Lady Taffer on 16/2/2009 at 00:51
Quote Posted by DrK
Can't agree more with R Soul :p
And I understand you'd like readables directly onscreen, it's indeed smoother and would be interesting for gameplay (you have to make sure noone is around when you read). But if the book in question has at least 10 pages of writing, like in my fms for example, what would happen ?
However, to display text onscreen should be done everytime with little readables : I hate to read a plaque which leads you to a different screen, only to read a room's name.
Actually, in some cases I like short readables that take you to a different screen, for example, if it's used to heighten spookiness. The only example I can think of is during Night Three of The Seven Sisters when you find the journal in the portal of chaos and all it says is "Beware, Brothers, the Black Sister is here!" That freaked me out and I was thinking "Oh no, once I exit out of the readable screen back into the game, some terrifying monster's going to attack me!!"
Anyway, I think the readable screen situation works very well for creepy "It's standing right behind you" instances. :D
Tannar on 17/2/2009 at 19:13
Since we're voicing our tastes about readables, I like going to another screen when reading a book or scroll because it actually increases the immersion for me. I like the look of the parchment, the darkened edges, the old script, the sound of the pages turning etc. It helps place the player in Garrett's world. When the text just shows up on screen it looks too much like text on a computer screen and breaks the immersion for me somewhat.
R Soul on 17/2/2009 at 19:26
You also get to read it at your own pace because the game pauses.
SneakyJack on 17/2/2009 at 19:55
Those are also two great points - and the diversity of play styles and what helps/hinders immersion for different people in different ways is great. :D
Its one of those options that if it were easy to make it possible to select either before the missions starts it would make the experience that much more tailored to playstyles. It seems like the more expert-difficulty ghoster types enjoy stopping to smell the roses so to speak (obviously when you spend hours sneaking through shadows remaining completely undetected I doubt you'll have a problem spending a minute or two changing screens to enjoy the story) and folks like myself may enjoy the on-screen approach as I tend to be what I call a "knockout addict" that is always on the move while playing.
I try my best to stay un-detected while doing so, however. My goal by the end of any given mission is to have blackjacked all guards (and innocents when they are patrolling an area I need to repeatedly go through) without any of them having noticed me. Swordplay is a last resort but I don't mind it. So to get back to my original point - I'm more of a movement oriented sneaker that always likes to be going, going, going - so stopping to change screens breaks my flow pretty heavily. In fact, in missions where I can frob a message and have it appear onscreen - I'm usually moving forward to the next room while reading it. :laff:
intruder on 17/2/2009 at 20:28
Quote Posted by SneakyJack
In fact, in missions where I can frob a message and have it appear onscreen - I'm usually moving forward to the next room while reading it. :laff:
I'm imagine the following scenario while you play an FM:
You frob a scroll and move on while reading it.
After hitting the bottom of a pitfall equiped with poisened spears and the screen slowly fading into black, you finish the last sentence of the scroll which warns of poisoned pitfalls in the next room :ebil:
Tannar on 17/2/2009 at 20:30
ROFLMAO! :laff:
SneakyJack on 17/2/2009 at 20:35
Quote Posted by intruder
I'm imagine the following scenario while you play an FM:
You frob a scroll and move on while reading it.
After hitting the bottom of a pitfall equiped with poisened spears and the screen slowly fading into black, you finish the last sentence of the scroll which warns of poisoned pitfalls in the next room :ebil:
I would appreciate the dark humor in that very much and hope that there will be more similar pitfalls ahead of me in this mission :laff:
SneakyJack on 19/2/2009 at 16:32
With thief being reviewed by Zero Punctuation and now having a thread posted on one of the largest forums on the internet ((
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3074008) somethingawful.com for anyone keeping score at home) it seems as if the thief series is getting another popularity boom as of late - and that can only be a good thing. I see that David even posted in that thread - there were lots of mentions of TTLG and he let everyone there know that he runs the place :laff:
The word is getting out about the TTLG community and how the fan mission sector is still going very strong - I've seen more mentions of fan missions (by name even!) in the last week than I have in the last couple years in places other than here and fan mission archive sites.
This is a very good thing, and hopefully it brings us more folks to discuss these works of art and perhaps even a few new authors wanting to create amazing things for us to play.
Its always been a good time to be a thief fan - but after all these years its still looking up! :D
bedwine on 19/2/2009 at 18:41
Quote Posted by SneakyJack
With thief being reviewed by Zero Punctuation and now having a thread posted on one of the largest forums on the internet ((
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3074008) somethingawful.com for anyone keeping score at home) it seems as if the thief series is getting another popularity boom as of late - and that can only be a good thing. I see that David even posted in that thread - there were lots of mentions of TTLG and he let everyone there know that he runs the place :laff:
The word is getting out about the TTLG community and how the fan mission sector is still going very strong - I've seen more mentions of fan missions (by name even!) in the last week than I have in the last couple years in places other than here and fan mission archive sites.
This is a very good thing, and hopefully it brings us more folks to discuss these works of art and perhaps even a few new authors wanting to create amazing things for us to play.
Its always been a good time to be a thief fan - but after all these years its still looking up! :D
It has been alomost a year since I started playing Thief FM's again. It has also been over a year since I have played any game other than Thief. I got a game for Christmas that I haven't even opened. Fallout 3 sounds interesting so does the new FarCry. But why? There is so much left to playing and editing Thief missions. I have a fantasy that someday there will be a skit on Saturday Night Live where they are playing Thief characters and the audience will actually understand the humor.
Maybe....
Zombies walking and Benny talking.
Thor on 19/2/2009 at 19:17
Audience? You know, people who are still mentally healthy are running short ya know and the ones that are fans of Thief have been ones for a reason. Nice fantasy though, I've been dreaming of great stuff too.
It would be nice to have more members here at TTLG as SneakyJack (since i can't call you Snickers, i might as well stick with the original) pointed out. In time the community will probably grow weak anyway (probably newer PCs, that just cannot handle Thief), but i'm not that sure, if it will ever really die.
Hmm, apparently it's my nonsense talk day. I better stay quiet for the rest of the 'eve. (Oh and i posted this, cause i just couldn't let it go to waste.)
