[Developer Commentary Added] T2 FM - Lingering Whispers - (8 Sept 2011) - by scarykitties
poronty on 12/9/2011 at 14:48
Well, somehow I managed to complete all the objectives except for the loot requirement - I'm 70 short of 2500 - so now all that's left for me is to wait for someone to post a list of the more hard-to-access or hidden loot bits. After having trudged through all the locations a million times, I'm definitely not going to go for another look in hopes of finding the remaining loot...
As for my overall impression, I'm not sure what to say - at the start the whole mission felt amazingly brilliant in its complexity and refreshingly high difficulty, but by the end, it all kinda became a disheartening blur. For long stretches of the playtime I felt pretty lost, there was no tangible sense of progression, just wandering around aimlessly hoping to stumble into some clue... Also, one of the reasons the mission annoyed me quite a bit was that I only found the warehouse key at the very end, after having completed almost the entire mission. That key was sorely missed every time I had to find my way around those damned electronic bay gates. Perhaps that key should have been placed in a more prominent location...
But that's just my experience of course - maybe the mission caught me in a particularly lazy or unimaginative mood, I don't know. Still, I won't deny that there were lots of things to enjoy about it, so thanks for making it!
Cardia on 12/9/2011 at 14:58
Quote Posted by darthsLair
Hi Pedro !
In addition to presssing the little red button that starts up the generators, you must wait for all the lights to come on and then throw the big on/off switch.Hi Rod, thanks for the tip
but the red button is the alarm button, right?, what big on/off switch are you talking about? there´s is also a switch underground with 3 big cogs behind wich i can´t frob, do i must press this switch in "normal" difficult?, also do i have to frob all those evil masks that teleport me randomly to some spot of the map in "normal" difficult?scarykitties on 12/9/2011 at 15:13
Quote Posted by poronty
Well, somehow I managed to complete all the objectives except for the loot requirement – I'm 70 short of 2500 – so now all that's left for me is to wait for someone to post a list of the more hard-to-access or hidden loot bits. After having trudged through all the locations a million times, I'm definitely not going to go for another look in hopes of finding the remaining loot...
As for my overall impression, I'm not sure what to say – at the start the whole mission felt amazingly brilliant in its complexity and refreshingly high difficulty, but by the end, it all kinda became a disheartening blur. For long stretches of the playtime I felt pretty lost, there was no tangible sense of progression, just wandering around aimlessly hoping to stumble into some clue... Also, one of the reasons the mission annoyed me quite a bit was that I only found the warehouse key at the very end, after having completed almost the entire mission. That key was sorely missed every time I had to find my way around those damned electronic bay gates. Perhaps that key should have been placed in a more prominent location...
But that's just my experience of course - maybe the mission caught me in a particularly lazy or unimaginative mood, I don't know. Still, I won't deny that there were lots of things to enjoy about it, so thanks for making it!
Thank you for the honesty! I believe that the "issue" here is too much loot spread, for one. Too much stuff to find makes the mission wear out its welcome before you can complete it. I will use this as a learning experience for the future to make sure that the mission ends before it gets too tired.
As for the keys,
there are actually three keys, but the harder the difficulty, the fewer you are able to get. There are three keys in normal difficulty, two in hard, and only one key in expert difficulty. Since there is a written hint to where the expert key can be found (in the musings of the Mechanist foreman) and something to catch the player's attention (the mace in the Mechanist Temple), I felt that it was sufficient to make it fairly easy to find. Perhaps that was a mistake on my part. It is certainly something to keep in mind for the future.Quote Posted by cardia1
Hi Rod, thanks for the tip
but the red button is the alarm button, right?, what big on/off switch are you talking about? there´s is also a switch underground with 3 big cogs behind wich i can´t frob, do i must press this switch in "normal" difficult?, also do i have to frob all those evil masks that teleport me randomly to some spot of the map in "normal" difficult?poronty on 12/9/2011 at 18:25
Quote Posted by scarykitties
As for the keys,
In the meantime I deciphered the code for the secret compartment and with the loot found in there, my last objective ticked off! I could finally finish the mission, what a relief.
Actually, looking back at it now, probably the one single thing that caused me all this frustration must have been that bloody warehouse key (I played on the hardest difficulty, as always, so there was just
the one in the church). And seeing as it was hinted at in a readable, I really don't have anyone to blame but myself for not finding it. I guess I just got lazy paying attention to the readables, since it's been a long time that a FM depended on them to such a degree as this one. And I should be thankful for that really, instead of getting all exasperated. Anyway, now that I've finished, I'm liking the whole thing much better :laff: Great job!
scarykitties on 12/9/2011 at 18:31
Haha, well, glad to hear! And it's great to know that someone has managed to find all loot on their own, so I didn't misplace any loot that then couldn't be found or anything.
Out of curiosity, how do most missions give the information that I depend on readables for? Conversations?
poronty on 12/9/2011 at 19:35
Oh I didn't mean that they don't use readables at all – it's just that most missions use readables more like a backup source of info for the less observant or lazier players, pointing out in very clear terms things that can also be figured out without relying on them (either by trial or error, or just by using common sense and, well, thoroughly searching everything). But here I felt that it was very difficult, even impossible, to make progress without reading some of them. Which is a good thing, as far as I'm concerned... I just need to readjust my ADD level and pay more attention :idea:
Cardia on 12/9/2011 at 21:14
where is the place to turn the water on?
poronty on 12/9/2011 at 21:47
Quote Posted by cardia1
where is the place to turn the water on?
It's
in one of the little offices/workshops that you can enter directly from the first large area with the huge stacks of crates. There are two pairs of shops, I think the waterworks shop is next to the jeweller's? If I remember correctly, you have to lean forward to be able to frob the switch since it won't light up when you're just standing in front of it.
scarykitties on 12/9/2011 at 23:35
It'll light up if you're close enough. That was just because I needed the player to not be able to flip the switch through the window. ;)
And it's beside the tinker's office.
Shadowcrawler on 13/9/2011 at 03:14
I am on Hard difficulty, been in the office / bar area. There are two doors locked, cannot pick them. Is there a key somewhere?
thank you
nevermind, found that they were not locked at all. It must be Monday.
