Fan Mission 48: A Score to Settle, by Springheel (2011/07/01)

[161803398874989]

 

 

Enjoyed this mission a lot at first, but near the end it got very frustrating because I couldn't find the attic nor the ring. Eventually broke down and looked in this thread to see how to find the attic, but that was already after I'd KO'd every thug but one so I could pay more attention to searching. I also found Syke's place earlier than intended. Those two things made the mission a lot less enjoyable to me.

 

I had a good time with getting in through the front door, though. Climbed up the stand right as I came around the corner, then went through the shadows near the well, climbed up over the thug sitting there, then behind the back of the thugs standing. Two more climbs and I was near the archer, waited for a bit until he walked back inside, and then followed him.

 

 

[Springheel]

Enjoyed this mission a lot at first, but near the end it got very frustrating because I couldn't find the attic nor the ring.

 

Sorry to hear that. There are clues in Sykes' journal, but it's not necessarily easy (I think both are optional objectives).

 

Yes, that's the second best way of getting in through the front door. There's an even better one though.

[161803398874989]

Sorry to hear that. There are clues in Sykes' journal, but it's not necessarily easy (I think both are optional objectives).

Yeah, I forgot to read Sykes' journal because

his wife woke up and needed to be punched out before I could continue. The thing with all the missions I've played so far, though, is that there is only one place to find a clue to completing your objective. In "Not An Ordinary Guest" I completely missed Rhandof's office, and that left me having to seek help from the internet, whereas if there were some clues as to Rhandof being up to no good, or maybe a journal of his in his house, or a note in the office about keeping an eye on Rhandof... you know what I mean? More places to find the information or at least a way to the information.

 

You could do something alike with Grindel (people going the "wrong" way). Throw around some notes that mention keeping an eye on Grindel, with a description or map of the road to his home. And then maybe replace Grindel's map of the area with a map of the hideout in specific. Anyhow, that's not really something you'd change in an already released mission, but it's something to think about.

[Springheel]

There's always a delicate balance between "dumbing down" and being "too frustrating". Nothing will please everyone, unfortunately, and things that seem obvious to the mapper can be completely missed by players.

 

nyhow, that's not really something you'd change in an already released mission, but it's something to think about.

 

As it happens, I'm releasing an updated version for 2.0, and I've tried to make it a little more obvious how to get to Gridley's place, since a number of people had an issue with doing that objective first (despite being given a compass direction and the street name to look for).

 

Thanks for the feedback!

[vorob]

Completed this one yesterday. Think absence of map is not a good idea because I was just walking around trying to understand where should I go, thought i understand that i should visit my friend first. You could add map without any specific marks, only Gridley's spot so it would be easier to orient there, and when you visit Gridley he will update your map with additional info.

 

 

Also I didn't understand how to get into Sykes room without being detected because the only way I found is main door and he is sitting on chair and looking at door when its opened. 

 

 

 

Is that normal that when you live their hideout there are a lot of guard with torches? Or I made smth wrong?

 

 

p.s. since i'm russian i didn't know that privy=toilet so it was pain in the ass to look into all dictionaries and find just last line smth like “privy = old word for toilet place”

[vorob]

By the way, looks like mousewheel is inverted in this mission O_o

[Lux]

I actually think moving the player start position down to the right in front of the road you're suppose to take to get there would help. The thing is, you know what you're suppose to do but you don't know how to get there exactly and from where the current player starts, there are guards and a fire kind of visible to your left which draws your attention that way so even if you need to go right from the start position you feel the need to investigate left prior to leaving because you don't know if you'll be coming back to that area.

 

I think moving the player_start down to the right more would keep the stuff on the left out of view and there by not rouse curiosity as much which may direct the player subtly and keep the player on course with the objectives.

 

Just a thought.

[vorob]

The mission begins on the porch of the bar from which we come out. So there are some logic. Really we need a map and strict objective to visit our friend. I think this should be our only objective at the beginning.

[Springheel]

There is a strict objective, which tells you to do it first, and even tells you what direction to go (I changed it to be more specific in the 2.0 update), but I realize that's not enough for everyone.

 

It's always tricky to figure out how to communicate information the character should already know. On the one hand, giving the map to the player makes sense, but it doesn't make sense for the character to have a map to somewhere they already know. Next time I'll try something different.

[SirGen]

I've probably played 1/2 of TDM's missions and beaten about 1/4 of them. I thought to myself, "I wonder if Springheel has made a mission." Since you're one of the "main men" of TDM, I searched for a mission made by you. I was happy to find A Score to Settle. I've only played it for a few minutes, but I already love the level design of the city. The beginning movie with the artistic, grainy graphics was a nice touch. I'm looking forward to spending quite a few hours on this one

[Springheel]

Hope you like it!

[SirGen]

Hope you like it!

I did like it, thanks! Thanks for making and sharing this great mission too. Each great mission that I complete makes me want to make my own a little bit more. I'm still very intimidated by the thought of it though

 

Sykes is a real bastard! After reading his journal, I thought, "What a piece of shit!" After seeing his torture chamber I thought, "Holy f***, this bastard needs to die!!!" Throwing him down the toilet shoot or whatever it's called, was pretty satisfying. I also thought it was super funny that I could pick up the sleeping drunk guy and carry him around the same way as the unconscious and the dead

 

Edited October 20, 2013 by SirGen

[Bridge]

This was very good. I very much enjoy the light-hearted feel of the story - I think the title, which is excellent by the way, sums it up perfectly. It's not without its issues, but as a whole it is enjoyable I think. I'm curious, is the 2300 loot that is required for Hardcore all of the loot in the mission? Because I was quite meticulous in my search and ended up being about 50 short. I ended up going through the entire map again only to find 15 more loot and still being a little short of the goal, until I realized that it isn't necessary to complete the objective to complete the mission. Anyway, I gave it about 3/3/3, well done!

[Springheel]

I don't remember what the loot total is anymore, but I think it's higher than 2300. You should be able to see it in the final stat screen.

 

Glad you liked it, though that's the first time I've heard someone describe the mission as "light-hearted".

[Springheel]

Nice review with some great screenshots: http://www.wasder.net/the-dark-mod-a-score-to-settle/

[Bridge]

I have to ask though, was there any specific reason for the cutscene at the end? There was literally nothing positive about it at all. It breaks immersion, and for seemingly no reason at all since everything that occurs in it seems to be gameplay footage anyway. It was also very low res with the gamma turned up way too high. Even if it was impossible to incorporate that sequence into the game, it would have been far more effective in my opinion to just end the level when you get back to the guy.

[Springheel]

Originally I wanted to do it in-game, but couldn't get Gridley to do the actions I needed him to do for some reason. I suppose I could have left it out, but since the entire area was on the lookout for Corbin, it seemed important to explain how he got out of there. If I was redoing it today I'd probably try something different, or at least make it shorter.

[Skaruts]

Loved this FM. The map is just beautiful.

 

I just found one small "problem": I had to play it twice. The first time I went left when the objective told me to go to the right. Partially because of the thug knocking on the door which pulled me in that direction, and partially because I'm one of those players that always thinks "ok, that's the way to go, so let me just check this side and then I'll be on my way". So on my first time playing I got in their house through the front door. It's tricky, but not that hard. So I completed the mission backwards, and it was a bit confusing, which is why I played the second time.

 

I don't think this is your fault, though. It's a habit I got from wanting to explore every corner of the map, and before getting to the point of no return, I want to check the places I'm not being told to go to.

 

Also, just in case no one noticed before, I found a place where you can jump out of the map. If I recall correctly, it's right beside the house of the guy you have to meet (where you complete the mission). You can jump over the fences there.

 

Other than that, it's an amazing FM. I have trouble enjoying single missions because they are usually very ephemerous and "disconnected", but this one has quite a lot of stuff happening in it, which makes it quite pleasing. Well, anything with privies and deep accents (australian?), can never go wrong.

 

Also, there's a particularly dumb thug who found me and said something like "Oh, the guy is here!... Now what?... Errrr... Oh, yes, take that!" and then attacked me. I don't know if this is custom voice acting or if it's in the game by default, but it definitely made my day.

 

 

Edited February 2, 2014 by Skaruts

[Springheel]

Glad you liked it. The issue with going to the house first was a problem for a number of people, which is why, in the update, I was a little more specific about where to go first. Apparently that wasn't enough.

[Skaruts]

Yea I noticed now that I'm reading other people's posts. One solution might be to bring all the thugs out of the hideout at the start, making it impossible to go in from there. At least the two thugs that are playing cards, they could be outside just chilling. Then after talking to Gridley they could go inside, so that the player has a choice to go in from either side.

Edited February 2, 2014 by Skaruts

[Lux]

Could also just lock the front door with no key and then after speaking to Gridley, unlock it. I went in the front door as well, it was challenging like you mentioned.

[Skaruts]

Banging your head on the door might be a bit frustrating. I mean, you managed to sneak past the thugs on the fire, either by climbing the vines or quicly reaching the stairs and wait for them to calm down from seeing you for a second, and then the house is not accessible... I'd be a little frustrated for that and for having to get past the thugs again with my hands empty.

 

An (easier) alternative to my previous suggestion might be to have the patrolling thug just stand there in front of the door until you speak with Gridley. That would be a major "NO ENTRY!" sign right there, and the player wouldn't need to go through any trouble to "read it".

Edited February 2, 2014 by Skaruts

[Lux]

Yeah but then the player wouldn't have to go to the trouble to "find out for their self". I mean, I pretty much KNEW going up to that door that it was going to be a reload or two at the least and I was just asking for trouble and it probably wouldn't pan out.

 

That being said, I tried it anyway because that's just me. If the door had been locked when I got there I would have just thought to myself... "Damn it, I knew it wouldn't be that easy" and found another way in.

 

Actually, I believe you could also stack the wood planks in the alley to the left and climb over the wall in to the back yard and go in that way prior to going to see who you're suppose to.

 

For me at least, all a sign like that would do is challenge me more to get in.

 

And that brings about the original idea. The way its implemented now is perfectly fine. What probably needs fixed is just the logic of the AI handling the objective situation. If you've taken care of objectives prior to meeting him, his conversation needs to be more robust to reflect different players strategies.

 

If a mapper wants things to go in some kind of order, physical access to later objectives need to be blocked else you get anomalies like we're discussing.

Edited February 5, 2014 by Lux

[Skaruts]

Well, if the patrolling guard just stood there next to the railing, you wouldn't have any challenge, there's no way you could get to his back in that spot. The entrance is well lit by a lamp, and the only way to get past it without harm is if you hurry inside the house. The thugs on the fire will spot you but not for long enough to do something. But that's only possible without the patrolling guard there. If he's there the entrance is fully denied.

 

And blackjacking him is out of the question too. There's no way you get away with it, the other two thugs will see it very well.

 

Of course that this is only true if you care about not messing stuff up. If you enjoy or don't mind stirring up the hive then you could still get in.

Edited February 6, 2014 by Skaruts

[Bouregard]

I really liked the mission. Only thing thats missing is a wee bit of exploration. A few non objective related houses to visit and burgle would have been nice. But I really liked Sykes place. It looked like a cozy little rathole right for the scum of the city. All necessary amenities and very good multi level design.

 

 

And about the discussion about the attic and how to make it more accessible. Simple, add another way in. A single rope arrow in the map would have allowed me to sneak into the attic from the outside. Your informant could have given it to the player in addition to the flashbomb.

If you find Sykes note that his loot is stashed upstairs and you didn't think about frobbing the hidden lever then you can simply use a rope to scale the building from the outside.