Carnage

I totally agree with you there. I was just thinking about similar contests in the past (mod contests, etc.) that did have that rule. Of course there was a price attached to those, but I kinda got the feeling that such a thing would be normal for a contest.

IMHO there should be at least one rule in future contests. - Contenders can't vote. Although the contest is just for fun, I found it a bit awkward that one could vote on its own FM. Voting on each others FM isn't that bad but it is possible that due to rivalry voting isn't done completely fair. I'm not saying this is the case, but it could be. You can always leave a message what you think about the FM as a fellow contender. It's just my opinion of course. How does everybody else think about this?

I'm looking forward to play this one bikerdude. Congrats on finishing your FM for the contest. Will leave some feedback later.

Ah yeah or course , that was the one! My bad .

Yes you can. You'll have to use location zones, which is explained here: http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Location_Settings#Ambient_light_settings You'll probably have to read the complete article to fully understand how the zones work.

I think you can adjust which AI can relight torches and not, by removing the def 'AI_USE' for torches. That sounds logical anyway. Of course you can always remove the ShouldBeOn arg on various torches and leave them only on the torches you want to stay on. Very simple of course but it's a possibility. Giving the AI the ability to light torches on the higher difficulties only is also possible. I didn't use this but Fidcal explained me how and that it is possible. Glad people liked the relighting of torches in my FM by the way .

Thanks for the kind words Ishtvan. I'm glad you enjoyed the FM and that you are looking forward to part II. Yeah there were more people that found the loot req. extreme and I'll certainly adjust that in part II.

So the system specs are quite a bit higher because TDM is way more complex than Doom 3? I can play vanilla Doom with everything on max without any problems, but I had to decrease the quality of TDM quite a bit. Will certainly practice placing visportals properly a lot more. There are a lot of tricks of course to 'fool' the player that he/she is walking in a large scale area . Thanks for the clarification.

Ah still have to learn to use the wiki more effectively . Already looks really good, hope more will come soon

So performance in general won't be increased in the future? You need quite a decent PC to experience TDM in outside areas at the moment. I think it would be a good idea to add a bit of information (small guide) in the wiki what the best way is to place visportals and build your mission in outside areas. Just some hints and tips or something like that. I for instance had quite some problems with it at the beginning and had to decrease the size of open areas to up the performance. The wiki does decribe quite a bit about visportals but for instance, I didn't really knew which way the visportal side should face, and that's just one example. Of course it's just an idea and can imagine that the whole team is way more busy with other important things

I haven't completely finished it yet but I think this a winner. Have to wait if there will be others, but it will be difficult to surpass this one. Great job Melan! I like the readables that can be found everywhere and visuals are perfect, even though I had to decrease the screen resolution quite a bit. Did had to restart in the beginning because the Archer guard didn't want to move anywhere after quickloading. I also alerted the archer and found that guards that were quite far away also came running. Hope the performance in TDM will be increased in the future, because it spoils the fun a bit. If it wasn't for that, the mission would have been perfect.

If you want to add a spoiler just directly reply to my post and you'll see that my part is between two spoilers with brackets. Those two things need to surround the text you want to hide. Edit: Thanks 7upMan, you were a bit faster than me

I'm glad you liked most of the mission and I'll certainly try to do much better next time. This was a good lesson for myself and with the feedback of everyone I try to improve. Just want to clarify the bads a bit . - Architecture and interior is not my stongest point and hope to improve as I go. If you mean support beams, I never like that in a FM. Not when it's not necessary in my opinion at least. It's just like they couldn't make sturdy houses at that time. He's (was) a wealthy lord and could afford to let someone build a good house at least. In the end I think it's just taste. Maybe I'm totally wrong here and will build lots of them the next time, but at the moment I don't. Old buildings and a like need them though, like the secret passage. - Hmm didn't find the z-fighting anywhere, could you clearly see it? The wrongly rotated textures were noticed by my beta-testers actually but I couldn't get it right. In the end I just decided to stick with it, because only a few people will notice those tiny details. Most of the people just go through a FM and won't stop at everything to see if it fits perfectly. Some do though and I'll try to keep it at a minimum next time, but story and enjoying the FM go first in my opinion and getting the little details right is last on my list. Maybe a wrong order, but a FM can never be perfect, because there are always people with different taste. - Yeah the lever is my bad, but if you don't know it's there you'll never notice it do you? Decreasing frob distance or placing it somewhere else would have been a lot better though . - Haha one of my beta-testers asked to put the money bags there and I liked the idea, because you needed to time it correctly if you wanted to have all the loot . - No one having keys, I agree but I kinda wanted the player to go through the secret entrance, maybe I should have made an objective of that or give the option to go through the other doors as well, but it would have made it a bit more easy. Now you really need to move around the house and avoid the patrols. - Should have made it easier to find the secret hiding place, sorry Lots of thanks for pointing out the good parts as well, because they were intented to be experienced how you did

Sometimes they do and sometimes they don't. It's certainly not solid yet but the Lord will notice it everytime. Everytime I left his door open he said something like 'this should be closed' and started to look around for trespassers. As long as you keep the lights on of course. Thanks for your review, it really motivates me to continue the series. It will probably take one year before the next one will be released, because I'll be on a backpacking trip for about 6 months but it will be released. I hope I'll have an even better package to work with by then .

Thanks Melan, I was already hoping the next FM would be close

I think in general we all need to keep in mind that the package is a beta and that sometimes things aren't implemented as they should be. I got quite a few warnings that several images on objects couldn't be found when dmapping and also some textures that couldn't be applied properly. If we look at the greatness of all the FMs released to date, it's amazing what's already possible in TDM. Releasing all the FMs is a very good beta test for the whole TDM team in my opinion . Thanks for the feedback guys. Regarding the hint, I didn't want to make it too easy, but I see a few more details would have been better. The thing is that you can make anything a secret lever in TDM, which makes looking for one even harder. And you don't see the difference between a secret and a normal object. Fidcal: But I'll decrease the loot amounts the next time because just like you I don't like to walk around searching for loot too long. Regarding the tweaking, I'll certainly spend more time on it the next time. I try to learn the visualizing by looking at other FMs, but still have to learn a lot . Sometimes I do think it's just a difference of taste. With building I always try to look at buildings, streets, etc nowadays and implement it that way. In my opinion people want to see too much support beams in a house, it's not like they couldn't make anything sturdy in that time, right? Making curves bent and smooth is also a taste. You can make a FM brilliant visually with little details and stuff like that, but how many people will even notice it. Sometimes when I read feedback (any FM) I think, 'are you even enjoying the FM because your looking at every small detail'. In general it should be good of course, it makes it easier to immerse in a FM but you don't have to overdo it in my opinion .

I'm still learning as I go, so any hints and tips (that's for everyone reading this) would really be helpful. Glad you liked it

What could be causing this? Could it be visportals? I would like to avoid this kind of thing in the future. I certainly want to learn from previous bads

Well I finally had the time to play your mission after finishing my own. It was a wonderful FM! When walking through the mansion you see that you've put a lot of time in decorating each and every room. You have a real good feeling for it, something I don't have yet, and I'm a bit jealous . The story was good as well and all the other readables were fun to read. I liked the fact that some of them weren't even story related and gave me a feeling that there were other people living there as well and not just the general with his wife. The best part was snatching the diamond, I really started to think, alright what would I do in this room and then the whole ceremony began , wonderful! The only thing that wasn't so good was the performance. I don't have a great pc but I could play all the FM's without any major stuttering. I did have them quite a lot in this one and not only outside. Upping the performance is really difficult (I know) but it would have made this FM near perfect. I hope that you'll continue to release FMs because this one was already great, super nice job!

I'll try that myself as well. Wouldn't know what could be causing that. I blocked it so the player couldn't get on the roof, because there's not much there and it would be very difficult to keep perfomance up there. It so difficult to up the performance in large outside areas....

Well here's the first FM I created. There were a few setbacks but all in all it was a joy to work with Dark Radiant. If anyone is still doubting, please don't, it's quite easy when you get used to it. About: A mansion mission. This is the first part of my campaign. Find out what happened to a fellow member of the guild and learn more about Lord Nelson, the owner of the mansion. Build time: I don't know exactly. I played around a lot to figure everything out. Best guess is about a month effectively, before beta testing. Thanks: Thanks to the TDM team for this awesome mod. Special thanks to everyone who assisted me on the forums. Super special Thanks: My beta-testers 7upMan and lostbuthappy. Known issues: Lamps look lit when switched off. Ambient music of two zones start playing at the same time after quickloading. Tried a work around so it's very likely you won't notice/have it. Challenge: Play without switching off lights, otherwise it might be a bit easy. Here's the link: http://www.mediafire.com/?m4ywobjodm0 I hope you all enjoy it and please vote

Okay thanks for the quick reply, I'll try to do a work around, which would cause the problem to happen less often and then release it.

The thing is that it really doesn't matter where I am. It happens in every zone I have. So not just two in particular. After the quickloading in the new zone, the sound of the previous zone I was in starts playing as well, but only the one I was previously in. So after moving through three zones and then quicksaving and loading, the ambient music of the last and second zone will start playing, but not the first one. I checked for holes but I couldn't find any. Does it matter which side the visportal side is facing with ambient music and if I have them sticking a tiny bit through the wall, floor, ceiling? Could this cause the same issue I'm having?

I have this weird sound issue with my current FM. I use location settings to play various ambient sounds. When I go from one location zone to another it switches to the correct sound and I can't hear the other sound of the previous zone anymore. Now when I quicksave in this new zone and then quickload after that it starts playing the sounds of both zones, even though I'm in this new zone. If I then walk to a new zone it playes the correct sound again. What could cause this issue? The FM is finished and ready to be released but the sound issue breaks the atmosphere.

I really liked the way you built this mission. It wasn't really difficult to ghost it but the atmosphere was tense. I really had the feeling I was a prisoner and had to get back my stuff and escape and not just a lousy burglar that robs some equipment. I found a few graphical errors but that wasn't a really big deal. A few more guards would have made it a bit more difficult, but maybe that would have caused more errors as well, because it's very small in there. There was a lot of debris and that really gave me the feeling that I was in a secret hideout. There weren't a lot of readables around but you solved that by telling it a bit more in a graphical way, in my opinion. I completed it within half an hour and missed about 100 loot. All in all a great addition to the rest of the FMs