SneaksieDave

Got it. It was a pathing issue again (I didn't realize the MTR file was plain text). I've had it so textures were wanted in the /darkmod/textures folder, or the darkmod/textures/dark_mod folder, and have multiple versions of MTR files wanting them in different locations, nothing agreeing. Egads I hope this gets sorted out soon. Driving me nutso.

Hm. I have the file "custom.mtr" in Doom3/darkmod/materials. Is that right? That's where it was in the original zip from the FTP site. Edit: I'm told, when reloading a test map: WARNING: Couldn't load image: textures/dark_mod/crypt/floors/wood/crypt_floor_wood02 Even though it's right in my media tree, and I can select it just fine (blind - can't actually see it).

Is there some special hoop I must jump through to actually see the textures in D3Ed? I have the textures (the old archive) expanded onto my drive. I can double click and view them externally just fine. I start up D3Ed with Doom3 +editor +set fs_game darkmod It starts up just fine, and the dark_mod texture branch shows up in the media tab just fine. Now, I've wondered why soooo many stock D3 textures would show up as just black, but I've read that "they are just leftover (somethings) that they left in there and didn't clean up." So I took the guy's word for it. Well, it's probably not correct, because I can't view (actually see) or use any of TDM textures. They're in the tree. They are recognized. And when I use them, I get black walls. What the hell is going on? Is there some crucial step I'm missing? By my estimation, far more than half of the stock D3 textures are empty/black, which means clearly something's bugged or set up wrong. I strongly doubt they left THAT much unused junk behind.......

Good point. I think the D3 screen is a map too (you can see the polys with r_showtris 1) but it's obviously tiny and quick to load. Hey... maybe D3 has a certain amount of memory set aside specifically for the menu, and that's how their Mars model is instantaneous. I wonder how small a nice street scene (building facades only) could be made.

But... it's a "tribute!" And a fitting one at that!

*big grin* Son of a... damn that's good stuff. That and the bot, both. Makes me wanna say "the darkest age for Thief could yet become the brightest."

No one thinks it would be a good idea to have the "animated objects" be townsfolk milling about the city scene? Heck I thought people would eat that up. It's something you can watch and be entertained by, as opposed to being just a title screen. *shrug*

Cool, I've heard that that is the most highly suspected culprit - the nonstandard FOV. I'll try it next time I'm there. Frankly, I'm just hoping it was just this semi-cold I have, mixed with my brother's smoking and horribly uncomfortable playing conditions.

If it all continues, the treatment of those who legitimately pay for a product will continue to degenerate, while pirates will continue to enjoy cracked versions without concern. At least until the masses stand up and say "no more."

Yikes. Having just played HL2 for about 2 hours at my brother's place a little while ago, I can honestly say Steam is the only thing about the release giving me pause. Damned Steam! It seems like a fantastic game. Incredible, even. I found myself more affected by NPCs than ever before. I found myself picking crap up and throwing it around, stacking it, banging it about for nearly half the time I played - it was that entertaining (aside: talk about what T3 should have done with its physics - picking something up in HL2, inspecting it, and then setting it back down is natural and simple). I found myself running with the action as if I was there. I found myself thinking, "Valve can really put together a game, that's for damn sure." It was interesting finally seeing the D3 vs HL2 debate topics from the front row. From my limited experience, D3 is the superior renderer in many ways. It's strong throughout. However, HL2 is perhaps stronger in a few ways (for instance, some of the special effects), while weaker in others (the lighting especially, lack of normal maps, etc). It's neat that both games look great, but do so by different means. HL2 has very flat plain buildings, but high poly chars. D3 has lower poly chars (for the most part), but very high poly environments. D3 looks more realistic by far (in most aspects), yet HL2 "does" more overall. Quite interesting indeed. It also showed me that direct comparisons between the two *as games* are silly - they are completely different games striving for completely different goals. One is a scifi action novel, and the other, a horror action thriller. A ton of work obviously went into both games. And both have a bunch of merit in their respective pursuits, in my opinion. Heh. Playing Doom3 last night, I had to stop because I got very badly freaked out and felt it was a good time to call it a night. Playing HalfLife2 tonight, I had to stop because I think I might have been becoming motion sick (for the first time ever! Man, I sure hope not), and I didn't want to wait and find out. Edit: Having just played another hour of D3, I'd like to change the following: How the hell I ever thought that is beyond me. Now I wish I had HL2 to verify before I might have to re-take taking my words back. I believe HL2 has a few very high poly chars (mostly in the faces), and a lot of medium level chars, whereas D3 has... well, pretty much all very high poly chars. Dunno what I was smokin' to think otherwise. Probably thinking of D3's heads looking more pointy, but the bodies are full of detail.

No, since it would only be for a shot (moving or otherwise) it could be just a detailed street, with varied rooftops as filler (no buildings, etc - optimized in other words) with the view in the distance. No need for it to be a full map.

I was hoping to prepare/test this before revealing it, but I'm not sure how long that may take, and since this topic has been a bit hot lately (several mentions in the past few days), then I'll spill the idea now. Oh! And it'll work with a realtime map view too, if that's desired. Picture a city layout like that of citytest2.map, only better of course, From up on the thieves highway looking slightly down and forward, A light is behind the Thief, so his shadow is cast into the foreground, In the distance down the road, beyond the city, a castle looms on the highground. And of course, the realtime map part would include people walking around the streets below. Whaddya think? I started adding a castle wall to citytest2 last night and man, the framerate just doesn't drop! It must be other factors... it must be!

Let me just add a quick, YEAH!! I love the Imperium stuff.

Absolutely. In my little town, $225k bought a mansion (literally - I mean a huge place) up on the bluffs overlooking the river, 14 short years ago. I know, because it was the family of a close friend. I remember thinking to myself, with an internal laugh, "those rich bastards paid almost a QUARTER OF A MILLION FOR A HOUSE!!" as if it was such a big deal. Today, the friend himself paid $275k for a place half the size (same town). There was just a home for sale on main street for $900k. This is not Beverly Hills, just a fairly quaint, semi-nice town. The average price for an average place around here (yard, 3 floors, etc) is around $400k. To think that the house I was born in some ~30 years ago (3 floors, basement, big yard, driveway) was $15k makes me dizzy. Inflation, yes - but a "middle class paycheck" has not changed anywhere near as much as real estate (and cars, etc). I feel people accept too much. If no one bought, there'd be no choice for manufacturers and sellers but to produce and offer for less or go under. If suddenly 400k players said to Sony, "we're not paying our subscription this month, as a unified player base, unless it comes down to $9.99 again", you better believe that price would drop. Now that would be an interesting precedent, wouldn't it. Must. Resist. Topic. Re: Valve - I don't honestly think they're up to shenanigans, either. But it's a model I don't want to support. At least... not until/unless I have little other choice.

Argh! Yes, I've seen that! And some places like... what was it - it might be napster or maybe those apple music sites? I can't remember - anyway, they have a subscription fee. So, if I understand correctly, you join up and get whatever you want (from what they have) but you pay monthly to use it. What is happening to the world! Good lord. Stop accepting it, people. I tell you what, this ensures one thing for the future. Everything owned = stolen. Everything owned = stolen. (Repeating it was not a typo.) Does anyone care realize that when UO starts a subscription at 9.99/mo, and EQ follows, and then EQ goes to 12.99, and then EQ2 goes to 14.99, everyone else follows suit... etc - there is not going to be a downward trend, only upward. Their "maintenance profits" have increased by 50%! Was $5 million a month in fees not enough? How about cars costing $6K when I was a kid, and Cadillacs were the "rich man's car", but today, you're hard pressed to find a freakin' Honda for less than $25K - and there are Chevys that cost as much as your neighbor's BMW? Something's wrong. Stop accepting it! Oh man don't get me started on this! I beg. *deep breath* Doom3world.org seems to be the hot place. List more if you know them!

Come off it? I'm not referring to 'problems' with steam - it's larger than that. If you are comfortable with their 'delivery system' and what using it involves and means in the big picture, okay. I'm not. I happen to think it's another case where producers of a product are forcing something on people, and people are bending over and taking without protest. There are countless products and companies that can serve as further examples in everything ranging from automobiles to toothpaste (yes, toothpaste). I don't want any part of it; though, as I said - it's probably the way of the future, and there's no avoiding it as long as the masses accept it. That topic alone could spark a huge philosophical debate about the "way things are" versus the "way things should be"... but I don't feel like it right now.

The SDK has been out one day and that decision is made? I wonder what the motivation was. For me personally, if all of the garbage about steam is true and unavoidable, I won't be playing HL2 in it's current state. Sad thing is, that just enough people (Just enough? Almost the entire gaming population, more likely) will buy it and support this model, resulting in the highest yields for a game ever by far, and we will soon see most games adopting this means. Thanks, Valve, for your insight. Perhaps a merger with Microsoft soon?

Mmm, yes!! Let me try a better description: What I'm trying to say in the simplest sense is, picture Bafford's, but instead of the scepter being in the throne room, the designer set it up so it's in say, one of three locations: throne room, master bedroom, or lost in the gardens. Each time you play, the actual location would be randomly determined. All for replay value. And!, the same principle could be applied to guards, so that on one play through, Benny is patrolling the main corridor rather heavily, but on another play through, Benny has fallen asleep, and George is snacking in the kitchen. That sort of thing.

Perhaps. I was mostly thinking towards something for replay value. But yes, it might be an "iffy" thing. Maybe a more refined idea could come from this. Wait, how about then, instead of random loot spawns... randomized (within set locations) loot locations! I forget what game it was, damn... some game that was out a while ago had you looking for...um.. something(?!) and each time you played it could be in a different location. *WRACKS BRAIN* What the heck game was that? Anyway, imagine hitting Bafford's again, only to find that the scepter is NOT in the throne room? That instead, he left it near his fireplace in his bedroom. That little feature could add replay value to a mission - random choice of special loot (ugh, did I just use that phrase?) placement points. Maybe objectives would/could/(should?) change to go with it. "Steal the scepter. Lord Bafford has been sick recently, and hasn't been to his throne room for weeks." Right. As I was mentioning, it always struck me (only bothered me a little, but it bothered nonetheless) odd in Thief that sometimes people are just pacing. Guards? Yes, that's fine. But when a servant, or Lady of the house or whatever, is just pacing back and forth for no apparent reason, it just seems odd. It would be much better if they actually appeared to be doing something (which rests on the shoulders of the designer, ultimately), but if they can't be made to look like they're doing "something", every little bit that actually helps them look alive, helps. Incidentally, why a new thread? Or was that just a posting error? I feel a spotlight on my back! *runs and hides*

Another occasionally-mentioned suggestion, in fact one that was supposed to be in T3 if I remember correctly: guard hearing being affected by environmental noise. So a Hammer standing next to (or walking past?) a big old loud machine wouldn't be able to hear as well. As for the closely related "a guard can't tell who made the footstep sounds" suggestion often mentioned, I don't think it's a good idea, as it would add near ridiculous complexity and perhaps make things a bit too easy for the player.

Okay, since it hasn't been done yet, I'll kick it off. First let me say, I assume this thread is to contain requests out of the ordinary, as stated by sparhawk at the TTLG forums: QUOTE I'm not talking of the standard features like buttons, switches, or similar stuff. Rather I'm thinking of things you might have wanted to implement in an FM but you couldn't because of limitations in the engine or in DromEd as opposed to the obvious, like rope arrows, swimming, etc. So here's a few ideas just to get things going. -random treasure spawns. An author would place a piece of optional treasure, and set a percentage chance that it will appear or not. -optional path nodes (although I think this might already be possible with Dromed). The AI can choose to ignore a node or go on a different, separate path altogether. -AI actions similar to NOLF2. I never played the game myself, but I'd heard they do things that are unexpected, at unexpected times. Many times I've played Thief and thought to myself, "why is that cook just pacing back and forth?" Clearly for gameplay, NOT realism. "Why would a guy just be standing here in a dark room, facing the wall, then turn to the fireplace, back to the wall, back to fireplace, etc?" Again, gameplay, not realism. I'd heard that in NOLF2, AI will often kick a can around, or fidget (already in Thief), or even leave patrol to go to the restroom. That sounds like a fantastic addition that might really lend some tension to the overall experience. -AI ladder climbing. Touchy subject, that, as it eliminates some safety and comfort in the game, but probably a good addition. Okay, there's a few for now. What ideas would you suggest?