Namdrol on 17/9/2009 at 19:43
Then we've got fatigue, encumbrance, weather effects (ice, rain,wind) etc.
SubJeff on 17/9/2009 at 20:49
Ostriig, this is rare to be able to say but - you don't have the experience of what it is like without the awareness (as you haven't played T1/2) so your opinion is irrelevant.
The movement in T1 and 2 is spot. You don't want to mess with a winning formula by having feet, body awareness, whatever.
Beleg Cúthalion on 17/9/2009 at 21:01
I'll just throw in two personal impressions to counter two other ones:
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
Now here's a question for you: In the good Thief games, when on a ladder you can move all around it and look in any direction. How would that be animated with a body awareness model?
What always threw me somehow out of immersion (although I'm apparently not as sensitive as others in this respect) was the fact that Garrett could run towards a ladder and straight down without turning around, as if he could just slide down headlong. That's not human, even if it seems like a pretty computer workaround. But what makes the games rather special is that your protagonist's abilities are in fact human.
Quote Posted by New Horizon
The only thing body makes me aware of is that it's not my own body up there doing things on the screen. The floating arms are just an extension of my hands that are already doing things on the keyboard and mouse to translate commands into on screen movement.
When I see Garretts limbs in TDS or those of the Dark Messiah guy I don't feel any discrepance between them and my own body. On the other side, games with no visible body often gave me the impression I was just a pink plastic ball floating one and a half metres above the ground. What I'm trying to say is that I think a lot of what has been and will be said here is mainly personal impression. Whether some camera etc. stuff is done/executed well or badly might be a different issue but the actual, say, body model, head bobbing or breathing animations (hey, why are there no TDS-sucked-it-had-breathing-animations theads?) isn't something which will always be met with the same reaction at the players end.
Neb on 17/9/2009 at 21:42
I remember I'd been playing first person shooters for a good five years before my best friend pointed out that you could back yourself into a corner, look down, and your legs wouldn't be visible. I was amazed at the fact he'd noticed. Maybe I just approach situations in a different way, but I'm perfectly immersed if developers stick to environment awareness and story awareness.
In a well crafted world I don't want to even think about myself.
jtr7 on 17/9/2009 at 21:46
Body awareness isn't necessary and blocks the damned view and does not move the way I would and not intuitively. Taff it to hell in Thief.
driver on 17/9/2009 at 21:55
Quote Posted by Beleg Cúthalion
When I see Garretts limbs in TDS or those of the Dark Messiah guy I don't feel any discrepance between them and my own body. On the other side, games with no visible body often gave me the impression I was just a pink plastic ball floating one and a half metres above the ground.
This.
Just because T: DS did body awareness badly doesn't mean we should dismiss it entirely. Personally I find there's little else that's more immersion breaking than to look down and see that I'm just hovering about. HL2 suffered particularly badly from this, especially in the vehicle sections where Freeman seemed to be piloting the buggy/airboat
with his mind.
Chade on 17/9/2009 at 22:00
Quote Posted by Subjective Effect
Ostriig, this is rare to be able to say but - you don't have the experience of what it is like without the awareness (as you haven't played T1/2) so your opinion is irrelevant.
Or he might have played one of the thousands of other games that don't have body awareness ...
Oh, but wait, thief is
different!
Anyway, thief 6 will surely have body awareness. Not so sure about thief 4.
Namdrol on 17/9/2009 at 22:16
Body awareness means no rope arrows.
Chade on 17/9/2009 at 22:41
Body awareness will corrupt your kids.
