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Because it's super useful not having to browse through the whole thread, and probably not even finding what you're looking for, because people put it in spoiler tags, which are excluded from the search. You don't have to click on the spoiler tag in the original post.

Basically someone always asks. We're all grownups here and it's in spoiler tags so...

It goes without saying that I appreciate your comments and I respect your work, eh. We all want the best for TDM. The frob highlight doesn't work well in some situations: difficult to detect in small objects or in large objects in some conditions, frob fighting in bodies and containers... The frob outline initiative failed to provide an alternative and the Frob Helper was supposed to complement the frob highlight but it did it partially, and we ended up with blinking mods, container-disabling mods, auto search bodies... and a questionable Frob Helper. Perhaps madness is the better word. I know people don't like the idea of corsshairs in TDM but a Frob Helper with tdm_frobhelper_ignore_size = 0 would have settled many things for good from day one. I think we agree.

The map files in NHAT v4 were too large to diff in Notepad++ or Meld ( etc) so I decided to test out the old I18N.pl script and it still works fine for me. Caveats? It doesn't understand campaign packs so you have to split the maps and xdata and create a fake darkmod.txt without the "mission 1 , mission 2, etc" part. Then you have to renumber the "#str_xxxx" entries in the other maps so they don't collide. Luckily find and replace can easily fix that. A lot of work to get this working with the latest NHAT version, phew!

I hope that is not the new TDM version. https://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?/topic/20784-render-bug-large-black-box-occluding-screen/

Regarding the Blow I would argue that if you need a backup plan perhaps the main plan isn't that good after all. Maybe the main plan simply needs a little more work and maintenance. Besides, players using the Unofficial Patch can extinguish almost everything with their hands except that element there, for which they need a tool? Odd.

The question is, what do you want the Unofficial Patch to be? Then do just that. Players shall judge. I am fairly sure, yes. What's wrong with some free virtual relighting ? Since you are interested in some skills what we can do to avoid duplicates is to adopt the same basic entities with the same basic properties. That way players using only the Patch will get your version but players using both the Patch and the Modpack will get a single instance (whichever mod that wins). Here is an example for the Whistle. tdm_playertools.def Go from: // Whistling sound to distract enemies, added by wesp from snatcher entityDef atdm:playertools_whistle { "inherit" "atdm:playertool" "editor_usage" "Don't use, gets automatically spawned at the start of the map" "scriptobject" "playertools_whistle" // changed by wesp "inv_category" "#str_02394" // Tools "inv_name" "Whistle" "inv_icon" "guis\assets\hud\inventory_icons\whistle_icon.dds" // changed by wesp "inv_map_start" "1" } To: // Whistling sound to distract enemies, added by wesp from snatcher entityDef mod:playerskills_distraction { "inherit" "atdm:playertool" "editor_usage" "Don't use, gets automatically spawned at the start of the map" "scriptobject" "playertools_whistle" // changed by wesp "inv_category" "Skills" "inv_name" "Whistle" "inv_icon" "guis\assets\hud\inventory_icons\whistle_icon.dds" // changed by wesp "inv_map_start" "1" } tdm_user_addons_wesp.script Go from: void user_addon_init_wesp() //If any of your addon scripts need to be initialised at map start, add their init function here. See the line that has been commented out with // for an example. { entity blow = sys.spawn("atdm:playertools_blow"); // added by wesp entity whistle = sys.spawn("atdm:playertools_whistle"); // added by wesp statistic_message_init(); // added by wesp thread frob_details(); // added by wesp tdm_frob_lock_init(); // added by wesp tdm_chest_sounds(); // added by wesp tdm_unlit_lamps(); // added by wesp sys.waitFrame(); // contingency in case no addons are specified } To: void user_addon_init_wesp() //If any of your addon scripts need to be initialised at map start, add their init function here. See the line that has been commented out with // for an example. { entity blow = sys.spawn("atdm:playertools_blow"); // added by wesp entity whistle = sys.spawn("mod:playerskills_distraction"); // added by wesp statistic_message_init(); // added by wesp thread frob_details(); // added by wesp tdm_frob_lock_init(); // added by wesp tdm_chest_sounds(); // added by wesp tdm_unlit_lamps(); // added by wesp sys.waitFrame(); // contingency in case no addons are specified } See if that does the trick, and if you like it.

The project to round up viable orphaned translations is mostly complete now. https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=4726 Since Darkfate has their own translations it took awhile to merge the older translations with the darkfate formatting since they generated new string numbers from scratch. A few missions are so radically changed that the old translations are practically worthless now ( and some Darkfate translations are also incompatible with the latest mission versions ) but most of the work was salvageable. I added a "Translation Pack" column to the Missions wiki: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Fan_Missions_for_The_Dark_Mod all entries marked with "Yes" are working translations that use Darkfate's translation design ( includes xdata, GUI and Map files if the author didn't perform localization changes in their own mission pack ). Sadly, these changes do not show in the mission downloader list. You will need to delete mission_l10n.pk4 files from the darkmod/fms/mission_name folders to acquire the new translation packs that "actually work". Not all mission packs contain all languages. Mostly you can count on Russian being in there, but a good percentage have German and Italian strings too. French, Polish, and a few other languages are represented but not very broadly. Hopefully now that the packs work other contributors will add more language strings. Mission administration details: Going forward, it would be courteous if the mission admins ( like myself ) would diff the map files when new mission updates are supplied and replace all the objectives, inv_name, pop-up messages, and shouldered names in a copy of the new map file with the previous string codes then copy that file to the map folder in the translation pack folder. Ideally, authors will be encouraged to run their missions through the converter so only new strings need be added to the packs but not everyone likes that workflow and how cumbersome it makes future edits to the mission.

The Frob Helper doesn't work in this mission. I suggest an update of tdm_player_thief.def to the latest version.

This should definitely be possible. The python scripting API has functions to loop through entities and read their spawnargs, and then you could use standard python file functions to write the EFX file. It would be cool to have a proper EFX editor in DR, but writing a script would be a lot less work. @Frost_Salamander if you decide to write a script like this I'd be happy to help you out if you get stuck. You can check out count_loot.py for a minimal example of looping through entities.

So path_follow_actor actually DOES work if you want it to follow the player. You just need to target the player entity dynamically in game. It doesn't work if you target the player_start entity. I can't remember if that's what people were doing (or even if that's what I was doing), but that won't work because the player_start entity and the player entity aren't the same thing. You can use a atdm:target_changetarget entity to do this, or a script: $path_follow_actor_1.addTarget($player1); Both can just be triggered by another path node, a atdm:target_callscriptfunction, whatever. Also you need to add the player target to the path_follow_actor node BEFORE the AI gets to it. If the target gets added after the AI reaches that node, it won't work. Video where the AI hits a node that triggers a atdm:target_changetarget entity: https://drive.proton.me/urls/A3DJW5EYFM#0WgYnCVOU6nv test map attached as well. EDIT: I have no idea why just manually setting 'target' 'player1' on the path_follow_actor node in DR doesn't work. I'll try to look into this. UPDATE: It appears the the player1 entity simply isn't there during initialization when the path_follow_actor's targets are evaluated. As a result, the 'actor' is null and the node does nothing. I didn't mention it before, but when I used the script method I just stuck in the map script's main function like so, and this works too: void main() { sys.waitFrame(); $path_follow_actor_1.addTarget($player1); } UPDATE 2: Wiki updated: https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Path_Nodes#path_follow_actor path.map

Stone 24pt Font Upgrade, May 9 2024 Interim Release This first release just clears away some of the low-hanging fruit, while buffing the new datBounds program. In summary - stray mark next to W removed poor spacing of J and AE improved 6 characters got accents added. The download is made up of: .dat and 2 .dds files, for distribution/game inclusion .ref [with changes annotated] and .xcf [master source GIMP project, including datBounds layers] 2024 May 9 Stone 24 Interim font update.zip The changes were also doubled-checked using the testSubtitlesANSI FM. As this work continues, with an interim release approximately monthly, characters to be fixed will be chosen seemingly "at random", but actually due to layout considerations... you don't want to know. They'll all be done eventually. Details of Improvements:

For free ambience tracks it's as Freky said: you look around on the internet for tracks with the appropriate license to be included in your FM. Fortunately, you likely don't even need to bother doing this as a beginner as there's an entire "Music & SFX" section of the forums full of good ambient tracks for you to use if the stock tracks do not meet your fancy. You might also be interested in Orbweaver's "Dark Ambients", which come with a sndshd file already written for you.

I just made an interesting discovery. In my FM that's in beta I have custom main menu music, but it doesn't always work. Basically it works: When you first start the game (whether the FM is currently selected or if you change to this mission and the game restarts) during the text briefing It doesn't work (i.e. you only get silence) When escaping back to the main menu while in-game After quitting a mission and it goes back to menu As far as I know I had all the correct settings in mainmenu_custom_defs.gui: /// Menu music after startup (not in-game) #define MM_MENU_SOUND_CMD "music fs_muslim;" /// Played in main menu when in-game (ESCaping out of the game) #define MM_INGAME_MENU_SOUND_CMD "music fs_muslim;" /// Played during non-video briefing #define MM_BRIEFING_SOUND_CMD "music fs_muslim;" It turns out the problem was I had this line set in the sound shader: leadin sound/ambient/ambience/silence.ogg Commenting that out on a hunch fixed the problem. So you might be saying to yourself 'that's all very interesting but who cares?'. My point is: Just an FYI in case someone else runs into this I don't think there is anywhere on the Wiki that covers menu customization? @Geep you've done a whole bunch around GUI scripting recently - is there somewhere you can recommend I can stick this?

Could be something funky going on with our implicit RGTC compression. We use a Microsoft BC format for pre-compressed normals but our on-the-fly encoder is supposed to use standard OpenGL tangent space normals. I wonder if the work to fix BC loading had some unintended effect on uncompressed loading? Maybe @orbweaver can be convinced to take a 2nd look?

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/

That may be where @Amadeus got the folder provided to me earlier. Tels folder has - - .xcf files, not found in earlier work - for any given system font (stone, carleton, manon) and size(particularly 24 or 48), often more .tga/.dds files than earlier work (which originally had just ASCII characters). (You can open the files in GIMP to be even more definitive).

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.

I think this is a slippery slope fallacy. Just because the ability to customize exists does not mean most mappers will use it. On the contrary, if one considers the customization that are already available, we see that the overwhelming majority of mappers stick to the defaults. The exceptions are interesting also. Kingsal's the only mapper that readily comes to mind who habitually deviates from presets seemingly just for the sake of being different. However everything they make is clearly in service of cohesive visions. Hazard Pay, no matter how you feel about it, unarguably loses a great deal of its survival horror character if you take away the napalm arrows or the punishing save system. The Voltas don't need to use Thief style elemental crystals in place of TDMs arrow model, but the fact that they are there makes a definite statement about the author's awareness of their inspiration for their work in TDM from the original games, which in turn draws attention to other, subtler creative choices. I think it's also telling that some of kingsal's modifications have been adopted by other authors. As OrbWeaver said, "If the defaults are widely disliked, they should be changed." However, how can the community come to a consensus unless there are maps to showcase the advantages of new innovations? Requesting, or worse requiring, players to go in and manually change settings in order to experience a new mechanic is never going to gain any traction. Certainly it is not worth the effort of creating an entire map built around a new paradigm.

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.

Also, I've built another console app, "datBounds", to visualize the bounding box around each bitmap character. Starting from your choice of .dat, .fnt, or .ref file, it generates a set of .tga files, e.g., stone_0_24_bounds.tga & stone_1_24_bounds.tga. You can optionally include a 2-hex-digit label on each bounding box. More about that in May. I'm using the results of this to understand the current complex codepoint mapping of the Stone 24pt glyphs, and develop the workplan and grid layouts for upcoming work.

Beta testing thread started here:

I created discussion here and mentioned authors (maybe I missed someone though). Unlike the previous thread about main menu GUI overrides, I think the new one does not look aggressive . The main question there is why this was done, and how to adapt to avoid this problem now and in the future. Indeed, all the missions will be fixed by 2.13 even if some authors don't respond. Dev builds regularly break something, although usually it is done unintentionally. I added "known issues" point on the dev build, which happens pretty rarely. I apologize for the negative emotions this change has caused. Sometimes I am too rough in communications. Moreover, I am not a creative kind of person, I'm more a technical type of person. Thus I believe in interface boundaries, so in my mind the blame for breakage is always on the side that violates these boundaries. Anyway, I know I'll have to fix the breakage, probably myself if necessary.

Seriously, if devs are never allowed to make changes that break things, then the mod never moves forward. It's a bandaid, rip it off, get it done. That's the point of dev builds. And if people are downloading DEVELOPMENT BUILDS to play the mod and shits broken, guess what, they should have read the very first post of this thread. For the people eager to play with the latest state of development 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

Throwing a few words people used to say long ago to help enrich those texts. Not sure if they all work in English since I'm just translating from Spanish but I think most should work well. - Stratagem: Used by Nobles to describe a plan, course of action as in "Device a Stratagem" use instead of Strategy. - Given Word (People used this one a lot, had weight). You can't betray the given word. - Sophistry or Sophist (as in dirty sophistry). Play of words to deceive. -Countenance (Please execute/exercise Countenance) - Artifice: Plan or plot to deceive. - Modesty (Lacking Modesty) - Sylph: Slender woman. - Cameo (As in compliment: "She's beautiful like a Cameo")