Fan Mission: Gem of Souls (31-10-2024)

[MirceaKitsune]

I'm happy to announce my second FM, 4 years after my first release. I've focused on large maps and open world projects, most of which are nowhere near finished: Inspired by short FM's posted recently, I decided to try something simpler and smaller that could be done in time. As Halloween is upon us, I put together a 10 day FM using pieces from other projects to speed things up. Since my previous FM I've gotten more experienced with DarkRadiant and haven't repeated a lot of its mistakes. While I haven't had time to put this up for beta testing, I've played it so many times I don't expect major bugs, though this is a quick project so don't expect everything to be perfect. Eager to hear what you think and what you find!

Until this is in the mission downloader you can get it at the following mirrors:

Google Drive
Mega.nz

Notice: This FM uses the newly added debrief stage. At the time of this post the latest TDM release doesn't contain the new system: You should still be able to play on the release version, but for the full experience consider running the latest DarkMod development snapshot from the installer.

This mission is story oriented, it's encouraged to explore and look attentively at things. I found it a bit on the difficult side, not as a deliberate choice but a consequence of its design. Definitely play on the easiest difficulty if this is your first time, a normal run should take over an hour.

Content warning:

Spoiler

This is a scary FM... no spiders, but the dead may not be at rest.

Short guide if you find navigating difficult, contains only minor spoilers:

Spoiler

Lockpicks are optional and everything has a key. Civilians aren't hostile. Be on the lookout for lightning to avoid being seen, get familiar with its timing, stay clear of illuminated areas before a strike then make a run for it. It's easy to make noise inside so be careful running in the hallways... use the carpets, moss arrows are there for a reason. In terms of items, look carefully in tight spaces and cracks, especially on floors and on top of things... leaning and climbing on stuff makes life easier, if in doubt use spyglass.

If you're stuck on a specific task, the following spoilers provide a guide for the most common challenges, contains major spoilers so I advice only checking this if necessary until finishing your first run:

Spoiler

 Find the gem:

Spoiler

You'll notice there are 6 keys of different colors, with 6 locks in each alcove marked by a symbol of that color. Naturally you must find all keys and unlock their corresponding keyhole: The container is unlocked once all colored locks have been disabled. Key positions are randomized, each key may appear in 1 of 8 different places, but they follow a pattern with each color found in a particular location or near a specific object. Look for a note in the desk upstairs for clues. If you're still stuck here's the detailed answer for each key:

Spoiler

Red: It's located outside in one of the empty sarcophaguses. Go left from your starting location, up the stone stairs and behind the church. Climb onto and carefully look in each of the stone tombs lining the walls, sometimes you need to lean in closely to see it at the bottom.

Spoiler

Yellow: You'll always find it on the floor under a piece of furniture, whether a bed or table or shelf. Look carefully between the beds, also under the legs of round tables including a book mount. Highest spawn probability is on the first floor and its two rooms, don't ignore the hallways or the upstairs room either.

Spoiler

Green: This one is found on top of tall furniture in the church, look in the same zones as yellow just higher up. Climb on drawers and shelves, you'll eventually see it on one of them.

Spoiler

Cyan: Located in the frame of a stained glass window. Look closely at each windowsill or the bottom of circular windows. Once more the rooms are the most likely bet, but you'll want to check near the spiral stairways.

Spoiler

Blue: Found on the balcony. It's located on the handrail and should be easy to spot. Sometimes it appears on the small balconies instead, jump over the main rail and investigate the railing around the two white statues reachable from the platform.

Spoiler

Pink: Look for it on the wood supports on the second floor of the hallway, it appears on one of the beams. You can stand on the handrails to climb up there or see which beam the key is on. Search across the length of the corridor, both near the walls the large pillars and the bridge. 

Exit the Church:

Spoiler

After you've unlocked the container and picked up the gem, you'll find yourself locked inside as the gates over the exit doors shut. To unlock them go back upstairs. Check the round window in the central the hallway behind the book mount: There's a small lever under it, initially it couldn't be frobbed but now it can be operated to unlock the doors.

Secrets:

Spoiler

I don't want to make those obvious unless someone really needs a direct solution, I'll only offer some hints: For one you'll need to look in a tight space against the wall. For 4 of them you'll have to look above, jump or climb high places. As for the 6th secret, it appears when the time is right, don't be quick to leave.

Edited October 31 by MirceaKitsune

[datiswous]

Congratulations!

I'm a bit skeptic about your idea to skip beta testing though. I guess you were on a time frame, but still..

Edited October 30 by datiswous

[MirceaKitsune]

1 hour ago, datiswous said:

Congratulations!

I'm a bit skeptic about your idea to skip beta testing though. I guess you were on a time frame, but still..

Thanks! The plan was to make something for Halloween hence why I posted it today: It was a last minute idea I thought of 12 days ago, even this morning I fixed a few small issues. Indeed there wasn't enough time, but for something quick and relatively simple I figured it works. I played through it more than a dozen times at various difficulties and routes, couldn't find anything problematic so I went with it.

Only noticeable issue is that if you look closely at the walls in a few spots, you can see the sky between them. It's not too obvious so I left it like that; The church interior module is quite finicky and has no clear guidelines on how to connect the various set pieces, you must find the best way as you go and sometimes there are gaps.

Oh and the exploding food flying all over the place bug, but that's a common issue with the commoners eating prefab.

[nbohr1more]

Congrats on the release!

[nbohr1more]

Note: This mission is NOT compatible with the "Fresnel Mod"

I believe it uses the non-cubic ambient light? Not sure but I can try making an alternate fresnel mod for this one I guess.

[nbohr1more]

The mission is up in the mission database!

Happy Halloween!

[thebigh]

Nice mission! I really enjoyed this one, and you weren't kidding about it being hard. It took me forever to work out how to escape after things got scary. I only scored about $3000 and found just one secret, so I'll have to have another play through later to discover what I missed.

 

[The Black Arrow]

49 minutes ago, thebigh said:

how to escape after things got scary.

 

"after things got scary"? Alright, I'm interested now, I'll try this mission at night.

[The Black Arrow]

4 hours ago, nbohr1more said:

Note: This mission is NOT compatible with the "Fresnel Mod"

I believe it uses the non-cubic ambient light? Not sure but I can try making an alternate fresnel mod for this one I guess.

I believe I'm experiencing this problem, do you also have the ground flickering like crazy, while also being absurdly shiny and foggy?

[Heuli]

Congratulations!
what a great mission really nice also the atmosphere just awesome

I completed the mission

[Knüppelaufdierübe]

OK, I'll admit upfront that I'm too dumb for this mission

So, I did the obvious thing and spent ages on knocking everybody out without raising suspicion and putting them, one by one, into the priest's room as it can be locked (which I then did) ... only to

Spoiler

have everybody respawn undead at the exact same place they were before. Just ... why?!

Spoiler

After finding a lever that just mackiged into existence because reasons(?),

I finally get out (still short on loot, but hoping)

Spoiler

, where there is a bunch of invisible crazies constantly running around on high alert for absolutely no reason and some glowing woman standing on a rock

. At this point, I was pretty lost. Where there any hints as to what this all means and, more importantly, what I am supposed to do?

[MirceaKitsune]

Firstly, yes: All or most of my FM's use ambient cubemap illumination, since it looks really good and is the closest TDM has to PBR lighting. I haven't tried the fresnel mod yet, but presume it doesn't work with those lights yet, which can hopefully be fixed since more missions might use them in the future.

57 minutes ago, Knüppelaufdierübe said:

At this point, I was pretty lost. Where there any hints as to what this all means and, more importantly, what I am supposed to do?

There's a reason for everything being the way that it is: You just need to look very attentively. Find all readables... some are hard to see which I should have probably made more obvious, I presumed most TDM players will look in every nook and cranny.

Spoiler

Look for a journal under a cabinet in the bedroom. A note in a shelf in the library room next to it. A dropped scroll under the chair of the drinker in the green tunic. Behind him a newspaper on the table where two AI are playing cards. And one more journal in the upstairs room between the wall and the large bed. Don't forget the poem in the desk there, the crumpled note in the tool box on one of the tombs near where you find the red key, and as a bonus you can frob the book in the upstairs hallway.

Also remember that...

Spoiler

Not everyone is hostile, only the builders and later the undead, the "living" civilians will only salute the player. As for said woman, see if she has anything on her that might explain it, but you should first read everything else.

Edited October 31 by MirceaKitsune

[thebigh]

11 hours ago, The Black Arrow said:

do you also have the ground flickering like crazy,

Lots and lots of Z fighting in this mission.

[MirceaKitsune]

1 hour ago, thebigh said:

Lots and lots of Z fighting in this mission.

Lots? Can you share a screenshot so I'm sure it's not something else I'm not getting on my end? I only I saw a bit where I made the terrain patches, though I pasted the projected material from the ground brush so they should be the same pixels and not noticeable.

[datiswous]

2 hours ago, MirceaKitsune said:

Lots? Can you share a screenshot so I'm sure it's not something else I'm not getting on my end?

Especially on the ground outside.

Pretty nice mission overall. Very pretty also I think. Haven't found the yellow and blue keys yet though.

There are some rough edges, but nothing really bothersome.

Edited October 31 by datiswous

[nbohr1more]

11 hours ago, MirceaKitsune said:

Firstly, yes: All or most of my FM's use ambient cubemap illumination, since it looks really good and is the closest TDM has to PBR lighting. I haven't tried the fresnel mod yet, but presume it doesn't work with those lights yet, which can hopefully be fixed since more missions might use them in the future.

  Reveal hidden contents

Look for a journal under a cabinet in the bedroom. A note in a shelf in the library room next to it. A dropped scroll under the chair of the drinker in the green tunic. Behind him a newspaper on the table where two AI are playing cards. And one more journal in the upstairs room between the wall and the large bed. Don't forget the poem in the desk there, the crumpled note in the tool box on one of the tombs near where you find the red key, and as a bonus you can frob the book in the upstairs hallway.

 

  Reveal hidden contents

Not everyone is hostile, only the builders and later the undead, the "living" civilians will only salute the player. As for said woman, see if she has anything on her that might explain it, but you should first read everything else.

Quite the contrary, your ambient_world is using a non-cubic version:

lights/ambientlightnfo_clouds
{
    ambientLight
    lightFalloffImage makeintensity( textures/lights/ambientlightnfo)

    {
        forceHighQuality
        map textures/lights/ambientlightnfo_clouds
        colored
        translate (time*-0.01), time*0.01
    }
}

Gonna see if I can reconcile this but the easiest solution is to move the fresnel effect to the non-cubic side ( revert to pre 2.11 behavior ) so that only non-cubic lights have the effect. Eventually I'll have to do some sort of branching thing to detect each mode.

[MirceaKitsune]

Yes: I believe I set the ambient_world to the clouds, the cubemap is a separate light, then comes the fog. Maybe I shouldn't be using them together like that, I just like the way they mix. Hope it can be fixed!

The Z-fighting on the ground must be caused by the terrain patches. It's weird because all of them are bent slightly, that's why I placed them to get bumps, maybe some surfaces in a patch still produce completely flat surfaces if the vertices aren't far enough? The other strange thing is I pasted the shader of the ground over them, the pixels they're Z-fighting with should be identical... the way TDM handles this is a bit weird, it's like they become brighter instead of picking one surface or the other?

[nbohr1more]

Here is a modified glprogs folder that you or any interested players \ tinkerers can put into the darkmod/fms/gem_of_souls folder

( folder must be named glprogs )

glprogs_gem.zip

It barely has any visual impact since you have very complex ambient behavior in this mission with all the cubic ambients but does improve the underside of a few outdoor models (etc).

Main benefit?

You can have the normal fresnel mod installed and still play this mission with no artifacts (etc).

[The Black Arrow]

6 hours ago, nbohr1more said:

Here is a modified glprogs folder that you or any interested players \ tinkerers can put into the darkmod/fms/gem_of_souls folder

( folder must be named glprogs )

glprogs_gem.zip 103.05 kB · 0 downloads

It barely has any visual impact since you have very complex ambient behavior in this mission with all the cubic ambients but does improve the underside of a few outdoor models (etc).

Main benefit?

You can have the normal fresnel mod installed and still play this mission with no artifacts (etc).

Smashing! The map looks different now, in a proper way that is, because the whole "glowy foggy terrain" made the mission look like it had no lighting yet it does. Thanks a lot for this fix 1more.

The terrain still has the whole Z-Fighting going on, but I'd rather have that (which of course I do) than the shiny terrain.

I'll play this map tonight, or at least try to.

[kin]

Congratoulations for the release. I love the animated trees in the storm at the beginning. A feature that I don't see often in a fm.

[MirceaKitsune]

The terrain does use a custom grass material to be slightly shiny, given it's raining so I wanted it to look a bit like wet mud for added realism.

3 hours ago, kin said:

Congratoulations for the release. I love the animated trees in the storm at the beginning. A feature that I don't see often in a fm.

Thanks! I hoped that and the lamps swaying in the wind would give everything a good feel, was also happy with the water running down stairs even if the effect is a bit strong. Rainy and windy maps are a bit harder to do, not too much if you know how to address all the particular details with available possibilities.

Edited November 1 by MirceaKitsune

[datiswous]

2 hours ago, MirceaKitsune said:

The terrain does use a custom grass material to be slightly shiny, given it's raining so I wanted it to look a bit like wet mud for added realism.

I think it has the opposite effect unfortunately, at least in my opinion. It's way too shiny. Also I think the water falling down the stairs is a bit too extreme.

[datiswous]

14 hours ago, nbohr1more said:

Here is a modified glprogs folder that you or any interested players \ tinkerers can put into the darkmod/fms/gem_of_souls folder

( folder must be named glprogs )

Instead players can just rename the file to glprogs_gem.pk4 and plonk the file into that folder.

Edit: Sorry maybe it's a bit of a redundant post, but it seems an easier approach.

Edited November 1 by datiswous

[tapewolf]

This was fun.  I spent far too long looking for a way out, and I could guess where things were going to go plot-wise, but the readables were well done and really added an extra dimension to the story.

The water gushing down the stairs was excellent, though it might have been better to have had an actual pool of water at the bottom of them or something, otherwise the water just seems to vanish.

I particularly liked

Spoiler

The angel and her mission brief.  I think this may be the first time I've ever KO'd an angel...

Struggling to find the other secrets, though I have found one other.  I tore the church apart trying to find a way to open the portcullises on the exits so I'm not sure where else they can be, but I'll keep looking.

With the newspaper there was a slight weirdness in that

Spoiler

The guy talks about losing his head at the gallows.  A gallows is for hanging, and if it's done so badly that his head comes off, that's considered a Bad Thing and the hangman is not going to get paid.  If he is going to be beheaded, 'scaffold', 'block' or 'guillotine' might have been a better choice of word.  Just throwing that out there in case you plan to do an update.

But yes, good work.

EDIT: Oh yes, and the open music is great.  Reminds me of Heretic or Hexen.

Edited November 1 by tapewolf

[MirceaKitsune]

Thank you, glad you liked it!

Spoiler

Secrets: Only one of them is inside the church, first floor, you can get it just by jumping while looking toward the right place. Look for the others outside, look high. The angel is one, just make sure to pickpocket her carefully.

You don't need to KO the angel as she's non-hostile. But I thought it would be fun to make her immortal yet still possible to KO, given health doesn't affect how the blackjack can put someone to sleep.

And oh my gosh, I only now realized that mistake The gallows is indeed for hanging, the guillotine is for beheading... somehow my brain got them mixed up and I didn't realize it till now. Oh well, I don't plan on doing an update just to fix that so it will be a silly mistake players can have fun with.