Fan Mission: Volta II - Cauldron of the Gods by Kingsal (11/30/17) V2.2

[peter_spy]

Correction, I think this is not surface-related, but maybe has something to do with portals? It's around the first area with apebeasts. When I cross either the portal on the left or on the right for the first time, there's like one-second hitch.

 

[kingsal]

Hmm that;s very strange. I PM'd you on discord for more details.

 

 

I've updated to Cauldron 2.1 which fixes a few minor bugs but also removes save games that I accidentally packaged with the mission .Should be in the in-game downloader soon.

This update isn't significant enough to warrant starting the mission over if you've already got a game going. Just ignore the save games packaged with the mission.

[chakkman]

Is it deliberate that the new version of this mission is named "Volta 2: Cauldron", while the older version 1.2 was named "Volta 2: Cauldron of the gods"? This way, i have the two missions in TDM now, opposed to the old version being updated.

 

I know that i can manually remove the mission of course, i was just wondering. May have to do with savegames not being compatible anymore?

Edited August 22, 2018 by chakkman

[kingsal]

Is it deliberate that the new version of this mission is named "Volta 2: Cauldron", while the older version 1.2 was named "Volta 2: Cauldron of the gods"? This way, i have the two missions in TDM now, opposed to the old version being updated.

 

I know that i can manually remove the mission of course, i was just wondering. May have to do with savegames not being compatible anymore?

It is deliberate. I shortened the name so it will work better in the UI and because of the significant changes made in 2.0 (old saves will definitely not work). Also people just refer to it as "Cauldron" anyhow

 

Edit: I did the same with "Volta and the Stone" which is now called "Volta I: The Stone"

Edited August 22, 2018 by kingsal

[chakkman]

Alright, fair enough.

[CountMorillonite]

This is such a good mission. I had to cheat in order to find all the loot, but the locations I missed were totally fair and really sneaky. Has anyone found all the loot legitimately?

 

And lots of Secrets which is a big plus for me.

 

It's hard to believe this is only the 2nd mission by Kingsal. And it is completely different from Volta 1. I look forward to whatever comes next.

[Aildon_01]

Just finished on 2.06

 

Pure epic.

[NeonsStyle]

Awesome mission. Really loved this and it had so many feels from the old Thief games. One problem though which happened quite a lot.

Getting stuck on a clipped brush. Usually it floor brushes that had been clipped to look like cave floor, with assorted angles on them.

The problem was the angle line. I can't tell you how many times I got stuck on the floor angle change line.

 

Other than that, gorgeous mission.

[kingsal]

This is such a good mission. I had to cheat in order to find all the loot, but the locations I missed were totally fair and really sneaky. Has anyone found all the loot legitimately?

 

And lots of Secrets which is a big plus for me.

 

It's hard to believe this is only the 2nd mission by Kingsal. And it is completely different from Volta 1. I look forward to whatever comes next.

 

Thanks! I have a new mission in the works, but it won't be ready for a while as my real life schedule is pretty busy. Can't believe you hunted down all that loot, haha.

Just finished on 2.06

 

Pure epic.

Thanks for playing, glad you dug it!

Awesome mission. Really loved this and it had so many feels from the old Thief games. One problem though which happened quite a lot.

Getting stuck on a clipped brush. Usually it floor brushes that had been clipped to look like cave floor, with assorted angles on them.

The problem was the angle line. I can't tell you how many times I got stuck on the floor angle change line.

 

Other than that, gorgeous mission.

 

Glad you liked the mission! Sorry about the clipping issues, I thought I resolved most of them in the latest version. It's weird because some people don't have any problems and others seem to constantly get stuck.

Edited December 11, 2018 by kingsal

[Frear]

Absolutely fantastic level, very original yet very close to Thief 1 and 2 in terms of gameplay and atmosphere, this is what Thief 3 should have been. The only minor criticism I would have is that the sneaking sometimes felt a bit easy but the exploration and loot hunting were great. The new monsters were also an interesting addition and quite funny at times.

 

Again, well done and thank you. I am definitely looking forward to your next mission.

Edited May 22, 2019 by Frear

[MirceaKitsune]

Sadly this FM is unplayable in TDM 2.07 and likely needs to be updated. I get the following error when the map loads, taking me right back to the main menu:

[kingsal]

9 hours ago, MirceaKitsune said:

Sadly this FM is unplayable in TDM 2.07 and likely needs to be updated. I get the following error when the map loads, taking me right back to the main menu:

Hmm. When was the last time you update you TDM? This mission was tested in 2.07 and should be working fine. 

Ill look into this.

[MirceaKitsune]

5 hours ago, kingsal said:

Hmm. When was the last time you update you TDM? This mission was tested in 2.07 and should be working fine. 

Ill look into this.

I ran the updater script again, but as expected it tells me my installation is already up to date. I looked in the mission downloader too just in case, there doesn't seem to be any update to the FM marked with a * (I install them all from that menu).

[peter_spy]

It's not a 2.07 problem, it was tested on it and it works fine. Trying downloading the whole clean 2.07 installation, or at least delete your cfg file so the game recreates it from scratch.

Edited December 5, 2019 by peter_spy

[MirceaKitsune]

35 minutes ago, peter_spy said:

It's not a 2.07 problem, it was tested on it and it works fine. Trying downloading the whole clean 2.07 installation, or at least delete your cfg file so the game recreates it from scratch.

Weird. I'll try a fresh config if nothing else works, also re-download the FM from the installer. No other mission crashes on startup, I've played dozens over the past month... including part 1 of this one; It must be something specific to this.

[kingsal]

I don't think its the mission and I actually remember this happening to me once when I updated my darkmod. Do you have these files in your darkmod install?

script / tdm_ai_monster_elemental.script

defs / tdm_ai_monster_elemental.def

 

[peter_spy]

2 hours ago, MirceaKitsune said:

It must be something specific to this.

If everyone else played it on 2.07 and didn't report problems, then the first thought should be "there's something wrong with my setup". Other missions running fine aren't an indicator of anything specific really. The safest bet is, as usual, downloading a clean TDM installation, even though that's a bit annoying.

[MirceaKitsune]

Took me a few days until I figured out what was causing the crash by random chance: I'm using a custom pk4 which overrides def/tdm_ai_monster_spider.def and sets all spider entities to target_null. The reason being that I have arachnophobia and literally couldn't play missions that have giant spiders in them. Had that mod for years and it didn't break any other FM's, but for this one it's throwing that error instead. So yeah, not a bug... it was all on my end. As this is a good FM I'll make the effort to temporarily remove my patch and play it with the spiders enabled... if it's that bad I'm prolly going to noclip through the area they're in

[kingsal]

Yep that'll do it lol. You need those spider present at load time to play the map. However its not mandatory that you go to the area where they're at:

They are in the southern section of the map. If you hear the thief say a line about it smelling, you are close to them.

[MirceaKitsune]

Not a problem: I was able to finish it and find many areas without running into them! Thank goodness for that

Spoiler

This was a very unique FM that I wasn't expecting: From the underground tomb to the monkey people characters, it definitely set itself apart from most missions! It almost felt like playing a slightly different game. I think this is the sort of thing TDM needs more of.

As is usual when I see such unique assets, I wish the team could include those characters into vanilla TDM. IIRC we actually had a lycan character which was later removed... this could be a very good replacement. I actually have an old plan for a campaign in mind where I could use them myself... would that be okay with the person who created them?

 

[kingsal]

Thanks for playing!

I made the apebeast and their accessories,  so feel free to use them in your own FM. The set-up is a little involved, but just PM me with any questions. If I'm not mistaken, Springheel is working on getting those guys into a future release of TDM.

[Springheel]

1 hour ago, kingsal said:

 If I'm not mistaken, Springheel is working on getting those guys into a future release of TDM.

Yes, that's true.  They should be in the next release.

[JackFarmer]

Played both missions earlier this year for the first time.

This is extremely impressive work and (at least for me) close to perfection.

As others have already mentioned, they look, sound and feel like TT (=True Thief).

If you are not a professional, then you should become one. With the highest wages possible. And gold medals.

Jack

[kingsal]

Hello everyone,

I've updated this mission to 2.08. 

Old saves will not work. Please delete the old .pk4 and re-download this mission.

Available in-game or HERE

Thanks!

[wesp5]

Finally played your missions and while I found Volta 1 was nothing special because it was the usual mansion, maybe even a little bit on the large side, Volta 2 was wonderful! It reminded me very much of Arx Fatalis and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic with those cool underground areas . Once again, amazing how versatile TDM missions can be!

Edited August 18, 2020 by wesp5