Footpad on 18/12/2001 at 05:14

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I went to the attic with the attic key no one was there. I went up the dtais and there is no speaking.

Footpad <img src="confused.gif" border="0"> <img src="confused.gif" border="0">

TheThief on 18/12/2001 at 16:32

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Saturnine:

My apologies. I just went back and re-tried it, and sure enough I can mantle on that crate. Very odd, since I spent at least 5 minutes stuck in that corner, trying to climb out...maybe Thief was acting buggy that day. Anyway, glad that you're here, since the e-mail in the info file doesn't seem to be working.

First, wanted to thank you for such a great work of art, and fun mission! Had lots of fun playing! I hope you're planning a "jail-break" sequel. ;-)

There were a couple of small things I wanted to tell you, in case you're interested in minor fixes. I found one guard who was consistently found standing in mid-air. When I got hit by the "flying skull" at the end, it left me floating in mid-air (not sure if that was on purpose or not). A couple of doors and all the 3rd floor guest bathrooms have lighting problems. I posted some screen shots of these things <a href="http://rocknram.port5.com/index.htm">here</a> if you're interested in taking a look (note: some of these were gamma adjusted). Also, there was one guard that had a key...I believe it was the attic key, that "appears from nowhere" after you trigger an event. He can be found in a dark upstairs hallway. Well, I was looking around trying to find him, and heard him talking to himself while I was in the room below him, so went up the stairs to that hallway, and as I got there I saw him "falling to the floor" as if he had been standing on the balcony railing or something.

Anyway, those are just minor things, but after playing the mission I kind of got the feeling that you wanted to make it as perfect as possible, so I thought I'd let you know. The minor details in this mission never ceased to amaze me, from the grappling hook on the outside wall, to the toilet seat being up in the Master's bedroom. Awesome job, and thanks again for a great mission!

TheThief on 19/12/2001 at 17:52

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Saturnine:

I look forward to playing the revamped version of 7th Crystal, and since now I know that you are revising it, I can mention a few of the things that I tried to send via e-mail. Keep in mind that I worked as a beta tester for a gaming company, so if this sounds in any way like criticism, it's rather intended as constructive criticism, or more properly "constructive critique". <img src="smile.gif" border="0">

The first thing that hit me as I started playing was the "wow factor" from the graphics, but I soon noticed that framerates were a bit choppy while out on the front lawn (overclocked cpu, oc'd video card). Not too big a problem, since I only spent a few moments outside. The lighting seemed a bit bright out front, and wasn't sure if I'd be spotted or not, but made it safely. While I see you've already lowered the output of the streetlamps out front to 50, you may want to think about going just a bit lower, which would enhance the mood, also. But the overall ambience was too low, IMO, as many shadows were pitch black, forcing me to crank up gamma to see what (if anything) was there.

Once I got inside and past the two guards and woman in the kitchen, there seemed to be an abundance of dark/empty rooms, while all the guards kept to the central/lighted rooms. I would have liked to see one of those visiting guests in the parlor adjoining the dining room, with a purse to snatch.

Which brings me to my next point, very few/no purses to snatch, no secrets. I took my time on this mission, and spent approximately 4 hours playing it. The first 2 hours were pretty boring. After the initial "wow, cool architecture" wore off, it seemed as though all I was doing was admiring empty rooms. Might be tough to add secrets at this point, but I was sure that a big old house like that would have had a few. Secrets, places to climb with rope arrows, and pockets to pick are a few of the things that liven up a mission, to prevent boredom. I realize that you were trying to make it as realistic as possible, but the absence of loot, even in the game room, was a bit disappointing.

Another thing I noticed was the fact that the kitchen seemed to have an abundance of shelving, but it was all empty. No pots/pans/plates/utensils/etc. Kind of odd. Speaking of the kitchen, that looked like a good place to use a rope arrow, especially with that window into the game room (though I may not have wanted to make noise by breaking the glass).

There is a way (I don't recall at the moment, read it in the DromEd tutorial somewhere) to make your objectives stop going from complete to incomplete if you have to retrieve an item, and you drop it later. This is what happened with the objective "get the key to Bradey's room and the museum". If you drop the keys after you've visited Bradey's room and the museum, the objective un-checks, forcing you to keep these items in inventory.

I didn't understand the objective to get Bradey's rosary, as I already had an objective to get his room key, and the rosary was in plain sight, and also didn't come into use at all during the game. Why did I need the rosary?

The stealing of the sapphire from the museum was majorly anti-climactic. I had already found the controls and opened the cage before I got the museum key, so it was just a matter of KO'ing the lone museum guard once I got the key, and I just waltzed in and grabbed everything. Since stealing the sapphire was a major objective, I would have thought that the museum heist was going to be very difficult to accomplish. Not sure how this can be modified, since the floors are marble and there are few shadows, but that was my impression, at any rate. (BTW, I couldn't understand why all the weapons on display were real, EXCEPT for the flash bomb, unless this was another bug) BTW, the absence of flash bombs forced me into many "chase scenes" where I eventually ended up with as many as 6 guards chasing after me, and had to go all the way back to the front lawn several times.

When I opened the door to Sat's room, it got "stuck" in the open position. Very odd. I also thought it was too strange that 4 guards appeared from nowhere as soon as I opened this door. Not very realistic.

By far, the most disappointing thing about this mission was the surprise ending. I equate it with watching "Star Wars" for the first time, and having Luke, Han, Chewy, and Leia all die at the end. I had just spent 4 hours completing this mission, only to find that I'm not left with a feeling of satisfaction, but rather one of anger/frustration/disappointment (a mixture of emotions which came out as "Well, THAT certainly sucked"). The funny thing is, this could have easily been avoided just by adding "To be continued..." at the end. At least that way the player can think, "I'm gonna break out of jail and pay those two back for this!", rather than walking away feeling like they just got screwed.

Anyway, those are the critiques that I can recall offhand. Please keep in mind my praise in my previous post, as this is not intended as "mission bashing" in any way, shape, or form. These are just my own impressions/feelings/ideas, take them with a grain of salt, or ignore them, if you wish. Allow me to reiterate: This is by far one of the best FM's ever released! (If it wasn't, I wouldn't take the time to write this)

<img src="wink.gif" border="0">

Sharga on 23/12/2001 at 00:09

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<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, sans-serif">Spoiler:</font><div style="background-color:#000080"><font color="#202080">The light switch is nothing but a light switch. When you go into that attic room with the window on the floor look behind the upward beams. The last one on the left will have the right switch to move the tables in the library.</font></div></blockquote>

Hope that helps <img src="wink.gif" border="0">

caffeineatedzombeh on 25/12/2001 at 02:33

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[SPOILER]I believe that you don't have to get the rosary to complete act2, the rosary stops the spiders attacking you, if you enter the crypt without it the spiders should be hostile (this may well be something that got dropped when the crypt got moved to a seperate act, but that was iirc the original intention)[/SPOILER]

(this may be completely wrong, and if it is then well, I may have to stop meeting saturnine in places that serve alcoholic beverages {no, I couldn't just say "pubs"})