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The Adventures of Thomas: Lucy's Quest


geegee

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On 8/28/2022 at 11:22 AM, High John said:

I have the dungeon key.  However the dungeon door is not frobable

That's odd.  Nobody else has reported that problem and I've never encountered it.  Are you sure the dungeon key is selected when you try to frob the door?  

If all else fails and you don't have a good savegame to restart from (TDM has two quicksave backup slots) you can open the console and type 'noclip', clip past the door then type 'noclip' again to toggle it off.  For this one time use this cheat won't break the game - and since you did grab the key off Scarletbotham's belt it isn't really a cheat.

Apologies for this but I don't know the cause of your problem and can't fix it.  

What's the url of the video of the gameplay? 

eta:  I found the video playthrough by Boy Lag.  It's brutal listening to the critique.  Yet I have to say, I think the critique is excellent.  It's also eye opening to watch someone else play the FM.  

Edited by geegee
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18 hours ago, geegee said:

That's odd.  Nobody else has reported that problem and I've never encountered it.  Are you sure the dungeon key is selected when you try to frob the door?  

If all else fails and you don't have a good savegame to restart from (TDM has two quicksave backup slots) you can open the console and type 'noclip', clip past the door then type 'noclip' again to toggle it off.  For this one time use this cheat won't break the game - and since you did grab the key off Scarletbotham's belt it isn't really a cheat.

Apologies for this but I don't know the cause of your problem and can't fix it.  

What's the url of the video of the gameplay? 

eta:  I found the video playthrough by Boy Lag.  It's brutal listening to the critique.  Yet I have to say, I think the critique is excellent.  It's also eye opening to watch someone else play the FM.  

geegee

Thanks for responding.  I do have the dungeon key selected.  And even when I don't, I should get the 'rattle' that tells me the door is locked.  And then the same rattle when I try to lockpick.  But I don't get either of those.

Er, how do I 'open the console', etc?  I know this is something people do, but I've never felt the need to learn to do this.  Until now.

I saw the same video as you, by Boy Lag.  I didn't think the critique was that bad, having listened to a number of his (for other FMs).

I think I have Version 1.0 of the FM (how do I check the version?)  If I were to download the latest version, would I lose all my Save Games?

High John

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1 hour ago, High John said:

how do I 'open the console',

https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Console_Useful_Controls

Open console with "CTRL + ALT + ~"

When the console screen comes up type "noclip" and hit escape.  To exit noclip mode open console and type "noclip" again.

To make this more automatic do this:

Create a text file called "autocommands.cfg" in the TDM root folder and put in the line

seta com_allowConsole 1

Now when TDM starts the console can be opened by simply typing "~" (or without the shift just "`").

Better yet, in autocommands.cfg also include the lines

bind F7 notarget
bind F8 noclip

and then you can just toggle noclip and notarget on/off in game.

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That was a very ambitious fm! Many steps to complete, but also some helpful read-ables and maps to guide you though. Lots of new looking assets, like those lamps

Spoiler

(I'm glad you provided copious water arrows).

That also led to a different play style than usual. I enjoyed knocking out dozens of Hammerites for a change - I love to hate those guys.

Spoiler

The magical pagan areas were pretty cool and I liked the accompanying music effects.

No major bugs, but I managed to get outside the map in a couple places. One was where I climbed some rocks and got over the gate the back of the farm (I was able to get back in though).

One small issue was

Spoiler

when I entered the Hospice with the cure (but before I completed the loot objective) it gave me an object completed signal, which reverted as I left the area. It was a bit confusing and I thought maybe I was supposed to leave the potion there somewhere.

 I think if the Objective page was updated to say "after all other objectives have been completed, bring the cure to the Hospice" it would be a bit clearer. 

Spoiler

Also, I initially thought the Hospice was in the farm where the sick beds were and I tried unsuccessfully to deliver the cure there. I did eventually figure it out thanks to the map though, so that was probably just me being thickheaded.

One question:

Spoiler

Near the start, after entering into the vents leading to the Ox, there is a locked grate with red lasers behind it and a room with a guard. Is there a way to get into that area?

Anyway, thanks for the mission, it was time well spent!

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On 8/31/2022 at 1:51 AM, geegee said:

After exiting the vents to the Hoppie area you can't go back that way.  You can't climb back up the vents.  This shouldn't block your game as there's no reason to go back that way.   If you missed any loot, which is likely as some is well hidden, you can get it later by using other routes that open up.  But at this point in your playthrough I suggest just continuing to play the FM.  

 

actualy it did work finaly and i could

Spoiler

pas that skeleton again back to the first field

Meanwhile i have a different problem since it seems some is not working.

i already understood the following order of solving is importend, so maybe i missed some but


 

Spoiler

after delivering both letters and 3 skulls i get the message "follow" but there is no person moving.

i DID see it on a grafical walktrough so i know about, but, not in my case. no response what so ever.

i missed this message the first time becouse there are severall mesage PRINTED OVER each other!!

i tried redoing it by taking an older save, but i am not sure if this object is set in the save-file or in the main-story??

 

it just wont work. i dont use those special commands to peek through but if there is an variable that i can check, perhaps i have to restart????

Edited by CrisiusXIII
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On 6/10/2022 at 11:44 AM, geegee said:

Look up.  The ducts go in 3 dimensions.

theres the starting level, one above that which branches a bit (leading back to a view of the stockade or around to a grill that thumps but doesn't open), then another above that which leads to a locked grill (with a view of a bar) or past a skeleton and down to another grill into a workshop which seems to be blocked.

where am I supposed to go? did I miss a key?

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35 minutes ago, hightide said:

...past a skeleton and down to another grill into a workshop which seems to be blocked.

where am I supposed to go? did I miss a key?

There's only one way to go after you rattled the blocked grate to that workshop (there's no way in there yet).  Turn around, there's an exit grate-door right there!!  Exit the ducts through that grate-door.

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On 9/9/2022 at 4:19 PM, CrisiusXIII said:

it just wont work. i dont use those special commands to peek through but if there is an variable that i can check, perhaps i have to restart????

Dropping the "sealed" letter from Aeden to Gwyneth in the box should trigger the critical events.  The instruction "follow Gwyneth" appears after you drop it.  Gwyneth doesn't react instantly.  Her short patrol back and forth from the table to the horse in the barn will now be changed. When she next reaches the horse (which takes more or less time depending on where she was on the path when you dropped the sealed letter) she'll be redirected to go to the drop box, bend down to reach in and then stand for a second or two, after which she'll run out of the barn, through the kitchen area and out the back and then over to the fire near the gazebo.  She'll go through various animations, call several other farmworkers for a conference, and when the show is over some stuff will be left on the nearby table:  more water arrows, a key, a couple special "Airmid's water" (2 minute timespan - more powerful than "holy water" as it always kills undead with one hit), and a note.

If this isn't happening after you drop the right note in the drop-box then there's a glitch of some kind that I haven't a clue how to fix.

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I have seen the sequence on YT and thats were i saw the "follow" remark.  When replayed that save it showed the message and for that its 100% sure that i drop the correct letter. This message is printed OVER with other remarks like from the skulls that i dropped at the same time.

actualy she is just sitting there with a man doing nothing at all .. probably i better restart or even reinstall.

thanks for explaining

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1 hour ago, CrisiusXIII said:

she is just sitting there with a man doing nothing

This is the problem, then.  She's sitting (at the table) at her first path corner which says to sit 7 seconds then get up and walk to the horse, wait 5 seconds then turn back to sit at the table 7 secs, then repeat.  

Dropping the letter in the box will trigger the "follow Gwyneth" message and it will reset the path corner at the horse so it now points to a path corner at the box, which Gwyneth will now go to and then be directed on a new path sequence.

Since Gwyneth is immobile at the table, she isn't following the horse/table path in the first place so can't be redirected.  

You're well into the FM at this point having even completed some optional manor objectives (the skulls) so it bothers me that you're stuck here!  I haven't a clue how to fix your playthrough except you can try one thing.  Make sure to save your savegames!  Then delete your AT1: Lucy's quest FM folder and redownload the FM from the in-game updater.  Now load your savegames and see if Gwyneth is moving along the path.  If she's moving on her path, drop the letter in the box.  If you've already dropped it before the savegame, pick it up and drop it again.  

That probably won't work, tho'.  My guess is that Gwyneth will still be immobile, the savegame saving that state.

(the overwritten message "follow Gwyneth" is just bad timing for the message on my part)

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Thanks for explaining,

i did restart but not after redownload. thats my next attempt which i will have to do since now i have the same problem as earlier described by other people which is that the skulls aint frobable anymore, while before that was no problem.

with out re-install it now has a bug/data_error which was not there before

so i will reinstall for sure.

cheers!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello! I just joined the forums to report an annoying bug. I don't know if it's specific to this map or just a game bug but I have played most of the other missions and this is a first for me.

Before i picked up the key to the junkroom i tried to open the door and i got the "needs junkroom key" message on my screen... but that message never went away. I had to complete the mission with that on my screen the entire time, overlaying all the other messages that appear. a reload/restart didnt do anything to solve the problem.

A few of the on-screen messages at the beginning didn't make sense to me and were kind of cryptic, like a riddle i didn't get. one of them was something about an alarm? otherwise i liked the mission, pretty challenging and I know i missed some spots. cheers

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  • 2 weeks later...

Finally clocked this. Great mission, but man I had to grind for that loot. Also, that's gotta be the biggest key collection for a mission in TDM. Question is, was there a key to the building to the right of the blacksmith, also was there an entrance somewhere for where that African/Moorish guy is? Looking forward to more missions of this caliber!

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Quote

was there a key to the building to the right of the blacksmith

I got into this area by knocking out the last guard as he was entering that door. All the other guards dissipated into that area but beyond the locked door it's only a tiny hallway with no functional doors.

I was really curious if you could get onto the elevated walkway above that building, but I couldn't find away up

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On 10/11/2022 at 11:08 AM, boddah.the.taffer said:

"needs junkroom key" message on my screen... but that message never went away

*&rT!!!!  

My apologies!  I'd never have played on and completed the mission with that on my screen.  

It's a known problem.  It's very similar problem to the one where a player opens a chest and can't frob the contents because, as the chest door is opening but before it's fully opened the player hit frob again, messing up the "target set frobable" entity put inside the chest to protect the contents being frobbed before the chest is opened.  On all the doors with a message "needs X key" I put a delay on refrobbing the door so the door can fully open before the player is allowed to frob it again.  This gives time for all the triggers and relays and so on to do their work, removing the message permanently. 

However I missed putting the delay on the junk room door.  That'll be fixed when I get the motivation to do an update.  Thanks for your report on the problem.

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On 10/23/2022 at 9:24 AM, gokudo said:

that's gotta be the biggest key collection for a mission in TDM.

22 keys.  That's a lot, yes, but it's a large mission and locking unpickable doors was one of the only ways available to control the players movements.  

In comparison, Briarwood Manor, a much smaller mission, has 9 keys.  Imagine that!  

The mission I'm currently working on has zero keys, so far.  It may not need any!  

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Its a mission, I really want to like; but has a great many flaws I can't overlook.

  1. Mega-Giant Architecture; for 3 Meter tall people. (everywhere, not just the giant sized mansion!)
  2. Out-of-Order objective completion (not a flaw; just mabey missing scripting?), before its issued!
  3. A little TOO much back-tracking (all those objectives, and optional ones)

There are good parts to it; its still certainly playable - and has unique pagan theme that IIRC hasn't been done anywhere else. I can't really fault having piles of readables - just any time a illegible handwriting font is used!

(especially for objective related stuff!)

Perhaps it could have been re-worked into 2 or 3 smaller maps, once a section is 'complete'?

Good ideas, I haven't seen done elsewhere:

  • 3D map with paths (mabey use a grayscale filter on it next time? for a more hand-painted look...YMMV)
  • The whole
    Spoiler

    Pagan theme, with magic teleports & barriers, ect... nice for a change.

  • Interesting distractions, implemented imperfectly; but still worth a look...
  • Revisiting old areas...
    Spoiler

    But with heaps of new guards, probably because the old ones were napping...hehe.

In short my rating: Play it if you've played everything else, its OK.

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  • 4 months later...

Man, that was WAY bigger than I expected it to be. Huge, even. 

Overall I liked it and it had lots of character, which I appreciate more than perfect polish. It's great when authors try something new.

I liked the pagans. The pagans are great. I would like to see more pagans. The "parallel worlds" created by pagan shortcuts vs the rest of the city were great as well.

Story was really nice.

The keys were a solid idea. I wouldn't want all (or most) missions to be like that, but once in a while, why not, it provides a different experience, which is good. The only issue I have with it is that I think you may have underestimated how trivial it is to overlook a key even if it's not hidden in any way, and I think people have biases about where and when to seek keys from other missions. I think that from past experience (especially in various city missions) I'm not used to looking for relatively crucial items in areas that are not necessary for finishing a quest objective. Don't know if this is really your fault, but I'd say I'm not the only one this happened to.

For example I missed the gate key completely because I simply forgot to look around in that particular small piece of the mission, I just discovered a different crucial key (that let me leave the area) pretty much right next to it and I didn't see any mission context that would suggest "this is the area where the map finally opens up and you should find the gate key". The key is not necessary to finish, but not having it makes the final part a lot less fun. 

I liked that some things that happened were pretty unique. Raiding the chief builder's quarters by just running through everything was an absolute carnage and funny as hell:

Spoiler

at1_lucy(2023-03-0222-29-45)(-1161.431517.18-282.5).thumb.jpg.68a10f813d41f0ab83e32501824e11e4.jpg

 

 

Now some criticism:

First one is really superficial, but I didn't look at your mission for a while because you chose one of the most generic names possible and I think I subconsciously assumed the mission itself is not going to be a great effort either (in hindsight: LOL!). If I had to say one single thing I actually dislike about the mission, it's the name. 

Some details here and there, like a door in the Ox 2nd floor (I think? across the street from the hypos) completely missing and only showing a wall and a levitating doorknob in the doorframe, some levitating vegetable garden on the farm or misaligned branches here and there, nothing important. 

It was also possible to look out of bounds in several places, but the only one where I think it was an issue was in the square where the pub is, next to the Builder's building - there's a scaffolding that you climb on, you can look through a semi-open window and there's a ledge nearby that you can climb on. For me the place screamed "climb onto this and see where it goes", only to show me an out of bounds view and a z-fighting texture. 

It was a tad too long and the pacing around the end was not great.

Length itself would not be an issue I think, but after finishing the main mission it took me another hour to complete the medium loot objective. I approached the grand finale, fulfilled the main objective, and instead of victoriously arriving with the cure I had to roam around for an hour looking for places that I missed. And I did miss some, obviously, but that's simply often going to happen with a mission like this. That was more tiring than pleasant.

The biggest problem for me: Lighting. 

Seems like there was light shining through walls everywhere. Light gem was shining in a few places that seemed dark. Places that should have been dark (no windows or other light sources) weren't and instead seemingly contained invisible light sources that didn't make sense (the room on the ground floor of the bleak house was like this I believe). I noticed that some light fixtures continued to emit a little bit of light even after being extinguished, which is not an issue, I'm talking about places where I could not find such rationale for the light. 

I'm surprised that nobody complained about this yet, almost makes me wonder if there's something wrong with my installation, so I took a few screenshots to show what I mean: https://imgur.com/a/JuO9sF5

If this is really how it's supposed to be, then this is the one thing I'd personally focus on improving in your next mission, which I'm sure is going to be great.

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  • 2 months later...

 

@vozka

vozka thank you for this excellent review.  I'm sorry to say I can't give much of a reply as I'm suffering severe health and cognitive problems.  Most likely this is temporary but for now I'm in a fix.  

__________________________

@vozka

I can now give a more coherent reply and I'm recovering nicely. 


I agree with every point of the critique and I'm in a quandary about how I should go about applying fixes.  I think your preamble to the actual critique shows an exact understanding of what I was attempting to do in the FM.  You understand that it is story driven.  You understood the main elements of the story, that basically a farm boy of pagan background entrusts himself with a mission.  His village needs help. Because he's earned a certain bad reputation and fits the bills requirement for having daring and a certain amount of cunning, so the mission is a natural fit; also amongst other things he wants to earn himself a good name.  He has friends to help him along the way, and makes friends of friends along the road of the pagans.  The FM uses devices to distinguish the pagans from the enemy they face and divides the space into distinct enemy and pagan areas, and areas in between.  The pagans are opposed by corrupt nobles and their army of fundamentalist Builders, as corrupt as the nobles they serve.  It's very black and white.  Then there's the city guard who, being ousted from real power by the Builders are resentful and won't help the Builders and will ignore the player unless attacked or the player is caught trespassing in their inner court.  That's about it.

The critique mentions some gameplay elements that detract from the story and I agree about those.

It also mentions gameworld failings that interfere with enjoyment, with gameflow and immersion. 

It seems to me that to fix these flaws will require a total rewrite of the FM, rebuilding the entire thing.  For example, I understand the problems mentioned w.r.t. the lighting and know how to fix them, or at least bandage them over so technically there's no apparent problem.  But I have a notion that the not so apparent problem here is in what's being lit.  That there should be a rearrangement of things so light can be more focused and contrasted with the dark.  I'm only starting to think through ways that I might do this. 

Needless to say anything like this would take time, probably a year, and I'm not sure whether I'm up to it.  I've been playing a new mission by Kingsal and know I haven't anything near that level of skill.  

IMO the FM is unplayable right now.  Actually I had asked that it be removed from the TDM database. I don't like the idea of leaving a blot.  

Thank you again.

 

Edited by geegee
correct a spell error, direct @ vozka
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On 3/3/2023 at 1:05 PM, vozka said:

I'm surprised that nobody complained about this yet, almost makes me wonder if there's something wrong with my installation, so I took a few screenshots to show what I mean: https://imgur.com/a/JuO9sF5

I reported about this a lot during beta testing and some of these got fixed I think. I think the reason is that the mission has a lot of noshadows lights, for better performance.

Large_area_tutorial_noshadows.jpg

Source

Possibly with the performance improvements in 2.11 (stencil shadows + Ai processing)  it's not needed to have so many noshadows lights in there. Fixing whould also make the mission look better.

10 hours ago, geegee said:

I'm sorry to say I can't give much of a reply as I'm suffering severe health and cognitive problems.  Most likely this is temporary but for now I'm in a fix.  

I'm sorry to hear, hope you recover soon.

Edited by datiswous
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@datiswous @vozka

I recently upgraded from my old geforce 1060 desktop to an azus rog strix scar something or other with a 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-12900H   2.50 GHz with 16.0 GB (15.7 GB usable) RAM and an Intel Geforce 1080Ti card of which I'm unsure of exact values but must be fairly high.  I also upgraded to a 55 inch samsung 4K monitor.  I instantly noticed a huge increase in brightness of my WIP.  When using the 55 inch monitor I'm forced to a 1920 x 1080 resolution with no bells and whistles. No HDR.  I haven't tried playing with the 55 inch monitor turned off and the strix scar in native mode.  

Noticing these huge differences for the first time I wonder what the best guideline would be for correcting lighting for all or most darkmod gameplay?

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@datiswous

I haven't yet tried out the high end performance.  Always so far it's been dumbed down by the lower end samsung monitor interface.  

I've got some cognitive problems setting this up, so perhaps this'll take about a month or so to get past that.  It's a bitch.

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Look after yourself and get well soon.

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My missions:           Stand-alone                                                      Duncan Lynch series                              

                                      Down and Out on Newford Road              the Factory Heist

                                                                                                  A House Call

                                                                                                  The House of deLisle                                                                                                  

                              

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  • 4 weeks later...

I'm finding this mission a bit too frustrating. Far too many doors that needs keys, and nothing that needs lock picks. Then there's a building with only a single desk and guard, and the rest of the building completely empty, except for a few guards. Then a courtroom of that building with far too many guards and lights. Just one foot in that courtroom, completely lit up like a Christmas tree. And odd having rope arrows with no place to use them. Played for a few hours, could only find one key.

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