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Showing content with the highest reputation on 05/15/22 in all areas

  1. I sometimes wonder how much hearing/vision-impairment accessibility considerations factor into some of these choices.... Of course we all understand the main reasons developers (or rather their pay masters) cut corners like this or try to shoehorn in trendy features in their place. (E.g. using detective vision and awareness flags instead of audio cues as the primary way to track enemies' locations and awareness states.) Greed and ignorance are certainly the major driving forces here, not magnanimity and egalitarianism. But if you follow any current discussions about disability friendly game design, you will notice a trend that calls for the homogenizing of UX designs and removing any sensory skill checks imposed upon the player. It's hard not to see the move away from analog material noise and alarm barks in modern stealth games as an extension of this mentality. Personally I am in two minds about this. One the one hand, it is not nice to arbitrarily exclude people from experiences they would otherwise enjoy just because they can't see, or hear, or perform quick/dexterous control inputs, or orient themselves in simulated environments as well as other audience members. Indeed, I myself have advocated for improving accessibility options for players with motion sensitivity in TDM. But on the other hand it is equally unjust to keep people from accessing unique experiences or discovering stories that they would enjoy, just because other people exist who are not so fortunate. Thief and its progeny are fundamentally niche products. The demands they place on the player's skills of sight, hearing, and spatial orientation are the core of what make them appealing. They defy the idealistic motto that games should be for everyone, and that is just one more reason they have been pushed out of the mainstream market.
    2 points
  2. ============== -= IRIS =- ============== WELLINGTONCRAB TDM v 2.10 REQ Ver. 1.2 *For Maureen* -=- "Carry the light of the Builder, Brother. Unto its end." -Valediction of the Devoted "What year is this? Am I dreaming?" -Plea of the Thief Dear Iris, I am old and broken. When we were young it felt like the words came easily. Now I find the ink has long dried on the pen and I'm as wanting for words as coin in my purse. I can tell we are nearing the end of the tale; time enough for one more job before the curtain call... ============== -Installation- Requires minimum version of TDM 2.10 -Iris does not support mods or the Unofficial Patch- Download and place the following .pk4 into you FMs directory: Iris Download ============== *Thank you for playing. Iris is a large mission which can either take as quickly or as long as you are compelled to play. I hope someone out there enjoys it and this initial release is not completely busted - I tried the best I could!* *Iris both is and isn't what it seems. If commenting please use spoiler tags where appropriate. If you are not certain if it would be appropriate a good assumption would be to use a spoiler tag* *Support TDM by rating missions on Thief Guild: https://www.thiefguild.com/* ============== WITH LASTING GRATITUDE: OBSTORTTE - Whose gameplay scripts from his thread laid the foundation which made the mission seem like something I could even pull off at all. Also fantastic tutorial videos! DRAGOFER - Who built upon that foundation and made it shine even brighter! And whom also provided immeasurable quantities of help and encouragement the past couple years on the TDM discord. ORBWEAVER & GIGAGOOGA - For generously offering their ambient music up for use. EPIFIRE - Who lent me his fine trash and trash receptacle models. AMADEUS - Who was the first person who wasn't me to play the damn thing and provided his excellent editorial services to improving the readers experience playing TESTERS AND TROUBLESHOOTERS: AMADEUS * DATISWOUS * SPOOKS * ALUMINUMHASTE * JAXA * JACKFARMER * WESP5 * ATE0ATE * MADTAFFER * STGATILOV * DRAGOFER * KINGSAL * KLATREMUS - What can I possibly say? Playing this thing over and over again could not have been easy. Deepest thanks and all apologies. -=THANKS TO ALL ON THE TDM DISCORD AND FORUM=- ==SEE README.TXT FOR ADDITIONAL ATTRIBUTIONS & INFORMATION== HONORABLE MENTION: GOLDWELL - If I hadn't by chance stumbled into Northdale back in 2018/2019 I would probably still be trying to get this thing to work in TDS, which means it probably would not exist - though more details on that in readme. ============== Boring Technical Information: *This mission makes use of volumetric lighting in several scenes. While optional if you wish to see this feature enable the "maps" lighting model and I recommend you also disable image sharpening. If you do not like the effect or are concerned about performance use stencil shadows* *Iris is a performance intensive mission and I recommend a GTX 1060 or equivalent. I find the performance similar to other demanding TDM missions on my machine, but mileage may vary and my apologies if this prevents anyone from enjoying the mission.* *Iris heavily modifies the behavior of AI in the game, how they relate/respond to each other and the player. So they may act even stranger than they do typically in TDM. Feedback on this is useful - as it can potentially be improved and expanded upon in future patches.* -=- This is my first release and it has been a long time coming! If I forgot anything please let me know! God Speed. 2.10 Features Used:
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  3. HAZARD PAY 1.5 [ TDM 2.10 REQUIRED] AUTHOR'S NOTE ================================ Hello! Its been a while since I’ve released something so I figured I'd join the Connections Competition and make a stand-alone adventure to try out the new 2.10 features. ================================ DESCRIPTION ================================ This is a medium size mission with an emphasis on adventure and stealth combat. !!! WARNING !!! I recommend NORMAL if you're looking to cruise and HARD / EXPERT if you're looking to sweat a little. EXPERT uses a prototype save room mechanic and is very tough. ================================ PLAY IT ================================ Requires TDM 2.10 DOWNLOAD HAZARD 1.6 ================================ PLAYTHROUGH ================================ Courtesy of Filizitas Part 1 Part2 Part3 ================================ CREDITS: VOCALS courtesy of the very talented : Goldwell, Mortem Desino, and Yandros. TESTING by the diligent and awesome : Amadeus, Epifire, Goldwell, Mike_A, and Moonbo ADDITIONAL SCRIPTING provided by the very talented Dragofer ADDITIONAL AUDIO by the masterful Goldwell PLAYTHROUGH by Filizitas
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  4. Intro: "East of the Rahen Mountain, there is a swampy area, a backwater of river Rahna. Approximately twenty years ago the Inventors Guild began their effort to secure the rights to the land and presented the construction projects of water dams and locks in endeavour to create a water trails for flat-bottomed vessels. The prospect of increased economic exchange between the plains and the mountain settlements prevailed over the objections of displeased neighbours and just five years later the water level in ponds allowed for flow of barges. Good mood of the local lord diminished though, as more and more crops and farms disappeared under the water, wells began to stink, and dysentery started to collect a heavy toll. Guild excuses that thawing and hardship of communication with lock's staff was to blame didn't resolve the crisis. What did, was a compensation - a one-off shipment of nearly half a ton of rock crystals. This aroused comments among people not normally interested in the Inventors and their dealings. People like me. The trail leads to one of inaccessible facilities of the bulkhead oversight in the network of ponds, where, the crystals are mined, pre-processed and sorted out. Several months later... Crossing the flooded and deserted five furlongs in one-man boat was risky enough, but I took my chances and tried to take the boat through the lock, to be closer to the guardhouse. The bulkhead mechanism was too complicated for one person to operate though. Now I don't have the means to go back and water scattered my equipment all over the pond. And with no boat the only way back is a walk along the causeway towards the mountains, but for that I will need to get a good supply of food and water, so not to loose my strength carrying the loot." Description: Break in into castle infested by undead. Thanks: TDM Team for great tool and their dedication in improving it. Bikerdude for working out all bugs, optimisation, improving graphics and readables details. Caer (from Polish Thief forum) for translating. Testers: AluminumHaste, Baddcog, lowenz, nbohr1more, adriannn (PTF), Nivellen (PTF). Build time: Basic playable version 1,5 months, final release after 1 year. Update info: Unbelievable how long it was under construction, but I hope you will enjoy exploring this mission . Can't name all things added to previous version -just tons of them. Known issues: Low performance in few spots. Game sometimes freeze a bit in area around building.
    1 point
  5. IMPORTANT It is highly recommended that you play with shadow maps turned on to get full use of the new volumetric lights in 2.10. Go into Settings -> Video -> Advanced -> "Shadows Implementation" set to "Maps". Additionally it is recommended that you play with EFX and HRTF turned on. Go into Settings -> Audio -> Turn "OpenAL EFX" & "OpenAL HRTF" set both to "On". Author note Noble Affairs features a brand new female protagonist named Clara who comes with a new female voice set. Originally this mission was meant for the connection contest which is why you will notice a lot of references to Kingsal's Volta universe. Due to time constraints this mission was not entered into the contest and instead I decided to release this as a standalone mission. This mission takes place after the events of Volta 1: The Stone but before the events of Shadows of Northdale Act 1. This mission is dedicated to Grayman, may he rest in peace! - Goldwell. A big thank you first up to Epifire for his very helpful advice and putting in some really hard effort and creating some amazing custom models! Please check out his art station page: https://www.artstation.com/epifire I wanted to thank Amadeus, Dragofer, Epifire, Kingsal & Skacky for helping out by providing custom models, readable/text improvements and also general mapping advice. You guys have been incredibly helpful, thank you! I also want to thank my A-Star beta team who helped to squash many bugs: Amadeus, Epifire, Kingsal, Moonbo, Nbohr1more, Random_Taffer & Skacky. And I wanted to thank the fantastic vocal cast: Clara - Joy Hayward Shop keeper - Andrew Bartmess Produce Merchant - Epifire Citywatch guard - Random_Taffer I wanted to thank someone who often doesn't get enough love and that's Greebo who works very hard to create the tools that myself and all other mappers use. Dark Radiant is a fantastic application which is always finding new ways to innovate and improve the mapping experience. Without the work you put in Greebo there would be a lot less missions made, so thank you! Thank you to the Cryo Chamber label for granting permission to use their music throughout the mission. Please check them out at: https://cryochamber.bandcamp.com Thank you to Michael Ghelfi for his audio ambient tracks. You can find more of his work at: https://www.youtube.com/user/MichaelGhelfi And if you wish to support him he also has a patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/MichaelGhelfi And finally thank you to you, the player for playing my missions and providing all the wonderful support and feedback over the years! DOWNLOAD HERE (Requires 2.10) Version 1.2 File Size: 465mb
    1 point
  6. https://stadt-bremerhaven.de/nvidia-veroeffentlicht-quelloffene-linux-kernel-treiber-fuer-seine-gpus/
    1 point
  7. https://www.rpgfan.com/2022/05/13/starfield-delayed-first-half-2023/
    1 point
  8. Just finished this one. Nice mission, I really enjoyed it. The difficulty was just about right, I liked the gameplay, good and interesting objectives. Visuals were good, although I've seen better looking missions. If anything, the mission felt a tiny bit empty, because, many houses weren't accessible. Readables were great. Story telling was great. The mission reminded me a bit of the original Thief 2's Ambush mission. Overall really impressive for your first mission.
    1 point
  9. Nevermind I was over thinking it. Just had to use a rope arrow in the proper place lol. Got all secrets and loot, great mission.
    1 point
  10. This is my interpretation of course, but for me, the point of morals is to strive towards becoming a better you. Treating others better, the environment better, living a more wholesome life. Goes hand in hand with ethics I guess, to the point where I rarely understand the difference between the two terms. Anyway, point is that morals are an ideal. Some people reach that ideal more than others, but it's a good idea to strive towards because at the very least it makes you a much nicer person to be around. If you've given up to the point where you're happy with being a social outcast, to me that just means your interpretation of what morals are is different to mine. It doesn't upset me. I should mention that I am not a religious sort, so morals for me are just a way of apply my conscience to the real world. I am also not evil. I make bad judgement calls sure, but if we consider those to be evil, then the word has no meaning. Perhaps you're thinking more of nihilism?
    1 point
  11. Delightful mission, as always So many surprises: - first, women protagonist! Now I know why ZeplminTemplar wanted those female line voiceover, hehe - I liked the detailed intro, almost like from Dishonored - there´s boat in the intro cutscene, which is not anywhere in the game - hats off for doing something like that! In the beginning area I haver encountered the same problem as AluminiumHaste: - combined lockpicks! - while I understand some players will not be happy with this change I liked it, considered it unusual peculiarity, but I wouldn´t want to see it in every mission. You know what I would like? (and that would be a very welcomed change for me) - a key ring. A keyring, where all the found keys would get automatically attached and you would just use the keyring on the lock and wouldn´t have to sift though keys (just like they did in Mission X for T2), which is just bothersome - THAT is something I would very much like to see here. - there are new arrow and food icons, which I like a lot (arrow ions in these contest mission in general), they seem more crisps and clear. And the food item bag was a nice touch! - Contracts - I must applaud you for this idea - they were not boring, each was different, and there wasn´t too many of them, so you wanted to do all of them, and they were mostly optional! Very good idea. I especially liked the one with the disgruntled salesman at the gates - overall, the length and level design were very good. I have one question though:
    1 point
  12. Right. The ultimately compressed time to complete the mission, of sort. I must admit though, forcing the player to find/buy the lockpicks was a clever way to force some exploration
    1 point
  13. And found him at soundcloud: https://m.soundcloud.com/cookiespy
    1 point
  14. More of a System Shock reboot. I love it, one of the most fun games I played in the last 20 years.
    1 point
  15. I just noticed the bell that you did reply: Confirmed! I "U"-ed the thief, dropped him and the trigger came as it should. If you manage to fix this so dragging works too: Make that the default for the highest skill. It was indeed really difficult, but manageable, to get the thief out of the mansion by dragging him from shadow to shadow with all those guards around. Since there is no "knockout limit" only "no kill" it works.
    1 point
  16. @Zerg Rushlittle do you know, during beta testing that horse was briefly responsible for the death of every other AI in the map!
    1 point
  17. Hello, It was pure coincidence I went to check the forum and saw your post had just come in a few minutes before! Sorry I took longer this time.
    1 point
  18. I suggest that progressive puzzles on demand could work. I don't know of ways to implement it other than using the difficulty settings though. Would be cool if the mission briefing reflected the fact that difficulty affects puzzle clues too. Really thoughtful of you to make puzzles harder with difficulty. Usually I assume that difficulty only affects damage that enemies do, the number of enemies, how easy I am to spot. That kind of thing.
    1 point
  19. And as for the difficulty, I deliberately made it hard. The clue in the surgery readable is more obvious on Easy and more cryptic on Hard. If people are really continuing to struggle I might put a clue about the coloured lights in the other readable on Easy mode. But there are already so many puzzles in TDM that hold the player's hand that I wanted to make something that would make them go "AHA!" and feel satisfaction in solving it.
    1 point
  20. Thanks! Don't sweat it, I'll eventually complete the mission and will try to find as many
    1 point
  21. And the FM release streak continues! Congrats, I'm looking forward to playing this
    1 point
  22. Congrats on the release! This mission has been added to the mission database: https://www.thedarkmod.com/missiondetails/?internalName=housecall
    1 point
  23. My love for small missions started with The Parcel.
    1 point
  24. Re: the safe there is a tip inside the silent dagger which gives hints there. Or if you're looking for a more direct hint Re: breaking into the fences shop, you'll find that key during the contract called Unwanted Guests Or a more direct hint
    1 point
  25. I think it's perfectly fine to make posts for any FM in this forum, regardless of when the last post was made. It's always good to hear thoughts and feedback. Regarding not being able to frob anything, that's typically associated with trying to read a readable that has no text defined (a mapping error). Seems strange that you had that from the outset, though.
    1 point
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