simplen00b

Welcome Ken. From personal experience - if you've never played a stealth game before, you may have a bit of a learning curve ahead of you, but stick with it and you'll be rewarded with one of the most immersive game-playing experiences around. Start with the training mission (duh), then the recommended newcomer missions (The Crown of Penitence, The Outpost, The Parcel, and Too Late; I'd also add Special Delivery). If you haven't already checked it out, the wiki page on Dark Mod gameplay may be useful (I'd definitely recommend the sections on combat and AI - it'll give you an idea of what you're letting yourself in for!) Seriously - I think TDM's glory days are still to come.

Just played through on easy level - and for the first time ever in a TDM FM I've got 100% of the loot!! Woo-hoo!!! So thanks for that, ST - likes/dislikes/etc as follows: - Likes: 1) The sound ambiance - just having the wind on the outer sections gave it a great atmosphere, and the music generally worked very well. I thought the cellar level music was the best; for the upper levels I was more aware of the music repeating (although it never got annoying) but the cellar level music combined music and ambiance really well, if that makes sense. 2) 3) 4) Had to check the forum to put the last piece of the puzzle into place, and my first thought was - at which point ***CLANG*** the penny dropped, some of the readables suddenly made sense, and really, given the set up, I realised the solution is actually quite satisfyingly logical. I was just fixated on looking for 5) Having that little 'debrief' scene at mission end. (Just to go OT for a moment; I'm with Pusianka in finding the 'Mission complete' music a bit jarring/cheesy, and at some point I'll have a go at coming up with something I like)(and that everyone else will find jarring/cheesy ) 6) Good AI mapping - having them be able to turn lights on gave me a scare but meant I had to keep on my toes! 7) Some seriously awesome textures - these were one of my faves: so yummy I could eat them (if they're standard TDM fittings, then kudos for making them look so good; I've never noticed them before). (EDIT: Just gone into jysk's FM and suddenly seen them there too, so I've probably seen 'em loads of times without noticing them ) Loved this scene too: (I would put more up but I've reached my upload limit .) Dislikes 1) I actually wasn't keen on the key objective: it's purely personal preference but 2) Didn't seem to be much opportunity to climb around, but I'd guess that'll be a more advanced build (I notice both your and jysk's FMs avoid .) I did get up on a couple of roofs/ledges, but I got the feeling I wasn't meant to be there... Possible bug? I came across what seemed to be a bug with this guy All-in-all, ST, amazing work for a first build - really looking forward to what you'll come up with next!

Been playing it for about an hour now - don't think I've got very far, just been loving the atmosphere (I'm a sucker for sea/waves ambience). Man, jysk, this is your first mission??? It looks fantastic, AND it's already let me do one of my fave thief activities of (after a fluffed k.o. attempt) running away and hiding. (And then coming out of hiding and doing the k.o. properly.) Serious Toni's FM was really well done for a first mission, but I'm already thinking this one's outdoing it. Serious kudos to both of you. Got a bit freaked out in the warehouse - - but don't tell me yet if I'm right, I'm looking forward to finding out for myself....

It's pretty much fine as it is; I'd just suggest some small tweaks: Aside from that, the city itself offers a lot of opportunities for a professional like me. Grimson's Bank has a branch here - on my way back, maybe I could pay it a visit. I'd need to be properly prepared for a job like that, but my fence can probably give me some useful information... I'm not too sure if I understood your last sentence so I may have misinterpreted it. Feel free to disregard this - like I say, it's good as it stands .

Yup!

Got there and finished. Great mission - finding the remains of St Alban was the only bit I wasn't too keen on: but everything else was great. Killed my first haunt in hand-to-hand combat ; the sewers were really atmospheric, and I must still have loads of places to explore as I was 3000 short of total loot. And being able to do that swing-vaulting thing - ....thanks again BD.

Return of the Jedi sounds like it may have been an interesting film if Gary Kurtz had had his way: http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2010/08/12/star-wars-was-born-a-long-time-ago-but-not-all-that-far-far-away-in-1972-filmmakers-george-lucas-and-gary-kurtz-wer/ Thou cannot serve both artistic integrity and plastic toy sales.

The silence of most of the jumping was a bit weird. (Don't make him too noisy tho...) There were lots and lots of times when I couldn't. I really liked the bits it looked like I was gonna fall but seemed to grab the strut at the very last moment. Climbing/mantling is one of my favourite bits of TDM, and when I saw that array of poles going across the cathedral, I knew I had to conquer them. Anyway - back to trying to find St Alban's remains....

Looking for the remains of St Alban and I got, er, distracted: http://youtu.be/iRt0cK0-7Ws I love it when FMs let me do this sort of thing. Thanks Bikerdude! (EDIT: Updated video link)

I didn't get any of them either - I thought "Is this some kind of arcane colour coding system?" I'm very tired and I'm going to go to bed soon....

Noob's Progress, or, What A Difference A Normalmap Makes Just playing around with Njob; the following all use exactly the same basic tga texture with different normalmaps: ....mmmm..... Erk. Easily the most striking texture I've got from njob so far, but looks too polished and synthetic for my taste... ...bit too blurry perhaps... ....I think this is my fave so far; quite similar to 03, but slightly darker. (On the off-chance anyone's interested, the odd filenames are my way of keeping track what settings I've used in Njob. dh=diffuse to height filter settings: fmcs=fine/mid/coarse/scale; hn=height to normal filter settings: t=traditional (Normal estimation - haven't used the crispy bacon or double layer settings yet),b=blur radius, s=scale. 0=far left of slider scale, 100=far right. Mostly using extreme settings at the mo to try and get a handle on how each setting affects the image. Still very early days though.)

No apology necessary - the only way my initial efforts were going to be good enough for the SVN was by huge amounts of beginner's luck. Really appreciate the fact that you've taken the time to look at my normalmaps, STiFU - unfortunately, I'm still at the stage where most of your comments about them make my brain go (if not ). I'll get there, I'll get there.....

Another sample of grungemanship what might possibly be of use for summink: - TDM-format files uploaded to http://minus.com/mKQmdKEUQ/ as whitegrunge01. Still pretty basic stuff but if anyone does find a use for it, do let me know . I would also like to state that I feel my level of architectural design compares very favourably with the recent offerings from fllood and Shadowhide. *Laughs hysterically for five minutes then collapses on floor sobbing.

Uploaded the mouldygold and scratchygold textures as TDM texture files (.dds, .tga, _local.tga, _ed.jpg) to minus.com if anyone wants to have a play with them: http://minus.com/mKQmdKEUQ/

Thanks for the thread-bump - missed this resource. *opens texturelib.com>brick>medieval *starts drooling Decision, decisions. Play around with tiling and texturing some of these pix? Carry on with Fidcal's A - Z? Or have another session in St Alban's Cathedral? (Gonna do StAC right now cuz want to unwind but F's A-Z will probably be main focus for next few days/weeks.)

Any chance of some links to stuff that would be useful? Argh. Have I just created more work for someone?

My first toddler-steps into the world of texture normalmaps below - not sure I could say I've been working on them, more just messing around and slapping them on a plain wall at the mo. The plaster ones are a bit meh but may have some potential; the scratchygold isn't a wall texture but I quite like it; and I don't know what the mouldygold texture is (but I really like it). However, what I'm going to work on now is doing all of Fidcal's beginner's A-Z instead of just page 1. From the sublime (Springheel) to this....

thankyouthankyouthankyou Sorted. Aside: Given my initial response to both of your replies was 'No idea what either of them are talking about', I think I'm going to have to bite the bullet and work my way through all of Fidcal's A-Z (instead of just page 1) so I have a larger frame of reference. I may be some time. *dons hard hat and stocks up on Kendall's Mint Cake

Me too - just not sure what to use it for yet... I just need a day in a derelict building with a camera and tripod. I have a sneaking suspicion that in the not-too-distant future I'll actually know what that means Well, I started off offering help with tiling and in less than two weeks I'm learning about normalmaps so who knows? (Really wouldn't hold your breath though. )

I'm trying to learn about textures/normalmapping, and to help, I've built a dead basic room (i.e. page 1 of Fidcal's A-Z) and put a torch on each wall so I can prepare the texture files and slap them on the walls; the idea being that I maybe start getting at least some idea of how my random tapping on values in the nvidia normalmap plug-in affects the output in-game. (I'm putting up any textures, not necessarily wall textures.) However, I seem to have problem with two of my walls, which is that no matter what texture I put on them, they show up as blown-up, blurry, low-resolution versions of that texture. The other two walls look fine. Hopefully this pic will give some idea of what I'm talking about: - This has the same texture on both walls, but the LH wall always comes out up blurry and blown-up no matter what texture I place on it. The two out-of-shot walls have the same issue - one looks fine, the other looks rubbish. Any ideas what I've messed up?

Just to say I have upgraded from my Intel integrated HD chip thing to a new laptop with 2GB nvidia GT 555M, and that when I voted with my Intel chip and said "TDM plays fine so far", what I should have said was "TDM runs fine because as far as my utternoob brain is concerned getting an average of 12-15fps is brilliant and I really don't know any better". I know the 555M is lower-middle range GPU-wise, but still - I'm now getting 50-60fps in areas where I was down to 3-5fps (**cough**GlenhamTowercrypt**cough**) and TDM has gone from looking really good to jaw-droppingly stunning.

There's something so cool about clicking 'PRESS ATTACK TO START MISSION' and seeing stuff you've done yourself. (Even when it's just a bare room from page 1 of Fidcal's beginner's A - Z.) Normalmaps, here I come! Bend before my mighty will!! Yield!! *goes and clicks nvidia photoshop plug-in settings like a half-trained baboon

Thanks guys. I'm mostly pleased with the fact that at least I now know where to put (basic) stuff so it works; the fact that the texture looks not bad is a bonus (can't see many missions needing walls lined with beaten scratched gold but you never know). I'm sure I'll get over it - I'm guessing this is just the first step of what may be a very long journey - but at the moment my brain's still doing this .

Ok - quick share to say that I've finally GOT ONE OF MY TEXTURES SHOWING IN TDM!!!!!! Here is my Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius: - Eidos!! I'm waiting for your call!!! etc etc *collapses from hugging himself too hard

Many thanks, STiFU - just done that, but I'll have a look at it myself first to try and eliminate any 100%totalnoob errors first. Then I'll post it so all the rest of my actuallythatisstill100%totalnoob mistakes can get fixed . [irony] Easy-peasy this 3D-modelling lark innit? [/irony]