Fan Mission: Iris by WellingtonCrab [TDM 2.11 Required] (2022/02/13)

[Wellingtoncrab]

==============
       -=   IRIS   =-
==============
WELLINGTONCRAB
  TDM v 2.11 REQ

          Ver. 1.3

     *For  Maureen*

             -=-            

"Carry the light of the Builder, Brother. Unto its end."
                                                    -Valediction of the Devoted

"What year is this? Am I dreaming?"
                                                    -Plea of the Thief

Dear Iris,

I am old and broken. 

When we were young it felt like the words came easily. Now I find the ink has long dried on the pen and I'm as wanting for words as coin in my purse. 

I can tell we are nearing the end of the tale; time enough for one more job before the curtain call...

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-Installation- 

Requires minimum version of TDM 2.11

**Dev build dev17056-10800 (2.13) fixes several visual effects which have been broken in the mission since the release of 2.11. For that reason playing with that version or later is currently recommended**

-Iris does not support mods or the Unofficial Patch-

Download and place the following .pk4 into you FMs directory:
Iris Download

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*Thank you for playing. Iris is a large mission which can either take as quickly or as long as you are compelled to play. I hope someone out there enjoys it and this initial release is not completely busted - I tried the best I could!*

*Iris both is and isn't what it seems. If commenting please use spoiler tags where appropriate. If you are not certain if it would be appropriate a good assumption would be to use a spoiler tag*

*Support TDM by rating missions on Thief Guild: https://www.thiefguild.com/*

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WITH LASTING GRATITUDE:

OBSTORTTE - Whose gameplay scripts from his thread laid the foundation which made the mission seem like something I could even pull off at all. Also fantastic tutorial videos!

DRAGOFER - Who built upon that foundation and made it shine even brighter! And whom also provided immeasurable quantities of help and encouragement the past couple years on the TDM discord.

ORBWEAVER & GIGAGOOGA - For generously offering their ambient music up for use.

EPIFIRE - Who lent me his fine trash and trash receptacle models.

AMADEUS - Who was the first person who wasn't me to play the damn thing and provided his excellent editorial services to improving the readers experience playing

TESTERS AND TROUBLESHOOTERS:

AMADEUS * DATISWOUS * SPOOKS * ALUMINUMHASTE * JAXA * JACKFARMER * WESP5 * ATE0ATE * MADTAFFER * STGATILOV * DRAGOFER * KINGSAL * KLATREMUS

- What can I possibly say? Playing this thing over and over again could not have been easy. Deepest thanks and all apologies. 

-=THANKS TO ALL ON THE TDM DISCORD AND FORUM=-
==SEE README.TXT FOR ADDITIONAL ATTRIBUTIONS & INFORMATION==

HONORABLE MENTION:

GOLDWELL - If I hadn't by chance stumbled into Northdale back in 2018/2019 I would probably still be trying to get this thing to work in TDS, which means it probably would not exist - though more details on that in readme.

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Boring Technical Information:
*Iris is a performance intensive mission and I recommend a GTX 1060 or equivalent. I find the performance similar to other demanding TDM missions on my machine, but mileage may vary and my apologies if this prevents anyone from enjoying the mission.*
*Iris heavily modifies the behavior of AI in the game, how they relate/respond to each other and the player. So they may act even stranger than they do typically in TDM. Feedback on this is useful - as it can potentially be improved and expanded upon in future patches.*

-=- 

This is my first release and it has been a long time coming! If I forgot anything please let me know!

God Speed.

2.10 Features Used:

• Spoiler

  • Revised entity limit
  • Volumetric lighting
  • Security Cameras
  • X-rays
  • Cabinet1 Extension pack
  • Secrets System

[joebarnin]

Congrats on the release! I'm looking forward to playing this.

[Amadeus]

Yeah!!!! Congratulations on releasing this awesome FM!! This is gonna rock people's socks off!

[nbohr1more]

Congrats!!!

Is this a contest mission?

If so, please let me know if you need assistance adding a poll to the thread ( etc ).

If not, please let me know if you want this added to the mission database early or if you prefer to wait until 2.10 official.

[Wellingtoncrab]

Thanks everyone! (And again big thank you to all my testers)

@nbohr1more I figured at this point it would not be eligible for the contest as I missed the deadline by a heavy margin.

I have no problem with it being added to the mission database  - I believe I have the darkmod.txt file setup correctly to prevent launch outside of 2.10

[nbohr1more]

I think we can squeeze you in. I'll ping the contest thread and see if the others agree. I think jonri is gonna be excluded however, he probably wont release until after 2.10...

[madtaffer]

Congrats! Iris is monumental. I have about hundreds of lore questions.

[thebigh]

Congratulations on the release!

[datiswous]

Congratulations!

Edited February 14, 2022 by datiswous

[Jedi_Wannabe]

Congrats on releasing your first FM! That’s a great feeling, is it not?

Been following your progress closely and wished I could have helped with your beta! 

[Wellingtoncrab]

@Jedi_WannabeThank you! I would characterize it as a strange feeling - a combination of both relief and impending dread. Your relationship to anything you make becomes quite complicated over a long period of time and its flaws reside closer to the surface than its virtues. Hopefully it still has a few.

Maybe in a future patch I will look to replace the “programmer” level voice acting with something a little better so perhaps you might be able to help me out then!

[nbohr1more]

A poll has been added! ( Welcome to the contest! )

Mission has been added to Moddb:

https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/addons/iris-210-beta-required

[Zerg Rush]

I started it and enjoyed it a lot, although something out of order to have to steal first to have the money for the lockpicks.
The visuals are gorgeous, good job.

[kin]

30 minutes in the mission and I have to say:

If Looking Glass Studios decided to make "thief 3" it would look like this fan made mission. Congratulations you are a true artist.

[id3839315]

On 2/14/2022 at 2:29 AM, Amadeus said:

This is gonna rock people's socks off!

Congratulations on the release! My socks are still on but this mission definitely doesn't look like crap from WellingtonCrab.

Edited February 15, 2022 by id3839315

[JackFarmer]

Congratulations on the release, what an effort!

Personally, I find your mapping skills rather demoralizing, so I hope someone breaks your hardware in the near future.

[Wellingtoncrab]

@kin Thanks for playing! Let’s see if I can string you along for at least another half hour!

35 minutes ago, id3839315 said:

My socks are still on

Player choice was a guiding principal in the design of Iris, so I am pleased to announce as of patch 1.1 it will become fully playable with your socks either on or off.

@JackFarmer Thanks for being one of the first testers! Not sure if you have ever had the pleasure of using a 1650 mobile, but they basically come for the factory pre busted.

Edited February 15, 2022 by Wellingtoncrab
Typo

[Jedi_Wannabe]

Played it for a few hours last night and hopefully I can finish it tonight after the kids go to sleep.

I must say, hot damn! This is one fun mission. Exploration and map design are top notch. It all interweaves and connects so well!

Your storytelling and narrative style are awesome, all the readables are fantastic!

This must be an alt account or something, there's no way it's your first map, its just too good! 

Brilliant job. Definitely gave me Life of the Party vibes.

[Wellingtoncrab]

@Jedi_Wannabe thank you so much for playing! I hope you enjoy through to end.

I would definitely describe this as more my first finished release than my first map. The road there is paved with many abandoned attempts and reworks. 

Given I had been so bad at releasing anything over the span of really my entire life, I had no idea how many releases I realistically had in me. So for this one, for all its lingering faults, I hope I made it count.

[Jedi_Wannabe]

42 minutes ago, Wellingtoncrab said:

So for this one, for all its lingering faults, I hope I made it count.

You definitely made it count!

[Kopfrkingl]

I had some catching up to do but figured I'd give this one a try, thinking it would be a small, short map. An appetizer before going through larger missions. I start the mission, leave the apartment, and immediately know this one is going to be special. 7 hours later, the mission completion screen greets me and I feel a bit sad the ride is over. This FM is that good.

I'm a huge sucker for tight alleyways and verticality so I was instantly hooked. The district is huge, with many paths to take, places to rob, and even more secrets to discover. It's really well made and feels like a real place. Speaking of which, informing the player where he is and whether the place is hostile or not when entering a new area was a neat addition. It really helped a ton and prevented me from getting hopelessly lost. Going about the streets without the need to hide was a pleasant change of pace and gave me a chance to admire the architecture.

The ambiance and lighting further highlight the creativity that went into this. To me it seems like a passion project, there is so much care and attention to detail! Colour me surprised. Going into this and seeing it was the author's first mission, I expected an okay mission, not a masterpiece that instantly made it among my top 5 all time favourite TDM missions. Another surprise was the performance. Dunno what sort of magic you did but it runs great in all areas. 

Spoiler

Got a bit over 13k loot and I think I may have found all the mementos. The sky turned red and there was no rest for me anymore. I did what had to be done. What a way to end the mission.

A huge thank you to @Wellingtoncrab and all others involved in the map's creation, you have made a piece of art.

Edited February 16, 2022 by Kopfrkingl

[joebarnin]

Just finished. What a brilliant mission! I'll hide comments just in case they spoil things for people.

Spoiler

The design and layout are outstanding - so many levels, and so many paths. I'm just astounded by the complexity and interrelationships of the buildings and rooms.

The progression was spot-on too, in a couple of ways. First, having to earn your tools (despite not having them). You start out scrounging for every penny, trying to afford the picks and a few arrows. But over time you end up with tons of loot and equipment (rarely had to use arrows, as it turned out). Second, the progression of exploration - at each step, just when I thought 'how in the world am I supposed to get there?', I'd soon figure it out. Very sophisticated map design. 

The hostile/non-hostile thing was a nice change of pace. But it threw me for a loop a couple of times: I could be recalling this wrong, but people I thought were non-hostile got upset with me for just bumping into them. Could that be possible? Or am I mis-remembering? I might go back and load a save to see if I can get it to happen again.

I'm not a completionist, so I left a large majority of the loot out there. But that's okay; I'll go back and explore some more, just to be in that world.

And I haven't even mentioned the clever use of 2.10 features (xray, volumetric lights). And the quality of the readables/stories.

A sincere Thank You!

[Wellingtoncrab]

@Kopfrkinglthank you for playing! It is incredibly gratifying to hear your feedback.

32 minutes ago, Kopfrkingl said:

Another surprise was the performance. Dunno what sort of magic you did but it runs great in all areas.

While I was always keeping this mind, as well as developing the mission itself on what I would describe as under powered hardware, I must say a huge credit for any success here goes to the development team. I do not know the extent of the changes, but I do know after I switched to 2.10 by the end I was adding content I had cut in 2.09 for performance reasons back to the map and not seeing much of penalty. There are also huge workflow enhancements in this version of TDM and DarkRadiant.

I have to say:

Spoiler

You are the first player to report achieving the alternate ending, which while I would not describe it as necessarily the “true” one, I personally feel it is the fitting one. I wasn’t sure if anyone would see it and I am more pleased than anything to see I was wrong.

[Wellingtoncrab]

@joebarnin another emphatic thank you for playing! I really appreciate it and I am glad to hear you enjoyed the mission

5 minutes ago, joebarnin said:

  Hide contents

The hostile/non-hostile thing was a nice change of pace. But it threw me for a loop a couple of times: I could be recalling this wrong, but people I thought were non-hostile got upset with me for just bumping into them. Could that be possible? Or am I mis-remembering? I might go back and load a save to see if I can get it to happen again.

Spoiler

Thank you for mentioning this - I think your memory is quite intact, as I have been hearing some reports of this and it was an issue with what I thought were select AI in testing but may be wider spread. Will definitely be looking at this closely in the first patch.

Thank you again!

[kin]

On 2/15/2022 at 6:13 PM, Wellingtoncrab said:

@kin Thanks for playing! Let’s see if I can string you along for at least another half hour!

This is your first mission release? You got to be kidding me. I have never seen something like that in darkmod