Mystery Foes - The First Death to Spies 3 Fan Mission

Liz Shaw · #1 09-09-2017, 01:42 PM

It's been over a year since the editor came out, but finally the first ever Death to Spies 3 fan mission is out:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3bx9g4onvr..._V2.6.rar?dl=0

https://mega.nz/file/r0djHTaA#pssWjB...ZhpEVCztSoYm8c

Changes in v1.1

Corrected some errors in the Russian and Spanish translations.
The grass is now properly aligned with sloped terrain.
Relocated a waypoint that was previously positioned between the generator you can turn on after cutting the wire and the wall.

Changes in v1.2

Strogov now properly faces the object "BR03" when applying soporific to it.
All the points on VectorMap01 have been properly aligned so it's a perfect square.
Started making a few smoother terrain transitions.
Dirt decals have been added in some areas. Lightmaps have been updated to reflect this.
The level now has a Terrain Lightmap.

Changes in v1.3

Rearranged some waypoints, so some NPC jobs have smoother pathfinding.
Modified the LOD and View Distance of some brushes, especially those in the tents.
Made further smoother terrain transitions.

Changes in v1.4

The level has been tweaked significantly to make it in line with Points on the Radar, which it is largely based on. The lighting, LOD and View Distance of all brushes, Brightness of some brushes, the vegetation and the Terrain Lightmap have all been updated.
Added new sounds.
Added a new anchor, and changed the times on some existing ones.
Added a block vision helper on the boarded up window in one of the huts.
Added a new FootSimpleTrigger on the back porch of the main house, so you can pretend to guard the door when dressed in a yellow jersey.
The music playing on the radio in the main house no longer starts up again when you enter the next room and then return.
Made even further smoother terrain transitions.
Added some slightly modified versions of the vanilla core map files for A Mole Among Us and Omerta, to adapt to changes made to the Actors.shadvs file for Enhancement Addon v0.05.

Changes in v1.5

Rearranged the boxes and waypoints on the back porch of the main house.
Separated the benches in the picnic areas, so players don't get stuck between them.
In the huts where you can sneak in and out via open windows, you now automatically stop hugging the walls when you touch the window edges.
You now automatically go out of cover when you move between the two crates inside the mechanic's hut.
Changed the LOD, View Distance and Brightness of some more brushes, mostly those inside the infirmary.
All points of interest will now be removed when you complete the main objective.
The gift box inside one of the tents will no longer flash in instinct mode if you complete the main objective without taking the stuff inside it.
Repositioned some Anchors in the main house.
Added a new SoundEmitter for the water tank.
Added block vision helpers on most of the cracks under the huts.

Changes in v2.0

The base has now opened its doors, and the surrounding area outside has been fleshed out. Though largely a recreation of the area around the base in Points on the Radar, I've made sure to include some new areas. For now, I've limited the level design to the Template level's default VectorMap size, and have placed invisible walls on the edges to prevent players from going out of the VectorMap's bounds.
Added a new mission objective, where you have to infiltrate the base before you receive the main objective. Killing or alerting any of the guards inside the base before you head inside it will result in mission failure.
Cuban militia are now present in the mission, assigned to guard the area outside the base. You won't fail the mission if you kill any of them at any time.
Added a new zone where carrying a machine gun while wearing a flight deck uniform will arouse suspicion, and in some cases instantly cause an alert.
Tweaked more stuff inside the base. Added extra waypoints, wall helpers, lights and block vision helpers, and adjusted the brightness of some brushes. Lightmaps have been updated.
You can now jump off the infirmary balcony.
Repositioned FootSimpleTrigger42, and you no longer have to neutralize a guard to be able to use it.
Created new accident scenarios, and extra poisoning, soporific and emetic opportunities.
All points of interest inside the base will now only appear on the map when you receive the main objective.
Fixed a bug where you can still poison or apply emetic to certain food and drinks even after you use soporific on them.
Added an extra bottle of soporific inside one of the new huts outside the base, and the point of interest indicating it will appear on the map at any time until after you complete the main objective.
The engraved knife has been moved to the aforementioned hut with the new soporific bottle.
The Terrain Lightmap has been updated.
Created a new environment sample, and updated the original one. The new environment sample is used for some brushes because the default one gives them weird colors.
Repositioned Strogov when he applies soporific to the beer bottle in the main house so he doesn't have a chance to get stuck in the table corner afterwards.

Changes in v2.1

Added swamp grass, as well as more forest grass beyond the edges of the map's current boundaries.
Fixed a bug where a beer bottle will still flash in instinct mode even after you've applied poison to it.
Created two extra poisoning opportunities.
The guard in the base's southwest tower (Jersey31) now has a new Anchor overlooking the western side of the base perimeter. He also no longer carries a satchel to avoid confusion with ((REDACTED)).
Fixed NPC nodes for all push kills.
The message warning you about trying to leave the base while dressed in a flight deck uniform should now properly appear once when you pass either of the two gates in the aforementioned uniform.
The level now has Occluders.
You can no longer push the exterior tower sentries off their towers.

Changes in v2.5

Fleshed out more of the area outside the base, again staying as faithful as possible to Points on the Radar but there's now a new tent and pier.
Cipher officers (Cuban camo militia) are now present in the mission.
A barrel has been placed near the infirmary hut for a more stealthier way to get up there.
Created new environment samples, and updated the existing ones. Some cups no longer use a specific environment sample, and have a different skin instead so the colors are less weird.
The liquid that comes out when you spill the cup in one of the tents now has a consistent color, and will no longer disappear when viewed at certain angles.
Some guards no longer react by drawing their guns whenever a light is switched off.
Restored a FootSimpleTrigger in the construction hut, and the guards who sit on the bench will no longer stop and stare at you when use this trigger - it was previously removed before the initial release of Mystery Foes.
Fixed the directions of Strogov and (REDACTED) when pushing him down some stairs.
The Terrain Lightmap has been updated.
Added a slightly modified version of the vanilla core map file for Dogs of War, to adapt to changes made to the Actors.shadvs file for Enhancement Addon v0.10.
Implemented cream_soda's shaders and shadows fix, which is meant to fix anisotropic filtering and some issues in the shadows rendering algorithm.

Changes in v2.6

Further fleshed out the area beyond the current VectorMap boundaries, notably I implemented the pontoon bridge from Points on the Radar into the level. For now, you cannot cross it, as I'm basically laying the ground work for v3.0.
Fixed the jobs.shadvs file by changing the starting positions of some NPC jobs due to some stuff being moved over the course of Mystery Foes' update history.
Fixed the issue of shadows disappearing when viewed at certain camera angles.
Adjusted the LOD and View Distance of some brushes, especially lights so you don't see any flares first before you see the light models themselves from a distance.
Adjusted the hut VisAreas in the base to better fit the rooms. Also adjusted some Portals.
A crate in one of the tents is no longer sunk into another crate to the point where you can see clipping.
There's now some extra lighting in the infirmary.
One of the guards in the central tower now starts the mission sitting on the floor, and will start sentry duties as you climb further up the tower.
A net that's been placed next to a truck inside the base has been rotated slightly so you can freely pass between the two objects.
Most of the guards inside the base (primarily those in guard towers, tents and buildings) will no longer freeze when you're too far away from them or when the camera focuses away from them.
The Terrain Lightmap has been updated.
Updated the German and Italian UI string translations, to adapt to changes made for Enhancement Addon v0.12.
Updated the SWDs for A Mole Among Us, Omerta and Dogs of War to adapt to changes made to the Actors.shadvs file for Enhancement Addon v0.12.
Added slightly modified versions of the vanilla core map files for Ghosts of the Past, Snake Born and You Only Live Twice, to adapt to changes made to the Actors.shadvs file for Enhancement Addon v0.12.

Background:

I had this mission planned in my head since December, after playing some of the Trials (Quiz) missions in Hyrule Warriors' Adventure Mode. Haggard Games released a Template level for modders to work with last August, and as the level is perfect for a Cuba-like setting, I decided to make a mission set in Cuba where the targets are indistinguishable from the guards, and the only clues as to their identity is in the objective briefing. I hope that by releasing this fan mission, the level editor for Alekhine's Gun will gain some attention among the public and wider Death to Spies and stealth gaming fanbase.

Story:

Agent Alekhine is sent to the secret base known as "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot One" to assassinate the ringleaders of a group of saboteurs preparing to infiltrate the USS Essex. The entire group is dressed up as US Navy Flight Deck crewmen. Rambaldi's team don't have time to uncover any personal information on the ringleaders, solely going by photo ID. You must only kill the ringleaders to force the group to disband, killing anyone else will result in mission failure. Consult the objectives menu for clues about the exact identity of the ringleaders.

How To Install

This mission was made with the Steam version of Alekhine's Gun in mind, and requires Patch v1.02 to run. The game files can be found in C:\ProgramFiles or ProgramFiles(x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Alekhine' s Gun. Copy everything that's in the CopyWhatsInsideIntoGame folder into the respective folders in the aforementioned directory. The mission can be accessed at any time, at the end of the missions list after clicking New Game. Upon clicking on the mission and the difficulty you choose, the opening cutscene starts up - it's only there because a cutscene is required to load upon starting up a mission before the briefing loads up. To skip it, press the Escape key after waiting a few seconds upon the cutscene loading.

Compatibility with Enhancement Addon

This fan mission is 100% compatible with the Death to Spies 3 Enhancement Addon, however there are some files that can very easily be overwritten if this mission was installed first. The affected files are:

Levels\GameMenu\GameMenu.lua
Scripts\startup.shad
Scripts\Templates\Actors.shadvs
UI\FR_strings.shadvs
UI\GE_strings.shadvs
UI\IT_strings.shadvs
UI\PT_strings.shadvs
UI\RU_strings.shadvs
UI\SP_strings.shadvs
UI\strings.shadvs

With v1.4 made to adapt to Addon v0.05, I added files that you MUST NOT overwrite if you installed the Addon first. These files are:

Levels\Hotel\Hotel.SWD
Levels\Level02\Level02.SWD

With v2.5 made to adapt to Addon v0.10, I added another file that you also MUST NOT overwrite if you installed the Addon first:

Levels\Level10.Carrier\Level10.Carrier.SWD

The Actors.shadvs file inside this folder is based on Addon v0.10, so expect some differences to appear in the base game as a result, most notably the player character's crouched running speed being slower.

With the implementation of cream_soda's shaders and shadows fix, it is recommended that you delete your shader cache so the changes work properly (the game will generate a new cache the next time you boot it up). The cache can be found here:

Documents\My Games\AlekhinesGun\Cache

Note however that if you installed v0.10 of the Enhancement Addon first, deleting the shader cache once you install Mystery Foes v2.5 isn't necessary.

Special Thanks:

Hiei- for the French translations
Shellshock and Fuluzutas for the German translations
Freestailo for the Italian translations
Taquito for the Spanish translations
el Sparkio for the Portuguese translations
forlik and ComradeReptiloid for the Russian translations
ComradeReptiloid for beta testing and feedback
cream_soda for his Shaders and Shadows fix

Known Issues:

I discovered a bug where some push kill interactions still show up (and you can still use them) even after guards are knocked out with a silent takedown while they're using the anchors registered to the push kill triggers. Attempting to fix them with LUA commands has limited success, so I stopped trying to fix it. It's likely an engine bug, and I don't think it's a bug unique to Mystery Foes.

Not all screen resolutions support the full objective description text due to the lack of a scrolling function. The resolutions which don't support it include:

English text:

1360x768
1366x768
1920x1080

German text:

1280x720
1280x768
1280x800
1360x768
1366x768
1440x900
1600x900
1680x1050
1920x1080

Italian text:

1280x720
1280x768
1280x800
1360x768
1366x768
1440x900
1600x900
1680x1050
1920x1080

Spanish text:

1366x768

Portuguese text:

1280x720
1280x768
1280x800
1360x768
1366x768
1440x900
1600x900
1689x1050
1920x1080

Russian text:

1366x768

Here's a video playthrough of the mission on Hard difficulty:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-jfQygVoR4

And here's a video playthrough on Saboteur:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kLH-Bzpcm8

Please share these videos around or post your own playthroughs on this thread.

Liz Shaw · #2 09-21-2017, 03:44 AM

Version 1.1 has been released, and the OP has been updated.

Liz Shaw · #3 11-16-2017, 11:43 PM

Version 1.2 has been released, and the OP has been updated. On another note, I've started work on my next Fan Mission. I'm codenaming it "Project Grossman". It will contain several minor BioShock references, and will contain traces of seamen...

Liz Shaw · #4 12-25-2017, 12:01 AM

Version 1.3 has been released, and the OP has been updated.

Liz Shaw · #5 03-01-2018, 03:42 AM

Version 1.4 has been released, and the OP has been updated. This version contains some slightly modified versions of the vanilla SWDs for A Mole Among Us and Omerta, to adapt to changes made to the Actors.shadvs file for the Enhancement Addon v0.05. So if you have Addon v0.05 installed first, DO NOT overwrite the following files:

Levels\Hotel\Hotel.SWD
Levels\Level02\Level02.SWD

Liz Shaw · #6 07-09-2018, 02:57 AM

Version 1.5 has been released, and the OP has been updated. This will be the last update to Version 1, and I've already started work on Version 2. However, it will be a while before Version 2 will be done, as I have other projects to work on (MoTmod Addon v14.0 and Project Grossman).

Speaking of Project Grossman, here's two screenshots from it. It's the titular Dr. Grossman's office, which is 100% complete. I'm currently working on the main building.

Liz Shaw · #7 04-10-2019, 09:07 AM

Version 2.0 is finally out, and the OP has been updated.

Liz Shaw · #8 04-28-2019, 01:50 AM

The OP has been updated with a Saboteur playthrough of v2.0.

Liz Shaw · #9 12-05-2019, 12:26 AM

Version 2.1 is up, and the OP has been updated. I'm sorry it's taken so long to release it, but there's an excellent reason for this - I would have released it a couple months prior, but when I was playtesting the mission on Saboteur, I discovered mysterious error messages popping up in the console after a while. It also caused the game to freeze every time I try to quit, causing me to Ctrl+Alt+Delete the application. Further investigating both in the console and the dts3.log file, the error messages are triggered after loading up the mission's LUA file - quickloading the mission a few times triggers the bug. Because I added new accident scenarios in v2.1, it has now occurred to me that I've exceeded the limits of my ambitions. So I had no choice but to cut some stuff - fortunately, all I had to cut was the accident scenarios outside the base rather than inside, and no errors popped up after that.

So, moral of the story - don't let your mission's LUA go over 222kb.

The next version is going to be v2.5, and I'm going to expand the map boundaries a little bit and further flesh out the empty space. Now that I've discovered that LUAs have a filesize limitation, I may have some problems when creating v3.0, in which I plan to add more mission objectives. But that's way into the future.

I should now focus on getting Would You Kindly and that other Fan Mission I recently started based on the cut Kovalev sections of Check and Mate finished before I focus on Mystery Foes again.

Liz Shaw · #10 03-30-2021, 04:41 AM

v2.5 is up, and the OP is updated. It's been ready for a while, but I wanted to wait until v0.10 of the Enhancement Addon was ready so I could release both simultaneously, as v2.5 uses some stuff from Addon v0.10, notably cream_soda's Shaders and Shadows fix. Because of this, there are more files listed in the OP that must NOT be overwritten if the Addon was installed first, and vice versa. You also have to delete your shader cache if you haven't already done so with Addon v0.10, as according to cream_soda his fixes won't work if you don't.