Fan Mission: Year of the Rat

[I.C.H.I.]

2 hours ago, Knüppelaufdierübe said:

People opening/closing locks without the respective key

This is one of the metaflaws of TDM in general, I observed it in a lot of different FMs.

I also wish it was possible to lock the doors with the stolen keys and make them impassable, but all NPCs can unlock them anyway even if they don't belong to that place. I don't understand why does the locking feature even exist for player while NPCs can lock the doors all the time even when you steal their key. TBH this logic is pretty stupid.

[Knüppelaufdierübe]

29 minutes ago, I.C.H.I. said:

This is one of the metaflaws of TDM in general, I observed it in a lot of different FMs.

It doesn't seem to be an inherent flaw of the game, just of many missions. There are at least two good ways implemented in other missions.

1. Best: Proper locks / key possession for both the player and the NPCs. NPCs without key (including ones that got their key stolen) can be locked up. The most recent example that comes to my mind is the great You Only Fly Thrice by @DeTeEff, but I think there is at least one more.
2. Different approach gameplay-wise, but also fine: Keys disappear on first use, after which locks stay open for good (I forgot where this was used).

[Bergante]

3 hours ago, Knüppelaufdierübe said:

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?!

HeHe - right
some pics from the Beta : (please read the subtextes)

Spoiler

and the alarm is all over town --- and the Lady seems to be really upset 


But the event is soooo nice and funny 

 

[MirceaKitsune]

Some doors both have keys and can be lockpicked, that is a common practice in most FM's as the player needs to check what works for opening each particular door. This was meant to be a story oriented FM hence the many readables, I tried to detail the various characters their background and their interactions. The loot in the arch is meant to be frobbed when picked sounding the alarm, it can probably be pushed beforehand which I should have disabled.

[I.C.H.I.]

21 minutes ago, MirceaKitsune said:

Some doors both have keys and can be lockpicked, that is a common practice in most FM's as the player needs to check what works for opening each particular door.

We're talking about NPCs. They just don't care if they have the key to a locked door and can unlock it anyway.

[CrisiusXIII]

i noticed a common thing, i first downloaded rat1_2 from yr own page and put it in fm, but although its installed the engine does show it in the downloadlisting. its Not an update with out a star so what will happen if i DO install via the download bar?

and something else about the download/install routine, why is it impossible to delete an old game via the engine? that  even would give the possibility to extract scores and then have a super compression as storage OR total delete of the already played game. since unfolded maps easily can reach 1  to 1.5 gigabyte so this little extra would be of a help.

 

[CrisiusXIII]

25 minutes ago, I.C.H.I. said:

We're talking about NPCs. They just don't care if they have the key to a locked door and can unlock it anyway.

since ages, but you always can try to sneek inbetween though , might need some tries be before you dont die 

[I.C.H.I.]

19 minutes ago, CrisiusXIII said:

since ages, but you always can try to sneek inbetween though , might need some tries be before you dont die

That is not the problem of this broken logic. They shouldn't be able to unlock locked doors if they don't have the key. What is not clear about this?

[CrisiusXIII]

2 hours ago, I.C.H.I. said:

That is not the problem of this broken logic. They shouldn't be able to unlock locked doors if they don't have the key. What is not clear about this?

thats the key question

[CrisiusXIII]

about the 2 different grids the rats are placed on, if you only place them on the large grid but draw them very small maybe that helps. probably they can NOT sit in corners since then they use the big avatar space aka footprint.

[MirceaKitsune]

3 hours ago, I.C.H.I. said:

We're talking about NPCs. They just don't care if they have the key to a locked door and can unlock it anyway.

That's the case for countless FM's, and I also agree it's unrealistic. You give an NPC the "can_unlock" spawnarg for each door, but that doesn't account for whether they have the key or not: I wish we had a system where an NPC can always unlock a door as long as a key to that door is bound to it, but the ability goes away once you pickpocket that key.

[CrisiusXIII]

maybe its from the old thief config, can you frob a key in thief1 or thief2 ? once you have the key the avatar cant pass untill you open the lock, can you lock the lock? that needs a few more variables. once you control the lock you can lock behind you and thus lock out an avatar, which needs extra variables to shorten an avatar route.

etc

it needs quite some extra programming, yet, once implemented it will change game play totaly and needs smarter AI to avoid losing that key.

 

PS

what about that block of SOAP ???

just need need some hardening wax for a 3x key ???

Edited July 20, 2025 by CrisiusXIII

[Thief Joe]

First, GREAT mission!  Congratulations on the release!

I'm playing the easy level and so far I've found 7 out of 8 cheese drop locations.  I've been just about everywhere I can access prior to completing this first objective, but there is one place I suspect is meant to be accessed that I can't get into.

I'm hoping for a little help from anyone who might know!

The player can gain partial access to the building by removing a pallet on a roof top and finding a hole in the roof.  Dropping down into the hole puts the player in a crawl space above two rooms, each with a hole in the ceiling and each hole barred by a metal grate.  The player can see through the grates to see a dead guy, flies a red light, and what looks like yet another room below, in one room, and a desk, a candle, and a gold wine bottle in the other room.  I've searched and searched for a button, lever, or some other kind of switch, but I've found nothing that will open the grates.  Both grates have hinges, so they look like they're MEANT to be opened - and the presence of loot visible in one of the rooms makes me believe at least one of these rooms is meant to be accessed by the player.  I've also looked around outside the building for a door, window, or any other kind of access, and I've found nothing so far.  This is the last place I "think" I can access prior to meeting the objective of all the cheese finding their marks.

A little help, please?

Edited July 20, 2025 by Thief Joe

[MirceaKitsune]

The rooms seen from the grates aren't meant to be entered: They're decorative, meant to be seen into if you find those vents. I should have considered that may get confusing when I made them.

The 8 circles on the Easy difficulty should be simple to find. For those I can provide a list from memory:

Spoiler

1. Church, between the benches.
2. City hall, upper floor next to the center pillar.
3. Building West of the shop, you can jump into one of two small balconies, room in the middle.
4. Top of the watch tower with the archer.
5. Watch station, second floor, next to the stair.
6. Tavern, behind and under the spiral staircase.
7. Inn, second floor next to the stair near the railing.
8. Army chief home, downstairs, over the railing with a window and two statues.

[Thief Joe]

LOL!  Wow!  I can't believe I missed the church!  That was the very first place I explored and I thought I had done so thoroughly!  But, that's the one I missed!  Thank you!  Now I get to see what happens next!

[Lzocast]

Got out in to the first courtyard and the entire game crashed so hard I got booted out of my DE and back to the GDM greeter.

That was new as that's never happened to me before in general on this machine, let alone while playing tdm.

For context, I'm on the Linux version, playing on Ubuntu with the standard GNOME DE. Modern AMD CPU and GPU, 32GB memory.

Syslog files for tdm specifically below:

 

Quote

2025-07-20T15:42:46.172216-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: No 'tdm_mapsequence.txt' file found for the current mod: yearofrat
2025-07-20T15:44:04.955335-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:entity 'atdm_ai_townsfolk_beggar_1' doesn't have health set
2025-07-20T15:44:04.955347-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:entity 'atdm_ai_townsfolk_beggar_2' doesn't have health set
2025-07-20T15:44:04.955357-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:atdm_ai_rat_small_person_male_2 - Could not find def_melee_set atdm:ai_melee_set_novice_normal_normal!
2025-07-20T15:44:04.955366-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:atdm_ai_rat_small_person_female_2 - Could not find def_melee_set atdm:ai_melee_set_novice_normal_normal!
2025-07-20T15:44:04.955376-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:atdm_ai_rat_small_person_male_1 - Could not find def_melee_set atdm:ai_melee_set_novice_normal_normal!
2025-07-20T15:44:04.955385-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:atdm_ai_rat_small_person_female_1 - Could not find def_melee_set atdm:ai_melee_set_novice_normal_normal!
2025-07-20T15:44:04.955406-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:entity 'atdm_ai_townsfolk_beggar_3' doesn't have health set
2025-07-20T15:44:04.955415-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:entity 'atdm_ai_townsfolk_beggar_4' doesn't have health set
2025-07-20T15:44:04.955428-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:entity 'atdm_ai_townsfolk_beggar_5' doesn't have health set
2025-07-20T15:44:04.956133-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING:   [decl: textures/common/mirror in materials/tdm_internal_engine.mtr]
2025-07-20T15:44:04.956201-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING:   [map entity: atdm_ai_rat_special_large_5]
2025-07-20T15:44:04.956210-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING:   [decl: atdm:ai_rat_special_large in def/rat.def]
2025-07-20T15:44:04.956220-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING:   [decl: atdm:ai_monster_werebeast in def/tdm_ai_monster_werebeast.def]
2025-07-20T15:44:04.956232-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING:   [decl: monster_werebeast in def/tdm_ai_monster_werebeast.def]
2025-07-20T15:44:04.956241-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING:   [decl: melee_wererightclaw in def/tdm_ai_monster_werebeast.def]
2025-07-20T15:44:15.327575-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING:   [map entity: atdm_ai_rat_special_large_5]
2025-07-20T15:44:15.327662-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING:   [decl: atdm:ai_rat_special_large in def/rat.def]
2025-07-20T15:44:15.327672-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING:   [decl: atdm:ai_monster_werebeast in def/tdm_ai_monster_werebeast.def]
2025-07-20T15:44:15.327679-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING:   [decl: monster_werebeast in def/tdm_ai_monster_werebeast.def]
2025-07-20T15:44:15.327687-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING:   [decl: melee_wereleftclaw in def/tdm_ai_monster_werebeast.def]
2025-07-20T15:44:15.328174-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:atdm_ai_rat_small_person_female_1 - Could not find def_melee_set atdm:ai_melee_set_novice_normal_normal!
2025-07-20T15:44:15.328184-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:atdm_ai_rat_small_person_female_2 - Could not find def_melee_set atdm:ai_melee_set_novice_normal_normal!
2025-07-20T15:44:15.328196-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:atdm_ai_rat_small_person_male_1 - Could not find def_melee_set atdm:ai_melee_set_novice_normal_normal!
2025-07-20T15:44:15.328207-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:atdm_ai_rat_small_person_male_2 - Could not find def_melee_set atdm:ai_melee_set_novice_normal_normal!
2025-07-20T15:44:15.328358-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:entity 'atdm_ai_townsfolk_beggar_1' doesn't have health set
2025-07-20T15:44:15.328391-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:entity 'atdm_ai_townsfolk_beggar_2' doesn't have health set
2025-07-20T15:44:15.328400-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:entity 'atdm_ai_townsfolk_beggar_3' doesn't have health set
2025-07-20T15:44:15.328407-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:entity 'atdm_ai_townsfolk_beggar_4' doesn't have health set
2025-07-20T15:44:15.328417-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:entity 'atdm_ai_townsfolk_beggar_5' doesn't have health set
2025-07-20T15:44:15.328517-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:rigid body moved outside world bounds for entity 'atdm_projectile_mine_1' type 'idProjectile' at (0 0 -150)
2025-07-20T15:46:09.412313-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:Couldn't add entity atdm_readable_immobile_paper01_10 to inventory of player1
2025-07-20T15:46:54.996637-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:Cannot find sound snd_lockpick_lock_picked on door atdm_mover_door_55
2025-07-20T15:46:54.997483-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:Couldn't add entity atdm_readable_immobile_2 to inventory of player1
2025-07-20T15:47:41.815157-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:Cannot find sound snd_lockpick_lock_picked on door atdm_mover_door_54

 

This is followed by the in game process of having the NPCs pick up and engage in an 'eat' animation seemingly breaking free of the context of tdm and the shell attempting to figure out (and failing) what was being asked:

Quote

2025-07-20T15:48:40.915910-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:   Can't find entity by name AIUSE_EAT, so looking for AIUSE amdgpu: The CS has cancelled because the context is lost. This context is innocent.

 

Leading finally to the shell crash:

Quote

2025-07-20T15:48:40.976516-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: GNOME Shell crashed with signal 6

 

Don't know if any of the other folks are using the Linux version who can/have noticed anything odd in their logs.

Edited July 20, 2025 by Lzocast
Added info

[werner]

On 7/19/2025 at 6:07 PM, Bergante said:

some pics from the Beta

How can I get this NPC subtexts?

[MirceaKitsune]

Geez, what is up with those crashes? Up to the DE itself... TDM shouldn't even be able to do that, unless maybe the engine caused a memory leak or triggers a GPU crash! Are any developers following this, can I suggest taking a look at what's happening with this FM?

Quote

2025-07-20T15:48:40.915910-02:30 asus-tuf-gaming gnome-shell[3693]: DING: WARNING:   Can't find entity by name AIUSE_EAT, so looking for AIUSE amdgpu: The CS has cancelled because the context is lost. This context is innocent.

That's such a bizarre line: What is the name of the video driver doing in place of an in-world entity?!

At least I know what it's from: I use the "commoners eating and drinking" prefab in many of my missions, which contains a table where several AI are sitting, some of them eating fruit others drinking from bottles. Periodically they pick up the fruit or bottle, bring it to their mouth to eat or drink, then drop it back down typically on the floor. This appears to be what's causing the floating bottles, which unlike those crashes I've also encountered; I suspect that sometimes AI pick those entities back up with an offset, causing them to float far away from the hand while attached to its bone... maybe this offset eventually becomes so high it reaches the limits of vector storage and breaks the engine?

Also I use Linux too: Manjaro, KDE Plasma, Wayland. I'm also on the stock amdgpu driver with an older AMD card.

[covert_caedes]

probably both messages were printed at more or less the same time, maybe the process even crashed while printing the first (and the crash caused the second about amdgpu to be printed)

[High John]

I decided to do this on Expert, so I have to find 16 circles.  And 16 pieces of cheese.  So far I've found two(!)

That's fine, I (mostly) welcome the challenge.  But what I would find useful, is if the circle changed colour - or something - when you'd fed it with cheese, so you knew you'd done that circle.

[MirceaKitsune]

1 hour ago, High John said:

I decided to do this on Expert, so I have to find 16 circles.  And 16 pieces of cheese.  So far I've found two(!)

That's fine, I (mostly) welcome the challenge.  But what I would find useful, is if the circle changed colour - or something - when you'd fed it with cheese, so you knew you'd done that circle.

Easy is recommended for beginners, as higher difficulties may be very hard on this FM. Both due to the increased number of circles, as well as extra AI or cameras and turrets being enabled, not to mention some tools having to be picked up rather than starting the mission with them.

Sadly the objective system doesn't allow you to trigger a target per condition, only when an objective is failed or completed. As such making the circles change to confirm cheese placement wasn't a readily available option. As long as it's at least touching the paint when you drop it the placement should be confirmed.

[CrisiusXIII]

16 hours ago, MirceaKitsune said:

Easy is recommended for beginners, as higher difficulties may be very hard on this FM. Both due to the increased number of circles, as well as extra AI or cameras and turrets being enabled, not to mention some tools having to be picked up rather than starting the mission with them.

Sadly the objective system doesn't allow you to trigger a target per condition, only when an objective is failed or completed. As such making the circles change to confirm cheese placement wasn't a readily available option. As long as it's at least touching the paint when you drop it the placement should be confirmed.

with some apetite 16 is a good amount. But those are not to be nibbled, pitty, smells like gorgonzola

meanwhile i tried yotr on my old 2.12 install and i just should rome the lot.

then i tried the official download of YOTR and now have realy two installs on 2.13. I started the 2nd install 'fresh' and try NOT to quick save and i realy think it helps since there are less strange move afai see. i countered a strange error the maybe explains part off the slow fps which i dont have EXCEPT the last save since the white cross dot suddenly is stuck in the middle, by it self. i should check the settings if i accidently did some myself, but i only tempered the sound a bit.

so is the cross dot working on the background at some systems? it slows down for sure.

 

 

BTW i almost never buy equipment yet i never get my money refunded, thats some for 2.14 to solve! the start money should not disappear  if not used, it shows some extra skill or luck

Edited July 22, 2025 by CrisiusXIII

[covert_caedes]

22 hours ago, High John said:

I decided to do this on Expert, so I have to find 16 circles.  And 16 pieces of cheese.  So far I've found two(!)

You don't have to find any cheese, the cheese should be in your inventory, you "only" need to find the circles and drop one slice of cheese per circle.

Finding all 16 is kinda hard though, some are well hidden

[Oleron]

Neat mission, good enough to come back to later. I'm not having performance issues, but I am wondering:

Spoiler

...am I missing some sort of audio/visual feedback when I drop the cheese into the circle? I'm just dropping them within the circle, but nothing is happening. Is that correct?

I'd hate to go all though the map only to find out later I was doing something wrong. 

[tapewolf]

Okay, that was absolutely brilliant.  I remembered previous missions such as "Scroll of Remembrance" as being unique, but this was really something.

I particularly liked the musical horse - presumably done for the festival.  I don't think I've seen revolving doors in Darkmod before either, which was also a very nice touch.

And the fact that there's an epilogue at the end, that's something a lot more missions could really do with.

As another person has mentioned here, some kind of feedback (a confirmation sound? Make the cheese unfrobbable?) would be useful when placing the cheeses, but otherwise I was extremely impressed with it.

I had no crashes or performance issues, this on Linux Mint 22 with a 1950x Threadripper and RX7700XT.