Progress Update on TDM: Crucible of Omens

A while back, a little after the 2nd anniversary of the TDM, it was announced that there would be a full campaign developed for The Dark Mod, by the actual team who has been working on it for over 7 years.

I was pleased to see that in the last week there has been a progress update on this. In the post on TDM’s official site, there were some new screenshots. As was said in the post, the team has been working on this for a while (12 months) – in fact for years. If you were a visitor to TDM’s website years ago you would have seen that the screenshot gallery that existed back then had several screenshots that would eventually be unveiled as belonging to missions that make up this very campaign.

So far the TDM community (which won best community award over at ModDB late last year/earlier on this year) has brought us some spectacular fan missions as well as some mini campaigns, showcasing what can be achieved using DarkRadiant, the mods level editor, and of course the power of the ageing id Tech 4 engine.

New TDM Campaign Announced: The Crucible of Omens

I remember reading some time ago on the TDM FAQ or another source where it it was asked if there would ever be an official TDM campaign. It’s been two years since the mod’s release (version 1.07 was brought out just the other day). During this time there have been over 50 fan missions released by various mappers.

But finally the day has come. It was announced just this week that there is a campaign that has been in the planning stages at least for the last four years, whereas for the most part has really existed in earnest for the past year or so. Some of the screenshots shown over at the forum thread where the announcement was originally made look familiar to me – particularly the ship.

The campaign is called “The Crucible of Omens”, and will follow the story of a thief and adventurer named John Welland Hadley. You’ll traverse several different locations of the TDM universe (covered in the Wiki to some extent), and will no doubt go on a tour of probably every possible environment; you’ll bump into new AI factions, opponents and NPCs to interact with. The campaign also promises animated briefings, cutscenes, scripted sequences like conversations between characters. Let’s hope the production quality is on par with the original games by Looking Glass Studios – a bit ambitious, but I think it’s possible. Look what the people behind T2X did – it was a bloody good effort.

Chief mappers for this campaign include Bikerdude, jdude, Fidcal, and Melan. Some of the best mappers for the mod. If you chucked Sotha and Jesps in there at some point, you’d have a full house.

It all sounds terribly exciting, and like one forum dweller commented: "It’s about time”.

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Sources:

http://www.thedarkmod.com/posts/a-dark-mod-campaign-in-the-works/

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/topic/13280-announcing-the-crucible-of-omens-a-campaign-for-the-dark-mod/

http://www.moddb.com/mods/the-dark-mod/news/announcing-the-crucible-of-omens-a-campaign-for-the-dark-mod

https://twitter.com/#!/thedarkmod/statuses/148540518224244737