RJFerret

I can't find it now, but a couple months ago someone else posted regarding their sound not working, and had also chosen the silent _z ambients instead of regular. However, as I recall, they were able to change back without issue. :/

Thanks for the share, however I'm afraid I didn't find that to be the case, since (not surprisingly) their reactions assume prior knowledge of those games, rather than explaining what wasn't appreciated (so lost on someone like me, unfamiliar with either). Although a dislike for non-human opponents has been expressed here before as well.

Sweet Greebo, now just need to unlearn these months of remembering to avoid undo in DR! Heh. But seriously, thanks!

Yes, if the map designer sets that up. No, if they don't. (Usually no kill objectives are set up so the player has to be responsible, that way if AIs end up dying from some other cause it doesn't penalize the player. But that's just a checkbox which can be set either way.)

Yes, as Kyyrma points out, mappers can do it now, the engine already has the ability to make stuff burn (we ignite fires, torches, candles and hurt/kill AIs with fire obviously), just add a fire stim to turn on fire particles when any fire source hits it, smoke, illumination and burning sound too; just like we can set up breakable chests that you can hack to pieces with your sword, or smash by dropping objects on them with the physics system. However it supplants thief-like gameplay (no need to steal/find keys or lockpick), so I'd only enable it for story reasons.

As you are checking out changes to a room, that moment when an AI stretches, knocks a candle off the desk, and it lands in the trash bucket filled with scrolls, then extinguishes itself.

Placard advertising today's specials standing by steps? Readable with same posted by/on door? Instead of light on it or video-game-y mushrooms, simulate light spilling out from under the door? Instead of visual, have a speaker with crowd noise right by the door so the player knows there's activity within? A doormat? Drunk AI sitting by the stoop? Windows glowing nearby? A wench barker? A glowing small window on the door itself? AI passing through it at some point? A delivery package that hasn't been collected yet? A couple canoodling outside before leaving for her place? Why do you need to draw attention to it, don't we all check every door and then get upset when they don't have handles and won't respond to lockpicks for us? ;-)

I use a Logitech G13 gamepad, so not exactly a console controller, more like extra mappable keys with tiny joystick. I've configured it to move with the joystick and still use the mouse to look around, but you could have the joystick act as mouseview instead and use wasd keys on it.

I've learned to not hit undo after placing a model (which causes this bug), but just delete the model you don't want instead. If you accidentally do use undo after inserting a new model, the only remedy I've found is to quit/reload DR.

Yup, you can probably make maps larger than your time available to make the map. ;-) Depending how you mean "giant cube", not exactly. The editor provides a space in which to work. But it's got nothing in it, it's void if you will. The game engine doesn't want to be thinking about infinite horizons of nothingness. Mappers use a fraction of the available space. The mapper provides things for players to interact with, and forms boundaries sealing out that void. That way the game only deals with what matters, the environment the designer provides for the players. One beginner pain point is learning to keep the void sealed away properly, so sound propagation and ambient effects and other things function properly. (You wouldn't want sound from outside on a city street to be heard in the sewer, as it would if there were a crack in the street and sewer ceiling, unless you intentionally put a vent shaft there to connect them.) People refer to it as sealing out the void, but it's really about keeping the AIs, light, sounds and stuff in, rather than having that stuff calculated out infinately. So the mapper establishes the size they want, and defines the "walls" accordingly, typically forming multiple interconnected "cubes" as you say, each one containing a collection of rooms or environments, perhaps a building, courtyard, street, etc. For a great walk-through with visuals demonstrating this, see http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/12568-fiasco-at-fauchard-street/ where Melan journals his process building that mission.

Yes. There's a whole array of "teams". Not only can you have things friendly to the player, but to each other, or hostile to each other, fight or help each other, all based on switches, areas, time, objectives, etc. By default, some AI are neutral to the player unless they do something to warrant hostility.

*nods, soot. Thank you!

*saves you a seat...or dark corner as you prefer... ;-)

I was guessing scripting would be an alternative. I don't know if it's worth it though, depending how taxing the objective distance checks might be? Yes, more than three items, but fewer than the amount of potential drop zones (perhaps imagine it like reverse loot? It's too burdensome for the player to have to get every single location, just want folks to be able to place what they are aware of and have options/choices). I won't know the exact number until finishing building the map, and it might be changed based upon testing feedback. Only the "objective complete" currently occurs as feedback for the player at each successful drop. After the final one a new objective should pop up. That timing isn't critical as far as I see at this point, but having feedback within a second for players seems good, or I start to react that it might not be correctly placed. My guess is it'll be easiest to use the objective system as I have, unless someone else has another alternative implementation, then switch to a scripted solution if I, or testers, see negative performance results when there are multiple.

OK, I've set up to have the player drop copies of things from inventory to discrete locations to complete an objective. (IE, place one here, another there, and another over there, but not all three in one spot, and it doesn't matter which goes where.) I can do this via objectives, with the typical item drop (to group), and NOT near another of the drop items. But that requires as many NOT components as there are items to drop! For each objective! So all those distance checks continuously running (less frequent checks would slow feedback to the player...who might be in a rush). It also means it has to be designed to the worst case scenario (largest size possible destination), and objective destinations can't be closer than that to each other (probably not an issue). Might there be alternate ways of setting this up with less impact?

Apparently having done my first FM didn't diminish my enthusiasm for more... Same place, temporally shifted. Reminds me of those "what's different between these pics" puzzle games.

It's appreciated, and happy holidays! (I was using Google's cache to bring up forum posts while I was working on my next FM quite a bit yesterday, heh, it really highlighted to me how much knowledge is not contained in the wiki since it was already back available. Also curiously, when the server was own, I noticed quite a few wiki pages weren't on Archive.org.)

One thing that surprised me being in some underground structures, is how much light streams in from above (without magic mushrooms). Every access point, from utility to maintenance to venting to settling/breaks in the structure as ground shifts provides a potential stream of light. They aren't like pitch black caves. (Which isn't to say fantastical fungus isn't useful, it can work better than wondering why someone was here an hour ago to replace and light a bunch of torches, heh.)

Any knowledge of other editing systems will have some applicability to new ones. My had a professional background with Lightwave years ago, and a completely different type of 3D in Second Life, both of which made picking things up here relatively faster than those with no prior experiences it seems. At the same time, prior knowledge also can set up false expectations you have to work around or "unlearn". But overall, it typically facilitates your progress. Give it a shot, you've got nothing to lose but enjoyable time spent!

More eyes always help! I'll shoot you a PM now...and done. PS: And editing to add, nope, first I've heard of such a thing, although I appreciate the independent inputs received so far. :-) A thread would seem ideal for more team collaborative works I guess?

Perhaps you've already seen your PM? If not, there's now a beta version link awaiting you in there!

Technically perhaps true, the catches being to remember that (the bug doesn't show up when working in DR/mapping, only after you've packaged the mission to stand alone and can save/reload), and other mappers of course not knowing that. When I asked why func_statics used as seeds might not be showing their textures a month or so ago, well, I'm still awaiting a response. ;-) Folks who might search out that in the future might not imagine there's a workaround.

Here's a condump after a quicksave, then the quickload surprisingly/fortunately didn't crash, but the seeds came back black/cubes, so I did another condump, then the same quickload crashed. Before trying to contact folks, since it seems to involve both the SEED system and save/load, does this point more toward one or the other? Warning, LONG logfile within spoiler tags:

If you don't mind windowed mode (fullscreen = no), you can simply alt-tab. Some don't like the window border though. I tend to strafe-run a lot, while looking in other directions, but I like chording keys and setup my gamepad that way. Usually there isn't too far to travel in this game, maps tend to be dense rather than expansive. As for loading times, what can you do, wait a second? It's not enough time for me to bother popping to the web browser and read something before it's up.

Nope, anything dead is truly dead and stays that way. PM sent! PS: And this was my 100th post.