What are considered the best missions TDM has to offer?

[Wallace]

Are there any missions that everyone agrees are simply unmissable, and if so, what would they be?

[nbohr1more]

Top 5 mission votes thread:

See this wiki:

https://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php?title=Mission_recommendation_discussions

I would say that all of Moonbo's missions are essential, all Kingsal missions, all Melan missions, all Grayman missions,

Goldwell's Accountant series and Northdale series,

 

The Painter's Wife, Behind Closed Doors, Iris, No Honor Among Thieves, Langhorne Lodge, Mandrasola, The Golden Skull, Sir Talbot's Collateral, Noble Affairs, Written in Stone, King of Diamonds, Down by the Riverside, A Score to Settle, Heart of Lone Salvation, Lords and Legacy, Swing, Patently Dangerous, King of the Mountain, Living Expenses, Flakebridge Monastery, Betrayal

 

Many would say all of Sotha's "Thomas Porter" missions, though these are very difficult / challenging so there is a little controversy about that.

 

[Xolvix]

The training mission.

Nah but seriously (or am I being serious?) the quality of missions these days is really quite high and there's plenty of missions that make great use of modern TDM features by veteran mappers. That said, I personally have a fondness for Moonbo's two FMs (Requiem, A House of Locked Secrets) and always enjoy replaying them due to their grand scale, great music choices and intriguing stories/settings.

[jaxa]

Well you already got 20 recommendations, but one thing you can do is just go to the downloader and hit missions that have a large file size. Those tend to have more custom assets, etc., and tend to be grander in scale.

[Obsttorte]

6 hours ago, jaxa said:

Those tend to have more custom assets, etc., and tend to be grander in scale

Which is an unarguable sign of quality

[Zerg Rush]

It is not so easy to answer and quite subjective. So far I have enjoyed most of the missions.
Perhaps I can name them that I liked the most, not always the largest ones.
Without neglecting others:
Swing, all of Grayman's, especially The Warrens, Sir Tafsalots Sword, naturally Requiem, House of locked secrets, The Black Mage, Spring cleaning is very good for a little while in between, Langhorne Lodge, the Hidden Hands series...

[datiswous]

10 hours ago, jaxa said:

Well you already got 20 recommendations, but one thing you can do is just go to the downloader and hit missions that have a large file size. Those tend to have more custom assets, etc., and tend to be grander in scale.

I did the oposite to play mostly the smaller missions. Most of the missions in the top 5 lists I haven't played yet.

I recently played In a time of need 2 (and 1), which I thought was a great mission.

[jaxa]

4 hours ago, Obsttorte said:

Which is an unarguable sign of quality

It just works™ and it requires no knowledge of anything.

[Wellingtoncrab]

We seriously have so many great missions - and I usually find something interesting even in the ones that don’t gel with me - but I will add that one of the Greatest of All Time™ “Full Moon Fever” manages a very svelte 23mb.

[datiswous]

I wonder how small a mission would be if it is really large, but only uses core assets.

[Wellingtoncrab]

.map files can get quite big themselves if there is a lot of brush work.

Not sure if they creep into the “really large” category but Perilous Refuge and Penny Dreadful 2 are both like 50mb and there is a whole lot to them (also great missions).

So yeah obviously archive size isn’t everything - I mean perhaps it’s old fashioned but I usually just read the mission descriptions until something clicks and then give it a try!

[Shadow]

We all won't agree on the best of the best missions, but you can't go wrong with any of them really. I seem to have a fondness for the Spoonman missions (Full Moon Fever, The Ravine) as they tend to veer off into elements of fantasy, magic and weirdness. I also like very unique missions like Swing, House of Theo, Illusionists Tower. If you like a nice long episodic saga with lots of Thief world similarities, try the William Steele series. And then there is Iris, which has lots of character depth and universally acclaimed praise.

 

[Filizitas]

Hazard pay
Snowed Inn
Volta 2
Iris

[Oktokolo]

Iris. After that you should abstain from TDM for some weeks, to let your spoiledness level cool down to a reasonable level again before playing the other top-rated missions.

[Nort]

Iris probably has the best brushwork I've seen thus far, yes. It gets ridiculously ambitious at places - like you want to scream "Calm down! We're astonished already!". It feels a bit cramped, though, but maybe that's intentional.

[chakkman]

My top 3:

1. A House of Locked Secret (near perfection that one)

2. Volta 2

3. Written in Stone

Honorable mentions: Northdale Act 1 and 2, Volta 1, Requiem, Snowed Inn, Crucible of Omens.

Especially in the last 7 or 8 years, there have been a lot of excellent missions.

Still have to play Iris, and, I'm really looking forward to it, if it's so mighly regarded here.

[Kukutoo]

Not sure if I posted here before, but for a simple strait forward favorite that I can always go back to,
its: Alberics Curse
to me its one of the best uses of the game. Its a pure list of objectives that can be done in any order. a open church with 50 ways in and out, and lot of hostile activity that makes it where you have to rely on stealth, and with the undead enemies, in order to dispatch them you need to have a good escape plan. 
Its a brilliant use of space, the layout of the church all makes sense, it feels genuine and solid, and I cant profess enough that its a sandbox with objectives, all but one door requires a key, everywhere else is a jungle gym, all inter connected, and all crafted with so much care that the only times I have ever gotten stuck it was of my own doing by goofing around. 

So much replay value, so many ways to achieve all of the objectives, and so many ways to play it. 

I love so many of these missions, I could list over half of them for the pros, 

but for me, in the rawest sense of a DM mission, Alberics Curse is peak. 

Edited August 19, 2022 by Kukutoo

[Obsttorte]

9 hours ago, Kukutoo said:

all but one door requires a key

Do you mean that only one door requires a key or that all doors require a key except for one? As it reads as if you meant the latter, which isn't what I would consider good. (It's been ages since I've last played the mission, but I remember it to be very good, too).

[chakkman]

Alberic's Curse was nice, but, it's a bit pale compared to some of the missions which came out in the last 7 years or so. I just played it some weeks ago, after playing some of the missions I named, and, it showed its age a bit. Still a great mission though.

[wesp5]

I was really amazed of how different Hazard Pay's setting was! You should certainly try this if you want a change from the usual environment.

[Kukutoo]

8 hours ago, Obsttorte said:

Do you mean that only one door requires a key or that all doors require a key except for one? As it reads as if you meant the latter, which isn't what I would consider good. (It's been ages since I've last played the mission, but I remember it to be very good, too).

OOF sorry, mistyped that, meant only one door needs a key. 
Everything else can be picked

[datiswous]

On 8/20/2022 at 1:31 AM, Kukutoo said:

Alberics Curse

I actually don't like the mission much. I had a hard time finding certain spaces and the map didn't help, so it took me a long time searching through the same spaces, because the mission is a bit maze like.

[thebigh]

I felt that way the first time I played it. The interior was a bit repetitive so it was hard to find my way around. The approach through the forest and the little mine shaft were nice though, and the map grew on me after a while.