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And making it possible for the new electric lights to be broken adds a psychological problem: how will players know that they are breakable if in 99% missions they are not? Recall lootable paintings and frob-extinguishable unmoveable candles.

It might then be best to add it to new light models designed for the purpose. The visual cue should be making them more glassy and fragile looking: Existing lamps look pretty solid, we can argue those were made of reinforced glass built to withstand powerful impacts, something something Inventors Guild... in contrast we'd have a few lamps with very transparent glass that show the light bulb inside, their design shows their fragility and makes it clear those are meant to be shot.

Breakable lights might be an interesting concept so long as they are not implemented retroactively. Add a loud sound or other punishment for breaking them as you see fit, but it would still change the difficulty and design intended by level authors if you applied it to all previously made levels. I would also suggest that if you instead intend to make breakable variants of existing light models that you add a clear visual indicator that the light is breakable, otherwise it would require explicit messaging to the player that electric lights are breakable in that particular FM. I’m hesitant to see something of this sort added as it is in stark contrast to Thief precedent, but I would be more supportive of it if it was added carefully and responsibly.

Well then, it's been about a week since I released my first FM and I must say that I was very pleasantly surprised by its reception. I had expected half as much interest in my short little FM as I received and even less when it came to positive feedback, but I am glad that the aspects of my mission that I put the most heart into were often the most appreciated. It was also delightful to read plenty of honest criticism and helpful feedback, as I've already been given plenty of useful pointers on improving my brushwork, level design, and gameplay difficulty. I've gotten back into the groove of chipping away at my reading and game list, as well as the endless FM catalogue here, but I may very well try my hand at the 15th anniversary contest should it materialize. That is assuming my eyes are ready for a few more months of Dark Radiant's bright interface while burning the midnight oil, of course!

The Numbers don't lie. It has been 15 years since the release of TDM 1.0 in 2009. I think we should consider a contest to celebrate this. Further, the contest goal should be with the intention of motivating the completion of a campaign that can be deemed official. Here are some possible ways forward: Proposal 1: Middle mission(s) Authors are asked to create a mission that expands the story between "A New Job" and "Tears of St Lucia". This can involve escaping the heavily guarded city perimeter, stowing away on a ship or caravan, attempting to recruit a partner for St Lucia and failing, getting caught by Builders before arriving and having to escape their compound, getting lost in haunted woods on the way there, etc. Any interesting way that the connection between the two official missions can be expanded. Points are awarded for making explicit references to Corbin, St Lucia, and any story elements in the two official missions. If the resultant mission is of high enough quality, it can possibly be made into an official mission. If we get a number of excellent submissions and they do not cause logical inconsistencies, we might even be able to add two or more to the official list. Proposal 2: Intellectual Property distinct approximation of TDS missions Over the years, many have asked that we recreate Thief 1 \ 2 in this engine. Obviously we cannot do this due to copyright law but we could create similar missions and stories that approximate the Thief 1 or 2 designs. That said, I think that most of our audience has played these missions to death so it may be underwhelming to see them arrive in approximate form anyway. What might be better would be to develop a similar story to TDS and make missions that resemble what T1 \ T2 players were dreaming would arrive when TDS was announced and the first screen-shots were shown in gaming magazines. So take any TDS mission you like, examine the story arc and wildly re-interpret something similar but on a much grander scale. Since it's possible that two or more contestants will choose the same mission to re-interpret, we have a slot system were authors need to claim their preferred mission and if it is taken then they must select another one or lose some story points. The slots represent a sketch of what the mission author might try to do rather than a blueprint. If authors can come up with a mission that has almost no resemblance to any TDS mission but would make for a compelling story development in a similar story arc then that can be claimed as an alternative to a slot. Proposal 3: Same as proposal 2 but we stick with Thief 1 rather than TDS. Wildly re-interpret T1 based on what you may have dreamed of when reading the gaming magazines or playing the demo. Slots system to prevent duplicate submissions. Maybe with either proposals 3 and 4, we still require the use of Corbin as the protagonist and a connective enough story that they could also be adapted as middle missions for the official campaign if the team agrees on it. Proposal 4: Another "Connections" Contest. We just allow authors to connect any two missions with each other or expand the story of an existing series or single mission. So those are my thoughts. I'll leave it to players and mission authors to suggest other proposals and if we have some sort of consensus about the most popular proposals then we will make a poll. Realistically between now and October we may not be able to hold a contest with any strict guidelines ( and tricky issues with maintaining a distance to Thief IP ) so proposal 4 may still be the easiest option.

This sounds like something suitable for a mod (or an individual FM where the author desires this kind of mechanic), but not as a core gameplay feature.

Noticed all of these only because I played TDM by doing the opposite of stealth to practice swordfights. None of these bugs appeared as long as I played the game stealthily. Should also note that I used Snatcher's Core Essentials @snatcher on and off, but your mod does not alter the AI anyway, correct? Bugs happened both ways. 1) AI freezes in combat - https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=6371 It happens a lot with auto-parry disabled. It never happened with auto-parry enabled. It never happened with some guards, while it happened many times with specific guards. They unfreeze when player dies, or when AI is forced to re-equip the melee when player returned from a spot that usually causes them to throw rocks. Also experienced behavior of them only slowly walking towards me at the pace of "hunched sneakily searching mode", attacking once finally in proximity. 2) AI may collectively lose the ability to hear any of the players noise caused by footsteps / landing. Still unsure of what causes this, but Lockner Manor has a good layout to get to the result. Just follow the right-most path and repeat the process of winning sword-fights with City Watch, and then jump around the next guard to see if they can hear you. If they can not hear you, likely nobody can. If they still can, just combat them too and you will likely have deaf AI by the time you have dealt with the 3 Watch Guards outside. In my experience, when they hear the death scream well enough to run to its location or start searching - the deafening did not work. 3) Helmeted AI does not react to (nor hear) players overhead sword strikes made directly on helmet, stealthily from behind. Not sure if the same issue as deaf AI bug, but happened at least once while it was active. (Lockner Manor) 4) (Moor?) AI may lose the ability to hear AND see player after nearby swordfights and after two slashes to bloody their face. (I may have also Moss Arrowed them to face). Any sword strikes I make simply go through their model with no audio of impact. Collision still gets player detected. (A Good Neighbor) 5) Crash to desktop when archer puts bow away to take out melee (while I may have collided with them on staircase). (Lockner Manor) 6) Crash to desktop when I shot a shortsword-wielding charging Noble. Sound of a deflected arrow played (same that you hear when shooting a stone wall), when I expected a flesh-hitting sound. (A Good Neighbor) 7?) Sometimes AI says "Ow that hurt" merely because I block their strikes. - Is this an intended feature? Do they take actual damage too? Anyway, I didn't find mentions about many of these issues. Reporting aside, if you want me to experiment with something or find ways to replicate - I don't mind updating this thread, as I plan to mess around with sword-fights anyway. Just posted this initial version should anyone want to chime in with similar experiences, and I wanted to know if some of these bugs could be mission-, or mod-specific. Maybe caused by much or unfortunately timed quicksaving / loading?