[RELEASE][FIXED]Deterioration - Total Conversion

[Rapture]

@Streetboat - If dnalange is referring to the desk door for desks. You can actually open it up slightly (While its locked) and lean to the left and grab items inside their. I've done that myself a bunch of times on other CS.

[Robby]

@Streetboat - If dnalange is referring to the desk door for desks. You can actually open it up slightly (While its locked) and lean to the left and grab items inside their. I've done that myself a bunch of times on other CS.

That's a clever trick. Did that too, but for the sake of fairness, I didn't really do so.

Makes things quite easy.

[Alex Ros]

First of all I want to state, that the Deterioration is the most competent story in terms of the laws of dramaturgy among ALL modifications of Amnesia: The Dark Descent I've played so far. The composition of the story, turning points, the development of intrigue are just great without any serious complaints. As a result no matter what to say about mistakes in details, but in general the Deterioration is already a victory and a great victory. That's my personal opinion, everyone is free to disagree. I say congratulations! Flags are raised, people celebrate, fireworks in the sky...

What can I do... I have always believed that the best gift is the one that you would like to get myself. I've been modding for about 3 years. Not Amnesia, but it doesn't matters. For me this is just a hobby, not a job. While modding I was tricking with different stories, turns, features, etc... and I've always wanted to know how exactly it worked on players. What exactly did they feel here and there? That question was nearly torturing me. Well, I knew everything was working better than fine, simply because of downloads statistics and forum communications. But... you know... it wasn't enough. I wanted to understand not just a reaction of players. But what do they think and imagine. Something I couldn't see at Let's Plays. Inner invisible world. And that's exactly what I am going to do. I am going to sit down and patiently describe my thoughts, what I was thinking about here and there, what I was imagining here and there... I hope it will be a little bit interesting to you, StreetBoat. If not, you're free to just ignore it. Anyway my thanks to you for your work!

DANGER! SPOILERS!!!
AND DANGER! WALL OF TEXT!!!

Spoiler below!

You wake up somewhere at the darkness. Quite an uncomfortable place, very low ceilings, some boxes and bags are jotted around, cold lights are shining through the gaps in between of the wooden planks of the ceiling. At first it feels like you're buried alive... In truth this is exactly what I thought at that moment... But just a second later the internal voice soothingly informs you that strangely you appeared at the parental home. And right now you're at the barn, where you used to hide as a child. How do you appeared here? That's the question... As long as I've heard the monotonous beeping of a heart machine (or however that medical thing is called), I assumed that everything that going to happen will be a dream, an illusion and actually my protagonist is dying somewhere in the reanimation, emergency room... You're looking around and everywhere there are familiar things. An old mattress where you used to sleep on in the summer nights; a haystack with a pitchfork; an old broken table; some tools around, that are realistically expected to be found here at the barn; heavy barrels filled with wine and racks with bottles, internal voice reminds that your father was a very proud of that wine... Just a minute of looking around, but I am already drown in the immersive world of a parental village home. That's only because there're truly a lots of realistic details and tiny memories... The door to the main house is closed. I have to find something to brake through, as long as I am here at the parental home I simply want to meet my parents. Are they all here at home? Is everything all right? The throwing of a brick into a closed door doesn't work as long as that brick is too light. I have to find something a bit heavier. I have to search in the next room... What?!? What is that red slime all around? Something really strange if not horrible is happening around. I hope everything is all right with my parents. A part of an old drill, another one familiar thing. It's easy to imagine how my father was working with it... And that's exactly what happened to me, the story has already overheated my imagination and I just visually saw an emotional picture of my good old father here at the barn drilling something... It's interesting, where are the other parts of that old fathers drill? I can think about that later, now I found a rock big enough to brake the closed door. That worked! I am home, is there anybody out there?!? It's too dark at the corridor. What's this? A cupboard full of crucifixes and religious books. I do remember that my mother turned to religion when my father died... Died? Oh... here I see an old shirt. I am checking its pockets... All that is interactive isn't simply interactive, all is truly working on immersion, on the storyline and characters. And everything is very believable and realistic, that is also an important achievement of a mod... Another one locked door. Can I brake the lock with a hummer I found earlier? It worked just as I imagined! I have to hurry to check if everything is all right with my mother... What the f**k is that?!? Where did this rubble come from? My house is not near a mountain. I am getting nervous. That's my f**cking home! Everything should be all right and just perfect!!! Here is a big painting, gifted by a customer of dad's homemade wine. Here's the book I stole from father's study. Here's a mother's piano. Here's a magazine with an article about my father-winemaker. Everything tells me that I am home! And something not good is happening with my home... The more details I meet on my way through the house the more immersive it becomes. And those details aren't meaningless, all of them are very realistic and familiar mostly to anyone (I mean players) and easily connecting-merging with my personal own imagination. And as a result with every step through the house I am getting more and more afraid of something horrible. Nothing horrible is happening, I am just imagining it... The slime is somehow everywhere. I got to head upstairs, where are my own room and my parents rooms... This leads to the kitchen, but it's blocked... nevermind... Bathroom. The floor here is dissolving... What? Dissolving?!? If it's dissolving, than... my god... than isn't something is trying to... oh man... trying to get through, right to this world, right to my sweet home? It reminded me the first HellRaiser horror-movie, where a damned soul was trying to get back to real world and succeeded... My mothers old dress... architectural designs... Oh and here's a lot of oil in case of emergencies... let's check the shelves... a crowbar and a lantern! What?!? "Another empty lantern and a broken crowbar... nothing useful"... That was just great, I was cheated completely. Pleasantly cheated. Crowbar is a very symbolic thing, classic tool for a whole generation of players since the 1st Half-Life. And I am far used to meet a crowbar in every Custom Story of Amnesia... but here... here it's useless. Great, just great... Here's another one locked door. But I do have a hummer to brake the lock... am I an experienced player of Amnesia and Custom Stories? Yes I of course. Bang and that locked door is going to open... But "the hammer broke and the lock remained intact". WHAT?!? I am surprised. Do I even remember the last mod where I was really surprised? Oookey... that's cool... very realistic by the way... Let's go through another one door. Shit! Did I really brake a hummer? I just can't forget that... shit... how could I be so stupid?!? Maaaaan... ok... another one door... What is that? A twisted in a spiral corridor? I seeeee... the dreamy part of the Custom Story... What can I say. That is the place where immersion broke. Very sadly, but that level design decision with a twisted corridor didn't work at all. It's a cliche and a cliche with a LOOOOOONG story. It was used for nearly thousand times. Fail. Objectively... Oookey. So far the story was real good. Let's go through that twisted spiral corridor... What is that expecting me on the other side of the door? Be honest, I was expecting another one dreamy fail... and it was MY fail to think so... Wow, where am I? Some kind of a pier or a marine? "The footing out here is treacherous". Yes it looks so. It's so dark and silent... and so realistic... That is why it worked. It was realistic and believable place. But in contrast with the interior of a house it worked like a dream, like an illusion. There's no need to distort and twist anything to show up a dream. I'd say that's a stupid way to show up illusions. The good way is a development of a really unexpected contrast. You're roaming for hours at the claustrophobic house and bang! there's an open space, a lots of water and a pier behind the usual door. That works... You're the only author. I remember that and respect your own creative style. But I do seriously advice to cut out that twisted corridor. Completely. It would be better objectively (not subjectively, I state on that) and it would be "clean"... Fine. Let's go... I can't imagine where am I and also how I got here. And those treacherous footings are making me a bit nervous. So let's try to move slowly, accurately. I can't imagine what to expect here at the pier. Is that the place somehow connected to my memories? I am not sure, but surely this all do have a sense, a meaning... Wow! Lighthouse?!? It just nearly grew up in front of my eyes. What?!? Is this really what I see? Takeoff and jump... how high... my father is committing suicide in front of my eyes... Oh god, Christ... so this is what's happening. My father isn't simply dead. For some unknown reasons he committed suicide. What a turning point! It was really unexpected. I was curious all the time what's going on here at the village parental house. And I thought that the reason is hidden in the story of my protagonist. I was wrong. And that's why that turning point is good... I am starting to understand what's going on here... damned soul? No? But at least now I know that the reason of all these horrible events aren't my hidden sins. It's my poor father... wow... let's try to get out of here. I don't want to stay here, where my father committed suicide. And don't forget that the footings are treacherous... slowly... patiently...oh, once again, that twisted corridor... glowing red... oh, and a scare, very funny... seriously, cut down that corridor. It's just a really bad part of a Conversion, breaking the immersion... oh yes! I am back home!!! Hands are shaking, head is pounding... of course! I could even die of a heart-attack if I saw my own fathers death in reality. Not just death but a horrible one... oh... and... what is going on? There's no pier right now, just an another hall, leading to... where? I'd say I'm quite afraid to go there, it's dark out there... but... wait a minute. Calm down. Think. I just saw my fathers death. Right? Yeah. So? Now I am back at the house. So what? So logically that dark hall should lead to my fathers room. Right? There should be nothing to afraid of. Really? Well I hope so... Let's check it out... Slowly... from the point of seeing my fathers death I became a really slow player. The primal fear settled in me and there were nothing I could do about it... slowly crawling through the hall... rubble... stop. What is that I see in a hole in the ceiling? Oh god. That damned lighthouse... here I am entering my fathers private quarters... cautiously leaning to look inside... no one is home... luckily. Looks like a private hideout with a little library. Oh and here's an old typewriter. Looks like my father had a hobby on writing prose... at least that's what I thought by observing my father's room... Closed desktop? I am not sure if I really want to know what is inside. Looks like there will be an answer what happened to my father. No? The only way to check it is to go further... hmm... go where? There's one door closed, if I remember it right. Should be a door to my own room, according to the fact that I found my mothers and my fathers rooms... and that's the room with that f**king lock that broke my hummer... well... that wasn't lock who broke my hummer, it was me who broke the hummer... it's better not to think about that stain on my life. Anyway. Let's carefully look around... nothing's there, nothing's on the table, nothing's in the shelves, nothing's under the table... wait. What is... yeah! Here's a key under the table... That's incredibly cool where objects are hidden. Psychologically they're hidden right where I am guessing that something might be. At least for me personally it worked nice, I had no real problems. Well, of course, I had some problems. But it was all about to stand and think for a minute, where realistically this or that or whatever might be. And it was always working. I found everything what I needed... Let's go... oh F**K!!! I got to change my pants! That was so unexpected when someone fallen down out of nowhere right in front of me. Jesus Christ... it was horrible... and... and it wasn't out of nowhere. It fallen from the lighthouse through that hole in the ceiling. It wasn't just a stupid scare for scare. The story continues... Here we are. Home sweet home. My own room, my childhood... a big cabinet. Wow, my old backpack! And... what is that among toy soldiers? Part of a drill? Nice... a big chest. Toy drill part??? Looks like my father was real close to me, was an example of a righteous man for me, and I was trying to be like him... that's what I thought and that's what led me to the following thoughts... what the f**k made him commit suicide?!? My father wasn't a bad man! I am a bit angry!!! But... wait... wait a minute... wait, wait, wait... could it... no... it can't be... could it be not a suicide... but... could it be a... a murder!?! I am very angry!!!!! And... stop. But... who killed my father? Or... or what? Christ, if that horror I met at home is the... is the thing that killed my father, than I should be real careful. I can be next. It could kill me now... That's what was happening in my own imagination. That's how good immersion works. I am beginning to think and imagine MORE than I practically read-see-hear at the story. And that's a very big achievement of yours, StreetBoat. I presume you consciously worked to build up such a Conversion, that would have such an effect on players. And I can assure you that it worked! Your win!!! Congrats... let's go finish it... is there anything else at my room? Can I combine a drill? Nope. Let's look around... here... there... hmm... my bed. Nothing's on the... wait. What? I was hiding things behind the bed? Here we are. I got my drill and... yes, I see, it could open the locked desktop. Let's go check it out... drill... drill... drill... ouch! Cut-off head!!! Oh maaaaan... well, be honest, it wasn't scary. It was unexpected, but no scary. Hard to tell why exactly... oookey. My fathers head at the desktop. My sanity is very low... of course... what's next? The only place I didn't visit is... hmm... kitchen? Oookey. Let's go downstairs, maybe something is changed... what??? What happened to my parental home? That slime is everywhere. Looks like I am loosing. Slowly but loosing to whatever evil it represents... bathroom? Noises? Very funny. Am I crazy to check out noises in a fully dissolved, hellraised home? Oookey... slowly... red glowing fog... nice... slime everywhere... and... slowly opening that f**king door to the bathroo... wow! F**K!!! What the hell?!?!? Toothy mouth directly in the floor!!! That's surely something i have never seen in any Custom Story... can I step into it? Is it just a fake or really a monster. I am curios... That was my VERY BIG mistake to try to step right on those toothy mouth. It was a real deadly monster, no fake. Luckily there was an autosave at the moment of opening father's desktop... going downstairs. Hell is everywhere. Where should I go? This is closed, this is barricaded, no way here, no way there, no... what? It wasn't there before?!? Well I guess it surely wasn't there before! A little cave inside my own house. It looks so welcome... I am going to die up there. I got no oil, I got no tinders, I got no weapons... shit... it's a suicide to crawl into a hole in the wall... oookey... at least I got my nappy. I am ready... slowly... even more slowly... red lights... looks real promising... slowly... wow! Is that my kitchen?!? Cozy. Especially that failure in the floor. Should I crawl to that strange door? Oookey... slowly... slooooo... uuuuups... fallen down... Be honest I thought I am dead by falling down. It was absolutely unexpected that to fall down is exactly what I need to do... where I am? Oh, right, in the grave pit. Fresh one. What? Flowers. Thank you very much... what is this place? Red heaven? No? Likely it's a red hellgrounds. Always dreamed of visiting... by the way it was a great short-illusion-detail with an angel statue "...Mother?" Real great artistically... looks like I have reached the finishing part of a story. Let's look around... nice. No lights, no items in the inventory... and where should I go? It's all just an infinite red clouds all around. Is it a light out there? Architectural skeleton of a barn??? Upstairs? Not so hard, there's a note on a mattress. What?!?!? I can't read it in the darkness?!?!?!? You must be joking... oookey. There's a candle down there... reading the note... that's the first note I met in the whole mod, so I was reading VERY CAREFULLY. "...he had a good view of the rafters..." Rafters? I don't think it's just meaningless words... and they weren't, I found the 1st lever and pulled it... but. Nothing is happened... oookey. There's another lit up place not so far from here... another isolated part of a barn... another note... reading... carefully, I already know all words are non-occasional... something is hidden in between the lines... "...wine splattered over the crate..." Visually it should look like a blood stain. As long as this is a horror-mystic story I think that's it... let's look arou... right here. A goblet and truly a blood stain. Another lever. Pull. What the point? Opening my own memories? And where should I... wait... what is that i see? Mother of god!!! It's a lighthouse... that's right. It was so dark around that I noticed a lighthouse only at that moment. Isn't it too late? Maybe. But at the same time roaming around nearly blindly gave me a very memorable feeling that I am lost. It was really like I am lost in the forest. It was a mixture of fear and panic... here I am running to the lighthouse. Going in... no? The door is closed??? Here I see. Levers. Pulling first... Pulling second... The last one doesn't goes. I got it, easy one. Somewhere here in the darkness of red is another one part of my memories is hidden... where and what exactly? I don't see a damn thing... roam... roam blindly... roam... just a little comment. Nothing bad. Everything was nice. But subjectively (this time not objectively) it could be a LOT better if there were a sense of danger. I wasn't afraid at all down there. I just was roaming, exploring and nothing else. If you could spawn a monster down there I personally think that the area could be a lot more memorable. I mean a monster that could roam the area forever. Not just spawn and disappear... anyway. Here we are at the... what is that? My room... a minute of exploring... a note... a lever behind the mirror. And here is a short appearance of a monster "I'm not alone down here..." Well, untrue, I was alone down there. Nothing to scare... why didn't that monster frighten me? Well, the monster itself did frighten me. For a seconds, momentary scare. But when I got out of that isolated room-house I just saw, physically saw there's no movement at all anywhere. Absolutely no movement. No sounds of movement. Nothing. That assured me that the monster disappeared. As I imagine it that red area in general should be disturbing and quite nervous for players. But right now it is not. At the beginning I felt panic and that I am lost, but that worked just for a minute, no more. So you have to give (at least) a visual movement here and there and anywhere. All the time while I am roaming there. That's the only way to make me really think that "I'm not alone". Preferably (subjectively) it could be a real roaming (slowly) monster. But it's up to you, of course... oookey. Here we are at the final part of the Deterioration... oookey, I entered the lighthouse... wow! Those mechanisms are hitting me with electricity!!! Christ... let's check if there's a lever to turn down the power. Here's a lever on the 1st floor. Jammed. Let's check upstairs... oh! Man?!? Who is that? My... you're joking... my father? He was tortured here?!? That's what I thought... I think he, his soul in particular, wants me to know that he is NOT a damn suicidal, he was murdered... that what I thought. I do not know if I am wrong or right... oookey. Machinery of the lighthouse. Four levers. Doesn't work right now... hmm... isn't it a lever I see right there in the cage? How to get there? Let's try to throw a chair into a lock. Nope... hmm... Here's a door to the balcony. Let's check it out... nothing is there... strange. Oookey. Let's check that cage itself... yeah, here's a hole. A chair. Jump. Another jump over that electricity-biting machinery. Pulling a lever... Jesus! I shit my pants once again... yes, that appearance of the monster did frighten me right to the madness. And by the way it was cool that the monster could not brake the door. I was expecting that this is what is going to happen and it didn't happen. Surprise! Really logical and very unexpected reworking of Amnesia game mechanics... what's next? Four levers are still not working. The lever on the 1st floor is still jammed. There must be something I've missed... hmm... the balcony. What? Clockwise?!? What is this information for... aaah! The monster!!! F**K!!!!! F**K!!!!! F**K!!!!! Running to the cage and... and... is it going to chase me? No? Seems like the monster is roaming strictly on the balcony. And... yeah, I got it, the monster is roaming a balcony clockwise. Interesting... but what is out there... crawling... looking carefully around... crawling... here we go, a ladder. Pulling the lever. It works! What? I should turn it on once again? Oookey. What's next... my father?!? He was hung up and bound to suffer?!?!? Pulling a lever... ouch! What? I am torturing my own father by pulling the levers?!? Stop, stop, stop... I have to read that note on lighthouse mechanisms real carefully... oookey, let's do it... I hope I got it right... pulling here... there... and finally out there... yeah! It worked!!! So? Where is happy end? Where's my fathers soul or whatever? Hmm... oh! That monster came up!!! But there's nowhere to hide?!?!? What? It can't be... That was the last great storyline twist, that the monster IS the representation of my father. I though the monster represents his torturers. But... congratulations. It's a very philosophical twist and victory to transform a monster into a suffering man, not just a man, but my own father... great ending... I am back home, everything is like it should be at home... rest in peace, father... I should go to have my own rest... peacefully. Very sad story, I'd say...

Sorry for a bad English. I was trying to write as fast as I could in order not to lose-forget my emotions, thoughts, feelings. I hope everything is at least understandable.

[Streetboat]

I gotta say, I'm surprised people are still talking about this! Thanks for the play-by-play of your experience, I was very happy to hear you hit all the cues I was hoping players would!

[Alex Ros]

Be honest, I am a LOT more surprised that your truly extraordinary unique Conversion is nearly unknown to the public. I am myself found it ABSOLUTELY occasionally. Why would not you advertise it? There is nearly no advertisement at all. Why is that so? It's not a Custom Story, it's a Total Conversion - there're only a few of them! And it's kinda REAL strange that you don't bother advertising it hardly. Screenshots, trailers, etc...

How much time have you worked on Deterioration?

Would you polish some parts of Deterioration? Or have you made a strict decision not to do anything at all with Deterioration no more? I am asking simply because there are some tiny details that could be polished. And I did not mention them in my "Wall of Text".

P.S. I've seen, of course, screenshots on MODDB page, but... I think you know it by yourself.... but they're not as good as might be. Honestly.

[MyRedNeptune]

I'll have to agree with Alex here. I'm a bit upset when I see how many people praise White Night or La Caza in comparison to this or other great mods, because to be frank, I'm not that big of a fan of either of those. But I guess this is a discussion that belongs elsewhere. ^^

[Streetboat]

I spent about a year on Deterioration. I am not planning on working more on it, because I feel good with it as it is, it's a self-contained entity. It tells its own story, and it does not need a sequel or anything of the sort. Yes, there are parts of it that I am less happy with, but I'll just have to take the bad with the good.

As for advertisement, I don't really know how to advertise it more than what I've done. I've got this thread here, and the moddb page, but other than that, I don't know what to do. I don't want to be one of those people who barges into other peoples' threads and plugs their story, so that's not a strategy I'm choosing to take.

[Alex Ros]

I spent about a year on Deterioration. I am not planning on working more on it, because I feel good with it as it is, it's a self-contained entity. It tells its own story, and it does not need a sequel or anything of the sort. Yes, there are parts of it that I am less happy with, but I'll just have to take the bad with the good.

That's not about sequel or something. No. I've been thinking only and strictly about a little bit of polishing. No more, no less. And I just thought to pronounce what is it exactly could be (only could) polished. But if you don't want to do anything anymore than... that all right I won't be bothering.

[Streetboat]

No, I appreciate the input. Your criticism of the twisted hallway struck home with me for future projects because it touched upon something that should have been obvious to me: hallucinations are so much scarier when they're subtle, instead of the standard B-rate "SOMETHING ISN'T RIGHT HERE" sort of thing. It would have been so much more unsettling to just get dropped off onto the docks, instead of the twisty hallway.

[Alex Ros]

Is that the new project you are working on right now?
http://www.frictionalgames.com/forum/thread-15828.html