lost_soul

Haven't completed it yet, but...

I found out about this http://www.raspberrypi.org/ tiny Linux computer. It looks like a very cool project for hobbiests. The device is capable of playing 1080P video in hardware, has HDMI, audio, OpenGL, etc. They've already shown it playing Quake 3 on a large monitor in 1080P with 4x AA! On such a tiny device, that is unbelievable. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_mDuJuvZjI Sure it only gets about 20 FPS in such high resolution, but he said there is still optimization to be done and it would run MUCH faster on a 4 inch display. I was thinking a cool idea would be to take an old gaming handheld from the 80s or 90s, remove all the guts, and rebuild it with one of these motherboards and a modern LCD screen. It could also be used as an always-on computer that never sleeps and draws almost no power. This device runs the same software stack as my desktop machine (Debian), so I would already be familiar with it. Now if somebody wants to put together a case with an LCD, keyboard and an AA compartment, I'll pay three times as much for that. I wonder how powering it works. They say it uses 5 volts, but if you power it from AA batteries, what happens when your AAs start going dead and the voltage drops off? Would the device shut down automatically, or does there have to be some circuitry to switch off when power drops too low? What about the fact that 4 AAs gives you (1.5 volts X4)? 4 rechargeable AAs will give about (1.2 volts x4)

The idea of popping the caps-lock key off the keyboard made me laugh. I've heard of people doing that to the Windows key when they accidentally hit it playing Quake back in the old days. I very rarely use my caps-lock key accidentally or otherwise.

It would be funny if an FM author did what Raven did in Heretic. In Heretic, if you typed in a cheat code for Doom, it would do the opposite effect. Typing iddqd would kill the player, saying something like "Die Cheater!" and iddqd would take away all your gear.

... but Q3a had (for the time) incredible looking textures. They looked so high-res and crisp compared to Quake 2 and Half-life. They were full of detail with animated surfaces, environment mapping, and real 32-bit quality.

So tell me something. Am I the only one who uses right mouse button for jump and ctrl as crouch? I picked this up back in the 1990s from some game (possibly Half-life) and it has stuck ever sense.

@Fieldmedic, my GT440 plays TDM great at 1280x1024. It was about $60 after rebate. As far as baking computer parts goes, we had an NVIDIA laptop that quit working due to solder problems. I'm betting if we baked that, it would be a gooey melty mess.

Yes, I also use noclip from time to time if I can't figure out where I'm supposed to go in a mission. I don't just cheat my way to the end, I "reverse-engineer" the map and find out how I'm supposed to complete it. Then I load my quick save and complete it in a legitimate manor. Sure it may be technically cheating, but it is better than searching for long periods of time or quitting a mission. I did quit some Thief FMs because I couldn't do the above when I was stuck.

Generally I close doors behind me, especially when AIs are around. I wouldn't want an accidental noise to attract unwanted attention. I'm a pretty messy thief though. When I'm searching cabinets and those wine bottle holders for loot, I tend to leave lots of plates/bottles/junk on the floor. After trashing the kitchen on Builder's Influence the other day, I looked at the mess I made and thought "no one will ever no a thief's been through here!". I do try to remain unseen though. It isn't to the point where I reload if I'm spotted, but the less the AIs notice me, the better. In the past, I've been known to use broadhead arrows to knock over candles to make a place darker. I generally do this when I'm trying to save water arrows for some reason. Also, I generally blackjack ALL NPCs/Guards who are hostile. I even blackjack sleeping AIs, because I wouldn't want a noise to wake them up while I'm searching the area for valuables.

Yeah I think you're right. Now that you mention it, I blackjacked the archer, chucked him over the (outside) railing and stashed the body beneath the stairs outside. That guy in the room is the one who patrols through the hallway. EDIT: Just loaded up my game and checked. The archer is outside beneath the stairs.

Yep, that screen shot looks about right. Nice work! I think he was standing near the front door of the building. He was the archer IIRC and I blackjacked him when he came out the front door.

I hadn't gone into that other room with the three beds during that game.

Nope. When you leave the master bedroom, ignore the hallway to the left and enter the door just past it on the left side. It is the room that only has ONE bed. It originally had an unlit candle on the table, but I lit the candle IIRC. Sorry it was a little confusing.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/252056/score_to_settle-quicksave.7z EDIT: Revised version, less garbage, less confusing, smaller size.

Okay, I have a quicksave for you where once you load the game, you find the body in that small bed room on the floor in different positions each time. When I saved the game, I originally placed the body on the bed face down. Notarget is on because I started the mission over just to see if I could trigger this. If you want it, just tell me what file to send. EDIT: sorry for double post. I forgot to edit the last one.

Also, pay attention and see if a body was facing down or up when the glitch occurs. Maybe if it is face-down with the attached items in the air, it won't happen. This would indeed point to attachments as the problem. Maybe we can share experiences whenever this happens and eventually narrow it down.

Yeah the new TDM web site looks very nice. I love the way it uses different FM locations as the image on top.

Maybe Shadowhide was expecting something as amazing as was back in 2001. I sort of agree that every 3D game should have real-time lighting and shadows today.

Yep. I hadn't been seen, so they hadn't drawn their weapons. Also, I tried it again a few minutes ago. I placed an unconscious body on the bed. I made sure none of his body was hanging off the side. I closed the door, went in to the master bedroom, and tried to re-create my steps from the other day. One time I reloaded and went back to the first bedroom to find the body on the floor. Another time, I heard him die when I reloaded. It must be a clipping issue. I have heard bodies I knocked out start taking damage after reloading in the past. The two must be related. I retried this scenario a few times and couldn't get it to repeatedly happen.Maybe it has something to do with the body being slumped up against a vertical surface like the wall.

I've never seen them get twisted, but I was replaying Score to Settle the other morning. I knocked out a guard and placed him on the bed in that bedroom that only has one bed. I kept on playing. After saving and reloading a few times, I revisited that room. When I opened the door, his body tumbled partly out the door! It looked almost like he was thrown at me. 0:0 It was like something out of a horror movie and it made me laugh out loud. I had knocked out quite a few guards by the time this occurred, so there were plenty of ragdolls on the map.

I'm mostly into wireless headphones because you can listen to Youtube or whatever while working in the Kitchen without cranking speaker volume up. I've actually got another pair of wireless headphones from almost a decade ago (lol). They still work great, but I had to repair them twice. They use a headband as the power switch. There's a spring inside, and when you put them on it stretches between two terminals, turning the headphones on. Over time, the headband came detached from the spring, so I fixed that. Those G930s really look great. They may even provide surround sound for TDM. You're right though: you can get great sounding corded headphones for a fraction of the price that a good sounding wireless pair will cost.

I found a funny "let's play" video walkthrough of this mission on Youtube, that includes commentary here. Obviously this comes with the usual warnings: spoilers and foul language! Unfortunately he suffered from the rotating AI bug where they don't patrol.

I've had some Sennheiser RS-140 headphones for a few years now. They still work, but the pads are falling apart, the speakers sometimes crackle and sometimes they don't want to turn on. Got any suggestions for an upgrade? I will only use them on a computer and I would prefer going digital. These are analog, which means you get FM hissing and static from time to time. But... I don't really feel like paying $200 for headphones again. Is there a cheaper option that is good quality? Maybe if they had something with a USB dongle that worked as the transmitter and audio device. EDIT: Something like this G930 looks good, or perhaps this ClearChat headset.

Yep, that's the one I was talking about. EDIT: I bet it will look a lot better in game though when the guards fight the player, because the player will move around and the guards will move to compensate. Maybe it is as simple as having some code that says if target == AI then do circle strafe else if target == player then fight the usual way.