Jabberwocky on 16/5/2004 at 06:55

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Good advice, and I agree that it should be stickied.

I just checked your FTP Upload Instructions, and it might be worth putting on that page as well.

YcatX on 4/6/2004 at 00:10

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Funny thing I wouldn't have released RoOv1 in the first place, but my Beta-testers were saying that I need to release it. AND STILL IT WAS BUGGY! Even after having 5 people BETA it.

That is why I'm holding back the re-vamps to those 4 mission with an additional 6 missions (10 total)....

I will make no mission before its time...

Tuberov on 1/1/2005 at 20:36

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How about posting a "Mission Name Database"? Kinda like a copyright system. Before you finally release your mission, you could look at the names in the system and make sure that your mission's name doesn't copy them.

Just an idea.

demagogue on 22/8/2005 at 17:47

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This is a recommendation to epithumia of an issue you may want to add to your list in the first post.

In a nutshell, it is to be sure a possible contributor to your FM is on-board with his/her material being publically released along with the FM BEFORE it is uploaded to thiefmissions, when there's a good reason that author might not expect it to be released -- in most cases basically getting their informed consent and ensuring proper credit. Even if you think their contribution was very small or their consent was implied ... if there's a reason they might not expect it to be made public, be sure to err on the side of explicitly asking, because this is a person's work going out into the public.

NB, I'm thinking about a person that actually puts *work* into the FM -- from brushwork, to scripting and internal work, to making custom material for just that FM -- not a person that simply makes custom obj's generally available, where the general courtesy of giving credit should be enough.

Just as a reference point, this is a reaction to the recent incident involving the release of The City Square ((http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1313201#post1313201) here for future reference), where one author built some things into another author's FM just as an example of what to do, only to see it publically released, which he didn't expect. Another example was an FM where someone used another person's skybox before that person wanted it released, because he wanted to use it in his own FM first. But I don't want to spend any time dwelling on specific incidents -- enough has been said. It's the general issue I'm concerned about. Situations like these are the ones where you want to get consent before you release their stuff, because they don't expect it.

The Pixie on 28/12/2005 at 09:24

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I have just about got my second mission ready for release, and thought I would share some of my experinences about what to do prior to release. This presumes you have already played the mission through to the end.

Before beta-testing

These are the things I should have done before beta-testing, but no one had told me to... It might be tempting to leave this to the beta-testers to find, but you will end up doing the work anyway as you make the corrections, and it will save the beta-testing for the less obvious issues.

Get a second installation of Thief, which includes DarkLoader or GarrettLoader, but no custom stuff. Through DarkLoader or GarrettLoader, open the mission up in DromEd, turn on Light Bright, Light Objects, View Physics Models and optionally turn off AI Aware. Then go in game and:

Check each window, door, etc. has the texture aligned correctly
Check no plain blue textures (indicates forgotten to include a custom texture)
Check no white wedges (indicates forgotten to include a custom object or mesh) (sometimes if a custom object is missing the original model is used instead)
Check all objects have an appropriate physics model (if "View Physics Models" is on, this is the blue box or circle; for example, flatcars should not use the default, and custom objects often keep the physics model of the original; does the size make sense?)
Check all crates and barrels have a physics model (they do not if they overlap with terrain; there will be no blue circle, and you can walk through them)
Open every door to check none disappear when opened
Kill all AIs and try to pick up the corpse (have you included custom flinders and alt bitmaps; no alt bitmap will cause a crash)
Try to mess up the objectives; are final objectives really final, can you reverse objectives you should not be able to, can you do objectives in a nonsense order?
Generally look around and see if everything looks as it should (eg, I found distant art was missing).

Beta-testing

Some beta-testers are better than others. Have several, a mixture of players (who will spot game play problems) and DromEders (who will spot technical problems). Accept that some will drop out.

Beta-testing takes time; if you are in a competition, allow three weeks. Otherwise, allow three months...