Crucible of Omens: Behind Closed Doors - by Bikerdude & the Crucible Team (updated 18/12/2015)

[Bikerdude]

"The job in question was simple enough. All I had to do was break into some guy’s house and steal a ledger and then get out without being spotted. But that’s where my problems started, the house was owned by one Einrich Friedt. And unbeknownst to me at the time, was a usurer under the protection of the local thieves' guild. When word spread that it was me who pulled off the job, the guild leader who goes by the name of Lazarova gave the order to have my head on a spike. Naturally two leg breakers were dispatched, which meant I had to make myself scarce and lay low for a while.

After things had died down a bit I got in contact with an old fence of mine. He informed me that Lazarova is a wealthy and successful figure in undermarket circles. But what was unusual is that Lazarova is a woman, which belies her brutal and ruthless reputation. it’s likely she got where she is through wealth, meaning its possible she is of noble blood. My fence did a check of the Bridgeport registers and there is no noble family going by the name of Lazarova. So using an alias means she is someone who at the very least doesn’t want to see her dirty laundry aired in public.

The Thief’s guild hideout is rumoured to be located near the Old Mill somewhere in Langmillers Ward, Geoffrey's Wall separates the slums of Langmillers and Mirkway from the more wealthy parts of Becksgate. I will make my way there and see what I can uncover, but I will have to be careful. The City Watch don't venture much into the Tanners, and the Tagwell boy’s aren’t known for being as polite as the watch. Locating some information regarding Lazarova's whearabouts is my first task and with some luck I should find some incriminating evidence to use as leverage. Becksgate is like a rat’s nest, so there's bound to be a hidden stash or two to make tonight's endeavours worth my trouble.."

Build Time:
- About 2 years

Credits:

• Bikerdude - Allodric/Balakin manors, Canal walk, Builder warehouse, various apartments and brought all of this into a working mission.
• Melan - The Great Stairs, Geoffrys wall, Rattlesbones way, street signes, readables and main story!
• Noelker - the voice of Hadley - Saturnine (Rose Cottage) said Noel was the perfect 'Garrett'
• Grayman - Fingrim & Cull st, Balakin manor, readables.
• nbohr1more - alpha/beta testing, readables, and main story!
• Flanders - Canal Walk, textures and objects
• Obsttorte - Briefing video, Automap and various scripts
• Skacky - Shingles Plaza, readables.
• Serious Toni - loading screen & misc.
• Tels - The Oldmill (base spec)
• Fidcal - Horders
• Springheel - models
• Necrobob - textures
• Dragofer - models
• Baddcog - misc
• Mortem Desino - misc

If I missed anyone or have forgotten what you did, please remind me so I can update the above list!

Thanks:-
- Beta testers: Oldjim, Deadlove (Uber testers), and above, also anyone else who I missed off the list.

Download:-
- An updated version is now available via the in-game downloader - v1.3

Info:

• This is the prologue mission to the Crucible of Omens, work on the next mission in the series will start in the new year.
• This map is challenging by design, but is more forgiving on lower difficulties.
• The mission is fully l10n ready.
• TDM 2.03 is required.

Known issues:

• This mission will have less than optimal fps at some locations.
• For very low end PCs I recommend the following settings: V-sync is off, AA is off, Aniso is 4x or lower, advanced settings are simple/default & Post processing of disabled.
• A few people with very low end machines have had an issue with loading the mission, so we suggest the following -
  • " try backing up your TheDarkMod.exe, gamex86.dll, and Darkmod.cfg then delete them and run your tdm_updater to replace them. "
  • Try these image downsize changes to reduce the GPU impact -

seta image_downSize "1"
seta image_downSizeLimit "1024"
seta image_downSizeBump "1"
seta image_downSizeBumpLimit "256"

Edited January 12, 2016 by Bikerdude

[Springheel]

Congratulations! I know this was a lot of work.

 

(It might be worth pointing out in the OP that this is a prologue mission.... otherwise someone is bound to think it's the entire campaign.)

[Bikerdude]

• Congratulations! I know this was a lot of work.

(It might be worth pointing out in the OP that this is a prologue mission.... otherwise someone is bound to think it's the entire campaign.)

• The team and I, thank you good sir.

Done.

[nbohr1more]

It's such a big mission that folks would probably mistake of for a campaign anyway

[FenPhoenix]

Awesome. I don't see it in the in-game downloader though.

Edited December 19, 2015 by FenPhoenix

[VanishedOne]

Initially it was missing from the downloader list for me too, but it's just appeared with the last refresh.

[Bikerdude]

Awesome. I don't see it in the in-game downloader though.

Initially it was missing from the downloader list for me too, but it's just appeared with the last refresh.

Was still creating the Fm entry and fixing some weird font character issues with the Fm page.

[grayman]

Congratulations!

 

A "yuuuuuuge" effort by a large group of people. Lots of collaboration, blood, sweat, and tears.

[demagogue]

Congratulations to everybody involved!

[Outlooker]

There goes the weekend. But it will be a wonderful weekend. I will hide behind the PC and a barrier of chocolates and not come out for a long time.

[FenPhoenix]

Welp, here's my first video. Goofed around too much and got into some trouble at first, but things are looking good so far.

[Bikerdude]

Hey Fen, I have mostly gotten used to your 'fumbling'

 

As you make your way around the map, look around & up with the spyglass there are lots of places for the player to get to - a lot of ledges can be mantled onto. Also in the warehouse you can crouch-walk from beam to beam, no-need to jump which would alert the builder etc.

[Gast]

Congratulations, playing it tonight !

[Bienie]

It was a pleasure beta testing this map, I will definitely give the released version a go in the coming few days! Congratulations on getting this massive achievement released

[Cambridge Spy]

 

I just have one lot of loot to collect. It seems to be behind a cupboard in the kitchen at the lady's manor. Unfortunately I can't seem to open it. Are you supposed to open it?

 

[Oldjim]

Re above

that was picked up in alpha testing and I thought it was sorted - it needs picking or there may be a key in the kitchen somewhere

 

Edited December 19, 2015 by Oldjim

[Cambridge Spy]

 

I did find a key, but the cupboard cannot be frobbed whatsoever. And I can't even grab it with noclip!

 

Edited December 19, 2015 by Cambridge Spy

[SeriousToni]

Congratulations to everyone involved! I'm so happy this has been released as some kind of early Christmas gift :)

[id3839315]

Thank you for the early Christmas present.

 

[lowenz]

Thank you for the early Christmas present.

 

+1

[Epifire]

I definitely will have to download this when I get my desktop online again. Always like the in depth missions.

[Goldchocobo]

Great! Can't wait to play this soon enough. Congrats Crucible team!

[Deadlove]

YES!

 

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

[Deadlove]

Congratulations! I know this was a lot of work.

 

(It might be worth pointing out in the OP that this is a prologue mission.... otherwise someone is bound to think it's the entire campaign.)

I know load a screen is finished. Maybe adding "mission 1/mission 2/ prologue " would be helpful to display it is a serious mission.

[Thor]

Congratulations on the release! This FM looks like something special.

 

I can't seem to run it, though. Am I the only one? It crashes on the loading screen while it still says "Generating World" (after loading a few bits after about 15 seconds or so). I have a middle-end laptop but it can run The Dark Mod. I'm using the latest version (ran the update again). I tried downloading the mission again from another mirror, no luck.