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The Adventures of Thomas: Lucy's Quest Author: gg 2022-06-20 Version: 1.1 Required TDM Version: 2.10 or higher EFX: Yes ============================================================== Cautionary note: This FM needs a strong CPU/GPU combination sufficient to play the more demanding TDM FMs. Just as for many or most of the new FMs being released with the new gfx possibilities opened up it does a world of good to tweak the advanced video settings for the best combination of settings for your PC. For example, on my weaker laptop I set shadows as stencil and soft shadows off. On my desktop I set shadows as maps and soft shadows medium. Bloom off. Ambient occlusion off. Since the FM was built and extensively tested at these settings I believe either should produce a satisfactory experience. ============================================================== Sound Credits: freemusicarchive.org music Aislinn04_-_Aislinn_-_Lovely_Maria freesound.org klankbeeld_horror_1 freesound.org/people/CarlosCarty/sounds/522687/ om_aum_mantra_male_chant_bb freesound.org/people/Still%20Frames/sounds/37720/ still_frames freemusicarchive.org music The_Mind_Orchestra_Bruwynn tecknic.bandcamp.com/album/the-dark-mod-ambience-and-atmospheres Zack Bower Ancient_2, _3, _5. Solemn_1 freesound.org/people/Jagadamba/sounds/256006/ group_chanting_om_aum ============================================================== Thanks to: The TDM/DR developers for producing such a beautiful machine. The keepers of the wiki pages which are looking very good these days. Sotha for his invaluable tutorial "The Bakery Job". This tutorial is a jewel. Springheel for creating an atmosphere. Bikerdude for... ideas how to do things and scale things. Playtesters and advisors Dragofer, wesp5, datiswous, shadow. datiswous pointed out some immersion breaking lighting faults, so I got the idea. wesp5 gave me some good advice on how to tell the story - so it's more understandable. Dragofer gave me some early advice on optimizing the mission, which gave me a couple of months work with results that are well worth it. Dragofer wrote a script which optimizes CPU calculations of AI interactions. Shadow helped by testing the script, as well as testing other attempts at optimization. With the script in action only the minimal of AI interactions in the player's vicinity are called to be calculated. The script provides a general benefit but the results vary from computer to computer. The script targets a CPU task. ============================================================== Gameplay: Notes attached to objectives contain essential information on gameplay, on who the good/bad guys are, on what the player must do, and why. Mandatory objectives are linear, directing the player along a route to the goal. Optional objectives can be completed anytime. ============================================================== CAUTION: spiders, rats, undead, necrophiles, cannibals, psychotic thugs, and some generally unsavory characters. No snakes, though. The spiders ate them. ==============================================================

Derelict - A Thief's Origin. A 5-6 part mission series. BACKSTORY _________ Derelict is a story about Eric, some simple boy turned into a Thief, except this time not to survive but for fun. Eric was born a farmer, all his life a farmer, until at age 16 he escaped to The City, but returned at 17...Because the guards got him. At age 19, he's back out, but still acting like any other young adventerous 15 year old, so he is in no way a master thief. His first thievery was close to his 17th birthday, this is also the reason the guards got him. He simply was trying to steal from a market stand and didn't get away with it, but luckily his family was able to save him by paying the fine. Now, at age 19, he's out again, acting like he's the Master Thief. Let's see where he can get to. DETAILS ________ The actual idea of "Derelict" is, as the name should suggest, Eric is not exactly a thief, nor a master thief, but he wants to be and he is very enthusiastic about it. To add some sort of irony, and a direct reference to "Thief: The Dark Project" itself, Derelict will be all about exploring abandoned buildings, ruins and, of course, derelicts. Also, heavily influenced by...Condemned: Criminal Origins. The name itself should be a hint, and the missions too. FIRST MISSION _____________ "Condemned" The first mission will be called Condemned. It takes place in a large abandoned building, it can be a bank, police department, library...Maybe even a combination of all, since it's in ruins and surely some parts got open, allowing you to travel there. The mission MUST be as pretty as possible, so it's not recommended for people with low-end PCs, sorry. How pretty? It must look as ruined as possible, so if you can add "extra" garbage, that'd be great. Basically, you have to make it look like Condemned, specifically the first mission where the police enter a long-abandoned disgusting place. Now, you start in the middle of the building, easily being able to reach the rooftops through the stairs. The stairs have doors, but you cannot get inside them, you can use these as shortcuts or just leave them there to give players a nifty false sense of possible progress. The idea is for Eric to get down, way down, so he may reach what might have been a long abandoned underground tomb, but that is not the case. The area itself should be something else, now how you want to make it, well I do have my own ideas, but I also don't want to spoiler it to you. On this one, I give you "Artistic Freedom". But to give you a hint, let's just say that, there could have been an "old city", but not as old as you think, and for sure the place has to be a hospital, or maybe even just a huge basement. Oh also, it should have some basic undead, the good ol' zombies. In terms of enemies, there need to be thugs. Said thugs are "Bandits", they could be organized or individual. One idea I'd like to see, is...A group of 3 weak thugs, visibly so even, just give them that "beggar" model and it will look fine. These are the organized bandits. But on the other end, there is a Thug, big fat guy with a mean club. He is just strolling about finding stuff to scavenge. The weak thugs will have a conversation about how they should kill him, or leave him alone, or how they want to kill him but the other calms them down and so on, this should give the player an idea that he can send the Thug after these 3 and it is recommended because...The fat thug is very though, you have no blackjack and you don't really want to be spotted by him. In terms of difficulty, Eric is an amateur. He has no blackjack, at least not here, he doesn't even have a sword but he may acquire one. If so, make that sword a secret. On the hardest difficulty, add "Ghosting" BUT make sure it's optional. Also, add more "random" weak bandits and a big fat Thug or two. MISSION 1: BRIEFING _________ Dear diary, the only reason I write this is because I'm bored. I'm just, as everybody tells me, "young fool" and I suppose I am, but I am sick of it. Everytime, I need to pretend I'm like any other "young fool" who takes any insult for granted. Well enough of that. Pa and ma, if I die and you ever get this stupid diary...I miss you, even if I hate how pa gets all sad about my..."Upbringing", it's not your fault, old man! But you always make yourself look guilty! I want to do something other than plowing all day long, even sometimes at night! And for that, I will. My first Conquest shall not be, for once, a lady or even two, but this place I've heard that is haunted, some kind of derelict place. I heard many rumours; it's a bank, it's a police department, a library...Could be all at once, even, who knows! But what I know for sure, is that, there has to be a grave down there full of wonderful richies, just another rich dead idiot begging to be robbed...Although you can't be robbed when dead, so you know... Well, let's get to it... SECOND MISSION _____________ "A City of Beggears" In the second mission, Eric visits the same place where that "Abandoned Building" was at, but this time to visit The Hammerite Church of the Beggars. This one will be "special" since, we go from a short-medium sized mission to a large one, that can be fast or slow. Acting as a "Hub", the church itself will be Eric's place, it also has many neutral beggars. Two will be patrolling outside with basic clubs, three are inside, a "Heretical Priest" will be there as well and one "Former Guard" with rusty armour. There may or may not be interactivity, up to the mapper on that. Also, the church itself is the third biggest building, it has part of the roof broken so you can see the sky, but you can't see the outside or hear what's out there. If you want direct reference, in Condemned, this is the School and the City Streets after the Mall, in Thief, it's the good ol' Quarantined City. The idea is, you start on this Church, that has quite the visual appeal due to the "Urban Decay" effect that it has. You will then go outside and visit various little places, such as... * A small manor that used to belong to some high-class, said to be haunted. * Stores, at least 3, up to 6 or even 9. Most are small, one or two are "medium-sized". A store hides a terrible secret regarding it's meat, you can easily guess how that goes! * A bath house, this one had the roof completely destroyed but one part of the house seems to be intact. (Since this one is "open", you can avoid adding too much "garbage for appeal" inside) * A warehouse of produces, specifically meat, the mystery here is that the freezer works despite the rest of this abandoned quarter not having much electricity going on. * Finally, the second huge place, it is either a School or a University. The "Former Guard" told you a story about a misfortune that happened here and your curiosity just begs for it. You will find incriminating evidence that will make you a bit wary, keep your paranoia in check. In terms of enemies, I'd say...The classic bugs will always go well, but don't make it boring and abundant, some little bit of hostile organized bandits and lonesome thugs here and there would be fun too. Undead is okay, just make it shabby. The main objective here is for Eric to get more cash after his "success" in the first one, so he just has to explore this long-abandoned place until others do. MISSION 2: BRIEFING _________ Dear diary, I have found what I wanted and I am getting the hang of writing on you. That was some real fun! I mean, I had some issues and the smell is horrid, but I'm fine with that, I've smelled worse, honest. Now, there is one problem; it wasn't much, I am also somewhat liking the place, I got a feeling this will be a problem. I found me a nice Church here, it even had people, this time not taffy like those taffin' taffers, goddamn! One of them is a priest, I thought "former" but he talks about how he's a "Bad man with Good ambitions", whatever that means. We're all the same in the eyes of The Builder, says I. And then there's this guard, he says he used to be a captain, of this quarter even. He stayed, people thought he died, he tells me the story of how a great thing called "Magic Bane" happened, which caused something he likes to call "The Mage Wars". Heh! Cool story, gramps, good luck making anyone believe it, I know I don't. But anyway, I have nowhere to go but my old home, I don't want to, so I will stay here for a bit. I am thinking of taking a night stroll, if you know what I mean, my dear diary. Well, let's get to it... THIRD MISSION _____________ "Apples & Scroundrels" Eric goes farming! Although not exactly like in his old days, this time he farms for loot, in a recently (and yet looks like it's been long ago) abandoned manor-sized farmhouse. The story continues from Mission 2, where Eric finally has enough cash to, well, retire. Instead of having using it all for himself, he decides to be nice and help out his family, so he goes back to his home. However, more than two months have passed and his home was on the brink of collapse, so he returns to a place that has been hastily abandoned. Due to the humidity, and something...Strange going on, every house feels and looks incredibly old and derelict now. Eric decides to take shelter in his old house, still having his room intact, but he feels something strange. Either way, he is convinced to explore one place of interest; The Jameson's Farmhouse, which is pretty much a manor-sized farmhouse of a well-off family, well-off compared to the rest, so the neighbourhood had some hidden jealousy about it. However, things don't go as planned because, after Eric explores the basement or the attic and finds out a secret, that the Jameson's were Pagans and of the more dangerous type, the house gets invaded by thugs and bandits, some might fight eachother but all of them are on high-alert, this means that it's impossible to blackjack any of them, so Jack has to do Ghosting which by itself it will be very hard or fight his way back. (A "third option" is to figure out who is who and see who will fight who, this should reduce the number of thugs & bandits, hence making Ghosting or finishing them off easier) The many ways to get out, though, will be barricaded with wooden planks by the thugs, meanwhile the doors are locked, so Eric has to either find a crowbar, which means going back to the Basement, or the key to the doors, which is in the Attic. Going back to those places, both areas change to an even more eerie Pagan-type of, but if one goes to the other, the other is optional. The idea here is somewhat simple; heavily influenced by Condemned's "Apple Orchard" farm level, the whole place is virtually a hidden claustrophobic trap, since Eric is inside a very old, decrepit manor-sized farm, with the interior being very tightened especially thanks to all the new garbage litter and the like. By the way, important info, the level should take place during the day, or at least "dawn". The farm itself is not too much, just decrepit, but the basement and especially the attic are very eerie and somewhat creepy, mostly because this is where the light doesn't go through much. MISSION 3: STORY _________ Dear diary, I return home to find myself much richer than before and yet I am empty. My home is gone! My family has left, the farms are all abandoned and decrepit, what's weird is that I'm very sure it's only been some months and yet everything looks older than before? I got back to my own home, my room is still there, but it feels like nothing has changed, I even expected a note from my parents but there is nothing. I don't know what happened, but I miss my parents...But I don't think doing that is gonna bring them back. I'll try to find them out, I just don't know the lead, so I will go and try The Jameson's house. The Jameson's were a bunch of rich snobs, the residents here respect them but I think it was all false emotions, everyone is just jealous. Can't blame them, the Jameson's always had the best fruits and vegetables, even during Winter! So no doubt they have something worth to sell, which knowing even they are out, I bet they don't mind if I "borrow" some. I dunno why but my hungry gut is telling me that I shouldn't go there while also that I should go there, the whereabouts of my family is in that house... They say curiosity killed the cat, but then they always forget to mention that, satisfaction brought it back! I am sure that's what will happen, so...Let's get to it!

Glad you enjoyed it! I did dial down the audio perception a fair amount - but what I noticed is that the AI will still make remarks about noises just as frequently, but they just won't get alerted as easily. I didn't look too much farther into it beyond that. That light is indeed from the lantern by the roof guard, it should have a subtle volumetric effect that helps you see its range if you have shadow maps enabled instead of stencil shadows. I remember the shadows themselves having some weirdness using that particular light too, which probably doesn't help things either.

I specifically bound 2 keys to quicksave, and they both show there. Also, I deleted the keybinds.cfg file and when I loaded it back up, the defaults were F4 for quicksave and F9 for quickload. I see it now, if I type bind F5 in the console it shows "loadgame". Interesting. Probably set that way in the code.

Let he whose FM is without bugs cast the first stone.

xVASynth is an AI tool for generating high-quality voice acting lines using voices from video games. With hundreds of voices supported, across dozens of games, the app provides pitch, duration, and energy control at per-letter granularity. The use of neural speech synthesis leads to natural sounding voices, something which is very difficult to do with more traditional methods involving concatenations of existing data. It also means new vocabulary can be generated, outside of what the voice actors have already read out. OpenSource and free https://github.com/DanRuta/xVA-Synth https://store.steampowered.com/app/1765720/xVASynth_v2/ Widows 10 GPU 2 Gb, (if use GPU mode) HD 10Gb

In default settings Quickload key is F9, but also F5, but F5 is not shown in keyboard settings menu. This is irritating the first time if you acidentilly press the F5 key for saving (instead of F4). Here you see Quickload set to F9, but F5 is secretly also a Quickload key.

I often mistype and hit F5 by error when it's dark in the room.

I've just gave this mission a try and it was actually quiet entertaining. It's nice to see the savegame mechanic in action. The visuals were pretty good and atmospheric, although not extremely detailed you have proven a talent for consistency and atmosphere. Especially in regards to the lighting. The whole mission has this return to the lost city vibe. Nice. Storywise I won't say much as I don't play games for the stories sake (I read books for that - sorry games, still got a lot to learn in that aspect). Nevertheless I like the fact that you were saving on the readables and there content (length-wise), although some background info about the excavation site would have been nice. Now for the most important part: Gameplay. Obviously I have played under the highest setting just for the sake of seeing the savegame mechanic in action. Due to the sometimes clumsy controls and me not having played TDM in a while (the latter is probably the bigger issue) I managed to fell to death on the first two approaches (without having saved til that spot), but managed to get through the mission in roughly one hour with three saves total, the last one two minutes before the end. As stated, I was well entertained. Some thoughts nevertheless, if I may. Overall it is the first TDM mission in a long time that I actually like and would recommend. Well done, thumbs up, like and may the Builder bless you.

Yeah, needs fixing.

Ill wait for a first patch and then give it a try :3 nice job. CAUTION: spiders, rats, undead, necrophiles, cannibals, psychotic thugs, and some generally unsavory characters. No snakes, though. The spiders ate them. Very horny

F5 is default quicksave in a lot of games so it becomes an unthinking action. So I've configured both F4 and F5 to quicksave, leaving F9 as quickload since that's also a common default and unthinking action. Hitting F5 to quicksave after completing a complicated gameplay and getting loaded back to the start of the qauntlet can be irritating.

@nbohr1more , a problem has been reported and I wonder if this FM could be taken off the database and I could retract the release until the issue is resolved?

The .jpg shows AI standing in "skinning" position with arms stretched out. This isn't good. It doesn't effect gameplay in the Belcher because of the way triggers etc. are set up, but if it happens elsewhere it might break the game. Regardless, it's totally immersion breaking! This isn't consistent. In esme's case it happened once but didn't happen again after a fresh restart. In your case different AI are effected. @stgatilov I wonder if this erratic behavior could be produced by the spawnarg neverDormant=0 that's on those AI? It only happens on some AI with the spawnarg. There's been no report of the AI in the "yard" area (first area of the FM) behaving like that though the spawnarg is set on all of them.

If you look in tdm_base01.pk4, the default.cfg contains: bind "F4" "savegame quick" bind "F5" "loadgame" bind "F9" "loadgame quick" Same as in SVN. bind "F4" "savegame quick" bind "F5" "loadgame" bind "F9" "loadgame quick" So that's where it's coming from, but it's not defined which slot to load, so I'm assuming it's just picking your quicksave if that's all you have? Which is why it's not showing up in games' menu.

That accent is from a very talented actor. Had to fly him in, via helicopter, from some far away country. He wasn't cheap to hire. And he requested a Tobleronebar as payment.

This is the current default state after installing tdm. You can change them without issues. I'm just reporting what I think probably is a minor bug. But maybe I should check the keybindings config file. Strange that you have f9 and f5 for quicksave. Which is the oposite.

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How did you manage to do that? I use F5 and F9 without issues. Weird, shows multiple for me.

No one is free to fall victim to manipulation in different aspects of life, but by being aware of this, keeping our eyes open and a critical mind, we can at least avoid falling into manipulation regarding important issues in our lives.

Look up. The ducts go in 3 dimensions.

Putting the video outside the spoiler. For more visibility

Thanks for the report. I've never seen that in my hundreds/thousands/millions of playthroughs of the area. There's nothing special about those AI or the area. Do you know the cheats? Could you start a new game, open the console with ctrl-alt-` and type in noclip (enter) then notarget (enter). You can then quickly fly through walls to the belcher and check if it happens every time. noclip and notarget are toggles, so typing them in again will exit from the cheats.

I just finished this FM last night, and it was a ton of fun! I absolutely loved your city design and city atmosphere. It's nice that you took a step away from TDM's tried and true "doom and gloom" aesthetic and made a really vibrant city. It was a wonderful combo of original brushwork and modules, I really loved it. Great work!

If you copy-pasted the text with Ctrl+Shift - V (paste without formatting) and then pressed Enter, the video gets embed into the post.

The mission is up in the mission database: https://www.thedarkmod.com/missiondetails/?internalName=at1_lucy I will need a 2nd screen-shot for the image browser to work there... Edit: 2nd image added

Congrats on the release!

Glad you like it! I don't think I ever changed the fog from the first beta though The hanged man is an unique entity def thing. I downloaded the necessary files from the forums. Sotha was (at least) one of the creators. Bottom line, it's not an ordinary rag doll with a rope attached. I don't know how to create a gibbet though... Here is the package. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwR0ORZU5sraX3k2QWhZZEt2VUU/edit?usp=sharing

This level is jibbering, occultist level insanity! I finished it somehow too - only took 200 reloads... One to stay away from for the motion-sickness prone!

Intelligence heavily used these type of systems during their color revolutions like the arab spring or the orange revolution. They managed to topple governments with no causalities of their own. If someone thinks he is not being manipulated and propagandized, means the propaganda is successful.