Fan Mission: Iris by WellingtonCrab [TDM 2.10 Required] (2022/02/13)

[Wellingtoncrab]

25 minutes ago, SeriousToni said:

I finally

  Hide contents

(there's no map available either for this zone)

Spoiler

There is a map for this area the player can collect in Red Rook.

 

27 minutes ago, SeriousToni said:

I finally

  Hide contents

Is there a hint one can give me?

Spoiler

I am not sure exactly where you have been, but the house is located in south of the Hollowbrook in a neighborhood called Grimkirk.

If you are just entering the plague ward from the pump house you are pretty much at the most Northern part of the map in an area called North Sloughgate. Just south of that is South Sloughgate. Just south of that is Grimkirk where you want to go. If you’re at the church you have passed it.

 

[SeriousToni]

@Wellingtoncrab

Spoiler

I like the possibility of giving the player the chance to gas the shop keepers and how this affects the price of the items. Seems like you really have thought about everything.

 

[datiswous]

-

Edited July 20, 2023 by datiswous
Sorry, didn't see last page

[chakkman]

I'm trying to finish this mission, but have no idea how.

Spoiler

The objectives tell me "There is no rest for you now. When you are ready end your tale and join those you have lost beyond the veil."

I think that objective popped up when got the last memento in the underground grave below the Black Rock. No idea what to do now. I thought I just had to head back to where I started, but, nope.

Spoiler

Oh, and, if anyone has a hint where to find the code to the Sanguine Dawn door in the plague area, I'd be grateful as well. Almost forgot about that one.

 

Edited August 1, 2023 by chakkman

[Wellingtoncrab]

16 minutes ago, chakkman said:

I'm trying to finish this mission, but have no idea how.

  Reveal hidden contents

The objectives tell me "There is no rest for you now. When you are ready end your tale and join those you have lost beyond the veil."

I think that objective popped up when got the last memento in the underground grave below the Black Rock. No idea what to do now. I thought I just had to head back to where I started, but, nope.

Spoiler

You have triggered the conditions for the alternate ending and there is no going back home, if there ever was one in the first place. You will have to end things on your own terms unless someone does it for it you.

Regarding the door to the “Three Monuments Hall” - perhaps the name is a reference to the nearby statues and reading the plaque might get you pointed in the right direction.

 

[chakkman]

Thanks, I'll see if I can figure it out.

Awesome mission, by the way. Loving every (of the many) minutes of it.

[chakkman]

And finished. And rated.  Great mission.

The only "bug" apart from 2 or 3 places I got stuck was some shine through material, at player position 4977.99 -1834.08 -285.75  1.8 133.0 0.0 (dunno if you need all those). Some really minor issue, not sure if it's even worth fixing.

 

[Oleron]

I've just discovered this mission, and I must say, this is the the thickest, most tangled, convoluted, clotted, bewildering maze-like city environment I've ever experienced. My hat's off to the creators. On a side note...

Spoiler

...I'm encountering a lot of locked doors I cannot find keys to, and I have no lockpicks. Did I wander off without them, or is that as intended?

 

[chakkman]

1 hour ago, Oleron said:

I've just discovered this mission, and I must say, this is the the thickest, most tangled, convoluted, clotted, bewildering maze-like city environment I've ever experienced. My hat's off to the creators. On a side note...

  Hide contents

...I'm encountering a lot of locked doors I cannot find keys to, and I have no lockpicks. Did I wander off without them, or is that as intended?

 

Spoiler

It's intended. You can either find both lockpicks (a bit difficult), buy them at one of the stores, or... well, I'll leave that to your imagination.

In general, you can find a lot of the store's inventory in the mission, if you look around.

 

Edited August 3, 2023 by chakkman

[Wellingtoncrab]

@chakkman thanks so much for taking the time to play and the bug report! It is much appreciated.

@Oleron I think chakkman had it well state in his response but let me know if you need some more help, or any more clues.

[Oleron]

23 hours ago, chakkman said:

  Hide contents

It's intended. You can either find both lockpicks (a bit difficult), buy them at one of the stores, or... well, I'll leave that to your imagination.

In general, you can find a lot of the store's inventory in the mission, if you look around.

 

Thank you, I did end up finding the tools in question.

 

This map absolutely amazes me. I had finally located the entrance to the target area, and I ended up getting distracted by yet another series of routes I hadn't noticed before, and ended up halfway across the city. Again, just higher up this time. And I loved the distraction. Aside from the dimensional intricacy, the textures are vibrant, the use of lighting nigh-perfect, and the endless, rich array of details is a delight. I could go on and. This mission is just superb.

Edited August 4, 2023 by Oleron

[chakkman]

The size is quite on the limit IMO, it definitely is hard to navigate the city section. But, possible, if you frequently check your map.

And, yes, absolutely superb mission. 

[Oleron]

I am astounded anew. I finished all of stated objectives as well as half a dozen hidden ones, and thought I did pretty well scraping up 5467 in loot, but as it turns out there's actually...

Spoiler

14957

...in the game, soooooo yeahhhhhh. I was never a practitioner of the Lytha method, but that's just unacceptable. No rest for the wicked in the...

Spoiler

frobbable bed

...just yet.

 

Best. Mission. Evar.

Edited August 12, 2023 by Oleron

[Oleron]

Almost a month in and I am still playing this mission. I've stumbled into a bunch of stuff that shone a whole new light on everything, and I'm over 10k loot now.

Anyway, does there happen to be...

Spoiler

...a rope arrow...

...anywhere in the map? I've found just about everything else, and I appear to need one...

Spoiler

...to reach a paper of some sort sitting on a wooden beam way up in the air on the outside of a building.

I've tried go get at it for hours, to no avail. There seems to be no other route.

[AluminumHaste]

17 minutes ago, Oleron said:

Almost a month in and I am still playing this mission. I've stumbled into a bunch of stuff that shone a whole new light on everything, and I'm over 10k loot now.

Anyway, does there happen to be...

  Hide contents

...a rope arrow...

...anywhere in the map? I've found just about everything else, and I appear to need one...

  Hide contents

...to reach a paper of some sort sitting on a wooden beam way up in the air on the outside of a building.

I've tried go get at it for hours, to no avail. There seems to be no other route.

Did you take a trip to the under ground shop seller in the starting area? I thought he sold rope arrows, might be remembering wrong.

[Wellingtoncrab]

@Oleron there are no rope arrows in the mission -

Spoiler

I am not sure but it sounds like you may be going for this sequence of very difficult jumps. It's not for the feint of heart (I can't do it):

This route was originally discovered by @AluminumHaste who is something of a human rope arrow.

Edited August 26, 2023 by Wellingtoncrab

[Oleron]

15 hours ago, Wellingtoncrab said:

@Oleron there are no rope arrows in the mission -

  Hide contents

I am not sure but it sounds like you may be going for this sequence of very difficult jumps. It's not for the feint of heart (I can't do it):

This route was originally discovered by @AluminumHaste who is something of a human rope arrow.

Yup, that's it. And I don't think it's going to happen. Thank you.

Edited August 26, 2023 by Oleron

[Mr. Ragbag]

I love this fan mission replayed it so many times, never gets old. One of my top five favorits, even found dew drop.

[AluminumHaste]

Is this supposed to look like this or am I missing a texture or something:

 

It looks like it should be a painting or something but it's looking info the void.

 

This lamp is hanging in midair, not attached to anything.

 

The other side doesn't even have a lamp:

[Wellingtoncrab]

57 minutes ago, AluminumHaste said:

Is this supposed to look like this or am I missing a texture or something:

Spoiler

Yes, it is supposed to look like that. It is a clue that there is stuff you can find if you try and get out of bounds of the map.

Thanks for the bug report - Not sure when the next patch is coming but it added to the list.

[MirceaKitsune]

What a beautiful FM! This absolutely rivals some of the best made recently such as Seeking Lady Leicester. It's filled with secrets and unique interactions, as well as a huge city divided into differently themed areas which is something I love about such city hubs. It was lovely to go through and offered quite a few days of fun, thank you!

Spoiler

I was fascinated with the unique hostility system used by AI in this mission, where characters are initially friendly and will only turn hostile if you enter a restricted area or steal something while they're watching. I didn't think this was possible as I wasn't aware of a script function to check if an AI is seeing you, as well as making just that AI hostile without changing team alliances. This is something I'd like to see integrated in vanilla and used more often: It's an unique challenge to have areas where guards don't normally attack you so you mustn't always hide, but need to keep an eye on everyone or turn off the lights before stealing or picking doors... as opposed to friendly characters either never turning hostile if you steal from right under their noses, or always turning hostile if you steal something even if they didn't see you do it.

There is of course a drawback I'm sure others have noticed: If an AI doesn't see you enter a restricted area while you're being lit, they won't turn hostile at all. This means you can make as much noise as possible and even bump into them while committing a wrongdoing. To make matters worse, AI turn to salute me while in a restricted area, then if they see me attack me right after... this leads to silly situation where in one sentence a character is like "hello there... oh no, an intruder"! It probably needs some tweaking, or ideally a proper implementation in the engine.

I suspect I found most secrets in terms of hidden areas items and objectives, though with how large and complex the world is I know I must have missed something and still would if I played for months.

Spoiler

Got 11489 of 14982 loot, not bad as I typically get even less... more than 10:30 hours of time clocked in on the save. What itches me is I found 2 of 3 secrets of the void, without actively trying to even... yet I cannot find the third and would kind of love to having got so far with everything else: The ones I found are at the top of the apartment elevator through the openable grate on the last floor, and the wooden balcony near the starting area where you climb from the rail on the wood supports then jump on an opposing rooftop... I suspected the third to be on the castle roof with the big red flags and dome above the canal passage with the drunk guard and camera, but I looked all the way up and couldn't find it.

Other than that...

Spoiler

I still ask myself who's dream it is

 

Edited October 7, 2023 by MirceaKitsune

[STiFU]

Can't believe I missed this FM and played this now almost two years late. Congrats @Wellingtoncrab, what an incredible achievement. I loved every bit of it and it is sooooooo beautiful! Those volumetric lights really go a long way!! How the hell did you pull off

Spoiler

the changed architecture when putting on the glasses? Movers I assume?

I also loved the idea that you start out with almost nothing and have to acquire your tools, which kind of introduces some metroid vania elements to your FM. And that writing... Damn!

If I had to be really nitpicky, I would say that your FM had too many tools scattered around that you don't really need. Tool scarcity is always a sure-fire way to create tension, so I think your FM would have been even better if there were less flashbombs, water arrows etc., and more loot instead.

 

[Dragofer]

18 minutes ago, STiFU said:

How the hell did you pull off

As part of the 2.10 update, a long extinct engine feature was restored by duzenko that allowed the visual changes to happen. Meanwhile, when the item is used its custom scriptobject cycles through all entities on the map that have been marked with a custom spawnarg and updates their solidity. 2.10 was a very feature-heavy update so that became a theme in the contest and using this back-then experimental feature gave bonus points. Meanwhile it's become a core feature.

@MirceaKitsuneas this FM is the first instance of the overhauled and quite complex multi-part version of this AI script, it'd probably be good to compile all known issues like yours so the script can be finetuned further. Could probably also do with a wiki page to describe how to use its features.

[Wellingtoncrab]

@STiFU thanks for playing! If you really want to see some tricks using some special eyewear - I recommend you check out Written in Stone! 

@MirceaKitsune Also thanks for playing! The behavior you a describing regarding AI not reacting to player sounds in restricted city areas should only occur on the “nostalgia” difficulty.

As far the remaining SotV:

Spoiler

If you look up in The Stacks you will probably see it - but it’s not easy to get to!

 

[STiFU]

6 hours ago, Dragofer said:

As part of the 2.10 update, a long extinct engine feature was restored by duzenko that allowed the visual changes to happen. Meanwhile, when the item is used its custom scriptobject cycles through all entities on the map that have been marked with a custom spawnarg and updates their solidity. 2.10 was a very feature-heavy update so that became a theme in the contest and using this back-then experimental feature gave bonus points. Meanwhile it's become a core feature.

@MirceaKitsuneas this FM is the first instance of the overhauled and quite complex multi-part version of this AI script, it'd probably be good to compile all known issues like yours so the script can be finetuned further. Could probably also do with a wiki page to describe how to use its features.

Ahhh, so that's what the x-rays feature is. I read that term multiple times, but its development must've fell into one of my inactivity phases.