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Fan Mission #80: A Noble Home (The Accountant Prologue) by Goldwell & Bikerdude (2014/03/14)


Goldwell

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This mission had everything it takes to make an excellent mission!

 

 

 

Good stuff:

Well placed patrols.

 

I loved how the AI noticed the doors and the environment. The mission flowed so well for me that the AI actually felt like real people. I had to be really careful and I listened at doors before moving. I learned from you here that indeed, the mapper MUST make the AI to react to the environment realistically. If they are alone in the patrol, they really should notice doors opening and such.

 

Player tools.

 

A nice story. The readables and the setting got me really engaged. I stood for a while at the bed where the residents slept thinking that I'm gonna rob these people.

 

A conversation (the intro.) That was very nice. You could have probably saved a lot of work by simply moving that into the briefing, but yeah, it was nice to PLAY the briefing. I dunno if it would work if all the missions routinely did that, though.

 

The looks. Arcturus' window animated rain. I just stared there watching and listening the rain. The skybox was well-chosen. Also the ambient music was brilliant. Recently, I've found out that the ambients are maybe too loud and start to irritate quickly when the same song goes on and on. Here, the ambient was very unobtrusive and still multiplied the rainy/sleepy/serene atmosphere. Actually, everything was well thought and added up to the atmosphere

 

A clever twist (The safe. I knew immediately there is a secret, when I first entered the room and saw the painting. I just knew. It is bizarre. Maybe it is a thiefs/mappers intuition or something.)

 

The duration was perfect. I took it really smoothly. I've noticed I prefer small missions of excactly this type. The duration was perfect and you got me engaged all the time. For long missions I usually start burning out and it becomes sort of a chore. So please, mappers and new mappers. Make small solid missions like this one!

 

It took me close to one hour, and stealth score of 12. Nobody saw me too badly, and AI pulled no swords out, but I spammed multiple small alerts, especially with the doors. The narrow escapes I had made a nice tense experience.

 

Bad stuff:

Performance outside was a bit sluggish. The rain could have been optimized a bit more. Luckily you kept the focus in the mansion and the exterior was just a side note. The mission would have been, IMHO, perfect in all categories, if the sewer entrance went directly into the house and the exterior area would have been left out completely and replaced with few more rooms with few more guards.

 

Congratulations for producing a gem for the community to enjoy! Thank you!

 

I have very high expectations of the next part of the series.

 

 

  • Like 3

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Had some fun monkeying around with this mission and I quite enjoyed it, even though I found it fairly easy off the bat. I also managed to randomly get a door knocker to appear in mid-air in the sitting room area, I actually got a picture this time below.

 

 

heh_zps41d284ec.png

 

Edited by MasterHelpo
  • Like 1

Nonsense, tomfoolery and abject stupidity, all of which can be found on my channel. (TDM stuff included)

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Had some fun monkeying around with this mission and I quite enjoyed it, even though I found it fairly easy off the bat. I also managed to randomly get a door knocker to appear in mid-air in the sitting room area, I actually got a picture this time below.

 

 

heh_zps41d284ec.png

 

 

Ha no idea why that happened.. but damn that looks sort of creepy!

 

Glad you had fun though ;)

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finished this up last night and after reading here on how to get in my confusion ended and went on to enjoy this mission. Congrats on the release. I liked the

intro with the fella escorting through the sewers. Wasn't sure at first as I usually get left behind when asked to follow and keep up (my sneakiness and explorer genes kick in LOL) but had no difficulty - thanks for that. As I mentioned I got a bit confused on where to go exactly as I swear that side guard could see me if I went into the light by the gate but no problems there. Had no difficulty with lockpicking the door and got inside easy enough. I loved the rain on the windows - very realistic. And your freezer made me feel just a little bit colder.

There wasn't really anything I disliked except this happened

The inventory and loot count overlap one another (see screenshot) . post-3777-0-01246200-1401660823_thumb.jpgThis is the second mission I've played recently where this happened and no one else has reported it happening so am starting to wonder if its something to do with my computer (not very savy I'm afraid). Definitely not a deal breaker. Not sure when it happened.

Anyway, thanks Goldwell for all your hard work, look forward to the continuation. Thanks Bikerdude for your contributions as well.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Just finished playing this. A very nice little mission, with a strong Thief 1 vibe. I had to reload once due to a screwup, but finished with a stealth score of 1 on Medium.

 

 

 

Pros:

 

Loved the opening conversation while being lead through the tunnels. The "Master Thief" bit started to break my immersion a bit, but I loved the "ball clipping" line, so the amusement balanced it out. :)

 

The streets had the right number of guards to be a challenge.

 

The inside of the house was suitably rich looking. Loved the freezer--that was a creative use of textures and reminded me very much of T2.

 

Key hunts weren't too difficult.

 

Cool safe!

 

Windows were great.

 

I enjoyed the voice-overs.

 

 

Cons:

 

I had a glitch the first time where frobbing the sewer door did not fully open it (I might have been high enough on the ladder to be touching/blocking it?) and I could no longer frob the switch afterwards, forcing me to reload.

 

The AI inside the house were pretty easy...only two guards awake and both with regular patrols. That said, I did get caught once and had to reload (the guard saw me lean around the corner on the top of the stairs, and two other guards came running in from outside when he raised the alarm).

 

Lack of loot. I almost missed the secret button in the office, and I would have been pretty frustrated searching the whole house for another piece of loot to meet my goal.

 

All the fireplaces had glowing logs and smoke, but didn't have any flames?

 

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get into the power room in front of the mansion, as it was so interesting that I assumed it must be an alternate way in. If it was I couldn't figure it out.

 

I think there was a lack of visportals in the main area of the house, because when the guard was upstairs I could hear him as if he were next to me.

 

 

 

 

Overall a good experience. A nice introductory mission for newer players, and impressive for a first mission.

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Just out of curiosity, why didn't you use that great trailer vid in the OP for the mission briefing instead of the plain text??

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Just finished playing this. A very nice little mission, with a strong Thief 1 vibe. I had to reload once due to a screwup, but finished with a stealth score of 1 on Medium.

 

 

 

Pros:

 

Loved the opening conversation while being lead through the tunnels. The "Master Thief" bit started to break my immersion a bit, but I loved the "ball clipping" line, so the amusement balanced it out. :)

 

The streets had the right number of guards to be a challenge.

 

The inside of the house was suitably rich looking. Loved the freezer--that was a creative use of textures and reminded me very much of T2.

 

Key hunts weren't too difficult.

 

Cool safe!

 

Windows were great.

 

I enjoyed the voice-overs.

 

 

Cons:

 

I had a glitch the first time where frobbing the sewer door did not fully open it (I might have been high enough on the ladder to be touching/blocking it?) and I could no longer frob the switch afterwards, forcing me to reload.

 

The AI inside the house were pretty easy...only two guards awake and both with regular patrols. That said, I did get caught once and had to reload (the guard saw me lean around the corner on the top of the stairs, and two other guards came running in from outside when he raised the alarm).

 

Lack of loot. I almost missed the secret button in the office, and I would have been pretty frustrated searching the whole house for another piece of loot to meet my goal.

 

All the fireplaces had glowing logs and smoke, but didn't have any flames?

 

I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get into the power room in front of the mansion, as it was so interesting that I assumed it must be an alternate way in. If it was I couldn't figure it out.

 

I think there was a lack of visportals in the main area of the house, because when the guard was upstairs I could hear him as if he were next to me.

 

 

 

 

Overall a good experience. A nice introductory mission for newer players, and impressive for a first mission.

 

I'm glad you enjoyed yourself, and as for the cons most of those issues will be hopefully addressed in part two New In Town. I plan to have more guards/characters, less key hunting, more secret areas, more readables, more loot and more areas to explore so it hopefully feels less linear.

 

Just out of curiosity, why didn't you use that great trailer vid in the OP for the mission briefing instead of the plain text??

 

TDM doesn't support MP4's sadly however next time I will probably use the built in briefing thing which a few missions have rather than just plain text

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Is there a file type that's more compatible than mp4? I'm not familiar with video intros for TDM, but converting the file types of a video to (nearly) anything is pretty easy.

 

http://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/

 

Completely free download, and fairly reliable. If it doesn't help, no harm done, but I thought I'd mention it.

Edited by Digi

"Fancy burricks are afraid of dogs, if they encounter each other the dog barks and the burricks poop." - Thief: Deadly Shadows Game Designer

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Is there a file type that's more compatible than mp4? I'm not familiar with video intros for TDM, but converting the file types of a video to (nearly) anything is pretty easy.

 

http://www.freemake....ideo_converter/

 

Completely free download, and fairly reliable. If it doesn't help, no harm done, but I thought I'd mention it.

 

The only thing TDM can use for an intro video is .roq files and.. well have fun trying to convert those :P they're a pain in the ass and they produce over sized low quality video. In the end it's usually just not worth it and better to just create a more detailed briefing or just plain text.

Edited by Goldwell
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  • 3 weeks later...

Just played this one. Solid gameplay, good aesthethics and custom voice-acting. Very well done for a first approach. The only thing that buggers me a bit is that I can see rain on the outside, but can't hear it.

 

The rain particles on the windows are awesome, are they custom? If so, who made them? Definetely going to use those sooner or later.

 

Awaiting your next one :)

  • Like 1

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Just played this one. Solid gameplay, good aesthethics and custom voice-acting. Very well done for a first approach. The only thing that buggers me a bit is that I can see rain on the outside, but can't hear it.

 

The rain particles on the windows are awesome, are they custom? If so, who made them? Definetely going to use those sooner or later.

 

Awaiting your next one :)

 

Hey glad you enjoyed it :)

 

The rain particles are all Arcturus's work, I cant remember where I found them on the forum but regardless they are very nice. As for the sounds that is a bit strange you didn't hear it because I made sure all windows and even the door/sewer gate had rain sounds as you enter/stand near. Maybe check your audio levels because I can hear it when I stand near them.

 

And work on part 2 (and 3) is underway, part 2 will be much bigger and more open ended but still with a narration over the top ;)

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  • 1 month later...

So, I'm in a process of playing now, but I made a little pause to say here that I really loved the raindrops slipping down the window effect - it's sooo captivating! *_*

 

P.S. Just saw that some folks here also noted the raindrops effect. Btw, I heared rainsounds as well. It all makes the "atmospheric" part of the mission much more awesome!

 

P.P.S. Also I noted cool sound effect of gas lamps when you light 'em up via switch. Such details are really delivering.

Edited by Lex
  • Like 1

How we speak depends on how we keep silent.

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So, I'm in a process of playing now, but I made a little pause to say here that I really loved the raindrops slipping down the window effect - it's sooo captivating! *_*

 

P.S. Just saw that some folks here also noted the raindrops effect. Btw, I heared rainsounds as well. It all makes the "atmospheric" part of the mission much more awesome!

 

P.P.S. Also I noted cool sound effect of gas lamps when you light 'em up via switch. Such details are really delivering.

 

Glad you're enjoying the mission! Bikerdude and myself put a lot of effort into making it a nice and atmospheric mission, it's always the little details in things that add upto a nice experience overall :)

 

As for the raindrops thats the work of the brilliant Arcturus. Hopefully we see those droplets and rain in more missions because the atmosphere it adds is usually fantastic.

Edited by Goldwell
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Thank You Goldwell & Bikerdude for tha nice mission .

Finished at medium. All loot taken[yay!],optional objective completed and only one knockout.

 

Thanks once again! When can we expect next part?

Bielow

Edited by Bielow
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Thank You Goldwell & Bikerdude for tha nice mission .

Finished at medium. All loot taken[yay!],optional objective completed and only one knockout.

 

Thanks once again! When can we expect next part?

Bielow

 

Glad you enjoyed it! :)

 

As for The Accountant 2, I am working on it and a lot of work has been done already but it's still a little while off yet.

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  • 2 months later...

I'm figured I might as well play this mission since I'm going to betatest your next one, but my display driver keeps crashing after I've gotten to the streets. I would think there's a large performance hit, but if it doesn't crash it runs fine. I've had a couple crashes in the past, but nothing as consistent as this. Help?

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

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I'm figured I might as well play this mission since I'm going to betatest your next one, but my display driver keeps crashing after I've gotten to the streets. I would think there's a large performance hit, but if it doesn't crash it runs fine. I've had a couple crashes in the past, but nothing as consistent as this. Help?

 

This is the first i've heard of a crash in my FM. Does the game crash on other fm's?

 

The only thing I can think is to perhaps try re-installing TDM, if it still doesn't work post over in the technical help subforum and i'm sure someone more qualified could help you out.

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This is the first i've heard of a crash in my FM. Does the game crash on other fm's?

 

The only thing I can think is to perhaps try re-installing TDM, if it still doesn't work post over in the technical help subforum and i'm sure someone more qualified could help you out.

I managed to fix it by reducing the settings. Played for ~30 minutes yesterday, but haven't finished the mission yet. Still need to complete the main objective (I have some readables I would like to recheck) and get some more loot. We'll see how it goes.

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

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Alright, I finished the mission. Turns out only finding the safe prevented me from completing all objectives. It's a fun little heist, did it without any water arrows or anything of the sort.

I noclipped around after playing the mission; you really did a good job on the layout with the sewers and the house and stuff. Great work!

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

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  • 3 weeks later...

Why is this happening to me? I don't see anyone else with this issue. After i come up from the sewers and enter the street level in the rain, the center street area here goes into complete slo-mo. All the guards in this area and my character start moving in slow-mo. It returns to normal in the corners of this area but that center street is complete slo-mo. It's unplayable. I've got a GTX 980 and plenty of RAM so that couldn't be it. It's not like a fps kind of thing, it just feels like everything goes into slow-mo just in that area.

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Why is this happening to me? I don't see anyone else with this issue. After i come up from the sewers and enter the street level in the rain, the center street area here goes into complete slo-mo. All the guards in this area and my character start moving in slow-mo. It returns to normal in the corners of this area but that center street is complete slo-mo. It's unplayable. I've got a GTX 980 and plenty of RAM so that couldn't be it. It's not like a fps kind of thing, it just feels like everything goes into slow-mo just in that area.

 

I'm not really sure to be honest as there is definitely a hit in the FPS due to the rain but it shouldn't be that bad especially given your card.

 

Sorry I can't help further

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@cavador_8

 

Just from looking around trying to solve my brother-in-laws issues with BF4 at the moment, the 970/980 drivers are not in a great state as of yet. There are numerous issues and with TDM being on an older engine I suspect that may have something to do with your issue. I know its a pain in the ass but have you tried previous Nvidia drivers? There are 6 available from a 3 mo. span so that tells you something about the issues they're having. Usually there's a single driver release ~2-3mo. From what I've read, the .16 and .48s are giving the least amount of issues. If you have geforce experience installed its likely updating your drivers for you (YUK!).

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I am using the 344.65 drivers. I've got 8GB RAM and an INTEL I7-4770K 3.5 GHZ processor.

 

I played through several FMs this weekend and I only encountered this slow spot thing in a few missions, one being this one. Which drivers should I try? Do you think the 344.48 drivers would fix this issue?

Edited by cavador_8
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