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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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One year later... I just played this. Praise be to Sotha for another great FM. I loved the following and overhearing conversations aspects. I've ghosted so far with no KO's and minor alerts, took a break to come here because I couldn't find one of the objectives.

 

 

I found 14/15, but I think I must have missed the one on the basement table, #10 on the list. The spider/werewolf surprise was fun, too. Dropped down expecting to pick off some spiders with broadheads, and then, "Oh... werewolves." I also liked the AI patrol routes a lot. They patrolled close enough to dark hiding spots to keep you on your toes, but not quite close enough to always catch you and be frustrating.

 

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And now I'm done. Incidentally, the slick surface additions in the latest version do affect the snow in this FM. It's a little disconcerting because it sounds like unpacked snow due to the footsteps (trudge trudge trudge), but it behaves like iced-over snow in that you keep sliding along a bit. I'm not sure we should apply slick to this type of snow surface?

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The only place I remember being slick was the

iced-over parts in the canal

. Has something changed?

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Only 3 textures are slick by default:

 

textures/common/slick

textures/darkmod/nature/snow/plain_ice01

textures/common/tdm_nodrawsolid_ice

 

Unless Mandrasola includes a customized material with 'slick' set, there's no reason the player should be sliding around on a flat surface.

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Unless Mandrasola includes a customized material with 'slick' set, there's no reason the player should be sliding around on a flat surface.

 

No custom snow/ice was used. They should all be default.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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It was

the sewer/underpass that one enters from the canal. It makes sense that that area could be icy, but I'm pretty sure it had the regular snow footprint sounds, which was confusing as I was sliding around on ice. Do we have a separate ice footstep sound?

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Do we have a separate ice footstep sound?

 

Not that I'm aware of. Perhaps ice should be classified as stone for the purpose of footsteps.

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tdm_sfx_movement.sndshd includes:

 


// angua: same as tile, but quieter
human_ice
{
description "Made by Dram"

minDistance 1
maxDistance 30
volume -12

sound/sfx/movement/footsteps/human/tile_1.ogg
sound/sfx/movement/footsteps/human/tile_2.ogg
sound/sfx/movement/footsteps/human/tile_3.ogg
sound/sfx/movement/footsteps/human/tile_4.ogg
sound/sfx/movement/footsteps/human/tile_5.ogg
sound/sfx/movement/footsteps/human/tile_6.ogg
sound/sfx/movement/footsteps/human/tile_7.ogg
sound/sfx/movement/footsteps/human/tile_8.ogg
}

 

The ground in the sewer is ice.

 

I just walked through it and the footsteps are "walking in snow".

 

So there's a bug in that walking on ice is supposed to sound like tile, but sounds like snow instead.

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Here's the bug, in tdm_nature_snow.mtr:

 


// Author: David Gurrea (bumpmap, specularmap: SneaksieDave)
textures/darkmod/nature/snow/plain_ice01
{
surftype15
description "snow"
slick // grayman #2409
...

 

That description should probably be "ice".

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  • 1 year later...

Is there a loot list or something anywhere? I've found all the mandrasola but I need 90 or so gold still to get to the 1600 and I can't find anymore.

 

Edit: Never mind

 

That comment above about windows helped me out. Might be worth finding a way to make the windows to the otherwise inaccessible building more noticeable.

 

 

Pretty nice mission. The snow was pretty cool and I liked the underground part.

 

 

I thought the mage guy was an undead at first so I nailed him in the face with an arrow. Down in one shot.

 

Edited by Sakonosolo
  • Like 1
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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

Just finished this mission on difficult and got all the loot. Fortunately, I was able to do it without having to read anything on the internet.

This mission was a joy to play.

 

Things I liked:

 

+Introduction: really well done.

+Story: very interesting.

+Following Lady Ludmilla without her noticing is a interesting and unusual objective.

+The general atmosphere of the mission is good.

+Footstep sound on the snow.

+Readables are nice.

+Now, the best part IMHO opinion was entering the cave with the undead. I liked very much the atmosphere and the ambient sound, that blend very well. That last section of the cavern with the Pagan with the red eyes was awesome and unexpected. I also liked finding the dead guy mentioned in the diary, that had a flower freaking growing from him lol.

 

Things I disliked:

 

-It took me some frustrating amount of time to find the lever that opens the entrance to the cave, even with the hint in the diary.

-The percentage of loot necessary to complete the objective on difficult is way too high IMHO.

-I noticed a strange thing. Standing on fire from torches or campfire didn't hurt my game persona. Now, I'm speaking out of ignorance here, because I don't know if this have to do with the mission or TDM.

 

Overall, a must play FM.

Thank you Sotha!

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  • 7 months later...

I'm currently playing through the entire Thomas Porter series, so naturally this was my first stop.

 

I'm going to make up for this review with my incredibly glowing review for Knighton Manor, but Mandrasola wasn't my favorite. There are some fun touches, like the frozen ship in the distance and sliding on the ice, that are incredible, taken alone. I actually giggled like an idiot the first time I slid on the ice. The visuals inside the hideout are occasionally great too, with the machinery and boats and such making it feel authentic.

 

 

But I had cleared out the main house, adjacent houses, and street, and couldn't find the switch to the basement. Now, this is a personal playstyle thing, but the feeling that I've done everything right, followed all the text clues, etc. and I'm stuck looking for a needle in a haystack to continue is my biggest pet peeve in Thief games. I love secrets, but once finding them is mandatory, you run the risk of frustrating the player or breaking their suspension of disbelief by resorting to a walkthrough. And while the lower reaches made for an interesting 2nd half, the map never seemed to "flow" to me, for lack of a better term. It felt disjointed, like a bunch of parts that never equaled a greater whole.

 

 

I feel like absolute shit saying anything bad about missions, knowing what goes into them, and I've greatly enjoyed several other of your levels. But that was my experience. Knighton Manor was an absolute delight, though, and I already loved Glenham, and I'm looking forward to the rest, so I hope my words here don't come off the wrong way. I also realize I'm in the minority with this review, but wanted to be honest.

  • Like 1

"Fancy burricks are afraid of dogs, if they encounter each other the dog barks and the burricks poop." - Thief: Deadly Shadows Game Designer

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  • 6 months later...

Playing this mission in TDM 2.03, I had a different problem related to the ice:

 

The stairs leading down from the city to the field of snow (near the end of Ludmilla's route) are apparently covered with ice and cannot be walked up by the player, but the AI uses them without any problem. You can mantle the wall instead, but it still seems to be misleading and unexpected behavior.

 

 

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  • 8 months later...

I've managed a stealth score 0, all loot, no ko/kill run, with no use of distractions, but in the process I found I had to use two water arrows purchased from the store.

Are there any water arrows

 

before the basement?

 

 

Edit: No water arrows before then, I find it safe to say. After looking through the editor and the level manually, it isn't until after the point that you'll find any.

Edited by V-Man339

I like to record difficult stealth games, and right now you wonderful people are the only ones delivering on that front.

Click here for the crappy channel where that happens.

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I'm happy to say the stealth score 0, all loot no ko/kill run is done.

Hope you find it befitting of your level, Sotha, though I'm sad to say that this one was difficult enough that I wasn't able to squeeze in the various notes and flavor text.

  • Like 1

I like to record difficult stealth games, and right now you wonderful people are the only ones delivering on that front.

Click here for the crappy channel where that happens.

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  • 5 years later...

I've finally begun on the Thomas Porter series, beginning with the zeroth episode, Mandrasola.

Our thief, Thomas Porter, wants to corner the market on a rare and expensive narcotic but to do that he needs to discover the identity of the City's only remaining supplier so he can steal their stash. Tailing an aristocratic junkie to her dealer seems the best way.

This is a nice little mission, beginning with a tailing scene reminiscent of Assassins in the original Thief game- but trickier because the wintery streets of Bridgeport are well lit and the Watch are uncharacteristically alert. Why they attack Thomas for wearing a hood and cloak on a cold winter night while ignoring the mace-wielding ruffian nearby is a good question- perhaps some bribe money has changed hands.

What I liked about this mission, despite its small size, is that it felt bigger. Most of the houses have multiple entry points and cleverly hidden loot. The guard patrol routes are intricate and tight, definitely "Sotha-style", so you'll be waiting and studying for a bit (especially on harder difficulties or if you want to ghost) and that always adds meat to even geographically small areas.

The finale was cool and unexpected.

Finding all 15 Mandrasola baggies was fiendishly hard. One secret stash in particular was difficult to uncover and another of the pickpocket baggies somehow got embedded almost invisibly in its owner's butt so was very hard to spot.

Somehow I got all the loot and a stealth score of 9 on the hardest difficulty, with just two KOs.

Spoiler

they were Lovett, and Redeyes McPagan.

 

  • Like 1

My missions:           Stand-alone                                                      Duncan Lynch series                              

                                      Down and Out on Newford Road              the Factory Heist

                                                                                                  A House Call

                                                                                                  The House of deLisle                                                                                                  

                              

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  • 1 year later...
  • 3 months later...

Here is a draft for an fm_root.subs file (subtitles inclusion):

Spoiler
/**
 * This file should be overridden in order to provide mission-specific subtitles.
 * When doing so, please follow the conventions:
 *   1) The root decl is called "fm_root" and is located in file "fm_root.subs".
 *   2) All other subtitle decls start with "fm_" prefix and are located in files starting with "fm_".
 */
fm_root {
	include "fm_guard"
	include "fm_lovell"
	include "fm_ludmilla"
}
fm_guard {
	verbosity story
	inline "sound/sfx/mandrasola/mandrasola_guard1.ogg" "What is your business here?"
	srt "sound/sfx/mandrasola/mandrasola_guard2.ogg" "subtitles/guard2.srt"
}
fm_lovell {
	verbosity story
	inline "sound/sfx/mandrasola/mandrasola_lovell1.ogg" "Well, well, well, if it isn't lady Lumilla. Come in, Let's talk."
	inline "sound/sfx/mandrasola/mandrasola_lovell2.ogg" "So, what brings you to my office mylady?"
	srt "sound/sfx/mandrasola/mandrasola_lovell3.ogg" "subtitles/lovell3.srt"
	inline "sound/sfx/mandrasola/mandrasola_lovell4.ogg" "Supply and demand, demand and supply mylady. Take it or leave it."
	inline "sound/sfx/mandrasola/mandrasola_lovell5.ogg" "A shame. I'm sure we could arrange some other kind of payment, my lady"
	srt "sound/sfx/mandrasola/mandrasola_lovell6.ogg" "subtitles/lovell6.srt"
}
fm_ludmilla {
	verbosity story
	inline "sound/sfx/mandrasola/mandrasola_ludmilla_iwarnyou.ogg" "I warn you!"
	inline "sound/sfx/mandrasola/mandrasola_ludmilla1.ogg" "Oh hello, I'm here to see mister Lovell please."
	srt "sound/sfx/mandrasola/mandrasola_ludmilla2.ogg" "subtitles/ludmilla2.srt"
	inline "sound/sfx/mandrasola/mandrasola_ludmilla3.ogg" "What!? This is robbery Lovell!"
	inline "sound/sfx/mandrasola/mandrasola_ludmilla4.ogg" "Are you kidding!? The price is outrageous, I don't have that kind of gold! "
	srt "sound/sfx/mandrasola/mandrasola_ludmilla5.ogg" "subtitles/ludmilla5.srt"
	inline "sound/sfx/mandrasola/mandrasola_ludmilla6.ogg" "Goodby!"
}

 

 

Edited by datiswous
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Here is the whole subtitle set (including srt files).

 

 @Sotha has no time  to review this, so people can just test it to see if I made mistakes. It's mostly one conversation. Just unzip the contained subtitle directory inside the fms directory and it should work.

I tested it and it fully works, but maybe I made spelling errors that I don't notice.

Edit: subtitles added to mission.

Edited by datiswous
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  • 6 months later...

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