Breaking and Entering feedback thread (some spoilers)

[Spitter]

So, the contest is now over and it seems I was the author of Breaking and Entering (which I recall a few people guessed). Now, I'd like to get some feedback upon the level. What did you think of it? If you guessed I was the author, what gave it away? What could be improved, what did you like and what did you hate?

Personally, I think the story could use some improvement, but it's too late now... also, the small size obviously restrained me quite a lot, especially since deadline was approaching with deadly speed.

I don't know if anyone noticed, but the teleporters were a bit buggy - due to lazyness and lack of time I built them with BoundsTriggers instead of room brushes, which caused some problems in testing - sometimes the teleporters didn't simply work! Usually the bug fixed itself by the second time you tried to step through, but on one occasion I had to restart the game mode in Dromed for the teleporters to work again. I tried to explain this with a bad excuse in one of the readables, but...

Aaaanyway. Simple thread, but a noble cause. As all FM authors, I live on all feedback, good or bad. So voice your opinion!

[epithumia]

All of the issues I had with the mission were purely a result of the size restriction. You faced a double challenge because the story required twice the space, and I certainly don't envy you. I had trouble navigating in the attic because of lack of space; I just kept getting stuck on things. And the fact that most of the house was essentially empty before entering the teleporter made it seem like there wasn't much to do.

I never had any technical trouble, with the teleporters or otherwise. I didn't have any gameplay trouble except that I missed the gear on my first search.

Basically, the mission was great. That story, however, would have worked much better in, say, the 64^3 format and could easily be fleshed out to full size.

[bukary]

Originally posted by Spitter
So, the contest is now over and it seems I was the author of Breaking and Entering (which I recall a few people guessed). Now, I'd like to get some feedback upon the level. What did you think of it? If you guessed I was the author, what gave it away?

I guessed... Your achitecture gave you away! It was very similar to "The Hightown Museum".

[despoiler]

One of my favorite contest missions. The architechture was plain, but functional for the regular house. Otherwise, I thought the design aspects were great. Everything was neat and well done.. the kind of thing that doesn't jump out at you but makes the mission more immersive and fun.

Originally posted by Spitter
Personally, I think the story could use some improvement

The idea that this sap had unwittingly opened this portal and then got torn up by apebeasts was pretty funny (I laughed when I saw him lying there, after reading about his zeal for the invention). I voted it runner-up for best story.

[Norman Druart]

I liked the story because of the non-Garrett character and the parallel dimension aspect. I imagined it as a world where the Trickster had succeded in using the Eye to open the Maw and launched a full invasion. I thought the space was efficiently used and well designed with everything working properly including the teleporter. I wasn't happy about the forced setup with the apes (it turned out to be grab and run with them in hot pursuit); I wish there had been a more effective way to distract them.

Overall a very good entry and thanks for creating it.

[bukary]

Originally posted by Norman Druart
Overall a very good entry and thanks for creating it.

Yes, I really enjoyed playing it! Thanks, Spitter!

[Sneaky1Kenobi]

Loved it! Yes I did have to enter the portals more than once a couple of times to get them to work - no problem though. I LOVED the apes - Norman, I was able to sneak around quite effectively and did not have to play 'grab and run'. You might try it again and try grab and sneak - hey maybe that is what you meant though. Great job!

[Komag]

When I played it I thought for sure it had exceeded the contest boundaries, so I opened it up in Dromed to check and I was SHOCKED to discover it was all contained neatly into a 40cube! You got my vote for "Best use of space" by a longshot because of that! I also really liked the second place, great use of fog and the house looked VERY destroyed and cruddy, well done!

[Lobster]

I like these small missions, there fun, quick to download, and usually extremely different then anything else out there. Yours was all of these, but in the end I think the small size took away a great deal from it.
I actully forgot that it was an entry for Komags mission when I started playing it. The story grabbed me and I was expecting it to get involved and complex, along with the house which it takes place in. Much to my dissapointment the whole thing was over in five munutes.
Like Norman I just grabbed what I needed to and ran away. Sure I took my time in the beginning but once I saw that there wasn't much to see I sorta sped through it.
So in the end I think your mission was just too small. That's a good thing though, I wouldn't want more if I didn't really like it.

[Morrgan]

Unfortunately I didn't have time to play through all the contest missions in time to vote, but of the ones I did play I enjoyed this the most. What caught my attention was the use of space and the architecture. Well done.

[Spitter]

Thank you for your feedback... it is much appreciated.

[bassmanret]

I've come back to this mission after not being able to finish it the first time playing, and I'm wondering if I'm missing something. The first time I played it (just before the contest), I couldn't get it to end, even though I :

spoiler:

Got the gear, and used it on the lock, creating the teleporter. When I went through the teleporter, I'm back in the house, but is the mission supposed to end there, or is there more that I'm missing? The only door in the house is locked and I haven't found any lockpicks or a key. I tried repeatedly going through the teleporter, but found nothing different on either side when doing this.

The same thing is happening again when trying to play it now. Could someone please let me know if I missed something, or is this a bug?

Even if it's supposed to end there, it is a very cool mission. Great job, Spitter!

[Nightwalker]

You should just have to

spoiler:

go back to the spot where you started, by an obviously fake door. As soon as you stand beside it, the mission should finish.

[bassmanret]

Thanks very much for the reply Nightwalker! Please let me make sure I'm seeing the same thing that you do:

[

spoiler:

When I go through the portal, I enter a room with a table with a book which starts "The portal seems to be unstable...", an unopenable gear lock labeled "Godportal", and one door which is unopenable. When I started the mission, I was in a totally different room with an obviously fake door, which may be the one you mention, attached to two other rooms (one is a kitchen, and the other has a ladder to the attic where the portal is). If I am supposed to be teleported to the original room, this is not happening. Instead, I'm teleporting to the "new" room from which there seems no escape.

Does this sound even remotely familiar, or am I the lucky recipient of a very strange but extra-special 'mission feature'?

[Nightwalker]

Ahhh! You need to

spoiler:

find a gear and use it on that gearlock. A portal appears and you go through it. At that point, you are back in the same place where you started the mission and then you can end the mission. I thought, when you said you'd gone back and forth through the portal that you meant this one, when you obviously meant the first portal in the attic. Sorry!

[bassmanret]

Thanks again for holding my hand on this one, Nightwalker. But, after your comments, I really think I've got something funky happening. Here is my sequence of events:

spoiler:

1. From the starting point, go in the next room , up the ladder to the attic and go through the first portal. I come out in a different attic with two ape men in the four rooms below.

2. I sneak past the two apemen to get the gear, then use it on the gearlock which makes the second portal appear.

3. When I go through this second portal, I do NOT come out in the room I started the mssion in, but in a completely different room (described in previous post). This second portal is the one I tried going back and forth through.

So, if the second portal is supposed to send me to the mission starting room, I'm encountering some kind of weirdness, which is fine, because I still liked the mission. I just want to be sure I haven't missed something or done something wrong.

I really appreciate your (or anyone's) help in verifying that I'm not doing something wrong, so I can officially mark this mission as "finished"!

[Nightwalker]

I'll tell you what. I'll send you a picture of the room you teleport back into through that second portal, so you can check it out. If that's not where you're ending up, then you probably have hit some sort of bug.

[bassmanret]

Wow, I'm sorry you went to all this trouble, but thank you very, very much!! Your first screenshot is exactly where I am in the mission now. The problem is that the door to the left of the screenshot won't open. It makes the locked door noise when I frob it. The gearlock is not frobbable at all (doesn't highlight when I look at it), so I'm not able to use the gear on it (although I've tried). It sounds like I should be able to use the gear on the gearlock, the door would open, and the mission would end when I walk into the first room. Normally, when I encounter a problem like this I'd replay from the start, but since I've already done that three times now, I guess I'll have to write this one off as unfinishable. (sigh)

I really appreciate all your help, you're the greatest!!!

[Nightwalker]

You just missed finding a key! Look on the corpse in the area where you found the gear. He's wearing the "Deacon's Key" and that will unlock the door. Then you'll finally be able to finish the mission!

[bassmanret]

WOOOOOO-HOOOOOO!!!!!!

That's it, mission completed!!!! Normally I would be very embarrassed for missing something so simple, but now I'm just too happy to be embarrassed!

A thousand thanks!!

[Spitter]