The Dark Mod - a Thief Inspired Project for Doom 3

[Syl]

Hey everyone! It seems like there are a lot of people on the forums who appreciate the amazing Thief series by Through The Looking Glass. The Dark Mod has been out since 2009, but I thought it might be worth posting in case there were others who might enjoy it as well who hadn't learned about it.

The Dark Mod is a project made with the Doom 3 engine. It's more accurate to say it's a toolset that's been used by its community and team to create levels and stories with. Currently there are 52 missions available. I've really been blown away by it, and it feels and plays incredibly true to its inspiration. Since it's a fan project and not connected to Eidos, the world is different than that of the Thief series, but it's set in a similar steam-punk world. It continues to be updated and expanded, with the latest major release being on November 27th of this year.

If you're a Thief fan and interested, the projects website can be found here.

[Fragony]

Thief fans? Here? Absolutely unthinkable

And yay to Dark mod team, it isn't quite the real thing but I love you anyway

[frogbeastegg]

Last I heard about this mod it was still in progress, then I heard nothing else and assumed it had died. Good grief! I'm pleased to be wrong, and shall look for a cheap copy of Doom 3 in the end of year sales. Thanks for mentioning it here.

Can you recommend some missions for a player who prefers human-based maps instead of undead, monster and robot ones? Do any of the missions have frog beasts? It would be nice to catch up with my cousins.

[Vuk]

I am absolutely in love with the Dark Mod except for one thing...the combat system. Not even the system so much as the animations. They just look really...fake. Those guys should have built Thief 3, because they actually know what makes a Thief game.

[Syl]

Last I heard about this mod it was still in progress, then I heard nothing else and assumed it had died. Good grief! I'm pleased to be wrong, and shall look for a cheap copy of Doom 3 in the end of year sales. Thanks for mentioning it here.

Can you recommend some missions for a player who prefers human-based maps instead of undead, monster and robot ones? Do any of the missions have frog beasts? It would be nice to catch up with my cousins.

It was a similar case for me as well ^^, I remember hearing about the project years ago but ultimately got distracted by other things and lost all track of it. It was only a few days ago that I learned that it wasn't only alive but saw just how much they had accomplished. Needless to say pretty much all of my free time the last few days have been taffered away by it.

I've only been able to tackle a few of the maps so far out of the list so I can't reference too many just yet, but I'll keep a record of the human based maps that strike me as really well done as I go along and leave a post for you later. It seems there are a few people here who know about the project as well and probably have gotten to explore more of the maps already, if anyone else has some suggestions towards that and would like to share I'd be interested and appreciate it as well!

I understand if it's not as interesting for you or your cup of tea, but the occult maps I've played so far are fantastic as well. It seems that the Doom 3 engine gives the map creators a fair bit of bit of freedom in how they script events and the environment, and a lot of people have put that to really creative use.

No frogbeast sightings so far! If I see any I'll be sure to let them know their big sister says hello.

I am absolutely in love with the Dark Mod except for one thing...the combat system. Not even the system so much as the animations. They just look really...fake. Those guys should have built Thief 3, because they actually know what makes a Thief game.

The sword fighting can look and feel a bit clunky for sure, but I try and forgive it as usually combat like that is a last resort, and I try and keep a flash bomb on my belt when possible for that type of situation. Still, it's something that they could definitely improve on.

[frogbeastegg]

I understand if it's not as interesting for you or your cup of tea, but the occult maps I've played so far are fantastic as well. It seems that the Doom 3 engine gives the map creators a fair bit of bit of freedom in how they script events and the environment, and a lot of people have put that to really creative use.

In that case I'll take whatever recommendations you can give. I was hoping you had already played a lot of maps and might be able to name a few which I'd then use as a starting point before branching out to the map types which are traditionally a less to my taste.

I played the Thief 1 demo and finished it several times. Loved it to bits. I thought the whole game was going to be like that. Imagine my astonishment when I began mission 2 and ran into a zombie. As good as Thief 1 and 2 were, occult sections included, a part of me has always wished for that 'skulking around rich people's houses robbing them blind' Thief game I thought I was getting. Lord Bafford's remains a favourite level with me.

[Vuk]

In that case I'll take whatever recommendations you can give. I was hoping you had already played a lot of maps and might be able to name a few which I'd then use as a starting point before branching out to the map types which are traditionally a less to my taste.

I played the Thief 1 demo and finished it several times. Loved it to bits. I thought the whole game was going to be like that. Imagine my astonishment when I began mission 2 and ran into a zombie. As good as Thief 1 and 2 were, occult sections included, a part of me has always wished for that 'skulking around rich people's houses robbing them blind' Thief game I thought I was getting. Lord Bafford's remains a favourite level with me.

I never liked the undead stuff as much either. That is why I loved Thief 2 so much more than Thief 1. (and why Shipping and Receiving and the Bank were my fav levels.) In fact, those two levels define what Thief means to me.

[Fragony]

NEINNEINNIEN there is no Thief without the occult, if you disagree with that you must have a flawed personality, torture small animals, and are probably gay. Yes it kinda feels out of place at first, and I once felt the same way, but the more realistic setting outstayed it's welcome in Thief2. I also feel that you should be shot for liking Shipping and Receiving, Bank was awesome though

[Vuk]

NEINNEINNIEN there is no Thief without the occult, if you disagree with that you must have a flawed personality, torture small animals, and are probably gay. Yes it kinda feels out of place at first, and I once felt the same way, but the more realistic setting outstayed it's welcome in Thief2. I also feel that you should be shot for liking Shipping and Receiving, Bank was awesome though

lol, S&R was my all-time fav Thief level. Bank was #2. What did you not like about? It was enormous, you had ultimate freedom (the main goal of game design IMHO), you could make many of your own objectives, approach them from any angle, play in any style you wanted, and face off against a large variety of bad guys.

[Syl]

In that case I'll take whatever recommendations you can give. I was hoping you had already played a lot of maps and might be able to name a few which I'd then use as a starting point before branching out to the map types which are traditionally a less to my taste.

I played the Thief 1 demo and finished it several times. Loved it to bits. I thought the whole game was going to be like that. Imagine my astonishment when I began mission 2 and ran into a zombie. As good as Thief 1 and 2 were, occult sections included, a part of me has always wished for that 'skulking around rich people's houses robbing them blind' Thief game I thought I was getting. Lord Bafford's remains a favourite level with me.

I'm sorry to not have too many names to offer at the moment. As soon as I got hooked on the mod I thought this would be the perfect place for it and had to share it, so I may have gotten a little ahead of myself.

I have a few I could suggest right away, depending on how soon you'll be able to pick up Doom 3 and try it out. I'm in the process of going through and keeping track of which missions I enjoy the most, so I'll be able to give you a more thorough list of my opinion later on.

I can completely understand enjoying that style more by the way ^^. It can take away some of the immersion when it's not your thing. I personally love the blend of the two, but I'm a bit of a fantasy dork as well so that probably helps. I think it's neat to see the conflict between magic and the rise of technology and how they're both shaping a world caught in between.

NEINNEINNIEN there is no Thief without the occult, if you disagree with that you must have a flawed personality, torture small animals, and are probably gay. Yes it kinda feels out of place at first, and I once felt the same way, but the more realistic setting outstayed it's welcome in Thief2. I also feel that you should be shot for liking Shipping and Receiving, Bank was awesome though

As someone who's gay and more on your side of the argument, hopefully for your sake you don't have your categories a bit confused :p. Or heaven forbid wrong.

[Fragony]

lol, S&R was my all-time fav Thief level. Bank was #2. What did you not like about? It was enormous, you had ultimate freedom (the main goal of game design IMHO), you could make many of your own objectives, approach them from any angle, play in any style you wanted, and face off against a large variety of bad guys.

What I dislike most is that it sucks, it'ss badly structured you have no real incentive to be there. Robbing a harbour just for the sake of being a thief, I mean que? Instead of having a purpose you just get to do a lot, and if you play on expert you MUST do a lot of pointless stuff. For no reason. The brilliance of Thief is how every location slowly unfolds into something memorable, but there got to be a reason to be there in the first place.

[Fragony]

btw Vuk & Syl, get a ps3/xbox and Dark Souls. Atmosphere whores are us, and it's a very immersive game.

'As someone who's gay and more on your side of the argument, hopefully for your sake you don't have your categories a bit confused :p. Or heaven forbid wrong.'

Oh crap

[Kekvit Irae]

The Dark Mod - a Thief Inspired Project for Doom 3

I'm too busy laughing to have nothing remotely witty or snarky to say about this, so I'll just leave you with a screenshot of Doom 3.

[Vuk]

I'm too busy laughing to have nothing remotely witty or snarky to say about this, so I'll just leave you with a screenshot of Doom 3.

No, no, absolutely nothing snarky at all. :P Seriously though Kekvit Irae, the Dark Mod feels just like Thief. They did a fantastic job. This is not Thievery part II.

btw Vuk & Syl, get a ps3/xbox and Dark Souls. Atmosphere whores are us, and it's a very immersive game.

'As someone who's gay and more on your side of the argument, hopefully for your sake you don't have your categories a bit confused :p. Or heaven forbid wrong.'

Oh crap

Dark Souls, meh. I watched some videos on Youtube, and I was not impressed. Also, I am not a console &#^$. (my hate for consoles is pretty intense)

What I dislike most is that it sucks, it'ss badly structured you have no real incentive to be there. Robbing a harbour just for the sake of being a thief, I mean que? Instead of having a purpose you just get to do a lot, and if you play on expert you MUST do a lot of pointless stuff. For no reason. The brilliance of Thief is how every location slowly unfolds into something memorable, but there got to be a reason to be there in the first place.

Most of Thief is extremely objective and story driven. One of the reasons I like Shipping and Receiving so much is that it allows you to step back and make your own objectives. While objective driven it may not be, the story does not stop. It is rich and full of atmosphere, and things you learn from conversations, documents, etc set up the Thief II world and make the next levels make sense. Also, the feeling of freedom you have in the level is unmatched by any Thief level, and frankly, is exhilarating. By easing up on the plot (plot is definitely the strong point of the Thief games), it allows the gameplay to shine in a way it cannot in other levels. It is the sandbox level of the game, and IMO, the most enjoyable (even if not as intense and captivating as the plot driven levels).

[Syl]

btw Vuk & Syl, get a ps3/xbox and Dark Souls. Atmosphere whores are us, and it's a very immersive game.

Dark Souls looks like a lot of fun . If it's as immersive as you say I'm definitely going to have to try and pick it up. There's nothing quite like getting pulled into the moment/story of a game, and it seems to be a rarer thing to find these days.

I'm too busy laughing to have nothing remotely witty or snarky to say about this, so I'll just leave you with a screenshot of Doom 3.

I can understand you not being too impressed with Doom 3, and hey, that screenshot is one of the game's better moments! But TDM just uses the engine and shapes a completely different experience from it. There's almost no resemblance at all. Give it a chance and be pleasantly surprised :p

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On the Shipping and Receiving debate, I really enjoyed it as well. I think Vuk's explanation on it was excellent, and I'm probably just going to end up paraphrasing parts of stuff he already said. I thought it was interesting to see that quieter moment in Garret's life. It was just a quick opportunistic job to bring in the gold he needed for his rent, so you got to see a rather regular but open segment of the world in the docks which actually turned out to be really interesting. There's a lot going on there like Vuk said, and having less pressure on feeling there was a story impact let you get as deep into the map as you wanted. You could simply take different approaches to get your gold and get out, or you could explore and find out all the little sub plots and intrigues that were happening there.

[Fragony]

' Dark Souls looks like a lot of fun . If it's as immersive as you say I'm definitely going to have to try and pick it up. There's nothing quite like getting pulled into the moment/story of a game, and it seems to be a rarer thing to find these days.'

One of those, Thief fans can't wrong here. You will love it.

[Syl]

I'll be picking it up then, thank you for the tip on it. I always regretted not getting a chance to play Demon Souls, so Dark Souls can be my repentance . I'm tempted to make a run to the game store sometime tomorrow for it, but I can only imagine how crazy everywhere is going to be with last minute shoppers. I'll leave it up to how patient I'm feeling tomorrow.

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Miss Frog, if you're still following the thread, I do have some suggestions to start you with.

Before you start any of the maps you'll want to download the Tutorial Map. Since you've played Thief you'll already know 90% of what there is to the game, but TDM does have a different lock picking system and some object interaction abilities that are good to be aware of. It also has some things to help you set the gamma and brightness correctly.

The Builders Influence is a human only map that's really well done and a great mission to get a feel for the game in.

After that I'd really suggest these maps, which are actually a story arc series made by one person (named Sotha). There are some occult elements in them but they're mostly human based, and they're too well done for me not to suggest them to you. These are them in the order the story goes in:

Mandrasola
The Knighton Manor
The Beleagured Fence
Glenham Tower
The Transaction

Hopefully that's a good starting set for you ^^.

[caravel]

Whatever some may think of Doom3, it (ID Tech 4) is a truly superb game engine and the source code has recently been released as well. I have Doom3 lying around somewhere, so I might give this one a try if I get the time.

[Syl]

Not to derail my thread too much, but I guess I'm technically allowed to do that for a second . I did pick up Dark Souls, Fragony, and I'm loving it. If you think it's worth it's own topic and would like to discuss it a bit let me know. That said, /new addiction.

[Fragony]

Excellent choice, first 'real' level is a bit slow but after that things really pick up. What class are you playing, yay to the Pyromancer here

paying attention Vuk? It echoes in your head 'iiiiii wanttt a consolleeeeee' listen to it

[frogbeastegg]

Thanks for the list.

I'm waiting to see if Doom 3 crops up on steam's daily deals; there's a very good chance it will be.

If you like Dark Souls and have access to a PS3, make sure you pick up Demons Souls! It's the first game out of the duo, similar yet different enough to make both well worth playing. There's currently an online event occurring for Christmas; the world is locked into pure white world tendancy until the New Year so it's a very good time for a new player to start. Pure white makes the game a little(!) bit easier, and opens access to all kinds of neat little extras. I prefer some of the ideas in Demons to Dark ... although to judge fairly I need to play more than a 1 hour 'tester' of Dark.

[Vuk]

Thanks for the list.

I'm waiting to see if Doom 3 crops up on steam's daily deals; there's a very good chance it will be.

A full campaign for the Dark Mod is coming out that looks pretty darned interesting to me.
Froggy, I would definitely get Doom 3 if I were you. If for no other reason, it would mean you can play the Dark Mod, plus there are tons of other good mods out there. And I may be the only one here, but I think the vanilla game was awesome too.

Excellent choice, first 'real' level is a bit slow but after that things really pick up. What class are you playing, yay to the Pyromancer here

paying attention Vuk? It echoes in your head 'iiiiii wanttt a consolleeeeee' listen to it

NEVER! lol, I really couldn't if I wanted too Frags. Not only can I not afford one, but with me tendinitis, I cannot use those controllers.

[frogbeastegg]

Froggy, I would definitely get Doom 3 if I were you. If for no other reason, it would mean you can play the Dark Mod, plus there are tons of other good mods out there. And I may be the only one here, but I think the vanilla game was awesome too.

I'm not a FPS froggy; it's unusual for me to like any game in that loose genre. The few I do like are the polar opposite of id's stuff. If I don't like The Dark Mod then the game's going to be useless to me and I don't currently have £7 to throw on that kind of prospect.

[Vuk]

I'm not a FPS froggy; it's unusual for me to like any game in that loose genre. The few I do like are the polar opposite of id's stuff. If I don't like The Dark Mod then the game's going to be useless to me and I don't currently have £7 to throw on that kind of prospect.

Well, I will say this, if you like Thief, there is an 80-90% chance you will like TDM. If there is a good sale on it, I would definitely suggest buying it.

[Syl]

Thanks for the list.

I'm waiting to see if Doom 3 crops up on steam's daily deals; there's a very good chance it will be.

If you like Dark Souls and have access to a PS3, make sure you pick up Demons Souls! It's the first game out of the duo, similar yet different enough to make both well worth playing. There's currently an online event occurring for Christmas; the world is locked into pure white world tendancy until the New Year so it's a very good time for a new player to start. Pure white makes the game a little(!) bit easier, and opens access to all kinds of neat little extras. I prefer some of the ideas in Demons to Dark ... although to judge fairly I need to play more than a 1 hour 'tester' of Dark.

You're more than welcome ^^.

I did miss out on Demon Souls and regret it. I have a PS3 and I bought Dark Souls thinking that would be my benchmark for the two. With how much I'm loving Dark Souls I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to go and pick up Demon Souls as well.

Doom 3 is actually not a bad game and I did enjoy it, though I have my fair amount of gripes about it. However, if FPS's aren't your thing I don't think you'd care for it and it doesn't particularly stand out. However, Doom 3 is kind of a mute point as it's really the ID Tech 4 engine you're buying when you grab it. I'm positive you will adore TDM. The feel and gameplay sticks to the Thief formula religiously, so there's not really much of any deviation you'd find that would put you off when you're a fan of the Thief series.

Doom 3 is half off until January 20th with the general holiday sale on steam. Like you said though, there's a good chance it might be listed with its own daily sale, and you have until late January to still get it at seven pounds if it doesn't, so you might as well wait and see.



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A full campaign for the Dark Mod is coming out that looks pretty darned interesting to me.
Froggy, I would definitely get Doom 3 if I were you. If for no other reason, it would mean you can play the Dark Mod, plus there are tons of other good mods out there. And I may be the only one here, but I think the vanilla game was awesome too.

Vuk that looks amazing . I can't wait at all. Must. not. obsess.

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Excellent choice, first 'real' level is a bit slow but after that things really pick up. What class are you playing, yay to the Pyromancer here

Fragony, I'll make a new topic on Dark Souls this evening and continue the discussion there. There's more than enough to talk about and enough questions from me that it could use its own :p