SneakyJack on 21/1/2009 at 01:37
Great post, and I have to agree with your choices as being top tier FM's indeed. I really, really enjoy the Seven Sisters campaign - Lady Rowena definitely knows how to knock it out of the park when it comes to complete package fan missions (story, design, atmosphere and she is also great on the technical side of things at bending the dark engine as well)
I also really liked how the objectives (healing people and such) were tied into the story and background of the characters - Seven Sisters will be on my replay list for a long time to come.
Thank you for taking the time to type all that out, it was a great read :thumb:
Gloria Creep on 21/1/2009 at 03:04
Well, I'm retrying THE NIGHT WATCH FM by Fidcal right now. It's great :cool: but also a challenge.
I'm a TESTER to some FM's and I'm proud to be. :angel:
I'm testing someone's FM also right now.
So, I try out some games in advance, stating my mind about them .... and next to that I allways replay all the FM's, to my liking.
It's a daily "fix" :ebil: to me, so I will allways expand my challenges :cool: ánd my skills.
I like the series FM's: a Love Story, Dracula reloaded, the Lady Bathory's series, the Night Watch (indeed!), a.s.o. and ALL THE GAMES THAT INCLUDED A DEWDROP DOLLY! You know!
Christine got to me with her original gameplay ánd her food display!!!! Yammy Yammy :cool:
The french and Italian Taffers, like Gaetane and Lady Rowena for instance, build us the best of missions! Don't you agree? And the Finn and Russian made missions are also great!
The're a lot of Taffers who build great missions: Sluggs, Nightshifter, John9818, , Sensut, Cardia1, all the ones I allready mentioned, Komag's great missions with great movies..., as a lot of more Taffer presented to us, I can't recall them all just now, but I mean ALL OF THEM!!!
And só I can go on!
The Thief FM's are universal and isn't THAT great!!!
Gloria Creep :angel:
sh_b on 21/1/2009 at 08:10
SneakyJack, thank you for the screenshots. I played very few FMs and your reports give me hints about what to put in my FM playlist.
How do you manage to deliver such a high quality screenies?Is that some kind of post-production? ;)
Melan on 21/1/2009 at 08:37
Quote Posted by sh_b
How do you manage to deliver such a high quality screenies?Is that some kind of post-production? ;)
I also meant to ask this! Those screens do look fantabulous.
And of course, keep your impressions coming, I find them interesting and useful. :thumb:
Wille on 21/1/2009 at 10:49
SneakyJack have you put all your screens to some public gallery or are they all just somewhere in Photobucket?
It would be great to have such screens from as many FMs as possible and put them to FM sites like Southquarter and Circle :D.
SneakyJack on 21/1/2009 at 17:24
Thanks for the great responses - I'm really glad to know that you folks enjoy them, I does make the time to create them worthwhile.
To answer your questions:
Yeah, unfortunately the screens (as you know) come out very, very dark and need alot of post-processing to get them viewable without people wondering what the heck is going on in the photos. :laff:
The very first step is trying to get screenshots that are as cinematic as possible in my own mind. Thats the hard part. :laff: As I play through each mission I think "If I've never played this one, what shots would make me want to check it out?" and I try to get the best looking ones that I can without going into dromed and flying around. I love taking shots from rooftops, as you've probably noticed if you've seen two or three sets of screens from me. So the hardest part for me is fighting with myself about what shots are good enough to do justice to the hard work of the author and which arent. After arguing with myself internally about screen choices, the rest is cake. I'd be ashamed to admit how many screenshots I sort through to find the good ones.
I throw each image into photoshop and correct the pixel aspect ratio (basically just fancy talk for "show the screen at normal sized instead of scrunched up) due to the way the pcx files are displayed when you first put them in.
Then I resize them for the forums as to not break tables, and choose my "action area" (the real scene in the screenshot that I want people to focus on for maximum effect if possible) and I crop that area to get rid of the life shields and any other stuff that I don't want in it.
Finally comes adjusting the brightness and contrast levels to make the screenshot viewable. I usually begin with the option "auto levels" to let me actually see what I'm working with in the screenshot and then adjust further from there to get what I hope is a really great visual look. I know my screens don't show exactly how dark Thief 2 is and they may not show off the lighting of the FM's, but at least you can see what in the world is going on. :laff:
Last but not least is the text. I just create a new layer on each image for the text, add the author and FM name and adjust the opacity of the text layer to about 20% to make it almost transparent.
I may or may not also use a filter sometimes that smooths the screens out a bit and takes away some of the roughness of the edges ;)
I've always wondered why Thief 2 screenshots come out super dark to begin with. Anyway, sorry if I rambled on about photoshop for too long - but thats what goes into creating each set of screens. :D
To answer the second question: Any FM screenshots that I've taken are posted in this thread (with the exception I think of Christine's "Pirates Ahoy" mission which can be found in its original thread from this year in the first couple pages) so I'm not holding any back that haven't been posted already. Any Fan Mission collection site owner that would like to use any screenshots that I've posted is more than welcome to without any requirement from me other than rehosting them on their own site in case something should ever happen to my photobucket account - I don't want the images to go down. Its the least I could do for such a wonderful community that has provided me with hundreds of hours of entertainment over the years by creating fan mission worlds for us to explore. :thumb:
Anyway, sorry for being so long winded and I hope I answered your questions, I really appreciate the posts about enjoying the screenshots - Now I know that I'm not just posting to see myself post. :laff:
SneakyJack on 21/1/2009 at 17:37
And speaking of
Pirates Ahoy!: Might as well bring those shots into this thread as well just for the sake of anyone that may have somehow missed my choice for the best FM of the year (And my favorite of all time being Mission 1 of this campaign)
Here is my shamelessly gushing review from that thread:
Quote:
Christine (and Greenhorn, of course) - I believe you truly have created the perfect thief mission for someone like me.
In fact, I do believe you have created one of the best FM's I've ever played, and I'm only done with the first of the four missions. Hopefully you dont mind, I'd like to point out the pros and cons of your first mission, if I may.
Pros:
The texturing.. was.. Incredible. Not since DrK's "Ink And Dust" have I been this amazed with the choice of textures used and how they were applied. Simply stunning. I made a second run through the first levels interiors and exteriors with my gamma set all the way up just to see the perfect texture work you did with this mission. It was shockingly good. So much so that this mission overtook the first two "Night In Rocksbourg" Missions and "The Seven Sisters" missions in my mind as the best looking city FM ever created. Each and every building looked different than the others and the town had a ton of personality.
The map maker had dozens of books everywhere - showing someone who truly enjoyed their work and had been buried in books for most of their lives. Also, the way you made the switch to find the map look exactly like the others was brilliant.
The side (and secret) objective was very sweet, and when I completed it I felt like I had done something good during a night of crime - which was a weird feeling but added so much immersion to the level. That was great.
The shadow distribution in the city was absolutely perfect. I had a great time leaning along buildings and sneaking from shadow to shadow all the while clonking folks with the ladle - which in my mind is now the premiere silent weapon of choice.
The guard patrols in the difficulty I chose were just right, and never did I feel safe - but never did I feel frustrated either.
And just all the little details like the fish in the river, the bottles in the pirate ship missing their tops from a long night of drinking rum, the way the rooms were decorated - I couldnt have asked for more.
Most importantly, your missions are just incredibly fun. You take the thief gameplay and wrap it around your finger, and it shows. From your love of food in missions (a touch that i love as well) to the fact that you let the individual player choose how they play (your missions can be ghosted as well as direct contact and the mission is not an auto fail mission) - and this mission truly was a free roaming, free thinking, free styling fun fest. The most fun I've had playing a FM in months - perhaps over a year. Perhaps ever!
I love the fact that while other mission makers are trying to get the dark engine to do things it was never meant to do - you continue focusing on the gameplay and how to make the missions fun.. and I'll choose this style of mission any day. This is what thief was meant to be - and I still have 3 missions in this campaign to enjoy.
Cons: None. I truly believe you've created a perfect thief city mission with the first mission in this series. You've got it down to an art at this point.
It took alot of guts releasing this mission the same month as another huge release - and I have to say (for me) you are the hands down winner. This is now in my top 3 fan missions of all time - and I've played them all at this point.
These shots are smaller in size but are some of my favorites:
Inline Image:
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n25/motherfuckingjack/awards/piratesahoy1.jpgInline Image:
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n25/motherfuckingjack/awards/piratesahoy2.jpgInline Image:
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n25/motherfuckingjack/awards/piratesahoy3.jpgInline Image:
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n25/motherfuckingjack/awards/piratesahoy4.jpgInline Image:
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n25/motherfuckingjack/awards/piratesahoy5.jpgI can't recommend this mission enough - so don't miss it. You owe it to yourself to have a few hours of Thief 2 euphoria.
pavlovscat on 21/1/2009 at 19:26
Quote Posted by SneakyJack
The very first step is trying to get screenshots that are as cinematic as possible in my own mind. Thats the hard part. :laff: As I play through each mission I think "If I've never played this one, what shots would make me want to check it out?" and I try to get the best looking ones that I can without going into dromed and flying around. I love taking shots from rooftops, as you've probably noticed if you've seen two or three sets of screens from me. So the hardest part for me is fighting with myself about what shots are good enough to do justice to the hard work of the author and which arent. After arguing with myself internally about screen choices, the rest is cake. I'd be ashamed to admit how many screenshots I sort through to find the good ones.
So true!! Screeenshots are often the most time consuming part of my reviews. You want to do the mission justice and make it look interesting. I typically take around 30 shots per mission & winnow them down to 6. Ddfix makes an enormous difference in screen shot quality. I prefer to use Ifranview to adjust for gamma, but I also don't have widescreen to concern me. I really appreciate the quality of your screenshots. :thumb:
intruder on 21/1/2009 at 19:48
Quote Posted by pavlovscat
So true!! Screeenshots are often the most time consuming part of my reviews. You want to do the mission justice and make it look interesting. I typically take around 30 shots per mission & winnow them down to 6.
But you do your job very well. I think every one around here does agree with me on that. I really appreciate your reviews, they are very good and usefull too.
They allways point me towards interesting FM's :D
SneakyJack on 21/1/2009 at 20:43
I agree intruder, I also make it a point to check out pavlovscat's reviews so see what I may have been missing. They are always well written with great screenshots. :D
I stole (no pun intended) away some time a bit ago to check out a fan mission I had been putting off replaying for the longest time (unfortunately) due to its name, A
Living Nightmare by John Denison. Now John D is one of my favorite fan mission authors due to his sense of humor and excellently scripted and built missions, and I really couldn't remember much about this mission so I decided to give it another shot.
I'll confess up front - fan missions with names that hint to undead turn me off. I've never been a fan of undead enemies or missions built around them - and I usually give undead missions a quick playthough or give up half way through due to be being a total sissy about those damn hammer haunts. Recently I asked if someone could recommend me a mission that was lite on undead to ease myself into getting used to them - and someone recommended a mission to me that was completely undead that I didn't finish :laff:
So I'll go ahead and recommend this mission to people like me -
If you don't normally enjoy undead missions but love a great story, some action scripted sequences and a large castle/hospital setting to explore -
this is a mission for you.Oddly enough, this mission has everything that I normally dislike about fan missions.
Jumping puzzles: Check
Undead: Check
Timed Objective: Check
But you know what? They all completely work - and none of them are frustrating. The timed objective gets knocked out quickly if you know what you are doing (Spoiler:
Go straight to the front desk, click the button, rope arrow up and then ride the light to victory) and the mission just soars from there. The undead all have methods of dealing with them that never become frustrating, and the jumping puzzles are not frustrating - but are fun! Yeah, the jumping puzzles are
fun. Shocked me too. One jumping puzzle will have you grinning the entire time you are in it, oddly enough.
This fan mission really has it all. A great story (that is really dark and shocked me with what had happened) fun gameplay, scripted sequences that are fun to watch, lots of loot and a few secrets and things you may not have seen in other fan missions. The mission is also very nice to look at and is well decorated!
Enough of my praise.. how bout some screens?
Inline Image:
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n25/motherfuckingjack/ln4.jpgOh Dear.
Inline Image:
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n25/motherfuckingjack/ln5.jpgThe Courtyard - the spotlights were an excellent touch.
Inline Image:
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n25/motherfuckingjack/ln6.jpgThe view from inside. Notice the great lighting effect touches and use of colored lighting.
Inline Image:
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n25/motherfuckingjack/ln1.jpgMore great lighting effects adding to the atmosphere.
Inline Image:
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n25/motherfuckingjack/ln3.jpgSpiders above and Hammers below - this will not end well.
Inline Image:
http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n25/motherfuckingjack/ln2.jpgIt is a long way up, but damn fun getting there - trust me on that!
