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Opinions on St. Lucia Demo


plasticman

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Did anyone else try some fancy mantleing in

the beginning

to find

some goodies

on the

rooftops

next to some

skybox-textured brushes

?

 

I FRAPS'd it, for your viewing pleasure. (1:26 , ~9 Mb) No names were changed because no one was innocent. All products and logos copyright their respective owners.

 

For a low-bitrate version. Edited by Mortem Desino

yay seuss crease touss dome in ouss nose tair

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the alternative, which we have chosen...is the original concept of blending a higher value on the diffuse texture so it stands out more...it's slightly more time consuming because it has to be setup on every texture, but in the end...it allows more flexibility.

 

Could you just code it as a +x gamma value on that model or surface alone? Say if the ambient gamma were 1.05, you'd increase the correction to 1.15 *on the object* as it was frobbed, so you wouldn't have to set it up on each texture. I just not sure what, if any performance hit there could/would be. It may even save some processing power if its doable

 

Just an idea

 

...and I found it ridiculously difficult to judge distances for effectively doing much of anything. It seems that everything is just out of reach, or i'm running into it. I still have yet to successfully blackjack anyone in TOSL, and I've been playing Thief since I got the pre-release T:TDP demo from PCGamer, and I'd consider myself a seasoned pro. (I could actually do it in the Den) Any tips?

 

One more suggestion: If you drilled someone at the top of the neck just below the base of the skull with a 3-5lb blackjack, you could most definitely KO them, if not kill them.

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Could you just code it as a +x gamma value on that model or surface alone? Say if the ambient gamma were 1.05, you'd increase the correction to 1.15 *on the object* as it was frobbed, so you wouldn't have to set it up on each texture. I just not sure what, if any performance hit there could/would be. It may even save some processing power if its doable

We don't have that much control over the renderer, sadly. And I'm not even sure that gamma can be set on a per-object basis. *shrug* The method we're using right now works pretty well anyway.

My games | Public Service Announcement: TDM is not set in the Thief universe. The city in which it takes place is not the City from Thief. The player character is not called Garrett. Any person who contradicts these facts will be subjected to disapproving stares.
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Hey people, I'm new here. I just wanted to say I enjoyed both demos very much. They reminded me of the old Thief 1 and 2, but it was very nice to have the updated graphics, physics engine etc.

 

I just wanted to thank everyone that is working on this mod (which is coming to be much more than just an ordinary mod). Thief is definitely my favorite game series ever and I enjoyed playing through the demos, especially Tears of St. Lucia.

 

Keep it up, guys. I can't wait to play the final version (and everything in between) :)

 

Mortem Desino: that is awesome :o

Edited by Gabriel
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Thanks for taking the time to post. :) Glad you liked it.

My games | Public Service Announcement: TDM is not set in the Thief universe. The city in which it takes place is not the City from Thief. The player character is not called Garrett. Any person who contradicts these facts will be subjected to disapproving stares.
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Did anyone else try some fancy mantleing in

the beginning

to find

some goodies

on the

rooftops

next to some

skybox-textured brushes

?

 

I FRAPS'd it, for your viewing pleasure. (1:26 , ~9 Mb) No names were changed because no one was innocent. All products and logos copyright their respective owners.

 

LOL that was awesome

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

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Did anyone else try some fancy mantleing in

the beginning

to find

some goodies

on the

rooftops

next to some

skybox-textured brushes

?

 

I FRAPS'd it, for your viewing pleasure. (1:26 , ~9 Mb) No names were changed because no one was innocent. All products and logos copyright their respective owners.

 

LOL Damn you are one tricky acrobat! Mantling those things never even occurred to me.

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Fancy mantling indeed. Nice video :)

Ha! So what if I am, huh? Anyways, I work better when I'm drunk. It makes me fearless! If I see a bad guy, I'll just point my sword at him. And saaaaaay "HEY! Bad guy! You're not s'pposed to be here! Go home or I'll stick you with my sword...'til you go...'Ouch I'm dead!' Ahahahah (hic) See? Ain't no one gonna be messin with old Benny."
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LOL Damn you are one tricky acrobat! Mantling those things never even occurred to me.

BETAMAP-TESTERBETAMAP-TESTERBETAMAP-TESTER?

 

And to think that you made SL... :P

 

Besides, I found another hidden cache (I won't disclose its location.) It was difficult, but I mantled up to the 2nd goodies cache and found a neat readable. Everytime I play your map I discover something new, and that's the sign of an EXCELLENT map. thumbsup.gif

Edited by Mortem Desino

yay seuss crease touss dome in ouss nose tair

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  • 2 weeks later...
Just wanted to say that I thought both the demos where great and to congratulate you guys.

Hey Thanks arjuna, glad you enjoyed them.

|=-=------=-=|

happycheeze.deviantart.com

 

Moddb

 

Gamers Outreach, a nonprofit that uses videogames to raise money for chairty.

|=-=------=-=|

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  • 3 weeks later...

I finally came around to play the St Lucia Demo and I think it's totally awesome. :)

I'm really looking forward to the next demo - you guys are doing great work!

 

The only thing that I think needs improvement is the lantern:

First, the light radius feels quite unnatural because it is way to small and ends too abruptly.

Also, I think it would be a cool idea if you could see how the lantern is being held in the (left) hand, like a weapon.

The lantern could be closed at its backside, so it only shines "forward", more like a flashlight similar to this one.

 

Edit: Another thing: sometimes its a bit difficult to distinguish loot from normal objects.

Edited by cYmoZz
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Thanks for feedback CYmozZ.

 

The lantern was much discussed by the team and refined and refined to its current state. Remember it is a thief's lantern for stealth primarily (I have my own version which is even more stealthy, just a close glimmer for inspecting items close up and not for illuminating a room.) Likewise the hud policy is to be as discrete and non-intrusive as possible so it was preferred not to show the lantern. It is intended to be regarded as hanging on the belt to leave the thief hands-free. You realize that there is no 'perfect way' that will satisfy everyone so even if we implemented your views then others would say it is not right. In any event we are almost in feature-freeze at the moment and concentrating only on developing the last few critical features and fixing bugs. It is unlikely that we will change features now which have been honed and tested and discussed endlessly, some for years.

 

Yes, loot can sometime be not obvious, I found that with some goblets for instance. Mostly it is a matter of learning what is loot but often it is more like RL - pick it up and see. Again, we are aiming for discrete rather than the intrusive 'hey I'm here! come and get me!' loot-glint of Thief 3.

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Edit: Another thing: sometimes its a bit difficult to distinguish loot from normal objects.

 

Yeah just like Thief 1/2 ;)

But you do have a point because almost anything can be set to loot, and some mappers may have a gold wine bottle as loot and others might not have it set as loot.

I always assumed I'd taste like boot leather.

 

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The only thing that I think needs improvement is the lantern:

First, the light radius feels quite unnatural because it is way to small and ends too abruptly.

Also, I think it would be a cool idea if you could see how the lantern is being held in the (left) hand, like a weapon.

 

As Fidcal said, the lantern is meant to be stealthy. It gives the player a chance to avoid detection if they should happen to have an AI come up on them unexpectedly. Theoretically, it's a small lamp clipped to the players belt for inspecting things closely in an intimate fashion. It's no different from the flares in Thief 2.

 

As for showing the lamp, it was neither practical nor necessary. We tried it and it created far more problems than it was worth.

 

Edit: Another thing: sometimes its a bit difficult to distinguish loot from normal objects.

 

We'll improve loot as best we can to look like loot when it needs to, but the reality..is that there will just be some things that you have to figure out. It's not always going to be obvious. Some things are going to be tricky, that's part of the learning experience. We've made it easier to carefully put items back in TDM, so if something isn't loot...it's not the issue it was in T1 and T2 to put it back quietly.

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Edit: Another thing: sometimes its a bit difficult to distinguish loot from normal objects.
Well, wouldn't any thief have to pick up and examine an object first to find out if it's worth anything? Is that cutlery silver or steel? Is that cheap or expensive wine? Is that ring polished wood or gold, or does it have a gemstone? New Horizon makes a good point, too: quietly setting objects back isn't a big problem with the engine and the fairly precise movement you can do with the the prop.

 

I kind of agree with the "abrupt" end of the lantern's light radius, I think an even softer edge could be appropriate.

Edited by Mortem Desino

yay seuss crease touss dome in ouss nose tair

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New Horizon makes a good point, too: quietly setting objects back isn't a big problem with the engine and the fairly precise movement you can do with the the prop.

It's intended to be even quieter than it is right now. There's a bug that plays the "smack into surface" collision sound when you're sliding along a surface. A lot of the "minimum velocity needed to play collision sound" settings are also not tweaked, resulting in some cases where you hear a loud thump when you just barely bump things. So if it's possible to set things down quietly now, it will be even more possible once those bugs are fixed. :)

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BETAMAP-TESTERBETAMAP-TESTERBETAMAP-TESTER?

 

And to think that you made SL... :P

 

Besides, I found another hidden cache (I won't disclose its location.) It was difficult, but I mantled up to the 2nd goodies cache and found a neat readable. Everytime I play your map I discover something new, and that's the sign of an EXCELLENT map. thumbsup.gif

 

:) That makes me extremely happy to hear! I wanted to expand on it even more but because we had deadlines I really couldn't but I'm really happy to hear that all that detail I put in is actually fulfilling it's purpose! :D

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Well, I hated the game, hated it, ....................absolutely hated it!!!!!

- cause now I'm addicted to the "dark mod engine" and find it hard to go back to /playthe regular theif engine!! - Thanks a lot!!!

 

I've been telling so many people abut this game, and they are dying to play it now.

What great work everyone is doing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As said before, this is how thief was meant to be! The St Lucia game was very well designed and seemed to purposely include a lot of activities which showed off the engines' capablilites. I have revisited the game so many times, just enjoying the feel and look of it all. I cant wait till more games are made.

 

Only suggestions I would have it sometimes the water splash was way too bright, but it was cool to see a ripple or two! Great!!!!!!!!

Also I noticed there were no lockpicks(ing) in the game, is it because it was not developed yet?

Wondered why there were no rope/vine arrows; thought for sure there would have been some. Would have been cool to see some baddies with arrows too, to see how well they did with them, but then again, hammerites never use arrows correct?

 

Yea, for me, it took a little while to get use to the blackjacking distance, I could not understand why some guys were not going down.

 

I love the mantling visual effect, where there is a slight rocking motion hauling oneself up neat effect!

 

 

I noticed the guard who was guarding the statue, would some strange footwork to turn his direction ( heard it too) that didnt seem too smooth - looked kinda funny.

 

 

 

But all and all, THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE FOR ALL OF YOUR TIME AND EFFORT !

 

 

 

 

Matt

Edited by Mr M
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Thanks Mr. M. Glad you enjoyed it. I agree about the water splash. Lockpicks are 90-odd% finished but being refined and polished. As you can imagine such a core feature needs a lot of thought and testing to get a good balance. There are rope arrows but after much discussion we didn't include them in Saint Lucia. You can look forward to a lot of roping fun in the future though!

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Looks and plays fantastic guys! The atmosphere and feeling is spot on. I can't wait to see what else you come up with :)

 

One blip: I found that if I walked into a particular wall and stopped then I'd start floating up it - no keys pressed when it starts so this might be a little different to the one mentioned on the previous page. (I found it easiest to reproduce in front of this window ledge, but I was able to do it a few feet away from it as well which made me think I may not just be mantling onto the frame automatically http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=PUNrHcG_XIU )

Edited by submanifold
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Yep, the atmosphere was the precise reason that I became so interested in The Dark Mod.

 

And also that bug was extremely annoying (On occasion, my lower-end computer would freeze because I'd suddenly see 50% of the map after going through the ceiling). I can't recall how long ago exactly, but Ishtvan solved the problem so that it's become nearly impossible to float, now.

yay seuss crease touss dome in ouss nose tair

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