Fan Mission: In the North (by grayman) (2012/10/20)

[Diego]

Thanks for the tips, Finished it I have nothing to add that hasn't been said already, it's definitely one of the best missions.

 

A quick commentary (not a criticism)

 

 

The "to do list" has a tip about the secret entrance, (which I completely oversaw and had to ask for directions here) and it mentions the weight of the candles. Then a bunch of ideas about weight puzzles and candle sizes rushed through my mind! I even grabbed a few candle and brought to the chapel. So I was slightly disappointed to find a lever lol

 

[i30817]

Yeah, then we can probably rule out the drivers, since i have a radeon.

[Xarg]

Had to restart due to a bug, but finished it this time.... fantastic work.

[raymeld]

Can't wait to play this one after reading the comments , plus Obsttorte's new release which also sounds excellent.Unfortunately my main computer will be in store until after Christmas due to a three hundred mile house move and the laptops are a bit underweight . Grrrrrr. Hopefully a nice collection of new releases will build up in the meantime though after the 1.08 update , so something else to do in the winter months ahead.

[Oldjim]

Finished on medium setting although achieved every optional objective and got enough loot for the hardest setting

The graphics were excellent and the use of readables made it very logical although I had to read some of them several times to remember what I needed to do.

I can see me playing this several times specially as I probably didn't explore everywhere judging by the 28 pieces of loot I was missing at the end

[Ladro]

Thanks for the tips, Finished it I have nothing to add that hasn't been said already, it's definitely one of the best missions.

 

A quick commentary (not a criticism)

 

 

The "to do list" has a tip about the secret entrance, (which I completely oversaw and had to ask for directions here) and it mentions the weight of the candles. Then a bunch of ideas about weight puzzles and candle sizes rushed through my mind! I even grabbed a few candle and brought to the chapel. So I was slightly disappointed to find a lever lol

 

 

Me too!

[id3839315]

unzip the two files into that folder. WS1: In the North will then appear on TDM's "New Mission" page.

Do you need ws1_north.pk4 and ws1_north_l10n.pk4 to play the mission because ws1_north_l10n.pk4 only has 14 KB ?

[grayman]

for english, you only need the larger pk4. the small file is redundant.

[Midnight]

I finished this after a 4 hour (hey, I like the creep button) play through on expert, just missing out on 3 gold pieces. Excellent attention to detail such as the snow covered exterior, dirt decals and good design decisions (lock picking was the perfect difficulty for a mission of this size). I struggled for a little while to make progress because I mistook the church for the chapel, but after realising my mistake it was plain sailing to the beautiful ending. My only(!) criticism would have to do with the number of scrolls and other things cluttering up the inventory as others have said, but I can't really fault you for this.

 

I did have a couple questions. Does the shift change have any gameplay implications beyond simply having AI move about, I.e. can you use this to your advantage somewhere? Also, there's a gateway at the bottom of the stairs in the church, is this accessible at all?

 

All in all I thoroughly enjoyed it and look forward to attempting to ghost it next time, congrats grayman on a masterpiece!

Edited October 24, 2012 by Midnight

[Xarg]

We need to come up with a steampunk ring binder to store these notes in that functions like a book..

[Thiefette]

Just wondering if the difficulty level determines what optional sidequests are available or are they there no matter what difficulty you play at?

[grayman]

the shift change simply mixes things up. Some parts of the house might become easier to deal with while other parts might become more difficult.

 

the barred back door in the church goes nowhere. i used the "no handle = unusable door" design throughout.

[grayman]

the difficulty level doesn't affect the optional objectives.

[Ryan101]

An extremely solid FM. I've got one helluva cold so I can't think of any more specific comments, but maybe I'll add them later. You should feel proud of this, and I hope to see more in this campaign soon!

[nbohr1more]

Sorry to post more technical issues here but I consider it a service to others.

 

After a full reinstall of Doom 3 and TDM, the malloc errors persist.

 

I fear that 2GB of RAM on a 32bit OS may be too low to run this mission.

 

Is anyone with 2GB or less RAM able to start "In the North"?

 

Edit:

 

I was able to start by downsizing textures and bumps to 256. Will try raising the downsize limits

till I find the tuned value. Normal map compression is greatly needed...

 

 

Are there any custom diffuse textures that aren't compressed in this mission?

Edited October 25, 2012 by nbohr1more

[Oldjim]

Have you tried disabling some other services to reduce the RAM usage

I don't remember if you said which operating system you are using nor whether the graphics also use system memory. If the graphics use system memory this could be a major factor

[Fenn]

I was able to play this mission on lowest settings on my specs, with slowdowns only in a couple of places.

 

Win XP SP3 (32 bit)

Pentium E5200 (2.5 GHz)

2 GB RAM

GeForce 9500GT

 

The mission is fantastic, it reminded me of the good old days playing T2 missions.

[simplen00b]

Finally finished - had another malloc crash en route, but fortunately I had started to do more frequent hard saves so didn't lose too much of the game. Great mission - special likes:

 

Loved the winter ambience, even with my fps slowing to a crawl whenever I was outside. BTW - breath clouding when AI were outside - has that ever been done in a winter FM before?

Fantastic layout: everywhere led to everywhere else - the few doors I couldn't open were clearly indicated.

Great readables - really built a sense of the characters and their life in the household (cathedral-hold?). As others have mentioned, you're very good at doing readables that make you feel like a heel for having just hoovered up the loot next to it. (Cheers )

No key-hunting!

Textures looked great.

Loved the final movie - didn't actually fully understand it when it played, but it struck me a little while later - apart from everything else, Trumble really wouldn't have liked that creepy "watching Mary while she sleeps" stuff

And even the final section in the catacombs wasn't too freaky - managed to get past the revenants without reloading (which is more than I can say for Lady Isabella's guards . The thing about them being mute is a really nice touch.)

 

 

 

Definitely one of the most immersive FMs ever. Thanks Grayman.

[melrief]

I think this is the best mission for TDM, thank you Grayman for this wonderful masterpiece.

[raymeld]

Sorry to post more technical issues here but I consider it a service to others.

 

After a full reinstall of Doom 3 and TDM, the malloc errors persist.

 

I fear that 2GB of RAM on a 32bit OS may be too low to run this mission.

 

Is anyone with 2GB or less RAM able to start "In the North"?

 

Edit:

 

I was able to start by downsizing textures and bumps to 256. Will try raising the downsize limits

till I find the tuned value. Normal map compression is greatly needed...

 

 

Are there any custom diffuse textures that aren't compressed in this mission?

 

I was able to have a brief go at the mission for an hour or so before the main computer was stored for my house move. And yes , with 2gb of RAM I was able to play it very smoothly. Can't wait to get back to it when we settle into our new abode.

[Thiefette]

Question:

 

 

There is a piece of loot behind a sarcophagus that I can not reach, near the belltower entrance. Is there a secret to get this or should I noclip it? Have tried stretching my body but this only works in real life.

 

[grayman]

 

There is a piece of loot behind a sarcophagus that I can not reach, near the belltower entrance. Is there a secret to get this or should I noclip it? Have tried stretching my body but this only works in real life.

 

 

 

All loot should be reachable.

 

Is this [bad] loot near a particular sarcophagus? There should be a nameplate near each sarcophagus in the catacombs.

 

 

[grayman]

 

Loved the winter ambience, even with my fps slowing to a crawl whenever I was outside. BTW - breath clouding when AI were outside - has that ever been done in a winter FM before?

 

 

 

 

 

The breath puffs are scripted and unique to this mission.

 

 

[grayman]

Are there any custom diffuse textures that aren't compressed in this mission?

 

A few. Most custom textures are compressed.

[Thiefette]

 

 

All loot should be reachable.

 

Is this [bad] loot near a particular sarcophagus? There should be a nameplate near each sarcophagus in the catacombs.

 

 

 

 

It's behind "Sadon". I can see part of it and it appears to have some gold coloring. The part I can see looks like the bottom of a candlestick. I just tried again and couldn't reach it but I've looked everywhere else and it looks like the only possiblity. If it's not then I guess that would explain why it's not highlighting and I'll have to keep searching... somewhere...