T2 FM: Dracula part 4 The Darkthrone by Sensut 04/02/2007

Sensut on 17/2/2007 at 08:51

Quote Posted by The Mike

I don't mean for this to sound like an insult since I enjoyed the whole series, but it's almost hard to believe that this was made by the same person as the other 3 as it's such a drastic improvement! Freaking incredible all the way through, with a great horror movie atmosphere. The story was a little difficult to understand, but besides that it was awesome in pretty much every way. [SPOILER]The new model used for Belial was really cool...I was kinda hoping to fight it honestly, or at least see Dracula fight it instead of just watching him have a staring match with him. Ah well...[/SPOILER] Can't really think of much to complain about...RELEASE PART 6.

Whereabout I'll finish this series, I'll know Dromed's little ways :cheeky: I have to build only one final mission for Dracula and after this I'll setup the 5 parts in one campaign, but the early parts rebuilded and remastered with my latest experience. For example I'll remove from the 2 part the hateful "don't alert anybody" objective and change to "don't kill any civilians" adding new conversations, new Ai's and things alike. No will be part 6, that's all for Dracula, the 5 parts, but probably I'll begin a new series, or a single FM... I don't know at the moment ;)
Ah, yes: you'll have to fight in part 5, but not against Darcula :p

Thanks to everybody again!

Sticky Fingers on 18/2/2007 at 13:01

Ever since entering the crypt, my frame-rates have slowed to a crawl, & loading time is up to 1 min 15 secs! (everything fine before that) I've tried warm & cold boots, & have the W2k patch installed along with latest scripts, drivers, etc, etc. Played about 240 FM's & I've never seen rates or times like this.

Running Athlon 1600, 512 DDR & GeF 440X 64Mb. (this the problem?)

I'd be really grateful if anyone can think of a possible solution, otherwise I'll just have to chuck this beauty in -- it's become unplayable. :(

smithpd on 18/2/2007 at 22:12

Quote Posted by Sensut

Thanks Yandros, I'm working on it and I'll have a simple patch for those who can't play this mission :idea:

I think the patch is complicated. To make it work in Windows 2000 I had to do the following:
Realize that there was a version 1_3 with patches in it and a 1.3 without patches in it.
Download the WinRar parts of the patched 1_3 version and combine them.
Realize that the patches were not in the release itself, but in separate files in the ZIP.
Find the files that need to be changed.
Make backups of the original files.
Copy the replacement files to overwrite the originals.
Hope I remember to restore my original files if it is necessary to do it later for other FMs.

This is bad practice because it is complicated and not every player will know to do all steps.

I understand from another post that you are going to fix this permanently (using Yandros' method?) in the final campaign release. I suggest you also fix it now with a new version 1.4 for the stand-alone mission.

Finally, when this is ready, I suggest you release it through (www.thiefmissions.com) . These private downloads and WinRars are a pain. If you would like help testing 1.4 or sending it to Epithumia, please let me know.

Meanwhile, I am off to play 1_3 and expecting to have some fun. Thanks! :)

DK_abyss on 18/2/2007 at 23:39

Thank you for a wonderful mission, I had lots of fun playing it, can't wait for the next one. ;)

smithpd on 19/2/2007 at 08:54

I just finished it. Great mission!:) Each one in the series tops the next. I am looking forward to number 5.

I have a couple of questions / comments:

EDIT: I had a question about the second water entrance that was answered early in the thread.

I think that the stats for the pockets are wrong. I am pretty sure I got them all, but I recorded only 6 of 14. I had the same issue with Dracula 3.

I am wondering about the loot. Playing on Master, I am missing over 1000 (1437 / 2522). Is there a big stash that I missed?

SinisterShadow on 19/2/2007 at 10:19

Quote Posted by smithpd

I am wondering about the loot. Playing on Master, I am missing over 1000 (1437 / 2522). Is there a big stash that I missed?

There are a lot of loot items in the mission which you can't pick up but still counts as loot in the final stats:
(http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1555049#post1555049)

varunb on 19/2/2007 at 10:29

Hey guyz does this mission have automap ? I haven't downloaded this yet so I wanted to confirm the details first before i download this.

Sticky Fingers on 19/2/2007 at 10:50

No automap, & you have to find a map

malau on 19/2/2007 at 18:02

Is there a problem with downloading from the links from certain countries ?

The Thief Circle one says it is "unrecognized", and the Sensuit's dot HU site "resets the connection" on the RAR1.exe. I even tried renaming the EXE to another extension before saving.

smithpd on 19/2/2007 at 18:13

Quote Posted by malau

I couldn't get the Circle to work either. I also had trouble with Sensuit's download, not with the rar1, but with rar5. It seems that if it gets stuck (and that file did), it will never download again. Could be a cache issue, I suppose. I made it work by right clicking on the link and selecting "save link target as". Maybe that will help.

SinisterShadow,

Thanks for the loot info. Saw your post earlier, but did not know immediately what it meant. Is 1437 all the loot? I wonder if the pocket stat is a similar problem. AI's with their own keys that register as pockets but which cannot be picked.