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Things that could be improved


Berny

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Haven't tried that myself...I didn't even realize you could jump while crouched. That doesn't make much sense.

You weren't able to in vanilla D3 (pressing jump while crouched just made you stand up), but we added it. It actually helps a lot when you're clambering through low-ceiling areas and want to hop-then-mantle somewhere.

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I think it's possible that the invisible cursor is too small in area. If it was slightly wider/larger i wouldn't have to move my mouse incrementally trying to center exactly on center for small objects like coins/keys (the other part of the equation - a slightly larger frob distance, i suspect wont be considered for "realism", but it is also annoying especially when for chests/pickpocket).

 

Of course, if any mission really really depends on fine frob targetting of two objects next to one another, loosing precision is a no go.

Edited by i30817
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One glaring thing I noticed in the past week, after going on a roll and playing about 10 missions in a row - guards don't seem very thorough in their searching. If they see something suspicious, they walk/run to the area in question, and then they just kind of stand there, maybe rotating a bit. I feel like I can just slide over 5 feet and they'll never find me, as long as I'm in shadow. In Thief, it's a bit more realistic as guards will at least search a roughly 10 foot radius around the spot in question before giving up.

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They will lose you pretty quickly if you go around a corner and duck into shadows or something. But if you go into shadows and stay in line of sight they won't lose you.

 

Personally I prefer it to T2 searching that would never end sometimes. With T2/T3 I would hide, go take a bathroom break, get something to drink, come back, wait some more...

Dark is the sway that mows like a harvest

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Hopefully this won't sound rude, but...

 

Is the "The Dark Mod" splash screen that shows after a mission is started really necessary? The menus already show very prominently that this is The Dark Mod. I could even see a TDM mention on the loading screen somewhere, but this "in-between" screen seems unnecessary, and it's the type of thing a game mod would typically eliminate (like The Minialist Project for TDS). Also, I've often accidentally clicked thru the briefing when trying to bypass this screen.

 

No offense intended, it just seems superfluous.

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I like it as a "get into the mood" moment like the mission start sound in Thief.

Come the time of peril, did the ground gape, and did the dead rest unquiet 'gainst us. Our bands of iron and hammers of stone prevailed not, and some did doubt the Builder's plan. But the seals held strong, and the few did triumph, and the doubters were lain into the foundations of the new sanctum. -- Collected letters of the Smith-in-Exile, Civitas Approved

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On the one hand, I think it should have a blue and orange color scheme; And I don't like the "M".

 

On the other hand, the audio is perfect; and I absolutely love the rest of the letters.

 

Discuss.

 

...

 

It's probably already being considered but, somone mentioned that there should be some more body types in... short, fat, tall, spindly...

 

It would really cool if this was able to work with the very promising LODE system where in you could say, "give me a guard" and then the guard who be randomly put together from a set of heads and bodies...

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@brethren: If you mean the little video before the briefing then this can be replaced. Mappers who wish to produce a full video briefing can replace it with theirs and skip the normal briefings. But you can replace it with a few frames of black if you want so a fraction of a second is unnoticeable.

 

If you can find or make an empty video of a fraction of a second long and convert it to roq format (google) then name it briefing_video.roq and make and put it in darkmod\video folder.

 

If in the future an FM comes with a complete video briefing then it should override that blank so you won't miss anything.

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Yeah, that video is just there as a placeholder so that mappers can add their own video briefing. I'm not sure why we didn't just use a few frames of black ourselves.

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If you can find or make an empty video of a fraction of a second long and convert it to roq format (google) then name it briefing_video.roq and make and put it in darkmod\video folder.

 

If in the future an FM comes with a complete video briefing then it should override that blank so you won't miss anything.

 

See also: NHAT. All three had custom ROQ videos. Not necessarily briefings, but some of those thief-esque quote rolls to get 'into the mood'.

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Yeah, that video is just there as a placeholder so that mappers can add their own video briefing. I'm not sure why we didn't just use a few frames of black ourselves.

 

IIRC that seemed to be the general opinion at the time, but then that intro video got put in and just sort of stuck anyway. I kind of like it now. I think it might be fun to have alternatives that people could drop in, though; not just a few frames of black but other variations on the logo.

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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Yeah, that video is just there as a placeholder so that mappers can add their own video briefing. I'm not sure why we didn't just use a few frames of black ourselves.

 

IIRC that seemed to be the general opinion at the time, but then that intro video got put in and just sort of stuck. I kind of like it now. I think it might be fun to have alternatives that people could drop in, though; not just a few frames of black but other variations on the logo, something a fan could put together just for fun.

What do you see when you turn out the light? I can't tell you but I know that it's mine.

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That video discussion reminds me of one thing that new players might get hung-up on:

 

When missions are loading, especially ones without progress bars, there are long idle periods where a new player would not know whether anything was happening or there was a lockup. I calm myself by setting com_showFPS so I can at least see the numbers flicker to life every couple of seconds. Some basic animation other than the optional progress bar would make the mission load process less nerve-wracking.

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I believe we need access to the source before we can modify the loading code. This is why the progress bar only shows loading progress but not the additional processing. It would be nice to have some extra interest plus music that with a rapid 2 second fade as the game starts. Remember, this loader is also used for quickloads which might only take seconds so any music should not end too abruptly.

 

The video - you can skip it with one left mouse click. I like it myself but often skip it when testing FMs.

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Another thing I noticed - and please take this as "observant" criticism only - after there's an alert and enemy AI are searching frantically for you, when they've calmed down, they won't resume what they were doing or they will do so in an odd place. In a couple of missions I played, and AI would stop right smack in a doorway, or one time even falling back asleep on a set of stairs, making it fairly impossible to proceed. I assume neutral types of AI have flee points, but I would think guards and builders would resume patrol or go back to their posts.

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Interestingly, it seems it is only alerts that cause this.

If you close a double door again after a AI opens it, it continues to play the walk animation into the now "semi-closed" doors, but it's path doesn't seem to be adversily affected. Of course, that it continues walking into the door without opening or becoming suspicious looks quite bad.

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after there's an alert and enemy AI are searching frantically for you, when they've calmed down, they won't resume what they were doing or they will do so in an odd place. In a couple of missions I played, and AI would stop right smack in a doorway, or one time even falling back asleep on a set of stairs, making it fairly impossible to proceed.

 

That's a bug, obviously. If you happen to get a saved game with that behaviour, that might be useful.

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I'd like there to be junk counterparts to some models. Like a rusty old lantern to rest beside a corpse. I don't know perhaps it is already possible by switching to a different texture or something. But it would also be nice with a "broken" model as well. With dents, broken glass etc.

Where are the REAL brits?! The one's we have are just brit-ish.

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I'd like there to be junk counterparts to some models. Like a rusty old lantern to rest beside a corpse. I don't know perhaps it is already possible by switching to a different texture or something. But it would also be nice with a "broken" model as well. With dents, broken glass etc.

 

Something like this is already possible... kinda :)

 

The skins files allow you to substitute one texture with another, they're really easy to write and a lot of models already have variations. For some models, depending on how they are made you can cut bits out by re-texturing the material to nodraw. i.e you could remove glass from a lantern by changing the glass to 'nodraw' and the metal to a rusted texture.

 

If you want to get fancy, take the old diffuse and throw it into Photoshop or whatever. Get some rust textures, some grime and the rest. Layer them over, multiply blend the grime in on a low intensity and just use a rough brush and cut away the rust until it covers the logical places like joints. Save out the texture and write a new material definition. Write a skin to swap to your new rusted material... and now you're thinking with portals.

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That's a bug, obviously. If you happen to get a saved game with that behaviour, that might be useful.

 

I might be able to find some others if I think back, but here's one definite one for you - in Biker's Business as Usual, two guards have decided to camp out in the stairwell going down to the sewers just east of the Watch Station where they're supposed to be. One is even lying down sleeping.

 

bau1.jpg

 

quicksave

 

Edit: Btw, I thought the sleeping guy in particular was funny as hell.

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@Serpentine: That would suffice. Thanks. :)

 

Ahem... Springheel, is there any chance you could close the bottoms on the trees? What if there was a storm and the indigenous plantlife buckled, as is the case in a mission idea here at oceanarts.net at the moment.

Where are the REAL brits?! The one's we have are just brit-ish.

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I'll have to take a look. If they're .lwo I should be able to do it easily enough, though I can't promise they'll look like they fell down; probably more like they were cut.

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I'll have to take a look. If they're .lwo I should be able to do it easily enough, though I can't promise they'll look like they fell down; probably more like they were cut.

 

It's better than the transparent alternative.:)

Where are the REAL brits?! The one's we have are just brit-ish.

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You could always just use patches. Big clump of dirt at the end and a bunch of pyramid patches with bark tex, bent around for roots sticking out of said clump.(don't forget the hole behind it ;) )

 

Otherwise the trees need root systems, most of which will never be seen... lots of extra polys for 1 mission.

Dark is the sway that mows like a harvest

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