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"When the leaves change and the air is still, there is a quiet." -Lady Blackbriar -=| DISPLACEMENT |=- BY AMADEUS & WELLINGTONCRAB = DOWNLOAD = <( | )> -PLAYS BEST ON 2.14- -JOIN THE BETA NOW- *It is recommended to play with Hold/Frob set to disabled until Beta 3 is released* "Seek not the prideful sin that is perfection The Builder's light shines through all flaws. It is His wisdom to recognize a thing is done Before it is ever truly finished." -St. Edgar's Sermon of Rust LAMPFIRE HILLS... They say the woods around here give the tourists bad dreams, but I don't mind. I like it here. I feel like a piece of me belongs here. ... That it fits. DISPLACEMENT is a medium-sized traditional manor mission with a highly variable playtime. *2.14 provides a number of improvements to gameplay, performance, and stability. It is strongly encouraged to play on the latest 2.14 beta release. Join in testing now!* *Mods such as the “Unofficial Patch” and “TDM Modpack” are not supported by this mission and should be used at your own risk* https://www.thiefguild.com/fanmissions/97429/displacement CREDITS: ADDITIONAL MUSIC: -AIRSHIP BALLET -GIGAGOOGA ADDITIONAL SCRIPTING: -DRAGOFER -OBSTORTTE -FROST SALAMANDER -KINGSAL ADDITIONAL ASSETS: -KINGSAL -TDASH -SKACKY -BIKERDUDE -GOLDWELL -EPIFIRE -STRUNK -SHANNEN ART -POLYHAVEN -TEXTURES.COM -SKETCHFAB CULTURAL HERITAGE CC0 COMMUNITY -LOISTE INTERACTIVE -COLINFIZGIG -CDMIR BETA TESTERS: -KINGSAL -GOLDWELL -MAT99 -FROST SALAMANDER -MIKE A -STGATILOV -STIFU -MARBLEMAN -DETEEFF -THEBIGH FURTHER ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: -STIFU FOR HIS EFFORT IN FIXING THE NOTORIOUS STUCK AI AND ARROW CRASH BUGS. -STGATILOV WHO MADE A NUMBER OF 2.14 OPTIMIZATIONS AND BUG FIXES. -KINGSAL FOR PROVIDING SOME OF THE MAIN MENU GUI ASSETS -PURAH FOR ORIGINATING THE SETTING OF LAMPFIRE HILLS, REIMAGINED HERE, IN HIS THIEF FMS. -GUY-ON THE COUCH AND JAM61 FOR THEIR SILENT HILL COMMUNITY MAPS WHICH HEAVILY INSPIRED THE LAMPFIRE HILLS REGION MAP. -SPECIAL THANKS TO LOISTE INTERACTIVE FOR ALLOWING US TO USE ASSETS FROM THEIR GAME "INFRA." SOME ADDIITONAL DETAILED LICENSING INFORMATION: SOME NOTES ON PERFORMANCE: NOTE TO MAPPERS: MOST OF THE NEW ASSETS IN THE MISSION ARE INCLUDED IN THE 2.14 BETA RELEASE.

I have noticed that especially our gui textures (like the mainmenu / inventory grid parchment), but also some video assets like that "The Dark Mod" short-intro, are really low-res for this day and age. I was wondering whether we should explore offline AI texture upsampling? While I am not a fan of purely AI-generated content, upsampling is something that usually works really well and maintains the look and feel of the materials. Does anybody have any experience in this regard? Do you know of any tools for this? RTX Remix comes with AI texture tools, but I don't know in what capacity those can be used outside of the RTX Remix framework.

Miscellaneous asset fixes done: * More fixes in fonts and better support for Cyrillic and Romanian (post, 6642, 6661). * Added all missing mipmaps in DDS textures (post). * Fixed shop description of slow match (6629). * wood/panels/trim_wood_grunge_moulding_desat: fixed parallax confusion. * models/md5/chars/builders/guard/builder_armor material: brought back specularmap. * textures/darkmod/stone/brick/blocks_light_stained_trimmed material: fixed specularmap. * prefabs/doors/trapdoor_w-padlock prefab: fixed wrong particle (6662). * prefabs/mechanical/switches/wall_lever01 prefab: fixed frobbox of the lever (6060). New assets added: * atdm:ai_undressed_old_man_01: added new character model, including LODs, ragdoll, swappable head. * textures/darkmod/wood/panels/trim_wood_* material: added red variants. * textures/darkmod/wood/panels/panel_decorative_redder_grated material. * textures/darkmod/paint_paper/gold_pedals_* material: added RGB versions. * textures/darkmod/paint_paper/fleur_* material: added RGB versions. * textures/darkmod/stone/brick/red_worn_dirty_trim_wet material. * textures/darkmod/stone/brick/old_bricks_darkgrey_wet material. * models/darkmod/lights/non-extinguishable/painting_downlight model. * models/darkmod/containers/openable/safe_door_003_* and safe_wheel_003: added wall-in-safe door model and prefabs (6590). And there is a big set of assets added by @Wellingtoncrab and @Amadeus from the upcoming mission "Displacement". New models by TDash: * models/darkmod/furniture/beds/rustickingbed with skins DRustBed* * models/darkmod/furniture/seating/darmch1 with skins ArmCh* * models/darkmod/furniture/desk_pagan with skin JPagDesk2 * models/darkmod/furniture/steps_library with skin LibStepup1 * models/darkmod/mechanical/typewriter * models/darkmod/kitchen/wine_bottles_shelved*: versions A, B, C, D * models/darkmod/kitchen/whiskeyglass_silver * models/darkmod/kitchen/bottle_simple_* * models/darkmod/containers/crate_long_* * models/darkmod/containers/crate_simple* * trunk/models/darkmod/containers/wine_crate_03 * models/darkmod/furniture/cabinets/cupboard_* More models: * prefabs/mechanical/switches/red_button prefab along with models/darkmod/mechanical/switches/switch_redbutton* and switch_toggle* models and redbutton_glow* skins * models/darkmod/decorative/statues/bust_emperor_* model (and bust_emperess) * models/darkmod/kitchen/food/bread_loaf*: new versions 02, 03, 04, 05, 06 * models/darkmod/kitchen/food/croissant * models/darkmod/lights/non-extinguishable/streetlamps/streetlamp_iron_01 with skins streetlamp_iron_01_lit, streetlamp_iron_01_unlit * models/darkmod/decorative/trophy_plaque_* * models/darkmod/decorative/stuffed_hart* * models/darkmod/decorative/statues/statue_face_cover* * models/darkmod/loot/loot_golden_goblet* * models/darkmod/loot/loot_golden_vase_* * models/darkmod/decorative/ashtray * models/darkmod/decorative/cigar* with skins cigar and cigar_unlit * models/darkmod/loot/loot_crystalore* (and loot_rareore) New skins: * cabinet1_* for furniture: versions A, B, C * book_sp1_gold_crest for various books Stone, cobblestone, brick materials: * textures/darkmod/stone/brick/bricks_old_light* * textures/darkmod/stone/brick/blocks_sandstone_grime_trimmed * textures/darkmod/stone/brick/blocks_concrete_small_trimmed2 * textures/darkmod/stone/cobblestones/flagstones_bricks_multicolored* * textures/darkmod/stone/flat/tile_dirty_terracotta * textures/darkmod/stone/flat/tile_herringbone_grime* * textures/darkmod/stone/flat/tile_checkered_grime_tricolor* * textures/darkmod/stone/flat/tile_checkered_grime_small* * textures/darkmod/stone/natural/gravel_multi_color Other materials materials: * textures/darkmod/paint_paper/wallpaper_grunge_* * textures/darkmod/plaster/plaster_worn_painted_peeling_autumnal* * textures/darkmod/roof/rooftiles_clay_red_decorative* * textures/darkmod/wood/boards/planks_floor_* * lights/watercaustics01

That's all true, there's no automatic text flow between pages in TDM. With Air Pocket (for which I hope to release the i18n beta next week), the text Briefing upon inspection did need an extra page for some languages. Fortunately, since the Briefing comes at the very start, the inspection didn't take much time. For the readables, I used scaling, so no extra pages. But still inspection. And particularly for popup messages, because they occurred later in the FM, I hand-made a pseudoFM with just those assets, so I could get to them fast. Still a lot of pain for the gain. It's unfortunate that the support for translation in DR is so weak.

@Bikerdudeto start have Skacky and Daraan both consented to their assets being included and licensed CC-BY-NC-SA? https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/deed.en I ask as Skacky's project does not include any license information, though I know he took these photos himself so we would just need consent from him. Daraan's pack includes a readme file which lists a few sources, one of which is CC0 but it also includes a free texture website and the unity asset store which would require carve outs in license.txt which I am not sure we would go for. Either way Daraan has clearly licensed some of the assets themselves. Do you know which assets are which and where they individually came from? I would suggest you update the material definitions to include the information or compile it in some other way. Looking at the assets themselves the mostly look quite nice. IMO in the skacky pack most of the flat stone textures read as a bit desaturated and lacking contrast compared to things like the wooden doors which look great.

Skacky's texture pack: - Amadeus and I have worked on this pack, its a mixture of various walls, floors, doors, drains and other architectural assets. The pack has the startingmap.txt file, so it can just be dropped into the FMs folder and will show up in the in-game FM list. - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YfIEc4lUHLxk7P3c15L3xJqQ0yoZBDDR/view

After roughly 5 hours and finding a bit over 5.8k loot, I finished the FM. What a time to get back into TDM. What is there to say? Crazy level design. Lampfire Hills is... far from the usual experience. The map has this eerie, dream-like, surreal vibe to it. I love it. Amazing use of all those custom assets, too. Everything feels incredibly fresh, almost like a whole different game. And the sheer creativity; every scene oozes atmosphere. Thank you for gifting the community with this FM! Now I'm gonna replay this piece of art and see what I missed.

Lately I have started to play some of the more recent missions and some of these have lots of "own"/unique textures. Is it okay to use these assets (from released FMs) in one's own FMs? I'm referring to models/textures and sound etc, of course not chunks of the mission geometry or blatant plagiarism of readables etc. I guess some people have designed or bought assets for themselves but is it okay to use these textures/models as long as there is no explicit note in a readme etc, that opposes such "borrowing"?

Here I'll post prefabs, models and stuff that mappers can use if they like.

I cannot reconcile the links in Daraan’s readme with your claim they are “CC0 compliance verified”. Some of them clearly are not. That does not preclude their inclusion, but license.txt must contain explicit reference to assets under a given license. Unless the asset is explicitly compatible with the default (Which is CC-BY-NC-SA, not necessarily CC0) It is not enough to know the sources where the assets generally came from - you must know the the provenance of each asset. Can you compile that information in some way? As I mentioned you would likely only need consent from skacky - since he owns the assets. If you have that I would document it.

Thanks! @Amadeusdid a lot of work on the rotoscoping/posterize effect and the menu system building off of work and assets done by @kingsal and it turned out really great I think. I believe what you are seeing there is actually the skybox - which I have seen that subview sometimes decides to render in the main menu, but it still looks quite nice, so one of those “bugs” that is kind of a feature.

It's very impressive so far, full of (beautiful) assets I have not seen before. I get a very strong Dishonored vibe. One issue I have is a huge slow down (to single digit fps) that happens frequently (and lasts a couple of seconds) near the guarded gate to the manor at the beginning of the mission. Does this mission use some heavy scripting that could be optimized?

Ah, I thought so, about it not being among the core assets. Bikerdude's old Business as Usual FM and Bienie's The Night of Reluctant Benefaction FM both had it, so I'll probably poke around those FM files. I'm not really making a holiday FM - yet - but I'd like to put those assets aside for when I do make a somewhat holiday-themed mission in the near future. Thanks for confirming I won't find it in the core game assets.

Pawing through a forum discussion from 11 years ago full of dead links is not clarifying. I cannot go to the unity asset store and verify anything about it at this point. The only thing tying the two events together is your statement they are related in some way. If you have been given permission by the owner to relicense all the assets in this otherwise unrelated pack as CC-BY-NC-SA you should state that somewhere. No else will be able to go back in time and verify that for you. You know all of this already frankly.

Mandrasola is a small sized map in which aspiring thief Thomas Porter steals some herbal products from a smuggler. The mission was created by me, Sotha and I wish to thank Bikerdude, BrokenArts and Ocn for playtesting and voice acting. Thanks goes naturally to everyone contributing and making TDM possible. This mission occurs chronologically before the Knighton's Manor, making it the first mission in the Thomas Porter series. Events in chronological order are: Mandrasola, The Knighton's Manor, The Beleaguered Fence, The Glenham Tower and The Transaction. The winter came early and suddenly this year. Weeks of strong blizzards and extremely harsh cold weather hit Bridgeport hard. With the seas completely frozen, a rare occurence indeed, most of the City harbor commerce has stopped completely. Vessels are stuck in the ice and no ship can leave or enter the City, resulting in the availability imported goods declining and their prices skyrocketing. One of these imported items is Mandrasola, a rare herbal product, which is imported overseas from the far southern continents. Mandrasola has its uses in alchemical cures and poisons, but mostly this substance is used for its narcotic qualities by commoners and even the nobility. The problem with Mandrasola is that excessive use is extremely addicting and the withdrawal effects are most grievious. Many are utterly incapable of stopping using Mandrasola and are transformed into quivering human ruins if they do no get their daily dose. And now this expensive and rare substance is running out from the whole City. Me and my fence, Lark Butternose, would love to grab this monopoly to ourselves: selling the last few doses in the City would probably be worth a fortune. According to Lark's sources, there remains only one smuggling lord who still has Mandrasola in stock. The problem is that this individual maintains an exclusive clandestine operation and only supplies a few nobles. Despite our best information gathering efforts we couldn't learn who the smuggler is and where he or she operates. Luckily we have an alternate plan. While searching for Mandrasola related information, we learned that a noblewoman called Lady Ludmilla is addicted to the substance and has paid high prices for small amounts of it. We also know that she has visited frequently someone in the Tanner's Ward waterfront, and since she goes to the area personally we believe she is visiting the smuggler. The plan is simple: I must monitor Ludmilla's most likely entryway to the Waterfront and then follow her to the smugglers hideout. I'd better be very careful around Ludmilla. She must not realise I'm following her or she probably won't lead me to her dealer. Hurting her is also out of the question. After she leads me to the smuggler's hideout, I can take my time to break in carefully and steal all the Mandrasola I can find. While I'm there it wouldn't be a bad idea to grab some loose valuables as well. I've now waited in the blistering cold for a few hours already. Looks like there are a few city watch patrols in the area to complicate matters... I think I heard a womans voice beyond the north gate. That must be lady Ludmilla, I haven't seen many ladies in these parts. I'd better get ready.. Links: Use the ingame downloader to get it. WARNING! Someone always fails to use spoiler tags. I do not recommend reading any further until you've played the mission.

@Mike__ could you please put this in spoiler tags?

Ulysses 2: Protecting the Flock By Sotha The mission starts some time after the events of Ulysses: Genesis, and continues the story of Ulysses. It is a medium sized mission with a focus on stealthy assassinations and hostage liberation. BUILD TIME: 12/2014 - 05/2015 CREDITS The TDM Community is thanked for steady supply of excellent mapping advice. Thanks goes also to everyone contributing to TDM! Voice Actors: Goldwell (as Goubert and Ulysses), Goldwell's Girlfriend (as Alis) Betatesters: Airship Ballet, Ryan101. Special Thanks to: Springheel and Melan (for proofreading). Story: Read & listen it in game. Link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwR0ORZU5sraRGduUWlVRmtsX3c/view?usp=sharing Other: Spoilers: When discussing, please use spoiler tags, like this: [spoiler] Hidden text. [/spoiler] Mirrors: Could someone put this on TDM ingame downloader? Thanks!

Complaint From Players The player must pick up candles before extinguishing them, and then the player must remember to drop the candle. The player must drag a body before shouldering it (picking it up), and the player must remember to frob again to stop dragging the body. The player finds this annoying or easy to make mistakes. For players who ghost, some of them have the goal of returning objects back to their original positions. With the current "pick up, use item, and drop" system, the item might not return easily or at all to its original position. For example, a candlestick might bounce off its holder. (See player quotes at the bottom.) Bug Tracker https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=6316 Problems to Solve How can the "pick up" step be eliminated so that the player can directly use or interact with the item where it is in the game world? How can so much key pressing and mouse clicking be eliminated when the player wants to directly use an item? How can candles be extinguished and lanterns toggled off/on without first picking them up? How can bodies be shouldered without first dragging them? Solution Design Goals Make TDM easier for new players while also improving it for longtime players. Reduce tedious steps for common frob interactions. Make it intuitive so that menu settings are unnecessary. Do not introduce bugs or break the game. Terms frob -- the frob button action happens instantly. hold frob -- the frob button is held for 200ms before the action happens. (This can be changed via cvar: 200ms by default.) Proposed Solution Note: Some issues have been struckthrough to show changes since the patch has been updated. Change how frobbing works for bodies, candles, and lanterns. For bodies: Frob to shoulder (pick up) a body. Second frob to drop shouldered body, while allowing frob on doors, switches, etc. Hold frob (key down) to start drag, continue to hold frob (key down) to drag body, and then release frob (key up) to stop dragging body. Also, a body can be dragged immediately by holding frob and moving the mouse. For candles/lanterns: Frob to extinguish candles and toggle off/on lanterns. Hold frob to pick it up, and then frob again to drop. Frob to pick it up, and then frob again to drop. Hold frob to extinguish candles and toggle off/on lanterns. For food: Frob to pick it up, and then frob again to drop. Hold frob to eat food. For other items: No change. New cvar "tdm_frobhold_delay", default:"200" The frob hold delay (in ms) before drag or extinguish. Set to 0 for TDM v2.11 (and prior) behavior. Solution Benefits Bodies: New players will have less to learn to get started moving knocked out guards. With TDM v2.11 and earlier, some players have played several missions before realizing that they could shoulder a body instead of dragging it long distances. Frob to shoulder body matches Thief, so longtime Thief players will find it familiar. Second frob drops a shouldered body. Players still have the ability to both shoulder and drag bodies. Compatible with the new auto-search bodies feature. Dragging feels more natural -- just grab, hold, and drop with a single button press. There is no longer the need to press the button twice. Also, it's no longer possible to walk away from a body while unintentionally dragging it. Set "tdm_frobhold_delay" cvar to delay of 0 to restore TDM v2.11 (and prior) behavior. Candles: New players will have less to learn to get started extinguishing candles. With TDM v2.11 and earlier, some players didn't know they could extinguish candles by picking them up and using them. Instead, they resorted to throwing them to extinguish them or hiding them. Hold frob to extinguish a candle feels like "pinching" it out. Once a candle is picked up, players still have the ability to manipulate and use them the same way they are used to in TDM v2.11 and earlier. For players who ghost and have the goal of putting objects back to their original positions, they'll have an easier time and not have to deal with candles popping off their holders when trying to place them back carefully. Set "tdm_frobhold_delay" cvar to delay of 0 to restore TDM v2.11 (and prior) behavior. Solution Issues Bodies: Frob does not drop a shouldered body, so that might be unexpected for new players. This is also different than Thief where a second frob will drop a body. "Use Inv. Item" or "Drop Inv. Item" drops the body. This is the same as TDM v2.11 and earlier. This is the price to pay for being able to frob (open/close) doors while shouldering a body. Patch was updated to drop body on second frob, while allowing frob on doors, switches, etc. Candles: Picking up a candle or lantern requires a slight delay, because the player must hold the frob button. The player might unintentionally extinguish a candle while moving it if they hold down frob. The player will need to learn that holding frob will extinguish the candle. The player can change the delay period via the "tdm_frobhold_delay" cvar. Also, when the cvar is set to a delay of 0, the behavior matches TDM v2.11 and earlier, meaning the player would have to first "Frob/Interact" to pick up the candle and then press "Use Inv. Item" to extinguish it. Some players might unintentionally extinguish a candle when they are trying to move it or pick it up. They need to make sure to hold frob to initiate moving the candle. When a candle is unlit, it will highlight but do nothing on frob. That might confuse players. However, the player will likely learn after extinguishing several candles that an unlit candle still highlights. It makes sense that an already-extinguished candle cannot be extinguished on frob. The official "Training Mission" might need to have its instructions updated to correctly guide the player through candle manipulation training. Updating the training mission to include the hold frob to extinguish would probably be helpful. Similar Solutions In Fallout 4, frob uses an item and long-press frob picks it up. Goldwell's mission, "Accountant 2: New In Town", has candles that extinguish on frob without the need of picking them up first. Snatcher's TDM Modpack includes a "Blow / Ignite" item that allows the player to blow out candles Wesp5's Unofficial Patch provides a way to directly extinguish movable candles by frobbing. Demonstration Videos Note: The last two videos don't quite demonstrate the latest patch anymore. But the gist is the same. This feature proposal is best experienced in game, but some demonstration videos are better than nothing. The following videos show either a clear improvement or that the player is not slowed down with the change in controls. For example, "long-press" sounds long, but it really isn't. Video: Body Shouldering and Dragging The purpose of this video is to show that frob to shoulder a body is fast and long-press frob to drag a body is fast enough and accurate. Video: Long-Press Frob to Pick Up Candle The purpose of this video is to show how the long-press frob to pick up a candle isn't really much slower than regular frob. Video: Frob to Extinguish The purpose of this video -- if a bit contrived -- is to show the efficiency and precision of this proposed feature. The task in the video was for the player to as quickly and accurately as possible extinguish candles and put them back in their original positions. On the left, TDM v2.11 is shown. The player has to highlight each candle, press "Frob/Interact" to pick up, press "Use Inv. Item" to extinguish, make sure the candle is back in place, and finally press "Frob/Interact" to drop the candle. The result shows mistakes and candles getting misplaced. On the right, the proposed feature is shown. The player frobs to extinguish the candles. The result shows no mistakes and candles are kept in their original positions. Special Thanks @Wellingtoncrab was instrumental in improving this feature during its early stages. We had many discussions covering varying scenarios, pros, and cons, and how it would affect the gameplay and player experience. Originally, I had a completely different solution that added a special "use modifier" keybinding. He suggested the frob to use and long-press frob to pick up mechanics. I coded it up, gave it a try, and found it to be too good. Without his feedback and patience, this feature wouldn't be as good as it is. Thank you, @Wellingtoncrab! And, of note, @Wellingtoncrab hasn't been able to try it in game yet, because I'm using Linux and can't compile a Windows build for him. So, if this feature isn't good, that's my fault. Code Patch I'll post the code patch in another post below this one so that folks who compile TDM themselves can give this proposal a try in game. And, if you do, I look forward to your feedback! Player Complaints TTLG (2023-01-10) Player 1: TDM Forums (2021-03-13) Player 2: Player 3: TDM Forums (2023-06-17) Player 4: TDM Discord (2021-05-18) Player 5: TDM Discord (2023-02-14) Player 6: Player 7: Player 8:

Edit: Given the challenge from Wellington Crab below and looking at the license, I'm going to change this post. I'm putting my original post, which I'm now deleting, on a Google Doc here for reference, so you know what he's talking about. But I'll disown it now under scrutiny. I think some of the same points will come through, but they have to be put in the correct context with the TDM license as the baseline. The main question is what to do as a default when the potential re-user doesn't know the status of an asset. But to talk about that, you first have to talk about the baseline of the license. So here's the relevant TDM license text. So clearly if the author makes a different license explicit in their FM, then that other explicit license will apply. That's the baseline. It also adds this extra clause which goes beyond CC, "Without explicit permission from the mission authors, you may not redistribute, modify or reuse (parts of) these missions or the assets contained within them." This means FM assets are under a stricter license than the CC license mentioned above, with this extra clause. That also creates the default, if you have no information or unclear information, don't use the assets. This may add some practical complications in some cases when, e.g., if the author is using assets from a 3rd source and they mistakenly misrepresent the license (they think it's redistributable when it's really not), or if the author has made statements where it's a little ambiguous about when it can be redistributed, it's a partial statement (the default should probably be assume it's no unless very explicit though). I would say practically speaking, a lot of these issues can be addressed by asking the author directly for permission and getting explicit permission, or if they've made some explicit statement in their readme or a post or somewhere giving explicit permission, and if you can't find that explicit statement, it's all around best to not use the asset and just use some replacement that you know 100% is in the clear. The catch still hanging is when the asset is represented as redistributable when it really isn't. (The original mapper thought it was, but they made a mistake.) In that case, I think it's worth the mapper that wants to use it to do a little of their own due diligence to confirm that it's really redistributable, and again if it's not 100% clear, if there's any hints it might not be, it's best to not use it and use one you know is 100% clear to redistribute. Edit: Okay I guess there are a few more little technicalities. Because of the new clause, one could argue if the CC additions also still attach, especially Share Alike and Attribution (SA: you shouldn't change the license when you redistribute it, and A: you should give attribution in your readme). I think these may be implied, but even if it's unclear, it's common courtesy to do that anyway, and Share Alike probably includes that you have to get permission from the original author, not the redistributor, or if they modify it, both. Just try to be in good faith & respect everyone involved. Another possible little technicality is one might try to distinguish old FMs before the new clause and new ones after (do the old FMs also get the new clause), but anyway aside from the license, it's also probably fair to say it's TDM policy, so it's good to apply it to all FMs no matter what.

You can just take the christmas tree in Written if you'd like, as well as the stringed lights. Those assets aren't in the core mod. Bikerdude made the tree with the ornaments a long time ago

I've heard that Gamebryo/Creation Engine used in Morrowind/Oblivion/Skyrim is optimized for making it very fast and easy for artists/designers to drop in and arrange assets. And you could experience that yourself by using the Construction Kits. Bethesda was among the first to license SpeedTree for generating foliage (for Oblivion): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpeedTree

A bit of a silly question, but... does anyone know where the Christmas tree assets are, either as a model or a prefab or whatever ? The tree's been featured in several missions, but I can't seem to find it among my darkmod files when searching in Dark Radiant. Thanks again for the advice regarding patches and terrain. Yesterday, in one of my older DR test maps, I've made some snow terrain with added patches representing snow drifts, tested them, things seem fine. I still need to iron out my experience in some of the practical details, like the copy-pasting of the ground brush's shader to that of the added patch, for the sake of consistency, but other than that, I now finally have experience with the basics of creating and using patches.

I'm happy to announce the release of my third FM: Year of the Rat. This is my first city hub map, focused primarily on story characters and environment. It's my most complex project to date, taking its fair share of effort to make which was a good learning experience. As an experiment I opted to use no scripts and rely solely on the default entities, as well as no custom assets apart from the map and splash screen hence the small pk4. It features a few special elements, such as factions that are hostile only when the player commits crime or a decoder lockpick used to open electronic doors. The beta testing thread can be found here, thank you everyone who helped find the most obvious problems. You play as a famous thief nicknamed Black Jack: A man who's pulled many crazy jobs in his life, only to be hired for an absurd and insulting task by an anonymous employer. The objective is pretty straightforward: Be kind to the mice and feed them some cheese! Your silly quest takes you to the Lantern Light district during the Lunar New Year celebration, a place where gangs and corrupt nobles do their dirty deeds together. What ulterior motives and unexpected twists could your adventure entail? While the most obvious problems were patched during beta testing, some issues can't be easily resolved due to the complexity of the entity setup and objectives, meaning you may encounter a few inconsistencies. Most notably surrounding AI, which may float above chairs and not react to alerts or oppositely send the whole map into a panic: This is mostly due to how the engine handles AI and alarms. The map is small since I wanted to add more detail without having to work on large areas, as such some places can feel cramped while the skybox may be visible up close. I'll be busy so further updates are unlikely unless I decide to add new content later... you're welcome to report any issues you encounter, but keep in mind that if something wasn't fixed it's likely known but difficult to address or due to engine functionality. Spoilers for objectives and secrets as follows: Download 1.2: Google Drive, Mega. Screenshots with minor spoilers for the various areas:

The list of new assets also exists in tabular form, created by @Frost_Salamander: https://docs.proton.me/sheet?mode=open-url&token=T2PSHZ1B0M#yc0orLHRZ0Qj This table includes the previous 2.13 release as well.

The FM size has little to do with the file size. It could be a massive map and still be only a few MB in size if it's using only core assets. It's the custom assets (mostly textures, audio and video) that make the file size large.