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Of course, it is one of the reasons for the decline of online forums, since the advent of mobile phones. Forums on a mobile are a pain in the ass, but on the other hand, for certain things there are no real alternatives to forums, social networks cannot be with their sequential threads, where it is almost impossible to retrieve answers to a question that is asked. has done days ago. For devs for internal communication, the only thing offered is a collaborative app, such as System D (not to be confused with systemd). FOSS, free and anonymous registration, access further members only by invitation, full encrypted and private. https://www.system-d.org

I got a feature in the works, allowing to select and manipulate only "focused" items, which should hopefully be useful for manipulating grouped items without having to disband the group. There's a demo video here: https://www.darkradiant.net/images/videos/selection_focus.mp4 It works like this: You select some items in the map. It doesn't matter what it is, it can be a group or many groups or just two unrelated brushes. Hit Ctrl-F to enter focus mode (the command is called "ToggleSelectionFocus" if you want to bind your own shortcut) Your actions will be restricted to just that selection You cannot select other items that are not in the group (unless you use Layer or Filter selections, or Invert selection) You'll get a visual indication about the focused items in the ortho view Grouping information is ignored while in focus, you can select single parts of any group You can select, move, rotate, delete, edit vertices etc. Hit Ctrl-F again to exit, or (maybe more intuitively) hit ESC until you left the focus The previous selection (before entering focus) is now active again, you can proceed manipulating that I'd appreciate if you folks could have a go and try it and then give feedback about it. There's no release yet, but you can grab a portable release from Github: https://github.com/codereader/DarkRadiant/actions/runs/3403010325

Hidden Hands: Initiation Download via the ingame downloader. Latest update is version 3 (released 16/02/2021) Explore Blackstone Island to become a full-fledged member of the “Hidden Hands”! General: TDM version: 2.06 EFX: yes Play time: ca. 5 – 7 hours (depending on play style and difficulty settings) Type: island with several sections (manor, sewers, cabin, bank, graveyard, church and crypts) Enemies: guards, thieves, spiders, mages and extra-natural entities Known problems: 1. The noblewoman sitting in the pavilion can sometimes not be knocked out without failing the mission in general; decent thieves should leave her alone anyway. (version 1 and version 2) 2. If combination locks do not work when using correct codes, then please go to Settings - Gameplay - and change the option "Open doors on unlock" to the value "yes". (version 1) Gameplay differences (apart from changes in the objectives list): Easy: Less enemies, less lights, many light switches Medium: More enemies, alternative AI routes, more lights, some light switches Hard: Even more enemies, alternative AI routes, even more lights, less light switches Development: Build time: November 2017 – November 2018 Beta testing: November/December 2018 Beta testers: Boiler’s_hiss (aka “The Architect’s Darling”) s.urfer (aka “The Punisher”) Cambridge Spy Abusimplea Performance checks: Duzenko Contributors: - ERH+ arranged/created the setup for the puzzle in Adrian's Crypt - I don't understand what he did exactly (alchemy?), but it works as it should. - Destined provided a custom skin for an interior module and wrote a new definition for the spider bots, enabling those beasts to move through tunnels. - Joebarnin provided a fix to make the combination locks work. - Amadeus revised and edited all in-game readables, maps, and signs. He created the final mission title "Hidden Hands: Initiation" as well as gave some special items heroic names, such as "Axe of Fury" or "Orb of Will". - Grayman fixed the frobbing problems with the hidden wall safe and combination lock. Pilfered items: - Floating boat setup and thief's message box re-created from maps originally developed by Bikerdude. - Patch section with rocks and vegetation surrounding the graveyard originally developed and arranged by Sotha for one of his missions. - Frobbox booster re-created from a map originally developed by Grayman. Special thanks to: - Springheel, Sotha, and Fidcal for the tutorials. Great work from all of you! - Destined, Grayman, ERH+, and Springheel for patiently answering my questions via PM. - Boiler’s_hiss for the hint how to change the church roof section - nbohr1more for moral support during a critical phase of the map development - Duzenko for improvement tips - all others not mentioned here who answered my questions in the Newbie thread or via PM. All new ambient music and sound effects written, performed and mixed by Jack Farmer. "S.urfer's Lament" (.ogg filename: "easyexit") featuring MC Deickler on the drums. More pictures:

There's a little something I want to try for which I'll need another obscure trick, might share another mod if I can get it right: How do I attach a func_rotating propeller to an AI, but make it so that it stops rotating once the AI is dead? It must also loop a sound which stops once the AI is disabled. Ideally the rotator can fall off and become a moveable, I don't care if it stays attached as long as it stops spinning when the AI dies or goes unconscious... while attached it should have no collisions. I'd like to avoid a custom script for this one since I hate having to hijack tdm_custom_scripts.script every time: I know there are parameters for AI attachments and loot items to change state when taking down their wearer... like the mask of the manbeast which falls and can be looted once you defeat the owner, there was also a FM with a flaming skull that gets extinguished when the skeleton is killed. But I have no idea if there's any parameters to make an attachment rotate only while the AI is alive.

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

I like the general idea and it shouldn't be that difficult to do, at least for loot. After all we already get a different frob sound when frobbing loot so somehow the game must know the difference before the loot is accounted for! We could then e.g. use the black frob outline for normal items, which is rather unobtrusive, and one of the white outlines for loot, so that is really obvious. I doubt it can be extended to other important items though, because I don't think the game could do that without mission authors defining those, which won't be possible for all the hundreds of released missions. To me the main question is whether this has to be done in the core game or with scripting? Snatcher, are you already looking into this ;)?

Body awareness please. https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/20013-are-you-gonna-add-this/

The player must put four items in the right place. I do this with "moveables" that are added to the inventory and can then be picked up and held in the hand. Once the fourth object is in the right place, the player should automatically drop the final object. How do I script this? There must be two script commands: 1. determine the name of object X , which the player holds in his hand. 2. dropping X (which would work like clicking the right mouse button) I knew how to do this, but after two years without working on scripts, I guess most of it has slipped my mind. Many thanks, The Old Man

I loved it. Awesome game. I faceplanted at the people who asked for quest markers in the Steam forums there... Herr, lass Hirn regnen. The game is so great, and so true to the original, because it doesn't hold your hand. When is the new breed of gamers gonna learn.

A rather unique idea for a possible FM occurred, though doing it right would require something I don't think is possible, none the less I'd like to know what the closest way is. Is there a way to trigger a reset of the map that makes you start from the beginning from within the map itself, storing only information about particular choices you made during the previous run? I don't care if the loading screen shows up again or not, a seamless way where you just reappear at the beginning would be ideal, but I'd rather avoid the briefing screen and having to pick a difficult again as I don't want the restart to be that total. Example: During your first run, you're given an objective to kill an AI which you may or may not complete. Upon reaching the end, instead of the FM ending normally and showing your stats, the screen fades to black and you find yourself at the beginning: Everything is reset, all objectives the AI the loot any items you picked up and so on. Based on whether you completed that objective or not before the reset, certain targets are triggered changing a few things on the map during this run. I case a map reset isn't possible to trigger: Is it at least possible for the FM to store information independently of saves? So you complete the FM normally at first, but next time you choose to play it choices you made during a different playthrough are detected and triggers executed accordingly. I'd rather avoid this method since there's no way to reset it unless you'd manually delete whatever text file is generated in the FM's directory, granted there's a script function allowing this to begin with.

So giving it none of those tags, but making the AI invisible, silent, non-solid, and on a team neutral to everyone would not work? Oh well, it was a horrible inelegant idea anyway.

Show me some receipts then. Cool features are cool because they create cool moments and stories. For example, mantling is super cool. If a guard is chasing you and there is a low roof nearby you can mantle up to make a clutch escape. And maybe then you find a hidden vent or something and your entire approach to the level changes. That's a cool moment and a cool story. Similarly, pinching out candles is super cool because it can create moments where the player needs to rush across a room and pinch out a candle before an enemy rounds spots them, changing how the player will approach the room. And I will freely admit, stacking boxes and planks with TDM's physics objects system is super cool. It opens up a lot of platforming possibilities. But where is the equivalent for the ragdoll bodies or being able to pick up and turn over every apparently-not-silver teapot? Ragdoll bodies could be cool if, for example, you could stuff bodies into chests or under beds to hide them. However I don't think anyone does that. Usually it won't work because the body won't fit and you will make a huge racket in the process of trying. In fact it is super-lame because it seems like TDM should allow that kind of gameplay with the ragdolls feature, but it doesn't. Same with object manipulation. What does picking up and manipulate every (non-valuable) plate, hat, cup, and apple actually let you do? You can throw them to distract guards, but that would also be true if they just went into your inventory, like bottles in other stealth games. There could also be loot or important items hidden under them, except in practice it can't be anything important because TDM's object selection is imprecise and its collisions tend to send objects flying or clipping into the world. So what we actually gets is coins and purses hidden under hats... gripping. Edit: Note, I'm not saying these gimmicky features should be removed though. That would break back compatibility with older missions, which no one wants. But we should stop giving object manipulation place-of-pride over more impactful mechanics like shouldering bodies in our tutorials, FMs, and default control bindings.

I can't find any topic where this new feature is being described or discussed so allow me to create this one. I tested Auto-Search Bodies and I like it a lot, to the point that it may very well become my default someday. We all know how hard is to make that purse, key, scroll... highlight, so this is, in my opinion, a welcome addition to the game. Thanks to those involved! My only concern is that if a body has more than one item you grab them all in one go, preventing me from knowing I just acquired more items than the one showing in the HUD. If a feature is not to be trusted then I don't see the point in this exercise and I would like to know why the current approach was considered superior over one-frob = one-item. Regards!

This was a bit of a joke from me by the way. (Maybe in bad taste). My purpose was to point out incrementalism has value in itself. No one is completely happy with the compromises in the pseudo final version we have arrived at, but it seems to be good enough. So let's all stop whining about the parts that didn't go our way before Daft Mugi keels over. I think an argument could be made that Skyrim's controls might be theoretically more optimal than TDM's adapted Thief scheme. Skyrim does have potions, readables, consumable items, and real time inventory management; if not in the official game then in some of its million mods. It seems to work well and about 10-20 million gamers are deeply familiar with it. But it would be a gargantuan task to completely rework TDM to fit that template, and it would alienate a lot of us who are used to the traditional ways. Better to take a few pointed lessons where they are most applicable and work slowly to optimize what we have inherited. But neither should we rest on our laurels. As I alluded to before, "gimmicks" like TDM's ragdoll bodies and physics object manipulation were still kind of cool in the early 2010s, but now day-they feel positively retro--and not always in a good way. It wouldn't hurt to have a hard think about what features actually contribute to the enduring appeal of TDM, versus which ones might be holding it back from charming an even wider audience.

There is always something else in some mission which you can miss, which don't fit your classification. Mere fact that the sounds has two beeps should be enough to warn that several items were picked up.

Is there a way to make multiple sounds while getting multiple items? That would be enough to make the player check the inventory. Also auto-search could be the final reason to accept the current implementation ;): short-frob shoulder body, long-frob auto-search body and grabbing it for movement.

I had a curiosity: Is it possible to define an item that is picked up and used by nearby AI occasionally, without necessarily having to link a path node to it or target it from the AI? For example a wine bottle on a table: The AI picks it up drinks from it and puts it down, while patrolling next to it then resuming their patrol after using it (playing an animation). Looking at the AI prefabs, an AI need to target things such as food items with the "pickup_bottle_pickup" or "eating_apple" spawnargs. Is there a way that's proximity based and doesn't require that?

We had this concern too. There was even a setting where you loot one item at a time (per frob). As far as I remember, we did not find any simple way to show info about multiple items. The suggestions either would cause issues with other GUI elements (e.g. subtitles), or need some major development specifically for this detail.

You will grow wiser and stronger! And a long grey beard. We cannot just get rid of the "Use" key, we need it to deal with the inventory: drink potions, read notes, throw flashbombs... TDM was built with two independent keys in mind (frob to touch and use to interact) because Thief was limited in this regard. In Thief the devs opted to hide the inventory after a period of time to prevent players from using items unintentionally too often. Did they solve the problem? They kinda solve their problem, but how frustrating it is to look for that item that many times "Use" is not going away anytime soon in TDM and new players will have to learn of its existence no matter what.

Interesting, didn't think about that. Yeah the compass uses that trick, I could just use a model of the helmet instead. If it looks good and is worth maybe I'll consider that, though it might be distracting and not make enough sense. The heads are modeled that way: Hoods and helmets are part of the head mesh as they aren't attachments. This is normally a good thing since performance isn't wasted rendering the head or hair under the helmet, but complicates things for my approach as the only way is changing the head models at runtime which may break precaching and stuff. Only a few hats are attached as a separate entities, like the little red hat some merchants wear or the straw hat... those aren't ideal for disguises though and I don't plan on supporting both approaches. Technically I could try attaching the independent helmet model to the player head, but that would surely look awful and clip through the hood and stuff... only right way is to give the player the Citywatch head once that error is fixed. For AI there is no other way apart from also changing the head model: Stealing the helmet from a guard implies taking it off them, which means they need to switch to a helmetless head which can only be done by setting a different head mesh upon frobbing... no idea if that triggers the same crash as the player head, if so I'm out of luck till a dev can take a look at my report. The base disguise system can be used that way too, it's just not the theme I went for by default as I wanted them to be physical wearables. You can define a magical disguise too that implies creating an illusion which tricks other AI into seeing you as one of them. In fact I thought of including one for undead using a magic skull that makes them think you're also dead, might add that in the next version if others think it makes sense and is worth it? Note that the spawnargs are documented via editor vars in case anyone wants to make their own: As long as you have a moveable model and inventory icon it's just a few tweaks to define any disguise. Simply inherit from the base "atdm:playertools_disguise" entity def and customize the team and other spawnargs... remember to use the proper mass / friction / impact sounds. Let me throw them here for anyone who wants a quick preview: atdm:playertools_disguise { "inherit" "atdm:playertool" "editor_usage" "Don't use. This is the base class for disguise inventory items." "editor_usage1" "Individual hats and helmets will derive from this." "scriptobject" "playertools_disguise" "gui" "guis/tdm_hud_disguise.gui" //"model" // to be defined in subclass //"clipmodel" // to be defined in subclass "inv_name" "Disguise" "inv_category" "Disguises" "inv_icon" "" "inv_droppable" "1" "inv_map_start" "0" // Disguise "team" "0" "rank" "0" "personGender" "PERSONGENDER_MALE" "personType" "PERSONTYPE_THIEF" "regen" "0.25" "rate" "0.5" "rate_alert" "0.1" "distance" "500" "speed_move" "1" "speed_turn" "1" "overlay" "" "snd_wear" "player_rustle_short" "snd_remove" "player_rustle_short" "model_head" "head_thief" "skin_head" "" // Disguise editor vars "editor_float team" "The team the player disguises into when the disguise is active." "editor_float rank" "Rank while the disguise is active." "editor_var personGender" "Person type while the disguise is active." "editor_var personType" "Person gender while the disguise is active." "editor_float regen" "The disguise regenerates over time at this rate." "editor_float rate" "The disguise degrades at this rate when the player is seen by a member or ally of the team." "editor_float rate_alert" "The disguise further degrades by this amount when an AI is alert, increases gradually with alert level." "editor_float distance" "Maximum distance at which being seen by the AI can degrade your disguise, offsets with AI visual acuity." "editor_float speed_move" "Movement hindrance while wearing the disguise." "editor_float speed_turn" "Turning hindrance while wearing the disguise." "editor_var overlay" "Overlay image while wearing the disguise." "editor_snd snd_wear" "Sound to play when putting on the disguise." "editor_snd snd_remove" "Sound to play when taking off the disguise." "editor_model model_head" "The player's head changes to this model while the item is worn, can be seen in mirrors." "editor_skin skin_head" "The player's head changes to this skin while the item is worn." }

I think we might need a way to show multiple items when they get picked? Or just only allow autosearch for keys. Or only allow it when the body has one item attached.

Doing it in DarkRadiant sounds easiest: What's the best texture to put on a bush to screenshot the item behind, is there a fully white or black one by default? Main issue is cutting out the outline and getting the same consistent style across items, but I do lots of editing in Gimp so this shouldn't be a problem. As for the AI vis check it turns out to be a bit more complicated: visScan() only notices the player if they're an enemy to the AI, while the AI is friendly it stops working. findFriendlyAI() does work instead, but the name makes it sound ambiguous to use it to check for the player although it seems to work, also the documentation says it's costly and not to call it each frame which I'd have to do in my case, lastly it only detects the nearest entity so if another ally is standing closer to the AI than the player this won't report them. Am I out of luck with this one and need to not implement the check? I'm not seeing any other way to trace the AI's FOV cone.

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:

These are my initial thoughts for possible use cases (copied from the linked bug tracker entry). 1) In the recent thread @datiswous asked if it was possible to develop a template for an enhanced type of briefing where people could specify a different background for each page of text (possibly by having different xdata items for each page) 2) It would also make it easier to develop a in-game journal type of readable which is added to when the player does certain actions. A current example of this is done in the first mission (Monastery) of a House of Locked Secrets but the implementation is quite cumbersome because a) Each xdata item contains the whole contents of the 'previous' xdata item plus the added text. b) The in-game actions have to be performed in a pre-determined order. 3) Readables could be made more sophisticated e.g. having tabbed pages (e.g. in a paper address book). 4) You could have dynamic entity guis (e.g. destination displays at railway stations which change when the train has left). I'm willing to expand on these if needed

What a beautiful FM! This absolutely rivals some of the best made recently such as Seeking Lady Leicester. It's filled with secrets and unique interactions, as well as a huge city divided into differently themed areas which is something I love about such city hubs. It was lovely to go through and offered quite a few days of fun, thank you! I suspect I found most secrets in terms of hidden areas items and objectives, though with how large and complex the world is I know I must have missed something and still would if I played for months. Other than that...