klatremus on 5/9/2021 at 07:42
About an hour and a half into this one, and it's astonishing!! Quite confusing and a hard to navigate layout, but it's oozing old city vibe, where decades of layered buildings are evident. Based on the map the town seemed small, but the verticality and intricate pathways between buildings it actually is quite big. Love the sound design so far! There seems to be lots to visit still. Have only done the starting area, church and eastern industrial section.
Managed to enter a difficult open window in the abandoned factory. Found a broken elevator with what sounded like a hatch opening, and some creepy backwards noises on a different floor. Was also a homeless guy in there staring out of boarded up windows. I found nothing of value in that place. Is there something to do here or just a red herring? I though maybe standing on the lift would open a panel nearby that I could run to, but didn't find anything.
marbleman on 5/9/2021 at 11:03
@klatremus: You're not meant to reach that place this way. :D Keep playing, you'll learn more later.
klatremus on 6/9/2021 at 00:26
Thanks!
klatremus on 6/9/2021 at 17:16
Close to finishing this one now. Although it is a very well constructed mission, it took a dip when having to retrieve the shards. That just meant another round through town fetching stuff, plus when the one shard started teleporting it just seemed like taunting the player. I had the hardest time figuring out how to destroy the core also. I understood all the directions, but I was sure a "holy symbol" meant I had to bless the hammer with holy water. I spent so long before realizing that the hammer by itself would do. :rolleyes:
2 questions:
- Where is the place where this guy has information on Tudor? I have searched around the crane area and I think I know the knocking code from the hidden book at Tudor's, but I just can't find it. None of the doors/windows around there are frobbable. This is a very difficult objective to complete, and it's mandatory at that. I imagine missing that book at Tudor's is common also.
- Is there a way to get into the lower floor at the alchemist's? There is a gate leading to stairs down that I can't find a way to open.
Solid mission, but there's no way I would be able to finish this without hints. Plus, getting from A to B takes so much longer due to the required acrobatics. Most of the ledges and pipes are extremely small, to the point of not looking intentional. Definitely for expert and experienced players this.
Edit: Third question, a readable at the scrappers talked about this Jeed(?) fellow staying in one of the guest rooms. It said to search in the ceiling, but in what room? I found so many panels on beams leading to vent shafts that I dont know if one of those was the one. Wasn't that the guy that disappeared from prison? I dont think I found him yet.
Galaer on 6/9/2021 at 17:29
Quote Posted by klatremus
Where is the place where this guy has
information on Tudor? I have searched around the
crane area and I think I know the
knocking code from the hidden book at Tudor's, but I just can't find it. None of the doors/windows around there are frobbable. This is a
very difficult objective to complete, and it's mandatory at that. I imagine missing that book at Tudor's is common also.
.
klatremus on 6/9/2021 at 22:03
Thanks, I found the door, but when I knock 3 times the slit in the door opens then just closes a few seconds later. The readable says to stay still after knocking. Am I missing something here?
marbleman on 6/9/2021 at 22:22
Are you sure you've read the readable on this save file? Maybe you read it and reloaded later? You have to have read it for this to work.
klatremus on 6/9/2021 at 22:43
I definitely read it earlier, but can't remember if I reloaded after that. I must have, as I went back and read it again and then it worked. This objective was honestly way too hard. From the book that is so well hidden I missed it the first 2 times searching that room, to the fact you can't bring it with you but have to remember the info when you don't even know if it's that important, and then the objective item doesn't spawn until you've read it, and the use of a blackjack on a door that doesn't highlight or frob...seriously? A simple choice of making this a hidden objective that doesn't spawn until you've read that book would've fixed it all. Then you know the information in it is important, plus you know you've read the book and triggered the scroll because you have the objective in the list. The door should also have stood out a lot more. Make it highlight but no lock sound, then you know you have to interact with it in some way.
Right now that frustration sits in me enough to scar the mission, probably unfairly so. When a day or two passes, I'm sure I'll sit back and really enjoy ghosting it, but some of the gameplay choices in this one was just poorly executed. The shards objective was too tedious, with only 1 second in each of 4 locations briefly showing you where they are. And you don't even know what's happening until after reading the updated objectives, which forces the reload anyway. I had to go back and take screenshots in order to understand where the locations were. Not fun, and completely broke the immersion.
As I said before, good mission, but hampered by the aforementioned choices. Dropped from 9/10 to 7/10 for me.
Edit: Read about the extra fire mage loot from a previous post. I had seen that mage from a previous window, but never even attempted to get up there. You can get up without a speed potion or any stackables. Just a jump from the nearest railing. 4 flash bombs will kill the mage, and if you keep your distance, you won't take any damage. After 4 retries, I got a scenario where no coins dropped off the edge. If they do, it's very difficult to locate them. With coins off the edge I got to within 1 coin (5 loot off the max) twice, but on the 4th try they all stayed on the tower surface. This was a very cool easter egg!
FireMage on 7/9/2021 at 02:50
Quote Posted by klatremus
I definitely read it earlier, but can't remember if I reloaded after that. I must have, as I went back and read it again and then it worked. This objective was honestly way too hard.
From the book that is so well hidden I missed it the first 2 times searching that room, to the fact you can't bring it with you but have to remember the info when you don't even know if it's that important, and then the objective item doesn't spawn until you've read it, and the use of a blackjack on a door that doesn't highlight or frob...seriously? A simple choice of making this a hidden objective that doesn't spawn until you've read that book would've fixed it all. Then you know the information in it is important, plus you know you've read the book and triggered the scroll because you have the objective in the list. The door should also have stood out a lot more. Make it highlight but no lock sound, then you know you have to interact with it in some way.
Right now that frustration sits in me enough to scar the mission, probably unfairly so. When a day or two passes, I'm sure I'll sit back and really enjoy ghosting it, but some of the gameplay choices in this one was just poorly executed. The
shards objective was too tedious, with only 1 second in each of 4 locations briefly showing you where they are. And you don't even know what's happening until after reading the updated objectives, which forces the reload anyway. I had to go back and take screenshots in order to understand where the locations were. Not fun, and completely broke the immersion.
As I said before, good mission, but hampered by the aforementioned choices. Dropped from 9/10 to 7/10 for me.
Edit:
Read about the extra fire mage loot from a previous post. I had seen that mage from a previous window, but never even attempted to get up there. You can get up without a speed potion or any stackables. Just a jump from the nearest railing. 4 flash bombs will kill the mage, and if you keep your distance, you won't take any damage. After 4 retries, I got a scenario where no coins dropped off the edge. If they do, it's very difficult to locate them. With coins off the edge I got to within 1 coin (5 loot off the max) twice, but on the 4th try they all stayed on the tower surface. This was a very cool easter egg!No worries, I've been informed of these gameplay issues during the contest result. Most of these are planned/or even fixed in the Upgraded version I am working on. :)
I would not say the choices are poorly executed, but more like these didn't had the required time to be tested enough since like BP, I have been lacking of time and had only two weeks to launch the betatests of the mission when everything was in place... and if two weeks is enough to chase glitches and bugs in order to make a winnable/working mission, it's definitely not enough to improve gameplay, optimize the playtime and balance the game. Which is the reason some lame gameplay choice chosen for their originality at first can find their way in a mission, due to the lack of time to take a step back and improve it.
About the easter egg you mention, take note that (and it's the same with the extra loot you can get if you buy the contract in the shop) the coins are not part of the loot at the beginning of the mission ie if you don't find the easter egg (or didn't bought the contract), you can always get 100% of loot since these pieces of loot doesn't exist until you did the necessary to make it exist. ;)
klatremus on 7/9/2021 at 04:20
Thank you for your response, Firemage. I was maybe a bit harsh in my criticism earlier. Since I'm not a mission author, I probably don't think about deadlines and reduced testing time as a limitation. I definitely did enjoy playing the mission and already look forward to ghosting it.:thumb:
