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WIP mission name confirmed: "The Last Offering"

Yo TDMers. It has been a while. This past year or so I have encountered some tough family issues, became a grandfather, had a job change, and then Steam offered Dishonored and Dishonored 2 along with all DLC for like 5 dollars. So... have played that. What a game; highly recommend. I am looking to resume TDM activity soon. Clint

2.13 Moddb Article is up: https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/news/the-dark-mod-213-is-here

In case you missed it, I updated the Visible Player Hands mod to version 2.0. It now works while a weapon is selected and has a Linux version too. Check it out if you're interested: Visible Player Hands 2.0

Starting a playthrough of the whole Dark Mod, from oldest mission to newest. I've knocked over the first few already and about to start Living Expenses. Only ~170 missions to go!

I'm back! Happy new years, TDM folks! I brought with me a quick update for my first FM that fixes up a lot of small issues that didn't get caught in beta testing. I didn't exactly expect it to take me nearly 9 months to release a patch, but it's been a wild year to say the least. Teaching, finishing up my Master's of Education, and all manner of other events forced me to drop out of the anniversary FM contest and ate up all my time, but I'm back again in a comfortable position to start catching up on all the new FMs. I may even start work on another spooky project of greater length and difficulty in the coming year. Thanks again for the warm welcome to the community and have a happy new year!

Another goblin secrets episode on the way with the new update Focuses are: supporting 100% runs on shadow playstyles fixing the softlock and a tiny visual upgrade

Sorry for not being around enough lately. I am extremely busy at the moment. We are trying to build a home and the German bureaucracy is killing me! Meanwhile, child number 2 is underway.

Holiday TDM Moddb article is now up: https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/news/happy-holidays-from-the-dark-mod

Today I started writing readables for my WIP mission. I wrote my usual text and then crammed it into AI and boom, high quality stuff comes out. I used to say that clipper is the mappers best friend, but now it seems it is more like "AI is the mappers best friend."

Got tdm 2.12 running on my android phone. For more info, read the latest post in the topic on subforum techsupport.

I just uploaded a new version of the Visible Player Hands mod. It's been updated for TDM 2.13 and has new animations. Check out the post if you're interested!

On a lighter note, thanks to my cat-like reflexes, my superior puzzle skills and my perfect memory, I was able to beat the remastered version of "Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation" in a new superhuman record time of 23 h : 35 m, worship me!

Goblin-Secrets episode 2 is out now!

Today I did a bit of an experiment! I wanted to see if I could get a dark radiant map into garry's mod, the quickest and dirtiest and not-workiest method is "OBJ2VMF" which converts .obj models into VMF files for hammer to then compile, the way its supposed to work is that you input a 6 sided cube and it turns it into a 6 brush room (not exactly ideal for this since that's not how TDM maps work, this honestly would have been a better idea with any thief game from 1 to the one from 2014 since they all work like that) so what ended up happening was that for every brush there was 6 brushes would be ontop of that almost inflating everything in the map like a balloon, map scale was also an issue that I couldn't fine-tune easily either so the scale is way off ontop of everything being inflated making the space inside the map very tiny! anyways heres the result of that and it looks almost nothing like footloose (plus I did add a bunch of random props in gmod for funsies and better visibility since the process involved replacing all the textures with dev ones that look very flat when in full-bright) https://streamable.com/ctmh58 (streamable link will expire in 2 days but I'll have a spoken word version of this post along side the video and other fun images relating to the bsp inflation effect in the next "Goblin Secrets" video next month)

I just bought/build a new pc, so probably less performance related whining from my part from now on.. Sorry in advance! Here are the specs

I posted about it before, but I think the default tdm logo video looks outdated. For a (i.m.o.) better looking version, you can download the pk4 attached to this post and plonk it in your tdm root folder. Every mission that starts with the tdm logo then starts with the better looking one. Try for example mission COS1 Pearls and Swine. tdm_logo_video.pk4

What do you know about a 40 degree day? @demagogue

I moved from Manjaro Linux (rolling release) to Linux Mint (LTS). One of the reasons was that I found the updates a bit too often and long. But now on Mint I get updates every day, although they're usually small updates.

"Hidden Hands: Vitalic Fever" - new update available including subtitles & compressed briefing video (thanks to @datiswous) and several fixes.

2025-04-20 I'd like to track my level design progress a bit more often now, so I'm using the feed in my profile here. I've been working intensively on Springheel's YouTube course over the past few days. I'm currently up to lesson 8. There is so much information that needs to be processed and practiced. I have started to create my own house. As I don't have the imagination to create a good floor plan, I grabbed a floor plan generator from Watabou and experimented with it. I chose a floor plan that I will modify slightly, but at least I now have an initial idea. I used two guards as a measuring tape: The rooms are two guards high. It turned out that I can simply double the number of boxes in DarkRadiant in grid size 8 that are drawn in the floor plan. I practiced the simplest things on the floor plan first. Drawing walls, cutting walls, inserting doors, cutting out frames, creating VisPortals, furnishing rooms. I have had my first success in creating a book. Creating a book was easier than I thought. I have a few ideas with books. The level I'm creating will be more or less a chill level, just for me, where I'll try out a few things. I don't have an idea for my own mission yet. I want to start small first. For the cellar, I wanted to have a second entrance, which should be on the outside. I'm fascinated by these basement doors from the USA, I think they're called Bilco basement doors. They are very unusual in Germany, but this type of access is sometimes used for deliveries to restaurants etc., where barrels can be rolled or lifted into the cellar. I used two Hatch Doors, but they got completely disoriented after turning. I have since got them reasonably tamed. It's not perfect, but it's acceptable. In the cellar today I experimented with a trap door that leads to a shaft system. The rooms aren't practically finished yet, but I want to continue working on the floor plan for now. I'll be starting on the upper floor very soon. __________________________________________________________________________________ 2025-04-20 Ich möchte nun mal öfters ein bisschen meinen Werdegang beim Leveldesign tracken, dazu nutze ich hier den Feed in meinem Profil. Ich habe mich in den vergangenen Tagen intensiv mit dem Youtube-Kurs von Springheel beschäftigt. Aktuell bin ich bis zu Lektion 8 gekommen. Das sind so viele Informationen, die erstmal verarbeitet werden wollen und trainiert werden wollen. Ich habe mich daran gemacht, ein eigenes Haus zu erstellen. Da mir die Fantasie fehlt, einen guten Raumplan zu erstellen, habe ich mir einen Grundrissgenerator von Watabou geschnappt und damit experimentiert. Ich habe mich für einen Grundriss entschieden, den ich noch leicht abwandeln werde, aber zumindest habe ich nun eine erste Idee. Als Maßband habe ich zwei Wächter genommen: Die Räume sind zwei Wächter hoch. Es hat sich herausgestellt, dass ich in DarkRadiant in Gittergröße 8 einfach die doppelte Anzahl an Kästchen übernehmen kann, die im Grundriss eingezeichnet sind. Ich habe bei dem Grundriss erstmal die einfachsten Sachen geübt. Wände ziehen, Wände zerschneiden, Türen einsetzen, Zargen herausschneiden, VisPortals erstellen, Räume einrichten. Ich habe erste Erfolge mit einem Buch gehabt. Das Erstellen eines Buchs ging leichter als gedacht. Ich habe ein paar Ideen mit Bücher. Das Level, das ich gerade erstelle, wird mehr oder weniger ein Chill-Level, einfach nur für mich, bei dem ich ein paar Sachen ausprobieren werde. Ich habe noch keine Idee für eine eigene Mission. Ich möchte erst einmal klein anfangen. Beim Keller wollte ich gerne einen zweiten Zugang haben, der sich außen befinden soll. Mich faszinieren diese Kellertüren aus den USA, Bilco basement doors heißen die, glaube ich. Diese sind in Deutschland sehr unüblich, diese Art von Zugängen gibt es aber manchmal zur Anlieferung bei Restaurants etc., wo Fässer dann in den Keller gerollt oder gehoben werden können. Ich habe zwei Hatch Doors verwendet, die allerdings nach dem Drehen vollkommen aus dem Ruder liefen. Inzwischen habe ich sie einigermaßen gebändigt bekommen. Es ist nicht perfekt, aber annehmbar. Im Keller habe ich heute mit einer Falltür experimentiert, die zu einem Schachtsystem führt. Die Räume sind noch quasi nicht eingerichtet, aber ich möchte erstmal am Grundriss weiterarbeiten. In Kürze fange ich das Obergeschoss an.

Modpack 5.0 released! Introducing the Light Stones.

@taaaki Wiki seems broken. Main page works but click any link and:

While updating my first FM, I noticed a lot of silly things I did because I was still new to DR. For example, there was a model for a wheel that I wanted the player to be able to turn that had its origin off-center. I didn't know I could just re-export the model inside DR to fix its origin, so instead that wheel triggers a func_mover it's bound to. A silly solution in retrospect, has anyone else made somewhat janky or roundabout solutions to technical challenges in their maps? I'd love to hear about 'em!

If you use DarkRadiant in Linux while using a dark theme, a large amount of the icons are hard to see, because it's dark-color on dark background (wish DR darkmode was a little less dark). A workaround is switching to a light theme when using DR. I'm using XFCE as DE, so I made this script (mostly copied from this code), which works as a toggle. Then I set it to a keyboard shortcut. The switch works even when DR is already opened. current_theme=$(xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/theme) if [[ $current_theme == 'Adwaita-dark' ]]; then xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Net/ThemeName -s 'Mint-X-Grey' xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/theme -s 'Mint-X-Grey' else xfconf-query -c xsettings -p /Net/ThemeName -s 'Adwaita-dark' xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/theme -s 'Adwaita-dark' fi This only works for the XFCE DE though.

I got myself the apple tv trial subscription. I have to say, “Foundation” (season 1) is very exciting. Shall I read the books as well?

One more like..

TDM Modpack v4.6 released! Introducing... the Forward Lantern mod.

TDM is now in the Top 100 for Mod of the Year! Please vote again: https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod

Author of the Visible Player Hands mod: please come forth and collect a round of applause!

Hey @Ansome, are you still around? I think it's been about 3 months since you've had an issue with an SSD, right?

Happy Halloween! "Gem of Souls" is out: Psst, someone let Darkfate know...

Can we get a few more players to try out "You Only Fly Thrice" and "Pinnacle: A Test of Talents" ? ( 15yr contest missions ). It would be nice to conclude contest voting in time for Moddb award season if possible.

funny thing i just discovered : you can give away your location & alert nearby guard by igniting a flint by pressing u(use button) again and again. It's like playing with sparklers

welcome back Sotha

Hidden Hands: Blood and Metal is out

Apologies for the unplanned downtime. A routine upgrade did not go to plan, and the rollback had its own issues

Taking a break to alleviate burnout. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have jumped into a map-making contest so quickly after just finishing another project and especially with my busy schedule, but I do believe I have something that the community will enjoy. No clue if I'll be able to finish it on time for the competition if I factor in a break, but I'd rather take my time and deliver something of quality rather than engage in development crunch or lose part of the map's soul to burnout.

TDM 15th Anniversary Contest is now active! Please declare your participation: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22413-the-dark-mod-15th-anniversary-contest-entry-thread/

I was playing Skyrim, got bored fast. Got back to The Dark Mod just for one mission, played "Somewhere above the City" which is not really a great mission but still good, as in above-average. My biggest regret is living in this country, where there's a heat wave, I am sweating at 20c and I really wish for temperatures below 5c.

You all ought to check out The Black Parade over on TTLG if you have any heart for our kind of game. It's a grand tribute for the 25th anniversary of Thief TDP.

Idea: Thief 3 style missions. One of the great features of Thief 3 are missions defided in small segments with loading screens when you move from segment to segment. We all miss those right? I was thinking of mapping only horizontal, so not stacked. When you go up or down (stairs or elevator), you get a 20 seconds fake loading screen where you can play a minigame (The Builder's Blocks?). After that you get teleported to a different area that seems to be on top of the first, but actually isn't in the map file. It's much easier mapping, because you can see everything in one glance from above. This could also give more freedom building, because it doesn't have to fit. Everything is predictable because guards don't move to different sections. This could be used for the Thief 3 contest possibly..

I did it! I finally did it! After 48 hours of frustration and confusion, I managed to finally sort out how to attach equipment to NPC:s properly, and write down coherent instructions on how to do it, both in my manual, and in this forum. I can finally rest. I can finally eat breakfast.