A House Call by thebigh (Mar 10 2022)

[thebigh]

37 minutes ago, Anderson said:

Really thoughtful of you to make puzzles harder with difficulty.

I tried to put some thought into making things different depending on difficulty, beyond the usual higher loot goal and more guards. Findable equipment is different too, and light switches, and the generator behaves differently on Easy and Medium. I'm not sure how successful this was, and pretty much everyone just plays missions on Hard anyway, but since different difficulty levels exsit why not use them?

[Anderson]

On 3/11/2022 at 11:23 PM, thebigh said:

If you need a little hint for that:

  Hide contents

Look carefully at the lights surrounding the book-cases, and the position of lever-books on the shelves.

 

Thanks.

Spoiler

The help in the Medical Records really helped. I thought there was something about that, but I had second guesses if the Travel Diary had hints. In the sense that first it was cold and that should be blue, whereas cutting pine trees means green and so on. Basically I went too deep.

All in all. About 2 hours of play and 1 hour of save scumming. Medium difficulty.

It took me forever to find the room with the travel diary for some reason. I went by a million times but I didn't check all the rooms somehow.

I tried to take it slow but got frustrated because all story-related doors on the second floor were locked by keys.

Here's a question, is it good for gameplay if meaningful progression points are blocked with keys, to force player to find a particular room? Like it would be cool if the player can just unlock every door with lockpicks, albeit on higher difficulty.

The downside is that then the player can miss must see content. But to be honest you can't really solve the puzzle within reasonable time without finding the readable anyway.

Some people like me just love complicating things

That's my humble impression at any rate.

Thanks for the great level!

Edited March 14, 2022 by Anderson

[Gerberox]

I liked this mission. I found only 716 gold, that's few for the hardest difficulty, but I don't care searching more.

Spoiler

The puzzle is cool, one of the bests in TDM, but the clue is too difficult. The lights are too pale, I saw only the green, and I thought for a moment it might be part of the solution but I misjudged the yellow one to be green, too, from a distance, and only saw the others have a color at all after reading the hint on the forum. Maybe adding a switch to the colored lamps would be more helpful with brighter lamp settings. The switch could start in off state. And/or you may color the middle ones to orange and purple or white, or whatever, so the clue isn't too obvious. Or put different colored vases on the top of the bookshelves.

 

[thebigh]

22 minutes ago, Gerberox said:

I liked this mission.

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

Edited March 14, 2022 by thebigh

[tapewolf]

This was a fun mission, finishing and releasing it was definitely the right decision.  That puzzle was definitely challenging, even with the hints.  I was trying to take the letter case into account.

As it happened, I accidentally

Spoiler

frobbed the opening lever from inside the secret passage and got into the lab by sheer luck before even finding the secret door's user manual.  Hence getting it open by proper means was more of a completionist thing.

That aside, I loved the writing - I think I've seen that poster in one of the other new missions and wondered at the time if it meant something like this, so well done indeed for tying that into the storyline.  Also the ominous music in the foyer was a good pick,one of my favourites from the Darkmod soundtrack.

[thebigh]

10 minutes ago, tapewolf said:

I accidentally

  Hide contents

frobbed the opening lever from inside the secret passage and got into the lab by sheer luck before even finding the secret door's user manual.  Hence getting it open by proper means was more of a completionist thing.

Did you somehow manage to

Spoiler

frob the lever inside the secret room from outside? If so that's something I need to patch in the next version.

 

10 minutes ago, tapewolf said:

I think I've seen that poster in one of the other new missions

That's from my Christmas Connections contest entry. Even though that mission isn't part of this series I wanted to tie it into the same universe.

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you liked it.

10 minutes ago, tapewolf said:

That puzzle was definitely challenging, even with the hints.  I was trying to take the letter case into account.

Hint:

Spoiler

Letter case definitely matters.

Massive spoiler hint incoming:

Spoiler

Each bookcase contains two frobbable books, one on a higher shelf than the other. The case of the letters indicates which one is meant: upper case for the higher book, lower case for the lower one. This clue is more blatant in the readable on Medium or Easy.

 

 

Edited March 15, 2022 by thebigh

[tapewolf]

1 hour ago, thebigh said:

Did you somehow manage to...

...If so that's something I need to patch in the next version.

Yes, that's correct.  You probably do want to patch that.

FYI I usually play missions on Easy first time around, and from what I'm reading that makes quite a big difference on this one.

[Xolvix]

God I'm such an idiot.

Spoiler

I couldn't work out the puzzle, so I came here and read the hints here about the coloured lighting (something I would never have noticed without the hints).

Kept trying but still didn't get it, because I was focusing too much on the colours of the books and thinking the colours of the lights had something to do with the books that had more than one type of book colour (e.g. there's two upper brown books, so which one to choose I thought involved colour mixing or something).

In the end the colours of the damn books was totally irrelevant.

Still a good mission though!

[Shadow]

Twas a good mission although I never did figure out the right sequence to flip the books. Even after reading the readables and posts in here I was still lost on how to solve that puzzle. Nicely done mission.

[thebigh]

3 hours ago, Shadow said:

Twas a good mission although I never did figure out the right sequence to flip the books. Even after reading the readables and posts in here I was still lost on how to solve that puzzle. Nicely done mission.

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you liked it.

Super explicit spoiler for the books puzzle for those still stuck:

Spoiler

There are four book cases in Cordling's bedroom, with colours indicated by lights shining on them. If the illumination is too subtle, look at the tops of the pillars on either side. Red, green, blue, and yellow.

Each bookcase has two frobbable books on it, one higher up than the other.

The medical log in the surgery contains the combination: RgBybrYG

Upper case means the top book, lower case means the bottom book for each colour. Thus, frob the top book on the red shelf, then the lower book on the green shelf and so on, in that order.

 

[Xolvix]

I mentioned my issues earlier with this puzzle, but I feel I should elaborate since it's a still hot topic, maybe something I say will be helpful:

Spoiler

The main issue I had was that the books themselves had colours in addition to the lights themselves. I don't know if this was intended to be a red herring or just simply something not thought of during mapping, but the natural thing (for me anyway) was to try to match the combination against the book colours, and the lighting really wasn't noticed at all. It's the first time I can remember seeing colour used as a major component of a puzzle in a TDM mission, which is great! Very novel. But some of the books were colours in the combination, and some weren't, so I was trying to get the closest shade to a particular colour shown in the combination for example (like a brown book, is that "red"? Once that didn't work I tried colour mixing, but that made no sense and eventually it clicked to ignore the book colours themselves.

If all the frobbabe books were black for example (a colour that wouldn't be affected much by lighting), then it would completely remove the book colour from the puzzle solving aspect, forcing the player to disregard this info and look for something else that involves colours. It would increase the chances of them noticing the lights. Another option would be to keep this puzzle as is, but have the reward to solving it be loot or a bonus objective perhaps. The fact it's tied to a mandatory objective was the main issue.

I don't like to discourage creative puzzles, I want to see more of them! But with a few tweaks it could be improved but also at the same time still retain the intent of being a lock you wouldn't be able to crack without the combination.

 

[Shadow]

 

OK I went back and played the bookcase room again and got past it after loading a previous save from before I had ever entered the room. Here's what I think threw me off.

Spoiler

I had already switched a bunch of the books around to no avail and I think after a while I got confused about which position the books were supposed to be, in or out, up or down, etc. I think if there was some button or pull mechanism to reset the puzzle to scratch that might have helped. Cuz when you screw up like I did, you just don't know where you screwed up and there is no way to reset to zero to try again.

Also, the two center pillars with the white color up top was a main reason I couldn't figure it out, because it made it seem like there's more variables than just the 4 primary colors. Like I said OK there's 4 colors but 6 pillars. And yeah they were lit with super subtle hues. If the pillars could be brighter or more closely resembled the base colors instead of a darkened shade of the color I might have been able to say Eureka and gone from there. Maybe instead of a white light shining down, make each bookcase light  shining down be the same color as the pillar up top.

 

Edited April 28, 2022 by Shadow

[Acolytesix]

Ok, I need help in locating All the books to find the 2nd compartment...

[Acolytesix]

Just wanted to let you know the in-downloader for the game does not show up on the list to download. I went to play the released version, but there's nothing there...

[Anderson]

14 hours ago, Acolytesix said:

Ok, I need help in locating All the books to find the 2nd compartment...

Spoiler

The hint regarding the second compartment describes 4 colors. It also describes the letters with uppercase and lowercase with one line up and one line down. Follow the order of these colors and the lines to open the 2nd compartment.

Copypaste from OP posts:

”There are four book cases in Cordling's bedroom, with colours indicated by lights shining on them. If the illumination is too subtle, look at the tops of the pillars on either side. Red, green, blue, and yellow.

Each bookcase has two frobbable books on it, one higher up than the other.

The medical log in the surgery contains the combination: RgBybrYG

Upper case means the top book, lower case means the bottom book for each colour. Thus, frob the top book on the red shelf, then the lower book on the green shelf and so on, in that order.”

 

 

Edited April 29, 2022 by Anderson

[Kopfrkingl]

I'd rank this as your best mission yet. A large mansion to explore, some secrets to find, pretty solid stealth, and the story is particularly enjoyable because our thief has a family member to save and isn't motivated purely by greed. Props for that. Am I right to assume the protagonist of this mission is the retired thief whose apartment we rob in Down and Out on Newford Road? If so - nice way of interconnecting your missions, I really like that.

The difficulty was about right - enough guards to fill the mansion and make the place look tightly guarded. Being able to turn off the generator and plunge half the map into darkness was a great addition, plus the moonlight shining on the floor in the main hall looked gorgeous. This sort of interactivity is always appreciated.

Spoiler

Once I learned Cordling's secret, it got me thinking. When it comes to incredibly rich and influential people, I don't have much trust in the justice system. For a powerful snake like Dr.Cordling it'd be all too easy to call in a favor with some of the nobles, get the best lawyer in Bridgeport, bribe the court, call the evidence fake, etc. I think I'd have liked to be given a choice between delivering the doctor to justice and hoping for the best or killing him on the spot.

 

[thebigh]

On 5/12/2022 at 2:56 AM, Kopfrkingl said:

Am I right to assume the protagonist of this mission is the retired thief whose apartment we rob in Down and Out on Newford Road?

Well spotted! Yes, that's him.

 

[McPhisto2051]

I feel kinda stupid but I can't match

Spoiler

the medical records with the books...
There are 6 records and 8 books.
Neither did the travel book help me...

 

[thebigh]

The patient records themselves don't help with the book combination, but the Doctor has left a hint for himself right at the end of the medical log book.

[Thiefette]

This was an enjoyable mission - until I hit the main objective.

Spoiler

I too, struggled with the bookcase code. As with others, the coloured lights didn't really show up for me. I don't know if its my settings for playing? (I only saw they had some colour after checking for a clue here). I could sort of make out which might be red, and kind of guessed at blue but couldn't tell the difference between the yellow and green. At first my bad was reading the clue in the medicine book left to right - two lines so thanks for the hint here  . Then it was some guessing until I had to come and look at your explicit clue. Thanks again. I tried it a few times and it didn't work so was wondering if maybe its on a timer? So went quickly between the cases and it finally worked. Yay! 
I enjoyed searching for the secrets - there were some difficult to find ones (staircase!) just barely caught that one but did find them all. 

Thanks for all your hard work, I look forward to more.

[Cambridge Spy]

Here's my playthrough of A House Call:

 

 

[hightide]

On 3/15/2022 at 2:46 PM, thebigh said:

Did you somehow manage to

  Reveal hidden contents

frob the lever inside the secret room from outside? If so that's something I need to patch in the next version.

Hint:

  Reveal hidden contents

Letter case definitely matters.

Massive spoiler hint incoming:

  Reveal hidden contents

Each bookcase contains two frobbable books, one on a higher shelf than the other. The case of the letters indicates which one is meant: upper case for the higher book, lower case for the lower one. This clue is more blatant in the readable on Medium or Easy.

 

 

I had to do this same thing because the door would not open; I followed your instructions exactly and got nothing.

I nearly broke the game (thank goodness for noclip) in the room between the

Spoiler

master bedroom and wine cellar. I had gone down, then hopped off on my way up to check out the room. Some of the objects there will go flying on contact, but are unfrobbable. The elevator was above me, so I hopped down and called it form the basement, but the rock had fallen into the bottom of the shaft. This prevented the elevator from completing the Down call, and would not go back up. Rope arrows wouldn't get me out, so I had to fly

Other than these two (big end-game) frustrations, I really enjoyed the mission! The story was great, the connections to other missions & game assets given context, the housekeeper's notes... all excellent. I was short one secret, but still call it a successful run

[MirceaKitsune]

Very nice one, I liked. Felt it could have used a bit more map detail in places but the atmosphere was nice. Nice story also...

Spoiler

Spreading a virus then profiting off the cure? I guess Cordling is the steampunk version of Bob Page

Spoiler

The book puzzle was a little complicated, though I almost got it right on my own. I suspected upper case letters might mean top books with lower case ones meaning lower books. My problem is I was reading the password left-to-right and top-to-bottom, took me a bit to understand the whole thing was from the left to the right and not two lines.

 

[LeiGet]

Hey. Needing some help/might of found a bug of sorts.

 

EDIT: sigh, Nevermind

Edited November 14, 2022 by LeiGet

[maxrenn8]

On 4/26/2022 at 7:26 PM, thebigh said:

Thanks for playing! I'm glad you liked it.

Super explicit spoiler for the books puzzle for those still stuck:

  Hide contents

There are four book cases in Cordling's bedroom, with colours indicated by lights shining on them. If the illumination is too subtle, look at the tops of the pillars on either side. Red, green, blue, and yellow.

Each bookcase has two frobbable books on it, one higher up than the other.

The medical log in the surgery contains the combination: RgBybrYG

Upper case means the top book, lower case means the bottom book for each colour. Thus, frob the top book on the red shelf, then the lower book on the green shelf and so on, in that order.

 

The way the letters were arranged in the book I would not have guessed that was the sequence in a million years...LOL.