No, not another "will there be thief4" thread, but... - by Flux
SubJeff on 14/4/2008 at 16:04
Co-op MP would necessitate tweaked AI numbers and function, goals and possibly even map structures. Undoubtedly it would require much more effort than SP with a tagged on MP. Still, it would be great if done right.
Gambit on 14/4/2008 at 16:32
Garrett´s story came into a perfect circle.
Stretching it would turn him into a soap opera, imho.
And there´s lot of potencial heroes:
-A prequel hero - Artemus (nobody told us he was always a saint)
-The little girl (grown up)
-A new thief who says he´s Basso´s nephew. (Get it...)
-A random newcomer - without any knowledge of Keepers/factions/City history
-A cyborg with a stealth BFG if they go for modern setting. Ok, erase that one...
CD Set on 14/4/2008 at 16:48
Quote Posted by Gambit
Garrett´s story came into a perfect circle.
Stretching it would turn him into a soap opera, imho.
And there´s lot of potencial heroes:
-A prequel hero - Artemus (nobody told us he was always a saint)
-The little girl (grown up)
-A new thief who says he´s Basso´s nephew. (Get it...)
-A random newcomer - without any knowledge of Keepers/factions/City history
-A cyborg with a stealth BFG if they go for modern setting. Ok, erase that one...
Well, the girl is probably our best bet, if the story doesn't continue with Garrett. While she was probably included in the final cutscene to have the story come full circle, she would probably play a significant role if Thief 4 was to be made.
jtr7 on 14/4/2008 at 17:02
Interjection before I forget...:
If there are fire elementals, and there are the four physical elements crystallizing, and the four physical elements (plus three) are worshipped (most notably by the Hand Brotherhood and cults), then...
Why not toss an air, or water, or earth elemental in once in awhile, where it wouldn't be entirely out of place?
Renault on 14/4/2008 at 17:05
It would be great if they did do a multiplayer, if it was something completely different and innovative, just like when LGS changed first person shooters into first person sneakers (actually, I hate that phrase, but can't think of anything different at the moment). :cheeky:
Instead of thieves and guards running around a level bashing each other, I'd be more interested in a scenario where:
-You compete against other thieves to get the most loot (guards would be cpu controlled).
-You compete against other thieves to rescue someone who's been kidnapped.
-Using rope arrows and/or other tools, the fastest person to the top of a tall building or structure.
-Best lockpicker (ok, that might be boring).
-A race across the thieves highway to get to a certain point or end goal.
-Most blackjacks without getting caught.
-A massive keyhunt with multiple paths.
-Efficiency - most time spent in the shadows trying to get to point X.
-Silence - least amount of noise made trying to get to point X.
Just ideas, I'm not the most creative person in the world, but something other than your typical deathmatch kill kill kill scenario would be refreshing.
SubJeff on 14/4/2008 at 17:36
Just about all your ideas amount to racing though and that is completely at odds with the Thief ethos.
MP should be Co-Op, 2 people helping each other achieve the same goal. or a CTF type Thief match. The problem is stopping it turning into a deathmatch.
nickie on 14/4/2008 at 17:41
Quote Posted by jtr7
How about taking established Thief game-mechanics--infiltration, disguise as a Hammer novice, eavesdropping and reading texts to learn about people and/or acquire new objectives, gathering information about an enemy's goals, etc.--and giving the player a mission that is about taking a job as a spy?
I wouldn't mind at all. The more I think about it, the more it seems to me that it's the gameplay (if I correctly understand the term - which probably I don't!!) that is important to me. I know that the story is vital to many but to me, I have to say again, Thief 1/2 was the first and only game I've played where I felt completely comfortable with what I was doing and how I was doing it. And that was not due to story or anything other than it was not an effort to 'play' it. Yes I had to work or seek help to complete stuff but that's not the same thing at all.
BUT hey, I've just been told that there was some kind of moderation to Garrett's TDS movement made which I'm going to search for because that would make a whole heap of difference. Found it, I think, the Minimalist Project.
jtr7 on 14/4/2008 at 19:18
Tell us how it works for you!
Okay, if the following is true enough:
Quote:
The earliest Sunglasses were created by holding clear lenses over smoke to darken them. These early ancestors of today's sunglasses weren't used for better vision, protection from the bright like of the sun or even to look cool. The earliest sunglasses were used by early Chinese judges so their eyes could not be seen and the people having their grievances heard couldn't tell which way a judge was looking or at who he was looking at as the sunglasses did their job and hid his eyes well. Considering the Sunglasses were made of pounded quartz and then held over a fire to collect soot, it is unlikely these earliest attempts at sunglasses actually allowed for any vision whatsoever.
The year 1430 brings the earliest mention of Sunglasses with the Italians being credited with their creation. These secondary creations in the sunglasses line were more suited for actually being able to see and were still used by the Chinese judges to hide their eyes during court proceedings.
In the mid-1700's the first specialty Sunglasses were introduced. They were heavy with tinted lenses that laid upon clear lenses. The first sunglasses were available in either green or blue glass. It was believed that the tinted glass of the sunglasses would cure a myriad of maladies, including near-sightedness and failing eyesight caused by degeneration of the optic nerve.
Sunglasses were basically unchanged until the early 1900s brought some strides in the development of tinted lenses. 1919 saw the birth of the Foster Grant Company and the first Foster Grant Sunglasses appeared in Atlantic City ten years later. Shortly after that, Edwin Land who was the inventor of high speed photography and the founder of the Polaroid Company, had an idea based on his polarizing celluloid laid upon lenses. The result was a glare-free sunglasses lens.
And we see glasses, telescopes, lighthouse beacons, and lensgrinders, why not dark lenses for a group of AI working in a brightly-lit area, or as a foil for flashbombs (like Cavador's mask against gas arrows)? If AI were made more human-like (vision cone in the head, not the abdomen), they could leave the lit area and step into a darker area where they have to remove their glasses to see. During the brief moment the AI's glasses are on in the darker corridor, the player can knock the AI out (unless the alertness level is heightened), or the player can sneak by.
PC: "Great...hardly any shadows, and I've got to get that [item]."
RavynousHunter on 14/4/2008 at 19:34
I'd like a more modern engine, for sure. Not that the Dark Engine doesn't allow for large levels (ok, medium by today's standards), but I'd like to have an editor that can produce cities, the size you find in, oh, Sin's Creed. Look at Damascus, that city was huge!!
That kind of size would be wonderful for some Guild Wars inspired FMs I've been thinking about (like raiding Gandara or Kaineng City). Though I could feasibly do it with DromEd, it would be better if I could have larger limitations than those imposed by DromEd and the Dark Engine.
New Horizon on 14/4/2008 at 20:27
Quote Posted by RavynousHunter
That kind of size would be wonderful for some Guild Wars inspired FMs I've been thinking about (like raiding Gandara or Kaineng City). Though I could feasibly do it with DromEd, it would be better if I could have larger limitations than those imposed by DromEd and the Dark Engine.
If someone could find a way of removing the hard coding in Dromed, you could build levels as large as the computer system you're playing them on could handle.
I doubt you could see thief levels of such a large size though, unless it was the most brilliantly optimized piece of programming ever. The AI in a thief type game eat up a LOT of the processing power...as does the lighting and shadows of modern engines.
