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I am actually planning to do a North African themed mission in the future, for my series. It's just too early at this point. To me, it makes sense my protagonist could go on a one-shot adventure overseas, south of the Empire. I'd like to use those more exotic existing assets we already have, especially the Moorish NPCs. There are only so many ways you can get them involved if an FM takes place in Bridgeport or a similar European-style city or setting. As others have said, the relative lack of model assets is currently the biggest obstacle. However, having documented the assets we already have earlier this year (still not entirely finished with the effort), I am confident that a more "barebones" version of such a more exotic environment is certainly possible. You have plenty of useful stone, adobe, mosaic and tiling textures available, and a lot of them can be used for North African style architecture without it looking too fake. A mission builder just needs to get creative with the assets available. Maybe the result won't be as sumptuous in the details as the author would like, but every FM can be eventually reworked, including adding further level of detail, new assets to the environment where they were missing before. Also, people can make custom assets for a mission and if they're good enough, they can be included in the core mod, making the whole thing easier for anyone who wants to build a future North African themed mission. I can't stress enough how much it helps if you like and study (even on an amateur basis) historical architecture. For most of TDM, we only need to focus on European architecture and plenty of people seem to research things fairly well. It is entirely possible to do the same for North African (and even other similar-enough African architecture, from more arid/subtropical climates) to achieve similarly believable results. I've decided to list some visual reference materials below, just for any FM builder interested in this sort of setting or theme. ---- Visual reference materials for Maghreb-style settings (or "arid Africa" style settings) Old towns of North African cities: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Old_towns_in_Algeria https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Old_towns_in_Mali https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Old_towns_in_Mauritania https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Old_towns_in_Morocco https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Old_towns_in_Tunisia Kasbahs / casbahs of North African cities: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kasbahs_in_Algeria https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kasbahs_in_Morocco https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kasbahs_in_Tunisia North African mosques (I'd recommend focusing on the medieval or at least centuries-old ones): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mosques_in_Algeria https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mosques_in_Egypt https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mosques_in_Mali https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mosques_in_Mauritania https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mosques_in_Morocco https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mosques_in_Tunisia North African, Ethiopian and Somali castles: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Castles_in_Algeria https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Castles_in_Egypt https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Castles_in_Libya https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Castles_in_Morocco https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Castles_of_Ethiopia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:3D_model_of_Fasilides_Castle.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Castles_in_Somalia https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancient-Almnara.jpg Other general reference materials: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Architecture_of_Maghreb https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Berber_architecture https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Heritage_Sites_in_Algeria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghardaïa https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Heritage_Sites_in_Libya https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Heritage_Sites_in_Mali https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Heritage_Sites_in_Mauritania https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Heritage_Sites_in_Morocco https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Heritage_Sites_in_Tunisia I'd be inclined to agree, but TDM's setting already strives for a degree of "historical accuracy" in the European-looking/alternate Europe part of the setting, so it would make sense for there to be a somewhat grounded look for the North African stuff too. We don't want the broad verisimilitude to get dented and look like something cooked up for a cheesy Hollywood film. We can do better than that. For example, one little pet peeve I tend to have is when an ostensibly realistic old Middle Eastern or Persian setting has guys running around with scimitars that look like oversized cleavers that would be impossible to lift and swordfight with adequately in real life. (It's like some Middle Eastern version of the swords-as-oversized-cricketbats thing you see in fantasy. Azeem's oversized tulwar-scimitar-thingie in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is a textbook offender.) If you look at real historical scimitars, they are rather elegant sabres with fairly narrow blades, and the details vary from region to region in the ME&NA. I think our AI modelling and rigging team did a good job on our Moorish NPCs, they have swords that might have a bit of fantasy flair, but aren't overdone. Yes. I think the current limited AI diversity - especially a lack of civilian characters in more local, North African style clothing - would be the biggest entity asset obstacle. Household servants and townsfolk in European clothing wouldn't be too convincing, even if you could fake the rest with clever asset use. Wooden beds aren't the biggest issue, at most you could look at wood textures from Mediterranean and African woody vegetation used in the construction of traditional buildings, and add the texture. If you think something looks like an oak wood texture that wouldn't fit the natural context, you simply make a texture-reskinned addon of an ordinary bed, with e.g. a palm wood texture. (People have historically used date palm trunks even for construction, especially in inhabited desert areas with a lack of adequate wood. Aside from the rounder shape, the palmwood beams I've seen in photos or docu footage from those regions look like any other wooden beams.)

I'd be happy to offer live fixed-IP 24 hour mirror space on my server for mission hosting if needed, which has Crashplan cloud backup already running.

Story: Build Time: Thanks: Download: In the in-game downloader, when it's back up* or at the following locations: Dropbox http://darkmod.taaaki.za.net/fms/lhl.pk4 http://fidcal.com/darkuser/missions/lhl.pk4 http://www.southquarter.com/tdm/fms/lhl.pk4 *right now the mission server is down, which means you will need to manually download and install this mission. Download the pk4 file from dropbox above, and place it in your folder called LhL inside your "fms" folder in your TDM install directory. Let me know if you run in to problems! Gallery: Hints, Tips, Walkthrough, Spoilers(!):

This one surprised me. I very much enjoyed it. Thank you ?

Man that was a perfect mission for a stormy Halloween night. A couple moments gave me goosebumps; really liked your use of sound. Job well done Bienie!

It's open right? It's intentional that it doesn't close back since I wanted to set the opening time to a slow creepy pace. It wouldn't make sense that when the player closes it it's still moving as slow.

Ever tried Velvet Assassin? Stealth in WW2. It certainly has flaws, but at the moment you can get it very cheap on Steam. https://store.steampowered.com/app/16720/Velvet_Assassin/ This recommended review sums it up quite nicely: "A linear WWII stealth game based on the famed agent Violette Szabo. Velvet Assassin rewards you for well planned and executed maneuvers to progress though the levels but suffers from mostly linear corridor missions and simple but inconsistent stealth mechanics. Not a lot of gadgets and weapons even detail to mechanics like in Splinter Cell and Thief but decent enough to switch between stealth & assault play styles with option to wear a disguise when available and the help of "Morphine" ability to assist with tough situations but you may be forced on some missions to simply go guns blazing. There's a leveling up system where you earn XP from collecting valuables but rather simple upgrades like move faster in stealth, more resistant to damage and longer "Morphine mode. May not sound much to recommend but when it all works out in a fairly decent level its quite enjoyable alongside an interesting story of an SIS agent who went through hell only to relieve it then return to try to stop it." Edit: And I also enjoyed the Death to Spies games and Alekhine's Gun (which is also known as Death to Spies 3). They aren't on sale though, so maybe wait for Christmas? The first bundle isn't that expensive and worth the price IMO, but the price for Alekhine's Gun is a bit too expensive IMO. https://store.steampowered.com/sub/2821/ (Death to Spies 1 and 2) https://store.steampowered.com/app/406720/Alekhines_Gun/

Mission Archive server is still down but the mirrors are up: http://darkmod.taaaki.za.net/fms/lhl.pk4 http://fidcal.com/darkuser/missions/lhl.pk4 http://www.southquarter.com/tdm/fms/lhl.pk4 http://darkmod.taaaki.za.net/fms/lhl.pk4 http://fidcal.com/darkuser/missions/lhl.pk4 http://www.southquarter.com/tdm/fms/lhl.pk4

Btw i'm sure someone will use that Modding Kit to bring Dragons and magic into KCD ;D Can't wait for the Lord of the rings and Game of Thrones mods.

I agree that does sound cool. Might come down to a lack of assets tho, I’ve not fully explored everything within DR so idk. We’ve got palm trees and sand so we’re half there. But how would one make those onion shaped domes like the Taj Mahal has? Always seems to me like mappers start with creating their dream mission, one they always wished to play back in the day. Why don’t you take a crack at learning the software and fleshing out those ideas in your head? A wise man around here once said the best way to say thank you to the community is to learn DarkRadiant and give back. I understand if it seems daunting and intimidating, I am pretty unsavvy when it comes to technology. But it really is fun to create and there’s no shortage of resources or helpful folks around here. Time is another factor, I get that it’s never on our side. With two kids, soon to be three I am constantly faced with the predicament of what to do with my little free time: do I work on my own map, do I play somebody else’s, or do I catch up on sleep? On the topic of S.T.A.L.K.E.R., I loved Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat, but haven’t played them in about 3 or 4 years. What good mods would you recommend? I was super impressed with an HD graphics overhaul mod. Has anybody figured out how to add multiplayer? I was following Survarium a long time ago but forgot about it due to lack of progress. And then there was Fear the Wolves but haven’t checked on either in a while.