Fan Mission:Dragon's Claw by b1k3rdude (31/10/2011) updated

[Partol]

The beginning of the mission looks very promising. I was ecstatic about a plague ward mission.

Unfortunately, I searched for one hour before finding the entrance. Put me in a down mood, but I'm feeling better now.

The tavern runs ok for me. Slight dip below 60fps sometimes. A little higher gpu useage than usual.

 

By accident, I reproduced the "freeze" which Diego experiences.

It seems to happen when the tavern door is open/closed several times.

From outside, open/close the tavern door 3-4 times, wait 5-20seconds, then open/close 3-4 times and wait 5-20seconds

repeat this until it freezes.

When this happens, in windows task manager, I see one cpu core is at max usage.

By the way, I am playing with EAX 4.0 on. EAX works fine.

 

It only freezes when opening/closing the tavern door multiple times. Normally, there is no freeze.

 

The mission has great potential. I will complete it after the next update.

I do have one request.

 

At the entrance to the plague ward, the first person I encounter is a female. The problem is, she simply is not scary or intimidating and her voice is not scary whatsoever.

I think she should be replaced, perhaps by something non-human, or at least a wild looking human. Alternatively, she could be replaced by traps or an entrance puzzle (such as stones which must be moved to proceed forward) or a dire warning or a combination of these.

 

Edited November 13, 2011 by Partol

[Diego]

I'm going to restart my system and try again!

[Diego]

Yep. I managed to get into the tavern without freezing However:

 

I thought the entrance to the plague ward was through there, since I looked at all other corners of the map. When I found the real entrance, at the dragon statue, I begun experiencing smaller freezes occasionally. Then it became unplayable at the plague ward.

 

[Bikerdude]

Hmmm, as mentioned bfore I have to check the draw call count at these location to see whats casuing the stutter or FPS lag..

[Sotha]

Uygh. This mission was not for me.

 

 

 

Halloween: 2 stars. What halloween? Undead mission do not automagically count as halloween, at least for me. No scares, I was actually rather bored.

 

Gameplay: 2 stars. First I was rather excited by a plague ward mission. Then I didn't even start in plague ward. There was a large city area where I had no point in moving about. There were nothing but a few guards. Sure it was pretty, but it was unnecessary and useless. That area could have fit well for some entirely other mission.

 

The mission starting premise was uninteresting. Vague hints what to do. Then I start somewhere completely different than that I expected. Irrelevant place to wander about and nothing to do. No map. No clue. Finally after boring wandering I find the statue hatch. Got down. Found some girl in the sewers? What the hell was she doing there? Walking forever between a 8 meters long corridor? Got stuck in some stairs trying to get away from her. Got damage. Hid, blackjack.

 

Got up. Was first interested by the first moments of the plague ward. Then I was utterly bored since there was absolutely nothing to fear or beware in there. Stay away from mushrooms or blind-as-a-bat undead eat you. Seriously? When you get bored and start running around, the only danger are the undead left lying around.

 

At some point I found the Orb of Zot or whatever and some loot, but to my horror the find loot objective did not check off. "Find loot?" How frickin' much?!"

 

tdm_show_loot. I realized what the mission was about when I saw where the loot were. Wander around bored, check every nook and cranny for trinkets. Argh. Well, I picked up a few of the nearest ones and finally got out. And the game hung terminally just when I opened the bar door. Kill process. Uninstall mission. Delete mission.

 

Aesthetics: 2 stars. The aesthetics were overall good in the city. I'm not giving ratings for the city area as it was totally irrelevant to the mission. The plagueward itself (the flesh of the mission) was repetitive, non-impressive and boring. I found even the exactly the same building twice. The church was cool. I would have given 3 stars, but there were some awful issues, like a door open to the void. The game hung occasionally for a second or ten (I did not observe this for other halloween missions.)

 

Disappointment. The best thing was the story about the little girl. It made me a little sad.

 

 

 

 

I'm sorry if this sounds like harsh criticism, but really, honestly, I was very disappointed by this mission.

[AluminumHaste]

Thats weird I had no issues in the pub area at all.

[AluminumHaste]

Uygh. This mission was not for me.

 

 

 

Halloween: 2 stars. What halloween? Undead mission do not automagically count as halloween, at least for me. No scares, I was actually rather bored.

 

Gameplay: 2 stars. First I was rather excited by a plague ward mission. Then I didn't even start in plague ward. There was a large city area where I had no point in moving about. There were nothing but a few guards. Sure it was pretty, but it was unnecessary and useless. That area could have fit well for some entirely other mission.

 

The mission starting premise was uninteresting. Vague hints what to do. Then I start somewhere completely different than that I expected. Irrelevant place to wander about and nothing to do. No map. No clue. Finally after boring wandering I find the statue hatch. Got down. Found some girl in the sewers? What the hell was she doing there? Walking forever between a 8 meters long corridor? Got stuck in some stairs trying to get away from her. Got damage. Hid, blackjack.

 

Got up. Was first interested by the first moments of the plague ward. Then I was utterly bored since there was absolutely nothing to fear or beware in there. Stay away from mushrooms or blind-as-a-bat undead eat you. Seriously? When you get bored and start running around, the only danger are the undead left lying around.

 

At some point I found the Orb of Zot or whatever and some loot, but to my horror the find loot objective did not check off. "Find loot?" How frickin' much?!"

 

tdm_show_loot. I realized what the mission was about when I saw where the loot were. Wander around bored, check every nook and cranny for trinkets. Argh. Well, I picked up a few of the nearest ones and finally got out. And the game hung terminally just when I opened the bar door. Kill process. Uninstall mission. Delete mission.

 

Aesthetics: 2 stars. The aesthetics were overall good in the city. I'm not giving ratings for the city area as it was totally irrelevant to the mission. The plagueward itself (the flesh of the mission) was repetitive, non-impressive and boring. I found even the exactly the same building twice. The church was cool. I would have given 3 stars, but there were some awful issues, like a door open to the void. The game hung occasionally for a second or ten (I did not observe this for other halloween missions.)

 

Disappointment. The best thing was the story about the little girl. It made me a little sad.

 

 

 

 

I'm sorry if this sounds like harsh criticism, but really, honestly, I was very disappointed by this mission.

 

Ouch pretty scathing review. At least you didn't pull a SH and gave reasons XD

[id3839315]

Solid work as usual though the graphics card had a hard time with this mission.

[Bikerdude]

Solid work as usual though the graphics card had a hard time with this mission.

 

yeah, apologies, but limited time etc v2 will be much better.

 

 

Ouch pretty scathing review. At least you didn't pull a SH and gave reasons XD

Ouch indeed, I knew it lacked a lot of polish and had more than its fair share of bugs. But considering the amount of work to get all the maps merged into a coherant map it almost didnt make it into the contest AT ALL.

[Bikerdude]

Also due the thread in "Recent Status Updates" I feel the need to state the following for any other users that dont read the first post!

 

Known issues:-

• Due to the deadline there are just going to be some bugs which I didnt have time to fix.
  
• No map, its linear enough not to need one
  
• Mission isnt challenging enough - I didnt have the time to tweak this at all.
  

BUGS:

• The mission freezes for no aparrent reason in some spots, but thankfully ist only a one or two.
  
• There is a broken visportal in the plagueward at street level.
  
• The EscZone needs to be bigger - to complete the mission "stand right in front of the fireplace in the tavern, infront of the mage"
  

[Bikerdude]

and in addition -

 

• What halloween? Undead mission do not automagically count as halloween .
  
• There was a large city area where I had no point in moving about.
  
• No map - did I not state this in the mission thread main post..?
  
• Found some girl in the sewers?
  
• First moments of the plague ward, the only danger are the undead left lying around.
  
• At some point I found the Orb of Zot or whatever.
  
• Aesthetics: 2 stars -
  
• I'm sorry if this sounds like harsh criticism.
  

• - In my book and many others undead do count.
  
• - yes it was it empty, but I did mention this in the announcement post.
  
• - again I stated this clearly in the announcement post.
  
• - ffs, look at the way she was dressed, a female thief/rogue why else would an Ai of they type be down there. fyi - she was guarding an entrance.
  
• - Yes I actually agree on this point, this was because I wasnt able to get the ghosts working correctly.
  
• - Ok, now your just being petty, :-/
  
• - obviously you don't appreciate explore type missions.
  
• - 2 stars! are you kidding like, I think your mood by this point was just coloured.
  
• - I spent many, many hours on this, even a day on I took off work because I was unwell.
  

Not even shadowhide was this abrupt, did you fall out of the wrong side of bed that day or what...

[Sotha]

In my book and many others undead do count.

 

Fine. I think halloween needs a little scare. Other missions had that.

 

yes it was it empty, but I did mention this in the announcement post.

 

And how does that change things? Surely you mentioning the thing in the announcement post does not deprive me the right to comment that I felt the area was useless in a review?

 

ffs, look at the way she was dressed, a female thief/rogue why else would an Ai of they type be down there. fyi - she was guarding an entrance.

 

Well, she did feel a bit out of place to me. She was alone guarding the entrance to the plagueward? So that no ghosts escape? Or that nobody gets in to bother her undead friends? You do not need to answer these questions. My point is that she felt very out-of-place.

 

Ok, now your just being petty, :-/

 

I had an impression I was fetching a dragon claw? But the thing was an orb. I felt that the object that checked the objective wasn't the thing I was looking for. Sure, this is just semantical problem: of course an orb could be called a dragon claw, but if feels unintuitive.

 

obviously you don't appreciate explore type missions.

 

You got me there.

 

2 stars! are you kidding like, I think your mood by this point was just coloured.

 

Yes, two stars. The city itself was nice. But since the area was totally unnecessary, I decided to not take that into account. It was useless. It was there just to confuse the player to wander away from where he was supposed to be. It makes the mission unfocused. Now that I think of it it probably was a mistake from my part. Nevertheless, the main location itself was rather bland and bugged. That of course reduces the aesthetic rating. Even if you DID mention about it in the announcement.

 

Not even shadowhide was this abrupt, did you fall out of the wrong side of bed that day or what...

 

Nope. No intrinsic issues in me. I just honestly felt this mission was off the mark in many ways. Comparing me to some other person is not nice. At least I provided full details why I gave which rating. That makes my feedback more useful.

 

The mission was unfocused (useless places to bog the player down.) The main location was unchallenging and uninteresting (nothing to avoid or fear). That was reflected in my review. I'm presenting one opinion and the success of your mission in this contest will be dictated by the majority of the community. But I still should have the right to write honest reviews, without sparking hostilities.

 

One mustn't take this criticism towards the mission personally. Otherwise I'm just forced to

a ) stop writing FM reviews to avoid upsetting people. I should just say that ooh, nice mission thanks. I should not point out why the mission was not good in my opinion.

b ) just give poor grades without any written reviews. The FMA does not need (or want) to hear why I thought about the mission like this.

 

Both options feel bad for me. Which one you would prefer?

[Baal]

I have to agree with Sotha. This wasn't my type of mission either for mainly the same reasons. I didn't finish it because of the loot objective which I didn't find very motivating.

But don't take it personally Bikerdude. I hope that, when I release something, people tell me what they don't like about it. How else can you make it better the next time?

 

Edit: And on a positive note,

the chapel and sewer areas were good. A bit more challenging than the rest of the mission because there was less room to circumvent the AI and they looked great.

 

[Bikerdude]

@Sotha, While I agree with what some of what was have said, I also disagree with a bunch of what was said, but Lets draw a line under it.

 

I have said now in several posts, there will be a better, updated version. The reason why this version was lacking was the time frame, end of discussion.

 

Its hard not to take things personal when I worked on my day off, and I was unwell at the time. So one thing that has come out of this, I wont be expending unnecessary amounts of time and effort on TDM for the foreseeable future.

[Baal]

Its hard not to take things personal when I worked on my day off, and I was unwell at the time.

That doesn't sound like fun. Don't overdo it, you should enjoy this and not overwork yourself for a deadline.

[RPGista]

On beta-testing this mission I was definetly amazed by the amount of effort Bikerdude put into this, we would bombard him with bug reports and he kept his cool and got an immense amount of things done in no time at all (even helped another member finish his own map in the middle of the contest), we were all aware of what was missing but the point was to put it out anyway to honour the competition and that was made clear right from the beginning, that the mission was playable but wasn't what you would call finished. Of course criticism is always welcome guys, and Sotha makes many valid points, but I think it's pretty cool that we have one more good mission with good potential to play, and even better, Bikerdude intends to expand on it and create the complete version it deserves, so that has to be celebrated. And I wont spoil, but I know some interesting sections had to be cut out of this release, so there's even more to the map besides what you can see right now just waiting to be added.

[Shadowhide]

and in addition -

 

• - In my book and many others undead do count.
  
• - yes it was it empty, but I did mention this in the announcement post.
  
• - again I stated this clearly in the announcement post.
  
• - ffs, look at the way she was dressed, a female thief/rogue why else would an Ai of they type be down there. fyi - she was guarding an entrance.
  
• - Yes I actually agree on this point, this was because I wasnt able to get the ghosts working correctly.
  
• - Ok, now your just being petty, :-/
  
• - obviously you don't appreciate explore type missions.
  
• - 2 stars! are you kidding like, I think your mood by this point was just coloured.
  
• - I spent many, many hours on this, even a day on I took off work because I was unwell.
  

Not even shadowhide was this abrupt, did you fall out of the wrong side of bed that day or what...

lol

i'm going to play this mission soon and write my own review

[Springheel]

I haven't played the mission yet, but just popped in to see what the fuss was about. But after reading this:

 

I have said now in several posts, there will be a better, updated version.

 

I now feel like I shouldn't play it at all until this new version comes out...?

[Shadowhide]

hey Biker,why you getting so offended by low ratings of your fms

Edited November 16, 2011 by Shadowhide

[Diego]

Some people may not have realized this is a WIP. Others may have have noticed, but since it's on the contest they have to treat it as a finished work. But still, you managed to get it to a playable state for the contest, which I think is a favor to the community and should be appreciated and taken into consideration when making criticism. You sure have my appreciation! I couldn't play it through because of freezing problems but I await anxiously the updated version.

[Sir Taffsalot]

OK maybe this just comes down to a matter of perspective. I actually think Sotha raised some very good points although they were delivered a bit too harsh. As for voting 2 for aesthetics, well your definitely wrong there Sotha. But they seem to be from the perspective that this mission had the luxery of time. I judge this on the small amount of time it was created in. Being a beta tester I'm probably more aware of the work Biker put in, in such a small time frame.

 

I think it's a pity yet somewhat inevitable that a mission of this size was obviously going to lack in certain areas given the short amount of time to work in. Gameplay just happened to be that area. It is too easy. That a map of this size was completed in such a small amount of time (oh and not forgetting that at the start of this contest Biker was very kindly helping me finish my first FM) is quite a remarkble acievement.

 

I get the feeling that Sotha is not judging this from a speedbuilding perspective and that Biker obviously is.

 

Persoanlly I think aesthetics and story is spot on. I voted 5 for aesthetics and 4 for story. I'm very proud of my readables but I think there should have been a few more for a map of this size. 3 for game play. If ever there's a map that could really benefit from an updated version it's this one. More AI's and more buildings to enter. Especially in the starting area. This has potential to be fantastic imo.

[Sir Taffsalot]

In response to Sotha in choosing to ignore the first part of the map because it wasn't part of the storyline. Dumping the player in the middle of the plague ward wouldn't make sense. wasn't there a rather large chunk of city section in TDP's mission "the lost city" at the beginning? Perhaps the city section in Dragons claw is unessarily too big but more AIs and more buildings to enter would change that. Hopefully that's to come in the updated version.

[Bikerdude]

But after reading this, now feel like I shouldn't play it at all until this new version comes out...?

The player/ in my recommends you wait for v2, but the author in me would like the extra votes etc.

 

 

Some people may not have realized this is a WIP. Others may have have noticed, but since it's on the contest they have to treat it as a finished work. But still, you managed to get it to a playable state for the contest, which I think is a favor to the community and should be appreciated and taken into consideration when making criticism.

In a nutshell, exactly.

 

In response to Sotha in choosing to ignore the first part of the map because it wasn't part of the storyline. Dumping the player in the middle of the plague ward wouldn't make sense.Perhaps the city section in Dragons claw is unessarily too big but more AIs and more buildings to enter would change that. Hopefully that's to come in the updated version.

Thats the plan, and will require your services as more readables are added to the map. :-)

[Sotha]

Well, I judged the mission based on how fun and interesting it was to play. I did not take speedbuilding, author's physical condition, general clemency, star alignment or anything else into account. I just grabbed the mission just like any other mission. That's how I do with contest entries.

 

Here is another problem. The community judges these missions as per speed contests. People don't want to criticise the missions because they know they were prepared in a hurry. In essence somewhat incomplete missions get high ratings.

What if new people check the ratings and see mission with high grades. They do not know or understand they are speedbuilds. They think these are the among best the mod has to offer. They certainly are not, I'm afraid. They try 'em and will be disappointed. Bad PR.

 

Conclusion: probably speed builds are not so good for contests? It will burn our talented mappers out and the end result will not be as polished as one would hope. Maybe there is a lesson to be learned here? TDM requires quality over quantity. At least in my opinion. Let the mappers have enough time to perfect their artistic work.

 

Sir Taffsalot:

The city section would have worked, if it was incorporated in the objectives. It could have been done rather cheaply:

"Objective one: find a way to the plagueward. You've heard rumours the guard captain knows how to get there. The guard captain probably hangs around in the city watch building in the city section." Put a note on the city watch captain, with a map that shows the location of the dragon grate. Maybe the grate must be opened with a crowbar the player needs to get elsewhere.

 

City region incorporated. Maps provided to give the player some idea where to go. But yeah, if there is no time, there is no time.

[Sir Taffsalot]

No problem. I'm working on a readable for a whore house where a busty lass gets the plague and has her tits drop off.