Fan Mission: The Spider and the Finch, by grodenglaive

[Oktokolo]

On 11/24/2023 at 11:24 PM, grodenglaive said:

Wow, that is supreme ghost! I am not so stealthy.

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Killing the spider is pretty much necessary, otherwise it's unlikely that Astrid would make it to the boat alive.
Yes, the guys in the cellar are scripted to notice the missing loot. I was not sure if I should leave it like that, but it's more realistic. 

Spoiler

You don't need to kill the spider. You can lure it away before Astrid goes to the boat. I wouldn't consider the spider a witness, so you could even let it see you.

[teknokrat]

Really enjoyed the mission. Very reminiscent of Thief. Particularly:

Spoiler

- Readables with good clues in them

- Environment manipulation

- Non-linear paths

Just wish it was bigger

Some thoughts for Expert difficulty:

 

Spoiler

- Maybe instead of killing Finch, you have to take his body back to the boat alive? That would really test an expert player.

- Maybe make the spider invulnerable to ordinary arrows, so that you have to find the fire arrow and use it.

 

[grodenglaive]

glad you liked it teknokrat and thanks for the suggestions.

 

[thebigh]

This is a really nice mission. It's just the right size and difficulty, looks great, and the mission objectives provide plenty of challenge without being obtuse. The manor seemed to be absolutely swarming with guards but there were always opportunities to slip by if you were a bit patient. I finished on the hardest difficulty with a perfect stealth score and about 1800/2024 loot.

Spoiler

I encountered a bug where the LOD of the hanging lantern outside the manor door overlooking the fountain is messed up. From inside the house the lantern is invisible and emits no light; as soon as I step through the doorway it appears and brightly illuminates me.

 

[grodenglaive]

1 hour ago, thebigh said:

This is a really nice mission. It's just the right size and difficulty, looks great, and the mission objectives provide plenty of challenge without being obtuse. The manor seemed to be absolutely swarming with guards but there were always opportunities to slip by if you were a bit patient. I finished on the hardest difficulty with a perfect stealth score and about 1800/2024 loot.

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I encountered a bug where the LOD of the hanging lantern outside the manor door overlooking the fountain is messed up. From inside the house the lantern is invisible and emits no light; as soon as I step through the doorway it appears and brightly illuminates me.

 

Thank you.

Spoiler

The disappearing lamp is unfortunately by design. Otherwise there is a bug where if someone opens any exterior door, that lantern suddenly shines through the wall (which I thought was more noticeable). It's bizarre.

 

[High John]

Good mission.  The right level of difficulty;  both in terms of guards, and in finding stuff that needs to be found.

[Spyrano]

Excellent mission! Especially love the atmosphere at the beginning.

[thebigh]

2 minutes ago, Spyrano said:

Especially love the atmosphere at the beginning.

Me too. I especially like the tiny little island visible in the distance.

[gokudo]

Hopefully this is is the entree to a decent main course down the road. Great work!

[grodenglaive]

hopefully

[MirceaKitsune]

Aw... I had hoped to get to beta test this! Had the thread open but took too long in the end, sorry about that. Congrats on the release, will likely be the next FM I play, can't wait to give it a go!

[bunnyboy]

Great first mission!

Spoiler

I climbed the wall into Finch's suite

which made the mission way easier, since you bypass most NPCs.

Spoiler

You could soft prevent this by requiring that Astrid be saved within some amount of time. I found the antidote in the end, which I would not have been able to do if this was the case. However, if players miss the antidote, it gets annoying. I suppose like the others said, Astrid could tell the player the code after waking up.

Also, I am not sure if this is because I am playing on Wayland instead of X, but the mission ran super slow, especially outside the mansion, even on the lowest settings. I am also on an alpha version of TDM, which could be another reason for the bad performance.
Anyhow, thanks for the mission

[grodenglaive]

Thanks. Outside the mansion is the slowest area for me too, although my crappy old laptop still manages >30 fps. I haven't tried Linux though.

[thebigh]

Outdoor areas can lag a bit because it's difficult to effectively visportal them. Indoors it's easy- just plop a portal in every doorway and hallway corner- but outside you have much bigger areas with longer sightlines and no obvious places to divide them.

[MirceaKitsune]

Very nice as a quality small FM, clear and well set up. Definitely didn't get everything but found most of what there was to find. Sadly also a few bugs, makes me a little sad I missed the beta testing to catch them earlier.

Spoiler

There's a pot overlapping the stove. Pretty minor thing but maybe worth fixing now that it's been spotted. Also observe the pipe sticking out at the top and to the left... it's funny how every map using that stove prefab ends up with this pipe jutting out, wonder if the prefab itself got broken?

Only other notable inconsistency is that the drawers use the door sounds: When I opened the cabinet drawers next to the bed of the assassination target, they had the default door sound which is odd. There's a drawer door audio used by those types of movers.

Other bugs involve the secondary main character...

Spoiler

When Astrid is revived, she will proceed to walk to the boat and sit in it. Only problem was that for me, as she was sitting in the boat, she suddenly levitated back toward the shore at a rapid speed and sat in mid air

Also, since I tried this out of morbid curiosity before reloading, you probably shouldn't be able to kill your own sister after just reviving her... nor the lord of the mansion, what use is there in gathering incriminating evidence if he can end up dead? I'd tweak the objectives so they can be failed if just those characters are killed, knockout should be safe.

 

[grodenglaive]

Thanks Mircea. I've noticed a number of prefabs and assets that have issues. It's funny, that drawer sound has always bugged me in other missions I've heard it in, but I didn't even notice it in my own.

Spoiler

That was a strange thing that happened to Astrid after sitting in the boat. I wonder if the lamp somehow interfered - it's the only thing that isn't bolted down in there. I should make it immovable.

 

[grodenglaive]

@MirceaKitsune Is that v1.1.10 of the fm and what version of TDM are you running? Your screenshot does not look like what I see in the game. I just re-downloaded it to be sure. It appears as though your stove has been displaced to the right, which is damn peculiar.

[MirceaKitsune]

2 hours ago, grodenglaive said:

@MirceaKitsune Is that v1.1.10 of the fm and what version of TDM are you running? Your screenshot does not look like what I see in the game. I just re-downloaded it to be sure. It appears as though your stove has been displaced to the right, which is damn peculiar.

Latest version from the main menu installer, just checked and no update (* symbol) available so it should be the latest.

[grodenglaive]

That's a real head-scratcher! Is it possible for the menu-installer to not have the same version as the direct download link? If you check the read-me file it will show the version#.

[MirceaKitsune]

8 hours ago, grodenglaive said:

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That was a strange thing that happened to Astrid after sitting in the boat. I wonder if the lamp somehow interfered - it's the only thing that isn't bolted down in there. I should make it immovable.

Oh: I remember tipping over that lantern when I walked out of the starting boat, it turned it off and it fell somewhere in the boat... wonder if that might be related.

32 minutes ago, grodenglaive said:

That's a real head-scratcher! Is it possible for the menu-installer to not have the same version as the direct download link? If you check the read-me file it will show the version#.

Version: 1.1.10

[grodenglaive]

interesting, thanks!

[McPhisto2051]

really nice mission, but I had to watch the solution-video to get the correct password-combination .
I also started with all 3 dates and then drew diagonals around those 9 numbers. So close and yet so far...
I wanna add, that I also hoped for "my" sister to give me the code when I woke her up/accompanied her to the boat...

And last but not least, because the expert didn't forbid killing at all, I slaugthered my way through the mission, just 7 bodies found

Spoiler

I stuffed the small chamber upstairs so full of bodies, that when I found the lever, the wall could not move even a tiny bit

 

Edited December 13, 2023 by McPhisto2051

[grodenglaive]

Good use of the closet. I considered putting no KO and no kills in the objectives, but decided to leave it unlimited for a change.

[McPhisto2051]

yeah the found bodycount expladed right at the beginning, when I did'nt notice, that we have a torch-carrier in the yard. Then, in the barracks the soldiers got stuck on each other and I had to kill them to pass into the tower.

But killing was nice for the soldier moving up and down the spiraling staircase which seems to have a full helmet and needs a shot right into his eye, to stop patrolling.

Overall well done! Also wish it could be bigger but just because we all want more of it

 

ps: the guy in the green dress who visits the woman in her chamber seems to be unkillable if ko'd. He never grunts dying nor switches to body even after several arrows to his head or many swords hits everywhere.

ps2: there was a drawer with a single gold coin which seems to be unlootable.

 

Edited December 13, 2023 by McPhisto2051

[grodenglaive]

thank you