@Nyarlathotep [asking how parkour style works], honestly the idea just occurred to me. laugh.gif I love watching those traceur videos on YouTube, and all the time it occurs to me that that would be an fun way to play Thief. I esp like that, if you read the stuff when the serious traceurs talk about it, it has an ethos to it ... efficiency, balance, being very much in touch with the environment around you. It sort of fits the Thief world (and my own personal ethos).

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Ok, complete OT tangent: As far as an actual playing style ... first, I don't think there's been an effort at developing a new playing style since like 2000, so it's sort of fun to even have the audacity to claim to be developing one. I suppose the most important thing would be to distinguish it from just a mere speed run. The thing I notice about parkour is that it's as much an art as a science. Ghosting is like a science. There are very clear rules you know when you've broken them. Parkour is about being creative and quick on your feet about negotiating whatever the situation is ... so too many rules sort of defeat the purpose.

What separates it from a mere speed run, I'd think ... Speed runs to me, while they are "fast", look clumsy. You are running diagonally and hopping and have advance knowledge. And it's about honing the same carefully pre-planned moves after dozens of trials where you're doing the same thing mechanically over and over. With parkour, you should be thinking on your feet, you should stay in motion and not be stopping for too long, you should still be trying to "properly" sneak, and not be seen if you can, but quickly, efficiently. With a speed run, you run by the guards it doesn't matter. With parkour style, you should stick to the shadows and not be seen unless it wastes a lot of time, but even if you go in a way you'll be seen, you should be doing it efficiently, in a way that best covers yourself. I'd think it's okay if a guard sees you, it should not be a break like ghosting. But you should run around them so they don't see you if you can. Or you need to efficiently evade them if you are caught until they are definitively no longer on your tail, so in that sense it's not like a speed run where the objectives are all that matters. I'd think it should be Ironman in that you shouldn't reload either; quickly resolve the mistakes you make.

Maybe, to try to crystallize the idea, and to keep its rule-less ethos, it's close to a speed run + efficient sneaking (quasi-ghosting), but you get points for style. If it's clumsy or mechanical looking, or you are deliberately ignoring the guards in the interest of pure speed, it doesn't count (for much), nor if you mechanically ghost it very slowly to avoid being seen at all costs. When another person watches it, they should see it when it's done well. You can have guards on alert, but they can never catch you or lay a weapon on you. But you should not put a guard on alert if it's at all possible to efficiently pass him. By "quasi-ghosting" I mean sneaking as efficiently and quickly as possible, not broken by a "rule" (you're seen), but by a "form" (it's ugly and inefficient, getting blatantly seen or mechanically ghosting). It's more like you're getting scored for style than a style that's either right or broken. You can be seen and still be scored well if it's more efficient and elegant to race by and evade than sneak by mechanically and slowly, but if you can ghost by him quickly and efficiently it's even better.

Now I'm going to try all of these ideas out in some OMs & FMs and try to work out how the style works. Then I'll boldly post on ThiefGen that I've developed the first new playing style in seven years and be showered with accolades as it sweeps the Thief-fan world by storm. Well, maybe not that last part...

I think, to the extent this style might be fun, it would be to fraps your run and post it on YouTube, and then ask people to rate you on your style and efficiency in doing the run.