Fan Mission: The Rats Triumphant by Melan (2015/10/31)

[Melan]

 

The Rats Triumphant

(Halloween Contest 2015 Mission)

 

  Quote

Three weeks ago the Builders condemned Whitechapel Row... They hammered and sawed, and erected their barricades of timber and stone...

 

Over those weeks, I dreamed of great iron machines that swallowed the sky, thundering and shouting to defy the winds. I dreamed of nitrous vaults undisturbed, forgotten for the counting of years...

 

At the end of the third week did I awaken in cold sweat, for on that night, I would procure a certain letter from an old house I have not visited in many years...

 

Jacques Mortegris was his name, and I left him in anger, renouncing my lineage and wealth to live a life of knavery and deceit. But now, I would return for those fever-dreams of gold, and a family inheritance.

 

Download links:

MEGA (11 MB)

...and the mission downloader

 

Design notes:

The idea for this mission came from an old house in a side street where I go to my daily work. It had been dilapidated as long as I can remember, first as a home for beggars and some fairly disreputable people, then condemned and its windows bricked up, and now finally in the process of being demolished. As I went to my work and back, I could watch it disappear day by day, exposing its layers of construction until finally only one wall remained. But for all its ruined state and inhabitants, it had a simple elegance, and I decided to preserve it in the form of a fan mission.

 

(more on building the mission later)

 

Special thanks: to Bikerdude for multiple performance-related and aesthetic fixes. My playtersters, Bikerdude (again), nbohr1more and Premier.

[id3839315]

Four new missions and it's

[Bikerdude]

Added to the in-game downloader.

[Ryan101]

I'm having a damned tough time finding

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the key to the cellar

Any clues?

Edited October 31, 2015 by Ryan101

[Melan]

Clue:

 

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Three people are mentioned in the warning. You should think about visiting their homes one after the other.

 

[Oldjim]

Regarding the above

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are there two keys as the padlock key doesn't open the cellar

 

[Bikerdude]

@Jim,

 

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I forget exactly where that key is, maybe look up high near the start

 

[Oldjim]

@Bikerdude

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I think that is where I found the padlock key - hence my question whether there are two and I need to find another one

 

[Bikerdude]

Nope, just the one.

 

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make sure to from the padlock only when you use the key.

 

[Melan]

It works a bit weirdly. Try using it twice.

[Oldjim]

Found the problem

 

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Needed to use the "use" key to unlock the padlock not the frob key which is what I usually use for unlocking things

However after doing that the frob key opens and closes the padlock but the hatch moves a very small amount then stops

 

[Bikerdude]

@Jim, step back a bit as it opens.

[Melan]

Oldjim:

 

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You are probably standing on it.

 

[Oldjim]

 

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I didn't think I was - will have another go and report back

You are right I was

 

[Oktokolo]

This mission is beautiful and features a plot that feels fresh. And it really hits the Halloween bull's eye.

 

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I liked the climbing but found it surprisingly difficult to mantle into the pagan's house because of the roof window's slippery frame.

I also experienced the bug where one has to use the padlock key once before beeing able to open the hatch by frobbing - had to come here to be able to progress (thanks Oldjim).

There is some texture missing on the district wall top visible from the belltower:

 

As always i wanted to use more of that doors, loot more of that buildings, uncover more of the truth™.

But as this mission ends like an Introduction, i now yearningly await the next episodes of the campaign it surely is the start of...

 

 

[nbohr1more]

This mission looks far more difficult than it actually is.

 

 

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Without a priori knowledge of where to go and what threats may reveal themselves, you are coaxed into risky navigation.

Only after completion or a few replays will it dawn on you that there are so many good escape routes and alternate ways to

get around.

 

I'll have to try Expert this evening as I've more or less mastered completing the mission iron-man style with no back-tracking.

 

I will say that the hatch in the uncle's basement is still a little problematic but I understand that it's behavior is somewhat limited

by the nature of it's design. It's cool that the lock has a separate frob from the door itself but that makes unlocking the door a

bit fiddly by nature of the limitation of the setup. The wonky design does drive up the tension a little and adds to the mood that

this is a decrepit old place with malfunctioning doors etc... but obviously for most players this will just seem to be broken

and they will either need to return to the thread for a clarification or keep retrying (or rage quite, depending on temperament...).

 

Does the lady who asks whether "someone is there" reside in a building adjacent to the quarantine zone? Or is she genuinely hiding

somewhere accessible? Or is that a ghost voice?

 

The use of a large parallel light to illuminate the whole outdoor region is a nice visual touch but I fear that this will probably limit the audience

a bit as it does take a toll performance wise. I'm just glad that I've got enough hardware under the hood to squeak by at 18 fps (at the lowest).

I'm sure my previous PC would be crying for mercy here. Not that this should detract anyone from using this method. Just a general warning

for TDM players on the "extreme low-end". In the end, it's worth the price of admission and I doubt anyone would quibble that point.

 

 

 

 

Overall, a top notch mission and something I would expect to see for a contest that lasted a few months rather than the scant 15 days or less than

this contest afforded.

[Ryan101]

 

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Turns out I had the key the whole time, I just didn't know how to properly use it on the hatch. Kind of a problematic design choice, that, but I figured it out thanks to everyone else mentioning it here.

 

 

And now with the mission actually done, I can safely say this was a really good little mission with pretty excellent atmosphere and a foreboding story, perfectly suited for Halloween without slamming us in the face with clumsy attempts at scaring the player. Only sticking point is within the spoiler; good job overall.

Edited November 1, 2015 by Ryan101

[Sotha]

Completed this. Boohoo, I was sort of expecting more.

 

 

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Appearance: Good. The mission location was well made out and looked really good. There were occasional texture glitches.

 

Gameplay: Could be better. I really I wish I could give it an Average, but it wasn't as fun as an average TDM mission. I really disliked how it became a keyhunt. That really puts it off for me. I had to run back and forth through the square in front of the church, each time caring less and less not to disturb the zombies.

 

Also, it felt like the main danger zone of the mission was the square, but there avoiding the zombies was really easy, trivial even.

 

Also, the mission briefing told me: "go to a house I know well and get a will from inside." I felt I did not get what it said on the tin. Instead, it felt like the mission was more like "wander around a city area with no idea where to go and check everywhere and collect keys, then finally semi-accidentally bump into the place you were supposed to go." If I was in a zombie infested hell-hole, I would go directly to get the stuff I came to do, and not wander around in the clothiers shop.

 

There were some readables, but they were somehow so obscure that I only got a really vague idea what had happened in the area.

 

Why did I have and why did the mission give flashbombs? Zombies are immune to them.

 

Halloween: I dunno. Average, maybe. I did not feel much threatened or excited. I was more like frustrated by the keyhunt, the lack of general idea where to go, and the lack of idea what was going on and why.

 

 

 

Thanks for the mission, though. I appreciated the experience, even though it was not my cup of tea.

[Loa4ever]

Congrats on the release,I will give a try .

[Melan]

Sotha: Thanks for the honest feedback! The design decisions you criticise are intentional, although they are of course legitimate to question.

 

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Horror missions which are not just "regular missions but with skeletons and stuff" are about forcing the player into uncomfortable and threatening situations. They benefit from a feeling of weakness (disempowerment) and some amount of frustration. Thief's Return to the Cathedral lets you complete your objectives, then throws curveball after curveball at you when you thought it was all over. The first Penny Dreadful offers multiple apparent ways out of the mission area, but they only draw the player further into dangerous situations. This mission uses the keyhunt element for the same purpose: to keep the player entrapped until they figure the true way out. My regular missions, even if they involve protagonists in precarious situations, tend to have a higher level of empowerment due to offering multiple ways to approach and deal with your targets, thus extending the player's control/mastery of the environment. This is intentionally different.

 

WRT difficulty, it is a double-edged sword. Earlier versions of the missions were prohibitively difficult, with harsh, overlapping lights in multiple locations, and strong moonlight coverage. This has been toned down after the first playtest version. The question is always whether to make missions for hardcore players (PD2 is one of those), or keep things more approachable, with the occasional difficulty peak. I tend to lean towards the latter, although as a horror mission, it could perhaps have been more unfair. I did fear it would be too much together with the keyhunt part.

 

The story is intentionally vague. If I had more time to think about the readables, it would be much more vague, impressionistic and surreal. It is not supposed to make 100% logical sense. I have done my job well if the readables and the environment let the player wonder about things and draw their own conclusions (it is interesting to read how people have already interpreted things), but be left with doubts. If anything, things are perhaps too concrete.

 

That's my reasoning anyway. TL;DR and non-spoilery: this FM is an experiment in designing a horror experience that creates unease, a sense of confinement, and uncertainty in the player.

[Oldjim]

As my previous post seems to have vanished due to the forum glitch last night I will try to remember what I said

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I really liked this mission but I treated it as the more usual look at where I can climb up to excercise

The result was that I collected both keys before the readables

After reading them I had a much better idea as to what I should be doing in the house and other than losing some health due to noxious gasses I didn't have a problem except with the hatch and padlock - mentioned earlier and in a bug report related to the heavy crate on top of the moveable pallet

After reading the note about the thief stealing the key I couldn't understand why his body wasn't on the ground in the collapsed house in a well shadowed area where he died after falling from the roof

Because of this methodology I had much less of a problem than some other players apparently did

 

[Agent Jones]

 

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Appearance: the map is immersive, you really nailed the atmosphere.

Gameplay: while I liked the roofclimbing element, I found the key hunting and the padlock to be quite tricky. Additionally, when I escaped I didn't hit the Mission Complete trigger, so I wandered around for a bit until I finally stumbled upon it.

Halloween: 2spooky/10

 

 

All in all, a great mission.

[raymeld]

I found the key

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on the roof.

, but could someone give me a clue as to the whereabouts of the second which presumably

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opens the far church door.

Thanks!

[Melan]

Try

 

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to search the house of the clothier.

 

[raymeld]

Grrr , Ive annoyingly got stuck on part of the map and need to noclip. Can't remember the right keys to use , tilde plus others I think , can't find a ref anywhere to do it. Thanks for any help. p.s Melan thanks for clue. Annoyingly , I was there earlier and didn't follow it through but all well now.

Edited November 4, 2015 by raymeld