A little presentation and a huge thank you.

[Dave the Taffer]

Good evening everyone, I hope this is the correct section.

I'm writing and posting this just to say THANK YOU for this beautiful game, thank you so much. I'll say a lot of obvious things that all of you know much better than me, but I can't understate what I feel about this.

The Dark Mod is far beyond what I believed to be the limits of free software/open source and community driven game development. Sure, there are massive (and successful) open source projects out there, the Linux kernel itself, and a lot of great gaming related stuff, but nothing in free/open videogame development (in my knowledge) seems comparable to this.

A free, open immersive simulator (basically a new Thief) based on evolved id Tech 4 technology, seems far too good to be true, but it's done and it's real. And it's evolving and growing!

I can't even start to comprehend how much work, passion and love had to be put into this, both engine/tools side and art/mission creation side, especially with a complex and advanced technology like id Tech 4. And I'm so impressed by the advances in engine technology and by the sheer amount of high quality art and missions, when I think about this I shake...

I loved and enjoyed a great number of missions (still have to play most of the older ones), got (almost) lost in giant parts of the City, and experimented some of the most beautiful emotions I ever felt playing videogames.

There are so many beautiful missions and campaigns out there, Shadow of Northdale, William Steele, The Painter's Wife, Penny Dreadful and many more, so many that I can't name all of them right now.

I always was that guy that played Doom and Quake I/III, then another videogame (like Stalker), then return to Doom and Quake and their community works, repeat for n times...but at some time the videogame in the middle of the process was the first Dishonored and its DLCs and after that I was ready for understanding and loving TDM, which I started to play about two years ago.

Now TDM is, in pratice, the only game I play and it's free and open source, and so good that's crazy. 

So, really, a huge thank you to everyone involved and a huge "wow" to programmers, artists, mission authors, and all the others. Can't say "thank you" enough.

P.S. Not to mention that right now I'm in quarantine, isolated in a room with covid, so TDM basically saved my mental health and let me feel some freedom :) and so finally I've found the time to write this, I wanted to do this for a while.

[Nebrekker]

This inspired me to download it again and get my butt kicked in the training missions

[Zerg Rush]

@Dave the Taffer, welcome to TDM, and yes, I think the same, since I tried TDM some time ago, with the first standalone version. It is certainly a game that stands out from all the other games that you find as OpenSource, what's more, it don't even have to be ashamed compared to commercial games.
Adding a pleasant and friendly community, where it is a pleasure to participate. what more could you want?

[nbohr1more]

Thank you for the kind words and praise!

I can probably speak for the team when I say that we are always striving to make people happy with this project and it is cool to see positive feedback once in awhile in comparison to endless bug reports, wishlists, and complaints ( we value those too though ).

[Dave the Taffer]

12 hours ago, Nebrekker said:

This inspired me to download it again and get my butt kicked in the training missions

Oh, great!

I'm trying to introduce some friends to TDM. The only "problem", one I believe is implicit in this type of games, it's that (as with all the good things) it is necessary to go through an initial phase of learning the various systems, movement, light/shadow, noise/silence, lockpicking, and all the rest. It required some initial pratice for me. Even when I played Dishonored I needed a lot of learning, and Dishonored is a much easier game compared to TDM, because Corvo is basically a demigod. I was used to Doom I and II, games in which you can outrun your own rockets ahah, and to Quake III, where I would strafejump like crazy while timing items and so on. So I had to learn new rhythms and mechanics.

But once the first step is made, the payment in terms of fun, emotions and enjoyment while playing the TDM missions is huge.

[Dave the Taffer]

4 hours ago, Zerg Rush said:

@Dave the Taffer, welcome to TDM, and yes, I think the same, since I tried TDM some time ago, with the first standalone version. It is certainly a game that stands out from all the other games that you find as OpenSource, what's more, it don't even have to be ashamed compared to commercial games.
Adding a pleasant and friendly community, where it is a pleasure to participate. what more could you want?

Really, one can't ask for more, it's already something incredible as it is right now.

12 minutes ago, nbohr1more said:

Thank you for the kind words and praise!

I can probably speak for the team when I say that we are always striving to make people happy with this project and it is cool to see positive feedback once in awhile in comparison to endless bug reports, wishlists, and complaints ( we value those too though ).

Yes, I definitely wanted to report some very positive feedback and experience. I really wanted to write this for a while, I felt like I couldn't play all this good stuff without (at least) saying to the devs how good it is for me. Glad to see the feedback is appreciated!

[Zerg Rush]

2 hours ago, Dave the Taffer said:

Oh, great!

I'm trying to introduce some friends to TDM. The only "problem", one I believe is implicit in this type of games, it's that (as with all the good things) it is necessary to go through an initial phase of learning the various systems, movement, light/shadow, noise/silence, lockpicking, and all the rest. It required some initial pratice for me. Even when I played Dishonored I needed a lot of learning, and Dishonored is a much easier game compared to TDM, because Corvo is basically a demigod. I was used to Doom I and II, games in which you can outrun your own rockets ahah, and to Quake III, where I would strafejump like crazy while timing items and so on. So I had to learn new rhythms and mechanics.

But once the first step is made, the payment in terms of fun, emotions and enjoyment while playing the TDM missions is huge.

Well, it's not that complicated either, perhaps the most that requires some training is lockpicking, the rest is simply being patient and careful to stay in the shadows and keep your eyes and ears open.
But this with an excellent training mission everything is learned quickly. Even if you want to go deeper into the skills, you can try the Blackjack Training mission, to train stealth on different terrains and the Swing mission, to train climbing and jumping
Then you can relax with Builder Blocks, or grab some popcorn while watching different AI's fight each other in the Arena mission.

[Wallace]

I fully agree with OP. I don't post much but keep a close eye on the 2.10 release. I'm so grateful we have such awesome fanmade games available for free, which trump most AAA hand-holdy garbage that pass for games nowadays.

Not to hijack the thread, but OP if you like imsims (free ones at that) make sure to check out STALKER: Anomaly. Fanmade + standalone just like TDM.

https://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-anomaly

 

 

Edited February 24, 2022 by Wallace

[Dave the Taffer]

7 hours ago, Wallace said:

I fully agree with OP. I don't post much but keep a close eye on the 2.10 release. I'm so grateful we have such awesome fanmade games available for free, which trump most AAA hand-holdy garbage that pass for games nowadays.

Not to hijack the thread, but OP if you like imsims (free ones at that) make sure to check out STALKER: Anomaly. Fanmade + standalone just like TDM.

https://www.moddb.com/mods/stalker-anomaly

 

 

Thank you! I didn't know Anomaly. If I ever get some time and the determination to recover my Windows HDD I'll try, I guess it doesn't run on Linux...

I played Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat multiple times, probably at least 2 times each, loved them, even if they scaried the shit out of me in some of those labs...

[Dave the Taffer]

7 hours ago, Zerg Rush said:

Well, it's not that complicated either, perhaps the most that requires some training is lockpicking, the rest is simply being patient and careful to stay in the shadows and keep your eyes and ears open.
But this with an excellent training mission everything is learned quickly. Even if you want to go deeper into the skills, you can try the Blackjack Training mission, to train stealth on different terrains and the Swing mission, to train climbing and jumping
Then you can relax with Builder Blocks, or grab some popcorn while watching different AI's fight each other in the Arena mission.

Yeah, it's not that complicated, it just requires some time to adapt but that's it. Maybe it was just me, I have to say that I still have to play Thief...ok now I suppose in five seconds I'll get a lifetime ban from here 

But now I'm decent at it, I play most missions at the highest difficulty without much trouble, sometimes I even try to ghost some missions at first try but very rarely I maintain the ghost style to the end.

I was terrified by the idea of ghosting in my earlier playthroughs, but when I finally understood the pleasure of not having corpses to hide behind me, I changed my mind. In "ghost mode" it's just about you and nowadays I like this.

Edited February 25, 2022 by Dave the Taffer

[datiswous]

2 hours ago, Dave the Taffer said:

I guess it doesn't run on Linux...

Apparently it does run with wine: https://www.reddit.com/r/stalker/comments/bjbzb9/anomaly_on_linux/  (have not tried it personally yet)

[demagogue]

Haha, wow, I don't think I'll ever tire of hearing how awesome we are.

I've always thought we're awesome. But sometimes I wonder if it's just our little bubble, and maybe a few people at PC Gamer, where we think that. It's really cool when people from outside our bubble come in and let us know that it's not just us.

[wesp5]

1 hour ago, demagogue said:

I've always thought we're awesome. But sometimes I wonder if it's just our little bubble, and maybe a few people at PC Gamer, where we think that. It's really cool when people from outside our bubble come in and let us know that it's not just us.

I completely agree. In my opinion TDM is one of the best mod-turned-stand-alone-games out there! I mean look at the STALKER games, they are still STALKER. Look at Black Mesa, it's still Half-Life. Look at The Babylon Project, it's still space combat only with different ships (although this was quite an effort too and I love it). But turning Doom 3 into Thief? There is little both games had in common and you managed to make it happen!

[SirGen]

@Dave the TafferWell said!

@nbohr1more@demagogueI'm guilty of posting bug reports, wish lists, and complaints far too much, and not thanking the great Dark Mod team enough. The Dark Mod truly is one of the best games, bar none! It's a game that I continually come back to.

Thank you to all the people who have made The Dark Mod and shared it with the rest of us taffers!!

Edited February 26, 2022 by SirGen

[Shaz]

I also don't say Thank You nearly enough.

In 2020, amidst the raging pandemic, my home was hit by 2 back to back hurricanes ...well, 6 weeks apart, but 6 weeks isn't much of a break. I spent the end of that year either evacuated due to one other the other hurricane, or sheltering at someone's house that had not gotten damaged too much to live in. But prior to that in 2020, I was homebound due to Covid. I have a list of health problems, so I deemed it safer to remain at home with limited outside contact. The computer was my lifeline. Once I was able to return to my own home, and even post-vaccination, I've maintained a mostly homebound life. The internet has been a lifeline, and TDM, while it has always been one of my joys, has played a large part in keeping depression at bay.

I cannot thank you all enough.

[thebigh]

38 minutes ago, SirGen said:

I'm guilty of posting bug reports, wish lists, and complaints far too much, and not thanking the great Dark Mod team enough.

Heh. Not everyone is great at putting gratitude into words. I know I'm not. But if I were on the Mod team I'd probably be pleased that people were playing long enough and paying enough attention to find little bugs and such.