Down and Out on Newford Road by thebigh (Jan 26 2022), Christmas Connections contest entry

[thebigh]

That was interesting to watch. For my next level I'll have to remember that frob highlights are hard to see with the lantern on. That playthrough missed a few things that I didn't intend to be missable, like the book on the Bishop's desk.

[JackFarmer]

3 hours ago, thebigh said:

 That playthrough missed a few things that I didn't intend to be missable, like the book on the Bishop's desk.

I know exactly what you mean, see the red container in the mage's sleeping room in TBM.

Edited March 20, 2022 by JackFarmer

[Geep]

The Big H, I just played this. It seems a well-rounded challenging FM, with coherent and carefully-crafted stories. Kudos and some brickbats follow.
 

Spoiler

What I particularly liked
Outside, the spot sounds of baby crying, cat wailing, were fun. Snowman with off'd head, and related story elements around sick child, cruel patrol guard sold the tale. Gatehouse view of the fireflys in the mist was scenic.

In the Builder's building, you had great touches like the moving gears of the elevator, and carpet texture draped as comforter on a bed. The volumetric lighting in the builder guards bunkroom was attractive, and the design of Isaac's Forge room was engaging.

In Landlord Stokes building: volumetric lighting in the Duncans' room; attractive curved ceiling above main stairs; clever pickpocketing through window.

In the undead clock tower, the story was reinforced by bricked-up windows, blocked pipes, and SFX behind boarded doors. Nice spooky use of cobwebs, broken stairs, and purple lighting.

Where I had problems
I see there's now an available playthrough. Comments next don't reflect that.

I had to use your hints to Zerg Rush in order to find the holy relic. Like others, I missed the Bishop's diary. Without the hint, it seemed that working the locks in the Forge didn't do anything. Also, there's some transparent overlays besides those locks, one of which (Roman numeral I) looks like a 3rd inactive lock... confusing.

I don't have great reflexes, and no amount of effort at acrobatics could get me onto the gutter, with or without a rope arrow.  Instead, I gave up and used magic <cough><noclip><cough>. (I didn't try to use your hint of stacking atop the snowman. The nearest movable crates were in the clock tower, but I'd used them early on - too early, when I didn't yet have weapons or holy water - to trap the revenant at the foot of the stairs. And I didn't feel like dragging the gatehouse crates across town.)

You'd have to have pretty sharp eyes to spot the kassen secret button. I only found it by mucking about in DR afterwards.

Small bugs: z-fighting on landlord stairs halfway up. Got stuck besides the spinning wheel in the balcony apartment.

Probably the briefing could've been tightened up.

Anderson mentioned the problem of the sitting acolyte getting stuck if alerted. I also saw him stuck and windmilling. My experience is that this is a general problem in TDM with sitting AI when aroused.

 

[thebigh]

37 minutes ago, Geep said:

The Big H, I just played this. It seems a well-rounded challenging FM, with coherent and carefully-crafted stories.

Thanks for playing and I'm glad you enjoyed it. When and if I update the mission I'll deal with some of the strange clipping errors.

I'm really glad someone noticed the extra sound effects in the haunted house. I was proud of those.

 

[esme]

Does anyone have a list of secrets for this, I have 4 out of 5 secrets found & I'm damned if I can find the last one

[thebigh]

Which ones did you find already?

Spoiler

1. Look for a secret switch in the bow maker's shop.

2. Up in the chapel rafters.

3. In the water in the sewers look for a removable stone, below some mushrooms.

4. From the landlord's window you can get to a gutter higher up

5. Under a yellow vase in the upstairs apartment on Redwold Alley

I'm always curious to know which ones people found and which ones they didn't.

[esme]

17 hours ago, thebigh said:

Which ones did you find already?

From your list, all but number 1

Also on number 4, there's an easier way

Spoiler

Just to the left of the arch leading to the square there's a wooden beam going all the way up to the roofline with a stone block on top, there are 3 barrels racked against the wall at the bottom

Face that beam. step back, take 2 steps left, look up & to the right & there's a wooden plank in the roof over the archway, rope arrow into that & you can get number 4, getting down again is left as an exercise for the reader

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by esme

[thebigh]

Yeah, finding multiple routes through a map is always nice.

[Thiefette]

Congrats on the mission, I just finished it up today and enjoyed it. 

Spoiler

When I first started, I went over to the bow shop and apartments first. I then went to the back door of the sewer first and found myself feeling a little trapped. I hadn't found the blackjack yet, so with the two guards on a tight path, I came here to see what I was missing. Guess I've been away to long and forgot about using doors for climbing. lol Once I got the key to the apartments the whole world opened up and the search was on for both the secrets and the coins (I found many more than 5). Searching for coins allowed me to find many other "trinkets" and I ended up with almost all the loot. 
I had to have help with the secret in the rafters - after much searching up there as it looked like a place where something could be - and having crawled through every other place looking for something to highlight, I confirmed here that it was indeed in the rafters. I still had trouble finding it but did eventually. 
The gears moving in the elevator was well done, I thought. When I was in the sewer, I expected the undead to jump up when I got near so was surprised (pleasantly) when it didn't and when I got upstairs, I hid against the groaning door and had to make sure it didn't open on me. lol

All in all, it was a nice busy map with lots to explore, thank you for all your hard work. 

[thebigh]

7 hours ago, Thiefette said:

Congrats on the mission, I just finished it up today and enjoyed it. 

  Reveal hidden contents

When I first started, I went over to the bow shop and apartments first. I then went to the back door of the sewer first and found myself feeling a little trapped. I hadn't found the blackjack yet, so with the two guards on a tight path, I came here to see what I was missing. Guess I've been away to long and forgot about using doors for climbing. lol Once I got the key to the apartments the whole world opened up and the search was on for both the secrets and the coins (I found many more than 5). Searching for coins allowed me to find many other "trinkets" and I ended up with almost all the loot. 
I had to have help with the secret in the rafters - after much searching up there as it looked like a place where something could be - and having crawled through every other place looking for something to highlight, I confirmed here that it was indeed in the rafters. I still had trouble finding it but did eventually. 
The gears moving in the elevator was well done, I thought. When I was in the sewer, I expected the undead to jump up when I got near so was surprised (pleasantly) when it didn't and when I got upstairs, I hid against the groaning door and had to make sure it didn't open on me. lol

All in all, it was a nice busy map with lots to explore, thank you for all your hard work. 

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it, and well done on finding so many of the lost coins.

[Cambridge Spy]

Here's my playthrough video for Down and Out on Newford Road:

 

 

[thebigh]

On 7/31/2022 at 1:51 PM, Cambridge Spy said:

Here's my playthrough video for Down and Out on Newford Road:

 

 

Nice! You found just about everything, even the hidden secret objective! It's fun watching someone really take their time and go exploring, and you made excellent use of the numerous routes in and out of places. It was interesting to watch.

Edited August 1, 2022 by thebigh

[Frost_Salamander]

Just finished this, really enjoyed it.  I found it pretty challenging, but fair.  I thought the builder area/church was really well done.  God knows where the secrets are - I only found one, and just barely got the loot goal on medium (I got 685).  Good use of verticality too, and I like these small but packed maps.  Good stuff 

Oh and I loved it when

Spoiler

you go to open that window to the undead area and the window falls out with that loud crash.  I got a good chuckle out of that for some reason 

 

[thebigh]

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it; this map was fun to build. Frustratingly buggy at times but fun.

Which secret did you find? I'm always curious to know how well I should hide things.

[Frost_Salamander]

8 minutes ago, thebigh said:

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you enjoyed it; this map was fun to build. Frustratingly buggy at times but fun.

Which secret did you find? I'm always curious to know how well I should hide things.

Spoiler

It was a ring (I think) in a pool of water up on the roof across from the landlord's window

 

[thebigh]

Awesome! That's one of the harder ones to find. I liked that whole area because it sort of emerged organically; I hadn't planned to put it in when I was designing the level.

[Frost_Salamander]

1 minute ago, thebigh said:

Awesome! That's one of the harder ones to find. I liked that whole area because it sort of emerged organically; I hadn't planned to put it in when I was designing the level.

Yeah some of the best ideas just kind of happen that way, don't they?  I think I found that one because

Spoiler

there was some coloured light or something nearby, so I figured something must be there

 

[Jedi_Wannabe]

Forgot to post after I finished this last week! Got distracted with VR stuff and forgot.

Anyway, this was FUN. My ideal perfect map size. Not so big you get lost as hell but compact and dense enough that it feels big and full of life. Right amount of challenge, the patrols were perfect. You gotta be patient to find the windows but they are there. I definitely didn't find everything on my 3 hr playthrough;

Spoiler

Played on Burglar ,719 out of 937 loot, 2 out of 5 secrets, stealth score: 4

Can't wait to get it all on my second run with VR next time.

Thank you for this mission, I really liked it. Key hunt in the Builder compound was just right, made exploring all the floors meaningful, like not a chore. The story was great.

Thank you.

Edited September 25, 2022 by Jedi_Wannabe

[thebigh]

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you had fun.

[MirceaKitsune]

A good FM all in all, I liked. Found at least 3 of the secrets on my own, the rest with help... also got almost all loot just short of less than 100. I did get stuck and need to watch a playthrough in order to know how to finish it.

Spoiler

The key to the safe can be found early thus you can loot it then. It's not clear that when you later go below and use the two keys on the shelf to unlock the builder symbol, a new door opens at the back of the same safe. The expectation was the shelf itself or a door nearby would open.

 

[AluminumHaste]

I just started playing this on latest beta, and noticed in the briefing that the text is cut off.

 

    windowDef BriefingText2
    {
        rect 160,100,300,240
        visible    0
        forecolor    0.8, 1, 1, 0.7
                font        BRIEFING_TEXT_FONT
        textscale    BRIEFING_TEXT_SCALE
        text            "To make matters worse, only one of my old connections is willing to even talk to me right now: a sketchy old fence called Hamill who says he can get me back home through an obscure tunnel he once used to smuggle some golden dinnerplates. Of course, Hamill wants a favour first. It seems his neighbours at the Builder compound have a holy icon that he wants me to procure for him before he'll risk helping me."
    }

 

[Daft Mugi]

2 hours ago, AluminumHaste said:

I just started playing this on latest beta, and noticed in the briefing that the text is cut off.

Are you using the beta 4 executable, or did you build a more recent revision from source (which SVN revision)?

There's been some recent changes to text overflow logic. That's why I ask.

[AluminumHaste]

Built from source this morning

[thebigh]

That's new... I'll fix that and another couple of tiny bugs in the next few days and post an updated version.

[Daft Mugi]

57 minutes ago, thebigh said:

That's new... I'll fix that and another couple of tiny bugs in the next few days and post an updated version.

You may not need to fix the mission briefing text overflow issue on your side. There's ongoing discussion about how the code should be. As long as it looks ok with the official beta 4 release (rev 10226), I'd wait and see how it looks in 2.11 beta 5.