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  1. In the first post of the other topic Geep proposed: Then Stgatilov's answer: But I think applying subtitles in different languages shouldn't be too hard I would think, but I don't know how the current translation system works. The engine should apply the correct subtitles based on the applied language setting, this doesn't need a whole new language system I think. Not sure who's going to write those subtitles though. I can only do Dutch and English and nobody needs Dutch I think. I suggest further discussion of this to take place in topic https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/21741-subtitles-possibilities-beyond-211/
  2. I have quite a few assets from WIPs I'll probably never use elsewhere, so I thought I could share it here. Some of these are older and not necessarily matching the TDM lore, but I hope someone will find use for them. In terms of package format, I'll be creating 7zip packages with just model and/or texture files, so you can place them wherever you like in your project. I'll also include example material or def setup. I'll leave textures in .tga format, so you can make edits on uncompressed source and save as .dds later. So first up is a door/frame/key combo: Temp upload of all assets: https://we.tl/t-BOdrlNEXWJ See readme_notes for design / placement instructions.
  3. I have assumed that, although there are models made, it is not a simple copy - paste, independent if it is from these repositories or stolen from other games. Regarding AI, it can be a good tool for certain assets, bad only if it is used as a shortcut to create a game and not just as another design tool. The AI tool listed, although it can be create other things, can be used very well to quickly create textures, for example, saving time in the game developement. AI also can be used to create classical paintings, much used in TDM, without any copyright problems, things like this, and maybe even better adapt to the plot as the same paintings used since several Years now, apart of the one I made for the Black Mage. It is clear that stealing designs from other creators is very ugly and certainly a bad path, which is why I have said that piracy is not necessary, with the free and open-use resources available. You surely have other sources of these, apart from the list What I put.
  4. I'd like to better understand what you want. The design of dragging bodies is to hold frob (key down) to drag and release frob (key up) to let go. That way it's impossible to walk away while unintentionally dragging a body. Plus, it's quick to grab and move several body limbs in rapid succession. This is thought to provide a better experience, especially for new players. Towards the beginning of this thread, I created a "tdm_frobhold_drag_body_behavior" cvar. https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22198-feature-proposal-frob-to-use-world-item/&do=findComment&comment=487580 "tdm_frobhold_drag_body_behavior", default:"1" Which drag body behavior? 1 --- on frob key up, drop body (limb). 0 --- on second frob, drop body (limb), TDM v2.11 (and prior) behavior. That cvar was removed shortly afterwards, because it was said that it wasn't needed. With that cvar set to 0, a second frob would be required to let go of the body. Is that the behavior that you want? If so, I can add that cvar back. Also, I saw elsewhere that you want the ability to revert back to the old way. If you mean that all of the controls match TDM 2.11, that can be done with "tdm_frobhold_delay 0" and there will be a menu setting to disable it as well.
  5. Creating a new thread for this as it was being discussed in an old beta-testing thread starting here: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/21822-beta-testing-high-expectations/&do=findComment&comment=490751 I suppose the main questions are: when should this spawnarg be used, if at all? why was it introduced in the first place? Can we get it documented properly on the Wiki so misuse isn't propagated? @stgatilov @Dragofer
  6. Oh no, we are gonna get stuck in a time loop! Yes, I believe that true alphabetical sorting was the original design. Some players complained that there were too many missions starting with "The" or "A" so finding the desired mission was tedious. The titles were changed to "Mission, The" or "Mission, A" and that worked but was clunky. Finally the design compromise was to sort them without the A or The prefix but display them naturally. I agree that true alpha sorting looks more tidy and am not sure why anyone entertained the "complaint" in the first place.
  7. The fundamental design of double-click is to always perform the single-click action before the double-click action. The single-click action of a candle is to pick it up (and move it). That'll always happen before extinguishing a candle with a double-click. There's no way around that unless its fundamental design is changed.
  8. Hello! Tracking down information on software and plug-ins that work with D3 / TDM can be a tough. So I have created a thread here where people can post what software/ plug-ins/ tutorials or other references they've had success or failure with in TDM. 3DS MAX 2013 64bit .ase - Default .ASE model exporter works. However you have to open the .ase file in text edit and manual change the *BITMAP line on each material to read something like: "//base/textures/common/collision" which allows the engine to read the correct material path. md5.mesh / animation - Beserker's md5 exporter/importers for 3dsmax. http://www.katsbits.com/tools, Importing and exporting works. The model must be textured, UV'd, with a skin modifier attached to the bones to export. PM me (Kingsal) for help with this. Imported models using the script will not be weighted appropriately, so this is not recommended if you are simply trying to edit existing tdm content. (Use blender instead) MAYA 2011 32bit md5.mesh - So far I've not had any luck with Maya 2011. I am using Greebo's MayaImportx86 for Maya 2011. I've got the importer working however I get a "Unexpected Internal Failure(kFailure)" and the import fails. This could be due to something finicky in Maya that I am not doing correctly. Will keep trying.. Blender 2.7 about - Blender is commonly used and pretty well supported on the forums/ wiki. Various versions may work as well - https://www.blender.org/download/ md5.mesh / animation Blender MD5 importer/exporter (io_scene_md5.zip): https://sourceforge.net/projects/blenderbitsbobs/files/ Sotha's guide Blender Male/ Female rigs by Arcturus - Here Edit by Dragofer: more links found in this post.
  9. Just finished "The Sound Of A Burrick In A Room" by skacky in 5 hours plus... Best fan mission for Thief 1 or 2 I played so far. That one was really near perfect. Nothing boring in the mission, interesting objective, perfect difficulty, nice size (huge without being a maze to navigate), very good level design, great atmosphere etc. Really round and professionally designed mission.
  10. I also have an Huawai, no problem to set Vivaldi as default without Root. If you have more than one browser in the system and you open a link, you have the choice to select the default one to open it, at least for me. At least in the EU, manufacturers, also Google, are required by law to allow the user to freely choose their default browser. In Windows , it also intent to make EDGE as default and it's not enough to set in your browser to use it as default, there you must do it also in the Windows Default apps setting, to avoid the use of EDGE in some links. Also no Google search in my mobile, but my default search i use in Vivaldi, also as PWA searchbar on my homescreen, with all the other search engines, which i can sellect, synced with all other data (bookmarks, notes, passwords, etc) from my Vivaldi from the PC, no Google search in between. Vivaldi has inbuild a own mail client, feed reader, calendar and some other usefull thingies. https://yewtu.be/watch?v=y1nZSowjv08 https://www.technipages.com/how-to-change-the-default-browser-on-android/ https://cellularnews.com/mobile-operating-systems/android/how-to-set-default-browser-android/
  11. The fewer words you need to explain your mechanic the better it is designed: For static objects press "frob" to interact with them. For moveables press "frob" to grab them and "use" to interact with them. TDM follows these simple rules nicely. @Daft Mugi I welcome this initiative and I encourage you to carry on experimenting. Here are my thoughts: Interacting with moveable lights: currently to extinguish a candle I must "frob" it and "use" it. If I extinguish a candle unintentionally it is my fault (I pressed the wrong button). With your design, is it my fault if I frobbed a candle 201 milliseconds and extinguished it unintentionally? Long-pressing buttons in TDM is faulty because there isn't any visual timer / bar / whatever. Dragging vs shouldering a body: interacting with the limbs of a body is the more challenging of the two mechanics. Do we really want to promote the easiest of the two and make the challenging mechanic more difficult? Besides, with your design I unintentionally drop bodies often while I intend to interact with doors, is it my fault? In my opinion the short term solution is a very long frob (0,5 secs or longer) to extinguish a candle and/or shoulder a body. Leave the original mechanic intact but have the new functionality somewhere in there for those who want them. The long term solution is something else: what would you do if you were to build these mechanics from scratch? Think big. PS1: Developers should never point players to anything that isn't available in the in-game settings. cvars should be there for 1) debugging 2) testing 3) very special cases, mainly accessibility / usability. PS2: "This is how Thief does it" sounds like a lame excuse. Thief is dead, TDM is alive!
  12. The "external argument about exact duration" is not removed with double click. There is a setting in OS preferences for setting double-click speed, is there not? The challenge of setting the exact duration is the same for both long-press and double-click frob. Therefore, the confusion is not removed with double click. I tuned the long-press frob to be somewhere between "unintentional long-press frob" and "it being too sluggish." Early player feedback guided the current default value of 200ms -- it was originally 300ms. During more play testing, if players are having trouble, the default can be increased and tested. We need to follow the data from actual play testing. The player can adjust the tdm_frobhold_delay cvar to their liking as well. It's more likely that a player will hold frob while moving an item, because for most items, nothing different or bad happens. It's less likely that a player will unintentionally double-click frob an item during pick up, because they know that would cause them to drop it. Therefore, players are more likely to discover long-press frob to extinguish than double-click frob to extinguish, which is a good thing. We want the player to discover it (if they didn't read the manual or play the tutorial mission). Also, long-press frob is used in other games, such as Fallout 4. Getting double-click frob to extinguish to work well along with drop item would be troublesome, because there would always be a double-click delay before a single-click drop initiates. Long-press frob does not have a drop issue, because the player can long-press frob until they see the candle extinguish or quick-press frob to instantly drop it. To be clear, long-press frob also "does not change existing controls, only adds new meaning for" a longer frob press. This long-press frob proposal has already been play tested and agreed to be a good control scheme by several players. Double-click frob would need new code written, would need to be play tested, and would need to be fine tuned based on player feedback. Another rewrite of the code would be a distraction and may not bring us closer to the goal of "providing a better experience for new players as well as longtime players," especially since one has already been found and proven: long-press frob. For longtime players who are not satisfied with this new control scheme, "tdm_frobhold_delay 0" restores TDM 2.11 behavior. After 7 months of player research, code experiments, early player feedback, adjustments, rewriting code, and more player feedback, I believe long-press frob is good enough, given all of the compromises, imperfections, and its iterative design. It solves the problems stated in the proposal on the first page, and its design goals are met.
  13. I just finished another of skacky's missions, Midsummer Night Heist. Quite nice, and moderately sized mansion mission. And, quite a step up in terms of visuals compared to the Thief Gold missions I played before that. I played the Chalice of Souls before that, but, the snow theme and city design somehow didn't pick me up...
  14. I remember T2X having quite bit of variety in level design, so that might be a plus over BP. CoSaS Mission X was also excellent. I also liked Eternauta's missions, Kingsbridge in particular.
  15. I have certainly done my share of awkwardly shoving bodies into dark corners and behind furniture in TDM. I don't think I've ever successfully put them inside or under furniture. TDM bodies are (rightly) pretty rigid in my experience. However, @AluminumHaste, you have repeatedly shown yourself to be the top authority and wizard on what is or isn't possible in TDM. If you want to put up one of your meme-worthy videos I will gladly eat my words on this point. I am ready to be dazzled by the dozens of ways TDM lets you hide bodies. Otherwise slow experimentation and experience must convince me. I think the reason you need the current system is that TDM's un-shouldering is deliberately way more restrictive than Thief's, and the reason for that (circa 2010) was to force you to use the fancy new ragdoll dragging gimmick. You have Stockholm syndrome. That is why I think this matter must be debated. The nays have successfully argued that we can't have easy and maximally-discoverable candle pinching because there are two or three missions where you need to move a lit candle, among dozens where you need to pinch them, and you-all will continue to argue that easy and discoverable body shouldering is a mistake because it makes life marginally harder in the occasional situations where manual body dragging is needed. But what we should be debating is a patch to make unshouldering less restrictive. Or maybe I'm off my rocker. Unfortunately I can't prove a negative, so it is up to you to provide counter examples where these systems create fun gameplay challenges. Show me the receipts and you win.
  16. skacky was hired by Arkane Lyon the past year. prior to that he also worked on Wrath under 3D Realms, surely channelling his Quake roots. Digital Nightfall however has been working under Arkane for some time longer and confirmed to do level design for Dishonoured 2 minimum. she was a pretty major figurehead in the earliest days of Thief mapping. not at all involved in Black Parade or anything else in a long time though.
  17. Looking at the code, the originals were "pm_mantle_pull 750" and "pm_mantle_pullFast 450". The new "pm_mantle_pull" value is "400". A "pm_mantle_pullFast" value of "450" would be slower than regular pull, not faster. With both being set to "400", they are at least similar. Other than that, it's subjective and the feedback from playtesters was positive. Also, referenced internally here: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22256-movementcontrols-settings-in-main-menu/&do=findComment&comment=489158
  18. That sort of tone doesn't fly in our forums.
  19. Trying to bring this thread back to the original topic. Had ChatGPT 4 generate ideas for a game. I chose 7-day roguelike because it's supposed to be simple enough. I would like to participate in the 7-day roguelike contest. It's a game jam where you make a roguelike game in 7 days - some preparation before that is allowed, you can have some basic framework etc, but the main portion of work is supposed to be done within the 7 days. Therefore it favors games with simple systems but good and original ideas. Some of the games contain "outside the box" design that stretches the definition of a roguelike. Please give me an idea of a 7-day roguelike that I could create. Be specific: include the overall themes and topics, describe the game world, overarching abstract ideas (what is the goal of the player, how does the game world works, what makes it interesting...) and specifics about gameplay systems. Describe how it relates to traditional roguelike games or other existing games. This is really not bad and after some simplification I could actually see it work, though I don't know if the mechanic is interesting enough. I had it generate two more. One was not roguelike enough (it was basically something like Dungeon Keeper), the other was a roguelike-puzzle with a time loop: you had to get through a procedurally generated temple with monsters, traps and puzzles in a limited amount of turns, and after you spend those turns, you get returned to the beginning, the whole temple resets and you start again, trying to be more efficient than last time.
  20. You might not agree with me, but in fan missions, for both Thief series and Darkmod, level design is often the weakest part. We mostly want to tell a story, build cool or "realistic" locations, and we think about populating these locations as we go. Not that I'm a good level designer, but all these years I've been collecting tutorials, books, and GDC PowerPoint presentations about level design, and I want to share a few of those with you. I paid for the books, so that would be illegal to share, but stuff from GDC is publicly available. Let's start with something absolutely essential. I believe every Thief/Darkmod level designer should be familiar with this: Randy Smith - Level building and stealth gameplay Now, this is a good piece on environmental storytelling. If you want to cut back on lengthy readables in your levels and leave more to players' interpretation, this is a must-read too: Harvey Smith & Mattias Worch – What Happened Here This is more like an annex to the first presentation, a bit more theory on how Thief systems work: Randy Smith - Design fundamentals of stealth gameplay in Thief I have more of those, but they're more about systems, or they focus on other games and level design in general. IMO those three documents are a solid piece of knowledge that should help you think more consciously about your levels and the whole design phase. Also, if you have any documents like that, especially on stealth games, and you can share it, it would be great
  21. There's a group of players who have meticulously tested and adjusted ghosting rules for The Dark Mod. Please see: Official Ghosting Rules: https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148523 Ghost Rules Discussion: https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148487 Why alienate an established group of dedicated players?
  22. I would use this massive list for any fan missions, it includes campaigns too: https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=148090 There are a lot of Fan Missions for the picking, I myself go for the lesser known ones and the short variety, because sometimes they hide a gem or two. Just like jaxa, I'm a bit outdated after the temporal retirement, but I do remember some amazing campaigns like "The Black Frog". If you intend to play The Black Frog, you should play the first two of the L'Arsene series missions, it's how I did it myself. Also, yes, L'Arsene are a fantastic series. The first mission of L'Arsene is a "rough draft", author was a bit new to Thief level making, but still great either way, after the 3rd you will see how his skill increased by a massive amount.
  23. Unfortunately, TDM forum deletes the separator between the numbers. So I have to guess where one number ends and the next starts Also, user can rename screenshot manually, or push it through something that would rename it automatically. Thenwe won't see coordinates on screenshot address on forums.
  24. tdm_show_viewpos cvar and screenshot_viewpos command: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/22310-212-viewpos-on-player-hud-and-screenshots/
  25. Ambient atmospheres are in my opinion one of the best parts of the Dark Mod experience, not just for getting a mission to have the right feel but also for inspiration and to have them playing in the background when creating maps. The more the merrier, so here's a thread to collect all the links to ambient music and environmental sounds that could have a spot in TDM's setting. Ambients from the TDM forums Gast's Eerie Lullabies Magnanimous Merry's Miscellanea Orbweaver's Dark Ambients Spadey's Ambients Radioteque's Ambients Kyyrma's Composing Ambient Tracks for Dummies - Kyyrma shows how ambient soundtracks can be made from a set of sounds. Also contains some of his finished ambients. Request for more interior sounds - this thread is a very productive community session where members came up with a large and good selection of new ambients. Uncle Peti's Sound Den Dragofer's Ambients - post #6 in this thread SeriousToni's Ambients - posts #8, 12, 15 and 19 in this thread Ambients from the TTLG forums Custom resources list Gigagooga's Ambients 1 - possibly the largest pack of ambient musics and nature sounds, all of them high quality. Gigagooga's Ambients 2 - this pack puts more weight on shorter swells/hits/pads to be layered on top of a subtle ambient. Gigagooga's Ambients 3 Yandros' ambient loop Sephy's Ambients - a large collection of ambient pieces, including many shorter ones which will be valuable for anyone wanting to try a layered ambience approach like in the Thief OMs and Full Moon Fever. Internet databases www.freesound.org - some of the better composers in my opinion are ERH and BrandonNyte. www.purple-planet.com - a large selection of all kinds of ambient and musical soundtracks to be used freely. www.darkwinter.com - an internet label that publishes a lot of dark ambient music under a Creative Commons license. www.endlessascent.com - sister website of Darkwinter for non-dark ambients. Youtube Asatru Dark - also has very nice reference images for outdoor stone memorials, statue arrangements etc. #4 Void by Raffaele du Marteau & #6 Dreaming of Nowhere by Raffaele du Marteau - possibly the most forlorn pieces I've found on the internet. Alacazam - a prolific Creative Commons ambients composer . Cryo Chamber - for-profit label for dark ambient music with a large selection on offer. Going by their Youtube comments they're fine with people using their soundtracks for games etc., although you'd probably need to buy the soundtracks first. Dark Ambient Mixed Session - as much ambient as something to have in the background while mapping.
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