Soldi on 11/8/2013 at 13:44
Quote Posted by Bosh
Today, it seems, is the day that I am mostly a moron running in circles with mansion blindness! So... I just have to tick off "destroy the 4 items". Have the items - where oh where do I destroy them? :confused: I noticed
lava and also a dungeon were mentioned in this thread. A general clue to where to look would be great! Many thanks.
EmperorSteele on 11/8/2013 at 13:56
If you have all four items, try to recall what happened when you grabbed the crystal ball the first time.
Bigger hint below:
find it in your inventory and frob it again, then have a look around!
EmperorSteele on 11/8/2013 at 14:19
Quote Posted by SirFreddieM
Late for the party, again. :nono:
I have been at it for almost 3 hours now and not one objective has ticked off. I need to find it all. Where is it?
:confused::confused::confused:
Yeah, this mission is a little frustrating that way. But once you're able to get into the one place you need to, your objectives will quickly snowball to completion. Here's some semi-spoilery hints:
3 of the 4 items can all be accessed from the witch's bedroom (more or less). In order to get in there, you need to use your regular lockpicks, plus the "special" lockpick (you got that, right?). You'll also want to have shut off the main power first, as there's guards in almost every corner in that area of the mansion and they're really hard to get past otherwise. The death tarot card -to access the library- and huge chest of gold are also in here, but you'll need a Large Sack to retrieve it all. Make sure you read the book in the round room before you touch anything else, and start making hard saves. It is VERY easy to muck things up and make the mission unwinnable after this point, so don't do the "destroy the items"-objective until you've done everything else!
From there, you'll also get the crypt key (i think), which you can use to get the Keeper (and drag her back to your start point- be careful with her, she's KO'd, not dead!), her medallion, and the lab key to get the 4th item and the blood.
For the Big Guy, you'll need to find poison. It's in his personal bathroom. You'll then need to find him, poison him, get the dagger from the nearby lady (i think she's the witch), haul him all the way back to the private bedroom and set up the crime scene. After that, it's okay to trash the witch's items, and it's just a matter of fulfilling your loot objective and you'll be all set =)Bosh on 11/8/2013 at 14:27
Thanks EmperorSteele. I knew I'd have a "d'oh!" moment! Off to do that thing with that thing again! Cheers. :thumb:
I suspect the molten stuff always wins in a fight Soldi!
Marbrien on 11/8/2013 at 15:08
Is there any way over the lava pit to the gate on the other side?
SirFreddieM on 11/8/2013 at 15:08
Thank you EmperorSteele. I have made some progress since this morning. I just get frustrated after so many hours without finding anything of importance. :rolleyes:
Right now I'm trying to locate the special book in the big library. It seems to elude me for now. Any hints?
Other than that I love this mission!!!:thumb:
Bosh on 11/8/2013 at 15:15
SirFreddieM: For the special book - Hint: Go down first, then once down, find a way to go up...!
Total outright spoiler: Lowest level of library, then go up one of the ladders and frob to your right!
SirFreddieM on 11/8/2013 at 15:47
Quote Posted by Bosh
SirFreddieM: For the special book - Hint:
Go down first, then once down, find a way to go up...!Total outright spoiler:
Lowest level of library, then go up one of the ladders and frob to your right!Thank you. Found it and is now running around finding the last loot to finish this fab mission in style. :ebil:
poronty on 11/8/2013 at 16:04
Is there any point to the existence of that overhead cave passage that you can climb up into from the lava room of the crystal ball dungeon? As far as I could tell, it was completely empty and didn't lead anywhere except back to the dungeon... I thought maybe I was supposed to lead the stomping crystal giant from the throne room all the way to the collapsed bridge and if I jumped over to the cave hole, the thing would just fall into the lava or something. But nope, no such scripted satisfaction, he just stopped on the bridge and looked at me with utter confusion :laff:
EmperorSteele on 11/8/2013 at 16:09
Okay, finally finished =) And I have a lot to say, some good, some not-so-good, so, sorry for the tl;dr =)
First, congrats to Beltzer for getting this done! This map is pretty huge with lots going on. Heck, the Servant's area was bigger than some mansions I've seen in other missions! The architecture is a bit plain on the outside, though the beautiful textures make up for it. Though I wasn't as impressed with the over-use of pre-made buildings when looking out the balcony. And while the distant-art looks beautiful, it doesn't line up right; it's a picture of rooftops sitting on the ground behind the pre-made buildings, and it really pulls me out.
The indoor art assets are all great; I'll probably steal a few for my own projects =) Like I said before, I found it very odd though that the servant/guard housing area was almost as big as the main mansion... the witch obviously likes to pay well for loyalty, though the in-game readables suggest that she rules through fear and torture, so it's kinda weird. And also, as big as this area is, it actually isn't big ENOUGH: I KO'd 66 people, and I bet all but a few of those were the guards. And even though 90% of the mansion is bedrooms and bathrooms, there still doesn't seem to be enough space for everyone.
Speaking of bedrooms, that leads to a 2-pointed complaint about the story. First of all, what purpose does framing the witch have, especially when NO ONE ELSE can get into her bedroom? In fact, what's the point now that SHE can't get into her bedroom after I destroyed her wand? Well, she CAN, but I don't see her engaging in the rooftop acrobatics it would take to get there.
The main plot isn't bad, but the readables could have been better. They're all written in the same "voice", and while the grammar and spelling weren't bad or anything, there was still a stiff, amateurish quality to the texts that pulled me out of my immersion. I think it's the lack of contractions, inflection and variety: The only text that reads differently is the Witch's, but unfortunately her book reads like a 15 year old's diary, and not an affluent (possibly immortal?) sorceress. Heck, the whole situation that kicked off the plot sounds like something a spoiled brat would do. Of course, that's the antagonist's failing, her arrogance and belief that she cannot be touched and that there are no consequences to her actions. Now, it may seem like she gets her comeuppance, however, she's not likely to have ANY idea why her stuff's gone, her boytoy bodyguard is dead, and half her guards are knocked out. Sure, she'll probably get (really) pissed, but it would have been a LOT more satisfying to SEE this happen: scripted sequence, camvator, post-mission cutscene, something. Heck, just hanging out above her room when she enters (however that would be possible) to HEAR her scream in anguish would have been something.
I know we don't get that in most OMs, but consider that none of Garrett's targets (except the main bosses) ever DID anything to Garrett or someone he cares about -he's just doing a job. But those three bosses? We DO see them get theirs: Trickster gets blown up by a copy of the eye he stole from you; Karras gets pwned by his own gas, and the Hag gets undone by the very Glyph magic keeping her alive. Garrett survives their attempts to kill him, sets these events into motion and gets to see the results.
As far as the gameplay, I'm kind of torn. Lots of sneaky fun and goods to grab and secrets to find is always nice. The number and positioning of the guards was a nice challenge - the lack of moss arrows was a frustration, but I ultimately did OK without them. However, the gameplay boils down to a keyhunt. Whether it's a wrench, a card, a special lockpick, or what have you (not to diminish the cleverness portrayed here, btw, but I'm speaking purely in mechanical terms), if half the mansion is locked off and I need to find Item A, to get into room A, to get key B to enter room B to get item C to enter room C.... that's a keyhunt, and a linear one at that. It was also annoying that the "special lockpick" that can "pick almost any lock"... only picked 2 locks. I know the readable said it still won't undo every lock, but I seriously think you should have made some more doors or chests or something that needed the special pick just so it felt more useful...
Rant time: Do rich people do this in real life? Lock half the doors in their house and have a half dozen different keys for different wings and rooms and areas of the mansion? Heck, the mission itself seems to lampshade this concept, as there's, what, 2 or 3 notes complaining that someone had lost a key? Sadly, this was more of a justification for a keyhunt rather than an attempt at poking fun, but mweh.
One other thing, but more of a question: Why was there no no-kill limit on expert? Not a complaint; I actually enjoy being able to take guards down, though it did make things a bit too convenient (even though these guys are TOUGH on expert!)
Anyway, what we have here overall is a fairly solid, standard mission with a few nice tricks. Overall level design could have been better (There are ways to trap yourself or prevent progression; and if you're going to have a huge, open-air balcony, give us something more interesting to look at than a few pre-baked tudor houses), but given the size of the level, I can forgive this. And while the writing wasn't perfect, it did its job by communicating clearly to the player what the author wanted them to know, so it's all good on that front. All in all, a good effort by the author, and a welcome addition to any FM collection... just be ready for some frustration =)
