Dark Phoenix

Is it just me or was there two post here above this one that were removed.. one by me and another person snickering about Stumpy's foxes comment? I could swear I posted a comment last night.. Unless my cat walked across the keyboard and it didn't post... Actually.. Now that I look at it.. it seems there were several posts removed.. either that or I'm losing it or my browser is screwing up...

That suggestion was mainly for everyday Joe's that made fan missions. Not everyone has access or the abily to find/hire use professional or even amateur voice actors. I would use them. I have heard some really good ones.. you know like the ones you hear when you call a company for tech support and you can't tell if they are real or not.. those types. The main point there was there are lots of other ways he could work ladies into a mission without having to have them be vocal.- so no excuse for not using them or waiting for a voice actress.

Ahh.. Well I guess that clears up that mystery. LOL Thanks.

I find this interesting. From the main Public Forum's page: The Dark Mod * 870 Topic * 19,011 Replies Off-Topic * 1,067 Topic * 19,280 Replies A sociologist may say people with like hobbies may post in an Off Topic forum as much or more than the main forum for the hobby. I am not sure if I don't find this strange.

I have to ask the OP.. Great story btw.. Why would the wife take Your money, that You worked for? I'm between jobs a lot.. I own a condo and I do odd jobs for the tenants, many of them renters but some owners too in this complex. I have 16 years in AC and Heating (retired from that since Hurricane Katrina) so I do lot of that. I don't have a lot of expenses, no kids and am not ambitious. hehehe I live comfortably with what I make and have lots of time to play games since I don't have to punch a 9 to 5.. that's the point of all this.. I'm 42 and have played video games since the early 1990's. It's in my blood.. It's what I do. My wife sits here when she's off and plays Second Life on the PC. I sit here and play anything I want. I don't spend a lot on games.. I buy some here and there and I always pick the ones that have mods, fan missions and expansion packs. I also download lots of legal games from the net.- saves money this way. Haven't played Ghostbusters yet, and I would love to but probably won't cus it's 3rd person.. I am more of a 1st person gamer. ( until someone makes a 1st person mod for it which isn't likely cus Arati Sucks for releasing modding tools) Lastly.. I just bought a laptop from Wal-Mart for $350.00 , 400 with tax. It only has an ATI 4200 on board graphics chip with 128 MB of ddr2 ram shared with system ram up to 1 gig. The laptop came with 2 gigs and I spent 50 bucks for another 2 gig stick for a total of 4 gigs. It playes Boarderlands, Oblivion, Half Life 2, Prey, Crysis, Doom 3 and TDM, Stalker SOC, and others all on medium settings. It only has a single core Simpron processor. My desktop is second hand with a P4 3.00 ghz with hyperthreading. It plays everything I throw at it very well. I suggest you save up for about 6 months if possible and look into the upgrades then.. perhaps get a cheap but good laptop like I did.. I did find the forest level in NHAT a tiny bit harsh but everything was fine once I got past the trees. Also, you may want to run an app like IOBit Gamebooster.. it closes all un needed applications for you free up cpu and ram for playing a game. I also manually disable all services that I don't want to run at startup, or that are set to automatic or manual that I don't want running. You have to do a good internet search for the processes to see if you need them or not.

Problem.. Just started this and so far i'm loving it.. great map design and tough ghosting challenges if you want to make all the objectives. I have a problem though.. I'm crouching in the dark.. my light gem is black all the way.. a stationary guard with a lamp turns in my direction and sees me and I fail the no major alert objective. My light gem does not light up.. I have not moved or made a sound the guard did not move closer to me, only turned in my direction.. by all rights as I understand the game mechanics and the rules, I should not have been discovered. - whats going on here? In another area.. I made loud footsteps and alerted a guard in a place where he could not possibly see me. It did not set off the failed no alert objective.

I think If I were going to make a mission. I would not let voice acting stop me from something like putting ladies in it. For a temp fix I would use some of these really nice text to speech engines they have now. Cepstral Voices and others have them so good sounding it's hard to tell the difference between a computer and a real person. Heck.. even the female voice the Windows 7 uses by default Rocks Socks compared to the old MS Sam. You can always use public domain voice files to get away with generic phrases. There are many good wav and mp3 archives on the net. And you can put the ladies in and use them for minimal roles. Perhaps non speaking roles just to be seen around town as some passerby's are. I love the way all the guards are into sailing. But they must be bad at it..I always hear them say, " When I'm done I'm going to get me a good ore" (grin)

I was thinking more of a wandering mutt that's common in cities. I mean.. what city do you know that don't have it's share of strays. But I suppose both could be done.. a mutt and a guard dog. Actually the guard dog would be cool for use in warehouse type areas when the place is supposed to be closed at night... places the Citywatch would not normally be. Uh.. I suppose if they had dogs, there should be raw steaks with knock out drugs, or some other politically correct way to shut them up.. it may not look good to go around killing dogs.. but then, that would be another good tool a thief may have to find to use.. knock out steaks.

Thanks for the input folks. I do see your points about the longsword and the arrows breaking. I still think that you should be able to retrieve them all out of a body because that's realistic in real life. If I have to use arrows I do try for the one shot. My favorite weapon is the blackjack. I've gotten lots better with the bow without a sight.. the one thing that's hard still is the really far off shots like the last target in the training mission. I think it should be an option to have a sight if people need it. Perhaps some range markings too to help out. I never set the dedicated mantle button.. Cool Thanks. I'll let someone else do the Mutton modeling.. I can't draw a straight line. The ladies idea is one really from a wish to see ladies be incorporated into the story line as well as see them walking around town and inside the houses.. makes a fuller looking town I think. Hey.. How about a wandering dog that can bark and alter the guards to a thief that's hiding? And, Serpentine, don't you know.. I'm no thief.. I'm Robin Hood :-) J/K

My two cents. It seems Our Hero always only has a shortsword. How about give him a long sword too? ( It seems the guards swords are longer) Arrows. If I shoot 5 arrows into a body, I should be able to retrieve all 5 arrows again. You can do this only if shot into wood. If you miss your target and hit a stone wall, the arrows disappear. They should bounce and land where you can go and pick it up. Food. As per the Food thread. I want food to do at least a little more health - perhaps 5 points for Bread 3 points for smaller snacks like apples.. something like that.. Where's the Mutton.. I have not seen Mutton? Why can't you drink ale? It could have a small healing effect and a small buzz effect too.. This would be good if it's the only food around and you really needed it plus it makes it harder for you to shoot or fight or run away. Ability to mantle up onto a ledge that you have just climbed with a rope arrow. As if holding the rope with one hand and pull yourself up with the other hand. Can be done easily IRL.. so way can't Our Hero? Ladies. I have only played through A Thief Without Honor, The Thieves Den Demo and The Kings Chalice, but I haven't seen and lady folk yet.

Thanks for the great answers.. better than I had hoped.. There may be hope for me yet.. I have tried stuff like FPS Creator X10 and wasn't impressed. I have played with Unity 3D 2.5 which is an awesome engine, and you 'can' make games without scripting but its recommended you know scripting so they won't appear too bland... Some commercial games have used Unity 3D.. check it out if you haven't.. for a hundred bucks you have a good engine for Indy development that is royalty free.. you can release your games as you like. But it got kinda involved for me as a lot of things are really hard to do if you don't know C++. Always wanted to make my own game.. I just need to find the right tools that's good for me.

Great Mission! Love the way things are hidden.. I could use a hint however.. ( as usual)

Remember, use the Enter key to activate the items when you have them showing in the items area. I had trouble with this at first.. I wanted to right click everything but right click doesn't always work. If this is not your problem, then I don't know. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Yeah I found the "Info for future prospects" It was where I thought I had looked before.. that seems to happen to me a lot.. I need to pay better attention.. LOL Nice demo.. now i'm moving on to the next mission in the series.

I know you need to know C++ to help develop DarkRadiant but do you need to know it also to make FM's with DarkRadiant? The info I found on the DarkRadiant site is not clear on this.. unless I just missed it.

Interesting thread.. I didn't know about the term Ghosting till just npw. I have never ghosted a mission except in the Thief missions where you HAD to ghost.. you could not knock anyone out or kill a character due to things like thier ghost/undead, robots etc and were forced to ghost. I like that now and then. Are there any FM Missions set up like that?

PranQster also mentioned he noticed it in this thread: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/11019-invisible-ink/ So now, me, Diego and PranQster.. I guess it needs tracking down and fixing. I'm glad I could be of help instead of just a pester. hehe. Yes, please finish the rest of the story.. it seems it's left me hanging.. questions need to be addressed.. Like, The thief has the evidence now.. whats he going to do with it? What will happen to the corrupt clergy and politicians? Will The thief ever get to leave town and live happily ever after to close the series?.. etc.. I hope that's the direction your half finished mission is going in. I think it's been wonderfully written so far.

Cool.. Can you give me a vague hint for the "Info for future prospects?" I think I looked everywhere in the house.

That reminds me.. the download page for the demo says you have to read the gameplay page for important info or you won't be able to finish the mission.. but that page is now blank. ( invisible ink anyone?) So.. what do I need to know that's critical to this demo? Is there a demo thread I can post these things in so I can be posting in the right place?

Ack! Got a problem. Following the instructions for this demo, on win 7 I have modified the target line to reflect my correct Doom 3 path.. But I get a message that this path is invalid. Here is my path I am trying to use: C:\Program Files (x86)\Doom 3\DOOM3.exe +set fs_game thiefs_den This is my normal working doom 3 shortcut target: "C:\Program Files (x86)\DOOM 3\DOOM3.exe" Here are the instructions for the demo: " Download thiefs_den.exe and copy it to C:\games\doom3. Run thiefs_den.exe. A thiefs_den folder will be created. In C:\games\doom3\thiefs_den is a file called DevIL.dll. You MUST copy this into your C:\games\doom3 folder OR your C:\WINDOWS\system32 folder (where it can be shared by other applications. If there is already one there then use the newest date.) Now you'll need to create a shortcut to the Thief's Den demo: Copy the existing Doom 3 shortcut on your desktop. Rename the copy "Thief's Den". Right-click, choose Properties and edit the command line. It should read C:\games\doom3\DOOM3.exe +set fs_game thiefs_den " Can someone help me figure what I am doing wrong cus it looks o.k. to me.. EDIT: Nevermind.. I fixed it.. ( well it is 4 in the morning) - I added the DEVILdll file to win system32 instead of just the Doom 3 folder, and I corrected the missing closing quote mark from the instructions above.. it should have read: C:\games\doom3\DOOM3.exe" +set fs_game thiefs_den - or im my case it's: C:\Program Files (x86)\Doom 3\DOOM3.exe" +set fs_game thiefs_den Perhaps this may help someone else out. I just copied and pasted the target line from the instructions and that line doesn't have the quote in the right place. Don't do that.. add the quote after the Doom.exe if your gonna copy and paste the line from the instructions. Now to the Fun !

Thanks.. I didn't even see that place before ~~~~~~~~~~~ O.k. Folks I'm Done.. How can you guys leave me hanging like that I Need the Next Chapter !!!!! I do hope I don't have to wait too long. Brilliant. It really captures the feel of Thief that I love with kick butt Graphics.. you know..I still wonder how we ever played (still play) 1 and 2 with 16 bit graphics! Thank You for this awesome Mission pack !

Yeah found it Thanks.. one hopefully last problem.. ( Why Me?)

Thanks, I'll take another look.. I have already K.Od every guard in the place. About the keys on guards. I notice that depending on fow they fall you can't always see the keys..I have already tried to look for keys on bodies at least once. To make matters worse at times they get stuck/wedged on something where they fell and the rag doll physics seems either too good or broken.. not sure which. At times I can't turn a body over no matter what I try.

Grumble - Cures - Throw Hissy Fit - Expletive - Can't find way into either of the two Captains rooms on mission 3 - Please give very vague hints Btw, did you know on 2nd floor there is a desk in an office that is backwards?

Er.. Morning folks.. yeah it's Me again.. I have to ask about this issue that others have noticed as well.

It looked like it was supposed to be readable. In the beginning of mission 1 you can find a letter to thios person.. I took it as this may have been this persons reply mail. It was in inventory. I think it disappeared once you get to mission 3. I think, I'll ask in the NHAT forum.