Unkillable Cat on 11/9/2014 at 15:55
I like missions that reward ingenuity. Thief is a thinking man's game after all, and being able to approach and solve a problem in several different ways is always a positive factor for me. Obviously the exact opposite just ticks me off, especially the ones that punish ingenuity. One memorable example (in an unnamed FM) required that the player enter a certain room in a mansion. The author clearly intended for players to go through the key hunt scenario he had created for this purpose, but several players (myself included) noticed that it was possible to reach the same room via the roof and skip a large chunk of effort. So the author put up invisible walls in mid-air to block the roof access. Jerk.
Speaking of key hunts, they're one of those things that are fine if they're done correctly. But it's so easy to build a MegaMansion with 4 billion rooms and then have all but one of the doors locked and tasking the player with finding 3.999.999.999 keys hidden around the place to get anywhere. No one likes that.
Probably the biggest design decision that I hate these days is the "Everyone has an audiolog" trope. The System Shock games started this trend as a means to convey information and exposition to the player instead of putting effort into building a system to talk to other game characters. The Thief games have done this as well, but the problem is that Thief has audiologs as written-down pieces of paper, and far too often the information within is completely inappropriate for the medium. Far too many FM authors fail miserably at this. Readables should make sense. If a player find a letter, it's logical to assume that they're only reading half of a conversation, and that the letter doesn't have everything spelled out for them. A barely literate thug does not write down on a piece of paper that he fancies his female boss in an audiolog style, and then leaves it somewhere where others can find it (especially the aforementioned boss).
The final point I would like to mention, and this completely runs against what Azaran said earlier in the thread, are Thief missions that completely replace all the original Thief assets with custom-made ones, so that next to nothing remains of the original game. I like the original assets, and I'm content with HD versions of them. But some FM authors replace EVERYTHING with custom-made assets as if they're afraid of getting sued by Eidos, which completely robs the FM of the so-called "Thief charm". More often than not I can't be bothered to play these FMs through, that's the effect they have on me.
Ricebug on 11/9/2014 at 16:02
I always wonder about the No-Kill goal and then you have 30 broad heads in your start inventory and 6 foot lockers with more arrows and such. "Well, those are for the lesser difficulties." Then put something else in there for the No-Kill difficulty!
I dislike missions with no loot lists, because it usually means I have to write one for the walkthrough. :p
ZylonBane on 11/9/2014 at 18:01
Quote Posted by zappen
Eternal pickpocketing on doors or footlockers where no AI is nearby who could disturb the player.
Hey, I enjoy the challenge of pickpocketing doors. You never know when it might turn around and catch you.
margotbean on 12/9/2014 at 07:04
Quote Posted by Ricebug
I dislike missions with no loot lists, because it usually means I have to write one for the walkthrough. :p
AMEN to that!! If I don't find
all the loot in a mission, I
must replay it until I do! :P
I agree with what's been said already; my personal pet peeve is rooms that are too small, or too crowded with furniture so that I can't move around without mantling a chair. Similarly, I hate getting physically stuck on invisible barriers, like at the top of a staircase or in a doorway. I would beg FM authors to please make the rooms/staircases/doorways/tunnels bigger!
I also intensely dislike city missions with a lot of buildings and no map. Some have already said they love those kinds of missions... so there you go.
But if I had to choose one thing to say it would be this: MORE WINTER MISSIONS! I could spend all day just staring up at the night sky with snow falling. And running around hearing the snow crunch beneath my feet. More snow, more snow, more snow! :D
User 205 on 12/9/2014 at 11:27
Like:
Horror missions
New scenarios (like space...)
New textures and AIs
A sudden turn in the pacing of the FM (like the undead suddenly awake)
I especially like lost city, mansion, horror and pagan missions
Clever used jump scares
Letters that have no spelling errors
Easter eggs
Dislike:
Little switches, hidden switches
Overuse of a single AI (like Haunts)
Though enemy patrols
Hard to find items
backtracking
key hunts
hard puzzles
margotbean on 13/9/2014 at 07:26
*drool*
I will be watching for that one. It looks gorgeous!
skacky on 13/9/2014 at 13:00
I mostly like city and rooftop missions, especially when they feature non-linear progression with lots of side paths and side areas to visit. I'm an explorer at heart and I love to discover new areas. I prefer darker and gritty missions hence why I prefer Thief 1 overall (and missions made for it). I also like mansion missions, Heist Society and Conspiracies In The Dark being my favorites in that regard. Basically if the mission is interesting, has a cool theme with lots of things to discover there's a good chance I'll end up liking it. I love good atmospheric horror missions as well.
I dislike modern furniture and devices in FMs, they break suspension of disbelief for me. Same goes for references to the real world. I don't like overlong readables and I don't like puzzles very much either, especially when they are complicated for no reason. I tend to dislike keyhunts, especially when every door is locked and your lockpicks are absolutely useless. I dislike overlong lockpicking when there's no AIs in the vicinity to spot you. I also don't really enjoy forced ghosting even if I actually like ghosting; I like to have the choice. I don't like backtracking especially when new enemies are spawned in the meantime, I just find that lazy. And super hidden switches that are required to be found to progress irritate me a lot. Lastly I guess I don't like big and empty FMs. Building a big FM is fine but everything needs to have some purpose and a reason to be seen in the end.
fortuni on 15/9/2014 at 00:59
Quote Posted by User 205
Like:
Letters that have no spelling errors
a minor point i know, but a lot of authors are non-English speaking, so although i understand your frustration and it annoys me as well, it is a understandable problem, as by the time a mission get released so much work has gone into it, the readables are often a rather over-looked aspect of the body of work, annoying yes....criminal sin....i can forgive....:D
