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Darkness_Falls

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Everything posted by Darkness_Falls

  1. Love the video. Great start to things, thanks! Will be jotting some things down over the upcoming days to get some map/mission ideas on paper
  2. I would also like to be able to export animations from a more current version of Maya, say 2014, and export to md5mesh... as I'd like to try and animate some fairly simple things for The Dark Mod. Is Maya 7 free to download at this point, since that came out years ago? I think I could use that animate in and export to md5mesh. (Not sure how good its animation tools are, though :-/)
  3. Renaming would be helpful, but it'd still need an official designation of some sort, imo. Whether it be a TDM icon/logo next to the official ones, or a "TDM" official designator before or after the titles (e.g., "TDM Mission 1: A New Job", or "Mission 1: A New Job (TDM Official)", with "(TDM Official)" being in a much smaller font), etc. Or, as you might prefer, "1: A New Job (TDM Official)" or with a TDM icon/logo in lieu of words
  4. As for the introductory mission thing, that's legit, though, right? Thedarkmod.com's update says, "Many of these new assets are showcased in a new introductory mission for TDM that is included in the update. This mission is the first of a three mission story which serves as our official introduction to TDM’s gameplay and setting." I'm just trying to find out how to play the new mission... isn't intuitive to find. Maybe I have to uninstall my currently loaded game (Down By The Riverside) and it'll pop up on the main menu. UPDATE: Nope, did that and don't see it. The "Training Mission" entry I have on my main menu talks about how it coincides with the v1.08 release, so I'm assuming that's not it. Oh well, I'll find it sometime... just need to do more Google and/or forum searches UPDATE #2: Found this thread. All is well... http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18647-tdm-205-official-introductory-missions/
  5. Nice work, Goldwell and Nocturne I'm curious what the "2009" date represents? Is that when it was first released to the general public, or? The wording is a little vague in the video, kind've misleading to me. I thought it was referring to when work actually first began on the mod. And production began back in about the 2004 timeframe; so, when I first heard the 2009 date I was thinking to myself, "Hmm, that doesn't sound quite right..." -- and had to look up the original start year.. Maybe my interpretation of hearing the 2009 info is different than a casual non-team member observer would interpret it since I was involved for a while early on. Here's the quote from the video: Probably no need to update this video... but if a future video were to come out down the line, I might suggest clarifying a tad bit more on what that 2009 date represents Really is just a matter of adding/changing a simple word or two
  6. Thanks for making the mission, grayman! Some quick post-completion notes...
  7. I haven't seen yet any note saying Mod DB 'Mod of the Year' voting began, so figured I'd mention. Sorry if it was posted before (just delete this thread, if it was). I assume The Dark Mod still qualifies as a mod, even though it's standalone, right? I mean, a mod is a mod, even if a game was modded so much the mod became standalone, right? Vote for whatever mod you like most, but for convenience here is a link to TDM on ModDB.com: The Dark Mod I think they're in the first round of voting, to narrow things down to a Top 100.
  8. Saw this article and thought it was pretty neat, with a lot of screenshot examples
  9. I learned to aim above the torch and let the water cascade down. Even though it's fun to watch the water fall down unto flame, I do wish direct hits were more foregiving, as well. I've wasted plenty of water arrows (or rather, did plenty of QuickLoads) as a result of direct hits often failing to extinguish the flame. Physics tells me a direct hit would propel the water forward to account for an extinguishing of the flame. Even if direct hits were more foregiving, I'll still frequently aim above the flame because it's a fun to do it that way. It's been a while so I might be offbase, but I think I've even aimed 5-10 feet above flame and let the water fall down onto flame and have that work. I like it
  10. Hey Dram, good to see you and your avatar again.
  11. Well deserved, Moonbo! I really enjoyed Requiem. Congratulations
  12. That's what I thought, Springheel; though I can't remember which mission. Seems like it was at least 2 or 3 years ago when I saw it. Yeah, I could've swore there was at least one time where it happened, but all these other comments were/are making me feel like I was dreaming..
  13. Thanks RJFerret! I must be spacing then. An idea in a bulletpoint list somewhere either in my mind or on TDM paper that I put a visual to. Weird. That explains why I couldn't put a candle inside that vase on the ledge of St. Lucia earlier tonight, though, too! lol. I guess I won't try so hard to do that in the future for other seemingly hollow objects; and will stop turning mugs, shoes and bowls, etc. upside down, hehe. I'll have to check out your "Inn Business" sometime. Sounds interesting
  14. Good job, Tanika Nice to see you trying The Dark Mod. You might try the mission called, "Requiem." I found it interesting and fun
  15. Yes, it does, unless the feature was removed or never fully fleshed-out. It was purported to be a feature of object manipulation, as I recall... allowing mappers to do that, if they wish. I'm pretty sure I've seen it used a couple times before; unless that was just in the 'demo' days of the feature. Like a key or coin in a boot, and similar, where you turn it upisde down and it falls out. For Tears of St. Lucia...
  16. I'm not sure I understand that? What do you mean? I always succeed at auto-picking... it's just the game requires you to hold the mouse button down and sit through multiple click cycles before it advances to the next lockpick (two, for me). I used to have the "seta tdm_lp_pick timeout" set to "100" instead of "10," but that doesn't seem to make any difference in anything. PS: I also have a habit of object-manipulation turning bowls, mugs, buckets, etc. upside down to see if something falls out, but mappers hardly ever put anything in them :.( That was one of the benefits of object manipulation, so was hoping to see it used a little more than it is. And do you suspect banners and tapestries will be cuttable with a sword someday, or cloth animation movable to the side with a frob? Maybe there are maps that have this already and I just haven't noticed.
  17. I've had issues with it, too. I don't know if it's much different today vs. a year+ ago when I last *really* tried, but I remember wasting like 15 arrows without it falling down. Other times I remember it has come down more easily. It just seems to depend on if the physics want to be finicky. It shouldn't need more than an arrow or two, but it sometimes did/does(?). It might need to be placed on something that makes it sit on an angle or more unbalanced to make it more apt to falling. That said, I just mantled up there today and reached out with a lit candle to knock it down Then left the lit candle sitting in its place. It's not easy getting a lit candle up that high; especially since you can't climb with a candle in your hand. (EDIT: Yeah, just tried again, and it's still doesn't come down very easily when you're standing in front of it from the ground and shooting up at it. I launched around 10 arrows at it to no avail... so stepped off to the side and hit it from that direction and it fell. It should fall off pretty easily no matter where you shoot it from, imo.) As for getting past the guard, I think I might have found an alternate path around him once ... but I have no clue how to do it anymore. I've tried a couple times the past week, and the only way I can get past is to run past him and hide. Maybe I need to pay more attention to the readables (which I didn't do). (EDIT: Okay, I finally found the way everyone is talking about, but that's mainly because I was on the look-out for an obscure alternate path based on this thread's posts/feedback. I almost walked right past it again. Yeah, it seems too obscure of thing for an intro mission, imo. I recognized the area, so I must have been there a long time ago, though. And at the Bear & Belcher, I still can't tell if the room with a dead rat in it is accessible. If not, that's just mean to have there There's even a strange blue-ish thing in there that piques my curiosity (I can't tell what it is). A newbie should be rewarded for finding a way to get in there to encourage them to do similar things in future missions. I've spent an hour looking for a switch or something to get in there with no success. Even brought a crate in there from down the street to stand on at the cracked door, and even propped a 2x6 plank against that door to try and see if that vantage point would help anything. If there's a way in, I recommend making it a tad more apparent; assuming this mission is intended to be an introduction to TDM gameplay. It also looks like there's maybe an area to explore up above the room where the guy is sitting in the tavern (if you look through the slats of the ceiling, there is intrigue), but I can't figure out how to get there, if it's possible. I'm not used to inaccessible areas like that in Thief-like gameplay; there's usually a purpose to such curiosities. PS: If you launch two or three broadheads at the dead rat, he goes crazy in that room, heh. Goes airborne and bounces off of walls, etc.)
  18. Please no, lol Good point. I like the flexibility of being able to move candles. In Requiem I took a candle and placed it at a grave site, for example. For no reason other than I could, and it was symbolic of paying respects. I wouldn't really want candles glued to tables everywhere. There is some charm to having to pick up candles first, but I wouldn't be sad to see a new button created (it could be unassigned by default) that allows us to put out candles or shoulder bodies with one keystroke. Yep, I'm aware of what's going on with the mechanic and do my best to avoid the consequences of an uncentered candle (or junk object) lift off. Accidents sometimes happen, though, and it never feels like it was my fault. Aside from creating a new button, I don't know that there's any other option. Unless... has it been tested to keep the object perfectly in place where we pick it up at? Maybe it should not re-center itself. I realize part of re-centering is probably a visual cue to let us know that we've grabbed the object, but maybe there's a different (still subtle) way to signify that (e.g., a tiny/very subtle frob highlight flash at the moment of grabbing; or slightly brightened frob highlight while we are actually holding it; or? there'd be some way, imo). This could help in other situations, too. For instance: The other day, I was snagging a bunch of loot off a table (a fury of mouseclicks, which I think is fun when you can do that on big piles of coins ). However, somehow some junk object or candle well off to the left of the pile of loot that was in the middle of my screen took focus and I accidentally grabbed that instead, which caused a clanging raucous as it re-centered on my screen. Since I was clicking like crazy, I didn't have time to see that the object had been highlighted before clicking the mouse that fateful time. A guard was nearby who became alert. I blamed the game, so I QuickLoaded. If the object didn't re-center and I knew I had grabbed the object (or if it just picked it up and dropped it where it was really quick because I was mouseclicking so fast), I would've had a better chance of not causing sound. But it's probably been discussed to death behind-the-scenes and there are good reasons for how/why the system works as it currently does. I don't claim to know all the variables factoring in. Just sharing two cents (from the pile of loot I grabbed, heh). Where's Sparhawk when you need him I think he was also wanting T1/T2 style lockpicking, and thought for sure he was going to selfishly code it in. Ha! Darn. I hear what you're saying. I've just never liked manual lockpicking in any game that requires too much attention, so I have my selfish reasons, I suppose. I get bored with it and it becomes a frustrating, repetitive task I don't like after about the tenth time in any game. Honestly, all that is probably needed is to allow the assigning of value "0" for "seta tdm_lp_basecount" in Darkmod.cfg to truly be zero when assigned, and then I can adjust it myself. (Or maybe it's the "seta tdm_lp_autopick_attempts" setting I need to have "0" actually act like a zero; not sure.) Instead, setting to "0" seems to put autopicking into some sort of "fail forever" mode. Using "1" seems to be the lowest you can go, but I think that somehow creates a "1 + 1 = 2 cycles" event rather than the "1 cycle" (0 + 1) event I'm looking for. I've already tweaked it as follows, which is better but not perfect yet. I don't think there's any way to set these to make it be a 1 cycle event... seta tdm_lp_debug_hud "0" seta tdm_lp_pawlow "0" seta tdm_lp_randomize "1" seta tdm_lp_autopick_attempts "1" seta tdm_lp_pick_timeout "10" seta tdm_lp_sample_delay "1" seta tdm_lp_base_count "1" Another way to go might be to just make the value "1" equal "1" instead of "1+1". What is "seta tdm_lp_pawlow" for, by the way? I'll check the Wiki again, but I don't think it said when I looked before. Yeah, it's been that way as long as I can remember and makes the blackjacking action iteself seem a little sloppy (not as tight) as it could/should, imo. I don't think my computer processing speed is the culprit either, since other sound events seem to be timed okay with the on-screen action and Thief 2014 ran quite well for me. Would be interesting to see how blackjacking feels if it's possible to sync the sound up better with the action. That would be awesome and more convenient, but I have the center mouse used for object manipulation. What key do you use for object manipulation? I tried doing what you say and also moved the 'Object Manipulation' trigger to the TAB key, but holding TAB doesn't let me manipulate objects anymore.
  19. For autopicking: I still contend I successfully advance a lock manually the first click-cycle the large majority of the time; so making autopick do the same would not be a strong net benefit and doesn't all the sudden ruin a mapper's complexity desires. For candles, I also don't like that i have to lift it up with right mouse button, then put it out with TAB or Tilde (~) key (default was an even more inconvenient 'Enter' key), and then carefully set it down. Just seems like way too mich of a cerebral interaction than it needs to be. Not intuitive/natural, thus not immersive for me. Every time I interact with a candle, I'n reminded of how if it were real life, I'd not have to lift the candle up. All in all, I'm just recommending things that will cause me to play the mod more and have more fun while doing so.
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