirk of responsibilities but I couldn't resist checking this out.

 

I am already in love with the whole premise and game mechanic of following the lady to the hideout. The setup is clever and the execution is goddamned terrific!

 

Please keep 'em coming... :)

 

Maybe if you are too busy to build from scratch you could add yourself to the list of mappers who take-on abandoned missions and finish them... (See Fidcal for details... ^_^ )

Please visit TDM's IndieDB site and help promote the mod:

 

http://www.indiedb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

 

(Yeah, shameless promotion... but traffic is traffic folks...)

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i´ll not post statistics screen, as i allways barely complete loot oblective (i play FMs by experiencing them, not by collecting all loot) and i screwed things badly few times so my stats are not great. Here we go:

 

Season is clear.

 

 

As soon as i saw loading screen, certain season was revealed, thus i awaited blowing wind, snowing and whatnot. You should focus more on weather effects, as this is season contest.

 

 

Gameplay: four stars. Your missions never gained lower rating from me, such a small missions where i can´t lose track i enjoy most.

 

 

liked overhearing dealers conversation with lady Ludmilla (nice voice acting), i liked lever opening secret door... i mean if it was hidden too well, i will probably miss it, thus get frustrated... i suck on finding secrets :-)this way i was proud "huh i´m clever", i was afraid to meet your further advanced opening mechanism, it´s last version in Transaction cost me full 15 minutes of my life :-)

 

 

Aesthetics: three stars.

i don´t mean need for over polishing, i don´t expect this from you and i don´t need it. But there is "audio, use mood" too. This was asking for howling wind and so, mood defining. I am big "ambient junkie", i believe audio is big part of atmosphere and thus immersion. And i have to leave some headroom for next contest entries.

 

 

Hope it not seems as too much critique, i tried to be constructive. I had lots of fun. Thanks.

 

Bugs noticed: some scrolls sunken into desk (mod related i guess), pickpocketing mandrasola bottles from AI´s belts seemed harder than normally, i ended up blackjacking almost all of them to get it easily.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Unless I've missed it, and well whatever, following the Lady aka *Assassins* anyone? I still love doing that, having to follow someone.

The tight areas with the AI made it interesting.

Someone needs to make a FM using the werebeast with RED eyes, and scare the crap out of us. Ohhhh I'd love that.

 

 

:o:ph34r:

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Oh my goodness, so much custom content! It's leaving me guessing and apprehensive all the way through! The beginning scene is great fun and it creates a nice sense of direction.

 

Conversations are very very nice. The fact that you got Broken Arts and Bikerdude is dang cool. OCN's entire vocal set (combat, alerts, and all) is cool. It's good to know exactly whom I'm sneaking up on. ;)

 

Seasons implementation: Visually and Auditory the season seemed like an afterthought. But wintertime actually fit believably into the plot, I'm happy to say.

 

I still have to finish it. So far, it has made at least 'Top 5 TDM FMs' in my mind. Excellent work!

yay seuss crease touss dome in ouss nose tair

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Mission has been very fun so far. Love the custom conversations, they sound great. :)

 

My only issue thus far is finding it very difficult to hide due to the higher than normal ambient lighting. It's probably a bit brighter to simulate snow bouncing light around, but I felt it could have been a tiny bit lower for gameplay.

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When following the lady, and when objective complete. I immediately went over the edge, into the frozen water, crept along the wall, found the hole, but no, that wasn't good enough. Lured the AI down there with me, doused an AI's torch as he was coming at me, and got him. lol. First time I doused a torch like that with the AI coming right at me.

That was fun. Need to play it again, and ghost it. Hope my patience holds out. Glad people are enjoying the voice work. Its fun, and a pleasure to work with those guys. I love ocn's voice. ;) I'm already thinking on how I can improve on the lady. I've got some idea's.

Whats interesting, writing a line, and saying it are two different things. I added my own *twist* if you will, and it worked.

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Mission has been very fun so far. Love the custom conversations, they sound great. :)

 

My only issue thus far is finding it very difficult to hide due to the higher than normal ambient lighting. It's probably a bit brighter to simulate snow bouncing light around, but I felt it could have been a tiny bit lower for gameplay.

 

The ambient light is a standard issue out-of-the-box light. I have not adjusted the brightness. I never did after the beleaguered fence.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Indeed. I opened up the map in DR just to take a peek. It's at the top end of the guidelines we have in the wiki...which I think was written before we had enough real maps to get a good feel of what an 8 setting would be like in a real mission. While it doesn't look all that different from a 6 or 7 visually, it does seem to make a noticeable difference in the touchiness of the AI responses.

 

It makes me wonder what levels the majority of maps are using because I don't recall the AI being that touchy very often.

 

In any case, in situations like this...the mapper can offset the ambient_world by placing a setting on worldspawn in the map. In the case of an 8 ambient_world setting, placing lightgem_adjust -1 or maybe -1.5 on a piece of worldspawn should take that edge off and prevent the AI from being too touchy.

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Loading screen looks a bit different.

 

Nice GPU artifacts, that is caused by errors in the stored texture in your graphics cards memory. Card may be over heating or computer may just need a reboot, or Doom 3 might need to be restarted. Good luck.

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

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Indeed. I opened up the map in DR just to take a peek. It's at the top end of the guidelines we have in the wiki...which I think was written before we had enough real maps to get a good feel of what an 8 setting would be like in a real mission. While it doesn't look all that different from a 6 or 7 visually, it does seem to make a noticeable difference in the touchiness of the AI responses.

 

It makes me wonder what levels the majority of maps are using because I don't recall the AI being that touchy very often.

 

In any case, in situations like this...the mapper can offset the ambient_world by placing a setting on worldspawn in the map. In the case of an 8 ambient_world setting, placing lightgem_adjust -1 on a piece of worldspawn should take that edge off and prevent the AI from being too touchy.

 

LOL. I just always assumed the standard ambient was a careful decision by the team. It feels natural for me: in darkness you get totally black lightgem when crouching. Standing gives you a penalty of one.

 

But I think there has been some AI changes, which has made the AI a bit more sensitive. Nowadays the AI can go to mumble alert even if the lightgem is totally dark. Could be my imagination, but I think it is real.

 

All my other missions use this unmodified light, except BF which uses a bit too dark light.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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LOL. I just always assumed the standard ambient was a careful decision by the team. It feels natural for me: in darkness you get totally black lightgem when crouching. Standing gives you a penalty of one.

 

Oh, we put a lot of thought and discussion into it absolutely, I wasn't saying we didn't. :) At that time however, we didn't have the vast array of missions to compare results with that we have now.

 

But I think there has been some AI changes, which has made the AI a bit more sensitive. Nowadays the AI can go to mumble alert even if the lightgem is totally dark. Could be my imagination, but I think it is real.

 

Try an ambient of 6, that might help solve the problem. 8 definitely seems to be triggering alerts a lot more frequently.

 

Visually, there isn't a huge difference between a 6 and 8 setting from a players perspective, but it's enough to tip the AI alerts toward being a bit unreasonable.

 

All my other missions use this unmodified light, except BF which uses a bit too dark light.

 

Yes, BF used a 3...which was a bit on the dark side. What do you mean by unmodified light? Is it a light that came with the starting pack?

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Unmodified light means:

Right click in DR, create entity, choose lights/ambient_world. (Or something like that).

Don't touch the light.

 

I'll consider updating the light if more people complain about it. If people do not see it a bug, there is no point in seeing the trouble updating.

 

Maybe the team should analyze existing maps and formulate a suggested good ambient light level and make the light to default to that. It is annoying to go back and change light levels. Optimal would be to just have a good default that the mapper can trust they won't run into trouble using.

 

Just drop in the official map ambient light and go.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Unmodified light means:

Right click in DR, create entity, choose lights/ambient_world. (Or something like that).

Don't touch the light.

 

I'll consider updating the light if more people complain about it. If people do not see it a bug, there is no point in seeing the trouble updating.

 

Maybe the team should analyze existing maps and formulate a suggested good ambient light level and make the light to default to that. It is annoying to go back and change light levels. Optimal would be to just have a good default that the mapper can trust they won't run into trouble using.

 

Just drop in the official map ambient light and go.

 

Ahhh, I didn't realize we had coded 8 as the default ambient_world value in DR. A value of 6 would probably have been better. At 6, the lightgem is just barely affected while standing and you still go to full dark when crouching.

 

At level 7 a lightgem_adjust of -1 levels things back out, and at level 8 a lightgem_adjust of -1.5 should do the trick...although I'm not sure if the lightgem_adjust setting recognizes decimals, so a -1 would probably work well enough there too.

 

The visual difference between 6,7, or 8 is pretty minimal to the player, so in my opinion...setting the lightgem_adjust for levels of 7(-1), 8(-1.5), or even 9(-2) is appropriate. Levels of 10 and above should be left alone though since that is getting pretty bright.

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Thanks Sotha, I'll update the wiki with more information so mappers will be aware of the options available to them.

 

It's a wonderful mission...so I hope you don't take my observations as a critique. Even at this stage, we're all still learning about how mapping with an ambient light affects play when it's at higher levels.

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Well... here are my stats:

 

 

post-2221-130261755341_thumb.jpg

post-2221-130261756293_thumb.jpg

 

 

 

My thoughts:

 

Season: 3:

The piles of snow clearly shows it is winter, and they looked good too. The frozen harbour was fantastic, and it looked like it extended into the sky box. I could have used some snowfall and/or maybe some howling wind.

 

 

Game play: 3-4, rounding up to 4:

Following the woman was a nice touch, plus the conversation was very good.

Like others, I found the ambient light too high, in places, and I was spotted very easily by the mage. Despite that, when I got from the cellar to the cave, I dropped a lit candle in to the abyss just to see how far it went. That is something I have never felt a need for before.

I had trouble finding the entrance to the cellar.

Despite the fact that it is a small mission, there were still many places to explore (though windows and such)

 

 

 

Aesthetics: 3-4, rounding up to 4:

Snow piles and harbour looked good. The two hidden doors I found seemed to fit in to the wall to perfectly. There was no crack or anything to give it away.

 

 

 

The stairs in the bakery really are steep. I tested it several time with the uncontionus baker!

I also left the unfinished letter at the bakery laugh.gif

 

 

I don't think there is a one ambient light setting that fits all maps. It depends on things like texture and other light sources. So it probably has to be tailored to each map individually.

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Congrats on another enjoyable mission Sotha! I had a couple of bad starts when I

 

started out after the lady I guess I was being too sneaky and she got away from me. Faillaugh.gif and on restart I had a couple of crashes also-this was the only problems I had.

 

I loved the crunch of the snow from the footsteps. I definately got that it was winter with the frozen harbour and the ice in the sewer tunnel. I thought I was floating until I realized I was sliding on the ice. A little snowfall or howling wind would have cinched it up though. In the cave I almost jumped out of my seat when the beast let out a roar and the whole screen shook. I thought he was right on top of me.

 

I enjoyed this mission so much that I did all 3 difficulties. Got all the loot including the bags of Mandrasola and had stealth scores of 0, 3, 0.

Adding my vote now.

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I don't think there is a one ambient light setting that fits all maps. It depends on things like texture and other light sources. So it probably has to be tailored to each map individually.

 

Sorry, I probably didn't do a very good job at explaining myself. What I was trying to convey is that the 'visual difference' between 6, 7, and 8...in terms of what the player sees...isn't all that noticeable when you have other lights around.

 

The lightgem detection is quite sensitive however and does pick up on this minor difference. I found in Mandrasola it was difficult to escape detection at times even while crouching.

 

I mentioned the lightgem_offset setting to help balance the gameplay to ensure that the gameplay is consistent across 6, 7, and 8 since they're so visually similar. When you get into levels of 9 and above...you can definitely start noticing the brightness....so the offset should not be used in those cases

 

Ambient lit room split into 3 pics.

post-3-130262231395_thumb.jpg

 

Ambient from Mandrasola with three different settings.

post-3-130262232894_thumb.jpg

 

Side by side, they're a bit noticeable...but from mission to mission it's not noticeable.

 

Ideally, using a setting of 6 has given the most balanced gameplay in my tests.

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