Fan Mission: Sir Talbot's Collateral by Baal & Bikerdude (15/04/2015)

[Baal]

Ha! Not even Biker knows where it is.

 

Hint:

 

It's inside, on a windowsill.

 

 

In the following room:

 

The gallery

 

[Lux]

I found that arrow on my playthrough but the player can get up there and see it. Its not like its hidden.

[Bikerdude]

Ha! Not even Biker knows where it is.

heh, I hadn't spotted those two.

[gnartsch]

Very nice !

Thanks for this fine mission. It was a joyful evening indeed.

[lowenz]

No variant for knockout lovers like me?

 

Max 1-3 knockouts....

Edited April 27, 2015 by lowenz

[Baal]

Thanks, gnartsch.

 

Lowenz, the knockout objective is only mandatory on Expert. The mission doesn't end if you fail it on the other two settings. Hard is exactly the same as Expert except for this. Normal has a couple more small changes to make it easier.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Baal

[Sotha]

This mission is a masterpiece. I enjoyed everything about it. Remarkable.

 

It looked excellent.

 

It played beautifully.

 

Everything was so polished and well thought-of. Congratulations!

 

The only gripe I can make up was the occasional cracking of sound. I've not heard it before, so it probably was something about this mission. Also there were few moments of strange stuttering, but nothing too serious.

 

Thank you very much for making this near perfect mission!

[Bikerdude]

The only gripe I can make up was the occasional cracking of sound. I've not heard it before, so it probably was something about this mission. Also there were few moments of strange stuttering, but nothing too serious.

Its a known issue that even with SteveL's help we weren't able to nail down. I only got rid of it by change sound cards, (went back to my old Xfi from my SBz)

 

Its hoped this will be fixed for 2.04.

[Dragofer]

Its a known issue that even with SteveL's help we weren't able to nail down. I only got rid of it by change sound cards, (went back to my old Xfi from my SBz)

 

Its hoped this will be fixed for 2.04.

 

If I remember right from a long while ago I got sound popping in the ambients after trying out the _z versions. Going back to non_z ambients got rid of the problem. I'm doubting that it could be that simple though.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Dragofer

[SteveL]

Its a known issue that even with SteveL's help we weren't able to nail down. I only got rid of it by change sound cards, (went back to my old Xfi from my SBz)

 

Its hoped this will be fixed for 2.04.

 

The first time i loaded Sir Talbot I made a perfectly reproducible test case for the sound popping. I could rep it from a savegame on every reload. That's an important clue in its own right, but unfortunately it turned out to be a fluke and I could never rep it reliably again after I lost that savegame (to a script upgrade, which invalidates savegames). Moonbo says he has another reproducible case, so I'll try using that to get a grip on it.

 

To add to what everyone else has said: this is a wonderful map! It's great fun and the unflat architecture is outstanding. I love the plot too, the dastardly noble having to keep his greenhouse secret from his wife

[lowenz]

Thanks, gnartsch.

 

Lowenz, the knockout objective is only mandatory on Expert. The mission doesn't end if you fail it on the other two settings. Hard is exactly the same as Expert except for this. Normal has a couple more small changes to make it easier.

Ouch, my bad!

 

Thanks!

[Goldwell]

 

 

The only gripe I can make up was the occasional cracking of sound. I've not heard it before, so it probably was something about this mission. Also there were few moments of strange stuttering, but nothing too serious.

 

 

 

Yes I was getting that problem too, mine usually started in the office upstairs. It's strange though as i've never had that audio problem before with any other FM. Although considering the development time of this map (2+ years) and the fact it was dragged across multiple TDM releases I would say something along the way got messed up or left in that isnt compatible anymore but really i'm just speaking out of my ass so who knows.

 

 

As for the mission I had played this about a year earlier but I didn't get to truly experience it until my recent playthrough. I have to commend both Bikerdude and Baal for creating a true master piece in this mission, it is not without its flaws of course but it does come damn close and visually it's very inspiring. It even gives me some Thief 4 vibes (positive parts of the game) such as the ability to climb up on the rafters above and the placement and differing elevations of the rooms was perfect, the bedrooms had a very Thief 4 feel to it (once again positively) and they felt very lived in and detailed. At times the mission got a little chaotic in knowing where you need to go and avoiding the patrol paths was at times more frustrating than enjoyable but overall I really enjoyed it!

 

Will we be seeing a sequel to this mission to see how the main character and his new "business associate" Sir Talbott get along? I think its an interesting premise for the story to continue on

 

Once again, great work guys! Thanks for the release

[esme]

Thanks, gnartsch.

 

Lowenz, the knockout objective is only mandatory on Expert. The mission doesn't end if you fail it on the other two settings. Hard is exactly the same as Expert except for this. Normal has a couple more small changes to make it easier.

So as I managed it on Hard with only the one KO can I take that as an expert ?

 

Loved this mission, usually I don't like forced ghosts & I definitely don't like having my blackjack restricted but it fitted nicely with the story, if you're trying to impress a potential client then the more guards you leave active the better.

 

It looked beautiful, guards were nicely placed & routed to make things hard but not impossible.

 

Could have used a hint about the

bust swap objective

but that's a very minor thing

 

And thank you for hiding loot

underneath the elevator

, I always look there when there is one and it's always nice to be rewarded for the effort.

 

Excellent mission, it would make a great start to a campaign

[lowenz]

Pure beauty:

A little candlelight bug (flame under water!)

Edited April 29, 2015 by lowenz

[Bikerdude]

• Pure beauty:

A little candlelight bug (flame under water!)

• Architexture by Baal, window, lighting & particles by moi.

• Opps, need to change the patch to a water entity.

[Baal]

The only gripe I can make up was the occasional cracking of sound.

If only it were made up. It's a real annoyance. But thanks for the kind words. Great to read that from one of the Dark Mods most accomplished authors.

 

1. So as I managed it on Hard with only the one KO can I take that as an expert ?
2. Could have used a hint about the
   bust swap objective

3. And thank you for hiding loot
   underneath the elevator

4. it would make a great start to a campaign

1. Yes. No other difference between Hard and Expert.
2. Nope, that is supposed to be a secret.
3. My pleasure.
4. I have no concrete plans yet, just some ideas, but the next one will continue this story.

[Baal]

• Architexture

What a cool new word.

[lowenz]

What a cool new word.

[OT]

Not so new (I love this piece)

 

[/OT]

Edited April 29, 2015 by lowenz

[Talksintext]

I just played this, and WOW is it amazing. Visually it's probably the best mission I've seen. I loved the layout, the use of vertical space especially. The difficulty (I played on expert) was definitely challenging, but once you got a feel for the guards' patrols it was quite doable. I also didn't get put in a lot of "suprise! you're caught" moments opening doors, which I consider a major positive. You guys put a lot of detail and thought into every part of this mission, so congrats.

 

My only real issue is how much back and forth there is, at least the first time around. It was patience sapping after a while: go to the gallery, see the door is stuck, go downstairs and start the generator, go back to the gallery, go back downstairs... stuff like that. I was stumbling around a bit, though I am not sure half of that's your faults, more like mine for not paying close enough attention to all the written clues.

 

I also really liked the multiple approaches you can use for each room. At no point did this feel like a corridor level. The use of rafters was really well done.

 

Lastly, I loved the attention to soundscape you guys gave to the external streets (as well as visual modeling). As soon as I started loading the map and saw the loading screen, I was sitting there wishing for that specific thing, that you'd make it feel like being in the middle of a city, and you did, almost perfectly!

[Bikerdude]

• I just played this, and WOW is it amazing. Visually it's probably the best mission I've seen. I loved the layout, the use of vertical space especially. The difficulty (I played on expert) was definitely challenging, but once you got a feel for the guards' patrols it was quite doable. I also didn't get put in a lot of "suprise! you're caught" moments opening doors, which I consider a major positive.

My only real issue is how much back and forth there is, at least the first time around. It was patience sapping after a while

I also really liked the multiple approaches you can use for each room. At no point did this feel like a corridor level. The use of rafters was really well done.

Lastly, I loved the attention to soundscape you guys gave to the external streets (as well as visual modeling). As soon as I started loading the map and saw the loading screen, I was sitting there wishing for that specific thing, that you'd make it feel like being in the middle of a city, and you did, almost perfectly!

• Your very welcome mista, and yes Baal and I had more thna few discussion and revisions to get the gameplay as good as we could think of at the time.

That was inevitable due to the small size of the map. Could you spoiler the last parts of your sentence as its gives away some info.

Thats sorta morphed as we worked on the mission, Baal did something then I would come up with another or better idea and visa versa.

I spent a while building and perfing those outside area's to the best of my skillz as they are now.

[Baal]

1. My only real issue is how much back and forth there is, at least the first time around. It was patience sapping after a while

Lastly, I loved the attention to soundscape you guys gave to the external streets (as well as visual modeling).

1. That was the intent, because I like map nonlinear map design like this. But you're right that we shouldn't go overboard with it.

I didn't do much on the city areas (except for a bit of performance optimization). That's all Bikers work.

[GUFF]

Seemingly small mission but excellent use of space and AI placement makes it a longer experience than other, similar sized missions.

 

Everything was hinted at well, including the optional objectives

 

Visuals are quite nice. It's not the absolute best looking mission, but it does look very nice and has some of the newer stuff that I've seen Bikerdude putting into missions he's worked on or touched up in the last year such as the pagan lights.

 

Only issue I ran into was similar to another posted with guards going into alert. Talbot and the guard who patrols into his room randomly getting angry about me stealing things, although this is strange because as far as I know there's nothing to steal in that room aside from the keys off their belts which they did not go into any kind of alerted mode because I stole--this all happened well after I was gone and several patrol cycles later. Perhaps there's an issue where can somehow see into the room next to it with the safe, even with the door closed? Quite a few things to steal in there.

[Nico A.]

This has to be the most beautiful mission there is so far. I can see why it took you that amount of time to finish it. I felt most immersed, even got a little afraid of height while climbing around the beams in the tall hallway...

[Bikerdude]

Hehe, sweet :-)

[Baal]

Thanks, guys.

 

Only issue I ran into was similar to another posted with guards going into alert.

I'm not sure what it is that riles them up but we'll check it for the 2.04 update. Could be the keys they are wearing or some loot.

 

even got a little afraid of height while climbing around the beams in the tall hallway...

Good.