Fan Mission: Samhain Night (v.3.3 update) by PranQster (2020/03/01)

[PranQster]

Good to hear and thanks for the encouragement. I actually keep my gamma not high... 1.1 or 1.2 max I think. I prefer the darkness of shadows, but still like to see the edges of certain objects in the dark. I prefer to think that my character has really good night vision.

 

I wanted nobody to get through this map, with all loot, unscathed or unseen... without using noclip, it is impossible to do either.

The one spot in the collapsed hallway, where two rope arrows are used on beams to reach gold nuggets on the far side. That leaves no rope arrows for the end. But the rope arrows can be climbed and retrieved of course... to the loss of a small amount of health in the fall.

 

 

As far as your spoiler comment.

I was thinking of putting in a ritualistic cultist room in the tomb. But I decided to make it more of a mystery... who keeps the torches lit? Who puts fresh candles in the king's tomb? I hinted to that in the looter's book found below the skeleton suspended in the spider web... the looter wondered who maintained the torches.

When this contest was announced, I had already been thinking of a (huge) tomb looting mission, much akin to T1-M3, The Bonehorde. I already had several ideas in place in my mind and jotted down in my 'basket' notepads software. I took a few of those ideas and made a mini version of that mission.

 

Edited October 29, 2011 by PranQster

[Melan]

1.1 and 1.2 are high values. Fauchard Street and Return to the City had 0.05 and 0.07, respectively. Some missions need more than that - these two are pretty dark - but in tombs, the value is appropriate. If you need things lit, place more lights. From the Halloween contest missions, House in Blackbog Hollow did it very well, making for more atmospheric architecture - with an ambient value of 0.06, and more prominent contrasts.

[PranQster]

I'll double-check, I may have posted those wrong...

I wasn't referring to ambient light values... I never went higher than 0.08 in my map... most places were 0.07 or 0.06.

 

I thought we were talking about gamma set in TDM options by the player...

Mine is set to Gamma = 1.119048 and Brightness = 0.88

Edited October 29, 2011 by PranQster

[PranQster]

By the way... expect the cultists and rituals in my next map. If I ever can part myself from making pretty trees and rivers, I might actually start making progress on it.

[AluminumHaste]

Huge improvement over your last mission you are progressing really fast can't wait for the next one

[PranQster]

Huge improvement over your last mission you are progressing really fast can't wait for the next one

Thanks a lot! The next one will be cool, I promise. I should get back to work on it tonight... took a couple days off to test others' maps.

[Springheel]

I'm a bit stuck.

 

 

I've burned all my equipment and I'm stuck in the King's tomb. The ghost is still in the room. I've got the crown and all the other loot I can see, but I don't see a scepter or any way out. Can't search terribly well with the ghost still hunting me. Saw some comments about a book but never found one. Is the scepter in the main tomb or should I be looking somewhere else?

 

[Quant]

I'm a bit stuck.

 

 

I've burned all my equipment and I'm stuck in the King's tomb. The ghost is still in the room. I've got the crown and all the other loot I can see, but I don't see a scepter or any way out. Can't search terribly well with the ghost still hunting me. Saw some comments about a book but never found one. Is the scepter in the main tomb or should I be looking somewhere else?

 

 

Sit in a dark corner for a while and let things calm down.

 

The Scepter is somewhere else. You might want to recheck that sarcophagus for some hard-to-spot loot though.

When all the AIs have calmed you can crouch-creep through the middle of the room towards the stairways without raising an alert.

 

 

 

Outright spoiler:

 

Go back up to the skeletons, there should be a new passage open in the opposite wall.

 

 

[PranQster]

Sit in a dark corner for a while and let things calm down.

 

The Scepter is somewhere else. You might want to recheck that sarcophagus for some hard-to-spot loot though.

When all the AIs have calmed you can crouch-creep through the middle of the room towards the stairways without raising an alert.

 

 

 

Outright spoiler:

 

Go back up to the skeletons, there should be a new passage open in the opposite wall.

 

 

^ What he said...

Actually I hope you are not stuck inside the king's tomb. Someone else had once closed the door on their way in there, which I never anticipated happening (but should have, in hindsight).

Also,

The book was beneath the skeleton suspended in cob web beneath the larger tomb. It isn't vital to the quest and since you already have the crown I can say that the book mostly hints to the one torch which could be moved a little.

 

Edited November 3, 2011 by PranQster

[PranQster]

Did anybody notice my cheesy owl in the tree at the beginning? It was just an owl texture slapped onto a sphere brush or a bent cylinder (forget which). But it does give a visual explanation as to why you hear an owl in a small tree.

[AluminumHaste]

I did it's in the screenshots for your mission on moddb and on the missions page Very well done I thought it was a model.

[PranQster]

I did it's in the screenshots for your mission on moddb and on the missions page Very well done I thought it was a model.

Ooh. I'll have to see that

Ahh cool. I didn't know those screenshots existed. Thanks

Edited November 3, 2011 by PranQster

[Quant]

I'm not yet voting before I've played the other contest missions, but so far, I quite enjoyed it.

 

Review in spoilers...

 

My gameplay experience:

The graveyard was beautiful. Really liked the short introduction with the family members leaving the place.

Of course I was aware something HAD to happen when picking up the objective crystal, so I tried to get every piece of loot available up there before doing that. Still missed one on a tombstone.

 

Shortly after... argh - spiders. Hate them. Must kill them. Ouch, objective failed.... I was still so used to T2 "no kills" objectives not including animals and undead. Actually at that point I was shortly thinking about starting over with an easier difficulty, but finally decided to proceed.

Turned out that sneaking around the spiders wasn't that hard afterall; eventually reached the crypt unseen and even made it to the middle of the king's room without problems.

 

There problems started. Wasn't allowed to kill anything, not even the ghost... I could manage to pick up the crown after a couple of save&reloads, but never managed to get the ring without getting the ghost alerted. I was also expecting the sceptre to be somwhere around here, but couldn't find it. At that point I had no idea what to do, so I thought I'd just get back up and see if I missed anything. Two spiders sat right in the stairway entry, blocking my way. I had no choice but to get them alerted a bit by jumping around to clear the stairway.

 

After a long while I found a new unexpected opening on the opposite side, that wasn't around before. That was some negative impression though, because nothing hinted at that, and ghosting around that skeleton crypt was a major PITA.

Barely managed to make it to the labyrinth with a couple of angered skels tailing me, but I finally lost them. The labyrinth was a much-needed comfort zone. I tried to not miss a single section to get all the loot, so I walked through it at least twice, after having spotted the scepter.

 

I'd have loved to avoid alerting the Revenant - but I couldn't find any way to do that, so I just ran, dodging skeletons left and right, back to the grate and down. But now what? Again I was clueless about where to go.

Remembering the previous "surprise" of a suddenly new appearing passage I got a bit frustrated and saved, then started to run around all the previously visited rooms, looking for something that has changed.

 

Took me quite a while to find what I expected - another new passage that wasn't around before. Reloaded the previous save and sneaked there (again the main crypt was very hard to sneak by). Managed to avoid the Werebeasts and found my way up... only to stop at a dead end, so I supposed that had to be the "mission-end-room". (I hadn't met my loot objective yet; frustrated again.) So, backtracking again (I finally needed a forum hint to find that hidden lever in the crypts).

 

Suggestions:

- The "not kill" objective - make it clear from the beginning, that that includes any AI. (most players will assume: don't kill any human)

- When some new passage opens, give some (at least audible) hint to the player. In both cases I was quite surprised to suddenly find a new hallway.

- You cannot really avoid players getting to the "mission end" without meeting the objectives. In that specific mission it would have been good to find some shortcut from there to the starting point though (to get the loot in the graveyard).

 

Overall:

I really enjoyed it (besides the few frustration points mentioned avove). Sneaking skills payed off (and I just loved to grab the crown from just beyond the kings unaware feet).

Very well done!

 

 

[PranQster]

Good to hear, and a good review I agree with the points you made. I made the mistake of using the default "no kill" objective without editing the wording of it to say "anything" instead of "anyone". and the audio hints you suggest or a text message would help to hint at things unexpected.

 

Getting the ring in the king's tomb is a true pain in the ass. It can be done by distracting the ghost across the room with a noisemaker or something else, but getting the ring requires standing up. Dousing the candles in the room helps.

 

And I certainly meant for this mission to be more of a trick than a treat.

Edited November 3, 2011 by PranQster

[TheUnbeholden]

Cool But I wonder why

the mission didn't complete at the top of the well. I put quite a thick brush there and tried it out several times with no problems. I guess on occasion it takes extra time crossing through the clip brush to trigger the mission end.

 

 

 

 

Sorry to hear that. Also,

those 'lizards' are werebeasts (werewolves).

 

 

BAHAHAHA.. Lizards? Who could make a mistake like that.

 

 

Also what is this madness about a Plaque mask, whats the deal with that issue.

Edited November 6, 2011 by TheUnbeholden

[PranQster]

BAHAHAHA.. Lizards? Who could make a mistake like that.

 

 

Also what is this madness about a Plaque mask, whats the deal with that issue.

The plague mask was added when Nosslak made it available as a new model. I made the pagans in the start of the map wearing them. The mask doesn't tend to render properly unless it is put directly into the /darkmod directory. Simply including the model packed in my mission did not allow it to render in-game and it showed as completely black, so I made it a separate download.

[nbohr1more]

It worked for me in your updated version. No need to download the mask package.

 

Edited November 6, 2011 by nbohr1more

[PranQster]

I worked for me in your updated version. No need to download the mask package.

 

good o hear. there was a report of it not working even after I had put it inside my mission both as .pk4 as well as extracted to directories.

[RPGista]

Played this the other day, and I really enjoyed the mission and the new assets used, and also (specially) the challenge.

 

 

I liked the fact you can arm yourself during the mission (and I suspect that if you neglet to do that, you are going to have a hard time), and that you get at least a sight of neutral, more or less normal people, before going into the belly of the crypt to find all kind of supernatural nasties.

 

I found the flying entity intriguing, but at the same time it caught me off guard for the first time and I was expecting to pay for my carelessness, and I wonder why you decided to make it completely harmless, it could at least send a shrill of alarm to everyone around, or something like that.

 

I really liked the caves and the work that went on them (rock formations), specially liked the webbed corpse and the fact you can climb on it (not really realistic though hehe, you would get stuck). I generally don't really like magically moving architecture like the main crypt, I just don't think they work well in a realistic game, but I hadn't seen it before in the FMs I played and I thought it worked here - the middle area very challenging, hard to go through, and the puzzle little areas that go opening up as you progress. It took me a while to realise I could actually kill the first ghost (oddly enough, he bleeds! ), by the time I reached the second I was pretty sure of myself and caught him easily with the guard down.

 

Was able to ghost through the werewolf area (which is, again, not realistic at all, not your fault oviously, but the way they coded the monster, you CANNOT fool a wolf's sense of smell, they would catch your scent dozens of meters away, and also the hearing, which is freaking good on pretty much all canines; now that I think of it, I think it's safe to say they also see clearly in the dark, at least many times better than us... What I'm saying is that they should be basicly stalking-proof ). Still had time to enjoy their little macabre sculpture and make my way to the top of the well, only to discover there's nothing up there - still have to go back to find that last piece of loot.

 

Overall a pretty strong mission, both challenging and fun. Thanks a lot for the work!

 

There are too many good misions around, I will never have time to review all of them...

 

Edited November 6, 2011 by RPGista

[PranQster]

Thank you for the review, I really appreciate it.

 

Yeah, I thought about the stickiness of the web, but wanted to do something other than the old rope arrow into wooden beam (even though I did that later). I figured enough dust has settled onto the spider web so it isn't completely sticky anymore.

I have been missing some of the supernatural elements in the game. I decided to have some of the king's protective power fade when you steal his crown. Hence the secret door leading to the scepter opening, etc.

As for the sprite flying around, it's nothing more than a spirit. I tried to make it seem to be only one, appearing in different parts of the map, kind of as an observer to what the player is doing.

I agree about the werebeasts completely. I should have looked into changing their acuity settings so they could see and hear the player much more easily.

 

[TheUnbeholden]

 

I(which is, again, not realistic at all, not your fault oviously, but the way they coded the monster, you CANNOT fool a wolf's sense of smell, they would catch your scent dozens of meters away, and also the hearing, which is freaking good on pretty much all canines; now that I think of it, I think it's safe to say they also see clearly in the dark, at least many times better than us... What I'm saying is that they should be basicly stalking-proof )..

 

 

Totally agree. I personally think that while a wolf is a excellent hunter and impossible to sneak right up to it or passed it unless you keep a distance of at least 20 metres... a werewolf is a like a incredibly powerful version of it that not only would have those heightened senses but also have a highly strong, fast, and regenerative body that easily makes them the most powerful creature in the world.

 

It could take on a elephant and win, other various lions, leopards, jaguar, grizzly bear. Perhaps a Cheetah might beat it speed wise but aside from that a werewolf is king of the jungle. You would have to find tricks to beat it like explosive arrows, flashbang, a few land mines, but if you don't have all that then its basically about keeping a distance from it... or run like hell when it comes and prey you have a rope arrow to get to high ground or barricade a door. If anything I think it should be upped senses wise for the following Dark Mod v1.7

 

It should be the most challenging AI to come up against.

Edited November 7, 2011 by TheUnbeholden

[Sotha]

Completed this now..

 

 

 

 

Halloween 3 stars / gameplay 2 stars. Both of these felt a bit lost for me. The briefing and the readable in-game were well written and roused my interest (therefore 3 for halloween). Too bad the actual things the mission threw at me weren't that interesting.

 

It felt more like a classical computer role playing game without character stat development. First I dodge some commoners. Then I kill some spiders. Then I kill some skeletons. Then there is the boss fight with a bigger undead with some spiders as backup (they get the surprize round). Then I wander around in a maze. Then there is the big boss fight #2 (surprize!). And then I kill some werewolves and then end of mission.

 

The werewolves were totally lost somehow. I ticked them full of arrows and they just stood there and sniffed the air. Pathfinding issue? I remember the 'wolfes were quite ferocious on me when I tested Mandrasola.

 

It was sort of comical when the revenant fell from the ceiling trap door and injured himself from the fall.

 

There weren't really any decisions: I just walked forward the corridor the mapper had created. Occasionally the mapper opened me some new doors as I killed some more monsters. Wasn't this supposed to be a sneaking game? Enter, observe, choose route, avoid guards?

 

Aesthetics 3 stars: Basic geometry, nothing special. Looked awkward occasionally, but not bad. This looked like you've used this map to learn your patchwork skills. That will be useful.

 

Overall: interesting work. The readables promised really an interesting scenario, but the problem was the narrow linearity. It will be interesting to see your next mission, since each one of these show significant development in narrow fields in mapping: soon you will master them all. Next time: give the player choices. Give 'em a map. Let the player choose. But make the decisions have consequences. If you pack a surprize in your mission; never pack the same one twice.

 

Oh, and plan, plan, plan your mission well in advance.

 

Granpa out.

 

 

 

[PranQster]

Thanks Gran'pa! I agree with much of your review. And yes, it was a practice in patchwork and learning about mission building. I'm planning on my next mission to be much grander in scope and very much in the style of Thief. I'll try to keep linearity to a minimum.

[Sir Taffsalot]

I'm off to a bad start. How do I get out of the spider caves? There seems to be two rocks in a corner I can climb on to but the ledge above is too high to reach.

[PranQster]

I'm off to a bad start. How do I get out of the spider caves? There seems to be two rocks in a corner I can climb on to but the ledge above is too high to reach.

 

Climb to the top of the taller rock (start on the side of the wall where the smaller rock is). when on top of the larger rock, be sure to stand. You can then get on the little ledge.

 

Edited November 8, 2011 by PranQster