chakkman

This is one of the most bizarre requests I've read in a long time.

Well... you have my vote on that. I'd love to see more stealth games. The question is whether or not you can derive something from such figures. Master of Shadows is on the market for a couple of years now, there's been Steam sales for it, it was sold below 10 €, and, a lot of people will have bought it on sale. Also, it has a different setting, and is a fantasy game with orcs, elves, and goblins, while Thief/TDM are rather classic middle age, with fantasy elements, of course. Again, the Thief's weren't really popular, back in the days. Thief 2014 wasn't really popular either. Splinter Cell went action, because the stealthy gameplay wasn't popular. Almost any modern "stealth" franchise lets you play full action as well. Stealth is just... niche.

TDM is amazing, no doubt. What it lacks compared to a fully fledged game is a high quality, consistent feeling campaign. But then, that isn't something TDM ever was created for. So.

Remember that the game industry grew exponentially since then...

Hmmm... glory kills, RPG elements, weapon upgrades? Not that I played Doom 1 and 2 much, back in the days... only ever played the first few levels, I think. I still stick to my statement about Doom and Doom Eternal being modern games, though. They are, of course. The only thing oldschool I feel about them is the rather fast action gameplay. In contrast to the rather slow, more horror themed gameplay of Doom 3.

The Thief games weren't that popular in the first place, and, this is a community mod, based on a pretty old game engine, which makes it a 100 times less popular even. I also don't think stealth games have really taken off much in terms of popularity. Rather the opposite case. Most of the peeps these days prefer fast action, with not much to think. That's why stealth franchises like Thief, Splinter Cell, or Dishonored are dead, or have changed the whole gameplay direction. I think it's safe to say that this is very niche. But, like many niche genres, it has a strong fanbase, in the sense of a few people who are really into this stuff. TBH, I'm not even sure if promoting this more would make sense in terms of gaining popularity. I used to be pro for releasing the mod on Steam, but, frankly, I wonder how many people you really would reach that way. The people who are into such games probably already heard of TDM, and the people who don't won't be convinced by releasing the game on Steam or another platform. Leaving aside the problems which have been pointed out more than once why it will be very difficult to release this on Steam or another platform anyway.

Doom and Doom Eternal are rather modern games. With all the bad stuff I relate with them. Dunno, games really changed, from something challenging, relevant (like... no tasks which repeat themselves for 100 times, and all feel the same...), with good ideas around every corner, to professional products, which are being developed according to a static master plan, to recoup the hundreds of million $ production costs. Don't want to sound too negative, I still enjoy some modern games too, and, Doom is alright really, for me. But, it's pretty apparent what they did there, and what all the others do. It just kills creativity. Which is a shame, because, visually, and also sound technically, those games are really absolutely awesome. Just a shame that it's always the shiny surface, and when you dig deeper, you find nothing but a black hole underneath it.

Tomb Raider is the only one that's free, but, that's a nice offer too, of course.

Surprised that Carnage didn't post about this already , but, Watch Dogs and the Stanley Parable are free on Epic Store now: https://www.epicgames.com/store/de/product/watch-dogs/home https://www.epicgames.com/store/de/product/the-stanley-parable/home Already had Watch Dogs, but, I grabbed it again on Epic Store. Who knows if one day I won't spend a bit of time there.

Skyrim was pretty cool in that regard. Even though some of the books in the Elder Scrolls games were tiresomely long... some very cool stories in the books in Skyrim though, like the series about the thief.

Alright, that's some good information then. No GameCopyWorld then. Phew.

Not sure if it's a real no-cd, but, it's stated here that it removes the Safedisc protection: https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Thief_II:_The_Metal_Age#Availability I never had to do with that, because, as I mentioned, the Steam versions of Thief Gold and Thief 2 are DRM free, and don't require anything, plus you can copy them to wherever you want, and patch them there.

Can't help you with the No-CD, I have the Steam version, which you can just copy from the Steam folder, and, I always patch that. Surely try the things you mentioned, though. Updating the graphics drivers, and installing it with T2Fix.

What's the computer's specs? Also make sure you use the T2Fix.

I think I even meant that. Sorry, I'm not too familiar with the graphics tech. It's especially apparent when you load a level in modern games. The textures look very low quality, and, after few moments, it gets scaled, when the game detects that the framerate is alright.

Cool. Could this be used to dynamically scale the texture detail, when the frame rate drops under a certain value?

Sick. So, Bikerdude left to not map anymore, and comes back with a map that's etxra large, and has some great people supporting him in his work. That's a nice comeback then... And, the screenshots look marvellous. I will play this as soon as it's out.

Any idea when we can count on a release?

I think moving to another engine was the least of the problem. It's just that those guys are a bunch of incompetent shits. Sorry to have to say it like that. Underworld Ascendant was a pile of crap, and now they don't manage a System Shock 3 either. If it was me, they should sell their franchises to teams which can handle such projects. Otherside Entertainment clearly have proven that they can't. Don't get me wrong, I love the Thief and System Shock franchises. But, really, they are not capable to do them.

That was kind of the only niggle I had with the game. Especially in the end, it seemed like they wanted to artificially lengthen the game by making you re-visit places, and put as many tasks in it as they could to make the game longer... Edit: Oh, and I really hated the Mooncrash addon. Might try that again one day, but, the fact that you always have to start from the beginning again when you died really p***ed me off. Apart from that, I really can't complain. Surely one of the best games I ever played. Just like Bioshock, it resembles the System Shocks very well. Hell, if only all games were like that nowadays. I really don't know why the kids are so much into Assassins Creed or Far Cry generical stuff...

I'm playing Bioshock 1 Remastered at the moment, and, after initially not being too impressed with it, when I tried it out some years ago, I'm absolutely stoked on it now... nice, nice game, and very closely resembles System Shock 2 for me. Dunno why I didn't like it back then, big misjudgment. Alongside Prey, probably one of the 2 or 3 best games I've played from the last 10 years.

Deus Ex has rather simple stealth gameplay mechanics. I'd be absolutely alright with those, no need to make them more sophisticated. Would rather be "nice to have".

Not everyone is able to help. I must admit that I'm utterly useless in about any regard of game development.

Yeah, yeah, YEAH! Unfortunately, the 2 attempts so far seemed a bit over ambitious, in terms of being one man projects, with no other help. On the other hand, I really don't know if a TDM fork would be the right approach. The biggest issue for me has always been the performance. Even with the recently introduced multicore option, TDM just takes too much CPU. At least for the visual quality it can produce. Would be better to start something like that in a new engine, IMO. Of course, much more work as well, but, who knows? I think Deus Ex still has a strong fan base.

Well... for me it's the key as well, because, I wouldn't pay half the price I paid for my PC for such a device. I think they will become affordable in the near future. Another problem is the system requirements though. You need a powerful PC to project to 2 HD or more screens. Also, the early headsets suffered from some childhood diseases, like bad resolution, bad acuity, bad tracking.