simplen00b

General hint: Specific hint:

Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh *hops up and down in excitement* Looks like this could be a real help - I've been messing around with tunnels for weeks now, and still haven't worked out how to do branching off/intersections. (Mind you, haven't made things easy for myself. Nice wide-open regular tunnels? Nah. Tight, cramped, winding around like an umbilical cord on LSD? Yeah baby. 'Cept it's mind-blowingly hard keeping everything together. Ah well.) Loads of RL stuff on at the mo so dunno when I'll get the chance to look at it, but I'll let you know when I do.

Dunno if it'd help, but have you posted your system specs anywhere? I've got a fairly powerful set-up and I got some sudden frame-rate drops but it doesn't sound like that's your problem. (S'hide uses a lot of moving-shadow lighting, which I love but can be a real frame-rate killer IIRC.) Anyway, just wanted to say I've finally completed the mission (on easy) and - WOW. The moment when the final challenge kicked off was one of the most jaw-dropping moments I've had in any - well, I was going to say FM but I think I could say any Thief mission, period - and I found I needed some pretty Thief-y skills to get round. More than made up for the earlier frustration, although after exploring one avenue fruitlessly, I did use a spoiler to find out where to go - it was hard enough to get around knowing where I was going, let alone stumbling around cluelessly. After some consideration, I voted 'Excellent' for gameplay, which may be over-flattering given my earlier outburst, but the frustrations really were outweighed by the good stuff (I'd say I had similar frustration levels with Heart of Lone Salvation, which I also loved despite the difficulties). Voted 'Excellent' for appearance - the only thing that stopped me voting 'near perfect' was that the fog effects especially got a bit too much at times (especially in crouch mode, which is my default position a lot of the time). Voted 'Good' for story - really liked the whole background ambience of the place gradually being consumed by pagan evil, but at the same time it didn't feel like I could much about it except get out before the whole place went down . Maybe we should have a collection of spoilers for key-hunt-haters so they can do all the legwork as quickly as possible and then enjoy the final section. It really is quite amazing. I know S'hide says he's never going to make another one. I really hope he changes his mind.

Thanks demagogue. Very gracious response to my venting. I had clambered around but not seen anything. I'll give it another go tonight. In reflection, I think it's to the game design's credit that it took me this long to get frustrated (and if that doesn't win me Most Back-Handed Compliment of the Year Award, nothing will). I normally hate searching for levers and stuff with a vengeance and just give up, but this one didn't feel too difficult and I was trotting around it quite happily. I just felt like (warning: incoming self-justification) I had got this wonderfully wrapped present (espec. given a comment that the best stuff is at the end) and I was starting to peel off layer after layer of lovely wrapping paper and it was all coming off beautifully and I was just getting to the very last layer when - I had to stop and go into town to buy the right pair of scissors cuz that was the only way to take this layer off and I didn't know where the scissors were and - yeah, well, anyway. Will probably edit earlier post to make it less of an assault on the eyeballs for unsuspecting forum browsers.

Re no 1: I'm guessing it's but I could be wrong cuz I don't have that lever. Where did you find it? No. 2: No 3 I'm stuck on too. 'Fraid I'm struggling to enjoy this now - I felt like I was on a real roll: NO. NO. NO. Do not tell me, now, at this climactic moment of excitement, that I have to go and find another wretched key. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry for shouting*, just really disappointed. Up till now this is probably the only key hunt FM I've ever played that I've actually enjoyed, but this has killed it for me, for this session anyway. Just wish I hadn't been allowed to get this far without picking up everything else that I needed to pick up (I know, easier said than done). I'll go and calm down and come back to it tomorrow. Sorry again. *Edited to reduce typographical impact of my venting

+1. Visually, it's one of the most atmospheric missions I've played - so much so that I don't even mind that it's a bit of a - getting the sound levels adjusted would make the atmosphere even better. Pretty sure I've knocked everyone out (yes, I know, but I thought I had got everyone earlier and then a guard appeared from nowhere) but even so, some sounds are still LOUD - the pagan-light in the basement has made me jump a couple of times when it's got too close, and when I in the dining area, there was a sudden and unnervingly loud, er, roar? Growl? Dunno what it was but it was freaky. Climbing up that hole from the basement was tricky but I found did it. Wasn't easy, but, hey, I like a mantling challenge, which is why I was SO PLEASED to get up here: and, yes, I did find the little reward for doing it. I dunno, maybe the gameplay will suddenly totally nosedive and I'll want to throw my laptop through the window, but for now, I'm happy exploring.

Still playing - gameplay's fine so far, although I think I was pretty lucky to find my stash and the lock box key so quickly (well, fairly quickly) - but already pretty sure I'll be voting excellent for appearance. Beautiful lighting & texturing, IMO.

Just installed it and booted it up to check it works, and I just want to say first off that I love Shadowhide's lighting. Minor glitch: my room-mate's head doesn't highlight when I frob him. Which is a really weird sentence to write. Anyway, looking forward to exploring, but may not be until tomorrow.

Language is a wonderful, wonderful thing. Sometimes I genuinely marvel that any of us are able to understand each other at all. (When I say 'us', I mean, not just on this forum. I mean any human beings, anywhere.) What was this thread about again? Oh yeah. Hitting people on the head. Jolly good. Carry on. As you were. (etc etc)

:blush: :blush: :blush: sorry

Aha! My analogy is so utterly brilliant no-one outside the UK can understand it (and possibly no-one inside either). Drafts = checkers (http://www.draughts.org/) Noughts & crosses = tic-tac-toe (http://www.wirral-mbc.gov.uk/OnlineGames/OsAndXs/OsAndXs.asp) UK & US - two countries separated by a common language, as I believe (i.e. just googled) George Bernard Shaw said.

This is probably a really rubbish analogy, but I'll offer it anyway: Blackjacking in T1/T2 = draughts Blackjacking in T3 = noughts & crosses (I'm a fan of T3, BTW - it introduced me to the Thief universe and I'll be forever grateful - but it really does hand BJing to you on a plate) Blackjacking in TDM = chess TDM was designed to be 'harder' than Thief. That's the way it is. It doesn't make it 'elitist', just more challenging. Doesn't mean chess is 'better' than draughts, either. Just a different game.

His Celtic and Folk collection sounds really promising - I could easily imagine Thatched Villagers, Folk Round, Duet Musette and Achaidh Cheide being played the background in a TDM inn.

+1, but after a quick clickaround on the website, I think this one may have some potential too: http://www.jsayles.com/music/4hands.mp3 A lot of his work sounds quite formal/regal, e.g. Elizabethan court music, which is probably where a lot of it comes from, and which could be useful if anyone's planning a TDM version of the . He says he's not a professional guitar player, but he's pretty darned talented. I thought it had been MIDI-sequenced on a computer at first .

My 2¢: - - Posting these kind of videos here on the forums is fine, just an extension of the 'Silly Screenshots' thread. They may even sometimes be helpful in giving mappers advice on how to avoid the glitch in the first place. - FWIW, I thought that, up until the glitch, the second video made the TDM AI look pretty good - they're quite relentless in their pursuit, and you're not completely safe even if they can't reach you. Be nice to see it in higher resolution with some sound. (Were the videos meant to have no sound or is it my settings?) - I assume the 'glitch' in the third video was the second poker player not noticing his team mate had been KO'd? If so, I'd say that's a gameplay issue (that TDM shares with the Thief series AFAIK) rather than a glitch, but other opinions are available .

Thanks ST - I found the stash pretty easily once I went back into the mission and I've just finished it. Voted Good/Average/Good - voted average for gameplay only because of the city area - even though it was pretty huge, it felt like there wasn't much to do except wander around rather aimlessly until I blundered across something. The police station area was much better in terms of gameplay - just think the city area could have done with more 'focus'. However, like Melan, even though the city layout was a bit rectangular, I thought you had put a good level of detail in and made it look good. So overall a good piece of work and a (mostly) enjoyable 2 hours & 45 minutes of gameplay. Many thanks!

Really enjoyed the police station - straightforward but satisfying, with enough info via the readables to keep me pointed in the right direction. The only actual glitch I came across was when Momentarily felt like I had come to a dead end in the sewers but once I realised I could I was away! I'm now in the city and unfortunately I'm finding it harder to keep motivated - I have no idea where I'm meant to be going and I feel like I've gone around the whole area and all I've found so far is but all there was just a bottle to get, and that was it. (I have a feeling I need to find some rope arrows - if I was meant to pick some up in the station, am I now stuffed? ) I I'll keep at it - if I still can't find anything I'll read the reply to rustmite's post above and see if that helps.

The original training mission looked great, but these look way better and I can't really work out why. New textures? Different lighting? No biggie, just interested.The second pic (the aerial view of the archery range) - did you get that view using noclip, or can you actually climb up there? (*spidernoob drool*) Love the moonlight on the spire.

I'm happy to put in $10 if it goes ahead

I'm not a fan of hand-to-hand swordfighting cuz I'm rubbish at it , but I don't think there's any point in taking it out of TDM (like RP says, the mapper can do this for a specific mission if he/she wants). There are plenty of other options to allow the player to fight 'dirty', and actually, my favourite way of fighting dirty involves zombies and the sword: The downside is, it doesn't work with guards cuz they just start chucking rocks at your head. The upside is, it works with zombies. Which is good. Hate zombies.

+1. Nightmarishly good.

Cool. I'll try to have a play around with them when I have the time (and energy) (darn these warm muggy nights ).

I thought decal creation would be similar to creating textures, but the Decals wiki page links to this tutorial which doesn't seem to have much to do with decal creation as far as I can see (but I may just be put off by how hugely complicated it looks). Is it really that difficult or is there a wiki page I've missed?

That does bring back some fleeting memories - unfortunately I couldn't play it for long as I'd get blinding headaches if I played for than 10 minutes . Ditto with this one: (To go massively OT for a mo: The lower the resolution in FPS games, the harder my brain finds it to cope - like I say, the above two made me feel physically sick after ten minutes play; Half Life, Dark Project & Metal Age gave me slight but persistent headaches when I played them (but Seven Sisters and the Rocksborough series barely bothered me), while Deadly Shadows and TDM give me no problems at all (except maybe for the occasional crawl through a air-ventaltion shaft). It seems to be very repetitive textures that kick it off.) Thanks for the memories anyway, STiFU. And I'd like to say you've done some seriously good airbrush work on your avatar .

I have literally just 'finished off' GladOS. Loved her final song. I started Portal 2 while I was still working my way through Portal, and - yeah...the P2 AI is OK. But it's a letdown after GladOS.EDIT: I see from Wikipedia that GLaDOS does turn up in P2.