Petike the Taffer
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Posts posted by Petike the Taffer
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On 7/26/2020 at 12:42 PM, thebigh said:
I agree and disagree. It makes little sense to steal a bunch of money that you never get to spend, and it would give the hypothetical campaign some sense of continuity to have carryover loot. The problem is that DM missions are geared towards minimal use of tools. DM isn't like the original Thief duology where buying and using dozen water arrows makes sense. The engine, and the skills of most mappers, better fit the sparing and minimalist style.
Yes, I think this makes a good deal of sense. Buying equipment in between missions isn't a must. Maybe a potential official campaign could use it a few times as a concept (some TDM mission series do it, if the package includes more than a single mission), but I don't think we should copy the Thief approach wholesale. Even Thief didn't have the shop menu before every single mission, if it made sense to omit it for the sake of the story.
On 7/26/2020 at 12:42 PM, thebigh said:I agree and disagree. It makes little sense to steal a bunch of money that you never get to spend, and it would give the hypothetical campaign some sense of continuity to have carryover loot. The problem is that DM missions are geared towards minimal use of tools. DM isn't like the original Thief duology where buying and using dozen water arrows makes sense. The engine, and the skills of most mappers, better fit the sparing and minimalist style.
I think a long campaign would only be good with some advance planning. Although divided into missions, the campaign would need to be a coherent whole. It wouldn't be enough to just take some random missions, slap them together, and call it a campaign. LGS may have gotten away with that in Thief 2, but they're just that good. No disrespect to the DM community, but we are not LGS.
Did you ever play the fan campaign Shadows of the Metal Age? That was planned out from the beginning, and each level fit properly into that plan. A big glorious DM campaign would need that level of forethought and commitment.
That's something missing from the DM universe right now. We've got the City Watch, the nobility, the Pagans, and the Builders which are obviously inspired by organisations from the original Thief games. Even the mysterious Moors are reminiscent of the Hand Brotherhood in a way. But I haven't seen an analogue to the Keepers yet.
Never got to playing T2X, because every install .exe I've downloaded, ever, has never worked on my computer. Not on XP, not on 7, nothing. I never could get the install .exe itself to work, despite it being straight off the mod site. I still don't understand where people got T2X from. As for the total conversion itself, I liked what they did with it, it was a fine fanfic expansion to TMA. So much so that, if there were to be a Thief series or film, I'd have Zaya made a canon recurring character that shows up occassionally during the events of TMA. We might get some lady thief characters sooner or later, I'm part of a minor audio project to enable the creation of a potential female player character in TDM.
Concerning the Keepers or the Hand Brotherhood, we already have the Mages and the Hermetic Order in Bridgeport, potentially other cities in the Empire and setting as well. The setting also has necromancers, but they're described as scattered, individual dabblers in arcane or forbidden magic, rather than some highly organized order of magic practitioners.
To tell you the truth, I never fully got the appeal of "Ahhh, Thief needs to have loads of magic and mysticism...". They're good distractions, good extra material, but something seen as key to the setting ? Not so much, at least to me. And I say that as someone who regards the Keeper faction as his absolute favourite from the trilogy, so it's not me being a Negative Nelly about the Keepers. I just think that, like the Mechanists, the Keepers don't need a direct analogue in TDM. We're a Thief homage, not a wholesale plagiarising of Thief. LGS did the hard work over twenty years ago, we're doing our own thing and showing appreciation, but we shouldn't retread their ground. Certainly not in too similar a way, and not just for copyright reasons, but also creative reasons.-
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I've always found it amusing that a de facto interactive movie game, where the bad guys are either literal mushroom-zombies or your standard issue "tough post-apocalyptic survivors who 'did what it took to survive, rawr' and are now engaged in typical heartless post-apoc tough-guy buffoonery" villain types, is having any sort of pretentions to artistic and social profundity. Sure, games are art and all that, but a zombie game wouldn't be my first choice of game to search for this sort of profundity. Also, if someone is desperate enough to market their game by intentionally provoking potential controversies well in advance (poking the predictably behaving usual suspects, who go berserk at certain topics), then I'm afraid it might not be much of a game to begin with.
TLoU no. 2 exists for a simple reason: The first game was quite popular, made a good deal of money, so they made another one. If you ask me, they didn't have that many places to go, considering the story of the first game (what I know of it), but they did it anyway, because it pays the bills and publishers care about banknotes first, good reviews second, and artistic integrity... maybe somewhere at place 412th.
Kojima's Death Stranding, as silly and pretentious and goofily creative as it was, felt to me a bit closer to actually examining the negative and positive impulses that tend to guide human beings, for better or worse, than the Last of Us' n-millionth examination of the "Hey, zombies appeared, the world has gone to crap, and aren't humans now uniformly horrible and selfish, even if it's illogical ?" idea. Death Stranding felt like it has something more to say about humans and their complexities than the rote old messages paying lipservice to Thomas Hobbes. Ironically, DS has the far darker, far more insane setting, and it still felt like it's telling a more interesting story about loss, suffering, the lies we potentially tell ourselves, and the divisions and misunderstandings we create, or how we become prisoners to our own egos (if we're not careful). Creepy setting with some off-beat, rather silly worldbuilding, but I felt the game's narrative had its heart in the right place in a lot of both serious and amusing ways. I can respect that, even without thinking the game's some masterpiece. In contrast, zombies and post-apocalyptic assholery has been done to death, especially in the last decade alone. That alone makes this IMHO forced sequel to an okay but not really exceptional game feel already... well, dated.
At least Death Stranding, somewhat like Thief, encourages you to avoid violence and killing if you can, rather than reward it. If all TLoU does to examine human frailty, physical, emotional and mental, in a world riven by catastrophe, is to have players smashing heads in, "making tough decisions who to kill or not kill" and then contemplating its navel about human nature, it doesn't really bring much new to the table. Every single zombie-themed game or work has done that, a million times over. It's almost as clichéd in games and other works as "you're a muscle-bound, grizzled space marine, so tough you shave yourself with a blowtorch, go kick alien/demon/evil corporation ass" being the basis for the whole premise and plot. It just... isn't novel. Not even in a reinvented way. If TLoU didn't have mushroom-zombies as its one claim to originality, then it would be basically like any other zombie work where the undead have collapsed the entirety of society and now everyone's an asshole to each other, because God forbid humans would actually think and cooperate, rather than try to murder each other for silly and petty reasons 100 % of the time. The whole "crazy nihilist warlords who stifle any attempt at rebuilding civilization and bringing human decency" plotting is as clichéd an idea as zombies, space marines, "tough moral choices" (that aren't, or are only false dichotomies), and I could go on. Yeah, there's nothing new under the sun, even Thief pilfered from film noir, Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, The Name of the Rose, Thieves' World, and who knows what else, but there's more to making an original game or other artistic work, than just changing a few details, adding pointless trends ("press this to crack open a defenceless person's skull while doing overblown moves; press this to have characters lecture you with wannabe edgy profundity for over fifteen minutes straight, in a blandly staged cutscene") and throwing huge production values at everything. Inevitably, many of these will feel dated sooner or later.
Any well-written game will leave you with something interesting to think about not because it told you "Here comes the profound bit, pay attention !", but because it executed its storytelling both verbally and non-verbally (visually, through audio, written content, etc.) in such a manner that it left you with stuff to ponder. Even if it didn't give you all the answers, but it also didn't chicken out by not giving you any either. We want a good game script/story to stimulate us in ways that might be uncomfortable and unusual, but not necessarily cynical and trite, and that have some added value, including in things like humour and levity. I think a lot of the most artistically accomplished games actually don't shy away from humour. Smart, maybe even cute humour, rather than the "I'm an edgy cynic who uses edgy ironic statements" school of thought. I could write hours upon hours on these topics, but I'll cut it short here.
You know, with all this silliness around TLoU 2 and other zombie games and post-apocalyptic games, I'm tempted to write a script for a little indie adventure game with a more introspective story. The world is back to normal, but there was some standard issue zombie catastrophe a few years back. In it, your main character (either a guy or a lady, depends on the player's choice) was forced to fight and then kill a friend they really liked, because whatever caused things to go bananas and turn people into ISO standard zombies also affected their friend. They grappled with trying to just defend themselves, tried to capture their friend, then get help and find ways on how to save him or her. They didn't want to kill a good friend, as any decent human wouldn't want to, even if they had the impression their friend might be beyond help at that point. Unfortunately, something happened, the friend got lose, the protagonist was forced to kill them. The friend was killed, but rather than go "Yeah ! Got another one !", the protagonist understandably mourned that they've lost a good friend to such horrible circumstances. The vast majority of the game is set in the present, there's no zombie-killing, scavenging for resources, nothing. The world has gone back to normal, society's generally like before the mysterious catastrophe (you could reveal at the very end that it was some alien goo from a meteor or something similarly silly), but people are still emotionally and mentally scarred from the experience. Our protagonist is trying to cope with the fact they didn't kill some mindless monster, but their unlucky friend. They're trying to find a way forward, within themselves, also via counselling, and they might be thinking about finding a therapy group or similar group of equally affected people. Just to share their story, to cope with others, maybe even find new friends and bond over that awful experience they're trying to overcome.
There's your profound, more psychological zombie game. Not the n-millionth "who do we kill or be killed" and "survival of the fittest" nonsense that the prepper-crowd jerks off to. Also, why set it in the US, always the US ? Because markets ? Maybe our story happened in France. Or Kenya. Or Chile. Or South Korea. Or Estonia. You can be plenty more creative than making slightly different variations on "Gun-toting Prepper Simulator 2020: When the Zombies Come, They Ain't Gonna Git Me !", LOL.
P.S. If the first game was about the last of them, then who the hell is still running around in the sequel ? I hope this doesn't become some endless series like Assassin's Creed or Final Fantasy, otherwise the TLoU series' title will become increasingly inaccurate, just like the title of the Final Fantasy series. I am actually kind of disappointed TLoU is a series now, to begin with. One game, leave it at that. It ain't no sin, developers and publishers...
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On 5/10/2020 at 10:45 PM, ricon said:
What I enjoyed the most in the Thief games was the hiding/sneaking idea with a great story behind.
Having a line of continuity in a game, brings more realism. In The Dark Mod it seems that there is not that. I played some missions some years ago. Then I left, now I am back and I would like to know if there is any kind of story mod, or lits of missions with continuity that brings the sense of realism and immersion in the TDM world, as Thief did.
So, what do you think?
Thank you!
You have plenty of missions that weave together a continuing or otherwise interconnected story: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Fan_Mission_Series
I think the lack of a campaign is, strangely, a bit of a benefit. Yes, we could make a whole official campaign or keep extending the existing one with Corbin (he's the closest we have to a Garrett figure), but I actually prefer the more "shared universe", anthology approach of mission authors. Mission series have been a thing since the earliest days of this project and have only been getting more common, not less common, precisely because mission authors see the benefit of a continuing storyline with some main and recurring characters.
Also, people crying that "lacking a campaign means TDM is not a real game" is really getting on my nerves at this point. This game is in development and available online for free. We don't, can't and wouldn't want to make any money off of it. Financial donations are also pointless. Talent donations, tangible contributions, is how this game can keep on moving forward.
Speaking entirely for myself, and anyone can disagree with my opinion, extending the campaign we already have - the mission at the inn, then at St. Lucia's church, then some further missions after that - would be the best way to create an official campaign for TDM. I think that past efforts, with the idea that we need to have this stupendously impressive campaign, where every single mission is going to be a blow-your-socks-off affair, is part of why we haven't created such a campaign until now. The man hours needed and the sheer ambition are just overblown. The perfect is the enemy of the good. I feel that, contrary to what some Thief veterans might think, having a game that has an official campaign welcoming to both complete newbies and old pros is a far better route than a monumentally ambitious and impressive campaign that satisfies only a few die-hards, and frustrates others due to its length, scope, and sheer over-indulgence. If we strive for overly lofty heights, we'll end up with a game equivalent of Cimino's Heaven's Gate. Bloated, self-indulgent, potentially incomprehensible and irritating.
I'm a "less is more" kind of guy. No hand-holding beyond the training mission, but start the players off easily enough, with the inn mission we have, then it gets a little harder at St. Lucia's, then we create a similarly small-in-scope and once again slightly more difficult, but entertaining and pretty-looking mission. And then another, and another. Gradually expand the campaign to some 10 or 12 missions, and you have an official campaign that'll entertain newcomers and veterans alike. And then they can play all the other mission series or one-off episodic mission, whatever they like. By that, I don't mean finishing the official campaign would be compulsory. No. It's just that it will serve as a natural introductory point for most new players of The Dark Mod. The more incentive we give players to have fun and finish the official campaign, the better. Make the missions bite-sized, not technically overdone, and make them fun, and we might have a real Keeper (Thief pun intended).
I think it's telling that, over the years, far more people new to TDM have asked "What missions would be good for a newbie ? Which do you recommend ?", rather than "Where's the big blockbuster official campaign that will bring me into pure gaming ecstasy ?". Tellingly, already a while back, I compiled a whole wiki article just about these recommendations, because people were asking them so frequently: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Mission_recommendation_discussions
Including a recommended list of simple enough, shorter missions, to start them off with something smaller, simple, but entertaining. The fans, especially new ones, want more accessible things before they can move on to the more demanding missions. More accessible isn't about dumbing down, it's about respecting the natural need for a learning curve.
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Hello, all.
This thread is meant as a follow-up companion piece to my previous thread listing royalty-free music by Kevin MacLeod that could be usable for new missions for The Dark Mod.
In this thread, I take a slightly different approach. Instead of focusing on one author and his royalty-free music, I'll be writing an ever-expanding list of songs, compositions tracks and ambients by various musical artists that could come in useful for mission makers working on FMs for TDM.
Aside from ambient music for background atmosphere, I'll also be listing some historical music and compositions from the real world's ca 14th-17th century that are in the public domain and could be used as background music in your missions, provided that someone does a royalty-free recording of them (i.e. not released on some payed-for album, but at most a royalty-free album or online collection/archive).
Please note that, though I will try to provide you with links to royalty-free versions of historical compositions in particular, I sometimes might not be sure of the status of some of these recreations/recordings and you'll have to snoop around for their royalty-free status on your own. However, if you do confirm that, e.g. some freelance artist recorded a well-known 16th century piece of music, and is giving it away royalty-free, possibly with the only necessity being attribution, then please let me know and I'll include any download links and the details concerning necessary attribution. Thank you !And now, it's time to begin...
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Royalty-free ambients
As in "free to distribute and use (though possibly with attribution)", not necessarily "free of the TDM universe royalty".
Free Music Archive (FMA)
From his particular website, I'll only be including tracks that have broad Creative Commons licenses or free licenses, and tracks that are suited to both Non-commercial and Commercial use.
In other words, largelly CC BY 4.0 and CC BY 4.0 Deed. It's better to search for ambients and tracks that are more lenient with their licenses.
Lee Rosevere- All the Answers
- Awkward Silences (B)
- Baldachin
- Betrayal
- Compassion (keys version)
- Delayed Reaction
- Edge of the Woods (kind of too modern sounding in parts, but maybe you could find a use for it á la some of the old grungy-sounding ambient tunes in Thief)
- Expectations
- Everywhere (sounds like a calm but moody mansion ambient to me)
- Gone
- Her Unheard Story
- It's A Mystery
- Not Alone
- Old Regrets
- Reflections
- Slow Lights
- Snakes
- Something To Fill The Space
- Thoughtful (especially the first half to first two thirds, before the more electronic beat kicks in)
- The Long Journey
- The Nightmare
- The Past
- Time to Think
- Under Suspicion (maybe the bit between 2:26 and 2:48 would be the best for a tension sting, the rest sounds a bit too modern spy-fi for the TDM setting)
- What's in the Barrel ?
- You're Enough (A)
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- A Bit of Discomfort
- Daydream
- Deliverance
- Free Classical Theme (arguably more like for an SF film with classical music portrayed electronically, but not bad)- Aiti, joku tuijottaa meita metsasta
- Holle
- Kadonnut jalkia jattamatta
- Privatomrode i Vasteros
- Syttymissyy tuntematon 1
- Syttymissyy tuntematon 2
- 098 (ambient for background humming and buzzing, perhaps machinery, electricity, industrial ambience, etc.)
- Billy Gomberg Remix
- If You're Ther (odd city ambience, between moody music and city background ambience, mild background thumping)
- Lisbon ambience (maybe usable as background ambience in some mission set at a more Mediterranean city)
- Mizuame (Sawako Sun) (could work as ambience for a larger baths or spa hall, with the sound of water, and human voices occassionally heard in the background)
- November 25, 2007
- Snowfall
- Spring Thaw
- Tim Prebble Remix
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UNIVERSFIELD
- A Beatiful Sky (this track would actually be good for a church or cathedral interior)
- A Calm Soulful Atmosphere For A Documentary Film (calm but somewhat mysterious ambient, reminds me of some of the Dishonored ambients)
- A Grim Horror Atmosphere
- A Music Box With A Tense Atmosphere
- Atmosphere for Documentaries (rather suspensful ambient with an undertone of woodwind instruments)
- Background Horror Tension
- Beautiful Relaxing Ambient (a calmer ambient that's good for a location with some degree of grandeur or one that provides relief to the player)
- Blood-chillingly Creepy Atmospheres
- Bloody
- Cloaked in Mystery
- Corpse Rot
- Crime City
- Dark Background
- Deep Space Exploration (has a nice atmosphere of mystery and exploration)
- Drifting in Harmony (calm but suspensful ambient)
- Embrace of the Mist
- Exoplanet (mysterious ambient, could work for various environments)
- Exploring the Cursed Cemetery (short, fifteen second tension sting with piano)
- Evening Meditation In The Open Air (could work for a number environments during evening hours)
- Fading Memories
- Gloomy Atmosphere for Documentaries
- Gloomy Reverie
- Grim Atmosphere
- Horror Atmosphere (Version 2)
- Horror Background Atmosphere 6
- Horror Background Atmosphere for Horror and Mystical
- Horror Background Atmosphere for Scary Scenes
- Horror Background Atmosphere for Suspensful Moments (1)
- Horror Background Atmosphere for Suspensful Moments (2)
- Horror Dark Atmosphere (Version 1)
- Horror Music Box
- Intergalactic Ambience (good calm theme of mystery and wonder)
- In the Embrace of Darkness
- Mars (suspensful ambient for a suspensful location, with a metallic undertone in its melody)
- Meditation in Nature (aside from outdoor environments, could work in a number of other environments as well)
- Melodies of Fear
- Midnight Secrets
- Mild Heaven (a calm ambient, maybe could work for night time city streets and city rooftops)
- Moment of a Dream (suspensful theme, hopefully not too electronic in undertone)
- Mysterious Passerby
- Mystery Atmosphere
- Mystery Horror
- Mystery House
- Mystical Dark Atmosphere
- Nebula Soundscape (sounds like a good ambient for outdoor or cave environments or maybe even churches and city rooftops)
- Ominous Criminal Atmosphere
- Sad Emotional Piano for Documentary Films
- Scary Dark Cinematic For Suspensful Moments
- Scary Horror Atmosphere
- Sinister Mystery
- Sinister Piano Melodies (short, fifteen second tension sting with piano)
- Siren's Call (I feel this one has more limited uses, though maybe it could work for suspense in an industrial environment)
- Soothing Serenade (calm, soothing ambient, with a slight hint of mystery, could work for several types of environments)
- Soothing Soundscapes (calm, soothing ambient, with a slight hint of mystery, could work for several types of environments)
- Spooky Hallway
- Suspense Atmosphere Background
- Tense Dark Background
- Tense Horror Atmosphere
- Tense Horror Background Atmosphere
- The Box of Nightmares
- This Sunset (good for an evening or night time ambient, even includes subtle cricket chirping sounds)
- Tropical Escapes (good for an outdoor environment with a waterfall, flowing stream or falling rain)
Many of these tracks by UNIVERSFIELD are quite short, about a minute or slightly under a minute, but good as tension-building themes or as suspensful ambients.
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Historical background music - lute and similar string instruments
La Rossignol ("The Nightingale"} - a Renaissance era piece, anonymous composer. This one was written as an instrumental duet for two musicians. So, if you'd use this for a scene of AI characters playing their instruments, you should use two such characters for added believability.
Here's what the composition sounds like when played as a duet on:
- lute (obviously the most medieval/Renaissance instrumentation)
- acoustic guitar (example 1) and acoustic guitar (example 2)
- 11-string guitar what it sounds when played as a duet on an 11-string guitar
- licensed album version (presumably lute)
If you find any royalty-free version in good quality, let me know.
Lachrimae ("Tears", sometimes known as "Seven Teares") by John Dowland - another Elizabethan era piece, by a 16th-17th century composer. Various reconstructions:
- on lute (example solo performance at the Metropolitan Museum)
- on lute, with vocal accompaniment (lutist and female soprano)
- on lute, violas, and other (six musician ensemble performance)
- on viola da gamba (five musician ensemble performance)
Lachrimae Pavan ("Teary Pavane / Pavane of the Tears") by John Dowland - a variation on the previous composition, for the Renaissance pavane style dance. Various reconstructions:
- on lute
- on acoustic guitar (example 1), (example 2), (example 3)
Again, I'd like to find a royalty-free version of these two compositions.
Frog Galliard - one more by Dowland, for now. Another composition for a Renaissance dance style, the galliard. Reconstructions:
- on lute (solo performance)
- on lute, deeper sound (solo performance)
- on acoustic guitar (example 1), (example 2), (example 3)
Royalty-free version would be appreciated.
Greensleeves - by an anonymous 16th century author, quite possibly a folk song of the era. Trust me, you know this one, even if you don't know the name. It's one of the most well-known bits of Renaissance secular and courtly music in the popular imagination. (Trust me, it's been referenced in everything. Even the first Stronghold game from the early 2000s had an in-game character sing a made-up ditty to the tune/melody of this song.)
Reconstructions:
- on lute (solo performance)
- classical guitar (solo performance)
- acoustic guitar (solo performance)
I bet there's a royalty-free version of this one somewhere. I'll snoop around, and if you find one before I do, let me know.
In taberna quando sumus ("When we are at the tavern") - anonymous period song from the 14th century, of Goliard origin. Written and sung entirely in Latin (so if you can explain Latin within the TDM setting or use only an instrumental version, go for it). An unabashed drinking song, you could use this for more rascally Builder priests/monks or for various commoners and lower-ranking noblemen while they're having a good time at the inn. A pretty well-known song even nowadays (though the most famous melody for it might be the more recent arrangement). Reconstructions:
Again, an entirely royalty-free version of this one could come in handy.
Historical background music - by Jon Sayles
Jon Sayles is a musician who runs the Free Early and Renaissance Music website. His recordings are in .mp3 format (so you will need a conversion to .ogg) and Sayles has made them all freely available. The instrument he used for his musical reconstructions is the classical guitar. Some examples of Sayles' reconstructions of period music by anonymous or known authors:
Saltarello, based on the late-medieval and Renaissance dance tune from Italy
Al fonsina by Johannes Ghiselin
So ys emprentid by John Bedyngham, mid-1400s
Riu, riu, chiu, famous 15th century Spanish Christmas carol
Fantasia, by Orlando Gibbons, late 16th and early 17th century
Die Katzenpfote, German-speaking lands, anonymous author, 15th century
A gre d'amors, 14th century, anonymous French author
Nightengale (unrelated to La Rossignol), by Thomas Weelkes
El Grillo, 15th to early 16th century composition by Josquin des Prez
The Witches' Dance, by anonymous, Renaissance English composition
Ma fin est mon comencement, by 14th century composer Guillame de Machaut
In Nomine, late 15th and early 16th century composition by John Taverner
Ricercare ("ricker-caré", nothing to do with rice or care), by Adrian Willaert
Fantasia by Thomas Lupo, 16th-17th century English composer
The Nite Watch, composed by Anthony Holborne - appropriate for TDM
Plenty more where these came from...
Historical background music - from the A-M Classical website
This website offers plenty of freely available, royalty-free .mp3s of early and classical musical compositions and instrumental songs.
The only thing you need to do is provide attribution, as everything on the site is via a Creative Commons license (this is noted on every page).
Counting Christmas songs from the Middle Ages and Renaissance alone, I was able to download loads of them already years and years ago.
Though they're far from epic recordings, if you're just looking for a competently done free version of these compositions, this is an excellent site.
A few examples of medieval music from the A-M Classical site: Angelus ad Virginem (played quietly on organ), Diex soit en cheste maison by Adam de la Halle (organ and other instruments), Greensleeves (this is for a carol version of the lyrics, but the melody is the same as standard Greensleeves)
Historical background music - by Vox Vulgaris
The Swedish band/ensemble Vox Vulgaris aren't very active nowadays, but they did plenty of early music recording in the early-to-mid 2000s. From what I've read about their song releases, they're okay with others using the songs from their 2003 album and other material they've done. I don't know if their website is still around (there's an archived version) and whether you can still contact the band members, but if you'd like to be extra sure and ask, go ahead. I don't think they've changed their copyleft stance to their own works, but it pays off to be sure.
So, here are some of VV's own takes on period music:
Cantiga 166 - based on the eponymous song (full title "Cantiga 166 - Como póden per sas culpas (os homés seer contreitos)"), by Spanish composer Alphonso X from the 13th century (yes, king Alphonso X ! They didn't call him Alphonso the Learned for nothing). To provide you with a point of comparison, here, here and here are versions by other artists. (If I remember correctly, this particular VV song was also used by moonbo in his Requiem FM, as part of an inn's muffled background music. I did a real double-take when I played the mission for the first time and recognised it.)
Cantiga 213 - based on the eponymous song (full title "Cantiga 213 - Quen sérve Santa María, a Sennor mui verdadeira"), again by Spanish composer, king Alphonso X from the 13th century. To provide you with a point of comparison, here and here are versions by other artists.
Saltarello - based on the well-known melody for the Italian late-medieval Renaissance dance, the saltarello (also the saltarello trotto specifically in this case). To provide you a point of comparison, here and here are versions by other artists.
La Suite Meurtrière - I can't quite source this one, it might be their own original composition, though "in the style of" some particular period music.
Rókatánc (Fox Dance) - this is a really wild bit of period dance and festive music, possibly Hungarian-inspired, given the name. I think this would fit both a tavern environment or some public event for the nobility and patricians, including an armed sparring tournament or similar.
Final note from me
New suggestions are always welcome as I expand this thread. For any suggestions concerning Kevin MacLeod's royalty-free music, please use the other thread I've already made, purely for listing MacLeod's stuff.
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11 hours ago, grayman said:
Thanks!
Just send me a short script and I'll look into it.
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- Popular Post
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Hello, all.
I've decided to post some lists of royalty-free music from Kevin MacLeod's well-known site Incompetech.com, lists that include tracks and themes chosen as potentially useful for The Dark Mod mission creators. Mr. MacLeod's made plenty of really good royalty-free music over the years, including various ambient themes and other music that could work pretty well in The Dark Mod. From what I know and remember, there's already been a fair few released FMs that used a few tracks from MacLeod's archive, so he is not unknown to the TDM community.
The older (and fully usable) version of MacLeod's site is here and another archive of his royalty-free music can be found here (on Wikimedia Commons). I've added the links as well.
As of April 2024, I have also added links to the official YouTube uploads of the individual tracks, all part of MacLeod's official YouTube channel.
For the sake of easier reading and finding a song in the lists below, I've arranged them all in alphabetical order.Religious / churchly ambients
Types of settings: Builder churches, chapels, cathedrals, monasteries, abbeys, etc. Various solemn and calm religious ambients.
- Agnus Dei X (YT link. Somber but livelier in places, male and female choir vocals in muffled Latin.)
- Bathed in Light (YT link. A rather soothing ambient, I suppose it could work inside a pleasant-seeming Builder church, including as a place of relief in a scary mission.)
- Lasting Hope (YT link)
- Organic Meditations 1 (YT link) and Organic Meditations 2 (YT link)
- Private reflection (YT link)
- Supernatural (YT link. Good for an abandoned church, spooky candle-lit catacombs, etc.)
Potentially:
- Tiny Fugue (YT link)
- Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (YT link. Famous organ composition by Bach, IMHO might sound too Barocque for a late-medieval style setting, but good for a hint of eerieness.)
Spooky / horror / ominous ambients
Types of settings: Crypts, catacombs, haunted caves, eerie ruins, lairs and places where undead and other monsters roam, etc. Some of the more industrial-sounding ones could also be useful for missions set at factories or warehouses occupied by criminal gangs, and so on (i.e. also for non-supernatural threats and non-supernatural creepiness).
- Aftermath (YT link), WiCo link)
- Ancient Rite (YT link, WiCo link)
- Anxiety (YT link, WiCo link)
- Apprehension (YT link, WiCo link)
- Blue Sizzle (YT link, WiCo link)
- Bump in the Night (YT link, WiCo link)
- Chase Pulse (YT link, WiCo link) and Chase Pulse Faster (YT link, WiCo link. Both could work in some ghost-haunted location, with ghosts pursuing the player.)
- Classic Horror 3 (YT link, WiCo link. Good for a haunted house, manor house or other private household interior.)
- Dark Standoff (YT link)
- Darkness Speaks (YT link. Shorter sting, good for a scripted creepy event.)
- Deep Noise (YT link, WiCo link)
- Digital Bark (YT link, WiCo link)
- Distant Tension (YT link, WiCo link)
- Dopplerette (YT link, WiCo link)
- Echoes of Time 1 (YT link, WiCo link)
- Echoes of Time 2 (YT link, WiCo link)
- Fire Prelude (YT link)
- Gathering Darkness (YT link, WiCo link)
- Ghostpocalypse 1 - The Departure (YT link)
- Ghost Processional (YT link)
- Ghost Story (YT link, WiCo link)
- Grave Matters (YT link)
- Heart of the Beast (YT link, WiCo link)
- Himalayan Atmosphere (YT link. Eerie theme, could work in some ancient ruins.)
- Ice Demon (YT link, WiCo link)
- Long Note 1, Long Note 2 and Long Note 3
- Mind Scrape (YT link)
- Nervous (YT link, WiCo link)
- Night Break (YT link, WiCo link)
- Ominous (YT link. Shorter ambient, but pretty spooky.)
- One of Them (YT link, WiCo link)
- Penumbra (YT link, WiCo link)
- Political Action Ad (YT link. Yes, a song for this concept has such an ominous atmosphere.
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- Redletter (YT link, WiCo link)
- Right Behind You (YT link, WiCo link)
- Satiate - strings version (YT link)
- Spacial Winds (YT link, WiCo link. Might be good for Middle Eastern themed scares.)
- Spider Eyes (YT link. This could work well inside a household, or inside some public building.)
- Supernatural (YT link. Calmer melody, good for a haunted religious buldings and its grounds.)
- Sunset at Glengorm (YT link and YT remastered link)
- Steel and Seething (YT link)
- Tenebrous Brothers Carnival - Mermaid (YT link. Sounds serene, but is rather creepy and tense, maybe underground/underwater ruins.)
- The Dread (YT link, WiCo link)
- The Hive (YT link, WiCo link)
- The Voices (YT link, WiCo link 1, WiCo link 2. Very otherworldly, good for some haunted area or other dimension.)
- Unnatural Situation (YT link)
- Unease (YT link, WiCo link. Would sound best in a manor house, museum, or other fancy interiors.)
- Unseen Horrors (YT link, WiCo link)
- Very Low Note (YT link, WiCo link)
Tension-building / mysterious / general ambients
Type of setting/situation: General ambients, especially in parts of FMs where the plot thickens and some coded development is triggered that makes for a new "act" in the overall story of the mission. (Imagine the likes of moonbo's missions and how they're structured and you get a bit of an idea.)
- Air Prelude (YT link)
- Awkward Meeting (YT link, WiCo link. Our thief hero or heroine meets an ally or informant for a bit of chit-chat.)
- Blue Sizzle (YT link, WiCo link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.)
- Calmant (YT link. A calm, quiet piano theme, but it has an air of mystery and isolation. An emotionally neutral, uncertain theme.)
- Crypto (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.)
- Dama-May (YT link. A bit of a peculiar tense theme, but some might find some uses for it.)
- Dark Times (YT link)
- Disconcerned (YT link)
- Dopplerette (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.)
- Fire Prelude (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.)
- Frozen Star (YT link. Exploring some long-lost ruins, mysterious compound or complex, it's soothing but creepy.)
- Ghost Processional (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.)
- Gloom Horizon (YT link)
- Grave Matters (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.)
- Greta Sting (YT link. A short sting, under twenty seconds, useful for revelatory scripted scenes and building suspense.)
- Grim League (YT link)
- Heavy Heart (YT link)
- Industrial Music Box (YT link. Somber and personal, reminds me of the music box theme we already have in the game.)
- Interloper (YT link)
- Invariance (YT link)
- Irregular (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness/mysteriousness.)
- Isolated (YT link. A calm, somber ambient, for thoughtful situations. A bit more modern and guitarry-sounding, but could work in TDM.)
- It Is Lost (YT link, WiCo link. Maybe a theme for exploring some mysterious underground ruins ?)
- Lamentation (YT link. Maybe a castle or manor house household where bad events transpired.)
- Lasting Hope (YT link)
- Lithium (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.)
- Long Note 1, Long Note 2 and Long Note 3 (YT link 1, YT link 2, YT link 3. These are IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.)
- Lord of the Land (YT link. Maybe usable as a quiet background theme while sneaking through a busier castle or manor house.)
- Lost Frontier (YT link. Exploring some city or castle ruins in The Empire that seem majestic at first glance but could hide a darker secret.)
- Mourning Song (YT link)
- New Direction (YT link. Very interesting ambient, could work well for a slow-burning urban noir atmosphere and doesn't sound modern.)
- Night on the Docks - piano version (YT link. Part of a trio of slow noir themes, the others use a sax and trumpet. This is the only one of the three that sounds pre-1900 compatible.)
- On The Passing of Time (YT link, WiCo link)
- Quiet Panic (YT link. Short and quiet, good for tension-building, including for scripted events.)
- Relent (YT link. The clarinet in this one might be slightly anachronistic, but it's an interesting contemplative melody.)
- Road to Hell (YT link)
- Satiate - strings version (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild horror.)
- Satiate - percussion version (YT link. This one's IMHO better purely as a tension-building theme.)
- Scissors (YT link. This would be an excellent theme for a mission set at a factory, inventor's workshop or a warehouse.)
- Shores of Avalon (YT link. Quieter tension-builder.)
- Simplex (YT link. A pretty good one, though some of the quieter beats are a bit more electronic.)
- Spacial Harvest (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild horror.)
- Spring Thaw (YT link)
- Sunset at Glengorm (YT link and YT remastered link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.)
- Temple of the Manes (YT link. I'd imagine this could work in an atmospheric mission set inside a castle or fortified manor house.)
- Tenebrous Brothers Carnival - Intermission (YT link. Tense but melodic theme, with some heavy background percussions.)
- Tranquility (YT link. A longer and very calm ambient theme, but has an air of mystery and strangeness.)
- Unanswered Questions (YT link)
- Unnatural Situation (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness.)
- Unpromised (YT link. Can work both in an urban and a rural/wilderness environment.)
- Very Low Note (YT link. This one's IMHO versatile enough both for tension-building and mild creepiness, would be ideal for a cave or basement.)
- Winter Reflections (YT link. Good for a mission set during a snowed-in winter night.)
Period instrument background music (stylistically European)
Types of settings: Taverns, village scenes, town life, feasts, scenes among commoners or nobles. Mostly stuff with a calm and cosy atmosphere.
- Angevin B (YT link. This one sounds a bit more aristocratic or courtly, good for a feast or public event.)
- Danse Macabre - harp version
- Errigal (YT link. This one sounds a bit more aristocratic or courtly, but it's a good secular piece of music.)
- Evening Fall - harp (YT link)
- Folk Round (YT link)
- Heavy Interlude (YT link. Short but really cool, IMHO could also work for a background scene of two AI characters sparring for fun.)
- Master of the Feast (YT link. Good for a scene with at least two or three musicians and multiple noble/patrician characters attending a feast.)
- Midnight Tale (YT link)
- Pale Rider (YT link)
- Pippin the Hunchback (YT link)
- Suonatore di Liuto (YT link)
- Teller of the Tales (YT link)
North African, Middle Eastern and other "exotic" background music
Types of settings: The TDM universe's analogues of the Mediterranean, North African, Middle Eastern regions, and other "exotic" locations.
- Asian Drums (YT link. Could work for a Middle Eastern or North African style mission, good slow, tension-building ambient theme.)
- Cambodian Odyssey (YT link. This is better suited to a south Asian or southeast Asian setting, but could work in a Middle Eastern locale as well. Tense theme, quiet percussions.)
- Desert City (YT link. Could work for a Middle Eastern or North African style mission, good all-around urban ambient theme.)
- Drums of the Deep (YT link (shorter) and YT link (longer). Could work for a Middle Eastern or North African style mission, good tension-building ambient theme.)
- East of Tunesia (YT link. Could work in a mission with either a Mediterranean or North African style environment, e.g. a port city.)
- Ibn Al-Noor (YT link. Good for a Middle Eastern or North African style mission, especially for a palace or public event environment.)
- Lotus (YT link. Good as a general ambient theme for a Middle Eastern or North African style mission, or some other exotic locale.)
- Mystery Bazaar (YT link. Another good one for a Middle Eastern or North African style mission, ideally some marketplace or square.)
- Perigrine Grandeur (YT link. Middle Eastern style percussions interspersed with a grunge-like tune reminescent of those from Thief.)
- Tabuk (YT link. Slow, but slightly more dramatic theme for a Middle Eastern or North African style environment.)
- Tenebrous Brothers Carnival - Snake Lady (YT link. Has a Middle Eastern feel to it, very good for building suspense and tension.)
Wilderness / nature ambients
Types of settings: Outdoor areas with groves, forests, rivers, small lakes, mountain valleys, caves. Potentially also some Pagan villages and camps.
- Black Bird (YT link. Tribal type stuff.)
- Dewdrop Fantasy (YT link and YT link)
- Kalimba Relaxation Music (YT link. Maybe could work in a cave or similar environment ?)
- Evening Fall - harp (YT link)
- Firesong (YT link. Tribal type stuff.)
- Intuit (YT link. Tribal type stuff.)
- Healing (YT link. I think this one could also work in an urban environment.)
- Heavy Heart (YT link. Also works as a general ambient theme.)
- Magic Forest (YT link)
- River Flute (YT link)
- Moorland (YT link. Could work for an isolated Pagan tribe village.)
- Shamanistic (YT link)
- Spirit of the Girl (YT link)
- Thunderbird (YT link)
- The North (YT link. A very short but looping theme, IMHO also works as a general ambient theme.)
- The Sky of Our Ancestors (YT link)
- Unpromised (YT link)
- Very Low Note (YT link. IMHO very good for a cave or cave system.)
- Virtutes Instrumenti (YT link)
- Willow and the Light (YT link)
- Winter Reflections (YT link. Good for a mission set in winter or in some cavern strewn with magic crystals.)
Non-serious bonus suggestion
- Crunk Knight (YT link. When the Bridgeport City Watch throw an annual office party :-))) )
Giving MacLeod proper attribution if you chose to use this music in your mission
Each song comes with an attribution quote that you need to include if you're going to use any of this music in your fan mission. If there is a final credits sequence in your mission, or you can include this quote at least as part of the mission's release notes, please do so. Though you can buy a license from Kevin and don't need to use attribution, all of this music is for free, as long as you give him credit. The credit-giving (attribution) is as follows:
Name of Song Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Replace "Name of Song" with the actual name of the song, keep the rest of the quote in this format and include it in your "free music used" credits for your mission, and you're golden.
Final note from me
If you've found some other good tracks in Kevin's musical archives that could fit the tone of The Dark Mod and its setting and would like to include them in this list, please let me know and I'll update this post. Don't send me a personal message, just post your suggestion in this thread. Thank you !
I sincerely hope these lists will be of at least some use to mission builders. Good luck !If you want to seek out non-MacLeod royalty-free music and public domain music, I've started a thread for that as well. Not too many download links yet, but it's meant to give you inspiration what sort of ambients or period music you could search for.
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On 5/24/2020 at 4:18 AM, Goldwell said:
That song is Midnight Tale by Kevin MacLeod which can be found here:
It's such a beautiful song, I found myself listening and humming to it a lot during the making of Snowed Inn
Ah, I was just going to write down a list of recommended music from Kevin for potential background music in FMs. I felt this would be ideal tavern or household minstrel BGM.
Nice to see some have used it already.
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Well, if you might need some minor background character, I'd be up for it. I'll be doing some voice work for ERH+, so I could try it for your new FMs as well.
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On 7/12/2020 at 5:37 PM, Shadow Creepr said:
I'm still around. Do I need to continue recording?
I've been waiting on feedback to the 20+ files I sent previously, but I think I would need to redo them.. I've had to replace my mic since it keeps shorting out. Plus, I discovered spikes on our mains which was causing hissing.
Hello. Please accept my apology that I've been so quiet since winter. Lots of work... I'd be delighted if we could continue the recordings, if you're still up for it.
The gents over here will no doubt have plenty of feedback on the audio quality if they discover something less obvious in the background. Many of the recordings you've already sent are good, and now that you know of the sound source issue, I think things will be easier.
With the recent release of 2.08, I might have to ask whether there are a few extra interacting grunts added. Most of the new 2.08 player sounds are not vocal, from what I understand, but a few might be.
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Wonderful work and congratulations !
Seems I'll have to update the wiki.
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I'll be looking at your and my own notes, guys, and I'll try to work on this in the foreseeable months, when I'll have time. June and July is still busy for me in terms of my professional work, but after mid-July, I think I'll have more free time. Wish me luck.
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On 12/15/2019 at 9:54 PM, OrbWeaver said:
Samples where the noise is noticeable at an ordinary listening volume (i.e. not selecting the noise and amplifying it artificially):
mantle_pull01F mantle_pullF01 mantle_pushF01
With all of the others I think the noise would be very difficult to notice without specifically looking for it in an audio editor, as most of it is just electrical hum at 50/60 Hz which contains nothing useful for vocals and can just be high-pass filtered out.
Okay, now I've noticed which files you mean. As soon as I'm in contact with ShadowCreepr again and she'll have enough free time to do more recordings, I'll ask her to try and make a new version of these.
I'd really like to thank you for your help and advice so far. I really appreciate it. If everything goes well, maybe this project can get finished this spring, or at the latest, summer. I've been busy lately, but I'll try to pick up the pace.
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I am in a lowland region where milder winters often mean less or no snow.
Nevertheless, even in this year's milder than usual winter, my location had a few snowy days and weeks. Last time this Tuesday.
I might share a few photos later.
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As the holiday season is concluding, I will be getting back in the saddle with regards to this project. I'd like to thank Dragofer and all the others for their suggestions so far. Keep at it ! We still need to trim them down eventually, so that we have plenty of varied lines, but not too much, and then I'll move on to try some recording. On a sidenote, I am already starting work on another vocal set, this time for a merchant type character. Wanted to already back in December, but I was just too busy with life and other stuff.
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Happy new year to all ! All the best, and let's make it a good and fruitful year !
To kick off, I've decided to start a discussion based on the question in the title.
Aside from the Thief trilogy (and TDM as its spiritual freeware cousin), what are some steampunk or steampunk-esque games that caught your interest ? Both in the past and more recently.
Some that I've personally played and/or been impressed by over the years:
Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura - this is a real classic for a number of reasons. If you can get over the somewhat lackluster combat, it has excellent, memorable writing and an oddly great sense of exploration. Of the games from the isometric, mouse-click control era of CRPGs, this is my favourite. I was fascinated by it already back when I saw the earliest reviews almost two decades ago, and after owning it for years and slowly playing through it, I still keep finding interesting things. The isometric era Fallout games were fine, but if I'm to choose whether they or this cousin of their's grabbed my heart more, the vote definitely goes to Arcanum. Even though it's an old game at this point, much of the voice acting, the atmospheric soundtrack, and the interesting quests (I even helped with resolving a feud between old friends, without fighting or bribes !) still bring my heart joy whenever I play it.
Iron Grip series - a surprising favourite of mine. Unfortunately, by yet another already disbanded dev team. Though I think said devs tried doing too many things at once in their later years, including in the third game of this series, the first two games were ace. I also loved the setting they created for the series, one of its strongest suits, besides the gameplay ideas in the first two games. (Technically, the first is a total conversion rather than standalone, but it has the feel of an autonomous game.) The series' lore is still leaving a lasting impression on me, even many years since the original releases and the series going dormant. I don't think I've ever come across another game, before or since, that tried to focus on early 20th century war drama themes (in a context akin to the world wars, Russian civil war, warlord era China, etc.), while also being set in an entirely fictional world, rather than a thinly-veiled or alternate version of real history. There's also a strange whiff of Thief in two aspects of these games: They had a very timeless approach to cultural esthetics, and they had the definite backdrop of an epic, but weren't trying to tell an epic (focusing instead on very ordinary "heroes"). For some reason, that's the sort of approach I like seeing in fantasy steampunk media. (On a final sidenote, I had the pleasure to hear a live orchestral version of Christian Pacaud's mostly electronic OST for the first game. Even saved the video of the performance. As much as I liked the music in the two games, I was stumped at how an orchestral rendition improved things. Pity the devs never used that. It sounded amazing. Have a listen. That's the sort of slightly operatic bombast I expect from a serious war-themed steampunk/dieselpunk game.)
Air Power: Battle in the Skies - Dynamix's Red Baron meets FASA's Crimson Skies, but somewhere literally midway between the creation of those two games. Created in the mid-1990s by Rowan Software, who previously worked on several historical flight sims, this was clearly a little passion project of their's and also a rather cheeky departure into a fictional industrial era world, though much like IG, a grounded and non-magical one. The plot is clearly inspired by early WWI dynastic shenanigans, but the airship and aircraft technology is far more 1920s and early-to-mid 1930s, to the devs' creative credit. While AP:BitS is a fairly charming game on the outside in terms of presentation and esthetic approach, and the flight sim gameplay wasn't bad, I feel it was a little too before its time. The tech available then just didn't do it justice, and British developers of the era being far smaller and not having much of a budget, it's no surprise this never really took off (pun intended). Still, along with the really cool PC adaptation of Crimson Skies, some five years later, this was one of those works that cemented my childhood love for the idea of being a sky pirate.
Dishonored series - not that surprising, given how its DNA is also tied to Thief for inspiration, even though it's a lot more actiony in terms of gameplay. Though they went for a fairly obvious 18th/19th century aesthetic for this one (and in the first game, Corvo is basically a steampunk Edmond Dantes), I still liked most of their spins on the technology, culture and society in the installments. The whale-oil as a power source idea (even for guns !) might seem a bit silly at face value, but based on their inspiration in whale oil light sources of real history, it at least has some real tech grounding. I can appreciate that in any fantasy setting, even one as weird as this one. (I think the familiar-but-weird tone is what it shares with Thief very well).
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Guys, please leave me some time to breathe. I want to enjoy my holidays, and I unfortunately still have a lot of stuff to deal with until the 24th. I even wanted to work on another experimental vocal script and get it posted here in another thread, but it's been delayed.
Now, as for the Pagans, while I'm open to other voice actors, I volunteered to do the male AIs myself. I don't have to fake a foreign English accent. I don't have a very thick accent, but it is clearly a non-native speaker accent. This would be particularly ideal for the tribesman subset of the vocal script. If I manage to do these recordings, it will be really weird hearing my own voice in TDM, but c'est la vie.
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Guys, guys, I am sorely disappointed by the lack of "we's, be's, we's, woodsie's" style speech for the TDM pagans ! For shame !
More seriously, I'll read your posts later this evening. My feedback is coming.
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22 hours ago, OrbWeaver said:
Samples where the noise is noticeable at an ordinary listening volume (i.e. not selecting the noise and amplifying it artificially):
mantle_pull01F mantle_pullF01 mantle_pushF01
With all of the others I think the noise would be very difficult to notice without specifically looking for it in an audio editor, as most of it is just electrical hum at 50/60 Hz which contains nothing useful for vocals and can just be high-pass filtered out.
I only see a white space.
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On 12/12/2019 at 5:32 PM, Dragofer said:you'll have to teach me how to have multiple spoilers within a post without them all getting nested into each other in these new forums
AI States: Relaxed
These AI are idle; not doing anything in particular. They are bored and talking to themselves, so just like when people think out loud, the beginning and end of their dialogue will often trail off into mumbling.
Relaxed: You're either not working or aren't expecting any trouble. You're relaxed and somewhat bored. Dialogue can be punctuated with sighs and muttering.
Throat clearing/coughs x3
Sighs x2 (it's been a long day)
Humming a simple tune x2
Idle_1 "Where could that old crone of a washerwoman be lurking now…"
Idle_2 "By his own hand. Ha. An embarrassment, to him and to his kin."
Idle_3 "The air is rarely this thick. I wonder what it means to tell us."
Idle_4 "When we next cross paths I'll put an end to it. For good."
Idle_5 "Tomorrow will be a long day. I hope the others are prepared as well."
Idle_6 "Didn’t see her in a long time. I can't complain."
Idle_7 "I should have taken it with me. No reason not to."
Idle_8 "They won't be so smug when the land freezes over."
Idle_9 "Looks like another long night."
Idle_10 "(sigh) They all want something from me."
Idle_11 "Another star has faded from the sky. Soon we’ll all be groping in the dark."
Idle_12 "He who relies on cold metal and dead rock to make his home will freeze to his death in winter."
Idle_13 "Something needs to happen, soon."
Idle_shaman_1 "Fire is a mysterious being; it warms our bodies and it burns our dwellings."
Idle_shaman_2 "Will she heed my pleas? Even she seems to avoid this troubled corner."
Idle_shaman_3 "The possum takes the hawk's chick and the hawk, mad with rage, takes the possum. That is the way."
Idle_shaman_4 "The raven disturbed me. It seemed anxious about something… but what?"
At Alert 0: On the job. Similar to above, but you're working so you're a little more alert.
Number of Wavs: 3
alert0_1 "What fool would challenge me?"
AI States: AlertTo Alert 1/1.5: You notice something subtle but aren't sure what it is. You are mostly talking to yourself, so you should not be particularly loud and may trail off.
Number of Wavs: 3
to_alert1_1 "Hm?"
to_alert1_2 "What...?"to_alert1_3 "What’s that?"
To Alert 1/1.5 + Heard: Same as above, only this one means you notice something auditory.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
to_alert1_sound_1 "Strange sound."
To Alert 1/1.5 + Saw: Same as above, only you notice something with your sight.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
to_alert1_saw_2 "Is that..?"
to_alert1_saw_shaman_1 "How the shadows twist and bulge this night..."
To Alert 2: You notice something, and it caught your attention enough to warrant checking it out.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
to_alert2_1 "What is that?"to_alert2_2 "Is someone there? Say something."
to_alert2_3 "Father? Are you here?"to_alert2_shaman_1 "Do the spirits seek to commune?"
To Alert 2 + Heard: You hear something loud which you should investigate. Same as above only now it's specific to hearing.
to_alert2_sound_1 "That sound has no place here."
to_alert2_sound_2 "What’s making noise over there?"
to_alert2_sound_3 "That's no sound of the night."
To Alert 2 + Saw: You saw something in the shadows which you should investigate. Same as above, only now specific to seeing.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
to_alert2_saw_1 "What's with that shadow?"
to_alert2_saw_2 "Who skulks in the shadows?"
To Alert 2 + Company + Heard: You notice something auditory with company.
to_alert2_soundx2_1 "*Psh*! Listen."
to_alert2_soundx2_2 "Hear that?"
To Alert 2 + Company + Saw: You notice something visually amiss with company and start to investigate.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
to_alert2_sawx2_1 "Look! What’s that?"
to_alert2_sawx2_2 "Careful… there’s something over there."
Returning to Alert 0, generic: You saw or heard something suspicious, but you can't find any evidence of anything serious. It was probably nothing.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
to_0_1 "Could’ve been a creature. It’s not here anymore.”
to_0_2 “Curse myself, it was nothing.”to_0_3 "There’s nothing here."
to_0_4 "Must be gone now. Good."
to_0_5 "That could've been anything… but now it's gone."
to_0(_shaman)_6 "The dark holds many secrets. This secret will remain one, for now."
Returning to Alert 0, hearing: As above, but you thought you'd heard something.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
to_0_sound_1 "Quiet again… strange.”
Returning to Alert 0, sight: As above, but you thought you'd seen something.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
to_0_saw_1 "A curse must be on my eyes. There’s nothing here."
to_0_saw_2 "I shouldn't be jumping at shadows."
to_0_saw_3 "A play of shadows, nothing more."
To Alert 3: You see or hear something that makes it pretty clear that there's someone there, but you don't know exactly who or where they are. You're all business now.
to_alert3_1 "Stop this trickery!"
to_alert3_2 "Enough, show yourself!"
to_alert3_3 "I know you’re here! Who are you?"
to_alert3_shaman_1 "What spirit communes so directly?"
Returning to Alert 0, no evidence: You know you saw someone, but you've searched around and can't find them. This bark is played as you give up the search. You still don't know for sure that it was an intruder, but you are highly annoyed.
Number of Wavs: 5 per character
to_0_search_1 "Dammit! Who knows what that was? Can’t be good."
to_0_search_2 "(*Grunt*) The sleeping wolf rarely wakes to a catch…"
to_0_search_3 "Nothing there… have my senses become dull?"
to_0_search_4 "The shadows here take on a life of their own."
Lost Player after Pursuit: You were chasing the intruder when suddenly he disappeared. He can't be far.
lost_player_1 "Only shade spawn can disappear like that!"
lost_player_2 "What! Where is he?"
lost_player_3 "Witchcraft!"
Return to Alert 1, evidence: You have confirmed there is an intruder but he's given you the slip. You've searched for him, but haven't been able to find him. You're giving up for now but you aren't letting your guard down.
Number of Wavs: 5 per character
to_0_spotted_1 "I’ll have your head, be sure of that!"
to_0_spotted_2 "He's careless. He’ll show himself again."to_0_spotted_3 “The others better not hear about this.”
to_0_spotted_4 "This isn’t over yet… I’ll find you, now or later."
to_0_spotted_5 "Curses! Who knows where he’s lurking now."
Return with help, spot player: You have run away from the player, gotten help, and returned. The player is still there, so you order the help forward.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
gotten_help_1 "There he is! Kill him!"
gotten_help_2 "He’s still here! Quickly!"
Return with help, lost player: You have returned with help but the player is no longer visible.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
gotten_help_gone_1 "He was here, find him!"
gotten_help_gone_2 "Search all the shadows!"
gotten_help_gone_3 "He's still here, I'm sure of it!"
Recently Saw Player: You just saw the player not too long ago, but the player escaped. Now, you're telling your comrade that there is an intruder and that you have seen him.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
saw_playerx2_1 "A spy of the enemy is hiding in the shadows!"
saw_playerx2_2 "Keep your weapons ready. Tonight we spill outsider’s blood."
saw_playerx2_3 "Watch every shadow: a foe skulks among us like a rat."
Suspicious, warn friend: You have seen non-specific evidence of an intruder, and are warning a friend about it.
warning01 "Be wary, evil lurks nearby."
warning02 "Do not take your eyes off the dark, it might be the last thing you do."
warning03 "Hostile eyes are watching us this night. Do not rest."
AI States: Searching
You are actively looking for the intruder, and are either muttering to yourself or taunting them.
Investigate Alert 3: You've seen enough to know that there is somebody there, but you're not 100% sure that it's an intruder. Still, anyone hiding from you must be up to no good.
Number of Wavs: 5 per character
search3_1 "I know every nook, every cranny. You can’t hide from me!”search3_2 “Enough of this! Show yourself!”
search3_3 "Come out, so I can see what you are."
search3_4 "Be you man, beast or spirit, I’m not afraid of you!"
search3_5 "Don’t count on the darkness to hide you from me."
search3_shaman_1 "Only a deeply troubled spirit would seek my attention so openly."
Investigate Alert 4: You know for sure there is an intruder, and you're looking for him.
Number of Wavs: 5 per character
search4_1 "The shadows are a thin barrier between you and my wrath."
search4_2 "This is your death, outsider."search4_3 “Just you wait ‘til I’m done with you.”
search4_4 "My eyes pierce this darkness!"
search4_5 “Come out, or do I have to hunt you like a rabbit?”
search4shaman_1 "Come into my arms, lost one, so I may embrace you this cold night."Combat and Pursuit
You have spotted the player and identified him as an intruder. You are either attacking, or preparing to attack. If you're a noncombatant, you're getting ready to flee. Either way you want to draw a lot of attention to yourself, so you are generally shouting loudly.
Spotted the Player, combatant: You see the player and are charging to attack.
Number of Wavs: 5 per character
spotted_combat_1 "Wail with pain!"
spotted_combat_2 "I will end you!”
spotted_combat_3 "Your life ends here!"
spotted_combat_4 "Nothing can save you now!"
spotted_combat_5 "Haha, I've been waiting for this!"
Spotted the Player, combatant, with help: You're with friends when you finally spot the player.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
spotted_combatx2_1 "He’s there!”
spotted_combatx2_2 "I see him!"
Spotted the Player with a Body, combatant: You see the player carrying a dead or unconscious person.
Number of Wavs: 1 per character
spotted_combat_body_1 "Foul necromancer!"
Spotted the Player, noncombatant: You're not prepared for a fight. You see the player and are preparing to flee.
Number of Wavs: 5 per character
spotted_civilian_1 "He is here, and armed!"
spotted_civilian_2 "The raiders are here!"
spotted_civilian_3 "A thief! A thief!"
Killed Player: You've won the fight. Taunt the player as he lies dying at your feet.
killed_player01 "The shaman will be pleased."
killed_player02 "Is that all?"
killed_player03 "Already dead? *grunt*"
killed_player04 "This one is for the vultures."
Running Away for help: You're fleeing, either because you don't know how to fight, or you tried to fight and are badly hurt. Call out to for help.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
fleeing_1 "No, not like this!"
fleeing_2 "Stay away, outsider filth!"
fleeing_3 "There’s an intruder!"
Coming to assist: A comrade called for help (or you heard sounds of a fight) and you are on your way to assist them.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
combat_assist_1 "I'm on my way!"
combat_assist_2 "Keep him busy!"
Frustrated: The player is out of reach (such as standing on a stack of crates or across a chasm) and you can't reach him.
Number of Wavs: 4 per character
frustrated_1 "Get back here!"
frustrated_2 "Pathetic! I expect nothing else from lowly outsider spawn."
frustrated_3 "Is this how your men fight? Coward!"
frustrated_4 "I’ll get to you, just you wait!"
Throw Object at Player: The player is out of reach (such as standing on a stack of crates) and you can't reach him. You're angry and throw something.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
missile_generic_1 "Take that!"
missile_generic_2 "Try dodging this!"
Shooting: You're shooting arrows at the player.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
archer_1 "Let this be a thorn in your side."
archer_2 "This one is for the heart."
archer_shaman_1 "The wind obeys my bow."
Attacking : You're grunting and attacking
attacking_1 "Ha!!"
attacking_2 "Arg!"
Combat, winning: You are winning the fight and take a moment to taunt your opponent. These need to be said quickly, as the fight is still going on.
attacking_hit_1 "Clumsy fool."
attacking_hit_2 "Didn’t see that coming?"
attacking_hit_3 "And again!"
Die Quiet: You got assassinated or blackjacked and are going down. Make a grunt, but as the name suggests, it's kind of quiet. This should only be about a second in length.
die_quiet_1 "UNH"
die_quiet_2 "Arg"
die_quiet_3 "HHnnnn..."
Die Loud: Yep. You're dead. Theatrics are welcomed here, though not too over the top. This should be about 2 - 4 seconds in length.
die_loud_1 "AHHHHHHHHHH"
die_loud_2 "Arggghh"
Blinded: You have been blinded by a flash of light.
Number of Wavs: 1 per character.
blinded_1 "My eyes!"
Gassed: You have been gassed. Cough, sputter and pass out. This should be quick-a second or two at most (it's fast gas). Coughing can be shared among characters
Number of Wavs: 1
gassed_1 "…cough cough"
Drowning: You are drowning. Gurgle and choke.
Number of Wavs: 1
drowning_1 "Gurgle"
Finding Evidence
You have found or observed something that looks out of place. You aren't seeing or hearing the player, but something that might be a sign that an intruder was here earlier. Since you don't expect anyone is nearby, you're mostly talking to yourself.
Suspicious Item, Generic: There is something nearby which should not be there or something which is amiss (such as when a guard notices that a chair is knocked over). It's strange, and strange things always make you a bit suspicious.
Number of Wavs: 4 per character
suspicious_item_1 "Someone was here… who..?"
suspicious_item_2 "That didn’t move by itself."
suspicious_item_3 "Strange… that's not the way I remember it."
suspicious_item_4 "Something's not right…"
Notice Weapon: There is a weapon lying around. How did it get there?
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
notice_weapon_1 "Who would leave his weapons behind?"
notice_weapon_2 "Why is this weapon lying here?"
Notice Door Open: There is a door open that shouldn't be.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
notice_door_1 "That shouldn't be open."
notice_door_2 "Why is that open?"
notice_door_3 "Who left that open?"
Notice lights off, generic: The lights are off, but shouldn't be--these can be used for all types of light.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
notice_lights_1 "Hehe… his life will be extinguished in the same way."
notice_lights_2 "The shadows weren't this deep before."
notice_lights_3 "What happened to the light?"
Notice lights out, flame: You notice a torch or candle that should be lit has gone out.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
notice_lights_flame_1 "That flame should've burned longer."
notice_lights_flame_2 "That was lit when I last saw it."
notice_lights_flame_3 "A stiff breeze? No, can't be…"
Relight light, flame: You notice that a light source is out. You relight it.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
light_relight_1 "Already too many shadows for something to hide."
light_relight_2 "No one else will relight this."
light_relight_shaman_1 "The shades will cast this realm in darkness, if nothing is done."
Refuse to relight Torch: You notice that a flame is out. Refuse to relight it.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
light_refuse_1 "Relighting this is women's work."
light_refuse_2 "It will go out by itself again if I relight it."
light_refuse_3 "I can't relight every light the moment it goes out."
light_refuse_4 "Why should *I* relight this?"
Notice Blood on Floor: There is blood on the floor. Obviously something serious is going on.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
notice_blood_1 "Blood?"
notice_blood_2 "Who's blood was spilled here?"
Found Generic Body: You find a body on the ground.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
notice_body_generic_1 "Foul creatures are at work!"
notice_body_generic_2 "Are you well?"
Found Female Body: You find the body of a woman on the ground.
Number of Wavs: 1 per character
notice_body_female_1 "A woman has fallen; the baseness."
Found Male Body: You find the body of a man on the ground.
Number of Wavs: 1 per character
notice_body_male_1 "Whoever felled this man did not finish his task."
Found Body Dead: You find a body of someone obviously dead.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
notice_dead_1 "Life has left this body."
notice_dead_2 "Dead."
notice_dead_3 "The killer can't be far."
notice_dead_(shaman?)_1 "I doubt life can be breathed back into this body."
Found Female Body Dead: You find the dead body of a woman on the ground.
Number of Wavs: 1 per character
notice_dead_female_1 "Life has left her body."
notice_dead_female_2 "I doubt life can be returned to her body."
Found Male Body Dead: You found a man, dead on the ground.
Number of Wavs: 1 per character
notice_dead_male_1 "Dead. But I wasn't the one who killed him…"
notice_dead_male_2 "I doubt life can be returned to his body."
Found Body comrade: You find a comrade, dead on the ground. You are outraged.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
notice_dead_friend_1 "Heads will roll for this!"
notice_dead_friend_2 "I will slay a hundred to avenge you!"
notice_dead_friend_3 "Where is the slayer!? Show yourself!"
Recently Found Body: You recently found a body and are relaying the information to a friend.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
notice_deadx2_1 "Be alert, we are being preyed upon!"
notice_deadx2_1 "The shadows are taking their toll. Be wary."
Had pocket picked: You had something on your belt, and now it's gone! That's pretty suspicious...though it's possible it *might* have fallen off, so it's not absolute proof of an intruder.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
notice_pickpocket_1 "What… where's it gone?"
notice_pickpocket_2 "It can't have fallen off…"
notice_pickpocket_3 "Gone? But how?"
Found Something Missing: There is something significant missing that shouldn't be. You've obviously been robbed and you know it.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
notice_absence_1 "It mustn't fall into the enemy's hands!"
notice_absence_2 "No! It was taken!"
notice_absence_3 "It was stolen!"
Recently Found Something Missing: You know you've been robbed and you're telling your buddy about it.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
notice_absencex2_1 "We have been plundered! Don't let the thief get away!"
notice_absencex2_2 "It's gone! Find the thief!"Greetings
Greeting, Guard to Guard: You spot a social equal who is a guard, on patrol. You greet them casually.
greeting_guardxguard_1 "Seen anything?"
Greeting, Guard to Civilian: You spot a civilian/servant while you're working. No time to chat; they need to know how important your job is.
greeting_guardxcivilian_1 "Stay away from trouble."
greeting_guardxcivilian_2 "Tell me if you notice something."
Greeting, Superior: You spot someone who is high on the social ladder and greet them.
greeting_xnobleman_1 "Your lordship."
greeting_xpagannobleman_1 "May your sons be many and strong."
greeting_xnoblewoman_1 "M'lady."
greeting_xpagannoblewoman_1 "The stars shine in your eyes."
greeting_xpriest_1 "May your god give you strength."
greeting_xpaganpriest_1 "Do the stars bode well?"
Greeting Generic: A casual greeting
greeting_civilianxcivilian_1 "Good eve."
greeting_civilianxcivilian_2 "Evening."
Greeting Inferior. You're a noble and see a civilian. You're better than them.
greeting_noblemanxcivilian_1 "Stay away."
greeting_noblemanxcivilian_2 "What do you want?"
Greeting inferior guard. You're a noble and see a guard. Evaluate their performance.
greeting_noblemanxguard_1 "Only strong arms will slay many foes."
greeting_noblemanxguard_2 "Keep your weapons ready."
greeting_noblemanxguard_3 "Never let down your guard."
Generic Responses: These should be said fairly monotone and noncommittal, as they could be replies to many different greetings.
response_1 "Mhm." (yes)
response_2 "Hm."
response_3 "Right."
response_4 "If you say so."
response_5 "Ye."That's easy. The spoiler button is to the right of the emoticon/smiley button. Add a spoiler, then make a few lines of space behind the spoiler's end tag, then click the button again and insert another spoiler.
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On 12/14/2019 at 2:55 PM, Springheel said:
I wouldn't recommend using thee/thous for pagans...they shouldn't sound too much like Builders.
Fair enough, I thought so as well. It would be confusing. I'll try to make their English sound more contemporary in terms of adress, but still try to keep a certain folk-style tinge to it, where possible.
On 12/15/2019 at 3:35 PM, Dragofer said:Alright, we're getting closer here. I've been thinking in the past days on what'd be the most sensible way of proceeding from here and came up with the idea of merging both scripts into a Google Document.
This would pool all available ideas for lines and allow to separate out the strongest lines and then to reflect on what could be done with the remaining ones, i.e. rephrase them or assign to a subset (urban/rural/shaman).
It'll also easily allow for multiple people to work on the lines, and anyone would be able to post comments on any lines along the sides of the document.
I've made a start on fusing the scripts (taking some time because mine is based on a different master script with different defs and formatting), and if you also think we should proceed like this, I'd then go on to post the merged script when I'm finished. I'd also appreciate if you sent me your Google username.
That's cool !
I will still add you lines to my overview here on the forum, just for the sake of completeness. I do agree we could work on further additions in that Google Doc, and once we're satisfied, finalise it as a vocal script ready for use.
However, bear in mind: We don't need a vast array of phrases for each situation. The more rarer situations need, at most, two unique responses/lines, given what the vocals scripts of the other established AIs already contain. We don't need ten different lines for relighting a fire, when one or two will do just fine. The bulk of unique responses should focus on stealth situations and the like.
I would also like to thank you for all the help and feedback so far. You've provided some great quality contributions.
One more thing: If any of you guys get the feeling I am not responding immediately or every single day, it's because I'm still a bit busy before the holidays. Not just home stuff, but also some personal things, meeting with friends I see rarely, or writing to them... Trying to find some time for myself... That sort of thing. I am here and I will try to respond in time and regularly, but sometimes I'm either a little busy or tired. But I'll have more full time for TDM soon enough.
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1 hour ago, OrbWeaver said:
The hum is pretty easy to remove with a high pass filter (I tested in Renoise). There is a small amount of broad spectrum background noise (although strangely not in every single one), but I would say many of these would be perfectly usable from an audio quality perspective.
I am inclined to agree.
Which files would you say have the biggest BSBN issues ?
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Right, so here are a few samples of the new .wav recordings SC has sent me. She's managed to get rid of background noise, I listened closely and they all sounded crisp. The early test recordings from November have been disposed of, we're not going back to those.
I have several more of these (two or three times as many, in fact), but I've only chosen a few. As we have tight upload limits for attachments here, and I can only fit a single .wav file into each post, I don't want to do twenty posts in a row.
http://www.mediafire.com/file/hpzkvlht7dqn2oc/Preliminary_female_player_vocals.zip/file
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b58hep54e198unz/Preliminary female player vocals.zip?dl=0
So I'm providing a link to a .zip with the files, as available above. If there are download issues, use the second link, please.
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On 12/12/2019 at 5:32 PM, Dragofer said:
Very nice, it's great to see more effort being put into this longstanding project. What I particularly like about your approach is to keep supernatural references subtle, at least when compared to T3's overblown take on it.
I've written a fair share of lines of my own over the years, that I'll include within the spoilers below (you'll have to teach me how to have multiple spoilers within a post without them all getting nested into each other in these new forums). What I personally had in mind, especially when I most recently worked on the alerts and searching barks, was something like a Celtic tribesman - rough, superstitious and not afraid to enter hand-to-hand combat with the intruder. Another archetype of Pagan may be the secret worshippers you'd find in the city living in attics and mostly staying among their own. Some lines may be more suitable for one than the other (or possibly neither), plus I've demarcated some lines for a possible shaman.
I imagine we could be choosing, refining and merging the best lines from each script to come to a final product.
AI States: Relaxed
These AI are idle; not doing anything in particular. They are bored and talking to themselves, so just like when people think out loud, the beginning and end of their dialogue will often trail off into mumbling.
Relaxed: You're either not working or aren't expecting any trouble. You're relaxed and somewhat bored. Dialogue can be punctuated with sighs and muttering.
Throat clearing/coughs x3
Sighs x2 (it's been a long day)
Humming a simple tune x2
Idle_1 "Where could that old crone of a washerwoman be lurking now…"
Idle_2 "By his own hand. Ha. An embarrassment, to him and to his kin."
Idle_3 "The air is rarely this thick. I wonder what it means to tell us."
Idle_4 "When we next cross paths I'll put an end to it. For good."
Idle_5 "Tomorrow will be a long day. I hope the others are prepared as well."
Idle_6 "Didn’t see her in a long time. I can't complain."
Idle_7 "I should have taken it with me. No reason not to."
Idle_8 "They won't be so smug when the land freezes over."
Idle_9 "Looks like another long night."
Idle_10 "(sigh) They all want something from me."
Idle_11 "Another star has faded from the sky. Soon we’ll all be groping in the dark."
Idle_12 "He who relies on cold metal and dead rock to make his home will freeze to his death in winter."
Idle_13 "Something needs to happen, soon."
Idle_shaman_1 "Fire is a mysterious being; it warms our bodies and it burns our dwellings."
Idle_shaman_2 "Will she heed my pleas? Even she seems to avoid this troubled corner."
Idle_shaman_3 "The possum takes the hawk's chick and the hawk, mad with rage, takes the possum. That is the way."
Idle_shaman_4 "The raven disturbed me. It seemed anxious about something… but what?"
At Alert 0: On the job. Similar to above, but you're working so you're a little more alert.
Number of Wavs: 3
alert0_1 "What fool would challenge me?"
AI States: AlertTo Alert 1/1.5: You notice something subtle but aren't sure what it is. You are mostly talking to yourself, so you should not be particularly loud and may trail off.
Number of Wavs: 3
to_alert1_1 "Hm?"
to_alert1_2 "What...?"to_alert1_3 "What’s that?"
To Alert 1/1.5 + Heard: Same as above, only this one means you notice something auditory.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
to_alert1_sound_1 "Strange sound."
To Alert 1/1.5 + Saw: Same as above, only you notice something with your sight.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
to_alert1_saw_2 "Is that..?"
to_alert1_saw_shaman_1 "How the shadows twist and bulge this night..."
To Alert 2: You notice something, and it caught your attention enough to warrant checking it out.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
to_alert2_1 "What is that?"to_alert2_2 "Is someone there? Say something."
to_alert2_3 "Father? Are you here?"to_alert2_shaman_1 "Do the spirits seek to commune?"
To Alert 2 + Heard: You hear something loud which you should investigate. Same as above only now it's specific to hearing.
to_alert2_sound_1 "That sound has no place here."
to_alert2_sound_2 "What’s making noise over there?"
to_alert2_sound_3 "That's no sound of the night."
To Alert 2 + Saw: You saw something in the shadows which you should investigate. Same as above, only now specific to seeing.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
to_alert2_saw_1 "What's with that shadow?"
to_alert2_saw_2 "Who skulks in the shadows?"
To Alert 2 + Company + Heard: You notice something auditory with company.
to_alert2_soundx2_1 "*Psh*! Listen."
to_alert2_soundx2_2 "Hear that?"
To Alert 2 + Company + Saw: You notice something visually amiss with company and start to investigate.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
to_alert2_sawx2_1 "Look! What’s that?"
to_alert2_sawx2_2 "Careful… there’s something over there."
Returning to Alert 0, generic: You saw or heard something suspicious, but you can't find any evidence of anything serious. It was probably nothing.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
to_0_1 "Could’ve been a creature. It’s not here anymore.”
to_0_2 “Curse myself, it was nothing.”to_0_3 "There’s nothing here."
to_0_4 "Must be gone now. Good."
to_0_5 "That could've been anything… but now it's gone."
to_0(_shaman)_6 "The dark holds many secrets. This secret will remain one, for now."
Returning to Alert 0, hearing: As above, but you thought you'd heard something.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
to_0_sound_1 "Quiet again… strange.”
Returning to Alert 0, sight: As above, but you thought you'd seen something.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
to_0_saw_1 "A curse must be on my eyes. There’s nothing here."
to_0_saw_2 "I shouldn't be jumping at shadows."
to_0_saw_3 "A play of shadows, nothing more."
To Alert 3: You see or hear something that makes it pretty clear that there's someone there, but you don't know exactly who or where they are. You're all business now.
to_alert3_1 "Stop this trickery!"
to_alert3_2 "Enough, show yourself!"
to_alert3_3 "I know you’re here! Who are you?"
to_alert3_shaman_1 "What spirit communes so directly?"
Returning to Alert 0, no evidence: You know you saw someone, but you've searched around and can't find them. This bark is played as you give up the search. You still don't know for sure that it was an intruder, but you are highly annoyed.
Number of Wavs: 5 per character
to_0_search_1 "Dammit! Who knows what that was? Can’t be good."
to_0_search_2 "(*Grunt*) The sleeping wolf rarely wakes to a catch…"
to_0_search_3 "Nothing there… have my senses become dull?"
to_0_search_4 "The shadows here take on a life of their own."
Lost Player after Pursuit: You were chasing the intruder when suddenly he disappeared. He can't be far.
lost_player_1 "Only shade spawn can disappear like that!"
lost_player_2 "What! Where is he?"
lost_player_3 "Witchcraft!"
Return to Alert 1, evidence: You have confirmed there is an intruder but he's given you the slip. You've searched for him, but haven't been able to find him. You're giving up for now but you aren't letting your guard down.
Number of Wavs: 5 per character
to_0_spotted_1 "I’ll have your head, be sure of that!"
to_0_spotted_2 "He's careless. He’ll show himself again."to_0_spotted_3 “The others better not hear about this.”
to_0_spotted_4 "This isn’t over yet… I’ll find you, now or later."
to_0_spotted_5 "Curses! Who knows where he’s lurking now."
Return with help, spot player: You have run away from the player, gotten help, and returned. The player is still there, so you order the help forward.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
gotten_help_1 "There he is! Kill him!"
gotten_help_2 "He’s still here! Quickly!"
Return with help, lost player: You have returned with help but the player is no longer visible.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
gotten_help_gone_1 "He was here, find him!"
gotten_help_gone_2 "Search all the shadows!"
gotten_help_gone_3 "He's still here, I'm sure of it!"
Recently Saw Player: You just saw the player not too long ago, but the player escaped. Now, you're telling your comrade that there is an intruder and that you have seen him.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
saw_playerx2_1 "A spy of the enemy is hiding in the shadows!"
saw_playerx2_2 "Keep your weapons ready. Tonight we spill outsider’s blood."
saw_playerx2_3 "Watch every shadow: a foe skulks among us like a rat."
Suspicious, warn friend: You have seen non-specific evidence of an intruder, and are warning a friend about it.
warning01 "Be wary, evil lurks nearby."
warning02 "Do not take your eyes off the dark, it might be the last thing you do."
warning03 "Hostile eyes are watching us this night. Do not rest."
AI States: Searching
You are actively looking for the intruder, and are either muttering to yourself or taunting them.
Investigate Alert 3: You've seen enough to know that there is somebody there, but you're not 100% sure that it's an intruder. Still, anyone hiding from you must be up to no good.
Number of Wavs: 5 per character
search3_1 "I know every nook, every cranny. You can’t hide from me!”search3_2 “Enough of this! Show yourself!”
search3_3 "Come out, so I can see what you are."
search3_4 "Be you man, beast or spirit, I’m not afraid of you!"
search3_5 "Don’t count on the darkness to hide you from me."
search3_shaman_1 "Only a deeply troubled spirit would seek my attention so openly."
Investigate Alert 4: You know for sure there is an intruder, and you're looking for him.
Number of Wavs: 5 per character
search4_1 "The shadows are a thin barrier between you and my wrath."
search4_2 "This is your death, outsider."search4_3 “Just you wait ‘til I’m done with you.”
search4_4 "My eyes pierce this darkness!"
search4_5 “Come out, or do I have to hunt you like a rabbit?”
search4shaman_1 "Come into my arms, lost one, so I may embrace you this cold night."Combat and Pursuit
You have spotted the player and identified him as an intruder. You are either attacking, or preparing to attack. If you're a noncombatant, you're getting ready to flee. Either way you want to draw a lot of attention to yourself, so you are generally shouting loudly.
Spotted the Player, combatant: You see the player and are charging to attack.
Number of Wavs: 5 per character
spotted_combat_1 "Wail with pain!"
spotted_combat_2 "I will end you!”
spotted_combat_3 "Your life ends here!"
spotted_combat_4 "Nothing can save you now!"
spotted_combat_5 "Haha, I've been waiting for this!"
Spotted the Player, combatant, with help: You're with friends when you finally spot the player.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
spotted_combatx2_1 "He’s there!”
spotted_combatx2_2 "I see him!"
Spotted the Player with a Body, combatant: You see the player carrying a dead or unconscious person.
Number of Wavs: 1 per character
spotted_combat_body_1 "Foul necromancer!"
Spotted the Player, noncombatant: You're not prepared for a fight. You see the player and are preparing to flee.
Number of Wavs: 5 per character
spotted_civilian_1 "He is here, and armed!"
spotted_civilian_2 "The raiders are here!"
spotted_civilian_3 "A thief! A thief!"
Killed Player: You've won the fight. Taunt the player as he lies dying at your feet.
killed_player01 "The shaman will be pleased."
killed_player02 "Is that all?"
killed_player03 "Already dead? *grunt*"
killed_player04 "This one is for the vultures."
Running Away for help: You're fleeing, either because you don't know how to fight, or you tried to fight and are badly hurt. Call out to for help.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
fleeing_1 "No, not like this!"
fleeing_2 "Stay away, outsider filth!"
fleeing_3 "There’s an intruder!"
Coming to assist: A comrade called for help (or you heard sounds of a fight) and you are on your way to assist them.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
combat_assist_1 "I'm on my way!"
combat_assist_2 "Keep him busy!"
Frustrated: The player is out of reach (such as standing on a stack of crates or across a chasm) and you can't reach him.
Number of Wavs: 4 per character
frustrated_1 "Get back here!"
frustrated_2 "Pathetic! I expect nothing else from lowly outsider spawn."
frustrated_3 "Is this how your men fight? Coward!"
frustrated_4 "I’ll get to you, just you wait!"
Throw Object at Player: The player is out of reach (such as standing on a stack of crates) and you can't reach him. You're angry and throw something.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
missile_generic_1 "Take that!"
missile_generic_2 "Try dodging this!"
Shooting: You're shooting arrows at the player.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
archer_1 "Let this be a thorn in your side."
archer_2 "This one is for the heart."
archer_shaman_1 "The wind obeys my bow."
Attacking : You're grunting and attacking
attacking_1 "Ha!!"
attacking_2 "Arg!"
Combat, winning: You are winning the fight and take a moment to taunt your opponent. These need to be said quickly, as the fight is still going on.
attacking_hit_1 "Clumsy fool."
attacking_hit_2 "Didn’t see that coming?"
attacking_hit_3 "And again!"
Die Quiet: You got assassinated or blackjacked and are going down. Make a grunt, but as the name suggests, it's kind of quiet. This should only be about a second in length.
die_quiet_1 "UNH"
die_quiet_2 "Arg"
die_quiet_3 "HHnnnn..."
Die Loud: Yep. You're dead. Theatrics are welcomed here, though not too over the top. This should be about 2 - 4 seconds in length.
die_loud_1 "AHHHHHHHHHH"
die_loud_2 "Arggghh"
Blinded: You have been blinded by a flash of light.
Number of Wavs: 1 per character.
blinded_1 "My eyes!"
Gassed: You have been gassed. Cough, sputter and pass out. This should be quick-a second or two at most (it's fast gas). Coughing can be shared among characters
Number of Wavs: 1
gassed_1 "…cough cough"
Drowning: You are drowning. Gurgle and choke.
Number of Wavs: 1
drowning_1 "Gurgle"
Finding Evidence
You have found or observed something that looks out of place. You aren't seeing or hearing the player, but something that might be a sign that an intruder was here earlier. Since you don't expect anyone is nearby, you're mostly talking to yourself.
Suspicious Item, Generic: There is something nearby which should not be there or something which is amiss (such as when a guard notices that a chair is knocked over). It's strange, and strange things always make you a bit suspicious.
Number of Wavs: 4 per character
suspicious_item_1 "Someone was here… who..?"
suspicious_item_2 "That didn’t move by itself."
suspicious_item_3 "Strange… that's not the way I remember it."
suspicious_item_4 "Something's not right…"
Notice Weapon: There is a weapon lying around. How did it get there?
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
notice_weapon_1 "Who would leave his weapons behind?"
notice_weapon_2 "Why is this weapon lying here?"
Notice Door Open: There is a door open that shouldn't be.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
notice_door_1 "That shouldn't be open."
notice_door_2 "Why is that open?"
notice_door_3 "Who left that open?"
Notice lights off, generic: The lights are off, but shouldn't be--these can be used for all types of light.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
notice_lights_1 "Hehe… his life will be extinguished in the same way."
notice_lights_2 "The shadows weren't this deep before."
notice_lights_3 "What happened to the light?"
Notice lights out, flame: You notice a torch or candle that should be lit has gone out.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
notice_lights_flame_1 "That flame should've burned longer."
notice_lights_flame_2 "That was lit when I last saw it."
notice_lights_flame_3 "A stiff breeze? No, can't be…"
Relight light, flame: You notice that a light source is out. You relight it.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
light_relight_1 "Already too many shadows for something to hide."
light_relight_2 "No one else will relight this."
light_relight_shaman_1 "The shades will cast this realm in darkness, if nothing is done."
Refuse to relight Torch: You notice that a flame is out. Refuse to relight it.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
light_refuse_1 "Relighting this is women's work."
light_refuse_2 "It will go out by itself again if I relight it."
light_refuse_3 "I can't relight every light the moment it goes out."
light_refuse_4 "Why should *I* relight this?"
Notice Blood on Floor: There is blood on the floor. Obviously something serious is going on.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
notice_blood_1 "Blood?"
notice_blood_2 "Who's blood was spilled here?"
Found Generic Body: You find a body on the ground.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
notice_body_generic_1 "Foul creatures are at work!"
notice_body_generic_2 "Are you well?"
Found Female Body: You find the body of a woman on the ground.
Number of Wavs: 1 per character
notice_body_female_1 "A woman has fallen; the baseness."
Found Male Body: You find the body of a man on the ground.
Number of Wavs: 1 per character
notice_body_male_1 "Whoever felled this man did not finish his task."
Found Body Dead: You find a body of someone obviously dead.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
notice_dead_1 "Life has left this body."
notice_dead_2 "Dead."
notice_dead_3 "The killer can't be far."
notice_dead_(shaman?)_1 "I doubt life can be breathed back into this body."
Found Female Body Dead: You find the dead body of a woman on the ground.
Number of Wavs: 1 per character
notice_dead_female_1 "Life has left her body."
notice_dead_female_2 "I doubt life can be returned to her body."
Found Male Body Dead: You found a man, dead on the ground.
Number of Wavs: 1 per character
notice_dead_male_1 "Dead. But I wasn't the one who killed him…"
notice_dead_male_2 "I doubt life can be returned to his body."
Found Body comrade: You find a comrade, dead on the ground. You are outraged.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
notice_dead_friend_1 "Heads will roll for this!"
notice_dead_friend_2 "I will slay a hundred to avenge you!"
notice_dead_friend_3 "Where is the slayer!? Show yourself!"
Recently Found Body: You recently found a body and are relaying the information to a friend.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
notice_deadx2_1 "Be alert, we are being preyed upon!"
notice_deadx2_1 "The shadows are taking their toll. Be wary."
Had pocket picked: You had something on your belt, and now it's gone! That's pretty suspicious...though it's possible it *might* have fallen off, so it's not absolute proof of an intruder.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
notice_pickpocket_1 "What… where's it gone?"
notice_pickpocket_2 "It can't have fallen off…"
notice_pickpocket_3 "Gone? But how?"
Found Something Missing: There is something significant missing that shouldn't be. You've obviously been robbed and you know it.
Number of Wavs: 3 per character
notice_absence_1 "It mustn't fall into the enemy's hands!"
notice_absence_2 "No! It was taken!"
notice_absence_3 "It was stolen!"
Recently Found Something Missing: You know you've been robbed and you're telling your buddy about it.
Number of Wavs: 2 per character
notice_absencex2_1 "We have been plundered! Don't let the thief get away!"
notice_absencex2_2 "It's gone! Find the thief!"Greetings
Greeting, Guard to Guard: You spot a social equal who is a guard, on patrol. You greet them casually.
greeting_guardxguard_1 "Seen anything?"
Greeting, Guard to Civilian: You spot a civilian/servant while you're working. No time to chat; they need to know how important your job is.
greeting_guardxcivilian_1 "Stay away from trouble."
greeting_guardxcivilian_2 "Tell me if you notice something."
Greeting, Superior: You spot someone who is high on the social ladder and greet them.
greeting_xnobleman_1 "Your lordship."
greeting_xpagannobleman_1 "May your sons be many and strong."
greeting_xnoblewoman_1 "M'lady."
greeting_xpagannoblewoman_1 "The stars shine in your eyes."
greeting_xpriest_1 "May your god give you strength."
greeting_xpaganpriest_1 "Do the stars bode well?"
Greeting Generic: A casual greeting
greeting_civilianxcivilian_1 "Good eve."
greeting_civilianxcivilian_2 "Evening."
Greeting Inferior. You're a noble and see a civilian. You're better than them.
greeting_noblemanxcivilian_1 "Stay away."
greeting_noblemanxcivilian_2 "What do you want?"
Greeting inferior guard. You're a noble and see a guard. Evaluate their performance.
greeting_noblemanxguard_1 "Only strong arms will slay many foes."
greeting_noblemanxguard_2 "Keep your weapons ready."
greeting_noblemanxguard_3 "Never let down your guard."
Generic Responses: These should be said fairly monotone and noncommittal, as they could be replies to many different greetings.
response_1 "Mhm." (yes)
response_2 "Hm."
response_3 "Right."
response_4 "If you say so."
response_5 "Ye."Thank you ! Truth be told, the stuff I have listed in my opening post still needs some editing (e.g. the number of times some lines should be replicated, with different emphasis or diction).
I'd also like to thank you for your own detailed suggestions ! I'll definitely go through these, consider
them and try to expand my own post with the ones I feel fit best. You have a lot of real keepers in your suggestions, so I'm expecting I'll include a lot of them. Obviously, as this is a work in progress vocal set, we can still keep expanding it and trimming it down, until it starts feeling really right.
Yes, as a I also describe to Spingheel below, and in my opening post, I am intentionally going for a "more general" feel for the Pagans, while also keeping in mind they will have some variations. Genuine old-school tribesmen will use some different turns of phrase than village or urban Pagans who worship in secret.
(Looking at real world history, I think the latter, "secret" group wouldn't be that numerous either way, as most people were Christianised throughout Europe for most of the Middle Ages, after 1000. The only exception to this was your usual folkloric syncretism, where some pre-Christian folk rituals were still carried out annually purely out of tradition or ongoing superstition, even though the populace was firmly monotheistic and Christian. That's basically the situation we still have today, even in countries where these sorts of folkloric rituals haven't been that strong or visible for a long time. Though you also did have some "secret pagans" in the medieval and early modern world - the sorts that still engaged in (sometimes gruesome) folk magic - they weren't that common. Or they were otherwise Christian (at least nominally), but weren't above doing pagan rituals, if they were superstitious enough to think these would help. Corrollary to the more gruesome uses of folk magic rituals: I've read archaeology studies about cases of ritual murders happening as late as the 16th century, even in very civilised parts of Europe, among decidedly non-tribal people. As usual with faith, things can get complicated, depending on an individual's beliefs, worldviews and pragmatism. E.g. if someone who sees themselves as a monotheist isn't above occassionally engaging in superstitions that might harm or even kill other people, purely for the sake of some "good luck" ritual, they'll probably do it. Even if it is hypocritical. I think this would be nicely reflective of the fact that neither the Builder faith nor any "old gods" faiths in TDM's world are without flawed human behaviour. This would actually mirror the inspiration we take from Thief well: Neither the Hammerites or the Pagans of that series were shown purely as good guys or bad guys, they were simply people, flawed and fallible people. Equally noble-minded and craven/corrupt, depending on the situation. Sometimes, the same individuals did good and bad things, punctuating that whole moral greyness. Some characters of those factions were pleasant, kind, wise, others were thoroughly cruel and evil bastards. And with the stuff I mention above, I think TDM could be really good if it had antagonistic characters that sort of straddle the line between the old polytheistic faith and new monotheistic faith, being never entirely faithful to either, and causing tension and conflict as a result.
On 12/12/2019 at 6:34 PM, Springheel said:When I was writing the scripts I would usually have a series of "default" lines for each bark, and then one or two "specialty" ones that can be added for specific character types. For example, there are default "Commander" vocals, but there are also "City Watch Commander" vocals, which are about 80% the same lines, but with a few extra thrown in relating to citywatch related things.
You could do the same with pagans, and have both urban and non-urban, that share 80% of the lines.
Thank you kindly.
This is exactly what I was getting at. Have a single vocal set, but like the others, allow for some (for lack of a better term) "sub-faction" variations.
I'd also like to add I need to come up with a consistent rendering of using thou/thy/thee and you/your in the lines I wrote. Either the Pagan guy goes for the more archaic or folksy adress, or the more neutral one. I think he could use the more archaic stuff while greeting Builders (while keeping his distance) or certain other social groups, but that it shouldn't otherwise be used much, to avoid feeling forced.-
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2 hours ago, Destined said:
I have read some time ago (or maybe someone told me? I forgot) that the current American accent is actually closer to the old British one than the current British accent, because it had less development compared to the English language in Great Britain. So, if you want an accent that is close to older English, you would have to use a North American accent.
Yes, it is. The US and Canadian vocabulary also includes some traditional English and overall British terms that have become antiquated in the UK or shifted meaning since (the word "fall", for autumn, is a famous example of a now-antiquated-in-the-UK term). The high amount of "surname surname" style names in the US and Canada, to this day (whereas very rare now in the UK), is a consequence of a 16th-18th century fad (mainly among the English) to give sons personal names based on the maiden surnames of their mothers (in order to "preserve them", symbolically, even after marriage). Hence, even nowadays, you can have guys named Harrison Ford, and so on. That old tradition simply stuck for longer in North America, among some other antiquated-in-Europe elements of English. Also, the North American accents are not entirely identical to early modern English. They are just far closer-sounding, even today, than the phonetics of more standard forms of British English. The regional dialects of British English often still have a lot of the traditional pronunciation and accent elements that were taken to the New World centuries ago and evolved separately. I've heard a lot of the New Englander accents evolved from southern English local accents, heard among the early colonists, and were also influenced by later Scottish English, to a degree. The Texan accent, in turn, was apparently at least somewhat influenced by the Somerset regional accent from the southwest, among others.
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TDM in The News
in The Dark Mod
Posted
PC Gamer coverage for 2.08:
https://www.pcgamer.com/free-thief-like-game-the-dark-mod-updates-with-graphical-revamps/