[Can't Wait To Get Stoned]

I understand New Horizon, hopefully mission-makers will implement their own creative features as well.

 

PS: Still curious about what archers will do in short-range

[Very Cool Ai Demos]

great post SneaksieDave

 

I especially love the 'Tank Battle''s troop behavior of formation and taking cover.

 

Oblivion offers something barely liek 'Simulated City demo' but it's much more scripted.

 

Crispy, or someone else- I don't understand why the latst hardware could not be used for such complex ai.

I mean, almost none even support dual-core processing.

 

I think the problem is not lack of hardware power but lack of human programming time to take advantage of processing power.

[Steam Soon To Implement Ingame Advertising...]

sparhawk- some advertisers ARE making their own games.

Burger King has 3 "King" games for xbox 360 ( I have to admit the title "Sneak King" is slightly funny)

[Can't Wait To Get Stoned]

Neither of these are feasible. Especially not building a pile of stuff to reach you.

They will already call for help from archers within hearing distance.

 

Glad to hear that. Or they might run away and reappear with a bow?

 

and about archers - will they have a dagger or sword as well? In case you get close range with them

 

AIs will jostle each other a bit if they get in each other's way, but not to the extent of falling off a ledge.

 

I don't believe the player can push AIs around at all, and I don't think it's a good idea either. That would just be begging for exploits.

 

Kicking was fun in Dark Messiah

 

What about throwing object at NPC ? will that move/knock them over/drop the dead/unconscious? (depending on type of object I presume)

 

 

I was thinking about the idea of 2 use buttons. One for pull/take, the other for push/put back.

If player takes an important item with pull/take than sees a guard coming they could put it back on it's location.

 

Another instance, the player could push a guard (not liek Dark Messiah, but a less than half a meter or so, witihn arm's lenth) off a ledge or pull them down off a ledge [player is under a cliff on a branch, gaurd walks to end of cliff, player pulls, guard drop to the abyss)

[Jan 3 Update: More Ai Smartness]

There's no point making AI realistic, when it doesn't matter anyway, even if they do catch and kill you, you just start from your last save.

 

Best to keep it at the current childish level that all games maintain.

I completely disagree, or I probably missed the sarcasm.

 

Saving system could be restrictive. Best example is Hitman1 (no saves during mission) and Hitman2 (limited saves per mission per difficulty level)

One idea for a mapmaker of a 5 missions in a town could be: if caught, arrest and put to jail, if die, erase all saves.

 

I understand that balancing gameplay and realism a challenge, but one thing that could always be better is the AI.

 

 

 

I've found that when you increase the realism of one aspect of a model, it often necessitates increasing the realism of a different apect of the model, otherwise the whole model will break down and be less realistic than you started with.

 

For example: Overuse of the wine-bottle gun?

Adding realism form one direction, yet creating unrealism from another point at the same time?

[Thief Mod For Dark Messiah Of Might And Magic]

Here's list of things to Thieverize

Slight spoiler warning (item, weapons, nothing about plot though)

 

 

 

NPC slip on Oil jars (like ice-arrow)

 

NPC should NOT know location of player if hit by projectile or charmed, add a "searching" algorithm to ai script.

 

NPCs should NOT see a corpse if the player's light meter in the corpse's location = 0

 

Flies should not arrvie 5 seconds after NPC is killed

 

If health=full no use food/potion

 

Disable the message "Congrrts discovered secret area", or at least kill that chime. I get it every 5-10 minutes

 

 

Add blackjack, blackjacking and sleeping behavior to NPC

 

Change the hud system!

add lightgem,

weapon/items/spells assigned to ANY key, not just 1-9

 

 

Add mission statistics

 

Add currency system for weapons and items.

Add "shops" in strategic parts of game or beginning of level/map (good use of loading screen) give player ability to buy/sell/trade weapons and items (except quest-specific items or spells)

 

 

 

 

Edit: (How could I forget?!) Water arrows (kill torches, fires)

and fire arrows or fire-attack should light torches or extinguished fires/corpses.

[Amusing Youtube Clips]

Both Zelda and Link are female. GREAT!!

[Can't Wait To Get Stoned]

"it would be nice if the type of object thrown was based on the material type the AI is stand on. So for example, if they're standing on grass or rock they throw stones. If they're on tile or wood they throw bottles, etc."

 

Agreed. But I prefer for them to actually pick up surrounding objects to throw. Yet a better idea would be for them to (I'm serious) build a pyramid/use chairs/surrounding objects if it's possible to reach your elevation. Or even break/shake/rattle object you're on.

or WAIT! If there are more than one NPC looking at you while you're on safe elevation, one of them runs to get an archer or a bow to shoot you with! (Like Crispy suggested)

I am aware of programming difficulties, these are only ideas. But a guard disappearing and reappearing with a bow is more realistic than wine bottles out of thin air.

 

 

 

"give the THief a small pebble to toss himself, to distract or attract AIs"

 

Or coin. (Hitman Blood Money, was it?)

 

 

"if the Citywatch sees me its nothing big as long as I can avoid their grasp, they have no idea what it is Im up to. But if Im a private guard and I see a professional thief lurking about the grounds, no matter whether I can catch him or not, Im going to sound the general alarm and send a heavy guard contingent to the areas"

 

Yet the implementation of this has to be gameplay balanced, and realistic. So if front gate see's thief, top floor should know in about 15-20 minutes, and patrol would stay the same, but their senses and acceleration of alert levels increase.

 

 

"No one thinks twice about the fact that doors just automatically close behind guards without them having to turn around and pull them shut"

Actually, doors are my number one distraction of unrealism in Thief1, I was really aware of it. Not the lack of animation of opening and closing it with the hands, but exploiting them by repeatedly closing them and getting the guards stuck in the other side. I hope this is somehow fixed in TDM, afterall a guard should be stronger than a Thief, right?

 

 

We're intending to include an "emergency alert" state that AI go into when there is obvious evidence of an intruder. Mappers can set all kinds of special case behaviour for AI in this state--they can change patrols, run to block exits, set off alarms, etc.

 

Awesome!! How about blocking player in? Holding/Locking the door, or putting furniture to block it (respawn nearest movable physics object on other side of door?)

And when NPC comes back with help, unblock the door.

 

 

see a re-arrangement of the guards, some extra guards brought in, higher alert, one or two keeping running round in a panic, but just like real people they eventually over time start to relax the alert but keep the extra sentries and patrols etc.

And after running they become tired and less aware!

 

The guard smashes the vase and the thief cannot get it seems fair enough.

Yes, but this feature has to be CAREFULLY balanced: Not smashing mission-critical vases and what if that vase was going to make the mission-critical loot amount? It's a non-progression then!

 

 

Taffer36 brought up some great points.

"Does the thief just throw himself upon the mercy of the guard and his pointy sword because he has been spotted?"

Not a bad idea! If you haven't killed a guard, you could have an option to "give up"

Guards take all your gold/loot and you awake in jail. I really liked this in Thief 3, but found getting out of jail way too easy.

"Maybe the guard should first assess if the situation is dangerous or not. If the thief is out in the open they should give chase. Maybe if they are in a group the other guards should assess whether they should aid them in giving chase, or if they should aid in helping the downed guard"

Great point! I noticed very elementary behavior of this in Dark Messiah

 

 

 

Please note I am aware of the programming difficulties, I am only discussing concepts and will be very grateful for whatever creators of TDM release, even if non-of-the-above are included.

 

A note about the gaming industry:

Unfortunately it is no longer ruled by entrepreneurs. Most games are re-hashed crap of whatever mediocre-Joe kids would buy. This is fueled by the domination of the console industry.

There is hope for change with cheap SDK fir Wii, and Microsoft's SDk for 360 arcade, but with PC gaming I get most of my share from great mods like these

[Jan 3 Update: More Ai Smartness]

Reading the AI updates makes me really proud if DarkMod, it's everything I wished Thief to be.

 

Difficulty level should NOT compensate AI behavior! but instead their senses (distance they see/hear) and ammount damage player can take.

 

I strongly support the "ability for AIs to be aware that their comrades are missing from their patrols", but that should not always result in highest caution mode, but cause them to search and talk/complain to other NPCs

 

 

"essentially scout out each area before you touch a thing, closing doors behind you and all that"

 

That is unrealistic. Guards cannot notice everything that was taken - especially objects in furniture.

 

Agree with "guards would go on high alert if they spotted an item of value missing, and would communicate"

and also to servants, and be more aware of other cues and follow them (search harder in rooms with open doors, drawers, etc)

 

They could notice things missing in search/alert mode and compare nots about the incident and increase overall security, which brings me to the next point:

 

Guards that were alerted by sound/sight/something out of order, their senses would increase in patrol mode.

So if they hear that creak, search go back to patrol. See object missing, search harder/longer or alert others.

 

 

With keys, I think they shouldnt notice unless they need to go through a locked door, or another NPC asks them to open a door

Plus if either one is in search alert mode (you locked the NPC who needs a key out) both their alerts would rise

 

 

 

If anyone has trouble understanding, I will explain anytihng in detail

[I Give You Deus Ex 3]

The game runs terribly. It's more like FEAR than Deus Ex

[Thief Mod For Dark Messiah Of Might And Magic]

I agree with you, and the fact that Doom3 will be open source being a definite advantage is beyond the question.

 

I just find that SourceSDK is more user-friendly and overall more easy to master.

 

 

Update on mod:

 

To reverse the stealth indicator (all white circle = most visible, no white on crosshair = most stealthy)

do the following

create a textfile in your ...\Dark Messiah of Might and Magic\mm\cfg folder called myset.cfg

 

add the following line to it:

mm_hud_stealth_reversed 1

 

save it as myset.cfg (NOT myset.cfg.txt!!)

 

edit/add a desktop shortcur of your game, edit it (right click, properties)

change the target to:

 

"....wherever it's installed.......\Dark Messiah of Might and Magic\mm.exe" +exec myset.cfg

 

 

The WAXDS scheme is impractical since strafing (A, D) makes noise. So while S may be sneak, A and D will be making regualr noise unless sneak shift is on.

 

If you still would like, change your config.cfg file to:

First make sure these keys are unbound!

 

bind "s" "+forward;+speed"

bind "a" "+moveleft;-speed"

bind "d" "+moveright;-speed"

bind "x" "+back;-speed"

bind "w" "+forward;-speed"

 

 

+speed means sneak, so if you always wan to sneak on strafing change them to

bind "a" "+moveleft;+speed"

bind "d" "+moveright;+speed"

 

The -speed is required because if the settings are just

 

bind "s" "+forward;+speed"

bind "a" "+moveleft"

bind "d" "+moveright"

bind "x" "+back"

bind "w" "+forward"

 

Then after pressing s, the player will always sneak, and sprint won't work.

[Thief Mod For Dark Messiah Of Might And Magic]

Dark Messiah of Might and Magic is like a mix between Thief 3, Diablo and Oblivion.

 

You can upgrade your skills to become stealthy and such.

 

First part of my mod is extremely simple: thieverizing the controls (waxds, instead of wasd)

Second part would be adding the blackjack (when Lvl 3 stealth acquiered)

and adding the lightgem

 

and with the extensive moddability of the source engine, many user-created missions will be possible

 

 

 

This by no way is meant to compete with the darkmod ofcourse, but I always preferred source over doom3

[Vampires Mathematically Impossible!]

I, err, us, ..VAMPIREs feed on any mammalian blood, not just human.

[Digg It!]

???

 

 

The comments on the post were 0 or negative, as if people purposely rated down ALL the comments posted

[Video Card Recommendations]

I should get a 9800 pro/xt 256mb or a 6600+

 

But if you're considering a new system, best PCIE card for the money is the x1900xt 256mb

[Digg It!]

WTF, there were 0 or negative ratings, I had to rerate all the comments to positive numbers

 

I call CONSPIRACY!!

[Guard Responce To Being Trapped.]

If they shouted and got angry etc that would make locking AIs in rooms unrewarding. There should be a reward of keeping them locked away and quiet.

 

That's what a blackjack is for

[Mostly About Swordfight]

I'd like to contribute a thought to swordfight:

 

If, by chance player hits hand of npc (especially with no hand armor) the npc should drop the weapon than either pick it up or run, depending on the vicinity of the player to the weapon.

 

And of course, same for the player

[Call Of Juarez]

Call of Juarez is Western a first person shooter by Techland (creaters of Chrome) with a lot of innovative features.

 

There is some basic stealth gameplay: caught/not caught, so no following, etc.

 

But a few features reminded me of Thief:

 

Grappling- you can get on ledge, then pull up.

Box puzzles- using a very sphisticated (havok level) physics engine, there are some box puzzles

Rope- instead of rope arrows, there is a whip, and you can whip wooden branches and then lower, climb on the rope, somewhat like rope arrows.

 

Try it out, but don't expect it to be Thief - the level design is quite linear.

[Assassin's Creed]

It will come out for 360 and PC (leaked ubisoft content confirmed that)