Midnight

I was thinking the same thing. I've seen this done in Thief FMs, where a keychain would automatically open any door if the appropriate key is on the chain, so I'm sure this could be done by a FM maker but it would be nice to have a consistent approach as part of the mod.

No offence to the actress, but I'd say they'd need to work on this a bit more. The accent is okay, but it's clear she's attempting a more 'upper class' accent which comes across as more than a little forced at times. It would be interesting to see what it would sound like in a normal accent without trying to sound like a noble-woman (you're not going to tell me she's the Queen, right? ). @Springheel: Thanks for uploading that vocal set example to the Wiki, this should prove helpful as a fairly generic template for someone wanting to add a new character for their FM. You mentioned the process of introducing a vocal set might be more involved with the soundshader requirements etc., would it be possible to get a tutorial up at some point, unless it's easy and just a case of using an existing soundshader?

Is there a list of lines for a vocal set somewhere (I couldn't find this detail in the Wiki)? If there was a page that detailed all the lines and barks for each type of character (or maybe just a single character?), then it would make it simple for someone to add their own vocal set (which they could personalise a bit as well). I'd be quite keen on adding some vocal sets, once I get a new mic.

Can't think of any FMs that forced ghosting off the top of my head, but Casing from T2 was kinda restrictive in that way (but you could still use water arrows etc). If you want a challenge, I remember having a hard time ghosting 'Embracing the Enemy', one of my favourite FMs and a very rewarding FM to ghost properly.

Wish I could, I tried replicating this but it obviously doesn't happen with all guards. I'll keep an eye out for it and get a screenshot if I see it again. I don't really see this as a problem in TDM, though it could be because of how I use lock-picking. I don't use the scroll wheel but instead have mapped the Z key to switch between picks. If my first attempt fails, I just hit Z to try the next one so I don't have to keep track of whether the one that failed was the triangle or square lock-pick.

Of course, I don't mean to sound like this is a 'must have' feature. I think it would add to the game experience sure, but like you say there are higher priorities and that's fine by me. Since this is a thread for improving things that are already in TDM, I've noticed that once guards are alerted they hold out their arms in a weird pose and stay this way for the rest of the game. It looks a little odd, like they're half sleepwalking or something. I don't know how difficult animation poses are to set up (can you tell?) but sometimes the little things have a big impact, in this case a negative impact on the believability of guards as real people (for me anyway).

If this is possible then great, but you wouldn't want it to automatically activate the keyhole view. Even though it isn't necessary, I usually crouch right next to the keyhole when lock-picking (just for my own immersion) so you wouldn't want the keyhole view to be initiated in this case. That's why you would probably be better off using your suggestions as well as checking that the 'alt' and lean forward key are pressed down at the same time.

I agree the 'sucking in' action makes me a little nervous, anything that grabs control away from the player doesn't feel quite right in Thief. Still, I was curious whether the effect would feel natural or if it would be jarring, so created a . I think it looks okay in this example but still not sure how this would come across in game (specifically if you had to pull the camera towards the door/keyhole). On the issue of it being redundant, I don't completely agree. Opening a door even just a little bit brings with it the risk of being detected if you're not in shadow, so this would be a safe way to check for guards (akin to leaning against the door). It would be a definite improvement over Thief IMO, but whether it is worth the effort is another matter.

Yep, I imagined the keyhole thing the same way demagogue suggested - a fade to black and keyhole shaped mask (the scouting orb comparison is a good one). If this were done you'd probably have something like the 'alt' key be required before right-clicking the door so that there's little chance of setting this off by mistake. I'd also imagine that it would be door-specific since not all doors have keyholes. I don't know, is this something that is better left to mappers who want to rig a special camera system up (like demagogue's safe), or would that inconsistency just lead to confusion?

This has been discussed before and I think pretty much everyone likes this idea though there's other more important things to get out the way first. I think it was Splinter Cell that first had this (correct me if I'm wrong), and it definitely would be an improvement over Thief's "hit my face with the door again" action. Similar to Guards noticing the player shadow, this kind of thing would be ultra realistic, but would probably make the game unbearably difficult where it stops being fun. Same thing with squeaks, creaks, screeches etc. Funny thing about lock-picking, I always pause when a guard is nearby even if it doesn't make a difference, so if you really like this you can pretend like I do. That gave me an idea though, why can't the player character use keyholes to peak into a room and see if there's a guard in there before barging in? Old keys (and therefore keyholes) were huge compared to modern keys, so you'd get a pretty good look through them. Not sure quite how it would be achieved since you'd need to get right up close to the keyhole to see anything useful. I could imagine a 'close-up' animation like the lock-picking in TDS working quite well with this (heresy, I know ). What do other people think of this?

Nah, longswords are for pussies. I'd want a cannon. Can you imagine wheeling that bad boy into battle and watching all the guards scatter.

I don't really like the idea of just having Thief in a modern setting, I'd want it to have it's own personality and for the game to feel at home in the chosen setting / environment, which means tailor made gameplay to match the plot and character. I've been harboring dreams of one day getting the chance to bring Looking Glass' last project (before closing down) to life. For those that don't know, they were working on a dark engine game set during the cuban missile crisis, called Deep Cover. I've given some thought to a story that could work with some of the locales that Deep Cover was to take place in, with a suitably dark twist to fit the spy theme. The potential for a game like this would be immense, the wealth of historical reference material not to mention the incredible atmosphere of that era would make for a very rich canvas.

Thanks for the feedback. The S/R system sounds like it could be put to good use. I messed about with them in Dromed years ago and they're great for being able to do all sorts of interesting things. I'm very happy this feature has been added to TDM.

That UV light was awesome. So was the ouija board. I once had to create an document that was supposed to look weathered / old, so I used a quill to write onto plain paper using lemon juice, and then using a flame the letters slowly appeared in a brown colour. Natural invisible ink. I guess if this was done in a FM there wouldn't be a way to have the letters slowly fade in as heat was applied, but still, it would be interesting to see in a storyline (you've been given a map and you have to expose the hidden loot location using a candle flame!).

The idea of spreading to other materials nearby was really just an afterthought (the main point was being able to set a specific material on fire), I just mentioned spreading throughout a room because I know how the TDM team are just dying for more work. I'm sure I have played games where you could set certain things on fire (Dark Messiah perhaps?) so the general idea would be that you could create a distraction by shooting a fire arrow into a carpet or curtain in order to create a little chaos. Just an idea of course, I understand how this is quite a rare thing to see even in commercial games.

I was playing through Heart of Lone Salvation and No Honour Amongst Thieves and noted a couple things with regards to fire and water that I think could be improved. Fire When you drop a candle on a stone surface for example, the flame stays lit, whereas it would seem more realistic if it was extinguished. This got me thinking about having certain materials react to fire (either from a flame source, or fire arrow) so that you could have curtains or carpets catch fire. So as an example, say you dropped a candle on a carpet, instead of being extinguished the candle flame would spread to the carpet and possibly other nearby flammable materials. This could be interesting for gameplay, for instance, if there's a room full of AI you could set part of the room on fire and the AI would run around looking for a bucket of water to put out the fire, allowing you to slip by unnoticed. A downside to this idea (apart from the AI scripting that would be required) is that you'd probably need to have alternate 'burnt' textures for many objects. Water I don't know if this is something that individual designers could do, but the water in game would look more realistic if it was darker than the world it's reflecting. The water in both the cave and lake areas in NHAT (whilst looking great) were noticeably lighter than you'd expect. Sounds (e.g. guard voices) don't seem to change at all when you're underwater, whereas they should be muffled (I don't know if it's possible to modify the audio when you're underwater or not). None of these suggestions are really problems with TDM, I just thought I'd mention them for consideration as possible enhancements.

Hmmm, I both love and hate this idea! On the one hand, a cruel FM designer could give the player a readable in a dark area and force them into the light where a guard could spot them, to read the clue and progress further (this is a potential positive ). On the other hand, how annoying would it be as the player to struggle to read text only to find it offers no useful information. And since this is the Dark Mod, you'll almost always be struggling to read in the dark . Designers shouldn't make a game harder just for the sake of it, so while I like the idea of making the game more realistic, as this would, I don't think it is an improvement on the current system.

Just a quick thought on the issue of the crouch height, I'm happy with it in all situations until I have to pick something from a chest where I seem too low to properly access the contents. I wonder if the lean forward control could raise the height just a tad (as well as the lean) so it feels like you're leaning over. Obviously I'm only talking about when already crouched and not standing, unless you want to be able to simulate standing on tip toes

I believe the main issue with supporting an OS X build with a G4 processor is that you'd need to include libraries to deal with the fact that the G4 is big-endian, but Doom3 is also supported on Intel macs, which means this isn't a problem. I would have thought that it should be fairly easy to therefore support TDM on Intel macs, unless I'm missing something? I have an intel MBP and currently play TDM in XP and Bootcamp (when I'm not at my main PC). The problem is that the fan doesn't kick in under heavy CPU use like it does in OSX so I have to run a utility called smcFanControl to keep the MacBook from melting (had it at just over 100 celcius once!).

I was struck by how similar Doom3 is to System Shock 2 (on the surface) when I first played Doom3, they were obviously inspired by SS2 I think. I'd love to see a System Shock-esque mod in Doom3, but I don't see it happening unfortunately.

I've had my eye on this Dell for a while now as it is should be good for Thief (see this thread at TTLG for more info). The price has gone up in the past year, but the silver version is £182 ex VAT (£20 less than black) which I think is worth it if it means I can play TDM without bobbing my head up and down like I do with my current TFT (to avoid the glare / washed out black you get at various angles). This monitor uses e-IPS by the way, which is far superior to the cheaper run of the mill TFTs that come with PC bundles.

Also, the amount of swing you get depends on how high (or low) on the rope you are. If you're lower down on the rope you get a better swing, but too low and you won't be able to make the jump since the other side of the canal is quite high up. You'll just have to judge it as well as learn when to press the attack button from practice.

I believe you can find information about what he's using at this link. I see there's an update to the mod, can't say I like the idea of a Magic Gem Mace: Not very thief-like.

Have you tried downgrading your drivers? I had a problem with OpenGL (albeit in another, older game) after using the latest nVidia drivers. Downloading earlier drivers (can't remember the version, but they were dated August last year I believe) fixed the issue I was having.

I guess you're right if the aim is to get the word out to people beyond these forums and TTLG. I'd suggest letting Rock Paper Shotgun know about this one, they've posted about TDM in the past and a lot of their visitors hold Thief in high regard. Hell, the same goes for Slashdot (I often find Thief / System Shock mentioned in games related Slashdot comments). I don't have an account there but if anyone else does I'm sure there would be interest in knowing about TDM given that it's also available on Linux.