Fan Mission: Scroll of Remembrance, by MirceaKitsune (03/11/2020)

[MirceaKitsune]

Today I am happy to announce the release of my first FM for The Dark Mod. After 6 years of using this lovely game creation engine, I'm finally able to contribute my own project for it! It took roughly two weeks of non-stop work to do everything from start to end... there's always some little detail to come back to when mapping, thus there were a few little things left out to prioritize others, but at the end of the day this came out almost exactly as I envisioned it.

In this mission you play as the typical professional thief. You've been hired to retrieve a scroll containing forbidden knowledge from the mansion of a wealthy noble, put there by the builder church who is close to its owner and found it a more suitable spot. A banquet is being thrown by the lord who owns the mansion which is the perfect opportunity to make your move. Nothing out of the ordinary: You're to retrieve this scroll and get paid for your work... simple, right?

Notice: Performance in some areas may be poor. I optimized the lighting setup as much as possible, trying to use as few long range light sources as I could. To achieve the desired theme however I had to leave parts of them map relatively open. Hopefully this won't be a hindrance to anyone... if it is you may need to lower some graphical settings.

For people who don't like surprises and may be sensitive to certain themes, read the spoiler below. If you're okay with anything don't as it will ruin the experience!

Spoiler

This is actually a horror FM. The first half appears perfectly normal, however things take a dark turn as you proceed forward. One of the goals was to make this one of the scariest missions available for TDM which I believe it succeeded at. Expect undead as well as several jumpscares and more.

For people who are stuck and don't know how to proceed, instructions are provided in the spoiler below. Only read them if necessary.

Spoiler

The only thing you're likely to be stuck on is finding the four hidden levers that open the gate to the crypt in the basement. Their locations are:

1. The first is in the basement inside the boiler / generator room. Turn left as you enter then walk to the wall: The lever is located behind the large boiler.
2. The second lever is in one of the rooms on the first floor. Facing the window at the end of the hallway, walk through the last door on the right, inside the room with blue wallpaper and a green carpet. There's a desk with a chair next to the opening connecting it with the other room. The lever is on the wall under that desk, move the chair aside to gain access to it.
3. The third lever is located on the second floor. Facing the window at the end of the hallway, take the furthest door on the left. You'll enter a library with a lot of bookshelves. Walk toward the window at the end of the room: The switch is hidden inside the last shelf on the right, just above the candle in that shelf.
4. The fourth lever is inside the attic. You access the attic from the same set of rooms as the library, the ladder leading to it is located in the little corner room. Walk to the opposite side of the attic from its entrance: You should see a bunch of crates, wooden planks on the ground, as well as a broken globe sitting on its side... the lever is on the wooden support between those.

Once all the levers are pulled you can proceed to the crypt where the scroll is being held. Get the key from the pulpit and use it to unlock the glass case in front of it. Once you're read the scroll a new path will appear, you'll be able to take it from the balcony of the mansion. Finish the mission by proceeding to the outer gate.

A tip that needs no spoilers: The key in this FM is exploration and reading everything carefully. There are secrets to be found: Always look everywhere and closely at everyone!

I'm eager to hear what your experience with this FM is. Use spoilers when referring to specifics, but do let me know what your thoughts are! Especially with this being my first FM I could use tips, including technical ones if you look at the map in DarkRadiant. Here are a few screenshots of the main areas (intended for the installer):

And finally the download links. Unzip and place the main directory inside your fms folder, this should get it to show up in the mission list.

Mirror 1
Mirror 2

Edited November 3, 2020 by MirceaKitsune

[Jedi_Wannabe]

Congrats on the release!

[Acolytesix]

Wow, something other than the US elections to watch  Thank you

OhOh.

Before Windows 7 it was easy to change the extensions for files, but honestly I don't know how to do it in Win 10. Except photos in PS6  

Can you please upload the *.pk4 file, so I can get playing?

Edited November 3, 2020 by Acolytesix

[nbohr1more]

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

I will get this up on the mirrors tonight if nobody else beats me to it.

[MirceaKitsune]

2 hours ago, Acolytesix said:

Wow, something other than the US elections to watch  Thank you

OhOh.

Before Windows 7 it was easy to change the extensions for files, but honestly I don't know how to do it in Win 10. Except photos in PS6  

Can you please upload the *.pk4 file, so I can get playing?

The pk4 is inside the zip archive I put up for download. I packed the directory you need to place under fms to make it easy to extract and run. Hopefully I didn't miss anything.

[MirceaKitsune]

Some things I didn't mention in the first post as to not make it too long; This FM (in its first release) has been tested but only by me, and should be considered a semi-beta release. You may find bugs I didn't notice, in which case please do report them here. At the moment there are a few problems I'm aware of but couldn't find a solution to... if you know how to solve them please share that as well! Known issues include:

Spoiler

• There's a moveable loot purse sitting on a moveable chair on the balcony. For some reason the item is occasionally sent flying and lands randomly across the garden. I suspect this is a physics engine glitch and a bug in TDM: The purse is spawned just above the chair and doesn't intersect with it... it also sits properly on it for quite a while, I don't know why some time into the game it randomly decides to explode.
• I think I've seen some of the moveable packages fall through the floor on rare occasions. Once more I don't know what my FM might be doing to cause this, the moveables are placed above the ground and shouldn't be clipping through it.
• When some paintings on the walls are looted, they become completely black instead of appearing ripped off. I double-checked the entity definitions and couldn't find the reason for this, thus I once more suspect it's a bug in TDM and some lootable skins aren't set up properly.
• When the mission first starts, the environment appears really bright and takes a second to slowly go dark as the brightness adjusts. Normally it should be dark from the beginning but for some reason the zonal "iris adaptation" doesn't kick in until you've spawned. This is an issue on all my maps though I've never seen it in other FM's; There's likely something wrong with my ambient light but I cannot think of what.
• When Evelyn occasionally goes to sleep in her double bed, she lays in the bed then immediately gets back up. I have no idea why this is as the path_sleep has "wait" and "wait_max" set, she should be sleeping for a longer amount of time. Her head also clips through the upper bed but that's an asset issue and not something I can fix without changing it (nor care much about at this stage).

 

[Dragofer]

Grats on the (semi-beta, as you said) release! The map's now available for download ingame.

[MirceaKitsune]

5 minutes ago, Dragofer said:

Grats on the (semi-beta, as you said) release! The map's now available for download ingame.

Thanks lots! It will probably need to be updated once I iron out those final bugs, but it should be easier to find any other potential issues in the meantime.

[Marbrien]

Is there anything to be gained by

Spoiler

bringing Renard's body back into the mansion?  He's currently on a table being politely ignored by the guests.

 

[MirceaKitsune]

5 minutes ago, Marbrien said:

Is there anything to be gained by

  Hide contents

bringing Renard's body back into the mansion?  He's currently on a table being politely ignored by the guests.

 

Spoiler

Not really, he's more of an Easter Egg (on top of all the others) to be found if you explore the other side out of the mansion.

Also I'm working on fixing the bugs I'm aware of which I mentioned above. They should be dealt with by tomorrow, I might wait another day before posting the fixed version so there's time for other players to catch any other potential problems.

[STRUNK]

I liked it! The build itself isn't that great, but the story however is really good.

[MirceaKitsune]

The emergency bugfix is now out. It resolves all issues found and highlighted by me earlier.

Additionally I made a few architectural changes and split some of the larger rooms, in hopes of improving performance and reducing draw calls a bit. Performance in the garden and main hallway seems to be ever so slightly better... there isn't a lot I can do beyond this so hopefully it's the final update.

Here's the pk4 link for version 1.1. Please update the FM in the mission downloader ASAP.

Mirror 1
Mirror 2

[nbohr1more]

The mirrors have been updated.

[Bienie]

Just finished it! Interesting mission with some pretty good world-building, but has some performance issues (maybe due to the transparent windows?) and some odd choices taking you out of the zone occasionally. Comments:

Spoiler

Though, I guess that is somewhat the point at the end of the mission. Very inception-like take on simulation theory there ^^ Are we also NPCs in a game, and what happens if one of us finds out?

There were a few problems I ran into, most strikingly was that the guests once they notice the missing painting will start roaming around and get stuck on pillars and behind the grand staircase, which I assume is lacking proper monster clip. I also found it odd that so many thieves, thugs and armed people were invited as guests to a lord's banquet. I guess his journal explains to some degree that he's being motivated by his visions, but even considering that it seemed odd.

Gameplay-wise my comments are that I found it hard to distinguish who I needed to hide from and who not. It seemed a bit odd that the guests don't know I'm not invited but the maid who walks around does. Secondly I thought it was quite frustrating to try and find the switches with no clues other than Fabian telling us about the one in the basement and the lord saying there is one per floor. I think many players will find this switch hunt frustrating without at least a little more of a hint.

All in all a fun little mission, looking forward to what you come up with in future missions ^^

[Spyrano]

I especially enjoyed the parts at the end. Some performance issues, and not able to

Spoiler

get the side paintings on the ground floor

without alarming everyone. Pretty fun mission overall!

[MirceaKitsune]

1 hour ago, Bienie said:

Just finished it! Interesting mission with some pretty good world-building, but has some performance issues (maybe due to the transparent windows?) and some odd choices taking you out of the zone occasionally. Comments:

  Hide contents

Though, I guess that is somewhat the point at the end of the mission. Very inception-like take on simulation theory there ^^ Are we also NPCs in a game, and what happens if one of us finds out?

There were a few problems I ran into, most strikingly was that the guests once they notice the missing painting will start roaming around and get stuck on pillars and behind the grand staircase, which I assume is lacking proper monster clip. I also found it odd that so many thieves, thugs and armed people were invited as guests to a lord's banquet. I guess his journal explains to some degree that he's being motivated by his visions, but even considering that it seemed odd.

Gameplay-wise my comments are that I found it hard to distinguish who I needed to hide from and who not. It seemed a bit odd that the guests don't know I'm not invited but the maid who walks around does. Secondly I thought it was quite frustrating to try and find the switches with no clues other than Fabian telling us about the one in the basement and the lord saying there is one per floor. I think many players will find this switch hunt frustrating without at least a little more of a hint.

All in all a fun little mission, looking forward to what you come up with in future missions ^^

Thank you, glad you liked the mission!

Spoiler

The guests noticing when you steal the big paintings in the hallway was intended for fun and (some degree of) realism. I noticed it doesn't add to the alert level in the mission stats and ruin your stealth score so I said "why not, it's fun to see them running around and screaming they've been robbed".

The only actual thieves at the banquet are the thief guy walking between the two chairs and thief lady sitting next to one of them. BTW: That thief has a fun little scroll you can rob off him. The rest are meant to be commoners, though some are defined as thieves and tugs. I wanted to put a lot of people in and there's a limited number of models, so I just went with adding whatever made sense. Technically it's silly that an archer and a woman holding a knife are sitting at the table too

Yeah I can see how when you don't know the hostile AI's, it's hard to tell who you need to hide from or not. The guards and builder guards I made obvious... beyond that I added "members of the household" to the briefing, referring to the lord and his wife and the maid and the technician.

The switches I tried to hide in a similar fashion to what I've seen most other FM's do in this circumstance. Was hoping the clues in those two journals would be helpful enough, but when you don't know the locations it can be a difficult hunt... I didn't want to make it too obvious either. I know the pain myself since in half of the FM's I play I get stuck on trying to find the hidden secret and be able to proceed.

As far as performance goes there isn't more I can do I'm afraid: I did a small emergency improvement last night, but the way I designed the yard doesn't allow for further portaling. Having spoken to more experienced mappers and developers on Discord, I understand a few design choices better now. This is the first FM I've released, third FM I started working on (two maps sit on my drive waiting to be finished for a few years now)... my prior experience aside from tutorials I read and specific questions I asked is from working with gtkRadiant / netRadiant in Nexuiz (now called Xonotic) where I made a few maps a decade ago.

A little note just in case: If someone likes this FM enough to want to improve it, I am cool with that. Just please keep everything clean, such as always having stuff aligned / snapped to the grid... I have a fixation for perfection and cleanness is all And let me know if you make any story or gameplay changes, screenshots first would be nice. I don't plan to develop this one further since it took a huge amount of work and I want to be able to move on to other projects (including more TDM stuff too).

[tapewolf]

I enjoyed that, though I spent far too long trying to annoy the guests, or tricking the guards into killing them.  One of them does have a tendency to climb up the pillars by the stairwell, that just seems to be a thing he does, regardless of where you are in the quest.

Climbing on one of the statues in the hall in hopes of finding a quest item behind it got me stuck and needed a reload (or noclip) to escape from, but apart from the occasional slowdown I didn't see many problems.

I did like the storyline and the ending, I presume that also explains the business with the telescope.

Do we ever find out what happened to

Spoiler

the missing guard?

 

[MirceaKitsune]

28 minutes ago, tapewolf said:

I enjoyed that, though I spent far too long trying to annoy the guests, or tricking the guards into killing them.  One of them does have a tendency to climb up the pillars by the stairwell, that just seems to be a thing he does, regardless of where you are in the quest.

Climbing on one of the statues in the hall in hopes of finding a quest item behind it got me stuck and needed a reload (or noclip) to escape from, but apart from the occasional slowdown I didn't see many problems.

I did like the storyline and the ending, I presume that also explains the business with the telescope.

Do we ever find out what happened to

  Reveal hidden contents

the missing guard?

 

Fun fact: In the first phases of making this mission, I had the sitting AI and the chairs too close to the table. Because of this, whenever they became alert and got up, they got on the table and plates / cutlery started flying everywhere. I spent minutes dying of laughter as forks and knives flied everywhere at neck-breaking speeds as the AI bumped into them

Spoiler

The missing guard: Once you escape the mansion walls, before walking to the outer gate to end the mission, explore the other side from the one the platform took you past the wall.

 

[tapewolf]

41 minutes ago, MirceaKitsune said:

Fun fact: In the first phases of making this mission, I had the sitting AI and the chairs too close to the table. Because of this, whenever they became alert and got up, they got on the table and plates / cutlery started flying everywhere. I spent minutes dying of laughter as forks and knives flied everywhere at neck-breaking speeds as the AI bumped into them

Funny you should say that.  Since it wasn't encouraged to blackjack the guests, I was blackjacking their dinnerware instead, with similar results.

Edited November 5, 2020 by tapewolf

[Acolytesix]

Is anyone else getting "Shader not found" at the end after getting out of the house. The courtyard now has a bridge across and out of the walled in area. The sky is pulsating too. Also with "Shader Not Found". Lets me go to the other side of the gates with the dead horses. Lots of pretty colors and cubes  definetly a bug! Can't end the mission....

[tapewolf]

57 minutes ago, Acolytesix said:

Is anyone else getting "Shader not found" at the end after getting out of the house. The courtyard now has a bridge across and out of the walled in area. The sky is pulsating too. Also with "Shader Not Found". Lets me go to the other side of the gates with the dead horses. Lots of pretty colors and cubes  definetly a bug! Can't end the mission....

Spoiler

 

Did you, personally, read the scroll?  I don't mean "quickly click through it to complete the mission objective", did you actually absorb and understand its contents?

I believe going through the far gate will complete the mission.

 

 

[MirceaKitsune]

On 11/7/2020 at 5:23 PM, Acolytesix said:

Is anyone else getting "Shader not found" at the end after getting out of the house. The courtyard now has a bridge across and out of the walled in area. The sky is pulsating too. Also with "Shader Not Found". Lets me go to the other side of the gates with the dead horses. Lots of pretty colors and cubes  definetly a bug! Can't end the mission....

Spoiler

The "Shader not found" and "Caulk" textures on the back of the mansion walls are intentional. If you look at the map in DarkRadiant you'll see the materials are called fake_shader and fake_caulk. If you're confused why that is, check all of the readables carefully as it's explained in the story.

Extra tip: Look under the tables on the balcony after having read the scroll. You should find a second version of the priest's journal. I was wondering how many people found that, as well as an additional scroll that has different versions before and after completing the main objective (lootable from someone's hips).

 

[Zerg Rush]

On 11/8/2020 at 6:58 PM, MirceaKitsune said:

  Reveal hidden contents

The "Shader not found" and "Caulk" textures on the back of the mansion walls are intentional. If you look at the map in DarkRadiant you'll see the materials are called fake_shader and fake_caulk. If you're confused why that is, check all of the readables carefully as it's explained in the story.

Extra tip: Look under the tables on the balcony after having read the scroll. You should find a second version of the priest's journal. I was wondering how many people found that, as well as an additional scroll that has different versions before and after completing the main objective (lootable from someone's hips).

 

It certainly seems like a bug, but if you can finish the mission, just go to the end of the path behind the fence and the dead horses, up to where the map ends and the silhouette of the city is visible in the background. The game ends then.

[Xolvix]

On 11/12/2020 at 10:06 AM, Zerg Rush said:

It certainly seems like a bug, but if you can finish the mission, just go to the end of the path behind the fence and the dead horses, up to where the map ends and the silhouette of the city is visible in the background. The game ends then.

Spoiler

It might look like a bug but it's most definitely deliberate. If you read the Scroll of Remembrance, what it talks about is incredibly meta, about how the world isn't real (because it isn't), because it might be run on some sort of machine (which it is, a computer), heck it explicitly makes reference to The Dark Mod. The idea is that once the player character reads the scroll, because the world isn't actually real the bounds of reality start to fall apart and the game world shows its presence in the form of shader/caulk and mapping "errors".

Anyways, I enjoyed this FM, very creative and novel idea. Had performance issues like everyone else but stuck with it. I didn't get nearly as much loot as I could have but I think it was due to missing a lot of paintings.

[Oktokolo]

Apart from a huge fourth wall collapsing all around me, the mission is a nice and short mansion heist, with a welcoming touch of non-KOS guests. This time the blackjack restriction did not bother me at all, as the guests don't enter private areas...

I someohow expected a way bigger second part of the mission though. Normally, the fun just starts when you discover the crack (or rather canyon this time) in the matrix...
Could also profit from a tiny smidge more subtlety...

The FPS where slideshow-ish outside and still pretty bad inside despite there actually not that much eye candy lying around (maybe its the transparent windows or there are unsealed rooms).

Despite the huge FPS issues, it was fun to play as a blackjacking art collector on hardest.