Welcome to the Snatcher's Workshop.

Come on in, we may have something for you today. Feel free to look around. We trade everything here.

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We realize new ideas and take existing ideas for a spin. For fun. Somewhere in this post you will find a download with mods. Good care was put to make all mods as little intrusive as possible to make them compatible with as many missions as possible. This set of mods will never break your game but some features won't be available in a handful of missions (the reasons are known). Feel free to report here what works and what doesn't.

TDM Modpack vs. Unofficial Patch

With the release of recent versions of the TDM Modpack I consider the most relevant features of the Unofficial Patch have been matched, superseded, improved, or simply implemented in different ways. More importantly, the TDM Modpack is not only tightly packed and it has a minimal impact in your install but it achieves more by altering less core files, meaning more compatibility and less maintenance. One can, of course, argue.

TDM Modpack 5.0

Compatible with The Dark Mod 2.13 (only)

A lightweight, stable, non-intrusive, mission-friendly Modpack for The Dark Mod that includes many enhancements and a new set of tools and abilities for our protagonist: peek through doors, blow and ignite candles, whistle to distract enemies, mark your location, an invisibility-speed combo and more.

Mods included in the pack do not alter your game or any of the missions in any relevant way. The pack includes enhancements to the core game and additions that can be used in missions but at the same time respects the vision of the mission creators. It is up to you to make use of any of the new tools and abilities or not.

Please note that sometimes authors include in their missions their own versions of core files and as a result, some mods are not available in some missions. All missions will play fine regardless.

Release posts:

• v5 series: v5.0
• v4 series: v4.0 | v4.2 | v4.5 | v4.6
• v3 series: v3.0 | v3.2 | v3.3 | v3.4 | v3.5 | v3.6 | v3.8
• v2 series: v2.0 | v2.2 | v2.4 | v2.5 | v2.6 | v2.7 | v2.8
• v1 series: v1.0 | v1.2 | v1.4 | v1.6 | v1.8

What's included in the pack?

-:- APP: GENERIC MOD ENABLER -:-

• Credits: JoneSoft
• License: Free for unlimited time for Home users and non-profit organizations.
• Description: A portable, freely distributable Mod enabler/disabler. This application is required to run mods safely and it is included in the pack.

At the heart of the Modpack resides JSGME (JoneSoft Generic Mod Enabler), an application that allows players to enable and disable mods with one click. JSGME has been around for more than a decade and it is to be fully trusted.

Refer to the install instructions section at the bottom for full details.

-:- MOD: CORE ESSENTIALS -:-

A pack that includes a variety of mods from the best modders of TDM:

~ FAST DOORS

• Credits: Idea and programming by Obsttorte. Treatment by snatcher.
• Availability: All missions except Noble Affairs, Seeking Lady Leicester, Shadows of Northdale ACT II, Snowed Inn, The Imperial Sword, Volta 3: Gemcutter and a handful of lesser missions.
• Description: Being chased? In a rush? No problem: doors open and close faster when running.
• Topic: Slam doors open while running

 ~ QUIET DOORS

• Credits: An idea by SeriousToni (Sneak & Destroy mission). Mod by snatcher.
• Availability: All missions except Noble Affairs, Seeking Lady Leicester, Shadows of Northdale ACT II, Snowed Inn, The Imperial Sword, Volta 3: Gemcutter and a handful of lesser missions.
• Description: A vast number of doors play more subtle, sneaky sounds for a quieter, stealthier experience. This applies to doors that come with default sounds but only when manipulated by the player.
• Topic: Decrease volume of open/close door sounds triggered by player

 ~ LOOT ANIMATIONS

• Credits: Original idea by Goldwell (Noble Affairs mission). Programming by Obsttorte. Treatment by snatcher and wesp5.
• Availability: All missions except You Only Fly Thrice and a bunch of missions that come with their own implementation (tdm_frobactions.script).
• Description: Moves the loot towards the player before putting it in the inventory, underlining the impression of actually taking it. This mod comes with a subtle new loot sound that goes along nicely with the animation.

~ DYNAMIC INVENTORY

• Credits: snatcher.
• Availability: All missions.
• Description: When picking up loot this mod displays the loot info in the inventory and shortly after reverts back to the last non-loot item selected. The mod in addition, remembers the last item selected when shouldering and unshouldering a body.

~ SMART CONTAINERS

• Credits: Obsttorte (source code updates), Dragofer (similar attempts), snatcher.
• Availability: All missions.
• Description: To facilitate looting, the bottom of many containers (chests, jewellery boxes, etc...) gets automatically disabled at the beginning of the mission and only the lid remains frobable.

~ STEALTH MONITOR

• Credits: kcghost, Dragofer, snatcher.
• Availability: All missions.
• Description: Display some stats (Suspicions / Searches / Sightings) and the Stealth Score during a mission. Just bring up the "Loot" inventory icon and press "Use" (or setup a dedicated key).

~ STEALTH ALERT

• Credits: snatcher.
• Availability: All missions.
• Description: Completing a mission without being seen is something that can be done with some practice and patience. This mod will play an alerting chime whenever you are seen so that you don't have to monitor the Stealth stats all the time.

~ BLINKING ITEMS

• Credits: snatcher.
• Availability: All missions.
• Requisites: Console command r_newFrob must be 0, which is the game default.
• Description: Items within frob distance that go into the inventory (plus static readables) emit a subtle blink. This pulse can help you identify some valuable items that otherwise are difficult to detect.
• Topic: New Frob Shader

~ SMART OBJECTS

• Credits: snatcher, Dragofer.
• Availability: All missions.
• Description: Display actor and object names whenever you grab an entity with a name. In addition, objects (except AI entities) do not make or propagate sounds on impact while being manipulated.
• Topics: No impact sounds while holding an object / Nameless objects... a missed opportunity

~ FRAGILE BOTTLES

• Credits: snatcher.
• Availability: All mission except for few items in A Reputation to Uphold and Shadows of Northdale ACT I & ACT II.
• Description: No stealth game is complete without some good bottle smashing! There are hundreds and hundreds of bottles in our mission catalogue: go to your nearest kitchen, take a bottle and throw it to distract AI, extinguish fires...
• Topic: Breakable throwables

~ ALT FOOTSTEPS ON WATER

• Credits: SeriousToni.
• Availability: All missions except Hazard Pay, Noble Affairs, Shadows of Northdale ACT I and ACT II, Snowed Inn, Volta 2: Cauldron and a handful of lesser missions.
• Description: Alternative sounds of footsteps on water for our protagonist (walk / run / land).
• Topic: New Footstep sounds

~ MISCELLANEOUS

1. Re-worked Inventory menu (more compact). Items can be sorted.
2. Inventory count removed for non-stackable items.
3. Alternative high mantle sound for our protagonist.
4. Removed two anticlimactic player dying sounds
5. Revamped and extended "Mission Complete" audio theme.
6. Standardization of frob distances for some doors.
7. Decreased brightness of the Objectives and the Inventory.
8. Decreased brightness of stock newspapers.
9. Player weapons are visually visible in the dark.

-:- MOD: PLAYER SKILLS -:-

A new "Skills" category is added to the inventory on mission load and the category includes the below abilities:

~  SKILL: PEEK

• Credits: Dragofer, snatcher, wesp5
• Availability: All missions.
• Description: When the item is selected the player can peek through any regular door. Select the item in the inventory and "Use" it on a door.
• Topic: Peek through (almost) every door

~  SKILL: BLOW / IGNITE

• Credits: Dragofer, wesp5, Obsttorte, snatcher.
• Availability: All missions.
• Description: When the item is selected the player can blow out and light up candles and oil lamps. Select the item in the inventory and "Use" it on small flame sources.
• Topic: Extinguish small lights with a blow

~ SKILL: WHISTLE

• Credits: snatcher.
• Availability: All missions.
• Description: When the item is selected the player can whistle and draw the attention of nearby AI. The more you whistle, the more attention it draws. Select the item in the inventory and just "Use" it. Keep a safe distance.

~ SKILL: ALCHEMY

• Credits: OrbWeaver, MirceaKitsune, datiswous, wesp5, snatcher.
• Availability: All missions.
• Description: When the item is selected the player can alter the properties of broadhead arrows by applying different reagents. Select the item in the inventory and "Use" it repeatedly to cycle through the different arrow types.
• Topic: Alchemy to alter arrow properties?

Arrow types:

1. Shadow arrow compound or "Darkdust": Widely believed to be a myth, little to nothing is known about anti-light matter. Where did our protagonist get his formula from? When this substance is subject to strain the particles implode and the residual component absorbs light until it dissipates completely.
2. Flare arrow compound or "Starlight": A recipe based on luminescent mushrooms and other exotic herbs. The resulting powder produces, for limited time, a dim but steady blue-ish glow when mixed with the right reactive. A high concentration of the active mixture can cause a burning sensation to the eyes.

~ SKILL: LOOP

• Credits: snatcher.
• Availability: All missions.
• Description: When the item is selected the player can teleport between two points. You can activate the loop any time and use it to quickly travel back to a safe location, to explore two different areas in parallel or to ambush AI. If the loop fails keep trying, you should be able to get to your destination eventually. If your path forward is blocked you can break the loop by pressing the "use" key for 10 seconds, just make sure you are on the correct side of the loop...

~ SKILL: PENUMBRA

• Credits: VanishedOne (speed potion), kingsal (invisibility potion), snatcher (alchemy).
• Availability: All missions.
• Description: When the item is selected the player can avoid light sources and run faster than usual for limited time. Health consumed will gradually be restored. Penumbra doesn't muffle the noise you make and it doesn't work when in contact with water.

THE PATH TO UMBRA: How to become one with the shadows

Did you know?

You can set key bindings for the skills by clicking on the Modpack banner in the Main screen:

-:- MOD: CLASSIC BLACKJACK -:-

• Credits: Obsttorte, snatcher.
• Availability: All missions except A House of Locked Secrets.
• Description: A straightforward approach to blackjacking with new rules and mechanics inspired by the original Thief games. Never miss a KO again! - No indicator required.

"Classic Blackjack" rules:

Some AI are KO-immune and cannot be KOed:
* Undead, creatures...
* Guards wearing heavy helmets (to respect TDM vision)
* Other: set by mission authors for the plot, in example

The rest of AI can be KOed, just aim for the head:
* Civilians: Can always be knocked out from any direction
* Combatants: Can always be knocked out (including when fleeing) from any direction except when in high alert state (normally in combat mode)

As reference, you can find in the Wiki the set of rules of the non-modded TDM:

https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=The_Dark_Mod_Gameplay#Blackjacking

-:- MOD: FLASH GRENADE -:-

• Credits: snatcher, kingsal.
• Availability: All missions except Hazard Pay and Moongate Ruckus.
• Description: Flashbombs are clumsy and loud but as effective as ever. Instead of throwing Flashbombs like a cannonball we now toss them. Instead of exploding on impact Flashbombs now have a fuse. The chances of blinding have been greatly increased.

-:- MOD: FORWARD LANTERN -:-

• Credits: snatcher.
• Availability: All missions except Flakebridge Monastery, Hazard pay, Moongate Ruckus, Snowed Inn, Vota 1, 2 & 3.
• Description: The mod replaces the light of the player lantern with a subtle forward facing version.

-:- MOD: HUNTER BOW -:-

• Credits: snatcher.
• Availability: Most missions (a few missions do things differently but you should never notice).
• Description: Nock and draw arrows at a faster rate. Extended radius of gas arrow effect. Chance to retrieve rope arrows when missing a shot.

-:- MOD: LIGHT STONES -:-

• Credits: Idea by Zerg Rush, snatcher.
• Availability: All missions.
• Requisites: Lightgem enabled in Gameplay > General settings.
• Description: Splits the Light Gem into smaller stones with unique light detection levels.

-:- MOD: RING HELPER -:-

• Credits: snatcher.
• Availability: All missions but the ring is dimmer when using the x-ray glasses or other overlays.
• Requisites: Frob Helper enabled in Gameplay > General settings.
• Description: The mod replaces the white dot pointer (Frob Helper) with an advanced ring-shaped aimer. The main difference is that the helper is now available for all objects you can interact with, large or small.
• Topic: Frob Helper discussion

Options in Gameplay > General > Show Frob Helper:

• Always: Pointer and Ring
• Hover: Instant Ring
• Fade In: Ring delayed by one second
• Fade In Fast: Ring delayed by half second
• No: Off

-:- MOD: SHADOW MARK -:-

• Credits: snatcher, Obsttorte.
• Availability: All missions.
• Description: Our protagonist's lucky deck! When the item is selected the player can drop and throw playing cards to mark a location. Cards can be retrieved. AI will not normally mind a single card lying around but cards can sometimes be noticed.
• Topic: Find more details in this post

-:- MOD: SHOCK MINE -:-

• Credits: wesp5, snatcher.
• Availability: All missions.
• Description: This mod replaces the Flashmines with portable contraptions originally intended to store energy that have been altered to deliver a non-lethal electric shock to those who step on them. Remember: mines can be disarmed with the lockpicks!

-:- MOD: SIMPLE SUBTITLES -:-

• Credits: Geep, stgatilov, snatcher.
• Availability: All missions.
• Description: A minimalist, imperfect approach to subtitles (you can set the scope of the subs in the audio settings).
• Topics: Subtitles - Possibilities Beyond 2.11 / English Subtitles for AI Barks

Go to the audio settings and set the scope you prefer:

• Story: Story only
• On: Story and general speech (Give it a try!)
• Off: Disable subtitles

Features of the mod:

1. Background replaced with a font outline.
2. Audio source widget replaced with a text transparency based on distance (volume) to the source.
3. Yellow font color for story subs for best contrast, light grey font color for anything else.
4. Non-story subs limited to a single instance, so that players aren't bothered too much with non-relevant subs (barks).

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DOWNLOADS / INSTALL / UNINSTALL

So, how do I install and play with all this? Quite easy, but pay attention. I don't want you to break your game so we will be using a "Mod Enabler". A Mod Enabler allows you to enable and disable mods at will, with a few clicks.

Before moving forward you must know a couple of things:

• The moment you enable a mod, previous saves will not work. If you want to load previous saves then you will have to disable the mod.
• If you play a mission with mods, the saves will only work when that exact set of mods are enabled.

This above is important in case you deem your current saves precious. Consider yourself informed.

DOWNLOADS

You can download the TDM Modpack from Mod DB:

INSTALL INSTRUCTIONS

Download the zip, unzip it, and move contents to your TDM root folder:

• Folder "MODS"
• File "JSGME.exe"

Go to your TDM root folder and double click on JSGME.exe (yellow icon). The first time you launch JSGME, it will ask for the "Mods Folder Name". Leave "MODS" and click OK.

Now to your left you will find a list of mods available. To your right you will find a list of mods currently enabled.

• To enable a mod, select a mod on the left, and click on the arrow pointing to the right.
• To disable a mod, select a mod on the right, and click on the arrow pointing to the left.

Go and enable the mods you want:

UNINSTALL INSTRUCTIONS

1. Quit the game (to unblock files)
2. Go to your TDM root folder and double click on JSGME.ese (yellow icon)
3. Disable all mods found on the right
4. Close JSGME

Delete the following:

• Folder "MODS"
• File "JSGME.exe"
• File "JSGME.ini"

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I hope you enjoy the mods.

No coin? then leave a like for pirate's sake!

New Frob Control Styles

I have completely refactored the frob-handling code. Now, it is easy to setup different frob control styles. There are currently 3 (and a half), which you can try in 2.14 beta. Under "Settings  > Gameplay > General > Hold Frob/Interact" (cvar tdm_frob_control_style), you can change the frob control style. This setting replaced the previous hold frob delay setting (tdm_holdfrob_delay), because I think that nobody would touch that value unless they want to disable the holdfrob mechanic, which can now be achieved by the new setting as well.

The currently available control styles are:

• Disabled: No hold-frob mechanic, i.e., pre v2.12 control style
• TDM: Short frob is the same as pre v2.12, but long frob is a shortcut for "grab and then use" (use-type interactions)
• Thief (v2.12): Same as TDM, but behaviour for bodies is swapped. Body limbs are interacted with via "drag and drop".
• TDM-inverted: Short frob for use-type interactions, hold frob to "drag and drop" objects (when you release the mouse button, you will release the object)

I always loved the drag and drop interaction with body limbs created by Daft Mugi and I wanted to see it consistently extended to all objects, which motivated the refactor. I am very happy with the result and I hope you players enjoy it as much as I do. The Thief control style will still remain the default settings, however, as I didn't want to open that can of worms.

Hold-Frob Mechanic for Doors

There was previously no hold-frob mechanic for doors, except for experimental manual door control feature. I have added two additional new control modes for hold-frob on doors, which you can activate through the cvar tdm_door_control. The modes are:

• 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.

It felt like mode 3 ("Slow Open") gave the most benefits and most direct controls to the player and pairs well with the force-close mechanic. So, I just set "Slow Open" as the default and I did not add it to the settings menu, but you are of course encouraged to try the other modes as well.

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

Please use this thread to report any issues with frobbing (always state tdm_frob_control_style and tdm_door_control configuration), the new door control modes (please test them rigorously) and to give feedback on any of the above changes.

UPDATE: These changes were removed in beta214-07.

Pinging players that previously showed interest in this: @wesp5, @snatcher, @Baal, @Skaruts, @Wellingtoncrab, @Amadeus

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!

https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/addons/the-dark-mod-unofficial-patch

Version Changelog:
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v1.7                                                      20.08.2022
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Made loot icon change right back to last tool icon, thanks snatcher.
Added new whistle player skill to distract NPCs, thanks to snatcher.
Made more lights extinguishable and added info for 4 beta missions.
Corrected container bottom fix messing up drawers, thanks Dragofer.
Improved unlit behaviour of moveable light sources, thanks snatcher.
Corrected lit lamps set to extinguished in maps, thanks to Dragofer.
Changed western empire maps so the location of Bridgeport is vague.
Added several major city names to the small map, thanks to Kukutoo.
Fixed frobing animation not working with bound and carried entities.

v1.6                                                      23.07.2022
----
Improved extinguishing oil lamps, thanks to Dragofer and Obsttorte.
Added frobing animation, thanks to Obsttorte, Goldwell and snatcher.
Fixed container bottoms and training mission chest, thanks Dragofer.
Made doors open faster when running, thanks Obsttorte and snatcher.
Added more player tools to training mission and improved text there.
Fixed Holy Water doing no damage and Hazard Pay not starting at all.
Made all five oil lamps in Sotha's "The Bakery Job" extinguishable.
Added blow player skill to snuff out small flames, thanks snatcher.
Changed Unarmed icon to make clear that the player always has a bow.

v1.5                                                      02.07.2022
----
Created Invisibility Potion out of cut Speed Potion, thanks Kingsal.
Increased arrow head shot damage to both living and undead enemies.
Replaced slow matches with easier to handle flints, thanks Kingsal.

v1.4                                                      10.03.2022
----
Replaced Frob Helper with dark Frob Outline and updated to TDM 2.10.
Made electric mine stun elite guards too and improved mission names.
Renamed mission installation/selection UI mishmash to "activation".

v1.3                                                      21.02.2021
----
Changed flashmine to stunning electric mine and updated to TDM 2.09.
Edited more mission names and made threefold candles extinguishable.

v1.2                                                      26.08.2020
----
Updated to TDM 2.08 and fixed custom holywater script compatibility.
Added Numbers Scroll showing stealth and loot info, thanks Dragofer.
Edited more mission names to avoid truncated descriptions in menus.
Added default keys info to training mission and repaired cut lines.

v1.1                                                      03.02.2019
----
Moveable candles can be extinguished directly by frobing the candle.
More blackjack immune enemies and inextinguishable candles modified.
The key frob distance has been decreased to be that of lockpicking.
Holy Water bottles must be thrown directly, but they do more damage.
The controls settings menu additions have been updated for TDM 2.07.
New mission names have been fixed to fix format and spacing issues.
Added looking up and looking down controls for people without mouse.
Pointed bad prefabs container open/close sounds to existing effects.
Added version info to starting screen and edited some new missions.

v1.0                                                      06.05.2018
----
Many enemies will not become immune to blackjacking when alerted.
Oil lamps can be snuffed by frobing, thanks Destined and Obsttorte.
The controls settings menu lists that "use" can work on held items.
Mission names were syncronized between download and online lists.
The controls settings menu lists that "frob" can get or drop items.
Astericks were added to official missions to move them to list top.
Minor text and format bugs have been fixed in some mission infos.

image hosting site

Isn't worthing some efforts to implement this shader as an engine part with the possibility for the player to choose between the classic - linear - perspective a more "shape-preserving" variant?

https://reshade.me/forum/shader-presentation/3916-distortion-correction-conformal-perspective

->

https://github.com/crosire/reshade-shaders/blob/master/Shaders/PerfectPerspective.fx

I get TDM errors about not being able to creating a GL window, and then it quits.

I've checked the Mesa drivers and get the rotating cube  kmscube  to verify that all is up to date.

Has anyone else actually managed to get this running on a pi 5 8GB?

Many thanks,

[BOX64] Using native(wrapped) libX11-xcb.so.1
Initializing OpenGL display
Borderless fullscreen - using current video mode for monitor 0: 1920 x 1080
[BOX64] Using native(wrapped) libGLX.so.0
Failed creating window
Retrying OpenGL initialization in safe mode
Initializing OpenGL display
Failed creating window
--------- Game Map Shutdown ----------
--------- Game Map Shutdown done -----
idRenderSystem::Shutdown()
[BOX64] 282970|Ask to run at NULL, will segfault
signal caught: Segmentation fault
si_code 1
Was in fatal error shutdown: Unable to initialize OpenGL
Trying to exit gracefully..

If yes, please notice that my archive consists of two executables: Doom3_LATC.exe and Doom3_RGTC.exe. Jean Michiel Paul van Waveren, id Software, and Ignacio Castaño, nVidia, think that LATC is more convenient than RGTC in some cases, so I provide both versions: LATC and RGTC.

I must warn you: there is no warranty that my executables will work as it should, so use it on your own risk.

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?

Nowadays, language translation using AI, either traditional machine learning (ML) models or large language models (LLMs), is common and increasingly fluent. It is often used as an adjunct to speed the work of professional human translators. By itself, AI translation can be imperfect but usually sufficient.

Can this "sufficient" approach be used for TDM, to expedite translations? Let's see.

I gave some initial thought to a bulk-translation daemon that might range across FMs and fill in all missing translations, without necessarily involving mappers. In the future, possibly AI could tackle that whole enchilada. I was at first visualizing something more modest: a backbone in a standard programming language (I sketched out C++ and C# projects, but lots of other possibilities) that would make calls to an API (I looked at those of Google Translate and ChatGPT).

However, I changed focus due to certain concerns...

1. Different FMs, and subsets with each FM, would likely have far better translations if they were properly grouped, ordered, and translated separately, with an appropriate context (e.g., phrase engineering) added. The FM's mapper is best placed to provide this grouping and context. I'll detail what I mean in the next few posts.
2. The mapper would not be expected to know any TDM-supported languages besides English. Instead, each translated phrase could be back-translated to English and examined. Is the "round-trip" meaning OK, even if the English words have changed? Problematic translations could have their context tweaked and rerun.
3. Many AI systems, particularly for API access, require a billing commitment (e.g., credit card).  For a professional translator, this is no problem, and subscriptions allow access to more (and putatively better) models and higher quotas. This seems less appealing for TDM. A few paid AI systems have a no-subscription, pay-as-you-go account tier. The cost per translate is typically pennies. But it does introduce quota- and expense-management, and may exclude API usage.
4. Access via API requires an API key (or at the higher end more elaborate security regime), with attendant key-security headaches.
5. Which AI model is thought "best" for translation? Doesn't matter too much, because we can't afford the best. Furthermore, there's endless churn among AI models, with antidotal reports that a given model fluctuates in quality over time, and successor models can be worse than their predecessors.

So, with these concerns in mind, I looked for public web-based AI sites that require no billing and provide low-quota but adequate AI. The mapper would enter and retrieve data manually. I will focus on ChatGPT in this exploration, after a quick preliminary test confirmed some promise.

Also, as this exploration proceeds, I hope to propose changes to TDM to make it more viable for "sufficient" quality machine translation. Problem areas are incomplete fonts, space-constraints, and layout issues for translated strings. My proposals will likely surface as separate forum threads.

That's enough for now. I'll be trying for 1 or 2 substantive posts per week, as I tackle a particular FM.

I fired up Dark Mod with mild enthusiasm; it's a mod, afterall. But after having played through Tears of st Lucia, it left me almost shaking afterwards. This is Thief, pure and simple. Thief with Crysis-like graphics. It's an amazing piece of work you have done! It's what T3 should've been right from the start.

Dark Mod feels just like Thief. This is Thief!

I noticed that if i open doors, no one becomes alerted, I can open and close a door 100 times and still no alert.

I think it would be much more realistic if the A.I became alerted to the opening of a door and when the door is closed as it is noisy.

Or certain areas of the map that are not busy the A.I becomes alerted.

Just a thought.

There is more than one angle to this issue but I am mainly concerned about too many stages in materials that are somewhat taxing in terms of performance.

Imagine rendering of 3K surfaces interacting with 3 lights in average and using materials with 7 stages in average.

The renderer loops through every stage for every surface making it ~ 20K checks per loop.

It has to happen during the depth stage, then each light and then the ambient pass resulting in 100K checks.

It makes sense to try to reduce this load, especially considering that the frob stage is relatively rarely invoked and the checks happen on the backend making it hard to parallelize the computation.

I am thinking adding a top-level material keyword that would apply as frob color and get passed to the ambient shader when the surface is a part of a frobable entity.

I would like to hear your thoughts from the mapper/designer POV.

The default value for this duration is currently 1500 ms, i.e., 1.5 s. You can change it via the cvar tdm_ai_ko_susceptibility_after_flash_duration in the unit of milliseconds. If you set the duration to "infinity", non-elite AI can be KOed for the full duration of the flash.

Bugtracker: #6636.

2.14 Beta

Please post issues and feedback related to KO after flash here. Please also try out some different values for the duration (tdm_ai_ko_susceptibility_after_flash_duration) and give feedback if the current default is suitable or if and why it should be changed.

Pinging some players that previously showed interest in this feature: @chumbucket91, @chakkman, @Epifire, @nbohr1more, @snatcher

A.) the ingame downloader offers to list the missions sorted by release date !
      would be nice to have this option also for the ingame choose to play side

B.) Climbing has changed for some time now.
      In 2.10, it was possible to quickly switch between the crouching and standing positions while climbing.
      Since 2.11, this no longer works. 
      (when you stand upright and want to squat – you slide down the rope/net or similar)
      there were surely good reasons to reconfigure something for the squat position
      don't remember who did it – but it certainly wasn't their intention to have this effect
I would love to get back the possibility to switch between crouch and tall - while climbing 
(Perhaps only part of the ascent is in the shadow – you can rest there in a smaller, visible pose –
take a quick look – and then return to the shadow until it's time to move on.)

C.)Just to add another idea – more of a funny extra to arrows – a real knockout arrow
     not a gas dart, rather with a rubber ball at the tip – which then works like a blackjack and can be found again

Edit !  P.S. : New 
D.) would be nice to have the mission name in the stats screen !
                                   

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:

Quote

Overcomplicated and weird solutions. Here overcomplicated solution is mentioned putting body on your back and extinguishing candles. Both requires frobbing them to pick them up and then you need to use extra button to put body on back/exstinguish candle. And for candle you need to remember to drop it. This becomes annoying very quickly. Why can't I just do these actions by simply frobbing them? I don't want to drag body/pick up candle.

https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=152006&page=2&p=2496339&viewfull=1#post2496339

TDM Forums (2021-03-13)

Player 2:

Quote

I wanted to ask how to do it but I just discovered quite randomly pressing enter [extinguishes candles]. It should be mentioned in controls/actions.

https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/20842-extinguishing-candles/

Player 3:

Quote

You pick up bodies in the same way, by the way. Just so you know, and don't realize after a year of playing the mod, like me...

https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/20842-extinguishing-candles/&do=findComment&comment=458038

TDM Forums (2023-06-17)

Player 4:

Quote

For the life of me, I can't find anyway to pick up a body. Also can't loot a body either. I've tried every single key on the keyboard and mouse and nothing. The search here seem to focus on single words instead of a phrase or combination of words. HELP!

https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22142-pick-up-a-body/

TDM Discord (2021-05-18)

Player 5:

Quote

I'm doing the training mission, object manipulation. I can't figure out how to snuff out a candle (without [throwing] it). [I've] seen it [done] by others on youtube. I can rotate, move it, drop it, but not [quietly] extinguish it. What's [the key]? Thanks.

https://discord.com/channels/148841671751106563/148841671751106563/844358460497854495

TDM Discord (2023-02-14)

Player 6:

Quote

It does remind me that the way candles are extinguished in TDM is very unintuitive - being able to interact with candles to extinguish them is what I spent time figuring out on first playthroughs and having to abuse nearby geometry to achieve the same result (more noisily) is really weird.

https://discord.com/channels/148841671751106563/148841671751106563/1075001336820670545

Player 7:

Quote

I agree with you on this one - I'd like to be able to blow out the candles by just looking at them and pressing the "Use" button, without lifting them first. Pinching/blowing... whatever that is; all I want is to be albe to extinguish the candles without moving them around.

https://discord.com/channels/148841671751106563/148841671751106563/1075002379549806623

Player 8:

Quote

Oh, yes! I always hated that. Pinching the wick of a candle should not require me to pick up the candle, especially when it's so unnaturally difficult to put the candle back where it was.

https://discord.com/channels/148841671751106563/148841671751106563/1075014078952652840

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

Cryengine Community Edition https://engine.pterosoftstudio.com/

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.

I never played any FPS or most games using something other than the keyboard and mouse, this feels like an interesting opportunity to try it out. TDM is one of the games I might enjoy playing with such a thing, especially since it doesn't require super-fast reactions till I get used to it like a deathmatch shooter. So until the device arrives tomorrow, I figured I'd ask how well I can expect TDM to run on such a thing! Especially now that we have a new rendering and input management system for the upcoming TDM 2.10.

There's a few things I wanted to know. One is if both looking around as well as movement using the finger pads is supported. I remember some games allowed walking more slowly if you only pushed the pad slightly; Does this mean it's possible to sneak by only moving the pad a bit, in a way that affects how much guards hear you?

Otherwise I was curious if force feedback (vibration) is implemented and used. For TDM this mainly makes sense when you take damage, are in radius of a sound that has the shake effect, and other potential situations I might be missing now. Is gamepad vibration a feature in the engine at least?

TDM 2.12 introduced a subtle rebalance to player footstep sound volumes. This was meant to be the first step towards an overhaul for all footstep sounds, both in volume levels and variety, since quite a few materials share sound files. 2.13 added "improved footstep sounds for broken glass and ice material surfaces"

Almost one year later since 2.13, this project has completely stagnated; as a regular user that tried to chip in, I've seen the motivation fade out from the devs and mappers involved.
So instead of letting it rot, I've made the early attempts to achieve this overhaul into a mod.
The scope has widened a bit, since I decided to tackle annoying things such as alert 3 & 4 duration or sound propagation for blackjack/sword impact stims.

Repository to report issues: https://codeberg.org/SilverKeeper/tdm-sound-polish

Installation

Latest release: https://codeberg.org/SilverKeeper/tdm-sound-polish/releases/download/v1.0/Sound Polish Mod v1.0.7z

The mod comes in three versions:

• x_sound_polish_mod.pk4 is the main version, using TDM Core sounds but with handpicked improved files from other soundpacks. Read the changelog for a detailed listing.
• x_sound_polish_mod_VoltaFootstepMod.pk4 has the handpicked files from the main version + footstep sounds from Kingsal's "Volta" series, both for the player and humanoid AI.
• x_sound_polish_mod_ThiefierSoundsByGin.pk4 has the handpicked files from the main version +  the footstep sounds from Gin's "Thiefier Sounds" soundpack, both for the player and humanoid AI.

Copy one of those to TDM root folder.

Additionally, you can copy autocommands.cfg or my personal autocommands_full.cfg and rename it as autocommands.cfg.
Look at Gameplay and TDM settings for a brief explanation.

The `_Docs` folder has detailed documentation on my definition changes, final footstep propagation values (based on TDM Core `tdm_propagated_sounds.def` propagation values) and a list of FMs with custom footstep
sounds to keep track of potential incompatibilities.

Overview

Footsteps

• .sndshd files for humanoid and player footsteps were a complete mess. They were mixed between 3 files when they should've been properly categorized in 2, materials shared one shader for the AI and the player, and in rare cases they outright played the wrong sound files (player carpet footsteps were "placeholders" currently used as AI barefoot footsteps). This has been the hardest part of the mod and hopefully it serves as template for TDM Core files.
   
• Both the player and AI (but particularly the player) are too quiet when they walk. The player barely hears their own footsteps, but the AI reacts strongly to them. Material sound shader values have been balanced according to the sound propagation transmitted to the AI.
  Jumping shaders are the loudest and speed shaders decrease the volume from there the slower you move.
  AI shaders start being audible too late for them to serve as a warning; their `maxDistance` has been increased. Monsters were also too stealthy, specially spiders (and particularly the small spiders).
   
• Sound files themselves had room for improvement, too. Some files needed amplifying (without clipping, of course) to have more leeway with sound shader volumes. Others were disabled/pitch-modified/replaced. In particular, AI had some weak-sounding footstep sounds. Pitch-modified variants of the player footsteps have replaced the worst AI footstep sounds.
  Alternative versions with "Volta footsteps mod" by Kingsal and "Thiefier Sounds" by Gin have also been created.

Sound propagation and AI

• While TDM AI reacts to sound reasonably well, the base volume of the player's walk and creep sound propagation shaders is a bit too high, triggering alert 2 too easily.
  Those have been decreased for a more enjoyable gameplay.
   
• Thief featured a bait mechanic in the form of stims triggered by slamming your blackjack or sword against objects. This was nerfed in Deadly Shadows; now even walls played impact sounds, but AI was deaf to them. Currently, TDM has the potential to bring the mechanic back, but it's undercooked.
  All materials play the same sound propagation shader, so AI only hears you bashing wood, regardless of the material... And even that does absolutely nothing to the alert level.
  I've improvised material-specific shaders for both the blackjack and the sword. There seems to be a problem with value modifiers for the weapon entities... I can't take advantage of the feature.
   
• Alert 3 & 4 have insane duration and fuzzyness values. AI takes forever to go back to alert 2; duration gets... multiplied? randomly by, at most, the fuzzyness value or any number below that. Those values have been decreased for a reasonable fail state, so players don't normalize quicksaving when they get caught.
   
• Stationary AIs should play their barks frequently so you can point them out by ear before stumbling upon them. TDM Core intervals are too wide... Now barks and snores will occur more frequently.

Gameplay and TDM settings

• Frob distance for pickpocketting has a shorter distance than other actions in TDM. While in principiple this should make pickpocketting more "tense", the bump mechanic gets in the way here. Being caught because you miscalculated the timeframe before the AI would turn around is one thing; being caught because you bumped your head into their back from forward-leaning in another.
  Now frob distance of objects carried by AI is more consistent with the rest of TDM and closer to Thief.
   
• Several aspects of the movement are rather uncomfortable. Headbobbing is nauseating, footstep rate is very exaggerated and running speed feels slow.
  An autocommand.cfg file has been provided for this, as well as a complete autocommand_full.cfg with my personal settings for TDM.
  While the increased running speed shouldn't break anything, it is an opionated value from two FM authors and might not be balanced for the rest of TDM FMs.

Credits & thanks

• Daft Mugi and WellingtonCrab for carrying the brief but powerful efforts to start cleaning this up, and for creating the Player Footstep Sounds Test Map.
• Daft Mugi in particular for sharing the tuned player sound propagation values and the pickpocketting frob distance overrides.
• WellingtonCrab in particular for helping with AI alert 3 & 4 values and mentioning their overrides for AI barks used in their FMs.
• Ujtudor for their "Collection of adjusted sounds".
• Kingsal for their "Volta footsteps mod".
• SeriousToni for their "Alternative Footstep Sound Package" mod.
• Gin for their "Thiefier Sounds" mod.

If any dev is interested in starting and merging a stable implementation, I would suggest some considerations:

1. Fix jumping stepvol modifiers, if they even exist. Right now the player perceives different ranges of noise when jumping, but AI always hears the loudest value possible...
2. Make wiki documentation for every TDM material on how noisy their footsteps are for AIs. I've included all material final propagation values (as shown by the "tdm_spr_debug 1; con_noPrint 0" command) in a "_Docs" folder.
3. Inspect all entity .def files to detect missing sound material definitions

Besides that, sound files are all over the place. I would propose this for both sfx .pk4s:

tdm_sound_sfx01.pk4

• Move all player climbing files from sound/sfx/movement/footsteps in tdm_sound_sfx02.pk4 to a sound/sfx/movement/climbing folder here.
• Move all humanoid rustle files from sound/sfx/movement/footsteps in tdm_sound_sfx02.pk4 to sound/sfx/movement/rustles here. (and any other rustle files that wander around the .pk4s)

tdm_sound_sfx02.pk4

• Move all used player footsteps in sound/sfx/movement/footsteps or sound/sfx/movement/footsteps/human to sound/sfx/movement/footsteps/player. (You would need file duplication for some files, since core player declarations currently shares many files with NPCs...)
• Move all used NPC footsteps in sound/sfx/movement/footsteps to sound/sfx/movement/footsteps/human.
• Check and delete unused variation files of materials (there are a lot).

1. regular dev builds
2. source code SVN repository

Development builds are created once per a few weeks from the current trunk.

They can be obtained via tdm_installer.
Just run the installer, check "Get Custom Version" on the first page, then select proper version in "dev" folder on the second page.
Name of any dev version looks like devXXXXX-YYYY, where XXXXX and YYYY are SVN revision numbers from which the build was created.
The topmost version in the list is usually the most recent one.

Note: unless otherwise specified, savegames are incompatible between any two versions of TDM!

Programmers can obtain source code from SVN repository.
Trunk can be checked out from here: https://svn.thedarkmod.com/publicsvn/darkmod_src/trunk/
SVN root is: https://svn.thedarkmod.com/publicsvn/darkmod_src

Build instructions are provided inside repository.

Note that while you can build executable from the SVN repository, TDM installation of compatible version is required to run it.
Official TDM releases are compatible with source code archives provided on the website, and also with corresponding release tags in SVN.
A dev build is compatible with SVN trunk of revision YYYY, where YYYY is the second number in its version (as described above).
If you only want to experiment with the latest trunk, using the latest dev build gives you the maximum chance of success.

P.S. Needless to say, all of this comes with no support.
Although we would be glad if you catch and report bugs before the next beta phase starts