Xmodule999 on 18/1/2016 at 21:03

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I was able to steal Super healer, Sharga's secret scroll and Star of speed after using two water arrows to two torches, but how to grab 125 loot from water room? When I try to swim to this room, Garrett always is dead - is this intentional, bug or possible to disable by some means? Or should I swim by other routes?

Unna Oertdottir on 20/12/2016 at 12:24

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I played this mission yesterday. On expert I have to kill someone. Since I like to lure AIs in the water or to other enemies, he got killed. I didn't know that he's the guy I have to kill, so I played the mission until the end - in vain :erg:
That's why I made a little dml fix for this mission.


There's already a dml fix for this FM
(http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=145374)

So one could combine it. Just paste the lines into miss20.mis.dml and save it.

Unna Oertdottir on 11/9/2018 at 11:55

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Install the dml.

Unna Oertdottir on 11/9/2018 at 12:22

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The dml is right above your post. On this page.

<Username> on 16/6/2019 at 10:42

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Finished on Normal in 2 hours and 5 minutes with 3692 of 4172 total loot.

I appreciated the mission's creativity and the design of the more chaotic rooms. The passages from the Sounds of the Woods were well written. I liked that. The intro is also great: The voice actor sounds like a younger Stephen Russell.

But overall, I did not enjoy Mansion of Chaos. In fact, you could say I hated it. I hated it for the many design choices that threw me off and impeded my progress:


* Backtracking: The amount of backtracking you have to do in this mission is staggering. I stopped counting how many times I had to walk all the way back through the mansion or the caves. From the first red portal in the mansion to the „lever you must never switch“, there is just one pathway and it takes several minutes to traverse it.
* Mandatory secrets: In the later parts of the mission, you spend most of your time pulling levers that open secret doors in previously explored areas. You don‘t get any hints on the location of several of them. Now, add to that the mission is fairly large and you have a recipe for frustration.
* Boss fight: Thief‘s combat is rather clunky. Despite of this, many authors chose to end their fan mission with a boss fight, often against the Trickster character model. Mansion of Chaos has a Trickster boss fight as well, and it is the worst implementation I have ever seen: You drop down from the ceiling into a pool of water directly in front him. He will immediately start attacking you with projectiles. If he hits you with spiderwebs, the fight is over, because you will not have time to shake them off before he kills you. If he hits you with flies, the fight is over, because you can‘t run away from the swarm with all this water surrounding you. If he hits you with fire, the fight is over, because you die instantly, regardless of remaining health. The only chance you have is to quickly lob one or two flashbombs at him and then to hit him decisively with a holy sword you have to have picked up earlier. Don‘t have any flashbombs? Can‘t finish the mission. Don‘t have the holy sword? Can‘t finish the mission.


On top of that, the whole mission is shoddily built: The architecture is below the standards that were established by the time it was released. It feels like a fan mission from 1999 or early 2000: Rectangular, unnatural angles. Badly aligned textures. Dead ends. Many doors are stretched in odd ways or only cover part of their doorframes. Doorknobs float a small distance away from the doors they are supposed to be attached to. Tile floors in buildings inexplicably emit a grass sound. Sound propagation issues often prevent audible noise when the player opens doors or jumps into water. Invisible objects force the player to navigate around them. If the mission is not patched, a bug in the „Hall of Water“ kills the player instantly and might stop the playthrough. At one point in the caves, I glitched through the floor into endless darkness and saw the whole level architecture from below as I was falling.

There is one immersion breaker: In Monroe‘s mansion, there is a plaque that reads "Two gold hammers for Sharga?" You spent so much time trying to craft an engaging mission with a believable setting, and then you put a fourth-wall-breaking plaque asking for a good review directly into the player‘s path? I don‘t understand that.

A pet peeve of mine in fan missions is the use of crosses and mentions of „God“ in Hammerite buildings. Hammerites are not Christians. Their symbol is the hammer and they worship the Builder. Crosses and „God“ have no place in their religion. Did you not pay any attention when you were playing the original game?

Lastly, the „wacky“ cameo of Brother Murus is lame. His scroll mentions he is taking „Haunt 1 and Haunt 2“ for a walk. What are they, his pet dogs?