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Today I am happy to announce the release of my first FM for The Dark Mod. After 6 years of using this lovely game creation engine, I'm finally able to contribute my own project for it! It took roughly two weeks of non-stop work to do everything from start to end... there's always some little detail to come back to when mapping, thus there were a few little things left out to prioritize others, but at the end of the day this came out almost exactly as I envisioned it. In this mission you play as the typical professional thief. You've been hired to retrieve a scroll containing forbidden knowledge from the mansion of a wealthy noble, put there by the builder church who is close to its owner and found it a more suitable spot. A banquet is being thrown by the lord who owns the mansion which is the perfect opportunity to make your move. Nothing out of the ordinary: You're to retrieve this scroll and get paid for your work... simple, right? Notice: Performance in some areas may be poor. I optimized the lighting setup as much as possible, trying to use as few long range light sources as I could. To achieve the desired theme however I had to leave parts of them map relatively open. Hopefully this won't be a hindrance to anyone... if it is you may need to lower some graphical settings. For people who don't like surprises and may be sensitive to certain themes, read the spoiler below. If you're okay with anything don't as it will ruin the experience! For people who are stuck and don't know how to proceed, instructions are provided in the spoiler below. Only read them if necessary. A tip that needs no spoilers: The key in this FM is exploration and reading everything carefully. There are secrets to be found: Always look everywhere and closely at everyone! I'm eager to hear what your experience with this FM is. Use spoilers when referring to specifics, but do let me know what your thoughts are! Especially with this being my first FM I could use tips, including technical ones if you look at the map in DarkRadiant. Here are a few screenshots of the main areas (intended for the installer): And finally the download links. Unzip and place the main directory inside your fms folder, this should get it to show up in the mission list. Mirror 1 Mirror 2

Congrats on the release!

You could achieve this by having each switch have no target at map start and have the circuit breaker target a trigger that then adds the lights as targets (apart from turning the lights on) via the Stim/Response system. If you have not worked with the Stim/Response system so far, just ask, then I can give you some pointers or check out the Wiki page, if you would rather infrom yourself. The disadvantage is, that you would have to set this up manually for each switch and the according light. Do you intend that the circuit breaker can be turned off again or the "turn on" permanent? The former case may be a bit more complicated.

I’m creating my first FM for any game ever. I’ve got the bulk of the mission completed and have a handful of things to left to add and tweak. I have a few questions which might have simple solutions. 1. I’ve created a manor/mansion and it starts with all of the lights off. I have a circuit breaker that restores power and therefore most of the lights will turn on. I know this can be done by setting the lights “start_off” to 1 and connecting all of the lights to the switch. I have started to create a nested solution. Every light in a section of the manor is connected to a hidden switch, that switch is then linked to the main circuit breaker switch. This means only a handful of switches are linked to the main circuit breaker rather than every light in the whole manor. With the lights setup this way, it means I can’t have any light switches around otherwise you could turn the lights on with having the main power switched on. Is there a more efficient/better way of setting this up? 2. This also leads to another problem, I have an electric elevator that is operated by a button but I only want it to operate when the circuit breaker (power) is on. 3. I have also noticed some models have a weird brightness to them. Check the examples below. I have tested creating a patch with the same texture and the brightness stays the same. Is there a way of darkening the texture on a patch or some other method of making all of the stained glass windows the same? 4. Is there a way of darkening transparent glass? All of the transparent glass I have tested has a glow when in the dark with only ambient light. See pic attached. can I change the colour of the glass? 5. Is there a way of darkening or changing the colour of water? I have changed the surface texture to dark water but it’s not dark enough. I also want to be able to change the colour. I see it mentioned that you can change the color keyword but I have no idea how to do that. 6. Is there any benefit to export multiple entities to create a single model? That model can then be added and all of the entities deleted. I know a downside would be that tweaking individual entities can’t be done if they are a single model. Thanks Sorry if some of these questions have been answered in the wiki/faq or in this forum somewhere.

CONGRATULATIONS!!! I will get this up on the mirrors tonight if nobody else beats me to it.

Wow, something other than the US elections to watch Thank you OhOh. Before Windows 7 it was easy to change the extensions for files, but honestly I don't know how to do it in Win 10. Except photos in PS6 Can you please upload the *.pk4 file, so I can get playing?

I have just played version 1.31 on Hard. I can now take the lion statuette and made the loot objective, without finding all of it. I still cannot access the canal area - presumably that is deliberate.

I've seen those water source textures and but there's only a couple of different colors. Not hugely customizable from what I can see. So basically I could make it a custom map specfic texture and create a material file without blend add. I suppose I should refer to the wiki "How to add Textures to The Dark Mod". I had a quick look into that and it looks like it's a complex solution. It's probably my lack of understanding exactly how it works. I'll have a further look when I have more time. I didn't realise that changing the water color would be quite complicated. I was referring to the "export selected as model" within dark radiant. You can select multiple static entities and create a single model you can then insert that model back into the map and delete all the individual entities. Thanks guys for the suggestions I'll see what I can get done, ultimately none of these things are mission breaking and I can leave as is and/or work around it. Once I'm ready to release a 'pre-alpha', whatever questions/problems remain, others might be able to check the map and see if the are able help.

This mission's been updated to fix some of the issues above. Version 1.31 available in the in-game downloader or Here!

The problem is though that we all make decisions in our lives that can kind of force us to do something that we don't like. Another thing is to be happy with less if it makes you happier, but that possibility kind of depends on the decisions you make again. When I finished university I saw so many people that weren't happy with the work they had, but they had a mortgage, kids, were married, etc. (examples in no particular order) which made them afraid or made it even impossible for them to give up their job and try something else. The people around me expected me to follow the herd (find a full-time job, buy a home, get married, make some kids). I found my FT job but wasn't happy with it and wasn't looking forward to follow the same layed out path for 40+ years. I also wasn't happy living in my bunched up country, I was missing the extensive nature and peace that I experienced in other countries. I decided to work and travel in various countries to find the country that was perfect for me and where I was able to do what I wanted to do. In the end I have found that country (which obviously isn't perfect, but during my travels I have found out that no country is, it just has to be perfect for you) and although I'm not working in something that I really like now yet, I know that what I'm doing now will make it possible for me to do so in a few years time and I can also quit whenever I like. Long story short, those people maybe have debts or other obligations that might prevent them from giving up their job and after being sacked all that anger just comes out. I know I would never let it come to that point, but many of us are just like animals living in a herd and make decisions without really thinking them through, because we're expected to follow the layed out path.

I can answer number 6. Entity limit of about 8100 or so. In my big map I’m working on I’ve hit the limit several times. Combining models within visleafs will drop your count thus freeing up more room to get creative. But yes the downside is you better make sure you’ve got them right where you want them for good before combining/exporting. As for water, when applying a texture look under the folder ‘water_source’ or something like that. I do wish choosing water color was like choosing a light color. Please also see the Newbie Radiant Thread, it’s pretty damn active, I’d say there questions asked and promptly answered several times a day on a good week. Also the TDM Discord has its moments, but ther is almost always someone online.

Hello everyone, Bikerdude's made significant updates to this mission and it's now fully playable in 2.08. Available in the in-game downloader or Download here (v3.1)! We'll update the OP to reflect this. Thanks! “I usually welcome the shadows, a place of refuge for a master thief like me. However, there are dark places that even I fear. That place being the plague ward at the edge of town. Rumour has it that it was cursed by a pagan witch and its inhabitants died from an incurable plague..." Build Time: Update Build Time: Original version - 3-4 weeks. Updated version - 2 days  Credits: Flanders - Prebuilt maps and textures Readables – SirTaffsalot. FieldMedic - ghost begger (which I fixed and updated). Springheel - jack-o-lantern (gotta have them)  Thanks:- Special thanks to my beta testers: Flanders, SirTaffsAlot, nbhormore, Pranqster, RPGista, Thor, Xarg, Glyph Seeker, Amadeus, Garret42 & Bluerat.

Anyways, something a bit more lighthearted while we wait...