encomium

Again guys, you'll have to excuse me if you've already discussed this stuff 10000 times. I haven't had too much time to read through the entire forums yet, and I'm curious as heck to know what the low down is on buying equipment and sellings goods will be like? will/could the amount carried affect movement in any way? Could people who prefer ghosting thru certain levels choose to leave certain weapons at home, in exchange for some additional speed scrolls? heh heh. I think it would be definitely worth your time to figure out a nice bartering system to add to your MOD if you haven't already. If so, can u shed some light??

Very nice... a new batch: 1) if u are on a higher level (say a balcony or roof), will the cpu look for u there? 2) will the cpu set traps for you, or call a massive search (forcing you to flee the area), if they are aware of your presense? if they actually spot you for 100% 3) will cpu go and find a torch if there is one nearby, and bring it to search for you? that element of gameplay from TDS always gave me a rush, cuz i knew i hadda to get the funk outta dodge when i saw the torch light coming... 4) will the cpu have any trained animals to aid them at all? ( like the big ass grey dogs in Robin Hood PRince of Theives, haha or how about the hell hounds in Willow??) 5) i think it would be nice if you created additional elements which might draw a guards attention to you, such as a few birds that flutter off when u approach them, or a dog that barks, and/or follows you. ALso, while we are discussing A.I., would it be at ALL possible to integrate NPC characters that might become involved in either helping you or fighting for you on certain missions? One thing that always slightly bothered me is that there are so many people in the game, but you dont' ever really get a chance to know any of them well enuff. I realize it makes things a little more complicated storyline wise, and technically, but would be a pretty cool addition to keep things interesting.

HAhaha, nAhhhh. That's good news in my books.

I'm hoping the coding team could answer a few questions about your intended A.I. setup. If this has been posted elsewhere, could you please link me? Keeping in mind I am coming from the artist / gamer side of things, and have no knowledge of the doom3 engine, or it's capabilities code wise: 1) on a scale of 1 to 10, where is TDS's A.I., and where will your's be? 2) do you plan on using Thief's A.I. as a foundation, and building on it, or will you pretty much have a uniqe A.I. of your own? The A.I. in Theif is fairly lame, but i can appreciate the fact it takes a lot of resources to use hardcore A.I. 3) if you have night/day cycles, will the NPC characters have 'schedules'? (ie. at certain times, will they do different chores, and/or carry out differnt tasks, missions?) ...these are just a few, but if you don't mind answering the likes of these questions, I have many more for you.

I'll do some UV mapping / texturing if I can use Maya. My most hated job in the comp animation industry, but hell, if it's gonna speed things up -- send em over. leave me an email address of person i should talk to.

Oddity, That looks amazing. Good job, for real. I saw your renders of the high res models, but was VERY curious as to how the in game models would look. I'm impressed. I work in the animation industry, so i can appreciate the work you're putting in... in fact everyone seems to be doing quite a lot of work for this project. Just wanted to say (here is a good a place as any I suppose), that this MOD has sooooooo much potential, and you guys/(gals?) are doing a great job so far. The thing I'm really waiting to hear more about is the A.I.. Exciting stuff. How far along are you coding wise approx?

HaHAhAHAHhA. Yes, to be more specific, i should of mentioned gameplay. Given the style of game THeif is, and the assumption you want to make the best game possible, I classify gameplay under necessity. It's the addition of pre-determined "Necessities" that result in great gameplay. :lol: Although I feel that pissing and other similar activities should be left up to Larry Laffer, it 'would in fact' add more realism to the game. Definitely not a Necessity though in my opinion. I'd like to see waking guards before i see our character's cock n balls.

I don't suppose my opinion means too much considering I haven't had the privilage of reading through your production discussions, etc... but because of that I am forced to reluctantly take to the gamers perspective on this subject. A few simple "gamer's" opinions which support what everyone is saying: a) When playing any game which falls into the same category as Theif does, I will never, ever cease to be entralled by, and overjoyed with the realness that developers can integrate into their game. The closer to real life the game is, the more the player can relate to it, thus the better the game becomes. Obviously, during production these factors will always exist: Time, Budget (?), Technical Ability, & Necessity. Apparently those have been discussed amognst you, and documented accordingly. This shows professionalism. There's really no way you can argue with what has been determined to be the optimal way to integrate certain elements of the game once they have been measured up against the above factors. Which i think might be the reason for the frusteration of your team members, oDDity. c) Lastly, my opinion of this specific element of gameplay (being the black-jackery of unsuspecting, 'technically advanced medival folk') is that the more real you can make it. the better. I would hardly call this an arcade game. The object of each level, should never be to steal a certain amount of money, cuz that's just ridiculous. A thief is unscroupulous to say the least. He's not some good hearted guy, with tons of self motivation. There is no such thing as ALLADIN. What ODDity mentioned about risk factors and such are very very smart ideas. In a case when stealing is the character's occupation, he should not be limited to this environment to steal from -- in reality he could attain gold (if he REALLY needed it badly) from any other person, household, or safehouse in the village (with the exception of special artifacts, which was mentioned above). I feel that if there is any reason why the guards shouldn't wake up, wake each other up, or brew up a massive search of the entire buildling, it should be because of a restriction on Time, Budget, or Technical Inability. I fully feel that there is a 'Necessity' to make this style of game as real as possible, and the whole risk factor of guards that can randomly wake up and potential alert other guards after being brain beaten makes a WHOLE LOT OF SENSE. 'Nuff said. oh 1 more thing -- i totally second the notion of using techniques to permenatly incapacitate K.O.'d people by binding them up with rope, shackles, or locking them into rooms (with the option of passing guards within the sound radius to hear their pleas to open the door). Again, it's more work -- but it adds sooo much more realism, fun, and strategy to the game. If you don't want to turn your gamers into a group of knife weilding rambos, then you must provide them with other alternatives. Never-waking K.O.'s is just a cop-out in my opinion.