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My new mission, A Night in Altham, is available. We are already up to version 2! @Dave the Tafferfound an problem that deserves a fix, so here is version 2: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/y4r1dmziuq6clh2im3qz1/altham2.pk4?rlkey=m3cv5v6v70lxbc9xha61nuxoj&dl=1. I will ask @nbohr1more to update the databases. Thanks to JackFarmer (alpha testing and custom ambient music) and the many beta testers (jaxa, Shadow, wesp5, Cambridge Spy, thebigh, datiswous, Mezla, MirceaKitsune, Melchior, Acolytesix, TheUnbeholden, prjames, Bergante). Thanks to @peter_spy for his beautiful Builder Compound assets. This is a large mission, so be ready to take some time. I recommend that you do named saves occasionally (I actually implemented auto-saves for this mission, but it was causing crashes on Linux, so I removed it). This mission has a lot of keys, so it implements a key management mechanism. Keys are removed from the game when no longer needed. This includes when you use a key to open a door, or if you pick a door/lock that also uses a key. Most keys are automatically removed, but there are a couple that aren't (for example, if they open up more than one door). In a certain area, this mission uses the Keyhole Peek feature of TDM. Typically, this is when you lean forward (F key) into a door keyhole and you can see into the next room. But in this case you don't lean into a keyhole. It's a hole of another kind. It's an unconventional use of something that isn't used a lot in TDM; hopefully the mission context will make it clear when to use it. The mission does not use Keyhole Peek for regular doors. Be aware, there is a known problem on Linux, where the peek feature can cause a crash. Peeking is not required for mission completion. This has been tested on TDM 2.11a and the current dev build of 2.12 (dev16854-10518). Scary things warning: Difficulty settings make a difference. Things that are affected by the difficulty level: Enjoy!

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?

This topic is going in different directions and it is difficult to tell if we all are in the same page. Facts: Stgatilov wants to change (improve, I guess) something and while implementing the change he realizes he will break some mission in the process. Mappers have been including (now obsolete) core files in their missions and the developer wants to know why these files were included in the first place, as in: the purpose. Changes in two mission are unavoidable, unless the authors go back and revisit the entire logic of their missions. Changes in eight missions are avoidable, in the sense that missions remain essentially the same with or without these changes. Regardless, if the improvements are to be implemented ten missions need to be reviewed and updated. Now my opinion: Considering how the topic is going the next time Stgatilov wants to improve something similar he might think it twice (we all lose because of ten missions). If these same improvements were to be implemented in the future chances are not ten but fifteen missions would have to be reviewed and updated which begs the question, does the inclusion of core files in missions put the present and future development of some areas at risk? No, as long as things remain under control: preserve what must be preserved, encourage and support innovations, identify and address trends. This requires an effort by all parties involved.

============== -= IRIS =- ============== WELLINGTONCRAB TDM v 2.10 REQ Ver. 1.2 *For Maureen* -=- "Carry the light of the Builder, Brother. Unto its end." -Valediction of the Devoted "What year is this? Am I dreaming?" -Plea of the Thief Dear Iris, I am old and broken. When we were young it felt like the words came easily. Now I find the ink has long dried on the pen and I'm as wanting for words as coin in my purse. I can tell we are nearing the end of the tale; time enough for one more job before the curtain call... ============== -Installation- Requires minimum version of TDM 2.10 -Iris does not support mods or the Unofficial Patch- Download and place the following .pk4 into you FMs directory: Iris Download ============== *Thank you for playing. Iris is a large mission which can either take as quickly or as long as you are compelled to play. I hope someone out there enjoys it and this initial release is not completely busted - I tried the best I could!* *Iris both is and isn't what it seems. If commenting please use spoiler tags where appropriate. If you are not certain if it would be appropriate a good assumption would be to use a spoiler tag* *Support TDM by rating missions on Thief Guild: https://www.thiefguild.com/* ============== WITH LASTING GRATITUDE: OBSTORTTE - Whose gameplay scripts from his thread laid the foundation which made the mission seem like something I could even pull off at all. Also fantastic tutorial videos! DRAGOFER - Who built upon that foundation and made it shine even brighter! And whom also provided immeasurable quantities of help and encouragement the past couple years on the TDM discord. ORBWEAVER & GIGAGOOGA - For generously offering their ambient music up for use. EPIFIRE - Who lent me his fine trash and trash receptacle models. AMADEUS - Who was the first person who wasn't me to play the damn thing and provided his excellent editorial services to improving the readers experience playing TESTERS AND TROUBLESHOOTERS: AMADEUS * DATISWOUS * SPOOKS * ALUMINUMHASTE * JAXA * JACKFARMER * WESP5 * ATE0ATE * MADTAFFER * STGATILOV * DRAGOFER * KINGSAL * KLATREMUS - What can I possibly say? Playing this thing over and over again could not have been easy. Deepest thanks and all apologies. -=THANKS TO ALL ON THE TDM DISCORD AND FORUM=- ==SEE README.TXT FOR ADDITIONAL ATTRIBUTIONS & INFORMATION== HONORABLE MENTION: GOLDWELL - If I hadn't by chance stumbled into Northdale back in 2018/2019 I would probably still be trying to get this thing to work in TDS, which means it probably would not exist - though more details on that in readme. ============== Boring Technical Information: *This mission makes use of volumetric lighting in several scenes. While optional if you wish to see this feature enable the "maps" lighting model and I recommend you also disable image sharpening. If you do not like the effect or are concerned about performance use stencil shadows* *Iris is a performance intensive mission and I recommend a GTX 1060 or equivalent. I find the performance similar to other demanding TDM missions on my machine, but mileage may vary and my apologies if this prevents anyone from enjoying the mission.* *Iris heavily modifies the behavior of AI in the game, how they relate/respond to each other and the player. So they may act even stranger than they do typically in TDM. Feedback on this is useful - as it can potentially be improved and expanded upon in future patches.* -=- This is my first release and it has been a long time coming! If I forgot anything please let me know! God Speed. 2.10 Features Used:

Sixty years ago the famous deLisle family fell into ruin. The last heir of their house believes an ancient heirloom will restore their fortunes. Retrieving it should be worth braving a haunted house for... Get it from the in-game mission downloader.

As you probably know, overriding core files which are not specifically designed for that is fragile and unsupported. Indeed, it usually works... until it does not Here is the list of missions which completely override tdm_weapon_arrow.script: ahouseoflockedsecrets @Moonbo byanyothername @joebarnin cauldron_v2_2 @kingsal good @Amadeus hazard @kingsal northdale1 @Goldwell northdale2 @Goldwell seeking @Amadeus@Dragofer@Wellingtoncrab snowed_inn @Goldwell @kingsal written @Amadeus @Dragofer I have just got rid of creating cvars dynamically (5600), and shooting the bow stopped working in these missions. Because they distribute an old version of the script which runs in "debug mode" that relies on dynamic cvars. Core version was updated some time ago and this debug mode was removed. I'd like to ask authors: why did you decide to override this script? Perhaps we can add some customization points and delete overrides?

A famous painting is on display at the local museum. Steal it, of course! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ An update, version 2, is now available: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ciesyfcqu1ct6pj/nowandthenv2.pk4?dl=1. This fixes many of the problems found by those who played version 1. Besides general clean up, the primary goal of this version is to Special thanks to Bikerdude, whose did a quick beta test of this version and whose suggestions I mostly (but not completely) implemented. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Title: Now and Then Filename (version 2) : nowandthenv2.pk4 (download) Author: joebarnin Date of release: 08 September 2020 (Version 2: 25 January 2021) Version: 2 EFX: Yes Requires: TDM 2.08 Author: joebarnin Custom ambients: JackFarmer Gameplay notes Thorough investigation is encouraged. Scary AIs: No spiders, skeletons, undead, or ghosts. One live rat and one dead one. Makes use of the 'peek' ability, allowing the player to peek through a keyhole by leaning forward. The use of this ability is optional (it is never necessary resolve the mission). Thanks to: Beta Testers: Cambridge Spy, thebigh, JackFarmer, Amadeus, Kerry000, wesp5 Voice actor: Mike Components: Builder Compound models & textures - Peter Spy (dr.judym81@gmail.com) Museum painting lights - Grayman Gramophone with record - Goldwell & Epifire Custom ambients - JackFarmer Main menu screen & music - JackFarmer Ambients - Orbweaver Many many modules - Springheel https://freesound.org/people/LucasDuff/sounds/467697/ https://freesound.org/people/humanoide9000/sounds/422245/ Thanks to Springheel, Sotha, and Fidcal for their tutorials. I keep going back to them and I always learn something new. Notes Slight spoiler: Fun fact: I have released 3 missions, each almost exactly one year apart: Mission of Mercy - September 14, 2018 The Heart of St. Mattis - September 10, 2019 Now and Then - September 8, 2020. Not by design, it just worked out that way. So I guess look for my next mission in early September next year! Hints (contains spoilers)

Build Time: About 2 yrsThanks: To the Dark Mod team and comminuty at large for helping to get this mission completed, and for putting up with all my questions.Story and Readables: Melan, Sotha, Moonbo, Baal and Bikerdude.Additional Sounds: GoldwellBriefing Video: Crowind, SlyfoxxBeta testers: Oldjim, Lowenz, AluminumHaste, nbohr1more, Goldwell, Cookie, Tr00pertj, Grayman, Arcturus, Ungoliant, skacky, Goldchocobo.Additional Resource: Bikerdude & Dram (fire-flies)Info: TDM 2.03 is required for this mission - running the mission on older version/s will result in an 'Get Next Entity' errorThe mission available via the in-game downloader.Repeat after me, "Read and explore, Read and explore"Misc: We have used LOD on a lot of objects in the outside area's to cater for people with low end machines, when in game go the video settings>advanced>Object details and then adjust to suit your system.Feedback:

Who I am is of little importance, what matters is the job I am offering. Though the item in question may be simple, I can assure you that the reward is anything but. The task, to those brave enough to follow through, is this: During the peak of Braeden's Harvest Festival, break into Lord Alister Squashbottom's manor and steal that which is most valuable to him: his prize-winning pumpkin. This is the very pumpkin he intends on submitting to the judges of this year's competition, and you are to ensure he has no choice but to resign in failure. It may be dangerous, to which you will be amply compensated, but I have little doubt you will be able to weather all obstacles and keep your eye on the prize to complete this task. For those brave enough to accept the job, start here. Cordially, E. Siltstone Gameplay Notes TDM version 2.12 is required to play this mission. Mines are pickable; simply approach them with lockpicks equipped to frob-disarm. A moss arrow can be shot at glass to make it break more quietly. I recommend playing all three difficulties, as they are very different. This FM may be more hardware intensive than normal. LOD settings can be set below "Normal" to improve performance on low-end machines. Download Version 1.0 - This FM is available here via Google Drive, and will soon be made available via the in-game mission downloader. Promotional Screenshots ThiefGuild Release Page Credits A huge thanks to my beta testers Goldwell, WellingtonCrab, Kingsal, Baal, and Rezar for all of your fantastic feedback Voice Credits - Goldwell! Asset Credits Kingsal Wellingtoncrab Goldwell Sotha Bikerdude Refle3cks Arcturus +++And thank YOU for playing!+++

For the FM? For beta 1 it's here: https://drive.proton.me/urls/H1QBB04GA0#oBZTb1CmVFQb I've already done around 100 fixes though, so you might want to wait for beta 2 which should be ready in a couple of days hopefully. All links are in the first post of the beta thread here: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22439-the-lieutenant-3-foreign-affairs-beta-testing/

Lord Edgars Bathhouse By Goldwell Credits Briefing video - Crowind Briefing script revision - Moonbo Beta testers - 161803398874989, AluminumHaste, Bikerdude Splash screen - Dominus (created), MalachiAD (edited) Special thanks to Bikerdude for creating the weapon shop & blinging up the outside starting city area Voice Actors: Bikerdude, Goldwell Sound effects from Freesound.org: Headphaze (234516), unfa (157133), JimiMod (252762) sonsdebarcelona (71149), simplen00b (182331) Erokia (183881), kyles (51806), Dpoggioli (213605) rdneubauer (93783), ninebilly (173014), crcavol (154655) sangtao (189664), stereodivo (101847) Other sfx/music credits Bluedark - Invisible Figures Michael J Schumacher - E Flat Drone Speedenza - Big space drone 3 Blue Sizzle" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Available via the in-game downloader Filesize: 67.73 MB

Sounds great. Unfortunately you don't have to get very far in any discussion about either changing existing gameplay mechanics or about giving players more in game customization options to see why mappers stop bothering with the debate club politics and instead divert the energy to do what they can to address what issues they can themselves. There is clearly also a disconnect between how people think they feel about these changes and how they do in practice. Kingsal's missions seem to be widely considered as some of the most polished missions in the game, because they are a holistic designs that look, sound and play a certain way. As a result I have never seen a player complain about something like the run modifier being increased in a particular missions thread and it’s clear there are very few players who are ultimately conscious of anything besides that the overall experience feels good. So there is reason these get adopted by other authors. The players are entitled to their opinion - but it's the mission authors choice ultimately. And I can only speak for myself, but I came to TDM because I saw working examples of things I wanted in my mission. These were not “stock” or “standard”. They were achievable by virtue of the games extendability. If the day comes where we get locked out of that kind of control of our designs, I would probably walk.

As a player, one thing I'm also not too fond of is the lack of uniformity. I think mission authors should take into account that especially players new to the mod want to figure out how the weapons work, and, they will have a hard time doing so, if many missions tweak the weapons. Apart from the "WTF" moment, they will also not know what the default behavior of the weapon is. Also not a fan of some other things some missions introduce, like the different sounds for foot steps etc. Most of them don't improve anything over the default sounds, to be honest. They're rather worse, and irritate me every time I play a mission with custom sounds.

HAZARD PAY 1.5 [ TDM 2.10 REQUIRED] AUTHOR'S NOTE ================================ Hello! Its been a while since I’ve released something so I figured I'd join the Connections Competition and make a stand-alone adventure to try out the new 2.10 features. ================================ DESCRIPTION ================================ This is a medium size mission with an emphasis on adventure and stealth combat. !!! WARNING !!! I recommend NORMAL if you're looking to cruise and HARD / EXPERT if you're looking to sweat a little. EXPERT uses a prototype save room mechanic and is very tough. ================================ PLAY IT ================================ Requires TDM 2.10 DOWNLOAD HAZARD 1.6 ================================ PLAYTHROUGH ================================ Courtesy of Filizitas Part 1 Part2 Part3 ================================ CREDITS: VOCALS courtesy of the very talented : Goldwell, Mortem Desino, and Yandros. TESTING by the diligent and awesome : Amadeus, Epifire, Goldwell, Mike_A, and Moonbo ADDITIONAL SCRIPTING provided by the very talented Dragofer ADDITIONAL AUDIO by the masterful Goldwell PLAYTHROUGH by Filizitas

Having trouble sleeping? Is the moon too bright? The music too loud ? This FM is for you. Kingsal presents: Moongate Ruckus Finally, a fan mission about some taffin' peace and quiet. DOWNLOAD HERE (v2) ------------------------------------------------------- Testers: - Welly, Goldy, and Amady Vocals: The very talented Goldwell as grumpy Corbin. ------------------------------------------------------- This map, gatehouse_final.map, was based on the very first mission I ever put together back in 2014. It was originally suppose to be part of Volta 1, but didn't make the cut. Here it is now, refurbished, re-worked, graphics set to HIGH, and.... Wait... What is that... It's the music again... ohhh the music!

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

My old friend Andreas urgently needs my help. He asked if I could meet him at the Lion's Head Inn, our favourite retreat in a quaint part of the city called Mirkway Quarter. He’s got a small apartment nearby where he makes a modest living off paintings he sells to pompous nobles and the odd merchant. Not long ago, his wife Lily was hired as a servant at the manor of the local alderman, one Lord Marlow. Now she hasn't been home for days. Andreas went to the manor looking for her, but the guards shoved him into the gutter and warned him not to return. Andreas is certain that something bad has happened, and I don’t think he’s wrong. Gallery Authors’ Notes It all started many years ago when Shadowhide laid the foundation for a sprawling and convoluted city and worked with MoroseTroll and Clearing to create a macabre storyline to befit this medieval metropolis. At some point, however, the beast grew too large to handle, so he handed the keys to the City to Bikerdude and Melan. Together, the two worked tirelessly, passing the map back and forth, each playing to their respective strengths. Notably, Melan reworked the story concept, toning down many of its darker, R-rated elements. Eventually Melan, too, moved on in 2017, but by then large swathes of the community had become involved in this map’s development. Mapping work was contributed by Baal, Grayman, Fidcal, Ubermann, Skacky, and Flanders, while Destined, nbohr1more, and Obsttorte wrote story texts. Several scripts were provided by Grayman, Baal and Obsttorte, such as an elevator with scissor gates, a TDM first. Even after all this input, the daunting task still remained to transform what had grown into the largest TDM map ever made into a playable mission. Bikerdude hammered away at this for some more years still, on and off between other projects, until in early 2020 when he deemed it ready for public viewing. It was then that Dragofer and Amadeus joined in. In the months that followed, the trio reworked, finished, and polished the mission in nearly every aspect, fully writing out and editing the story as well as adding countless scripted effects and (with help from Bienie) many new readables. The good working atmosphere and pooled creativity brought forth several new secrets, of which the largest likely hasn’t been done before in TDM (hint: check the libraries). In the very end, the name “Fractured Glass Company” was drawn up to refer to everybody who was involved in creating this very special mission. Without the hard work of all these people, most of all Bikerdude and Shadowhide, this mission would likely never have seen the light of day, let alone become what you see here before you. The mission is, as Bikerdude puts it, a homage to Thief 1 & 2, and it’s our hope that you catch these vibes as you explore and enjoy this mission. Update 1.2 (released 04/04/2021) Update 1.1 (released 11/11/2020) Credits - Mapping: Shadowhide, Bikerdude, Amadeus, Baal, Dragofer, Fidcal, Flanders, Melan, Skacky, UberMann - Original Story Concept: Clearing, MoroseTroll, Shadowhide - Story & Readables: Amadeus, Bienie, Bikerdude, Dragofer, Destined, Melan, nbohr1more, Obsttorte, Shadowhide - Editor: Amadeus - Scripting: Dragofer, Baal, Grayman, Obsttorte - Voice Acting: AndrosTheOxen (Andreas), Joe Noelker (Player) - Video Editing: Bikerdude (briefing), Goldwell (briefing intro) - Custom Models: Bikerdude, Dragofer, Dram, Epifire, Grayman, Obsttorte - Custom Textures: Airship Ballet, Dmv88, Hugo Lobo - Custom Sounds: GigaGooga, Sephy, Shadow Sneaker, alanmcki, andre_onate, Deathscyp, dl-sounds.com, Dmv88, dwoboyle, eugensid90, gzmo, lucasduff, mistersherlock, qubodup, randommynd, richerlandtv, sfx4animation, Speedenza - Betatesting: Amadeus, ate0ate, Biene, Bluerat, CambridgeSpy, Cardia, Dragofer, Garrett(Monolyth-42), JoeBarnin, Kingsal, Krilmar, ManzanitaCrow, MikeA, Noodles, S1lverwolf, s.urfer Download Note: this mission requires TDM 2.08, which is now available for download. Please be aware that old saved games will no longer work after you upgrade to 2.08's release build. Note: it’s highly recommended to run this mission using the 64-bit client (TheDarkModx64.exe), since there've been frequent reports the mission won't load on the 32-bit client (TheDarkMod.exe). Both are found in the same folder. The mission is available from the ingame downloader. In addition to that, here are some more mirrors, as well as the official screenshots for anybody uploading this mission to a FM database: Mission: Google Drive / OneDrive Mission (v1.1, slimmed down version for 32-bit clients): Google Drive / OneDrive Official Screenshots: Google Drive / OneDrive Hi-Res Map: Imgur Links Secret loot & areas walkthrough by @Lzocast

I could take your reply much more serious, if you wouldn't call my valid objections "whims". If you don't care about what players think about the decisions you made in your missions (or your "whims"?), then I wonder why you make your missions public at all. Seriously, I'd recommend to get off your high horse.

Well, I disagree. I play this game for the features it offers, not the features some mission author thinks he has to change to his personal favor. And, frankly, some of the more current missions offer too much of that "I think this works better" feature change. For example, the sounds some missions introduce add nothing over the original sounds, but are rather worse in my opinion.

Damn right, and I personally am going to keep making changes on how I want MY mission to be played and what I think is best for MY FMs. If that's not to your tastes, then I'm sorry these changes don't align with your preferences, but there are tons of other missions you can play that do. FM authors have ZERO obligation to provide uniform experiences that try to cater to everyone. Some people are going to enjoy these custom changes (I really loved the Resident Evil style saves, and I can't wait to see more missions with that) and other players are gonna be unhappy about them, and that's a crying shame, but it is not going to stop me from making FMs how I want them to be. Never once has a beta tester or a player brought up an issue about these kinds of choices I made for my FMs

Why? Do you have resentment toward these 10 missions in particular? Do you not care if you break any and all missions on your whim and then release a public build? Breaking existing missions and then making a public dev build available with broken FMs doesn't really seem like a great thing to do. I get that missions get broken from time to time because improvements need to be made to the core game, but this is essentially a public release (even though it is a "dev build" it is still a "public dev build" available to anyone and everyone, and with that comes certain expectations). You didn't even notify the affected FM authors beforehand. This is just not cool.

Story: Build Time: Thanks: Download: In the in-game downloader, when it's back up* or at the following locations: Dropbox http://darkmod.taaaki.za.net/fms/lhl.pk4 http://fidcal.com/darkuser/missions/lhl.pk4 http://www.southquarter.com/tdm/fms/lhl.pk4 *right now the mission server is down, which means you will need to manually download and install this mission. Download the pk4 file from dropbox above, and place it in your folder called LhL inside your "fms" folder in your TDM install directory. Let me know if you run in to problems! Gallery: Hints, Tips, Walkthrough, Spoilers(!):

I'm happy to present my first FM, The Spider and the Finch. There may be a spider, but no ghosts or undead. It should run a couple hours. It's now available on the Missions page or the in-game downloader. Many thanks to the beta testers Acolytesix, Cambridge Spy, datiswous, madtaffer, Shadow, and wesp5 for helping me improve and making the mission to the best of my abilities. This would not be have been possible without Fidcal's excellent DarkRadiant tutorial. Thanks also to the many people who answered my questions in the TDM forums. Cheers! 2023-12-13 Mission updated to version 3. Fixed a bug where the optional loot option objective was not actually optional. Updated the animations for Astrid Added a hallway door so the guards are less likely to be aggroed en masse.

I'd like to announce the release of my 2nd fan mission: In Plain Sight. "You are an intelligence officer tasked with revealing the source of a political uprising in the city of Watchgate" Mission Type: City Missions Credits: @Frost_Salamander: Author @Airship Ballet: All custom content, including signs, loading/menu screens, in-game map, menu music and creative input. Also sets the standard for beta testing. W10 (my son) and @Frost_Salamander: Mission briefing Beta Testers: @AluminumHaste @nbohr1more @Obsttorte @Mawerick @madtaffer @wesp5 @Airship Ballet @Acolytesix @Cambridge Spy @jaxa @prjames Notes: TDM 2.10 required This FM rewards stealth play, although it can be done without KO'ing anyone Read the readables! They trigger some mandatory objectives that aren't initially visible. Follow this and you shouldn't have a problem figuring out what to do next. There are multiple ways to access some parts of the city. Some are riskier than others! If you are finding it too hard, maybe there is an easier way The only differences between the difficulty levels are the (optional) loot objective, the availability of some player tools and the difficulty of the bank objective. There is an in-game map. It's found in a location near the start. This FM contains 5 secrets (hints below for anyone who's given up ) Secret hints: Secret spoilers (did you mean to look the hints above instead?): Download link until the mission database gets updated: https://github.com/FrostSalamander/tdm-fm-inplainsight/releases/download/v1.4/inplainsight_v1.4.pk4 Screenshots: https://www.flickr.com/photos/196169449@N05/albums/72177720301116716 NOTE: Some of the initial versions have bugs. Ensure you have the latest version (currently 1.4)

That's a very valid question. Personally, I'd say the key is to watch what the otherwise-disengaged fringes of the community are saying. If first time posters or long time lurkers start coming out of the woodwork about well made new missions, praising them for their geometry and story but saying that innovative parts of the gameplay felt frustrating or off, that's probably the first sign that the innovations are starting to get out of hand. For a more concrete example, re-read the comments on Hazard Pay. As much as I and many others love that mission, it's clearly a case where the author strayed further than many people were comfortable with. It also points to the likely endgame if authors do take their customization too far. After getting the negative feedback, kingsal made adjustments, and now the mission is much more friendly towards player preferences that don't match the author's original vision. You don't need to restrict the mapmakers' tools to stop them from straying too far from the traditional formula. When people start speaking up, the authors will rein themselves in on their own.