Minimalist Project: 1.4.1 - Minor homepage update. - by New Horizon
z-vap on 11/9/2005 at 01:16
Quote Posted by bartouze
Actually, I had to tweak the difficulty a bit, I find you’ve a bit too extremist on this side… Was not so much of a problem, but why wouldn’t you make an option in the installer with 2 difficulty levels ? Shouldn’t take a lot of time and would prevent quite a few people to use your mod.
Thank you once more, your efforts are appreciated ! :)
I'm too drunk to read the rest of the reply's here, so I don't know if this has been answered. But I've found that using ThiefBot is the way to go for this kindof thing. I basically set ThiefBot to Expert, then use Thief style to play. This way I don't have to worry about messing with the INI files all the time. When I'm done with Expert, I'll use the Minimalist's version of difficulty for what I would call the penultimate Thief.
New Horizon put alot of thought on these levels, and I'm sure they're worth it.
z-vap on 11/9/2005 at 01:18
Quote Posted by New Horizon
Well, the only reason loot glint will ever be removed is if there is no longer a need for it. If I can find the time to replace the textures with ones that are easily recognizable as loot, like in the original games, then there is very little reason for loot glint. It may or may not happen, no promises.
I like the loot glint. I like JohnP's, I like NH's. But maybe a third option for no loot glint, where the skin (texture, whatever) doesn't... erm... glint.
z-vap on 11/9/2005 at 01:24
Quote Posted by SneaksieDave
Man, I think I'm going to play through the whole game again with minimalist. Wish I had it on the first run through. I bet Ion Storm does too.
Probably, but remember they were trying to win over a different audience, the XBox crowd. They already had us. I'm just glad that they allowed the game to be 'changeable' enough for us to get it to where we want it.
New Horizon on 12/9/2005 at 02:16
I have just returned from a week long trip. Before I left, I had worked out a new alternative to 'loot-glint' called 'loot-shimmer'. You probably noticed that books, scrolls and certain other items sort of shimmered every so often. I have since removed that effect from the afore mentioned items and applied it to loot only. The effect is subtle enough to make spotting loot from accross the room a bit of a challenge but helpful enough so that it isn't impossible with some careful searching. This is mainly a tweak for the new T3Edit Installer that I'm working on but I'll enable it in Minimalist and upload a new version soon.
Karkianman on 12/9/2005 at 04:39
What are you going to do about the bodies_found count? Since your limited to 3 knockouts, no more than 3 bodies from you are able to be found anyway, which leaves the game open to AIs killing eachother.
SneaksieDave on 12/9/2005 at 14:05
Quote Posted by New Horizon
This is mainly a tweak for the new T3Edit Installer that I'm working on but I'll enable it in Minimalist and upload a new version soon.
Optionally? I like the proximity based glint.
New Horizon on 12/9/2005 at 14:58
Quote Posted by SneaksieDave
Optionally? I like the proximity based glint.
Not sure what I'll be able to work out really. The way to disable loot glint in the original missions was to mask the loot glint texture with an alpha mask. This made unhiding it for the proximity glint rather simple. Even though the glint is invisible, it's still firing off the trigger script in the gamesys. The problem with the glimmer effect is that it's an additive FX property in the gamesys....not a texture that I can mask out for selection later.
You'll have to see it in action yourself in order to decide whether or not you feel it's subtle enough. In a dark room, you're still going to have to be within a certain distance to catch this stuff glimmering. It doesn't happen as often as the glint.
z-vap on 12/9/2005 at 16:28
Quote Posted by New Horizon
I have since removed that effect from the afore mentioned items and applied it to loot only. The effect is subtle enough to make spotting loot from accross the room a bit of a challenge but helpful enough so that it isn't impossible with some careful searching.
Wait I'm confused. Originally there was loot-glint, and item-shimmer. I'm not sure how they reacted in the original game, as I started playing with minimalist from the get-go, but Minimalist changed it to have loot-glint optional (and, if active, react when you're close), and item-shimmer seemed to occur at full distance from object.
You've now changed it to be - no item-shimmer, and have a loot-shimmer only when close up to the loot? Is that correct?
New Horizon on 12/9/2005 at 16:50
Quote Posted by z-vap
Wait I'm confused. Originally there was loot-glint, and item-shimmer. I'm not sure how they reacted in the original game, as I started playing with minimalist from the get-go, but Minimalist changed it to have loot-glint optional (and, if active, react when you're close), and item-shimmer seemed to occur at full distance from object.
I hadn't touched item shimmer in minimalist until now, so it should give you a good idea of how it works. ;)
Quote:
You've now changed it to be - no item-shimmer, and have a loot-shimmer only when close up to the loot? Is that correct?
Yes, items no longer shimmer. It's not needed.
I'm still experimenting but currently there is no distance on item shimmer. If I can do that, I will set it so that items will begin to shimmer within a certain distance. Usually just slightly beyond frob distance.
z-vap on 12/9/2005 at 21:09
Yes. Item shimmer is a little bit of a give-away. It's basically the game saying "HEY! Here's an item waaay over here, and its important!" instead of the player actually finding it.
Are you considering making Loot to be multi-choosable? Currently there's the original texture, there's JohnP's texture, there will now be a loot-shimmer texture. Are you thinking of making all (or many) of these choosable (like, no change, loot-glint, loot-shimmer)? It would be the bees-knees if you could have all three textures as a choice. :)
