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  1. "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- "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.
  2. Doom3 GPL contained most of the source of the script debugger that used to be part of Quake4. Harrie van Ginneken fixed it for dhewm3 by implementing the missing parts and we further improved it together (I maintain dhewm3). I ported that to TDM. It allows you to set breakpoints in script functions (by clicking to the left of the line number, where that red dot appears then), so when those lines are executed the game is paused and you can inspect variables in the debugger, or continue running the script line-wise (with those little buttons with the arrows at the top, or F11/F10/Shift-F11, see also the "Debug" menu. To continue running the game (until it hits the next breakpoint), click that ▶︎ button at the top. You can download a testbuild and read some more information at https://github.com/stgatilov/darkmod_src/pull/6 - it should work with the latest 2.14 Beta gamedata. Note that this is currently not officially part of The Dark Mod and I don't know when (or if) it will be merged. Might be after 2.14 if the changes are considered too risky or too much to review or whatever.
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  3. Hello everyone, The subject is quite clear I guess. If you want to beta test the mission the forum is here : https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/23100-early-beta-lord-scrogianis-ledger
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  4. Preface HUD-elements are often a technical necessity, to convey important information to the player that would otherwise not be available to them. A problem with such HUD-elements is that they don't belong to the virtual world. They make it painfully clear to the player that they are just playing a game, thereby reducing immersion. There are many genres, where you need to have such information available at all times, think fast-paced first person shooters, Mobas, or strategy games. However, especially for genres featuring free exploration, that information is simply not needed at all times. Some games (e.g. Dead Space or Metro series) have gone to extreme lengths to completely eliminate HUD elements by integrating all relevant information in the virtual world. While this is of course the most immersive approach, it is also the hardest to implement. A much easier solution is to rely on a dynamic HUD, where certain HUD elements are displayed depending on context. In recent years, I have become hyper focused on immersion. I can't stand a cluttered HUD ("sensory overload") or a map full of quest pointers ("feels like work"). I want to immerse myself in the world, not tick of pointers on a map. About a year ago, having played a ton of WoW in my youth, I played the alliance fraction on WoW Classic for the first time. Via interface addons, I had my UI completely disappear during exploration, but when I entered combat or clicked on an enemy, the UI would become visible. The minimap would generally only become visible during mouse-over. The same goes for non-combat-relevant action-bars. I paired that with a text-to-voice addon for the quest texts and some nice dynamic camera addons that would zoom in on characters when talking to them. Of course I also did not use any quest-GPS addons, so that I actually had to pay attention and search the world for the quests. It was super immersive and a glorious experience reminiscent of the 2004 release. So naturally, having played a lot of TDM recently, I am thinking about how we could improve our dynamic HUD in TDM for immersion-seekers. Current State of Dynamic HUD in TDM The HUD of TDM already has quite some dynamic elements Healthbar only shows if we are not at 100% health Breathbar only shows if we are not at 100% breath Weapon only shows if a weapon is selected and ammo text only shows if ammo is relevant to that weapon Inventory-Icon and -text only shows if an item is selected Pickup- and object-update texts are only displayed momentarily Ideas for More Dynamic HUD Elements in TDM So basically, with every HUD element, we should ask ourselves the following questions: Added information: Does this HUD element actually convey any information? Relevant when: In what situation is that information relevant? Let's start! (Please note that all proposals below shall be made optional under some "tdm_dynamic_hud"-cvar or something like that, so I am not planning to take anything away from anyone) I will update this list of ideas as we go. Weapon HUD Blackjack and Sword Added information: None. The player can see the 3d model of both weapons, so the HUD does not add any information. Relevant when: Never Proposal: Remove completely --> Very easy (already tested) Bow and arrows Added information: Arrow type and amount. Sadly, the 3d model does not show the type of arrow unless the bow is drawn. So, the icon and weapon text add information. Also, there is the ammo display. Relevant when: Player is equipping the bow Proposal: Investigate if we can alter the non-drawn bow model such that it already shows the arrow type. If that works nicely, remove arrowtype and arrow icon from HUD and potentially move the ammo display around and make it bigger. I would need support from a 3d modeler here! Proposal: Consider showing the arrow amount only briefly when the weapon is selected (and/or when the player presses "R"?) (and/or ammo amount changes) and then fade it out again. Healthbar Added information: Health Relevant when: Player is losing health. Player is likely going to loose health, e.g., when in combat or when breath bar is close to zero. Player is preparing to enter combat. Player has very low health Proposal: Briefly show after losing health; Show when equipping a weapon (possibly limit to sword?); show when breath is close to running out; show when health is below some threshold (like 20%) Breathbar: Already very dynamic. No action needed! Inventory HUD (Not the inventory grid) Compass Added information: direction Relevant when: When player equips it. Must not fade-out unless a different item is selected. Other items: Added information: Selected item Relevant when: Only during selection (or when player forgot which item is selected) or when the item can be used with the world Note: I had added the tdm_frob_item_selects_item to prevent items being selected when picking them up, thereby eliminating the respective HUD annoyance. However, I found that frequently, I wanted to use the picked up item right away (a readable, a key, etc.), so this approach is not working well. Proposal: Briefly show after selecting an item, then fade-out. Show item when it can be used on a world entity. For picking up items, consider selecting, but not showing them, so player can use them right away without HUD pop-in. When HUD is not shown, pressing next or prev item should not go to next / prev item, but just show the HUD element. Are there maybe other types of inventory items that need special treatment? Shouldering HUD Added information: Shouldering state Relevant when: Always when shouldering a body Proposal: It would be awesome if we could actually have the 3d model shouldered in view. Then we could get rid of the HUD, but of course, this would be very hard to achieve. Lightgem Added information: To some degree, visibility of player Relevant when: sneaking about or running to hide (so basically always) Discussion: It is actually debatable, how much information is really added, because the player can already tell how well illuminated they are just by looking at the environment. I would say minimalists simply disable the lightgem and all others keep it on all the time. Crouch-intent indicator Added information: Crouch-intent, i.e., while it is impossible to change crouched-state, the crouch-state that will be assumed once crouched-state is unlocked again. Current crouch state can be seen by looking at the 3d world. No indicator needed for that. Relevant when: Only while crouched-state is locked / cannot be changed. Proposal: Only show when crouched-state and crouch-intent differ? Any other UI elements I forgot? Another aspect of dynamic HUDs is HOW visibility is controlled. HUD elements might pop-in instantly or gradually fade in and out, like our FrobHelper. I would say, having HUD elements fade in and out looks generally more appealing, but I would need some advice on how to best control transparency. Should transparency be handled by the GUI scripting or dictated by the engine like in the case of the FrobHelper? What makes most sense here?
  5. Sharpening is part of the tonemapping. Tonemapping now only applies to in-game footage, so main menu completely ignore sharpening now. Yes, I see this effect. I think it's because of the 4:3 virtual resolution, which is stretched to 16:9 or whatever player has. If the image file has aspect ratio different from its area on the screen, then GPU performs some stretching, and anisotropic filtering improves the quality of this stretching. Given that anisotropic filtering has been supported by all GPUs for ages and I don't remember seeing serious performance toll from it (at least from 2x and 4x), I thinnk it makes sense to enable 2x by default.
  6. You cannot enter through the window without using Regarding the latch position - what? Seems like a fairly pedantic and meaningless detail in the context of all the abstraction present in the in the game - and you would not have even seen the latch from the direction you typically interact with the door and use the key. So it’s kind of circular - how can the latch make it not make sense to use the key on the door when you cannot be even aware of the latch without first using the key on the door?
  7. @STiFUIm glad to see this is back on the menu! Looks really nice. A neutral grey or a very subtle "golden" hue for all frobable objects is the way to go. Colored shaders can get messy with different lighting scenarios, different loot object colors, always fighting players preferences, ect. Also object specific frob colors will open up a brand new communication channel that wasnt there before. Its just messy imo. I did some early prototypes for colors a long time ago, might be in the dev forums somewhere actually. Anyways, great to see it getting worked on. Thanks for doing it.
  8. Hopefully, this feature returns for 2.14! There is a special engine-builtin image called _menuLastGameFrame, and every time player switches from the game into the main menu, the latest game screenshot is saved into it. Note that screenshot does not contains HUD, game console, subtitles, readables, etc. This image can be used in materials displayed in in-game main menu. In the simplest case you can just use textures/common/menuLastGameFrame --- this is core material which uses the image as is. If you want some custom postprocessing on top of it, you are welcome to create a custom material. Then you define a custom menu background in mainmenu_background_custom.gui: windowDef BackgroundGameFrame { rect 0, 0, 640, 480 background "textures/common/menuLastGameFrame" BACKGROUND_DEFAULT_BEHAVIOR(BackgroundGameFrame) } And configure the menu backgrounds to use only this one (mainmenu_custom_defs.gui /// In-game menu (game being played). /// Unlike "EXTRAMENU", the left half of the screen is well visible in these states. #define MM_BACKGROUNDS_MAINMENU_INGAME BackgroundGameFrame /// Extra screens of default menu (game NOT started): objectives, etc. /// Almost the whole screen is occluded by parchments in these states. #define MM_BACKGROUNDS_EXTRAMENU_INGAME BackgroundGameFrame This is tracked as https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=6608#c17097
  9. This looks really cool, amazing work in my opinion: https://www.moddb.com/mods/thieves-guild I'm surprised that it flew completely under the radar. I hadn't heard about it until today - just by coincidence I saw it on the TTLG Discord. From the footage available I would say, a Thief game similar to Deadly Shadows created with the original Unreal Engine. Apparently, the base game is available on GOG, however, I cannot find it there. Plus, according to ProtonDB not fully functional on Linux systems. EDIT: Here is a game play trailer from 8+ years ago (the development of the game took quite some time), there seem to be RPG elements as well: Edit 2: This seems to be a project our forum member @Jetrellis heavily involved in. Congratulations on the release! You have been working 10+ years on this? Truly a superhuman effort!
  10. There are two ways to override cvars in a mission: mission.cfg file can set non-archived cvars (starting with 2.12). sys.setcvar in game script can override cvars (starting with 2.13 / dev17044-10746). Of course, there has never been any effort to classify cvars into public and private, no thinking of backwards compatibility of relying on cvars, etc. So overriding cvars should be considered a last resort feature. mission.cfg allows to statically override cvars on FM level. The change takes effect during all missions in a campaign and all briefings/debriefings/menus. However, you cannot adjust cvar value during gameplay, so only one constant literal value can be set. The implementation is simple: mission.cfg file is executed from your mission when TDM engine starts all non-archived cvars are reset to their defaults when TDM engine restarts (due to FM change) sys.setcvar allows to override cvars on gameplay level. These overrides behave like the variables in game scripts, i.e. they are saved/restored to savefile and reset on game start/end. You can adjust the same cvar several times with different values, and savefile will capture the override that is currently active. The minor downside is that these overrides automatically don't carry over between missions in campaign, and they cannot work in briefings/debriefings/menus. Note that sys.setcvar has been available for a long time already, but previously it had different meaning. Previously it set the cvar as if the player set it himself. So the values stuck between restarts, missions, FMs (even saved to darkmod.cfg for archived cvar). Now it always sets the "mission override" for cvar. You can test cvar mission overrides manually using two new console commands: setm {cvarname} {newvalue} --- set mission override for the cvar with given value unsetm {cvarname} --- drop mission override for the cvar It is not perfectly obvious what should happen if mission-overridden cvar is changed by user. Right now the main value of cvar is changed and mission override is broken/erased in this case. So be wary that user can mess with your overrides just like you can mess with his cvars. See also: 5453
  11. Hey guys, Haven't played in a while. Another question. In episode 1, I got to the painting opened it up, but couldn't grab the painting. I opened the glass door... Is there something wrong with her nose? Thought there may be a diamond or some thing, I can't do anything with it. It's just a grey spot. Another question, when I now just downloaded episode 3, does that incorparate to the old one from 2024 or do I have to start all over again?can you tell me which buttons to use to the next level with the last Vengince of this year 2026? I don't wanna do 1 again that was so confusing.
  12. I am not really going to argue bout that. Your patch overwrites a substantial proportion of core definition files and scripts and its not going to be practical to account for conflicts which arise in it vs the local changes made in this the mission. If you modify the game you just have to accept doing that on your own. It sounds like it's mostly worked out for you at least. It is the intention of the design. Doesn't mean it's good, but it is the intention. Players should be allowed to complete the mission without getting mired in secrets which are not realistic or necessary for every player to be able to solve. It also means we are not going to be as liberal with hints as we might otherwise be, because you do not need to "solve" the mission to complete it. There is a lot of discussion on Darkfate for example about the how the mission would "better" if there were a bunch of pop ups and optional objectives, as some players seem to get mired in these things regardless. It's valid to feel that way, but imo optional objectives have a tendency to not feel that optional - the game heavily implies you should engage in them and we don't have any interest in implying the player needs to focus on anything they don't really want to in this mission beyond the minimum. It's just not what the mission is about, and it's ok if that is not ok with everyone. If you give me a list of the items you already found on Curio's shelf in a spoiler tag I can try and nudge you in the right direction.
  13. Okay, I just wanted to make sure, that my patch doesn't mess anything up. A very beautiful mission with a lot of cool verticality, but also very easy to get lost in, especially as there are no other objectives! I found some special items for curio, but how many are there? I found a lot of snails, what should I do with them? I read here about the cat statues, why should I move them around? I found five puzzle pieces, but no place to use them yet unless it's the one in the mines? I'll take a break and will continue later, but more hints would be better in my opinion, though I bet you did this on purpose ;). Here are some other issues that might be worth fixing: - The Red Room has no door. - Playing with 2.13 made the game crash more often than in any other mission I recently played. - The game would constantly crash when using a rope arrow in the room with the fallen cabinet. - I often got the bug already mentioned here where the load/save menu showed the discolored sky box. - The sound playing below the stag should be possible to turn off, it's the same radio model as all others. - In the museum office which opens the access to the forbidden books are lighting artifacts on the floor. - There is also a small bright line artifact in one of the museum paintings (ground plan of 100 feet level). - The door in the torture room can't be opened. How are the torturers entering? Below the stairs like me? - The painting of the beared man in the room of the artists has weird physics, it will always keep standing. - You need to activate the magpie glasses two times and if you drop them while active the effect will stay. - In the room with the dead writer there are boots although he already wears some, yeah, very nitpicky :). - You can eat all sausages in the kitchen but not the once hanging from the shelf. Would this be possible? - The outline of the letter hidden in a book below the bed can be seen through the book. Outline problem?
  14. I recently found this 2022 album of environmental sound ambience (no music) on Soundcloud, by an author going by the moniker of "Cyberwave Orchestra". It's likely not royalty-free and you have to buy it and such, but I think it might be useful for FM authors if they want a few more custom ambient soundscapes for their FMs. The tracks loop. Having listened to the album, I think the most useful for TDM FM purposes would be the sound ambience of outdoors nature ("Mountain Canyon", "From Dusk Till Dawn", "The Swamps at Night", the "Cursed Lands", "Cursed Lands 2" tracks), underground spaces ("Secret Cave 2"), maybe industrial ("The Great Mine" and "The Great Mine 2", I suppose), dungeon/prison spaces ("Dungeon of Sorrow", "Dungeon of Madness", "Chambers of Hell (No Boiling)", "Chambers of Hell 2") and some of the rural ambience (the "Fishing Village", "Fishing Village At Night" ambience tracks, "Summer Night Near The Village"). The tracks with more urban sound ambience aren't bad, but might not be quite what we need for most TDM mission night time town/city ambience. IMHO, they feel like mostly daytime ambience. The two "Port Town" and "Port Town (No Bells)" ambience tracks seem by far the best fit for town ambience of TDM. "Village on a Windy Day" could work for dusk and the early evening, but not night. "Onboard the Ship (No Voices)" might work for a ship docked in port at night time, but it might feel a bit loud to FM-builder tastes. I'd suggest lowering the volumes and doing similar tweaks.
  15. mmmmmmh ??? I discovered the buttons in the elavator shaft - so i´ve been curious what they do it seem you used them as triggers for stop and go and open/close the doors !? but if they are meant to be used by the player - they don´t do (haven't tested them all) EDIT : @covert_caedes After your tip, they suddenly work (this one in particular, for sure). So the question remains – why not during my game?
  16. This has to be fixed. You cannot access game state from renderer backend because they are on different threads. Aside from that, you should not access game state even from render frontend, because it breaks incapsulation. Renderer has its public API though which all the information is passed.
  17. Hypothetically if Ray casting was used to bake efficiency into the brushwork itself it would make the penalty of a forward renderers lighting under id Tech 4 more agreeable. If Gemini AI is even half right this state of content efficiency would make id Tech 4 10-20 times more efficient per watt than Unreal Engine 5. For mobile platforms you are sitting on one of the best game engines on Earth. Of course I've yet to find a mapper that's willing to spend 3 to 4 years refactoring an entire commercial products slop. From the 13 objects overlapping in space, to decals hidden behind walls, entire rooms unused, brush faces behind other brushes. I'm the first. The ability to automate what I've done even just 90% would take the weaknesses of id Tech 4 and turn them into strengths. There is nothing faster than precomputation. If you can reverse engineer the flexibility of modern game engines without the per frame overhead it's going to curbstomp Unreal Engine 6 in raw efficiency. You also would be taking the former Chief Technical Officer of Metas core design and making it achieve what hasn't yet by industry. They probably would be knocking at your door with offers to commercialize or at minimum rush to replicate your work. They are all in in Alternate Reality Virtual Reality. Too bad their 5% GPU utilization offended one of their best employees. It's because thermal throttling boost behavior modern game engine inefficiencies and battery life. The Dark Mod could be a technology demonstrator that can do things modern game engines super can't. My texture pack 60GB+ (Prey 2006 Remake) is entirely custom. 5120x5120, 7168x7168, 9216x9216, 10,240x10240 and beyond. My texel resolution is extremely uniform and optimized at point blank mip map 0 for human vision. So it's literally a 2002 game engine beating id Tech 8 in asset resolution. Texture streaming doesn't like custom resolutions. Nor do development teams. It's just another way id Tech 4 is superior to modern game engines in a not abstract way. The general public is not aware of how inefficient modern game engines are or how much technical debt they tolerate. It's a more interesting topic to an engineer than a entertainment seeking random individual admittedly. There are inherent advantages to the older methods that are incredibly underappreciated. If I can motivate some of the software engineers to develop this capability that would be rather useful. Especially since it's already in part been done to bake shadows into Doom 3. Which in part defeat the purpose of unified lighting. But it's an existence proof. If you would like to see my 60GB file in its development state that can be arranged. But you also better have 24GBs of video memory. Most people will opt for lower resolution packs when generated by my Python scripts. The ability to hit per pixel 4k point blank is not just overkill. It's a measuring rubric.
  18. Gorgeous FM! Working my way through it now and am enjoying it immensely. So far the only issue I've run into is the "Tasty Beverage" crashing my game to desktop (Linux, 2.13) but I'm not too worried about it. In the mean time, I have a "tasty beverage" IRL to compensate... Belated congrats on the new release!
  19. you´re so right My mistake - I used it as a beta for 2.14 and downloaded it from Google before you did it in the game, but it’s an official mission – so it’s fine. (Unfortunately for me, you were too quick with the update, so version 1 is no longer available – not even on Google!) don´t mind - starting again will be fun tomorrow
  20. Right now there are the following important points: 1) Engine initialization: that's where mission.cfg is loaded just before autoexec.cfg. I can replace it with setting mission overrides from cvars.ini. Also, should user's autoexec.cfg break mission overrides in case of collision? 2) Starting new game. Right now mission overrides are reset to "none" here, I can change it to setting them to the state stored in cvars.ini. 3) Shutdown of a game. Right now mission overrides are dropped here to, I can change it and set the state from cvars.ini. 4) Save/load game. Here state of mission overrides is saves to savefile or reset from it. No need to change anything here. As far as I understand, this will achieve more or less what mappers want for simple and global cvars control. Of course, user can accidentally "break" mission override without noticing.
  21. 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:
  22. How do you know it isn't? You're welcome to modify the game if you like, but you are doing so at your own risk and against the advisory, so it means I am not going to be able to provide much in the way of support for you.
  23. I changed the way mission.cfg works in trunk: https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=6674 Now the values are converted to mission overrides and take effect outside game as well. Speaking of pm_* cvars. If I'm not mistaken, the spawnarg mechanism is customized in missions: gemcutter hazard moongate prize snowed_inn The mission.cfg mechanism is used in missions (bold shows which missions override pm_* cvars with it): cauldron_v2_2 gemcutter imperial_sword iris krampus lookwhosmoving painterswife scrooge What I can suggest here is: Delete pm_* from the core atdm:player_base and the accompanying C++ code. Update the missions which use these values by adding mission.cfg with these values As the result, TDM 2.14 and later will be able to set mission overrides for these cvars. At least I hope so If it works properly, then the missions will work in 2.14 just like they did previously. TDM 2.11 and earlier will work just as they worked at that time. As for TDM 2.12 and TDM 2.13, I have no idea what happens. Perhaps the custom values will leak. UPDATE: pm_* spawnargs on player have no effect starting from beta214-03.
  24. Why do you need to set anything on game shutdown?
  25. 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.
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