questions on the download page, suggestions + ideas

[kingfitz]

Hi,

 

First just wanted to say this game is amazing. Congrats to the dev team on a remarkable game that keeps the thief legacy continuing. Honestly the new thief 4 release wasnt up to my standards and it seems its been corporatized for the masses, this mod though is kick ass and Id like to throw some ideas to the dev team as I think I and a friendof mine can add some suggestions, in fact I had some ideas about a large community campaign with a story that offshoots from the end of thief 3. It would be cool to develop a set of large map templates that could fit together and allow the player to do missions within the world, kind of like the thief 3 model where you go to different regions of the city and complete parts of the campaign. More sidemissions within the main plot would add some depth and intrigue. Later ill compile these ideas and share them with the community, though Im pushed for time atm.

 

Anyways, had a couple questions about the missions page.

 

1. Is there a way to lump all the missions into one download link rather than clicking each one ? This

 

2. Also, maybe the chart could add a few more details, such as, availability (noticed about 5 missions are unavailable to download), rating (1-10 scale rated by community), and series ( whether they are part of a series or mini campaign).

 

3. How can I suggest ideas to the dev team or help be a think tank for them? I think we can all agree a large community collaboration on a big campaign project would be desirable over single missions that dont have the same relevance and suspenseful plot as the original thief 1-3 games. Granted yes a big project like this isnt an easy task but with more community volunteers it could be accomplished. We the people want a big in depth campaign with a riveting storyline and maybe an offshoot of where garretts story left off at t3.. Anyways, will check in later. Cheers to ya taffers

[New Horizon]

Thanks for dropping by.

 

Just in case you hadn't noticed, there is also an in-game fan mission downloader / installer built into the menu. You don't have to manually download missions from the website.

[kingfitz]

Yeah ok thanks. I guess I just like having copies of all the missions on hand so I can copy/paste it onto a friends computer for convenience and organization. Is there any news on the 5 or so missions that arent available?

 

I forgot part 2 of my question 1 above. Do the FMs change somewhat after a patch like 2.02 ? Im wondering if some bugs in the missions were fixed, therefore Id have to re download them, and hence it would be nice to have a big file where all the missions are compiled for a one click download. Thanks

[grayman]

A few responses to your questions ...

 

No, there's no way to download all available missions with a single click.

 

When we release each rev of TDM, we test existing missions as much as time allows. Now and then, we discover we've broken something, and we either fix the break in TDM before release, or we work with the mission author to produce an update that's compatible with the new rev of TDM. Any mission that gets an update is marked with an asterisk (*) on the in-game Download screen.

 

I don't know offhand which 5 missions are missing. It's possible that these have been shelved until updates are available. You're free to PM the author(s) and ask for a status.

 

A campaign has been in the works for several years now. It's not an official TDM campaign, but has been worked on by many team members and experienced map makers. There's no release date yet.

 

Since we can't use Thief intellectual property, Garrett is not part of our world, so there's no way we can construct a story, campaign, or world that imagines his adventures after T3.

 

Posting story ideas in this forum is reasonable. You're free to take those ideas and run with them, either by yourself or as part of a team. Make missions. Make a hero. Make videos. TDM is a toolbox with all the parts you need to put your ideas into the hands of grateful players.

 

We've discussed ratings a few times, and many missions are released with a poll that lets players rate them. Not all mission authors believe in this, though, and some don't post polls, which makes overall ratings dicey. Besides, I might love missions that you don't, and you might love missions that I don't. So it's a bit unfair to dismiss a mission before playing it, on the basis of what other people think.

 

As for series, No Honor Among Thieves is a 3-mission campaign, and the Thief's Den, Thomas Porter, William Steele, St. Alban, Talbot, Penny Dreadful, and Selis Woderose series have each been identified in the in-game downloader.

[kingfitz]

thanks. well put. why dont we just change garretts name to Tarregg, and everyone can be let in on the secret that its basically a continuation of the originals. haha. yeah im interested in using the dark radiant editor to create some missions. how much technical skill do i need to complete one? im learning programming but im new . not sure if designing a mission is over my head.

 

 

 

btw heres a current list of tthe missions i typed up in wordpad, you can use it if you want.

 

All posted missions - smallest to largest -7-13-14

name date released size MB maker

U- denotes unavail *denotes obtained/able /denotes discrepancy

 

*Poets & Peasants 2014-06-29 1 Digi

*The Outpost 2008-12-23 2 angua & greebo

*Special Delivery 2010-06-09 2 Silencium18

*Mad's Mountain 2010-07-31 2 Jesps

*Closemouthed Shadows 2012-01-15 2 LordSavage

*The Builder Roads 2013-01-19 2.3 Obsttorte

*Sons of Baltona 1 2010-01-09 2.7 Carnage

*The Builder's Blocks 2013-03-18 2.85 Jesps S

*Thief's Den 2: Chalice of Kings 2009-10-15 3 Fidcal

*Thief's Den 1 2010-07-04 3 Fidcal

*Swing 2010-08-25 3 Komag

*Lockdown 2010-12-25 3 GameDevGoro/b1k3rdude

*Too Late 2009-12-24 3.8 Nielsen74

*Awaiting the Storm 2010-05-22 4 HappyCheeze

*Thomas Porter 3: Glenham Tower 2010-07-17 5 Sotha

*In a Time of Need 1 2013-11-12 5.5 kyyrma

*Living Expenses 2010-01-02 5.7 Sonosuke

*Solar Escape 2013-07-22 6 Tr00pertj

*Inn Business 2014-03-03 6 RJFerret

*House of Theo 2011-12-04 6.2 Theothesnopp

/*Trapped! 2009-12-30 6.3 RailGun

*The Parcel 2009-12-24 6.7 Xonze

*Pandora's Box 2010-07-10 7 Jesps

*Thomas Porter 0: Mandrasola 2011-04-10 7 Sotha

*Window of Opportunity 2014-01-01 7 RJFerret

*Selis Woderose 2: Rake-off 2011-06-19 8 Jesps

*Thieves 2009-11-26 8.7 Silencium, RailGun, Fidcal

*Illusionist's Tower 2010-08-06 8.7 stumpy

*St. Alban 1: Caduceus of St Alban 2010-08-23 10 BikerDude

*Thomas Porter 4: Transaction 2011-03-04 10 Sotha

U -Winter Harvest 2011-05-08 10 Shadowhide, Bikerdude

*Samhain Night 2011-10-09 10 PranQster

*Thomas Porter 2: Beleaguered Fence 2010-06-23 11

*Somewhere Above the City 2010-08-20 11 grayman

*The Rift 2010-08-15 11 Baddcog

*Deceptive Shadows 2012-09-16 11.4 ShadowHide

*House in Blackbog Hollow 2011-10-29 12 stumpy

*In A Time of Need 2: Breaking out the Fence 2014-03-17 12

*Crystal Grave 2013-02-09 12.4 ERH+ and Bikerdude S

*The Crown of Penitence 2009-10-16 12.5 Jesps S

*Let Sleeping Thieves Lie 2011-10-20 12.6 Sir Taffsalot, Bikerdude

*Betrayal 2010-08-17 13 FieldMedic

*The Builders Influence 2010-03-20 15.6 Map: Railgun. Story: Springheel

*Business as Usual 2010-01-14 16 Bikerdude

*Selis Woderose 1: Flakebridge Monastery 2010-12-05 16.4 Jesps

*Old Habits 1 2010-10-19 20 Obsttorte

*Siege Shop 2013-10-10 20.51 Pranqster & Lowenz

*Vengeance for a Thief Part 1 2012-09-06 20.9 Sir Taffsalot

*Thomas Porter 1: Knighton Manor 2010-11-11 21 Sotha

*Vengeance for a Thief Part 2 2013-09-06 22 Sir Taffsalot

*Rightful Property 2012-04-13 22.5 jysk

U- Lord Dufford's 2010-03-31 23 Stumpy

*Accountant 1: A Noble Home 2014-03-14 23 Goldwell & Bikerdude

*Patently Dangerous 2009-10-31 24 demagogue

*Thomas Porter 5: Phrase Book 2012-05-12 24 Sotha

*William Steele 2: Home again 2014-02-13 25.4 Grayman

*Thief's Den 4: Alchemist 2010-06-01 27 Sotha & Fidcal

*St. Alban 2: St Albans Cathedral 2010-11-05 27 Bikerdude

*A Reputation to Uphold -follow 2014-04-18 28.5 Springheel

*Alberic's Curse 2011-06-20 29 Bikerdude

*Old Habits 2 2013-05-20 30 Obsttorte

*A Night to Remember 2011-10-31 31.5 Fieldmedic

*Talbot 2: Return to the City 2010-10-01 35 Melan & Bikerdude

*William Steele 3: Cleighmoor 2014-03-02 38 Grayman

*In Remembrance of Him 2012-04-23 38.3 RPGista

*William Steele 1: In the North 2012-10-21 39.8 Grayman

*Thief's Den 3: Heart of Lone Salvation 2010-04-02 42 Fidcal & Baddcog

*Lords & Legacy 2013-08-30 45 Kvorning

*Reap as you sow 2011-06-19 52 Fieldmedic

*Talbot 3: Fiasco at Fauchard Street 2011-05-01 59 Melan

*The Creeps 2011-10-30 60 Mortem Desino

*Penny Dreadful: The grail of regrets 2013-07-28 74 Melan

*Not An Ordinary Guest 2013-08-01 79.6 Fieldmedic

U- Dragon's Claw 2011-10-31 97.6 Bikerdude

*Thomas Porter 6: Lich Queen's Demise 2013-05-20 97.6 Sotha

*Penny Dreadfull: All the way up 2014-07-08 98 Melan & Bikerdude

*The Gatehouse 2014-01-29 100 Bikerdude & Golchocobo

*Requiem 2013-10-08 107.3 Moonbo

*A Score to Settle 2011-07-01 135 Springheel

*Sneak and Destroy 2012-04-12 158.3 SeriousToni

*/No Honor Among Thieves 2? 2010-04-29 174.1 GoldChocobo,

Mortem Desino & Bikerdude

[demagogue]

Follow Fidcal's A to Z tutorial and you can learn mapping very easily. It is not too technical and everything has exact instructions, or you can ask for help on the forums.

 

I encourage you to start mapping. It's by far the best way to get the FM you want. Just don't use Thief copyrighted things. Good luck! =)

[Springheel]

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=A_-_Z_Beginner_Full_Guide_Start_Here!

[wesp5]

As for series, No Honor Among Thieves is a 3-mission campaign, and the Thief's Den, Thomas Porter, William Steele, St. Alban, Talbot, Penny Dreadful, and Selis Woderose series have each been identified in the in-game downloader.

 

So have some of these been updated to show this in the list? Because I'm pretty sure several weren't the last time I played. Or do I need to re-download them or something?

[Bikerdude]

• Nhat - has been hidden due to the major freeze bug in the cathedral (its being worked on)
  
• Thiefs Den - is available.
  
• TP series - are all available.
  
• St Alban - if you mean the cathedral of St Alban, thats available.
  
• PD2 - is available.
  
• Selis W - er what series is this?
  

As Ive previously said, untill a fix is forthcoming for updated mission players will simple have to delete the old local version on their computers.

[wesp5]

As Ive previously said, untill a fix is forthcoming for updated mission players will simple have to delete the old local version on their computers.

 

Is this valid for just renamed missions too? So in case some series missions have been renamed, I would have to manually delete the old ones by first using an online list to find out which missions belongs to which series?

 

As for the ratings, wasn't there some talk about adding a rating by only the player himself with no need to go online? Just to have a hint later on which missions one liked the best! Or adding the difficulty by e.g. changing the hook colour, which could be used for a rating too, like red=bad, yellow=okay, green=cool !

Edited July 17, 2014 by wesp5

[Paralytik]

A common misconception about the TDM management when it comes to updates seems to be that everyone making missions are in the "same team" while developing. To clarify, the peeps making the missions are all (most of the time) working independently, on different skill levels and with different methods and workflows. Hence, when it comes to updates, it's basically all up to the individual who made the mission to patch it for newer versions. A one-patch-fix-all is within this framework not possible for obvious reasons.

[grayman]

When we make a new rev of TDM, we do our best to test existing missions. In the beginning, this was easy, because there were only a handful. Now that we're at 80+, we rely on recruiting beta testers to cover as many missions as time allows.

 

If we encounter a problem in an existing mission that's caused by a TDM rev change, we'll either change the change or work with the mission author to change the mission. (In the last release, I needed to get permission to update a mission so it would work properly with a change I'd made in 2.02. When we released 2.02, I released the update.)

 

This isn't common, and sometimes we find we've missed something.

 

So it isn't entirely up to the mission author to keep up with TDM changes. Our rule is not to break existing missions, so when we find we must, we work with the mission author to either help them do the necessary update, or we make the update ourselves, with their permission.

[Paralytik]

So it isn't entirely up to the mission author to keep up with TDM changes. Our rule is not to break existing missions, so when we find we must, we work with the mission author to either help them do the necessary update, or we make the update ourselves, with their permission.

Good to know, thanks for sharing grayman. :3