Xolvix

I'm a bit uncertain about the idea of a remake/remaster of the original Deus Ex. Part of it is due to how it's not uncommon for companies seem to screw them up either due to bad texturing, bad re-implementation of gameplay/controls or whatever, but I think Deus Ex is a special case because it's very much a product of its time. You didn't have fear of doing things that you can't get away with now. A simple example - there are children in Deus Ex 1, and they can be blown up and gibbed to pieces with LAMs or GEP rockets if you really want to. There's no benefit to doing so of course, but the game lets you just like it lets you do so with any other NPC. There's a reason you don't see kids much in games anymore, and if they are present, a game will either prevent you from targeting them or will simply have zero reaction to damage. Again, there's no need to do so, but I can't just help feeling that a remake/remaster would give them all god mode or something to update it to our more... politically sensitive culture. It would be a reminder that nope - you can't do this naughty thing anymore because it would make the game hard to sell, a concern that wasn't present in 2000. Or another example - aiming. Deus Ex 1 is the only game in the series in which your weapons are part of weapon classes that have individual skills attached to them, and if you're not suitably skilled in a class, your ability to hit anything is quite limited. It was a bit of a shock when I first played the game and discovered this, but once I learnt how it basically linked the RPG elements into a FPS perspective, I appreciated it more and was able to play more tactically. I can almost guaranteed they'd tweak that such that even an Untrained skill would have something more akin to Advanced now, and that further upgrades would just tighten it up even more than the original.

If you've got a card with 8 GB of VRAM then it must be suitably modern enough to run The Dark Mod pretty damn well. Stencil shadows are basically Doom 3 shadows and that's technology from 2004, so you shouldn't be hitting any hurdles. Unless it's perhaps an integrated GPU and sharing the VRAM with the system memory. What are your specs?

That's an important point. Apart from the classic Thief games and of course TDM, are there ANY other stealth games in which the material you walk on and the sound it makes has gameplay value apart from simply playing a different audio effect?

This is my interpretation of course, but for me, the point of morals is to strive towards becoming a better you. Treating others better, the environment better, living a more wholesome life. Goes hand in hand with ethics I guess, to the point where I rarely understand the difference between the two terms. Anyway, point is that morals are an ideal. Some people reach that ideal more than others, but it's a good idea to strive towards because at the very least it makes you a much nicer person to be around. If you've given up to the point where you're happy with being a social outcast, to me that just means your interpretation of what morals are is different to mine. It doesn't upset me. I should mention that I am not a religious sort, so morals for me are just a way of apply my conscience to the real world. I am also not evil. I make bad judgement calls sure, but if we consider those to be evil, then the word has no meaning. Perhaps you're thinking more of nihilism?

That's a good point about Crystal Dynamics. For a series that wasn't up to the sales figures Square Enix wanted, they're still given the freedom to make a whole new Tomb Raider game. Of course they've got new owners now, but I wonder if this development was already in the pipeline before the sale was arranged, or after. In any case, why couldn't Eidos-Montréal be given the freedom to finish their own franchise before moving onto other projects? @chakkman, I'm curious why you were able to approach Thief 4 as its own game (like I did) and appreciate it for what it was, but when it comes to the newer Tomb Raider games it's just not possible. For me they're fun for what they are, and the games have progressively more difficult puzzles as the franchise progressed. Heck the final one (Shadow of the Tomb Raider) is noted for having the least amount of combat, at least until the final act where it kinda ramps up.

Generally speaking the CPU isn't too important for FMs, but the GPU (graphics card). Even the RAM isn't that important, I have 8 GB in this machine but a relatively beefy graphics card and I still have yet to encounter any game that has been tripped up with the amount of RAM. Unfortunately GPUs aren't particularly cheap right now (at least for something decent), but then again if your primary interest is in The Dark Mod, you don't need something super powerful - it's an advanced Doom 3 engine after all. I suspect the main issue is the GPU in your laptop/desktop isn't powerful enough, either because it's old or it's some integrated unit that doesn't do games very well. I'm sure others will have advice for specific cards though, I'm out of the loop.

Thing is, do people actually expect super-duper graphics from every single game nowadays? Or is it more than the gaming industry itself has built up their own expectations about what a game needs to sell? I mean I like good graphics too, but there's a rather large gamut of what a game can do in order to look nice without needing the absolute latest rendering tech and high def textures. On the other hand, I still play classic Doom/Quake fairly often so I have no issue dealing with old looking graphics anyway. As for the System Shock remake, I remember the switch from Unity to Unreal. But people didn't whinge I don't think, in fact the Unity demo was pretty popular from memory. It's just that the devs chose to switch to Unreal for whatever reason, and initial screens of the Unreal build lost the visual charm from what they already had in Unity. Things look much better now so that's positive, but I guess there's something to be said that being on call with a large community all the time does have its downsides. People want communication with devs, but it can also be a massive headache.

It's unfortunate that "very unpopular" seems to be anything other than Elder Scrolls/Elden Ring/Call of Duty sales figures. Maybe a bit of an exaggeration but it does seem like it for certain publishers. I mean, Human Revolution sold well enough for a sequel, but Square Enix seems to ask for too much from its western developers. Supposedly none of the Tomb Raider games sold enough units to their satisfaction despite it being quite popular. It was at least popular enough to be able to finish the trilogy (and bumping up the budget on each subsequent game), so I'm a little bitter the newer Deus Ex series couldn't finish theirs. Maybe publishers just need to manage their expectations. I'd rather a lower budget if the game could still be made.

I would argue that a Thief game built entirely around ray tracing, would perhaps be the perfect example of ray tracing tech used for gameplay as opposed to just for looks. Assuming it's done right, it would mean zero confusion between what looks like a dark area of the map as opposed to what the engine considers a dark area of the map. Despite the Doom 3 unified lighting engine, there's still too many situations where the lighting of a region betrays its actual visibility to the AI, so you'll go there to hide but it actually registers brighter than some benign other area of the room due to.. whatever. A ray traced lighting engine should eliminate that discrepancy completely.

I'm silly. I keep forgetting about how a sufficiently-large developer can have multiple teams working on different things. Although I do remember reading that work on Mankind Divided only began proper once Thief had been shipped, so I just assumed it was the same people. Regarding the old school approach, there's commentary in the updated version of Human Revolution that mentions that once you've dealt with Sanders (the terrorist leader holding a woman hostage in the first major mission after the prologue), SWAT is finally allowed to enter the facility after being held back by Sarif's influence. Once this happens, most people (including me) normally finish the level by boarding the VTOL, but if you go and backtrack through the level you'll see SWAT units have now populated various areas of the facility and you can talk to them. The idea was to mirror the first mission of the original Deus Ex and how once you've dealt with the terrorist leader there, UNATCO troops populate the area in the same way. Except there you have to encounter them on your way back to HQ so they can't be missed, but there's no logical reason for a player to backtrack in Human Revolution for this mission at least so you'd never see them. Still, interesting detail and at least showed respect for its predecessor. As for Thief 4, I can't remember where I saw this (think it was a video), but in interviews before its release one of the devs talked about how a player can think that a game they enjoyed 10-15 years ago was one of the best things ever, but can come back to it later and discover it was all in your mind essentially. Then another dev reinforced it by saying it's all nostalgia and how games have come so far in such a short amount of time. In other words, it's a blatant attempt to try to steer people away from making comparisons to the original Thief games by calling them old and shit, since they know their product won't compare favorably. It didn't work.

To be fair, the group that made Thief 4 (Eidos-Montréal) also somehow managed to make Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Mankind Divided, so there's clearly talent there; I guess it just depends on the project and leadership. Anyway, based on what I've read people seem cautiously optimistic... if only because Square Enix completely mismanaged their western devs and IP. With regards to Deus Ex I doubt ESG can do any worse than Squeenix, at least compared to doing absolutely fucking nothing.

I wonder if there's a dodgy keybind or other config variable that's causing problems. I can't say I've had this issue, but everyone suffers differently. You could try moving your config files out from your game directory (Darkmod.cfg, DarkmodKeybinds.cfg and if needed DarkmodPadbinds.cfg) so that the game creates fresh config files in their absence, then with these defaults play for a bit and see if it happens again. Worst case, run the TDM installer again in case there's a dodgy pk4 file or something.

OK I'm a bit lost as to what to do now: Also something tells me this is one of those missions where I'll end up trying my absolute best and still miss a ton of loot. But I assuming no-one gets all the loot on a mission of this size on the first try. EDIT: Well I managed somehow... Anyway, overall a really solid mission.

I mentioned my issues earlier with this puzzle, but I feel I should elaborate since it's a still hot topic, maybe something I say will be helpful:

It's what Google Chrome names files during a download. It's supposed to rename them to the proper filename once fully downloaded, so if it hasn't it's possible the download was interrupted for some reason. The tdm_installer.exe.zip file is roughly 800 KB, so pretty damn small. You could try renaming it to that and seeing what happens - maybe Chrome did download it but just didn't rename for some reason.

So I finished it a few days ago. This is a really good mission to highlight features in 2.10 and shows what modern TDM is capable of (at least in the hands of an experienced individual). So much custom content, it was pretty cool to see new stuff almost everywhere. Found the Grayman memorial, done really well I have to say. Despite being kinda hidden it wasn't marked as a secret, but this is good and probably the more classy approach. Hopefully we'll have more adventures with Clara! EDIT: A couple more things: 1. Speaking of references to other games, I absolutely was not expecting a reference to 2. Related to that mission, I came across

Confirmed in Windows. Only when sidestepping left. That's rather strange.

Back when The Dark Mod was literally a mod for Doom 3, I was a bit naive and thought that, given the Doom 3 resources were still accessible to the mod, with the correct application of "give all" and maybe a couple of tweaks I'd be able to spawn in a shotgun and take those Builders and City Guard to town. I mean in theory it should have been possible, but I couldn't work it out and gave up rather quickly. Stealth score would have gone to shit but it would certainly be funny.

Some people will believe the craziest conspiracy theories because it makes them think they're on the 'inside' track of life - that they know something that very few people know, and that makes them special. It might be complete horseshit and such theories generally are, but if you can convince yourself you're better than those ignorant masses who don't believe it or have never heard of the theory, that gives your life purpose. A lot of people are absolutely desperate to make their lives mean something - they don't get it from their jobs, they don't get it from friends/family/acquaintances, so they get sucked into the black whole of conspiracy theories. Which is a shame, since I'm certain there's actual conspiracies that go unnoticed because they're generally not as "glamorous" compared to exploding head theories I guess.

So I finally got around to playing the mission. I'm only a few minutes in so I don't have much to say but... there's something about the presentation that's giving me really strong Dishonored vibes, at least in the initial areas. Signs that say "A Lawful City is a Safe City" remind me of "The boldest measures are the safest" propaganda posters littered around the place in Dishonored. And right next to those signs? Some bodies wrapped in white cloth, exactly like plague victims in Dishonored. And the looting animations where items fly towards the player? Dishonored again. Also the merged lockpicks, I haven't see that in a TDM mission before. I think I might have played a mission where only one lockpick was present, but your mission specifically has a merged lockpick item so the player knows not to bother looking for a second lockpick. I actually like the idea of a single lockpick. You say having two lockpicks has no value, to which I disagree for one situation - sometimes you may have to pick a lock ASAP due to an enemy nearing your position, and fucking up the selection of the correct lockpick for the relevant tumbler can add a certain tension. So I'm fine with two lockpicks for most missions, but I won't lie and say that having only one to deal with here wasn't appreciated. Another Dishonored reference (more Dishonored 2 actually) is the Silent Dagger shop, at least in terms of how it operates. Just like D2, mess with the shopkeeper and they'll close off the store. I did notice a locked vent nearby that can't be picked. That was a staple of D2 as well - finding out how to get subversive access to the various stores. I'm gonna assume there's a means to do it here as well...

Can I just say, I praise the devs for being able to do what they do. I honestly don't care if they take any suggestions I make or not, because frankly the improvements that come with each and every single release are noticeable and genuinely appreciated. From what I remember reading in a discussion a long time ago, what they want more are contributors. Basically people making levels or assets. That could of course have changed and they're now "fuck that, code for us!", but that's what I remember seeing somewhere. Makes me a little ashamed that I'm more of a taker rather than a giver. I can code in C++ acceptably, but game dev is some of the hardest coding practices out there so I dunno. We do need more aussies contributing levels though and I only know of two so far, so maybe I need to represent...

But like I said, I'm happy if such a tweak is not applied to an active NPC. Once they're knocked out or dead, maybe have that be the point where the items on their person become much easier to frob. It's helps overcome the jank I encounter in some missions. To be honest it's not as bad as in "The Parcel" where there's a key on the Lord of the house that in many cases you won't even see since it clips mostly into his model. I think I had to watch a playthrough vid once before I was like "it's on his body?!?" since something was wrong with its placement. In this case though, the key was easily frobbble. You just had to know it was there.

In that case I have a legit suggestion. Maybe increase the frobbing radius/strength/focus/whatever for keys attached to NPCs. There's been a number of situations where I've tried grabbing the key off of an NPC and the frobber has great trouble focusing onto it. Not always the case but it happen from time to time and it can be a downright pain especially if the key is required. I guess the same goes for money bags. If you want to keep the difficulty of an NPC in motion, maybe have the key/money bag take increased focus once the NPC has been KOed or killed, to simulate the in-game character having much easier access to said item.

I'm clearly not very good at this suggestions thingy. There seems to be a lot of duplication between the two links given above. Are they both updated manually or is there some sort of clever backend code where updating one page auto-updates the other? If not then it would seem simpler to just add a link to the wiki on the Missions page. I guess the other alternative to my idea is to add a link to the wiki within the mission list screen and have it launch the default browser to that page.

To expand on this, it'd be really cool if there was a "sort by" button on the mission list screen, whereby clicking on it will cycle through different sorting categories. Stuff like: Name Most recently downloaded Uncompleted missions Download Size (sometimes an indication of the mission having an intro movie, new textures/music, etc.) Also, even if there's no desire to add a GUI element for it, maybe a console variable could be created so you can choose whether you want the mission list to ignore articles like "The" and "A" when sorting, which is currently what happens. I'm not really a fan of this but I get why it's done, but it'd be nice to control this.