Fan Mission: Vengeance for a Thief Part 2 by Sir Taffsalot (06/09/2013)

[Sir Taffsalot 458]

 

On wrongs swift vengeance waits

 

http://www.mediafire.com/download/i5uqi91b216tbic/VFAT2.pk4 V1.02

 

It has been a year since I was framed for a crime I didn't commit. After escaping the City Watch in Bridgeport I made my way to Glenham. I had a friend who owed me a favour. He gave me a room to stay in while I crafted my new identity and started my new life. This doesn't mean that I've forgotten the events in Bridgeport. I've just been waiting for the perfect opportunity for revenge.

 

Anthony Vadris has bought an expensive painting from the esteemed artist of Bridgeport, Andrey Borrowski. Hanging the painting in his manor where only a select few can see it is not Anthony's style. He wants everyone in Bridgeport to see how wealthy he is which is why he has lent it to the Bridgeport Museum.

 

The painting hangs in the foyer of the Bridgeport Museum and is guarded by a system that is supposed to be thief proof. It is guarded by two unbreakable glass windows. Only the museum owner knows where the controls for the windows are located.

 

I've also gotten a tip from my fence about five members of a brotherhood of mages, known as The Order of The Lion. Rumor has it that their experiments took them to a dark and evil place and that they have not been seen or heard of since

 

My fence told me that each member of The Order of The Lion had a golden lion in their possession. Since the mages disappeared the golden lions have been scattered throughout Bridgeport. Getting all five golden lions would certainly help line my pockets for the next few lines of rent.

 

It's been a year since I was in Bridgeport but I doubt that the City Watch will have forgotten about me so I'll need to stay out of their way. I've rented a small room in a tavern in Bridgeport. Once this is all done I will need to return to my room. I have a feeling I'll be needing some rest.

 

A huge thank you to the following people:

 

My beta-testers: Gnartsch, Obttorte, Lux and Jaxa.

 

Obsttorte for help with scripting, in game maps, improving performance and improving the visuals in the pagan area of the museum.

 

Bikerdude for technical support.

 

Grayman for help with AI issues.

 

Everyone who has helped me in the TDM Editors Guild.

 

The TDM team for all the fine work that they put in.

 

Baal, Grayman and AluminiumHaste for helping me fix the light issues.

Edited September 10, 2013 by Sir Taffsalot

[grayman 2889]

Congrats, Sir T!

[jaxa 223]

Good work, T. Make sure to take a well deserved break.

[nbohr1more 2023]

Mirror:

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17706561/vfat2.pk4

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/17706561/vfat2.pk4

[Sir Taffsalot 458]

This fm has been played in 2.0 by jaxa and myself and works fine. No 2.0 beta-testing is required.

[AluminumHaste 973]

I can't go any further, good mission so far but the use of non-shadow casting light in areas that they shouldn't be used is making the game unnecessarily difficult. For example:

 

 

And a lot of the spots you use these lights, there's no reason too as the performance isn't that bad. I'm finding light bleed through all over the place. I hide against a wall and get spotted by a guard, even though I should be in total darkness, but wasn't because the light on the other side of the wall was bleeding through etc.

[Obsttorte 1473]

There were some very bad performing places in the museum, that's why I've set a lot of lights to noshadow. The light's on the street I think I'd never touched, though. However, in your screenies you can very clearly see that there is light, and you have a lightgem.

 

The first shot however does not look "unneccessary difficult" to me, as there are plenty of shadows.

[Baal 120]

I agree about these lights. There's no reason they shouldn't cast shadows.

 

Maybe I'm to tired right now but I am having a hard time reading the maps. Where's north on them?

 

Edit: Oh and why don't you have the lantern? Is that intentional or just an oversight?

Edited September 6, 2013 by Baal

[Obsttorte 1473]

Top side.

[AluminumHaste 973]

I guess I can just open the map file and set everything to no_shadows 0

[AluminumHaste 973]

I'm thinking the lantern was omitted for performance reasons

[Obsttorte 1473]

No, there was no lantern in the first place (and I don't think you need one in this mission). The lights weren't the main reason for the performance problems, but setting some of them to noshadows helped improving the performance. As said, I can't remember setting the street lights to noshadows, but as you can clearly see that there is no shadow casted, ... well.

[SirGen 49]

So far I'm really enjoying the mission.

The Inn had a very cool layout and felt alive with people. The twists and turns of the city streets felt like a good old fashioned Thief level. I really enjoyed the architecture of the buildings; they were fun just to look at The museum looks really cool too, but as soon as I entered it, my performance started to drop. This is the first time that a TDM level has done this for me. Any ideas on how to improve frame rate performance?

[Loa4ever 45]

Other mission, looking to experience it congratz.

[Kvorning 140]

Looking forward to trying it out one of the coming days, congratulations!

[Sir Taffsalot 458]

I'll have a look at those lights and upload a fixed version. This will probably have to wait unti tomorrow.

 

With regards to the perfomance, I don't think anything can be done. Obsttorte kindly went through the map during beta-testing and added some more visportals which helped with the performance. This is probably as good as it gets tbh.

 

With regards to the lantern, I honestly can't think of a reason as to why you would need one for this FM. If you want I'll add one to the inventory when I sort the lights out.

[Ladro 42]

Finished!

 

I really like the Museum part, awesome. IMHO not so good the city part (in the beginning), it's too empty ad without life, also as noted by others, the lightning was not the best.

 

Anyway: great mission, I enjoyed a lot!

[raymeld 28]

Thanks! Yet another to play during those winter months.

[Bikerdude 3738]

Added to the official mirrors.

[Loa4ever 45]

Finish the mission today I like it, however as people have said here in some areas where is darkness the light gem is bright, be careful with that next time. But the rest good keep on good work , also good think with a certain... "surprise" in one of the houses .

[SirGen 49]

With regards to the perfomance, I don't think anything can be done. Obsttorte kindly went through the map during beta-testing and added some more visportals which helped with the performance. This is probably as good as it gets tbh.

 

The performance is not too terrible; it's definitely still playable and enjoyable

[Sir Taffsalot 458]

I just opened the map in DR and gave the spawnargs "noshadows" "0" to the street lights and the lights in The Builder area. Unfortunately this doesn't stop the light from bleeding through so I have no idea how to fix this. Sorry.

[Baal 120]

Did you dmap afterwards?

[Sir Taffsalot 458]

Of course.

[Baal 120]

You could try deleting the files dmap builds (.proc, .cm etc.) and running it again. Sometimes they don't get updated properly for some reason.

 

Or maybe you misspelled noshadows when setting it to 0?