TDM FM: Seeking Lady Leicester, by Grayman (3/21/2023)

wellingtoncrab on 24/3/2023 at 16:57

Quote Posted by pwl

P.S. He will be sorely missed!!!!
pwl

He is. In addition to his fms, anyone who has even looked at the code for TDM knows it impossible to over state how much of a contribution he made.

It was a privilege for all of us to help him finish this one.

Thanks to you and everyone for playing!

fortuni on 24/3/2023 at 17:18

I'm a little stuck in the second half, I've got the Looking Glass Echo, Double Dewdrop, Precursor Note, Precursor Tablet and Recursive Spade but can't find what to do with them. There are also 2 metal doors with large circular locks on the walls beside them but haven't found that key, any hints would be appreciated.

Dahenjo on 24/3/2023 at 17:19

Thanks for the extra hints @wellingtoncrab and for the amazingly fantastic TDM FM, Iris, one of the best ever created for these games imo! Any taffers here who haven't played Iris should really check it out too. We can never make up for the loss of our great authors & other contributors, it's been a tough past couple of years.

I finished on medium difficulty but missed a lot of loot even though I had enough for expert. I had a suspicion where the astralux would be and I was right, it was just harder to get back to where it was.

wellingtoncrab on 24/3/2023 at 17:35

Quote Posted by fortuni

Thanks for playing! We will start with subtle hints a go from there:

To start next to The Lady's body there is a journal page describing what you need to escape the spirit real and who has it

If you are past that point Eustace's area can still be tricky to find and we may need to improve this in a patch. He resides on the top floor of the manor, but you can't just walk up to the door. If you have found The Doubled Dewdrop you can catch a glimpse of him as well as path up there if you look back at the manor from this vantage

Super explicit hint:

You need to find the astralux to proceed in the mission and Eustace has it. To get up to Eustace's chamber there are two paths - through a ceiling vent in the library or by platforming up to the top story via the giant break in the manor that spills into the area where the doubled dewdrop is

Once you find this piece, after exploring a bit the others elements may fall into place, but in order to complete the mission you technically only need the astralux.

wellingtoncrab on 24/3/2023 at 18:13

Quote Posted by Dahenjo

Hey thanks! It means a lot to hear that.

To be honest as a player of fms across all of the thief series first and a mapper second I find I often read a lot of negative comments about TDM in the community which I think misconstrue the intentions behind the mod's creation and the quality of the game. I remember trying it when it was still a doom mod and thinking that it needed a lot more time, but when I had decided I wanted to try and finish my mission I booted it up in 2018-2019 and it was obvious the platform had a lot to offer both players and authors considering making fms.

Everyone gets to make their own choices, but if you're into FMs there are lots of good experiences across all the games at this point, TDM included.

fortuni on 24/3/2023 at 18:33

Thanks Wellingtoncrab, I had already been up to Eustace's chamber, just hadn't found the Astralux.

That was a great mission, beautifully built, great fun and yet another fitting tribute to Grayman.

All we need now is your next mission. :D

wellingtoncrab on 24/3/2023 at 18:51

Quote Posted by fortuni

Thrilled to hear you enjoyed it! Thanks again for taking the time to play.

MrMunkeepants on 24/3/2023 at 23:22

hmm, just had a crash to desktop opening the furnace door (the one with the vent)
And loading the save in front of it results in a crash as well. Maybe the save is corrupted? Or is it something about that space?

wellingtoncrab on 25/3/2023 at 03:22

Quote Posted by MrMunkeepants

Apologies - that is annoying. There is no scripting or anything happening behind the curtain so to speak with the furnace doors so from an engine level they are no different from the typical doors in the mission. This unfortunately makes it rather hard to say what has happened during the playthrough to cause it and so far I have not been able to replicate it. If you are able to upload your save game somewhere we'd be happy to take a look at it.

In order to continue your playthrough without too much disruption I might recommend a temporary lapse of judgement and opening the console with "ctrl + alt + ~" and typing in "noclip" to bypass the issue for now - or if that is too far a moral hazard you may have to avail of an alternate route into the manor

MrMunkeepants on 25/3/2023 at 05:07

I was able to load a save from just a bit earlier, and avoided that area; luckily there are other ways in without cheating ;)
A few small bugs have popped up (mostly light bleeding through walls), but nothing else like this. The text in the incantation book entry for Eye of Olwen cuts off at the end of the page, but otherwise I'm getting along just fine.
My face brightened as I encountered one of my favorite tropes in games - the twisted dream realm version of the level! :cheeky: I can think of a few others examples outside of Thief (Dishonored, Ghostbusters 2009)... boy do I love ruins floating in the void of space.

Where did the portraits of the family come from? they are quite good, but might also be AI generated?