Sotha

Fidcal, it is not just you. When betamapping, I found the lockpicks only accidentally because I have the habit of blind-frobbing suspicious objects just to be on the safe side. This way I found the lockpicks. My betamapper recommendations was to put a light on the lockpicks, but FM chose to put a light in the room. Thoughts: Putting a small light on the toolbox would point to the player that there is something useful in the toolbox, if the toolbox was glowing a bit. Frobbing the lockpicks would shut this light down.Putting a hint that the lockpicks are in the mint. But I generally think that objective-system should not be used for hints. It's for objectives.Preventing the player from leaving the lower mines without the picks. Mappers and players should not rely on habitual blind-frobbing! If mappers would put simple small lights shining on mission critical objects which are easy to miss, a lot of frustration could be avoided. I'll add some insight on this to the mission design tips wiki article when I have time.

Oh, and howsabout mines? Some people complained about them in the Glenham Tower feedback. Glenham is one of the few maps which have mines available for the player. Mines probably should have some kind of proximity sensor instead of step-on-activation. It really difficult to place a mine so the victim AI truly steps on it. And it would be nice to be able to pick up the mine if it's placed in the wrong place. In previous thief games the mine could be disarmed by sneaking up to it and picking it with the lockpicks. Also a gas mine would be also cool addition to the player's arsenal, and more commonly used than the explosive one because of it non-lethalness. It would provide interesting opportunities for map design, if LIVE mines could also be placed by the mapper. This issue surely is know by the team, but I'm just checking.

Citizen! Please wave at the nearest security camera! Internal Security is watching. I suppose old style ID cards will be redundant in the future as subdermal ID chips installed after birth will replace them. Naturally these chips contain gps tracking for the citizens convienence... And the licence agreements sell your body and soul to the stockholders.

-Yeah, it should. You sure you're not playing the betatest version? In that the door was locked. But as LEGION said it should be open in this final version...

Wow. Nice! Looks like something a gentleman duelist noble would have in his trophy room. With a golden handle and silver blade it would be a nice ornamental loot object. A mapper could easily use binding to embed a few prop gems on the handle to make its worth even more obvious. Giving the same sword with steel blade and handle to an armed commoner AI would mean we have pirate characters! This would definately increase mappers options nicely. Now, who would do some vocals for pirates? "Arr.. Ho ho blow the man down. Ye scurvy dog."

Damn this guy is fast. I look away from this thread for a while and suddenly there is again a high quality model available. All the stuff you've done so far look fantastic! I'm really interested what you're going to do next. Did you notice my cry for more loot items in the 'master models needed list' thread? Since this game is about acquiring loot, it would be nice to have a larger diversity of valuables to steal. Just a suggestion, if you like doing that kind of things.

Well, I thought the crosshair as the most simple fix for the issue. I certainly agree that it would be better to make the frobbing better. There would be no need for a crosshair then. If loot and other objects had higher priority over doors, it would be nice. However, this solution makes proper use of frobcontrol entities even more important as the door won't shield the objects inside. It might be equally frustrating to try to get the drawer open and all you're frobbing is the object inside.Difficult..

I have one improvement suggestion. Sometimes (well, usually) when I am looting more complex objects, like the byro with pullable drawers I encounter this problem. I've much difficulty in aiming inside the objects. I'll elaborate. When I've something in the middle of the screen it gets frob-highlighted. If I have a drawer with a book in it, I've much difficulty in highlighting the book. I'm constantly highlighting the drawer. I understand that the object in the center of the view is the one which will hightlight, but it is sometimes hard for me to quickly understand which part of the screen is the middle spot. And it is quite usual that loot is picked up in a hurry. When the guards approach there is no time to constantly frob the drawer instead of the object inside. Would there be a possibility to add some kind of subtle crosshair or a circle in the middle of the screen to help object frobbing? It should be only small, and it should have a lot of transparency so it won't obstruct the view too much. Just a small helper. It'd be nice to have an option to turn it on or off. What say you?

Fieldmedic, you really pulled this one off. So all in all: pretty impressive work, especially considering this was your first map. I'm interested to see your future works. Jättebra! Enjoy the cruise, you've definately deserved it!

@LEGION: I'd say it is polite to ask for permission. If you use anything other than your own, you *must* give credit in your mission readme. Do not put the mapper you 'ripped off' as an author, but make it clear you used his work. I'm unsure why would you use something made by others, since you can create complex stuff pretty fast and conveniently on your own. It may even be easier to make your own geometry than take from another map and then spend a lot of time to make it fit in yours. Creating the map on you own is also good practice for you. Also I'm thinking the community aspect here: I would think it is a bit boring to explore the same inn in your map, Günther's map and Charlotte's map. It is better to have variety and individual implementations, rather than cloned geometry over and over again.

Hi! I started writing a wikiarticle on general mission design. Maybe it helps new (and old) mappers to improve their work. The basic work is here http://modetwo.net/d...ion_Design_Tips but it could use some more tips from other veteran mappers. Let me know what you think.

+2. As a mapper, I've absolutely no interest in digging out an old map and 'unbreak' it after it has been broken by some change. What is done, is done.

Have you set the objective invisible?

If I may give a few suggestions: Any kinds of trinkets for loot objects would be nice. Just look a the stuff we now have in DR for loot. There is generally one item of specific type: We have one loot vase, one bottle... It may get repetitive for the players to loot same looking trophies and goblets again and again. Can you make some expensive looking items? Ornamental sword? Golden helmet? Expensive goods like silver flute, scepters, rods. Something like this, but with the builder symbol. Also, I've seen that castleish or manor interior wall decorations are low. Like tapestries, and other kinds of objects one might find on walls. I don't know what you find interesting to create, maybe this helps.

AA! Okay now I understand and agree. Yeah, would cool to have a roughneck vocal set. A guy who truly screams and roars at the player. A voice talent could be found from any low class pub with the price of a bottle of cheap booze...

Welly well. Here is my thoughts on this mission. I'll just spoilerify everything. Thanks BC!

Yes! If I understood correctly the problem, I asked this same thing some time ago. The answer lies here: http://modetwo.net/d...post__p__220236 Post #20. With this hidden objective arrangement you can basically target any target when closing a readable with "Completion Target" objective-thingy. In your case you need to target a atdm:target_setobjective_state -entity, as Fids told already. This seems now a common question, so I'll add this to the objectives-wiki as well when I have time if someone doesn't beat me to it.

"I'm gonna stuff your mouth with your own filth" is aggressive enough for me.

I like this post a lot. It has brought a new perpective for me. People indeed need a purpose in life. Some gain purpose by career and wealth, others with children, others with religion. Others by doing silly maps for a game mod. The most common thing is the combinations of many components, others focus only on a few, others choose many. I think it is safe to say it is entirely rational to seek the purpose for oneself. Purpose in life is a peculiar thing because it is based more on emotion and feelings, rather than logic. Interesting! Yep. Logic is definately not the answer to everything. I know from experience that sometimes you need to challenge existing logic to create something new. I can't comment this much, but yeah, human behavior probably appears mysterious to ants. It still does not give any rational base for faith, but like said: it is rational to seek purpose, even if the purpose itself is irrational. Some people collect used stamps, for crying out loud! (my apologies to those that do.)

The control of the orbital mind control satellites gives me the the benefit of stealing other peoples ideas right from their minds! Just remember, do *NOT* wear a tinfoil hat the next time you get good TDM ideas. Okay?

It's rather simple. 1) Place a brush in the location you want to work as the exit. 2) Give it texture textures/common/clip 3) Make the thing into an entity info_tdm_objective_location 4) Give it name player_exit 5) Go to objectives editor and make an objective "After you're done, go to exit" or something like that. Set it to be INCOMPLETE and mandatory. 6) Set enabling objectives. Here you need to set which objectives need to be complete for the exit to work. If you have objective numbers 1 and 2 must be completed in order the player to exit, you need to put text "1 AND 2" in the enabling objectives box. If you need to have objectives 1,2 and 5 completed you need to put "1 AND 2 AND 5" You can check the objective numbers in the objective editor window under "#" mark. 7) set the component to be: Type: item in location Entity: any entity with SDK-level spawnclass idPlayer Location: name of single entity player_exit Please note that you need to create a separate exit objective for each difficulty level, since the enabling objective numbers change with difficulty levels. EDIT: I took the liberty of adding this info to the wiki.

I suppose it is time to show what is going on in my DR at the moment. The mission I'm working on is called The Knighton's Manor and it is the mission that occurs before The Beleaguered Fence. Work is progressing nicely, so it is the first mission in the Thomas Porter mission continuum. Basic geometry is 78% done. I've noticed that it is difficult to create reasonable looking locales from scratch. I always need some kind of reference to rely upon. I started with this reference: And the manor looks now like this: See any similarities? Interiors for basement, the middle wing and the right wing are ready, only the left wing is totally empty. The manor will have surrounding grounds so the player can circle around it. At first I thought I'd release this for 1.03, but since the mapping is progressing so fast I may get this done before new TDM version. I would loved to have female characters in this map, but it can be done without, too. Let's see..

@Legion

Nice. Remember to let me know what you think of that. Well, naturally it is fully geniuine grimoire I translated into latin to reward the enlightened players who pursuit the knowledge of dead languages..

But of course! Just don't expect too much. This mission has been so well received by the community I am unsure if I can ever make a better mission than this one. At least there is a challenge..