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A little thing I'd like to see changed: When renaming a readable definition in the Readable Editor, a copy of the old definition is created instead of moving the old one. This leads to clutter that needs to be fixed manually in a text editor if the mapper wants such duplication removed. It would be appreciated if a way to properly rename readable paths was supported. Here's what I mean: Add and select a readable entity on the map, such as atdm:readable_immobile_paper01. Open the Readable Editor and type something, then under XData Name save it under an unique name like readables/myfm/note_foo. Click the Save and Close button to store any changes. Open the Readable Editor again and under XData Name rename your entry to something else like readables/myfm/note_bar. Save and Close once more. Issue: If you open darkmod/fms/myfm/xdata/myfm.xd you will find that both readables/myfm/note_foo and readables/myfm/note_bar exist and duplicate the same text body, instead of the first being renamed into the second. A problem I can see is that a readable definition might be used by multiple entities on the map, so when renaming we must ensure every entity with the same xdata_contents is changed to point to the new path. Just in case a prompt might be desired if a rename of the XData path is detected, asking whether you want to copy or move the definition and warn that if any other maps use it they'll need to be pointed to the new name manually.

I'm sorry i have to criticize a little again. What i have noticed playing a reasonable amount of FM's is, that some map authors seem to implement set guard patrol paths, which means the guard always walks the same way, which is like on the original Thief games, while others seem to implement complex patrol behavior (or is it random?). From a players point of view, and from someone who admittedly likes to knock out guards, a random patrol path (or complex) as can be found in grayman's WS: In the north mission to name an extreme example (in that mission, i felt like, if i waited in a corner in the kitchen, i could have knocked out about half a dozen different people that entered and left the kitchen in any direction, finally, i was stacking unconscious bodies in the toilet...), can be quite a game breaking thing, especially in stealth games, in fact, in any kind of games, you have to expect a certain A.I. behavior, otherwise it will get very difficult, and can break the fun. In this case, it can't be really, that guards patrol all over the place, especially, when you also want to find a safe place to hide bodies. I'm playing Melan & Bikerdude's PD 2 mission atm, and again, i find people who patrol in a really weird way... sometimes, they even stick to the same place, go a metre forward, turn around, go back, and then turn again. What is it with that weird behavior? Is it random, is it programmed? I can imagine that for people who like to ghost, and like a even bigger challenge, it's cool, but for people who blackjack, it's truely a nightmare. There's another issue i had in that mission, and that is, i couldn't enter a room, because the door way was exposed with candle light, and some stationary guard was facing the door, making it impossible to enter. Then i opened the door, shot a noisemaker arrow down the hallway i came from, the guard noticed the noise, came out of the door, and instead of checking the noise source, he came my way, and i tried it 3 times, and the result was always the same. Is there something i'm missing? Shouldn't he check the spot where the noise maker was aimed to? There's really some weird moments you have in this mod, not only gameplay wise, but also, in most missions, there are spots you stick to, when you jump in places, you're not expected to jump. Or some jumps which are designed so that you hardly can do them. Sorry to be so judicial, even though i really like this mod and the missions, there are some things i just feel need to be criticized about it. I can only imagine how much work goes into creating a mission, and nothing is perfect, and there always will be untested areas.

I think it is a good idea! Our ingame mission downloader and mission view has long been subject of multiple improvement suggestions. Due to the sheer mass of missions that have been released in the last 15 years, things got really cluttered and especially newcomers will have a hard time finding what they want. However, improving the ingame guis is quite a task, so a web-based application might really suit this scenario well. Maybe we could even add a linke to it from our ingame menus, so user can access it quicker. Some more things to think about Would users be able to add custom tags and downvote / upvote certain tags, much like the system of Steam? This would also allow to add tags like "beautiful", or "difficult". Actually, the more users can contribute to this system, the better, because it will be automatically maintained then. The browser should also contain a flag for whether the FM belongs to a connected series of FMs or not and have the capability to go to the previous or next FM in that series. There should also be a flag for fully fledges campaigns. Some might like a flag whether or not an FM is "ghostable".

DarkRadiant 3.7.0 is ready for download. What's new: Feature: Skin Editor Improvement: Script Window usability improvements Fixed: Hitting escape while autosaving crashes to desktop Fixed: Def parsing problem in tdm_playertools_lockpicks.def Fixed: DR hangs if selecting a lot of entities with entity list open Fixed: Float Property Editor's entry box is sticking around after selecting a float key Fixed: Spline entities without model spawnarg are unselectable Fixed: Entity window resets interior sizing forcing resize each time it is opened Fixed: Spline curves should not be created with a model spawnarg Fixed: Newly appended curve control vertices aren't shown at first Fixed: Light entities are zoomed out in preview window Fixed: Entity inspector spawnarg fields not always updated by UI windows such as Model Chooser Feature: Skin Editor (see video) Windows and Mac Downloads are available on Github: https://github.com/codereader/DarkRadiant/releases/tag/3.7.0 and of course linked from the website https://www.darkradiant.net Thanks to all the awesome people who keep using DarkRadiant to create Fan Missions - they are the main reason for me to keep going. Please report any bugs or feature requests here in these forums, following these guidelines: Bugs (including steps for reproduction) can go directly on the tracker. When unsure about a bug/issue, feel free to ask. If you run into a crash, please record a crashdump: Crashdump Instructions Feature requests should be suggested (and possibly discussed) here in these forums before they may be added to the tracker. The list of changes can be found on the our bugtracker changelog. Keep on mapping!

Yes, it does. Which makes it interesting that you yourself explicitly said that it's interesting nobody had complained here on the official forums: I did, which is why it stood out to me so much that even though you yourself had personally been involved you would reply claiming nobody had complained here on the official forums. I'm not colorblind at all. Does that make people pointing out that almost no modern games have proper colorblindness support hyperbole? Just because it doesn't affect you, or you choose not to pay attention to the discussion of something, doesn't make it hyperbole. Pick pretty much any modern FPS and you will find plenty of discussion about the near universal disregard for FOV and camera movement as accessibility issues. Denigrating those as hyperbole because you personally don't feel the affects is as bad of a look as demeaning people who bring up the importance of valid allergen warnings like gluten or colorblindness and deafness support.

That gives me the full picture, thanks @Dragofer for the detailed clarification! Only one more thing I should probably know on that: Do worldspawn patch meshes count to the pathfinding algorithm or just brushes? Asking since I use patch terrain... of course I have a normal brush right under it so it should work regardless but it doesn't hurt to know. As for RIT that sounds like what I've been doing all along so I didn't miss out. I do it by having paths target multiple paths which results in random actions, often times the AI going to different rooms or looking at different things in each room. I don't feel like placing paths for some decorative AI that only need to wonder around however, could still use an alternative to animal patrol mode for random movements (without the running around like crazy).

Hey, Every time I've try to use the Full Editor when PM'ing someone, and every single time I get an error. Whoever is in charge of the forum, is it possible that this could be fixed? Thanks Neon

Hi all, some time ago SteveL gave me a python script, that can search files in the TDM installation (also inside pk4-files), which is very handy for playing around with definitions, materials, etc. Unfortunately, the script does not work with the latest Python distribution. Could someone, who in contrast to myself knows python, be so kind to correct the script, so it works? Idle gives an error that the print part is wrong; I am not sure if they have changed anything in their syntax. Any help is appreciated! """Search text files in FMs and TDM assets""" import re, os, fnmatch, zipfile PATHS = [ r"E:\Spiele\Stealth\TDM" ] #, r"E:\dm-dev\campaign"] FILE_EXTS = ['.mtr'] # '.mtr', '.prt', ,'.skin','.fx','.md5mesh','.pfb', '.anim', '.md5anim','.gui','.map','.script','.gui','.def' SEARCH_PTN = r'arm_leg' # regular expression def searchPk4(pk4, exts): """Look in a pk4 archive and yield files with any of the extensions in exts. Returns ( filename, filecontents ). filename includes any directory path internal to the archive. pk4: full path, e.g. r'E:\darkmod\tdm_defs01.pk4' exts: list or tuple of bare extensions, e.g. ['def', 'mtr'] """ f = zipfile.ZipFile(pk4, 'r') for member in f.infolist(): ext = (os.path.splitext(member.filename)[1]).lower() if ext in exts: yield member.filename, f.read(member) def findTDMFiles(paths, exts): """Yield tuples: (filepath, filecontents) of all files found in paths with any of the extensions in exts. Looks inside pk4 archives, but not nested archives. paths, exts are sequences containing one or more paths / extensions. """ for path in set(paths): for root, dirnames, filenames in os.walk(path): for ext in set( ['.pk4'] + exts): for filename in fnmatch.filter(filenames, '*'+ext): fpath = os.path.join(root, filename) if ext == '.pk4': for internalname, content in searchPk4(fpath, exts): yield ( fpath + ' -> ' + internalname, content ) else: yield fpath, file(fpath).read() if __name__ == '__main__': search_regex = re.compile(SEARCH_PTN, re.IGNORECASE) context_regex = re.compile("[^\n]{0,250}(" + SEARCH_PTN + ")[^\n]{0,250}", re.IGNORECASE) result = '\n~~~~~ RESULT:\n' for fname, text in findTDMFiles(PATHS, FILE_EXTS): print "Checking " + fname refs = search_regex.findall(text) if refs: print '***** %s *****' % fname result += '***** %s *****\n' % fname for r in context_regex.finditer(text): print r.group().strip() result += r.group().strip() + '\n' print result

Ignoring is somewhat inadequate as you still see other members engaging in a discussion with the problematic user, and as Wellingtoncrab says such discussions displace all other content within that channel. Moderation is also imperfect as being unpleasant to engage with is not in itself banworthy, so there is nothing more to do if such people return to their old behaviour after a moderator had a talk with them, except live with it or move away. I'd be more willing to deal with it if it felt like there were more on-topic discussion, i.e. thoughts about recently played fan missions or mappers showcasing their progress, rather than a stream of consciousness about a meta topic that may or not have to do with TDM. I guess the forums already serve the desired purpose, or they just compartmentalise discussions better.

This is the new part in 2.11. This was always the case. The engine composes a virtual filesystem with a list of search paths. In fact, even if I wanted to load the file which is overridden, I simply could not do that: the two files have same path, and using it always yields the same file. Yes, it was always the case. And then FM takes precedence over core, and among them ordinary directories take precedence over pk4 (if I recall correctly). This was the case in 2.10. Right now you just get an error if there is such kind of conflict. Frankly speaking, why do you even want to silently have same decl in several files? How are you going to debug this? Just guessing that your decl does not work as intended because probably it is duplicated somewhere and running a search over all files in directories / pk4 files?

No. The Aeden's staff optional objective is the hardest of the game. To point out directions here, though, is getting into an area of heavy-duty spoilers ... so I'm constrained in my response just as I was constrained in my responses to the "endless keyhunt" complaints because to show the rather simple direction would be a huge spoiler. So I had to bite my tongue and take it. Aeden's staff is different, though - harder. I've never tried a no-KO ghost playthrough. Because I'm clumsy and have slow reflexes. I think it might be possible to do a stealth no-alerts playthrough. Are you allowed to KO? I think I've gotten the staff a few times in my playthroughs without alerting the builders in that room. The only switchable lights in the FM are table lamps. The cylindrical style wall lamps aren't extinguishable. The other fire and gas wall lamps are extinguished by water. In the Ox all waiters and commoners in the common room and outside are friendlies - except for the waitress in the upper lounge which is filled with enemies. You need water arrows. Moss arrows. Rope arrows. I've never used a gas arrow in a playthrough of the FM but one would make things easier, for sure. I'm going to replay the area and check through the locations that you mentioned - the loop etc. - then if it's OK with you I'll PM you with some info, tho' I'll ask you if you want the info first. So's not to spoil it for others who get that far in the game (few and far between!). I find it almost impossible not to click the "reveal spoiler" tags and read the info ... and, y'know, spoilers do spoil the real deal.

I don't recall a system for noise masking. It sounds like it'd be a good idea, but when you get into the details you realize it'd be complicated to implement. It's not only noise that that goes into it, I think. E.g., a high register can cut through even a loud but low register rumble. And it's not like the .wav file even has data on the register of what it's playing. So either you have to add meta-data (which is insane), or you have to have a system to literally check pitch on the .wav data and paramaterize it in time to know when it's going to cut through what other parameters from other sounds. For that matter, it doesn't even have the data on the loudness either, so you'd have to get that off the file too and time the peaks with the "simultaneous" moment at arbitrary places in every other sound file correctly. And then position is going to matter independently for each AI. So it's not like you can have one computation that works the same for all AI. You'd have to compute the masking level for each one, and then you get into the expense you're mentioning. I know there was a long discussion about it in the internal forums, and probably on the public subforums too, but it's been so long ago now I can't even remember the gist of them. Anyway the main issue is I don't know if you'll find a champion that wants to work on it. But if you're really curious to see how it might work, you could always try your hand at coding & implementing it. Nothing beats a good demo to test an idea in action. And there's no better way to learn how to code than a little project like that. I always encourage people to try to implement an idea they have, whether or not it may be a good idea, just because it shows the power of an open source game. We fans can try anything we want and see if it works!

Grayman worked hard adding a great feature for those of us making maps which I'd like to draw your attention to, several path nodes now will trigger their targets, so you can more easily start conversations, have AI comment on their environment, cause a sound to happen, synchronize other AI to move in concert, or activate whatever you can imagine upon reaching/doing these path nodes... This should allow for greater environmental interactivity and dynamics. For example, we often exploit the random targets of path nodes to have AI go different ways or offer different behaviors, to be less predictable to the player, however sometimes they'll repeat the same thing, wasting that work. In recent discussion in another thread, we realized a couple things, a path node could be made to switch, alternating between different destinations, or that random list of destinations could eliminate used routes, to add more variety. (Then when the final one is used, replenish the list.) This also makes randomizing things like loot placement or objective item goals in maps even easier (sans scripting), as you no longer need trigger_once entities, just have an AI target as many path_corners as you want, and have those trigger whatever results should occur from that random outcome, easy-peasy. What other creative implementations come to mind?

Lets test some bats! You'll need at least version 2.10b5 for testing (Dragofer added "animal_patrol_wait" which is needed properly behaving bats). I've tested the bats in my testmap and now they are ready to be let loose and tested in your maps to see if everything works as it should. Think about free roaming in (very) large spaces and small spaces. Also maybe have them follow paths, I didn't test that, and other things you can think of. The bat can by default be killed but has no ragdoll, instead it has a deathScript that makes the bat disappear with a visual effect. Maybe someone wants to make a ragdoll for it? Set spawnarg "noDamage" to "1" to have invincible bats. The blender files can be downloaded here: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/815315205483397142/936191315845206046/Bat2.0_Blender_Files.rar The files needed to have bats in your map are in the attachment. There are 2 different sized bats and there is also a red test skin for both. I added the original tdm_mage_effects.fx file in the fx folder as an example how it works so you can easely make your own visual effect for the bats deathScript, if you wish. Update 2.01: Fixed aas,size,mins,maxs in the .def. Should work fine now, I hope. Bat2.01.rar