Dark Mod Pre-Beta Download links and discussion.

[peispud]

Thanks peispud, what part of PEI are you from? I'm in Charlottetown.

 

I'm just on the other side of Kensington - not too far out of the way and not too urban . If anyone's interested I ran the mod on LinuxMint ( Ubuntu Gusty with extras ) because it already had libdevil in the default repos .My E17 desktop ( from http://e17.dunnewind.net/ubuntu/ ) makes the best use of my hardware . I have some screenshots at http://my.opera.com/peispud/albums/

Edited January 19, 2008 by peispud

[Nyarlathotep]

u sew maskulin, I lub u

o i no! oDiDtY iz teh secksy!!!1!

[Denny]

Just played the demo. I have to say it was awesome. Had that Thief feeling, but still new.

 

Positive

Mantling has become really good. I first had problems getting anywhere in the beginning until I understood that you were actually able to climb better than in Thief.

 

Finally weapons do realistic damage. \o/

 

Critique

Cycling through the keys to be able to use them on a door? Why is this a necessary design choice? It's only annoying and awkward. I understand if this was a choice if you were running away from guards and have to use a locked door (which doesn't happen 95% of the time).

 

I had a hard time getting off that ladder. Could there be a way to making it easier?

 

Animations are a bit awkward, I did read that you were short on animators so I shouldn't complain.

 

For some reason

the key never appeared on the last objective.

 

 

 

------------------

 

 

I so can't wait another year or so for this to be finished. The demo was really good.

[Tels]

Just played the demo. I have to say it was awesome. Had that Thief feeling, but still new.

 

Positive

Mantling has become really good. I first had problems getting anywhere in the beginning until I understood that you were actually able to climb better than in Thief.

 

Mantling is my favourite, too

 

Finally weapons do realistic damage. \o/

 

Critique

Cycling through the keys to be able to use them on a door? Why is this a necessary design choice? It's only annoying and awkward. I understand if this was a choice if you were running away from guards and have to use a locked door (which doesn't happen 95% of the time).

 

Yes, the user interface needs a bit more streamlining and simplifying. However, we simple did not have time for this. There is always too much to do

 

I had a hard time getting off that ladder. Could there be a way to making it easier?

 

The ladder climbing works via invisible "ladder-brush", and I think it might be a bit going too far down or up in this map, as I also had the "glued"-on feeling a few times. This is one of the issues were you an tweak forever and still not get it right

 

For some reason

the key never appeared on the last objective.

 

Have you looked at the right door? (Check your map to see which one it should be)

 

I so can't wait another year or so for this to be finished. The demo was really good.

 

[Crispy]

I had a hard time getting off that ladder. Could there be a way to making it easier?

Hold down the crouch key. You'll detach from the ladder, until you either hit the ground or release the crouch key. Careful you don't do this from too high up or you'll take falling damage.

 

For some reason

the key never appeared on the last objective.

 

It's hard to find, but it does appear. Check out the locked door inside the main building, on the far side from the courtyard. Sweep your view over the floor at the base of the door and you should see it highlight at the left.

 

 

Glad you liked it.

[Denny]

 

I checked the ground near all doors with a candle (just for fun) and there were no key in sight. Either I'm completely blind or the game bugged out on me as I did the objectives in a weird sequence - I also killed everyone.

 

 

Regarding the ladder, I tried pummeling my jump key - why can't that work?

Edited January 20, 2008 by Denny

[Tels]

I checked the ground near all doors with a candle (just for fun) and there were no key in sight. Either I'm completely blind or the game bugged out on me as I did the objectives in a weird sequence - I also killed everyone.

 

 

I think if you kill Creep, the mission fails. I *think* it puts up a message, but the in game objectives might not really reflect that fact that you failed.

 

 

We have to check this

 

Regarding the ladder, I tried pummeling my jump key - why can't that work?

 

It should - if not, we should make it so

[Dziarsky]

Yes, there is a problem with ladder, at the bottom i can only jump out of the ladder or move down and try go out. Oh and its happen only when we wanna go out to left or right side of ladder, wen we move behind than its ok.

 

EDIT:

 

IMO its not a problem with game or wrong construction in edtor. I check this in DR and its look fine.

I try to check the ladders in Doom3, its looks like a ladder working just like that.

[Ishtvan]

The ladders don't work the same as in D3, they're new and improved. It's possible they're too hard to get off of right now, some settings might need tweaking still. One thing is that it's hard to get off the ladder if you aren't all the way down to the ground. Jump key should work if you're facing away from the ladder. You can jump off then. If you're facing toward the ladder and jump, you jump off, but then you jump into the ladder, so you stick again.

[Fingernail]

The ladders don't work the same as in D3, they're new and improved.

 

You know how normal ladders can only go up and down?

 

Well forget that, because now there are new DARK MOD LADDERS!

 

Bringing you exciting new dimensions to your climbing activities such as:

sideways,

somewhat askew,

slanty,

outwards,

way over yonder

and many many more exciting angles and elevations to choose from.

[Tels]

You know how normal ladders can only go up and down?

 

Well forget that, because now there are new DARK MOD LADDERS!

 

Bringing you exciting new dimensions to your climbing activities such as:

sideways,

somewhat askew,

slanty,

outwards,

way over yonder

and many many more exciting angles and elevations to choose from.

 

Two words: Overhead Ladders[tm]

[Diego]

yes! i finally played the demo! =D

 

I really had a great time! even if my computer is a little sluggish.

The menu is amazing! the images cycling slowly and the music really set up the mood! is the music made for the dark mod or is it 'borrowed' temporarily from somewhere else? hehe

also, i'm really glad to see that there's actually some of my contributions! i thought no one would care to finish that thug. hehe

[Tels]

yes! i finally played the demo! =D

 

I really had a great time! even if my computer is a little sluggish.

The menu is amazing! the images cycling slowly and the music really set up the mood! is the music made for the dark mod or is it 'borrowed' temporarily from somewhere else? hehe

 

It is part of the dark mod.

 

also, i'm really glad to see that there's actually some of my contributions! i thought no one would care to finish that thug. hehe

 

Oh, I just noticed you are not in the credits Sorry.

[Diego]

Oh, I just noticed you are not in the credits sad.gif Sorry.

meeh.. don't worry. its a very small contribution, and the model looks a bit different too. actually, i'm not sure if its the model i made modified, or a different but similar model. either way, not really important.

 

and that object manipulation thing was something i see in the trailers and never really cared about, but in practice is much more fun that it looks like. and useful.

[TheDorkProject]

Thought I'd belatedly let you guys know that I think the demo is quite cool, I'll admit that at first I was underwhelmed but as I got deeper into it and spent more time with it I became ever more impressed at what you've accomplished so far.

 

So bravo, and keep up the good work.

[ascottk]

yes! i finally played the demo! =D

 

I really had a great time! even if my computer is a little sluggish.

The menu is amazing! the images cycling slowly and the music really set up the mood! is the music made for the dark mod or is it 'borrowed' temporarily from somewhere else? hehe

also, i'm really glad to see that there's actually some of my contributions! i thought no one would care to finish that thug. hehe

I love the thug so great job, Diego! I used him in a rigging tutorial:

http://wiki.thedarkmod.com/index.php/...aracter_rigging

 

Behold! I bring you life, cretin!

 

Hopefully I'll be able to work on the mod again but I'm on the final stretch to get my masters in music.

[Ombrenuit]

Firstly, I really want to praise the team's efforts. This was a really exciting demo to play and I really enjoyed it. However, I feel like there are some things not addressed yet in terms of criticism. I don't mean for this to sound too negative. I just want everything addressed from a player's perspective.

 

Some frustrations:

 

- It's very difficult to blackjack. It feels like the reach is so short, I have to run into the guy to manage it.

- Sword slashes at random. I really loved the thief sword system where you knew where the sword was going to go. And also you got a heavy attack by holding the attack button and a side swing by moving side to side while slashing. I actually knew where the sword was going.

- Walking is painfully slow. Everything is slow. Much slower than the thief game's default. Creep is also proportionally too slow as well.

- The side-to-side (swager) movement feels really unnatural when you move (noticed much more crawling than anything else). You don't notice this when you walk normally, why put it in the game? It's distracting.

- I feel like there is a Thief 3 trapping here when it comes to bow animations. It just feels like the animation is too long. I can't put my finger on it specifically, it just feels unnaturally long and awkward.

 

Some praises:

 

- The menu is outstanding. I really love it, especially the music/atmosphere/etc.

- Rope arrows have a great feel to them.

- I really like the way notes work.

- And I also realize that this was still a working pre-beta demo! A lot of what I mentioned is still being tweaked. I'm really eagerly anticipating the mod. Take everything I said with a grain of salt. I just want to be as harsh as I can be only to make this a highly enjoyable mod.

Edited January 21, 2008 by Ombrenuit

[Gildoran]

- It's very difficult to blackjack. It feels like the reach is so short, I have to run into the guy to manage it.

- Sword slashes at random. I really loved the thief sword system where you knew where the sword was going to go. And also you got a heavy attack by holding the attack button and a side swing by moving side to side while slashing. I actually knew where the sword was going.

Both of these problems are known. The blackjack will become easier to use and I'm under the impression that the current sword system is more or less a placeholder until somebody has time to improve it.

 

- Walking is painfully slow. Everything is slow. Much slower than the thief game's default. Creep is also proportionally too slow as well.

We've been hearing this a lot, despite that the movement speeds were carefully timed to match Thief. There's been some speculation that either people aren't aren't aware of the run key or that something (perhaps footsteps, head-bob or field of vision) makes movement feel slower than it is. Any comments?

[Tels]

We've been hearing this a lot, despite that the movement speeds were carefully timed to match Thief. There's been some speculation that either people aren't aren't aware of the run key or that something (perhaps footsteps, head-bob or field of vision) makes movement feel slower than it is. Any comments?

 

Or people have been become more acustomed to the crazy speeds of "modern" games, and are more impatient, with a shorter attention span?

 

I know that when I play one game for a while and then switch to another game, everything feels either crazy fast, or crazy slow, or just awkward.

[Ishtvan]

We've been hearing this a lot, despite that the movement speeds were carefully timed to match Thief. There's been some speculation that either people aren't aren't aware of the run key or that something (perhaps footsteps, head-bob or field of vision) makes movement feel slower than it is. Any comments?

Actually I think the rate is something like 1 player in 20 thinks the movement is too slow. The people who play it and don't say anything about it obviously don't have a problem with it, but no one is going to say "the movement speeds were exactly right!!"

 

Thought I'd belatedly let you guys know that I think the demo is quite cool, I'll admit that at first I was underwhelmed...

Could you be more specific on what was underwhelming? If we know, we can work on fixing it.

[Scope]

I'm dying to try this...

 

the question I must ask is - "Does it work with the steam version of D3?"

 

I've heard there are troubles with certain games released through steam allowing mods to work.

 

Cheers

[New Horizon]

Currently, we have no way of confirming this as none of us own the Steam version...nor do I think any of us have access to Steam.

 

Apparently though, Steam uses a different build of the doom 3 executable and if this is the case, it may lead to an experience that is either unstable...or one that doesn't work at all. Sadly, we just don't know yet.

[Fenn]

but no one is going to say "the movement speeds were exactly right!!"

Then let me be the first to say: The movement speeds were exactly right!! (plus/minus 0.2718 inches/sec)

 

The only thing in the (brilliant) demo I didn't like was the chiming sound made when retreiving arrows, it sounds a bit too intrusive to my ear...but I can guess the answer to this: "The sound was created to match as closely as possible to the original."

Edited January 21, 2008 by Fenn

[Diego]

the speed of the character is spot on IMO. you can move from very slow (crouch and ctrl) to very fast (standing up and shift). that is in human terms, i mean. doom 3 and most of fps games are way faster, but that's a design choice, they're supposed to be fast paced action games.

 

btw, i wanted to write some feedback too, but i haven't read the 'already known problems' thingie.

 

I love the thug so great job, Diego! I used him in a rigging tutorial:

thanks! although i'm not a maya user, the tutorial looks great.

Edited January 21, 2008 by Diego

[TheDorkProject]

Could you be more specific on what was underwhelming? If we know, we can work on fixing it.

 

Well I hadn't wanted to be negative by going into that, or by pointing out things you guys are already 100% aware of. Or that are just trivial, but since you asked I will attempt to put it into words:

 

Well one thing that helped immensely was when I turned down my gamma quite a lot, the fault brightness was really making the whole map look way too bright and this was not flattering to it at all. It took me longer to think of doing this than it should have, so my initial impressions were tainted by excessive brightness and that harsh light on every surface, object, etc. Obviously, this is really trivial, unless of course it's having the same effect on lots of people. Some might never think to alter this setting, if you guys can control the default, maybe it'd be worth lowering it *shrug*

 

I think I also felt like the AI was just really annoying me, with repeating one line "that's not right" or whatever like a thousand times in a row, but I know you guys said this stuff is placeholder and I cannot imagine that you aren't aware they're repeating themselves too much so this is getting into why I didn't want to actually spell out these negatives, and I wanted to keep it vague just saying I was initially underwhelmed and then became more impressed, because see now that I've been asked to get specific everyone who reads this will be like "yea duh idiot, we know about all these issues"

 

I guess it also felt a bit like it was both too easy to get spotted, and too easy to go back to them forgetting they'd seen me.

 

But let me get more specific about what I did like as long as I got more specific about what irked me.

 

The rope arrow was very cool, I did have some frustrations getting onto it sometimes, but I think I remember that happening in the Thief games too. Once I got that brightness in line that look of everything was pretty nice I thought. I am running it at 1920x1200 and it's running beautifully. I thought the models for all the guards, etc were really impressive for the most part. I mean, I thought they looked pretty well made. They struck a nice balance of kind of feeling a little bit like the freaky mannequin-esque people in Thief, and also being way higher poly count and looking more modern as I think is a big part of the whole point of the Dark Mod in the first place.

 

When I climbed up on a rope arrow into that little room and found the coins in the pot up in the loft, the whole experience started to hit home for me and I was really feeling it, I think this mod has great potential to be awesome, and I think I am resolved to at least make one solid effort at a map for it, even though it's been years since I did any map making. I think the original Unreal was the last game I made a map for I used to do lots of Doom maps ha

 

I think you guys' mod has definitely been the first thing to come along and make me say "it is time to flex what map making talent I ever had once again" yes, it is destiny I must at least make the attempt. I never used dromed because it just sounded really intimidating but though I have never looked at Doom 3's level editor, I know that the id guys always made good editing-friendly stuff. I've been following all of their games since Wolf3D when I was 12