No, not another "will there be thief4" thread, but... - by Flux
Gambit on 29/4/2008 at 11:34
I took puppets seriously in that game.
In fact I took it TOO seriously.
And for the HUD, yes simplicity is better. But no need for too much explanation, it´s one of those parts where we need suspension of disbelief.
SubJeff on 29/4/2008 at 12:53
Quote Posted by Beleg Cúthalion
Can anyone please prove for me that fancy HUDs are a feature of console games?
By necessity they tend to be larger and more intrusive because you play on a tv not a monitor.
New Horizon on 29/4/2008 at 13:00
Quote Posted by Beleg Cúthalion
Can anyone please prove for me that fancy HUDs are a feature of console games? I don't have any console and I believe most of the Thief gamers have none either, that's why I always considered the argument that TDS's HUD was console-like to be rather doubtful.
You know... the
"anything I saw in TDS was ridiculous and not to be taken seriously" way of putting things... :rolleyes:
This doesn't apply so much with the new generation of higher res gaming consoles, especially with more and more people buying huge TV's. At the time of TDS however, they had to design the hud to be visible on the widest variety of viewing devices. That meant a large hud and big scrolling gears due to the lack of a keyboard. Console gamers had to be able to see what weapons were 'before' and 'after' their current weapon.
I remember seeing some abandoned setting somewhere in TDS for a Minimal Hud, but they no longer work..I tried tracking it down but it seems to have been stripped out..the team dropped it to focus on a single hud.
I owned several consoles over the years, and have since played many of the new ones. TDS was absolutely a victim of console design. It's painfully obvious. You can remain doubtful if you wish, but there are even comments by previous devs...either here or in interviews where they discuss the HUD design having to favor the console market.
Beleg Cúthalion on 29/4/2008 at 19:27
Thanks; that's basically what I expected, but I didn't think it was too much out of place. To see which items come next is not too bad, left aside that there are hotkeys as usual. Anyway, back to work. :)
Chade on 29/4/2008 at 22:37
Quote Posted by New Horizon
Console gamers had to be able to see what weapons were 'before' and 'after' their current weapon.
PC gamers also found it quite helpful ...
The overall size of the console I can understand (not that it was
that big), but I doubt seeing which item was before or after the current item was intended specifically for console players.
jtr7 on 29/4/2008 at 23:36
The problem is the gears, not the items. Remove the gears. How much time was spent conceiving and implementing the gears? If the items were too small for small displays than make the items bigger, don't frame them.:erg:
Goldmoon Dawn on 30/4/2008 at 18:46
Quote Posted by jtr7
As I've said earlier, since the player has the light gem on the screen at all times, it's a constant reminder of real life because there is a HUD, and the immersion isn't as deep as it could be.
Yeah but ya know, I don't know. There was something very comforting and alluring to the light gem in the earliest days. Nothing quite like running your ass off to somewhere "safe" and seeing the light gem dip into darkness. The only time you *really* notice the gem is when you are lit up anyways! Come on now... In a shadow the gem virtually disappears. :ebil: (always and only Dark Project remember)
jtr7 on 30/4/2008 at 19:10
Absolutely!:cool:
New Horizon on 30/4/2008 at 19:49
Quote Posted by jtr7
The problem is the gears, not the items. Remove the gears. How much time was spent conceiving and implementing the gears? If the items were too small for small displays than make the items bigger, don't frame them.:erg:
Very true. The entire hud was made under the idea of more is better. You have the weapons with a gear around them, then they put a glowy blue patch behind the whole thing to make it stand out even more.
That big, clunky hud drove me crazy. When I was still working on the minimalist project, I remember lying in bed...somewhere between sleep and consciousness...when suddenly the solution to the hud popped into my head. It was so easy. I simply stacked all the weapon icons and item icons on top of each other, and set all the icons below the one that was selected to some crazy high number off in the distance behind it. Gave the illusion of how the classic hud worked. When you set the icon so far away, it quickly popped into view...no scaling or anything. It was a new frontier of game hacking for me.
jtr7 on 30/4/2008 at 20:56
:cool:
