The Dark Mod Version 1.07 Released

I was just reading yesterday that the latest version of The Dark Mod, 1.07 is now out!

There’s plenty of bugfixes and AI has been improved quite a bit. NPCs now notice ropes dangling from wooden structures (rope arrows), interact better with doors and so on, and combat animations have been improved too (about time).

In addition to, that I’m quite excited to see that for the first time, vine arrows are now available for mappers to use in their fan missions. Vine arrows differ from rope arrows in the way that they can be used on both wooden surfaces and metal grates. Traditionally they are more expensive than rope arrows in official Thief games (they’ve only appeared so far in Thief II: The Metal Age – late in the game, too).

It’s always the little things that count…

There’s plenty of other improvements in this release - there’s an entire list for you to read. The download weight should be about 184 MB, apparently. Run your tdm_update.exe file to update your version to the latest one. Finish your FMs first. Savegames won’t work after the upgrade.

By the way, I took a look over at The Dark Mod’s Moddb page, and I saw that now they have a version 1.06 file (going on 2 GB) for download. Previously there was only a version 1.03.

----

Source: TDM

Id Tech 4 Source Code Released

I didn’t want to make any predictions on when the Doom 3 source code would be released – because I somehow knew it would be sooner than I thought.

The deed was done on the evening of Tuesday, November 22 and was widely reported yesterday on several gaming  and technology blogs – after several years of waiting. News and speculation surrounding the release of the id Tech 4 source code began as far back as 2007.

As I’ve been reading online, we can expect to see graphical overhauls for Doom 3, mods being turned in to standalone games, and even entirely new games being developed – although only for non-commercial purposes. Sounds exciting to say the least.

The id Tech 4 engine is far from being completely obsolete. Titles such as Wolfenstein used it as recently as 2009, and the upcoming Prey 2 uses the engine, much like its prequel, released in 2006.

One wonders what will become of The Dark Mod in the future.

----

Source: Joystiq

TDM Comments on id Tech 4 Source Code

Over on Twitter, the TDM team thanked John Carmack of id Software for his dedication to releasing the id Tech 4 or Doom 3 engine source code.

“The Dark Mod thanks you for your dedication getting (sic) the D3 source code in to mod teams (sic) hands. Knowledge should be shared!”

As you may know, The Dark Mod is a thief-inspired mod for Doom 3 and so naturally uses the same engine. There has been talk in the past about the TDM team focusing on working on TDM as a standalone game at some point in the future, with all the complications that would involve having been discussed at length in the forum. The TC wouldn’t need Doom 3 to run, and therefore the space requirements needed on one’s HDD would drop. The limits with building upon Doom 3 as of right now would very likely be lifted, and the possibilities would become nearly endless as to what could be achieved within the modding community with this near 10-year-old engine.

If one looks at what the guys in the Duke Nukem community have done with the Build engine, which is over 15 years old, then one can only imagine…

It was believed for a long time that the id Tech 4 engine would be made open source after the release of Rage (which utilises id Tech 5). And true to his word, Carmack said after Rage was released, in October this year, that they just had some final legal issues to work out before the source code was released – but reassured the masses that it would happen.

This month it was reported that Carmack is working on replacing some code inside the engine seeing as there was some work borrowed from another company used for free when the game was released. Now that it’s due to be re-released, that code needs to be taken out to avoid any legal woes, it seems
.
Resources:

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/numb-thumbs-blog/2099819/id-software-release-doom-source-code
http://www.linuxgames.com/archives/9374
https://twitter.com/#!/ID_AA_Carmack/statuses/136614459887202305

New TDM FM Release: Crystal Grave

I was thinking more or less the same thing you are right now when I first saw this. It’s a new FM up for download on the official TDM website, but it originally appeared on Darkfate.org – a Thief fan site.

This FM is purported to be in Polish – right from the title (Krysztalowy Grob), to the instructions, to everything therein. I don’t know if that will bode well for most TDM players. I for one get very leery about anything foreign, but that could just be my xenophobia kicking in. I even sent the file to Jotti for scanning just in case (Virus Total is down for some or other reason).

Anyway. Better than nothing. Download it and give it a go.

TDM Version 1.07 Comments, Highlights

I read about updates on both the TDM Twitter account, and the TDM’s official site declaring that TDM v 1.07 is is testing and nearly within our grasp after a long 5 or  month wait.

It’s been said that the AI has received some huge improvements in this release. There was a blog post on TDM’s official website that sheds light on what to expect in this release as far as artificial intelligence goes: NPCs will now notice and comment on doors being left open by the player character; they’ll notice rope arrows in lit areas, and even look to see if anyone is on the rope; they’ll notice arrows sticking out of things, including themselves; guards will warn other guards and servants etc. about the sighting of a thief or a dead body.

This will lend some increased replayablity and challenge to fan missions which were considered to be a bit too easy. To date, I’ve only really noticed glimpses of the above advanced AI interaction on a few select fan missions. “Crown of Penitence”- as small as it is - is one of them, as is “Sons of Baltona”.

TDM Version 1.07 Close to Release

I had a look at the official TDM Twitter account and it looks like version 1.07 is getting closer to release.

“1.07 is on the way.”

So like I was saying in an earlier post: finish up your FMs, before upgrading. You’ll obviously need to use the TDM updater, which is located in your TDM directory to get it up to v 1.07, when it’s done.

----

Source: The Dark Blog on Twitter

TDM FM Review: Dragon’s Claw

This is a review of one of The Dark Mod’s (a mod for Doom 3) fan missions. It may contain traces of spoilers. You have been warned.

Author(s): Bikerdude, Flanders
Version: 1.0
Date released: 10-31-2011
Other info: Halloween Speed Build ‘11 entry
Theme: City/Haunted
Download FM here

Whenever I see a Bikerdude mission, I instantly think that it’s going to be one hell of a lot of fun ahead of me.

Missions of the past like the fantastic “St. Alban’s Cathedral”, or the awesome “Caduceus of St. Alban” left me with a very positive perception of an author’s work who I admittedly didn’t like much to begin with. Bikerdude’s missions are in a way sort of like watching a Quentin Tarantino film. You dislike it the first time – you might even be a it bewildered. But after the second viewing, you understand the genius behind it. It grows on you and you appreciate it for the brilliance it is supposed to convey.

This mission is not like that at all. This mission is a poor excuse for an FM in comparison to the aforementioned ones. It’s the worst of Bikerdude’s mission’s I’ve played. It’s not that bad, but it’s not that good either.

The story sounds like it could be interesting. You’re a thief as usual who wants to get a hold of the legendary “Dragon’s Claw”, which is holed up in a section of town known as the Plague Ward. It’s walled off from the rest of the city, much like the Old Quarter was in Thief: The Dark Project. But even though they might be similar in story, there’s no comparing this FM for The Dark Mod to “The Haunted Cathedral”. I might sound a little harsh here, but bear with me.

Starting off in the city, I was in familiar territory. I expected to be able to pick any lock, open any door, and go pretty much anywhere, much like in the beginning of St. Alban’s Cathedral – a mission which I hold in regard, and like the best from this author so far.

But you can’t. Exploration is limited, and the only real area of appeal is the canal. There’s a bit of loot here, and a few guards. This area presents the most challenge you’ll face in this FM.

Hover mouse over pictures for captions, if available.

But this limited exploration actually detracts from the experience as far as being able to find the entrance to the Plague Ward is concerned. It’s an unnecessary distraction. Once you navigate your way around the underground, and make your way up to the plague ward, again things seem familiar. It’s like a lesser version of one of the undead missions from T2X, the unofficial expansions for Thief II: The Metal Age. Everything looks nice graphically speaking – at least on the outside. There’s some nice effects like low lying fog and dust particles, and even a rare sighting of a will o’ the wisp.

But there’s just a real feeling of laziness or incompleteness that lies behind the fancy texturing. If you were to look inside some buildings here, you just see black – well, I do. I don’t know if this is a graphical glitch, or it was intentional on the author’s part. Having a look through the official forum thread dedicated to this mission, Melan (who tutored Bikerdude, so some say) claims it’s a caulk texture, and thinks it wasn’t that good an idea to use it so generously.

And it’s here that some other major gripes of this mission come in to play. There are some severe slow downs (literally 0 FPS) during this part of the mission that either require you tap the forward key to move out of this slowdown zone, or just reload a savegame… again.

Again there’s the illusion of exploration here, as there are some places to go, but not much to do or find. There’s not a lot of interactivity on offer. It’s way too easy to get the main objectives and get out of there. But like most BD missions, there’s always a stash of loot somewhere that you never seem to find. This might make things trickier on harder difficulty settings.

Exiting the Plague Ward with my prize, I was on the way to the tavern to finish the mission, and then I was hit with 0 FPS again, but this time it froze completely, forcing an alt+ctrl+del solution.

I’m disappointed in Dragon’s Claw. It had the promise; the potential of a great mission, but just fell flat. I wouldn’t say it’s the worst FM I’ve played, or even the worst in the Halloween Speed Build competition. But it could have used a bit more polish and testing, bug-fixing, and a lot more challenge. Those undead lying around in the Plague Ward are far too easy to step around and avoid. They should have been upright and patrolling. I’d rather have a tough undead mission than one that hardly even tries.

Pros:

+ Good story.

+ Level design is decent.

Cons:

- Bugs, bugs, bugs.

- Practically no challenge whatsoever for the most part.

FM score: 7.0/10