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Congrats on the release! Remember to check ThiefGuild as well as the DarkFate forums (via Google Translate) for additional feedback.

Complaint From Players The player must pick up candles before extinguishing them, and then the player must remember to drop the candle. The player must drag a body before shouldering it (picking it up), and the player must remember to frob again to stop dragging the body. The player finds this annoying or easy to make mistakes. For players who ghost, some of them have the goal of returning objects back to their original positions. With the current "pick up, use item, and drop" system, the item might not return easily or at all to its original position. For example, a candlestick might bounce off its holder. (See player quotes at the bottom.) Bug Tracker https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=6316 Problems to Solve How can the "pick up" step be eliminated so that the player can directly use or interact with the item where it is in the game world? How can so much key pressing and mouse clicking be eliminated when the player wants to directly use an item? How can candles be extinguished and lanterns toggled off/on without first picking them up? How can bodies be shouldered without first dragging them? Solution Design Goals Make TDM easier for new players while also improving it for longtime players. Reduce tedious steps for common frob interactions. Make it intuitive so that menu settings are unnecessary. Do not introduce bugs or break the game. Terms frob -- the frob button action happens instantly. hold frob -- the frob button is held for 200ms before the action happens. (This can be changed via cvar: 200ms by default.) Proposed Solution Note: Some issues have been struckthrough to show changes since the patch has been updated. Change how frobbing works for bodies, candles, and lanterns. For bodies: Frob to shoulder (pick up) a body. Second frob to drop shouldered body, while allowing frob on doors, switches, etc. Hold frob (key down) to start drag, continue to hold frob (key down) to drag body, and then release frob (key up) to stop dragging body. Also, a body can be dragged immediately by holding frob and moving the mouse. For candles/lanterns: Frob to extinguish candles and toggle off/on lanterns. Hold frob to pick it up, and then frob again to drop. Frob to pick it up, and then frob again to drop. Hold frob to extinguish candles and toggle off/on lanterns. For food: Frob to pick it up, and then frob again to drop. Hold frob to eat food. For other items: No change. New cvar "tdm_frobhold_delay", default:"200" The frob hold delay (in ms) before drag or extinguish. Set to 0 for TDM v2.11 (and prior) behavior. Solution Benefits Bodies: New players will have less to learn to get started moving knocked out guards. With TDM v2.11 and earlier, some players have played several missions before realizing that they could shoulder a body instead of dragging it long distances. Frob to shoulder body matches Thief, so longtime Thief players will find it familiar. Second frob drops a shouldered body. Players still have the ability to both shoulder and drag bodies. Compatible with the new auto-search bodies feature. Dragging feels more natural -- just grab, hold, and drop with a single button press. There is no longer the need to press the button twice. Also, it's no longer possible to walk away from a body while unintentionally dragging it. Set "tdm_frobhold_delay" cvar to delay of 0 to restore TDM v2.11 (and prior) behavior. Candles: New players will have less to learn to get started extinguishing candles. With TDM v2.11 and earlier, some players didn't know they could extinguish candles by picking them up and using them. Instead, they resorted to throwing them to extinguish them or hiding them. Hold frob to extinguish a candle feels like "pinching" it out. Once a candle is picked up, players still have the ability to manipulate and use them the same way they are used to in TDM v2.11 and earlier. For players who ghost and have the goal of putting objects back to their original positions, they'll have an easier time and not have to deal with candles popping off their holders when trying to place them back carefully. Set "tdm_frobhold_delay" cvar to delay of 0 to restore TDM v2.11 (and prior) behavior. Solution Issues Bodies: Frob does not drop a shouldered body, so that might be unexpected for new players. This is also different than Thief where a second frob will drop a body. "Use Inv. Item" or "Drop Inv. Item" drops the body. This is the same as TDM v2.11 and earlier. This is the price to pay for being able to frob (open/close) doors while shouldering a body. Patch was updated to drop body on second frob, while allowing frob on doors, switches, etc. Candles: Picking up a candle or lantern requires a slight delay, because the player must hold the frob button. The player might unintentionally extinguish a candle while moving it if they hold down frob. The player will need to learn that holding frob will extinguish the candle. The player can change the delay period via the "tdm_frobhold_delay" cvar. Also, when the cvar is set to a delay of 0, the behavior matches TDM v2.11 and earlier, meaning the player would have to first "Frob/Interact" to pick up the candle and then press "Use Inv. Item" to extinguish it. Some players might unintentionally extinguish a candle when they are trying to move it or pick it up. They need to make sure to hold frob to initiate moving the candle. When a candle is unlit, it will highlight but do nothing on frob. That might confuse players. However, the player will likely learn after extinguishing several candles that an unlit candle still highlights. It makes sense that an already-extinguished candle cannot be extinguished on frob. The official "Training Mission" might need to have its instructions updated to correctly guide the player through candle manipulation training. Updating the training mission to include the hold frob to extinguish would probably be helpful. Similar Solutions In Fallout 4, frob uses an item and long-press frob picks it up. Goldwell's mission, "Accountant 2: New In Town", has candles that extinguish on frob without the need of picking them up first. Snatcher's TDM Modpack includes a "Blow / Ignite" item that allows the player to blow out candles Wesp5's Unofficial Patch provides a way to directly extinguish movable candles by frobbing. Demonstration Videos Note: The last two videos don't quite demonstrate the latest patch anymore. But the gist is the same. This feature proposal is best experienced in game, but some demonstration videos are better than nothing. The following videos show either a clear improvement or that the player is not slowed down with the change in controls. For example, "long-press" sounds long, but it really isn't. Video: Body Shouldering and Dragging The purpose of this video is to show that frob to shoulder a body is fast and long-press frob to drag a body is fast enough and accurate. Video: Long-Press Frob to Pick Up Candle The purpose of this video is to show how the long-press frob to pick up a candle isn't really much slower than regular frob. Video: Frob to Extinguish The purpose of this video -- if a bit contrived -- is to show the efficiency and precision of this proposed feature. The task in the video was for the player to as quickly and accurately as possible extinguish candles and put them back in their original positions. On the left, TDM v2.11 is shown. The player has to highlight each candle, press "Frob/Interact" to pick up, press "Use Inv. Item" to extinguish, make sure the candle is back in place, and finally press "Frob/Interact" to drop the candle. The result shows mistakes and candles getting misplaced. On the right, the proposed feature is shown. The player frobs to extinguish the candles. The result shows no mistakes and candles are kept in their original positions. Special Thanks @Wellingtoncrab was instrumental in improving this feature during its early stages. We had many discussions covering varying scenarios, pros, and cons, and how it would affect the gameplay and player experience. Originally, I had a completely different solution that added a special "use modifier" keybinding. He suggested the frob to use and long-press frob to pick up mechanics. I coded it up, gave it a try, and found it to be too good. Without his feedback and patience, this feature wouldn't be as good as it is. Thank you, @Wellingtoncrab! And, of note, @Wellingtoncrab hasn't been able to try it in game yet, because I'm using Linux and can't compile a Windows build for him. So, if this feature isn't good, that's my fault. Code Patch I'll post the code patch in another post below this one so that folks who compile TDM themselves can give this proposal a try in game. And, if you do, I look forward to your feedback! Player Complaints TTLG (2023-01-10) Player 1: TDM Forums (2021-03-13) Player 2: Player 3: TDM Forums (2023-06-17) Player 4: TDM Discord (2021-05-18) Player 5: TDM Discord (2023-02-14) Player 6: Player 7: Player 8:

Just curious, based on this discussion: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/19239-soft-r-gamma/?p=427350

Likewise in subtitles; the "T" has a similar artifact. The implementation of the Stone font has known glitches, including poor spacing of "J". Probably made worse by the fact that no 12pt Stone is currently available, only 24pt and 48pt. So what you see is scaled down from 24pt. The images for the text characters are in a grid within a single .tga file (for a given base font size). Stray pixels come from adjoining letters in the grid. IMHO, it is possible to overcome such shortcomings, but not quick and easy. A good project for 2024 and TDM 2.13

Ever since I worked on "Chalice of Kings" with Bikerdude, I have wanted to get flame particles with new particle glares into the core mod. My reasoning was that the candles have glares and the un-glared torches look mismatched. This proposal was met with mixed reactions, so (knowing the history of TDM feature proposals...) I have created a technical demo. You may download it here: zzz_flameglare.pk4.txt (fixed) Just rename without the .txt extension at the end and place it in your Darkmod directory. Here are some screens. Using particles for this is probably the wrong way to go now that Duzenko has an emissive light feature in his branch: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/19659-feature-request-emissive-materialsvolumetric-lights/

"...to a robber whose soul is in his profession, there is a lure about a very old and feeble man who pays for his few necessities with Spanish gold." Good day, TDM community! I'm Ansome, a long-time forums lurker, and I'm here to recruit beta testers for my first FM: "The Terrible Old Man", based on H.P. Lovecraft's short story of the same name. This is a short (30-45 minute), story-driven FM with plenty of readables and a gloomy atmosphere. Do keep in mind that this is a more linear FM than you may be used to as it was deemed necessary for the purposes of the story's pacing. Regardless, the player does still have a degree of freedom in tackling challenges in the latter half of the FM. If this sounds interesting to you, please head over to the beta testing thread I will be posting shortly. Thank you!

The real St. Alban was a pagan who became a celebrated religious personality, this All Saints Day 2010 The Dark Mod places its own spin on this mythical figure. Screenshots: Intro: "'Business' has been slow lately, even more so after most of my gear got snatched during a Watch raid... I've since been forced to hit the streets and pick pockets for a living. But my luck was about to change, last night I was approached by a red hooded figure with a proposition... As we sat down in a dark corner of a nearby inn, he told to me that the Builders of St. Alban's Cathedral in the Old Quarter had recently unearthed a discovery that might lead to the final resting place of some saint." " But before I do anything, I need to get my tools and stash from the evidence room at the local watch station." "with the hawks, doves will congregate they will drop honey from the cliffs wine will surge over the earth the sheep will wander harmlessly with the wolf then the wicked will rise, but to retribution" - 'scripture of St Alban' There is a new version out now, see the following thread St Albans Cathedral version 1.6 Build Time: about 2-3 months. Thanks:- Huge respect to the Dark Mod team for such a great mod and for all the hard work they put into it and continue to put into it. Special thanks to Fidcal, Serpentine and others for their help on the forums and to Testing:Ugoliant, Baddcog, Grayman, Lost soul, Bjorn and Baal (for doing all the Vp work in the town. Readables: Ungoliant and Mortemdesino for all awesome work on the readables. Resource: Fids, Grayman, Ungoliant - guis, models & images. Misc: Loren Schmidt - the author of the map I based the cathedral on. Info: # Like Thief2, some things are climable, pipes, wall vines etc.. You can also drop some of the keys, some door that are frobbabe mean there is another way inside - explore u taffer! # Due to TDM being a lot more of a resource hog than T2 I have been forced to limit the number of Ai in the mission, but they have better placement than my last mission. # On all difficulty levels the player starts with vertualy no tools/weapons, there are weapons to be found - read, read, read! # For the love of all that is holy, read the briefing otherwise you will problems completing the mission. Known issues:- # This mission will have less than optimal fps at a few points on the map, mid range DX9 card(X1900/GF7800) or higher required. # On low end PCs I recommend, V-sync is off, AA is off, Aniso is 4x or lower and that any and all background apps are closed.

A couple more: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/21739-resolved-allow-mantling-while-carrying-a-body/ https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22211-feature-proposal-new-lean-for-tdm-212/ https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22198-feature-proposal-frob-to-use-world-item/ https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22249-212-auto-search-bodies/

Author Note: This is a brand new mission and a new entry into the accountant series. There are some different than usual puzzles in this FM, so if you find yourself stuck try to think about your pathway forward in a logical manner. And if you're still having troubles then pop by this thread and ask (preferably with spoiler tags). This FM is brand new and serves as the first installment in The Accountant series, a few years back there was a small prologue style mission released however I felt that it did not represent The Accountant series so I decided to go back to the drawing board and do a whole new mission that's larger, has a better level design and has a story that lines up closer to what I plan to do with the accountant series. The mission is medium sized and you can expect between 30-90 minutes to complete it depending on your playstyle. Beta Testers Captain Cleveland Crowind Kingsal PukeyBee Skacky SquadaFroinx Voice Actors AndrosTheOxen Epifire Goldwell Stevenpfortune Yandros Custom assets Airship Ballet Bentraxx Bob Necro Dragofer DrKubiac Epifire Kingsal MalachiAD Sotha Springheel SquadaFroinx Available via in-game downloader File Size: 233 MB - Updated to v 1.1 (01.06.2018)

Welcome to the forums Ansome! And congrats on making it to beta phase!

Yeah it would be cool to see some more detailed statistics and it’s a shame they aren’t really captured. Since we are talking about fan mission platforms, where players also make the content for the game, I feel like the best thing we’ve got is you can look at the number of content releases for the games. Keep in mind the graph counts campaigns as single missions - so for example NHAT and TBP both count as 1 mission. A good year for TDM has has approaching maybe 50% - mostly we’re 25-30%. https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=152494 You could also look at the number of ratings thief missions get on https://www.thiefguild.com/ vs TDM ones, but that is pretty iffy in that you could chalk that up to more awareness of the site in the thief community than TDM Out of curiosity is there a reason a thief player can’t be a new player? I kind of think a player is a player and new players would be ones who are playing the dark mod who weren't? Is there disagreement the base of players most likely to pick up the game are fans of the thief games? They are certainly the most fruitful place to find feedback on the game beyond the sphere of this forum that I have seen. When we were trying to finish up SLL there was a lot of discussion on the forums about how long it had been since there was a release for the game. I am thankful that the stats show at least some stability over the years in terms of releases for TDM, but the trend for all of the games is decline. Not doing anything is a valid response if that’s what the devs want to do - it is not possible to provide evidence that any effort will slow that inertia. As a player and content maker I would just prefer trying to find feedback where it is offered from players who were willing to try the game but ultimately could not engage with it and see if there is anything that can be done within reason to ease them into the game. The game has a lot to offer imo. All those players are potential contributors - contributions in turn attract players - it’d be nice to see the cycle go on as long as it can.

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.

January & February 2018 update: I'm almost done with the translation of the base install package (i.e. the GUI of the game, the translatable texts in two of the three FMs in the package). I've decided it wouldn't be all that bad if I provided you guys with some insight into the current state of things, what will still need resolving, and so on. First, I want to talk about some of the minor GUI issues I've run into (and which I prefer to resolve first), then also cover the issues with the FMs from the base install (which can still be fixed/improved later). October 2019 update: I have gone through the entire opening post and tried to rework the layout a bit, to increase readability. The separate download links for the hosted screenshot images have been removed, since that part of the image-hosting service (Mediafire) was acting up during the last year. The screenshot images linked should still be visible, without a fuss, once the links below are clicked. The images are still downloadable by simply opening the links, then saving each displayed image to your disk or to a USB storage device, whathaveyou. 1. GUI TRANSLATION 1.1) GUI Font Problems and Glitches The following paragraphs are a hopefully complete list of problems I’ve run into while translating the game's GUI into the Slovak language. The problems are sorted into issues concerning: a.) the visual appearance of letters in fonts. In this section, I’ve listed the problems in orders of decreasing severity. b.) the current inaccessibility of some GUI titles to translators (as they are still „visually hard-coded” at this time, in this current version). 1.1 a.) Problems with letters in fonts First problem: The letters ľ and Ľ are not depicted correctly when written down. This prevents many Slovak words using these letters – particularly kľúč ("key") to be displayed correctly in-game. My recommendation is simple: These two letters need to be added to the standard game fonts in some future language update for TDM. Naturally, only if it's in any way possible for the particular font we used for most of the menu text. (But I have a feeling it certainly is possible.) Until then, I've decided that all Slovak translations of TDM content will replace these letters with "l" and "L". An improvised solution, but it at least prevents the words that would include the letter from looking weird. Second problem: The letters ť and Ť ("t with a caron" and "capital t with a caron"), while working well in the prevalent font, have some degree of aesthetic problems. The "Ť" letter is actually all right appearance-wise, but the way the "ť" letter is depicted makes it look a bit like it was actually the letter "t with an acute accent" (this is a non-existant letter in real world alphabets). It’s not a major problem, certainly not on the smaller titles of the GUI, but in the GUI of the main menu, it looks rather odd and ugly. For the time being, just for the sake of visual appeal, the more major titles in the major game menus have had the "ť"-s in them changed to "Ť"-s, since it looks a little better and less confusing that way. This is, obviously, just a temporary solution at best. But for now, it will have to do. Third problem: A more minor issue, but still quite annoying. The letter á ("a with an acute accent") works pefectly everywhere in the game, with the sole exception being the GUI element „Enter Name“ in the Save/Load menu. It’s translated as „Zadaj názov“, but the á letter is not showing up correctly. For the time being, I’m changing the letter to a simple „a“, but this font issue will need fixing in the long term. Fourth problem: Issue similar to the third problem. The letter č ("c with a caron"), which otherwise works perfectly in the game, is replaced by an "@" on the "Loading" splash screen title of the mission screenshots preview gallery (the clickable one, in the previews of the mission downloader). The splash screen title is translated as "Načítavam...", and the glitch is making it look like "Na@ítavam..." in-game. For the time being, I’m changing the letter to a simple "c", but again, this font issue will need fixing in the long term. Fifth problem: A really minor one. The translated titles for the little settings bar in general video settings doesn't show letters with diacritics. 1.1 b.) Problems with untranslatable bits of the GUI Some of the GUI titles are simply not yet available to be translated from English via the .lang files. Here’s a list of all these titles: "Load Mission", "Save Mission", "Description", "Mission Statistics", "Downloaded Missions", "Online Mission Archive", "Download Status". The popup window informing the player about all newly downloaded missions is translated fully, outside of the bit in parentheses at the end of the sentence (‘New Mission’), which for some reason remains in English. This is probably not due to an unaccessible font, but because of an algoritm I may have either overlooked, or don’t have direct access to via the .lang files. I'll probably look into this soon, there might be a solution. Some strings for translating newer elements of the menus, already present in 2.05, are not available. Inventory Grid cannot be found in the all.lang file of 2.05, not even among the English language strings of that file. Currently, Inventory Grid is possibly the only untranslated line I have in the options menu, given the inaccessiblity. I've seen some advice on adding new strings, but I'd prefer if my own synced up with an official English one (code number and all). 1.2) Screenshots of the translated GUI Here's a mix of screenshots, older and newer, to show how the finished translation of the GUI looks like. Main menu Audio settings General video settings Language video settings Advanced video settings General gameplay settings Difficulty gameplay settings Movement control settings Actions control settings Inventory control settings Weapon control settings General control settings Tool control settings Downloading a mission 1 ("1 mission successfully downloaded", etc.) Downloading a mission 2 ("new missions available", etc.) Restart after mission install Cleanup of a mission install folder Loading a mission save Mission launch menu FM objectives and difficulty menu (from Glenham Tower, showing fairly typical difficulty level names) FM Shop menu: Before purchase, After purchase FM Shop menu items and goods: Blackjack, Sword, Lockpicks, Compass, Spyglass, Lantern, Flashbomb, Mine, Broadhead arrow, Water arrow, Moss arrow, Fire arrow, Rope arrow, Noisemaker arrow, Health potion, Holy water. (The Gas arrow and other rarer items are also translated and work in a shop, but I can't remember an FM with a starting shop that sells them. I have seen them work perfectly fine in the shop menus, like the items in these images.) FM start of mission popup FM mid-mission options menu FM exit mission menu FM ingame objectives scroll (from A New Job, the objectives were not translated, hence English) FM ingame inventory (an overview collage, with translated HUD and item names) FM Mission Statistics 1 (from A New Job, hence the custom name for the difficulty level) FM Mission Statistics 2 (from A New Job, hence the custom name for the difficulty level) FM Mission Completed Version status popup window (up to date for 2.05, the current version) Do you really want to quit, yada yada... Can't post too many screenshots visibly in the post, so I prefer linking to them. They should be easy to view. Same with the FM screenshots further down this post. 1.3) .lang files stuff for the GUI only Finished, up-to-date .lang files, ready for download and testing. all.lang file: http://www.mediafire.com/file/pzj632l2edobdl0/all.lang (other DL link) slovak.lang file: http://www.mediafire.com/file/20189ddeec1w888/slovak.lang (other DL link) tdm_base01.pk4 file (with up-to-date .lang files): http://www.mediafire.com/file/t3mvkj81tldkr7o/tdm_base01.pk4 (other DL link) These are the most up-to-date versions of the GUI .lang files (all.lang & slovak.lang) and of a working tdm_base01.pk4 file with said updates. Anyone of you can have a look and criticque whether the menus or the HUD text need a little rearranging to look better or not. Though I've taken great care to avoid omitting something, I'm sure I could have still overlooked something, and that's partly why I need your second opinions. 2. BASE PACK FMs TRANSLATION 2.1) Translated Training Mission and Tears of St. Lucia FM Font Problems and Glitches The following paragraphs are a hopefully complete list of problems I’ve run into while translating the two base pack FMs (sans the latest, A New Job, which lacks usable .lang files) into the Slovak language. The problems are sorted into issues concerning: a.) the varying presence or absence of letters in fonts, the visual appearance of letters in fonts b.) translating some of the signs and items via the regular l10n method (involving strings and the separate l10 pk4) 2.1 a.) Presence and absence of letters in fonts, visual problems with letters in fonts This mainly concerns readables, but in the case of the Training Mission, also the various hints you get throghout in the upper left corner of the screen. Diacritical letters don't occur within translated readables at all. The book readables and the note readables do not display any diacritical letters, whatsoever. This results in virtually unreadable texts. (Unreadable without extensive guess work about the missing vowels and consonants with diacritics, at least.) Diacritical letters do show up in mission briefings, and on the hint scrolls in the upper left corner of the screen that are unique to the Training Mission. However, even in these case, some of the diacritical letters are either missing completely or getting bizarrely replaced with entirely different letters (resulting either way in equally unreadable text). Diacritical letters that are displayed correctly (on briefings and hint scrolls only? Á á, Ä ä, É é, Ú ú, Ô ô, Í í, Ý í, Č č, Ň ň Diacritical letters that are displayed incorrectly (on briefings and hint scrolls only? a.) Š š are replaced with U u, for some reason b.) Ľ ľ are displayed as some other forms of L (roughly like a Polish "L with a stroke" letter) c.) Ď ď are displayed as D´ d´ (arguably a problem similar to the strange look of a non-capital ť letter in the GUI) d.) Ĺ ĺ are apparently replaced with Å (upon closer inspection, this letter has the identical ALT+0197 as the two acute accent Ls, but on the English keyboard, not the Slovak one) e.) Ť ť and Ž ž are not displayed at all and are replaced by blank squares 2.1 b.) Problems with translating some of the signs and items via the regular l10n (localisation) method I've tested the translation in the Training Mission in particular, because the TM has just more content and thus more ground to cover. One of the unpleasant surprises was the realisation that, although the translation for all of the readables and the little hint scrolls in the Training Mission work, the translation for items and for in-game signs does not work. Mind you, all of the signs and all of the items unique to the Training Mission are listed in the strings of the same .lang file as the mission's readables and hints. The hints and readables work, but the items and signs are still in English. This is a mystery to me. Do those particular texts require a separate manipulation of the Training Mission's .lang file ? 2.2) Screenshots of the translated missions (Training Mission, Tears of St. Lucia) Here's a mix of screenshots, older and newer, to show the current state of the two FMs' translation. Each of these is provided with a commentary by me. 2.2 a.) Training Mission TRAINING MISSION - READABLES Book readable completely lacking letters with diacritics 1 The introductory book readable in the TM's atrium. All the letters with diacritics are gone. I.e. I will have to add them to this font. And not only to this font, unfortunately... The font in the book readables is the "Mac Humaine" font used by TDM. Book readable completely lacking letters with diacritics 2 Same thing. The text looks okay, but any letter with a diacritic is simply not registered by the readable. Book readable completely lacking letters with diacritics 3 The book readable on lockpicking. Once again, all letters with diacritics are completely missing. In addition, I'll have to ammend the translation of the title, because there is no way I can get a conventional translation of "lockpicking" into that one line reserved for the title. Book readable completely lacking letters with diacritics 4 The text itself looks nicely, but the diacritical letters are missing. Book readable completely lacking letters with diacritics 5 Book readable about object handling. Missing diacritics again... For instance, the title is supposed to read "Ovládanie predmetov" (Handling of objects, Controlling of objects). Book readable completely lacking letters with diacritics 6 To make matters just a little bit worse, the original text in the second half of the readable is hard to translate, because you have to cram in all your translated text, and even then, a portion of it gets cut off at the end. This is even without all the missing letters with diacritics. Mind you, I've tried to keep my translated text as brief as possible. But sometimes, it's hard to really fit it in, even in some readables like this one. Scrap of paper readable completely lacking letters with diacritics 1 Scrap of paper readable completely lacking letters with diacritics 2 Scrap of paper readable completely lacking letters with diacritics 3 Scrap of paper readable completely lacking letters with diacritics 4 Scrap of paper readable completely lacking letters with diacritics 5 The above are in the "Nancy" font used by TDM. Not much to say about these. If you get the impression they're bizarrely sparse, that's because the length of these notes, and the amount of letter with diacritics used in them, absolutely messes up the text once they're absent. You can still vaguely make out my translated text, but given the different style and size of the font, the absent letters are even more noticeable here than in the book readables. TRAINING MISSION - MENU & BRIEFING TEXT AND ADDITIONAL TEXT Hint scroll with a missing or incorrect "L and D with caron" (outlined in red and blue) Now we're getting to the real meat of the issues, but these are thankfully unique to the hint scrolls and wall signs that appear in the Training mission. The hint scrolls are, just like the menus and briefings of TDM, in the "Carleton Caps only" font. First off, as in the GUI, the Ľ letter doesn't work properly. This isn't obvious from the screenshot, where a normal L is seen instead in the second line. But this is because I have pre-emptively removed the Ľ, awaiting the same issue as with the GUI. I've outlined it in red. Secondly, a Ď letter is in the first line of that screenshot excerpt, but shows up as more of a "D with an acute accent", with an acute accent diacritic above it instead of the caron diacritic. I've outlined it in blue. Why is Ľ/ľ in particular such an issue in both the GUI and the FM font usage ? If Wikipedia is correct on this, the letters Ľ and ľ (l with a caron) only exist in Slovak. Ergo, they're very rarely used letter outside of the language. Hence, they weren't accounted for in any of the current fonts, because no one would really suspect such an obscure letter with diacritics to show up at all. The Ď/ď letter is only slightly more frequent, existing in a few more languages, but not that many either. Rather rare diacritic letter in most fonts. Hint scroll with a missing "T and Z with caron" (outlined in red and blue) and a static sign issue The letters Ť/ť ("t with a caron") and Ž/ž ("z with a caron") don't show up at all. They're replaced with squares. So, these need to be added to the diacritical letter library of whatever font is used for the hint scrolls. I have outlined the missing ť letters in red and the missing ž letters in blue. There is also the added issue of the static signs in the Training mission having translatable strings, but the result of that translation not showing up at all. Hint scroll with a missing "S with caron" and a U letter replacing it (outlined in red) The letter Š ("s with a caron") gets messed up more than most. it's neither a square, or an S with acute accent, it outright changes into another letter: U, of all things ! Believe me, it got very annoying whenever I tried to read the hint scrolls containing Š/š, and I read U/u all the time. Horribly distracting and makes the words utterly nonsensical. Š isn't a very common letter with diacritics, but it shows up in some languages. The phonetic nature of the letter is widespread, though. E.g. in English, it shows up commonly as the combination "sh" (shadow, short, etc.), and in French, as the combination "ch" (chien, cheval, etc.). Hint scroll with an "L with an acute accent" displayed as a different letter (outlined in red) The letter Ĺ ("L with an acute accent") is a rather rare letter too, similarly to the Ľ. When it comes to how it shows up in probably only this one hint scroll, it is displayed as a weird "A with a circle" letter. Similar situation as with Š, showing up as a completely different letter. Hint scroll with surprisingly unfaulty translated text - no diacritical letters missing Suprisingly enough, a tiny minority of the hint scrolls that had diacritical letters already present in the font for the scrolls showed the translated text well. This is one of the few scrolls where I found nothing wrong with the translation. Pity so much of the other text from the Training Mission looks nowhere near as finished and correct as this example... Translated strings of item names do not show up at all Like with the translated strings for the mission-specific signs seen in the FM, for some reason, the translated strings for mission-specific items (keys, etc.) don't show up either. They're still in English. All of my translated strings are in the same .lang file, which is structurally identical to the FM's English-language .lang file. Do I need to do a separate perl process for the item and sign strings or what ? Any ideas ? TRAINING MISSION - FIXING READABILITY AND FITTING STUFF IN Due to the limiting nature of both the fonts (at least currently) and especially some of the strings for the Training Mission, it is a bit difficult to get it localised. Nevertheless, I want to provide a few sample screenshots of where this has worked out fine, even if I had to do a bit of out-of-the-box thinking. Note on stealthing a warehouse with 2 guards - Original, not fixed Note on stealthing a warehouse with 2 guards - Updated, fixed A letter to brother Jarvis - Worked fine originally, no need for fixing * Elevator note - Fixed Injury risk note - Original, not fixed Injury risk note - Updated, fixed Note on moss arrow usage, page 1 - Original, not fixed Note on moss arrow usage, page 2 - Original, not fixed Note on moss arrow usage, page 1 - Fixed, edited, but nothing left out Note on moss arrow usage, page 2 - Fixed, edited, but nothing left out Note on flashbomb usage, page 1 - Fixed Note on flashbomb usage, page 2 - Fixed Note on noisemaker distractions - Original, not fixed Note on noisemaker distractions - Fixed, edited, nothing left out, but needs a slight tweak ** * - I've noticed a few minor font-related typos in the final sentences on the screenshot, but these have been already repaired since I took it. Will update the screenshot when I'll have time. ** - The slight tweak needed being that I apparently have enough space to reintroduce the blank line between the title and the text. I don't like cramming text in these readables, and whenever at least some space can be spared, I prefer to spare it (though space is at a premium in most shorter readables, due to the limitations of the strings). 2.2 b.) The Tears od St. Lucia THE TEARS OF ST. LUCIA - READABLES Disappointing bit of news: After testing my l10n addon for the mission, I realised that the varied fonts are going to pose an even bigger problem. This time, it isn't just missing diacritical letters. Effectivelly, none of the readables (at least those that I had time to find and view) showed any of the translated text. All readables remained in English. So far, I've only had experiences with how the translated text looked like within the fonts used in the Training Mission, which uses about 3 different fonts max. St. Lucia uses a lot more custom fonts, and aside from Carleton, none of the fonts from Training reappear in St. Lucia. I was in for a cold shower... Message from John to Sophie 1 Message from John to Sophie 2 This readable is in the "Shopping List" font. Letter to father Brenard This readable is in the "Andrew Script" font. Tears of St. Lucia soup recipe This readable is in the "Popsies" font. Untranslatable readable (ad on outside of a house) This one actually isn't much of a biggie. It's a photoshopped image, much like the various posters and notes dotting the level. There are no strings assigned to it, so I doubt it can get a translation without remaking the asset (and it's dubious whether the player would need to read this one for any hints, unlike the readables). Not entirely sure about the font used for this ad, it's probably the "JD Hand" one or similar. THE TEARS OF ST. LUCIA - MENU & BRIEFING TEXT Untranslated custom map item in shop Tears of St. Lucia objectives and difficulty levels Tears of St. Lucia ingame objectives scroll All three of these seem to be in the "Carleton Caps only" font, typical of most TDM menus and popups (including those seen in the two FMs detailed here). Important addendum (please read): Earlier this week, Springheel explained to me why there are plenty of issues with translating a still-in-development official mission like St. Lucia. To summarise, it's a bit of a headache to regularly update everything, including the existing strings, so it's possible I might have to play the long game with these official missions. Prepare the translations if needed, but be ready it might take a while before their implementation can become technically feasible. (Ideally, having the missions in a state that is considered closed and definitive would help a lot.) Yes, this is unfortunate, but I'd rather work on something that can be finished sooner than much later. Therefore, you'll still be getting at least a stripped-down translation of the Trainining Mission, and once I get the fonts to work, possibly translations of other completed FMs (other than the two from the official campaign). 2.3) .lang files and l10n stuff for the translated missions (Training Mission, Tears of St. Lucia) only .lang file and l10n pack for the Training Mission (2.06 compatible) coming the following week (12th-18th February) I have them largelly finished and have used them for testing (hence the screenshots above), but the GUI is more top priority now. (All the more that fixing the font issues in the FMs might take a good while longer than the much less numerous GUI font issues.) ---- Closing thoughts for now (late January 2018) I doubt I'll get all the fonts issues resolved by 2.06, so we might opt for a barebones translation without repaired diacritics (the GUI one already is, albeit only for one or two of the letters that don't work) and then fix these font issues a little later, for 2.07. I'm already doing two different versions of the texts (one with diacritics, one without), so it wouldn't be much of a time issue on my part. I can prepare the diacritics-less text for the two FMs in no time, and much of it is already done. Of the people who could help with fonts, Tels and Charisma are currently away and unavailable. I've contacted Skina, who has some practice with editing the font sets, so I might eventually patch all the missing letters and get the whole thing to work well with the translated GUI and translated texts in FMs. In the absence of Tels, Grayman also seems to know a bit about this area, but I'm not sure how much. I'm all very new to fixing issues with fonts and it might take me a while to fix those issues. Which brings me to what I wrote in the first of these three paragraphs: As things currently stand, it is highly probable a Slovak release with repaired diacritics will only show up in 2.07. So, it might still be a bit of a wait. However, I want to ensure that the Training Mission, at the very least, gets a (for now) "without diacritics" translation release for 2.06, alongside the GUI translation release for that same upcoming version. ---- P.S. I am hosting the screenshots via Mediafire. If some of the screenshots don't load, even if they loaded perfectly well before, it's a problem of the hosting service, not your computer.

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!

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/

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

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.)

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.