Jump to content
The Dark Mod Forums

Fan Mission: Alberic's Curse by b1k3rdude (Updated: 01/11/2014)


Bikerdude

Recommended Posts

ps: i found a small bug: there is a room with a hole in the floor and inside the room are 1 big and 1 small crate. by touching the small one the big fall through the massive floor to the next floor and blocked a patrolling ghost ^^

 

I did the exact same thing.

System: Mageia Linux Cauldron, aka Mageia 8

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So how do you actually start the mission , there seem to be barriers to stop you going in any direction ?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As mentioned in the first post -

 

"read and explore, read and explore" you can figure out how to enter either by exploring or reading your player notes.

 

LOL I did have the same problem, but exploring did it for me though.

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I finally finished this mission - didn't find the door with the sceptre and the doll on my first try. I missed about 200 loot and got a horrible stealth score (80+) in spite of trying to ghost. :unsure:

 

Impressions:

The Seasonal theme was captured very well. It was not perfect, but the foggy autumn mood, especially with the cloister's magnificient hollow gothic spires, did its job very well.

I voted the Gameplay five stars. I plain like exploration-based missions, and this one has it - especially good is the three-dimensional nature of the navigation challenges. There are satisfying moments of discovery all around (but I really liked the lower levels).

Aesthetics is state of the art. No question about it.

Some very delicate prefab arches, and a lot of environmental detail (except outside, but that's performance-related). Once again, nothing but praise for the underground sections. There is a palpable sense of going deeper and finding something long abandoned. Wow. The bar has been set.

I would have subtracted a point for errors and immersion-breaking jokes in the readables, but really, it would have felt wrong with all that beauty.

 

So yes, I consider this a showcase mission, and the best of the contest so far. I will have to replay the old Cathedral of the Damned to see how it compares.

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

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Blimey, thanks Melan! Coming from you that means a lot :blush:

 

But credit where credits due, I did have my own window and door arch models originally and they were similar to the type you make. But then Flanders kindy supplied me with higher tris models in an effort make thing look better and while keeping all the important performance up etc. The gothic spires were an original flanders model from a map that he and I are working on, that I then modified etc. And Springheel made the little doll, which was a last minute thing and almost didnt make it into the mission - and which again is a homage to the game that brought this community together.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for that Chiron !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really liked how many ways there were to enter navigate the cathedral. The building felt navigable enough to seem like it used to be a usable building. That's something that I like a lot because it makes the setting a much more believable and it gives the players more possible routes to take.

It really bothers me in some other FMs when buildings seem too linear to feel usable.

 

There is a slight issue of the difficulty feeling a bit too low, but I think simply adding more haunts and zombies would hurt the atmosphere somewhat since only so many people could have lived and worked in the place. I think giving them patrols that cover more of the building would be a better way to improve the difficulty.

 

 

I noticed one of the AI on the upper floor gets stuck on the fallen statue a lot, and I'm guessing that's why the upper floor felt like it should have had an AI patrolling it but didn't.

 

 

 

 

I think the skull is too easy to miss because you have to open the coffin to get to it. None of the other coffins on the way there can be opened so the player would have likely given up on opening any of them by the time he/she reached that room. I think it would help if some of the other coffins could be opened so that the player knew he/she could open them or perhaps that specific coffin can be already open when the player gets there.

 

 

Edited by Professor Paul1290
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hint: deep dark and scary... irachnids and the stench of the rotting flesh...

Found it but the ghost is still fooling around in the garden after all objectives are solved. :ph34r:

 

 

The only other problem I had was with so many doors but after running around for awhile I got my bearings on what door led where and things were good. Oh yeah one other thing - spiders - enough said.

 

LOL ... I knew there will be a comment from Thiefette.

 

I thought so many doors, spiders and undead. :laugh:

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Found it but the ghost is still fooling around in the garden after all objectives are solved. :ph34r:

The book of folklore explains that... but yeah if I knew more about scripting or had more time to learn before released I would have done something better etc -_-

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Found it but the ghost is still fooling around in the garden after all objectives are solved. :ph34r:

 

 

Well according to the readables

once the skull is blessed, it's the next morning that the curse is lifted not at the moment of blessing the skull.

 

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

'Finished' , but too many doors for me ! Thanks though Bikerdude for a fun mission. Never did lift the curse on the skull , out of interest can someone walk me through where the pool etc is , it was driving me insane looking for it what with all those doors but I'd be interested to know! ? Thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

'Finished' , but too many doors for me !

 

Oh yeah, speaking of those. Once again I have nothing against your way of doing things Biker: I know you probably did it for performance purposes, but I really hate auto-closing doors. I would advise mappers to use them only as a last resort because hearing a door closing a few metres behind you when you're concentrated on picking a lock is rather immersion-breaking.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh yeah, speaking of those. Once again I have nothing against your way of doing things Biker: I know you probably did it for performance purposes, but I really hate auto-closing doors. I would advise mappers to use them only as a last resort because hearing a door closing a few metres behind you when you're concentrated on picking a lock is rather immersion-breaking.

 

I didn't find it that bad, but yeah...

 

I would advise mappers only to use auto-closing doors for exterior and other map choke-off point doors. They are an important performance booster when they block a big area, but are of little benefit for tight corridors with short view distances.

 

The close delay should be long enough. Typically 60-90 seconds is long enough for the player to be far enough so he won't even notice the door closing and realize it is an auto-closing one.

 

Also I've noticed that many mappers never tweak door sounds. There are a few different sounds to use and adding variety is always a good idea..

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have always changed door sounds and in this map each door randomly picks from a bank of 4 or 5 etc.

 

The Auto closing of the sdoor in the main atrium was unavoidable, if player with low end system want to continue to play the mod and want mappers to push the bounderies of quality/details/perf then either they upgrade or put up with these minor idiosyncrasies. <_<

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So , can someone online put me out of my misery regarding the pool then?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.


  • Recent Status Updates

    • Ansome

      Finally got my PC back from the shop after my SSD got corrupted a week ago and damaged my motherboard. Scary stuff, but thank goodness it happened right after two months of FM development instead of wiping all my work before I could release it. New SSD, repaired Motherboard and BIOS, and we're ready to start working on my second FM with some added version control in the cloud just to be safe!
      · 0 replies
    • Petike the Taffer  »  DeTeEff

      I've updated the articles for your FMs and your author category at the wiki. Your newer nickname (DeTeEff) now comes first, and the one in parentheses is your older nickname (Fieldmedic). Just to avoid confusing people who played your FMs years ago and remember your older nickname. I've added a wiki article for your latest FM, Who Watches the Watcher?, as part of my current updating efforts. Unless I overlooked something, you have five different FMs so far.
      · 0 replies
    • Petike the Taffer

      I've finally managed to log in to The Dark Mod Wiki. I'm back in the saddle and before the holidays start in full, I'll be adding a few new FM articles and doing other updates. Written in Stone is already done.
      · 4 replies
    • nbohr1more

      TDM 15th Anniversary Contest is now active! Please declare your participation: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22413-the-dark-mod-15th-anniversary-contest-entry-thread/
       
      · 0 replies
    • JackFarmer

      @TheUnbeholden
      You cannot receive PMs. Could you please be so kind and check your mailbox if it is full (or maybe you switched off the function)?
      · 1 reply
×
×
  • Create New...