Fan Mission: One Step Too Far, by Dragofer (2014/08/04)

[Dragofer]

There are very few things that would drive a man of the streets like myself to the high seas. Before I even thought there were none at all. Yet when one of the nobles whom I had paid a visit to decided to make it his personal objective to end me, promising a mound of gold to the first cutthroat who brings him my head, it became clear no one could be trusted anymore. It was time for change.

 

The most recent version (v2, June 2023) is available from the ingame downloader.

Special thanks to:
*Betatesters Oldjim, Bikerdude, Airship Ballet, Goldwell, Nbohr1more, JackFarmer, joebarnin, The Black Arrow, datiswous and Acolytesix - for their truly diligent efforts in getting this mission polished in all aspects
*The DarkRadiant wiki, which is excellent and covers as good as everything
*Bikerdude - for allowing me to repurpose his architecture models to improve the ending of the mission
*Grayman - for allowing me to repurpose a mission of his for my briefing
*Sotha - for his excellent briefing Format

Update v2.0 (18/June/2023)

Spoiler

I've been playing with the thought of finally providing a much needed sequel for this mission and realised that this mission, being my first and released 7 years ago, can be rough around the edges. So I've now brought this mission into a more sequel-worthy state with these changes:

- enhancements to visuals to make the mission look better all around
- the option to set LOD Detail in the graphics settings if maximum performance is needed when outdoors
- new readables to build out the storytelling, both on the ship and the landing area
- some voiced lines have been contributed by Narrator and Goldwell to help set the mood
- collision has been overhauled throughout the ship, so that it's much less likely to get stuck
- more space in the captain's area for AIs and stealth, as well as a generally cleaner pathing implementation
- the main cutscene has been shortened and better lit, while all other fades to black have been cut
- a new loading screen by the painter Ivan Aivazovsky, to replace the slightly bland TDM-made arctic scene
- myriad other tweaks, such as smooth fading out for triggered ambient sounds and some gimmicks around clocks and compasses aboard the ship

The mission's length is still the same, since these changes already took longer than expected. My plan is to focus fully on my two WIP missions from here onwards, then return to One Step Too Far with a small sequel (as suggested by Amadeus it could be called Two Steps Too Far).

Update v1.5 (02/March/2015)

 

Everything that looks like loot can be looted
Looting and lockpicking on the Captains deck are now more comfortable to do
Eased the loot requirements. Don't want people unable to advance because they haven't collected enough loot
Theres something in the crows nest
Reworded the Tome to make it clearer how to progress
Fixes, such as the Tome not advancing when it was flicked through too fast, keys opening unwanted locks, shadow bugs, assorted OCD-related changes
Cleaned up the team-control triggers on the Captains deck

[Goldwell]

Congratulations on the release! This was a very fun mission to beta test

[lowenz]

Very good concept, but moving among the crates&stuff is a nightmare

Edited August 4, 2014 by lowenz

[Bikerdude]

Very good concept, but moving among the crates&stuff is a nightmare

This was mentioned, quick save or no clip are your friend.

[Bikerdude]

Uploaded to official mirrors.

[buck28]

Congrats! Will download and play tonight..

[Airship Ballet]

Grats on the release, was really cool to see how the mission changed over the course of beta testing.

[Araneidae]

There's a bug on the downloader: it reports the mission name as onesteptofar, but the mission seems to know itself as onesteptoofar. I found this because I downloaded the mission from the link, but the in-game downloader offered me a download which turns out to have identical content (md5 61cc501191cd412f0150daa0ff271144) but a different file name.

[Bikerdude]

There's a bug on the downloader: it reports the mission name as onesteptofar, but the mission seems to know itself as onesteptoofar

Corrected.

[grayman]

Congratulations!!!!

[Araneidae]

Blast, something's wrong. The game has crashed twice on me in this mission, unfortunately the log doesn't look terribly helpful:

 

 

--------- Map Initialization ---------

Map: locknermanor

idRenderWorldLocal::InitFromMap: retaining existing map

------- Game Map Init SaveGame -------

map bounds are (4520.0, 3728.0, 1208.0)

max clip sector is (141.2, 233.0, 151.0)

10 KB passage memory used to build PVS

5 msec to calculate PVS

86 areas

198 portals

8 areas visible on average

1 KB PVS data

Keeping maps/locknermanor.aas48

Keeping maps/locknermanor.aas96

Keeping maps/locknermanor.aas32

Keeping maps/locknermanor.aas100

Keeping maps/locknermanor.aas_rat

[Load AAS]

loading maps/locknermanor.aas_elemental

No running thread for RestoreScriptObject(), creating new one.

--------------------------------------

-----------------------------------

254 msec to load locknermanor

interactionTable generated of size: 134217728 bytes

Bloom Kernel size is set to: Small

Using TDM's enhanced interaction

Forcing an update on cooked math data.

Cooking math data please wait...

Cooking complete.

Restarting ambient sound snd_mansion'(mansion_tense02_z) with volume 0

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 31 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 60 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 41 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 736 frames overflowed and dropped

Saved QuickSave1

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 68 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 76 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 54 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 60 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 36 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 59 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 50 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 729 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 27 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 48 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 59 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 52 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 780 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 79 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 23 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 44 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 744 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 778 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 732 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 703 frames overflowed and dropped

WARNING:Cannot find sound snd_lockpick_lock_picked on door WineCellarDoor

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 62 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 28 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 90 frames overflowed and dropped

idAudioHardwareALSA::Write: 26 frames overflowed and dropped

signal caught: Segmentation fault

si_code 1

Trying to exit gracefully..

--------- Game Map Shutdown ----------

ModelGenerator memory: 1 LOD entries with 1 users using 758 bytes.

WARNING:idClipModel::FreeTraceModel: tried to free uncached trace model (index=0)

--------- Game Map Shutdown done -----

Shutting down sound hardware

----------- Alsa Shutdown ------------

close pcm

dlclose

--------------------------------------

idRenderSystem::Shutdown()

I18NLocal: Shutdown.

------------ Game Shutdown -----------

ModelGenerator memory: No LOD entries.

Shutdown event system

--------------------------------------

shutdown terminal support

About to exit with code 0

 

 

That's only the tail of the log, if it happens again and the entire log would help I can provide it next time.

 

Edit: Oops, wrong mission, this is Lockner Manor breaking here. Sorry.

Edited August 4, 2014 by Araneidae

[Moonbo]

The log says you're loading the Lockner Manor map, that might be part of the problem.

[Araneidae]

Sorry, sorry, sorry, wrong thread. Damnit!

[Oktokolo]

Am not much a seafarer myself. But

the ship part was superbly made, immersive and convincing.

Made it at hardest with all objectives checked. I liked the cramped belly of the ship. Found loads of hidden and well placed loot (and still missed 516). Readables told a rich story of the ship and its voyages from construction to the bitter end.

 

The beach part was somewhat dull (except the very detailed cabin interior) and misleading. The book told me to hide while exploring the cabin. Tried at least four places to literally wait for another scripting event. Tried killing all the bandits. Tried going back to my ship or their boats. And then tried to climb that mountains looking like a generic level boundary. Then walked a bit. Walked another bit. End.

Most disappointing end ever. There is a followup mission in the pipeline to complete the story i guess...

 

Whole mission would be near perfect if it would end when returning to the bunk. There was the natural split point - like the end of a chapter. And nothing wrong with reworking that beach part into a followup mission. Make it a series and continue the story mission by mission until it includes a real end - whether it is being eaten by the giant worm, seizing/sneaking aboard another ship sailing home, really becoming a pirate, or something completely different!

 

 

Random stuff follows.

 

Is there a key to this unpickable chest?:

 

Could not frob that loot:

 

 

 

[Lux]

Congrats on the release!

[Oldjim]

unpickable chest

key on one of the bandits

 

the haunted tome tells you where to head for before you enter the cabin

Edited August 5, 2014 by Oldjim

[fraten]

Uhm, I'm stuck in the captain's cabin.

 

I cannot open a drawer on his desk and an obviously secret door in the closet.

 

A hint maybe?

Edited August 5, 2014 by fraten

[Dragofer]

Fraten

I cannot open a drawer on his desk

 

 

 

That drawer (bottom left) should be lockpickable, with what's inside you can progress further.

 

 

Am not much of a seafarer myself, but

Thanks for all those comments, and

what do you know, it did once end at the bunk, although with that cutscene and some various walking scenes to finish it off. Then it got extended by that new section

 

 

quicksave or noclip are your friend

Forgive me for asking, but where do you need that? Virtually everything in the hold was swapped out with nodrawsolid and then tweaked until I could run everywhere without finding unpassable minislopes or places to get stuck. All I can see still is headwobbling when you move between objects of different heights.

Edited August 5, 2014 by Dragofer

[Loa4ever]

Gratz, will try this one:).

[garette]

I read the book inside the hidden room in the Captain's cabin. Now what should I do?

[Dragofer]

I read the book inside the hidden room in the Captain's cabin. Now what should I do?

 

 

When you've picked up the book and done whatever objectives you still need to do on the ship you can head to your matrass (had a lantern on it) to progress.

 

Edited August 6, 2014 by Dragofer

[id3839315]

A ship mission.

The earring isn't lootable. Too bad!

Edited August 6, 2014 by id3839315

[Dragofer]

A ship mission.

The earring isn't lootable. Too bad!

 

... I didn't know there were any earrings in my map

 

 

Also, added a poll.

[fraten]

Thanks for the help! Stupid me, I didn't even try to lockpick that.

 

So, the mission is now finished. Or is it?

 

The first part on the ship is wonderful, and the second part, too, I guess, if it had more readables. Most of the time I had no idea what I was doing. Why exactly did the ship crash? What's the ghost's intention? I am alone on the beach, so should I go get help? Suddenly evil men appear (why are they evil? Okay, they try to kill me, so better take them out, but why?) What's the history of the men there? Why is there a body lying upstairs? What is this strange light on the mountain? Am I supposed to have a look on that or should I go back to the ship? Let's go up and see what these lights are..., ooh, a tunnel, what horrors and/or treasures are in there? Meep! Game end. Wha...?

 

All the climbing builds up tension and then suddenly - nothing. Don't get me wrong: Wonderful mission, interesting story, I will definitely replay the mission, but God help you if you don't come up with a sequel any time soon! Just so I know where that damn tunnel leads to.

 

And I had to noclip once while climbing the mountain and twice in the ship (behind my own crate).

Edited August 6, 2014 by fraten

[garette]

Hi Guys:

How do I find the destination of the ship? Except that I was able to complete all the other "ship"-board objectives.

BTW, I cannot "pick" the haunted tome. Is there any special key I need to press?

Thanks,

-Garette

Edited August 7, 2014 by garette