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Fan Mission: Inn Business by RJFerret (2014/03/03)


RJFerret

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*nods

 

I thought why should loot outside the inn be relevant to the inn's reputation.

 

While literally true, it would be more one dimensional game-play and not fit the overall theme of being a thief, if we skipped other opportunities that come our way, would it not? ;-) Rest assured I wasn't considering your issues flippantly, but offering condolences point by point would appear argumentative, defensive, or sarcastic, instead of sincerely compassionate.

"The measure of a man's character is what he would do if he knew he never would be found out."

- Baron Thomas Babington Macauley

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm sad to say that this was the first FM I did not finish all the way through. It started on the first night where I had to use tdm_show_loot in order to get the loot objective complete. I didn't miss anything major, but there was just too little loot for me to get it all, especially with the nonstandard loot items. One thing in particular that bothered me here was

 

 

the treasure box below the mirror in the innkeeper's room. The placement of the table relative to the drawer made it so I had to stand to the side, open the drawer, and then do all sorts of acrobatics to pick something up. I didn't know the treasure box was openable until I used tdm_show_loot, and getting the loot from it was an massive pain in the ass. And it wasn't for not looking, because the skeleton key was right next to it, and I did get that.

 

 

On the second night, again with the loot, as well as several crashes (though that might've been related to my display drivers). Just too little to be fun, and I hate scrutinizing every single detail just so I can complete the objective.

 

The third night I quit after one of the vulnerabilities didn't work properly (it's the one with the technical issues after reading the thread).

 

I'm really sorry for being so negative as I really really liked the concept and atmosphere of the mission, but the actual gameplay was not fun at all.

You can call me Phi, Numbers, Digits, Ratio, 16, 1618, or whatever really, as long as it's not Phil.

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  • 2 months later...

Played it, and it was nice! I like the idea of each difficulty level representing a night, on the same map but with different objectives and something changing each time. This made the mission feel more progressive and complete than many, and it's an idea I'd like to see adopted more often personally.

 

 

Is a part 2 to be expected? The mission does end with the mage dude writing a letter in which he confirms magically tagging you and that he will try to deal with you, so the hired thief should have quite an adventure sometime in the future :)

 

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  • 2 months later...

I really loved the concept of different phases inside the same mission. I ghosted my first playthrough of this mission and wondered, how things would react if I just murdered all the civilians. After all, what gives an inn a worse reputation, than all of its customers being murdered every night? After running from room to room, slicing from throat to throat, knocking out the owner and locking him inside a room full of corpses, I returned to the tree next to the dead prostitute, eager to find out which consequences my visit had for the coming day. Unfortunately the next night looked the exact same as in my non-lethal playthrough, and I was disappointed. After all this carefully executed mental murder I atleast expected a letter saying there has been a bloody madman inside the inn, massacring all visitors and not even paying for his stay! But my actions were ignored and apparently the twin siblings of the mage, the couple in room 4, and the gamblers thought it would be a good idea to reside in the exact same place. After proving them otherwise I could already imagine what the third night would look like. One last time I murdered all residents, including the owner and went with a tiny bit of disappointment. I felt ignored and bullied by the inn community, not being taken seriously and just going on with their routines as if nothing happened. Mental murderers should be respected and taken seriously too, after all they are also people.

 

No but seriously now, I think the idea of carrying over progress is amazing, but I felt that it came a bit short here, considering the huge potential. If you refined the concept, allowing more dynamic and drastic changes to the world, it could be the base for bigger well thought out thieving campaigns. Keep up the good work and make it even better.

Edited by mezzokoko
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I really loved the concept of different phases inside the same mission. I ghosted my first playthrough of this mission and wondered, how things would react if I just murdered all the civilians. After all, what gives an inn a worse reputation, than all of its customers being murdered every night? After running from room to room, slicing from throat to throat, knocking out the owner and locking him inside a room full of corpses, I returned to the tree next to the dead prostitute, eager to find out which consequences my visit had for the coming day. Unfortunately the next night looked the exact same as in my non-lethal playthrough, and I was disappointed. After all this carefully executed mental murder I atleast expected a letter saying there has been a bloody madman inside the inn, massacring all visitors and not even paying for his stay! But my actions were ignored and apparently the twin siblings of the mage, the couple in room 4, and the gamblers thought it would be a good idea to reside in the exact same place. After proving them otherwise I could already imagine what the third night would look like. One last time I murdered all residents, including the owner and went with a tiny bit of disappointment. I felt ignored and bullied by the inn community, not being taken seriously and just going on with their routines as if nothing happened. Mental murderers should be respected and taken seriously too, after all they are also people.

 

No but seriously now, I think the idea of carrying over progress is an amazing, but I felt that it came a bit short here, considering the huge potential. If you refined the concept, allowing more dynamic and drastic changes to the world, it could be the base for bigger well thought out thieving campaigns. Keep up the good work and make it even better.

Something like that was in Thief Deadly Shadows. That very much impressed me when the world reacted to someone's house being robbed on the next day (by you) or doing a mission succesfuly would change the situation in a certain house. Really class stuff!

"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.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Really nice mission. It proved to me, that it is possible to have larger open areas with adequate performance too.

 

Commentary, critics and praise messed up in no particular order (as it comes to my mind)

 

 

When the whore came up to me in the first mission, I thought that I would be left alone outside. All other NPCs though seemed to be out for my life as soon as they saw me.

 

The mage and all his little tricks and effects were really great, wonderful done.

 

The hidden objectives I couldn't find at all, after reading about them I worked out how to do most of them, but it took me quite a while WITH different tricks and looking into Dark Radiant to work it out.

 

Loot with different skins was a bit hard to get into, especially since it wasn't consistent. Made me think of bugs one time and the other (One vase was not lootable, but was in the second map. Why? It didn't even highlight the first time, so I thought its a bug. (Next to the hourglass, that I picked up when trying to get the vase. Made a noise too)). Perfume as Loot was very good though.

 

I didn't get the clues for the Skeleton key (I found it anyway, under lots of books, but then wondered how that clue leads here)

 

The drawers below the mirror in the innkeepers room wre not accessible from the front (couldn't go all out), that was a bit problematic with checking them for loot.

 

The thief was great. When I first stumbled into the room I made a small noise, and thought I had startled her, thats why she searched, but then I noticed after some tries that she gets up anyway. Wonderful route. (Seems she can read the mages note)

 

So many little details I really liked (For example the plate in the door of the builders room, the bathroom breaks, other little scenes, ...)

 

The innkeeper sometimes got stuck in a weird routine, going out of his room, cling the door, going in again, closing door opening door... repeating that three times, on one occasion more than that. (Also got stuck on his table once)

 

I didn't get to play the "rob perfume key" event right I think. Even when I managed to take it without her seeing me, most of the times she just commented and nothing happened. (I never noticed that key, thought it is some decoration, if I noticed it at all, was tipped off here)

 

Breaking the glasses of the generator under the stairs broke the mission with an error repeatable (something about a loop in script?)

 

I couldn't cut the horse loose with the sword without it counting as being seen for stealth (An Arrow finally did the job)

 

Repeating the mission a few times in different moods and with changes was really nice.

 

The dismantling of the cupboard to get in the parts at the back was a pain. I saw the niche on the first contact, but to get all out and break it down so I can get in without alerting everyone was not as easy as that should have been. After all they have to get the things in there too. Also it was hard to have it cleaned out in a way to get to the loot up there easily (Sometimes I couldn't stand up, and it was hard to frob from below, then I was to low standing up, etc.)

 

 

 

I really enjoyed that, small but interesting location. Not too much people, but enough for excitement.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi,

I read about the alarm in the note on the stairs and I read on another note that the glass spheres on the generator were fragile. So I tried to break those of the generator under the stairs, but this makes the game crash.

 

Are you using the latest TDM version, 2.03? We had a problem with breaking glass in 2.02 and before: If you tried to reload the game while broken glass is still falling or lying round, it could crash.

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Are you using the latest TDM version, 2.03? We had a problem with breaking glass in 2.02 and before: If you tried to reload the game while broken glass is still falling or lying round, it could crash.

I guess its the same problem I had, with the game breaking with just that generator under the stairs (others were destroyed fine). Version of my game is TM 2.03.

No loading necessary for the error.

 

(Maybe it pushes some glass into the stairs and thats the problem?)

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

I finally just got around to playing this mission and I kind of like it.

 

The inn itself is rather small, but it's really well done in that it feels like a functioning inn. I feel that the fact that it gets used for multiple "missions" emphasizes this.

 

I think I only have a couple signficant issues with this mission:

- For only having one difficulty setting I feel that the loot requirement is a bit too strict. If the intention is to encourage getting into certain places, perhaps splitting up the loot into a few "required" item objectives with a more forgiving overall loot value requirement would work more smoothly.

- I don't like the non-standard loot bottles the way they are now. I'm not really against deviating from standards like that, but if you do I feel it should be pointed out explicitly where it happens. Perhaps have said bottles be a separately listed objective like "Steal the wine/perfume in order to [insert justification here]" so that the player knows to look for these.

- I think the "third night" objectives should be more specific and more forgiving. They worked for me but I can see how they would cause pain for some people.

 

If it weren't for those issues, I would say this would be one of my favorite short maps for TDM.

Even if the objectives could use some reworking, I think the map itself is actually pretty awesome.

Edited by Professor Paul1290
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  • 2 months later...

Just wanted to note that I've found this mission alright. I get an error if I try to break the globes on the generator under the stairs. It kicks me out of the game and says possible overflow of scripts or something. This happened both night 2 and night 3. I haven't found where to drop any of the notes in night 3. I may try and do this, but I find it tedious as a trial and error.

 

I decided to give it a go. Having serious problems, most likely bugs, so I'm giving up.

 

 

 

It seems I can mark 2 of the 3. The objective complete comes up when holding out the scroll before I drop them. The 2nd marker checks objective complete when I put it on the ground in front of the left side of the balcony. The 3rd marker checks when I put it around the cart in the middle of the balcony. When holding out the 1st marker, the objective complete comes up around the door below the right of the balcony. When I drop it here, it doesn't check off the 1st objective. When I pick up the other 2 markers, the objectives uncheck and I can't get them to recheck, even if I drop them in the same spot. I think someone who beta tested this would have come across these problems. So like I said, I give up on this.

 

 

Edited by Philflound
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  • 5 months later...
  • 8 months later...
  • 3 years later...
On 9/1/2015 at 5:00 PM, Philflound said:

Just wanted to note that I've found this mission alright. I get an error if I try to break the globes on the generator under the stairs. It kicks me out of the game and says possible overflow of scripts or something. This happened both night 2 and night 3. I haven't found where to drop any of the notes in night 3. I may try and do this, but I find it tedious as a trial and error.

 

I decided to give it a go. Having serious problems, most likely bugs, so I'm giving up.

 

 

  Hide contents

 

It seems I can mark 2 of the 3. The objective complete comes up when holding out the scroll before I drop them. The 2nd marker checks objective complete when I put it on the ground in front of the left side of the balcony. The 3rd marker checks when I put it around the cart in the middle of the balcony. When holding out the 1st marker, the objective complete comes up around the door below the right of the balcony. When I drop it here, it doesn't check off the 1st objective. When I pick up the other 2 markers, the objectives uncheck and I can't get them to recheck, even if I drop them in the same spot. I think someone who beta tested this would have come across these problems. So like I said, I give up on this.

 

 

The third one is the slope roof you can climb from the other side (near the main door). You put the scroll on the roof patio table.

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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 year later...

Excellent mission(s). I ran into the infinite loop bug when

Spoiler

breaking the glass bulbs on a couple of the generators. I remember the one under the stairs specifically.

I may have gotten lucky with the doll, I literally just tossed it at the bottom of the pole and it completed.

I had an issue with the horse where it ran around but stopped again between the inn and the stable. I felt really bad when it died while I was trying to get it to run away again. At least the objective completed, so thanks for thinking of that. I do rather think that a smack with the blackjack should suffice. I had to come look at spoilers to figure out what I was doing wrong. 

Not exactly a bug, but I did have the issue with the innkeeper going in and out of his room repeatedly like a cat with thumbs.
I just learned about TDM a couple months ago (Best Christmas Gift Ever) and have been playing the missions oldest first with some exceptions for series. While most are pretty good and some are exceptional, you're the first to come up with a gimmick to get me to replay a mission.

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