huginn on 8/10/2010 at 02:17

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Night blindness, pass me by!

When I play games, I play without the interface. Shoot without a targeting cursor, identify items by sight, figure out my own directions, judge my own invisibility. (Deus Ex was a true gem in this regard—every interface element toggleable.)

In particular, I find this essential in Thief: not only does the game stop condescending to me, but my night vision isn't ruined every time a "Save Completed" message pops up, or (worse yet) whenever I have a weapon or item equipped.

Accordingly, this mod removes all HUD elements except for held item visuals and stacks.


And, again, much as I love Thief, its loot pickup sound and item pickup sounds are jarringly out of place whenever I play.

I've replaced each sound with a less obtrusive, more realistic sound: for loot, the chink of coins; for items, the rustle of a cloak.


Packed as hierarchized RAR archive for easy selective installation.


Thief file available at (http://rapidshare.com/files/423754521/Thief_Huginn_compendium_20101007a.rar).

Thief II file available at (http://rapidshare.com/files/423754527/ThiefII_Huginn_compendium_20101007a.rar).

huginn on 8/10/2010 at 22:37

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Here you are:

(http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/96fa8bb309.jpg)
(http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/70217bf963.jpg)
(http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/0b8d16b05b.jpg)


I'd like to mention, too, one of the best textures for both Thiefs that I've come across: a steampunk compass rose. It's a pure joy to look at. I've uploaded it to (http://rapidshare.com/files/423927583/Thief_ThiefII_steampunk_compass.rar) because I can't remember which high-res texture pack I got it in. Not my work, just passing it on. Here's a screenshot:

(http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/a87c347177.jpg)


Also, I should point out that this mod does not (perhaps somewhat counterintuitively) prevent the "New Objectives" popup text from appearing. It seemed worthwhile to retain it to avoid confusing the audio cue with mission end. But I can provide a small additional file that drops the required file into your hierarchy. Let me know.

huginn on 10/10/2010 at 01:34

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My apologies. I was up playing Arkham Horror until 5:00 this morning ...


I do see your point. I'm afraid you've encountered my penchant for uncertainty (not randomness, uncertainty) in my gaming—I'd simply rather judge than be told. In my career designing games (tabletop, not computer) I've spent a large part of my time, and certainly expended the majority of my effort, implementing lifelike systems to replace the point-based (hitpoint, mana) systems I hate.

And although I may not be able to remove hitpoints from Thief, I can at least pretend they don't exist, in a way I can't when I'm playing other games. In Thief, I have control over my hitpoint loss, which then means that for purposes of immersion, hitpoints don't exist. So long as I don't drop from unreasonable heights or try hacking my way through the dead, I don't lose hitpoints. And that's a far cry from games like System Shock 2, for example, which is so focused on combat, with such a slim margin of life on Impossible difficulty, that I far prefer to watch my hitpoints than to drop into a festival of saving, loading, and reloading. My hatred for points notwithstanding, a save and load session isn't worth the time it takes to talk about it.

So, for example, in Deus Ex I drop the interface entirely—my time in Deus Ex isn't mostly fighting, and when I do fight, there so many entry points to each set of circumstances that my fighting is on my own terms, not in bottled-up little rooms or narrow, cramped corriders. In Gothic, however, though my avenues of approach are certainly more open to me than in System Shock, the gameplay is so very combat-focused—and believe me, no complaints here—that, again, it's not worth it to me to pretend my hitpoints don't exist. If a game assumes I'm going to be hacking my way through forests of wolves and snappers and worse, and particularly if that game assumes I'm going to be replenishing those vanishing hitpoints and mana points by eating red blueberries and raven herbs, then watching my hitpoints and mana points is just part of the bundle. But in Thief, where gameplay isn't about attrition, hitpoints and I part company. In Thief, I can pretend I don't have hitpoints. And I like that feeling—for me, the game completely ceases to be about surviving; instead, it's wholly about being a master thief.

But as I said, I do understand. And although I haven't yet put out a visible hitpoint indicator as minimalistic as the one you envision, I can recommend an alternative one that I've tweaked a little bit. Like the steampunk compass, it's a community release I came across years ago: a dark shield, to replace the bright white one (honestly, what was LG thinking?). I don't remember who released it, though I do believe it was a standalone release.

But as released, it was still rather bright—too bright for my tastes, at any rate. So I've darkened it quite a bit (see the screenshots below) and made it available at (http://rapidshare.com/files/424100265/Thief_ThiefII_dark_shield.rar).

(http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i408/HelsifrabFrumjeeling/dump005.jpg)
(http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i408/HelsifrabFrumjeeling/dump006.jpg)
(http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i408/HelsifrabFrumjeeling/dump008.jpg)
(http://i1092.photobucket.com/albums/i408/HelsifrabFrumjeeling/dump009.jpg)

jermi on 10/10/2010 at 15:13

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What's with the point sampled textures?

Goldmoon Dawn on 10/10/2010 at 18:59

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To me, the screenshots looked like good old software mode. :ebil: