Goldwell

The Canadian accent is strong with this one!

Well I notice a lot of people keep pushing the idea of keeping your first mission small. I mean in the end my first mission will probably be medium size because it fits the scope of my story better.. Or maybe my opinion of a medium map is your version of a short map (it's going to include the accountants house plus a little city around it which helps tell the story more). I have actually already completed the whole house of the accountant (this room included) and most of the rooms have a nice amount of detail and maybe require a little bit of tweaking. My method is to draw out roughly on paper the layout of the place and then draw it out in DR and then go in and add basic details/feels for the rooms. Play it through a little bit and then add some filler stuff/tweaks/additional rooms/etc. It seems to have worked so far, as time goes on I find things happen faster as well. For example for whatever reason I could never wrap my head around vaults and bevels but now I can make them in no time flat and even started rounding some corners in my map to make it look nicer as well. Even though these maps take a lot of time I don't really feel any sort of burn out, at all... maybe it's too early or maybe it wont happen but it's definitely my intention to stick around to provide more maps after this one is done as well as more vocals for others maps, because I find both tasks really fun, a great way to express creativity and I like the challenge

Ok so I added the wood trimmings around the edges and also battled a lovely black wall for nearly 2 hours. But I think this room is about 99.9% complete!

Thank you for the advice! Infact I actually just changed a couple of things in the bedroom and already I think it looks much better. The last picture I just didn't like for whatever reason but yeah a few color changes and a light seem to make the world of difference. EDIT: oops I forgot to add the bottom part under my arch thing updated the image now

Thanks Kvorning, I have to say mapping though is such an intensive process. I have so much respect for anyone who maps after taking this task on. I have never done any mapping in the past so this was the first time for me but thanks to the helpful people here and all the great tutorials on the wiki page I have managed to get by. The thing that is the most unexpected surprise about mapping is that you can spend hours and hours and hours on something really simple. So many different ways to build something, texturize, tweak it and then try to fit it together with everything else on the map/room... ha it drives you almost insane.

So here is my first screenshot of my first map The Accountant. I mean it's nothing in comparison to what some of you guys are capable of but I thought I would share it anyway and get some comments if you have the time The shot is of a bedroom which is located a little bit underground (hence why no windows)

http://community.eid...ons?theme=thief http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5hUpc4mvhI

I just realized the meaning behind a line from the E3 trailer...

Oh ok, well I thought it was the desired effect as it looks like a foggy cloudy attic and the effect really gave me this feeling of a desolate place. Maybe keep the foggyness and add some cobwebs in the corner of the rooms or something? Either way, looks great and cant wait to play edit: It reminded me a lot of this (Screenshot from the new Thief)

Wow that looks fantastic Kvorning! Do you have an ETA on it yet? edit: I especially love the foggy clouds in the attic btw! Very nice effect

Although I still remain confused on the new Thief due to hearing awesome/terrible things about it. This video was posted on Reddit called RIP Thief.. I got a kick out of it, so I thought I would share it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8pImL1FeaE

I think you misunderstand that website sells the CD-Keys it's instant. You buy the game you want and about 10 minutes later you get a CD-Key and enter that into Steam and boom off you go. Although if you wanted a physical copy of the game (I always do with my favorites) then yeah it's no good of course. But if you want to buy a game for cheap and instant I really recommend that site. Either way I bought Deus Ex HR when it first came out at full price and it was worth it then, if you haven't played it yet you are in for a treat because it's fucking awesome

http://www.kinguin.net/deus-ex/deus-ex-human-revolution-steam-key.html I found it for 6 pounds! I have been using Kinguin for a while and it's great for buying legit game cd keys for Steam. And really cheap as well! I have picked up some amazing bargains from that site

Just a quick newbie question I should be adding Visportals to pretty much every door and room right? (including crawl spaces) I mean I assume it wont hurt to have more than less

Wow well as a fellow newbie mapper I am very jealous of your skills! Also... I cannot wait to play your mission! If you ever need any vocal acting for it I would love to help out Just send me a msg with some lines and I will record them for you!

Moonbo you are fucking amazing! Wow those screenshots!!! And this is your first map right?

Just read a couple of interesting bits I read from people that played the demo at E3: http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=138032 Rope arrows are limited to some hot spots, yes. XP goes towards upgrades for Garrett's equipment (arrows etc). That said it played a nearly non-existent part in the demo. The hands are here to stay as they are extremely important to characterization of Garrett. The "shroud" we saw in the gameplay was a placeholder version. The final UI is not complete and expect there to be some changes in the final game.

And I absolutely love that about TDM, I love to relax and have a nice glass of scotch at the end of the day and play TDM and I find it really pulls me into the environment it's fantastic. I have never thought about what pulls me into the world if it's the FM or the game but but yeah I guess he minimal UI is a major factor because the only thing I look at are weapons or inventory items and even then it's an occasional glance but in it's own way I find it to be a very immersive experience. I remember the first time I got into it and I was playing a couple of FM's (can't remember the names) but I remember I really felt immersed into the game and fuck it was an amazing feeling, I actually felt like I was a Thief.. I dunno if i'm crazy or I had too much to drink but I do remember the great feeling it gave me and that's what actually led me to here but yeah trailing off a bit... I guess what i'm trying to say is TDM doesn't have all the UI "features" of Thief yet achieves the thing they want (immersion)

Oh I see... Well hopefully EM does the right thing and gives us an editor! I think it would be fantastic if they did this and allowed you to share the maps through a built in online component but I guess that's just wishful thinking.

I thought TDS did not support mods/fan missions either but there are plenty around. I guess if the community really wants it they can make it happen themselves, I don't know how the TDS community did it but they did.

I am unsure about this but what is the major problem with a scripted world? aren't all game worlds scripted technically?

But Sotha I thought seeing as you're so far up north you are meant to protect the rest of us south of the wall from day walkers?

I think that was the bordello level if memory serves me correct.

I work from home and for private companies who source out to me for a variety of projects. Currently I am working with a rather large multi national company but due to my NDA I cannot discuss which company it is or what I do for them but the pay is great so I can't complain Working from home can be very nice as you don't have set times to be at work, you only have to make sure a project is completed by the due date. Occasionally clients check to see how progress is but usually they let you do your own thing as long as you keep producing quality results they won't care, also being able to sit around drinking soft drink, eating potato chips and getting paid to just work in your boxers is great too! However like all jobs it does have some negative sides such as constantly having to fight distraction, when you're at home it is very easy to get distracted from your job (like what i'm doing now) also if you don't have good time management skills you will run into many problems as all projects have strict deadlines that need to be met and if they aren't you can run into many problems. Outside of my job which usually takes up between 20 to 40 hours per week (depending on the scope of the projects I am working on), I still find time to sneak away and play some FM's and also record vocals for people here and there. I just recently finished up recording a new guard voice set which took a while but was really fun and also doing some voices for Sothas FM the Lich Queens Demise which was also really fun. I guess you have to work/study of course but you also have to make time to live, not many people on their deathbeds say they wish they spent more time working and less time having fun so enjoy life while you have it! I once saw on a youtube video a great quote (which rarely happens in youtube comments) but a pretty good guitarist was covering a whole music album start to finish just playing along to it in the background and it was really good and most people enjoyed it but of course there was a negative person saying "wow you must have too much free time on your hands to be doing this you need a job!" and someone responded with a great response "if you don't even have enough spare time to play guitar for 45 minutes then YOU have no life and need to make more spare time" which is true I guess it's all about balance.