Fan Mission: The Arena by ERH+

[ERH+]

 

 

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"Beneath the sands of Al Farum lie the desolated compounds of the Clockmaker's disciples. Before they made time itself become uniform, hours and centuries were pouring into the different lands like summer rains - unequally. Some lands, unimaginably ancient, were worn down by wind and sun, while others remained forever young like gardens of The First Serpent, filled with the creations of yet unskilled gods. Travelling helped to not only develop the sense of space, but also the - now forgotten - sense of time currents.


That's where the disciples came from - travelers of time's labyrinth, always aware of its imperfections and splits, skilled in recognizing threats that grazes from the outside of time itself.
To prevent floods and droughts of time, the disciples went back as far as they could to the source of time and studied it - they were referring to it as the Great Clock, the Clockmaker, the Time Sun - whatever it is, it tends to lose its impact on random locations, causing the land to fracture and tremble.


The disciples managed to develop machines, the Great Clock's pendulums, that adjust its work and makes the world appear as we tend to think it always is.
But the travelers are long gone now. It is unknown if they failed to foresee a terrible fate that awaited them in their struggle, or if they mastered their art to the point where they decided to abandon this torn apart world, making a great leap to a better one. All that remains are partially operational machines maintaining unseen matter with growing effort.

 

Sadly, it seems that the only ones who can make use of its bizarre manifestations are the wealthy tourists who find joy in the spectacle of balancing life and death, movement and stillness. Simple minds toying with the scales that used to dose the essence of time, they mindlessly throw sand into the clockwork world's gears. The split is imminent and the momentum unstoppable, yet there is no one to foresee it."

 

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Simple idea of spawning different creatures on enclosed arena - they fight with each other or with you.

Default teams are townsfolk and monsters (both undead and spiders). Thieves are on player's side. Pagans, moors and mages on elementals side.

 

download link:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AoIlw2GQnPGZdyRRqJspMgGsi38

Edited March 12, 2018 by ERH+

[ERH+]

Known bugs (features): filling the arena with lava may course a game crash if a lot of bodies (more than 10) are already piled up. It supposed to get rid of them, but it went the other way.

 

Also I'm thinking about putting equivalent of console commands "noclip" "notarget" "god" in form of equipment. I've made this map in three days, implementing new ideas have no impact on main gameplay experience and polishing such things would delay release for god know how long.

 

I would be grateful if someone check my enlish in intro text.

 

 

 

Edited March 12, 2018 by ERH+

[Anderson]

  On 3/11/2018 at 7:02 PM, ERH+ said:

 

 

I would be grateful if someone check my english in intro text.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

?

[ERH+]

That's exactly what I'm talking about . Checking if grammar and sentences are right and understandable.

Edited March 11, 2018 by ERH+

[Amadeus]

"Beneath the sands of Al Farum lie the desolated compounds of the Clockmaker's disciples. Before they made time itself become uniform, hours and centuries were pouring into the different lands like summer rains - unequally. Some lands, unimaginably ancient, were worn down by wind and sun, while others remained forever young like gardens of Eden, filled with the creations of yet unskilled gods. Travelling helped to not only develop the sense of space, but also the - now forgotten - sense of time currents.

That's where the disciples came from - travelers of time's labyrinth, always aware of its imperfections and splits, skilled in recognizing threats that grazes from the outside of time itself.
To prevent floods and droughts of time, the disciples went back as far as they could to the source of time and studied it - they were referring to it as the Great Clock, the Clockmaker, the Time Sun - whatever it is, it tends to lose its impact on random locations, causing the land to fracture and tremble.

The disciples managed to develop machines, the Great Clock's pendulums, that adjust its work and makes the world appear as we tend to think it always is.
But the travelers are long gone now. It is unknown if they failed to foresee a terrible fate that awaited them in their struggle, or if they mastered their art to the point where they decided to abandon this torn apart world, making a great leap to a better one. All that remains are partially operational machines maintaining unseen matter with growing effort.

Sadly, it seems that the only ones who can make use of its bizarre manifestations are the wealthy tourists who find joy in the spectacle of balancing life and death, movement and stillness. Simple minds toying with the scales that used to dose the essence of time, they mindlessly throw sand into the clockwork world's gears. The split is imminent and the momentum unstoppable, yet there is no one to foresee it."

Here are my suggested rewrites for you. Although, one thing, the garden of Eden seems out of place to me as it is a real biblical reference. Is that something you want to reference in your world?

Edited March 11, 2018 by Amadeus

[ERH+]

  On 3/11/2018 at 7:56 PM, Amadeus said:

Here are my suggested rewrites for you. Although, one thing, the garden of Eden seems out of place to me as it is a real biblical reference. Is that something you want to reference in your world?

 

 

Thank you very much! I just want to hint a general mythical feel and purpose of Eden's garden without telling long story. I hope referring to it as a "The First Serpent's garden" won't be to biblical (even if Bible probably borrowed this theme from Sumerian myths).

[Amadeus]

yeah, that shouldn't be too bad. I was also trying to think of things along the lines of "paradise" but couldn't come up with anything good

[Bienie]

Wow it's cool you were able to whip up this concept in only three days! I will definitely give this one a spin, should be fun!

[Goldwell]

  On 3/11/2018 at 6:58 PM, ERH+ said:

 

 

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"Beneath the sands of Al Farum lie the desolated compounds of the Clockmaker's disciples. Before they made time itself become uniform, hours and centuries were pouring into the different lands like summer rains - unequally. Some lands, unimaginably ancient, were worn down by wind and sun, while others remained forever young like gardens of The First Serpent, filled with the creations of yet unskilled gods. Travelling helped to not only develop the sense of space, but also the - now forgotten - sense of time currents.

 

 

That's where the disciples came from - travelers of time's labyrinth, always aware of its imperfections and splits, skilled in recognizing threats that grazes from the outside of time itself.

To prevent floods and droughts of time, the disciples went back as far as they could to the source of time and studied it - they were referring to it as the Great Clock, the Clockmaker, the Time Sun - whatever it is, it tends to lose its impact on random locations, causing the land to fracture and tremble.

 

 

The disciples managed to develop machines, the Great Clock's pendulums, that adjust its work and makes the world appear as we tend to think it always is.

But the travelers are long gone now. It is unknown if they failed to foresee a terrible fate that awaited them in their struggle, or if they mastered their art to the point where they decided to abandon this torn apart world, making a great leap to a better one. All that remains are partially operational machines maintaining unseen matter with growing effort.

 

Sadly, it seems that the only ones who can make use of its bizarre manifestations are the wealthy tourists who find joy in the spectacle of balancing life and death, movement and stillness. Simple minds toying with the scales that used to dose the essence of time, they mindlessly throw sand into the clockwork world's gears. The split is imminent and the momentum unstoppable, yet there is no one to foresee it."

 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Simple idea of spawning different creatures on enclosed arena - they fight with each other or with you.

Default teams are townsfolk and monsters (both undead and spiders). Thieves are on player's side. Pagans, moors and mages on elementals side.

 

download link:

https://1drv.ms/u/s!AoIlw2GQnPGZdyRRqJspMgGsi38

 

Created an FM page for you and uploaded to the official mirrors, please PM me if you need any changes made to that page or a new version to be uploaded.

 

Congrats on the release too

[SuaveSteve]

Consider moving the ladder so that the player has a clearer view to the arena from the booth.

[ERH+]

  On 3/12/2018 at 10:46 AM, SuaveSteve said:

Consider moving the ladder so that the player has a clearer view to the arena from the booth.

Yes, moving control room forward so the player will use chain for going both up and down is on my mind.

[kano]

Wow, this was quick! Thanks for the mission

 

I checked it out last night. It is fun being able to spawn and spar with whatever AI you want. (I know you could also use console commands to achieve this).

[ERH+]

Some new things: added a duct with holes around the main area - now player have more shadow to sneak in monster's proximity. Removed ladder, only a chain to climb, also easier to mantle in many places. Lava works better when the gates are not sticking up from the floor, but still got some crashes - but I guess "spawn more and more monsters" scenario is doomed to crash sooner or later.

Link in the first post.

 

 

 

Edited March 12, 2018 by ERH+

[RPGista]

That looks amazingly weird and fun!

[raymeld]

Interesting.Didn't someone do a Thief Gold fan mission along similar lines?

[ERH+]

  On 3/14/2018 at 3:41 PM, raymeld said:

Interesting.Didn't someone do a Thief Gold fan mission along similar lines?

That is the point. We hadn't such in TDM. It is just a testing ground breaking the mission formula. We have training mission but this is more like a bot deathmatch with more power of changing scenario given to the player.

[RPGista]

Should be great to observe the fighting ai routines, and animations.

[Tarhiel]

Is there any way to finish the mission?

 

I assume since there is written objective "This arena has no end" there is no way to end this mission (having all objectives ticked, after that getting to the end of the level)?

[ERH+]

Correct, you can't get to the mission finish screen. You have too much power over all variables, so end screen won't mean too much. Maybe I could make up better objectives than "achievements", but it supposed to be as simple as possible because it don't work in any linear way like normal mission do.

[Tarhiel]

Thanks for clarification.

 

I wanted to be sure before proceeding to other fanmissions that there is no way of finishing this one

[stgatilov]

My personal "thank you" for this map!

 

While it is not a "mission" at all, it is fun to play with!

I did not even imagine we already have so many AIs

Moreover, it will serve as a great test map for TDM team

 

 

P.S. noticed a problem with bumpmap on the walls of the arena:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

[ERH+]

Glad you like it!

[Anderson]

Bearing in mind that TDM and the Idtech4 engine is not made for many AI going being alive at the same time for the sake of performance.

Bearing in mind that the Arena feels empty without any kind of spectators.

 

Would it be possible to have any way of having a line of soldiers or something like that to enforce some boundaries and to ensure only 1v1 matches? Even something like good quality animated 2D sprites of legionaries scripted to encircle the player once he gets in the middle of the arena. Idk something like this. Or maybe it would be a waste of time? Possibly too melodramatic for a simple arena death match but such a scripted scene could be useful for other FM's where the player is supposed to be ambushed or something story-wise. Is it feasible?

Edited April 30, 2022 by Anderson