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gokudo

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  17. Pick your Top 5 TDM Missions

    in Fan Missions

    Posted

    Hi all,

    Happy new year and I can't wait to see what this very talented team manages to release this year. Some of my favorite missions so far are (not in order are):

    1.) Crucible of Omens: Behind closed doors 

    2.) Alberic's Curse 

    3.)  Crystal Grave 

    4.) Deceptive Shadows 

    5.) Awaiting the Storm

    As for campaigns, I highly rate whatever's released by Dragofer, Goldwell, Grayman and Sotha. I feel that atmosphere sets aside TDM from all the other bland, bloated games that are saturating the market at present. I just love that Gothic/Baroque feel that TDM is able to capture and that no-one else appears to be doing, much to the detriment of gamers everywhere.  I do feel as the missions get more and more detailed, this list will most likely change a couple of times! Keep up the great work team!

     

     

     

    • Like 2

  22. Suggestion: Moorish/Middle Eastern setting

    in The Dark Mod

    Posted · Edited by gokudo

     

     

    2 hours ago, Petike the Taffer said:

    Not to resuscitate this so soon, but... You know how the original Thief games and even TDM have fairly rockin' intros and/or credit videos ? Well, if we ever do some North African themed missions, here's some music to consider:

    :D


    Granted, it's Tuareg, rather than Moorish or Berber, but still a nice blend of traditional Maghrebi singing with some nice modern strummin', :)

    Obviously, we couldn't use a copyrighted song, but something stylistically similar would fit with some of TDM's anachronistic musical themes.

    Definitely on the right track, but I personally feel that it sounds a bit too contemporary. I would think more along the lines between the intro music for this doco and Vangelis's Animoid Row Part 2 from Blade Runner. This is more bazaar/marketplace type stuff.

     

     

     

  23. Suggestion: Moorish/Middle Eastern setting

    in The Dark Mod

    Posted

    9 hours ago, Petike the Taffer said:

    One of our female members (Lavender, I think ?) had an almost finished female vocal set for the player character, but she left. I don't think she ever completely finished it and shared it, which is a massive pity (all the more that it must have taken her a good deal of work to do the raw recordings for every little player vocal).

    In my planned series, I actually want to use one of its main female characters as the POV figure, i.e. the player character, in a mission or two. It's mostly going to be FMs with a male protag, but a female associate of his is a major recurring NPC and I want to give her some missions of her own. (Hence why the series' title is Partners in Crime - I consider it a bit of an experiment, about a duo of thieves, rather than another loner hero.)

    Never thought of a North African lady protag for an FM, but that could certainly be doable. Again, it comes down to lacking assets - in this case, we still don't have any vocal set for a female PC. As soon as we'd have that issue resolved, you can just about come up with any female protagonist you like, regardless of place of origin.

    Funnily enough I did play T2 - Shadows of the Metal Age HD remaster and that sounds exactly like what you're trying to achieve. Hell, the main character was from Northern Africa! This was made ages ago and I'm not sure what happened to the devs, but maybe it's worth dropping them a line or two? Man, I would've happily paid good money for that game. 

    That being said, I have been burned on kickstarter with the System Shock remaster, which'll be done roughly when I hit retirement at this stage....

  24. Suggestion: Moorish/Middle Eastern setting

    in The Dark Mod

    Posted

    On 11/1/2019 at 10:00 PM, Petike the Taffer said:

     

    I am actually planning to do a North African themed mission in the future, for my series. It's just too early at this point. To me, it makes sense my protagonist could go on a one-shot adventure overseas, south of the Empire. I'd like to use those more exotic existing assets we already have, especially the Moorish NPCs. There are only so many ways you can get them involved if an FM takes place in Bridgeport or a similar European-style city or setting.

    As others have said, the relative lack of model assets is currently the biggest obstacle. However, having documented the assets we already have earlier this year (still not entirely finished with the effort), I am confident that a more "barebones" version of such a more exotic environment is certainly possible. You have plenty of useful stone, adobe, mosaic and tiling textures available, and a lot of them can be used for North African style architecture without it looking too fake. A mission builder just needs to get creative with the assets available. Maybe the result won't be as sumptuous in the details as the author would like, but every FM can be eventually reworked, including adding further level of detail, new assets to the environment where they were missing before. Also, people can make custom assets for a mission and if they're good enough, they can be included in the core mod, making the whole thing easier for anyone who wants to build a future North African themed mission.

    I can't stress enough how much it helps if you like and study (even on an amateur basis) historical architecture. For most of TDM, we only need to focus on European architecture and plenty of people seem to research things fairly well. It is entirely possible to do the same for North African (and even other similar-enough African architecture, from more arid/subtropical climates) to achieve similarly believable results.

    I've decided to list some visual reference materials below, just for any FM builder interested in this sort of setting or theme.

    ----

    Visual reference materials for Maghreb-style settings (or "arid Africa" style settings)

    Old towns of North African cities:

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Old_towns_in_Algeria

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Old_towns_in_Mali

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Old_towns_in_Mauritania

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Old_towns_in_Morocco

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Old_towns_in_Tunisia

    Kasbahs / casbahs of North African cities:

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kasbahs_in_Algeria

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kasbahs_in_Morocco

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Kasbahs_in_Tunisia

    North African mosques (I'd recommend focusing on the medieval or at least centuries-old ones):

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mosques_in_Algeria

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mosques_in_Egypt

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mosques_in_Mali

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mosques_in_Mauritania

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mosques_in_Morocco

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Mosques_in_Tunisia

    North African, Ethiopian and Somali castles:

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Castles_in_Algeria

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Castles_in_Egypt

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Castles_in_Libya

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Castles_in_Morocco

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Castles_of_Ethiopia

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:3D_model_of_Fasilides_Castle.jpg

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Castles_in_Somalia

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ancient-Almnara.jpg

    Other general reference materials:

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Architecture_of_Maghreb

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Berber_architecture

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Heritage_Sites_in_Algeria

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghardaïa

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Heritage_Sites_in_Libya

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Heritage_Sites_in_Mali

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Heritage_Sites_in_Mauritania

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Heritage_Sites_in_Morocco

    https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:World_Heritage_Sites_in_Tunisia

    I'd be inclined to agree, but TDM's setting already strives for a degree of "historical accuracy" in the European-looking/alternate Europe part of the setting, so it would make sense for there to be a somewhat grounded look for the North African stuff too. We don't want the broad verisimilitude to get dented and look like something cooked up for a cheesy Hollywood film. We can do better than that. For example, one little pet peeve I tend to have is when an ostensibly realistic old Middle Eastern or Persian setting has guys running around with scimitars that look like oversized cleavers that would be impossible to lift and swordfight with adequately in real life. (It's like some Middle Eastern version of the swords-as-oversized-cricketbats thing you see in fantasy. Azeem's oversized tulwar-scimitar-thingie in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is a textbook offender.) If you look at real historical scimitars, they are rather elegant sabres with fairly narrow blades, and the details vary from region to region in the ME&NA. I think our AI modelling and rigging team did a good job on our Moorish NPCs, they have swords that might have a bit of fantasy flair, but aren't overdone.

    Yes. I think the current limited AI diversity - especially a lack of civilian characters in more local, North African style clothing - would be the biggest entity asset obstacle. Household servants and townsfolk in European clothing wouldn't be too convincing, even if you could fake the rest with clever asset use.

    Wooden beds aren't the biggest issue, at most you could look at wood textures from Mediterranean and African woody vegetation used in the consturction of traditional buildings, and add the texture. If you think something looks like an oak wood texture that wouldn't fit the natural context, you simply make a texture-reskinned addon of an ordinary bed, with e.g. a palm wood texture. (People have historically used date palm trunks even for construction, especially in inhabited desert areas with a lack of adequate wood. Aside from the rounder shape, the palmwood beams I've seen in photos or docu footage from those regions look like any other wooden beams.)

    Wow, I'm staggered at the amount of research that's been put in. The amount of passion this community has is truly phenomenal. Just to add some more fuel to the fire, I believe this collection of short stories could provide some more ideas around concept, if we were to go with a much darker theme than say a Prince of Persia:

    https://www.amazon.com/Tales-Alhazred-Donald-Tyson-ebook/dp/B01LXPANK1/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=tales+of+alhazred&qid=1572849560&sr=8-1

    I also feel that Andalusian architecture could provide a happy balance between European and Middle Eastern. Anyways, this is turning into a very interesting discussion!

     

     

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