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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:

Hello, all. I've decided to post some lists of royalty-free music from Kevin MacLeod's well-known site Incompetech.com, lists that include tracks and themes chosen as potentially useful for The Dark Mod mission creators. Mr. MacLeod's made plenty of really good royalty-free music over the years, including various ambient themes and other music that could work pretty well in The Dark Mod. From what I know and remember, there's already been a fair few released FMs that used a few tracks from MacLeod's archive, so he is not unknown to the TDM community. Here's the tracks on the site arranged alphabetically. Another archive of MacLeod's royalty-free music can be found here (on Wikimedia Commons). I've added the links as well. As of April 2024, I have also added links to the official YouTube uploads of the individual tracks, all part of MacLeod's official YouTube channel. For the sake of easier reading and finding a song in the lists below, I've arranged them all in alphabetical order. Religious / churchly ambients Types of settings: Builder churches, chapels, cathedrals, monasteries, abbeys, etc. Various solemn and calm religious ambients. - Agnus Dei X (YT link. Somber but livelier in places, male and female choir vocals in muffled Latin.) - Bathed in the Light (YT link. A rather soothing ambient, I suppose it could work inside a pleasant-seeming Builder church, including as a place of relief in a scary mission.) - Gregorian Chant (YT link) - Lasting Hope (YT link) - Midnight Meeting (YT link) - Night Vigil (YT link. I think this one would work best if it was sampled into smaller parts.) - Organic Meditations 1 (YT link) and Organic Meditations 2 (YT link) - Rites (YT link) - Private Reflection (YT link) - Supernatural (YT link. Good for an abandoned church, spooky candle-lit catacombs, etc.) - Virtutes Vocis (YT link) Potentially: - Tiny Fugue (YT link) - Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (YT link. Famous organ composition by Bach, IMHO might sound too Baroque for a late-medieval style setting, but good for a hint of eerieness.) Spooky / horror / ominous ambients Types of settings: Crypts, catacombs, haunted caves, eerie ruins, lairs and places where undead and other monsters roam, etc. Some of the more industrial-sounding ones could also be useful for missions set at factories or warehouses occupied by criminal gangs, and so on (i.e. also for non-supernatural threats and non-supernatural creepiness). - Aftermath (YT link), WiCo link) - Ancient Rite (YT link, WiCo link) - Anxiety (YT link, WiCo link) - Apprehension (YT link, WiCo link) - Blue Sizzle (YT link, WiCo link) - Bump in the Night (YT link, WiCo link) - Chase Pulse (YT link, WiCo link) and Chase Pulse Faster (YT link, WiCo link. Both could work in some ghost-haunted location, with ghosts pursuing the player.) - Classic Horror 3 (YT link, WiCo link. Good for a haunted house, manor house or other private household interior.) - Crypto (YT link) - Dark Pad (YT link) - Dark Standoff (YT link) - Darkness Speaks (YT link. Shorter sting, good for a scripted creepy event.) - Decay (YT link, WiCo link) - Deep Noise (YT link, WiCo link) - Digital Bark (YT link, WiCo link) - Distant Tension (YT link, WiCo link) - Dopplerette (YT link, WiCo link) - Echoes of Time 1 (YT link, WiCo link) - Echoes of Time 2 (YT link, WiCo link) - Fire Prelude (YT link) - Gathering Darkness (YT link, WiCo link) - Ghostpocalypse 1 - The Departure (YT link) - Ghost Processional (YT link) - Ghost Story (YT link, WiCo link) - Grave Matters (YT link) - Heart of the Beast (YT link, WiCo link) - Himalayan Atmosphere (YT link. Eerie theme, could work in some ancient ruins.) - Ice Demon (YT link, WiCo link) - Irregular (YT link) - Land of Phantoms (YT link) - Lithium (YT link) - Long Note 1, Long Note 2 and Long Note 3 - Medusa (YT link) - Mind Scrape (YT link) - Mirage (YT link) - Nervous (YT link, WiCo link) - Night Break (YT link, WiCo link) - Ominous (YT link. Shorter ambient, but pretty spooky.) - One of Them (YT link, WiCo link) - Ossuary 1 (YT link) - Ossuary 5 (YT link) - Ossuary 6 (YT link) - Penumbra (YT link, WiCo link) - Political Action Ad (YT link. Yes, a song for this concept has such an ominous atmosphere. ) - Redletter (YT link, WiCo link) - Right Behind You (YT link, WiCo link) - Satiate - strings version (YT link) - Spacial Harvest (YT link) - Spacial Winds (YT link, WiCo link. Might be good for Middle Eastern themed scares.) - Spider Eyes (YT link. This could work well inside a household, or inside some public building.) - Steel and Seething (YT link) - Sunset at Glengorm (YT link and YT remastered link) - Supernatural (YT link. Calmer melody, good for a haunted religious buldings and its grounds.) - Tenebrous Brothers Carnival - Mermaid (YT link. Sounds serene, but is rather creepy and tense, maybe underground/underwater ruins.) - The Dread (YT link, WiCo link) - The Hive (YT link, WiCo link) - The Voices (YT link, WiCo link 1, WiCo link 2. Very otherworldly, good for some haunted area or other dimension.) - Unnatural Situation (YT link) - Unease (YT link, WiCo link. Would sound best in a manor house, museum, or other fancy interiors.) - Unseen Horrors (YT link, WiCo link) - Very Low Note (YT link, WiCo link) Tension-building / mysterious / general ambients Type of setting/situation: General ambients, especially in parts of FMs where the plot thickens and some coded development is triggered that makes for a new "act" in the overall story of the mission. (Imagine the likes of moonbo's missions and how they're structured and you get a bit of an idea.) - Air Prelude (YT link) - Awkward Meeting (YT link, WiCo link. Our thief hero or heroine meets an ally or informant for a bit of chit-chat.) - Blue Sizzle (YT link, WiCo link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.) - Calmant (YT link. A calm, quiet piano theme, but it has an air of mystery and isolation. An emotionally neutral, uncertain theme.) - Crypto (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.) - Dama-May (YT link. A bit of a peculiar tense theme, but some might find some uses for it.) - Dark Times (YT link) - Disappointment (YT link) - Disconcerned (YT link) - Dopplerette (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.) - Dragon and Toast (YT link) - Enter the Maze (YT link) - Fantastic Dim Bar (YT link) - Fire Prelude (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.) - Frozen Star (YT link. Exploring some long-lost ruins, mysterious compound or complex, it's soothing but creepy.) - Ghost Processional (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.) - Gloom Horizon (YT link) - Grave Matters (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.) - Greta Sting (YT link. A short sting, under twenty seconds, useful for revelatory scripted scenes and building suspense.) - Grim League (YT link) - Heavy Heart (YT link) - Industrial Music Box (YT link. Somber and personal, reminds me of the music box theme we already have in the game.) - Interloper (YT link) - Invariance (YT link) - Irregular (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness/mysteriousness.) - Isolated (YT link. A calm, somber ambient, for thoughtful situations. A bit more modern and guitarry-sounding, but could work in TDM.) - It Is Lost (YT link, WiCo link. Maybe a theme for exploring some mysterious underground ruins ?) - Lamentation (YT link. Maybe a castle or manor house household where bad events transpired.) - Lasting Hope (YT link) - Lithium (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.) - Long Note 1, Long Note 2 and Long Note 3 (YT link 1, YT link 2, YT link 3. These are IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.) - Lord of the Land (YT link. Maybe usable as a quiet background theme while sneaking through a busier castle or manor house.) - Lost Frontier (YT link. Exploring some city or castle ruins in The Empire that seem majestic at first glance but could hide a darker secret.) - Mourning Song (YT link) - New Direction (YT link. Very interesting ambient, could work well for a slow-burning urban noir atmosphere and doesn't sound modern.) - Night of Chaos (YT link) - Night on the Docks - piano version (YT link. Part of a trio of slow noir themes, the others use a sax and trumpet. This is the only one of the three that sounds pre-1900 compatible.) - On The Passing of Time (YT link, WiCo link) - Oppressive Gloom (YT link) - Overheat (YT link) - Quiet Panic (YT link. Short and quiet, good for tension-building, including for scripted events.) - Relent (YT link. The clarinet in this one might be slightly anachronistic, but it's an interesting contemplative melody.) - Road to Hell (YT link) - Satiate - strings version (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild horror.) - Satiate - percussion version (YT link. This one's IMHO better purely as a tension-building theme.) - Scissors (YT link. This would be an excellent theme for a mission set at a factory, inventor's workshop or a warehouse.) - Shores of Avalon (YT link. Quieter tension-builder.) - Simplex (YT link. A pretty good one, though some of the quieter beats are a bit more electronic.) - Spacial Harvest (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild horror.) - Spring Thaw (YT link) - Stay the Course (YT link) - Sunset at Glengorm (YT link and YT remastered link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.) - Temple of the Manes (YT link. I'd imagine this could work in an atmospheric mission set inside a castle or fortified manor house.) - Tempting Secrets (YT link) - Tenebrous Brothers Carnival - Intermission (YT link. Tense but melodic theme, with some heavy background percussions.) - The North (YT link) - Thunder Dreams (YT link) - Tranquility (YT link. A longer and very calm ambient theme, but has an air of mystery and strangeness.) - Unanswered Questions (YT link) - Unnatural Situation (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.) - Unpromised (YT link. Can work both in an urban and a rural/wilderness environment.) - Very Low Note (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness, would be ideal for a cave or basement.) - Winter Reflections (YT link. Good for a mission set during a snowed-in winter night.) Period instrument background music (stylistically European) Types of settings: Taverns, village scenes, town life, feasts, scenes among commoners or nobles. Mostly stuff with a calm and cosy atmosphere. - Achaidh Cheide (YT link) - Angevin B (YT link. This one sounds a bit more aristocratic or courtly, good for a feast or public event.) - Danse Macabre - harp version - Errigal (YT link. This one sounds a bit more aristocratic or courtly, but it's a good secular piece of music.) - Evening Fall - harp (YT link) - Folk Round (YT link) - Heavy Interlude (YT link. Short but really cool, IMHO could also work for a background scene of two AI characters sparring for fun.) - Master of the Feast (YT link. Good for a scene with at least two or three musicians and multiple noble/patrician characters attending a feast.) - Minstrel Guild (YT link) - Midnight Tale (YT link) - Old Road (YT link) - Pale Rider (YT link) - Pippin the Hunchback (YT link) - Suonatore di Liuto (YT link) - Teller of the Tales (YT link) North African, Middle Eastern and other "exotic" background music Types of settings: The TDM universe's analogues of the Mediterranean, North African, Middle Eastern regions, and other "exotic" locations. - Asian Drums (YT link. Could work for a Middle Eastern or North African style mission, good slow, tension-building ambient theme.) - Cambodian Odyssey (YT link. This is better suited to a south Asian or southeast Asian setting, but could work in a Middle Eastern locale as well. Tense theme, quiet percussions.) - Desert City (YT link. Could work for a Middle Eastern or North African style mission, good all-around urban ambient theme.) - Drums of the Deep (YT link (shorter) and YT link (longer). Could work for a Middle Eastern or North African style mission, good tension-building ambient theme.) - East of Tunesia (YT link. Could work in a mission with either a Mediterranean or North African style environment, e.g. a port city.) - Ibn Al-Noor (YT link. Good for a Middle Eastern or North African style mission, especially for a palace or public event environment.) - Lotus (YT link. Good as a general ambient theme for a Middle Eastern or North African style mission, or some other exotic locale.) - Mystery Bazaar (YT link. Another good one for a Middle Eastern or North African style mission, ideally some marketplace or square.) - Perigrine Grandeur (YT link. Middle Eastern style percussions interspersed with a grunge-like tune reminescent of those from Thief.) - Tabuk (YT link. Slow, but slightly more dramatic theme for a Middle Eastern or North African style environment.) - Tenebrous Brothers Carnival - Snake Lady (YT link. Has a Middle Eastern feel to it, very good for building suspense and tension.) Wilderness / nature ambients Types of settings: Outdoor areas with groves, forests, rivers, small lakes, mountain valleys, caves. Potentially also some Pagan villages and camps. - Black Bird (YT link. Tribal type stuff.) - Dewdrop Fantasy (YT link and YT link) - Evening Fall - harp (YT link) - Firesong (YT link. Tribal type stuff.) - Healing (YT link. I think this one could also work in an urban environment.) - Heavy Heart (YT link. Also works as a general ambient theme.) - Intuit (YT link. Tribal type stuff.) - Kalimba Relaxation Music (YT link. Maybe could work in a cave or similar environment ?) - Magic Forest (YT link) - Moorland (YT link. Could work for an isolated Pagan tribe village.) - River Flute (YT link) - Shamanistic (YT link) - Spirit of the Girl (YT link) - Thunderbird (YT link) - The North (YT link. A very short but looping theme, IMHO also works as a general ambient theme.) - The Pyre (YT link) - The Sky of Our Ancestors (YT link) - Unpromised (YT link) - Very Low Note (YT link. IMHO very good for a cave or cave system.) - Virtutes Instrumenti (YT link, FMA link) - Willow and the Light (YT link) - Winter Reflections (YT link. Good for a mission set in winter or in some cavern strewn with magic crystals.) Non-serious bonus suggestion - Crunk Knight (YT link, FMA link. When the Bridgeport City Watch throw an annual office party :-))) ) Giving MacLeod proper attribution if you chose to use this music in your mission Each song comes with an attribution quote that you need to include if you're going to use any of this music in your fan mission. If there is a final credits sequence in your mission, or you can include this quote at least as part of the mission's release notes, please do so. Though you can buy a license from Kevin and don't need to use attribution, all of this music is for free, as long as you give him credit. The credit-giving (attribution) is as follows: Name of Song Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Replace "Name of Song" with the actual name of the song, keep the rest of the quote in this format and include it in your "free music used" credits for your mission, and you're golden. How to download one of the MacLeod tracks if you can't find them on any website outside of YouTube On the off-chance that you can't find one of MacLeod's tracks on any royalty-free music website outside of YouTube, there is one way to download the track/song you're after straight off of its YouTube upload. (Ideally, off of the official MacLeod track uploads on YouTube. Those tend to have the highest audio quality, and so on.) First, visit this GitHub link for YT-dlp, scroll down to the "RELEASE FILES" section and download the yt-dlp.exe, the one for Windows. That'll be enough for the needs of downloading the track. (You can, of course, also try the other two downloads, but be warned the one that is also good for Linux is just a zip of the build and requires Python. The other one is tailored for Mac OS. Use these if you're not on Windows.) Create a new folder on one of your main disks, e.g. on C:, to keep things simple, and name the folder "ytdlp", lowercase (again, to keep things simple). Download YT-dlp.exe into this new folder. Once that's done, you've already "installed" this simple utility. What remains is installing a custom ffmpeg codec build for YT-dlp, to aid conversion into certain audio formats. Go to this GitHub link, download the "win64-gpl" variant of the ffmpeg, into the same folder as the yt-dlp.exe. The win64-gpl is a .zip, so use 7zip, or any similar .zip software you use, and unzip the ffmpeg.exe file into the same folder as the YT-dlp.exe. (For example, the folder is C:/ytdlp. You should have both the yt-dlp.exe and the ffmpeg.exe in that folder.) You only need that one ffmpeg.exe file, in addition to the yt-dlp.exe file. Almost done. Click the Start button in your Windows, type in envir, then click "Edit the system environment variables". Click environment variables" (a button at the bottom right). Then double-click Path on the top white section. A window will open up. Add the following line, type it in. C:\ytdlp. Click OK to close the window, then OK again to close the window, and click OK one final time to close a window. You now have the YT-dlp utility installed and it will download audio files (including music) from YT, into the "C:\ytdlp" folder, where you also have the "yt-dlp.exe" file and the win64-glp "ffmpeg.exe" file. Now you need to download the audio of the track. You'll do that more indirectly, via the Command Prompt of your Windows OS. Here's how you do it: 1.) Open the Launch menu of Windows, type in cmd in the search bit of Launch, click the Command Prompt that shows up. You'll get the classic black-background, white-text Command Prompt window. 2.) Type in cd \ytdlp, press Enter. The "cd" is not a compact disc, but the command shortcut "change directory". This will tell the Command Prompt we're working with the aforementioned "C:\ytdlp" folder. 3.) Now comes the fun part. Type in the following: yt-dlp -x -f bestaudio --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 320k "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=restofyoutubelink". Then press Enter, and the track should be downloaded in mp3 format, and in 320k quality. You can also set the quality to 0, whatever you like. I have not tried to experiment with downloading into .ogg file format, but other common audio formats should work too. (At worst, you can download a track as an mp3, then convert it into .ogg with any decent offline audio converter software.) You aldo don't have to type in the YouTube link entirely by hand, because you can copy the YouTube link of the video in your browser, and then use the CTRL + "paste" key combination to copy the link into the space between the parentheses. 4.) Visit the "C:\ytdlp" folder and you should find the MacLeod audio track you couldn't find anywhere else but on YouTube to be present in the folder. If you ever need to update yt-dlp, type in yt-dlp -U into the command prompt, press Enter, and it'll update itself in a few seconds. The occassional update might be needed if the utility is having trouble downloading and converting audio. Of course, even if you download a particular MacLeod track in this manner (mainly because you couldn't find it elsewhere), please credit Mr. MacLeod for his work, just as you would if you've downloaded it from one of the royalty-free music sites. Please see the official template on how to credit MacLeod's royalty-free track, provided by MacLeod himself, which I quote earlier in this post ("Giving MacLeod proper attribution..."). Final note from me If you've found some other good tracks in Kevin's musical archives that could fit the tone of The Dark Mod and its setting and would like to include them in this list, please let me know and I'll update this post. Don't send me a personal message, just post your suggestion in this thread. Thank you ! I sincerely hope these lists will be of at least some use to mission builders. Good luck ! If you want to seek out non-MacLeod royalty-free music and public domain music, I've started a thread for that as well. Not too many download links yet, but it's meant to give you inspiration what sort of ambients or period music you could search for.

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

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!

I have been playtesting a lot recently, and I remembered how great Daft Mugi's handling of grabbing body limbs feels: hold frob to grab, release frob to let go ("hold-type grabber"). It just feels immersive and works very well. So, I went ahead and refactored the whole frob handling code, cleaned it up and most importantly: made it extermely easy to setup different frob-control-styles. Details for those interested in the spoiler tag: Configurable frob-control-styles With that in place, I have setup three different control styles that can be controlled through the new cvar "tdm_frob_control_style". 0: TDM-style (short frob = grab, long frob = use [e.g. blow out candles, eat food, shoulder bodies...]. 1: Thief-style / 2.12 / Daft Mugi (Like TDM-style, but behavior for bodies is inverted so that shoulder bodies is on short frob and long frob has that nice hold-type-grabber described above) 2: TDM_inverted-style (TDM-style exactly inverted, i.e., short frob = use, long frob = hold-type-grabber finally consistently for all entities, my personal holy-grail ) I think TDM-style is what @snatcherhad in mind? Hopefully, this change will make many of you happy. New hold-frob control styles for doors I have also added in a completely new idea. There has been manual door fine control in the mod for quite some time. It can be enabled through tdm_door_control and then holding frob on a door and moving the mouse. I ironed out some of its issues, but it still didn't feel right to me. So, I thought of a new idea to make use of hold-frob for doors. tdm_door_control can now take 4 different values that change the hold-frob control of doors: 0: Disabled 1: Manual door fine control (experimental, existing feature) 2: Hold frob to slowly move doors. They are opened and closed alternatingly, just like regular frobbing a door, but interrupting a moving door is skipped. 3: Hold frob to slowly open doors. Additionally, I added in the ability to quickly force close a door by holding frob and pressing attack to all of the above control styles. The idea behind this addition is that the player can now slowly sneak and peak through a door, but then can also quickly shut the door again if the player deems the situation unsafe. This adds more skill expression and creates further immersion. 2.14 Beta? At the moment, it is not yet decided whether these changes will make it into 2.14 beta, as the changeset is quite massive. We might have to wait for the nearest developer build after 2.14 release.

Ok cool. Just tested Thieves Guild 1.02 with the GOG Rune Gold (1.07) version, in Linux via Lutris. Super easy to install. 1. Install Rune Gold via Lutris, I use winxp 32bit as installer preset. You select the installer ( setup_rune_gold_2.0.0.5.exe ) file that can be found in the Extras folder of the Rune Classic install. This will install Rune Gold 1.07. 2. Download Thief's Guild and copy the contents to ~/Rune-gold/drive_c/GOG Games/Rune Gold/ (where ~/Rune-Gold is the folder name and location where you installed it). No files get overwritten. 3. Click right mouse button on Rune-Gold Instance in Lutris and click in menu on "Configure". 4. Go to Tab "Game Options" and type behind "Arguments": tg When you start it, it will directly go to Thief's Guild. Via pressing the Esc-key you can still start a regular Rune game if you want.

Yuletide Boon The idea behind this mission was to again show, what can be built in a small amount of time and with help from other community members. It also showcases the new church modules that I don't think have been used all that much in previous FMs. Enjoy Notes: - TDM 2.13 or later is REQUIRED to play this mission. - Build time roughly 50hrs. - I have created serveral new custom models and prefabs for mappers to use, based of the church models. Download Link: - (v1.2) - https://mega.nz/file/qV1UQKqK#B9cdy3iB_Z7q8j2nQOEc9KISw8cPSYLIowP-1yokRbI Credits: Special thanks: - Springheel for creating the church modules. - Jack 'mozart' farmer for the briefing video and menu music. - datiswous - subtitles. - Goldwell - voice acting and briefing additions. - Dragofer - pagan statue from http://www.cadnav.com/3d-models/model-40413.html - Misc - Melted candlewax texture from - www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-wax-of-a-melted-candle-17959695 - Amadeus - scripting beta testers: -Jackfarmer, datiswous, CambridgeSpy, DavyJones, Mat99, Amadeus.

The electronic keypad is something I've wanted for a long time, along with laser tripped alarms which are next on my TODO list. I'm happy to announce they're a feature I just finished as part of a futuristic campaign I began working on! The version included here is extracted into an individual pk4 for other mappers to use. I may improve mine over time like using a GUI for the screen, for now this is a simple but finished version which does exactly everything intended. It consists of the custom script and def, models created and exported from DR reusing existing sounds and textures (only text labels had to be created), as well as prefabs for model sources and quickly placing a keypad on your map (broken or unpowered versions included). The device is operated using 12 buttons forming a numeric keypad inspired by old mobile phones, stand close look at each key and frob to input: Give your keypad a "text" spawnarg to set a password (multiple codes supported), entities targeted via "trigger_on_success" will execute when the correct code was typed, you may also set "trigger_on_fail" spawnargs to trigger targets when a bad code was written. Existing input can be cancelled with * and must be confirmed using the # key at the end, once unlocked pressing any key will re-trigger targets and lock the device back up. One aspect I'm unhappy with: I couldn't find a way for the script to directly access the entity triggering it. Because of this I had to define an additional "atdm:target_callobjectfunction" targeted by buttons which itself targets the keypad. This is only an annoyance for sanity's sake as I hoped I'd only need the keypad entity and individual buttons, yet there's also a little yellow cube sticking around which every button has to go through. Let me know if you're aware of a way to work around this; I know the script can use sys.onSignal(SIG_TRIGGER, self, "foo::bar") to run a function when triggered, but there doesn't seem to be a way to access the entity doing the triggering which is required to know which button was pressed and get its symbol. Here's the initial version with a few screenshots of how it looks and works. Feel free to use them in your FM's and share the result here! I'd love to see missions where you need to find codes in readables and remember them to access places, even having to piece them together from different sources... remember you can also use short passwords which are typed like an SMS hence the letters on the keys, for example "abe" would be "11122" (a = 1, b = 11, e = 22) 0 acts as space though I wouldn't write long sentences as they can be annoying to type in. electronic_keypad_v1.0.pk4

Greetings everyone! I recently got into TDM and am already having a lot of fun playing through and ghosting missions. However, coming from Thief, I am mostly relying on the rules and my experience with that game, while there are clearly differences in how TDM works. Right now, there is talk in the ghosting discussion thread on TTLG to amend the ruleset and include clarifications pertaining to TDM. So I wanted to drop by and ask: is there an active TDM ghosting community already and have any rules for this playstyle been developed? I would also like to ask someone to take a look at the draft of this addendum to see whether everything looks correct: https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148487&page=16&p=2473352&viewfull=1#post2473352 Thanks!

What mission? What tdm version? Do you use mods/plugins? Where does the error appear?

I wouldn't overthink it too much. A solid snow material will go a long way in making simple patches look believable. Once you get the desired shape of your patch, just texture it with the same scale you used as your ground brush and you'll be good to go. As for whether or not they should have collision, that should be determined on a case by case basis, but use "solid" "0" over "noclipmodel" "1" if you do decide to remove the collision. There are several snow drifts throughout Written in Stone, so you are welcome to take a look there

Since TDM 2.14, there are global macros/defines which reflect the version of the TDM engine. The defines should be available everywhere in game scripts and in GUI scripts. Their values are like this: #define TDM_VERSION 214 #define TDM_REVISION 10969 #define TDM_VERSION_FULL (TDM_VERSION * 1000000 + TDM_REVISION) All of these versions grow monotonically. TDM_REVISION is the SVN revision of the source code repository. Of course, the final 2.14 release will have different value of TDM_REVISION. You can use TDM_VERSION to distinguish between major public releases, and in principle you can use TDM_VERSION_FULL to distinguish dev builds and betas. These macros add more flexibility in making missions compatible with different versions of TDM. I don't think mappers need to use them. It is more useful to the mission maintainers who can now absorb small breaking changes more easily. Here is the specific example it was implemented for: X-ray glasses breaking change. TDM 2.14 no longer applies tonemapping / gamma / brightness to UI elements. Achieving that required more refactoring in X-ray GUI. As the result, it became necessary to handle X-ray overlay in a special way in the engine. But the old way of creating X-ray overlay was not special at all, the engine could not understand which overlays were created for X-ray! So I had to add a new script event createXrayOverlay. Thanks to the version defines, it is possible to fix missions in such a way that they continue working both in 2.13 and in 2.14: #if TDM_VERSION_FULL >= 214010967 overlayHandle = $player1.createXrayOverlay(getKey("gui")); #else overlayHandle = $player1.createOverlay(getKey("gui"), ZOOM_GUI_LAYER); #endif Since TDM 2.13 and earlier do not have these macros, the C preprocessor assumes they to be zero there. The condition evaluates to false, and preprocessor removes the first line and leaves only the second one. In TDM 2.14, the condition will evaluate to true, so the preprocessor will leave the first line intact but delete the second line. P.S. This exact approach is used for compatibility in C/C++ programming with builtin macros like _MSC_VER and __GNUC__.

Glad I came to the forums to check out more details about this mission after playing. I was a little confused by a Bikerdude FM only taking 10mins to run through haha. Knowing it's a tech/build demo means I'm not going to spend the next hour or so looping through it trying to figure out if I missed a secret Krampus area or encounter xD.

Looks like we need one of these. Use this to post images or teasers of whatever you happen to be working on at the moment. Sharing feels good, and can inspire other people to keep working on their own maps. Use spoilers if appropriate!

So I just read in a post about the black parade over at ttlg that someone was using a custom script to create a little challenge. You can only save your game for every 200 loot you gather. As many missions struggle to give loot a valuable sense of existence because it is only used as a mission goal (while not being part of a campaign where it would carry over), I personally found this a really good and refreshing idea. So, would this be possible in the dark mod too, either as a customizable game option or as a custom script j in a fan mission ? What are your thoughts on this idea in general ?

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.

Now that Cryengine is basically free to use for community projects, and has proven itself to be ideal for large open worlds with stealth gameplay like Kingdom Come Deliverance, is there anything stopping anyone from porting TDM over with support for existing fan missions? I mean legally speaking of course, as I'm sure it would be a lot of work, but there seem to be fewer barriers than ever before. It's incredible what people have done with an engine that was built to accommodate tiny corridors on ancient hardware, but imagine an engine purpose built to render large open spaces... No more compromised visions when mapping, no more endless optimization to fit a square peg through a circular hole... And if the mission files were to be compatible with the new engine, people could just keep on mapping in DR as if nothing even changed. Cryengine Community Edition https://engine.pterosoftstudio.com/

Thank you. Interesting. All the more interesting for me, as I've been a fan of Frictional Games (and their engine) since the Penumbra Tech Demo and all the first few Penumbra games. I remember when the Amnesia HLP2 engine and the editor for Amnesia missions built in that engine were first showcased to the fans, back in late 2009, early 2010, several months before the game debuted in early autumn 2010. One of the FG fans even commented "Drooling...". Penumbra wasn't much moddable, as there was no level editor and you had to build everything by hand in Maya or any other appropriate 3D modelling software. There was no HLP2 level editor equivalent, no Dark Radiant equivalent, in HLP1, it had do be done by hand. Now that it's been open-source (IIRC) for over a decade, I wouldn't be surprised if some enterprising indie dev tried to make a rudimentary level editor for it. The HLP2 version of the engine is actually quite similar to the TDM and Dark Radiant approach, though it does even allow for a "non-airtight" approach (i.e. you don't have to fully seal a space with brushes, and even a very rudimentary level will work in the HLP2 engine). Some old FG development videos, back when the more user-tools-flexible HPL2 was brand new and Amnesia still had months to go before it was published: - HPL2 level editor timelapse (this is the video that was commented on with "Drooling..." by that one eager fellow FG old-timer fan) - use of decals in the HPL2 level editor - HPL2 material editor - HLP2 model editor - HPL2 particle editor Setting up a custom story level (rather than an expaded total conversion) in HPL2, using the base game assets, with the help of the level editor. An HPL2 mapper at work, showcasing the phases of building a level in the engine, mainly via the level editor, plus some of the other aforementioned utilities accessible from the editor: 1, 2, 3, 4

You can ask people to test your mission here, but the beta tresting should be in this other section: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/forum/59-tdm-mission-beta-testing/ Read also: I think it's so that there are no spoilers in view for new regular players.

I've read about this before here on the forums, even when the contest had just recently concluded, but reading about it in greater detail years later is certainly interesting. Thank you. It's a pity that it was mostly the marketing people who were involved on the Square Enix side, as I had the impression it was also the devs at EM that had played Requiem and all the other submitted missions and really liked them. I suppose it was as well, but the TDM team mostly heard from the marketing people. Yes, I wanted to note that as well. I even remember how the people over here in the TDM forums were sort of laughing at the fact that the results of the contest were favourable to TDM and had, in a sense, "proven" TDM as a worthy freeware successor to the Thief IP, with all the modding and mapping tools at one's disposal and so on, whereas Thief 4 or Thi4f or whatever Square Enix were calling it at that point, offered no such possibilities. The entire contest, while no doubt declared in good will and something I actually appreciated seeing, was such a self-own for Square Enix, ultimately to the detriment of them trying to bring back and market the reboot of an older IP. Even if Thief 2014 was a terrific reboot (which I doubt it would ever be), it would still have been hampered by people learning about modding being impossible, and looking to the trilogy and to TDM instead, to make new Thief-style stealth gaming content. Still, I appreciate they recognized the quality's of Moonbo's Requiem FM. Given many retrospectives I've seen over the years, gradually, on the 2014 Thief reboot attempt, one thing a surprising amount of them shared was noting how the game didn't feel cohesive in concept and execution, at any point. Not only not to the same level as the Thief trilogy, but also not even at the level when you consider it as an individual game, a new game on its own. Errant Signal, who's not some deep Thief fan, replayed the older games and played the reboot back when it came out, and made this exact observation already a decade ago. The reboot was just all over the place, in every department, felt clearly unfinished or rushed, and the most interesting story would be the behind the scenes at Eidos Montreal, on how mismanaged the entire project became over the course of several years. I think it's telling that, while even heavily discounted on GOG.com, Thief 2014 hasn't been selling well there, nor attracting much interest, whereas the original trilogy sells for figurative (and sometimes literal) cents on that same site - you can buy the whole trilogy for a smaller price than the reboot, which is kind of hilarious - and continues to have great sales and is considered one of the all-time bestsellers. Same here. I concur with demagogue that the actual Eidos Montreal devs behind Thief 2014, at least those who cared enough to make it at least somewhat presentable and playable - even if the actual game directors never got their act together and never decided on a consistent design apporach - those would have been much more interesting to be in contact with, even regarding the fan mission contest. The sad truth of the matter is that all too many big publishers these days, especially those formed through larger mergers, like the Eidos buyout by Square Enix, are often marketing-first, interest in developers, and veteran players and new players alike, second. I still remember the sheer amount of money spent on pointless external marketing for Thief 2014, all the while that reboot attempt never really coalesced into anything that felt consistent (rather than throwing everything at the wall, in a panic, hoping something would stick), and was also plagued by all manner of technical issues. Just an overall embarassment, and I'm not surprised that even very lenient-leaning game retrospectives of that reboot attempt. The fact that the Thief IP has been sold away to Nordic Games and Embracer in more recent years, with Square Enix no longer caring about it and other older game IPs, also says a lot. Given the Embracer Group's own woes and bad decisions, I'm not sure any new development team will ever attempt another installment of Thief, even if it was a second reboot attempt.

Sorry for the necrobump. Unfortunately, the original poster of this thread is no longer active. I want to ask whether keypad assets like this are made purely using DR or if other 3D modeling applications are also needed? I'm just asking out of curiosity. Maybe in the future, I want to learn how to create and model objects with screens like this but without the functionality of the keypad above in DarkRadiant. I'm just messing around, I don't intend to create fan missions. And if such a screen is too modern (even a CRT), is an overhead projector (https://www.avplanners.com/blog/history-with-a-local-av-company-the-overhead-projector) also too modern, even if it's given a steampunk touch?Because I remember OHPs were widely used in schools or universities 3-4 decades ago Or even if the CDC 6600 below is polished with a steampunk design (and it seems like it doesn't use vacuum tubes like the Ferranti Mercury) , would it still not fit in?

Is there a wiki for how to where to use/add these args? As in on the entity directly or in the material..?

A recent thread of discussion has cropped up in the TDM Discord channel and a couple forum threads ( this comment and the general discussion after it came to mind) about the usability and efficacy of Flashbombs in TDM. To wit, most people seem to think they're kinda bad because they're just a stun, which still requires you to hide in a very narrow time frame and then wait for the AI to cool off after use. One of the big upsides of flashbombs in TG/T2 was that, if you had alerted human enemies chasing you, you could drop a flashbomb and then turn around and blackjack them to non-lethally remove them from play. It was an inventory-limited opportunity to recover from failure and continue playing the game, as opposed to just reloading a save. This is a fun and proactive interaction, and I propose that we add it to TDM. Specifically, I think this can be accomplished with minimal code. After a read through the public TDM git repository, I think the most appropriate change would be to adjust the condition here: https://github.com/stgatilov/darkmod_src/blob/ac0a286561630eefee1cbb44d09d77128cd3d8e7/game/ai/AI.cpp#L11892 to read as follows: if ((GetMoveType() == MOVETYPE_SLEEP || // grayman #3951 GetMind()->GetState()->GetStr() == "Blinded") && // proposed - maybe there's a better way to write this condition like checking the type or something? ((minDotVert != 1.0f) && (minDotHoriz != 1.0f))) // cos(DEG2RAD(0.0f)) indicates elite faceguard helmet { Currently, this check does not pass for blinded AIs and they move to the if-else branch at L11903, and since they're very alert because they were actively chasing the player, they cannot be blackjacked. This change should give a flashbomb-blinded AI the same knockout vulnerability angle as a sleeping AI. Helmeted human AIs (and undead/magical AIs because they can't enter that particular mind state) retain their blackjack immunity, and everyone else can be clunked in the face as a reward to the player for spending a limited resource, not flashing themselves, and having the quick thinking to turn around and draw the blackjack. The blinded mind state lasts for about 8 seconds (I forget where I found that but its a hardcoded magic number in a Damage() function somewhere), which feels a bit short but about right, and then when the state changes the player's window of opportunity is lost. My brain kinda glazed over when I looked at the SVN checkout+compilation.txt instructions, but if I can help test or debug this with a little hand holding I'd be happy to do so.

No I think it's the same (they're from the same makers, looking at the release notes). I tested both Classic and Rune Gold from Gog with this update. Both give an error after install I startup. What complicates it, is that I use wine (Linux), but Gog's v.1.07 works fine via wine.