Fidcal

Made some progress with Xubuntu because I found a help link. Finally learned how to drag the top bar down to the bottom and resize it! Maybe that's possible in Ubuntu but I never found how. Tomorrow I look at the launcher options. I'll be going over the others again too. kano, can you tell me a little more about LXDE. In what way is it 'minimal'? Do you mean minimal config possibilities or minimal desktop? My current set up is Windows 7 with the SharpEnviro shell on top and two monitors. I don't have ANY icons on the desktop. I have NO taskbar. I have a small popup 'system tray' bottom right corner of right hand side monitor. I have my own popup program I wrote with most common stuff I launch. So, by default, both screens are entirely empty of anything but nice wallpaper to enjoy without clutter! Minimal enough for yer? In addition, SharpE lets you make any bars or menus you want. The only one I have is triggered by a right click anywhere on the desktop. I've put links in it to Control Panel, command prompt 'run', shutdown etc. and the old Windows Start Menu which I rarely need. Of course, my own launcher won't work in Linux which is why I must have a desktop that provides a good popup launch bar or panel separated from 'running tasks' and sys tray ideally.

OK thanks all. So far I've tried KDE, Pearl, Ubuntu, Knoppix with mixed reactions. All have potential but none are helpful and I was blundering around with little idea how to configure anything. Tiny black pointer on a dark desktop is not my first choice I must confess. Only Pearl had a user guide and I only stumbled upon a subsection of that sideways from a help link in another program, but once I closed that I lost sight of the whole guide. Seems odd none of them want to promote their stuff to newcomers. Some software wouldn't even close nor even the desktop so I had to pull the plug out the back on all of them to close down then snatch the dvd out as it was rebooting to get back to Windows! Myself, I'd have a user guide right in the middle of the desktop at first boot! But then I'm stupid like that and these people must be really clever so I'll shut up. Anyway, as suggested, now downloading Xubuntu then will look at the others tomorrow.

The Ubuntu live cd desktop looks limited in configurability (though it might just be because it's not easy to find out how to configure!) The top bar looks rigidly fixed. The left bar is a launcher. When I set it to auto hide it worked once then failed thereafter. No obvious way to move anything and resize where I want (including a second monitor.) Then I got Knoppix. This looks better but still not easy to see how to configure how I want. So I google for best linux for configuring and one is Fedora. But their download page is so obscure. I can't see any desktop live cd at all. There's a workstation, a server, and something called Atomic (best platform for your Linux-Docker-Kubernetes (LDK) applications stack.) WTF does that mean? Any ideas if I should bother with Fedora? What I want is to be able to configure a minimal desktop. I want three separate moveable (including more than one display monitor), dockable resizable (in height, text, and icon size) popup bars or panels, one (or several) as a launcher (for anything: app, doc, whatever), one showing running apps, and one for software running in the background (system tray in Windows.) I don't mind default clutter so long as I can easily remove it to just leave what I want. If anyone knows of a Linux setup I can configure like that (especially if it's got a live cd I can look at first) then please let know.

Thanks for all the advice. I finally tried that disc on my main pc and it worked OK, so, yeah, it might have been a graphics card problem. My old XP machine has a FX5900 while this one is a GTX580. So, I can try out a few things but I'll probably download some other installs to see which I like best. The full install info I'll come back to if I get that far.

Thanks, Biker. I've got various drives I can reorganise but I first want to get another system running with essentials then I can rethink what to do with this current system. I want to see Linux running before I decide but it's not very encouraging if it crashes right out of the box!

My main Win7 PC crashed out. I suspect a bad partition. I've got it working somewhat but it's likely to crash and need rebooting regularly depending what I'm doing. Two programs won't run at all, one being my email program. I've managed to rescue a backup mailbox only two days old and copied it to my old Win XP machine in the other room. Not yet tried to run it there until I've figured out some more stuff. Because I mainly use my PSP for gaming, I've been considering getting a mini pc for general use but not easy to get Win7 (Win8 or 10 I don't want!) There is a lot of confusion about needing a product key (which of course I won't have if I buy a new mini pc without an OS!) So, sick of M$soft, I'm now considering Linux. After learning that Ubuntu provides an image file I can download and burn to DVD and try it from there I did so (on my good XP machine) but on booting the DVD I get a message 'Try' or 'Install'. At that point I see a blank desktop with a taskbar at the top and a couple of items on it like shutdown. If I click 'Try' I see two icons appear for a fraction of a second at top left which then disappear. Then over the next few minutes I hear the drive working and see a couple of blank coloured screens. Finally a blank pale white(grey?) screen. I have a working mouse pointer but nothing else. I've tried right click, left click all over the screen. Tried various keys but nothing, no icons, no taskbar, nothing. If I click near the left or top borders I sometimes hear the drive working and a circular pointer suggesting it's working but that times out. I've also sometimes seen the pointer change to what looks like the text editing pointer. After 30 minutes I gave up. Had to pull the plug. On rebooting I got the same. Rebooting without the disc in I get my XP back (Phew! I was worried it had wiped it!) Any ideas? It should run from the DVD so I can try it out first, But if I should choose the install option instead, where will it install? I've got plenty of space but will it ask where to install? Will it wipe over my XP install or what?Will it create a new bootable partition? I only really want to install if and when I get a new mini pc. Any other Linux versions that let you download an iso image? I just want to try Linux! PS: With no email working yet, I'll have to remember to come back here a few times each day to see if any answers so don't hold your breath.

Okay, thanks all. Yes it does feel more of a shooter - though there is some fair sneakin' albeit the quests are not well designed for it. I mean, you can't avoid all the fighting. Biker: yes that was one of the web pages I found before and I wondered where they got all the numbers from! It's not a big deal but why do Bethseda refer to 'points' when you can never see them? Still a really good game imo with an immersive storyline that progressed nicely, but now, after over 3 months playing, that story progress seems to have collapsed without any conclusion leaving just a vast sandbox to play in. At least I reckon there is a lot I've not yet 'experienced', points or not.

I've been playing Fallout 4 since the start of June and it's bugging me that often hints and tips tell me I can gain so many xp (experience points) for this and that but they don't seem to be listed anywhere. I mean, I can see health points, action (endurance) points, strength, etc but no xp. Is that normal in rpg games? Googling around, nobody mentions it but there are tons of refs about how to get more and how much is in each level up and so on but never where the total is. I'd have thought it would be on the stats screen. I've even seen tips on the gamesave loading screens that some actions give temporary extra xp. What use is that? I mean, if you are close to levelling up and get some temporary xp, do you level up? What happens when the temporary xp time out and presumably are removed? How can you 'lose' experience anyway? Oh, yeah, I'm playing on Playstation 4 so I can't go poking around any disk files to find my total xp. Here's my best guess: against the level is a progress bar. Presumably that bar is the progress towards the next level. So in a sense maybe that represents xp? But why hide the numbers? I'd have thought xp defines your game progress more precisely than the level. What do other rpg games do about showing xp?

Well I'd recommend you don't wait for Fallout 4 but get it now. I'm playing this on Playstation 4 (which has the advantage of being able to play the current game within seconds of pressing the boot up button. Must all be held in flash memory I guess.) There is some sneaking and even a kind of poor man's light gem which only shows when crouched. It's clunky but you get a [Detected] (for friendlies) [Caution] for medium alerts and [Danger] for full alerts. 1st/3rd pov switchable in game. Northern areas nearer the start point have weaker enemies so gather while ye may. Most stuff respawns so best to find places to revisit and accumulate to build up enough loot to buy the best weapons etc. As with Dying Light, scavenge for junk as well as weapons etc because you can break them down into component materials and make stuff as well as mod weapons etc. You can actually build and create stuff in-game (not anywhere but within 'settlements'), and I mean walls, buildings, furniture, radio beacons. So, starting with an abandoned village you can recruit settlers via the radio put them to work farming crops or as guards. Tip: after you've got say 4 or 6 settlers turn off the radio beacon in each settlement because I soon had several settlements and it was hard to manage as more settlers arrived at each because you need to gather materials and build stuff to keep up and there's a LOT to do! You can then turn on the beacon in a selected settlement for a while when you're ready to let it grow a bit more. All that as well as the usual quests which build up so fast I can't keep up and they are listed and growing. But you're totally free to pick and choose any quest or break off half at any point and do something else. Or you can just explore, sneak or fight, whatever, play it how you like. I'd say one important thing is to find the right balance between breaking down stuff into materials or selling it as is for money. If you try to accumulate just materials then you'll probably find your not accumulating loot whereas if you sell everything you find you're short of materials! Create container to store and manage the different types! I have one box in which I stash stuff I'm going to sell when a trader arrives, a chest for specials, another for weapons/amour I may or may not hand out to settlers (not sure yet how big the threats will be later,) and any of the 'workshop' type benches hold the materials. Another tip I read and am following (though I've not seen it in action yet) is give your guards a rapid fire gun and a single ammo for it. Apparently they never run out of ammo then. Whereas of course for your own weapons, if you use a machine gun you can spray the enemy but use up your ammo real quick! There's a VAST range of weapons almost too much to try to assess which to use and then there's the dreaded 'you're carrying to much weight to run'. But there are several AI you can get to accompany you (only one at a time) to fight with you and carry stuff for you or send them ahead to draw out the enemy and take the heat. They can be a pain though, getting in your way or alerting enemy when you wan to sneak so you need to tell them what to do and where to stand. Awesome desolate landscape. Tune to Radio Diamond City for fun old 1940's and 50's music right at the roots of rock. Terrific value I reckon even at full price because there is just so much to do I can see me playing this for months and months.

Ha! Found it! There's some thread confusion here because the mission is named Quinn Co so that's the thread title I searched for - the only one I found was by someone else who also failed to find this thread. The thing is, before and after finishing a mission maybe a thread link is needed for missions? (Maybe there is and I missed it?) This is particularly true for newcomers who might not realise there is a help and feedback forum. Anyway, got Mission Completed and then it seemed to restart so I broke out to figure out what had happened. Finally realised it's a campaign and there's another level (or more?) Really needs something there to make a bigger show. Probably a Dark Mod thing and it needs more than Mission Complete - or a modified version? Dunno needs more than just another briefing (and I'm sure I'd read that before?) Maybe that's a quick fix - a big message at the start of later level briefings that it's PART TWO or MISSION TWO to show it's continuing? Maybe a second graphic screen after Mission Complete but before it goes to the next briefing? Possibly that Dark Mod Graphic could have an alternate form that switches in instead. Now, the mission itself is fine. There was some really creative and inventive stuff in the shop (though I really wanted a little more cash to spend! ) The lighting looked okay but there was not enough contrast in many places (to make the shadows look convincing) and some places were near totally black which just meant I had to exit and boost the gamma up full. IMO Those places needed a tiny bit more light plus orientation glimpses (a faint patch of light from a skylight, a glimmer down a pipe, and some light texture trim, etc.) to give the player something to work with, while still looking convincingly dark. The enemy were rather too fast and sensitive and there were not enough shadows so, despite my being reasonably expert, I suffered endless busts and quickloads simply because it was impossible to judge many situations so I just had to dash and hope. That's not good gameplay. BTW I think the slow match texture is missing because the slow match was all black, making it impossible to tell which is the lit end and making it hard to see in the gloom to touch it delicately on a wick. It looks fine in the second level. One problem was a guard I KO'd, picked up and turned over etc, fell against a chest. Later, I lockpicked the chest but couldn't lift the lid because he was now pressed against it and he had become unfrobbable. Do bodies now normally become unfrobbable after time? Apart from the above, this was a good standard Dark Mod mission plus it had some extra interesting creative parts such as the shop, good info, that heavy loot idea, and so on. The story was enough to feel properly involved and not just a blind loot quest. Visuals were okay. There were a few poor texture choices (like rough wood in quality areas) but generally acceptable. I'll continue playing mission 2, probably tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to it.

I wanted to vote graphics better than tolerable but not quite good overall - even though it was good in places. The story was okay (but not much to it) so that was tolerable - but entering the room I got objective complete while I was creeping in - that really needs a more local trigger plus one of those 'face' triggers with a delay so you have to 'see' and have time to realise what it means - or at least connect it with the objective complete message. Other than that, I played on top difficulty but didn't quite find all loot so didn't finish. Everything ran smoothly though and I enjoyed it. I liked the background sounds outside at the start - very atmospheric. I semi-ghosted but caused quite a lot of low-level murmurs plus several big busts where I reloaded all but one. A lot's gone into this so thanks - a nice standard Dark Mod mission!

I found this a mix of brilliance and confusion. Great non-obvious climbing. Non-linear progress, but in the end I was blundering through, and objectives ticked off sometimes without me fully knowing why. Probably I should have studied the readables more. First, I progressed the roofs and streets until I'd covered what seemed to be the main layout available. At some point I bumbled inside some large, rough passages and rooms. Come across two guys, one of which I suspected was one of the guys I wanted, maybe both. I had to use broadheads. Got one but one ran off. An objective checked off anyway. (btw, kill and discredit objectives seemed to be duplicated - never did figure that one out.) Only later did it dawn on me that was probably the mansion (I think) and I ran around the streets trying to find it again but couldn't even though I'd been in it. (Even after finishing and noclipping around the sky, I had trouble conceptualising the mansion from above because it was so entwined with the labyrinth of buildings and no front door or sign anyway. In fact no street access at all that I found.) Anyway, I reached that horrible sensation of diminishing returns where you've discovered the main areas but are no longer progressing and missing all useful tools. Yes, I'd lots of keys and locked doors but they didn't match up. I was about ready to give up or at least I skimmed this thread and saw a few tempters but nothing concrete. Then I uncovered one little 'secret' then another so it got interesting again, until I ran out of those. Finally, I had a certain named key, unlocked a certain door, something happened, and an objective checked off. So, lots of interest and a huge amount of good stuff but not quite satisfying at the end. For me, this would be transformed into higher greatness with:Some way to make the mansion stand out better at street level. I'm not suggesting big white slabs, but some special trim or whatever, and a big sign, all to form a more structured picture in the player's mind of where he is. The player found a cartographer or even that pawnbroker shop with a rough map indicating at least the main streets and the outline of the mansion. Optional player notes (as I've mentioned elsewhere) to summarise the complexity of all the story readables, to help the player plan his strategy. An up-front message (maybe even an optional objective)in the game to indicate there were lots of optional tools, and other goodies (everything but rope arrows, I think, and the climbing was so good it didn't need ropes) to be found, but some access was subtle, tricky, fiddly, etc., to encourage the player to persevere. I'd only found most of them by the end when it was too late to use them - still it was fun and satisfying to find them, most especially a lantern which I missed all the way through.Summary: excellent mechanics, but a little of my above suggestions would go a long way to oil the bearings. The story plot was good but I guess I lost the plot somewhere! Despite that, I think you can finish anyway without knowing what you're doing!

Good looking mission (as expected!) and some good non-obvious-but-reason-out-able climbs - though I wasn't surprised to read in this thread that not everyone found them. But I suspect I didn't find everything. In particular was a... Very enjoyable and I'll start No.2 soon as I can.

Another very good mission in this series. I wavered between voting good and excellent on 'story' because it's a good story but having spent the last few years learning the craft of writing fiction, I now realise how very difficult it is to present immersive story details in a game like this. So, it was hard to remember all the details or form a more complete story 'image' in mind. I don't know what the answer is to gain 'excellence.'. However, I definitely felt myself within a story, grasped the main points, and enjoyed it. The readables were well-written but I did feel inclined to skim the longer ones and get on with the game. Goes with the territory I guess. The surreal section was fascinating and I wish I'd realised I'd already got the map! I would have explored it more thoroughly. Don't know if I missed anything. At one point near the end I got a spontaneous failed mission from a death. No idea who or why because I heard nothing. I completed all objectives but was surprised I couldn't view them after the end of the mission, ie, along with stats, to make sure all optionals were done. I did find an auto save just before end of mission so I could view them that way, still... I guess technically once the mission has ended its like a quit so the objectives are not there anymore. Good mission, look forward to the rest of the series.

Great rooftop mission and I suspect I didn't find anywhere. I got the loot objective on Difficult but that was only 3/4ths of all the loot available so I missed a lot. It might be me but the AI seemed more sensitive and most everywhere on roofs and ledges, unless I crept (which takes forever) I aroused low level suspicion. I gave up trying too hard to have no suspicions but even so, the stats showed 108 low level suspicions so I reckon some I never even heard or saw. Perhaps it was the context of being out in a city at night and a tiny scratch on metal aroused a guard way in the distance seemed a bit unnatural. Close to, I expect to occasionally have creep on metal past a guard at a desk a couple of paces away, but to have to do it 3/4ths of the time with guards out of sight way down in and along a street got a bit wearing. So, I don't know if it was intended but, just saying. Good idea to repeat some of the readable info to help reinforce the story so I did feel I was in a story even though I doubt I absorbed it all. Overall, very enjoyable except the (apparently) over-sensitive enemy was a mild irritation here and there until I eased off trying to ghost it perfectly. BTW I don't think I used any tools etc except the one rope I kept reusing. I had tons of stuff at the end. Not sure about moss. There were one or two places I'd like to have used moss but I only had one at that time and had to save it in case there was an impossible place where it was needed later. Maybe that's one answer - add a dozen moss at the start and a hint to use them. The sensitivity would then add to the fun instead of taking away.

Okay, got it now. Thanks, grayman.

@grayman Wasn't able to get the WS3 map, the download link led to an advert for Roblox or something and demanded I sign up! I tried again but couldn't see any other link.

@grayman.

Great mission, finished in about 7 hours plus reloads. Stealth 2. Lots of interest throughout and well-paced. Clues were okay though it did seem a bit overloaded near the start with papers everywhere! Not sure how to make it more subtle, maybe the odd note tucked under a pillow or in a drawer and not a confession right on top of a cabinet for anyone to see? But then players would complain they never found a crucial note, I guess. Visually great. Navigation excellent and even with a map I kept getting lost just like in real life. I was just beginning to grasp the layout by the end of the mission. More stairs per square foot than I've ever seen in any mission. AI coped well moving about and I only saw one temporary traffic jam which eventually cleared itself. Busy with lots of enemy to keep it alive and keep the player on their toes. Enjoyed it a lot. Got stuck on one objective but now done (see spoiler.) Thanks, grayman, I'll download the sequel.

@grayman

Mmm... sounds like the one I found that wouldn't frob.

Great Mission so far but one thing worse than not being able to complete an objective is to wade through pages of this thread (I gave up on Page 5) and nobody mentions it (so I'm the only one who failed?) Humiliating! Put me out of my misery someone...

heh-heh, yeah, I got tired of restrictive pro games controlling me, telling me when and where I'm allowed to walk and climb and even gamesave, and decided to play a game where I get the freedom to play how I want!

This was a really tense, busy little mission which I enjoyed. I haven't played TDM for a while so I wanted something like this to tune back in. I voted poor on the Halloween theme because I didn't know the context. I think it was a contest so if the brief was for the mission to be halloween-themed then poor is about right even though there was nothing much wrong with what 'horror' there was. I reasonably ghosted this and it was very tough because it was so busy in such small spaces and few shadows - ghosted all except right at the end (see spoiler.) Very enjoyable small mission I finished in 1h 13m (not counting reloads so probably a couple of hours.) The stats are impressive too.

No, it's about service and price. Service is in two parts: disconnections and how they respond if you do have a connect (or speed or any other) problem.