Snatcher's Workshop - Mods for The Dark Mod

[snatcher]

6 hours ago, BoilerDunce said:

What say ye to the prospect of writing up a section on customizing the essentials, if it be at all possible?

Good timing. I am preparing the next release.

First please review this post and the two that follow.

Let me rescue something from there:

On 1/31/2025 at 7:59 PM, snatcher said:

Allow me to say that while I like a praise as much as anyone else what really interests me is what you people don't like or disagree with and I ask everyone to keep the feedback coming, specially if it is non-positive. Be sincere and open, it is the only way to move things forward. I will always take it constructively

Now tell me what you want, what you really, really want.

Edited February 26 by snatcher

[FanOfTheDark]

Hey, unfortunately due to modular nature of the mods I can't really offer much negative feedback; skills and the classic blackjack especially are nice features. I do, however have a feature request, assuming you accept those.
If it's something that would interest you and wouldn't be too much of a hassle, would it be feasible to implement some kind of sound indicator alongside the light gem? The difference of the perceived loudness of the noise I make and the noise AI detects is one of my few major issues with the Dark Mod (and to some extent the original games). Alternate sound mods help a little but I can't help but feel paranoid of my noise level whenever I walk on a hard surface and my footsteps are barely audible. The UI element could perhaps be something like a singular horizontal tracker bar underneath the light gem as the loudness indicator.

[snatcher]

Welcome @FanOfTheDark,

An optional player sound meter would be nice to have but difficult to implement without source code support, I think 

@stgatilov could look to see if he can track player noise levels and make a gui parameter available. We could then experiment with the idea.

In the meantime...

• Use headphones whenever possible
• Go to Settings > Audio > Ambient Volume and turn it off / set it to low
• Go to Settings > Audio > Subtitles and set it to "On" to reveal AI reactions (if you feel overwhelmed by the number of subtitles try the Modpack's Simple Subtitles mod)
• Use @Taffingtaffer's Sound Polish Mod

Edited March 4 by snatcher

[stgatilov]

Yes, I think AI-perceptible sound level has to be found somewhere in the source code and exposed into somewhere.

[BoilerDunce]

I appreciate the pointer. I also see what's been forcing mods to be bound together. Looks like making each variation would be a multiple of the work.

Alas, I turned out not to be a taffer, but a mere whelp. I cannot insist upon anything I myself am not prepared to do.

[Taffingtaffer]

On 3/2/2026 at 8:32 PM, snatcher said:

• Use @Taffingtaffer's Sound Polish Mod

@FanOfTheDark might've already found the actual thread, but  here it is. That's SeriousToni's mod 

[snatcher]

Ouch. Corrected.

[snatcher]

4 hours ago, BoilerDunce said:

I appreciate the pointer. I also see what's been forcing mods to be bound together. Looks like making each variation would be a multiple of the work.

The inventory grid has been further enhanced with new features and it will have its own slot in the next round but Core Essentials will pretty much remain the same.

@datiswous was vocal about not liking the "Loot Animations" but I didn't figure out how to offer it as standalone without impacting other mods 

Feel free to share your wishes with us. I take note.

[wesp5]

48 minutes ago, snatcher said:

The inventory grid has been further enhanced with new features and it will have its own slot in the next round...

Please give us more details!

[FanOfTheDark]

Yeah, I was already using Sound Polish. Shame that there is no simple way to implement a sound meter, thanks for looking into it anyways. Maybe if one day I find the time to learn modding myself, I'll try to implement some really janky solution, like attaching an invisible NPC to the player's position to act as sound detector via subtitles .

[snatcher]

22 hours ago, wesp5 said:

Please give us more details!

Here the initial prototype:

 

[snatcher]

7 hours ago, FanOfTheDark said:

[...] like attaching an invisible NPC to the player's position to act as sound detector via subtitles .

I sense raw mapper/modder substance in that statement! You are ready to begin your journey 

[Taffingtaffer]

Displacement seems to have custom bottles, they default to the long green/brown wine bottles when smashed.

Edited March 8 by Taffingtaffer

[Wellingtoncrab]

@Taffingtafferthe bottles in Displacement are not even intended to be breakable at all, they are there to provide the player with a reusable throwable object which may be helpful with interacting with the mission, but of course why should a small thing like the designers intentions get in the way of “modding”.

[snatcher]

BREAKABLE BOTTLES

Once upon a time there was an initiative to bring breakable bottles to the game. The initiative was in the end shelved but parts of the effort remained in the code.

Years passed and at some point community member MirceaKitsune resurrected the idea.

Not long after the initiative was finally realized and made available to players in the form of an optional mod: Fragile Bottles. This mod doesn't break anything and while there are a handful of oddities in a couple of maps the mod works beautifully in our 200+ mission catalogue.

Initiative complete.

The custom bottles in Displacement don't come with a custom broken fragment. There is nobody to blame for this. The report from @Taffingtaffer can break immersion in this particular mission and the Fragile Bottles mod will be "unavailable" for Displacement in the next version of the TDM Modpack: custom bottles won't break on impact on this one mission.

@Wellingtoncrab, I remain available to cooperate if you ever want to support that part of your audience that want to play with mods.

[Wellingtoncrab]

1 hour ago, snatcher said:

This mod doesn't break anything and while there are a handful of oddities in a couple of maps the mod works beautifully in our 200+ mission catalogue.

A reasonable person would realize given the nature of the game they couldn’t make a sweeping compatibility claim like that. It’s pretty obvious how thorough you actually are with testing anything.

Imo mappers have a hard enough time keeping up with their homework on the actual game without worrying about how well you are doing yours, but it’s a free forum so you do you.

It just isn’t going to come with an endorsement from me. People should also be aware of the actual risk and you’re not seemingly going to be telling them.

[snatcher]

I comprehend and I thank you for your exquisite contribution to The Dark Mod.

[snatcher]

The "Fragile Bottles" mod will be presented in its own, standalone slot in the next version of the TDM Modpack.

[snatcher]

TDM Modpack 5.1

The Modpack has been updated to TDM 2.14 standards. It remains compatible with TDM 2.13 but I recommend that you upgrade to TDM 2.14.

Attention! Mods from Modpack version 5.0 or earlier are not compatible with 5.1 mods. Don't mix and match! You must delete the old versions, otherwise the game will break.

You can download Modpack 5.1 from ModDB.

How to update:

 

What's new?

~ INVENTORY PANELS ~

The inventory menu (aka Inventory Grid) received in the past a number of minor updates and it was part of CORE ESSENTIALS but in version 5.1 a panel is introduced to adjust some settings "on the fly" and the modded inventory has become its own, standalone mod.

So far there is only one extra panel but there are plans for more...

Settings panel:

Thanks to @stgatilov in TDM 2.14 tonemapping no longer affects UI elements like the HUD and the menus and we now can crank up and down visual settings without impacting anything else.

Do you like it loud or quiet? bright or dark? colorful or dull? You can adjust the following settings from this new panel:

• Ambient Volume
• World Brightness
• World Gamma
• World Saturation

Warning! Saturation was included because tweaking Brightness and Gamma can sometimes impact the intensity of colours. Saturation cannot be adjusted from the Main menu and if you ever change the Saturation and remove the mod you can only reset it from the console:

r_postprocess_desaturation 0

I encourage the developers to include an adjustable Saturation setting in future versions of TDM.

The INVENTORY PANELS mod is available in all missions.

 

~ PREMIUM LANTERN ~

I use the lantern a lot and I use its dedicated key and I many times forget I have the lantern on. Previously known as FORWARD LANTERN the lantern mod has received a long due update:

• Always display the icon when the lantern is on
• Play on / off sounds

The mod is available for all missions except Flakebridge Monastery, Hazard pay, Moongate Ruckus, Snowed Inn and Volta 1, 2 & 3.

@kingsal, I remain available to support if you ever decide to remove your lantern tweaks from your missions to make them a little more mod-friendly.

 

~ HEALING BOOST ~

Food and Health Potions provide an extra recovery boost.

It is my opinion that players should be encouraged to take risks and the ability to recover from failure takes a big role. A health potion recovers a fourth of the total health and the amount of health food items provide is ridiculously low. Realistic? Challenging? Sure but, aren't we encouraging perfect runs? Save scumming to deal with failure?

Here is a table with the new health points (player max health is 100):

• 24 -> 50: Health potion
• 06 -> 20: Cheese Wheel
• 06 -> 10: Fish Mackerel
• 03 -> 10: Bluefish
• 03 -> 10: Bread
• 03 -> 10: Cake
• 03 -> 10: Cheese Wedge
• 03 -> 05: Muffin
• 01 -> 05: Apple
• 01 -> 05: Pear
• 01 -> 05: Carrot
• 01 -> 05: Turnip

Trust your skills, your tools and the mechanics! Go take some risks!

The HEALING BOOST mod will work in most missions (a few missions do things differently but you should never notice).

 

~ MISCELLANEOUS ~

• In a continued effort to present mods in standalone format the FRAGILE BOTTLES mod has been stripped from CORE ESSENTIALS and it is presented separately now.
• The HUNTER BOW mod is now called ADVANCED BOW.

Here is the full changelog:

• v5.1 New release
- Updated to TDM 2.14 standards.
- General improvements for most mods.
- HEALING BOOST: Initial release.
- INVENTORY PANELS: Initial release in its own slot.
- FRAGILE BOTTLES: Initial release in its own slot.
- PREMIUM LANTERN: On and off sounds. Always display the icon when lantern is on.
- CORE ESSENTIALS - ALT FOOTSTEPS: New landing sounds on squeaky wood.
- FLASH GRENADE: Slightly decreased flash effect on player.

 

I hope you have fun with this new version of the TDM Modpack. The download link can be found at the top of this post and in the opening post.

Cheers!

[CountMorillonite]

Is there a similar mod package for Thief 2 & Thief Gold ? I'm very accustomed to using it in Dark Mod and would like to carry it over to the other games.

[Arden]

The community patch packs have some gameplay and graphics mods.

Thief Mods and Utilities
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=174

TFix
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134733

T2Fix
https://github.com/Xanfre/T2Fix

There are a few mods here for Thief and System Shock 2.

• Keyring
• Ghost Mode
• Minion Summoner
• Fairy Light
• Radar

https://github.com/saracoth/newdark-mods

Upscaled textures and paintings

https://www.moddb.com/mods/thief-gold-esrgan-pack
https://www.moddb.com/mods/thief-ii-esrgan-pack

Edited April 18 by Arden