Minimalist Project 1.4.1 Revised: May 20th, 2005. - by New Horizon
michaelg on 9/1/2008 at 18:22
Quote Posted by Assassin X
To me what makes the game better or worse is the who difficulty thing. Whats diffrent about them now? I was confused about this:
"Cutpurse, Assassin, Thief and Ghost. All Playstyles have the same AI difficulty and Density."So does that mean their vision, damage, sound...etc are all the same? Yes I am not the brightest bulb. If thats the case then how is any difficulty harder then another?
I was wondering this exact same thing.
Oh and one other thing. I've noticed if I pick up a body, it has this kind of strang grey type hue to it. Is this normal? No big deal just wondering. Otherwise excellent mod!
inselaffe on 11/1/2008 at 22:07
Quote Posted by michaelg
Oh and one other thing. I've noticed if I pick up a body, it has this kind of strang grey type hue to it. Is this normal? No big deal just wondering. Otherwise excellent mod!
That's because the game seems to do frob highlighting in a very crap way, meaning that either you can't implement traditional "brighten the texture a bit" frob highlights but instead you just put a "multiply texture" over the top of it.
I agree, this looks horrible. I don't see why a "lighten the texture" one could not made using the editor and putting it as an option / standard, but then I have no idea about editing and such so I wouldn't be able to tell you.
I did experiment with different overlay textures for the frob highlights, but again, as they are just overlay textures, none of them looked very good at all, sadly.
New Horizon on 11/1/2008 at 22:21
Quote Posted by Dan Knott
That's because the game seems to do frob highlighting in a very crap way, meaning that either you can't implement traditional "brighten the texture a bit" frob highlights but instead you just put a "multiply texture" over the top of it.
I agree, this looks horrible. I don't see why a "lighten the texture" one could not made using the editor and putting it as an option / standard, but then I have no idea about editing and such so I wouldn't be able to tell you.
I did experiment with different overlay textures for the frob highlights, but again, as they are just overlay textures, none of them looked very good at all, sadly.
Yup, the overlay looks like absolute crap in TDS.
To answer the question of the previous poster...that's just what TDS does with the altered frob hilight...it kind of gets stuck on in weird situations.
I too tried to work out something different for the frob hilight. Kind of came close. If anyone knows how to write a shader file, you might actually be able to do it. I think the frobbing system uses a shader called Membrane...this is also shared with a few different systems in the game, I renamed the Ambient shader to Membrane and tried that, and the items did light up slightly...but it was glitchy as hell.
Basically, someone would need to write a shader that could force the texture on the item to jump to fullbright. I doubt the other systems could be decoupled, so there would be side effects. Still, it would look a hell of a lot better.
inselaffe on 12/1/2008 at 20:39
D'you know what else (if anything) uses membrane then? Hopefully nothing, or at least nothing major.
That would be a major improvement if possible, yer :)
New Horizon on 12/1/2008 at 20:47
Quote Posted by Dan Knott
D'you know what else (if anything) uses membrane then? Hopefully nothing, or at least nothing major.
That would be a major improvement if possible, yer :)
Lets see. If I recall, I think the patients in the Shalebridge use the membrane shader too. I don't know if it's possible, but maybe the membrane shader is listed in the executable in several places...if the one for the frob routine was switched to something called zembrane, and a corresponding shader could be created that would simply fullbright the frobbed objects texture, then maybe that would work. I don't know a lot about shaders though, so I have no idea if this would work.
jtr7 on 12/1/2008 at 21:06
Would that include the glimmer effect on the Staff, as well?
michaelg on 12/1/2008 at 21:13
Mr. Horizon. I'm glad to see you visiting this post. :D
I still don't understand the difficulty thing though. What is the difference between the various playstyles? Cutpurse, Assassin, Thief and Ghost? If the AI is the same as you say, for all 3?
Thanks. Oh and I still can't figure out the new lockpicking. Any tips on how to do that?
New Horizon on 12/1/2008 at 23:27
Quote Posted by michaelg
Thanks. Oh and I
still can't figure out the new lockpicking. Any tips on how to do that?
The idea behind playstyles is to change the conditions of the thieving...rather than simply change the sensitivity of the AI. AI sensitivity in the playstyles are all the same. Read your objectives for the different playstyles...they change to reflect the playstyle you have chosen.
What type of issues are you having with lock picking? It's the same as before...but without the redundant GUI.
Closely watch and listen. Slowly move your mouse in clockwise or counter clockwise semi-circular motions. When the picking sounds find the sweet spot, the hands move into a fixed position...then you just hit the mouse button to unlock the tumbler in the lock. Some people simply slide their mouse around and never click the button to finalize the picking sequence, perhaps that is where you're running into trouble?
Describe how you pick.
inselaffe on 13/1/2008 at 00:00
hmm i dunno what those are as i've only played the demo (still stuck on thieves guild so not even got past t1 yet and i don't even think i have installed it properly on this pc atm :( but i must get back to thief, yes :) )
michaelg on 13/1/2008 at 04:11
I'm picking the same way I did prior to your mod. I think the issue is I don't have the visual clue anymore so getting confused. I actually just finished a mission and back at my apartment, so I'll do some practicing there until I get it.
Fine work by the way and looking foward to the Dark Mod as well. Between your mod and John P's texture pack the game really does seem much more Thiefy and looks great as well.
