lost_soul

Somebody could always recompile the DLL without in-game download support though, right? The game would still be enjoyable for Win2K users, but they would have to download FMs themselves... no big deal.

I did see an unfrobbable, unconscious guard the other day on NHAT 2. It was in one of the buildings near a desk drawer. Unfortunately for that guard, I had to whack him with my blackjack to get his (now corpse) out of the way so I could get what was in the desk. I didn't really think of it as a game bug, just an isolated incident.

2000 was the last Microsoft OS that I really liked. I've actually got an authentic copy sitting right next to me, box and all! If it is too much trouble to get TDM running in 2000 again, you could always install a small Linux partition. My custom Debian install uses about 130 megs of ram at a desktop, or under 100 with a simple window manager. Just stay away from Ubuntu if you want a light system. I've got Windows 2000 installed as a VM on this laptop, so maybe I could try TDM there. Let me know if I can help, but remember that gaming in a VM is (pretty much) still a joke.

I was rather surprised to see Microsoft drop office genuine advantage. I'm guessing the spread of Openoffice.org is starting to worry them. I frequently recommend OO.O to people when they get a new PC or just need an office suite for an old one.

I made a two-key press to turn on and off compiz. When I start a game like TDM, I just hit these keys to disable Compiz and get full-speed gameplay. Then when I quit the game, I just press CTRL+F3 to turn it back on.

I think we're still growing. With every new FM that comes out and every time the limits of TDM are expanded upon, we see more people from TTLG giving it a try. This is a good thing. I don't want to see TDM "stomp out" Thief, but I want TDM to grow and grow, and then grow some more. More missions released = more players, which = more potential mappers! I never really saw the guards in T1/2 as being pathetic looking though. The animations were and still are beautiful (particularly the combat ones!). I didn't spend so much time looking at the AIs, because I was busy avoiding them most of the time. As for bumpmapping, were there even video cards that could do it in 2000? I think the Dreamcast could do it. It seemed like people were more obsessed with environment mapping back then. It is a way to make walls look shiny and/or reflective.

An island FM would be cool, but they're pretty hard to make in a convincing manor. How do you blur the water in the distance against the skybox? I remember some T1 FMs that were set on docks and they didn't look good because the water was unaffected by lighting in that game. In the distance, you would just see bright water meeting a dark sky. I suppose now you could just have no lights in the distance, so it fades to black, or use fog to hide the horizon.

Completed Knighton Manor without issues.

I loaded up NHAT3 again with the different shader settings (standard, simple, enhanced) and there was still a large open space with no decorations on the left. You can see the visportals opening and closing in the distance, as portions of the map appear out in the clearing.

It was the second door just past the fountain on the ground. The guard would walk through the door, close it, open it, and go back again. There were no bodies or dropped weapons on the ground. I hadn't attacked anyone. Will we end up having to DMAP missions again when new versions come out?

Completed Living Expenses. Only problem was a few "aas32 is not valid" messages and a guard who kept walking in circles... but I swear I dmapped this back in 1.02!

^exactly That was why I always said "Anyone who asks to be a moderator doesn't get to be."

Tested NHAT 1 and 2 and they are fine, but we've got some breakage on NHAT3. Much of the terrain is missing, leading to a wide open area with inexplicable light sources on your way to the mansion near the left side.

I got it going! The new footsteps sound great, especially the tile set. I have been testing NHAT and am on Politics. One thing I still have trouble with is sticky ambiance though. When I enter a room with a specific music track and then save, if I save later in a different room, two music tracks play at the same time after reloading. The old music track plays and so does the new one, untill I go through a transition point in the map. EDIT Nevermind. It must just be a bug with NHAT, because when I run Knighton Manor it doesn't have that problem. I guess it pays to test multiple missions before reporting something like that.

Is there an official listing of packages that need to be installed for the updater to work? I didn't see one on the wiki, and ia32-libs doesn't apply because this is a 32-bit system. The updater complains about: IO object version 1.25 does not match bootstrap parameter 1.23_01 at /usr/lib/perl/5.10/DynaLoader.pm line 219.

the command I used was"perl tdm_update.pl --keep-mirrors"

Yes, it said a lot of files differ and that it will fetch them. Now it has failed, saying some files are corrupt. I wonder if there's somewhere I can get the new updater, or just do this on my Windows XP box.

We shipped that new video card back and had the store test it. Turns out it is defective. Now they're "pre-testing" another one and will send it to us. Hopefully that will fix the problem.

I'm currently downloading to test on Debian Linux, but I had to execute the perl command manually because the updater refused to run, even though I've installed the perl packages. It wants to download 1.7 GB! Is that okay?

Wow, this is a bit of a turn off for someone who plans to buy his next CPU from AMD. IP bans are pretty extreme, unless you really did something bad. A few weeks ago, I tried to access the Skulltag forums to get help running it on Linux. The first thing I saw was a page telling me I was IP banned for "posting stupid****", when I had NEVER been there before. Moral of the story, don't IP ban people unless it is absolutely necessary. If you hand out IP bans like candy, you'll inevitably prevent other users from accessing your site. I realize that the guy who did this to you probably doesn't work for AMD, but this is an example of why it is important to be careful handing out moderator privileges. When I ran a game server, I had a simple rule. Anyone who asks to be admin never gets to be.

I have no control over ANYONE, but I would personally prefer it if the TDM developers didn't even talk about or look at the internals of the Thief source code. We wouldn't want any corporate suits to come down on TDM with accusations of copying code or anything like that. Remember when ReactOS had to do a complete code audit? (Wikipedia.org) This process set back the project, probably by years. All it would take is one disgruntled Thief fan... I would also remove all links to files relating to the Thief code from this topic if I were an administrator for TDM's own protection.

Bah... another game being pushed back??? It is bad enough we have to wait until September for Rage and possibly the Doom 3 source code! At least Duke Nukem should come out in February (no really!).

Nah, we can tell. The difference is, with games that run on the client, you can always get better netcode. Back in 1996, Online gaming sucked. This was because games weren't explicitly designed for play on limited bandwidth connections, and even when you pressed fire, your gun wouldn't shoot for what seemed like half a second. This was the same when it came to movement. For an example of this, check out Quake 1 or Duke Nukem 3D. Then in 2000, some genius came up with the concept of lag compensating netcode for games. Basically, when you fire your gun at a certain direction at a given time, the client tells the server this information. Then the server checks to see if your target was in your crosshair *at the time when you originally fired* and if he was there, it registers as a hit. In older games, your shot would only register when the information gets to the server, so if you have a 200 ping, then sorry buddy, but your bullets all have a 200 ms latency to them. Some games like Halo for the PC still have terrible net code, where you have to aim a point-blank sniper rifle an inch in front of your perpendicularly-moving target to score a hit. Other games like Half-life have such beautiful net code that they remain enjoyable up to a 200 ping. In half-life, if you've got a 200 ping and you shoot another player in the head, you might occasionally see him keep running, only to explode into gibs a second later. This is an example of the server checking and figuring out that "yes, he was in your crosshair when you originally fired the shot". So in short, with games that are running on the user's machine, you can take steps to hide or compensate for the latency. When you're shifting raw video and audio around, I don't really see what can be done to hide the lag, unless you've invented a time machine.

I've heard of it, but I prefer the following. *things that I pay for remain under my control and are accessible whenever I choose *as few monthly bills as possible The good point of this would be that you can get by with a crappy computer and still play new games. However, you will presumably have to pay for some kind of subscription. I could just as well put that money towards building a decent PC and in the end be reliant on no one else. It comes down to a personal decision I guess. I also find it hard to believe that Onlive can provide a service for FPS games. You need to be able to turn around and react in those *immediately* and even a 10 ms latency from when you spin the mouse until your character turns will break gameplay. So, you have to stream a video feed to the client, *and* an audio feed of respectable quality.Even if a lot of connections can handle this, it will be hard to get latency down. This doesn't even touch on handling the player's input and getting it to the server in a reasonable amount of time.