chakkman
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Posts posted by chakkman
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Thanks for taking your time. I just tried it (to be sure, I don't have to delete the cauldron_v2_2.pk4 after unpacking, right?), and, it doesn't seem to make a difference.
Did a little video to illustrate my problems: https://drive.google.com/file/d/109NEYxgZTlrqD2rt65PY4jQ0KUhpC-PT/view?usp=sharing
On the first attempt, I might have been too far away. On the second attempt, the beast might have been in a state of awareness due to me running towards it (even though that worked in the past with guards in other missions). The third attempt felt perfect, no idea why I didn't succeed there. Same on the fourth attempt. The fifth attempt was successful, and I have no idea why, as the former two attempts seem to have been almost exactly the same.
I have the A.I. hearing to "forgiving", by the way, as that works better for me, as the A.I. can't hear your footsteps from a mile away. It's still much more sensitive than in the original Thief's (talking about sensitivity...), but, it works alright for me.
That video is pretty much exactly what I experienced throughout the whole mission with the beasts. Every time I tried a K.O., i had to try several times to succeed. As I mentioned above, blackjacking is a general issue in the mod, but, it seems to be even more of an issue with this type of enemy.
Oh, and the guy wearing the mask (the king?
) was the hardest to knockout. I needed at least 10 or 12 attempts to knock him out.
Edit: Sorry, just fixed the permission for the video.
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It's not just an issue when they're crouched.
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Do you realize how little helpful you are?
Especially when I quote someone who had the same issues in this mission with a specific type of enemy. But, suuuure, it's just a skill issue. That's why this topic came up so often over the years.
Let's just end this now though. You will never be able to accept that there is an issue with the blackjack system. It's fine, and it doesn't matter. What matters if that people do have issues with the blackjacking.
And, if you allow me one last personal thing: It was absolutely fkn annoying to have to quicksave and quickload every time I missed a blackjack again in this mission. The mission is one of my absolute favorites, but, the blackjacking really sucked the life out of me in this one. It's absolutely frustrating to again and again have to re-load, and it's the one thing which seriously frustrates me about this mod in general. Everything else is on par, or even an improvement over the original games, except the blackjacking. It's beyond horrible. Even with the blackjack indicator, which doesn't work reliable either, by the way. The indicator didn't indicate that I was in a position for a successful K.O. even if the K.O. was successful. I don't know WTH is wrong with the system. Much too sensitive, much too dependant on the range and point of impact. It doesn't make sense in a game where you can't judge the distance as if you would in virtual reality, or in real life. It should be much more forgiving, and less sensitive.
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42 minutes ago, AluminumHaste said:
For you, 90 percent of players have no issue.
I didn't know that you made a research study on the subject.
But, jokes aside, I think we're running in circles, aren't we? I could as well argue that, just because you have no problem with it, or act like there isn't a problem, doesn't mean that the majority of peple don't have a problem with it.
Blackjacking in TDM always worked very different to blackjacking in the original Thief's. I never had an issue with blackjacking in the original Thief's, but, since I play TDM (which is probably 13 to 14 years now), I had a lot of issues blackjacking in it. That's all I can say. Maybe my blackjacking skills magically vanish whenever I boot TDM. IDK.
Or maybe blackjacking just plain sucks in TDM.
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On 1/24/2018 at 7:05 AM, GEPGUN said:
Does anyone else find the
to be blackjack-proof when they are squatting down? I ended up quicksaving right before one was squatting down to pick up a weapon, but every blackjack attempt failed. Either it would hit his rear and not KO, or the blackjack would whiff right through him. The only way to get him was to wait until he would stand back up.
Re-playing this, I had a lot of issues with blackjacking them. Not just when they're squatting down, also when they're standing or walking. 9 out of 10 blackjack attempts failed.
But then, blackjacking is the #1 issue of The Dark Mod in general anyway. It just doesn't work well. Seemed to be even (quite a bit) worse with the apebeasts though.
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I'm re-playing this mission, and have trouble finding the
Spoilerfamily ring in the bath house again (already couldn't find it the first time I played the mission). Any pointers?
Edit: Ok, got it. At 24:32 here:
Well, that's really hard to see, and the guy in the video had his issues finding it as well.
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2 hours ago, JackFarmer said:
If there are no overlapping routes of different AIs, then the whole "knock out guard and hide" routine is no longer a game element, because knocked out guards would not be found anymore.
I didn't say that they don't have to overlap at all. I said that 3 guards at the same time in the same place, potentially even blocking the doorway is a bad thing, and has happened to me in TDM in the past. I don't remember such occasions being that much of an issue in the original Thief's. In general, obviously, TDM was created to be much harder. The A.I.'s senses are more sensitive, in most missions there is more A.I., in most missions there is at least 1 or 2 elite guards (which really should only be the highest ranked watch officers, guarding things like safes, or the primary loot object in missions), blackjacking is harder, and pretty random (I noticed that again yesterday, when some guards simply couldn't be knocked out in the first 4 or 5 tries, and then somehow got knocked out easily where I didn't even think I could knock them out. The blackjack indicator also only helps a bit, there can be times where it indicates that you can knock a guard out, and then when you press the key, the knockout is already off again. It's really weird, and I don't think I will find out how blackjacking works in TDM in this life.).
Especially for people who blackjack every living thing, predictability is a critical thing, also in regards of hiding bodies. Again, I don't expect everything to me completely predictable, and, of course a guard can sometimes stop by the fire, or chat with another stationary guard. But, 3 or 4 variations of a route are bad.
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On 6/30/2023 at 1:42 AM, thebigh said:
There's a good middle ground as well. You can have consistent patrol routes with minor variations. Say a watchman walks into a large courtyard. Maybe on the way through he stops to warm his hands by the fire cage; on the next pass he detours to have a brief word with another watchman; on the next he just carries on without dawdling. It just adds some interest and variety to a patrol route without making it too unpredictable.
Nothing wrong with that. What's bad is if A.I. changes their patrol route, and something like I've encountered in a few missions happens: 3 A.I.'s in the same room at the same time, even though they all have their general patrol route. That makes no sense at all.
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On 6/14/2023 at 1:47 AM, Skaruts said:
Personally I can't quite pin-point what makes missions fun for me, but I can pin-point things that have ruined the fun for me.
The biggest is unpredictable AI. If the AI isn't predictable, then a player can't strategize and the gameplay is merely a gamble where you just quicksave and blindly press forward hoping randomness is on your side.
Finally, someone who says it.
Especially in stealth games, the A.I. has to be predictable to a certain degree, otherwise you really can scratch your planning and approach. Plus, it's more realistic for guards to have fixed paths anyway. No point in letting them guard places where 3 or 4 of them stack up, and leave the other areas unguarded.
That said, the A.I. in most missions works predictably (fortunately).
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I have no idea why there's such a hype over such A.I.'s. A computer always has been something for me which should complement the human mind, not replace it. When I read that A.I. composes symphonies, and does other art stuff, then I shake my head, and think of sci-fi movies, not of something which is actually useful. Human creativity is the antithesis to anything machine made. Especially when it's simply based on a database of collected knowledge, nothing which is based on actual human behavior (yes, I know, they try to "simulate" that, but, it's still very basic).
I would say "Wake me when you're through", but, like with so many things these days, I'm afraid that it's a long-running craziness, not something which is done tomorrow. For me, it's the completely wrong direction, and a total waste of time.
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2 hours ago, wesp5 said:
I agree, also I missed the codes in the executive level because I had seen so many non important screens that I didn't stay around to see if anything else was displayed.
Oh, yeah, now that you say it, I missed the codes in the computer node rooms as well.
TBH, more of an issue with modern games though... so much detail that you can easily miss the interactive stuff.
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3 hours ago, thebigh said:
Yeah, System Shock 2 is something really special and what I saw of the SS1 remake was not really on that sort of level. Played the free demo for half an hour and just couldn't get into it.
FWIW, I wasn't THAT fond of the first level (Medical) either. After that, it gets better and better.
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4 hours ago, wesp5 said:
Yes, but for somebody who is only playing each other day I think it's almost too little. A quest log would be great, even TDM has a list of what you are supposed to do while not explaining where and how to do it! This is often hidden in one of hundreds of audio logs and you might have forgotten a few day later what you were supposed to do coming back to the game.
I know what you mean.
Nonetheless, I think it's the right way. Games should make you think. And, if you use a notepad alongside your keyboard, I don't think it's a bad thing.
I actually had more issues with recognizing interactive elements in the game world. For example, I would have completely missed that you can interact with the diagnostic log machine, after you did some other stuff (it doesn't really react before that). Or the machine where you can scan the human head you found (which you can easily miss as well).
Oh, and regarding System Shock 2: It's an insanely good game. I would rate it a bit higher than the SS 1 Remake, but, they're both great.
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I re-played this, and just finished it. Really nice, classic mansion mission. Again, I didn't really care for the K.O. limitation (I played on the medium difficulty, and I just knocked everyone, ignoring the failed optional objective), but, I accomplished all the other optional objectives. I like that this mission feels so polished, it seems well tested.
Nonetheless, the one thing I'd definitely criticize about it is the K.O. limitation objective. It just doesn't make sense to limit the player's approach that way (and it doesn't make sense from the mission perspective either). Really can't stress that enough. Please give the player all the options to play his way, and don't force the player to play your way. Cardinal error in my opinion.
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You will like it.
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15 hours ago, Amadeus said:
When the AUTHOR of the mission in question declares that the mission is abandoned... that's it. This is not that hard guys. If you didn't make the mission, you don't get to declare it abandoned, easy peasy
Is a mission which was declared as "abandoned" also autmatically declared as "others may continue to work on it"?
Sorry, don't want to cause even more confusion.
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I noticed that it works reliably when you look up when you drop the body. Even when you're crouched.
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54 minutes ago, revelator said:
sadly us players have been hampered for years by games that hold our hands, actually took me a while to get used to it again
Unfortunately, they wouldn't do it if the majority of players wouldn't want their hand to be held...
Every single game I played back in the days said "Figure me out and learn me". But, that changed at some point in the mid to late 2000's. I think it's safe to say that most don't want to figure out and learn stuff, but get everything spoon fed, or they will smash the gamepad to the wall after 5 minutes. Games like System Shock, or also the Cyan Worlds games (played through Firmament recently) surely will stay niche.
It's so unfortunate, because, the majority of players obviously totally miss what's fun about games. They want to watch a movie, and think and do stuff as little as possible, it seems.
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It's also cool to see that the press and the players didn't trash it for what it is, but actually embraced (for the most part at least) the "I don't hold your hand" attitude of the game. Maybe there's still hope for the gamer audience.
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Stupid question: Has there ever been a third mission in this series? I can only find "A new Job" and Tears of St. Lucia.
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On 6/13/2023 at 7:21 PM, wesp5 said:
Please no! We don't need crafting and survival in every game, just because it is a trend.
This. There's really no need to pack everything into this game.
I already scratch my head about all those tons of super "useful" suggestions, and even additions to the code (presented in a really aggressive "add it, or I will be very disappointed because I spent so much work on it" manner) by some hyperactive users here (no, I won't name names
). I hate bloat. Focus on a few gameplay elements, which fit to the theme of the original Thief games, but, don't make this a boring feature monster, which does everything, and nothing really in depth and good.
If you really want such stuff, do a mod or something, but, please, keep it out of the base game.
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1 hour ago, jaxa said:
I always crank up gamma.
And I always wondered why I have to set gamma so low in-game, with a monitor with a near perfect gamma.
In most games, I don't have to do that. 9 out of 10 display absolutely perfect, and I don't have to change anything.
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On 5/8/2023 at 1:58 AM, Melchior said:
I've never noticed much. If its working at all - I can't see it because usually IN NEAR TOTAL DARKNESS.
You should check your brightness and gamma settings then. If you can't see the blackjack or other weapons, you definitely set it too dark.
If you didn't know it already, the pre-installed Training Mission has a section where you can set brightness and gamma.
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Which one? A Machine for Pigs? It's unfortunately the weakest part of the series (pretty dumbed down gameplay and incomprehensible story), and, it also wasn't developed by the original developer which developed The Dark Descent, Rebirth, and, now, The Bunker.
The also did Penumbra, which is really great (seriously, I highly recommend that if you like Amnesia), and SOMA.
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Fan Mission: Volta II - Cauldron of the Gods by Kingsal (11/30/17) V2.2
in Fan Missions
Posted
I was wondering as well. It doesn't look like it, but, it's hard to tell, because I used the lean forward feature shortly before I hit with the blackjack. I could have sworn that it sometimes didn't indicate it when I played the mission. But, I'm not 100% sure now.
Again, thanks for taking your time. I just thought I'd mention it, because, over the whole mission, it seemed to me that the beasts are harder to knock out than human A.I.'s.