The Black Mage (Grayman, JackFarmer & Friends), December, 24th, 2021

[JackFarmer]

The Black Mage

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Title: The Black Mage
Filename: black_mage.pk4
Authors: Grayman, Jack Farmer
Testers: datiswous, joebarnin, Shadow, Amadeus, madtaffer, wesp5
Release date: 24.12.2021 (version 1) - 05.03.2022 (version 2) - 23.12.2023 (version 3)
Version: 3 (available via in game downloader)

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Grayman - Mapping, scripting & text for briefing video
JackFarmer - Additional mapping & scripting, drafts for readables, conversations and in game comments
Amadeus - Revision & editing of all readables, conversations and in game comments
Dragofer, joebarnin, datiswous - Troubleshooting

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Voice Talents (in alphabetical order):

AndrosTheOxen    -    Worried father / Counsel Lester Morlan (fincancial advisor to the lord)
Bikerdude             -     Sami "Sausage" McNulty (the castle's chef)
BoyLag                 -     Percy Lockhard (the castle's chronicler)
Goldchocobo       -     Robert (the son of the worried father) / Colton (a fallen Builder)
Jedi_Wannabe     -      Friend of the worried father / Bennett (a fallen Builder)
Malasdair            -      Lt. Godric (chief security officer)
New Horizon       -      Lord Ewan Davenport (the Black Mage)
Purgator              -      The Thief

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Paintings:

New paintings provided by OGDA
Grayman avatar painting created by Zerg Rush

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Assets:

New kitchen equipment models provided by STRUNK

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Geometry:

Selected cave architecture orginally created by Bikerdude & Dram for "Blackheart Manor" and later modified
for "The Gatehouse" (rearranged with the orignal authors approval)

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Sound:

• Wind_rusting trees sound (main menu) taken from freesound.org produced by funwithsound
• "Madrigal" (briefing video) performed by Anthony Holborne
• Pub audience sound (briefing video) taken from freesound.org produced by yap-audio-production
• Footsteps sound (briefing video) taken from freesound.org produced by Nox_Sound
• Stand up from chair sound (briefing video) taken from freesound.org produced by kupp2
• Tape-deck-startup sound (phonogram recording) taken from freesound.org produced by soundjoao
• Short metal scrape sound (phonogram recording) taken from freesound.org produced by Timbre
• Chains sound (phonogram recording) taken from freesound.org produced by arnaud-coutancier

All other new ambient and sound fx recorded and produced by JackFarmer sometimes with altered sound effects/ambient
sounds orginally produced by Gigagooga

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Video:

Story board and sound arrangement by JackFarmer
Briefing video produced by SirSmokeALot

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Known bugs:

If you quicksave too soon after killing a fire elemental (within 4-5 seconds), the quickload crashes. (2.09 and 2.10)

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Production notes:

Graymans's son gave this work in progress to the Dark Mod community according to grayman's will in June 2021.
After discussions with Dragofer, I overtook this mission in June 2021 and started working on it in September 2021.

Spoiler

I made only a few changes to the geometry, I added a few new areas (which adjoin the large lava cave) and some
smaller rooms (for example the prison cells in the crypt) myself. Grayman did most of the decoration for the first floor
and the crypt; I finished the decoration for all remaining areas.

The briefing video contains exactly the conversation that Grayman had planned, I only transferred it from a busy street
to a tavern because I thought this was more appropriate.

The mage's original name created by Grayman was "Devereux". To prevent the voice talents from pronouncing mistakes,
I changed this name to "Davenport".

 

Since I didn't know what else Grayman had planned, I made up my own story from the end of the briefing.

The voice actors did an incredible job. Everyone I asked immediately agreed to complete this work of Grayman.
This has now led to a fabulous eight voice actors taking part in this mission - from England, Ireland, Canada and the USA.

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Let's raise our glasses in Grayman's honor.

Otherwise I wish you all happy holidays. Take care of yourself, your loved ones, and all of your friends.

 

 

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by JackFarmer
Revised Title

[Amadeus]

A Christmas miracle! Congrats man! You did a wonderful job bringing Grayman's vision to light

[Goldwell]

Oh this is awesome!! Congrats on the release! And thank you to yourself, Grayman and everyone who helped to put this together!

[nbohr1more]

Congrats to JackFarmer and Grayman !

Happy Holidays to all !!!

[RedNoodles]

Congrats on the release and happy holidays!

[Heuli]

Congrats on the release JackFarmer,
the mission will remind us all of Grayman

[lowenz]

Awesome!

[New Horizon]

Congrats on the release!

[JackFarmer]

@New Horizon

Since I have integrated your voice lines into the mission, no day goes by I do not recite at least one or two paragraphs from your manic speech in the crypt!

Dedicated Builders, boozed working class heroes or megalomoniac aristocrats - New Horizon can do it all!

Once again, a big thank you to you and all the other great voice talents who contributed to this mission and also my previous missions!

[AndrosTheOxen]

Wow, man... didn't know the backstory!  Feelz, and I don't toss that around often!  Great to be on project, thanks for asking me.  And folks, please consider my voice at your disposal... I would have been an actor except for NO MEMORY AT ALL... I am happy to be in a tiny room, pretending to be other people! 

 

 

[Zerg Rush]

Magnificent mission, I have started to play it and I have been captivated by the great setting.
Congratulations and thank you for this masterpiece. 

[tapewolf]

Okay, that was awesome.  I loved the weird obsession with food - was that part of the original plan, or an addition of your own?

The conversations were particularly good as well, and I particularly like it when a mission has a closing scene.

The only thing I struggled with a bit was the volume level of some of the voices.  That's something I see a lot so it might be the way I have my sound system setup.  I had to restart the mission and crank up the volume to hear what the guys were saying in the opening scene.

All in all, it was fantastic and you've done a brilliant job bringing this to completion.

[peispud]

Yes sir. I think I know what I'm doing tonight

[Gadavre]

Thank !

Edited December 25, 2021 by Gadavre

[Zerg Rush]

Great mission, but I struggled somewhat with a low FPS in the cave of the Mage, the rest flawless.

[JackFarmer]

11 hours ago, tapewolf said:

Okay, that was awesome.  I loved the weird obsession with food - was that part of the original plan, or an addition of your own?

Thank you, it was my addition:

 

Spoiler

Having designed the chef's character, I needed a reason why he was locked up in the first place. So I got the idea that he was imprisoned for a failed attempt at cooking, although his whole cuisine is already difficult to digest. So there I put references to food in all conversations and books.

 

 

[Filizitas]

Spoiler

I played this and i got to the magic door and opened 2 locks on it. 
But then after hitting one guy uncouncious in that kitchen room with the 4 beds i somehow froze and couldnt move again anymore  

All in all very good mission!

[duzenko]

Can we have some walkthrough spoilers in the first post, like where to get lock codes, etc.

[irisx]

Thank you for this delightful Christmas present!

[AndrosTheOxen]

I am VERY pleased to say that once I cranked back the SF and Ambient Volume, all the voice acting showed up.  (I didn't even know what those settings DID until now.)  If you find the environment walking all over the story, do the same.)  Merry Christmas!

[Goldwell]

Rest in peace Grayman, and thank you for this mission!

 

I just finished the mission and had a great time. Kicked off with an excellent briefing video, ambient, readables, voice acting, story and of course the level itself was really well made with lots of attention to detail. I loved all of the twists and turns throughout the mission, I had a lot of fun!

 

And also thank you to JackFarmer and everyone else on the team who helped to get this mission over the finish line, I am sure Grayman would be very proud with the end result!

 

Spoiler

Also that ending scene was very touching! Beautiful work guys!

 

[kin]

Great release JackFarmer thank you for this, we will never forget Grayman.

 

Spoiler

I am having trouble finding the key that opens the kitchen door

 

[tapewolf]

38 minutes ago, kin said:

Great release JackFarmer thank you for this, we will never forget Grayman.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

I am having trouble finding the key that opens the kitchen door

 

 

Try

Spoiler

asking the cook

EDIT: Note that there's a lock on the wall, not the trapdoor itself

 

Edited December 25, 2021 by tapewolf
Clarity

[NeonsStyle]

Awesome. Congrats on the release.

[madtaffer]

  

4 hours ago, duzenko said:

Can we have some walkthrough spoilers in the first post, like where to get lock codes, etc.

 

Spoiler

1) Get the prison key from the guy who is talking with Percy, unlock trapdoor, get the food for the cook, he'll tell you the code 528

2) Get all poem books, read the numbers in it, match the numbers with the Poem's name and the artwork in the room you unlock with mysterious key

Spoiler

 

 

 

Edited December 25, 2021 by madtaffer