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The Siege Shop (07/09/2020)


PranQster

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15 minutes ago, PranQster said:

Would it be possible to update the splash/title image with the one from the top of the first post, please?

Done

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Thank you for keeping updating this great mission.
I had to download the update manually, but then enjoyed comming back to the shop.

Obligatory nitpicks:

Spoiler

- The lightning indeed makes the FPS drop significantly. But it is worth it.

- Despite the front being absurdly well guarded, only player clip actually stopped me from boldly sneaking in through the front gate. There really is no reason why that small area in front of the gate has to be plot walled. The cave entrance is great and all - but taking the front route should still be a valid (although much harder) way to go. I verified ghostability from start to player clip and from inner player clip to delivery entrance gate.
Another thing hard-blocking the front (and the water tunnel) route is the placement of the key to the inner delivery gate. Would be nice if it could be aquired by leaning or using a stick (if the engine supports that).

- I like that the backtracking became faster by replacing the elevators with stairs. But getting rid of the keyhunt aspect (or just allow the front route, so the player can get the keys before needing them) would be nice too.

- Auto-closing all doors is irritating and never needed (players are able to close doors). The map also is well designed and portalled. You could probably leave every door of the entire map open without significantly hurting FPS.

- The spider webs are indeed looking like blurry rocks. I first tried to climb the animated strings of the spiders.

- The table in the shack at the front entrance is floating.

- There is some really stretched grassy dirt texture on the top part of the moat's wall.

- The second wardrobe to the right in the officers' bedroom on the upper floor has its door texture shifted to the left.

- There is a floating bag on the right side of the door leading from the kitchen to the gatehouse.

- There is a scroll of impotence in the shelf next to the stone thrower miniature. It is collectible and when used renders the player unable to use any item or weapon.

 

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12 hours ago, Abusimplea said:

Thank you for keeping updating this great mission.
I had to download the update manually, but then enjoyed comming back to the shop.

Obligatory nitpicks:

  Reveal hidden contents

- The lightning indeed makes the FPS drop significantly. But it is worth it.

- Despite the front being absurdly well guarded, only player clip actually stopped me from boldly sneaking in through the front gate. There really is no reason why that small area in front of the gate has to be plot walled. The cave entrance is great and all - but taking the front route should still be a valid (although much harder) way to go. I verified ghostability from start to player clip and from inner player clip to delivery entrance gate.
Another thing hard-blocking the front (and the water tunnel) route is the placement of the key to the inner delivery gate. Would be nice if it could be aquired by leaning or using a stick (if the engine supports that).

- I like that the backtracking became faster by replacing the elevators with stairs. But getting rid of the keyhunt aspect (or just allow the front route, so the player can get the keys before needing them) would be nice too.

- Auto-closing all doors is irritating and never needed (players are able to close doors). The map also is well designed and portalled. You could probably leave every door of the entire map open without significantly hurting FPS.

- The spider webs are indeed looking like blurry rocks. I first tried to climb the animated strings of the spiders.

- The table in the shack at the front entrance is floating.

- There is some really stretched grassy dirt texture on the top part of the moat's wall.

- The second wardrobe to the right in the officers' bedroom on the upper floor has its door texture shifted to the left.

- There is a floating bag on the right side of the door leading from the kitchen to the gatehouse.

- There is a scroll of impotence in the shelf next to the stone thrower miniature. It is collectible and when used renders the player unable to use any item or weapon.

 

Thank you. I'll take a look at these oversights and quietly sneak an update. Your comments regarding the front gate as an entrance were discussed, but I only wanted the one way in. The same goes for the second gate just inside.

I just updated my original link. I'll have to request an update to the mirrors. I fixed most of the issues listed.

Spoiler
  • Key moved closer to the gate. Those guards are sure dumb to keep the key there. (I actually forgot to test this, but set the frob distance on the key to reach past the bars).
  • I'll work on the spider webs for a possible update. If I use web decals, they flash with the lightning despite no caulk and only solid textures in the walls down there. Open cave entrances allow the lightning to leak in to the webs. I'm trying to figure a way for doors to close at the three cave entrances while the player is inside the cave, only to open again before reaching an 'exit'.
  • Most doors no longer auto-close, except for the sets of double-doors near the drawbridge, roof door, and the lower door from the captain's room to the cavern.
  • Floored the floating table and items upon it.
  • The stretched texture was new and I hadn't seen it after recently aligning the grass textures beneath the balloon. I worked on that and added some bushes to hide stuff there.
  • Fixed wardrobe door texture, hinge textures, and fixed the handles.
  • Bag on the floor was floored, but too round on the bottom. Sunk it a bit. Same with the broom near there. Also rotated some sacks on the other side of that wall.
  • The three objective scrolls were all set to 'usable' '0'.
  • Also re-set the silverware on the table in the officers' quarters.

 

Edited by PranQster
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System: Mageia Linux Cauldron, aka Mageia 8

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On 9/8/2020 at 1:11 AM, PranQster said:


Framerate Disclaimer:
Due to new lightning effects, the frame rate will drop noticeably when these effects are triggered. There is no way around that. It is brief when it happens & hope it doesn't ruin the gameplay for too many people.

Lightning flashing inside the building: This will happen while the roof door is open. Just pretend the light came in through the windows. The same goes for the inventor's spectacles, due to the open front gate.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

The only framerate issues I get is in the dungeon...

Edited by Acolytesix
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On 9/11/2020 at 8:53 PM, Acolytesix said:

The only framerate issues I get is in the dungeon...

Yeah, the one place where I (purposely) lax'd the rules for overlapping lights with shadows is the torture area... mostly because of the little fireplace with lights in it to make a poker glow red.

Edited by PranQster
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System: Mageia Linux Cauldron, aka Mageia 8

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1 hour ago, PranQster said:

Could you please update the mirrors? I updated the .pk4 on google drive.

Thank you.

The mirrors have been updated.

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Please visit TDM's IndieDB site and help promote the mod:

 

http://www.indiedb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

 

(Yeah, shameless promotion... but traffic is traffic folks...)

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  • 1 month later...

When I checked this FM in the database before this update got released, it said "version 5". When I now check it in the database, it still says "version 5". Consequently, when I check the in-game downloader, it does not offer me the update because it thinks that my current version is the most recent one (since it has same version), which is clearly wrong. Most of the people won't download the update if we don't bump the internal version.

@nbohr1more?

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47 minutes ago, PranQster said:

So, should I update the text files and call the current release version 6? That might be easiest to solve issues with updates.

No, you should not. It won't change anything. And versions like this will happen anyway.

The internal version in FM database must be bumped to 6.

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  • 1 month later...

Very nice FM overall. It's rarer to see proper outdoor FM's, with the right amount of detail and the geometry not looking fake, this definitely achieved that and felt very natural. Was going to mention the lightning performance and super low-res web texture, but you already clarified those in the first post. All I can offer is two small visual issues I encountered:

Spoiler

 

The water floats above this beer jug. It might be hard to see in this screenshot as it's animated, but if you look closely you should notice the refraction in the air (look above the jug and along the table's edge).

siegeshop_2021-01-10_02_22_45.thumb.jpg.1c1788c4a9b07b28db84775189ca0e15.jpg

 

Spoiler

The pipe floats in front of this guys face. It doesn't even move with his head, but most importantly it just hovers at a noticeable distance from it. I know the goal was to make it look like he's smoking, but unless permanently attached I don't think this can look well as is.

siegeshop_2021-01-10_17_46_05.thumb.jpg.be4135af2da85ee9aefab2988c149492.jpg

 

 

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Thank you. :)

The first issue you mentioned. Yeah I saw that too late. I previously had a floating table and mug... lowered those two, but forgot the patch of liquid. It's fixed in DR but I don't know when it will be updated for everyone.

As far as the second issue. I made no attempt to get that object synced to the AI's head. Just use your imagination.

System: Mageia Linux Cauldron, aka Mageia 8

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