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Mandrasola is a small sized map in which aspiring thief Thomas Porter steals some herbal products from a smuggler. The mission was created by me, Sotha and I wish to thank Bikerdude, BrokenArts and Ocn for playtesting and voice acting. Thanks goes naturally to everyone contributing and making TDM possible. This mission occurs chronologically before the Knighton's Manor, making it the first mission in the Thomas Porter series. Events in chronological order are: Mandrasola, The Knighton's Manor, The Beleaguered Fence, The Glenham Tower and The Transaction. The winter came early and suddenly this year. Weeks of strong blizzards and extremely harsh cold weather hit Bridgeport hard. With the seas completely frozen, a rare occurence indeed, most of the City harbor commerce has stopped completely. Vessels are stuck in the ice and no ship can leave or enter the City, resulting in the availability imported goods declining and their prices skyrocketing. One of these imported items is Mandrasola, a rare herbal product, which is imported overseas from the far southern continents. Mandrasola has its uses in alchemical cures and poisons, but mostly this substance is used for its narcotic qualities by commoners and even the nobility. The problem with Mandrasola is that excessive use is extremely addicting and the withdrawal effects are most grievious. Many are utterly incapable of stopping using Mandrasola and are transformed into quivering human ruins if they do no get their daily dose. And now this expensive and rare substance is running out from the whole City. Me and my fence, Lark Butternose, would love to grab this monopoly to ourselves: selling the last few doses in the City would probably be worth a fortune. According to Lark's sources, there remains only one smuggling lord who still has Mandrasola in stock. The problem is that this individual maintains an exclusive clandestine operation and only supplies a few nobles. Despite our best information gathering efforts we couldn't learn who the smuggler is and where he or she operates. Luckily we have an alternate plan. While searching for Mandrasola related information, we learned that a noblewoman called Lady Ludmilla is addicted to the substance and has paid high prices for small amounts of it. We also know that she has visited frequently someone in the Tanner's Ward waterfront, and since she goes to the area personally we believe she is visiting the smuggler. The plan is simple: I must monitor Ludmilla's most likely entryway to the Waterfront and then follow her to the smugglers hideout. I'd better be very careful around Ludmilla. She must not realise I'm following her or she probably won't lead me to her dealer. Hurting her is also out of the question. After she leads me to the smuggler's hideout, I can take my time to break in carefully and steal all the Mandrasola I can find. While I'm there it wouldn't be a bad idea to grab some loose valuables as well. I've now waited in the blistering cold for a few hours already. Looks like there are a few city watch patrols in the area to complicate matters... I think I heard a womans voice beyond the north gate. That must be lady Ludmilla, I haven't seen many ladies in these parts. I'd better get ready.. Links: Use the ingame downloader to get it. WARNING! Someone always fails to use spoiler tags. I do not recommend reading any further until you've played the mission.

In the following example (ws3), the subtitles are a bit more difficult to read: White: Yellow: Btw. your yellow pk4 still gives me white text, but the position marker circle is in yellow..

To cater to both audiences. I mentioned LibreGameWiki as one example. nbohr1more mentioned other uses. Explicitly allowing reuse and spread will help TDM reach a wider audience and would hopefully attract more volunteers. More volunteers which can help improve both TDM versions. There are several benefits for a project of being in the Debian repo. One is that TDM Debian-users can report defects on any package directly to Debian (no need to register on separate forums). Debian may then fix the issue themselves (in their "TDM-libre" package) and will offer the patch upstream to TDM, who can then choose to accept or reject the patch. I envision "TDM-libre" to have the same capability of downloading any mission as regular TDM. The only difference is that "TDM-libre" would come packaged with the regular engine (which is GPL+BSD) and an included mission that has libre media/gamedata. When I play TDM by myself, I want the unlimited-play and can accept commercial restrictions. But if I were to promote it somewhere, or charge for a stream when playing online, or make a video, I would want a version without commercial restrictions (and can temporarily accept limited-play) to make sure I don't violate anyone's copyright. Perhaps. That's what I'm trying to find out.

I suggest you use the term "I", to make clear that it is something YOU want, and that you speak for yourself. But, as wesp5 mentioned, I don't really know what this is about, at all. And, I'm also wondering about all the newly registered people lately, who just arrived at this forum, and already want to revolutionize this mod. This is a thing I noticed 2 or 3 years ago, and which hasn't been present in the 15 years I play this mod and frequent these forums now. Really seems like a common thing these days, to not knock on the door, but kick it in, and stomp right in.

TDM has tons of textures from "free" texture resources that do not allow redistribution and cannot be incorporated into a commercial project. Someone would need to create a huge replacement pack of textures that do not break the look of existing missions and do not infringe on the copyrighted textures. Also, many artists who contributed to this project do not want 3rd party entities to use their work in commercial projects. They intended the models, textures, sounds, animations to be exclusively used for Darkmod content. You would either have to replace ALL assets or contact every contributor and ask them to re-license their assets. Many contributors are no longer active with the project and haven't visited the forums in years so it would be no easy feat. I cannot speak to Debian policy but I think that they treat installers that add non-free content the same as non-free content itself. One could argue that Steam is such an installer but I guess Debian would counter that there are a few fully Libre games on Steam. I think Debian, Ubuntu, or Linux Mint need to consider a repo that allows for games (etc) that include non-libre content but intentionally offer this content for free to the community with no stipulations other than "don't try to sell it as a product".

The gamepad implementation allows for a great degree of flexibility to personalize settings, aside from a few minor issues that I mentioned here: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22337-gamepad-bindings/ I would say that playing TDM with a gamepad works very well, especially considering that it was implemented as experimental and hasn't been changed since then. If I could, I'd go back to 2021-you and congratulate you on buying that gamepad. I notice that your DarkmodPadbinds.cfg looks very different from mine...

It seems like more and more "thief" and "thief players" is becoming a short hand to dismiss community members earnest desire to improve the game - which happens to be a barely legally distinct "thief style" game which was made by thief fans for thief fans and is "designed to simulate the stealth gameplay of Thief". Who is the predominant player base of the game supposed to be beyond fans of the thief games? Is there some better avenue to find feedback for the game beyond this forum? FOSS and linux forums? I have seen maybe half a dozen posts from that segment. I am a thief fan, I play thief fms, my association with those games is what drives me to play and make things for this game. Are we supposed to pretend the original games are not a huge reason why most of us are here at all? TL;DR version:

Builder Compound Pack will help you create better environments for your Builder-themed map sections! The aim of this experimental package is to provide high-quality models, materials, and other assets that don't put a big strain on the idtech4 engine. This early version is slightly more bare-bones than I wished for, as some modular sets (e.g. the roof) proved to be too complex and unfit for general use. Don't worry though, the set will be updated and expanded in future releases. Tweaks – Arch door and arch with hinges models have been removed. They were just static models, not actual door entities, and they weren't super useful, e.g. hey couldn't act as visportal closing entity due to gaps and transparent parts. – Detail texture stage added to selected materials (mostly those you can get very close to). As you approach a surface, you should see a slightly grainy layer that enhances the details. New content – Door01 and door01_frame have been added to both models and entities. This is a basic door for this corridor section. By default, it's locked (with easy lock) and AI will notice if it's left ajar. You may want to disable the latter (set ShouldBeClosed to 0) if you have a section with many AIs and doors, as it will probably disrupt AI patrolling too much. The frame will work with walls that are 16 units thick. Both door and the frame will work with grid of 8 and smaller. You can use the grid of 4 to change the door position within the frame. Look for grooves in the frame model. First of all, launch the map to see a simple section that was made with these assets. Use the menu or type map bc in the console to start the map. Noclip though the north wall, if you want to get to the staging area and see all pieces used to make this section. General info and tips: Make sure you have Rotate func_* entities around origin (Ctrl+R) enabled (Dark Radiant top icons) to use models efficiently. All models have custom pivot / origin point placement to make them snap to grid and geometry really fast. If you have keyboard shortcuts configured for RotateSelectionX/Y/Z and FloorSelection, placing these models around the map will be a breeze. I also recommend having shortcuts for SelectNudgeUp/Down/Left/Right, so you can move models in ortho views without using a mouse. DR detects models in a weird way, e.g. if your model is one-sided, or has some faces turned back to the camera in ortho view, selecting and moving it around will be difficult. Using keyboard is often more seamless and precise. You can select a model in perspective view, and then move it around in X/Y/Z plane using keyboard. Optimal scale for tileable materials is 0.125. This provides good pixel density vs repetition. Materials are optimized to be used both with and without post-processing, and the default gamma of 1.2. In some cases, specular hotspot might look slightly overblown with post-processing enabled. Correct look without post-processing was the first priority. Same principles apply to using lamp. The main idea behind this set is that you can use simple brushes for walls and floors, and wall panels have proper offset, so you don't need to use special surrounding BSP behind them. You can place panels right where your walls are, and there will be no z-fighting or clipping. Assumed basic measure for a corridor is 192 x 192 (length / width), but you can go lower if you don't plan to use arches and metal doors. The smallest wall panel piece is 24 units long. Use brushes to create basic space, then adjust it to what you can make with wall panels (combinations of 24, 48, 96, 192 etc.). DR's measurement tool is your friend. Default grid for placing most pieces is 8, but it goes down with smaller / more complex models and setups. One special case is matching metal doors to arch with hinges, this needs grid of 2. That's a mistake on my part. I didn't think of better pivot placement until it was too late. The example map contains a "staging area" where you'll find grouped arch, hinges, and doors, so you can use that as a template. As per The Dark Mod license, you may modify this pack's contents, although I'd advise against it. Most textures are compressed in lossy DDS format and compressing them again will result in loss of image quality. If you want to make changes, need alternative versions of a model or material contact me first. I'll see what I can do. Last but not least, I hope you'll find this pack useful and fun to work with, as I had plenty of fun while making it I already have a long list of models and features to include in subsequent releases, but I'm always open to feedback and suggestions. Thanks! Credits: Springheel, Obsttorte, Spooks, nbohr1more, STiFU, Destined and other TDM Forum members: guidance, encouragement, and fruitful discussions Epifire: asset feedback and critique The Black Arrow: inscription texts Plans for upcoming releases: Corridor: - Fixing the wall panel collision model, so strafing along it isn't wobbly Done. - Roof modular set Done. - Making metal door an entity with proper sounds and open/close times. Done, made proper door instead. - Floor switch model/entity for metal doors - Window set Done. Roadmap: All work is on hold for now. I'm working on a small FM that will use some of these assets plus many more. Some of existing assets will get reworked too. All links are taken down, and I have no release date yet, sorry.

It is possible that this is a setting that needs to be activated to work: https://mantisbt.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=23221

I am going to sort-of reveal that this is loosely like the nature of my upcoming mission. I noted it here when JackFarmer asked about things that are coming along in this post: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/profile/37993-jackfarmer/&status=3943&type=status It too is a builder church. The player is requested by a hopefully famous character in another mission to handle some business that is affecting the congregation. I am looking to invoke some info and history laid down in other missions as a hook story.

I created the page: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Lightgem In the source I placed the following text: <!-- Page text made by forum user Fiver: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22327-how-can-i-create-an-account-on-the-tdm-wiki/&do=findComment&comment=491145 --> Personally I think the page isn't really necessary because the info is already present under HUD.

@Frost_SalamanderIf it is helpful, I have express permission from Marcel of cgtextures/textures.com that packaging his assets in a .pk4 is acceptable and at the time he was fine with packaging them in TDM projects: Also you mentioned not being able to use your images for just textures - do I take it this means you can use them as textures and within materials in the context of a mod - you just can’t package and release them as only textures correct? Lastly idtech 4 is an engine old enough it’s package files (.pk4s) can be opened with any archive software (would be difficult to mod otherwise). I will include your license information in my documentation if I ever get to release, but is there any special consideration I should give to packaging assets derived from your images in older game engines which lack modern security? The main thing I hope is to just ensure you include his license and that you do not distribute the textures themselves outside of the context of the fm. There is a bit of a slippery slope in that terms on the site have changed a lot over the years. The current licensing model finally seems to state that the photo ref textures are ok to use in "Scenes" for example, but for many years it stated it was only acceptable to use them specially in models. There are many many assets in core which are from this site, which were licensed under these much older terms: https://web.archive.org/web/20100818122748/http://cgtextures.com/content.php?action=license Ultimately if something is licensed, the terms can change. So buyer beware.

No worries. If you wanna try, it's not too difficult, especially with the v2 "presets". The tricky part is ensuring the location entity is inside the middle of an area and that location separators enclose the area. I've actually done this by editing the map file in a text editor and making the entities match locations of other entities like door handles for the separators and vases (etc) for the location. It's easier to do in DR if you are a DR veteran of course. https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Setting_Reverb_Data_of_Rooms_(EAX)

In the first post of the other topic Geep proposed: Then Stgatilov's answer: But I think applying subtitles in different languages shouldn't be too hard I would think, but I don't know how the current translation system works. The engine should apply the correct subtitles based on the applied language setting, this doesn't need a whole new language system I think. Not sure who's going to write those subtitles though. I can only do Dutch and English and nobody needs Dutch I think. I suggest further discussion of this to take place in topic https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/21741-subtitles-possibilities-beyond-211/

In the light of a post by Obsttorte, I am opening a dedicated topic for discussion: Some thoughts of mine, trying to keep existing mechanics in mind: The feature should work with regular, standard doors only: avoid sliding / custom / fancy-opening doors... Locked doors will stop you to a halt, obviously. The door-opening animation must be way faster, obviously. Because doors can open towards you, we will probably have to make doors frobable before their time (when running). Forget, at least for now, about "slamming doors close" when running. Not only it is difficult to achieve with the mouse and keyboard but it would make AI following you look clumsy (unless they learn to slam doors as well). Let's not think about "slam door sounds" for now. Current sounds perhaps work just fine. And now the fun stuff: To keep things simple, slamming a door open would make AI react just like if a heavy object was thrown to a non-carpeted floor in that point. AI that is right behind that door gets pushed away (if the door opens towards them, that is). What's important here is that nearby AI get out of your way. We can further elaborate the idea: On duty: AI gets pushed and fall to the floor but stand up right after OR AI gets pushed and goes into "flash-bomb" mode. Civilians: Random possibility for civilians to remain permanently knocked out on the floor? Undead: I don't know. Zombies get torn to pieces? Discuss!

Creating a new thread for this as it was being discussed in an old beta-testing thread starting here: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/21822-beta-testing-high-expectations/&do=findComment&comment=490751 I suppose the main questions are: when should this spawnarg be used, if at all? why was it introduced in the first place? Can we get it documented properly on the Wiki so misuse isn't propagated? @stgatilov @Dragofer

Congrats for the Release --- yoouuu Grazy Bastard and thanks for this hint at the beginning ! That you´ve changed the LOOT ! at first sight I thought it´s a Bug --- but I got distrusted - and checked the beta ! ooohkay - you deleted one of the most difficult --- and you added some new (for Beta-Testers ) that´s why there are 430 Saves , I realy searched every impossible Place But this new one is sooooo grazy !!! (thankfully I love to climb - and couse of your tip i searched for every wooden material ) [ for your Tip : this time i sneaked him several times ] and here is my only displeasure - invisible Platforms Completed = grrrrrr so the only chance - is to do it like intended ! (but I´ll keep the Beta - your rocks are so beautifull to climb ) And to force others !!! Supreme Ghost is possible !!! (easier than on my BetaRun) 1. The Hint 2. Things to bring back 3. Booty at end of happening Thanks I was enjoying (nearly) every minute of it

Outdoor areas can lag a bit because it's difficult to effectively visportal them. Indoors it's easy- just plop a portal in every doorway and hallway corner- but outside you have much bigger areas with longer sightlines and no obvious places to divide them.

Hello! Tracking down information on software and plug-ins that work with D3 / TDM can be a tough. So I have created a thread here where people can post what software/ plug-ins/ tutorials or other references they've had success or failure with in TDM. 3DS MAX 2013 64bit .ase - Default .ASE model exporter works. However you have to open the .ase file in text edit and manual change the *BITMAP line on each material to read something like: "//base/textures/common/collision" which allows the engine to read the correct material path. md5.mesh / animation - Beserker's md5 exporter/importers for 3dsmax. http://www.katsbits.com/tools, Importing and exporting works. The model must be textured, UV'd, with a skin modifier attached to the bones to export. PM me (Kingsal) for help with this. Imported models using the script will not be weighted appropriately, so this is not recommended if you are simply trying to edit existing tdm content. (Use blender instead) MAYA 2011 32bit md5.mesh - So far I've not had any luck with Maya 2011. I am using Greebo's MayaImportx86 for Maya 2011. I've got the importer working however I get a "Unexpected Internal Failure(kFailure)" and the import fails. This could be due to something finicky in Maya that I am not doing correctly. Will keep trying.. Blender 2.7 about - Blender is commonly used and pretty well supported on the forums/ wiki. Various versions may work as well - https://www.blender.org/download/ md5.mesh / animation Blender MD5 importer/exporter (io_scene_md5.zip): https://sourceforge.net/projects/blenderbitsbobs/files/ Sotha's guide Blender Male/ Female rigs by Arcturus - Here Edit by Dragofer: more links found in this post.

If any mappers have encountered weirdness with kill objectives not working with drowning AI, I think I've found out why. I don't think it would be a particularly difficult one to fix either. I've raised this bug report: https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=6323 Some context here: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/21837-fan-mission-the-lieutenant-2-high-expectations-by-frost_salamander-20230424/&do=findComment&comment=487316 I think this is a bug, but just raising here in case some people think otherwise.

Played Grounded difficulty a couple of times and could not get past the school in Bill's town. My first attempt I got stuck on first entry into the school. I couldn't sight the bow properly and I now think that was a glitch or a setting I couldn't figure out because this second attempt it worked normally. Oddly, whereas in easier levels I seem to get two uses out of each arrow, in Grounded it seems randomised and a new arrow might get 1 to 3 (more?) uses. I definitely got three uses. Anyway, this first area in the school took a lot of stealth takedowns every one of which needed a lot of trial and error because of the need to preserve ammo etc for the Bloater in the next area - and that's where I'm stuck. In lower levels, I always enter the gym with 3 nail bombs, 3 molotovs, and plenty of shotgun shells. I'd typically lob all or most of the bombs and molotovs at the Bloater right at the start and then run round like hell waiting an opportunity to blast it with the shotgun. In Grounded, despite HUGE effort to preserve resources, all I have left is 1 nail bomb, 1 molotov, and 6 shotgun shells. I also have just enough resources to make EITHER a health pack OR another molotov. That's when I discovered my health was near-zero! I gave it a lot of thought and decided I'd have to restore my health. So 1 bomb and 1 molotov. I knew this wouldn't work. Sure enough, I ran out of ammo pretty quick and died from a single hit. Has anyone ever got past this scene with 1 bomb and 1 molotov (on ANY level?) Presumably it must be possible because it seems impossible on Grounded to ever get enough resources to have more than 1 bomb (the one Bill gave me) and maybe 2 molotovs (the first one found on a corpse.) Believe me, I scrape the barrel for resources in EVERY scene and there is almost NOTHING anywhere! Every single bullet is precious. And almost no shivs so none ever to spare to open doors so how much resources did I miss that way? All I can think of is a crazy race run perfectly and never taking a hit and hoping to pick up dozens of shotgun shells from bare-fist punching of runners. This sounds near-impossible. (Although Bill did finally get off his fat arse and kill 4 infected in the final surge outside just before climbing that bus to get in the school. (I did that by racing around madly for a long time then suddenly forced to bare-fist a runner I was astonished to find it was the last one!) Maybe if I could survive by running round the gym he'd take down the Bloater? There are far more difficult battles beyond this so I doubt I'll bother.

I know from experience with Bloodlines that something like this will make finding bugs much more difficult, because if people use different mutators and then report issues with a mission, the mappers need to bear that in mind when looking for the reasons.

Looking at the code, the originals were "pm_mantle_pull 750" and "pm_mantle_pullFast 450". The new "pm_mantle_pull" value is "400". A "pm_mantle_pullFast" value of "450" would be slower than regular pull, not faster. With both being set to "400", they are at least similar. Other than that, it's subjective and the feedback from playtesters was positive. Also, referenced internally here: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22256-movementcontrols-settings-in-main-menu/&do=findComment&comment=489158

Binding a key solves the "scroll forever" problem in that you can quickly bring up the Stats once you've finished whatever it is you're doing (ex picking locks). The Compass already has a keybind , BUT it shows up in the "inventory slot" which means it keeps disappearing when you need to access some other item. Back to the Lantern. It's part of the inventory, BUT it doesn't show up in the scroll list, (or inventory slot or whatever the list in the bottom right hand corner is called) which is the way it should be. You turn on the Lantern and it remains on until you turn it off. Meanwhile, the scroll list isn't affected. Why can't that work with the Compass or the Stats. Maybe that's a "Hud" issue which probably means the fix is too involved or difficult to bother with. Still.....it would be nice not to have to constantly toggle these things every 5 mins. Remember, when you're picking a particularly difficult lock, it's nice to be able to glance at the stats to see if you're raising suspicions. Thanks Daft Mugi for your input.

Congratuliations on the release and what incredible quality for a first-timer. The story was really neat and felt very authentic. Gameplay-wise, I also had a lot of fun, although it got really messy at times. You see, I like to play with the rule to only reload when I am dead, so I am forced to play through my mistakes, which can be really fun. A mistake in this mission often meant, that almost all the guards got alerted because a huge portion of the mansion is connected without any doors. And with so many guards, trouble often snowballed, which made this mission pretty difficult. So many guards in one spot also very frequently lead to AI misbehavior like continuously running into a wall etc. For your future missions (hoping there weill be more), I would suggest to split up areas more so that not so many guards come flocking on you on a single mistake.