Contest 3 Missions are Released!!!

diana50322 on 29/7/2002 at 20:38

Oh without question "Deceptive Perceptions" is the most frightening. I was just glad I hadn't played it at 3 AM in the dark.

I did play "The Keepers Are Thrirsty" at 3 AM though and I laughed so hard I woke up my son up who is 13. He wanted to know what was so funny but I told him I would show him in the morning. So as promised I showed him the next morning and he laughed too.

I also got his oppinion on "Deceptive Perceptions". He jumped 6 inches up out of the chair.

We both agreed that "The Crown of Lord Frobber" was pointless (sorry).

I showed him "Night's Recourse" and we both enjoyed the oportunity to take out the anger we had stored up from every gaurd, every siveling servant who run and told on us, and every "Lord" who stuck his nose in the air at us. He said the prancing skeletons were cool. We both liked the music too.

Eastwater bank though frustrating at times really made me forget that I was playing a "small" mission. But now I've gone and made a Thief-junky out of him.

All told, I enjoyed them all, some more than others, but I was glad to have the opportunity to play them.

vesuvius on 29/7/2002 at 21:59

I beat CTF captur the b33r on hard,
for those with difficulty here's how.

first, where your objective is:
[spoiler] the beer is on the bathroom sink (downstairs) [/spoiler]
secondly, how I got it.
(this is step by step and you should only look if you need a blow by blow spoiler, try figuring it out first.)
[spoiler] lockpick the outside door (taking the key from the guard in the shack has, for me, alerted him) pick half first, then hide as the patrolling guard goes by and pick the other half. from a safe vantage point (I used the unoccupied guard shack and turned off the light) watch the inside guard. when safe, creep in over the carpet and be careful not to wake the sleeping drunk guard by the fireplace. enter the bathroom, take the b33r. don't leave immediately after the patrolling indoor guard walks away from you, instead wait until the outdoors patrolling guard goes by and starts back before leaving. after getting out the door I had to duck into the shadows on the right to avoid being spotted by the returning patrolling guard. from there you can time your sneak to the gates, and a nice shady spot to get drunk in.[/spoiler]

PS- I was right with my earlier thought that the objectives were inspired by the online comic (http://www.megatokyo.com) MegaTokyo, the proof is on the beer can, which uses a texture taken from a megatokyo t-shirt (it says '(http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=mtokyostore.242) 3vil l33t').

Sharga on 29/7/2002 at 22:03

I'm thinking I might keep Night's Recourse in my Thief folder just to blow off some steam every time Dromed turns on me (which is nearly every time I get on dromed, so I'm going to play a lot of Night's Recourse)

If the missions creator is reading this. Once this is over you should make a bigger mission with more baddies but pretty much the same thing. It's just so satisfying that I want more! :D

diana50322- I made a friend of mine play Deceptive Perceptions and it scared the heck out of him! :) Needless to say I was very pleased. Sounds like you've got a 13 year old thief addict now. W00t!

I kinda had the same feeling about The Crown of Lord Frobber but the archetecture was very interesting.

Norman Druart on 29/7/2002 at 22:50

Quote:

Originally posted by vesuvius
first, where your objective is:
[spoiler] the beer is on the bathroom sink (downstairs) [/spoiler]

Does the beer start out there? I don't think it stays there for long:

Quote:

Originally posted by Komag
Message from author of T2-CTF:

Everyone else: Sorry for the time limit, I'm such a sadist. ;) For those who
haven't figured it out yet, the pie is always in the same place, the bear
appears in a random place each time you play, and the beer moves around during
the game.

vesuvius on 29/7/2002 at 23:25

it was there during the first half of the mission, don't know when it moves. sorry...
---------------------------
regarding old comrades old debts:
I beat it and I really enjoyed the design of this level (both architecture, use of space, plot design and objective design/order), but I was very frustrated by the reliance on crate hopping, the one thiefly are I am least skilled at.
2 quick questions for those who have finished it:
[spoiler] 1.) in the attic is it possible to get into the chest that does not contain your lockpicks ( if so, how ?)? the treasure chest to the right, around the corner when you are facing the gang leader. 2.) is there a strategic value of any sort to ringing the church bell to distract the leader? I know you can pickpocket the key from him by hiding in the shadows of the staircase when he comes over, but the key is easy enough to get by just waiting for him to turn around. is there any purpose (save for immersion)?[/spoiler]

diana50322 on 29/7/2002 at 23:43

Quote:

Originally posted by Sharga
I kinda had the same feeling about The Crown of Lord Frobber but the archetecture was very interesting.

Archetecture? There was archetecture? Sorry I must have missed it. :D

Lytha on 30/7/2002 at 08:12

vesuvius, once again I wonder why anyone would think it is noteworthy to write down a "haha, I beat lytha in something." Do you write such stuff about all the forum members? Anyway - that was ghosting plus crushy trumpet or something similar masochistic, and it had nothing to do with the "0 damage style."

diana... peiorative comments like this will ensure that there may be one FM designer less for the future.

Lytha on 30/7/2002 at 12:22

After the Party

I really enjoyed the architecture of this mission. Not only was it pure eyecandy with love to the details, it had also a nice non-linearity with the rope arrows and the way from upstairs of the entrance hall down to the 1st floor. I really liked the shadow management on the way upstairs of the entrancehall when approaching the sleeping servant and the guard. The sleeping couple in the fireplace room was also very funny. :)

It was also good that the "no knockouts to the guards" objective was only optional! Such challenges should definitely be optional and not enforced playing styles.

Not to forget, you have included all the tools that a Thief needs (especially compass and blackjack), and the ambient hacked and also the ambient light was well-chosen. :)

A thing that I did not like very much was the "all the loot" requirement; since Assassins, I am not much a fan anymore of the crouch & stare at every centimeter of the floor on the hunt for the last penny anymore, but a fan of "enough loot for the requirements lies around in the open and is obvious."

A question about the keys - I had a lot of them in the end, but I used only 2 (one for the bed room, one for the cabinet in the bedroom (the area with the cloak hooks.) Had all of them a purpose?

Overall, a very sweet and promising mission. I want to see more of this eyecandy by you. :)

Akenaten's Tomb

I generally like undead and spiders in missions, and the egyptian setting was a nice touch. The mummies looked definitely creepy, and there were enough firearrows to blow them up, and water arrows do douze all the torches. The loot was well placed; not too difficult to find, and not too easily to spot. It had also ambient sound, and a coherent use of textures. I definitely liked the room with the old barrels and the other debris, that room had a very nice touch. :)

With the blackjack, the little spiders would have been easier to deal with; please don't take this weapon ever away from Garrett, even if you send him into an undead infested place.

The objectives acting strangely was a bit irritating, but once they were there, everything was fine. As I have seen in a few questions about this mission, I am not the only one who could not find the Keeper Artifact (was it the Serpentyle Torc?)

I am relatively sure that this was the first mission of a new designer, and for this, it was definitely a nice one. Keep it up, I would definitely like a bigger egyptian tomb-raider mission with traps and labyrinth, if you like to make such missions! :)

Dedicated to the People of TTLG

I liked the froggie-fish and the fishfodder, and it's also nice to hear Benny once again. The sound that the goblet made with the first frob was also nice. The blueish ambient light and the pagan lights' ambient hacked livened up the mission a bit.

Well, it's a nice idea to dedicate a mission to friends.

Eastwater Bank

Naming the enemies gives always a nice touch. I particularly liked the story that this mission told. Once again, it was good to have the full equipment that was needed for the mission (including the compass!) The mission also had a good use of the ambient sounds, and it was eyecandy pure. :)

It may be better to make secrets which are needed to solve a mission either more obvious (bigger, more obvious switches), or not to place the needed stuff into secret areas, but into the open - if it's a must to find some key, then it should not be a secret, as everyone has to find it.

But surely, once all the buttons and hiding holes were located, it was a very promising and enjoyable mission. Keep it up! :)

Lytha on 30/7/2002 at 12:25

The Fireshadow's Barrow

The intro was technically excellent. I also liked the sleeping spider a lot. The creepy scroll on the table was cool, same as the effect of the upside down giant gold goblets, and the broken armor once the Haunt was dead - these things are definitely novel, and I am curious how they were done. Once again, the choice of textures, ambient light, and the sounds was very sweet. :)

However, this mission had several problematic areas as well. Movement in the tunnels was difficult - it was easier to get halfway stuck than to move along. Of course, natural looking cylinder-tunnels always have this problem. Even in Expert, I am more a fan of the "get ~80% of the loot" instead of the "search for the last penny". I have to say that I did not search the floor thoroughly, and I missed about 60 in loot. And I had the problem with the spinning doors too on my first time through, retrospectively, this caused me to build up a strong dislike in the first impression. On replays, with stepping back from the door (instead of trying to get through the rotating sides (they looked like they were supposed to do that, and I supposed to wriggle through as with waterwheels in so many FPS-games) with an angry Haunt on the other side), it became definitely better than the first impression that I had.

First City Bank & Trust Annex

The shop is already fun, nice to see that Garrett once in a while manages to find a really well-equipped store! :D

Who wouldn't love a mission with an automap like this. ;) It felt well-rounded and perfect and it looked and sounded just plain great! The new locks were definitely funny, nothing was really frustrating or irritating, except maybe the lock of the vault.

A tiny problem was though, that at least some part of the perfectness of the mission was because it was taken without much modifications from Thief 2: FCBT, it was like this mission in very tiny. And of course - because Randy can make great missions, copies of his missions have to be excellent. ;)

Still, the architecture and design was beautiful, and it gave the feeling that there was a lot of stuff in the mission. Whoever made this jewel - I definitely want to see more of your good taste in more missions. :)

The Golden Skull of Lord Frobb

Only because it is a 2 minute mission, it doesn't automatically have to be bad. :)

First of, I definitely liked the fact that ambient sound (from the pagan lights) is included, and that it is a Haunt level. Undead are always a good idea. :) Then, it was nice that the player has a sword and is not totally stripped of his equipment. More equipment would have been nicer, but at least one useful tool is good. :)

The architecture of this mission is definitely novel, and in its novelty, it makes the mission interesting. :)

I hope you do not mind me to say a few flaws. To avoid these complete shadows, add some ambient light in Dromed. Komag's tutorial guides you through a mission making process and he tells you how to make ambient light, and how to tell dromed to show up the mission objectives, I think as well. The architecture is novel, but I could already feel the polygons and cells ripping up the room - the dark engine has limits with these, and all these solid brushes (I presume you built it with solid brushes) were already approaching the limits. In a bigger mission, this will lead to problems, like my beloved cell complexity problem, or to the crashes in Alt+G. Try if you can make architecture like this with air brushes, carving out the shapes you want. This might help with the complexity problems, or use this architecture detail level only for limited and small areas that you really want to look sweet and excellent, and let the rest of the mission look as relatively poor of details as you know it from the original missions.

But, for a first mission attempt, this one is once again definitely a good one - and it even ended properly (that's something I had problems with in my first privately done mission attempts.) I am glad that you made it available to the public, and I hope you make more missions. :)

Lytha on 30/7/2002 at 12:28

The Keepers are Thirsty

I first expected some really creepy horror mission, like "Dracula the Vampire is thirsty" - that was my expectation. ;)

Hm... a nice choice of ambient sounds for the different floor levels, and it was nice how the floor appearance changed between the floors. Did all of the guards have the same voices in the different floor levels? The shadowing was done very well, too - always there was a shadowy corner to sneak up to the guards, and to knock them out. :)

Gameplay-wise though, I have to say... -- sorry about this! -- I dislike the mission. Mazes are bad enough as they are, creeping around on the floor on the search for a tiny level that I might have missed... It's like creeping on the floor searching for the last penny, only worse. Worse, because it's difficult to see from the switch's joint position if I have already frobbed it or not. (vague idea: Engine Features -> Frobinfo -> Script, DestroyObj?)

Police Station

A very nice first attempt at mission design. :) It was a nice touch to give the prisoners voices (has the female Thief usually a voice at all? Not sure at the moment), and it was pretty much straight-forward.

I would definitely have enjoyed to have a blackjack in my inventory though. :( Without it, and without the ambient light, it was occasionally quite painful to play, since the guards seem to be able to see in the complete darkness, but I can't.

I would like you to make this mission a bit bigger, and with ambient light and with the blackjack, then it can be a very thiefish and nice mission. :)

Thief 2 CTF

The architecture of the house is beautiful, I especially liked the living room with the guard snoring on the cushy chair. It's also nice that the objectives change with the difficulties, and that they are of an unusual sort. Personally, I loved the teddybear most. :p The environmental sounds also were great. :)

However, well... please don't make time limits. Time limits don't allow the player to stand still for a while, and to admire your architecture. And if you invest so much time into making the mansion look pretty, then you surely want the player to notice the beauty of the place instead of running through it like mad.

Is the time limit enforced with something in VKs UserScripts? Vanguard in the Eidosgames Forum said that the limit wasn't enforced when he played; but it surely *was* enforced when I played last time. Well... I preferred the teddybear anyway. :p

Underground Escape

This mission left me with the feeling that it was by far bigger than it really was. I liked the undead, and the mechanists. Also the quest item (who wouldn't love to steal a picture with cute cats?) I thought it was funny how the fat spider hated the apparition right from the start, but she could not reach him, so she sat there and gave him the glares. :D

I also loved the storyline with all the betrayal and lies. The loot was well placed (nothing important was hidden in a sadistical way.), and I liked the tomb-raiderish aspect of the mission.

I would love to see more, and longer missions by you. :)