Digi

If this is the only intent, cool. Because until I read that, this thread was a bit intimidating. Stuff like door handles, random loot, your inaccessible route example, making loot identifiable, etc. are mostly common sense design elements that are fairly easy to check for, and I'm happy to read about how others handle them.

FenPhoenix has continued his Let's Play of this on Youtube. With TDM, I tend to only watch Let's Plays if I've already played them myself. But since I don't really do T2 missions (though maybe I should start), I've been enjoying his runs. It's very interesting visually and with the layout of the level. Lots of "layers" to the level, with interesting stuff and multiple path options packed into every area. Seems challenging too.

Thanks, but I was saying I did know how to do that, so it will help me when I'm breaking down maps that are similar to what I might want to do. The toggle trick is cool though; I may use it. Thanks.

So rather than search for individual images, I went to the source of a lot of inspirational images: http://imgur.com/r/architecture Tons of images with the potential to inspire ideas for TDM.

Yum.

Ha, awesome! Yeah, that's the trickiest portion. It's not a necessity to get that loot, even on Difficult, but the completionists can have some fun with it.

Yeah, I consider myself a good Thief player, and there have been times when I've seen others complain about the challenge of certain Thief games or levels being too hard and I didn't know what the big deal was. I also tend to silently critique playthrough videos if I think I could do better. But, like, even knowing that it takes some repetition, I just watched your Alberic's run and I doubt I could replicate it. I also kinda smiled in shame as you got a couple pieces of loot in my FM with no trouble (on the table with the elite circling it). I've done it a few times, but usually muck it up. And it was your first run. Anyway, don't let me inflate your ego any more. Keep 'em coming!

Having just watched you do your blind run of my FM with all loot and a better stealth score than I usually manage (among ~8-10 attempted ghost runs), you seem like an excellent candidate to tackle these sorts of challenges. I'll enjoy watching them!

I'm looking for the wiki tutorial on rounding the edges of brushes. I think the tut focused on house corners, but I'm sure there are other applications. I thought it was originally in Fidcal's A-Z tut, but I browsed through it a couple times and didn't see anything. Anyone remember where it is? Thanks in advance.

While I'm not starting a new map at this time, I opened up DR to play around and have been using massive brushes with the "Bulge" function to create a realistic and varied snowy area. I'm also playing around with larger patches to see if I can make believable hills and mountains using similar techniques. Anyway, thanks for the tip.

I'm imagining the scene from X-Men 2 where the girl screams and phases through the bed. Maybe you could just work it into a supernatural narrative. ;-)

Awesome, thanks! And that's two, which is probably plenty given its size. I'll be in touch with you both via PM shortly. Noted, and thanks. I'm trying to keep my expectations in check, and I'm trying not to get ahead of any necessary steps. Nothing has held me up for too long so far, though, so hopefully that continues.

I actually experienced this as well, while attempting to DL a "clean" version for testing my FM. It stopped ~60% of the way through and was just stuck. I used the primary link for Windows on this page: http://www.thedarkmo...wnload-the-mod/ ...not one of the mirrors at the bottom.

Unless others thought the forum had a particular advantage, I'm good with PM. The forum sounds like it would be more necessary for complex missions that take longer to test and tweak. Otherwise, thanks! I'll be in touch via PM shortly. ...probably just need one more. I saw Penny Dreadful 2 request no more than four, and it's undoubtedly at least twice the size and complexity of this one. Two should suffice, or three at most.

Been testing steadily...balancing loot how I'd like it for various difficulty settings, and trying different approaches. I've managed to ghost it with a stealth score of 0 on Easy and Medium, and it should be possible on Difficult as well depending on which loot you use to get to the objective. But I haven't managed it when getting all loot (there's a couple loot items that may not be possible to get without making a guard at least pause). Hopefully it's not too easy (it's a small level, so it can only be so hard regardless, and will likely be easy for experienced players), but it's hard to know how hard it is when you know the exact guard paths and loot locations and such.

Hello! I've completed my first FM, and I'm hoping to find a couple beta testers. The FM is called "Poets & Peasants" and is a small, straightforward heist mission in an upper-class neighborhood. Notes below... I have no expected timetable, so brief schedule issues aren't a big deal. It's a small level. Not the smallest I've seen in TDM (that distinction would probably go to Thieves Den). But it won't be a massive undertaking. As such, I probably don't need a ton of testers. What's the norm, 2-3? I'm new. No previous game design experience, and all I made prior to this FM were a few test rooms based on Fidcal's DR tutorial. The mission has all major elements and no major errors (that I know of), and I've tried to be thorough in my own testing. But I'll ask that you keep my inexperience in mind while testing. I'm receptive to all kinds of feedback, but given my own limitations and my intent for this to be a means by which I learn to create FMs, I'm not trying to create anything epic or complex...just a functional, fun mission. I don't currently have access to the beta testing forum. The mission is small enough that it can likely be handled via private messages, but I'm happy to inquire about the forum if needed. I have a couple last things to do before I send it to others. Small tweaks to the briefing and the addition of a few models, followed by additional tests for my own peace of mind. But I'm making this today to see if I can find a couple players for testing, and I'll likely have the beta-test pk4 packed and sent on Sunday, provided I find some volunteers. Lastly, I'd like to send one of many shoutout thank yous that I owe to everyone who has helped me work on the mission. Primarily Fidcal because of his tutorial in the Wiki. But also grayman for fixing a couple small problems for me via private message, and the many experienced mappers who helped me out in the Newbie Questions Thread. I know it's not done yet, but the process has been made much more smooth from your help. Some preview shots: http://imgur.com/a/AuxWJ

Thanks Sotha!

Once I finish my FM (I should be asking for beta testers this weekend!), I'm not mapping anything for quite a while, but to date I've only played about nine TDM missions. I'm going to knock out a lot more of them, and will be looking for inspiration and/or examples of work I can emulate. Know, for example, how to display visportals in-game will help immensely when I'm analyzing certain bits of map. But thanks for indulging my question.

Lol, sorry. I want to do a sprawling, open Thieves Highway mission someday, and this is an intimidating consideration. So the taller stuff would be "for show", more or less. Like you say, if they were climbable, it would be all over. I understood...most of the rest of your explanation. Visleaf is a term I haven't encountered yet, though. Either way, I think the takeaway here is, I shouldn't put myself through this kind of torture, and should plan on lots of breakages in LoS.

This might be off-topic, but I'm curious: How DOES one visportal something like that? Would the visportals just be for interiors, with the exterior being rendered all at once? There's probably some solution I'm unfamiliar with, but, like, I can't imagine any intermediate solutions while still having that tallest tower in the background show up in the player's view from that location. I'd create a series of outdoor "rooms" with skyboxes that break up the map into sections...but such a solution would prevent vista shots like Melan's shot there. I understand visportals for interiors and some linear or contained outdoor locales. But I struggle with visualizing them for larger, more open outdoor environments.

Awesome, thanks. I love easy solutions.

It works for the briefing as well? I had been using it, but only for the in-game readables. I'll play around with it though, thanks.

Inching closer, I got some help from grayman that cleared up my pk4 woes. Thanks to everyone who chimed in. My next issue is with the mission briefing. I can get it to show up and work properly...when it's only 1 page in the .xd file. But the text is too long for a single page. But when I bump it to 2 pages, nothing shows up at all. Here's the exact code, modeled after the Thieves Den briefing: maps/poets/mission_briefing { "num_pages": "2" "page1_body" : { "I don't normally make a habit of stealing from other thieves. We tend to know each other's tricks. But this is a special case." \ "I ran into an old associate, Flowers, the other day in a bar. He's now going as Thomas Peasant. " \ "Apparently he went legitimate, and he's retired from the thieving business. \n\n " \ "What he doesn't remember is that he cheated me out of a haul nearly a decade ago. " \ "I was a nobody at the time...he probably didn't even know my name. " \ "And I made sure he still doesn't, giving him one of my more recent aliases in the bar. " \ "He disappeared after the heist all those years ago, and revenge doesn't pay, so I let it go. " \ "But now that he's more well off, I may have to rethink that mantra. " \ } "page2_body" : { "I tailed him to his house...a modest estate, given his bravado in the bar. " \ "But it's guarded, which should make things more interesting. I've spent a few weeks waiting to make my play, to deflect suspicion. " \ "My time was put to use in another way as well...during lapses in guard duty when I was staking out the place, " \ "I managed to break through a small section of the outer wall of his property that's adjacent to a small storage area. " \ "The new entrance doesn't eliminate the risk, but it should certainly make things easier. \n\n " \ "It's dark, and Peasant has left for the evening. There will never be a better time to loot the joint. " \ } "page3_body" : { "" } "page4_body" : { "" } "page5_body" : { "" } } ...again, for reference, that exact same script, but all under page1_body, shows up correctly, but is missing the 3rd and 4th paragraph due to length. But the code above results in a blank page.

Having read through this entire thread, I can safely say I don't know what I'm supposed to post. So here's Batman picking up women: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuzsZ8GyM38 And if we need some actual music, here's The Mad Violinist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsUgd7m3QPk He rolls with a hip hop/classical fusion group, and he's the "lead" performer for most of their stuff. It's badass.

Is there a file type that's more compatible than mp4? I'm not familiar with video intros for TDM, but converting the file types of a video to (nearly) anything is pretty easy. http://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/ Completely free download, and fairly reliable. If it doesn't help, no harm done, but I thought I'd mention it.