R Soul

Sometimes realism has to take a backseat to gameplay. If a window highlights, but cannot be opened with lockpicks, players will assume there's a key somewhere. I think the novelty would wear off quite soon. If a window does not highlight, I think you should assume outside there's a long drop straight down, so there's no reason to use it. If you can see in through a window, again, the player will assume there's a way in. In both cases, as in life, it's usually impossible to prove a negative (e.g. no way in) so the player would have to search exhaustively. At the back of their mind would be the question "was there no way through, or did I give up too soon?" If a door doesn't highlight, you could assume the player's character knows that that building doesn't lead anywhere, or any other assumption that suits you. To compensate for such restrictions, mission authors can make sure there are plenty of genuine routes to take, including some that don't provide much of an advantage over others.

Care for some official merchandise?

It's a broadhead with a chicken bone on the end.

Call it The Dark Mood

Note: All the spoilers make this post look longer than it really is! This is the first mission I played since the training mission. For that reason, I started on Casual. First I tried to go uphill, but there were too many guards and the open fire put me off exploring that area. Just as well. It didn't occur to me that it was Sykes' place, but I wanted to explore the easier routes first. I tried the other direction. I managed to knock out a couple of people,just because that's what I do. I found the little room with the straw hat At first, I'd avoided Down Street because having seen the sign in the intro movie, I thought that was the way to Sykes. It was now the only north route I hadn't tried, so I tried it. I then went right, down the dark narrow passage, and saw the through the gap in the fence. Needless to say, I I saw a woman, It was quite easy to find what's-his-name. This is where I have a minor criticism - the mission is very linear, but that's perfectly understandable for someone's first mission. As for the torch-guard patrolling the area, After looking at the map it was easy to work out where I should be to access the back door. In the I explored downstairs, but missed the , though I found it later on. I got the objective but it wasn't obvious to me that that's what I'd found. It didn't look I got upstairs by climbing onto In the main hall, I put out all of the wall lights, but did not knock out I waited for the archer to enter the kitchen, but I didn't see him becuase I I went upstairs and put out the candle, but I'd forgotten we can 'use' them to put them out. I'd just been laying them down till they went out on their own. This got the attention of the people below, but they calmed down fairly quickly. I then got into room and . This is where I had lots of trouble (my fault entirely). I'd forgotten/not realised that bodies could be picked up, so I tried for ages to drag him into the you-know-what. I briefly gave up and read his diary, and found the I read the warning about the but still got caught by them. I was a little disappointed that we couldn't use I then had a torrid time trying to deal with I actually went to the basement in case I could Once I realised bodies could be picked up, I restarted (no decent savegames after lots of frustrated arsing about), but used the middle difficulty level. I'm not sure what to think of guards relighting torches. It's good for realism, but it risks wasting a water arrow. On the other hand, as one guard stopped to relight a torch, I took the opportunity to I may try to make a habit of that; it seems like a good tactic. This time I made the effort to get the boxes from under the stairs, and used them to . I don't know if there was a switch for it, but if I were Syke's, I know I'd have one. I didn't like the idea of dropping so I headed back downstairs and used the Before leaving, it occurred to me that since Sykes had dealt with After getting out, I wasn't too keen on the scripted I don't mind that sort of event but I think it should have been more randomised. The trigger point was very obvious, and made it seem like I'd done somethig wrong. But as others have said, it ensure that getting to the In short, despite forgetting how to deal with bodies, I did enjoy this mission, and because it's small I think it was a good mission to get started with.

When standing: When crouching:

You pilfered my Chester photograph you scoundrel! http://catmanofiowa....RSoul/insp.html

So let's say I have key_rusty1, key_silver1 (just a guess) and key_gold1 Then say pumphouse_door is used by key_rusty1 and key_gold1 house_door is used by key_silver1 and key_gold1 key_gold is then a sort of master key as it opens both doors. If I gave the same inventory name (say 'Stolen Key') to key_rusty1 and key_silver1, when the player has both of them, they'll stack, and one of the editor_names will be lost, rendering one of the keys useless. So I know not to do that, but just out of interest, which key's editor name would be kept? The first on the stack or the most recent?

The next/previous group buttons sound good. Come to think of it, the item names issue shouldn't be too much of a problem. Most people making FMs for Dark do tend to give appropriate names so I'm sure the habit will transfer over to TDM.

I did a search but I didn't find anything about this: With the Dark engine, I find the inventory a bit cumbersome when I have lots of things. At least with the official items (flashbombs, mines etc) we can have keybinds, but if a mission has lots of keys and scrolls, finding the right one becomes a bit tedious. How will the inventory work in TDM? I was thinking there could be one object for 'Your Scrolls' which when opened, reveals a list of all the scrolls they player has. Something similar for keys perhaps. It would also be nice to be able to rename them if the author has been a bit vague. In the Thief OMs items were often just left as "Key" or "Scroll", and it's possible that authors could do the same. Also it would be nice to be able to assign a key(board button) to an inventory object in case it'll need to be accessed frequently (say a scroll containing a list of instructions).