phantasmald

Yeah, being able to differentiate between footsteps can be justified. Actually, now that I think about, I'm pretty sure some of Thief's alert lines even lampshaded this; pretty sure it had lines like "Is that you, Sir?" I don't think it would be a more obscure mechanic than eyepatch/hooded guards having reduced vision. Or that drunk people are less observant. Imo loud background noise muffling noises would be a very natural and perspicuous, unless you are already heavily geared towards arbitrary/abstract game rules. But you did gave me an ideas there, kudos. After thinking about it a bit more, you wouldn't have to do actually have to do any more super serious calculations, just need to be able to apply a sound loss multiplier to player generated noises within a certain area. Since ambient sounds are set up by the map's designer in static locations, so there wouldn't be any need to calculate the loudness dynamically. Locations already have 'sound_loss_mult' attribute, so you could actually use that simulate muffling, right? The issue, if I understand it correctly, is that if the zone is bigger than the s_maxdistance of your noise generator, then the player's noise will get unjustly muffled even when far away from source of the noise. Or if it's smaller, than crossing a portal will remove the cloaking. Also not sure if 'sound_loss_mult' can be adjusted on the fly. If not, then it can't be used for dynamic distractions (like turning on/off a generator), only static noises. Could be optimal for heavy rain on the streets, maybe? Hmm yeah, this could be another approach. If you can change an AI's sensory stats on the fly then you could probably script dynamic muffling. Add some location based culling to it, so the distance is only calculated while the NPC is in relevant zones, lowering the impact of the calculations?! I do kinda want to do some cooking now and see if I can come up with something fun. Hmm, actually, just had another thought. I remember seeing a recent thread about how Noisemaker arrows are kind of redundant, since broadhead arrows or throwable items can also be used to lure guards over to specific spots. So maybe this could be a smallish buff to Noisemakers: temporarily lowering the aural alertness of guards in its vicinity a tinsy bit?

Something I've been wondering for a while, and the wiki couldn't quite answer my question to a satisfying degree; does ambient noise affect sound propagation in anyway? In other words, is there any system in place that simulates background noise masking player generated racket? I'm mainly thinking of things like roaring machinery, a common set piece in induralist settings. Or heavy rain, loud music, waterfalls, any kind of noise generating entity that physically exist in the mission's world, thus audible for AI entities, and could reasonably overshadow/drown out footsteps. Based on personal experience I'm fairly certain background noise is not taken into account, but it doesn't hurt asking. An old, personal pet peeve of mine is when enemies, that the player can't hear moving around due to blaringly loud ambient noises, somehow isn't affected by the same auditory disturbance and immediately goes searching mode over a single, casual footstep. Or when enemies somehow can distinguish between two sets of identical sounding footsteps, although I can accept that a bit more than the first one. The superhuman hearing can be quite ridiculous. Follow-up question; assuming it doesn't already exist, would such a system be a worthwhile addition? Could be a powerful tool for map makers and players, setting up areas where the player perform rushed actions by utilizing the environment. Like turning on a gramophone to be able to run through a fully illuminated wooden corridor, and stuff. One possible argument I can think of is that such an addition could mess with old missions, however I'd contend that any mission, that would get ruined by an extra tool/route, wasn't a particularly well designed mission in the first place. Another issue is that it might be pretty expensive to calculate or properly define the propagation.

Man, I absolutely love the first half of this mission, it's a dead ringer to T3 city sections. I'm not sure if I'm alone with this but those were some of the most fun I ever had in a Thief game, the way it evolved over time based on and also independently of your actions, had many passive NPCs, self-contained stories, extra objectives, fences&shops. This had many of those elements so it was a true hit for me. And well, there was also the voice acting. The obvious homage to Garrett was cool, obviously, but imo the Fence took the palm, the way he comments on all of your actions really made me smile. I found the Thieves' highway portion a tad awkward, architecturally speaking. On one side your apartment right down by the canal but on the other side there's a bottomless chasm. Or at least your first floor apartment is suddenly on like the 5th floor. And overall the layout doesn't feel like an Upper Northdale, kind of cramped which gives it a more commoner district feel. Which is fine I guess if that's what you were going for. There was also this one room with an empty wardrobe that seemed to be the perfect place for a secret but all it had was one random book, that really made me scratch my head. Storywise it was pretty pleasant but unless I missed something I don't see why Corbin assumes that the key and the stone belonged to Jordan. That kind of felt like a big leap of logic. Some kinks with the passive AI that could use some ironing out for Part 3 or if/whenever you reuse the mechanic: Also, I quite liked the candleshop, that was a quaint little spook. ?

Is it just me or the AI is much much more perceptive in this mission, I kept getting noticed in almost pitch black darkness (like very first tier light). I ended up putting the difficulty down to Forgiving and they still saw me, stopping and investigating all the time. A major example is opening the crypt door; can't hide in the small recess right next to the door, the revenant is guaranteed to see me when he is walking past. Regarding the key issue:

I generally enjoyed the size and more importantly the openess of the house, tho there's some silly stuff in how the rooms are organized, like how the servants' rooms are all over the place or that there is no direct corridor between the Lord and Lady's room. The raised pool felt really boxed in, that could have used a bit more distance from the walls. The open roof is really great touch but the fence is kinda awkward. And also actually ineffective as you can jump over it if you climb on one of the chimneys. The chapel is.... certainly unique. But I don't really like how it's just one open, kinda empty box essentially, a few side chambers could have really helped the space out (with some more elaborate machinery). The light gem's behaviour sometimes felt kinda arbitrary and inconsistent. For example there's a pitch black spot in the middle of the brightly lit portrait gallery. Or the little musician corridor in the bar leading up to Lord Jasken felt brighter than what the gem claimed. Other times spots that were in complete darkness turned out to be actually bright. Unsure how much control a map creator has over this tho tbh. Prop inconsistency is a pet peeve of mine aka the fact that some object sometimes interactable while other times they aren't. Worse part is when it's a lootable object, which did happen on this map; the map is littered with those golden masks, most of them unlootable save for like one in the state room (at least I think that's the only one). Or that one of the hairbrushes is actually loot. Some further examples are that Nathan's furniture is unusually interactable or that some of Jasken's hat are unmoveable. Or that many doors are unexplainably pickproof, as in you can't even attempt to use picks on them. And finally the sound design. It's just overwhelming, too many rooms has its own unique noises and atmosphere destroying any coherency the mansion might have. It's neat to have one or two rooms that feel special but I feel you went overboard in this aspect. Tho if I understand correctly this was a room building exercise for you so i guess it makes sense. Little moments I quite liked: - The golden masks with the nooses above them (in the safe room) were really unsettling. That imagery with the eerie noises really made me want to get out of that room immediately. - The unnatural darkness in Nathan's room is a good touch, it made me really not want to open his cupboard. - Same thing for the well, I really wanted to gtfo from that room immediately and the darkness made it somewhat difficult to find the door adding to the unease. The effect was kind of ruined tho by the fact that from the corridor the room looked brightly lit. - The priest was a kind of funny jumpscare, hiding behind his bedroom door. - The little pagan hidey hole in the hedge was the first thing I found and really set the mood for me - The actual gold bathtub in the state room was kinda 'wtf,lmao' worthy. - I love how you bothered to give a name to every person. Also, is there really a ring in that room with the note claiming that someone misplaced one? I don't think I ever managed to find anything. And also couldn't find any bird's nest on the roof. A few months late, but the trick is that you need to jump while on the bucket. Climbing the bucket puts you inside the rope's collision so you become unable to just walk onto it.