Seasons Contest Entry : Winter Harvest by Shadowhide

[Berny]

Congrats for the release, shadowhide! I liked your mission. And your story telling method is one of the best if seen in TDM !!!

[nbohr1more]

I was inspired to create my own "splash screen"

 

[Melan]

Congratulations on the release! I'll have to wait until Sunday to play it, but I will when I am home!

[Shadowhide]

I'm one of those that tends to shut doors behind me. Because I have the aforementioned item in my inventory, I'm trapped in the Library because the door is closed and, along with everything else, is unfrobbable.

I can easily load an earlier save, but I don't think a player should inadvertently find themselves in this situation.

 

Strange,this is looks like mod bug,not mission bug . After some manipulation of book,every "action" buttons like frob,or weapon choice refuse to work.I don't think its my fault

 

so

SAVE GAME BEFORE LIBRARY !

Edited May 9, 2011 by Shadowhide

[DeTeEff]

Short review:

 

 

 

First off, good atempt on a first mission. I'll try to look between my fingers regarding your sulky attidude from time to time.

 

INTRODUCTION

The briefing was a bit bad timed. I didn't have time to read all the things because they popped by to quick, while some others lingered for too long. Then I wonder, is there any differences behind the difficulties? The objectives looked the same. Maybe more AI on harder? Regarding the AI, I'll come back to that...

You should add more in the readme to clearify things because this was an unusual map; you start with absolutely nothing but a lantern, you can and SHOULD approach anyone in the woods, you don't have any particular missions etc...

Stars for that? 2

 

SOUND

Regardng the sound, it's VERY ambitious with custom monologues rather than text to explain things. That's very good. When I was running through the woods it didn't feel like thief, but rather that I was a kid on a camping tour with the scouts and the staff hade arranged some kind of trail to track with ghosts and stuff

The only downside is that the windsound it a bit repedetive, a 6 second loop.

Stars for that? 4

 

AI

Just one guard? A climactic battle??? It was a special experience to go through your mission but AI and patrolroutes is a vital point to any good thieving experience, but I don't think this mission belongs in the thieving appartment. This mission is different, not necessarily a bad thing though! But as the AI tells the whole story through custom material, you collect some points. And the pet spider was a new thing indeed...! One thing to think about is that the sound was quite low in certain places and it was easy to miss dialogues. As I said above, you should state in the readme the differences in this mission so the player is more aware that he must be careful and listen to people and flat out walk right in front of them; not so usual in these types of games.

Stars for that? 2

 

BUGS

This shouldn't be a special section, but there was one particular bug that ruined the mission: The Book of Nature disabled the whole mission if it was used incorrectly. If anyone picks up a book chances are very total, that they WILL and SHOULD read it, ie USE it. In this case the book-icon flashes green and then you will not be able to use ANY equipment. The game tries to call a script or something that halts the whole inventory; You can't frob ANYTHING afterwards. The first time playing I didn't realize that, so I thought the torture chamber door and the armoury door was unfrobbable. It is not very likely that anyone will find the book, quell the tempt to read it, bring it to the prisoner, and then NOT use it on him, but rather slide it to him, "from hands"...

Negative stars for that: 3

 

 

 

SEASONAL THEME

There is a land with an evil wizard trying to lay it in total winter. There is also a trapped pagan in a spring time and rainy marsch. And there is the pesky summer with the bells and seeds in the air. SNEEZE! Nut much to say, but as it doens't feel so hard to define a season I will halt at almost full house.

Stars for this: 4

 

GAMEPLAY

It was a bit tideous running around in the woods with no clear goal. I was a bit irritated when I couldn't open any doors and didn't have any lockpicks. But I soon found the key and things got worked out well. At first I thought it was a joke, just giving just one pick and that a two-pick lock would appear soon after to irritate me more, but no

Is it possible to cross the river? I went in, but couldn't get up on either shore. And couldn't find anything down in the water, forcing a reload. No actual loot??? Not at all??? It felt like the crown was put in just as a reason to open the door in the bedroom...

Stars for that? 2

 

AESTHETICS

Designvise it's pretty neat, despite a lot of allignment errors. You CAN actually align textures horizontally The forest was not much to say about. Nice thing with the logs on some of the houses, but I discovereds some Z-fighting. The architectural points was more gathered when I reached the builder place, with the rounded corridor and the library.

Stars for that? 3

 

OVERALL

A nice little mission with some small drawbacks and frustration points, but an totally unique one with lots of commitment.

Stars for that? 2

 

 

Edited May 9, 2011 by Fieldmedic

[Shadowhide]

Thanks for nice review Fieldmedic

should I make a little update with bugfixing ?

 

[nbohr1more]

Thanks for nice review Fieldmedic

should I make a little update with bugfixing ?

 

 

You have until the last extension request to do so, if you wish

[Shadowhide]

ok,I uploading 1.1

changes :

Book bug fixed

No more snow falling through stone walls in library

Optimizing

[Shadowhide]

http://www.gamefront...harvestv1.1.pk4

 

please delete an old version from the server

Edited May 9, 2011 by Shadowhide

[Thiefette]

I just finished your updated version and will be revoting to reflect the positive changes you've made. Congrats again Shadowhide. This was a nice little first mission.

 

 

I agree with Fieldmedic that there should be something in the readme to let the player know to approach people in the woods as running around avoiding them was a big frustration the first time through.

 

It was much easier to hear the people tell your story this time - thanks for that. There was still the odd spot that was too loud (wind with the second guy in the forest, frogs? in the swamp & a scream with the guy in prison) but was able to catch most of what was said.

 

It also seemed that the brightness in the forest (on the trees) was toned down a bit which made it easier to get through.

 

 

All in all enjoyed this version much more.

[Sotha]

Tried this now and..

 

Good god.

 

 

 

The briefing was just sloppy: some text was readable, others went out so fast I didn't have time to read them. When the map started I was confused what I'm supposed to do.

 

The first thing that hit me in the face (or ears) was the repeating same wind sound effect. Whoosh. Whoosh Whoosh. Argh. I probably cannot bear to hear that particular sound effect ever again.

 

"Puzzles" were like: run to the other side of a large area without any interest or challenge to get an object. Then run back to the other end of the area to get another item to run to the other side of the area. Good grief.

 

I liked the pagan forest, it looked nice, but I wasn't able to hear what the man said. Then I got teleported somewhere again, without any idea what's going on.

 

At that point I didn't have the strength to carry on anymore.

 

 

 

I just couldn't bring myself to finish it.

 

I won't grade this, but I will try this again once you've had proper betatesting and uploaded a thoroughly updated version.

 

This mission is, indeed, a great example Why Mappers Should Always Betatest Their Work!

[nbohr1more]

I haven't had a chance to play this much but I must commend your persistence and payoff for learning the SEED system. The forest performs terrific for me and now I can rest easy that future forest maps wont necessarily be out of reach. Yep, I'll stop talking about the tech now

[Shadowhide]

The forest performs terrific for me

strange,my pc is almost like yours , and I getting around 45-60 fps i forest area

[Tels]

strange,my pc is almost like yours , and I getting around 45-60 fps i forest area

 

Shadowhide, I think "performs terrific" means in this context "very good". It is one of these strange English words I never quite understood, either

[nbohr1more]

Yep. it's very smooth. I was even able to set 8xAA and 16xAF for the screen I posted...

[Baddcog]

Shadowhide, I think "performs terrific" means in this context "very good". It is one of these strange English words I never quite understood, either

 

So good it's terrifing?

[Baal]

I haven't finished it yet as I'm stuck and walking through the forest got a little tedious.

 

 

What is supposed to happen in the big building accessed opened with the lockpick you find in attic? There's nothing there and I don't know where to go from there.

 

I like the atmosphere so far. The forest is nice (apart from the repeating wind sound) but is a little to big. The compass might be helpful here (it's missing from the inventory).

The talking villagers are cool but it's not clear that they are friendly.

 

Some hints about visportals:

1. You don't need to shape portals exactly into the holes they cover. I've seen some triangular portals. That's not necessary; rectangluar portals are fine (and better for sound propagation, I think).

2. The big portals are not set up in a useful way. As far as I know, a portal should lead from one separate area into another. They don't really work when intersecting each other. But without look ing at the map file I can't give any advice on how to set them up.

[Glyph Seeker]

I haven't finished it yet as I'm stuck and walking through the forest got a little tedious.

 

OK:

 

The big building is meant to be an abandoned church - when you approach the tomb a builder revenant appears and asks you to find his body and lay it to rest. The body is behind the Church - pick it up and lay it down in the tomb and the next item is revealed - an orb and a blackjack (The latter essential for the next objective).

 

[Baal]

 

when you approach the tomb a builder revenant appears and asks you to find his body and lay it to rest.

 

 

This didn't happen. I didn't walk straight up to the tomb (to bright ) but kept to the walls. There was someone there but I didn't hear a voice and it vanished shortly after I noticed it.

 

You should really betatest your map before releasing it.

[PranQster]

I loved the snow and the forest. I also loved the caved-in roofs in buildings due to too much snow. Nice to have the custom vocals with AI.

But...

 

I also had trouble with...

 

the abandoned church. I went in there and found nothing, saw nothing, heard no one. I approached the tomb from all directions, looking for loot or a lever or switch... nothing. So I left and wandered around the forest again. Found the cemetery and saw that I need to find a pagan orb somewhere. Wandered around the forest until I was certain I had seen everything. I finally decided to use noclip and fly around the forest and found nothing new. Shrugged my shoulders and came here to read spoilers. I now read rumour of a revenant in the abandoned church.

 

I'll now load the game again and see if I can do anything more after reading the spoilers.

[PranQster]

I loved the snow and the forest. I also loved the caved-in roofs in buildings due to too much snow. Nice to have the custom vocals with AI.

But...

 

I also had trouble with...

 

the abandoned church. I went in there and found nothing, saw nothing, heard no one. I approached the tomb from all directions, looking for loot or a lever or switch... nothing. So I left and wandered around the forest again. Found the cemetery and saw that I need to find a pagan orb somewhere. Wandered around the forest until I was certain I had seen everything. I finally decided to use noclip and fly around the forest and found nothing new. Shrugged my shoulders and came here to read spoilers. I now read rumour of a revenant in the abandoned church.

 

I'll now load the game again and see if I can do anything more after reading the spoilers.

 

Hmm... book bug fixed??

I tried using 'R' to drop the book and that did not work. So, naturally, I then tried 'using' it on the prisoner. Like I read above, that disabled inventory... could not select anything but the book or even change to the lockpick or keys.

 

Please put this mission through a thorough beta-test with other mappers. Once it is fixed, I will gladly play it through and give it ratings.

[Shadowhide]

mission was updated to 1.1,see first post

[Mortem Desino]

Ah... I see the major problem with the conversations. You're not using a soundshader, and the conversation editor just points to the OGG.

 

Yes, what you did will work, but you have no control over volume, or what the maximum distance is that the conversation can be heard from.

 

Here's a sample of what adjustments you can make.

 

[greebo]

I pushed the updated PK4s to our archives.

[Shadowhide]

Ah... I see the major problem with the conversations. You're not using a soundshader, and the conversation editor just points to the OGG.

 

Yes, what you did will work, but you have no control over volume, or what the maximum distance is that the conversation can be heard from.

 

Here's a sample of what adjustments you can make.

 

Thanks for the tip,I will control vocals loud level this method in my next fm.I think vocals in this mission is hearable enough

 

 

 

I pushed the updated PK4s to our archives.

 

thanks !