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Hello ladies & gentlemen, HHTA is ready for beta. The mission length is ca. 2,5 hours. This time, no cryptic clues and no complex puzzles. For the highly sensitive beta testers, this mission includes So, if you have problems with then you probably should not sign up for beta testing. It would be great to have several non-native English speakers (I am neither, as most of you know) as the mission includes lots of spoken comments - none of them essential to finish the game, but practically all of them shall add to the atmosphere...and this mission is more about atmosphere rather than gameplay. Thus we would like to make sure that everybody understands the lines and can enjoy them. Jack

No, the calculations are all done with bounding boxes if I recall. The 3d model is used for reflections in mirrors.

The main issue I have is that you can't blackjack guards that are alerted even if you are right behind them and they haven't drawn their weapon, because they magically become k.o. immune. I have fixed that in my Unofficial Patch, so you might want to give that a try: https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/addons/the-dark-mod-unofficial-patch

I agree with the people above (for the installation method). But according the packagebuild from that repo ("thedarkmod-bin" by diabonas), the standard missions are included. So Erze should got the missions files already. (packagebuild from thedarkmod-bin - https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/PKGBUILD?h=thedarkmod-bin) (repo "thedarkmod-bin" - https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/thedarkmod-bin/) From my own experience, i have seen that that empty mission list and error, when the user doesn't have any write-permissions in the TDM folder. (and i know that most of the linux package installer scripts for TDM, doesnt give them to the user) Check if there are any mission folders and files in the fms folder in TDM folder "/opt/thedarkmod/fms" (?). If so, Add yourself to the user-group "games". (because according the packagebuild, that user-group has write-permissions to that folder) Or give everybody write permissions to "/opt/thedarkmod", and his subfolders/files. Or move the tdm-folder to your home-folder. If not, follow the official linux method. Set the write permissions of the existing tdm folder, download the tdm-updater to the existing tdm folder and run the updater (for more info, see installation methods on linux, on the TDM Wiki.) There is also another repo "thedarkmod" - https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/thedarkmod/ -edit- but that script also does not give permissions to the user. Only to group root and games. (admin, please move topic to tech support)

If you're referring to the little bell ringing in the background, that's part of the ambient track and cannot be removed by players. The only option would be to turn the ambient volume down all the way, unfortunately.

Hi all, after a long time I played again to test out the new 2.09. As my skills depleted a bit over time I felt an issue (maybe it's just a personal issue, but I want to find out if other players have the same feeling). There are many new excellent missions with good story telling and nice atmosphere. However when it comes to walking up to an AI character and trying to back jack him or her, I often failed. Either they heard me and turned around or I missed them and they ran away /started to fight me. This is where I always had to reload the game and it stopped me from feeling like a master thief. IIRC in Dishonered you could take out NPCs from behind with a little animation. So that you don't had to aim blind for their head somehow. This is something I feel would make it easier for me as an optional feature for taking out opponents. Has that already been considered at some point? I know this sounds like cheating but for someone who doesn't play often to get an expert on bj enemies, I would rather have this than always having to reload and try again. What are your personal experiences and opinions on this matter?

True, also more than once I have found myself 2 floors below, half stricken on the ground in front of a guard.

I've much more problem with impossible mantle distance in certain fms, but that's another topic..

We always optimize performance when we can, but there is no trivial fix for this. 2.10 will not suddenly triple your framerate.

Here is an older discussion about AI noticing shadows and what it could mean for gameplay:

If you are a beginner Linux user and asking us to give you commands, why do you use Arch-Linux, Erze? (To me, its not a distro for a beginner) If you follow the wiki and combine that with the info from the pkgbuild, execute the following commands in a terminal: sudo chown -R nobody:users /opt/thedarkmod sudo chmod uga+w /opt/thedarkmod

Btw. If you have an installation where your system folders are separated from your home folder and maybe also other game folders like Steam and Gog, remember that all the future missions of TDM are now still installed in your system storage instead of your specified home/games storage.

It funny to see in these packagebuilds, a reference to our discussed permission problem at the bugtracker === # Users must be able to create files in the game directory to save games, # install new missions etc, cf. https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=3567 chown root:games "$pkgdir"/opt/thedarkmod/{,fms,fms/newjob,fms/stlucia,fms/training_mission} chmod g+w "$pkgdir"/opt/thedarkmod/{,fms,fms/newjob,fms/stlucia,fms/training_mission} ===

That's not accurate. Guards that have metal helmets cannot be KO'd when they are alert. All other guards can be KO'd when alert as long as you hit them from behind. Civilians can be KO'd from any direction, any time. Yes, we've essentially agreed that we want to do something like this, but it will require someone with the right skill set who is prepared to take it on.

Here are some links: Training Mission: http://darkmod.taaaki.za.net/release/fms/training_mission/training_mission.pk4 Mission 1: A New Job http://darkmod.taaaki.za.net/release/fms/newjob/newjob.pk4 Mission 2: Tears of St Lucia http://darkmod.taaaki.za.net/release/fms/stlucia/stlucia.pk4

Actually, there is a relevant bug report for GLFW: https://github.com/glfw/glfw/issues/1463 Supposedly fixed with version 3.3.3+, we are currently at 3.3.2. Looks like it's time to upgrade

Yes, there are already discussions on development forum about simplifying blackjacking. The latest status was that we wanted to understand which of the rules cause the most problems. On the latest dev build, you can set cvar "tdm_melee_debug 1", and it will show you what went wrong during blackjacking: If you see AIHit:head after hit, then you hit the right part of the body. If you see AIHit:torso or something else, then blackjacking failed because of hitting the wrong part. If you see red sphere after hit, then you failed the so-called "cone checks". These checks forbid hitting directly into face and also take into account helmets (and probably alarm/alert status). Play for some time, write down the reason for every fail, then post statistics. Also please write down for each case whether the guard had a helmet, was he sitting/slipping, and was he alerted. If he had weapon drawn, that is also worth mentioning. For me personally, there are two big problems: Blackjack hits low ceilings and doorways before hitting a guard. That's damn annoying and there is no workaround. Helmeted guards are harder to blackjack. I'd better drop any helmet-related adjustments for blackjacking, because with such an unclear KO system, this "added difficulty" only adds frustration. If guard is not alerted, has no helmet, and stands/walks around, I generally have no problem blackjacking him.

I'd be more than happy to give it a go as well.

Another picture hosting site: http://www.23hq.com Max upload of 1000 pictures a month for free. Site is not https, interface is outdated. Edit: Cannot really recommend it. Some functionality is still based on Flash, which doesn't work. If you want to upload a series of images's at ones, that can only be done via e-mail (send a bunch of images to a specific e-mail address and they will be uploaded). It used to be really good.

The training mission + tutorial missions are included in the install, no?

Just for fun I recently updated my "Ships of TDM" map with both new ships and ones that weren't included before. It's quite the view now, and most of them have fleshed out interiors: Back row from the right: Airship (Dram), Invernesse (Dragofer), Ship Wreck in 2 halves (Dram), Galleon (Dram + Springheel), Airship (Jesps, Pandora's Box), Galleon (PinkDot, core asset and found in many FMs), Barque (Dragofer) Front row from the left: Indiaman (Dragofer, Perilous Refuge), Carack (Dragofer, One Step Too Far), Paddle Boat (Dragofer), Steam Schooner (Dragofer, Down by the Riverside, Away 1: Air Pocket), Caravel (Dragofer, in Dragofer's Stuff), Sloop (Dragofer), Brig (Dragofer, in Dragofer's Stuff), Yacht (Dragofer, in Dragofer's Stuff), Knarr (Dragofer), Boat1 & Boat2 (core assets). No shortage of ships of all types if anyone ever needs one. And a a barque interior shot taking advantage of DR's new ability to show lighting previews for all types of lights:

Having a beer at the bier outside the barn at the farm. My WIP will probably go by the name 'Lucy'. It's too large to be a first FM. The architecture is the easy part, and even that's very difficult to learn. I'm only now getting an inkling as to what goes into "building vertically" - so my FM is flat. Couldn't be flatter if it were steamrolled. But then there's lighting, audio, scripting, building a captivating immersive story... The architecture is getting close to finished. Or so I tell myself. The main plot, the core objectives, several optional side trips, are set down in outline form so there's a stable foundation. Lighting is passable. Ambient audio is very rudimentary or non-existent. Storyline audio is non-existent and at the moment the story is told mostly through notes tied to starting/completing objectives, and to fx. There are no intro screens/video/texts yet. I don't know if I even can finish the thing. Hmmm, now let's see how that file attachment thing works to send the pic

Just finished it as well. Very tense overall, and dripping with atmosphere, and a compelling if slightly sparse storyline. TDM can always use more creppy / spooky missions! An impressive mission for a first release! Will look forward to playing any future missions you make!

If I remember correctly apart from the possible frustration, it was not clear why the AI should recognise the player's shadow as hostile, while shadows of other guards would be viewed as friendly. If they (literally) jump at every shadow, it would increase the alert rating into infinity; if they don't, it would be unrealistic that they only react to the player's shadow, which would defeat the purpose of wanting to increase realism and rather only increases difficulty. Consequently, you would have to implement another feature, that lets the guard recognise a shadow (without really alerting it) and let it check who the shadow belongs to before increasing alert rating. This, in turn, increases the work you would have to put in drastically.

Oh, I'm very open to supervision, it's just that I didn't want to make too much noise before things got really going. I'll definitely relay the advice given here over to the voice actor. And as I've said above, comments and criticisms on all versions of the recordings are very welcome. If it's going to be part of the core game, we do need to engage in plenty of quality control, but that's been clear from the outset. What I'm personally more bothered by is a lack of communication. Maybe I'm misremembering, but there's no real central thread where we can state "hey, core devs, we'd like to help with this unresolved asset stuff and seriously need your feedback". That makes working on side-projects like this feel really discouraging. On the one hand, it's true that contirbutors to TDM need to work mostly independently, and I approve of that. Unfortunately, what I also find flawed about this approach, is that the feedback from the core team is often lagging behind. With FMs, the oversight/feedback process is at least a lot more streamlined, set in its place, experienced. But when you want to work on a project that finally does some new asset contributions to the core game, it often gets stuck on lack of adequate feedback. Either to the point of not knowing how to proceed, or just ditching the whole thing, because there's some misunderstanding. Concerning the cooperation with SC, if contact details are needed, I can always provide them. I'll provide them gladly, far be it for me to be the only intermediary around for this stuff. Pete, do you want to help out with this ? Not full-time, you have your own stuff, but if you had a little time to spare.