Thief 4 vs. The Dark Mod - by Bulgarian_Taffer
Renault on 3/6/2009 at 04:18
Quote Posted by Tainted
On one hand its a shame the regular stuff, such as the Builder and the Keepers and their related mythos cannot be directly replicated and built upon
Of course it can. It's understandable that the creators of TDM won't use official Thief names and places, but there's nothing to stop someone who creates a fan mission from (for instance) calling their main character Garrett and/or calling the "Builders" Hammerites. It looks like there will be a matching TDM faction for each faction in the Thief games, so FM authors can go either traditional Thief or TDM's alternate Thief world.
belboz on 3/6/2009 at 04:27
plugs in popcorn machine.:thumb:
sparhawk on 3/6/2009 at 10:05
Quote Posted by Tainted
I think the Dark Mod's departure from the original canon due to not wanting to violate Eidos' IP is both a bad thing in a small way, and a good thing in a major way.
I think you are right on that, thoguh I mean it a bit differnetly you may think. :)
First of all I like the medieval setting quite a lot and the original Thief had exactly that atmosphere that was appealing to me (which TDS had not to me). However, the aspect of sneaking around, not playing like a shooter is also what I really like. That's why I often played a sniper when playing RtCW. I also like to play Sniper Elite, because it has some quality to the gameplay, which is a big part of the Thief gameplay. As a sniper you are acting very much like a Thief. You have to sneak around, finding a good spot where you can make your kill and then vanish without leaving evidence. I always like it when other games have at least part of that stealth incorporated. With TDM as a framework, you can easily creaet completely different games than a Thief setup. Of course you would have to create your own textures and models and so on, but at least the basic framework is already there. So I would love to see some different take on the stealth aspect and maybe somebody will take up that challenge and produce a mod based on TDM with a totally different setup. When I look at commercial games, they seem to focus rather much on shooting because that's state of the art and easy to do.
Quote Posted by Brethren
Of course it can. It's understandable that the creators of TDM won't use official Thief names and places, but there's nothing to stop someone who creates a fan mission from (for instance) calling their main character Garrett and/or calling the "Builders" Hammerites. It looks like there will be a matching TDM faction for each faction in the Thief games, so FM authors can go either traditional Thief or TDM's alternate Thief world.
Well, you are right that we can't stop anybody from doing that. But that anybody should be advised that it also means that he will have to face the consequences if anything happens. :p
Necros on 3/6/2009 at 15:19
Quote Posted by Bulgarian_Taffer
Which one will be better in your opinion?
Thief 4. Though it's just a guess because professionals are working on it, who love the game. But we know nothing about it, so I've only got hopes so far.
The Dark Mod looks good on the other hand.
Quote Posted by van HellSing
I could ask you the same. Look, maybe you're happy with EM giving us nothing but a ridiculous logo after two years of tease, but why do you expect me to be happy also? I'm bitter, I'm angry, I feel betrayed, I think the game has as much chance of being released as Duke Nukem Forever. OK?
:tsktsk: Pff, get over it already, you are boring, and annoying... :nono:
New Horizon on 3/6/2009 at 17:39
Quote Posted by Necros
Thief 4. Though it's just a guess because professionals are working on it, who love the game.
Professionals? As Spar eluded to earlier, that's a very loose term these days. Many of our members are paid professionals in their field too, they're just using those same skills in different fields of work outside the mod.
The only difference between a mod team and a 'professional' development team is that in a mod you have 15 people working in their free time vs. 40 to 60 people paid to develop a game full time who have access to some pretty high tech tools.
That being said...they're constrained by marketing research, perceived gaming trends, and the almighty dollar. A mod team is not. So while the paid professionals might deliver a nicer looking package, it doesn't necessarily mean it will be a better game.
lame slug on 5/6/2009 at 04:25
Having worked a bit on The Dark Mod (under the name sophisticatedZombie), I have to say that the biggest constraint mod developers face is free time. The amount of coding work that has had to go in to The Dark Mod might as well qualify it as a new engine.
So, while a modder has to press themselves to put in 45 mintues while their 2 year old chlld is asleep, a professional gets to put in 8 to 10 hours a day in an office with free coffee.
However, the modder does have the advantage of having absolutely no marketing executives within 1000 feet (unless the modder is themself a marketting executive, which would probably cause the universe to explode and cease to exist).
Also, a modding team can often be larger than a professional development team. Many proffessional projects have 4 or 5 programmers and 10 to 15 artists. A mod could potentially have an order of magnitude more in both departments.
By the way, hi Darkmod people. I've played the St Lucia demo and the mod has really come along. That was really cool. I'm sure most of the code I wrote has been replaced by now, but things look really good none the less :p. Sorry I dropped out, but my time got too filled. Still, maybe I could do some simple debugging if there are any bug reports lying around. I'll check in on the TDM forums.
Yandros on 5/6/2009 at 10:25
Well said, NH. And also, I think the assumption that the T4 developers love the game is not a known fact at this point. All we do know is that none of them worked on the first three games; we don't even know if any of them have even played the first three games.
codereader on 5/6/2009 at 12:09
Quote Posted by lame slug
By the way, hi Darkmod people. I've played the St Lucia demo and the mod has really come along. That was really cool. I'm sure most of the code I wrote has been replaced by now, but things look really good none the less :p. Sorry I dropped out, but my time got too filled. Still, maybe I could do some simple debugging if there are any bug reports lying around. I'll check in on the TDM forums.
SZ! Now that's a bit of a surprise to see you back. Hope you're well and everything. :)
Just drop by in our forums and say hello to the team - I'm not sure whether your account is still active, but if you have any freetime left to give, we might have one spare bug or two. ;) Things have changed a lot indeed since you left, I reckon, in many regards, but most changes are on the positive side.
belboz on 5/6/2009 at 18:21
free coffee, lucky bastards, i worked in an office once, the drinks were in a machine you had to put money in, although the money got changed to washers, when some one discovered that bypass.
New Horizon on 5/6/2009 at 18:33
Quote Posted by belboz
free coffee, lucky bastards, i worked in an office once, the drinks were in a machine you had to put money in, although the money got changed to washers, when some one discovered that bypass.
lol Yup, last time I worked in an office setting...nothing was free.
