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'ello! As you may be aware I spent the first week of this month remaking La Banque Bienveillante, the first mission of my Quinn Co. campaign I started almost a decade ago. Well, with the help of a bunch of lovely beta testers over a month of feature creep, it's now done! I've made a new topic rather than necroing the old one, because I feel it's come along enough now that it is, essentially, a whole new mission made in the spirit of the original. The goal is to eventually make the existing missions obsolete and put this new campaign in its place, but when that happens I'll include a link to the old .pk4 in here for posterity, since I don't believe in deleting work entirely no matter how mediocre it was! To that end, can this please be entered into the mission downloader as a standalone mission? It can then replace the existing Quinn Co. once the second mission is out, thanks! This is a small, short and sweet bank heist that sets the stage for the larger--and much more difficult--campaign in the works. It's mechanically stripped back a little from the initial release, since I feel I got a bit carried away. It is, however, far prettier as well! Your objective is, of course, the vault, but you can take on extra jobs for people to make money on the side; while the vault gives you money to spend in the next mission's shop, it doesn't count towards your overall loot objective whereas optional jobs do, so it's up to you if you'd rather almost empty the place to make ends meet, or take on extra work if you're less inclined to go hunting for shinies! Screenshots Thanks Big thanks to all the lovely beta testers without whom the mission would probably fail to run! Acolytesix, Datiswous, jaxa, madtaffer, Shadow, thebigh, The Black Arrow, Wellingtoncrab & wesp5 And thanks to everyone who's continued to contribute to the project over the years - I've come back and there's so much more fantastic content to play with! And thanks to you! For playing! I'd love to hear what you think, and feel free to notify me of any issues - provided they're not game-breaking, they'll be fixed when Quinn Co 2 comes out soon! (tm) Download (.pk4)

I am basically rehashing lots of points of discussion which have already come up on the discord, but I think the biggest problem with gear is that in the event of detection it rarely provides a viable or preferable alternative to reloading the game, and so even if the designer attempts to “lead the horse to water” it still seems much more often they will languish in the players inventory. I guess there is always the thrill and brief endorphin injection from hearing that frob sound! Tools I think should be much more effective means of interrupting and ending the alert states of AI, or at least this strikes me as the most fruitful venue for coaxing players out of the detection = failure = reload the game loop. A flashbomb for example provides a rather brief window for escape into at best a lengthy wait for the simulation to reset. Things like the rather brief “I am blind” animation only looping through once also doesn’t provide very good feedback to players how effective the tool even is. I always got the the impression in thief that blinded AI was pretty much opened up to an easy 360 degree KO from the blackjack (and thus a quick simulation reset) but it doesn’t seem to work this way in TDM (striking them at least seems to re-loop through the “I am blind” animation). I also think the default effect duration could be longer (or at less of penalty to the player, or perhaps I am not very good at not blinding myself). Perhaps bringing over the choke mechanic for moss arrows from TDS, even it’s just using the same blind stim, is another avenue to expand the versatility of tools - then moss arrows become multifunction and can also be used to offensively interrupt alerts and open guards to KO. Maybe this could be expanded further and the moss pads not only dampen player sounds but reduce player fall damage (which I understand is technically more difficult than it sounds and has obvious potential ramifications for legacy missions). TL;DR - players don’t use tools - perhaps they should be more useful.

Pretty cool

While good publicity is always a good thing, that does not appear to be an account officially associated with id in any way. It's just a fan account run by an individual.

I can to launch dev/16498-9944 on Windows 7. Thank you!

I don't have an OLED but I am guessing that should be an option soon...

Any government introducing laws to "protect the children" is a massive red flag. The few times I heard that stuff it was just an excuse to control what the population can do on the internet and to be honest I don't know how much I trust a bunch of people who probably don't even know how to operate a phone to make laws about technology

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. ==============================================================

@McPhisto2051Do you have the darkmod.log that can be found in the darkmod folder? Maybe it contains some useful information. EDIT: Good timing

This mission was great from the get in beta and playing through the final version was a blast. Fantastic job on this!

Congrats on the release! this was a very cool FM, just oozing at the seams with atmosphere and ambience. Great work!

Related internal discussion?

Fun and atmospheric mission with some great views, loot in an old fashioned sleuthing style bank heist. This mission adds to a great year for new missions from talented first-time and classic creators.

The mission has been added to the database: https://www.thedarkmod.com/missiondetails/?internalName=m_lbb

That's just so you have to play it to read without eye strain! (I'll fix it when Im back on desktop ) It's a secret!

Congrats on the remake release!

Got everything, except...

Congratulations! I just want to note that the quoted text on top of your post is black on a very dark background on the forum's dark theme. So I can't read it. Possibly it still has styling because it is copy pasted? It should be white on dark grey.

I'm excited to try this out! And welcome back!

@datiswousCan you try to open the file gl/zfill_alpha_vp.glsl and change the version check in the first line to 130 instead of 140? It's possible that GLSL 1.30 is good enough, it worked for me locally at least. #version 130 in vec4 attr_Position; // bound to attribute 0 in source, in object space in vec4 attr_TexCoord; // bound to attribute 8 in source ... I think the interaction glsl files might have a similar check in them, maybe you'll run into the next file - you can try to do the same change there. About hat GLSL version, I remember checking the version history, and GLSL 1.40 was released somewhere around 2009? I have been thinking I'm pretty much on the safe side here, but maybe I've been wrong about this.

Version 5 of the script posted. Change-log: v5: To prevents sudden halts when running, a one-second delay has been added between the moment the player stops going forward and the script takes you automatically back to walking mode. To allow for a greater freedom of movement, the script requires to know now your backwards, right and left keys. v4: Altered so that when player is running and stops, you are back to walking mode. v3: The script only runs when TDM is in focus (tested in Win 10) v2: Second version by Obsttorte v1: First version by Obsttorte ------------------------------------ If anyone wants to put it to test, follow below instructions (please note it takes some time to get used to it): Download AutoHotkey, install it, open Notepad, paste the below script inside, save it as TDM.ahk and double click on the file you just saved. Settings > Controls > Weapons: Remove mouse wheel bindings from Next Weapon and Previous Weapon (or from any other setting you may have set the mouse wheel to) Settings > Controls > General: Make sure Toggle Crouch is enabled and Always Run is disabled Settings > Controls > Movement: The Forward, Run and Creep keys must match in both TDM and the script. To end the script, go to the Windows taskbar, look for a green icon with an "H", right click on it and select Exit. Known limitations: You can turn pages and numbered dials using Next Inv. Item / Prev Inv. Item. To prepare for a long jump from idle, move the mouse wheel up before executing your move You cannot move objects you are holding back and forth You cannot lean forward and switch speeds at the same time, for some reason Warning: fighting is as cumbersome as ever! ; ===================================== ; Adjust player speed with mouse wheel ; ------------------------------------- ; An AutoHotkey script for The Dark Mod ; version 5.0 by Obsttorte & snatcher ; ===================================== ; ------------------------------------- ; Configure your keys below ; ------------------------------------- ; In-game movements keys key_left = a key_right = d key_forward = w key_backward = s ; In-game creep key key_creep = c ; In-game run key key_run = r ; ------------------------------------- ; Do not edit anything past this point ; ------------------------------------- delay = 1000 ; delay in miliseconds between running > walking [default = 1000] speed = 0 ; init speed (-1 = creep | 0 = walk [default] | 1 = run) steps = 1 ; amount of mouse wheel steps needed for switching state [default = 1] state = speed * steps ; counter for state switch #IfWinActive ahk_exe TheDarkModx64.exe ; run only when TDM is focused HotKey, *~%key_forward% up, keyForwardHandler return keyForwardHandler: if (speed == 1) ; we are running { sleep, delay if (!GetKeyState(key_forward) && !GetKeyState(key_backward) && !GetKeyState(key_right) && !GetKeyState(key_left)) { speed = 0 ; walk Send {%key_run% up} } } return *wheelup:: state += 1 if (state >= steps) { if (speed == -1) ; we are creeping { speed = 0 ; walk Send {%key_creep% up} } else if (speed == 0) ; we are walking { speed = 1 ; run Send {%key_run% down} } state = 0 } return *wheeldown:: state -= 1 if (state <= steps * -1) { if (speed == 0) ; we are walking { speed = -1 ; creep Send {%key_creep% down} } else if (speed == 1) ; we are running { speed = 0 ; walk Send {%key_run% up} } state = 0 } return Cheers!

Goddamn now Ripley has no motivation to update operating system anymore!

Ha! Found it! There's some thread confusion here because the mission is named Quinn Co so that's the thread title I searched for - the only one I found was by someone else who also failed to find this thread. The thing is, before and after finishing a mission maybe a thread link is needed for missions? (Maybe there is and I missed it?) This is particularly true for newcomers who might not realise there is a help and feedback forum. Anyway, got Mission Completed and then it seemed to restart so I broke out to figure out what had happened. Finally realised it's a campaign and there's another level (or more?) Really needs something there to make a bigger show. Probably a Dark Mod thing and it needs more than Mission Complete - or a modified version? Dunno needs more than just another briefing (and I'm sure I'd read that before?) Maybe that's a quick fix - a big message at the start of later level briefings that it's PART TWO or MISSION TWO to show it's continuing? Maybe a second graphic screen after Mission Complete but before it goes to the next briefing? Possibly that Dark Mod Graphic could have an alternate form that switches in instead. Now, the mission itself is fine. There was some really creative and inventive stuff in the shop (though I really wanted a little more cash to spend! ) The lighting looked okay but there was not enough contrast in many places (to make the shadows look convincing) and some places were near totally black which just meant I had to exit and boost the gamma up full. IMO Those places needed a tiny bit more light plus orientation glimpses (a faint patch of light from a skylight, a glimmer down a pipe, and some light texture trim, etc.) to give the player something to work with, while still looking convincingly dark. The enemy were rather too fast and sensitive and there were not enough shadows so, despite my being reasonably expert, I suffered endless busts and quickloads simply because it was impossible to judge many situations so I just had to dash and hope. That's not good gameplay. BTW I think the slow match texture is missing because the slow match was all black, making it impossible to tell which is the lit end and making it hard to see in the gloom to touch it delicately on a wick. It looks fine in the second level. One problem was a guard I KO'd, picked up and turned over etc, fell against a chest. Later, I lockpicked the chest but couldn't lift the lid because he was now pressed against it and he had become unfrobbable. Do bodies now normally become unfrobbable after time? Apart from the above, this was a good standard Dark Mod mission plus it had some extra interesting creative parts such as the shop, good info, that heavy loot idea, and so on. The story was enough to feel properly involved and not just a blind loot quest. Visuals were okay. There were a few poor texture choices (like rough wood in quality areas) but generally acceptable. I'll continue playing mission 2, probably tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to it.

First off, at the creation stage it's just "let's create great art", or "let's think of ways to express ourselves and communicate our ideas". GDC presentations are a byproduct of that work. Then, at some point, the PR department steps in and talks about high sales. But historically, games in the Thief era had much more leeway in that regard. So framing it like it was a modern AAA title is misleading. The question of hobby vs. professional framed the above is something that I've seen several times already, and TTLG and here would be the only places in the world that I've seen people frame it like that. There is no hard line between hobbyist and a pro, as your post implies. People do pick up creative hobbies because of pros in the first place. Like you pick up an instrument, because you heard something recorded by pros. And you imitate them, then you try to find your own style, etc. You learn whatever your curiosity and taste leads you to, and as much as you are willing to spend your free time on this. But no one says: "ooh, I'm not learning that, this is for the pros only". "I'm not learning it right now, because I have to work on my technique first" – sure. In the end, the difference between hobbyists and pros is mostly that the latter earn money for it. Not how far someone goes in their learning or skills. That is perhaps one thing we can agree on. Also don't want to continue this, because to me it seems like a discussion for sake of discussion, with walls of text, and not in order to get somewhere interesting. @Dragofer you forgot to move this last post from the conversation to the gear thread.