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

[JackFarmer]

@chakkman: Danke, mein Junge. 

 

15 hours ago, chakkman said:

P.S.: In regards of the "puzzle creep" mentioned above, TDM missions can't have enough puzzles for me. Big fan of those. If they're well made and not too unobvious, of course.

Have you ever tried my "Hidden Hands" series? Might be something to your liking (or maybe not).

 

[chakkman]

I've yet to play those. But, as I'm kind of addicted to TDM at the moment, I surely will soon.

[OrbWeaver]

I've got most of the way through this mission and can definitely see the "Grayman quality" at work. Unique and consistent architecture with a mission-specific distinctive look, and a layout that makes sense.

However I am stuck because I have only found two of the poetry books — despite clearing out the entire castle, knocking out every AI, and looking inside every container I can see, I still cannot find volume 2 anywhere.

[datiswous]

2 hours ago, OrbWeaver said:

I still cannot find volume 2 anywhere

 

Spoiler

See this post:

 

Edited September 5, 2022 by datiswous

[MirceaKitsune]

Just started playing this amazing FM: Very impressive, love the atmosphere and detail and extra dialogue. Normally I post after I finish a FM, but I wanted to report an obvious and annoying bug I've come across... note I'm on the latest dev version of TDM so I don't know if it's just the map or something changed that's causing a mismatch.

Spoiler

If you disturb Percy while he's at his desk, the map crashes to the main menu when he returns and attempts to sit down again, with the error "Multiple entities named PercyQuill".

 

[Obsttorte]

This is a mission bug. The quill is attached to Percys hand for writing, and removed once he stopped. But there is nothing in the code that checks on whether Percy is already holding a quill. This can cause a quill to be spawned although there already is one, and as the naming is fixed, you suddenly end up with two entities sharing the same name, which is not allowed.

The attached modified script should solve the issue. It belongs in the maps folder inside the pk4.

(I hope it is okay to provide the fix, it doesn't change anything artistical).

tbm.script

[JackFarmer]

On 10/26/2022 at 10:30 AM, Obsttorte said:

This is a mission bug. The quill is attached to Percys hand for writing, and removed once he stopped. But there is nothing in the code that checks on whether Percy is already holding a quill. This can cause a quill to be spawned although there already is one, and as the naming is fixed, you suddenly end up with two entities sharing the same name, which is not allowed.

The attached modified script should solve the issue. It belongs in the maps folder inside the pk4.

(I hope it is okay to provide the fix, it doesn't change anything artistical).

tbm.script 28.38 kB · 1 download

I think it is getting too much for me; I have changed the script shortly after the release for version 2....I don't know what happened then, however it looks like that:

1. Version 2 on my backup system does include the old script (????)

2. My personal version 2 in the fms folder includes the new script.

However, back then I solved the problem by adding $PercyQuill.remove() at script start.  Checked back then and checked it now and it works as it should.   Can I use my approach for the next update or should I go with your solution?

[Obsttorte]

My solution is propably more error resistant, as it checks for the existence of the quill everytime the script tries to spawn it, not just at script start. But I haven't tested it personally, so maybe some of the others can report whether the bug is really fixed. Jus tto be sure.

[MirceaKitsune]

Think I'm about halfway there. Found another bug in the meantime. Latest dev version of TDM if related.

Spoiler

Elementals won't spawn and appear as black boxes, you can see the particles but they're a static dark cube. I know this happens on entity errors, maybe something about how the def is referenced.

 

[datiswous]

You can probably see some related errors in the console

[JackFarmer]

1 hour ago, MirceaKitsune said:

Think I'm about halfway there. Found another bug in the meantime. Latest dev version of TDM if related.

  Reveal hidden contents

Elementals won't spawn and appear as black boxes, you can see the particles but they're a static dark cube. I know this happens on entity errors, maybe something about how the def is referenced.

 

Please do not report problems in the game thread when it's not map or 2.10 related. Thank you.

[MirceaKitsune]

21 minutes ago, JackFarmer said:

Please do not report problems in the game thread when it's not map or 2.10 related. Thank you.

Sorry about that: Thought it might also be map related and caused by custom def's, not easy to tell when it's a map issue or not. It doesn't seem to break anything essential in any case, so it can be played well even if you run into this issue.

[MirceaKitsune]

Finally finished it. What a beautiful FM! I can see a lot of effort and detail went into it including the dialogue. Things went on for longer than I expected and in a good way, really felt like you went on a great little adventure. You get hints for everything and won't easily get stuck, that's a mistake many FM's do having the player waste over an hour only to ultimately read the solutions to advance. I like how it not only gave depth to the main villain, but also the player as this nice Robin Hood type guy. It had a few rather unique elements and ideas, especially in the final areas, as well as...

Spoiler

The weirdest cake I've ever seen or heard of As for the black mage, he really should have been better at steampunk cybersecurity and not made his machine so easy to break and mess with... felt a little sad for him at the end.

Edited October 30, 2022 by MirceaKitsune

[evildiesel]

Thanks everybody who made this fantastic mission. It is one of my favourites. One thing is puzzling me though and I have finished it on expert and ghosting it but I never got to use the 5 ancient artifacts. I see the picture on the wall in the bedroom and I even make a sketch of it and have the 5 artifacts but what do I do with them? I can see the guy in the picture is down at the throne in near the kitchen but I can't seem to drop or use the artifacts whatsoever. I'm sure I'm missing something easy.

R.I.P. Grayman

[JackFarmer]

On 3/14/2023 at 7:54 PM, evildiesel said:

 but I never got to use the 5 ancient artifacts. I see the picture on the wall in the bedroom and I even make a sketch of it and have the 5 artifacts but what do I do with them?

Spoiler

You do not need to make a sketch of the picture in the bedroom, once you read the readable on the table, the picture can be frobbed and adds a sketch to your inventory.

Once you have found all five artefacts, the mission objective has been completed as it just comprises finding the five objects. Nothing more to that and you in the objectives list that the relevant objective got ticked green.

 

[Rio_Walker]

As soon as I started, I was hooked.
Intro, our thief's reactions (can never have enough of those), cutscenes (YES!), dialogue with NPC's... It was great.

And the further I went, the more it opened up. Overhearing conversations, a freaking tape recorder?!

I found a very sus table in the pantry, and thought that maybe I need to light the candle, which did nothing.
But you gotta admit, that looked like a puzzle of sorts.
Turns out I was overthinking it...

Spoiler

what a Sus cake, honestly.

 

I too completely missed the hidden "chest" with the second book, only after coming here did I went back and found it.

Spoiler

The fact that ghosts Poof-ed after you're done was a nice touch

, but it's sad that Mage's readable turned out to be only partially true. =D

Thank you for your work and release!

 

[cavador]

Excellent mission. I really enjoyed it. The only problem I encountered was the game crashing to the desktop if I shot a skeleton with a fire arrow down in the room with the machines past the lava section. This meant I was forced to ghost around them. I wonder why shooting them with a fire arrow would cause the entire game to crash?

Edited February 2 by cavador

[nbohr1more]

40 minutes ago, cavador said:

Excellent mission. I really enjoyed it. The only problem I encountered was the game crashing to the desktop if I shot a skeleton with a fire arrow down in the room with the machines past the lava section. This meant I was forced to ghost around them. I wonder why shooting them with a fire arrow would cause the entire game to crash?

Try the 2.13 beta. There are some stability fixes in there for Arrow behavior.

[sullium]

Hi, sorry to say but I just got the "Multiple entities named 'PercyQuill'" error that was reported here before. Percy stands up from his desk to investigate a disturbance, then as he gets in position to sit back down I'm booted to the console/main menu.

It isn't consistent, but I got it to happen twice: the first time when I was playing casually at 170 FPS, and the second time with the original "capped" 60 FPS mode after a while of testing from my most recent save.

I'm also seeing another, more consistent issue with Percy and his quill: if I jump and land loudly a few feet away from him, his quill almost always flies out of his hand, and after this he becomes completely unresponsive. He just sits there, pretending to write with no quill in his hand, as I jump around and throw candles at him.

I'm running TDM 2.12 on Windows 10, and the menu shows I'm playing version 4 of the mission.

Otherwise I really like this mission so far! Next time I play I might try the script provided by Obsttorte above and see if it helps.

[desin]

Crash to desktop while returning from underground

TDM 2.13 the black mage.zip

[JackFarmer]

1 hour ago, desin said:

Crash to desktop while returning from underground

TDM 2.13 the black mage.zip 5.32 kB · 0 downloads

@nbohr1moreto the rescue.

[nbohr1more]

7 hours ago, desin said:

Crash to desktop while returning from underground

TDM 2.13 the black mage.zip 5.32 kB · 0 downloads

Looks like there was entity handle corruption. Can you try to replicate with the latest 2.14 dev build?

 

[desin]

with dark mod 2.14 the crashes to desktop happen before ; in the lava-area while the fire and water elements clash; the corridor is save 

sorry no logs this time 

Thanks 

 

[JackFarmer]

2 hours ago, desin said:

with dark mod 2.14 the crashes to desktop happen before ; in the lava-area while the fire and water elements clash; the corridor is save 

sorry no logs this time 

Thanks 

 

@nbohr1more

[irisx]

On 3/8/2022 at 12:12 PM, TimothySlim said:

Spoiler

When i activated the final switch to release the Fire elemental and he goes up to the lava area to clear out the blue ones; when i went back up to the lava area and wait out at the tunnel door behind the teleporter and watch while the elementals duke it out, shortly after hearing "Garrett" saying 'the enemy of my enemy..', the game crashes (screen hung with a mouse). Tried twice with same result

 I have just experienced a similar crash with TDM 2.13

Spoiler

but instead of the lava area I was waiting in the area with the big (inactivated) portal and the black mage standing next to it. A few seconds after the "enemy of my enemy" line it crashed to desktop.