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GAMEPLAY * Frob controls have been reworked completely. Previously players were annoyed by having to do three presses to extinguish a light. Also, some player didn't even know that bodies could be shouldered and were limited with dragging bodies. Now simply clicking the frob button performs the action player needs most of the time, and pressing-and-holding the same button performs alternative actions like dragging bodies and extinguishing candles (thread). * Several aspects of mantling has been improved: overhead mantling has become faster, mantling over low obstacles is allowed while carrying an item or a body. Also it is possible to switch weapon while being on rope/ladder or mantling. Pressing crouch button on rope/ladder now starts slide-down immediately. * Some aspects of gameplay can be further simplified. Auto-search bodies is for players who don't want to waste time searching for keys and purses on guard bodies. Lockpicking "Auto" difficulty now indeed trivializes lockpicking (thread). * Leaning animation has been improved with lower head tilt (thread). * Player footstep sounds have been rebalanced. Metal and water sounds were especially painful previously. * Further improvements of subtitles: revised location and font to avoid overlapping with other GUI elements, added directional cue, better slot allocation. Each subtitle is now displayed for at least one second even if the sound is very short. * More settings to reduce camera bobbing/rolling/shaking, which is good for players who feel motion sickness from default camera animations. * Now several script addons can coexist and work independently (thread). ENGINE * Optimized generation of light-entity interactions in rendering frontend. Also greatly optimized shadow processing, especially for moving lights. Unfortunately, many existing missions are not compatible with these changes, so you might see light leaking through walls (mainly with stencil shadows). Please report all such cases, we'll apply workaround on case by case basis (thread). * The "old" and "new" rendering backends are finally merged into one. It is as nice to program as the new backend, and as old-fashioned and reliable as the old backend. Single-pass shadow maps enabled by default and now respect noselfshadow. * Materials with polygonoffset now interact with lights. So static decals can have bumpmap and specular lighting. Note however: dynamic decals still don't interact with lights. * Revised parallelSky lights and marked shadowing parallel lights as deprecated (thread). * PNG image format now behaves equally to other supported formats. In particular, it is not required to explicitly specify its extension, and it can be referenced directly in GUI code. * Added functions min/max to material expressions, which can be useful for clamping. * Fixed minor culling bugs on animated entities and enabled entity scissors by default. * Reduced color banding for fog with some dithering at tonemapping stage. * Finally our C++ code can compress and decompress all texture formats we use, meaning that we no longer depend on occasionally buggy/slow vendor implementations. BUGS * Now both OGG and WAV sounds work the same way and stop playing while in main menu. * Fixed "gui::startSelect" as a feature that allows to choose player starting location in GUI briefing. * Fixed warnings in newspaper_bridgeport0X core readable GUI. ASSETS * Added automatic turrets, to be combined with security cameras (Thread). * Added more covered furniture models (6289). * Added wall models from Seeking Lady Leicester (6293). * New and fixed versions of atdm:lamp_electric_square_3_lit_unattached (6315). * Fixed UV map on Stove models (6312). * Fixed some issues with moor AI (6345).

@Frost_Salamander Thanks for checking It's not a huge deal for me, I can still finish the mission from my last save with some noclip to save time. Far as I'm concerned, mission's done. But wondering as a workaround if there's a console command to "resurrect" and just get the objective checked off maybe? Or just set it completed for the OCD completist in me? EDIT: Fixed it One thing I did notice that might be a clue - his head is a *separate* entity from the body. Maybe the game detects the head under water as drowned/dead but for the objective to trigger the body needs to be under water? Very fiddly to test...

A Problem Arises I've paused subtitling of the Lady02 vocal set, because of a problem with the voice clips described here: https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/21741-subtitles-possibilities-beyond-211/&do=findComment&comment=490151 While a way forward is being determined, I'll work on a different vocal set. Maybe manbeast, for which Kingsal just provided me the voice script.

Of course, it is one of the reasons for the decline of online forums, since the advent of mobile phones. Forums on a mobile are a pain in the ass, but on the other hand, for certain things there are no real alternatives to forums, social networks cannot be with their sequential threads, where it is almost impossible to retrieve answers to a question that is asked. has done days ago. For devs for internal communication, the only thing offered is a collaborative app, such as System D (not to be confused with systemd). FOSS, free and anonymous registration, access further members only by invitation, full encrypted and private. https://www.system-d.org

I am 100% on board with optional bonus challenges (mutators) you can activate before launching an FM. Could be a nice project for me for 2.13. As posted in the "Hazard Pay" thread, my idea for a save restriction mutator is that you pay for each save with some resource like a water arrow or a health potion. Something that hurts, to make players who seek the tension think twice about saving. Another mutator idea was "Ghost", i.e., mission fails as soon as stealth score turns non-zero and blackjacking is disabled. I wonder why everybody jumped on the save restriction topic, instead of this mutator, which would be really useful for quite a few players, wouldn't it?

So, I've got a confession to make: Up until recently, I hadn't really played a full FM in quite some time as I only did the occasional playtesting. I am currently trying to catch up and boy did I miss some gems! This FM is one of them and easily one of my all-time favorites. The save-system on expert combined with the incredible athmosphere of your mission created a tension I haven't felt in a Thief-style game in a long, long time. Thank you, thank you, thank you and bravo @kingsal. TDM and its mappers have really come a long way, competing high up there with commercial productions. Your FM inspired me in two ways: At one point, I died due to my character not jumping off a slope, eventhough I felt like I pressed jump at the right time. I think everybody of us knows this issue and you always have this kind of in the back of your head that you don't jump when the ground is not perfectly even. This failed jump was of course very annoying due to the saving constraints, so I instantly started thinking how we could solve this. There's a technique known primarily from platformers but also from FPS like Doom Eternal, and that technique is called "Coyote Time". It allows the player to jump for some short timespan after leaving a platform. We should maybe explore something similar for TDM, to make jumping off slopes more reliable. We have to be careful to not allow the player to cross further distances this way of course. I loved the save restriction and the tension it create so much, that I want more of it. I started to brainstorm and remembered the optional game mutators from Unreal back in the day. These mutators allowed you to enable extra challenges or modified physics etc. for your game. Coming back to the save restriction, a respective mutator for TDM could be that each savegame costs some resource. Some resource that hurts, like a water arrow or a health potion, to make the player think twice about saving. A mutator like that would honestly be my default play-setting, I think. Other obvious mutators could be "Ghost" (missions fails as soon as the stealth score is non-zero and blackjacking is disabled), "Ironman" (no saves), "Strong Enemies" (enemies hit harder, have more health). I shall follow up on both of these points soon.

Black Parade is released ! https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=152429

Body awareness please. https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/20013-are-you-gonna-add-this/

I loved it. Awesome game. I faceplanted at the people who asked for quest markers in the Steam forums there... Herr, lass Hirn regnen. The game is so great, and so true to the original, because it doesn't hold your hand. When is the new breed of gamers gonna learn.

Can't believe I missed this FM and played this now almost two years late. Congrats @Wellingtoncrab, what an incredible achievement. I loved every bit of it and it is sooooooo beautiful! Those volumetric lights really go a long way!! How the hell did you pull off I also loved the idea that you start out with almost nothing and have to acquire your tools, which kind of introduces some metroid vania elements to your FM. And that writing... Damn! If I had to be really nitpicky, I would say that your FM had too many tools scattered around that you don't really need. Tool scarcity is always a sure-fire way to create tension, so I think your FM would have been even better if there were less flashbombs, water arrows etc., and more loot instead.

So giving it none of those tags, but making the AI invisible, silent, non-solid, and on a team neutral to everyone would not work? Oh well, it was a horrible inelegant idea anyway.

Yes it goes around behind the player. It's a single body of water so it makes sense to merge it all into a single entity. It's easier to manage that way. I don't know if I really expect this to be fixed, or if it's even a bug and more a limitation. I thought I would raise it because the issue with the torches has plagued me for my last 2 FMs, so I thought I would raise it for awareness.

Just getting around to playing this, I know I'm really late. But, right at the start, is the player supposed to get stuck under water? I jumped in the water and swam to the bottom to see what's down there, but I can't swim back up, I'm blocked by the vegetation. And invulnerable horses in the water below the main entrance?

This sounds like something that could be scripted into (more) Tutorial missions / maps... ..or perhaps some more 'Advanced' Training maps that show off 'Master' level taffer tricks? How to deal with Undead (Holy Water, Mines, Fire-arrows, ect...) Sneaky tricks (Trapping guards in locked rooms, mis-uses of heavy crates) Spider Hunting 101 (Best sword Stabbin' angles, Use of Arrows on Arachnid weak-points) Distracting troublesome Mercs (Noise makers, regular arrows, thrown stuff..throwing even)

The Modpack and the Unofficial Patch are supposed to work out of the box: plug and play. Casual and even advanced players wouldn't know what to do with the Wearable disguises or the Augmentation mod the way things are today. This is a neat mod @MirceaKitsune, congratulations. I am rooting to see it implemented in a map! The mod however is overpowered, and it feels like having notarget on. There must be limitations and/or penalties. I suggest: 1) While wearing a helmet players must act like a guard: (creep or) walk in stand up position. The moment you jump or crouch, run, raise a weapon, grab an item... your are fully exposed. 2) Each helmet is functional for limited time. The longer you use it the more suspicious you become and at some point the helmet is of no use. Perhaps helmets can be "recharged" somehow, I don't know, but you get the idea. PS: Considering the number of mirrors per map and the fact that there are no player reflections (glass, water...) I wouldn't worry much about the head, to be honest.

The water might put out the fire, but it's Worth a try. I did that for the balcony toss. (edit) it does put out the fire:

As I wrote above, I believe the water arrow makes more sense: 1) There are plenty around in each mission, but still not as many as the broadhead arrows which might overpower the player if they can use them to make special arrows. 2) The player already knows the trick to use potions on water arrows from the holy water arrows. 3) The big blob on the tip would be much easier to color to show what effect the newly created arrow would have. 4) There are multiple potion models around which could be used as reagents, maybe it could even be possible to use their textures on the water arrow tip.

I agree. I tried to replace them with throwable holy water bottles, but while this works nice in my patch, it can make some missions really hard because you would need more bottles than you have. So why not make one holy water bottle make a certain number of water arrows holy without a time limit? I would suggest the same mechanic for the alchemy arrows, like not using the broadhead arrows but the water arrows. Use any potion on them to get the desired effect, for example using the invisibility potion on an arrow could create arrows to darken an area!

Sorry, I don't do videos. The crash is triggered at a very specific moment, always when starting fire. You miss that moment and the game won't crash, I understand. Lieutenant 2: High Expectations is the best testbed. Spawn some broadheads and start doing any of the below in any order you want (but very fast): Raise broadheads and pretend to fire (press fire and quickly abort) Switch to Water arrows and pretend to fire Lower Bow Raise Blackjack Switch to Bow and pretend to fire ... It eventually crashes here.

Edit: Sorry man, had to correct step #1 as I forgot that water brushes always have to be converted into water entities.

Public release v1.7.6 (with Dark Mod support) is out. Improvements since the final beta 14 are: Fixed a few remaining bugs with zip/pk4 support. Game Versions window now properly displays TDM version. Import window no longer has a vestigial off-screen TDM field (because TDM doesn't need or support importing). Web search option is now disabled if an unknown/unsupported FM is selected. If an FM with an unknown or unsupported game type is selected, the messages in the tab area now no longer refer to Thief 3 ("Mod management is not supported for Thief: Deadly Shadows"). The full changelog can be viewed at the release link. The de facto official AngelLoader thread is here: https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=149706 Bug reports, feature requests etc. are usually posted there. I'll continue following this thread though. Thanks everyone and enjoy!

Not so long ago I found what could make a pretty good profile picture and decided to try it out on these new forums. But I couldn't find a button anywhere that would let me change it. I asked on Discord and it seems Spooks also couldn't find anything anywhere. So I logged into an old alternative account and, lo and behold, that account has a button. This is on the first screen I get when I: 1) click on my account name in the top-right of the browser -> 2) click on 'profile'. Compared to my actual account: Are you also missing this button on your account? It'd be very much appreciated if that functionality could be restored to any of the affected accounts.

No. I didn't put anyone down there except myself, with fatal consequnces! I think both AI were in the 'normal' realm. One was definitely the bald helmetless bearded man who patrols outside the mansion door near the starting point. I dropped him on his plaform area and he 'floated' to the ground with his arms outstretched. There is water all around that platform but I didn't put him in it at any time. The other AI was, I think, a male servant in the mansion. I could go back and see if I can find him if it helps. Arby is the first one I mentioned. In fact he only seems to behave that way if I drop him on the small wooden extension on the west side of his platform, he falls normally if dropped on the stone part or the other wooden part. It's as if the wood isn't there and he has fallen into the water. I haven't found the other AI yet - either that, or he is no longer exhibiting the floating behaviour. But I have found the trophy in the chest that people have been discussing, and I too cannot frob it. Another AI is Harold, a City Watch guy who patrols one area of the dockside. If I drop him on or very near the wooden cart where he patrols, he does the slow 'falling through water' thing. Drop him anywhere else, and he falls normally.

Thanks for the replies, gonna try those spoiler Tags again now for my short review (oh well it inserted one above my text now and I can't seem to delete it on mobile - this text editor is strange)

Good work! I enjoy short missions because things are nice and focused - you get in, you get out. Also I tend to do better with the loot amounts and I was able to get all the loot without too much trouble, which is rare for me. If I were to make a suggestion though - I found the intro briefing sequence a bit distracting because it was so obvious the narration was pitch-shifted to make a deeper voice. If you felt the original voice wasn't deep enough for your needs, I would either get someone on the forums to record it for you or just leave as is. That's my only real complaint and it's not even about the mission itself, so pretty good first start!