Some thoughts after rediscovering TDM

[AluminumHaste]

It also stopped things like in this video:

 

[chakkman]

Yeah, as i wrote, fair enough. It once again makes things more difficult though. And map makers like to put elite guards with non-KO'able helmets in their missions, or, if there's builders, there'll be a lot of those too, with metal armor,, which makes things really hard. I know, some people probably can't hear it anymore (and probably think i'm an idiot, because they don't agree), but i can't really stress enough to point out how hard this game is, especially for people not familiar with these kind of games. So, when implementing all those things, map makers have to be aware of it, and some are veterans, which play these games for years, and probably might not really know how it is for casual gamers new to these type of games.

Edited August 21, 2016 by chakkman

[AluminumHaste]

Yes fair point, but this mod was made by Thief players who found the original game too easy, so to start it was already going to be a lot harder.

Then people started finding this mod a little too easy, and started looking for ways to make it more difficult.

So when a new player comes in, especially if they've never beat the original games on the hardest difficulty, they're going to find it almost impossibly hard.

That's why there's sliders for AI visual and auditory acuity.

[chakkman]

Alright. Don't get me wrong either, i think where TDM extends the original games, about 95% of the stuff is really logical, well thought out, and makes sense. The difficulty i find is mostly on the mission side anyway, for example, i still have problems with seemingly random guard paths. I play the Cruciible of Omens Prologue atm, and i'm delighted about the predictability of most of the AI. Except for the mansion maybe, where 4 people entered the same room, that didn't have to be, but most of the rest of the mission has quite predictable AI paths, which makes it so much more enjoyable for me to play as someone who KO's most guards, because i don't have to fear that the AI finds the body i dumped into the bath tub... (in other missions, it's definitely possible that some AI finds it there, because the AI routines not only cover 2 or more paths, but also a walk on the toilet. Yes, it is realistic, but not everything realistic makes really sense in gameplay)

[Springheel]

 

Would be great to have that.

 

@ Springheel: Why have the possibility to frob-shoulder an AI before it hits the ground anyway? That's basically what's unrealistic. You won't be able to hit someone on the head, holster the blackjack, and catch the body, all before it hits the ground. I know, there's already implemented that metal armor creates a noise, when an AI with that hits the ground, so catching the body before it hits the ground is a part of the gameplay now. But, as said, it is unrealistic. At best, you will be able to hold on to the clothing, when hitting with one hand. But even that is a bit optimistic.

 

 

 

Catching an unconcscious body and letting it slump quietly to the ground is a fairly well-established movie trope that seemed to fit a stealth game well. It's also a nice way to reward players who put the energy into learning the skill, without it being a requirement for success (I personally don't bother).

[Dragofer]

Was just working through Nbohr1more's overhauled Performance Tweaks wiki page when I saw there that you can switch in and out of fullscreen mode with alt + enter, whenever you wish. Well that's very useful.

[nbohr1more]

If you perform ALT + ENTER when the 3D scene has loaded, it will take a long time. You can only "quickly" switch from windowed to fullscreen while you

are at the Menu screen before loading a mission. I believe that's an old OpenGL limitation. There might be a way in modern OpenGL to allow the toggle

without having to re-initialize the whole rendering context. Before anyone fixed that, allowing AA changes in realtime would be a better thing to tackle first...