Taffingtaffer
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Posts posted by Taffingtaffer
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On 4/8/2026 at 12:46 PM, Arcturus said:
When NPC spots the player they reset their animations for a split second before they start to search. I am under impression that they can see through walls. Do they see player's arm sticking out or something?
Yikes. Where is the 1st person camera supposed to be at, the head/torso? That's what the AI should get alerted by, arms and legs should be left out of the equation so it doesn't feel cheap...
On 4/8/2026 at 12:46 PM, Arcturus said:They can spot you when their had is turned around, even with AI vision set to "forgiving".
I don't think NPCs communicate their state through barks well enough. They often don't say anything until they attack.
I've also felt that the head turn doesn't really communicate their cone of view sometimes, but thought it was just a feeling. That's rough...
The lack of barks on full alert is the most obvious of these problems; even the frequency of idle barks/snores is too sparse. I included value decreases in my Sound Polish mod thanks to Wellingtoncrab, but it obviously doesn't fix everything else showcased here. -
3 hours ago, Arcturus said:
Here's more subtle version. Added slight arm movement outwards. Also added speed modifier, so the faster the NPC moves forward the stronger the tilt:
They will never be fully realistic, but at least we can make them less stiff.
That test looks great! Not sure what "realistic" animations would add here (are we supposed to imitate mocapped animations by hand?); as long as they add convincing liveliness to these tree trunks acting as humanoids, that will do to spice up the stealth simulation.
I hope something can be done to AI visual detection and barks when alerted, too. -
Forgot to upload the moss player footsteps... Redownload v1.2 if you have already done so.
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v1.2 released
With this, all obvious oddities should be addressed. Beds, sacks and other cloth stuff no longer sound like flesh when hit (attacking them with the sword felt unpleasant, as if they were mimics), moss patches are finally moss and newspapers no longer act like metal slabs when hit.
I do have noticed a weird thing going with female models from much messing around in the test map: there's a very specific section of her head portion, either the collarbone or the nose bridge/eyes that plays metal sounds when hit with the blackjack. The newspaper thing was already rather obscure (although r_showSurfaceInfo 1 literally pointed me to the right definition when aiming at the newspaper) and in this case it's rather hard to reproduce, so I'll let it be; I've had my fair share of rabbit holes.
4 hours ago, snatcher said:Thanks!
Decent, you say? You are taking us from no response whatsoever all the way up to high alerts in two hits!
Just like with everything that has to do with your mod I need time to adjust. Letting melee weapons swing by mistake can put you in a nasty situation now
Now authors can play the good ol' trick of Bafford's metal lamp right above the cook in the kitchen.
I still haven't played many missions after releasing the mod, but hit propagation feels more generous here. Hitting metal in Thief is a sure way to make guards pinpoint you with their 6th sense unless you have a silent and dark path to go around them.
TDM AI has more granular alert reactions, so even if you hit metal, AI might just statically look in your general direction if you are far enough.
Congrats on the Healing Boost mod, by the way. Hoarding food will get to a different level with it.-
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v1.1 is released!
Might not seem like much from the changelog, but as usual with this mod it has involved a lot of sound shenanigans.
This time I've had to go hunting for new sounds to finally address the poor state of hit sounds on materials. Stims projected to AI by hits done with the blackjack and the sword will at last feel decent, at the very least.
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Displacement seems to have custom bottles, they default to the long green/brown wine bottles when smashed.
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On 3/2/2026 at 8:32 PM, snatcher said:
- Use @Taffingtaffer's Sound Polish Mod
@FanOfTheDark might've already found the actual thread, but here it is. That's SeriousToni's mod
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There's an edge case with the auto-search feature. It triggers on dragging bodies, when it should only work on shouldering. (Also, did it always work in two steps? It doesn't shoulder the body and pick up the loot at the same time; it first picks up the loot and then forces you to make another input to actually shoulder the body.)
There are also issues with long-frob and switches. In Displacement, regardless of the frob control scheme, the radio in the first room and the oil lamp in the bathroom make noise on long-frob but don't turn off/on. When you let go of long-frob, they turn off/on without making the *click*.
This isn't the case with the light switch of the lamp in the wall near the radio; it turns on/off on short-frob and after letting long-frob go, and the *click* plays when the action actually triggers.
That's what I meant when I said this:On 2/2/2026 at 7:13 PM, Taffingtaffer said:Basically assume you want to grab one-action objects with a short-frob in TDM-inverted mode and with a long-frob in TDM and Thief modes.
ie. Regardless of the scheme, a rock can be grabbed on short-frob, dropped likewise; dropped when you long-frob and let go after you short-frobbed it; and grabbed as long as you long-frob it, then drop it when you let go.
Fixed objects such as switches would act as the wall lamp in Displacement. -
Uh oh, I just found an edge case of frob focus. Long-frobbing a locked door, or trying to slowly open a door further that's fully opened (assuming tdm_door_control (3) is used) hijacks the current unsheathed weapon (blackjack, sword and bow).
You have to frob any other door that can be opened or you won't be able to use and sheathe your current weapon, or change to another one.
It also happens if you don't have a selected weapon, or any weapon in your inventory.46 minutes ago, STiFU said:I think that is a good suggestion and that it could be done, but it would again be quite a design change. I am not sure I want to open this can of worms in beta. Does the current behavior seriously impact your gameplay or is this just a nice to have? Maybe this could be postponed to 2.15 or a future dev build? @stgatilov do you concur?
It isn't a big deal, I find the second point way more jarring:
46 minutes ago, STiFU said:I don't understand what you are suggesting here. Could you elaborate?
Basically assume you want to grab one-action objects with a short-frob in TDM-inverted mode and with a long-frob in TDM and Thief modes.-
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I did some testing in the Training Mission. Overall, the tdm_frob_control_style modes feel great, but there are a few rough edges in my view:
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Frob focus isolation is really well done. You won't accidentally grab an object while bulk-looting in TDM-inverted mode, eating an edible with long-frob keeps the focus on the object (now in your stomach!) until you let go of the input, and long-frobbing a door will also keep the focus on that specific door.>
The nitpick I have with this is that long-frobbing the air keeps the focus on nothing, preventing you from interacting with anything until you reset the state. Changing the focus from nothing to the first thing you highlight would be nice, if it's feasible.
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Long-frob behaviour on one-action objects (junk items, eaten apples, extinguinshed lights) don't feel good in TDM and Thief modes; the same goes for short-frobbing them in TDM-inverted mode. I think making an exception for "consistency" here would make for smoother gameplay, but again I don't know if it's feasible.
- I'm suspecting this might intended, but big edibles take a bit longer to eat than small ones (bread, cheese or fish take like a full second versus apples, which are instantaneous).
As for tdm_door_control, I agree that 3 is the most useful and clean of the bunch paired with the force-close mechanic. Mode 1 is quite cool, but the sound spam and rendering glitches need to be addressed.
Mode 2 is practically useless, but it instantly made me think of snatcher's fast-opening mechanic in his TDM Modpack. Wouldn't it make sense to include a force-open mechanic if there's a force-close one now? :)-
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Frob focus isolation is really well done. You won't accidentally grab an object while bulk-looting in TDM-inverted mode, eating an edible with long-frob keeps the focus on the object (now in your stomach!) until you let go of the input, and long-frobbing a door will also keep the focus on that specific door.>
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On 12/3/2025 at 8:18 PM, snatcher said:
Pickpocketing somebody who is awake and not distracted sounds like a difficult thing to pull off. When it comes to execution (gameplay / mechanic) I don't recall ever blaming the game for the failures (I normally always rush up and hardly ever retreat) so I support extreme short frob-distances in this case.
I would agree though that it should be easier to pickpocket death/unconscious bodies but that's a different topic altogether because there are many things at play:
- Auto search bodies on/off
- Frob helper on/off
- Frob-fighting between the item and the body
Even if it makes sense for it to be difficult, it doesn't feel very good in practice, in my opinion. I use forward-leaning constantly and the default distance reduces its usefulness; try shortening the gap while standing up and you'll bump against the AI back easily. It can also happen while crouching if the AI plays crouching animations.
As for the other bit, I only see frob-fighting as a relevant factor; Auto Search bypasses the problem, and Frob helper can only help so much when the short distance and frob-fighting clash against each other.
It's just that widening the frob distance improves the reliability of the frobbing for KOed AIs, even if the focus is still wonky.
Sounds like a good idea for a small mod, in any case, making specific frob distances for KOed/dead AIs (if that's even possible).On 12/3/2025 at 8:44 PM, snatcher said:These are tough topics.
Should AI cool down sooner or should the player (almost) always have a chance to carry on?
By having AI cooling down sooner players can (and probably will) quickload or simply wait. "Snowed Inn" is a good example of taking short cool down periods to the extreme. Borderline ridiculous.
By having AI taking its time to cool down you know that if you manage to escape AI will be stuck there for some time giving you some advantage but, can you actually escape with the tools you have and at what cost?
Should AI announce their presence via footsteps, barks, both, and how often? Let's not underestimate the feeling of "not knowing" what's behind the corner.
I was under the impression that the long cooldowns tempted Thief players to quickload in TDM (myself included).
I have checked "Snowed Inn" values; they are indeed very short. Volta III are even shorter. This proves that even mappers feel the cooldowns are too long, though. I think my values were kind of a fluke because I didn't experiment too much to find my middle ground.
I don't want AIs to be overly enthusiastic and go stomping loudly and yelling all the time, but getting surprised constantly doesn't add to the enjoyment. I'm also trying to play with a shorter tdm_ai_sightmax to balance out sight distance a bit, after @Wellingtoncrab told me about the variables. It's already in my autocommands as a commit. -
OP updated with an overview of the changes and the links to the repository and the release.
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1 hour ago, Wellingtoncrab said:
This is interesting - is there a global way to do this other than overriding the frob distance for each individual def?
Doesn't look like it. It indeed involves overriding the several distances in tdm_prop_items.def, tdm_prop_items_keys.def and tdm_prop_wearable_items.def.
I was having a similar doubt with AI definitions. Looking at the EntityDef Tree, the base for humanoid footsteps is tdm_ai_humanoid.def.
To make SqueakBoard available for all humanoids I'd have to add it there; then each female would need overrides for their specific shaders. Not sure if this will even be used in the future, but it feels good to understand the hierarchy.-
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The mod's name is gonna see a change, since the scope has shifted a bit more since the last post.
Besides including the overrides I attached before, AI alert 3 & 4 is gonna get a dramatic duration and fuzzyness decrease from core values and barks are going to be more frequent: meaning, guards are going to chill out before you get the temptation of quickloading, and they're going to mutter and snore way more frequently to prove they are alive.DaftMugi also shared with me another override for pickpocketting frob distance values, to make them closed to Thief's. Ironically, it also brings consistency to the general frob distance; TDM has longer distances for any other object, except items carried by AI.
I can already see the argument that the shorter distance makes pickpocketting more "tense". The way I see it is that bump detection isn't a fun mechanic during this action, and the distance is annoying even when the AI has been knocked-out.
If you are already in a hurry to get away with the loot because you are illuminated and the guard could turn around, you don't want to also worry about bumping your head against their back because you forward-leaned.
Alerting them while crouched in a poorly chosen hiding spot actually makes the bump mechanic interesting; gives you a chance of getting away if the area is dark enough, or punishes you for being overconfident if not.
I'll be checking all AI footstep declarations to be throughout and the monster walking volumes, then then release version 1.0 in Codeberg for easy versioning and issue tracking.
I'm a bit unsure about the license; TDM LICENSE.txt says everything is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 "unless explicitly stated otherwise".
TDM Modpack is Public Domain, on the other hand.-
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I believe we should remind ourselves that flashgrenades in TDM work exactly the same as Deadly Shadows. It seems like the team felt knockouts were too powerful in Thief 1-2 and nerfed both the blackjack and flashgrenades.
TDM found a (improvable, as datiswous and other have said in the past) compromise with the blackjack, but copy-pasted TDS flashgrenades design.1 hour ago, datiswous said:I think a first step is to make that timeframe longer. Also the (default) cool-off time should be shorter? Then you can decide if they're still useless.
Searching and Agitated Searching states (Alert 3 and 4) have non-sensical durations, indeed. I've been tweaking their values locally in the file tdm_ai_base.def
"alert_time3" "15" // was 25 "alert_time3_fuzzyness" "3" // was 8 "alert_time4" "30" // was 65 "alert_time4_fuzzyness" "5" // was 20
But even if you increased the blinded state duration and decreased alert times, you'd still have to wait for guards to calm down, as if you completely screwed up. And even if guards were at alert 3 or 4 when you blind them, does forbidding you a knockout for using a limited tool really add anything to the game flow? I think not.
1 hour ago, datiswous said:Apart from that I personally don't like the idea that guards are not knockable when they're alert. To me that is just too far from logical. When they're alert they should do more head/body-turning, etc. to make it harder to knock them out, but you should still be able.
Definitely. TDM compromise is still too restrictive for restrictiveness sake. The rules don't specify which alert level counts as "alerted", what counts as "having their weapon out" (Alert 5? The state of raised awareness when they completely cooldown after Alert 4?), and the little differences between bare-headed, helmeted but bare-necked and full-helmeted guards makes the mechanic a PITA: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=The_Dark_Mod_Gameplay#Blackjacking
@snatcher Classic Blackjack mod doesn't force you to remember obtuse requirements; civilians are free knockouts, guards (bare-headed or "necked") are always knockable from any direction including fleeing, except in Alert 5 (Combat); fully-helmeted guards can only be killed or gased.
At most, TDM core could force knockouts from behind for guards in Alert 4, but that'd be the extent of complexity. -
On 9/25/2025 at 7:55 PM, snatcher said:
The Taffingtaffer pack is fantastic but there are a couple of squeakboard sounds that bother me a little. What is your opinion on these two, a little over the top / out of place squeaky sounds, @Taffingtaffer ?
I'm guessing you refer to the one that actually squeaks and the heavy, crunchy one. Can't remember why I was convinced by them, perhaps I thought it added variety or felt the need to get the point across of really loud wood.
I don't know any FM that actually uses it so couldn't test how annoying it sounds in proper context. After getting some distance from the mod, it does feel like they could get old fast.I haven't done any "in-field" testing yet. I'm on the look-out for beasts, undead and other fauna used in TDM. I don't think I've ever heard spiders walk or make idle sounds
not that I'm eager to alert them either. I'm used to get unnerved by their hissing in Thief, I take it as a clear warning.
Going back to sound propagation for a bit, Daft Mugi had a WIP to reduce the base values in tdm_propagated_sounds.def.
I also took a brief look at the blackjack hit sounds: https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=6641The issue speaks for itself. It doesn't make sense that hitting metal and wood has the same loudness. This is absolutely undercooked, to the point that you can't even use modifiers because it disables the shader for the blackjack.
I've attached Daft Mugi's WIP (with default running and jump values, because I think they were fine) and a rather messy fix for the blackjack and sword problem.
The edited footstep propagation values are intended for the "Forgiving" hearing difficulty level.
They are an improvement over core values, imo. Running is punished in close quarters; crouch-running gives you an edge but can't be abused, which leads you to walking, and walking can slightly alert AIs when you go for a purse, so creeping gets a real use, even if for a brief moment.tdm_propagated_sounds.def tdm_weapon_blackjack.def tdm_weapon_shortsword.def
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Thief 1 is not clean in the GOG release, they pre-installed TFix Lite 1.26 in their infinite wisdom...
If you don't want to search for the latest retail version or get the Steam one somehow (you know what I mean), use this first: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/3529-thief-gold-unpatch-gog
Then install RoguePatcher instead: https://github.com/JarrodDoyle/rogue-patcher/releases -
Another revision, motivated by kingsal's comment. Did some file editing while I was at it. Now swimming feels cool, at last.
Doing the squeakboard sounds, I had the tiniest urge to try and look for Twig sounds, but seeing how unkempt NPC sound definitions are (male NPCs don't play squeakboard despite having sound shaders, the same for females and broken glass...), I'll leave those endeavors in more capable hands. -
2 hours ago, kingsal said:
Awesome! It might be some time before I can properly review them but if people like them, I'm cool with them being modified. I made them nearly 7 years ago and don't have any of the reaper settings I used.
I also made the compress / decompress and underwater sounds in volta. I honestly don't remember how, but water and microphones where involved
Great. I've included both your footsteps version and Gin's inside the main .zip, so don't look for that folder anymore. ^^"
Thanks for mentioning those sounds! Player .def file has a comment stating that the game needs specific sounds for entering, surfacing and being underwater. It was playing some lame "subtle splash" file for the first two, so I'll include your 3 files in all versions of the mod.
I'm also thinking nobles having distinct footsteps can't hurt, either. Yours deserve to be included generally, too. -
Version 0.9.1 uploaded.
Forget what I said about Toni's water files being unbalanced, my mind is kind of in the gutter with all this modding. They are fine, but I did leave out the second jump file because the cut-off is very obvious when you immediately run/walk, as BoilerDunce pointed out.
With this, I'll let the mod breathe for real. I haven't heard all of Ujtudor's non-footstep files in context, so don't hesitate to call me out for including the whole thing on a heartbeat.
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7 minutes ago, BoilerDunce said:
What I mean is that all of the step sounds sound like they are sharing their space in the game's audio engine, and cannot play over each other. This leads to the step sound being instantly killed if another step sound plays before another has ended, which can be heard as the pre-recorded reverb of the step being suddenly silenced.
Right, it's also very noticeable when you come to a halt depending on the file it was playing. Seems like an engine limitation for now. Sound direction isn't as solid as Dark Engine either, even with HRTF on.
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59 minutes ago, BoilerDunce said:
The game is balanced for wood to be pretty sneakable but if all wood was squeaky as in Toni's mod sneaking on wood would be worse than tile. Making squeaky boards an intentional separate element to be included by choice seems both very prescient and realistic to me on the part of TDM.
I know that, that's why I mentioned squeaky board specifically.
59 minutes ago, BoilerDunce said:Thiefier Sounds seems like its good in the ways that matter to you, but to me, I have a different ideal for the sound design, I'm just no good at making mods. My ideal, not that you're interested, is that sounds would be of a quieter quality- it should sound like the player is wearing appropriately soft shoes for the job and stepping gingerly instead of (what sounds to me) almost marching as in both vanilla and the mods I know of.
I think a sudden tap only makes sense if the player is moving at a brisk pace like in my speed values or running. It's not enough to just play footstep sounds at a different speed- different speeds (Run, walk, creep) reflect different intentions, different ways the player character would want to be stepping. If only their sounds were more distinct.I certainly differ with the realism angle. Yes, of course Garrett or Corbin wouldn't wear boots with soles for tap dance realistically, but in a game with little to no UI elements you want to make very clear how dangerous surfaces are through sound. If you have to stretch reality a bit for gameplay purposes, so be it; it's a videogame. Not even the lightgem can be taken at face value in certain dark spots that aren't that dark, but we eat it up for fun.
It's true that materials could have their own subsets of files depending on the walking speed, but finding good, clean free-licensed sounds with speed and stance variations isn't easy, and creating them less so. Doing this mod using what we have in the community is being hard enough, I'd rather not put more on my plate.59 minutes ago, BoilerDunce said:Another thing: At least in the version the demos of these footstep mods take place in, footsteps appear to be playing on a single channel, muting the previous step sound file when a new one begins. This kind of ruins the built in reverb of the sounds we have so far heard and is not a natural sound. Even if a sound contained a subtle squeak or something shortly after a step, it could be silenced by other step sounds if the two steps happen close enough together.
Can you be more specific? Do you mean some files are in mono?
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Another modpack uploaded to the "Experimental" folder. @Gin "Thiefier Sounds" are superb; if I hadn't started the mod with the premise of improving all core volume sounds, I would have included them as a replacement from the start.
I created the usual guard and female versions as well.Regarding the rest of custom sounds: @Ujtudor edits to impact sounds make a lot of sense, and the balanced dirt and metal footsteps seem to sound better than the core files. I think I'll use their footsteps in the main mod; the metal files declipped by my pal JoseJL are unfortunately muffled in comparison... I've asked around in case someone knows of outright better, free-licensed metal (and water) footsteps.
Toni's pack is an honest effort, but personally I don't find many footsteps exciting. Not to say there aren't good ones; TDM uses all of Toni's guard and female sounds, and the player's snow sounds. Player wood sounds also seem nice for the squeak board material, specially the walk-creep files.
The water files need editing, though. This also happens with the core metal files to a less extent, but Toni's water footsteps have channel imbalance; the right speaker sounds louder than the left speaker.
I'll look into both core metal files and Toni's water files.-
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I'm looking at @Gin Thiefier Sounds, since it's smaller to finish. These are top-notch quality, they should replace core files, in my opinion. Sadly, I can't use the source .wav files because core .sndshd files lookg for .oggs...
I can't make addons like I intended either because if a .sndshd file wins, the shader declarations of that file are always applied. In this case my main mod is hijacking any duplicated shader needed by soundpacks...
[Mod] Sound Polish
in The Dark Mod
Posted · Edited by Taffingtaffer
Glad that those changes feel right!
My bias goes to Gin's Thiefier Sounds. You could even mix and match files (or skip them to load TDM Core sounds) if you extract the .pk4s. Thiefier Sounds unique footsteps are stone, tile and wood; Volta pack has new carpet, stone and wood sounds. I'm actually considering using Volta's carpet sounds, myself.
Yeah, I first started to test louder AI footsteps in the Daft Mugi's map, then played Talbot 2 for a while and things seemed good on the same floor. But in The Accountant 2 you can hear the guard patrolling from below if you lockpick the door and leave it open... Displacement welcomes you right at the beginning with the footsteps of a patrol that seems to be right in your room.
idTech4 doesn't seem to have very good audio isolation and 3d position, unfortunately. I'm not sure if TDM team have already improved it or if there's something to be done in that regard. Again, if you would like to help find a better middle ground (a pull request would be even better) you could extract the .pk4 and reduce the maxDistance values of the shaders in sound/tdm_sfx_movement_footsteps.sndshd
They are practically all at 30 by default, if I recall correctly.