Fan Mission: Year of the Rat

[Woodsie69]

What about the cheese issue?

[MirceaKitsune]

16 minutes ago, Woodsie69 said:

What about the cheese issue?

What you describe occurs when you try dropping an item too close to a surface. Walk backwards a bit and look in the air above the floor and wall: This should allow the item to be held and become dropable.

[Woodsie69]

46 minutes ago, MirceaKitsune said:

What you describe occurs when you try dropping an item too close to a surface. Walk backwards a bit and look in the air above the floor and wall: This should allow the item to be held and become dropable.

Spoiler

No it doesn't help, no matter where or how I stand. It's inside City Hall... Maybe it has something to do with the doors jamming after I try to open them?

 

And when I open the drawers only the two bottom ones open, the top one doesn't open, but the sound of a drawer opening repeats and the top drawer isn't frobable any more. I'm also not able to close the two bottom ones...

 

Edited July 16, 2025 by Woodsie69

[I.C.H.I.]

Decided to play a bit for the second time just to check something.
 

Spoiler

On my first playtrough I heard some weird screams near the starting point and never found the source of those screams, but now I nocliped through that place where they were and yep, there is a monster closet. But some of the population inside it was dead and violently twitching against the floor. Are they supposed to be like that by design? If not, then what could kill them? Only physics comes to mind, in case they're too close to the floor and clipped through it or their containment is just too small for such a huge crowd. Also there was another monster closet for the guards and they were in alert state for some reason, but I used notarget so I wasn't the reason for sure.

Possible solution for fixing the crashes would be to make the monster closet bigger and with enough space between the entities, also put it somewhere outside the level just in case and maybe make them all inactive if possible. In such a cramped room it is not good for them to move around and push each other, eventually collision detection may fail and we all know how bad it is in TDM.

 

[Bergante]

On 4/7/2024 at 10:04 PM, kingsal said:

@JackFarmer I updated the post over here, I'll flag you if I do keep getting that crash and maybe we can troubleshoot it to figure out whats going on, it could be a 2.12 issue, but I am just not sure.

 

that´s been a part of the discuss in hhb&m Beta by JackFarmer and kingsal .
they both solved the "crash to desktop-Bug" in their missions !
he mentioned himself their maybe problens with some of his Volta-Stuff .  but he should know better 

an other Problem with Quick-Saves / -Loads !!!
as more one does as often Npc´s will/can loose their track !
FrostSalamander explained this to me in his last mission

On 6/28/2025 at 1:19 PM, Frost_Salamander said:

Regarding getting stuck - do you save and reload at lot?  There is a known TDM bug that causes AI to get stuck when doing

for the mice -- ? how high did you place them on mission-start (before they fall onto ground ?
Flying Bottles -- hmmm --- i once reported an "anti-grav-Bug" making things fly around in wild 
thought you made it by design - for the humor of the mission 
Fps -- yes - without a high-end card the new settings shouldn´t be set to high !

Greetings

Edited July 16, 2025 by Bergante

[I.C.H.I.]

I didn't see flying bottles anywhere but there where apples on the ground in some places.

Crash on load happened to me only when I tried to load that corrupted save, did it twice and then deleted it and loaded the earlier one. The rest of the crashes were totally random when I explored the level.

[hightide]

I've explored more, now I feel a bit stuck.

I have an electrician's key, but can't find the station.

there's a door to the army(?) building I can't pick or find a key for. I got on the roof, but no luck entering there.

I saw some scenes through vents that feel important, but can't reach.

the inventor in the shops is in a loop opening and closing his door, so I don't think I can get in there...

[MirceaKitsune]

The "closets" are spaces where I keep objects / ragdolls / AI meant to be teleported outside later, or oppositely teleport things from the world to them when they're meant to disappear. They're cramped as nothing there is meant to be seen or to interact. The screams are from AI that will be teleported outside later: Normally the audio should be culled but sometimes it escapes into the visleaf of the starting area. I was past the point of redesigning stuff so I just left that as is.

The electrician's office is the door next to the East gate, across the road from the watch station with a suspended bridge connecting it to the inn. I later put a fried transformed in front of it to make that more obvious: There's a sign but no symbol for electricity so I think I left it with the key symbol.

The army chief's home door can be lockpicked, I tested it and don't see how I could have broken that. You can alternatively get inside through the roof, remember that in this FM all transparent glass is breakable.

The rooms seen from the vents aren't meant to be reachable, just an environmental detail. One of them has a window you can open for a little loot though.

There are alternate ways into the shop too. If you don't want to break more windows and trigger alarms, jump onto the shop's balcony from the tavern terrace, the nobles at the table aren't scripted to mind a total stranger walking over their table and their food

[I.C.H.I.]

11 minutes ago, MirceaKitsune said:

The "closets" are spaces where I keep objects / ragdolls / AI meant to be teleported outside later

This I know and understand well because it's a common practice in game development since Doom. But should those bodies really shake so violently? TBH I don't trust physics engines enough to be okay with it, often such unintentional chaos can break the game in a spectacular way. Imagine an object randomly receiving infinite velocity and doing something really nasty to the game's logic.

[MirceaKitsune]

There are a few ragdolls in there that are brought out later: They shouldn't be shaking unless something bumps into them, just like those spawned outside they should settle on the floor within seconds. Wonder if that may be related to the crashes? Lots of candidates though, without the engine saying what's upsetting it I couldn't really guess.

[hightide]

6 hours ago, MirceaKitsune said:

The electrician's office is the door next to the East gate, across the road from the watch station with a suspended bridge connecting it to the inn. I later put a fried transformed in front of it to make that more obvious: There's a sign but no symbol for electricity so I think I left it with the key symbol.

The army chief's home door can be lockpicked, I tested it and don't see how I could have broken that. You can alternatively get inside through the roof, remember that in this FM all transparent glass is breakable.

There are alternate ways into the shop too. If you don't want to break more windows and trigger alarms, jump onto the shop's balcony from the tavern terrace, the nobles at the table aren't scripted to mind a total stranger walking over their table and their food

The transformer seemed to be blocking the door, but of course it opens when I actually walk up to check 

I tried finding a way to get into the general's home without breaking the glass, ended up finding an extra bit of loot. The door is being a little weird; I broke in, grabbed the key and unlocked it, now it won't close. The handle just jiggles when frobbed.

Spoiler

one secret in the general's home is disturbing! the other I had to cheat to get into, as after I opened the door some woman wandered in off the street and stood directly on the trap door preventing it from opening enough

Climbing the lions also works as a way into the shops; I helped the shopkeeper on the bottom clean up some broken vases that were blocking the door, which let him go in and out. I'm still trying to figure out the clue for the alarmed pieces up top:

Spoiler

if I understood correctly, flipping off the power should deactivate the camera, turret, and alarms. I did that, but the alarms still ring, alerting everyone around. Is there a way to deactivate those, too?

I was also able to get into the sewer and found something interesting; do I need to deliver the item or the note somewhere?

there is a locker by the Builders' sanctuary, and a chest in the Watch captain's office I can't unlock either

[MirceaKitsune]

Stuck doors almost always mean an object is in the way, make sure a moveable didn't fall in front of it. There aren't any objectives for delivering notes you find, they're primarily to get a view of the world and everyone in it. The doors with a voltage meter have an electronic lock, you need the decoded item from the shop which is a custom lockpick alternative to snake and triangle.

[Knüppelaufdierübe]

After I've been to the mirror-floor church, the city parts seem to run even worse than before with frame rates between 10 and 15, sometimes even below 10. Does it mean anything the console spits out warnings by the second?

[CrisiusXIII]

edit, how do i get a picture UNDER the spoiler??

 

the cheese behaves normal in my game. 

but after the good night of disturbined rest i see a lot of those biggies stuck inside the floor. and i still can frobb them, but only half, at floor level.

meanwhile i wonder how much key the army chief has, since mine does not work at the moment.

i did a terminal execution and have a txt file of 132 KB  made with 

./thedarkmod.x64   > logme.now

do you want it PM??

 

and the misplacing of walking avatars is a known bug? ok  i start wildly guessing now

logicly the save misses something, or twisted it, or makes a mistake like "signed" vs " unsigned" or is buggered with OLD 32 bit coding/way of notification??

 

 

BTW

i have TWO tdm's installed, can that hurt ??? i play now 

TDM 2.13/64 #10927 (1435:10927) linux-x86_64 Jan 11 2025 20:04:03
/proc/cpuinfo CPU frequency: 1400 MHz
1400 MHz AMD CPU with SSE & SSE2 & SSE3 & SSSE3 & SSE41 & AVX
found interface lo - loopback
found interface enpxs0 - x.x.x.x/x.x.x.x
Found AMD CPU, features: SSE SSE2 SSE3 SSSE3 SSE41 AVX
TDM using AVX for SIMD processing.

 

Edited July 17, 2025 by CrisiusXIII

[JackFarmer]

Congratulations on the release!

Stunning visuals, however, I get extremely low FPS. Might be because of the draw count (there are areas with 8000+ draws).

Portal placement is well done (though a few vital portals are missing IMO), therefore I do not understand the low performance on my machine. Will investigate later.

Anyways, great looking with unique objectives and a very creative application of existing assets! 

Edited July 17, 2025 by JackFarmer

[MirceaKitsune]

I'd like to know about the draw count too. Most likely it's the building modules which this map was designed around exclusively, despite me even using their LOD models... for new projects I'd likely use patches at this point. I'm not aware of anything I did wrong in particular with this FM, other than the space being a bit cramped and me not monster-clipping literally everything: It seems that for some reason it's among the few to trigger some rather specific issues with collisions performance and crashes.

[Heuli]

Congratulations on the release!  
Nice mission. I have no problems with FPS.
The floating rats and the crazy models. I had those too.
PS: I couldn't find the second generator.

pc
i5 10400f
16 GB Ram
Geforce 1060 6GB Ram
linux

my new PC

be quiet! Pure Power 12M 650W
ARCTIC Freezer 36
Core i5-13600KF                                               
Kingston FURY Renegade 1TB M.2  
Montech XR, Tower-case
NVIDIA RTX 3050 8 GB RAM

Mainboard gigabyte z790 Aorus Elite
32 GB ram

 

 

Edited July 18, 2025 by Heuli

[hightide]

Heuli, the generator is in that room, but the switch might be hard to see highlight in the bright light in the area. It's at an alright height for sight, don't draw the guards in as its quite tight to fight  good night!

 

Okay, I opened a couple locks with the decoder (which was interesting, if hard to identify since it uses the same model as the compass). There was a scripted sequence, and some running, then more running, finding 

Spoiler

several mutant rats embedded in floors either already dead, or screaming in pain. Seems like that wasn't what was planned.

I had to try a couple times, as slow civilians are able to completely block a narrow passage - Dark Mod should add an ability to knock people down. This would help with moving at speed, and possibly give you an opportunity to KO alerted guards.

[Heuli]

Thanks for the help, hightide. I found a generator that turns off the streetlights. I can't find a second switch in the room.

[grodenglaive]

Congrats on the release, looking forward to playing it!

[desin]

panic in the streets

 https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/do9pjouv2rkeex4ea572c/year-of-the-rat.mkv?rlkey=d3bt18b7aqzdy5ura33tfcd0a&st=9yu9cc2k&dl=0

Kubuntu Wayland

TDM 2.14

[I.C.H.I.]

8 minutes ago, desin said:

panic in the streets

 https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/do9pjouv2rkeex4ea572c/year-of-the-rat.mkv?rlkey=d3bt18b7aqzdy5ura33tfcd0a&st=9yu9cc2k&dl=0

Kubuntu Wayland

TDM 2.14

LOL, TDM's AI is like a madhouse on the loose.

[MirceaKitsune]

Truly this FM exposed every problem with AI and physics TDM has when I wasn't even trying to do that

[grodenglaive]

I wish there was an easy way to prevent the mass panick events.  I tried setting the spawn arg "canSearch " to 0 on my civilian ai, but then they don't react to you at all. It would be nice if they just went straight to the path_flee_point. 

[Knüppelaufdierübe]

Is there any way to help make this mission remotely playable for those having severe performance issues?

 

Random nitpicks in no particular order (all of which I say while actually liking the mission so far, if only performance didn't suck so bad):

• Too much text! Every tiny note is a multi-page novel. There must be ways around text-wall info dumping (without just killing all the lore).
• The ceiling is too low for fun.
• People opening/closing locks without the respective key requires some suspension of disbelief at the best of times. But here, you even go so far as to explain to the player (by means of a very long text) that some character has lost their key ... while the player can observe how said character will repeatedly open and close the door to which said character has lost the key. That is weird.
• With the arc alarm contraption on the shop's top floor, you can physically move loot away from the arc however far you want (already weird, but ... OK), but then it's the taking of the loot (far away from the arc) that triggers the alarm. Why, how, what?!