Dev_Anj on 8/2/2015 at 03:43
I've noticed that a lot of fan missions feature Garrett, even when the voice acting is clearly different, or Garrett doesn't have much reason to be there. I know that many people here like Garrett, but couldn't authors think of making other characters too? I would absolutely like to play as another thief who isn't that good at hiding in shadows for instance, but very fast and good at distracting people, a keeper who sneaks into important places to gather information rather than steal something, a spy who wears a disguise and infiltrates a remote village where something suspicious is happening. There could be many more(and better) ideas that could be explored without involving Garrett.
Oh, and I don't mind if Garrett takes on these roles, I just wanted to know why there aren't more new characters we can play as.
DarkMax on 8/2/2015 at 03:50
Check "A Debt Repaid", a mission featuring Basso or "Anna to the Rescue". Both are pretty good.
SneakyGuy101 on 8/2/2015 at 04:02
not really sure? I guess it must just be a natural instinct for most of us FM authors. It's pretty funny though how most of us just stick to Garrett even though there are already so many different individual storylines in Fm's with Garrett :laff: But there have been a good number of missions with someone other than Garrett. The one most known for this would be Thief 2X :)
Dev_Anj on 8/2/2015 at 05:05
Quote Posted by DarkMax
Check "A Debt Repaid", a mission featuring Basso or "Anna to the Rescue". Both are pretty good.
I know there are fan mission with characters other than Garrett, I just want to know why there aren't more of them.
Mofleaker on 8/2/2015 at 05:18
It's just easier. Garrett is a voice set which comes prepackaged into DromEd, so it's much easier to use than fiddling around with custom stuff and worrying about voice actors. If you want another character you have to go to the trouble of re-recording every sound of pain, every sound of exertion, plus the actual lines you plan to have them say.
As for the people who have access to good voice talent, I don't know. You always run the risk of creating an annoying protagonist, so again it's probably just easier.
GORT on 8/2/2015 at 05:20
Well, for one thing, most authors may need to get a hold of a voice actor for that character. That could take time since that one author isn't the only one that might need voice actors. Take me for example. I'm not only just having Garrett in TROTB 2. I also have the character Saria that people will play. For that character, I needed a voice actor to perform not just that conversation line but also that actions for in-game play-through. This takes time. The nice thing about keeping it with Garrett is that most of the voice acting is already there. That's probably one of the reasons why a good deal of the FMs out use Garrett.
But hey, this is just my opinion. :p
@ Mofleaker
Ah, ya beat me to it...
Ricebug on 8/2/2015 at 23:06
I'll probably catch some flak for this. When I fired up T2X, playing a young girl felt like I was playing with my sister's Barbie doll. If done right, Garrett's world is painted on a gritty, dark canvas. I suppose that's why most authors stick to that motif.
GUFF on 9/2/2015 at 02:13
The T2X character does start out seeming really unfitting and while I think the girl who did the voice did a good job early on in the story when she's supposed to be more naive I don't think she really portrays the change the character is supposed to be undergoing very well. As a concept though it's a pretty cool character.
Play Dark Mod if you want characters that aren't Garrett, though. Few are voiced but sometimes they are: Example, a couple? (or at least one) of the Thomas Porter series. Lich Queen's Demise for sure has that. Other missions I remember from TDM are The Gatehouse, and Ulysses: Genesis. All good missions. Dark Mod I think captures the gritty visual effects even better than the original thief. It does for the entire mod for the most part what DrK did in Rocksbourg missions.
Xorak on 9/2/2015 at 03:00
I like your ideas of a thief capable of different things, i.e. one who can pick locks well but is bad at staying hidden, (or even a single mission containing numerous thief PCs each with a different skillset and you use these thieves' in different ways to solve the mission,) but the problem is that unless implemented very well you just end up confusing and angering players, since all that stuff requires a huge amount of scripting and testing and balancing to pull off. Then on top of that, it requires the ability to implement those concepts into possible situations in the game, so that all the work done in changing the core mechanics of the game is actually worthwhile enough that players need to use the new mechanics and want to use the new mechanics.
For instance, it's tough to design a thief who can't hide in shadows but can run faster, when all it means is that you can easily outrun any guard that chases you, and you can easily then slip past guards before they 'spot' you.
Plus if the character isn't voiced, you can pretend to be whoever you want to be. Many missions make no direct reference to Garrett at all.
JarlFrank on 9/2/2015 at 06:39
Despite what many here said, I can remember a handful of FMs that feature a different protagonist than Garret, often using the same grunting sounds for climbing and getting hurt etc. There's Sensut's Dracula campaign, and the intro and outro missions of his Bathory campaign, where you play an adventurer in the Carpathians. In the rest of the Bathory campaign you even have a female character with all-new voices. There is a mission by Ottoj55 (I think that was the author's name, don't remember the mission title) where you play as Basso and you are worse at hiding than Garrett. In the Hammerite Imperium mission you play as a Hammerite apprentice. Thief 2X has been mentioned already.
I am certain there are others I don't remember, or that I haven't played yet. But Garrett is just the default thief, and he's an interesting and likeable character, and we know him. Most missions don't need to invent a new character - robbing a mansion, breaking into ancient crypts, exploring primordial ruins, stealing from a museum, robbing a bank, these are all things Garrett has done and will do as long as Thief FMs are made. Why create a new character if the mission goal is something our good old Garrett would likely attempt?
The only occasions when it's actually worth having a different player character is when you want to tell a story about a specific kind of character, have a different setting, or want there to be different skills: like in that mission with Basso where your sneaking ability is weaker, or Sensut's Carpathian missions that play in our real world so Garrett would make no sense (and the Bathory campaign's story depends on you playing as lady Bathory!), or Hammerite Imperium that is set years before Garrett is even alive and also tells a story that would make no sense with Garrett. T2X offers the perspective of a different character on the events of The Metal Age.
So, that's it. The default thief is Garrett, and he's a suitable character for 99% of FMs. Those FMs that want to tell a story which wouldn't fit to Garrett use a different character, those that either don't care about story and just want to give you a nice place to loot, or have the story focus on NPCs and/or the location you explore, just use Garrett because why not use Garrett? Nothing would be gained by renaming the player character unless you have a reason for it.
