Jump to content
The Dark Mod Forums

jdude

Member
  • Posts

    3961
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    3

Posts posted by jdude

  1. I never really had any opinion on the story's content, however I did enjoy the structure, like way it was told and its creativity. I liked how it wasn't the same old: "I need money for rent; I don't like X, so I'm going to frame him; There's a rich place I can rob to retire, I have an informant blah blah blah etc etc. ToSL's story was unique and well though out. I never found a spot where I thought it didn't make sense.

     

    Nbohr1more I think you should continue your criticism and you can PM me suggestions if you'd like. I will not take it personally at all; it will help make a stronger campaign. I love feedback.

  2. Posting from my phone:

     

    I dont tjink a sequel to ToSL would be a good idea it has a self contained vibe all over it and tbh it was small. As th original author of that map u can bet i paid a ton of attention to the feeback i read about it and u can expect much more and better from omens which i personally have been working om since the release of ToSL. The amount of time sunk into it at this point is why i dont think any future ofixial campaigns are possible. But even of it isnt offial i can guarantee just by ToSL and RTTC feedback that the Omen maps will blow everyone away from a detail, size, creative and architectual point of view.

     

    So hard to type on a phone!

     

  3. I guess bundling popular and well liked FMs with the mod right off the bat can help with this (which as I understand it is already starting to be done).

     

    I think those looking for an official campaign are looking more for a set of FMs to introduce them to the mod. I think it would help if the mod came with a campaign of some kind as something we would want the player to see first, even if it's not an "official campaign" or anything like that.

     

    If there is a very urgent pressing need for TDM to have an "official" set of missions or a story, I don't see much harm in picking out some well-liked mission series, calling them "official", and bundling them with the mod (with permission from the FM authors of course). If some players want a set of characters to relate to or use then the current collection of FMs has at least a couple of those that could be used in such a way.

     

    I don't either, but I doubt the rest of the team would agree with me lol.

     

    I like the idea of having more of the top FMs released with the game though. We could even take it a step further and help create some nice graphics for the intro to set the tone for the mission. But that comes down to man power, which I think the original mappers would probably be happy to help with. Just an idea. :)

     

    You could put a color-coded 1-10 rating number on the webpage & in-game download list (hopefully with number of voters also to know how significant it is), and even better if you can vote for a rating right in-game as part of the Stat Screen, like Garrett-Loader. I was just noticing the Garrett Loader list of ratings as a very helpful thing to look at when faced with the giant list of T2 FMs.

     

    I think that would be the most ideal, however I have no idea how difficult it would actually be to implement that.

  4. Crucibles of Omens is not an "official" campaign any more than No Honour Among Thieves was. It's a very ambitious project by four TDM mappers that I would love to see succeed. But I think relying on it to solve anything is not a good idea.

     

    For the record, I didn't post the original picture to provoke some kind of "sky is falling" discussion. I just like to share accurate information when I have it.

     

    So we should rely on what exactly? I don't mean to sound like I'm attacking you: do we have any plans at all to increase playership or are we going to just keep doing what we are doing and relying on the same people to keep creating maps?

     

    I could potentially see the stand alone helping.

     

    And tbh: TDM will never have an official campaign which is part of this mod's problem.

     

     

    I'm for any sorting function to display which maps are good and which are not. It would at least be a step in the right direction if an editor did it.

  5. Maps are TDM's only content. Without maps, TDM is like an empty library.

     

    Which is the problem. Additionally we don't even rank high with ease of use in terms of how a player would find a good map. A new player may download a crap map and give up after that impression. The game feels disjointed because of a mixed bag of quality, themes and quality. Let's not forget Thief1 and 2 had solid campaigns behind them that inspired people. If we want to be like Little Big Planet we should at least do more than host the maps.

     

    Every time a new mission is released, it provides a consumable for the TDM audience. At best, it triggers walkthrough videos, mission reviews, and posts about TDM in gaming forums. All of these increase TDM's profile and can introduce new people to the mod.

     

    At a minimum, it feeds our existing fanbase and gives the impression that the community is still strong. It gives people a reason to let TDM keep taking up space on their hard drives.

     

    A strong community is the most important factor in gaining new mappers, I would submit. If mappers are going to spend months of hard work, they want to know that their effort is going to be appreciated by a good-sized audience. A thriving community gives that impression.

    This is true, however it isn't good enough to prevent stagnation. We should review our forum registrations and see when we had our highest number of new registrants and what events were taking place when that happened. I can't do this, I'm not an Admin. We should also review how many TDM downloads we were getting and during which TDM events. This would remove any guessing about what drives new players to TDM.

     

    I would also question just how important the factor of a "good" community is in attracting mappers. I was personally not attracted to TDM by the community at all, I was attracted because I liked mapping from my previous experience mapping for halflife 1 and I liked thief 1. I'd argue a good community keeps mappers, but doesn't attract mappers.

     

    TDM is not just a toolset anymore and people should stop calling it that. It's a game library. With the built-in downloader, it is dead-easy to download and play missions. The only downside is that new players could easily have a bad first experience if they download one of the poorer-quality maps. This should be fixed in 1.08, however, now that the updated St. Lucia will be automatically downloaded along with the training mission. This should guarantee that players have a strong introduction to TDM gameplay and storytelling.

     

    Although I agree with you this will be better in 1.08, the reality is there are only two default missions, it's not that much.

     

    I also agree with you about the downside to our system. But that is a big downside, see above.

     

    Although I don't think a "Game Library" is an attractive name, it sounds better than a "Toolset." Have we renamed our content so we no longer refer to ourselves at a "Toolset?"

  6. The question is, will it reach new players and new people who will take up editing, or are the signals simply lost in the dark?

     

    I think if we rely on doing what we are currently doing now, the answer will be no. Even if the campaign or really good maps are released, the information will spread just as it always has to the same people who do not actively play TDM right now. TTLG, thief blogs, MODDB etc. There's no new market there.

     

    What I have always wanted to see is to have some I-celebrities talk about us. For example if Carmack mentioned us in his blog, if the Yogscast did a play, if Yahtzee did a play, if we got into PC Gamer etc. But the biggest issue is, the mod right now has no official gameplay because it's a toolset. It needs to be messaged as a full game people can play, because no average person would want to spend time downloading and setting up a toolset. The idea of playing one map at a time is honestly not appealing unless you've already been a fan on Thief. This is where I think the campaign may break some new ground and why I've nagged everyone on the team for one for so long.

     

    If you can download TDM, play a campaign, decide you like the game, then you are much more likely to try random one map missions. Otherwise it just wont penetrate mainstream or new markets imo.

     

    I'd love to get into this more and try and help out but I'm busy atm with other priorities, including tdm priorities.

     

    TL;DR Maybe ;)

  7. That was my first thought too. Having to get a new sign every time someone dies or has a baby must become quite expensive in the long run.

     

    I think we found the solution to the State's fiscal crisis. CUT ALL SIGN PRODUCTION!

  8. If it is as awesome as Diablo 2 was then I will be getting it, but I'll be waiting for a bit before diving in, since D2 was so addictive.

     

    However,if it is as a let down as SC2 was compared to SC1 I don't think I'll pony up the 60 bucks.

     

    It will be hard to tell though! I'm sure all the reviews will say it's awesome.

  9. To put it in perspective, I played Thief Gold when it first came out and I was young, it was amazing, immersive, scary, interesting and all believable.

     

    Thief 2 came out and my computer wouldn't run it, fast forward 10 year after forgetting about Thief's existence and then playing Thief 2, I wanted to experience the same originality. Crazy new places, new characters, new themes, big adventures etc but T2 didn't really feel as epic as T1 for me. Plus the surveillance cameras and robots felt out of place for me and unbelievable. Kind of like Thief DS' eye. It made me think, okay this makes sense, but it's out of place and feels kind of dumb. (On a side note I think our robots are way better and more believable than T2's)

     

    Memorable T1 moments:

    Thief 1's first mission, finding the entrance to the mansion

    The first time I played the second map I was scared out of my mind and got lost in the caverns

    The Bone Horde scared the crap out of me and I got lost in there as well

    Thieves guild, the rag tag slapped together atmosphere

    The Sword's crazy mansion

    The Haunted cathedral which also scared the crap out of me

    Getting lost in the Lost City

     

    These levels were all amazing, I spent hours on each and loved them.

     

    In Thief 2, I remember most of all:

     

    The unexpectedness of Trail of Blood (which was neat but looked awful)

    The massiveness of Life of the Party

    The interesting environment of Precious Cargo

     

    It just 'felt' different for me. Age was definitely a factor but I still think Thief 1 was cooler even after revisiting both recently the last couple years :) Thief 2 just never really did it for me, due to it having less emphasis on crazy, original and interesting environments.

  10. Yes yes yes! So I'm not the only that thought halflife 2 wasn't all that fantastic!?

    Halflife 1 was awesome, it had a lot of cool concepts and ideas and HL2 just did away with them keeping some popular material which was horrible imo. They don't even seem like the same game if you think about it. (Where was Xen and the Xen creatures, the sci-fi aspect etc etc.) It just ended up feeling like a conservative boring Hollywood movie.

     

    Others include:

    Dues Ex HR - Couldn't even finish it.

    Thief 2 - Loved Thief 1

    Red Orchestra 2 - Would be awesome if it worked

     

    Pretty much anything made by ID after Quake 2.

  11. The cheaper mp3 players tend to have FM radios. Plus I can't tell any quality difference between and expensive ipod and a cheap 20 dollar mp3 player. The quality is in the headphones.

     

    I have a Samsung MP3 player from 2005 which I still use to this day. It has 512mb, enough for me to load up any music I like, an FM radio AND a flashlight! lol

     

    100865_TYI082_pbilimage1.jpg

    8 years and it keeps on truckin.

  12. I've just skimmed through this thread and many of the posts but basically I'm hearing discussion about should we be focusing on ttlg players?

     

    The simple answer is no. If you look at TDS sales and the amount of users active on TTLG forums it's pretty easy to see that the thief series is not confined to TTLG, rather TTLG is attractive to it's members because of the type of community it is, not because of thief per-say.

     

    If we wanted to get into the mainstream market to get more attention there would be a couple things we would need:

     

    1) The engine to be free so no one needs a copy of D3

     

    2) A clear user-voted dynamic library within the game for players to vote on and filter fan missions.

     

    3) A campaign to convince new players that they should play the FMs.

     

    These 3 things will set us up for success because we will have something big to promote and it will not be hindered by over complication of setup or the requirement to own D3. Once we had more fan-fair then our FM artists would be more motivated to get out more FMS.

     

    Problem is however, these are 3 major goals which require a ton of man power and we all have lives outside of TDM. Recently mine has become so busy I can barely keep up on these forums.

     

    Keep in mind if we consider the amount of work done in the campaign right now, the amount of maps would be above the average level this year already. But time is being sunk into that project which is awaiting completion before we let you all play it :)

×
×
  • Create New...