Tarhiel
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Days Won
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Posts posted by Tarhiel
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Spoiler
You need three parts of the evidence;
-The diary in the safe
-Any of the letters in the desk
-The torturers log, in the interrogation room.@DeTeEffThank you for pointing out those thongs, I did not know when or on what to use them.
the crowbar was self-explanatory.
Regarding the evidence - I had all of those and I read all of those till the last page, yet the mission objective did not check-off as complete. -
Congratulations on the release!
That was an interesting premise, having to tail your target throughout almost the whole map, reminded me the of the Assassins level from T1
It was very unique, having to go through quite a lot of map, and then your mission only started, once you started tailing the guard - and tailing was through a long part of the level. I found it interesting that you couldn´t explore right away, you had to remember to do it later, once the tailing part ended, basically piggyback your way back.And I also liked the detail
Spoilerwith having to find something (was it a feather?) to identify who sacked your place while you were gone, before you could call it a day.
These were the things that could be improved - please, do take them as a constructive criticism, not a griping:
- first, that needlessly empty area at the beginning of the map - there is nothing to loot for a long time and for no reason, just like that, from the certain point on the map, there is - it creates discrepancy, because I as a player have no idea why I should I bother to look for a loot, when few meters away there was nothing at all. I was able to see that thanks to a console command. Just cut that part of the level altogether, and move the start area somewhere closer to the populated area with loot or fill it with something meaningful for player to see and do.
- Ai was too prescient - not that they could see me from miles away, but they could see me in the dimmest light, they could find a corpses in a complete darkness and what made the level almost unplayable - once one(!) them see you, all of them go bonkers, started to look for me all of them at once. That completely killed any joy of playing, and I was playing on the easiest difficulty.
- I was not able to find the third readable required to mark the main objective,SpoilerI guess there´s a broken script - when I found the letters of the watch captain in the drawer, after reading a first of them there was trigger, which executed the first "I should find more of the evidence" talk, when I found, I think it was diary in the other drawer/in a safe nearby, there was a second talk, and that was it, I wasn´t able to execute the third, and the last one I guess.
I would not be able to finish the main objective, had I not stumbled by sheer accident upon your test room - you know which one I mean - the one with white walls, several readables (duplicates of those I found in the drawer) and 4 switches. When I switched all of the 4 switches, the objective was ticked off.- when I was returning back to the apartment, streets were full of guards - was that intentional, or did I accidentally alerted one of them, who then brought over all his friends?
Spoiler- Also, there was a place in the gangs hideout, right next to a broken air-conditioning shaft, where there was 3 objects in the wall for taking, marked as loot - but noclipping showed nothing at all and they were unfrobbable. Maybe they were supposed to spawn somewhere else, but I do not know where.
Was I supposed to trigger something to get to them?-
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Delightful mission, as always
So many surprises:
- first, women protagonist! Now I know why ZeplminTemplar wanted those female line voiceover, hehe
- I liked the detailed intro, almost like from Dishonored - there´s boat in the intro cutscene, which is not anywhere in the game - hats off for doing something like that!
In the beginning area I haver encountered the same problem as AluminiumHaste:
SpoilerI wanted to climb for that piece of loot on the wooden mantelpiece, and I saw the metal pipes goin that way, so I thought they would be climbable - I shot myself over to that closer wooden window on the right side of the port gate with the sleeping fart-man, only to fall down every single time I tried to climb on it - I thought I am doing something wrong, unless I tried to noclip there - and noticed it is not solid.
Please, fix this in some future patch, as it give off wrong signal being the proper way to get there - I found out I should jus shoot the arrow directly to that mantelpiece (didn´t looked wooden on the first glance).
- combined lockpicks! - while I understand some players will not be happy with this change I liked it, considered it unusual peculiarity, but I wouldn´t want to see it in every mission. You know what I would like? (and that would be a very welcomed change for me) - a key ring.
A keyring, where all the found keys would get automatically attached and you would just use the keyring on the lock and wouldn´t have to sift though keys (just like they did in Mission X for T2), which is just bothersome - THAT is something I would very much like to see here.- there are new arrow and food icons, which I like a lot (arrow ions in these contest mission in general), they seem more crisps and clear. And the food item bag was a nice touch!
- Contracts - I must applaud you for this idea - they were not boring, each was different, and there wasn´t too many of them, so you wanted to do all of them, and they were mostly optional! Very good idea. I especially liked the one with the disgruntled salesman at the gates
- overall, the length and level design were very good.I have one question though:
SpoilerHow do you access the last pieced of loot - crown hidden behind "Crystal Eye" painting?
it is unprobeable and I have no idea how to access it.I haven´t found any other-dimension bespectacles or anything like it
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On 5/6/2022 at 1:26 AM, Wellingtoncrab said:
- did I understood it correctly that that ratbeast was the missing young lord Ember, because he underwent a transformation with that machine on the throne in a nearby room?
Interesting, though off the mark a bit. Judging by your comment below regarding a certain caped crusader I think you are not completely off track on discovering the rat beast’s true identity.
On a separate note the Ember side story was inspired by the readable you discover early in TDS which is a children’s book that describes the legend of the hag. When I first played this I thought it was a very cool one off world building detail that actually blossomed throughout the game to become the inciting incident for the entire narrative.
In Iris the thief’s own story however is ending and their presence on the stage has diminished, so while it seems something big is again a foot that has ramifications for other elements of the narrative, it’s going to happen without them. The world keeps spinning after all.
All right, now I realized who the "ratbeast" was, but what happened to lord Ember then? -
Okay, when I started to play this mission, I had no expectations whatsoever.
To say my mind was blown off is understatement of abysmal proportions - this was fucking awesome!
Right from the opening intro, the nostalgic and bitter atmosphere permeates through and I did felt like I was playing Disco Elysium all over again for a while - it was bitter and made you think, but you couldn´t stop.
It was only after first few hours I had to look and found out this was a winner of a contest - and deservedly so.
From the masterful leveldesign - man, where did you learned this??? To map so good? - I have read in your comments this is not your first map, rather your first released one, but you deserve all the praise for it - it easily can rival Goldwells, bikerdudes levels, etc... - I am talking that kind of quality.
It´s quite vast, but more importantly full of details, various new objects that can be taken and slowly unfolding story as you progress - which is quite subtle, as you have to "connect the dots" between various readables and what you find or saw. And what an intricately created world! I loved the fact there was a historic explanation of all the various cramped buildings and materials they are made of.
When I mention readables - they are tastefully written (hats off to all the people writing and perfecting this) - what I saw here, is Golden Grail of well written readables in Thief/Darkmod missions.
There is so many other things I would like to write about, but I have to run to my training, so I have only one plea: please, make more.
Make many more and welcome amongst Taffers!
PS: And few questions at the end:
Spoiler- was that all a dream, or a product of aging thief, not knowing what is reality and happens in his head (all the writing about dream throughout the level)?
- it was a shock to learn the final house, the one with the Iris painting, is his own (you had that key with all your equipment right from the beginning), I gathered that much - but how old is he? If I read the quarantine readables right, quarantine was the for over 100 years?
- Was Iris the Lady Gray, who fell in love with a stranger (him, main protagonist)?
- did I understood it correctly that that ratbeast was the missing young lord Ember, because he underwent a transformation with that machine on the throne in a nearby room?
- I liked the Batman jab
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Hi everybody,
Can somebody tell me where I will find a code for House UrsineSpoilerEsoteric door? You know, the white marble one?
I just successfully opened Order of the Sanguine Dawn in the quarantined area and have no idea whether I overlooked the Ursine one hint somewhere or whether we will return there at some point in the story, so help would be appreciated. -
Dammit, sorry, I was meant to put full rating, and I pressed 1 instead of 5 (facepalm).
Can somebody from admins delete my vote, so I can vote again?-
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I have just finished this mission:
I am at loss of words - fantastic work, from level design, to new gameplay mechanics, secrets (so well hidden secrets, I was able to discover only 4-5 of them).
And that secret areaSpoilerdedicated to Grayman - I had no idea darkmod is capable of such a nice daylight levels with no performance drops anymore!
I still remember few years back this would not have been possible.-
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1 hour ago, Lzocast said:
Playing this and 'Iris' back to back may have been a mistake. Content overload xD
All enjoyable so far, though undead seem inconsistently knock-out-able. Shame as even with overt enemies I prefer knockouts over kills.Quick question:
The big crystal cave under the Library. Very pretty, but does it have an actual purpose? Spent past 15mins walking around it unable to see anything to actually do down here.
Where did you found the melting machine + energy for that?
You would not be able to get to the crystal cave otherwise.
As for the crystal cave:
Spoilerin there there is 1 secret (really hard to find, well hidden) + secret road to Thistlewood library area (the one where you found the etching tool)
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On 4/10/2022 at 4:23 PM, freyk said:
Use console command "bind", like: bind <key> "<command>"
To hide the lightgem, that is console command:tdm_hud_hide_lightgem 1
Or
g_showhud 0
But how about taking a look inside file "darkmodkeybinds.cfg",
where you can change the keybinds and add console commands cvars to a key, like:
bind "n" "g_showhud 0;screenshot;g_showhud 1;"More info, see tdm wiki article:
https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Bindings_and_User_Settings
And
https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Cvars_in_The_Dark_Mod
Btw please do not post in very old topics.
@admin
Please move this topic to tech support.
Thank you.
I was trying to do that (put my own keybinds into darkmodkeybinds.cfg), but failed to put 1/0 at the end, so it didn´t work, therefore I asked.
About not posting in very old topics - I noticed it is old, but it was relevant and I didn´t want to create another thread when there was one asking precisely what I needed.Thanks again.
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Yes, but is there a console command one can bind to a key/set of keys?
Because I would like to be able to change it on the fly, without the necessity of going to the menu. -
I knew you are a gifted level designer after playing Volta 1 and 2 mission.
This just confirms it - unusual setting (mining site/archeological excavations set in Middle-East-ish setting), lot of verticality, cleverly, but never unfairly hidden loot and delightful lightning.
Not to mention plethora of new assets and new zombie design.I like the clear objective, which always stay at the center, 5 hidden secrets, which were joy to hunt down
Spoilerand the 3 different ways how to approach the final confrontation - either bribe the sleazy guard, outwit by finding dead man´s key or simply, after learning the key combination, just loading older save and inputting it yourself - I loved how the player character had different quib for each of those situations!
Especially the "Ha! Lucky guess" had me laughing. Descent into pit remined me of Ravenholm, but the overall level design and aesthetic was not unsimilar to Arx Fatalis, or rather Dark Messiah (the desert temple location with the great Wyvern).
Oh and I liked the jab at Indiana Jones (please, tell me I am not mistaken!) with that final piece of loot, which looked ominously enough, and when you took it, the pedestal unburden rose up and sprung a trap - smart!
I immediately loaded it, because I noticed a frobbable rock on the ground and I tried to push the mask out of the pedestal with it. Then, just for a good measure, I used also second stone from the ground before I picked the mask - and it didn´t activated the trap! That was a really neat touch
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Absolutely splendid mission, this was joy to play, from beginning to the end.
The level design is fantastic, as always, one of the few mission where I had almost 100 loot, bare few trinkets in the final confrontation cave + 2 omitted vases in one of the already searched rooms.
One of the few missions in the long time where I had no trouble finding keys and clues how to continue were hintful enough.
Superb work.
On a more personal note:
I had noticed news about Grayman´s passing some time ago and I am sorry to hear that.
My condolences to the family and closest friends;
As a member of community, I am sad we had lost such a talented modder.-
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Hello Bienie,
Very nice atmospheric mission, congratulation, only now I had a time to play it
Maybe the following is no longer relevant (I might had the very first publicly released version of this mission and maybe there were updates in between) but for what it´s worth:
- I have read the previous comments and I too could not finish the main objective as I render unconscious The Cleaver, I am too the "blackjack first, ask questions later" + I didn´t even realized it´s the cleaver, I thought it´s a random thug, only few seconds later, when he was out, but since the game didn´t failed, I thought this is an expected outcome and it didn´t bother me until very end. )
I tired also put the Unconscious Thief the face down as one previous player suggested, didn´t work for me.
- I was able to find 7 out of 10 secrets, the rest I had to look up - one I overlooked (I took it before, then I loaded an older save and took a different road and forgot about it) but the other two I would not be able to find out:SpoilerThe one in the attic, hidden in the book (it did not occurred to me to get into that attic) and there was some other window as well.
- was not able to find the Marshall rat anywhere, where is it? There were several rats across the map, but I haven´t seen a single one with a red scarf around a neck.
- Matilda´s ring: this one bothers me the most - I found the ring, I found the advertisement giving you clear instructions as to where to put it - only to try every damn window (I noclipped even to those above, I was so desperate) on the Fulke Street, not only on the north end, the whole street, but NONE of them activated the objective completion. So I guess it´s a bug.
There was also this bug:
SpoilerI was able to frob some of the lootables from under the hidden floor tile in the cultist chief´s apartment without knowing there is some secret stash at all! I thought this is by design, similar to the second secret in the Thief fan´s apartment, with the ring and the couch, so I didn´t found it suspicious.
Only later on I found the readable mentioning the button on the clock and only when I opened it I was abet to loot the key and continue with the story.
This sounds I am complaining a lot, but I enjoyed your mission very much!
I especially liked the Thief fan homageSpoiler(with the books referencing the other missions) + Narnia!
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9 hours ago, stgatilov said:
You'd better not.
Or you will have many invisible differences with how 2.10 should work, which will eventually get you into trouble.
Interesting. I did a clean install of 2.10 and, for some reason, it imported by itself my .cfg file (I did a difference check and they were identical) and game seems to be running fine.
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Can we just copy Darkmod.cfg from 2.09 to 2.10, or do I need to modify it before use?
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6 minutes ago, nbohr1more said:
You need to download and use "tdm_installer"
https://www.thedarkmod.com/downloads/
tdm_update is obsolete
Thanks, will do.
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Guys, how casn I upgrade from 2.09 to 2.10?
TDM_update doesnt´t seem to work for me - it says everything is up to date, but I am still on 2.09.
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I know this s a stealth + immersive sim games forum, but maybe somebody will find this interesting:
I have stumbled upon this interesting mod I found out thanks' to Pagb666 channel: It´s a GZDoom total conversion of Doom, set in post-apocalyptic world, called Ashes: Afterglow.
It comes in 2 parts: the first´one, Ashes 2063 was released few years ago, then they did remastered version of it + released the second part, Ashes: Afterglow. where they concluded the story. It has 33 maps in total (Doom 2 had 32), some of them secret. This installer contains both of them as a standalone install.
If you´re a fan of postapo, give it a try: it has a decent story, lots of easter eggs and maps are getting more complex as you go. Second part especially brought in a simple crafting mechanic and hubs (possibility to return to the previous map and being able to explore parts which were previously inaccessible).
i am in a 2/3 of the second part and enjoying it immensely. -
On 2/12/2022 at 5:00 PM, jaxa said:
Is this a standalone download because it's a total conversion?
It is standalone, but they made it in such a way that you need to own Gothic 2 on Steam or GOG, to be able to download it - the game itself though, does not require you to have G2 installed or any file form it, it is standalone and has everything it needs.
Some of my friend had already finished playing it and said it´s definitely worth playing.-
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Congratulations! Looking forward to play it
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Congratulation on the release! Looking forward to play it
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On 4/25/2021 at 9:37 PM, Kerry000 said:
Hi @Tarhiel,
Thank you for taking the time to reply in such detail. I'll gladly answer the questions you've raised.
Firstly, as @Frost_Salamander stated above, you certainly can blackjack the guards in the manor. You can blackjack everyone in the mission except for the Dalton brothers who, as Hales' says in her journal, are just too stupid to feel it. Taking them on would be like taking on a pair of trolls. It's why you need to find another way.
Regarding the unanswered questions about Hales, she is a central and recurring character who you will learn a lot more about in the coming FM's. Why she hates street people and why she left the City Watch are all crucial to defining who she is as a character. Both the questions you've asked will be answered. As to whether or not she's the real villain, you'll have to wait and see
Captain Williams is also a recurring character. The items you leave on his desk are the evidence for the case he is building, Any other important information he might need he will get from the player character directly. This will be clear at the start of Part 2. Don't worry, he will soon know exactly who he is up against.You said you found 3 out of 5 secrets. May I ask which ones you found?
Thank you again for your kind words. We worked very hard on the readables in order to make them engaging for the player.Sorry for the later reply:
It was these secrets:
Spoiler1. hanged man
2. bird man
3. I forgot this one, probably some loot or some hidden area, maybe the one in which connects the Tottenhaums room with the balcony where you can find golden looking glass on a table?
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2 hours ago, Kerry000 said:
@Spyrano and @JackFarmer,
Thank you both for the kind words and rest assured that we are hard at work on part 2. We're really glad to hear that you're looking forward to it
@Tarhiel,
Thank you for the glowing review, we truly appreciate it. Would you mind answering something for me so that we can gauge our development of the characters? Who did you want to kill in the mission? Did you want to kill them because of their involvement in the darker side of the plot, or do you usually enjoy killing characters in-game? It's important for us to create strong emotions in the player about certain characters whose stories are going to evolve along with the main plot.
Ha, good question:
I do not enjoy killing characters in general and I generally take the stealth approach, usually blackjacking them, but:
SpoilerBut here, especially the Dalton brothers, and their chief Hales (the "mute woman", ex City Watch), I would kill off.
As I learned later on, it was a story option to kill the Dalton brothers with the rat poison, and I found this really neat, because it was stated in the readables somebody tried to blackjack them and it didn´t work, leaving clue to the player, they cannot be blackjacked (which, of course, I promptly tried).
But after the build up from reading all the readables, slowly building the tension not knowing what exactly they did to your friend and whether he is still alive, and then learning right after encountering them that they cut his tongue out, I just saved the game (knowing it will be a failstate) and sneak past them and killed first with the arrow and the second shoot to death with several arrows.
Don´t get me wrong, I know they are just thugs, gorillas meant to do their master (Hales) bidding, she is the real villain in this story. And you could clearly see from the readables she is dangerous. But I was so angry at them and terrified Daltons might do this to others, I just went with it. It´s not very often this happens to me in the game, even in Dishonored, I enjoyed the non-lethal ways of getting rid of characters (I mean, cutting tongues out, and sending two former brothers and slave masters in to their own slave mines, letting them taste of their own medicine, or letting one duchess to be abducted by her creepy stalker and self-pronounced lover? That´s savage), because I found them more punishing than killing them, which actually would be more merciful, in some cases.
So killing those two silently was a prompt send-off, but there are several unanswered things about Hales:
- why did she hate beggars so much (it was stated in one of the readables)?
- what happened she fell of the grace (not being city watch member)?
I reckon that, even though it wasn´t explicitly stated, that now the good captain of the guards knows about her involvement, and he knows who she is, so this plays in our advantage and I would expect there would be a show down, where she will be called out by the captain, probably something she fears of (stated in her journal, that he would certainly recognize her).
I am really curious how this would play out.
Maybe that could be an optional mission goal added here - to drop her journal on the captain´s desk as well, making sure he KNOWS who´s he against.
Another persons which I would gladly blackjack, for purely technical reasons, were the two un-blackjackable guards guarding the Tottenhaum (you know which one I mean, forgot his precise name) mansion and always turning up the lights. I know this was meant to be a challenge (there was also this one guard with helmet on his head, just before entering the roof with the maur), but I ended up noclipping around them as their behavior was pesky.
At least one of them I would leave blackjackable for those of us, who does not play on ghost, OR leave one (just one) gas arrow in the whole level (these arrows are meant to be rare, so player would be extra cautious using them), but this is exactly the spot I would used them on.
By the way, whomsoever wrote your readables, should have won an Oscar.Those are one fucking perfectly executed readables - short (only as long as they need to be), precise, in character, in the right places and there was always some new bit of trivia you learned form them, slowly piecing the story together.
And I think I found only 3/5 secrets,
have no idea where the others might be
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Fan Mission: Who Watches The Watcher? v1.0 by DeTeEff (2022/05/28)
in Fan Missions
Posted
Yes, I did - I did read all of them one by one.