Fan Mission: The Spider and the Finch, by grodenglaive

[grodenglaive]

On 4/5/2024 at 9:57 AM, Gerberox said:

What reviving? The body is not interactable.

Hint: 

Spoiler

to revive Astrid you need to be close to her and use the Antivenom.

I checked the objectives. It is possible to not read the note and also not see the body, in which case you wouldn't know she needed reviving and then you would not be able to complete the mission. I will release an update to fix that. Since you did find her though, I don't know why you didn't get an objective to revive her. I'm not able to reproduce that bug. Finding the note is set as optional, so missing that alone wont cause a fail.

Edited April 10, 2024 by grodenglaive

[Frost_Salamander]

Just finished this.  As others have already said, it's a pretty good first mission indeed and I also really liked the start area.   Looking forward to your next one!

I did have similar issues to others about the ending though:

Spoiler

• I didn't see the note at the start to find Astrid
• I came back to the boat when all objectives were ticked, and nothing happened
• I read the note, and got the 'new objective' notification. But they were all ticked, I think because I had already found Astrid earlier (despite not reading the note)
• At this point, getting back in the boat still did nothing, so I went over to Astrid and used the antidote.  This was just a guess that I had to do this since just leaving her there seemed weird and I had the antidote in the inventory.
• Then Astrid and I walked back to the boat and it ended as expected.

I would offer the following feedback if that's OK:

• having lots of objectives with little dependencies like that often doesn't work.  I probably would have put the thing about Astrid missing in the briefing, or somehow make it unmissable (e.g. a giant trigger + pop-up message on the shoreline saying to go look for her because she's not there to meet you) 
• For the objective about finding an antidote, why not have it say 'find an antidote for Astrid and use it to revive her'?  And then only make it complete after she's been revived. Might have saved some confusion.
• I had forgotten the exact place where I came in with the stone wall and it took me a while to find it again (thanks to the mushroom lights placed there).  You can also mantle to the top of the gate posts, but not actually climb over which seems kind of weird.  Just making the wall higher would have fixed that.
• The 'service entrance' looked like a front door so I tried the service entrance key on pretty much every other door instead after walking around the house about 4 times, and didn't realise until I already got in which door that key was for. (I used the manor key to actually get in).
• The lockpicking got pretty tedious if I'm honest. I feel that unless it's a really fancy lock there is no reason to to have more than one lock_picktype

 

 

[grodenglaive]

14 hours ago, Frost_Salamander said:

Just finished this.  As others have already said, it's a pretty good first mission indeed and I also really liked the start area.   Looking forward to your next one!

I did have similar issues to others about the ending though:

 

Thanks Frost; sounds like the mission could use an update.

Edited May 29, 2024 by grodenglaive

[grodenglaive]

Mission has been updated to version 4

[Cambridge Spy]

Hey, I finally got around to trying out the latest version. Makes things slightly easier with the removal of half the guards in the guard tower. However, there's a bug at the start - the voice clip that triggers after reading Astrid's note can be triggered every time you finish reading it when it should have played once.

Also, with the dialogue now voiced, datiswous needs to update them with in-game subtitles.

[grodenglaive]

thanks, wow you must be fully sick of that fm by now.

[grodenglaive]

On 7/9/2024 at 2:36 AM, Cambridge Spy said:

Hey, I finally got around to trying out the latest version. Makes things slightly easier with the removal of half the guards in the guard tower. However, there's a bug at the start - the voice clip that triggers after reading Astrid's note can be triggered every time you finish reading it when it should have played once.

Also, with the dialogue now voiced, datiswous needs to update them with in-game subtitles.

Bug fixed and subtitles added. I followed the instructions here, so datiswous can have the day off.   

[Wallace]

Enjoyed every second of this FM, great work. Best part was returning to the spider with a stockpile of ammo. Few areas I didn't explore too, which is always good.

[Shaz]

This was a very enjoyable FM! Thank you, grodenglaive, that was exactly what I was in the mood for. 

Edited September 22, 2024 by Shaz

[Sotha]

This was a great mission! It had everything I like:

Spoiler

Nice story with a clever plot twist, treasure map (!), custom dialogue and interaction, assassination, secrets, reviving.

The map was well designed and I really liked the burglar-simulation, i.e. whole house exterior, can walk around the entire building freely, observe, and then choose the entry point.

The mapper had placed visual clues to show that there is something important in the area, such as the little lights at the wall which is climbable.

Visuals were top-notch and performance good, even though there was huge outside area. Also, the tower was very well done.

Execution was brilliant, the mission flowed well for me and I had a lot of fun. Excellent job and thank you for this gem!