Publishers are eying Thief again...

Beleg Cúthalion on 30/8/2007 at 20:06

@Brother Renault: Agreed. You lose suspense with too much freedom, by the way:

What troubles me a little is that all devs I have heared talking about Thief (especially the last interview with Randy Smith) do never mention those things I love about it like depth (all the readables), side stories, intelligent plot and so on (and last but not least the drama itself, artistically influences etc.). It's always about graphics, atmosphere (which appears to be created only by the graphics) and the amount of interactive objects in the enviornment.

Gambit on 30/8/2007 at 20:41

Well since Garrett seems to have his saga complete maybe the next character will probably be...

[SPOILER]The little girl that Garrett finds at the end of TDS. But now she has grown up.[/SPOILER]

That could be very cool.
And if you set the City in some years in the future you could even add more crazy technical stuff like what was availiable in Metal Age.

There could be very different areas.
The suburbia where the poor lives, and where you have your own house.
The abandoned streets, around a chatedral, where the dead walks freely.
The underground area, with hammerite temples and lost cities.
The noble area, with mansions, lot of loot but heavily guarded.
The faction areas: a forest for the Pagans, a military fortress for the Hammerites, the elemental towers for the mages, the secret cassinos for the thieves.
The tech area: This is where you find the tecnoweird stuff. Tesla posts, robots, video cameras, turrets, 386 computers with victorian design.

jtr7 on 30/8/2007 at 20:50

Well, it wouldn't be as free-roaming as one might think. The districts, walls, and city gates would hamper. If you had missions and objectives that forced you to hide, sneak, infiltrate, eavesdrop, follow AI unseen, avoid hostile AI you have to get past to get where you need to go, etc., you'd have your suspense. If the streets are tight and winding. If the shadows in dark corners are a few of the only places one can take a rest. The City shouldn't be wide open at all times, but amost fully explorable under certain circumstances dictated by the fact you are playing a game. It wouldn't just be a virtual world you wander in. Your character has to have a purpose. There should be consequences for not playing the game, but as long as you are meeting objectives you can choose how to go about it.

Maladict on 30/8/2007 at 21:12

I think you could still capture the feel of the mission/chapter setup of the older Thief games while still having the world be free roaming. TDS showed us what that is like but I think it could be done better.

RavynousHunter on 30/8/2007 at 22:01

I dunno though, the free-roaming option would be pretty neat, especially if the sections were walled off from eachother! I mean, imagine walking thru the streets, doing whatever, and you need to get to another section, but the portcullis or whatever is locked/guarded, well, fire a rope arrow up to a nice high motel or mansion or somethin, and vault over the wall, leaving no one the wiser. :thumb:

But what i want is a larger multitude of both movement options and weaponry/gadgets. Things like caltrops, tripwires, long/short/recurve bows, etc. Also, more interactivity between different gadgets, like have gas arrows/mines leave a cloud of flammable gas in their wake that can be set ablaze by something like a mine or fire arrow, or have someone trip over a tripwire, only to fall face-first into a field of caltrops. :ebil:

More possibilities, damn it! :mad:

jtr7 on 30/8/2007 at 22:23

For a thief? Or an assassin?:sly:

Beleg Cúthalion on 30/8/2007 at 22:32

By the way, have you seen that Assassin's Creed demonstration where they climb from one church tower to a minarett? That's an impressive amount of freedom and a large city section. But I fear that game's going to be another look-at-our-briliant-physics-features-show...something I would definetely NOT appreciate with a Thief IV.

failure2comply on 30/8/2007 at 22:53

I think part of the reason why Oblivion doesn't "really" work for thieving is due to the fact that the AI can't hear sounds or hear you knock over stuff and things like that. Also, the game itself is not geared for thieves, so the quests and tasks and other story elements don't quite fit in. It's still a decent effort, but if the game engine were designed on purpose for thieving and the story revolved around that, it would be pretty damn cool. Especially if large bodies of water were present, ridable horses, traps, disguises, fences, scalable walls, "enterable" trap doors and windows, foggy graveyards, etc.

The Oblivion engine would suck for Thief I think, but if it were revamped to include those previous elements (and they got rid of that fucking bloom), then I think it might be good.

Gambit on 30/8/2007 at 23:41

Quote Posted by failure2comply

(and they got rid of that fucking bloom)

Bloom ? What is it ? :confused:

SubJeff on 31/8/2007 at 00:33

Google? What is it?