RPGista

That is a must, for sure. There are many communities that are about sharing works like that, aproaching modelers and having them donating models for TDM is definetly a win win situation here, as they would also get to see their work being used on a large scale...

Its in there, just not that obvious to find i guess. Its a very nice feature, but i think many, like me, would also download from the web because you get to see screenshots and generally more info before you decide what to play.

The contest is due in a week, we'll have at least 4 missions then; plus Bikerdude is working on a quick build as we speak; I know of at least Sotha and Grayman are working on ambitious projects right now. If you count the Biker and our own, its more than one mission per month this year, so it's looking good!

I've actually been getting a strange crash, the screen will blink black a couple of times, and then will go black and freeze, most times coming back with an error message about how the graphics board was forced into an error but was able to recover. Once it took me to the blue screen and windows had to restart, not to damage the laptop... It only ever happens when Im working with DR, will investigate this further, because I didnt really take notes of all the messages. I'm also getting pretty much consistent CTDs when I highlight some specific light prefabs, when you spend too much time browsing the animation viewer, and when sometimes you try to use the filter options inside the model/entity browser.

That sounds insanely good! Does this mean that I WILL be able to play confortably, my own mission for example, without fps drops (oh, the irony)? Huge improvements in performance is exactly whats is needed for a good chunk of the players, and it's very nice to hear this is being worked on...

Brilliant tutorials, very well written and illustrated, once again. I really like the friendly explanations and the calm to explain each step with details. Thanks a lot.

Terrorists? Hardly... I was listening to a Noam Chomsky lecture the other day, from a while back, where there were questions to him about the revolutionary role of free information flow on the internet on allowing people to denounce, discuss and organize mass efforts to resist totalitarian policies and state agression (like Egypt, bypassing traditional means of international denounciation, and biased, unresponsive media corporations). He simply said that internet is a tool, and like any tool it can be used for legitimate uses like connecting people in a social struggle, or it could be used as a tool for opression and persecution, by states. We already know what states would like it to be, time would tell if people would actually allow them to turn what is essentially a free network into something they can control a lot better. There are already states that strongly limit access to internet and monitor what people use it for (China for example); I think we all can see why other states would like to have the same kind of power, even though they cant go all out like that, or they risk loosing legitimacy. Its not just about corporations telling them to do whatever is necessary to limit piracy online; the fact that people can organize themselves through it, and use it to spread information across the world in a massive, instantaneous manner, exposing state fraud, atrocities, intrigue (again, Wikileaks for example), and corporations secret communication, corruption, etc. Look at the humiliation they suffer whenever an internal document is publicly released. This of course makes internet a danger they cant afford to be left loose like that, I do believe this explains what we are seeing a lot better than simple "this is for security reasons, nothing you can do about it" propaganda.

Touché.

Whoa, suddenly the stakes are a lot higher! Joking, but thats awesome guys, sure we worked our a++++ off for its own enjoyment and for the community, but I dont think anyone will complain if they get a free game for it. Amazing initiative by you both.

They are however clearly better than they were before. I for one would love some more combat animations, but I do agree with Springheel that some other animations are also very much needed. Natural things like weaving someone goodbye (you could use in a triggered scene), sleeping to your side in fetal position, woman brushing hair, AI weeping, random body expression movements for AI in conversation (moving your hands about, etc), wearing a shield, throwing a spear... Kneeling down (could use some work), tripping while running from the player, praying, taunting, hammering, sculpting, mixing potions, all those come to mind. Basicly any new animation that add richness, perhaps even rather than improvement at this point, would be welcomed IMHO.

Looking good, but dont show your plans, people will see all the hidden content! I like the darker textures and the passageway underneath the building.

Well, big brother systems wouldnt be much of a problem if we werent living under the opressive states we are right now. Consider what happens when you denounce atrocities from a major superpower, which has a lot of vested interest in that war; the person who leaked the material is locked up for life, if not executed; the person who posted on the public forums, is being persecuted around the world by more than one state (the Wikileaks case). As far as I can remember, american people has been heavily agaisnt all the wars I have witnessed their governments getting them into, and possibly dont even know how many their government is fighting "for them" right now. In Brazil politicians routinely gather together to discuss and raise their own salaries, and the ex-president (Lula) would travel the world prasing Brazil's immense natural richies and conservational efforts (amazonia, etc) while their government opened to doors to free exploitation, and was actually at the very same time the worst environmental offender both in absolutes and proportional terms, in the world (industry caused it, of course, not the people). American people didnt create a morgage bubble which sent the world into a crisis, portuguese, greek, spanish people didnt create any debt, in fact all they ever do is pay rivers of money in taxes; the governments and institutions did. I've been getting the feeling that whoever believes that their governments are out to do anything other then perpetuate their own self interest, and that of their true constituency (the private sector interest that actually put their food on the table), is not really looking. I used to pay very little attention to politics, but now it seems to me that this is an urgent thing to do. (Sorry about the rant, been reading one too many articles on the subject).

7up - No prizes, not really. And yes, so far it's me, Xarg, Jysk and Serioustony I think. Xarg - Watch out my friend, the contest is actually on the 12th (according to the first page).

Siyah, its possible he has WIP/map pieces that he is planning on adding to the mission? Either way, it does sound like an awfully short time... In this case, I would be more interested in a very specialised mission gameplay, something like Sotha's suggested warehouse with emphasis on acrobatics (climbing structures, crates), or a small but tense patrol network, etc. Why not develope that Quake 3 mission further, perhaps?

Well, not to be overjealous here, but since Bikerdude has volunteered to beta-test most of the contest missions, if you decide to release a mission before ours and since you have inside information, than I think there should be no repetition of style, general technique and/or storyline with what we are doing, so as to not lessen any of the possible contestants themes or map choices. Just a discretion thing, I guess, since its going to be pretty close.

I think the combat thing is a mix of the combat mechanics/method and the fact that the legs must be independent from the torso - the method of combat chosen (and very well chosen, in my opinion) is the frontal duel where you need to have the enemy in front of you in order to have any chance to block his varying attacks, so he conveniently stops in front of you for the exchange to happen. Thats how you see what is their weakest point - they will run to you, stop and begin to attack, but are sometimes quite slow to acknowledge your strafing and will look stiff there for a second, before pursuing you again, when they will run to you, stop, and begin attacking again. This is a needed convention, for a formal "mouse" duel where there are different angles to attack and defend, its just not the most dynamic looking mechanics (still, the most enjoyable for me, the worst being hack and slash diablo style). In comparison, the zombies are pretty problematic to fight in the beginning (I suspect most people dont ever try to fight them) specifically because they have fully animated charge attacks, that works across a distance. So they wont stop in front of you to attack, they will charge a blow soon as your in range (they have pretty good timing too), which makes them hard if your used to the human enemies (they are however, still easy to take down if you have space and a little energy to spare (by running in and out)). If you were to have the formal duel behaviour mixed in with certain animated actions like that (a certain animated charge attack, or a hit that makes the soldier fall and get up, or a dodge of some kind, if available in that archive), then it could get even more interesting, though I'm ignorant to the work involved, which should be considerable of course. But awesome effort there Arcturus, you seem to have opened a very promising door for the mod!

I also like the description a lot, its complex, has texture and is creatively based on knowledge of history (which makes it 10x more interesting in my eyes), after the competition is done, if you feel the need, count me in for contributions, maybe with space sketching/conceptualisation or even models (will invest more on it in the near future). Looking foward to hear your progress.

Indeed, there is a use that would justify this completely, you could have a debriefing story that concludes the plot of your mission with what could be texts or pictures, enhancing the dramatic impact of whatever that story or feel might be. It was done successfully in Above the City and A Score to Settle, but a simple "briefing" would be a lot less expensive to create than an animated movie, specially for not so advanced mappers.

A late inspiration picture Artist Jeremy Russel

This answers all of the variables, thanks a lot!

I need to make a door suddenly and visually fall, anyony knows how to achieve that? And how to play a custom sound exactly when it hits the ground ( i dont mean a model sound, but actually some triggered speaker)? I cant seem to find information on adding and limiting speech of a particular ai to a couple of custom sounds, would that be easily possible? Any research on acuity levels (besides Springheel's experiment)? Im getting inconclusive results...

Ok guys, I have my briefing all figured (story) out and Im working on the images, its going to be a button controled animated briefing, I tihnk Im getting how it works so far but I havent found anything about sounds and music timed with the images and/or one after the other or looping. In fact, this is what I wanted to know: I want soundtrack A to start as soon as the briefing start. After its done, another should play on a loop, until the player is done with the briefing, would that be possible?

Exactly, thats a beautiful way of putting how it is mostly about the need to express your creativity, and to feel that you can relate to others through this creation, rather than anything else. I think this relation that Deadbite, Melan, Grayman and demagogue talk about is the main force driving anyone to any creative role. I speak for myself, but I guess many would agree, that in artistic creation it is more about actually saying something, and producing a fragment of your imagination or emotional realm, than necessarily having that product experiencing success (not that it isnt important or rewarding). The reward is often the product itself, and the proccess of conceptualising and giving form to that something, and in the end, the feeling someone might just relate to and identify himself with it. In this sense, the mod has been a great success, like many have said, and its still growing. What deadbite says is a very valid point, however. There's a vast group of people who just wants to play and enjoy themselves. Only a handful will actually feel the need of contributing with their own vision, creating their own fantasies. This is not good or bad, but I think its a different issue, people who contributes to the mod itself, and people who contributes with their own maps and stories. I think mostly what we want is people to come out and start using to mod and all its tools to produce their own stories, and realise the vision of a fleshed out TDM world full of spaces, people and situations. In this case I see why "default" missions (=the campaign) would be desirable, providing the standard for what this world actually is and how it could be expanded, which I assume happened to Thief and every other modded game, how could I improve this story, or how could I elaborate on this or that. This is not to say the mod is doomed without a campaign. My guess is even a set of "getting started" maps would have this effect, of guiding you into knowing the universe of the mod and relating to it in a more personnal way than just jumping from one mission to the other without little context (which is what happens when you first get the mod and wants to discover it, what is offers). Maybe you guys could consider having a number of linked maps that would form this introduction, you already have at least two very interesting demo maps that could easily be patched inside the mod and conduct the newcomer through the TDM world as a starter - Thief's Den and Saint Lucia (heard something about even others). This is not to say its the mod's fault by any means, its just the way its structured and how it works, but one must admit that whenever you find yourself looking through a list of missions and choosing which one to play next, you are in a limbo of immersion that could put people off before they get connected to what the mod really has to offer as a whole, and Im guessing connecting (with permission) a few well chosen missions for any occasional player to go through could be a good way of having him "hooked" and motivated enough to ask for more and to get to know the mod and maybe even feel tempted to actually create something himself.

Music to my ears, man... And those images look fabulous, I'm sure this will be another immense hit, the attention to detail is amazing. Above the city is groundbreaking as a FM, pretty sure this one will be too. Tels - release that map to the community, dont hang on to it, you greedy! Joking... As for the lights, good work guys, but dont forget that, far as I know, non shadow light will "leak" through walls and shine over surfaces facing it inside its radius, wherever they are (unless Im wrong?); in which case, Sotha's solution would need to be on the outer limits of the map, or have a very small radius in order to be consistent.

Its alive, its alive! Great progress...