I can tell you that work is progressing well, however. Several members of the TDM community have chipped in contributions, including sounds from Simplen00b and plasticman, models from RPGista and Baddcog, and textures from SeriousToni and Radiant. Greebo contributed our new zombie character, and Arcturus has been working on animations for it. Mr. Lemony Fresh has contributed an absolutely fantastic new skeleton mesh, and Springheel has replaced all the D3 heads and body parts being used. I think you’ll be happy with the quality of the replacements when you see them.

We are getting there. I was able to load up Chalice of Kings last night and play through start to finish with no Doom 3 in sight, and no missing assets either. If things continue to go smoothly, we’re hoping for a standalone version of TDM sometime this fall.

In case you’re worried that the next update will only provide replacement assets and nothing else, fear not! Grayman has been coding like a madman, solving dozens of annoying bugs that have plagued TDM from the start, including the infamous “sleepers falling through the floor” and “AI attacking with no weapon” bugs. He has also fixed a lot of AI communication, so AI talk to each other more, and notice when each other are in trouble in ways they weren’t doing previously. He has also fixed some major sound issues, added the ability for archers to switch to melee weapons at close range, created new behaviour for AI who witness someone killed, and so many other things I can’t keep track.

With all the excitement surrounding the announcement of the new “Thief”, we know people are eager for stealth games to play. TDM is proud to be able to help fill that niche while we all wait to see what Eidos has to offer in 2014. The first mission of our upcoming “Unusual Gameplay” contest has already been released, and others are coming before the August deadline. Enjoy!

The 1.08 update contains nearly a year’s worth of updates and improvements. So many, in fact, that it’s hard to remember them all. Some of the improvements, like getting TDM ready to go standalone, are fairly transparent to the user. Others will have a noticable impact on your game.

IMPORTANT: Because of changes to the way TDM is run now, (in preparation for going standalone) the first time you run TDM 1.08, you will need to reset your keybindings and other settings. Additionally, “tdmlauncher.exe” no longer starts TDM. Users will need to change any shortcuts to darkmod/TheDarkMod.exe, in Windows, and thedarkmod.x86 for Linux users. As always with an update, saved games from earlier versions will no longer work, so finish any missions you’re in the middle of!

Additional Note: TDM will NOT work with the Doom 3 BFG edition.

Richer audio: TDM 1.08 should provide a much more immersive sound experience. We’ve added over 200 new impact sounds, as well as two new vocal sets. Many things that used to be silent now make appropriate noises. Falling bodies now make impact sounds, arrows have sound as they whiz past you, and AI make rustling noises as they move based on what they’re wearing.

AI Improvements: The lightning-fast reactions of AI have been toned down, so that they don’t leap immediately to combat after a half-second glimpse of you down the street. AI now react to things getting thrown at them, and can be knocked out by heavy things
being dropped on their head. AI are smarter about using elevators and will use them while searching now. Several new AI character models have been added, including the Builder Acolyte and the Elite Citywatch.

Additionally: The Training Mission has been revamped by Bikerdude for 1.08, with a few new sections and beautiful improvements to the visuals. The team’s second demo mission, The Tears of St. Lucia, has also been updated for 1.08 and is now included with the mod by default.

There have also been dozens of new art assets added, an entire series of new light entities, improved flame particles, performance improvements, additional animations, fixes to some physics issues, and well over 100 other bugfixes. You can see a full changelog here: What’s New

To get the update, simply run tdm_update.exe in your darkmod folder. If you’ve never downloaded TDM before, visit our Download page for full instructions: Download

Thanks to our new coder, Taaaki, who did a great deal of work on this update preparing TDM to run standalone. And special thanks to grayman, without whom the update would never have happened at all.

Hope you enjoy!

See the full announcement and media release here.

There will also be many noticable improvements in 1.08, including a much richer sound experience, new characters, more forgiving AI, and improvements to object physics. A full changelog is here: 1.08 Changelog

 Arches that show the age and grandeur of the city: What we have here is a melting pot of Hungarian heritage, Gothic & Romanesque styles that result in a cohesive and believable steam-punk universe that the player can immerse themselves in like a warm blanket on a cold winter night.

Plenty of vantage points, exits and entries – multiple ways to plan your route through the byways of Bridgeport: In this shot we spent quite a bit of time getting the perf to acceptable levels with out sacrificing  artistic vision and intent. Its a mixture of imposing framework of the city, and dark nooks and crannies.

 Imposing city streets that twist and turn, hiding dark secrets & resourceful opponents: The city looks alive and believably organic in a pre-contemporary vision. This is tempered by the need for consistent performance so that even players with low end hardware will have a rewarding experience.

“Without communities mods would be nothing more then a static object on the web, communities are responsible for keeping mods relevant, motivating the developers and expanding on the mod in their own way. To win the Community Award the mod needs to support the fanbase around the modification giving the masses a chance to participate within the overall design of the mod. The Dark Mod is the most deserving this year.

“Building a community is quite a difficult and drawn out process, it first takes a good product to bring in people, then a reason for those people to stick around. The Dark Mod has an amazing collection of user created levels and theme packs built for competitions held by the developers. A shining example of how communities are important for all mods!”

Visit Award Page

See the full announcement and media release here.

Once again, votes from unregistered users only count in case of a tie, so please register for a free account and support The Dark Mod!

TDM’s ModDB page

TDM’s ModDB page