Raen on 24/11/2004 at 04:12

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Well folks, after several long and painstaking years in development, I'm really pleased to announce that today, Thief 2X: Shadows of the Metal Age has reached an official beta. Thanks to Gonchong, the last of our 13 huge missions is all set for a final countdown of bugfixing. Most of the other 12 maps have undergone significant bugfixing and revision already, so it's only a matter of time before they're fully polished and ready to go.

As you guys know there has just been a huge array of people who have contributed to the project over time - over 60 in all - and now about twenty of us are cranking away on the last remaining tasks. Thanks to the efforts of all you guys in the community who have dedicated time to us, we have hundreds of new objects and textures, dozens of new AI meshes and skins, countless 2D and 3D ambient sounds, cutscenes, briefings, automaps, brand new inventory and weaponry, a myriad of customizations, and almost 3000 recorded lines of dialogue... as well as of course a new main character, entirely new settings, new factions, and a fluid, gripping narrative that unfolds the whole way through. The scope of the project is simply huge, and is presently larger than Thief 1 in terms of raw data. It's grown larger than any of us could have possibly imagined in these past few years, and it's amazing that people from the community have continued to pour in to help us out and to support us from afar. The initial idea behind the project was always to make LGS proud of what we could do, and thanks to everyone's hard work, I think we will more than meet that goal.

What's left to do you ask? Well we have a ton of bugs to fix, but those should go smoothly, and DeC has written us a great custom bug database for the task. Avalon, Fett, DeC, Gonchong, and myself will be testing internally and grinding those down. Our cutscene team - Zombeh, Joss, and Saturnine - are hard at work on our last (4th) cutscene. There's some remaining briefing art being worked on by Dragon Dust, Randall E., Dan Staton, Psi Yamaneko, and Broken Arts, and the briefings are still being assembled by Goldfish. Addink has been slaving on our meta-game interface, and Mudshovel (aka Phantom) is working tirelessly on our player arm. John P. has been doing some fantastic last minute texture additions for us. Keeper Crimson and Stringgod have been doing last minute audio touch-ups. Did I leave anyone out? I hope not :)

We're running full steam ahead, and with a continued push we should have things all tied together in time for a winter release. It's a really exciting time for us, and I hope you guys can remain patient just a little longer - it'll be worth the wait.

Stay tuned for a (http://www.thief2x.com) website update shortly.

-The T2X Team

Vlad Midnight on 24/11/2004 at 04:21

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Whats the distribution process for this campaign :eek: Sounds like to me it wont even fit on a single CD-R. Split it into 30 or so chuncks and release a little at a time? :confused: :idea:

Oh yeah :erm: GREAT NEWS :thumb:

harley on 24/11/2004 at 04:40

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Great news. I can't wait!!!

I'm sure there will be some people that may need help with distribution of this if it's that big. I have offered in the past and will still try to help some out(free) if needed. I replied to this so maybe it could be dusted off and used if needed! :D

(http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1009867#post1009867)

Count me in again!!

New Horizon on 24/11/2004 at 05:10

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It's fantastic to hear that the project is nearing completion. I'm looking forward to hearing those lines that I recorded, 3 years ago, ingame.

Griffin on 24/11/2004 at 06:40

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Oh boy, we're supposed to get snow on Friday...that means Winter, right!?
:cheeky:

Congrats to all of the so very many involved in this terrific project. It must feel great to be seeing that light at the end of the tunnel.