snatcher

v0.5 is up. Tips wait until our protagonist is ready in case of cinematics (ie: No honour among thieves) or custom delayed intros (ie: Seeking Laydy Leicester).

You described "the problem" very well. Ok so now I have my map, my story, my loot... but hang on, let's reduce the loot requirement for Easy (so that I can have Normal the way I envisioned it) and let's increase the loot for Hard but let's then also increase the value of some of those goblets because otherwise players might never find all the pesky coins, and now let's review Easy again... and back to Hard of course no KO's, no kills, ghost it, whatever. If the mapper decides to go for a single difficulty the game should simply organically hide all the difficulties sparing him/her from looking lazy.

On Easy the player spawns with 30 gas arrows. Was it meant to be 3, perhaps? Easy: 30 Medium: 2 Difficult: 2

v0.4 is up. I am starting to feel kind of satisfied with the result.

That's a very good idea MirceaKitsune. I don't know if any or part of it can be achieved with the scripting system alone but it is a very interesting and fun idea nevertheless. We can discuss it further. Something like this would probably fit well into a "challenges" system of some kind. See, the reason we have 3 "difficulties" for missions is because the original games did it that way. Nobody gave a second thought on whether 1 or 2 or 4 or 5 was the right number for TDM. Most mappers would have be been perfectly happy with no difficulties: "just go and play my awesome map"; but we ended up with "extra loot", "you are not an assassin", etc in most missions as superficial fillers, which I am sure caused trouble to many mappers. Instead of Missions "can" have difficulties and challenges we ended up with missions "must" have difficulties, which was wrong. Of course mappers can always go the "ALL / THE / SAME" route, which I applaud as an all-encompassing experience for all players.

Players normally focus around the center of the screen and this is called "tunnel vision". In order to draw the attention of players tips have a slide effect but in addition to the slide in I also mistakenly added a slide out effect which I now find undesirable and it has been removed in v0.3.

I have hijacked the opening post and it now includes the current list of available tips and the prototype, which has been updated to v0.2. Thanks all for the good feedback so far

In general I welcome tips and hints in games, and as long as the info doesn't get in my way I don't normally disable it. To be honest, I am so familiar with the mod at this point that I don't know if this system is helpful or annoying. It's an optional mod anyway: players can try it and keep it or delete it. Creating a dedicated setting is not worth the effort, I think. I am attaching to this post an initial version. Place the pk4 in the TDM folder to give it a try. First impressions matter: instead of looking for the tips I suggest you pretend to play a mission. When it comes to feedback I value negative comments way more than praises and likes. Please be open about it, otherwise things never improve / evolve. EDIT - Please find the current WIP in the opening post.

Each tip is displayed only once, normally triggered by player actions. The cycle resets with each new mission. I want tips to feel dynamic and new tips overwrite old tips, meaning that if you select water arrows and right after you select gas arrows the water arrows tip is gone for good (until the next mission).

My goal is to expose players to mechanics/information they normally wouldn't figure out on their first few missions but who would have thought this could be that difficult. I am keeping the above list updated. Proofreading and feedback is very welcome.

EDIT - This post is now part of the opening post.

Sure but let's first collect some feedback and opinions from the community. I might have gotten it wrong after all and members prefer it the way it is.

I don't know. Nobody cares, anyway.

Helloooo TDM fans. Anybody opposed to this change? Anybody in favor of this change?

The functionality to display the version number of TDM in the main screen is still there but it was hidden (by the developers) at some point. Don't ask me why.

If you don't enable any mod you are playing vanilla TDM.

May I ask what this is and/or where is it?

Hi Wronschien, I believe you disabled mods while the game was running and old mods are still there. JSGME basically copies and deletes files: When enabling a mod JSGME copies the mod files from the MODS folder to the TDM root folder. When disabling a mod JSGME deletes the mod files from the TDM root folder. When the game is running files are blocked (cannot be deleted) and the Mod Manager, unfortunately, does not check whether the mod files have been truly removed or not. The solution: Close the game Run JSGME and make sure all mods are disabled Go to the TDM root folder and manually delete any files that begin with "x_modpack" Launch JSGME and enable the mods you want Play TDM normally

@ChronA, I shared this with @wesp5 privately already but I share it here again. One of my favorite T2 Fan Missions: Towers of Twilight by RippedPhreak. Half way through the mission you give up in a puzzle and shortly after you find *it* and you quickly realize not only you can solve the puzzle but you now can go to places you couldn't go before in the entire mission. Perfection. 9:10 mark. Spoilers!

The Loop is currently limited by its intended functionality but it can be extended, and considering Mappers have at their disposal the whole space/time continuum the possibilities are... indeed wild! I still haven't found a use case that justifies a location mark. This is a two-way loop after all and I think I rather prefer that players get a little disoriented in short distances, to be honest. I don't know. What I need is for AI to get the f out of the way, not to linger around! Point taken, though. Thanks Wesp5!

We do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard fun! TDM Modpack v4.5 We have a new skill in the family and in this new version of the Modpack I have split the skills into two categories: Adept: Peek, Blow & Ignite and Whistle Expert: Alchemy, Loop and Penumbra You may opt for one skillset, the other, both or none: Each skill is still delivered in its own standalone package and the pk4 have been renamed to reflect the actual name of the skill. That's for you, @uyvie ! --------------------------------------------------- LOOP SKILL Teleport on demand! The first time you use the skill it will remember your current location and nothing else happens. The next time you use the skill it will remember your current location AND it will teleport you back to the previous location. You can reset the Loop by holding the "Use" key for 10 seconds. Here are some ideas: Initiate the loop at the beginning of the mission in case you want or need to backtrack Explore two different areas in parallel Establish a point of interest you can quickly and easily go back to anytime: a safe room, a shop, high ground... Run away from AI, avoid the cool down period and carry on with your business Ambush AI Anything else you can think of Limitations I haven't figured out how to force the player to crouch and this means you cannot teleport if there isn't enough vertical space in case you teleport back in standing position. Forget about teleporting in tight spaces such as vents, at least for now. In this initial release I have been very conservative and in order to minimize risks the skill can get at times a little annoying: you cannot be too close to walls or any other potential obstacle. Depending on the feedback received we can take some risks and make the skill more responsive. We will see. Summing up, whenever you hear the "hmm", it is either because there isn't enough vertical space or you are too close to a wall or obstacle. Points of failure There are certain situations in which the loop may fail: If you try to teleport to a location that is occupied by AI the jump will be aborted. You can try again later. If you try to teleport to a location that is occupied by an object the skill will do its best to overcome the obstacle. Sometimes you must try a few times to clear the destination. There are some edge cases though that are unsolvable and you may very well get stuck. If you are unable to teleport you can break the loop by holding "Use" for 10 seconds. This action resets the loop and it cannot be undone. This new skill is far from perfect but it gets the job done and hopefully, it brings a fun new mechanic to the game and adds replayability value. --------------------------------------------------- STEALTH MONITOR Updated... The STEALTH MONITOR mod displays the stealth stats and it has been made persistent. This means that if you switch from Loot to Stealth it will never revert to Loot unless you trigger the action. --------------------------------------------------- DYNAMIC INVENTORY Revisited... When picking up loot the DYNAMIC INVENTORY mod displays the loot info in the inventory and shortly after reverts back to the last non-loot item selected. This old mod has now been rebuilt outside of a file often - wrongly - employed by mission authors [tdm_frobactions.script] and this means that the mod is now available in all missions. ...and Extended In the core game when unshouldering a body the inventory is cleared for good. This can break the flow in some situations and the functionality of the DYNAMIC INVENTORY mod has been extended and when unshouldering bodies the mod will now revert back to the last item selected. Just enable CORE ESSENTIALS and you are good to go. --------------------------------------------------- Speaking of... CORE ESSENTIALS For some reason few doors in the core game have, by default, a shorter frob distance than all the rest. What puzzles me is that we are not talking doors that one may consider "special", but perfectly normal, regular, standard doors. Do arms get shorter when manipulating some doors? Players get used to certain distances and this breaks the flow in some missions and it has been resolved in CORE ESSENTIALS. Mappers can change frob distances wherever they please (players shall judge their decisions) but I find it unacceptable that something like this comes by default. The subjects in question are: arched01_111x40_left arched01_111x40_right 3panel_104x56 door_96x48_2hinge02 6panel_104x56 stained_glass01_104x56 stained_glass01_118x52 Why do you make such a big point for seven doors, you ask? Because as of today there are more than a thousand instances of these doors in the mission catalogue. Please note this is also fixed in the Unofficial Patch but since there are no boundaries between the Modpack and the Patch it has been fixed here as well. --------------------------------------------------- I hope you have fun with this new version of the TDM Modpack. Cheers!

In my mods: Silence: Nothing to do here. Hmm: Try in a different way. No, no: Forget it.

Good point ERH+, unfortunately I didn't figure out how to force a crouch therefore for a jump to be successful there must be enough vertical space in origin and in destination, regardless of whether the player is crouched or standing. Far from ideal but the current implementation is quite convincing imho and players should eventually figure out how the mechanic works. Who knows, perhaps someday we can force a crouch and make the skill more compelling. I have shared a beta with you in case you want to give it a go.