bob_arctor

I hope I can play the whole mission with good AI without a stupidly high lootcount. Is that possible?

I think it would be easiest to keep the rope arrow nice and simple, so as not to confuse the Thief community and put all creative effort into this new unknown method of climbing. If it's good enough we will all forget about rope arrows.

Maybe what I want is Alchelmy not chemistry then. Or references to craftsmen and inventors quite a bit.

I mean "scientists" somehow in my mind don't fit in the Thief world. That implies a more advanced non-magical world. I don't really know how to explain it best, but I just feel "Mad Scientist" is out of place. Too modern perhaps? Or too rooted in the present day reality.

Oh. Pounds in the Uk (unit of mass not force though...) is lb. Ei 126lb is 126 pounds.

120 NUMBERS OF TENSION!!! GOD SAVE US ALL!!!!??!?!!! But seriously what are you on about? What is #? Do you mean 120 Newtons of tension? Or is this that freaky non-metric US system of physics (snort! chortle!) with slugs as the unit of mass!!!!

I like Watchmakers. Sounds cools. Bot-Builders I hate, too modern sounding. Mad Scientist also, as they don't really have Science.

I'm still on 56k. No option for broadband yet. Nice. Sorry about my big font, it said 14 so I was thinking it would be quite small... I just find further reasons not to rope arrow a bit depressing, and the questioning of the Thief world a bit irksome and nit-picking. Most people just immerse themselves and forget about it. It's just there are few enough opportunites to use rope arrows effectivly in TI and TII and Fms as it is, often you just forgot about it and use the ground. If you were limited you would use them even less when you should be encouraging more use. Eg hiding in corners of rooms and doing tarzan style with 4 rope arrows and collecting them as you go across. It's like the massive frob in TI and TII. But it feels right to open doors from a long way away, and in TDS when you must run into doors to open them it feels wrong. What feels right in a game is often different to real life, and ease of use and gameplay and fun are important. so in TDS it is not fun having to stumble around struggling to open doors.

But a limited 1 shot rope bolt is BORING TO PLAY!!!! I don't care about your arguements. I just want something that is so limited it's not fun. I don't want to reload the game more than I have to because I missed a crucial shot! I also don't want to climb extremely slowly up things. FUN > ALL As for crossbows if you are going to bother putting one in think about pros and cons versus bow (they cannot be the same, the whole action is different and if the stats are the same the fact you have to look down to reload a crossbow will swing it...) and bother to implement a weapon swap system. Can't be that hard really compared with other things. Or just have a Thief style bow. Does Mr Thief need a crossbow except for some extremely boring drawn out explanation of how rope arrows work? Think about it, in the game players just accept some things. When Thief glitches and Garrett is thrown in the air and falls to his death you are not immersed and don't accept it. But with Rope/water/fire arrows, it's just part of the world. There is a water arrow. You put fires out. You try it. "cool, that's fun" Is that a plausable thing? "yeah whatever". So how does this rope arrow work "It's a rope arrow, dur! You climb things, yank it out, and climb further. Neat, no? How it works? Who cares?"

I mean who actually wants to be limited in rope arrow usage, it would just be frustrating. So you would not bother to use them. Its bad enough sometimes when you miss or something, or you were sure something was arrowable but wasn't, and you forgot to use a broadhead first to check.... But even if you use a broad head you often save & reload as the noise alerts guards. I wouldn't mind a choice between crossbow and bow but so far no-one has really explained what Meaningful choice and differences there would be, and what the point is. Maybe RopeBolts which go into metal or tile could be used, uber rope arrows.... The one point I do like a lot is the blunderbusses, like on T2x (except less crashy when you pick them up: I picked up a body, but instead got the gun, and couldn't drop it/ change item! Reload) and crossbows on the enemy, and then a system whereby you could swap maybe your sword (big item) for a blunderbuss (big item). That would be fun.

I still question the need for a limitation in rope arrow/ bolt/ whatever. It is more fun to have less limitations.

Right... Or just have a rope-bolt which is reusable. What is the point in limiting rope-bolts? Or do you have rope arrows as well? Why? Gameplay is #1, stupidly complicated un-fun things are bad.

What are the mechanist types going to be called? Presumably machinists or somethig. I had an idea reading William Gibson's The Difference Engine you could call them something french, them with their "ordinateurs". You could call them machinateurs (mashinatuurs) or something. Then you could have the Benny equivalent eat suspicious horse sausages....

Anything like Songs of the Caverns is good for me.