chakkman

I recently learned that they actually used motion capturing for the animations in the original Thiefs. Didn't know that that already was a thing back then. I agree with @I.C.H.I. that there was real character about the NPCs in the original Thiefs. A lot of what made the games great was about atmosphere, and how coherent everything worked together. Not to forget the absolutely insanely good lore, of course, which still baffles me after decades of playing the games. Game developers just knew their stuff back then. A lot of talent involved in these games. I know that it's hard to do, but, one thing I find TDM pretty rudimentary compared to the original Thiefs is the voice acting, and the voice lines. Don't want to step on anyone's foot, but, those are much better in the original Thiefs.

Since Windows XP, Windoes has been rock solid for me. Windows ME was a living catastrophy, and, I had quite a few issues with Windows 95 and 98 as well. The days when the OS still could completely crash on you. Don't think my current Windows 11 machine has EVER crashed on me. Or the Windows 10 machine I had before that. I actually forgot to say that, when I installed Ubuntu a couple of days ago, first thing that happened when the system was running was that the updater crashed on me. Thankfully, that didn't happen again when I did the updates. As I mentioned, that's kind of the usual for me with Linux. Either in the live versions or when installed: Something immediately crashes on you. They may fix it later, but, fkn hell. Must not happen. I'm a user, no system administrator. I never HAD to use the console on Windows. I use Powershell for some stuff, because I want to. On Linux, first thing to do when having installed Linux is hack in the console, to fix stuff. That's my experience. And, because everyone is an IT crack, I, of course, have to get all the info from the net, and don't know exactly what I'm doing, when I hack in the commands. Doesn't help either, that most of them are so cryptic. Anyway, enough ranted. Just wanted to point out my personal experiences with it.

Really? You never ha a problem with Linux? Like, ever? Not a single one? Not even a small one? See, I had multiple issues with Windows and Mac OS over the years. But, Linux really takes the cake in that regard. As mentioned, if you don't even get all the hardware working, then that's way beyond anything I experienced on other OSs. And, no offense meant, but, that "I never had a problem" recollection is surely connected to the fact that Linux is free, and the religion many Linux users make out of their OS, and open source in general. Again, if you never had a single problem, then you're either the luckiest guy on earth (unlikely), or you simply don't see problems as problems, but a means to perfect your IT skills.

That's exactly the contrary to my experiences with quite a few PCs I tried Linux on.

I installed Linux recently on a decommissioned laptop, after a long time of not using it. Pure joy: Wifi didn't work, so I immediately had to hack on the console, and activate an "unfree" repository. Bluetooth didn't work. Tried to fix it, with an inofficial patch for the driver. No luck. Plugged in a Bluetooth dongle I use on another computer. Worked, obviously taking a driver from the same repository I activated for wifi. Connected my Sennheiser wireless in-ears. Recognized as some kind of hands-free communication device. No sound. Kind of the same experience I have made over and over in the past. And, we're talking about the big distros here, I haven't even touched the smaller ones. Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Fedora, OpenSUSE, you name it. How anyone can mess with Linux is a mystery for me. Unless you have a masochistic side, I'd stay far away from it. A lot of work, with little to no reward. And, the so praised compatibility with old hardware is non existant either.

Still no fan of the graphical style, but, the gameplay looks fantastic.

And I still haven't played this. I'm utterly unmotivated these days.

I think a lot of people use Google Drive for this kind of thing. OneDrive would be another option. Most people using Windows will probably have a Microsoft/OneDrive account.

You might want to consider another filehoster next time, as most virus scanners run haywire when you download something from Mega... and rightly so. Probably no shadier filehoster than that in 2026.

From other forum's experiences, I can only say that downvoting is often abused as a way to express simple aversion towards other users, or aversion towards their opinion. IMO, downvoting is pointless. If your opinion differs from someone else's, just say it.

Are there really people who want to hide the lightgem? It is definitely not always obvious if you are fully hidden or not. Fading out the selected inventory items sounds good to me. Like @Baal, I often press the key to hide the inventory item. Would be great if it worked like in the original Thief games (fades out after some time). Healthbar is good how it is right now (not present when at full health, present when not). Anything else is good how it is right now as well, in my opinion.

Frankly, I already thought that Iris wasn't set in the same universe as Dark Mod. Which is Ok, if you accept it for what it is (not really in line with the rest of the Dark Mod universe). I get the same vibe with Kingsal's missions, TBH, especially with the last one (Gemcutter). Just my opinion, but, I disagree that Bridgeport is "well-trodden territory". I think there's more than enough stories, areas, and settings which haven't been explored (e.g., not even the surface was scratched with the pagan folks), but, that's up to FM authors, of course. In my eyes, there's definitely something to a coherent universe, making use of the existing lore, but, if FM authors want to get away from that, and create their own universe, it surely has its charme as well. It's no coincidence that missions like these rather remind people of Dishonored though. No offence intended.

That's totally fair. If it improves the current situation, it already would be a big help. On the topic, I just asked the almighty Google AI, and, it said that the time the AI is blinded in Thief 1 and Thief 2 is 6 to 7 seconds, which, IMO, would be a good time period for the AI to be blinded AND blackjack-able in TDM as well (whether alerted or not). And, for those who think it would make the game too easy, I can only reply that the amount of flashbomb is VERY limited in most missions. IF they provide you with a flashbomb at all. So, the difficulty would still be dealt out by the mission author. Which I think is best. The flashbomb should be a very limited tool (probably expensive with the black market vendors in The City as well. Probably only get those through stealing from the City Watch, or dealing with shady inventors ).

Just to make sure I'm not missing something: Is this supposed to work in 2.14 build 17456-11132? Because, it doesn't seem to work for me. The guard in the training mission comes after me, I flashbomb him, but can't knock him out after that. Can you specify again the exact conditions when guards can be blackjacked after being flashbombed again? The way I understood you is that they are supposed to be blackjack-able AFTER being alerted, and AFTER being flashbombed, for 1.5 seconds. Is that correct, or do other conditions have to be valid as well? Edit: nevermind, it worked now. It was that (excuse my language) completely shitty blackjacking mechanics again, which prevented me from being able to blackjack the guard. I find that the vastly more pressing issue, by the way. Really wished someone would completely rework the shitty blackjacking. That said, IMO, the guards should be blackjack-able as long as the blinding state animation longs (if it actually works), otherwise it isn't intuitive. The player can't guess what a developers thought to himself when developing the system, so, the visual clue (the blinded animation) is what he will go for, when determining what can or can't be done in the game. That's my opinion about it. That's also why the blackjacking system fails so badly, as, even after years, you won't have a clue why blackjacking sometimes doesn't work. Yes, the raised arm animation is a visual clue, but, why does the arm stay low in some situations. And, why do you need a raised arm at all to indicate when you can or when you can't blackjack someone? Blackjacking in the original games JUST WORKED. Sorry for offtopic, but, it's something which should seriously be adressed as well.

nevermind

Weird. I'm pretty sure I tried blackjacking the guard after flashbombing him in the training mission before v2.14, and, it never worked, regardless of the alert state before dropping the flashbomb. And, I thought that was what this change was about, making guards blackjack-able after they've been blinded with a flashbomb. I thought flashbombing them actually raised their alert state, making them immune to blackjacking.

Don't like that either, to be honest. I guess I have to find out now which cvars have been changed, and set them back to default after playing the map then...

I'm probably missing something, but, isn't the duration quite a bit longer than 1.5 seconds? I just tried in the training mission, and, it seems like I can knock out the guard as long as he doesn't enter the alert state where he draws his weapon? And, yeah, like @Wellingtoncrab mentioned, the big issue with the current implementation is the lack of feedback when the guard exits the "blinded" state. If that animation could be as long as the blinded state, it would be perfect. Edit: Another weirdness: If you alert the guard so that he draws his weaoon and searches, and then drop a flash bomb, the guard will be blinded ("blinded" animation plays shortly), and, when you blackjack him then, the blinded animation will play again shortly. You can repeat the blackjacking then, and, every time you blackjack him, it will play the blinded animation again.

Lovely. Grats to the release.

Don't worry, we were just joking. The confusion was rather that this part of the forum usually is for fan mission releases, so, when I saw the name "Painter's Wife:...", I thought for a second that there was a sequel to Painter's Wife, which was quickly resolved when I visited the thread. If there were a Painter's Wife 2, I'm sure it would be ages away.

Painter's Wife has the feel of the classic citiy missions of the original Thiefs and their city FMs for me. Dunno if the OP meant that, but, that's how it is for me. Other FMs I would name in that regard: Talbot Return to the City, and Penny Dreadful 2 and 3. I think Painter's Wife comes closest to those huge classic city style FMs from the original Thief games.

Professional TDM fan mission designer.

I came here for the "Painter's Wife 2: Harrington's Manor" release thread.

If only the graphics had some more pixels.

True.