[Things that could be improved]

I was thinking about body weight rather than aerial take down using the blackjack. After all if you fall from a roof top or a chandelier in a interior map you should be able to take down or even kill (depending on height of the building) a guard if you fall on top of his head. I though I was able to do this or throw an object from a certain height to knock out a guard in "Return to the City" but failed every time. :/

[Things that could be improved]

Sorry to ask again (and if it was already mentioned before). But, can the player knock out a guard by falling on top of him from a roof top?

[Optimal Brightness & Gamma settings?]

I learned that flipping the gamma and brightness against the default setting works best for me. I darken the shadows in a way i can still define the texture behind the dark areas, but just slightly.

[Things that could be improved]

 

 

 

This overlaps with the gas arrow functionality, so I don't think it will get made for gameplay reasons, as Spring mentioned earlier. But again a mapper might try it for their own FM. I believe this is something a mapper could make as an inventory object that shoots the dart when inv-frobbed. Might work in an Amazon themed kind of FM.

 

I guess it does. It would only serve as a variation. I think this weapon was implemented in the new Assasins Creed Game. Another idea would be to use the player's body as a weapon when jumping on to a guard from a rooftop. Is this already possible in the game?

 

 

There is a campaign being developed now called Crucible of Shadows. It might not get packaged with the game, though, since it's not an "official campaign" that the team worked on for the purpose of packaging with the game. But it'd probably be a great way to introduce the game & world to people.

 

Good to know. It would be nice to have a campaign along with the game to make it feel more complete. But it would indeed take a lot of work to create a big segmented city. I could only help with some Art Direction and some storyline and side quests ideas.

[Things that could be improved]

On most locks there is. The door handle (or pin on chests) moves in time with the sound pattern.

 

I think the handle is kind of tricky as it sometimes go down all the way, but then continues and it makes it somewhat unreliable. Sometimes I fail more if I watch the door handle and end up only relying on hearing the sounds. But nevertheless you're right. Both elements are there.

[Things that could be improved]

Oh I forgot to add another recommendation in case making a big campaign with a huge city is not possible. Making the missions unlockable. First divide the missions by difficulty, then only allow the easiest ones to be downloaded and depending on the difficulty selected by those mentioned Missions. The player unlock other ones and so on. It gives the game a feel of continuity even if it's artificial as well as it eases the learning curve since new player could only access easy missions and go along they learn. It's a bit controversial.

[Things that could be improved]

I would like to give my impressions after playing this game and with just a little experience playing thief in general. (Played a bit of T1). So I'm pretty much new to the Thief Franchise. Hope this helps to further develop this game and make it much better than already is.

 

 

First Impressions:

 

- The first thing I want to pinpoint is that this game has a LEARNING CURVE! More specifically with the club as well as the lock picking system. It took me a while to get used to rely on hearing instead of a visual way to unlock doors and chests. It also took me a while to get to properly use the club as I failed many times trying to hit guards in the head. This invisible learing curve can make the game a bit frustrating at the begining if you're not used to the Thief Style Gameplay.

 

 

Recommendations: Some recommendations for the game itself as well as future FMs.

 

-The lock picking system is fun at the begining but it can get tiresome pretty quickly. I would like to recomend to add a visual way to open locks to go along the hearing style of lock picking.

 

- The already disscused idea of adding guard dogs sounds really interesting. Even with it's animation flaws could add another dimension of gameplay. Dobermans suit better for the setting. I think.

 

- More Puzzles. Instead of simple locks, it would be nice to see more puzzles implemented in the missions. There are countless of puzzles (good and bad) implemented in many games. It could serve as reference.

 

- Another level of difficulty by dying if being seen by a guard, as a hardcore option. It could finish with a clip of the Thief being hanged at the city square.

 

-More security systems to protect property from theft, like traps: Moving walls, spikes coming out of the walls , use of fire, etc. Used if the thief fails to open a lock.

 

- Better animations for the AI. Like for example, if a guard see you approach he would go "Huh!" and stop for two seconds giving the player a second to hide before the guard reacts. Sometimes being too realistic is not neccesarily more fun.

 

- The only weapon I can recomend is the Cerbatana. A wooden tube used with a feather dart with poison or tranquilizer, for a more silent long distance offensive.

 

 

And finally and most importantly I would like to recommend to make a whole campaign to go along with the Game with a new tutorial stage included. This time instead of making a lineal map with a story. Make it a Huge City divided by districts similar to BGII map (Temple District, Trade District, Slums, Catacombs Sewers etc). The Art style of the city could be a Venice style of City. A city filled with water canals, bridges, rich people, poor people, sick people, Prostitutes, bandits, guilds etc . And then work in one main story line along many mission style stories to go along or could be included after in chapters.

 

 

I don't have much experience with making maps or animations or anything of that sort. But I do have plenty of ideas that could fit well as missions or side quests that could work well within this setting of game. Hope my impressions and recomendations is somehow helpful. And thanks to the developers for making this beautiful game. Which I think is the best Free game so far. Sorry for my bad grammar. (Not too good in English)