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Fan Mission: Ulysses: Genesis by Sotha (2014/07/24)


Sotha

Rate Ulysses: Genesis  

50 members have voted

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

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

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

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Finished this today and quite enjoyed it.

 

 

 

I really enjoyed the oddness of the cellar area, and the creepiness of the automatons. Very cool traps! I hope we see more of that in TDM.

 

The central foyer area was quite difficult to manage...I finally hit the lights when I got a spare moment, shot a rope arrow into the balcony and dashed up it before anyone got a chance to see the rope. Unfortunately, the Lord came out onto the balcony a few moments later before I had a chance to hide. I killed him there, but alerted the entire household. I decided to keep playing, and I was able to hide on the bed (a safe-zone that almost felt like cheating) and then proceed. Killing the final guard wound up being far more difficult than I thought, even though I wasn't being careful about it any longer....I actually managed to do it the first time I tried, but then couldn't figure out how to get out and got killed in the yard. That was followed by several failed attempts where either the mine got the wrong person, or I missed with the fire arrow (once I hit him but he didn't die from it). Finally I managed to do it at the top of the stairs, but that brought the automatons up searching the library! I was hiding on the table in front of the doused fire, surrounded by a maid, an automaton, and a guard. Talk about tension. The guard bumped me with his sword and it was then a mad dash for the gate (which I'd found out by then).

 

edit: I just read that there was a blackjack...damn, I wish I'd found it, as I was really itching for a way to deal with those nosy servants.

 

 

 

 

 

My only crit would be that some lights had a radius that was so small it felt a bit silly in spots...there were a few cases where I was crouching less than a sofa-length away from a light but was still fully hidden in the dark.

 

Thanks for the mission! Great fun and some nice innovation.

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Thanks for playing and nice that you liked it.

 

 

If killing some of the targets or eliminating servants was difficult, there also was a boxful of mines and gas mines in the inventors study.

 

 

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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Fantastic mission, Sotha. My first one after the Tears of Saint Lucia. Played it on Ulysses setting and enjoyed it thoroughly.

 

 

 

I particularly like the starting place - very creepy and atmospheric. Automatons were a great touch. I have to admit to being mildly disappointed that it turned out to be a basement of a mansion. I do understand that it is a thief-a-like game so I shouldn't have been so shocked; the disappointment was very mild and your level design and gameplay more than made up for it.

 

 

 

Great stuff!

 

~ Q

Edited by Quillz
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Yeah, I found a readable that said there were

gas mines, but I only ever found one regular mine.

 

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  • 5 months later...

I've made a video of the level on hardest difficulty with all loot, optional objectives and a stealth score of 0.

Is posting that sort of thing allowed here?

I like to record difficult stealth games, and right now you wonderful people are the only ones delivering on that front.

Click here for the crappy channel where that happens.

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I've made a video of the level on hardest difficulty with all loot, optional objectives and a stealth score of 0.

Is posting that sort of thing allowed here?

Sure. Maybe put it behind spoiler tags just to be sure not to spoil anyones fun.

Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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It made me feel strange to notice NOBODY had done a video on the level, so I'm hoping you folks will enjoy it.

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I like to record difficult stealth games, and right now you wonderful people are the only ones delivering on that front.

Click here for the crappy channel where that happens.

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Nice video!

 

When I made the map, I never even considered the possibility that it could be completed without using tools (dousing candles, using light switches or water arrows.) I stand corrected.

 

Thanks for sharing!

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Clipper

-The mapper's best friend.

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I replayed the mission yesterday:

 

Unlike V-Man339, I turned my stealth run into indiscriminate slaughter and blackjacking. For an escape mission, this one is nicely stocked with dangerous equipment, allowing for multiple ways to assassinate your targets. I ended up ambushing and hacking the inventor to death when he cornered me in a well-lit spot, dropped mines from the library rafters into guards' path, and slew the lord in his own bedroom. Then I threw his unconscious wife into the same bed as the bloody corpse. Still did not figure out the safe combination, but, well, once the survivors explore the basement, I have a hunch they won't be so eager to continue with the experiments. B)

 

Builder be praised!

  • Like 1

Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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  • 4 weeks later...

Loved this mission! Very different to the normal sneaking fare. Still tried to keep to ghost rules as much as I could, and ended up with a score of 7.

Just had a hard time with

killing Beaumont, since at first I totally missed that there was a crate of mines in the lab *facepalm*

Tried to snipe an arrow through his visor from the shadows a couple of times but soon realized you can't do that. I ended up using notarget and giving him a death by a thousand papercuts with my sword out of frustration lol. It wasn't until I went back in the lab to kill the automatons and realized they were totally untouchable that I went back to searching for the mines

...but that was totally a fault of mine.

The mission was outright gorgeous. The layout was maybe a tad claustrophobic, but that definitely fit the over all tone. Not a mission for beginners, but a great challenge for us experienced taffers :smugbert: The only thing I can add as constructive criticism of sorts is by echoing what others have said, more readables! What little we get to absorb of the story is fascinating just wish there was more! I haven't played the sequel yet, waiting with that until tomorrow but hoping there will be more light on the subject there.

Thanks again for your amazing missions. :wub:

My Fan Missions:

   Series:                                                                           Standalone:

Chronicles of Skulduggery 0: To Catch a Thief                     The Night of Reluctant Benefaction

Chronicles of Skulduggery 1: Pearls and Swine                    Langhorne Lodge

Chronicles of Skulduggery 2: A Precarious Position              

Chronicles of Skulduggery 3: Sacricide

 

 

 

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I just replayed the mission on hardest and feel a strong urge to vote against the

 

dumbing down of traps. I had forgotten that trap's existance, was not exploring as carefull as i should, and triggered it. But:

 

It was labeled! Okay i too did not read that note because i was in a hurry and way too careless. But i should have read it and the FM designer should expect me to do that.

The switch for disabling the trap is really not that hard to find when exploring carefully.

I was not harmed by the trap because of opening the desk from the side while crouching. I never operate anything while standing in front of it if avoidable.

I would expect the mission to fail if getting hit by it. Its a small cannon after all. That beast should decorate the whole room with your insides if it hits. It should be deadly.

 

The trap in question is an excellent example of a trap to expect from an inventor. It is effective against a normal person opening the desk while standing infront of it like a nosy servant or one of the guards probably would do it. It is easily disarmable and does not hurt a carefull explorer even if not disarmed. It also works to get the expectations right for opening the safe later on (the code could have been harder - i expected to have to find out the first name of the guard captain)...

 

I would love to see more of this sort of traps: Traps that fit the surrounding and owner's character. Traps that are deadly but detectable and avoidable - maybe even useable to the sneaks advantage.

 

Please don't omit them. Please don't dumb them down. Please give me more!

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

hi, is the

bj in the basement

? how about the

lockpicks

? I'm unable to open the door at the top of the stairs to get to 1st floor, DONE. Found the bj and lockpicks/

 

Now I can't find Capt Beaumont. I know he's the one in full armour and I saw him once but I haven't seen him since. I've killled every one and all my objectives are met except for him and I can't find him

Edited by llanita

fosig_zpshhfnjs18.png

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  • 6 months later...

Just played it. I love this FM, as I did all Sotha FMs I've played. Fantastic job!

I think it's most hard FM as for me.

 

 

With all these lights and people wandering around...

 

 

One small issue. The font choosen for wife's diary is VERY hard to read.

Despite of it, I've ton of fun. So, now I have second part of it.

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  • 3 years later...
  • 5 months later...

AI appears quite awkward in 2.08

Lord tries to hug the Lady at the end of scripted conversation but instead does some break dancing

The three of them going to the study/bedroom, and there's again triple waltzing before the study door.

P.S. congratulation, Sotha! Amazing setting, another hit mission.

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  • 2 months later...
On 5/20/2020 at 7:57 PM, duzenko said:

Lord tries to hug the Lady at the end of scripted conversation but instead does some break dancing

Yeah, I got that too, but otherwise a fantastic small mission! I love it how different authors tell different stories, the automatons and the wish to create life were great.

So I finished the second part too now. Another fine but rather ordinary map, but with a cool back story about an plague cult behind it. Congratulations for the story!

Edited by wesp5
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  • 4 months later...

Got around to replaying this great FM again. It was fun to enjoy it after so long, especially now in the age of soft shadows and sharpness filter. Interestingly I felt that this time it exposed some underlying limitations in TDM particularly how AI handle panic.

Spoiler

As this is one of the FM's where you need to kill someone to complete objectives, you get to see how AI react to death. One thing that strikes me is how when killing the lord, if his wife finds the body, she acts as if she couldn't care less... despite her journal and descriptions of her dream indicating she cared for him. In any realistic scenario she'd start crying in some kind of form, maybe start searching afterward... instead her only reaction is to run around and say generic stuff like "come on out you cheeky bastard, where are you hiding". She's got to be the most cynical and cold blooded wife there ever was 😂

It's also interesting how after literally seeing the owner's dead body, everyone will just resume business as usual. Then when the player is seen or makes a noise again, they'll only say the usual "is that something over there" as if nothing extraordinary happened before that point, instead of something more logical like "could it be him again".

A shame voices to fill this gap may never be added, as I'm assuming some of the actors may no longer be around to complete the existing sets anyway. I could make a different thread about it but I'm sure someone will feel I'm expecting too many features, so just dropping the thoughts here after seeing those effects in the setup of this FM.

 

Edited by MirceaKitsune
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