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Aight well if I'm poking around posting fm reviews, code change suggestions, and asking for tech help I might as well also put up my work. Putzing around with DarkRadiant is quite fun. Not sure when or if I will produce a full map but, considering that I haven't touched dromed or made maps for other games before, I'm really happy with what I've got so far. Kudos to the tooling designers for making something reasonably idiot-friendly. One of the first things the A-Z tutorial tells you is to not use 0 0 0 for ambient lighting, and I immediately said nuts to that lol. I'm really enjoying the harsh darkness and the contrast from light sources. I didn't intend for it to happen, but I've ended up with something that looks like it crawled straight out of TDS. It also makes traversing the level have an interesting trade off - you need light to see, but enemies can see you carrying it and if its in your hands you have to drop it to pull out the bow or mantle stuff. I'm trying to build a whole level around this "mechanic"/"gimmick".

Yep, and it's very satisfying going back over it all with what I've learned since. I'm usually a proponent for not revising your work, but in this case I think it's worth it.

ㅤ

UPDATE! Version 2 is now available. It addresses most of the issues people have found, but the main highlight is a new in-game map provided by the talented @Airship-Ballet! Unlike version 1, the map isn't in your inventory to start with. You need to find it but it's not hidden. Changelog: https://github.com/FrostSalamander/lt4/releases/tag/2.0 Download: https://drive.proton.me/urls/PV79JTNVAW#7zDvAvipKG0I @nbohr1more could you please update the FM database?

If value the games you buy, you should sign one of these petitions - SIGN THE EU CITIZENS INITIATIVE: - https://eci.ec.europa.eu/045/public/#/screen/home SIGN THE UK PETITION: - https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/702074/ EU petition is @ 632K- needs to hit 1'000'000 UK petition is @ 44K - needs to hit 100,000 A video from Gamers Nexus on the subject - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9ahH6HrtTc ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- EU: This initiative calls to require publishers that sell or license videogames to consumers in the European Union (or related features and assets sold for videogames they operate) to leave said videogames in a functional (playable) state. Specifically, the initiative seeks to prevent the remote disabling of videogames by the publishers, before providing reasonable means to continue functioning of said videogames without the involvement from the side of the publisher. UK: The government should update consumer law to prohibit publishers from disabling video games (and related game assets / features) they have already sold without recourse for customers to retain or repair them. We seek this as a statutory consumer right.

"Dame Fortune is a fickle mistress. Every time she opens a door, she throws a brick through your window..." I'm happy to announce that my second FM, "The Last Night on Crookshank Lane", is now available on the Mission Database: https://www.thedarkmod.com/missiondetails/?internalName=crookshank Backup download is also available here: https://share.anon-kenkai.com/crookshank.pk4 Big thanks to @Airship-Ballet, @wesp5, @JackFarmer, @taffernicus, @Bergante for beta testing and feedback. Special thanks to @datiswous for generously providing in-mission subtitles. This is a much bigger and more ambitious FM than my first attempt, and it ended up taking a year and a half to complete. It was also a very educational lesson in the importance of proper map optimization. It's a sort of soft-sequel to "The Threepenny Revue", but not part of a series per se, and can be played as a standalone mission. I took inspiration from FMs like "The Painter's Wife" in TDM, and "The Sound of a Burrick in a Room" from Thief Gold, and although I'd never put myself in the same league as either, I was always impressed by their size, scope, and detail. City exploration FMs have always been my favorite, and those maps and others like them inspired me to take a crack at something similar. Enoy!

I'm proud to announce the release of The Lieutenant 4: A Reciprocal Gambit Huge thanks to beta testers: @Mat99 @Bikerdude @Cambridge Spy @Shadow @DavyJones Screenshots: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCit3B 800x600 versions for @nbohr1more: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCir1t Download link (version 2): https://drive.proton.me/urls/PV79JTNVAW#7zDvAvipKG0I TDM 2.13 required. Enjoy! Frost

I've had a brief look at the code. It indeed looks like unbindPad only unbinds the pad buttons. However, I just discovered a workaround: try setting in_padDeadZone to 2.0 . This increases the deadzone to values the sticks can never reach, effectively disabling the sticks.

Airship saved me. Turns out the problem all along was that I had saved the .sndshd as text rather than as All Files type so it became a .txt instead of a .sndshd.

Something along those lines! I'm trying to do the whole castlevania shebang, and I am working from the bottom up. So the prison and mine sections are the ones that exist right now, and thus have screenshots. That is an excellent idea. Might hold off on it though - I am having enough of a time learning basic mapping concepts. Packing in mods might be a thing to play around with if I get to the point where I am seriously debating a release and also thinking about briefing videos and stuff.

Thanks for playing! Let me re-iterate: I don't ever tweak the AI or the maps to make the hearing more difficult. I don't try to make it easier either. It's all stock TDM. You did the right thing by changing the difficulty settings to suit your preferred experience. Also, there are moss arrows and things to help with this that the entire player base seems to have forgotten about (e.g. for the marble floors). Regarding Clarice:

@Sullomethanks for taking the time to play! I am glad you had a good time @datiswousyes the speech from the shop owners is specific to the mission. If you make subtitles I would be happy to integrate them.

Sorry for the negativity. It's nice that you created extra content for this mission.

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ˢᵏᶦˡˡ ᶦˢˢᵘᵉ

After doing loads of Thief Gold and Thief II missions in the last year or so, I decided to play a TDM mission again, for a change. I'm not sure if it has to do with this particular mission, and the loads of marble floors in it, but, wow... I had my issues with blackjacking before, but, now, even with the indicator on, I miss 9 of 10 K.O.'s, and I have no idea why. Really, this game seriously needs a revision of the hitbox/blackjacking system. It's the biggest crap anyone has ever invented. Maybe someone will tell the person responsible that these systems need a certain amount of tolerance one day. Like, why create a system which is THAT finicky with distances or the area you hit, when most people play on a single screen anyway, where you simply can't measure distance well? Back to Thief fan missions, I guess...

Are you holding it the right way up?

The mission database has been updated. Thank you!

Believe it or not, an earlier build had lots of rooftop climbing and alternate routes, but poor design on my part meant I had to put them all out of reach to slice the outdoor area into chunks for visportalling/optimization after the fact. I took my "city streets" approach a bit too literally and directly this time around, and I've realized that the claustrophobia and verticality of some of the best Thief FMs were born as much out of necessity as out of choice.

Added a new painting pack Merry Paintings 2 Download I needed some office-appropriate paintings that were a bit more neutral than Caravaggio's Judith Beheading Holofernes so I grabbed 20 (mostly) C19th still life paintings, all public domain and CC0 scans. Some chiaroscuro, some pastoral, some with kitties This time around I've packaged them as light as possible so they're not the highest definition, just something to fill your walls with rather than lootable centerpieces.

Hi! I play The Dark Mod on Linux and I prefer to use a controller for most games, so for games that lack native support I use a program called AntiMicroX to map gamepad buttons from my Xbox One controller to keyboard keys. It works pretty well, and I've enjoyed using an identical setup for Thief, Thief 2, and TDM. I was pretty excited when TDM added native gamepad support, but for reasons I still prefer my setup with AntiMicroX. So I completely cleared my "DarkmodPadbinds.cfg", threw in"unbindPad" to completely disable the native controller bindings, and everything was fine. Either that was a fluke, or one of the most recent updates changed something, because I'm now finding that "unbindPad" no longer unbinds the control sticks in TDM. I can confirm this by running TDM with my config file and without running AntiMicroX; with a controller plugged in, the control stick bindings still function both on the menu and during gameplay. Some of the button bindings also still function in the menu. So my questions are: 1) Is it possible to completely unbind the gamepad (including the control sticks) in DarkmodPadbinds.cfg using "unbindPad" or another command? 2) Is it possible to add rebinding of the control sticks in a future update? (I realize this is probably a lot more work, but it would be nice to have!) Thanks for all the effort you guys put into this game, I've been enjoying it for many years.

May the Builder send mighty lightning bolts to destroy your computer so that this debauched and seductive work never sees the light of day!

Desired Results File with All Languages What is want to end up with from our AI (with any iterative fixup and manual integration) is an FM-only version of TDM’s UTF-8 all.lang. That file has 17 language sections in a particular order, which we will adopt too (in the prompt further below), although, other than English being first, it doesn’t really matter. Once we have our FM all.lang, we can easily generate all the required ISO-encoded *.lang files, e.g., french.lang. Strategy of Feeding the AI One approach would be to just feed the entire #str list in one gulp, with prompt engineering that covers all aspects. This would minimize the post-translate integration time. But the concern is that prompt engineering becomes more difficult. The AI might get confused about what restrictions and hints apply to which strings. While sometimes shared context across strings can be helpful, too much shared context could lead to overly-creative translations (e.g., hallucinations). [BTW, if accessing the AI through an API, there’s often a "temperature" value you can specify, from 0.0 to 1.0, from most-predictable to most-creative. We can use a few words in the prompt to approximately achieve similar ends.] So, to maintain more control, I’m going to batch-feed. The assumption is that translating #str_ in batches of related input groups will allow more focused guidance from prompt engineering, leading to better results. I’ll start with inventory items, that have the shortest strings and most dictionary-like lookup. An alternative/additional batching (particularly needed with large FMs) would be by "scene". In the case of Air Pocket, it could be thought of broadly as 4 scenes, based on timeline and location. The story, as driven by objectives, is fairly linear; larger FMs would typically have some randomization in scene order. Would batching by scene be useful (i.e., give better AI results) for some of Air Pocket’s #str_ s? Thinking this over. But for now, treat inventory items independent of scene. Prompt Engineering for Inventory Items A stab at a reusable template follows in blue. It describes the overall translation task, the desired tone, and input and output formats. Text specific to inventory items is shown in bold. Text that is specific to this FM, to clarify the context and the meaning of particular words, is in italics, with spoilers hidden. You are an expert translator between English and other European languages, including Russian. You wish to translate a list of inventory items, all inanimate objects, from English to these other languages. Each line of the list begins with a tab, then a word beginning with #str_ within double quotes, then another tab, then a phrase within double quotes. When you translate a line, in the output keep the tabs and the #str_ word unchanged, and only change the phrase to the other target language in UTF-8, keeping it in double quotes. Make the translated phrase reasonably short while preserving the formal meaning. Avoid modern slang. Old-fashioned wording is fine. At the end of each line, add another tab, and then add a back-translation of the previous phrase into English again. When back-translating, ignore the original English phrase. Most of the inventory items are keys, and the associated phrases describe locked doors to particular locations aboard a ship, or locked trunks or safes on a ship. The "Master Key" opens all locks. Following the input list of inventory items, append output lists in these target languages: 1. German 2. French 3. Polish 4. Italian 5. Spanish 6. Portuguese 7. Russian 8. Czech 9. Hungarian 10. Dutch 11. Slovak 12. Danish 13. Swedish 14. Romanian 15. Turkish 16. Catalan. List of inventory items: [... skipping 1 potential spoiler] "#str_fm_map_inv_key_captains_cabin" "Captain's Cabin" "#str_fm_map_inv_key_captains_safe" "Captain's Safe" "#str_fm_map_inv_key_galley" "Galley" "#str_fm_map_inv_key_master_key" "Master Key" "#str_fm_map_inv_key_mess" "Mess" "#str_fm_map_inv_key_sea_trunk" "Sea Trunk" Using ChatGPT As discussed at the outset, you can use this without signing in (it will nag you). Also, if you’d like it not to retain your input for training purposes, click on the circled question mark and change it under "Settings". As of this post, of you ask ChatGPT what model it’s using, it responds "You're currently chatting with GPT-4o, the latest model from OpenAI as of 2025. The "o" stands for "omni" — it's designed to handle text, images, and more, all in one model." Following up by enquiring about usage limitations, it says "Free users can access GPT‑4o, but with strict usage caps, which vary based on demand and time of day". More specifically, "usage falls in the range of 5–16 messages per 3–5 hours, after which you'll be limited or switched to GPT‑4o‑mini." The latter is a faster but lower-accuracy model. "We’ll notify you once you’ve reached the limit and invite you to continue your conversation using GPT-4o mini or to upgrade to [paid] ChatGPT Plus." Because I’m doing this at a leisurely rate (and reporting it to you in posts), the usage restrictions should not bite. About Input and Output Formats As you can see above, the input is the AI prompt, appended with content from english.lang, namely, the lines between the "{" and "}" brackets. For those lines, no change to tab-separation is done. The output is the same format, but with an added English back-translation added to each line. When ChatGPT generates the response, each requested language is enclosed in its own HTML response frame, with a separate "copy" link. So you have to copy each link separately, pasting them successively into your FM-specific all.lang file while adding headers, e.g., [French]. Also, the frame margin contains the word "vbnet". When I asked, ChatGPT indicates that’s the style of syntax highlighting applied to the results, based on source material, but it may be inappropriate and so ignorable. Which explains why the word "key" was always colored green. In the next post, I’ll discuss the specific results.

Maybe you are confused with the Player lamp ?

...and yet you had this written in the very first post:

@snatcher made a new install for TDM2.13 added your mod-V5 activated : Forward Lantern / Shadow marks ( and added the "z_tdm_loot_stealth_stats" into it ) Yours : the Forward lantern isn´t here anyones ? : Inventory Grid - to F2 does not show up like messaged before (old appearance, no sorting)

@High John most of this I'll put in spoilers: In closing - my missions are designed to be on the challenging side. My favorite type of missions are ones where the challenge is in trying to progress to the next area (i.e. player vs architecture). I don't like key hunts hence the barred doors. Usually the path can be found with careful observation in all directions (including vertically, which people tend to forget), and use of your spyglass. Either way, I want everyone to enjoy my missions so the feedback is always welcome, and thanks for taking the time to play and comment!

I have got to the end, and found it very challenging and enjoyable. Much appreciated. Some general feedback. 1) The first time I found the Warwick Tower caretaker, I didn't find what I needed to go the next step in the Tower. I went back later, expecting there to be a master key I failed to spot. Which you might expect a caretaker to have. Only because I read in this thread there was a did I know to look for one. A hint in a readable would have seemed appropriate (or did I miss it?) 2) On the outward trip to Fishend, the game was semi-linear, which I found helpful, because it was not always straightforward how to progress to the next area. a) Early on it was evident that the next step was to get into the Art Dealers. b) And when I first reached the Armoury, there seemed no way forward. But because I knew there had to be one, and other options I tried didn't work, I eventually worked out what the route had to be. 3) I eventually found the room with Should I have guessed? Based on ethnicity? 4) I read in this thread what to do about the Clarice objective, but couldn't make it work. So gave up, since it was optional. 5) I did this on Difficult, but only found 7200 out of the target 8000 loot. So clearly I missed stuff, and that's on me. But at least that Objective was optional too.

this was a tough one! It took a week, on and off, so some things might have been changed but I was in progress with v1 and didn't want to start over. as much as I love a Thieves Highway and snaking through tertiary structures, I kept running against barred doors and being confused as to where to go next. (At one point I decided to noclip through the door and work backwards to where I was stuck.) Sometimes it was simply not realizing I could catch and climb a narrow ledge. I finally turned AI Hearing down all the way with this mission; its been an issue for me with Dark Mod, but here I felt they could hear me from a block away (or stories, in the tavern) and it was unfair/unfun. Is there a way of escaping after finding Clarice in the Tower? Thankfully I quicksaved before but if I hadn't I don't know that I would have put together what I needed to do from hints in readables. There's a fine line between obtuse and obvious, maybe its just because my playthrough was spread over some time. I still really enjoyed the mission, thank you so much for the work you've put into creating this world and the experiences for us!

Oh that was annoying. I had previously picked up: They were sitting happily in my Inventory. I then forgot about them(!)

I had copies in both just in case I was wrong about which place it was supposed to be. At this point I think I'd be fine getting any further help in a message, if it would help me take less than a page up here.

That's a fantastic map! I really liked it atmosphere and feel, very calm, mysterious and just pushing you to explore it at your own pace. I really liked that there aren't many dangers. Attention to details and decorations are also extraordinary, the city left a very pleasant expression. I finished the mission, but found very little, and my mind gets back to it regularly, so I will definitely revisit it later to find all that is there. Now, I would be very glad for some help. Two puzzles intrigued me the most.

I've also been playing lots of TG/T2 missions recently and I definitely feel this sentiment, but I do also remember how TDM played before the blackjacking revamp. Now that was garbage. Post revamp, with the animation tell, I've actually felt comfortable enough with the way TDM does things now? Like its still definitely more difficult and finicky than TG/T2 and that frustrates me in the moments where I fail to blackjack and thought I was gonna succeed, but I at least respect it as a design decision. TG/T2 really do make it too easy to give an entire city block migraines by bopping people in the feet. What needs to change is how quickly AI goes from unaware to perfectly invincible - a "surprise" state, where they play some comical "BWA-HUH?!?!" shrug animation and can still be blackjacked while you're running up to them or if you suddenly jump out of the shadows, would probably go a long way to making the blackjacking mechanics and hitboxes feel the way they're intended to feel.

This might be your best bet: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Startpack_Mappers'_Guide#Adding_an_In-game_Map_to_your_FM

Just published a more juicy update than usual, which includes the latest suggestions. Ended up getting back to this project way sooner than I expected. Alpha 0.4 - https://github.com/Skaruts/tdm_packer_2/releases/tag/alpha-0.4 Maybe I'll start bringing some of the features from the python version into this one, now. They're long overdue.

Fun mission, maybe i would have liked some side quests on the way, but as the player is leaving town, maybe it didn't matter as much? I realized that some of the buildings can just be entered from the main doors, not needing the alternate paths. Maybe this was fine to keep it a little fast paced. Some more of the readables could have been pick-up-able. I loved the: I don't usually like sprawling city missions, but this was very right sized.

Here's a recent example that I've just run into: https://drive.proton.me/urls/TEDVJ2RAGW#xUPlKrSWj4Yp

Hi @Heuli

No, I'm not impatient. Take your time, don't let other people rush you.

I completely agree and always found the timer illogical and killing the atmosphere. Thus throwable holy water bottles have been in my Unofficial Patch for a long time, created by the great Obsttorte. They do not work on pools though...

Gains are so node dependent that it's hard to even count Blackwell. It's on the same node, the 5080 was the same die size as 4080 Super, the 5090 got some performance simply from increasing the die area by 23%. The 5060 is another "winner" from using a larger die and delivering 25% more cores than its predecessor, but it's hated for having 8 GB. This is easily fixable in the near future by giving it the proper 12 GB using 3 GB modules. APUs are going to service the low end, especially in cheap mini PCs but also with most desktop CPUs coming with a basic iGPU, or people will have to get used to paying $200 minimum for a new GPU. Which isn't that bad in theory, just stale given what's on offer. I'm talking about the RTX 5050, successor to the 3050, which may be released around July 1st, and will be laughed at if it's significantly above a 199 USD MSRP: https://wccftech.com/nvidia-geforce-rtx-5050-8-gb-gpu-reportedly-launches-1st-july/ https://wccftech.com/nvidia-officially-launches-laptop-geforce-rtx-5050-gpu/ Weirdly enough, it's using GDDR7 in the laptop variant. There were persistent rumors of GDDR6, which may be desktop only... Edit: OOF. $249 MSRP rumored. Edit: Confirmed.

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

@chakkman Hammer. Erbauer Hammer. Voller Hammer. (Meine Meinung)

Finished! Fun mission - nothing groundbreaking but a nice town to work my way through. Issues: Opinion:

One can never have too many paintings (said in a posh voice)...

The mission easily goes to my list of replayable missions, which is my second highest rank. Yes, some vertexes aren't snipped together and there was a single piece of loot I wasn't able to get , but these are negligible issues. I appreciated the creative elements and little secrets and the way you used the light sources. Thank you for your work.

Thanks, I did not see another way up there. Maybe I should turn up the gamma. About the guard. I had no problem sneaking past him. It's just that his animation looked very glitchy. There is some issue going on, and I was wondering what exactly the problem is. But I don't know wether it's a mapping or mod issue. This is a great mission. The setup of guards and their patrols is very well done; it was fun sneaking around without getting frustrating or tedious. Except for the tavern maybe. That was a little too cramped for my liking. I almost ran out of water arrows (because I try to knock out as few guards as possible). I also loved the gloomy mood outside, with the thunder and rain. Very atmospheric.

okay - I just had a look and indeed I forgot some monsterclip brush in the problem area. Thanks - will note for the next update. Also - I doubt I will ever optimize a map for supreme ghosters, but are they not allowed to use moss arrows?

Straight to jail

Did it as well as I could given the inevitability of raising stealth score.