RJFerret

Lots of great feedback there. I just die fighting too, so run or flashbomb or reload instead. Would having training AIs do no damage help or give wrong impression? I think you are supposed to learn not to fight toe to toe. I said the same on pop up info texts, and I'm a fast reader. Windowed mode dragged full screen permits alt tabbing. I was able to do St. Lucia not realizing I'd missed another way and half of the map! Yay for Youtube. It seems the best, albeit time consuming hint source. Forum respondants often give spoilers instead of hints.

Is that even possible here? Wouldn't that negate gameplay of waiting until they are on a quieter surface or using moss arrows before conking them? I just messed around a bit in the sounds/blackjacking trainer and it seems a body doesn't highlight to grab until it's landed, but I'm no expert.

Thanks for the insights! :-) Ya'll have helped me understand/appreciate more.

I also thought size/shape. Obviously a thief would darken his/her bow, put soot on blade, but they are cumbersome and noisy. The light gem is simply a misnomer as it's more a potential detection meter. Stand and it brightens even if you stand so you are more obscured or in darker. I ironically find most of this more realistic! But yes, if there's no ramification to choices, it diminishes fun...that's one of the psychological elements of fun, control. Challenge and reward have to correlate too, so long range silent killing needs a cost. I think this is both why some make no killing an objective, and others ghost when they play.

So I'm not the only one apparently! This prefab exhibits the same behavior: darkmod/prefabs/architecture/buildings, façades/garden_shed.pfb If you import it, then rotate it around the z axis 30°, you'll find the stove chimney pipe no longer connects to the stove or external pipe. Depending on the direction you rotate, it'll either be floating inside by the caulk wall, or floating outside the shared wall. Logically the original creator simply spun around a copy of the external chimney pipe for the stove inside, a very typical part of the usual workflow that seems broken here to me. (I'm guessing most people aren't building in a modular fashion? ) I was trying to export into another folder first, since it can't "see" into the pk4 for export, then presumably rename to put it into the zip, etc. But the export didn't provide any feedback, nor create a file in the chosen folder.

Granted, for new players, there's a LOT of info to take in, and they are excited to get to the actually playing/progress, as fun as some of the training mission might be. Also, from playing MMOs or participating in virtual worlds, I've come to realize not everyone focuses on a game like I do, lots talk with roommates/lovers/kids/spouses in the background, have TV on or radio, are constantly hopping up for food/drink or other distractions. This environment permits lots of not paying attention given it's pace and ability to hide. There's a rule of thumb ad agencies use, "tell them three times", because if you only present it once, most will miss it. ;-) I figure the trainer is one (which players might skip), experimentation/experience with games is two (which many have varying ability with), forum responses make three! :-) Having gotten helpful and rather prompt responses myself from this community has been great, so thanks for that! PS: Ick at bronchitis, feel better soon!

*nods, that menu option duplicates the button function, hit the button and the menu gets checked, rotating the assembly has parts that twist. Unset the button/uncheck that menu option, they flail about more wildly (I'm only trying to turn on the Z, doesn't matter if I use the "r" rotate function and shift drag in the appropriate ortho view, or if I use the "Rotate and scale" and click arrows on the Z. OK, now that I've played through a mission and gone back to take another look at this, here's what I've learned. I rotated the assembly to match the orientation the model loads in, resize a newly loaded one to fit, everything works fine/as expected, can rotate the whole shebang. But spin it to bury the bad overlapping polygons in the model and not look so artificially lined up nor match the second one causes problems, then rotating the assembly causes it to go haywire (swing up/down or pivot depending on if that menu option is checked/button selected). It's like the previous rotation contaminates the ability to rotate with other pieces.

Thanks, sadly they twist instead of rotating with the object with "rotate models independently" depressed. The one next to it about funcs doesn't seem to impact anything on or off. :/ Worse, the mission I was going to play to refresh my mind has me stumped too, thwarted at every, excuse the pun, turn! PS: Drats, sadly the export ASE doesn't seem to do anything (nothing apparent happens from the convert to ase either).

Is not being able to create new brushes from hiding all layers known? Repeatedly now I've found I've been unable to create new brushes by dragging. Hitting ESC doesn't change the behavior (confirming I don't have something random selected). Quitting DR and rerunning resolved it. But I believe I've found the cause, I was hitting Hide All layers, then turning on the layer I wanted--no new brush. Instead, if I unchecked other layers I was still able to build. Similarly, if you uncheck all layers (it's not just the Hide All button) so no layer is showing, then turn a layer on, no dragging out new brushes. So something about the condition of having no active layers seems to bork the new brush creation process it seems.

OK, I give up trying to figure this out on my own, so if you'd be so kind, riddle me this basic thing, rotating a complete assembly makes parts of it "explode" for lack of a better word. It's like the assembly isn't being rotated around the tool's axis, but each part is being treated independently on different ones. I did see some message in this thread about surrounding entities with a big brush to work around bad rotations, which made no difference for me. :-( I know rotations can be wonky in scene layout programs, in my old days in Lightwave one would simply parent everything to a single point prim to rotate around, but parenting here seemed to offer no change (which leads the question of what it's purpose is). In the animation program I used for Second Life, the order of rotations mattered, but that was involving complex character animation. I'm sure this has been answered before, but none of the search results on the wiki or forum seem to explain/resolve this issue. (And presumably since not everything in missions faces all one direction, folks have a workaround, heh!) What might that be/how do I deal/what am I missing? PS: I was going to try exporting the assembly and reimport it as one new object, but exporting an OBJ doesn't seem to have a complimentary import? Likewise, individual pieces can be exported as ASE, but how to get that back in?

So I read through the amazing A-Z tutorial (major props for that!), and proceeded to make my first room, texture it, then tossed in a candelabra, three lights, a dresser, spun it around up against the wall, added a drawer entity, girl, key to snatch from the girl, end table, and entity vase to see everything working in my "creation". Things were well, then I clicked on the drawer, and it happily slid...away from me INTO the dresser! LOL PS: Readily fixed with one minus sign, once I stopped laughing.

Which brings up a good point, perhaps there should be audio feedback akin to the grunt when unable to drop a body while crouching/no room when you try to stand up under an overhang?

*nods, probably want to restart the mission if you are lacking a lockpick I'm afraid; since you start with them in this case, there isn't a duplicate set hidden on the map (afaik). I use the "p" shortcut to access the lockpicks rather than going through all inventory, hit it again to get to the other one. (There's Snake and Triangle.)

I'm new too, fun, isn't it? :-) It does sound like a key (pun intended) element is being missed, like switching picks. Do you get the different feedback sound indicating you are past that tumbler? (With auto, the third series of sounds should end with the success sound, instead of "missed it" sound.) There are more details in the wiki page explaining lockpicking: http://wiki.thedarkm...lay#Lockpicking But note that auto isn't "automatic" from my understanding, it just limits tries with an individual pick to three, then gives a pass, but you still might have more tumblers to work on, requiring either pick. The wiki page on lockpicking doesn't make that clear, it makes it sound like auto opens it for you. Perhaps try the Trainer setting instead of Auto? That lengthens the amount of time you have to hear the moment of release. G'luck and welcome to the fun! PS: I have more troubles picking up the stuff within chests than getting the chests open!

New here, so the 2.0 standalone release mentioned on Slashdot was my first intro. With the site being unavailable, I downloaded from the kind sole who made it available on Google docs, and used the Wayback Machine on Archive.org to read the wiki/learn. When the site came back, I downloaded other missions and have been sleep and food deprived ever since. ;-)

Bug find objective complete, check! Heh... I'd bet the same mission I discovered it on! ;-) Having maintained the save, I did go back and complete it another way, much rougher though... However it IS possible to go the way we did without jumping with the body (featured in a Youtube vid on it).

An off the wall idea (heh, pun intended), what if turning the personal light on (and perhaps off) had a noise associated with it? Whether audible or inaudible fake "noise" in code just to trigger AI response? (Since what self respectful thief wouldn't oil the sliding shade on their lamp?) That way it would trigger existing code checks without a performance hit, although similar pros/cons as suggested above. Although if surfaces were lit that weren't directly in line with the AI's view, I'd blame radiosity, their "sixth sense", or subconscious awareness, etc. In addition, if the lamp had an in code inaudible "sound" associated with it when on, it could trigger the behind the crate circumstance. But I'm tired, so not thinking of negative ramifications at the moment. (Close AIs on the other side of a door should respond, "seeing" light bleed under the door, but thin solid walls or other opaque screens obviously shouldn't, while openings obviously should--but it seems sound works this way in the game.)

Are we supposed to be able to jump while carrying a body? (How about rope climbing?) Load up a save of carrying a body, can jump on desk. Put the body down, pick the body up, can't jump on desk. At first I thought it had something to do with what was in my hands before grabbing the body, but made no difference. Reload, can jump on desk as long as haven't put the body down first. The wiki says you can't mantle while body carrying, but the jump section doesn't mention anything. (The rope section is nonexistent, but I couldn't find a way to make a wiki account or log in.) (I couldn't find a way to search the bug tracker, a forum search of "body jump" didn't turn much of anything up that I saw, so sorry if this isn't noteworthy.)

I know this isn't a very "coding" way of resolving it, but perhaps a manual adjustment in video settings for folks? Might reduce future blurry LP vids on Youtube, even if just a stopgap measure, and simpler than editing the config file for players.

The Logitech G13 has a couple dozen keys and a joystick which can all be mapped to be whatever you want. :-) For DarkMod, I have the joystick set for forward/back, strafe, and I look left/right via mouse. The button next to the joystick jumps, matching other games I play.

For others with this issue, resolved it by changing the value of image_downSize from 1 to 0, IE, altering the line: seta image_downSize "1" to seta image_downSize "0" in the Darkmod.cfg file. PS: Oh look! Parchments have a texture to them, and there's celtic knotwork and scrollwork in background graphics.

I have this problem, the text is so fuzzy, it's not readable, the map too. It appears like JPG which isn't being decompressed more than the initial level. I was shocked to see a video on YouTube with crystal clear legible text. I have an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 with only 1 GB video ram. While downloading missions, the "Mission Status" and "Download Status" headings are very pixelated/blurred. The "Downloadable Missions" and "Selected for Download" text are crystal clear. Similarly, on the main menu, "The Dark Mod" is pixelated/blurry, the menu text sharp. Turning antialiasing off and changing texture anisotropy to 1x instead of 16x has no impact on it whatsoever. I'm playing in 1440x900. PS: Standalone version, no steam.

Actually you needed to be standing tall to mantle up onto that platform, then I'm positive I was running (I have a G13 gaming keypad, so switched to use two hands to hold the run key while using the joystick to move forward and also hold the jump key). Now that I remember it, I only jumped too late/fell from platform once, so perhaps it's as much my learning the timing/positioning? If you are happy with the distance, then perhaps some barrels beneath the awning to land on to minimize damage from the fall? Three misses and you are dead/running back from the main room. Actually, I take that back, it's good to learn how far you can fall/how many times with what amount of damage. :-)

New today, spent hours enjoying sneaking around the training happily. :-) I see mention of ten health potions here, I thought I poked through everything, but totally missed them, wherever they might be. I also missed extra archery stuff apparently. I just shot three bulls-eyes, realized the fourth was too far, tried to compensate by aiming high, then left. But things I made an account here to bring to folks' attention: General: - I'm a fast reader, but only would get about two-thirds through the pop up instructional notes before they faded away. May I suggest they remain up longer and repeat if you return to the area? (Twice as long would do me fine, but for regular speed readers, three times might be better.) - Instead of just labeling the different doors/sections, I might actually number them with roman numerals in a logical sequence. IE, I. Graphics, II. Movement, III. Objects, IV. Etc. - I agree with the suggestion about handling bodies. I was a bit vague about it too, but reread the note and realized you don't just drag them, you drag AND use them. A suggestion that you need to crouch to pick them up, but stand to drop them might help too. - I had no problems understanding/executing lock-picking first tries and all of them. - Unlike whomever found the guy at the desk didn't react to him when on the metal, I found he did and took me out, moving slower resolved that/taught me nicely. (Subsequently when I shot him, I was delighted by the letter and logbook copy, nice flavor.) Movement section: - Jumping from the platform to the awning caused me no end of grief and deaths, any reason to have it quite that difficult? I might move the wooden planks a bit closer to assure learning, instead of frustration. - The rope seemed WAY too short to me too. The reason? I turn on crouching in games like this and never turn it off. I went for a lot of swims (no performance problems with ATI card), and found the ladder that would otherwise be missed. Not sure where a hint to not crouch then would fit in though. :/ I'd also include a ladder in the regular flow of progress, which brings me to... - This would be much more work, but much of this section is one-way. If something goes wrong, you are screwed, have to bail and start it all over again. It would be nice to simply be able to go back and pick up more rope arrows, because half a dozen wasn't enough apparently (or have more down below). ;p Oh wait, can't get back to that window (although maybe if I had a rope arrow...curses!) I would suggest in the writing to pickup dozens of arrows, since users have to restart otherwise. Fighting: - I too have yet to win any mêlée fight even with the bug stopping them. It seems they parry all my blows, then two-shot me, with no chance to parry since they wait until I swing before they hit me. In regular game missions, I've taken to simply shooting everyone at a distance instead. After completing the stealth section of the training, I ran around there sniping everyone as well just for practice/fun/learning the archery in play. (Technically I did knock someone out with the blackjack in training, but haven't dared since.) Objects: - From foreknowledge (reading the wiki while awaiting download?) I knew to "use" a book that popped immediately into inventory, but it was an aberration since all the other texts stayed put and showed on screen, as someone previously mentioned. A pop up explaining would help here. - Although I grokked the "frob" term is being used for "activate", it's definitely odd to use one term for activate, another for "use", which both work for the same thing in some circumstances, and manipulate as well. Is there reason to have three separate exclusive controls instead of one or two? Objectives: - No need for any objectives, but wouldn't hurt, and would add progress satisfaction for some players (like achievements). Objectives could highlight some of the things I missed, like taking out the live target in the archery section, finding the heal pots, getting through the movement, killing the first guy in mêlée, etc. - A simple objective would be to complete (enter/exit) all sections, just that alone would "reward" some folks psychologically. Finally, I'm offering these suggestions/feedback in appreciation of one of the finer tutorials I've seen, phenomenal job to all those who took part in creating it! :-) As I said, I actually enjoyed it for hours. How often do you say that about training, instead of just trying to blow through it to get to the "real" game?