Things that could be improved

[Oktokolo]

On 3/25/2022 at 11:07 PM, thebigh said:

The one that bugs me is lockpicking a door and it inevitably swing out towards you. There's not much really to do about that except for mappers being aware of which way their doors rotate.

You can configure doors to not automatically open on unlock in the settings menu.

[wesp5]

2 hours ago, Oktokolo said:

You can configure doors to not automatically open on unlock in the settings menu.

Yes, but sadly this breaks some missions where a door opens on a trigger and isn't frobable afterwards if it didn't.

[kin]

I would like to see the in game mission menu listing missions with the most recent released on top

[datiswous]

I would like the Sound Alert & Blackjack Trainer mission be added to core or even better, added as a section to the main training mission.

[Xolvix]

6 hours ago, kin said:

I would like to see the in game mission menu listing missions with the most recent released on top

To expand on this, it'd be really cool if there was a "sort by" button on the mission list screen, whereby clicking on it will cycle through different sorting categories. Stuff like:

• Name
• Most recently downloaded
• Uncompleted missions
• Download Size (sometimes an indication of the mission having an intro movie, new textures/music, etc.)

Also, even if there's no desire to add a GUI element for it, maybe a console variable could be created so you can choose whether you want the mission list to ignore articles like "The" and "A" when sorting, which is currently what happens. I'm not really a fan of this but I get why it's done, but it'd be nice to control this.

Edited April 6, 2022 by Xolvix

[AluminumHaste]

There is a sort on the website missions page like this. Release date, size, name etc.

 

[thebigh]

There are also various sorting features on the wiki.

[datiswous]

10 hours ago, Xolvix said:

"The" and "A" when sorting, which is currently what happens. I'm not really a fan of this but I get why it's done, but it'd be nice to control this.

I think the sorting should at least be consistent with the way it is sorted alphabetically on https://www.thedarkmod.com/missions/

[Xolvix]

I'm clearly not very good at this suggestions thingy.

There seems to be a lot of duplication between the two links given above. Are they both updated manually or is there some sort of clever backend code where updating one page auto-updates the other? If not then it would seem simpler to just add a link to the wiki on the Missions page. I guess the other alternative to my idea is to add a link to the wiki within the mission list screen and have it launch the default browser to that page.

[thebigh]

The Wiki gets updated manually. I'm not sure about the website.

[Xolvix]

In that case I have a legit suggestion. Maybe increase the frobbing radius/strength/focus/whatever for keys attached to NPCs. There's been a number of situations where I've tried grabbing the key off of an NPC and the frobber has great trouble focusing onto it. Not always the case but it happen from time to time and it can be a downright pain especially if the key is required. I guess the same goes for money bags.

If you want to keep the difficulty of an NPC in motion, maybe have the key/money bag take increased focus once the NPC has been KOed or killed, to simulate the in-game character having much easier access to said item.

 

Edited April 7, 2022 by Xolvix

[thebigh]

One could argue that a purse or key hanging from someone's belt should be harder to pickpocket than grabbing an urn sitting on a shelf, but I agree that this is something the mapper should have control over rather than a quirk of the engine.

[datiswous]

1 hour ago, thebigh said:

but I agree that this is something the mapper should have control over rather than a quirk of the engine.

Does increasing frob distance not help?

[Xolvix]

1 hour ago, thebigh said:

One could argue that a purse or key hanging from someone's belt should be harder to pickpocket than grabbing an urn sitting on a shelf, but I agree that this is something the mapper should have control over rather than a quirk of the engine.

But like I said, I'm happy if such a tweak is not applied to an active NPC. Once they're knocked out or dead, maybe have that be the point where the items on their person become much easier to frob. It's helps overcome the jank I encounter in some missions.

To be honest it's not as bad as in "The Parcel" where there's a key on the Lord of the house that in many cases you won't even see since it clips mostly into his model. I think I had to watch a playthrough vid once before I was like "it's on his body?!?" since something was wrong with its placement. In this case though, the key was easily frobbble. You just had to know it was there.

Edited April 7, 2022 by Xolvix

[thebigh]

10 minutes ago, datiswous said:

Does increasing frob distance not help?

A little. But the bigger problem is that it sometimes doesn't highlight even when you're close enough with the regular frob distance. So when the guard is awake you're trying to grab a small, moving, hard-to-target object and if you knock him out he himself becomes frobable and that interferes with you trying to target his purse.

[datiswous]

19 hours ago, Xolvix said:

I'm clearly not very good at this suggestions thingy

I wonder sometimes if any of the suggestions are ever being picked up by devs.

[Anderson]

54 minutes ago, datiswous said:

I wonder sometimes if any of the suggestions are ever being picked up by devs.

It's enough to look at the change log and the roadmap to see that there aren't that many people left to work. This is all for free. Remember that Springheel, Greebo, Brikerdude, SteveL and SteveL are retired. Lots of people became less active over time. Newer people do not join that much because The Dark Mod doesn't have much publicity. So of course progress is not as fast. If things won't end up in massive procrastination then the tasks already proposed are enough for the time being. Moreover there are tons of issues not on the current roadmap that anyone can solve if they want to. https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view_all_bug_page.php

https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/changelog_page.php

That being said even if The Dark Mod sets up a Patreon or other financing from contributors, it's important to make sure it covers people's needs sufficiently for the stated aim of working more on the project. At the same time allowing the previous policy that anyone can hop aboard and join in as before. The current model as well as the monetary model have their advantages and disadvantages. I think that it's easier to burn out when there's this expectation pressure hanging over you with money.

Edited April 7, 2022 by Anderson

[thebigh]

I wish I had better coding skills and could grok what the hell is going on in the code. Then I'd help. But as it is the best I can do is report bugs as I find them.

[Xolvix]

Can I just say, I praise the devs for being able to do what they do. I honestly don't care if they take any suggestions I make or not, because frankly the improvements that come with each and every single release are noticeable and genuinely appreciated. From what I remember reading in a discussion a long time ago, what they want more are contributors. Basically people making levels or assets. That could of course have changed and they're now "fuck that, code for us!", but that's what I remember seeing somewhere.

Makes me a little ashamed that I'm more of a taker rather than a giver. I can code in C++ acceptably, but game dev is some of the hardest coding practices out there so I dunno. We do need more aussies contributing levels though and I only know of two so far, so maybe I need to represent...

[thebigh]

9 minutes ago, Xolvix said:

maybe I need to represent...

Go for it! The more levels the better.

[datiswous]

I just want to say I do agree with you guys, I was just wondering, not complaining, hope it didn't sound like that.

It's already good to discuss stuff.

[Anderson]

50 minutes ago, datiswous said:

I just want to say I do agree with you guys, I was just wondering, not complaining, hope it didn't sound like that.

It's already good to discuss stuff.

It's okay. Just saying that people seem to ask some of the same questions or bring up similar proposals that have already been acknowledged or discussed before.

[wesp5]

43 minutes ago, Anderson said:

Just saying that people seem to ask some of the same questions or bring up similar proposals that have already been acknowledged or discussed before.

Maybe there could be a FAQ somewhere of frequent suggestions and answers why they are not considered? Also I noticed that even if the code is provided, like I sometimes did with stuff from my patch, changes to the core game are rare, and I think I found another reason for this: Many e. g. of the changes in my patch need editing of the strings file, which I do for the English part as the patch is in English only. Anything that would go into the core game would need editing of all the languages provided there, and I have the feeling this might be a reason why gameplay modifications are done so seldom.

Edited April 8, 2022 by wesp5

[Anderson]

1 hour ago, wesp5 said:

Maybe there could be a FAQ somewhere of frequent suggestions and answers why they are not considered?

Maybe it's easier to google the issue to see what the forums come up with.

[Oktokolo]

On 4/4/2022 at 6:48 PM, wesp5 said:

Yes, but sadly this breaks some missions where a door opens on a trigger and isn't frobable afterwards if it didn't.

Don't worry, i play with doors not automatically opening and report all such cases i stumble upon. So in general, missions released till a month ago should be fine. And when playing a mission at release date, noclip still works as advertised.