Fan Mission : Hazard Pay by Kingsal 01/27/22

[kingsal]

4 minutes ago, datiswous said:

Download is gone..

Should work now! Dropbox is not happy with me today

[datiswous]

Cool thanks.

Why does the install_splash.tga show Volta and the Stone ?

[kingsal]

10 minutes ago, datiswous said:

Why does the install_splash.tga show Volta and the Stone ?

This uses the same assets and set up as my Volta and the Stone campaign. I saw it and just left it. Maybe it all takes place in the same universe.

[datiswous]

Maybe.. but:

On 1/28/2022 at 7:11 AM, kingsal said:

Hello! Its been a while since I’ve released something so I figured I'd join the 
Connections Competition and make a stand-alone adventure to try out the new 2.10 features. 

[kingsal]

7 minutes ago, datiswous said:

Maybe.. but:

Sorry if that's confusing, but yes indeed this is a stand alone mission and is not part of the Volta story.

[Oktokolo]

Enjoyed this mission on easy to avoid save restrictions and had fun.

The ancient tomb theme never gets old and the mission executed well on it. The low-poly art style hints at the Tomb Raider series - and there indeed is some well-measured jumping and lots of verticality in this mission (yes, a map would have been nice).

Spoiler

I am pretty sure that i dodged a bullet by not playing it on the usual expert difficulty as save rooms would have been waaay too far apart.
It probably also will be one of the few missions, i never play on normal or expert until someone makes an "arbitrary restrictions override" addon allowing to turn off save and knockout (not used in this mission) restrictions...

There where nicely laid out physics puzzles (boxes to be dropped, huge vases to be rolled down stairs), but none of them does enough damage to the undead to not be disappointing. The 2.10 beta might be to blame for this.
Shooting gems from a ceiling and wall worked fine though.

I am no fan of zombies. But in this mission they where well done. Killable by whatever weapon you want to use with one hit (broadheads kill with one headshot as they always should).

There seems to be enough equipment to kill everyone - twice.
But i avoided the entire outdoor horde by walking on the unpowered rail (finally a mission where the obvious and logical thing to do actually works) and hoarded most of the stuff to sell when back in town...

This mission is not perfect but pretty good in all aspects: A tripple four.

[AluminumHaste]

You thought your MonsterCliping was on point, you thought you could contain.....ME??!?!?!?!

TOO BAD I CAN'T SAVE MY GAME THOUGH

 

In case you're curious:
 

 

[AluminumHaste]

And, instant fail conditions like walking out in the desert......welp, lost that progress.....again. FFS

[AluminumHaste]

Spoiler

Rails off the tracks:

Out of position patch:

Player gets stuck right here:

Door clips into the wall

Misaligned patch:

 

[kingsal]

@AbusimpleaThanks, glad you liked it!

@AluminumHasteThanks, sorry you don't like the mission. Maybe try playing on Normal which lets your save whenever.

 

[AluminumHaste]

Has nothing to do with liking the mission or not, the mission is incredible. I don't think that having instant fail conditions on a checkpoint system is a good idea. Died again looking like I can make a jump to the

Spoiler

Guy sitting on the platform, but fell for 127 dmg. Started back at the beginning again.

 

[MayheM]

One of the best mission i've ever played on TDM. from the choices of art style to sound, everything is perfect. I finally had to use weapons for the first time as i always ghost. The saving mechanism is great too for people like me spamming quick-saves. also it reminds me a lot of penumbra. 10/10

Edited February 1, 2022 by MayheM

[joebarnin]

Brilliant mission, one of my favorites ever. Great design, art, layout, sound, everything. The item balance was perfect - I had what I needed, when I needed it. And

Spoiler

fire arrows - who'd have thought they could take out several zombies at once? (is that normal, or did you enhance them?).

And the ride at the end - what a nice treat!

Played on Easy - that's my style (in other words, I'm not very good). Didn't find any secrets, so there's plenty of reasons to go back and try again (also, I was using the 1.1 version not 1.2).

[kingsal]

Because this mission is using some very new features, I'm going to make regular updates to stabilize it. I wish there was a way to keep old saves but in most cases they will not work

I've updated this mission DOWNLOAD 1.3 (BETA). (old saves will not work)
- No more instant death scenarios
- Save Rooms are on EXPERT only now. 

@MayheM @joebarnin Wow! thanks for playing. I am glad you liked it.

[kin]

16 hours ago, AluminumHaste said:

You thought your MonsterCliping was on point, you thought you could contain.....ME??!?!?!?!

TOO BAD I CAN'T SAVE MY GAME THOUGH

 

In case you're curious:
 

 

Do I see a pair of shadowy legs in the video when looking to the floor or is it just casted shadows?

Edited February 1, 2022 by kin

[AluminumHaste]

g_showPlayerShadow 1

But, I warn you it looks funky sometimes as there's no real animations done for the player character.

I still like having it though.

EDIT: oh yeah, there's no body awareness stuff in this game, you don't see your character model. That's just the shadows

[AluminumHaste]

6 hours ago, kingsal said:

Because this mission is using some very new features, I'm going to make regular updates to stabilize it. I wish there was a way to keep old saves but in most cases they will not work

I've updated this mission DOWNLOAD 1.3 (BETA). (old saves will not work)
- No more instant death scenarios
- Save Rooms are on EXPERT only now. 

@MayheM @joebarnin Wow! thanks for playing. I am glad you liked it.

Sorry I forgot to record this on my first playthrough, but the first zombie gets stuck on the stairs going in circles. I have to jump up and down to get his attention to come back down.

[HMart]

Hey guys is this how the volumetric fog/smoke should look? Or is something wrong? I see a very strong dithering like effect.  

forgot: Is on AMD RX 570X gpu. 

Btw very nice mission as always kinsal, very professional looking. 

Edited February 1, 2022 by HMart

[AluminumHaste]

r_volumetricSamples, try 16, 24, 32 etc

Depending on the power of your GPU, higher dithering samples will have a large or very large impact on performance.

[Wellingtoncrab]

Turn off image sharpening as well as it makes the dithering more noticeable I would also try running at native resolution if you can

[JackFarmer]

I finished the mission Sunday evening. I have to say you just know how to create atmosphere - light, ambient music and decoration are always extremely consistent and fitting. I just don't understand how you do it.

As I wrote in a post above, this mission reminds me a lot of certain old Tomb Raider and Resident Evil games. I really think it's a great combination of both games.

However, I don't think the saving system on the highest level of difficulty is that great, but you can now save normally again on the two lower levels of difficulty, thus the game should be enjoyable for everyone who wants to use the default saving system.

So, thank you very much for this work, I will try to learn from it, and let me finish this post with a screenshot that perfectly describes the vibes I felt when playing this great mission:

Spoiler

 

Edited February 1, 2022 by JackFarmer

[HMart]

2 hours ago, AluminumHaste said:

r_volumetricSamples, try 16, 24, 32 etc

Depending on the power of your GPU, higher dithering samples will have a large or very large impact on performance.

16 samples and disabling image sharpening did the trick, the dithering is still present but is way less noticeable, It did gave me a obvious performance penalty but with resolution scale set at 0.78, i got most of it back and IMO the game didn't suffer much from that, still looks very nice to me. Thanks for the help guys, now I go continue playing this nice mission. 

[Kopfrkingl]

This was great. Really tense and atmospheric, with neat visuals and expertly crafted environments to stealth through. I'm usually not the biggest fan of zombie missions but this one easily made it among my favorite maps of all time. The ability to sneakily snipe the undead from afar really helped and also provided a sweet change of playstyle from most fan missions. Nice to finally put the bow and arrows to good use!

Although a save-scummer, I played it on hard for the extra challenge that comes with limited saves. Imo you made it work. This forced me out of my comfort zone and made me use the resources at my disposal, thus giving me a very different experience from my usual runs. It had this survival horror feel not often present in TDM. Coupled with many secrets and hidden loot to discover, this mission is a unique gem for me.

 

Spoiler

Loved the option to kill Gordiff and take the code by force without failing the mission. Nice attention to detail!

 

[AluminumHaste]

That's what he was going for, for sure.

 

[kingsal]

Thanks to everyone who's played and left comments and/ or bugs! 

I've updated to 1.4. Mostly minor bug fixes and made a few jumps and ropes less annoying.
DOWNLAOD HAZARD 1.4
(unfortunately old saves will not work)