bob_arctor

It does.

Where do they mainly occur? I just suggested the door stuff 'cos of a) people look through doors more than in corners and because that's where I reckon the majority of backlighting problems happen inside. Outside there will be problems where the thief blocks a distant light from an AI, however inside in small corridors and rooms it usually works that the room is either lit on or off. And if you stand in a doorway... ____________________ | D L T AI _________|___D______ L is lit room. Thief T is in the doorway. D is dark room. AI is an AI looking at the door. The thief is blocking the light. Also: openable windows.

Well to Bardic surely if you put a tiny light inside the wall because it's dynamic it would not nothing, and if it's floating in the doorway then you will see it. And to Ishtvan: you are giving FM authors the power of sound propagation aren't you? Thief II FMs have relied on the authors. Making them just put a little doorway tag (maybe even linked to sound propagation) isn't hard. Especially as if it's set by default by you guys to a good amount so they would work hard to cock it up. Default being a small increase in visability. I didn't know there was total darkness in tII doorways. Well there was in those deep ones, but I never really thought about it. Just got used to it. Sounds interesting way of checking for silhouetting but I still think a doorway penalty, even just for simming the fact AI look where they're going, i.e., through doorways, not to their sides (periphreal vision). So you wouldn't stand in doorways happily, you have to see as well as you can through from the room before, chose your moment, and go for it!

I reckon just a simple "don't stand in doorways" rule would add a bit of realism plus add a new gameplay thing, that you have to be in or out, so time your moment to slip past.

How about a (not massive) lightgem penalty at doors, maybe optional. Just to simulate blocking out light. I think it would be understandable, if you imagine a thief in dark clothing on a wall it could escape your attention because you don't focus on the wall. At the least though you will look a lot more at a doorway, and only if it's pitch black will there be no silhouetting, at most darknesses you would see a shape blocking the light. So maybe: If 100% black, no penalty Less than 100% black in area around player, lightgem penalty. Or maybe an option for mappers to set penalties for doorways they see will be silhouetting. Obviously not realistic or always working, but a good addition I reckon. It'd make you think twice about standing in doorways for a start. This wouldn't be a massive penalty because otherwise you'd be creeping through a corridor then BANG guards would be saying "KILL HIM" because your lightgem was shining away. Maybe just enough for them to go "hmm what's over there?".

I would find that more interesting than doom3.

So are you going to put a lot of effort into the sky? I don't actually mean 3D skyboxes and the like which I have seen in Source, I mean actually putting in animated sky features, high detail, moon stars clouds, and maybe a few different options available to FM designers? It's something important I find, and people here seem to agree, like the example with Morrowind. Also: Weather?

After playing Darwinia (You guys not in the Uk know what that is right? Google it, worth getting, coming out on Steam now) I have had a thought. Few games bother with making the sky good. Darwinia did in its own interesting way, Thief put loads of effort in for the time, and Boiling point had a quite a cool day/night sky. But Thief (classic natch, TDS had only one state of sky) is still the best (Blast you Nvidia card!) with moving clouds going over the moon like in real life. Think about other games, like Vice City or other GTAs. That had an amazing city maybe but a CRAP sky, really low res, a massively overdone sun and moon, all stretched and fuzzy. So modern games only do a skybox image for the sky. Rubbish. Not good enough for Thief. But will TDM have a cool sky with moving clouds and stuff, maybe a few different types, high res, etc. despite the doom3 engine?

Es ist nicht furchtbar. Or whatever. C'est dommage, il semble qu'il n'y a aucun Français ou gens qui peuvent le parler. Konnichiwa. I would write that in hirigana but I have no idea how. Don't know any kanji except fire.

Ja. Aber ich habe viel vergessen. Mais s'il y a des Français dans la proximité...

Intriguing discussion, however I'll play COSAS for Thief classic stuff. I'd imaging once playing some TDM it would be odd to have old Thief sounds in there. Plus the novelty of TDM encouraging people bored of T2 FMs (Same old mechanics) may be spoilt if it's like T2 FM again. Something new yet still steampunky/victorian and about thiefing is what I want, and it looks like that's what you guys are cooking.

You won't sound the same. That's the problem. And TII FMs suffered a bit from actor quality as well, people trying to be Benny etc. ZylonBane, woo, narninarninar, flame! Actually you'll be happy here. We don't talk about /sotto voice/ The Ion Storm Thief...

Nice. Never mind I'll just play the dark mod. With its lovely dirty bricks.

Oh. Never mind. I really don't care. Doom3 has the shadows, Source has the physics. Shadows are more important. Pleased to hear I won't get stuck in TDM windows.

Well it felt like it was the upswing. Sometimes I just couldn't get into those small windows for some reason.

Sounds okay to me. The bounding box shouldn't be a problem unless there is Tclassic style wierdness. I.e. you cannot get though those small basement entrance windows (Think 1st bank and trust) if you catch it on the upswing of Garret's movement. Odd. Just make it simple and it should work with specific sizes of gaps fine. Tclassic was just a bit odd with this.

Why "lockpix"?

I thought, although I didn't use it that often, that the orb was good. Original at least.

Those last 2 posts' ideas are amazing. I would love to be a rat and scurry though a difference engine, and the clockwork scouting orb sounds cool! Why won't TDM have scouting orbs, TII style, by default? I read somewhere you're not doing them.

So it can't bung a render effect on twice? I'm not surprised really, considering TDS water, which was simplified I think as they couldn't have reflections of shadows or something without massive performance drops. Does TDM water reflect all?

I love that sentence: "DEPLOY... THE RAT!!!!" : )

I hope there is scope for a Discworld map, with clowns.

So Radley is an "anglo"? I thought that most people picked up the language of their native country.

Okay most of your post is incomprehensible. I suggest either learning proper English writing skills, or just not writing on here while intoxicated. But then this quote: "Remember, “doing it” with one ugly girl can ruin a guy’s entire reputation." was very 21st Century, you will get far in life with that one. Seriously though you are bringing your and my gender down with that phrase.

Guards' ranks sound good. Women: I don't see why there can't be women police, seeing as it's not our universe, but then it has to be consistant and seem to work. The guards of Thief 1 were so dark and blocky if it wasn't for the voice could've been anything.