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This was a lot of fun! Not easy though. There were very bright lights and high tension areas. All in all, nice 30 min sneaking mission with lots of good stuff and few rough edges here and there. Well done and thank you! I gave: 3/5 for gameplay (minus one star for AI getting stuck in narrow geometry) 4/5 for story (creative and novel story elements!) 4/5 for aesthetics (it was functional, but performance hungry, but plus one for the gorgeous skybox!)

Picked up an old mountain FM, I decided to scrap the original idea and repurpose the town I made for my multiple city hub idea which required expanding it. This is a new area I added, the large structure in the last two shots is meant to be a castle that may not look as I originally envisioned but I'm happy with the result none the less.

Sorry, you better update that database with the new version in the link. Made a last minute change. (A shadow mesh had gotten just outside a wall so it was a strange shadow there.)

Oohhhh, the day has come! This old lurker releases another creation of his deranged mind...! What has he in store? Does it involve sunlight and pollen and hayfever? Will it involve strange towers and priests with bad breath? Naah, just some mediocre airship type of mission, aimed at the Anniversary mapping contest! I have a lengthy/humourly rant/lore for some of the building process for anyone interrested, in spoiler tags. According to DarkRadiant I have worked 570 hours on this, and that doesn't take into account all hours of coding and scripting. This feels like an insanely huge amount of mapping time for this small mission but I try not to judge myself. DarkRadiant says 570 so...I say thanks to all calm hours at the night shift at work where I could sit and script and write readables. And I also humbly bow myself to the scripting genuses that are on the forums. A special thanks to my girlfriend who (almost) always lets me talk about my projects. She has also written some of the readables and voiced some recordings in the mission. Thanks to Dragofer, Mirceakitsune and Melchior for much needed scripting help. Thanks to YouTube channels BGM President and Sound Effects where I've borrowed some music and sound effects. Thanks to my betatesters; nbohr1more, Bergante, datiswous, Wesp5, nightmare, Jaxa and Cambridge Spy. And a big thank you to the mod in general for still being alive and supportive! ########################################## MISSION RELATED STUFF ########################################## On an airship, heading for Flowerdale a lot of strange things can happen. As some people guzzle down liquor in the bar, some others skulk around in the shadows. Certain people cannot be trusted and there are even those that kill for a living. Somebody may or may not work for foreign powers. But everyone yearns for those shiny pennies. There are some strange things in the cargo, huge coffers that can hold bodies, alive and dead. This story may unfold in several different ways; Three characters can be chosen; Zacharias the thief, Oliver Mortimer, the assassin or Rupert Peabody, youngling of the Wizlas woodfolk. DOWNLOAD LINK https://drive.google.com/file/d/10w_SJSBAxxVFYTwPjJhIo48fEzvuTo1M/view?usp=sharing

Yes, nobody else offers 1 TB for free, normal are 5 orwith much 10 GB. For me it's irrelevant if the server is in Japan, I prefer Japanes servers to US servers anyway. I use it and it works fine and flawless. The drawback in the free version is only that you can't see the files and videos online, only it's tumbnails and that the upload speed is somewhat slow, but not a problem, only the first time uploading a folder with a lot of files may last some minutes, not so good for confidential files, because it's not encrypted in the free version. Well, the Premium account also isn't very expensiv. With the desktop client, the files you add to the folder are automaticly uploaded in the background without any impact in the system. Finished the upload (few seconds) a little pop up in the corner for some seconds, offering to see the uploaded file. I found this host sometimes ago in an forum post and using it since than, no problems. Account is easy with only mail and password (2FA with confirmation in the specificated mail).

I saw that, I have implemented most of them in the last update. Will do another update after boylag has finished his video playthrough - hard to watch as (as always) he runs around like a berserker. However, this approach is very good to find problems you normally do not think about, so...

Okay, I think I see the problem. I have two keys, same inv_name. They both stack and can be dropped: And a door: Each key opens the door fine. If I pick up both keys, the "stack" still opens the door. The problem occurs when I have a stack of keys (in this case, two), and I drop one of them. When the stack size is >= 2, the dropped key is created based on the classname of the item (which in this case is atm:key_mysterious). The unique spawnargs of the original key are ignored, so the inv_droppable, inv_stackable, and inv_name spawnargs are not used. In this case, the dropped key is named "Mysterious Key" (the default inv_name for that classname), it is not droppable or stackable, and is "name" is generated on the fly (in this case "idMoveable_atdm:key_mysterious_7"). This behavior is confirmed in a code comment: // Stackable items only have one "real" entity for the whole item stack. // When the stack size == 1, this entity can be dropped as it is, // otherwise we need to spawn a new entity. The upshot is that the dropped key behaves incorrectly: it has the wrong name, so it won't open the door. It isn't stackable or droppable anymore either. If I drop the "second" key (the last one in the inventory stack), it'll have the correct name and spawn args, so it will work to open the door. Now, solutions. It would be nice to use used_by_inv_name, used_by_category, or used_by_classname. But this wiki entry says right at the top "DOES NOT WORK FOR DOORS - use the normal key method". So those spawnargs don't work for doors. One possibility is to avoid key stacking in the first place. As soon as the player grabs a key, delete all of the other keys that can open that same door (I think @JackFarmer did this his most recent mission?). So for example, keys A B and C all open a door. If the player picks up A, delete B and C. If they pick up B, delete A and C. And so on. That way the keys will never stack, and you avoid the whole problem. It kind of avoids the key accumulation problem too. @DeTeEff Will that work for you?

I think this spider has to much reach for movement. When played this mission first coming up from the historians room it was direct beneath me. (I am no friend of TDM-spiders anyway) Played today the last version of The Imperial Sword to see if there's something new, I shot the spider when it unfortunately was underneath the window. After quick save I found out that the window can't be open because of the dead spider stuck to it. Game Over

Hello taffers, the people over at TTLG forums have started a speedbuild game jam. 1st Thief Speedbuild Jam It's not a contest, and you have a tentative submission date of Dec 1, to get a mission built for T1-3 or TDM. Looks fun, and I'm going to participate too.

I had the same problem with Sykes getting stuck. Managed to get to him though. Nice mission, especially the last part.

hehe yeah some of the tech we enjoy today was actually invented many years ago but may not have been applicable at the time. they recently had a breakthrough on the experimental fusion power plant where for the first time they got more power out of it than what was fed into it (enough to boil atleast 60 bottles of water when the power needed to keep the thing running was taken from the calculation). So not a lot but it is getting there. the much much bigger reactor that is scheduled to take over when they reach a certain treshold on the power in to power out ratio should deliver one hell of a boost (it is more than 5 km's long) . from a security standpoint it is also much safer than a nuclear reactor since it cannot blow up or melt down. worst case everyone inside gets vaporized if the containment fails but thats it (not that it is any reconcilliation for the poor people at work if that happens). atm the biggest problem is containment as the temperatures inside the reactor is so high that no known material can withstand it for more than a few seconds. fun fact the warp drive background where scotty takes a ride in the cooling pipe from star trek (the newer one) is actually the experimental nuclear fusion reactor at The National Ignition Facility hehe.

Thanks Bienie for these wonderful missions. I have binged on them for the last few days. I started with the first one and that was a few months back. I loved that and then I sort of lost interest with the Dark Mod for a while. I had started your second mission COS1 and I don't know why, it turned out to be great, but I think I was trying to supreme ghost them or something so it got a bit frustrating. I picked it up again a few days ago and loved it. Finished the second one and then then third and then this one. I think I will give myself a break for a bit! Ha ha. I'm sitting in the pitch black in front of a CRT, my eyes are spaced. I played them all on Master and found them to be easy enough but long. This one took me 4 hours and I ghosted it as much as I could. I think it was way more than 4 hours because of reloading when I was seen. Didn't knock anyone out which was very doable. I was never caught in too much of a tricky situation. The bank was probably the hardest area in this level and still not bad. I look forward to COS4. Are you in the process of making any new missions?

Last night I had another idea, though, this one is so crazy that I almost do not even dare to mention it: What happens if you give the AI just one target for a path entity (X) and then you teleport X to different locations? I am not sure if I have tried this in the past.

That shouldn't be a problem. The last path_corner of each segment targets a callscript rather than another path_corner which IIUC should remove the last target of the wizard's current route automatically. I'll experiment with addTarget / changetarget combinations later and see how I go

"in essence to them we might seem as small as the things that crawl under our foot." Do you mean that in the sense that their space ship size is way bigger than us ? If so, then the size of the spaceship itself as portrayed in the Independence Day(1996) movie is truly terrifying because its size can be equivalent to / can engulf a medium to large continent. We are in danger of being hit by the spaceship if they decide to land it. On top of that, satellite systems are likely to be destroyed by it The star trek qeuivalent is how devastating USS vengeance crash into earth can be

Hi JackFarmer Thanks a lot for your great work, I've just finished the last mission and really enjoyed the whole campaign series. The puzzles were so creative and funny , I was able to solve all of them without searching or asking help here, I struggled with many other FMs before, not being a native English speaker . I liked part 4 and 5 the most, but the others were also very good. I think your Hidden hands series with its special humour is one the best advocates of TDM, great job . When I think of the Lost citadel "lottery numbers" I can't stop laughing I played with version 1.0 In the 5th part I encountered more crashes than usual under Linux, mainly when I had to quickload 3 or 4 times . The error was "WARNING:idClipModel::FreeTraceModel: tried to free uncached trace model" sometimes the known "pthread joined failed". I run Debian 12 KDE with Nvidia proprietary driver v535. I have no idea if the game is more stable generally under Windows or Linux with Mesa. cheers

The even more strange thing with us humans are we actually have the tech to get limitless energy but since we have not outgrown war it might not be such a good idea. one thing we could do if we were all on the same page is placing a giant space mirror somewhere about halfway to the sun that concentrates the sunlight into an immensly powerfull ray we could use for energy here on earth. it would actually carry more than enough to power everything we have now and then some. the downside is since we are still a warfaring people it would be rather dangerous to us as a terrorist might actually gain entry and then we have some serious problems as the beam would be as pointing a giant super laser on earth. in essence something much worse than the death star in star wars. sure the planet wont explode but you could essentially burn everything out of existance. theres also the problem of logistics and presicion, for one it needs to hit the collector on earth precisely or you will have a very bad day. the logistics problem is that we need to make much of it in space and the mirror might prove hard to fold and unfold. one other thing which is starting to gain traction is nuclear energy something we had the knowhow to do for many years now. the downside is as allways do we really want nations with completely alien and in some cases archaic ideas to have the power to have the possibility of making refined nuclear material ?. theres also the problem of techtonic stability, many regions on earth are not the best when you want to build something like this because of risk of earthquakes and other calamities. europa is pretty stable atleast the northern hemispheres but to export the power we would need to have a rather huge area dedicated to nuclear plants and as allways they would be suceptible to attack by other parties. in the end we might not have a choice soon with the climate changes but are we ready to live with the consequenses ?.

probably as close to godlike as they could come . im not sure if it should be seen as them having forsaken war etc. but more along the lines we view lesser beings, example when was the last time you went out of your way to avoid stepping on an anthill ?. in essence to them we might seem as small as the things that crawl under our foot. scary thought but possible either way . oh and building a dyson sphere is not actually that hard seing as we could do it, its more the scale of the thing. from what i could surmise a type 2 might build one large enough to encompass a star (limitless energy), a type 3 could build one the size of earths radius around the sun and live on it . the known space series by larry niven gives some hint at what that might entail (ringworld). they might even be able to move it (whole solar system even including the sun).

hmm i seem familiar with that, Shkalá Kardashova or kardashev scale by Nikolai Kardashev. I like type 2 so far and i guess the iconic photon torpedoe,quantum torpedoe , phase cannon and deflector shield as shown in star trek are counted among the magnum opus of type II civilization. They even have advanced remote sensing sensors to probe if there is a sign of life or not at a distance. I believe type 3 begins when a civilization successfully builds a mammoth project like the Nicoll-Dyson beam They might or might not suck this earth resources dry immediately and make it another home for them. We would be so lucky if they came here and gave some kind of Transfer Of technology(ToT) and offered us to join intergalactic space organization. They could make this earth as their transit trade and trade partner, mining place with our permission and valid mining license, new holiday destination, their research place, some kind of intergalactic exclave/semi exclave( take example of real life exclave/semi exclave like guyana, kaliningrad, cyprus) and their next intergalactic military base. In the end, it boils down to their personality trait and the interests behind it. As to personality trait, Do they exhibit the negative personality trait like human personality traits in general like greediness , insatiability ,discriminative, power tripping, etc ? *edit : Now I wonder when civilization has entered into type 2 towards 3, have they managed to solve the mystery of the concept of consciousness, the origin of matter and energy, the paradox of infinite universe, the origin of the earliest life, life's raw material, etc.? hmmm

Sounds like a bug as if the script did not conclude with the last command giving movement back to the player, has never happened during beta and has not been an issue till now. Can you go back to an earlier savegame and try again?

Ah yes that one was indeed interresting havent heard much since so i dunno what to think ?. There was actually one FRB from somewhere nearer to us some 2 decades ago but it newer repeated. If i remember correctly this was about the time when several scientists pointed out the dangers of telegraphing our location with such abandon (i guess one theory sprang up from this short message ? that they might have been exterminated by a type 2 or 3 civilization). a type 1 civillization is close to where we are now (except climate control etc.) a type 2 is a hell of a lot more advanced and might control a stars energy output to some degree (using something like dyson spheres. hello star trek). a type 3 civilization is where all bets are off, they are capable of harnessing the energy directly from the home galaxy they live in and are most likely permanent space dwellers. so what makes these so dangerous ? well maybe nothing or maybe they see our little blue planet as a free for all and us as the ants that need squishing . probably aint going to end so well as independence day hehe.

I'll fly a star ship across the universe divide And when I reach the other side I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can Perhaps I may become a highwayman again Or I may simply be a single drop of rain But I will remain. RIP Kris Now only one Highwayman left.

Oh boy, that last mission was a ramp up in difficulty. I made it but it took a lot longer. Nice mission , thanks much!

Allways loved star stuff, as a youngster i wanted to become an astronaut. Newer managed due to some complications with my eyesight which truth be told newer bothered me (i have a slight color seperation issue in my right eye) it has newer hindered me but it ment i could not go through the training . Instead i took a radio technician education and got shafted because when i was done most places who needed one had turned the key due to cheap electronics. Made little sense to repair it because it easily cost more than just buying a new one. So i got 1 year working as a tech then 3 years as a salesman for said tech then it all went to online shops... and from then on i just worked with whatever. Still got the passion and if need be im one of the last techs educated in tube powered amps in denmark. Im not a genious but i was immensly curious as a child so i learned a good deal, i diagnosed my first taperecorder at age 4 and the guy who owned it was completely bummed when the tech told him i was right . Said curiosity also had some downfalls, i been electrecuted so many times i should be glowing in the dark .

venera i think survived about a few hours on venus before the atmosphere kicked the living daylight out of it . quite an achivement in itself as venus atmosphere is about the most lethal environment in our entire solar system . temperatures hot enough to melt lead, atmospheric pressure as dense as if you were 3 km below the ocean, and it rains sulphoric acid yikes. well in space nobody can hear you scream (no air) sound does not carry in a vacum despite what several sci-fi movies would lead one to think. its dead silent out there well unless you can hear radio waves then the noise is truly mindboggling. its also not nessesarily cold in space, the temperature on the moon ranges from freezing my ass off in splinters to charbroiled. deep space is cold however due to heat dissipating quickly when there is no medium and the distance to the stars. little known fact, the snow you see on old analog tv's not tuned in to any station is actually the background noise from the big bang. funny thing you can do with old radios on short wave tune a bit and listen for something that sounds like fast thumbing that my friend is a neutron star you hear , they come in several variants to. some actually sound more like ratatata thats how fast they rotate.