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

So recently I tried upscaling the old TDM logo video that can seen as intro before loads of old missions and some newer ones. The old one looks like this: But inside TDM the video is stretched because it has an aspect ratio of 1:1 . On 16:9 screens it looks very stretched and on 4:3 and 5:4 a little. A 16:9 aspect ratio for the video would be better for most users (using 16:9) and on 4:3 and 5:4 it still looks ok. Now one could say: "who cares about that old video?" (I do, every time I watch it before a new mission). But I would say: "How much work is it to convert the video to mp4 (smaller file) and make it 16:9?". I mean pure conversion, no upscaling. The upscaled variant I made (in 16:9) looks like this: I think it looks better than the original, but that's just my opinion and not really the point of this topic.

With as little fanfare as possible, I'd like to announce the release of the third installment of The Lieutenant series: Foreign Affairs. Huge thanks for my beta testers: @Bergante @Cambridge Spy @chakkman @Mat99 @Shadow @wesp5 For a full list of credits, please see the readme.txt that ships with the mission, or go here. More screenshots can be viewed here: https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBr44M Download link #1: https://github.com/FrostSalamander/lt3/releases/download/1.0/faffairs.pk4 Download link #2: https://drive.proton.me/urls/JESNV8CNKW#ljttGnbkkAOh @nbohr1more here's the 800x600 versions of the screenshots: https://drive.proton.me/urls/MFGZ3WXCAW#WXXAnYkPgGZX Stuff to be aware of: TDM 2.12 required The only difference in difficulty settings is the (optional) loot goal If you see a tile material, chances are it's a custom version changed to sound like stone. I did this in order to preserve the aesthetic of the setting without making it maddening to play. Some vines are climbable, some aren't. Just try them and see. The FM makes use of latches on doors, a new feature created by @Wellingtoncrab and myself. Read more here: https://github.com/thedarkmodcommunity/test-latch/wiki Here's a list of the secret locations. Obvious spoilers:

You get the option to "Restore old Config" after upgrade but we advise against it since sometimes it reverts new default settings for performance features that have been improved and tested enough to made default. I think the next TDM release will have FPS mode to uncapped as default since it is critical to Linux players but also fixes a few audio sync bugs and even improves things for Windows players apparently. On balance, uncapped mode is more fixed and maintained than the old id software capped mode. ( Quite a strange thing considering all the bugs we used to have with uncapped mode. )

A basic little detail we don't yet have is breakable decorations, I was wondering what is up with that and if maybe we can change it. Mainly thinking of new small decorations: I believe breakable crates or barrels were once experimented with, the entity may still be there but I've never seen them used, maybe someday those can be finished too. Just like metal goblets / plates / vases / bottles you can pick up and throw, it would be nice to have alternatives made of fragile transparent glass. The difference being that when they hit a surface past a certain velocity, they disappear and shatter into glass shards... I believe the fundamental system for this already exists with breakable glass panels? Gameplay wise they'd have a particular property: When they break they should make a louder noise, causing a slightly higher alert that makes AI look there for longer, not as much as the noise arrow but somewhere between it and throwing a conventional object. As a potential penalty, stepping on a small glass breakable should shatter it which is hearable to AI, FM's that use them may encourage being a bit extra careful where you're going.

You need a new job (?)

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Because it's super useful not having to browse through the whole thread, and probably not even finding what you're looking for, because people put it in spoiler tags, which are excluded from the search. You don't have to click on the spoiler tag in the original post.

Basically someone always asks. We're all grownups here and it's in spoiler tags so...

The TDM Unofficial Patch is a personal project of mine to modify some small details that annoyed me in the core game. It wouldn't be possible without many others, so thanks to the whole TDM community for discussions and help, but especially to friendly modders who directly contributed code for it, like Obsttorte, Dragofer, Kingsal, Goldwell, Destined, and snatcher! You can find it under the link below and while over the years there was little progress, in recent times many things have been improved that I never even thought of when I started and some might be worth to be included in the core game. https://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/addons/the-dark-mod-unofficial-patch Version Changelog: ------------------ v1.7 20.08.2022 ---- Made loot icon change right back to last tool icon, thanks snatcher. Added new whistle player skill to distract NPCs, thanks to snatcher. Made more lights extinguishable and added info for 4 beta missions. Corrected container bottom fix messing up drawers, thanks Dragofer. Improved unlit behaviour of moveable light sources, thanks snatcher. Corrected lit lamps set to extinguished in maps, thanks to Dragofer. Changed western empire maps so the location of Bridgeport is vague. Added several major city names to the small map, thanks to Kukutoo. Fixed frobing animation not working with bound and carried entities. v1.6 23.07.2022 ---- Improved extinguishing oil lamps, thanks to Dragofer and Obsttorte. Added frobing animation, thanks to Obsttorte, Goldwell and snatcher. Fixed container bottoms and training mission chest, thanks Dragofer. Made doors open faster when running, thanks Obsttorte and snatcher. Added more player tools to training mission and improved text there. Fixed Holy Water doing no damage and Hazard Pay not starting at all. Made all five oil lamps in Sotha's "The Bakery Job" extinguishable. Added blow player skill to snuff out small flames, thanks snatcher. Changed Unarmed icon to make clear that the player always has a bow. v1.5 02.07.2022 ---- Created Invisibility Potion out of cut Speed Potion, thanks Kingsal. Increased arrow head shot damage to both living and undead enemies. Replaced slow matches with easier to handle flints, thanks Kingsal. v1.4 10.03.2022 ---- Replaced Frob Helper with dark Frob Outline and updated to TDM 2.10. Made electric mine stun elite guards too and improved mission names. Renamed mission installation/selection UI mishmash to "activation". v1.3 21.02.2021 ---- Changed flashmine to stunning electric mine and updated to TDM 2.09. Edited more mission names and made threefold candles extinguishable. v1.2 26.08.2020 ---- Updated to TDM 2.08 and fixed custom holywater script compatibility. Added Numbers Scroll showing stealth and loot info, thanks Dragofer. Edited more mission names to avoid truncated descriptions in menus. Added default keys info to training mission and repaired cut lines. v1.1 03.02.2019 ---- Moveable candles can be extinguished directly by frobing the candle. More blackjack immune enemies and inextinguishable candles modified. The key frob distance has been decreased to be that of lockpicking. Holy Water bottles must be thrown directly, but they do more damage. The controls settings menu additions have been updated for TDM 2.07. New mission names have been fixed to fix format and spacing issues. Added looking up and looking down controls for people without mouse. Pointed bad prefabs container open/close sounds to existing effects. Added version info to starting screen and edited some new missions. v1.0 06.05.2018 ---- Many enemies will not become immune to blackjacking when alerted. Oil lamps can be snuffed by frobing, thanks Destined and Obsttorte. The controls settings menu lists that "use" can work on held items. Mission names were syncronized between download and online lists. The controls settings menu lists that "frob" can get or drop items. Astericks were added to official missions to move them to list top. Minor text and format bugs have been fixed in some mission infos.

EDIT: This topic was initially named "Frob Helper madness". ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- While working on something I analyzed the Frob Helper. The Frob Helper was enabled by default in 2.11. The options were: Show Frob Helper: Yes [Default] No [Tip] Makes interacting with small objects easier by temporarily displaying a white dot. ------------------------------------------------------------------ In 2.12 the Frob Helper remains enabled by default but things changed: Show Frob Helper: Always Hover Fade In [Default] Fade In Fast No [Tip] Makes interacting with small objects easier: Always = Show crosshair dot at all times Hover = Instantly show dot on highlight Fade In = Gradually show dot on highlight Fade In Fast = Same as Fade In but faster ------------------------------------------------------------------ If I was new to TDM I would expect a "Frob Helper" to help me identify frobs: you can interact with this, here is the helper so that you know it and you know where the center of the screen is in case you need it. The Frob Helper however was designed to compensate for the shortcomings of other mechanics of the game, and as such, the Frob Helper is flawed by design: it only shows up if the size of the object is smaller than the arbitrary value of 40. I will say at this point that I am well aware of the tdm_frobhelper_ignore_size cvar but this isn't the point. This game isn't a shooter and "Always on" is not required unless we are talking motion sickness, in which case it belongs in a hidden cvar, for the few that may need it. The starting point of the Frob Helper should have been: On (the helper shows up whenever you can interact with something) Off From this point we can expand with more options, of course: Always on (not recommended based on the nature of the game) On for all items - Hover On for all items - Fade In On for all items - Fade In Fast [Default] On for small items - Hover On for small items - Fade In On for small items - Fade In Fast Always off

Do we keep using the current system, or are there plans for a new way for example using an universal translation format? The two biggest issues with the current system I find is that currently editing larger text is not great and the original map file (or more) has to be modified, which means if the mapper doesn't want to bother, it's not going to happen, because external modification of map files is a no-go I think.

And some new (wonderful looking) screenshots: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1150760/announcements/detail/6009568738059053794

I hope that is not the new TDM version. https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/20784-render-bug-large-black-box-occluding-screen/

The project to round up viable orphaned translations is mostly complete now. https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=4726 Since Darkfate has their own translations it took awhile to merge the older translations with the darkfate formatting since they generated new string numbers from scratch. A few missions are so radically changed that the old translations are practically worthless now ( and some Darkfate translations are also incompatible with the latest mission versions ) but most of the work was salvageable. I added a "Translation Pack" column to the Missions wiki: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Fan_Missions_for_The_Dark_Mod all entries marked with "Yes" are working translations that use Darkfate's translation design ( includes xdata, GUI and Map files if the author didn't perform localization changes in their own mission pack ). Sadly, these changes do not show in the mission downloader list. You will need to delete mission_l10n.pk4 files from the darkmod/fms/mission_name folders to acquire the new translation packs that "actually work". Not all mission packs contain all languages. Mostly you can count on Russian being in there, but a good percentage have German and Italian strings too. French, Polish, and a few other languages are represented but not very broadly. Hopefully now that the packs work other contributors will add more language strings. Mission administration details: Going forward, it would be courteous if the mission admins ( like myself ) would diff the map files when new mission updates are supplied and replace all the objectives, inv_name, pop-up messages, and shouldered names in a copy of the new map file with the previous string codes then copy that file to the map folder in the translation pack folder. Ideally, authors will be encouraged to run their missions through the converter so only new strings need be added to the packs but not everyone likes that workflow and how cumbersome it makes future edits to the mission.

On a lighter note (and because my holiday started today, oh yeah!), let's have a new thread for music, that you just enjoy and probably is not so well known...or somehow obscure but does not sound as strange as the songs we report in @STiFU's progessive music thread. Here is one of my new favourites, a similar recording of this track by other artists has been used in an US show broadcasted last year ( @Amadeus: What is the name of the show? )

For the people eager to play with the latest state of development, two things are provided: regular dev builds source code SVN repository Development builds are created once per a few weeks from the current trunk. They can be obtained via tdm_installer. Just run the installer, check "Get Custom Version" on the first page, then select proper version in "dev" folder on the second page. Name of any dev version looks like devXXXXX-YYYY, where XXXXX and YYYY are SVN revision numbers from which the build was created. The topmost version in the list is usually the most recent one. Note: unless otherwise specified, savegames are incompatible between any two versions of TDM! Programmers can obtain source code from SVN repository. Trunk can be checked out from here: https://svn.thedarkmod.com/publicsvn/darkmod_src/trunk/ SVN root is: https://svn.thedarkmod.com/publicsvn/darkmod_src Build instructions are provided inside repository. Note that while you can build executable from the SVN repository, TDM installation of compatible version is required to run it. Official TDM releases are compatible with source code archives provided on the website, and also with corresponding release tags in SVN. A dev build is compatible with SVN trunk of revision YYYY, where YYYY is the second number in its version (as described above). If you only want to experiment with the latest trunk, using the latest dev build gives you the maximum chance of success. P.S. Needless to say, all of this comes with no support. Although we would be glad if you catch and report bugs before the next beta phase starts

I don't recommend this sort of UI layout. If there are two independent settings (item size and fade duration), they should be two separate controls, not a single list containing a separate item for every possible combination of options. Otherwise you end up with a confusing and unwieldy list which explodes in size whenever a new option is added.

Story: Thanks: Thanks to peter_spy for creating the wonderful Builder Complex module set used in this mission. Thanks to my beta testers: Cambridge Spy, Mezla, kingsal, Amadeus, manzanita-crow, Kerry000, Shadow and Suave Steve. Downloads: Gallery: Thank you for playing! What did you think of the mission? I look forward to your honest feedback! Hints, Tips, Walkthroughs, Spoilers(!): - This mission will greatly reward those taffers who like to explore a mission thoroughly. It is possible to go directly for your objectives, but you will be missing a lot of content. - Many windows are openable, leading to new areas or private residences. - If an area seems hard to navigate due to patrols, chances are you can circumvent it. - Those who like a challenge and some extra replay value owe it to themselves to visit the cultist's apartment on Vicolo Torcere.

I couldn't help thinking of another realism related suggestion, don't know if it was discussed before but it seemed like an interesting idea. If this were to be changed on existing lights by default, it would have minor gameplay implications, but the sort that make missions easier in a fair way. So... electric lights: Like the real ones of the era, they're implied to use incandescent light bulbs... the kind that in reality will explore and shatter upon the smallest impact, and which like real lamps are encased in glass or paper. In any realistic scenario, shooting a broadhead arrow at a lamp or even throwing a rock at it would cause it to go through the glass and break the light bulb inside. Is it wrong to imagine TDM emulating this behavior as a gameplay mechanic? Just as you can shoot water arrows at flame based lights to put them out, you'd shoot broadhead arrows at electric lights to disable them... you must however hit the glass precisely, there's no room for error and it must be a perfect shot. As a way to compensate for the benefit, AI can treat this as suspicious and become alert if seeing or hearing a lamp break, or finding a broken lamp at any time if that's deemed to provide better balance. A technical look at implementing this: Just as broadhead arrows can go and stick through small soft objects such as books, they should do the same if you hit the glass material on a lamp, while of course still bouncing off if you hit metal: Lamp glass would need a special material flag that sends a signal to the entity upon collisions but allows arrows to go through, unlike glass in other parts of the world which is meant to act as solid and changing that everywhere would break a lot of things. When pierced by an arrow, the lamp should immediately turn itself off while playing a broken glass sound and spawning a few glass particles. The glass material should be hidden if the model is a transparent surface, or replaced with a broken glass texture in case the glass is painted on a lamp model without an interior... obviously this would be done by defining a broken skin for the entity to switch to. This does imply a few complexities which should be manageable: Existing lamps supporting this behavior will need new skins and in a few cases new textures, the def must include a new skin variable similar to the lit / unlit skins in this case a broken skin. Any electric light may be connected to a light switch, we don't want toggling the switch to bring the light bulb back to life... as such a flag to permanently disable triggering the light from that point on would be required. For special purposes such as scripted events to reset the world, we should allow an event to unbreak lamps, setting their state back to being lit / unlit while re-enabling trigger toggling. What do you think about this idea and who else wants it? Would it be worth the trouble to try and implement? If so should it only be done for new lights or as a separate entity definition of existing ones, or would the change be welcome retroactively for existing missions without players and FM authors alike feeling it makes them too easy?

Thought it would be a good idea to collate a useful list for new and old mappers alike and this post will update as we go. Abandoned works: Any WIP projects that were abandoned by the original author - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/12713-abandoned-works/ Darkradiant & Darkmod shortcut settings: Some example settings for new mappers - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/15152-darkradiant-and-darkmod-shortcut-folder-settings/ Darkradiant howto, must knows, tips and faqs - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/12558-usefull-important-editing-links/?do=findComment&comment=272581 Info for Beginners: Newbie DarkRadiant Questions - http://forums.thedar...iant-questions/ Dark Radient Must Know Basic Intro - http://wiki.thedarkm...now_Basic_Intro Editing Tips for Beginners - http://wiki.thedarkm...s_for_Beginners Editing FAQ (Troubleshooting & How-To) - http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Editing_FAQ_-_Troubleshooting_%26_How-To Sotha's excellent Mapping Tutorial series: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18680-lets-map-tdm-with-sotha-the-bakery-job/ Springheel's New Mapper's Workshop: http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18945-tdm-new-mappers-workshop/ Inspiration: Collection of screenshots and images people have found online - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/11610-darkmod-inspiration-thread/ Mapping Resources: List of Voice actors available for voice recording - http://modetwo.net/d...6-voice-actors/ Lengthy collection of city reference pictures - http://modetwo.net/d...rence-pictures/ Collection of texture resource sites - http://modetwo.net/d...ture-resources/ Free Ambient Tracks - http://skeksisnetlabel.wordpress.com/2009/12/30/10-songs-for-free-download-vol-10-full-moon-over-noricum/ Mapping Tools: 3 useful tools for texture creation - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18581-must-have-tools-for-the-descerning-mapper/ Modular Building: What is Modular building - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/14832-modular-building-techniques/ Working example tutorial on modular building - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18680-lets-map-tdm-with-sotha-the-bakery-job/ Springheels new modular models - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/18683-using-springheels-205-modules/ Some related mapper recipies - Easy Vaults - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/14859-easy-vault-recipe/?hl=%2Beasy+%2Brecipe Easy Outdoors - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/16159-easy-outdoors-recipe/?hl=%2Beasy+%2Brecipe Easy Caverns - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/14469-quick-caverns-recipe/?hl=recipe Easy Alert Ai - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/17157-easy-alert-ai-recipe/?hl=%2Beasy+%2Brecipe Easy Alert Ai Custom Behavour - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/17160-easy-alert-ai-custom-behavior-recipe/?hl=recipe Tutorials: Collection of video tutorials for DR - http://modetwo.net/d...in-darkradiant/ Using Lighting and detail effectively: - http://forums.thedar...l-and-lighting/ Voice Actors list: List of available voice actors - http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/12556-list-of-available-voice-actors/ Usefull Console commands: A list of console commands for testing in-game - http://wiki.thedarkm...Useful_Controls

For free ambience tracks it's as Freky said: you look around on the internet for tracks with the appropriate license to be included in your FM. Fortunately, you likely don't even need to bother doing this as a beginner as there's an entire "Music & SFX" section of the forums full of good ambient tracks for you to use if the stock tracks do not meet your fancy. You might also be interested in Orbweaver's "Dark Ambients", which come with a sndshd file already written for you.