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Fan Mission: Fiasco at Fauchard Street by Melan (2011/05/01)


Melan

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Fauchard55.jpg

Fiasco at Fauchard Street is a small/medium-sized fan mission whose original purpose was to illustrate the virtues of speedbuilding and using simple, newbie-friendly construction techniques to create architecture that nevertheless looks nice and offers a good playing experience. The process and the experiences are detailed in the Editor's Guild thread; over time, the mission grew by about 30% from the initial concept, but also came to include some new content/ideas. I would like to thank my betatesters, whose work has been invaluable in the mission's completion: Bikerdude, Premier and Sotha.

Briefing:
"Today, my contact Marchand has brought me news of a lucrative opportunity. Turns out there is a man living on Fauchard Street named Lendermann. His business is credit, but long gone are the days when he was just one of the usurers plying their trade in the poor districts of the City. Lendermann has risen in the world, and fancies himself a creditor for merchants, even nobility.

His house, once a ramshackle place close to a factory, has been refurbished with precious materials and furniture to prove once and for all he has made it. And his latest acquisition, a pouchful of opals, is too valuable not to attract attention sooner or later. Indeed, it is time to pay him a visit.

Lendermann knows this as well, and he has reputedly hired new guards to watch his place day and night. A frontal approach will be complicated, maybe even impossible. But every house has multiple ways in - and where the front door does not yield to a talented thief, another surely will. I will have to be careful, since I have very little equipment, and have even misplaced my rope arrows in the commotion of the tavern.

But this will have to be a quick job, since who knows how long it takes for the news to spread through the underworld, and how soon someone else seizes my opportunity - or stalks me to deprive me of my winnings on the way home... Marchand, reliable as he is, has a crucial flaw: for the life of him, he cannot keep his mouth shut. Better let him brag of a successful heist than a missed opportunity."

Download Links:
MEGA (14 MB)

...and the mission downloader!

Notes:

  • There is a player map in your inventory. Use it for navigation if you have trouble finding your way.
  • There are a lot of places to find loot; some easier than others. Your objectives can also be reached in multiple ways.
  • If you are interested in the lessons from the building process but don't have time to read the whole Editor's Guild thread, I summarised my experiences in this post. This also contains several prefabs (premade pieces of architecture) I used in construction that may also be useful for your purposes.
  • There is no poll to rate the mission because it is not a contest FM, and I do not believe in polls. Your comments are welcome in writing, however! smile.gif
  • You will need your TDM install updated to at least 1.05 to play this mission.

Series information: All of my missions except Unbidden Guest (TMA) take place in a common setting and involve the same protagonist, although under different aliases - Talbot, Messer Johannes, Philby and others. None of them require previous knowledge of previous FMs, but there are common elements and a degree of continuity. The missions, in current order, are:


  • Prowler of the Dark (TDP/Gold) (S): liberate a skull of paganic enchantment from an abandoned church, which is kept sealed and guarded by the Builders.
  • Return to the City (The Dark Mod) (M): plunder the other side of the Builder complex to steal a pack of explosives. Patrols have been heightened because of the recent break-in. (This mission connects to the previous along the North/South axis - too bad I didn't have the time to let you revisit some old areas)
  • Fiasco at Fauchard Street (The Dark Mod) (M): steal a collection of opals from the house of a wealthy usurer. (You are here!)
  • Bad Debts (TMA) (XL): fallen on hard times, you take a job from a diminutive snitch to steal his letter of debt from Markus, a pawnshop owner/usurer (looks like a common theme). Rooftop extravaganza.
  • Disorientation (TMA) (XL): following the events in the previous mission, you attract the unwanted attentions of Lady Azamlarg, district warden and judge, and have to break into her palace to deter her from further assassination attempts. More rooftops and conspiracies.

1.1 note: This mission has been released in an updated version. This update contains smaller gameplay and aesthetic fixes, and cuts down on file size by removing duplicate assets which have been incorporated into the TDM core since the mission's release (14 instead of 62 MB!). Thanks are due to my betatesters for this new version, Bikerdude, lowenz, nbohr1more and Oldjim.

Edited by Melan
Added download link

Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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Ooh! Really lookin' forward to giving this a go - will download it tomorrow.

 

Great job, Melan! =3

"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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Congrats Melan!

 

I hope your speedbuilding log brings in new mappers.

 

Nbohr, would it be of any use to make a media circus around this mission in moddb?

Something like "Melan shows speedbuilding can create great FM's. Play the mission now and read the build log. Only on TDM!"

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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"Prince William and Kate Middleton married"

"Osama bin Laden killed by US-led operation in Pakistan"

"Pope John Paul II beatified"

"Barack Obama takes revenge on Donald Trump"

"Former PM Ferenc Gyurcsany brought before court on corruption charges"

"Fiasco at Fauchard Street released"

 

Hell of a weekend, rain and all. B)

Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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"Prince William and Kate Middleton married"

"Osama bin Laden killed by US-led operation in Pakistan"

"Pope John Paul II beatified"

"Barack Obama takes revenge on Donald Trump"

"Former PM Ferenc Gyurcsany brought before court on corruption charges"

"Fiasco at Fauchard Street released"

 

Hell of a weekend, rain and all. B)

 

You forgot the bombing that took out Gaddafi's son plus others.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Congrats Melan!

 

I hope your speedbuilding log brings in new mappers.

 

Nbohr, would it be of any use to make a media circus around this mission in moddb?

Something like "Melan shows speedbuilding can create great FM's. Play the mission now and read the build log. Only on TDM!"

 

That was the plan. I'm sure Melan was aware of that intention, he's likely more media savvy than myself :laugh:

 

Edit:

 

I was fearing that this would not perform well because a speed-build is not about obsessive optimization but my fears were put to rest.

 

It looks and plays beautifully. :wub:

 

I'm glad I can celebrate this mission along with rest of you taffers ^_^

Edited by nbohr1more

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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Added to thedarkmod.com, so it's available in the in-game downloader now.

 

Thanks Greebo! Just downloaded it that way, now! =3

"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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Downloaded and played, loved it! Just one possible issue. I selected Expert(hard), but got the loot requirement met at Hard(medium) settings, now the ingame browser thinks I finished it on medium not hard. Is this just me misclicking something?

Intel Sandy Bridge i7 2600K @ 3.4ghz stock clocks
8gb Kingston 1600mhz CL8 XMP RAM stock frequency
Sapphire Radeon HD7870 2GB FLeX GHz Edition @ stock @ 1920x1080

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No, it is a difficulty bug. I am not sure what's causing it. However, the loot goal is the only difference, so you aren't missing anything.

Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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Ah good, just my completionist side acting up then, I'll have to replay it when it gets updated. Great mission though!

Intel Sandy Bridge i7 2600K @ 3.4ghz stock clocks
8gb Kingston 1600mhz CL8 XMP RAM stock frequency
Sapphire Radeon HD7870 2GB FLeX GHz Edition @ stock @ 1920x1080

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Thank you Melan! Impressive. I had a lot of fun. A lot of nice climbing !

 

 

 

I liked the notion that the protagonist isn't out for revenge after the betrayal...

 

And how the hell are you supposed to get up to that bridge across from the lenders entrance ?

 

 

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"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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Melan, I like so far what I see. :wub:

 

One thing (apart from a one or two small things like z-fighting or misaligned textures) that struck me as wrong/odd was that a lot of doors (the two on the "bridge", the one from the printing room further in etc) have misaligned portals. That means the portals don't close when the door closes, which means you are hearing guards walking on the outside just as loud as you were on the street - that makes for some very confusing sounds coming at the player and I always expected someone to be right next to me even in empty rooms...

 

That wasn't your intention, or?

"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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