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Petike the Taffer

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  1. Petike the Taffer
    That's fine. But who would you suggest for oversight, then ? As I've said earlier, I'm more of an intermediary, but we need an experienced team member for the sake of quality control. (Not just audio quality, but also VA quality.)
  2. Petike the Taffer
    You're up to incredible stuff, dude. ? I suppose this will be TDM's more steampunky take on the Puppets from TDS. Was this, perchance, inspired by those powered armours from Fallout that are still working decades after the soldiers inside have perished ?
  3. Petike the Taffer
    Just to stimulate some interest in Goldwell and others, here's a very rough prototype for the loose recreation of G.'s apartment, as seen in TMA. Obviously, this is extremely WIP, I threw it together in a short amount of time, so it will still evolve. I also do not plan to copy the layout of the TMA inspiration all that slavishly, only in broad strokes, for the sake of keeping this copyright-friendly. The main highlights of the apartment itself. The bed, table area. fireplace and entrance door are roughly where they were in the TMA apartment. I still keep thinking I chose overly fancy wood panelling, but as this is a prototype, it can be sorted out later. Maybe some non-cheapo-looking wallpaper texture ? The parquet panels were used in an effort to emulate the floor of the TMA apartment. To paraphrase John Green, "But let's first look at what's in the secret compartment !". The wall between the bedroom area and the entrance door looks like an ordinary wall with wood panelling, right ? Well, think again. As the screenshot in the upper right corner shows, I've hidden a secret door, with doorframe and everything, in that panelling. The small room with green wallpaper, hanger, doorframe and wood panelling door is the secret closet of the flat. Rather than recreate the TMA apartment's closet, and then the secret compartment within it, I instead made the whole closet a secret room of its own, for various secret supplies, loot, and so on. Though I have to ask a question: Would it be cooler if the access door was hidden in the shorter wall closer to the bed ? I am open to suggestions on that.
  4. Petike the Taffer
    Well, I'd like to hope I have a good handle on this stuff. I'm still a bit undecided on some plans for the series and its missions, but hey, small steps. I want the first missions to feel like a small start, then build up to something bigger. The concept behind the series is actually an old one at this point, I was already contemplating not long after I joined. Maybe around January 2015 for the first time. I even mention it in my post from that time, though I had a lot less structure to the plan back then. The one major feature I want to experiment with story-wise in this series is having a male protagonist, but a female deuteragonist. Not many major female thief characters in the game so far, so I'm going to try. She'll start out as a civilian before becoming a thief like her pal, and will mostly be an NPC in the missions. I would like to do at least two missions where she'll be the player character, though (as long as we can manage getting those female player vocals finished and introduced in future releases, in good quality).
  5. Petike the Taffer
    Thank you. Those are precisely the reasons why almost my entire first mission is set in a single building, that lighthouse. It's a challenge for me as a currently still amateur mission builder. Get the "superstructure" done and working, then start furnishing and plotting. I will confess I made the rooms, especially the ones in the tower, fairly small and claustrophobic, as a deliberate design feature to encourage a "less is more" approach and also force the player to use their wits more while traversing the place vertically. I will also confess the design approach was sort of inspired by what LGS did with Thief II: The Metal Age: Design a cool environment that would be good to play in and explore, then design the meat and the details of the mission around it. (I sort of have a similar approach for the other FMs I'm planning, though those will be a bit more narrative-motivation-first.) Hopefully, the above mentioned approach will be enough of a win-win exercise. I plan this mission to be newbie-player friendly, but a bit more challenging than the really basic "small FM, get in this house and burgle it" - somewhere between those small missions and the more intermediate missions. This FM will be part of my planned Partners in Crime series and will introduce a new city to the lore. Probably not the chronologically first mission in the series, but it might end up as the second or third one (I want to introduce some of the main characters in at least one prequel mission, set before the lighthouse). I am also tentatively starting work on designing that homage of Garrett's apartment from TMA, since it will be useful for a future mission or two. And it helps me practice furnishing interiors, especially the smaller and more "living quarters" ones. You've covered the TDS era apartment, now it's my turn with something related. Thank you for that free ticket to Droolsville, namesake. ? ?
  6. Petike the Taffer
    Gah, the other Pete was faster than me. Also, "bottom of the page syndrome"... ? Anyway, I hope you like the two WIP images. As I said, there will be some ground floor exteriors, but I intend to keep the player inside the building for most of the FM, until its finale. The final phase of the mission will give you a bit of a wider idea about the surroundings, just to spice things up a bit and test some basic exterior-making skills for me, but other than that, I don't intend to try that many exteriors this early into FM-making. My later missions will have more of that. Happy St. Catherine's Day to all ! Here's hoping for a snowy, white Christmas !
  7. Petike the Taffer
    This is the interior of the lighthouse and its cross-section, to give you a better idea. Naturally, nothing is really furnished yet, the only furniture being a few chairs I use to tell the tower floors apart ! It's going to be an intentionally spatially tight, perhaps even somewhat claustrophobic mission. As with most tall lighthouses, the interior space inside the tower itself is fairly limited. This will pose a pretty big challenge for the player as they ascend and descend the structure. There is only a single set of fairly narrow steps inside the tower itself, this long staircase being too narrow for two people to pass each other by. While there won't be that many AI patrolling the stairs, players will have to beware of running into them. Obviously, the stairs, along with the internal corners and room corners in the two large floors at the base of the lighthouse, have been really good places for visportals. I think I still need to tinker with the VPs a bit, but they've been working fine while I explored the whole structure, top to bottom, bottom to top. Trust me, this is one lighthouse that will take you a while to ascend or descend, even if you run with your character in this currently-empty mission. (Good virtual firefighter training, LOL.)
  8. Petike the Taffer
    My first time contributing to this thread with some WIP of my own, instead of just "wow, good work, guys" platitudes. Be gentle, I am still new to FM making, beyond the basics. This is the WIP exterior of the lighthouse for my first ever FM, which will be mostly set within this building. The textures are largelly placeholder for ease of building, I'll finalise their selection later. For the most part, I am satisfied with the structure itself. The priorities for the WIP exterior and basic structure went thus: 1. Make sure everything is interconnected well, without bizarre collission, and is airtight. 2. I built the tower floors first, optimalised them to use less brush pieces than the ones I started out with several months back. 3. To test the airtightness, I at first isolated the floors, then tested the first finished staircase (with added visportals and everything), then gradually copied the floor, made a careful connection, then did some testing. The top of the lighthouse (top room and outside exterior walkway around the room, with skybox) and the ground floor and second floors were connected and tested as the last. 4. The skybox is the latest addition, and it will be available in the ground floor exteriors too, but I am first testing it at the top of the tower. I still need to test the skybox a few times, but I think it'll work. Criticism welcomed.
  9. Petike the Taffer
    Just a bit of news: All FMs to date are now documented on the wiki.
  10. Petike the Taffer
    Yes, I have noticed. I'll finish the documentation for the newest FMs.
  11. Petike the Taffer
    Goldwell, thank you ! I got all caught up in the conversation with the other Peter and didn't even notice your post. Apologies ! Personally, I think the edit you've made is really good. I pressed my headphones against my ears (mind you, these are big ear-covering, sound-isolating ones, nothing tinny) and listened carefully for about a minute. I didn't hear any background noise or hum, certainly nothing audible to the human ear (and I have very sharp hearing). So I'd say that's a success, on the technical front. We can quibble whether the performance in that test recording fits what we're going for with this voice file, but that's something easily remedied, compared to any recording issues that we needed to sort out first. Goldwell, would you be interested in providing some VA direction feedback, in your spare time ? I can send you the contact info on Shadow Creepr next week, once she's back. Just so I don't have to serve as an intermediary (slowing down things too much) and you could also provide some direct feedback on the performance, if you'd like to. As much as I want to get this done, the other Peter's guessed correctly I want this to be up to the quality standards of the male vocal set.
  12. Petike the Taffer
    Precisely why I started this particular effort in the first place, or contributed my translation already a while back. I am never too cocky to think other people have the time and patience to work on everything, with others just staring at the sidelines, cheering on or making unrealistic demands. I know all too well we have a lack of manpower, so thinking anyone will find the time to work on something when they're already swamped with other aspects of the project is a bit too presumptuous. Hence taking matters into one's own hands, provided the core team also does some feedback and quality control. As for modelling, what do you mean ? I only asked if there'd be interest to help out with editing the recordings, and above all, help by providing supervision and strict feedback ("I'm sorry, that's not acceptable quality-wise, redo it", etc.). I myself feel supervision and feedback are the most valuable of all. Concerning sound editing of the raw material, I could do that on my own, easily, but maybe I wouldn't be that good at noise reduction or some of you guys have better software for the task. I mean, sure, there are pretty good open-source offers like Audacity, but I'm not so sure noise-reduction or hum-reduction is that perfect in those, so I'll gladly defer to the core team's judgement of what is best. Anyway, Shadow Creepr has been informed about the necessary changes to the recording process - what has worked and what we still need her to modify. She'll be getting back to it next week, once she's back home, as she'll be away for the rest of this week.
  13. Petike the Taffer
    Oh, I'm very open to supervision, it's just that I didn't want to make too much noise before things got really going. I'll definitely relay the advice given here over to the voice actor. And as I've said above, comments and criticisms on all versions of the recordings are very welcome. If it's going to be part of the core game, we do need to engage in plenty of quality control, but that's been clear from the outset. What I'm personally more bothered by is a lack of communication. Maybe I'm misremembering, but there's no real central thread where we can state "hey, core devs, we'd like to help with this unresolved asset stuff and seriously need your feedback". That makes working on side-projects like this feel really discouraging. On the one hand, it's true that contirbutors to TDM need to work mostly independently, and I approve of that. Unfortunately, what I also find flawed about this approach, is that the feedback from the core team is often lagging behind. With FMs, the oversight/feedback process is at least a lot more streamlined, set in its place, experienced. But when you want to work on a project that finally does some new asset contributions to the core game, it often gets stuck on lack of adequate feedback. Either to the point of not knowing how to proceed, or just ditching the whole thing, because there's some misunderstanding. Concerning the cooperation with SC, if contact details are needed, I can always provide them. I'll provide them gladly, far be it for me to be the only intermediary around for this stuff. Pete, do you want to help out with this ? Not full-time, you have your own stuff, but if you had a little time to spare.
  14. Petike the Taffer
    Fair enough, though are you sure about the .wav ? I'll tell her about the necessary changes. I just want to be sure that there's consensus on the team, rather than every other person telling me something completely different and creating a misunderstanding. The last thing I want it one of the veteran devs coming her and telling me either me or you got the technical aspects wrong. I like the idea about starting out with a two second silence and equalising the rest of the recording in post, if needed. I think you made a good call. I'll try to provide more vocal direction, if possible. Since these have been all recorded as tests, I wasn't too keen on stressing "you've got to do it exactly this way or that way", as discussing the recording quality with you guys was my main priority. Namesake, if you and others have some feedback on the content of the vocals, feel free to provide it. SC's been very willing to help out with this and I'm sure if we give her a clearer idea on recordings that we don't think quite fit, we'll eventually get the results we need. This whole thing is a process, after all.
  15. Petike the Taffer
    Thank you for confirming it isn't just me. It's been this way for me since Sunday evening. And yes, I am patient. If I wasn't, I'd never get my side-projects for TDM done.
  16. Petike the Taffer
    I was worried this would still be present. Well, that certainly gives some level of hope. Should I tell her to record a sample of the room audio from the room she uses for recording ? (There's enough time, she'll be away between the 21st and 25th, so no rush.)
  17. Petike the Taffer
    Could someone please take a look at the TDM wiki ? Since this weekend, it has become uneditable. I even changed my password and everything, just to be sure it isn't a technical problem on my side. No such luck. Every single attempt to edit the wiki yields a database error. Have others tried to edit it in the last few days ?
  18. Petike the Taffer
    @Springheel, @Goldwell, @New Horizon Prompt feedback from Shadow Creepr, concerning the hum issue. The new .ogg recording below should be without the hum. I've put my headphones volume to max, pressed my headphones to my ears tightly, listened to yesterday's recordings and this new one repeatedly for several minutes. It does seem she got rid of the background hum, but I'd prefer if others besides me checked on this as well. mantle_push01F.ogg
  19. Petike the Taffer
    Yeah. I've checked them again, and there is a bit of a hum I didn't notice at first hearing. Damn. I'll try to ask her whether she can do something with noise removal. Do you think a screen would be enough, provided she has a good enough (i.e. professional recording) mic ?
  20. Petike the Taffer

    Shadow Creepr of TTLG.com has provided samples for what might become our female player voice set:

    Emphasis on might, as this is still in development. 

  21. Petike the Taffer
    The .ogg recordings. From what I dug up in the male player vocals folder, all files were in .ogg. I suppose this means she can continue her recordings in .ogg ? P.S. Unfortunately, I can't upload the third .wav, I've hit the attachment size limit. I'm betting you guys want the more space-saving .ogg versions anyway, so that one .wav file just sounds like what it does in the .ogg below. mantle_pushF01ogg.ogg mantle_pullF01ogg.ogg mantle_pullF02ogg.ogg
  22. Petike the Taffer
    @Springheel, @Goldwell, @New Horizon and other core team members (not sure who's in charge of evaluating and approving new vocal sets). Shadow Creepr has sent me some sample recordings. They're available in the attachments below (the first two in this post, both .wav, the .ogg ones in the following post). The samples I've been sent have been female mantling voice files. She has also asked whether we need the voice files purely in .ogg or in .wav, or both. I wasn't able to answer for sure, so I'd like to ask you as well, as an intermediary in this whole effort. The three recordings are available below in both .wav and .ogg formats, as a showcase. To quote her e-mail, in full: mantle_pullF01.wav mantle_pullF02.wav
  23. Petike the Taffer

    The Wiki is currently uneditable, at least for me. See the attached image. I came back yesterday from a visit, turned on the computer, went to the wiki, and I was logged off. I thought "OK, my login simply ran out, it is not indefinite". So I logged in, as usual. However, since then, I have been unable to edit any article on the wiki. Any. Article, discussion, category, no edits can be saved and I always receive this database error. Is this a cache clearing issue, or is this yet another hiccup on part of the official servers ?

    TDM wiki every edit becomes an error.png

    1. Petike the Taffer

      Petike the Taffer

      Please, could someone take a good look at this ?

  24. Petike the Taffer
    Funny, I thought just a few days ago I could take a stab at this character. NeonsStyle has dibs on it, though. The more variety in voices, the better ! If I may, though: @NeonsStyle, would you mind if I collaborated on the script for the character ? You do the ideas and the voice acting, I can offer feedback and write down the vocal script based on the master template we have from Springheel. Tell me if you'd be interested in such a collaboration. Thanks ! @Melan I've always loved this idea for a new vocal script. One of the top not-yet-made ideas for TDM, along with the Pagan VS-s.
  25. Petike the Taffer
    Documentation for the Hidden Hands series and this mission added to the wiki.
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