THIEF 3 TFMs - TTLG Forums

trfan518 on 27/9/2006 at 20:44

anyone know if it is even worth it to look for Thief 3 TFMs...meaning are there a lot of them out there or is the selection bad...

thanks

nomad of the pacific on 27/9/2006 at 21:33

The selection, so far, is small, not bad. Some of them are very well done and well worth playing. There will never be as many as there are for T1 and T2, but you should be able to find some you'll enjoy.

ulbe001 on 28/9/2006 at 00:00

Definetly! There are plenty of FMs that's simply gorgeus to sneak through, and feature lots of good gameplay and design. Go for it!

redleaf on 28/9/2006 at 10:18

I've been away for a while and was curious about how T3 fan missions were coming along. I looked at Komag's site and found categories I've never seen in T1 and T2 fan mission charts: Dead, Alive, Mostly Dead -- I was really shocked at the number of 'Dead' missions listed. What's going on? Is the new engine so hard to work with? Anyone know about this?

Ziemanskye on 28/9/2006 at 13:20

Just time consuming and hard to plan around some of the quirks it throws around.

I think that for TDS at least there's still a lot of MyFirstLevel kind of things listed at ShadowDarkKeep, which then get canned in favour of something better thought out once the person has learnt to use the tools better.

And because it takes even longer to make a TDS level than a DromEd there's a higher level of dropping out because of real-world issues.

Rogue Keeper on 28/9/2006 at 14:52

Shadowkeep offers like 18 FMs here (http://www.shadowdarkkeep.com/fmarchive.htm) , unfortunately I can't see any ratings. Pity, because I usually DL only the best rated ones (like from 7 of 10 up). Here I am clueless, because I don't know which ones are worth playing.

Any tips?

Also, Ziemanskye, how much user friendly is the work with T3Ed? I suppose it shouldn't be more difficult than general UnrealEd, but perhaps it is?
I have minimal experience with DromEd and I stopped working with it as I didn't have much time to work with it, was annoyed by constant crashes and stuff, but perhaps T3Ed is more user friendly, especially towards nOObs in design?

I am just playing with an idea of doing some small mission for T3 without any new stuff added (save for texts in letters), so the inability to do some advanced scripting wouldn't be much of a problem. What do you mean by "quirks it throws around?"

Gestalt on 28/9/2006 at 16:49

I've got two or three listed as dead on there that were never really intended to be more than tests, so what Ziemanskye said.

Hyeron on 28/9/2006 at 17:03

Quote Posted by BR796164

Well, right now the following FMs have been rated 7 or more (according to GarrettLoader's Group Scores) :
The Crypt
All the world's a stage
The Bridge

Those who scored 6 are rather interesting though. Evicted, Lord Raven's Mansion, The Walk, Special Vintage, Starting from scratch.

Well, those are the highest rated ones. That doesn't mean there aren't other ones that might feel good to you though - I loved Impurities in the Mix and Krellek's Labyrinth, for example, though they only scored a little 5.

There you are.

GlasWolf on 28/9/2006 at 17:54

Quote Posted by BR796164

Also, Ziemanskye, how much user friendly is the work with T3Ed? I suppose it shouldn't be more difficult than general UnrealEd, but perhaps it is?
I have minimal experience with DromEd and I stopped working with it as I didn't have much time to work with it, was annoyed by constant crashes and stuff, but perhaps T3Ed is more user friendly, especially towards nOObs in design?

I am just playing with an idea of doing some small mission for T3 without any new stuff added (save for texts in letters), so the inability to do some advanced scripting wouldn't be much of a problem. What do you mean by "quirks it throws around?"

I found it relatively easy to pick up, and I'm a failed Dromeder with no previous experience of UnrealEd. I think a lot of UnrealEd guys were very frustrated because certain parts of it weren't carried across into T3Ed, such as the scripting language. Obviously never having seen it, I didn't miss it.

When Z says it takes longer, it's primarily to do with generating new content. If you stick with the static meshes that are already available then you could knock together a level fairly quickly. Just start off with Komag's tutorial and go from there.

Ziemanskye on 28/9/2006 at 21:48

I also say it takes longer simply because we have a higher detail level to work to, but yeah, new content is crippling.

And it's not just the lack of UnrealScript that gets to us, but thats really a different topic - in general terms it's just as easy to use as UnrealEd because that's more or less what it is.

It's just the game has a load of inconvenient limitations for things you can do (and have a sensible frame rate on) which aren't where you'd expect from Unreal. It's not Unreal, but that's still kind of the sticking point.

As for quirks, it's just things like not being able to (easily) add new textures/materials, or how quickly lighting can damage a scene or bleed through walls, how you can't do smesh-particles*, and how stairs and ramps have to be kept at such a shallow angle if you want the NPCs to get up/down them reliably - which can add a lot to the size/scale of an area if you don't plan for it correctly....

* - to the extent that how I expect it to work doesn't, and I haven't figured out to make it work yet