Fan Mission: The Wizard's Treasure [15th Anniversary Contest]

[boissiere]

39 minutes ago, DeTeEff said:

Sadly I got frustrated that I couldn't enter the room with the key on the wall

Erm, you can get into that room from the kitchen.

[DeTeEff]

24 minutes ago, boissiere said:

Erm, you can get into that room from the kitchen.

Is that so? Gonna have to try again. It may be one of those instances where you look a thousand times and cannot find it and when someone points it out it's obvious  

[thebigh]

There's not much in there anyway, but being able to go through gives you a bit more mobility on the ground floor.

[Poopie]

Great map! I just need one hint: 

Spoiler

Where is the second secret? I found the first one behind the statue in the courtyard.

 

[thebigh]

On 10/18/2024 at 4:16 AM, Sotha said:

How did you make the skybox? That really with the moon and matching lighting all brought the mission aesthetics to next level. It was also really needed, too, because the player could access the roof.

 

I followed the directions on the Wiki, including using the decades-old 16-bit version of Terragen, which I still luckily had on an old mothballed computer of mine. Spent an hour or three getting the mountains and snow looking just right. Then when I made the snowy patch geometry for the nearer hills and rocks I fiddled with the outdoor ambient light to match the skybox as well as possible. Not perfect, but good enough. The moonlight is just a huge parallel light, obviously. It's bad for optimisation but in a mission as tiny as this that is unlikely to matter.

[thebigh]

On 10/22/2024 at 3:02 PM, Poopie said:

Great map! I just need one hint: 

  Hide contents

Where is the second secret? I found the first one behind the statue in the courtyard.

 

 

Sorry to be so late replying. The 2nd secret can be found

Spoiler

in the dark foyer outside the Wizard's bedroom. Look up!

 

[MirceaKitsune]

Very nice and pleasant little FM. At first I thought it's a bit older given the simpler design: I think I'm getting too used to working with the building modules and imagining them everywhere

I loved the atmosphere and overall feel, you could tell it's a mages place. Architecture seemed a bit too simple but it works. Fair gameplay and good flow, shorter but had enough unexpected parts to be interesting.

[SeriousToni]

On 10/24/2024 at 10:14 PM, thebigh said:

 

Oh wow terragen. I remember using bryce or how it was called when I was a kid in school. Very cool!

Just finished the mission and I can only say the same as the others above me. Basic geometry but good gameplay and interesting features. I was very pleased with this one. Thank you for all the work you put into this. Of course I want to see another mission like that from you

[grodenglaive]

Short, but sweet - I liked it. The skybox is definitely cool; there's another thing I need to look into.

[taffernicus]

i noticed a light leakage at the bottom of the robe of the teleporting wizard 

[thebigh]

I saw that too. It seems to be an issue with the stock asset. Maybe future versions of TDM will fix it.

[The Black Arrow]

Okay, I gave this a play and here's what I think:
- Bad graphics, the mansion didn't look anything special whatsoever, it looked way too basic. I thought I was robbing a wizard, not some low-time builder mogul?
However, it does compensate at the end a bit with

Spoiler

me getting into that orb that turns me tiny and needing to do some platforming, that's not something you see often in TDM. Nicely done.

- I've had some performance issues for whatever reason, it might be on my end or the game, not your fault. But when I started the game I was already at 33 FPS, then it went to 70 which is the frame I like (I have 75hz and use 70 FPS to avoid screen tearing).
- Gameplay was not bad, you've already mentioned it's beginner-friendly so that's alright. Way too easy for an expert taffer like me though.

It's a good mission, but I believe your other missions are much better, such as Newford Road and House of deLisle.
With this mission and the other two I mentioned, I take it you like Winter-styled environments, huh? I do so too, but unfortunately in this Wizard one I think it was...Well, not too Wizardly, again with it having a tiny mansion not befit of a Wizard and all.

I would rate it a total of 3/5, I might even replay it next year when I feel like replaying short missions, always liked short missions.

[Jnon]

Took me a while to get to this, but I had fun with this map. When I first loaded it up I thought "this looks like a pretty small location, probably clean it out quickly and leave". Then the wizard teleported into the room and I had to panic-flee down the chimney. Really caught me by surprise, well done.

The custom skybox was nice, and I was really impressed with the magic orb mini-universe platforming section... the only time I remember seeing something similar was in The Painter's Wife, with the pixie terrarium in the wizard tower. I really need to load that up in DR and see how that's done, because I want to try it myself.

Nice work!

[thebigh]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I didn't have a lot of time to build a huge map, so I tried to pack in a few surprises into a little one, and I think you're the first person to make use of the chimney!

[Jnon]

1 hour ago, thebigh said:

I think you're the first person to make use of the chimney!

It's instinct at this point... as soon as I saw it opened up into the second floor, I knew it was the best access option. Normal inhabitants might use the stairs, but they'd never go up the chimney. I felt pretty clever and comfortable, until the wizard teleported right in front of me, lol

[Cambridge Spy]

Here's my playthrough of The Wizard's Treasure:

 

 

[Thiefette]

That was a short but enjoyable little mission. Thanks for all your hard work  

[nbohr1more]

Boy Lag did a play-through:

He mentioned that the mission has some performance issues outside. ( I personally had no issues, but I might have too strong of a CPU + GPU to see anything )

I'm not sure if he has something extreme in his setting ( 8X MSAA, etc ) but I looked at the outdoors and found that there are no visportals between the fortress and the wall. It might be worthwhile to place at least 8 VP's ( 2 per corner ). Is the distant mountain geometry made of brushes?

[Geep]

Got around to trying this out. The winter skybox and landscape were excellent, especially when viewed from the rooftop. You mentioned using 16-bit terragen to build the terrain. I wonder if there's a more modern (but free) tool these days?

Crafty use of teleporting+FX. (The Boy Lag playthru video does a KO early on, so doesn't show any of those. His loss.)

Like others, I had some performance issues at the start. With my weak GPU, I had frame stutter under fresh-download 2.13 and so downgraded my settings. Sounds like 3 hypotheses have been floated for that -

• you mentioned parallel moon light
• translucent exterior windows
• needs visportaling

Only other problem I saw: 2 instances of the movable rough oak chair sunk into desk or floor.

I thought the light-leak under the wizard's gown was a feature, not a bug... radioactive shoes or underwear?

I enjoyed the straightforward story and colored lighting, and always go for rats. My dexterity and patience were a bit strained in two places (landing on windowsill; rock hopping), so I used magic (cough *noclip* cough). Don't hate me.

EDIT: After seeing your hint about the 2nd secret, I went back to look for it.

Spoiler

Saw the glow, but couldn't get to it, using a chair, even stacked on the bowl light. Noclipped to take a look at what it was.

 

[Zerush]

19 hours ago, Geep said:

Got around to trying this out. The winter skybox and landscape were excellent, especially when viewed from the rooftop. You mentioned using 16-bit terragen to build the terrain. I wonder if there's a more modern (but free) tool these days?

Crafty use of teleporting+FX. (The Boy Lag playthru video does a KO early on, so doesn't show any of those. His loss.)

Like others, I had some performance issues at the start. With my weak GPU, I had frame stutter under fresh-download 2.13 and so downgraded my settings. Sounds like 3 hypotheses have been floated for that -

• you mentioned parallel moon light
• translucent exterior windows
• needs visportaling

Only other problem I saw: 2 instances of the movable rough oak chair sunk into desk or floor.

I thought the light-leak under the wizard's gown was a feature, not a bug... radioactive shoes or underwear?

I enjoyed the straightforward story and colored lighting, and always go for rats. My dexterity and patience were a bit strained in two places (landing on windowsill; rock hopping), so I used magic (cough *noclip* cough). Don't hate me.

EDIT: After seeing your hint about the 2nd secret, I went back to look for it.

  Reveal hidden contents

Saw the glow, but couldn't get to it, using a chair, even stacked on the bowl light. Noclipped to take a look at what it was.

 

https://skyboxgen.com

https://www.blockadelabs.com

https://tools.wwwtyro.net/space-3d/index.html

https://lab.rosebud.ai/skyboxes

https://openart.ai/generator/skybox

---

https://screamingbrainstudios.itch.io/cloudy-skyboxes-pack 

 

[Geep]

2 hours ago, Zerush said:

https://skyboxgen.com

https://www.blockadelabs.com

https://tools.wwwtyro.net/space-3d/index.html

https://lab.rosebud.ai/skyboxes

https://openart.ai/generator/skybox

---

https://screamingbrainstudios.itch.io/cloudy-skyboxes-pack 

 

Thanks. I was thinking more of the terrain generation than skyboxes. Tho some of these offer skybox generation with depth, that can be converted to 3d meshes. Probably fine for Unity or Unreal engine. (For instance, peeked at a vid by "AI Protagonist" using skybox.ai plus convertio to get to .hdr file, then import into Unreal as a landscape+skybox dome). Anyone worked out a plausible DR/TDM workflow beginning with such starting points?

[Geep]

Evidently a modern version of Terragen (now Terragen 4 and Terragen Sky) is available: https://planetside.co.uk/

[Zerush]

2 hours ago, Geep said:

Evidently a modern version of Terragen (now Terragen 4 and Terragen Sky) is available: https://planetside.co.uk/

There are also some FOSS alternatives to Terragen (Freemium, proprietary soft)

https://github.com/Jaysmito101/TerraForge3D (Windows)

https://infinigen.org (Mac, Linux)

https://sourceforge.net/projects/hesiod/ (Windows, Linux)

 

[Geep]

@Zerush, good to know about these.

Related: in Sotha's "Skybox Tutorial", I removed the bad link to Terragen, and put in a little commentary about Terragen 4. But it requires someone who has actually used that tool (or an alternative) for an FM to really refresh that article.

[Zerush]

I think that using FOSS alternatives for assets of a free game is indicated, especially if these alternatives are just as good as the commercial products.