Outlooker

English and German version should be both available right from the start, that is, today. Sigh. I wished I had the time to play this right now, I expect it to be of incredible high quality. Well, it goes in my "experience later, hopefully soon" treasure chest of games. But for those who have the time right now and find pleasure in highly detailed, story-dense open-world RPGs, you are in for a heck of a weekend, I think! The folks who made this are very talented and have proven themselves with "Nehrim" already, and it is practically assured they even got only better with this one. EDIT Sorry, I was carried away by the fact that a friend already downloaded and told me he'll play this weekend. There is a preload for the 8GB of game data, available here: http://enderal.com/ Additional sources are http://www.moddb.com/mods/enderal/downloads/enderal-installfile-10-german http://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/76715/ http://www.elderscrollsportal.de/ressourcen/enderal-installationspaket-deutsch-preload.2987/ http://dl1.sureai.net/files/pro/enderal/dow/de/EnderalInstall_DE.torrent Additionally, you need the launcher; it is not released right now, but expected today or in the next very few days, they hope to have it ready for the weekend. The English version will only be ready in the next weeks, because they have some voice acting left to do. Sorry that I was too hasty here; but the English release is scheduled to be really soon, too, the development team says, just very few weeks away.

EDIT 14.8.2016 The English version is now 100% complete and ready for download. Just get all you need from http://www.enderal.com/ There are mods out that allow quick travel, for those who think they want that. Have fun! EDIT ends here Just so nobody who might like it misses it: The total conversion for Skyrim, "Enderal", is now out and available. All it needs is a stock Skyrim, a 8GB download - yes its free otherwise. I played their previous product, "Nehrim", and found it to be of very high quality, so if you are somewhat into RPGs, you will probably find this interesting (you can play as a thief, too). http://sureai.net/games/enderal/?lang=en

Thanks for the mission! I like the diverse layout: Wide,open spaces and crooked, tight, maze-like sections - just like one would expect from a city mission, less detail on the outer, city map parts, and intricate detail and things to do when inside target areas. I, personally, feel the maze-aspect was a bit overdone here and there, because I really found myself gotten lost - so many turns and back alleys - I felt a bit like a mouse in a maze at times, and was confused. Maybe I am just a bit bad at navigating and way-finding, but it happened to me enough to find myself lost or in a dead-end that I sometimes was frustrated. But this is only a minor issue, anyway. Often I just stood there and enjoyed the lighting and light effects - I feel they are not too few, not too much, and always greatly beneficial for the mood and setting. This is a mission where you have to really seek out the detail in story and construction - it is full of good things, but they are not simply given/shown quickly to the player; I feel an above-average demand is put on the player to find loot and experience the story, which forces one to put a lot of effort and skill in handling this mission. I appreciated that, it is quite rewarding - finding loot or furthering the story feels often like a real "accomplishment" - the author has great skill to make the player put in effort, which compares very favourous with contemporary "dumbing down" of game design. I especially enjoyed the transparent windows - while probably more difficult to design in, they greatly improved immersion (I love to spy inside) - and difficulty - because the player has to take heed getting around inside not to be seen by those patrolling outside of a room or building; one cannot simply switch on the lantern inside everywhere without risk, for example. Readables and story were very good, and just like the "geometry", had to be really found out, worked for to get to and find more so than in other missions. Very well! I think of myself of a seasoned Thief player, yet I overlooked many details and corners at first - I think that such intricate design is especially enjoyable to more experienced players. All around a delightful mission that I had enjoyable hours with, thank you very much, Spooks.

Now for a review of this gem of a mission.

Works! Thank you. What a classical number ... Ray Bradbury, Deus Ex, ... good taste!

I have intense fun with this mission; found five secrets and seem to do well so far. But there is a problem which keeps annoying me and now I want to give up; please assist me by provide the

I thought about the categories idea - in TDM, there are actually not that many categories possible. You have tools (lockpicks, compass, spying glass, lamp), weapons (IIRC only mines), potions, keys and readables as inventory items. Only keys and readables can become numerous enough to cause confusion in the inventory grid. Therefore, I suggest something like this: Tools and weapons, if present, are sorted so that they are always and reliably in the beginning (1st line or so) of the inventory grid - in the same ordered position, so that they are consistently and quickly accessible: When you got them in the inventory, these items are always there in the same spot and accessible at the first glance, then potions, then keys are sorted in, and after keys all readables. With a system like that, all more "tactically" necessary items are always in the same position and can be accessed very quick, while readables are always at the end, forming a "tail" that causes no real hindrance if it takes a bit longer to search through, because reading them takes a lot of time anyway.

It seems in any bigger than small missions the number of inventory items becomes overwhelming in a grid that shows everything at once. How about grouping items in categories? For example, the first thing when your inventory is activated is a list or button (or also a grid) of the category: Keys/potions/weapons(mines)/books/scrolls/tools or something like that. In bigger missions with lots of readables even those could get a subgroup (diaries, recipes, ...); maybe even keys (if in a specific mission are really many of them), for example (keys:/cathedral/city watch/manor 1/manor 2). In the end, I think a design goal should be to provide the quickest and most direct/easy way to select things from the inventory grid - if there is no grouping, finding a specific item in larger inventories would often take an unnecessary long time.

Thank you for this wonderful mission! When it was released around Christmas I could not resist and quickly rushed through it like a hungry mouse through a cheese warehouse. This way I missed a lot, and decided to play through it again - this time most slowly, most concentrated, and over many days - just half an hour a day or so, to maximize the enjoyment, to stretch it over an as long time as possible. By this approach I almost got all loot (high 6000s) and feel like I know every cobblestone. I played on highest difficulty - and it was tense at times; it is quite startling to hear that rattle of a near-miss arrow next to your ear while having no idea where the arrow could have come from, because you thought of yourself to be a perfect invisible sneak - "Clank!" - note to self: turn down hubris. Masterful enemy placement in the map! I personally do not like risky climbing - if I had a choice, I would avoid it; vertical spaces here, however, were so plentiful, that this was not much of an option. So I scrambled around ledges, windows, shingles and vines I would deem impossible to navigate in real life (immersion!) - with sweaty palms (mouse+keyboard hygiene by application of an alcoholic wipe was needed daily). You made me even climb a big chain-link, crazily balancing over a courtyard - not too much of great enjoyment, but quite thrilling, indeed (I wonder what will happen to my palm sweat glands when VR glasses are in use, really folks, show mercy). For the initial mission of a campaign I much liked the slowly introduction of the storyline by readables - those were marvelous, not to long or short, too few or too many. It felt engaging to collect a little bit of background story here and there, growing an ever more complete picture. I did not notice any bugs, only one case of a sleeping woman that I had to blackjack who suddenly sunk through her bed, only her nose left sticking out - I dismissed this as a regular case of very soft bedding (luxury class, Princess-and-the-Pea-type sleeping equipment). I much appreciated the level of detail almost overall: It felt like a lived-in, immersive and alive town. The first two hours or so I was too inattentive to notice the interactive map - on my second, careful play-through, however, I found it to be most beneficial. Even as a veteran thief and fan-mission player, I was surprised by quite a few very clever hidden pieces of loot - again, very immersive. Especially poorer citizens would not be expected to have valuables lying around openly but rather well-hidden, and my searching in weird corners high and low was rewarded. Once I fell in a body of water (behind the mill somewhere) and could not find a way out - there was a ladder and a hatch, but the hatch would not frob. Well, I do not know if this was some issue with the map or with me being incompetent, but I had to load a save game; but this was the only time I got stuck, everything else was perfectly navigable. Thank you for a wonderful time with this mission, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a great piece of work.

I've found that in such cases (hehe) it is workable to close/open the container again, and then the items inside will be frobable. A question from me:

Capela, your "art style" seems to be very unique, quite a bit different from most architecture I saw here. It looks like you actually achieve to construct some different kind of environment, maybe ... cleaner, colder, more structured ... you know, like the difference between rural British and French architecture in cities. While most of the other mappers produce environments that look often very ... small-town-like British and fantasy-like, your work seems to be more ... urban ... central European, maybe Swedish or German? I find that rather remarkable, after all you work with the same assets. Maybe your story and setting could be on another continent, or other "City", far away from "The City" ?

There goes the weekend. But it will be a wonderful weekend. I will hide behind the PC and a barrier of chocolates and not come out for a long time.

For me, it is everything very connected with playing a THIEF. If I wanted to solve puzzles, run around shooting people, just collect stuff or exploring some adventurous scenery, there are many other games that can do that, often a bit better. Whatever theme, location and story may be - as a THIEF, I enjoy being at places I am not supposed to be, doing things that are illegal or socially inacceptable, enriching myself, defeat authorities, overcoming social restrictions. And usually, being subtle about it, while overcoming resistence to my goals in a clever, thief-like way, finding and exploiting weaknesses or using skills and tools that make me feel like a master thief, not just like a figure in some shooter game that has a stealth component. There should be a constant threat of being socially exposed - not necessarily killed - in the background. This should be built in story and level design. I'd like to see more motivation in a thief game for using strictly stealth and acting very deliberately thief-like than just to avoid having to fight a guard or losing some health or causing a commotion. I have difficulty to find words for it, but there is a special magic in a game that is about you transgressing social norms, and by sheer ability and power of tools, in the end, get away with it. There is something special in about "being a shadow", free of observation from any other people, free from social control - and thereby really being able to act free. In remaining and acting and achieving being undetected, there is a specal kind of personal freedom possible lacking in all other types of freedom I am aware of. All this interwoven in a story of ... overcoming an obstacle, being it social, financial or human. By means of "special logistics", maybe the core ability of a thief; not necessarily just about stealing stuff, but also things like stealthily delivering things where they not belong to denigrate or blackmail somebody or just to acquire information you are not supposed to have - something uncommon like a mission around creating an eavesdropping opportunity to learn about a valuable secret, without having to steal a single coin, may be very enjoyable and thief-like. In that sense, it might be even more realistic and profitable not to just steal another pot of gold, but changing the account books in some company without anyone noticing for huge reward. You know, giving a mission title like "The accountant" we already have a whole new direction ... For any good thief mission there should be some constant level of tension, because the whole time you are doing something illegal and socially damned, and your really, really need to avoid detection or rather disclosure. Maybe, in some harmless way, for the sake of experiment, try entering a place you are not supposed to be in real life, maybe in darkness. Not illegally or with mischievous intent - just for experiencing the real thrill + suspense of being and feeling stealthy, the danger of becoming detected, enjoying the special kind of freedom only this kind of activity offers. Exactly this should be somehow (I have currently no idea how exactly) made into the mission itself for being a real good thief-style mission. If this is lacking, you may only get a "wandering around simulator" , all without that special extra that makes it "thiefy".

Just dropping by to tell that I think this mod is actually very, very good. I am only three hours in, but they did not only improve on visuals, they also changed gameplay and a lot of content. How? Let me put it this way: I played through the original quite a couple of times and think of me as almost an "expert", who knows almost everaything in that game. So, for the sake of making it maximally valuable for playing through it again, they should have, from my pont of view, offered better visuals and - in a interesting, fitting way - additional content, that while making me recognizing all the places again (and feeling "homely") at the same time offering new possibilities, areas to explore, items and even a few new game mechanics to explore. I think, at least for now, they have delivered about perfectly on that. A few examples: Therequite a few new areas, new details and items just only at UNATCO HQ. Offices have been improved, new secrets installed etc. Also, I am quite sure on "realistic" has been an enjoyable rise in difficulty: For example, I feel enemies spot you faster, wall-mounted grenades are more difficult to pick off (they have more sensitivity and go off much sooner). From my opinion, up to the point I played, it appears to be a quite perfect way of re-enkindling the enjoyment of the game for people who already know it well. It is definitely much more than some visual boost and some new clutter thrown in, I think they indeed seem to have delivered a whole new polish for an older game that improves on its original greatness and allow for a lot of fun "rediscovering" Deus Ex. As it has always been, the first mission was a bit of a difficult thing in terms of motivation and recognizing how great this game is, and the mod seems to be the same - in first mission I thought "OK, good, but is that all?" - but then it gets better and better and better and... Just so you know what to expect from it by my opinion - just like the original, do not just taste the first bit, but let it sink in - soon you will be drawn in like then in the original.

This sums it up rather well:

The notion of an afterlife for "yourself" to exist on in is already problematic, because there is no static "self" at all. Just think about old people - is is not uncommon for them to lose their "self" years, even decades before "death" - that is, before their body dies. Their brain detoriates, their remembered experiences, which are the basis for their/our personality, our "self" concept, get erased - more and more. They are, over time, different "persons" - not only their memories fade, their character changes, too, and often dramatically. They become different persons. So: Which kind of person goes in the "afterlife" - the human with his personality, thinking, feeling and memories when he is 5, 15, 40 or 80? Because we know today how our brain works at least a bit: And it turns out, we change dramatically over time, almost every day, because we lose some older memories and remembered experiences that are a functional base for our feeling, thinking and experiencing the "now". You are not the same person you were a week ago - your self-percepted stability in personality, thinking and feeling is only an illusion that the brain constructs for you/itself(?). Example: When you were, say, 11, you had a lots of experiences, friends, memories, problems, thinking styles etc. that you today have forgotten - all that remains of that time when you are, say, 30, are very few remnants of memory imprints - and they get fewer evey day, and they are even getting CHANGED - that is, they are becoming less data, but at the same time get a "rosy" taint, in other words, you more and more remember only falsely more nicely interpreted things. This happens even with core persons of your life - if a person`s parants die, every couple of years later, they can remember ever less of them. After some time, almost all details are lost, and only a sketchy, vague memory is there. And it happens with you, without you usually noticing it. You are a different person ten years ago, last week and today - which version goes in the afterlife? The "you" jsut before your death? That would probably a senile husk of a person with very low cognitive ability and only a few grains of sand of memories and experiences that were, on its prime, a full beach of sand of memories and personality. In other words, some of "you" dies every day, even every moment. On religiosity: There is a brain region, I currently not remember which exactly, that when you stick a wire in it and send a electrical current through it, changes "you" - (Why doing this? Neurosurgeons must cut into brain tissue for reasons like removing a brain tumor - they want to do this by doing minimal damage, so they stick very tiny wires in the brain and apply an electrical current and let the person that is operated on tell what they think/feel (yes - because the brain tissue itself has zero pain receptors, you can be without any problem being fully awake during brain surgery). So things happen like if one puts the wire here - my left foot feels cold, if one puts the wire there, you smell bacon, put it here, and you hear your mother sing, put it here and your left arm jerks etc. - they do it to try to find a brain region to cut in that will probably not result in much damage to memories or abilities of the operated on person) but there is a region that makes people go fully religious when you put the wire in. Such persons suddenly hear god talking, or an angel, or are totally, 100% sure such a being is "there", possibly now and very close to them. Basically what happens is that what the person has learned about religion is acitivated and supported with a extremely powerful surge of religious feeling. When this happens to people that have no religious beliefs or even almost no knowledge about religious stories, it triggers a very powerful feeling that things suddenly are extremely "meaningful" - and something "is there" etc. So, religious feelings can be switched on and off in at least almost all people with basically a flip of a switch. We know quite certain that it is an illusion, because other people there do not experience it, and you can just as well flip on/off a smell of bacon or a certain memory or the feeling your, say butt is ice cold. It is no surprise religious people defend their religion so much - one reason is, they "feel" it is so - and feeling is the base of thinking, for you cannot think wihtout having some sensor input beforehand or memories. For them it is real - just like other things are real for persons in psychatric hospitals, like persons that "know" they are Napoleon - or, for some reason, more frequently, God or the Son of God. Well. Probably being religious has some important evolutionary advantage (and probably some disadvantages, too) - for feeling, therefore "knowing" there is meaning, some higher form of justice, etc. can make people more successful, especially in dire situtaions where for survival, for going on, for fighting on against problematic conditions - just like there is a system in place in us for surviving danger by an instincive "fight or flight" response to sudden dangers. Religious people would then be more tenacious, be less prone to gving up even if the situation looks very much hopeless. After all, we seem to be mostly today the offspring of such ancestors. Other ancestors that quite correctly and logically came to the conclusion that certain things are hopeless would have given up and died. Not so the "religious" - they would have stubbornly went on, defying logic and common sense - if only a few of them made it through neverteless, they had more surviving offspring than others who had given up. So it is not unexpected that there are today a lot of religious people. They have, just for being religious, in some situations higher survivability by being delusioned. That is, on an individual level, not the only reason for religiosity. One other is the sunk costs fallacy - people have spent much time and energy in religious activity, and cannot accept (partly subconsciously) that this was all for naught. So they keep on with believing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunk_costs There are extreme examples for this, like many UFO and Armageddon sects in the past - people sold all their property, left work, family etc. and gave all money to others. They expected the world to end at date X or for some aliens to pick them up with their UFO right before. When nothing happened, they should look quite silly to themselves and realize they made a huge error and correct their thinking. But: That almost never happens, instead they become EVEN STRONGER in their faith, even more extreme, and rationalize https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalization_%28psychology%29 that they just have erred in the date or the aliens try to test their worthiness and strength of faith etc. Another thing is, and that upsets people because it is not very polite, that religion usually offers very simple, easily to grasp interpretations of reality and rules to follow. Religion offers certainty and order in a very chaotic, very hard to understand world. So especially less cognitve able persons are - on average- more religious and at that very sure of their brand of religious faith - for if they hadn't it, they would have not much of an "understanding" of how the world works. It removes uncertainty, and therefore acts as a guide in life, enables those people to act. Even if it is only an illusion, it enables them to function. Here some article I googles quickly, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/10914137/What-God-does-to-your-brain.html If you want to have a good read on that subject and many more, I recommend to you http://www.amazon.com/Incognito-Secret-Lives-David-Eagleman/dp/0307389928/

S-IPS vs S-PVA vs TN Eizo monitors Cheap vs Expensive IPS Monitor In my opinion there is no huge difference between monitors now available. More expensive ones have better colour/colour accuracy and viewing angles; I doubt that is important enough if one sits alone in front of the display and is not making true colour printing/publishing stuff. The sad thing seems to be that even if you buy an expensive monitor or not, the native contrast ratio will at best be at 1:1000 or a little higher at best. So a good 24'' TN-panel for 150 bucks or a good IPS for 500 bucks will not result in much of a difference in games that really need to show nuanced darkness. There are two exceptions: Get a good old CRT. Or buy a "TV", a plasma one; here quality depends on the specific model, but generally they have very high contrast and therefore are very enjoyable for playing thiefy stuff in the dark. Example images: https://www.avforums.com/threads/sharp-shows-off-37-lcd-with-1-000-000-1-contrast-ratio.460004/ Last december I got to try out a small 12" OLED display on a science/tech expo. Some of the makers of the organic substrates had it on demo, and it cought my eye. We talked a bit and I connected my netbook on it, quickly donwloaded Thief2 and tried it out; through skillful use of a sweater I made myself a textile tunnel of darkness and played two minutes as if I were at home and in total darkness - it is really a vast difference, the best I've ever seen; toal blacks, really high number of visible nuances in blackness. It is so much better to not have to turn brightness high so you can see what you are supposed to see without making all of the game much too bright that there is no real sense of hiding in the dark. So I would guess if you need a monitor today, go for a good cheap TN; if you can wait, save the money for OLED or something with very high contrast that will be available sooner or later.

@Lux You want to see this

I had time to play this last night, and I had much fun with it. Visuals, story etc. I found to be quite good, I am almost sorry to say just "quite good" because the general level of quality in most missions made here has become high enough that a very decent mission is almost the new "normal" and seems to induce less praise somehow than probably would be deserved. Therefore I will just mention the new special game mechanic that Sotha has introduced here - and that I liked it - hostage-freeing was a new interesting aproach to DM and brought about pleasurable challenges in clearing the path for the fleeing. My only minor issue was that I would have found it better if I had been somehow informed beforehand about the fact that when I approach the hostage, the killing/fleeing starts on its own - I was surprised by this in my first try and had to reaload. But this was only a very minor inconvenience. Thank you again for a great time sneaking through the night, Sotha.

I'm bit in a hurry (partially because I oversplept having last night played through this). With this mission I had more fun than with the whole Thief 4. I think that about says enough. I really cannot find much at all that I did not like. One of the best things for me was that I - again like long ago in Thief - felt so much like an actual master thief, I guess because I really had to sneak, observe, hear and learn, and my tools of the trade were limited (or rather fitting here "optimised") for an actual thief, not a killer/KO-guy that jsut waltzes through getting rid of piles of guards. Many missions seem to try this, but here it really fit together: The right amount of guards, realistic hiding spaces, being stealthy is rewarding; being forced to go full stealth in some missions makes it seem like tedious work or at least a hassle, not so here - it was pure joy of gameplay and immersion. The story binds it well together, motivating for a stealthy and "researching" approach by the "collateral" theme and the fun of getting some possible black mail material, without hurting a future customer or his household/family. Visually of course it was top notch. Very nice variation in environments: you really feel like being in a living city (by the well done town surroundings in the distance); then there is this nice garden, then the servants quarters, mansion environment, sewers, cellars, secret and nicely dusty/cobwebbed attics/storage/house technical spaces, a secret lair, and the nice secret forbidden drugs-growing-greenhouse. And everything sneak-friendly for the enterprising night-guest, without being too easy - without some thief skills one not gets far. The size was "just right" - no danger of getting lost,yet diverse enough to have a lot of fun exploring. Always feeling in control by having maps from the start. Mantling and vertical spaces were very sneak-friendly: Many a time I evaded guards by sitting in the dark in the rafters or on furniture. Again a nice feeling of control here. I could ghost the mission on epxert difficulty , having a stealth score of only 9; more use of moss-arrows would have made me even more perfect here; I am just a "saver", knowing not what awaits further in the mission; next time I try to go perfect by dispensing all moss arrows. I got 1500 or so loot, which I see as a success; in reality, you would get most, but not all, too. Ghosting was especially enjoyable because I could imagine being successfully stealthy if this environment was real, I did not use super powers or had to risk getting detected (and therefore killed) in many places - carefully observing, listening and being patient would carry me safely through this map without being trivially easy by just overly exploiting the light gem mechanic; i really HID and SNEAKED. I liked the kind of newish aspect of proving your skills to a future employer, so you not just grab everything of value, but leave hints that shows you were there and could have easily stolen everything, but didn't. Maybe because that was quite innovative and new, but anyway it felt at least a little more rewarding than just grabbing the valuables and then make oneself scarce. While there were quite some keys, it was no lame keyhunt; most keys were clearly visibly paraded around like treats on belts, or hidden with clear hints in logical places. I have no mapper's skilled eye, but about graphics, lighting etc. I can see this: I never thought "bah, that looks much like it is constructed in an editor" - I went through the mission without getting painfully remembered that it is "just" a map with textures and lights etc. - which probably means visuals were damn good. The only very minor annoyance was my inabilty to get that rope arrow - I could not grab it from the garden, not by walking on the window ledge; stacking grates would maybe have helped, but seemed to much work, because they were far away and would have needed to be transported through guard patroling space, so no rope arrow for me. Maybe I'll get that bugger in my nest playthrough. This was a full-blown, exceptional thief experience in the good old way. Many thanks for over two hours of great enjoyment.

Do a google image search on "Cotswolds" Also nice: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lincoln_Cathedral?uselang=de

I read here somewhere that people are photopgraphing real world objects to produce textures from them. Now there is a game in development that makes much use of photopgraphing real world objects and with some automation bringing a whole model (geometry+textures) at once in the game. I wondered if that kind of thing could also be done for TDM? Here they give an example: http://www.theastron...g-ethan-carter/ It uses some hand work on the model, but in the attached pics is the start and end product of the procedure. They use it for small things like stones up to things like churches. Might some TDMers start not just making pictures to produce textures, but import real world objects - full of detail - at once, and releatively quick, at least much faster than building complex things manually?