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Showing content with the highest reputation on 04/15/21 in all areas

  1. Well, I can honestly say I've climbed the Mount Everest of fan mission database writing... or updating. Or if not the Mount Everest, then at least the Mont Blanc. Which is my long-winded way of saying... I have updated The Dark Mod FM databases both on our wiki and on the Thief Wiki. With the possible exception of the not yet re-released Winter Harvest, every single TDM mission ever made can now be found and read about on both wikis. Every single one of them has its own dedicated article. Behold ! And here, of course. I will still be updating a few minor formatting details and the like, but the hard work is finally done. (Granted, I will be adding new missions to the databases as they come out, this year and in the years to come.) On a sidenote, are there any screenshots anywhere of the current, latest version of the Training Mission, the A New Job mission and The Tears of Saint Lucia mission ? We're still lacking those in the official databases and I'd love to upload at least a few of them to both of the wikis.
    6 points
  2. The way that input and windows are managed for Linux has become rather dated, causing a multitude of issues. To fix that, I am currently evaluating if we can just use a library (GLFW) to handle all of that for us. First impressions are rather positive, on my end I see generally improved behavior. However, since Linux is a rather diverse ecosystem, I need additional testers to rule out I broke something important. So if you have some time to spare, I'd appreciate it if you could give this build a try: https://ci.appveyor.com/api/buildjobs/6kbqskyx3tmla74s/artifacts/build%2Fthedarkmod.tar.bz2 Just extract to your installation, delete your darkmod.cfg and give it a spin. I'm particularly interested in input and alt-tabbing behavior. Whether it improved something for you or broke something. Thanks!
    2 points
  3. The possibilities are very tempting (AI reacting to open doors or missing objects, relighting candles/torches), and I wanted to use this as often as possible in previous missions, but everything comes at a price. For example, Version 1 of HHVF had a guard on the first floor who detected closed doors and tried to close them again. Unfortunately, the character in question was also part of a conversation, which had the effect that he simply broke off the conversation and wanted to close the door. That was annoying, because a) the voice actor in question had put a lot of work into it and b) I didn't know what the consequences would be when I integrated this (then took it out in version 2 after I saw how boy_lag broke the conversation in a YT video). The cool option that guards react to missing objects also has its pitfalls. Also in HHVF I had two Builders who guard a door, they shouldn't leave the door under any circumstances. In a room next door, however, I had set a valuable item in such a way that another character walking in and out had to notice its absence. The result was that the other character had also sent the two Builders to search mode due to his startled search, so the door in question was unguarded, which I didn't want. Fortunately, I discovered that before the beta phase. I had used relighting in two places in HHTLC, but I was able to completely rule out problems (as far as I know), but there are certainly enough other scenarios in which relighting is not necessarily good. It's always easy to say, "Oh, I would like the mappers to use feature X or Y more often, why don't they?" Well, I'm sure a lot of the other mission makers would like to use these features as often as possible for more crediblity of the scenes, but there are usually so many things to consider that often it just doesn't work. As far as I can remember, even only a few of the guards in Thief 3 were able to re-light extinguished torches. The reason for this must have been similar to that which some pre-posters have already written here.
    2 points
  4. What a great mission! I was expecting something short and focused on one topic/location, so the density and variation of content was a very pleasant surprise. The creepy house and the kitchen secret were especially excellent and helped the overall atmosphere. It felt not only sinister, but also kind of hopeless, which I never really got from other missions that I played. Quite often even in missions where the topic is kinda heavy the point of the mission is that you have some agency to influence it (like the Painter's Wife), whereas here you just explore and rob people and watch all the bad stuff that is happening or going to happen around you. I'd like to see more of that in the future. The very end provided an unintentionally hilarious counterpoint when right after getting the message about what happened later that night together with some creepy music, the weird-ass "mission completed" jingle started playing, completely ruining the vibe. Well at least the final impression wasn't depressing.
    2 points
  5. In TDM decisions on map design (including AI behaviour) are generally rather up to the mappers, so they can realise their own vision. As Filizitas mentioned this is also a balancing issue. If all lights can be relit by all AI it would drastically change the value water arrows. If the mapper intended for lights to remain extinguished, he/she will only provide a small number of water arrows throughout. Being able to change this behaviour in general makes balancing much more difficult. Another important part for the decision to let the mappers decide is the desire of the team to not break any old missions. I am not 100% sure, but I believe this behaviour was implemented later on and consequently could break older missions that were built without this feature in mind.
    2 points
  6. If i am shamelessly advertising my project here then please let me know! I would like to drop you a video of my 11 months project. You can of course do what ever you want but please keep in mind the following. I dont actually thing that either thief 1 or 2 or 3 are great games. I think they are fantastic but i am not into them fully. I feel like they are too long, unfocussed and i find it a bit to subtle. I am making my own thing here but i am trying to not derive to heavy of thief. Please respect my wish todo my own thief. With love, F.
    1 point
  7. 1 point
  8. One question. Perhaps I'm counting wrong, but these two lists: https://thief.fandom.com/wiki/FM:TDM_List and https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Fan_Missions_for_The_Dark_Mod show 150 FMs. This list: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Fan_Missions_for_The_Dark_Mod shows 144 FMs and this list: https://www.thedarkmod.com/missions/ shows 148 FMs. Which is correct?
    1 point
  9. Ok here you go, the game also had a name change due to legal reasons i want to avoid. https://twitter.com/yrdenwatch/status/1382278107231567873?s=20 https://filly-the-owl.itch.io/delight-stealth
    1 point
  10. Ha cool ideas! I am currently only playing on having the miners lamp to alert enemies instantly. The lamp darkness mechanic is actually very very cool and optional. You can just put on the brightness slider and you wouldnt need the lantern anymore. But someone who loves to immersive themselves will definitly use it. I am definitly trying to highlight the danger factor!
    1 point
  11. I wanted to share a funny thing i happened to experience while testing the NPCs... These are 63 NPCs that work nearly perfectly with great fps. And its super funny.
    1 point
  12. issue found (2.09 beta 2 but maybe is waaaaaaaaaay older) https://postimg.cc/8smv0rkq House in front of the tavern of "A New Job"
    1 point
  13. UE3 source code was never released, because it consisted of too many third-party subsystems. It was a licensing mess, unfortunately. It's amazing though, that now you can whip up a high quality prototype in a few months all by yourself.
    1 point
  14. This looks fantastic! How many of those assets are part of the UE4 package? I think we historically had sour grapes about Unreal Engine based attempts at a Thief clone since many players have repeatedly asked "Why didn't you wait for UE3?" or "When are you going to migrate to UE3?" etc. In hindsight it's quite clear why these questions are even more absurd than they were back in 2009... It wasn't until 2015 when UE4 source code was made available to the community (UE3 never released the source during it's tenure), so nobody could have made a lightgem system or any of the advanced AI systems needed until then. Did players in 2009 want to wait until at least 2018 to have a playable game in Unreal Engine?, ...or was it better that by 2018 we had TDM 2.06 64-bit with real-time soft-shadows, EFX audio, and over 120 missions including monster sized missions like Behind Closed Doors, commercial quality missions like the William Steele series, Shadow Cursed series, and Volta series... etc. (Eg. We had the banquet on the table already.)
    1 point
  15. The problem with translations is that once a mission has been converted into strings, you cannot use the readable editor to make any modifications. Dark Radiant does not understand string files. It's also irritating to have to adjust briefings and inventory names, since you have to manually look up from the string file what everything is, and can only test changes by running the game. Translations might be fine for missions that aren't expecting any future revisions, but St. Lucia has been updated multiple times, and every time the translations made life more difficult.
    1 point
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