Thief 4 is trash.

[Lux]

Ok, so same settings as before except this time I turned FXAA --OFF and turned SSAA --HIGH

 

Frames:

Minimum 18 Average 31.543 Maximum 43

 

Definitely some frame chop and spongy movement with SSAA on, however the scene feels miles better, sharp, and more crisp. The performance penalty is awful though that's to be expected.

 

For whatever reason SSAA just feels much more crisp but comparing the two screenshots below there doesn't appear to be much difference so I guess I'll just run FXAA because the experience is much more fluid.

 

FXAA ON

 

SSAA on High

 

I also switched the audio to "Headphones" and I'm running my Windows audio on Headphones with Dolby Headphone.

 

The audio this with headphones is not near as immersive, IMO. Very hard to determine direction of anything, the center speaker voices are now up-in-your-face centered and don't feel right in the least. Footsteps sound more elevated and proper though, less subtle.

 

I played through the initial bit again and this time encountered two issues. When you get your first water arrow and have to douse the torch to proceed, I could draw back the arrow, however it would not shoot. Releasing the mouse button just released tension on the bow slowly like you denotched the arrow. Tried a few things but the only way I found around it was to just run in to the light and reload the last save. YAY...

 

EDIT: Found out that instead of dRAWing the bow back if it glitches like that with the water arrow (or any arrow) you can just ..."click" which looks dumb but it shoots the arrow. Its like an insta arrow, quick snipE!...

 

Also, in the run and jump phases... you don't have to even "time" the button presses. If you just hold forward+run+space the character just runs forward and jump/mantles/rope/ladder whatever is in front of him. Takes no coordination what-so-ever. I guess you can just hit space when you encounter something to make yourself feel like, "YOU GOT IT!" but in reality there was nothing to get. Hold 3 buttons to win!

 

So I got to the large first cut-scene again and this time just like last time... audio cuts out completely again and... yeah... can't hear anything, killed the process and exited.

 

So I'll be looking for a cut-scene audio fix before I procede.

 

And forgot to mention if anyone is wondering, I'm playing on Custom > Master > focus OFF reticle OFF

 

And character movement feels great except your inabilty to basically do what you want. The zoom pan item pickup is very annoying right now though I'm sure I'll get used to it; but should we have to? Swoop feels like Dishonored blink but short distance and a lame way to circumvent lighting risk in the game.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Lux

[Airship Ballet]

Played it through already. Short but sweet, fairly fun but hand-holding and unprovocative. Pretty much exactly what I said it would be: fun but massively dampened.

[Lux]

Haha... great. Discovered the sound fix. It appears if you don't want to play the game with their lame music and you turn music all the way to 0 in the audio settings, you'll have no sound in the cutscenes...

 

Found this but the guy that says he posted a solution didn't link to it and I can't locate it... something about "moving files" so I would guess moving the music files out of the directory so the engine can't find them but I looked through all the directories and can't locate them. If anyone can find his fix link or... the audio files that would be great. I'll keep looking.

 

http://forums.eidosg...ad.php?t=141830

 

EDIT: Scratch that... guy is talking about moving the game from an external drive and general sound issues. Not moving music audio.

 

Guess we have to wait for separate music/cut-scene sliders patch from Eidos... gl

Edited February 28, 2014 by Lux

[vvGarrettvv]

Just playing T4.

I disabled all the focus and whatsoever functions.

It feels like a uninspired "thiefs railway" with Emo-Garrett.

There`s nothin in it, for what I`m think it could be implemented

in TDM.

No.I´m not impressed.

[Airship Ballet]

I disabled all the focus and whatsoever functions. There`s nothin in it, for what I`m think it could be implementedin TDM.

 

Well make your mind up. Do you want newly implemented mechanics or pure thief gameplay with everything new turned off? Thief had barebones w,a,s,d, shoot arrows, smack fools, climb things and right click to steal things. That's what TDM has, too, so I don't know what you mean.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Airship Ballet

[Bikerdude]

so I don't know what you mean.

I think he means T4 wasn't beta tested before release and is a rushed POS, but he could also mean T4 has no soul, no ambience, no atmosphere despite the bling.

[Lux]

Its kind of like you're in a railway car and as you move through the environment you lean out to pick stuff up

[New Horizon]

By nothing in it, I'm thinking he means that the game feels 'hollow' or 'empty'....devoid of substance perhaps....not that it lacks flashy features.

[Lux]

I think he means T4 wasn't beta tested before release and is a rushed POS, but he could also mean T4 has no soul, no ambience, no atmosphere despite the bling.

 

There is ambient audio with the music off but for the most part it just feels like you're faintly playing some ambient track in the background and doesn't really cement you in the scene. It feels detached.

[Lux]

I may have to install visual studio so I can look through some of these files and try and disable the music by itself, gah.

[Airship Ballet]

I felt plenty immersed to be honest. I seemed to skip over all the glitches and borked visuals people have encountered, which is ironic given how I got it. Nothing really took me out of it, although it's definitely not the most immersed I've ever been. More difficulty would have definitely made me a bit more receptive to my surroundings and fear detection more. For what it's worth, I did get to that stage where you forget you're just sitting there pressing keys. I wasn't immersed in the world but I was immersed in the game, so to speak.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Airship Ballet

[vvGarrettvv]

Well make your mind up. Do you want newly implemented mechanics or pure thief gameplay with everything new turned off? Thief had barebones w,a,s,d, shoot arrows, smack fools, climb things and right click to steal things. That's what TDM has, too, so I don't know what you mean.

 

Ooopps..

 

What I mean is:

I really love the old puristic game design of T1&2 .

That`s why I love TDM ( and even take a look @ the dark radiant creating my own level...but that`s another funny story :-P...)

and disabled all the super-palooza-effects in T4 for having a somehow similar feeling.

But even without all the help-functions and smart-moving and so on......

it will not be "my game". Sqeenix has got the best templates and the opportunity to

get help from a prosperous community. But they failed. In almost every aspect.

Levelstructure, sounds, music, the railway-gameplay and so on

Edited February 28, 2014 by vvGarrettvv

[vvGarrettvv]

I think he means T4 wasn't beta tested before release and is a rushed POS, but he could also mean T4 has no soul, no ambience, no atmosphere despite the bling.

 

Yep. Both. :-)

When I think about the standard of quality here.

(Remember our little chit-chat`s about ambience-music :-) )

The ambition. And the results. Take your and choco`s "gatehouse" grayman`s "WS"-saga

and ALL the other great maps, where every single map on it`s own shows more Thief-feeling

than 1 minute in Thi4f.

And TDM is a hobby-project !

So. Yes. SE should be ashamed!

 

And regarding REBOOT`S :

 

Never seen a good one.

Edited February 28, 2014 by vvGarrettvv

[Airship Ballet]

it will not be "my game". Sqeenix has got the best templates

 

They do, and they also have the templates that they know will sell if they build a game off them. It's a shame they didn't go for the traditional Thief template but in the end they want $$$. The community is prosperous but also very idealistic. With hopes as high as the average, it's no wonder so many people are reacting so harshly.

[vvGarrettvv]

I felt plenty immersed to be honest. I seemed to skip over all the glitches and borked visuals people have encountered, which is ironic given how I got it. Nothing really took me out of it, although it's definitely not the most immersed I've ever been. More difficulty would have definitely made me a bit more receptive to my surroundings and fear detection more but for what it's worth, I did get to that stage where you forget you're just sitting there pressing keys. I wasn't immersed in the world but I was immersed in the game, so to speak.

 

Yes.

Taking Thi4f as a game on it`s own can help :-)

But even then it`s kind of dumb.

It`s like Dishonered 1.1 with an Emo-Main-charakter.

Sometimes I think, The gamer has more freedom in Dishonored.

But I can be wrong.

A really funny thing (or even not) is, that there are timber beams everywhere

and little EmoG can only fire rope-arrows where given by the

plot.

[Airship Ballet]

EmoG can only fire rope-arrows where given by the plot.

 

Sign o' the times.

 

The gamer has more freedom in Dishonored.

 

True, but that made it far too easy. A definite positive is that they have more impact on the world.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Airship Ballet

[Lux]

... but in the end they want $$$.

 

If this were true they did themselves a disservice. If they really wanted $$$ they could have sold far more copies making a good game.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Lux

[Airship Ballet]

They did themselves a disservice for a sequel but people will eat this up regardless of what kind of game it is.

[vvGarrettvv]

sad but true

[Lux]

Nixxes

Developer Representative

 

Join Date: Aug 2011

Location: Utrecht

Posts: 393

 

Hello!

 

We have indeed seen the threads about the audio problems and confirmed that voices in cutscenes are linked to music volume settings. This has been relayed to the devs.

 

Its not much but its something at least.

[ungoliant]

This whole thing reeks so badly of cash grab, I think even if stuff "has been relayed to the devs", its more of a joke than anything. Like they pile the complaints in 30 or 40 bins in a back store room until they finish the first 3-5 $20 DLC missions, and then once in a while visit the bins and pull out a couple of particularly butthurt complaints to have a good laugh around the office. Think its far-fetched? http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Batman-Arkham-Origins-Probably-Won-t-Get-Another-Patch-Story-DLC-Developer-Priority-62173.html

[Airship Ballet]

It's very easy to miss a couple crossed wires like that amidst the huge development process. You can blame their QA testers for that, the scrubs.

 

Think its far-fetched?

 

I think it's a minimalist personification of an entire economy that has been developed and perpetuated for decades before now in the industry and centuries before now in general. You're not wrong in observing it, but you are wrong in demonizing SE alone for wanting to survive in a cutthroat economy and producing a half-decent game that wasn't as good as it could have been. It's bigger than SE and I'm sure I'd cop out and play it safe if I were on the tip of the same needle. If it ain't broke (generally speaking) don't fix it.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Airship Ballet

[Goldwell]

Yeah to me it feels like the game wouldn't be as bad without all the bugs.

 

Does anyone notice that the people in the city hub are completely silent?

[ungoliant]

I think it's a minimalist personification of an entire economy that has been developed and perpetuated for decades before now in the industry and centuries before now in general. You're not wrong in observing it, but you are wrong in demonizing SE alone for wanting to survive in a cutthroat economy and producing a half-decent game that wasn't as good as it could have been. It's bigger than SE and I'm sure I'd cop out and play it safe if I were on the tip of the same needle. If it ain't broke (generally speaking) don't fix it.

never go full apologist

Edited February 28, 2014 by ungoliant

[Lux]

I've not been there yet, Goldwell.

 

@ungoliant -- to their credit though, they did release a patch 3rd day after release to help address some issues.

 

Its easy to speculate on things like that.