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The King of Diamonds Info Summary: Your accomplice is in over their heads and needs your help. It's the end of winter and the streets are quiet. Taverns, city watch, graveyards and pipes... you might even encounter a diamond! Build time: about 6 months Type: City FM/Exploration Size: Medium Completion time: 30 mins - 3 hrs, depending on how much you're willing to explore! Download http://www77.zippyshare.com/v/Z1fZy41Q/file.html - Zippyshare https://www.dropbox.com/s/428jkpoi14544pd/kingofdiamonds.pk4?dl=1 - Dropbox Available via the In-Game Mission Downloader! Screenshots Notes This is my first TDM FM, it came about from me learning how to use the editor and all of its different features. No doubt, you may see the variance in quality between the FM's different sections. Have fun figuring out what I built first and last, hah. For the most part, I focused on exploration and interesting readables. You'll find that you can complete the main objective in about half an hour, if you know what you're doing and that's perfectly fine, but if you're not getting lost and exploring, you're missing out! Big thanks to Bikerdude for his help throughout the beta-testing phase of this FM - fixing a lot of performance hitches, putting some bells and whistles and introducing new spaces that allowed me to expand greatly on the FM's readables and objectives. Without those, and my beta testers' further suggestions, this FM would be decidedly more boring! Acknowledgements Mapping credits: Bikerdude - Re-visportalling half the map, SE Maketplace, Graveyard, Bell Tower, SW street, misc. Spooks - the rest. Readables: Spooks Voice work: Goldwell, Bikerdude, Spooks. Beta testing: Aosys, AluminumHaste, Goldwell, Oldjim, nbohr1more Lute songs from No Honor Among Thieves. Breath script from Business as Usual. Technical Info Version 1 Last Updated: 13/05/2016 This mission has a very open layout. Even though a lot of care was taken to ensure performance would be good, it's bound to fluctuate at long view-distances. If you have an average computer expect some dips to the 30s. You have my apologies for that.If you're having FPS troubles, try setting your LOD Detail menu setting to Low. Numerous objects will have their shadows disabled, which may improve performance somewhat. I also recommend typing tdm_lod_bias_changed in the console when you're in-game, just to make sure all LOD entities have been activated.This mission does not support localization out of the gate.This mission requires TDM version 2.0.3.FAQ Stuck somewhere? I've some hints for you in the FAQ section. Enjoy playing and remember to be kind to Birdie!

An issue worth mentioning I'm sure others have observed: When reading a readable, subtitles of nearby AI can cover it and make it harder to read the text. Can be quite annoying, would definitely layer them behind readables and the inventory menu and so on.

What do you mean by 'transparent'? You mean filter them out? If so you can already do that from the 'Filter' menu item at the top of the screen.

The devs didn't title this thread, and @datiswous said they're attempting to mislead people by using Russell's name and a retro style to make it resemble Thief, which is cynical. I grew up on forums like I'm sure anyone who likes a game from '98 did. I actually left the Discord immediately after joining it because it was more off-topic doom-posting than anything relevant to the mod. I thought the forums might be better, but it's mostly just grown men yelling at clouds and telling strangers how mature they are, and a few brave souls actually developing anything. Depressing place, I'll just stick to enjoying new missions every 6 months without an account.

True, but, 1. this thread is called "Western stealth FPS with Stephen Russell", and, 2. nothing you said changes anything for me. The gameplay still doesn't look like something I'd enjoy. And, if you really think this forum is cynical, then you don't visit forums much. Actually, the majority of the users are are pretty mature, unlike in other forums.

New version is up. Here's what's new: A high quality version of the intro video Subtitles made by datiswous Kingsals new footstep sounds (from his excellent Volta missions) are included (with his permission) Background image and ambience (music by Gigagooga) in the main menu The climbable vines were made more noticeable Removed the absence markers from all the loot. Guards wont be seemingly randomly alerted anymore Better textures in a few selected places Some model updates/improvements made by Bikerdude 3 new hidden loot items A lot of unnecessary files where removed from the package A lot of smaller fixes

I have the same problem too, and I also have a Radeon card. On Linux, however, instead of a black screen, it produces a bunch of colored artifacts obstructing view on the menu. I'll try both test versions and see the results1000

How about using TDM automation framework (and maybe pcem/qemu)? More info see: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/19828-automation-features-and-discussion/

Got to try it out with an older FM: Very nice stuff to see! Looks good for the most part: If anything I think there are a few issues with certain punctuation making sense... other than that, only change I'd like to see is a more stylized dialog box instead of a flat background, still black and transparent and subtle but better themed and maybe using a more appropriate font.

People who don't like them can disable them and leave only Story subtitles On. I think we should move all the "(sign)" and "(clear throat)" to Effect level and add one more level to the menu. I definitely don't need to see them on my screen. Finally, some volume cutoff is needed I think. The problem with implementing it right now is that the engine does not determine effective volume. If you look at alpha of location ring (which is volume based), it is very different in the New Job conversation (about girls behind inn). I hope to fix this in some future...

We didn't make the holidays (such a busy time of year) so here's a New Year's gift, an unusual little mission. Window of Opportunity Recover an item for a regretful trader out in a wilderness setting, and discover more! Available within the in-game mission downloader or: Download: http://www.thedarkmo...ndetails/?id=79 Alternative: https://drive.google...WTMzQXZtMVFBSG8 Some unorthodox gameplay on regular/ghost difficulties. (Arachnophobes might prefer short mode...) Please expect to need your lantern in regular and ghost modes! Short ("easy") mode is a smaller map, so if you are looking for areas others reference below, or 100% of the loot, you'll need to play on another mode. I wanted to create my first mission before I became influenced by too many others' ideas, and limited myself to what has been done before. As such, this mission is not set in a city/town, and has some features that are likely to be provocative. There's a section some really like, which others don't, either way I kept it short to not last too long. That being said, I hope you do find it fun! :-) Special thanks to those who provided valuable testing and feedback: Goldwell, Kyyrma, plotzzz, 161803398874989, PPoe & Bikerdude (who also contributed a sound). (Please remember spoiler tags to not expose things meant to be discovered by playing.) Like so: [spoiler]secrets[/spoiler] If you are having trouble finding the main objective, here's what to pay attention to in the mission for hints: There is a spot it's possible to get stuck on the ground in the corner by the cliff/rockfall where there's a rope laying on the ground, please take care if you poke around there!

Its not that people are dismissing the game because of lack of shouldering, but rather a combination of things. That would be a real argument that the following occurs; 1. People don't know how to keep from making noise when moving stuff around (holding creep). 2. People don't know when black jacking works and when it doesn't (general options menu toggle). 3. Blackjack hits overhead stone overhead archway or wooden foundation (was fixed). 4. Picking up a blackjacked guard should be easy and players should know how to do it right away (new). 5. Not know how to extinguish candles and lanterns (easier and new). 6. Not knowing about general gameplay tips specific to missions (new). 7. Not being able to use favorite addons together (new). 8. Being able to know how much loot is left in a mission and mission stats like stealth score mid mission to properly ghost w/o too much spent on replaying parts of a mission (pending and in a addon). 9. Guards either searching for the noise disturbance for too long, or giving up too quickly and thus making some small missions either really tough for small mistakes or far too easy to get through (difficulty changes proposed by some). Many of these are not fixable without a global tip system for first time players, a expanded tutorial mission, and quality of life changes (a general gameplay change is not always about accessibility, options and cvars exist for that reason, but sometimes its about making it so that a button press should do what most players intentions aim to do, 95% of the time.

I think it should be a menu option, or else someone will open a new bug report in a few months asking that we switch back again.

I did play Thief and FMs, but I don't play it any more, except for major things like Black Parade. The clunky movement and antiquated Dromed editor is what discouraged me from interacting with it over the years. I regularly play and sometimes make content for TDM, because it has much better movement model than Thief. I know that most missions don't use it well, but if you construct your geometry (gaps, ledges, distances) using power of two measurements, movement and mantling feels fast and snappy. There's no need for regression in that regard, in my opinion, there's a need for assets and missions made with the movement model in mind, to showcase its strengths properly. Even if TDM originally intended to "simulate the stealth gameplay of Thief, many things will be familiar to veteran Thief players" the actual mod history was a bit different. The team came up with a mission platform that has its own identity when it comes to mechanics. The way assets were made might have been a huge mistake, but that didn't prevent the platform from growing. Since you like anecdotal evidence, noone other Skacky once said that TDM movement model was super clunky, after playing The Painter's Wife. It was really hard to convince him that if a mapper places geometry this poorly, and isn't aware what spatial measurements play to the strengths of a movement model, no movement model will save his mission. And there is no fixing of this problem on the engine side, although it's not the first time when TDM team tries to address the asset problem with engine changes, which I suspect will ultimately lead to even more problems down the line. In game development, things like core mechanics and player tools are locked-down first, in one of the pre-production phases, because all the levels will be constructed around them. Making changes in core mechanics in a project this mature is very risky, I assume you don't plan on going through all playable spaces in all released TDM FMs to check for errors. Instead of making incremental changes in fundamental mechanics, I'd encourage you to create a fork, or some kind of major version bump candidate, like 3.0, where all things could be revamped: movement, player tools, UI, new frob mechanics, perhaps with UI contextual icons, new training map to incorporate all that, etc. Once all new elements fall into place and create something new, with a map or maps to back it up as relevant changes, it will be easier to convince existing player/author base that it was worth it. I assume the existing fanbase is already fragmented, as a result of all those heated discussions around the topic. But with multiple versions available for download, the transition to hypothetical "TDM 3.0" should be easier. It could be similar to UE2 and UE3, and you could also use this as an occasion to draw the line for backwards compatibility. I know there are old systems and variables kept in place just in order not to break existing missions. This way you could e.g. redo the LOD system, implement lights using math functions instead of textures, etc.

Black Parade is released ! https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=152429

Yes, the description is somewhat unclear. When it says "The in-game downloader might show something different than the main menu.", I don't perceive that as a problem. Sorting a list by titles (articles last) is one thing; presenting the full title (with article first) is another. And they serve two different purposes: * When presenting the title in a list along with other titles by other authors, I would want to put more emphasis on functionality, usability and the overall presentation of the list as a whole. It is in everybody's interest that the list is functional and neat. * When presenting the title by itself, I would want to put more emphasis on the author's wishes. I think the web page and the list on the wiki should follow CMOS too, for the same reasons. By the way: the web page (https://www.thedarkmod.com/missions/) has a column "Type" which has values "S" or "C" but it does not explain the difference. Does anyone know?

I've been asked to post about the increased mantle speed in 2.12 as some folks have been curious about the change. After a lengthy internal discussion along with testing and input by several mission authors, it was agreed internally to increase the mantle speed. But during 2.12 beta testing, we would like feedback on any bugs or issues that you find. The reason for the change was to address feedback from players that mantling was "painfully slow", "slow and clunky", "mantling sucks - it's just slow", and so on. Several mission authors supported making mantling faster, and so the dev team decided to tweak the mantle speed. There were multiple implementations with the final implementation being a compromise. Also, the dev team studied some parkour techniques to ensure that the mantle phases and timings were good enough. The changes include: The original mantle phases were kept as that is what longtime TDM players are used to, and only the duration of some phases were reduced. Changed the pull animation so that it has both acceleration and deceleration rather than just deceleration. Tweaked the swaying back and forth a bit to work better with the increased speed. When the player in forced into the crouch position at the end of a mantle, crouch near the end of the mantle rather than the beginning in order to remove the sudden "dip" of the player's view. A majority of dev team members were against adding a menu setting, so being able to toggle between the old and new mantle speeds will not happen. It is recommended that you try out different "Mantle Roll" values as some prefer "0.1" and others prefer "0.5". We hope you all enjoy this adjusted mantle speed, especially the overhead mantle, which is now more consistent with the other mantle types. Bug tracker: https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=6343

Beta 11 Fix finished-on state auto-update was unreliable Slighty improve scanner title/author detect Tags are now named some whatever regular-version-looking thing to force GitHub to put the newest at the top

Change the subtitle setting from Story to On in the audio menu. You will now see subtitles for standard AI greetings / barks.

Please look into The Black Mage. Look out for the following entity names (not inventory names): white_plate_flex (this is the item to be picked up) white_plate_fix (this is the item that will show up once (1) has been frobbed on (3) white_system (this carries the used_by and used_action_script information) The name of the action script in tbm.script is "whiteblock". Entity class of (1) must be a key. For reasons unknown it does not work with custom_object entity classes.

I just downloaded the latest beta version of the Dark Mod right now and by starting this specific FM: Iris, I get this black screen with the music and ambient sounds in the background, but no picture showing. I was only able to get to the mission briefing page showing the objectives of the mission and then by clicking on "Objectives" It takes me to a black screen. What is causing this issue? My other fan missions work just fine, I tested out other ones, so it's not my game. Could be this is a broken fan mission?

Can't understand why GPU behavior depends on monitor. Maybe test all the configurations in Windowed mode with exactly the same resolution? Perhaps with Borderless/Fullscreen you get different resolution and it affects how much VRAM you have. In fact, WDDM also reserves some VRAM for itself in order to render Windows desktop. It means that there is different amount of VRAM left for TDM (which usually does not matter unless you are very low). Maybe try to set Windows display resolution the same and check if two monitors behave the same? Also I agree that image_downsize is worth a try: it should reduce VRAM demands of TDM. Same for lowering "Render Scale" in the graphics menu and disabling antialiasing. You can also try some software which tracks amount of VRAM used, maybe you get some insights from it.

I think one of the benefits is that you can control the ambient sounds in the menu, in separate slider from the regular sounds (speakers). Another benefit is that the sound will play the same everywhere, while speakers only get louder based on proximity. Speakers are usually more suited for crickets, dog sounds, tavern sounds, running water, steam leaks, etc.

Thanks, that would be one of the issues down. Could you also make it so when both creep and run are set to toggle, toggling one on also turns the other off? This way whenever you come out of running or creeping, you know you'll be back to walking instead of jumping straight to the other mode. Currently creeping blocks running entirely, you need to manually turn it off before the run toggle works at all which can be inconvenient if want to just jump to the mode of the key you pressed. I've always wondered if the HUD and menu graphics could be modernized to be a little more high resolution: We could surely have a nicer looking lightgem, one that actually looks more like a gem and maybe makes light level even clearer. I've tinkered with the HUD and could technically look at it, but I'm working on several projects now and don't even know for sure what changes would be accepted in vanilla. Hope someone else can provide more feedback and maybe take a look! Can't say I'm a big fan of the current crouch indicator in general: It's two decorations on the side of the lightgem that stretch to the bottom of the screen, makes the point clear but looks kind of ugly. I can't readily think of anything else that wouldn't be distracting though. Normally we could use an icon indicating posture as a silhouette of the person, but that might be too large and distracting and modern looking... the later issue can be fixed by making it more like a symbol carved into a rune.