TheUnbeholden

anyone noticed their noisemaker arrows aren't attracting or alerting guards.. or anyone for that matter. Is there some sort of way to check and modify how much noise they make via the console? I've checked on several maps just to make sure.

Something really cool about this mission, its the tight streets, that are more like back alleys... its that sort of style that puts emphasis on getting passed guards with the skin of your teeth or forcing you to take the high road, climbing is fun for me. I'm fast so I run, jump and climb like a ninja. This whole level is beautiful with finally a small taste of the undead I have had yet to see... I went up to the corpse only to my surprise he sits up right into my face The builders place was a bit weird to see such a easy to get into building, I have always come against heavily fortified Builder churches, cathedrals and underground machine laboratories... this time it was a cake walk. I loved the climbable vines/wooden wall, haven't seen that before. The gameplay was as good as it could be expected but there was always something illogical, like having to leave Rowan's tip on his desk, and I couldn't find where his place is... there was no mention of it anywhere besides the note on the actual door to his room and there is no map leaving that compass of mine cold and alone, surely I would have scribbled a little map of mine by scouting the place before hand. Can't go in blind wandering around the place can I. Also the player should have some options as to what optional tools to bring like the spyglass and a lantern eventhough I don't use them. Some shop options would be nice. The storyline is more of a compliment to the map rather than something noteworthy. There was also a pretty hard to get secret spot up ontop of the buildings

I actually thought the FM was light on exposition (the lack of readables, apart from 1 probably contributed to that), but its has a good premise. The FM's strengths are some good scripted sequences.. like the bad guy trying to prevent your progress and the drunk guard ranting to himself, and the end briefing is something I love eventhough it didn't give us anything we could have easily guessed. Oh and the briefing was good but I always expect every FM to have that. And I always love diaries that actually look like diaries in games by having a fair bit of writing... The mission although looks great doesn't give much in terms of gameplay either apart from exploring which you get in every FM, the lack of looting is understandable it being a mine and all (still found myself missing some loot) and the lack of guards is also understable. My only real criticism apart from the lack of readables is that the 2 floors before getting to the main elevator are sort of bland filler, with just 1 or 2 rooms with one loot item. It could have been something a tad more difficult. The only real gameplay element that adds something is using the fire flask but it was obvious.

did this get translated?

Love the name for the mod, reminds me of something, like something I read in a thief mission before or maybe in Morrowind. The image has some discoloration at the bottom of it and its a bit dark, but otherwise it does well to tease us with a unique look of dusk at a castle.

I've always wanted a ship level...

I liked it for the most part, the hints I found did little for me as I'd already discovered what to do before reading them (except the one where you have to fire a arrow at the jar). The mission also did something I've never quite felt before, make me feel bad for robbing the place. In particular destroying a priceless statue... I didn't much like the environments, far to cramped even in the cathedral. Felt more like tunnels, much like thes which you had to go through in order to reach the cathedral in the first place. The priest model took me by surprise, didn't know there way one. Felt like some people would feel if they saw one of those new inventors guild models (who haven't read the latest patch notes) which we will probably see soon.. Its also something of a template for future campaigns in terms of its visual design being so elaborate to attention to detail like all those notices pinned up on the walls that you can read which we rarely see in other games. Visual style/audio 4 Gameplay 3 (Builders always are tough bastards, short length) Story/text 3 (I liked to see the builders view on things eventhough there wasn't an abundance of it due to the shorter game length than I was expecting) PS- lol @ helios apollo's walkthrough, I also knocked the gold plates off the table by selecting the candle by mistake, only I did while the guard was still walking around ... twice

One thing that I would have liked for this FM is exploration. There where about 2 doors that can't be opened (I suggest removing the door handle on those). But what I really felt that this FM is missing, is rooftop sections! This is the sort of map that should feel like a big junkyard! Where there are many secret places that you can get lost in. And should feel like a maze. I was expecting that and got zilch

I played Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 3 times without realizing the existence of the hotkey menu (until a mod alerted me about it). I played Oblivion for ages without accessing its hotkey menu until I did google search on it when I got annoyed with the lack of weapon cycle buttons. Now the grab button is playing hide and seek I seriously need to know about Skyrim's details.

oh and don't get me wrong though! I loved the story (the length of the dairies startled me at first XD but when you think about its realistic because in real life people seem to want to write down all their thoughts). The underground part in particular had good tension, the use of the clanging sounds really got my hairs to stand on end. And the mission looked unusually good considering its in daylight, I wasn't expecting it to look this good because of the dark nature of TDM being its main visual appea-l but the textures are all quite nice. Though I expected the maze to be a bit more... maze-y

Finished it, and I must say that this FM is a challenge, but for the wrong reason. Rather then avoiding patrols, skulking in shadows, its a game of trial and error to not move around while someone is watching in your direction. Leaning around corners is useless because you will be instantly spotted if you do that. This I think is what the FM should have fixed. Leaning around corners IMO should only cause suspicion, not cause the guard to instantly run at you and hack you down or the maid to go crazy in shock and run away. Also if you alert someone then they should not kill you merely ask you to leave the premises & follow you until you do, if you don't then they would knock you out or something like that (why would someone stab you to death for stepping on a bed of roses, or for jumping on to a hedge or splashing around in the water around the statues? These people aren't red necks ) Thats my main issue with this mod is simply lacks the realism of the situation making stealth in broad daylight a painful shore rather then a challenge. Theres the guard, and a maid that constantly go outside, and Alma is constantly moving around the pool table, dining room and study. (why the study of all places? considering there is no where to hide in there you will instantly be spotted). But apart from this I have only nitpicks, like theres a mirror in the house and when you look at it you are wearing Thief's leather armor and mask... but when you leave the (high tension) restricted grounds, everybody doesn't seem to notice that your dressed as an assassin. So I assume that your character is actually dressed normally, like a detective would. A minor issue is the sewer part where you find the amulet, its really hard to get on the ladder (had to noclip out).

I agree the AI felt very out of place here. I understand that every FM needs 2 things. but I think this is one of those instances if you don't want to put the work in to make them look as if they have made the place their home then you shouldn't include them. I know that would make for a boring mod, but a little bit of atmosphere and things to find and you can be surprised how good a FM can be...Take illusionists Tower for example, or you could put monsters instead.

This thread now has a poll so vote away

Finally !! A mod set on a ship... I found it short but sweet, although the upper part felt a tad unrealistic for having those wooden boards spaced out so much, it looked like it wouldn't pass any safety tests to get to fly It gets a lower score for having a captain that doesn't look like one, but gives us the raison d'etra of steam punk. Its a shame the player doesn't get to look inside the Pandora's Box, feels a bit cheap as it is the selling point of the FM, or I would imagine. Its a tad small, especially for a ship (actually an airship should be just as big as a regular ship although maybe more aerodynamic design (instead of hydrodynamic). Not killing the captain is a good idea

The teleportation stopped once it started to get a little annoying. I think it was decent, gameplay was a little freaky with that teleportation, going down the same halls and getting this eerie music that fit perfectly. The whole tower reminded me of a movie...

hmm I like the fact that story is told through spoken dialogue, (which is something which Thief games did alot mainly through the protagonist you play as, Garrett) but thats not really what this is about... something that Thief and TDM do well is how the story is told through initial cutscenes (intro), readables, eavesdropping & being a peeping Tom. And the gameplay when designed well is to take advantage of this. This FM seems to take a different approach to Thief and takes on a grand quest that isn't to do with stealing (though to be fair he did originally go out into the woods to rob a large, lowly populated houses), conversing with friendlies (which is something almost unheard of in Thief, Garrett was quite the anti-socialite, conversing with himself usually ) and the generally more exploration based locale. Its a different tune that seems to work well in Thief, because the fundamental aspects for a action RPG are all already there (minus the character customization like attributes/traits/skills that you would spend experience points & gain from completing objectives... which could take some time to implement and probably wouldn't be polished enough nor would the FM be able to take much advantage of anyway). I will give more indepth opinion soon. edit My main problem is that the FM was far to short, there should have been a big build up to the fight with the mage, like a castle maze with many rooms, stairs, guards in action RPG fashion. The one corridor we got had a few doors which don't open If this mod ever gets overhauled I think it should get a expanded storyline, and bigger castle. My nitpicks are that in the library, you can't actually read anything. Not very libraryish. Just a few readables would be nice, and its weird that I can't climb the 2 ladders there. Maybe its just the Thief in me talking, but considering there are readables elsewhere and you can still loot stuff (once a Thief always a Thief, even when saving the land from a eternal winter ) it seems weird to overlook this prime location. Heart of Lone Salvation had a library by Fidcal and it had some readables open on tables. Come to think of it I have honestly have never seen a in game library where you can read everything. It would be amazing if someone could accomplish this, I know that Oblivion/Morrowind had tons of places where you can go through some houses or stores that are almost like a library.

Totally agree. I personally think that while a wolf is a excellent hunter and impossible to sneak right up to it or passed it unless you keep a distance of at least 20 metres... a werewolf is a like a incredibly powerful version of it that not only would have those heightened senses but also have a highly strong, fast, and regenerative body that easily makes them the most powerful creature in the world. It could take on a elephant and win, other various lions, leopards, jaguar, grizzly bear. Perhaps a Cheetah might beat it speed wise but aside from that a werewolf is king of the jungle. You would have to find tricks to beat it like explosive arrows, flashbang, a few land mines, but if you don't have all that then its basically about keeping a distance from it... or run like hell when it comes and prey you have a rope arrow to get to high ground or barricade a door. If anything I think it should be upped senses wise for the following Dark Mod v1.7 It should be the most challenging AI to come up against.

Nice I think I would have to try this one first before the Halloween FMs

BAHAHAHA.. Lizards? Who could make a mistake like that. Also what is this madness about a Plaque mask, whats the deal with that issue.

Latest. Its pk4. whenever I download something I want to have a physical copy of it elsewhere, and I very rarely download if from my own home... public computers don't have TDM installed. and who knows what sort of stuff the inbuilt downloader is putting on my computer.

No its not Linux. No Thats a dumb question considering I just said I copied the pk4 into my fm folder, so obviously I download the pk4 without using the TDM downloader. And no I will not be forced to use it.

I put alberic, siegeshop, and rake_off into my fm folder... but for some reason a folder wasn't created for them when I start TDM it doesn't detect them in my mission list... when I exit the game and go to the fm folder, the pk4 files are still there and a folder wasn't automatically created for them for some reason.. am I missing something here? Why are they the only pk4 files that don't get detected by the game? if there is problem with these 3 fan missions then why didn't they come with a readme or something.

Yeah I was wondering... since when has Springheel finished his year 12 English?

Something happened similar to Yahtzee (AKA the best video game critic). He was going home one night and tried to stay away from lamp posts, looking for his light gem.\ When you play a game so immersing that really keeps you occupied its bound to have a profound affect on you.

Yeah I've been spreading the word around some thief sites, including the members of the thief 4 forum, and moddb. This latest version really fixes my issue with the game. You guys really deserve as many thief fans as possible backing you up. Now is better time then ever, especially considering Doom 3 can be gotten for $20 on steam (I got it for $5 on a weekend sale). I've joined the group, and first time I've added a non-steam game to me list, changed the shortcut name from tdmlauncher.exe to The Dark Mod. Congrats for everyone who has contributed and stuck with TDM.