Fan Mission: Noble Affairs by Goldwell 2022/02/22 [TDM 2.10 Required]

[Goldwell]

49 minutes ago, NeonsStyle said:

I also found the only way to get into that room opposite the main entrance into the Noble womans house was to alert the AI and get them to open it.

I assume you're referring to the factory side entrance? (should have a sign outfront with some gears on it).

 

If so that door is meant to be unfrobable until after you pickup the contract for Unwanted Guests (which takes place in the factory).

 

AI shouldn't be able to open that door however, so that's a bug! But as is always the case in immersive sims, it can be hard to keep the player not getting into places they shouldn't be just yet! I do admit, that's a clever way to get around the door without starting the contract for it though 

[Zerg Rush]

15 minutes ago, Goldwell said:

I assume you're referring to the factory side entrance? (should have a sign outfront with some gears on it).

 

If so that door is meant to be unfrobable until after you pickup the contract for Unwanted Guests (which takes place in the factory).

 

AI shouldn't be able to open that door however, so that's a bug! But as is always the case in immersive sims, it can be hard to keep the player not getting into places they shouldn't be just yet! I do admit, that's a clever way to get around the door without starting the contract for it though 

You can reach the top also from outside, but in this case you can't get the key and nor the rewards inside the cage (I tried it in my second attempt). Anyway there are several ways to enter the Mansion, at least 3.

PD Nice the little Grayman garden.

[Goldwell]

44 minutes ago, Zerg Rush said:

You can reach the top also from outside, but in this case you can't get the key and nor the rewards inside the cage (I tried it in my second attempt). Anyway there are several ways to enter the Mansion, at least 3.

PD Nice the little Grayman garden.

 

How did you get inside the factory topside?

 

Btw what does "PD" stand for?

[Zerg Rush]

It means Post Data.

Respect to the roof top, you can access from the gate tower, also using rope arrows. But anyway it don't make much sense, because without first eliminate the unwanted guest, from the top there isn't access to the rewards nor possible to open the door to the factory.

Edited February 26, 2022 by Zerg Rush

[Goldwell]

1 hour ago, Zerg Rush said:

It means Post Data.

Respect to the roof top, you can access from the gate tower, also using rope arrows. But anyway it don't make much sense, because without first eliminate the unwanted guest, from the top there isn't access to the rewards nor possible to open the door to the factory.

Ohhh right!

Yes it's okay to be up there in that area, I thought you meant you could open the door that was up there. But being able to get up into that area is fine because it allows the player to jump over to the rooftop of the manor and access a way in via the vents. Which is why I didn't try to stop the player from getting up there.

 

Thanks for posting the screenshots!

[Wellingtoncrab]

4 hours ago, NeonsStyle said:

I never have had this AI issue in 2.09 but only  since 2.10 it's like they are hypersensitive. 

I haven't noticed much of a difference here between 2.09 and 2.10, but I have been on the 2.10 dev builds for a long time - could be a simple as when you install a new version of TDM it typically overwrites your cfg file - this sets the ai difficultly settings in the gameplay menu to default which as Goldwell points out is quite insanely sensitive.

Could it be you had adjusted these before and they simply got changed back? I would definitely adjust them to your taste either way.

[Zerg Rush]

1 hour ago, Goldwell said:

Ohhh right!

Yes it's okay to be up there in that area, I thought you meant you could open the door that was up there. But being able to get up into that area is fine because it allows the player to jump over to the rooftop of the manor and access a way in via the vents. Which is why I didn't try to stop the player from getting up there.

 

Thanks for posting the screenshots!

Yes, that wa what I mean with several manner to access the mansion. From there isn't a bad way. In my first round I entered in the front portal, maybe the most tricky way, due to the guard and the cam there.

[JackFarmer]

Some of you guys have now reached a level that falls under the Geneva War Weapons Convention when it comes to mapping quality.

I will respond in an appropriate manner in the foreseeable future, until then: Excellent work, you scoundrel!

 

[Zerg Rush]

2 hours ago, JackFarmer said:

Some of you guys have now reached a level that falls under the Geneva War Weapons Convention when it comes to mapping quality.

I will respond in an appropriate manner in the foreseeable future, until then: Excellent work, you scoundrel!

 

Agree, the last missions this year are really a new era in TDM, without neglecting some masterpieces in the past.

[Goldwell]

7 hours ago, JackFarmer said:

Some of you guys have now reached a level that falls under the Geneva War Weapons Convention when it comes to mapping quality.

I will respond in an appropriate manner in the foreseeable future, until then: Excellent work, you scoundrel!

 

LOL thank you!

 

I poured a lot of blood, sweat and tears into making this mission. So it’s very much appreciated. Possibly the first time I’ve had a mission be described as a “Geneva War Weapons Convention” level of quality too hahaha

[id3839315]

On 2/25/2022 at 2:49 PM, Goldwell said:

The AI will freak out if it hears a mouse farting 20 miles away.

Perhaps it's the fart of the sleeping guy at the beginning of the mission.

[ccc118]

Excellent mission!

Spoiler

I'm a bit stuck. I can't seem to figure out how to get past the checkpoint. I went back through everything and can't seem to find any clues.  Not sure if I'm missing something. Any hints?

 

[Bluehawk]

To get through the checkpoint requires a more face-to-face solution than the typical thief scenario.

Spoiler

You need to find a written letter of safe conduct to show to the guard behind the steel door. Then he'll open the gate.

Spoiler

To find the letter, look in the fireplace of a certain lord who lives near the Bear and Belcher Inn.

 

Edited February 27, 2022 by Bluehawk

[ccc118]

17 hours ago, Bluehawk said:

To get through the checkpoint requires a more face-to-face solution than the typical thief scenario.

  Reveal hidden contents

You need to find a written letter of safe conduct to show to the guard behind the steel door. Then he'll open the gate.

  Reveal hidden contents

To find the letter, look in the fireplace of a certain lord who lives near the Bear and Belcher Inn.

 

I totally missed that! Thanks!

[Spyrano]

After being spoiled with so many great entries in the contest, we have another amazing mission! I also think it's a good idea to put up an unofficial poll for this one too to see where it would have landed. Thanks Goldwell (and everyone in the contest) for raising the bar!

[gokudo]

Wow. An exciting peek into the future of TDM. Was Joy the female voice from T2SOTM? Loved that too. Soundtrack was surprisingly upbeat for cryo chamber, they do some dark stuff!

[Bluehawk]

I noticed a funny quirk in this mission due to the new female protagonist. Guards have an idle animation where they'll stretch their arms out to get the kinks out of their shoulders or whatever and play a grunt sound, but in the ai_sfx.sndshd file, one of the avaliable oggs for "tdm_stretch" is "player_tired_1.ogg". That file among others is replaced by the new voice actress, so occasionally you'll hear male guards gasp like a woman before going back to their usual mumbling and grumbling. 

Regardless, I think the actress did a good job nailing a balance between being hopeful for the future and maybe a little naive but also calloused by her life of crime, not just a gender-swapped Corbin/Garrett and not a retread of Zaya from T2X. There's room for character development if she appears in a sequel, maybe visiting Northdale some day 

[Goldwell]

4 hours ago, gokudo said:

Wow. An exciting peek into the future of TDM. Was Joy the female voice from T2SOTM? Loved that too. Soundtrack was surprisingly upbeat for cryo chamber, they do some dark stuff!

 

Thank you for the kind words!

 

I don't know what T2SOTM is sorry! But this was my first time personally working with Joy.

 

Re: Cryo chamber, I too was surprised to find something that was not complete existential dread among their library! haha. But having gone through quite a few of their albums they have a lot of amazing ambients that branch beyond their typical style of dark ambient.

 

2 hours ago, Bluehawk said:

I noticed a funny quirk in this mission due to the new female protagonist. Guards have an idle animation where they'll stretch their arms out to get the kinks out of their shoulders or whatever and play a grunt sound, but in the ai_sfx.sndshd file, one of the avaliable oggs for "tdm_stretch" is "player_tired_1.ogg". That file among others is replaced by the new voice actress, so occasionally you'll hear male guards gasp like a woman before going back to their usual mumbling and grumbling. 

Regardless, I think the actress did a good job nailing a balance between being hopeful for the future and maybe a little naive but also calloused by her life of crime, not just a gender-swapped Corbin/Garrett and not a retread of Zaya from T2X. There's room for character development if she appears in a sequel, maybe visiting Northdale some day 

 

LOL that's too funny! Well I know now what bug I have to fix for version 1.3

 

I was expecting a lot more issues implementing a brand new female protagonist then I had run into. And while I think some volume tweaks and maybe a couple of different sounds could be improved (and the issue you mentioned :P) overall it worked out much easier than I was expecting. And for a first attempt I am very happy with how it turned out.

 

Re: the voice actress, I too think she did an incredible job. I gave her barely any guidance other than "you're a badass thief" and she just pulled the character from that.

 

I am glad that she is being well recieved because it was fun to just have a brand new protagonist, made the experience feel fresh.

[gokudo]

Sorry man, T2SOTM = Thief 2 Shadows of the Machine Age

[Apiai]

Hello Goldwell,

congrats for this very nice mission. Here's my feedback, I'm playing with V2.10b8 32bits version :

- super fast savegame loading, I don't know if it's related to V2.10 but i've never loaded savegame as fast, it's really appreciable
- I've noticed some metal floors sound like wood or no sound at all : for example, in the room in front of cart guy
- nice grave, really touching
- everything else is perfect : story, fun contracts, places, new enemy

 

Edited March 1, 2022 by Apiai

[datiswous]

On 2/26/2022 at 12:39 PM, NeonsStyle said:

I never have had this AI issue in 2.09 but only  since 2.10 it's like they are hypersensitive. 

Related?

 

[thebigh]

No, that was me being an idiot. A big visportal in my map had a sound_loss with a negative value, causing it to amplify sounds instead of muffling them. Sound was bouncing around the level, passing through the megaphone several times, and making every guard go nuts. It only affected Windows users because OpenAL works differently than it does on Linux, and it's why the bug took me so long to track down.

[Goldwell]

6 hours ago, Apiai said:

Hello Goldwell,

congrats for this very nice mission. Here's my feedback, I'm playing with V2.10b8 32bits version :

- super fast savegame loading, I don't know if it's related to V2.10 but i've never loaded savegame as fast, it's really appreciable
- I've noticed some metal floors sound like wood or no sound at all : for example, in the room in front of cart guy
- nice grave, really touching
- everything else is perfect : story, fun contracts, places, new enemy

 

Thank you for the kind words, glad you enjoyed it!

 

Re: faster loading times, that's a 2.10 feature

 

Quote

- I've noticed some metal floors sound like wood or no sound at all : for example, in the room in front of cart guy

I just tested this in game and couldn't replicate the issue. I tested the room Infront of the produce merchant (cart guy) and the metal in there sounds like metal and the wood part sounds like wood.

 

[Apiai]

I forgot to ask : the new grab object animation, is it a 2.10 feature or is it specific to your mission ?
It's a really nice effect 

[Goldwell]

1 hour ago, Apiai said:

I forgot to ask : the new grab object animation, is it a 2.10 feature or is it specific to your mission ?
It's a really nice effect 

That animation effect is specific to my mission.