Glyph Seeker

Damn, Bikerdude, how many missions do you have on the go at once, what with helping other people, too? =-3 You do a lot of great work here.

Thanks! I enjoy brain storming ideas in sketch form - maybe I'll post a separate thread if people want to ask me to draw things. And yes, I know we can't be too indebted - but style of the beastmen and elementals / undead from the original games is a big inspiration to me still. =3

I just forced my CD copy of Doom 3 onto a good RL friend and ordered him to play TDM with me after we tried playing the Flakebridge Monastery level together and got murdered by angry revenants! So expect some more downloads from him! ;-P

@ShadowHide Thanks! I do like doodling with an idea in mind. I might try stealing Springheel's "flayed skin" beast and doodling something in that line, as well. @Springheel Ooh, now I'm hankering after a colouring pencil set. x-D I could never get into using coloured pencils, just reminds me of frustrated attempts to colour over ambitious pictures at school, heh. I'm thinking of digging up some watercolours or buying a larger Copic set so I can have some really deep colours to work with.

@Hit Deity Thanks for the info - I think I'll give it another go - I felt a bit non plussed at the on-rails shooter section, wher I felt like I'd messed up.

I find the slow change of in game model shots to be a great introduction when loading TDM combined with the music. You see the noblewoman, a mage, the Thief himself, a hideous revenant etc. I thought the sepia tone of it was perfect - like a draftman's workshop lit poorly by candlelight.

Ooh! Thanks for sharing, SH - I LOVE this stuff. I also like the insight into the rather over ambitious menu , ha ha. I think the much subtler one now with the iconic music works a lot better! I've got to ask, I don't get what's wrong with the clock face there... *confused.*

Ooh! I do like seeing doggies - nice work on the gums - I find the sad droop of jowls of a dog super hard to draw!

Ooh, flayed skin just like the Hag in TDS, I like the idea a lot!

Ah - yes I'm sure. But there's still an element of Pan - worship or the fear of such a "Green Man" entity in history which I would feel would fit into the TDM mythos. I just read a wonderful LTC Rolt story called "The Shouting" which describes an encounter with a hideous nature entity reminiscient of Arthur Machen's implied fairy / nature spirits and it inspired me. Sorry Shadowhide, this is the best I can do off the top of my head - those are my ideas for Trickster symbols - trying to suggest fertility and growth and a very subtle chakra / third eye without it being obvious. I'm very happy with how he came out there, actually.

@SH: Ah, forgive me, I didn't make a distinction as to what I meant. The trickster as you have shown is wonderful. Beautifully directed and voice acted - a true manipulator, toying with his prey even within his own lair: "I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but this eye is completely blind..." He even looks like a "horny old goat" in human form, plump and old, and yet still very dangerous. I love that the liver spots he has on his head are really just horns, lurking to burst out of the skin. What I meant by not liking him was his in-game model, that is, how he appears in the Maw, the final level. I mean a big scary enemy like that is always better to fight indirectly rather than have to face in a game I feel. But you are right, his portrayal in the cut scenes is absolutely wonderful.

Oh for sure, I meant the Mindplaces site, I think I already explored it years ago when the Dark Mod was first starting. Particularly dig your splash page scorpion dude - very Planescape - I rather love unusual humanoids! @Shadowhide: Damn, I don't know, it's definitely something I could try but I find it poses several challenges for me, especially as Pagans and pagan culture and symbolism has barely been touched in any FM yet. The symbol of the Pagans in the original Thief is the third eye... 1) Should I try for body tattoos or symbolism deliberately avoiding this to make it unique to TDM? 2) Is the Trickster still a goat / devil archetype? Or should he be more like the horrific Tree Monsters from T2 (Which for my money were the most frightening monster in all of Thief, lol!) 3)How human or how bestial should he appear? I'm trying to draw snide / cunning faces but in all honesty I found that the Trickster was best only half glimpsed in shadow - seeing the in game version of him at the end of Thief made him seem... silly to me. I guess an entire topic could be devoted to the character design problems of such a thing - what do you think?

Thank you very much! Yes – I was trying to figure out how to make it different enough that it would viable --- the problem with the Thief monsters is that they are quite iconic and unique in FPS games I think. For example, the Burricks have to be renamed Belchers in TDM, and even Haunts are rebranded as "Revenants", a more generic English word for the undead. I love the Craymen, but I wanted to draw them looking a bit more like the Dreurgh in the Elder Scrolls, more obviously crab like. Thank you very much, GDG! Hopefully we'll get some doodlers – I don't necessarily mean people who style themselves as artists – I'd love it if we could get more in game maps for example, and you don't need to pick up a pencil to draw one of them on a computer nowadays. =-P Oh for sure – love your work, SH, you've done a massive amount of work to get the DM aesthetic in shape and we appreciate it. =3 I just cleaned this up and scanned it, was the second pic I started last night - trying to get an idea for a Crayman's markings and crustacean spines on his shoulders / joints.

Definitely better - looks like it's still gloomy but the "safe" areas are shown up with the light better!

Oh wow, thanks Melan - I am going to post a very careful Off Topic to ask for help in digging up the main campaigns / levels which inspire from the first three Thief games as I've not played ANY of them at all - and feel I'm missing out on some good ideas and level design! I didn't even know anyone made TDS levels until I came here. (Honestly I think it's a brilliant game only let down by the Xbox having a tiny 64mb of total RAM) You've already dug up a lot of great British Victorian / Squalour pictures there I see!

A forum poster here, GameDevGoro, is a pretty great digital artist and aspiring 3D modeller and game developer... http://baneofart.blogspot.com/ And it got me wondering if there were more doodlers in the woodwork here who might have something to share! For myself, I'm a very amateur sketcher trying to figure a way into digital stuff so I can at least be a useful concept artist and texture artist, without being discouraged. I'm kind of hoping to get a bit more into some Thief-esque pictures to help people visualise their levels a bit better in TDM. To kick off I thought I'd add a very quick sketch of a Crayman I doodled before nodding off to bed last night. So - please, if there's anyone out there who has some things to show off or who might be shy - come and post or set up your own topics to advertise or to offer your ideas!

Perhaps more relevant to Bridgeport than the canals - the subterranean rivers which might run through it and find exhaust in the Flooded Quarter: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subterranean_rivers_of_London I've been quite fascinated by the idea of all this irrepressible water pushing through the veins of a huge city. Anyway, maybe I should make my own thread for all these preoccupations! x-D Sorry, Sotha.

Oh, hey Solarspace! Was really impressed with the preview video (proof of concept) you did for End of Sun - actually made me hang out on ModDB a lot and eventually come and register here to see how people got to working on a mod. Yes - I honestly have found the plain TheDarkMod.com "shopfront" to be a bit dull and offputting - and thought a specific devblog might attract more players.

I think the box is the simplest solution - the player is "trained" to investigate such objects - and when he realises they are a way of moving the plot forward it will become natural to seek them out within the FM.

Yes they are heads on spikes! Us English do love our heads on spikes - can't get enough of 'em! The main reason that such a bridge didn't get rebuilt was because it was a titanic, deadly fire hazard - with thousands of people dying on it in one incident. =-P In addition because the foundations were so large and low - it got in the way of larger vessels moving up and down the Thames - which was of course a problem for traders! Man now I'm looking up more odds and ends - I've lived in Birmingham and Liverpool which are industrial cities - and most of the cool stuff is gone but sometimes in England you get wonderful glimpses of the narrow streets and the canals which were the lifeblood of them years before the railways existed.

This is pretty encouraging - just last week I was wondering - for every person who joins the forums - how many people are attempting to play it without contacting anyone else. So I guess there are hundreds of users who play TDM as of the past few months? That's pretty darn great for a single player mod!

Hey there, HD! Nice to have you here - like you I'm not confident about mapping, but I appeared to show support and words of encouragement! Glad you persevered through the download - you'll be grateful to see I hope that most of the fan missions are less than 50 megs and some are quite tiny - so I hope you have an OK time getting started!

Ah! Seems obvious, now! Of course - that malleability is what I crave - so I don't feel "locked in" to a singular vision of the city. I'd like to imagine that one of the bridges is as dense as the original London Bridge... Imagine thieving your way along that!