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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

New script for mappers: my flavour of a fog density fading script. To add this to your FM, add the line "thread FogIntensityLoop();" to your map's void main() function (see the example in fogfade.script) and set "fog_fade" "1" on each foglight to enable script control of it. Set "fog_intensity_multiplier" on each info_location entity to change how thick the fog is in that location (practically speaking it's a multiplier for visibility distance). Lastly, "fog_fade_speed" on each foglight determines how quickly it will change its density. The speed scales with the current value of shaderParm3, using shaderParm3 = 1000 as a baseline. So i.e. if shaderParm is currently at 1/10th of 1000, then fade speed will be 1/10th as fast. Differences to Obsttorte's script: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/14394-apples-and-peaches-obsttortes-mapping-and-scripting-thread/&do=findComment&comment=310436 my script uses fog lights you created, rather than creating one for you. Obsttorte's script will delete the foglight if entering a fogfree zone and recreate it later more than one fog light can be controlled (however, no per-fog-light level of control) adding this to the map requires adding a line to your void main() script, rather than adding an info_locations_settings entity with a custom scriptobject spawnarg in my script, mappers set a multiplier of fog visibility distance (shaderParm3), while in Obsttorte's script a "fog_density" spawnarg is used as an alternative to shaderParm3 smaller and less compactly written script fogfade.scriptfogfade.map

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.

Hello everyone, I decided to make this post because last night I randomly started thinking about when I first completed Hidden hands: initiation, this isn't exactly a review, more like I want to put what I felt while playing into words that I want to share with you all (btw SPOILER ALERT for Hidden hands), probably not that interesting but at least I can say I have it written somewhere, also wall of text incoming, sorry about that. Now the mission itself is okay, I'd give it a 7/10 because I like the idea of doing an initiation and I also like it being set in a lonely island but what I want to talk about here is more than just mission design and how good it is, I will explain everything in order: 1- Intro So the mission doesn't have a video intro but just text, now that's fine but there's no denying that video intros immerse the player a lot more, in this case however I think that was a good choice because this "lesser" immersion actually enforces the feelings this mission gave me, and, paradoxically, made me more immersed (though not in the way the author might have wanted). Also the music used in the intro is kinda unnerving, I don't know if this is a custom music made by jack farmer but I feel like it would be very good for horror missions. 2- The Island This mission takes place in a "mysterious island" and that alone made me feel... well... isolated. You are tasked with stealing a bunch of stuff from different places and this is where the "fun" starts: the objetives themselves are nothing out of the ordinary, the places you're about to rob though are... weird. Starting off I want to point out how strange it is to have these locations on the same island, maybe the bank and the manor could make sense but an inventor's house that looks like it's trying to become one with nature relatively close to a builder's church which in turn is relatively close to what appears to be a cursed place that leads to underground ruins filled with zombies looks a bit off to me, not considering that this island was described as "mysterious" in the intro, what this could mean is anyone's guess but my own interpretation is that this island was recently discovered and weird things happen there, not the kind of place you'd want to build a manor, house or church isn't it? 3- The buildings Now we have to describe the buildings themselves (and this is the meat of this post): they are rather large. As soon as you enter the manor (from the main doors) you'll notice it consists of one REALLY big room with a couple fountains and 2 large plants on each side, I've never been inside a manor so they might just look like that irl, but it feels kinda strange to have a fountain indoors doesn't it? Then you also have another big room in the center which seems to be used only as a dinner table, it all feels very off to me... as if this house was hastily made by someone for a specific but unknown purpose. Moving on the second floor we have very wide hallways and, while there are guards, the dimensions of the hallways alone makes it feel very empty. It all felt... fake, as if someone out there was watching me, possibly someone who also built not only the manor but the whole island. TDM has your regular NPCs that come with an array of voicelines and animations which generally its fine but as I started feeling observed I also started to think "what if these people aren't actually people?", I felt like they too should be wondering why that place is like that, maybe even wonder why their rich employer decided to build on a "mysterious" island, you can see how I started to essentially immerse myself in a story I made up by feeling paranoid. Think of it as the guards roaming inside thief gold's Constantine's house, where you'd ask yourself "why am I the only one being freaked out here? Why are these guards just going on as if everything is normal? Are they even human? Is this a simulation?". Everytime I'd travel between objectives I felt like watching my back as if I was being stalked by someone and at the same time I felt that whatever I was doing I wasn't doing by my own free will, it's as if I'm the protagonist in a tale, where the world's actions are already predetermined but I happen to be the only one aware of this. I hesitate to call this a horror-game type of feeling because there is no real monster stalking me (or is there?), so there is no real danger outside the guards patrolling these buildings, it's a much subtler horror feeling, where I know there is no one lurking in the shadows apart from me, and there really isn't anyone lurking in the shadows apart from me... and yet my brain thinks "what if there is though?" because of the eyes I feel observing my every move. It's like a horror without horror kind of thing, do games like this even exist? Probably not. To make this easier to understand try imagining you waking up tomorrow and everything looks as always: same breakfast, same trip to work, same colleagues, same everything... except the people and the things around you feel off, I don't mean they look different or anything, they just FEEL off and the more time you spend living the more you feel like a test subject who has been abducted from your original world and put in a look-alike world. This may sound similar to Matrix if you will, with the only difference that Neo never finds out about it and keeps living in a fake world chasing a truth he can never reach. Maybe I'm crazy but boy wouldn't I love to read a book with this kind of story. 4- Conclusion Now to conclude my possibly confused ramblings I want to thank jack farmer for making this mission (and the hidden hands franchise in general) because while this is not the way he intended the mission to be enjoyed (or maybe it was?) it managed to make me feel a kind of creepiness that you don't often find in games (I like horror games despite being easily scared lol). Also I had the same feelings I just described in another mission however I can't for the life of me remember the name, if someone could remind me that would be greatly appreciated, it was a mission about stealing a gem that acted as the "tear" of a painting. Have a nice day!

I dom't use it, i found it here with the filter set to OpenSource. the TOS and PP isn't excluding for an OpenSource app, if they use ads mean that they also need to pay an server for this online service. OpenSource is not synonymous with free either, perhaps after the beta phase it is no longer free, so perhaps you can take advantage of the fact that it is still free to create a series of textures that can be used or search another one in Futuretools. AI generated textures and assets, by definition, don't have any copyright, so you can use them as you want. https://www.futuretools.io/?pricing-model=free|open-source&tags-n5zn=gaming

With TDM 2.12, after the credits finished, the "Mission Complete" screen did not display. I found that the screen was black and I could hear my footsteps when I tried to move around. I think the reason for the mission not completing successfully was that the "Do not kill or harm allies" objective was never marked as "1 = STATE_COMPLETE" instead it was left as "0 = STATE_INCOMPLETE". Note, I didn't use noclip throughout the mission. Same as: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/18054-fan-mission-the-accountant-2-new-in-town-by-goldwell-20160509/&do=findComment&comment=458491

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/

If the "mission fails as soon as stealth score turns non-zero," that would not be good for ghost players. They might need to find out "how" they failed and experiment to avoid alerting guards. They might need to take those score points as a "bust". They might need to take those score points to complete an objective. Then, mission authors would need to encode exceptions into their missions, which would be a lot of work (if they decide to do it at all). However, part of what makes ghosting challenging and fun is when mission authors do not create their missions with ghosting in mind. Please see: Official Ghosting Rules: https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148523 Writing code for these rules would be a huge undertaking. Ghost Rules Discussion: https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148487 Creating an official mode could alienate these dedicated ghost players, because it would clash with what is considered ghosting in the community. Including the Stealth Stat Tool mod in the official release would be more useful. Or, making the audible alert states of guards quick and easy to recognize could help as well. For these reasons, I don't agree with an official "Ghost" mode. If the dev team were to do it, we should consult with @Klatremus so we get it 100% correct or not pursue it at all. (This ghosting bit should probably be in its own thread.)

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.

Greetings taffers, Here's an early Halloween offering for you, a spooky little haunted house mission. Content warnings include zombies, spiders, and body horror. I set myself a challenge to fit the whole thing in a 1024x1280x1024 box-- mappertools, skybox, everything-- so opening this beast up in DarkRadiant might be the most horrifying thing about it. I'm grateful to my beta testers, as well as various people who put music and sound effects on the net for free, so be sure to check the Notes in the Dark Mod mission selection menu. It may be small, but it should take ~45 minutes for a first playthrough. Enjoy! Third mission in my series.

Horror themed fan mission - exploration of seemingly deserted keep in the middle of swamps. Spiders, undead, darkness. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is the story about the fate of my family. My uncle, Ralph Mac Roberts, is the baron of a keep nestled deep within the Rahenaen marshes. It was once an important outpost tasked with guarding one of the few Builder roads that cross the marsh, but after the Inventor`s Guild built a system of nearby dams that flooded the whole land, the road closed and there was no longer anything to watch over anymore. The keep itself needed reinforcement against the raising water level and the trade routes become almost impassable, not only for the carriages but for lone couriers as well. There hadn`t been any messages coming from the keep for over a year and my father was about to assemble a caravan so he could go on an expedition to the keep himself. However, in the middle of the night before he was set to leave, a carrier pigeon landed on his windowsill. My father received the letter and read the apologies from my uncle and his family, excusing their long absence. As a way to make reparations for their extended silence, my uncle invited me to the keep to stay there for a fortnight or so. My uncle had instructed me to leave my horse three leagues away from the keep by the nearest charcoal burning hut and hike the remainder of the road on foot, as the trek through the marsh is treacherous for horses. The weather will be awful this time of year, but my father insists that I should go anyways to ensure that our relatives are okay. These plains become dreadfully deserted - to the point where you more expect to meet the dead than the living. And by the way - I think I`m lost. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Download link: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aj1DVS465udZgVkXteBbr6cUxdPH Thanks: to the TDM team for great tools, and all the contributors for their assets, to betatesters: Amadeus, Bienie, Boiler's_hiss, Dragofer, Filizitas, Judith, nbohr1more, s.urfer, again to Amadeus for proofreading and text tweaks, and to all the players for their time! Few screenshots: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/10003-so-what-are-you-working-on-right-now/?p=434716 http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/10003-so-what-are-you-working-on-right-now/?p=429558 http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/19886-fm-marsh-of-rahena-beta-testing/?p=434507 Enjoy! Walk-through !major spoilers! Finding a way across the marsh area: Getting inside: Bed objective: Light sources: Maps: Enemies: Room objective: Hut objective: Sealed objective: Gold: Key: Bodies:

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.

So, for sources of ideas for Gothic Horror-Low Fantasy, some settings that I feel are useful for worldbuilding inspiration that could work as Easter Eggs in TDM are Dark Souls, with a sword in a bonfire. Bloodborne, references to a werebeast outbreak in a city called Yharnam. Ravenloft, you could reference a vampire count named Strahd. Warhammer Fantasy, you could mention Witch Hunters that work for the Builder church. Any other Easter egg references you have ideas for in missions, or missions that already have Easter Eggs in them?

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:

Anyone noticed this game, which has you play as a Thief who enters an abandoned, haunted mansion ro steal 20 moneybags while avoiding a supernatural threat?

Thanks! 1) Doing LONG_PRESS PAD_A (what I, for lack of knowledge, call "jump-mantle" or "_jumpmantle") differs from doing PRESS PAD_A ("_jump"). "_jumpmantle" differs from "_mantle", so they must be mapped to different button-calls. "_jumpmantle" differs from "_jump", so they must also be mapped to different button-calls. This appears to be the case, but it is not evident (or changeable) in DarkmodPadbinds.cfg. "_jumpmantle" seems to be hard coded to always connect to the same button as "_jump" but with a long press. It is as if bindPadButton PRESS PAD_A "_jump" is not actually just binding PRESS PAD_A to "_jump", but rather interpreted as "link PAD_A (regardless of button press time) to behave exactly like keyboard SPACE for short and long presses". I would have expected the default DarkmodPadbinds.cfg to explicitly read: bindPadButton PRESS PAD_A "_jump" bindPadButton LONG_PRESS PAD_A "_jumpmantle" bindPadButton PRESS PAD_B "_crouch" bindPadButton LONG_PRESS PAD_B "_mantle" ... but neither LONG_PRESS PAD_A or "_jumpmantle" is listed in the file. If there are actions "_jump" and "_mantle", I suppose there must also be an action "_jumpmantle" since it is possible for the player to do all those movements: * "_mantle" does the movements "crouch on the high surface, then stand up" * "_jumpmantle" idoes the movements "jump slightly forward, then land standing on the high surface" * "_jump" idoes the movements "jump up, then land exactly where you started" If the actions "_jump" and "_moveup" are not synonymous, then perhaps the action "_moveup" is what i call "_jumpmantle"? 2) Thanks for the link! It was useful in more than one way. I'll link to that page from https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Bindings_and_User_Settings#Gamepad_Default_Bindings if I can get an account on the wiki, which proved more difficult than i thought (https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22327-how-can-i-create-an-account-on-the-tdm-wiki/). However, it does not answer my question how to find out the name ("<button>") used for a button on my gamepad. Basically, I would need to press the button on my gamepad and some program could tell me "That button is called 'PAD_A'". In my case, I have a gamepad "Logitech F310" (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Logitech_F310_Gamepad.jpg) which has a "Logitech button" (see image) that I want to use. I was hoping to find out the "button name" for that button and then edit DarkmodPadbinds.cfg to map it to a function. 3) ... but if that button has an "unusual name" that TDM does not recognize, then it may perhaps not work. E.g. if that button is called "PAD_LOGITECH" and TDM cannot recognize that name, then I cannot map anything to it via DarkmodPadbinds.cfg. Using QJoyPad I can map any keyboard key to it instead, as a workaround, but I cannot map MODIFIER to it (since MODIFIER cannot be set to a keyboard key). If current implementation is still called "experimental", then I must say it works very well; @cabalistic: kudos for that! I may not have continued playing TDM had it not worked with a gamepad.

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

Recently while thinking about this subject it occurred to me that much of horror could be considered as belonging to one of two archetypes: one that's commonly seen in old Victorian novels, and another that's represented in many modern horror movies, games and other media. In my opinion 'modern' horror could be seen as relying on eerie environments which are populated by creepy creatures such as zombies or possessed children and are often laden with shock moments. I think it's widely agreed that these elements alone don't suffice to achieve the desired effect, and in my case they're more likely to conjure feelings of adventure than fear. 'Victorian' horror, on the other hand, often lacks most of those elements. A good case study to exemplify this archetype may be the short story Monkey's Paw. The paw is an item which is capable of granting any three wishes, but it's cursed to grant each wish in the most malevolent way possible. By the time it became horribly clear how the third - unintentional - wish would be carried out I felt a chill down the spine, in what was possibly one of the tensest moments in my reading career. How does one go about achieving this kind of effect in TDM? I'd begin with saying that creating a horror novella as a fan mission isn't such a good way, as it's prone to becoming linear and may feel more like an interactive storybook experience. I think this is more a matter of giving the feeling that something is very wrong about the place you're in. For example: A ) In an isolated manor in the woods one could find a readable saying that several family members have gone missing in the woods, or one in which the son says that when he looks out of his window at night he sometimes catches the flash of a pair of eyes looking back at him. This may make a sudden loud noise coming from the ground floor sound considerably more threatening, as whatever was out there might now be in here. B ) In Ominous Bequest I remember a scene where you descended in an elevator and caught a glimpse through a crack in the wall into the sealed off room, where you saw a noose and signs of a struggle. This made me feel both eager and tense to find out what came to pass in there. C ) In the Broken Triad (semi-spoilers ahead), your realisation of who actually committed the horrible murders across town abruptly put everything into a disturbing light. So, in view of these case studies and examples, I'd argue much of the tension in good horror results out of thought processes in the head, trying to work out the mysteries and what might possibly happen next, and only little out of what happens on the screen in terms of enemies, shocks etc. The latter does have its place in terms of creating authentic environments, but the real horror is in the mind. What horror experiences really stood out for you? And what do you think made them have that effect?

Would Lovecraftian horror themed missions fit into the aesthetic of The Dark Mod, seeing as to how the First City in the original Thief worshipped a Cthulhu-lookalike with the name N'lahotep?