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Fan Mission: Deceptive Shadows by Shadowhide (16/Sep/12)


demagogue

Fan Mission: Deceptive Shadows by Shadowhide (16/Sep/12)  

59 members have voted

  1. 1. Gameplay: Enjoyment. Fun duration. Smooth flow, ect. Versus Bugs. Frustration, Boredom, framelag

  2. 2. Appearance: Vertical use, Visual pleasure, lighting, visual style, deduct bad texturing etc.

  3. 3. Story & Text: Story. Text. Briefing. Graphic storytelling



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  • 2 months later...

Phew, this one was a toughy. Couldn't do it without looking in here and eventually I was so fed up with it, that I just followed the walkthrough. I mean it was kinda nice, but also frustrating because there were so little hints.

 

As far as graphics are concerned, I am extremely torn. Sometimes these overly saturated lights work well and sometimes they absolutely don't. Other than that, great use of particles and foliage.

 

@Sipher: Brethren posted a walkthrough a few pages back.

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  • 1 month later...

Just finished this FM. I have mixed feelings about it.

 

On the one hand I loved the dreamlike atmosphere, the lights/fog, the sounds, the mysterious story. There were also some really interesting pieces of gameplay I have not seen before.

 

On the other hand, the whole thing made little sense to me. I don't think the story is really consistent but that's kind of part of the atmosphere so okay with it. What really bugged me was the linear and hardly guided plot that resulted in poor gameplay flow. While I like to play puzzle games, it didn't really felt like it. More like, as I read above, "key hunting". The few hints I could get made little sense to me, and often I would end up roaming everywhere to test all keys/items combinations (killed all the guards for my patience's sake) and frobbing around randomly hoping to open the (n+1)th (secret) door. I was stuck countless times, and probably would have given up without walkthrough. However, I believe it would take only a few readables to make it coherent.

 

To conclude, logically I shouldn't rate this FM more than Good. But even though I felt like I was playing something created by a fan of Myst series on drugs, I think the fancy atmosphere and original gameplay are unique so I'll remember it as Very Good ;)

Jared, is that you ?

Must be rats...

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi.

In the wiki FM list I looked for a pagan/outdoor mission and this one was the first, so I went for it.

 

Visually the monastery is incredible, with the lighting flooding select spots beautifully and the sparse torches lending it one of the most medieval feeling I've yet seen in Dark Mod ( I'm new in it). The incredibly dark halls were esquisite, as I would often stop and check for Hammer movement inside the shadows, which felt eeary and also absurd, for how can guards be willing to wander pitch black routes? A certain moment startled me: in that main hall, with the red and blue energy things, checking about those boxes to the left, I exposed myself a little bit to that torch, which I hadn't put out yet. I checked my six and saw a spectre, blue, hovering in my direction! In a matter of half a second, I made it to be a Hammer sprinting to me, bathed in the vitral stained glass. But of all levels in the ancient building, the first part, past the cell until grabbing your equipment was when I immersed the most.

About the sound bugs people commented on, I was also attacked by one or two, mainly creeping around that dinner table; I don't recall if I stumbled on something, or if I stole some item, but a sort of impish grunt was spit out, somewhere around me. Creepier still was that damned small gargoyle statue, one eye lasering above the room. By the way, I did not have the ball to test it, but those yellow light wisps downstairs, do they kill you? The inconsistency about their noises repulsed me.

 

But with all this, I've given up on it. I have the mysterious key and am looking up on the hole in the ceiling, with no box to climb it or anything like people mentioned above. I already ran 6 or 7 laps around the map, looking for a keyhole to match the keys I have, plus lock picks, to no vail. Maybe some goddamn guard got the key I'm looking on his pocket, but I ain't looking for, because it's too dark to. Tried also to place the hammer I found on the hands of that statue, nothing as well. Thinking back, all this hunting looks like a punishment for the protagonist thief's ways, a sort of limbo. Frustating letdown. And besides the invading weeds and bushes, don't know why it deserves the pagan/outdoor key word.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I am enjoyoing this mission so far, but I got hopelessly stuck. After I

 

placed the ruby onto that gargoyle in the dining hall, I expected a compartment to open. But I do not see anything.

 

post-32559-0-00545000-1390257493_thumb.jpg

 

I used boxes to reach the gargoyle. Some say earlier in this thread it may have prevented the compartment from opening.

 

 

 

Any ideas?

Edited by duesen
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  • 4 weeks later...

sorry for late reply

 

there's a problem indeed

 

yes,there is a problem,if you stand in the way of the hatch it will not open,but if frob in there you can take an amulet anyway and accomplish the mission

 

 

To avoid it I decided to make a little (and hopefully final!) update of the mission.It changes nothing but fixing this not critical but unpleasant bug and renames objectives difficulty level from "Easy/Medium/Difficult" to "All/The/Same" because difficulty is the same

I decided to call this version 1.2 (although this is very minor update) to avoid confusion

Somebody please upload this version to the official mirrors

 

http://rghost.net/52498969

Edited by Shadowhide

Proceed with caution!

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as usual it claims the disk is full or right protected

That sounds like an issue your end, can you post a screenshot..?

 

On the same subject I did try to change the version number from 1 to 1.2 and it dosent let me. While I was there I noticed I forgot to change the (Mod (PK4 or fs_game)) from deceptiveshadowsv1 to deceptiveshadowsv1_2.

 

Try the in-game downloader now.

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It isn't my end as Alberic downloaded fine and installed correctly as did Home Again latest version

I then removed the FM and tried again

This time it appeared to work - went to 100% then claimed it couldn't download but it had although the new mission popup didn't appear

post-8491-0-25097300-1392748986_thumb.jpg

Edited by Oldjim
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Fun atmospheric mission, and probably the most tricky of them all. Once you figure out it's a 'hunt' things begin to flow, but items are still very hard to find... so pay attention and be patient. That being said I sadly gave up on the impossible loot objective and finished in just under 3 hours.

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One strange thing about the download for this update -- I ended up with two copies of deceptive shadows in my list of missions, one for 1.1 and one for 1.2. I suspect the downloader continues to have problems with versioning...

 

As for mission enjoyment, have to confess in the end I dutifully followed the walkthrough posted earlier to get it done, that's not a plus.

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  • 7 months later...

I tried a different technique this time

I didn't blackjack the priests etc, and took great pleasure in having them take out the haunts in conjunction with the fireballs and so the end play was quite a bit easier

It did cause a few crashes probably due to too many things happening at once

Edited by Oldjim
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  • 9 months later...
  • 5 months later...

This mission fucked up all the time with my old graphix card, but since that time I've gotten a new one and revisited this FM years later.

 

I'm happy that I played many other TDM FMs in the meantime, because this one pushes the boundaries of what "can" and "can't" be acceptable, and some folks are just not happy about it. I'm not one of them, this is a great FM.

 

 

 

The use of the metal ring as a lever was clever, and I wish that more authors would make static objects do something in the map. It keeps things fresh and uncertain. Some players seem to disagree, but I think those people are used to what to expect and since this FM throws many curve balls and surprises, it's hard to swallow at some points.

 

The aesthetic design is really gorgeous, and the multi colored lighting is very interesting for this mission, since not many TDM missions offer this time of feeling. The monastery is also bit very well, with all the arches, ceiling beams, pillars, etc.

 

The story was minimal, but served well in both furthering the gameplay and also furthering the plot.

 

I was not a super giant fan of all the running around looking for keys, but again, the mission pushed the envelope and put keys in places like a spiderweb. All areas of this mission needed to be searched, and it gave new meaning to really moving at crawl speed and looking in every possible direction. I enjoy this kinda thing, so it was quite my cup of tea.

 

The mission is actually quite linear and medium sized, with lots of backtracking. Some of the objects are a little bit obscure to figure out where they go. I initially thought the Holy Hammer would go on the altar, not the skull, but it wasn't hard to figure it out. The demon gargoyle talking to you searching for his eye was a nice touch. All the audio cues were nice, the deceased Builder talking to you to help his soul find peace.

 

The gameplay might not have been the most smooth, but it was fun anyway. I'm a fan of the noire / mysterious style of not spelling out every little thing that has to be done, so I'm biased to this type of mission. I didn't think the ending was that magnificent, but it was a nice touch and different from other FMs. A little bit of abstract thinking, as well as running around and getting familiar with the rooms that were visited versus the rooms that were still locked help me secure my bearings and better navigate my objectives.

 

 

 

I'm excited for the city mission Shadowhide, Biker and Melan are working on.

 

Thanks Shadowhide!

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  • 10 months later...

Where is the key for the lockbox (made of glass) that contains another key?

It's a little too convoluted. I destroyed everything out of frustration.

But great atmosphere.

"I really perceive that vanity about which most men merely prate — the vanity of the human or temporal life. I live continually in a reverie of the future. I have no faith in human perfectibility. I think that human exertion will have no appreciable effect upon humanity. Man is now only more active — not more happy — nor more wise, than he was 6000 years ago. The result will never vary — and to suppose that it will, is to suppose that the foregone man has lived in vain — that the foregone time is but the rudiment of the future — that the myriads who have perished have not been upon equal footing with ourselves — nor are we with our posterity. I cannot agree to lose sight of man the individual, in man the mass."...

- 2 July 1844 letter to James Russell Lowell from Edgar Allan Poe.

badge?user=andarson

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  • 2 years later...
  • 3 months later...
  • On ‎9‎/‎20‎/‎2012 at 2:55 AM, Sir Taffsalot said:

As far as appearance and atmosphere goes this is very impressive. However due to the key hunt nature of this FM I am not enjoying myself. Hunting keys and searching everywhere for hidden switches are just not my thing. This is more my personal preference and less of a criticism. As a result I have no desire to complete this FM. Perhaps I will give it a second go some other time. Until I complete it I will refrain from voting.

I have to say I agree with this assessment, after several hours of frustrating running around.  Every time I find a new key I think I've finally cracked it, but the keys don't open anything new.  What use is a thief who needs keys to open doors, I wonder?  The mission is also far too dark, even with my brightness and gamma set to maximum, so I might be missing things as a result.

It's a shame, because otherwise this is a decent mission and I would have loved to complete it. 

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20 minutes ago, Hagatha said:

I have to say I agree with this assessment, after several hours of frustrating running around.  Every time I find a new key I think I've finally cracked it, but the keys don't open anything new.  What use is a thief who needs keys to open doors, I wonder?  The mission is also far too dark, even with my brightness and gamma set to maximum, so I might be missing things as a result.

It's a shame, because otherwise this is a decent mission and I would have loved to complete it. 

Look for a walkthrough in the Internet. It's pretty easy once you know where to look.

Use the new r_ambientMinLevel cvar to work around mapper's light settings.

When you're in a mood for a piece of cake, use notarget.

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On ‎1‎/‎4‎/‎2017 at 1:55 AM, Anderson said:

Where is the key for the lockbox (made of glass) that contains another key?

It's a little too convoluted. I destroyed everything out of frustration.

But great atmosphere.

Thanks.  I do hate using walkthroughs, though.   I'll have missed something stupidly obvious, no doubt.

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10 hours ago, Hagatha said:

Thanks.  I do hate using walkthroughs, though.   I'll have missed something stupidly obvious, no doubt.

Can't recall anything particularly obvious in that one. The mission idea seemed to 'challenge' the player. ?

The author insisted on having everything in his own way, which sadly got him banned on the forum.

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