Fan Mission 48: A Score to Settle, by Springheel (2011/07/01)

[Springheel]

At long last, I am finally releasing my first mission, A Score to Settle.

It's been a long road! I started this mission three years ago, when I didn't even know you could move the verts of a brush, and knew nothing about visportals or patches. I'm sure I've made every noob mistake in the book.

I have learned a huge amount from this map, and have developed a great deal of respect for anyone who goes through the entire process of building and releasing a mission.





A Score to Settle is a small to medium sized mission, where you set out to find and humiliate the leader of a rival gang. It is meant to be a challenge to players who are familiar with TDM, and is probably not a good mission for those still getting accustomed to TDM's mechanics (it's also not appropriate for children).

ASTS uses 1.06 features, which means that AI are capable of relighting lights. The chance of this happening goes up depending on the difficulty level you choose.
Difficulty levels also affect the number and quality of AI, the number and type of lights, and AI acuity (AI have slightly better than normal hearing on Hardcore). The difference between Casual and Hardcore is considerable.

The mission includes several video and audio files, so it is hefty at 135MB.

edit: Please follow the objectives carefully. If you don't do the "first" objective first, you'll spoil some of the story for yourself.

Hope you enjoy it!

[Thiefette]

Congrats on release Springheel. Am downloading now.

[skacky]

Man that was a great FM, definitely one of the very best so far.

The streets architecture was complex and very well made, everything felt right and believable. I was really dragged in it. The conversations and briefing were great too. My favorite part was that little

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indoor alley linking the two parts of the map with the orange spotlight and the stairs. I don't know why, but I loved it. The skymap is also awesome.

 

I completed the mission on Expert in 49 minutes with some loot missing, and an unusually poor stealth score.

Finding the attic was a bit tricky, and I didn't find where to use Sykes' key. Nice job on that trap too, even if I read his diary I was still surprised when it crushed my face.

 

 

The ambient music was great too, I got a huge Thief 3 vibe from it and it's something I enjoyed very much (I think T3 has the best music in the series despite the game having the flaws we all know). Overall the sounds and ambient noises were great, strengthening the immersion in the city. The drunkard's voice glitched a bit though, but that's the only thing I noticed.

 

The gameplay was challenging yet never frustrating.

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I had a hard time bypassing the sitting thugs playing cards to steal the coins and the goblets,

and I got busted like an amateur at the very end of the mission. I saw some little bugs here and there but nothing too nasty, like brush/patch overlaps and some sky brushes on the world geometry. Everything else was perfect.

 

Overall it was really great, definitely one of my favorite TDM missions. I can't wait for more from you.

[Springheel]

Thanks Skacky, glad you liked it.

[SiyahParsomen]

Yay! I was expecting this in these days.

 

Congrats on the release

[Diego]

Jaw dropping! Every aspect of it.

 

I've played in 'challenging' difficulty and it was pretty coherent most of the time, except towards the end. My parameter is 'how much do I rely on quick save/load and why'

 

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when the alarm goes off they all ran every in direction, so sometimes it's easy and sometimes really hard, like when they all block the only doorway.

 

So that took me a few retries.

 

I have nothing more to add.. just: Make more!

[Melan]

Might this be the best mission so far? It is just great. Very high production values, inventive architecture (a convincing slum area, not an easy thing to do), a well-realised plot and some seriously tense moments. Well done, Springheel!

[Bikerdude]

Glad all the hard work paid off Springs!

[Shadowhide]

congrats Springheel ! missions from team-members is always appreciated

[Midnight]

Congrats on the release!

 

  On 7/2/2011 at 7:14 AM, Melan said:

Might this be the best mission so far?

I think so, I never tired of it in testing and I'm looking forward to playing it again! The AI relighting is a huge deal as well I feel, I hope future FMs take full advantage of this as well.

[lost_soul]

I just completed it for the first time. The mission has very nice visuals (professional quality). The audio was excellent as well. I would say it is even better than TDS because the environmental sounds are directional. When I'm roaming around the streets and I hear a horse galloping in the distance, I turn and the sound fades to the appropriate direction because it isn't just baked into a background music track. That draws the player in to the world much more.

 

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It was also cool that there were rooms which served no critical purpose, but were expected to be there, like a couple of bedrooms and one or two small places in the town to rob. In spite of the great architecture, I only managed to get some place I wasn't supposed to be once. This was near the fence at the end of the mission on the right. Credit is also due for innovative use of cut-scenes. The ending was cool! I was expecting to keep playing after he sent me down to the tunnels. I also appreciated the guards coming for me at the end of the mission. I had knocked everyone out that I had found, so it was still nice to have a bit of a challenge to finish the mission.

 

 

Bottom Line: This is another mission that should be advertised on TTLG. Just show them some screenshots of the town... How could anyone *not* want to play it?

 

Thanks!

[New Horizon]

Great work Spring. I loved playing this mission. Sorry I didn't have more feedback in the testing thread, but I'm working two jobs the last two months. It's a bit of a shock to the system to go from being self employed for the last 4 years, to self employed and 9 - 5 employment rather suddenly. lol

 

Anyway, great work on this mission.

[fllood]

uhh second half of 2011 starts with a Bang!

 

Thanks completing building this aspiring work for us taffers Springheel!

 

I'm very much looking forward diving into your FM after I'm completed all the Contest missions.

[lowenz]

Playing now.....prof level mission, really professional.

 

Some little graphic problems:

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*cant'go here (space seems blocked):

 

*mesh problem here:

 

 

 

Found a "logic" bugs with pepkin's ring:

 

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*if found early in the game:

 

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

 

[Shadowhide]

completed

screenshots :

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[Shadowhide]

perfomance is fine,but i have looked on map in DR and see that some brushes and patches could be converted to func_static

for exapmle this house isnt sealing visportal,so if you going to make an update,i reccomend you to convert some world geometry to func_static

it will make dmap faster and perfomance higher

[Melan]

lowenz, Shadowhide: please surround your screenshots with Spoiler tags.

[Shadowhide]

i dont think any of those screens spoiling anything

[Bikerdude]

yeah, but all the same....

[Springheel]

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Might this be the best mission so far? It is just great.

 

Wow, coming from you I consider that high praise indeed.

 

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Playing now.....prof level mission, really professional.

 

Thanks everyone, it's very gratifying to see it so well received.

 

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Found a "logic" bugs with pepkin's ring:

 

 

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Hmm, that came up once during a beta-test, but we couldn't reproduce it. Had you been to see Gridley already? Were you able to complete the mission?

 

[Bikerdude]

  On 7/2/2011 at 3:39 PM, Shadowhide said:

if you going to make an update,i reccomend you to convert some world geometry to func_static

We did a bunch of that, but as you know mappers get burn-out when working on the same mission for too long.

[DeTeEff]

As others have said: Truely a masterpiece!

 

The only downside I can come to think of is...

 

 

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...one misaligned texture...The top of the droor opening to Sykes privy...Such things just spoils the mision for me...

 

 

 

Joking aside...

 

 

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I'm gonna try to put down a few words but it's hard to come up with something that justifies the brialliantness of this mission. It is just outstanding! Every aspect is just right. You have managed to get away from the 90 degree mayhem and the district feels alive with all the organic crannies and nooks and tunnels.

 

Performancevise, it is perfect. I've disabled the FPS-counter and go for just how the games feels; no problems whatsoever.

 

Even though one has seen most of the models in lots of missions, in this mission, it all came alive. I truely felt like being in that world!

 

Three thumbs up!

mission is

 

 

 

[Mortem Desino]

Holy awesome! I haven't finished yet, but this mission definitely makes my top 5!

 

A lot of work, a lot of love, and a lot of thought went into this, and it definitely shows. Thanks for the release, Spring!

[Fidcal]

Congrats Spring - I only just found this thread. Glad to see greebo's already mirrored it. Likely I want read this thread again until I get to play this through. Unless I get stuck of course.

[Fidcal]

Very enjoyable and looks and plays great but some glitches and confusion and feedback...

 

 

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Humiliate objective checked off just by opening a door and I had no idea why. On my way north at the start I very early got into Sykes' place without even knowing where I was so possibly this is explained at Gridley's but the route I took it was very puzzling. I couldn't see why finding that place should humiliate him. There was nothing to suggest that faced with a small barred room behind a door and a bone or two. I had no idea what it was. Might work better if the new objective was reworded, eg, 'Looks like Sykes drops victims down here below the privy to humiliate them. Do the same to him."

 

BTW the route I took from the start was over a wall then placed a plank and climbed it and got over a wall and there was a doorway which I entered. Turned out later I realized it was Sykes' place. So it kinda feels I've done the main mission relatively quickly whereas that would work better as a mission climax. But that is the weakness of random access non-linear FMs.

 

Found Sykes' key but don't know what it's for. I won't worry unless I need one.

 

Never did find the attic even though I searched and searched and in the end notarget, noclipped everywhere around and above the ceiling looking for a trapdoor or ladder or something but nothing. I'm now guessing the log in Sykes' room which said someone was nosing around in here actually meant downstairs and Sykes' room *is* the attic? Dunno. Why would he be scared of the attic if so?

 

I tried to drop his body down the upstairs privy even though it made no sense I could see unless it somehow fed indirectly to the same pit. However it was not possible to drop the body in the privy because there was no room. At some point when the body had fallen on the floor it suddenly checked of the objective. Later I saw his body down in the pit. Puzzling.

 

I didn't know I was Corbin until I read Sykes' log. Even then I only guessed because I knew the name was a possible protaganist. Maybe it was mentioned in the briefing and I missed it.

 

Pipkin's ring objective won't check off so I cannot finish. I reloaded an earlier gamesave and got the rign again but the same problem.

 

A couple of readables were very hard to frob - on the dungeon door and on the privy. Recommend tweaking with frobbox_size and possibly distance.

 

 

 

I'll resume tomorrow.