BrokenArts on 13/5/2008 at 01:36
Quote Posted by Cold0ne
Well, i finished part 2.
DRK, there is a building across from the Inn on the way to the tunnel 21 sewer, its a large brown stone church it looks like. There is a beam you can shoot a rope arrow to and looks like an open window you can climb in. I was disappointed when I found out that window was walled up and theres no way in there. I really wanted to go inside that building. the outside architecture looked amazing and different from anything else ive seen in FMs so I wanted to see the inside badly. I hope you may go back one day and edit that window open, add an interior.
You ain't seen anything yet............:devil: :ebil: ;)
kamyk on 23/5/2008 at 10:42
Just played "Night in Rocksbourg 1:A new beginning" to see what all the fuss was about, and to start catching up with the series.
I'm not overly fond of city missions, but this was really engrossing. :thumb:
And that cellar key! Good god, lol.
I love horror movies, and horror video games, and I don't scare easily, but that was freaky! :eek: WTF was that thing? NVM don't tell me, I'm not sure I want to know. I'll just play the next one, and find out. That whole scene was demented! :ebil:
Excellent FM. :thumb:
P.S:
Is it possible to finish the FM ghosting, with all the loot? There was at least one place I couldn't get to without killing a guard, much less sneaking by him. Did I miss some alternate way in? The room on an upper floor, next to the water tower, with an archer just outside.
DrK on 23/5/2008 at 12:21
Glad you liked it, especially near the end... :sly:
Now that I released 3rd part, I realize how badly balanced the first mission was with the difficulty, in particular the keyhunt. But hey, it was my first try at dromed after all.
About ghosting, I didn't took it in consideration while building the mission, so I'm not sure if it can be ghosted. I think there are a very few taffers who succeded it.
klatremus on 23/5/2008 at 19:57
Fantastic! :D
I just finished the first two missions, because of all the hype around the newly released third installment. And I gotta say congrats DrK! Truly a crowning achievement so far, and I don't expect Ink & Dust to be any less entertaining.
A New Beginning
Pros:
- Ambience+Story=Atmosphere. From the moment I stepped into the streets I was filled with a sense of reality. I forgot I was in a game and got sucked in more easily than ever. This is hard to accomplish, but proves the talent of the mission author.
- Level of detail. This considerably increases my enjoyment of any mission, and came into effect big time here. All those little nooks and crannies filled with spider webs and broken barrels again adds to the believability of a mission as a whole. Don't think I've ever seen a mission so densely packed with eye-candy, both object- and texturewise.
- Vertical exploration. The streets were cleverly designed on different levels; rewards players who spend extra time searching more closely.
Cons:
- Keyhunt. This is probably my biggest complaint, especially when the major hint to the keys' locations required you to having found one or more of them already. I was lucky and spotted some out of sheer coincidence, but I can imagine many players' frustrations on this matter. This was DrK's first attempt on Dromed though, so he is very much excused ;)
- Lack of map. In such a tightly packed city I would like to have an in-game map. Perhaps not from the start, but in a building close to home, with a hint to its location somewhere. But no map at all, and very few street names to navigate from was a little annoying.
Overall score: 9/10
Discovery
Pros:
- Atmosphere. This almost made the entire mission for me! The ambience was even better than in the first mission, with scary sounds everywhere and beautiful background music, especially in the streets of the safety area. Also the notes in the beginning created the eerie anticipation of certain parts of the streets being infected and more dangerous, very cleverly done!
- Layout. The various defined areas of the city made it much easier to navigate than the first mission. The in-game map also helped a lot. The vertical exploration also surpassed the first mission with well-defined sewers, streets and rooftops. Nice!
- Mission length. The vastness of the story and the ability to keep the gameplay constantly changing but interesting made it a better mission overall than 'A New Beginning' to me.
Cons:
- Loot requirement. 4500 out of 5828 on expert doesn't sound so bad, but when more than 1600 of it is located within the mission's five secrets (which all are very tough to find), and an additional 500 is well-hidden (at best) elsewhere, it makes it very hard, even for an experienced player, to reach the objective. I was at 4143 when I had to give up and look for vague hints in this thread, and I would describe myself as a fairly thorough thief. If this had been better balanced the mission would've gotten full score from me.
- Hard locks to pick. This isn't meant as a proper con really, but more of a note. Certain locks took close to a minute to pick, which was more time consuming than entertaining, especially when there wasn't a single threat nearby.
- Confusing key labels. Other members have noted this as well. 'Tunnel 21' didn't tell me anything until I accidentally tried it on the sewer door. 'Sewer/basement key' would have cleared things up immensely.
Overall score: 9.5/10
I will try to Ghost them all after having played through the third. Peter Smith has reports on successful Ghost-runs of the first two over at Eidos. Don't really know how he did it though, as the zombie in the cage in mission 1 cannot possibly be avoided, can it? How did you deal with that area kamyk?
Thanks again DrK, and I hope you don't take my pointers as anything else than constructive criticism. :thumb:
DrK on 23/5/2008 at 20:29
Thanks a lot for taking the time to post a review here :D. It's nice to see people discovering my fms so much time after their releases, and still having so much fun playing them.
I've been aware of all the cons you mentioned, these have been told many times before. Therefore, I worked on these and tried not to make the same mistakes in the third part. For example, I removed the hard locks, added more hints... and made the loot a bonus, not something necessary for the completion of the mission.
However, I didn't create maps in the first fm, nor in the third btw, because this is the base of my gameplay : the exploration. I like to create some kind of mazes, to keep mysteries, I think it adds to the immersion somehow. There is a map in the second mission because it suits to the story, Artemus wanting to help Garrett, but then again it's an incomplete one.
Thanks again, and I hope you'll enjoy the third as well.
And good luck for ghosting them ;)
kamyk on 23/5/2008 at 22:57
Quote Posted by klatremus
Fantastic! :D
I will try to Ghost them all after having played through the third. Peter Smith has reports on successful Ghost-runs of the first two over at Eidos. Don't really know how he did it though, as the zombie in the cage in mission 1 cannot possibly be avoided, can it? How did you deal with that area kamyk?
Had already busted ghost by that point because of that archer, so it didn't really matter. In the cage, I just ran like hell. I don't see how ghosting that would be possible, but then again, it does give the impression of being a vision/dream sequence. Would that count against ghost? I'd just figure ghosting everything you can, with that one exception. Good luck with that room I referred to though. If you manage to ghost that (or even blackjack the archer), let me know how? (BTW, played on medium, might be easier to ghost that on easy).
DrK on 23/5/2008 at 23:10
Now I remember, it's possible to ghost it. This scene has a glitch, a few taffers have found it. If you place yourself in a corner and crouch, it is possible that the monster just pass without seeing you. It was never intended, still it's possible. :devil:
pavlovscat on 24/5/2008 at 02:42
GAK!! I wish I'd known that trick earlier! Oh, well, I guess that means I have to go back and play New Beginning again. Aw, darn!! :p ;)
kamyk on 24/5/2008 at 09:38
Playing Part 2 now (discovery), and I have to say that when I walked in the inn, it sort of took my breath away. I really felt immersed, like I was actually at a club or something. Again another great level. Very immersive, and well made.
However, on to a question or two...
I have gone to see Artemus, and figured out where to go from there but I'm stuck. It seems that as soon as I raise a weapon (even a water arrow) in the security zone suddenly everyone in both zones are out to get me. From what I have read of the thread, it seems I am not the only one who has encountered everyone somehow being alerted at once...
Also, and more importantly (since it is preventing me from getting on with the mission), no matter how hard I try, I simply cannot sneak up on, much less past ANYONE in the security zone. No matter how hidden I am or how quiet I am they all act like I am fully visible, and wearing wooden shoes or something, and sometimes come looking for me even when I am standing still in full shadows, and have been long before they pass anywhere close to me. It's like once I pass through the security gate every AI in the mission goes on various alert levels.
Are either of these things supposed to be that way?
Even tried restarting on easy to see if there was any difference, but there wasn't.
DrK on 24/5/2008 at 12:38
In the safety aera, the AIs are non hostile until they feel threatened. With a few of them, just to see you with a weapon in hand can make them go crazy, as they survived the invasion they are easily freaked out.
In the security aera, if one of the AIs see you and starts screaming, it happens that the AIs in the safety aera hear the screams and become alerted as well. It wasn't really intended, I think that's because the 2 aeras are too close to each others, but somehow it adds to the realism : if you're caught in the security aera, in the safety aera they'll know it and consider you as a possibliy infected person, so they freak out. :cheeky:
And the fact the AIs see you easily is probably because they got alerted before your entrance in the aera, I dunno...
Personally I never had problems with that, but due to dromed's limits I know the AIs can be tricky and act strangely. Just act like a normal citizen in the safety aera and don't get caught in the security aera, and that'll do the trick.
