TDM in The News

[nbohr1more]

Pretty sure Blues News is notable... site is down though so I only have the link from Google:

 

http://www.bluesnews.com/s/145843/the-dark-mod-no-longer-a-mod

 

Games On Net ?

 

http://games.on.net/2013/10/the-dark-mod-2-0-released-now-stand-alone-and-available-from-our-file-library/

[Springheel]

Alright, so I gave this a try with the tutorial and on the provided mission Tears of St. Lucia, and I have to say that I'm goddamned impressed.

 

The most astounding thing about this mod that popped out at me immediately is that it looks as visually interesting as Thief 3, but has the aesthetic theme of the first two Thief games (especially 2).

 

It's also great that they stuck as closely to the original Thief universe's content while completely removing copyrighted labels like Garret, the City, Mechanists, and so on, but were still able to keep the concept of the Builders and their relics intact.

 

So the gameplay, the largest component of a Thief game next to Sound (really they're so intertwined anyway), was the most astounding surprise. The majority of movement and interaction controls feel almost identical to the first two Thief games, but in some cases have been improved so very well.

 

Mantling, a key method of movement and navigation, was workable in the first two games, but had contact issues where you would jump in place rather than climb up onto an elevated platform because you weren't looking at the ledge at just the right angle, causing guards to hear you or just general annoyance as you tried again and again to climb a simple ledge. However, the extremely satisfying act of mantling has been perfected in TDM. I have yet to experience any problems in climbing onto a ledge; if I want to climb up or jump across to a ledge, I can do it without issue, and it is oh so fucking satisfying.

 

In addition to leaving all of the fantastic interaction standards from Thief 1&2 intact, some things have been upgraded in a number of interesting ways. Lockpicking is the most intriguing for myself, where instead of waiting for the lock to stop on its own before unlocking a door/chest or switching to your other lockpick, you have to listen to a pattern of clicks followed by a short silence before a thud click is sounded and the pattern begins again. When you memorize the pattern, you can stop the picking right as the silence occurs to finish off a tumbler and unlock or continue to the next one. It's challenging and less nonsensical as the one featured in Thief 3, and it utilizes sound in a creative an functional way.

 

I had a technical issue on my machine that caused flame particles and water/reflective surfaces to display a weird cubemap of the environment in a way that obscured the actual flame particles or made things harder to see. A visual glitch but fortunately the only one I encountered, although having such a realtime shader effect enabled automatically without an option to disable it furrowed my brow a bit. I may head to their forums and let them know at some point, as it is the only technical blemish I have experienced so far.

 

Other things have been changed as well, but I won't go into them when you can play this thing yourself and figure out what they are (or enjoy them on their own if you haven't played any of the other games). I really hope this standalone release prompts people to look into the series if they haven't touched the "real" entries. Stealth-'em-up games are too good to die at the hands of the mainstream, and maybe this kind of thing will give those hooligans at Eidos Montreal some sense of what people look for in such a series as Thief.

[IHaveReturned]

Ahahaha, I almost feel sorry for EM that this release coincided so well with their own. Talk about negative priming, rather than the favourable comparison they were no doubt hoping for with LGS' technical and graphical fossils.

[nbohr1more]

VG24/7

 

http://www.vg247.com/2013/10/12/broken-glass-studios-thief-homage-the-dark-mod-is-now-a-standalone-experience/

 

Looks like we might have some astro-turfing from EM in the comment section though

[AluminumHaste]

Not sure what you mean by that nbo.

[Serpentine]

Wikipedia - Astroturfing

 

Not saying it is, but yeah... that guy sounds a bit too aggressive for the normal troll. Would be cool if it was astro-, awww yeah.

[Melan]

It is very unlikely to be astroturfing. But there are a lot of people who enjoy tearing down 'old' games and calling the people who play them clueless old nostalgiacs 'seeing the past through rose-coloured glasses' or who are 'deluded by their experiences as 14-years-olds'. They tend to consider themselves to be bold, uncompromising progressives who must move the cause of gaming forward, etc. etc. etc. Plenty of them on the Internet.

 

Why should EM dedicate expensive staff resources to astroturfing, when some people will do it for free? And here is the notable thing: you can see Thief 4 has no promise because you don't see too many of these guys. If it did, we'd have enormous flamewars between 'fanboys' and 'haters', not a few people taking potshots from the sidelines.

[Obsttorte]

... This game doesn’t even have a lockpicking mini game, all you do is click and finish. Is it too much to ask of them to add a little bit of new elements? ...

It is nice to get flamed by a person who obviously never played the Mod. Keep babbling.

[Xarg]

Don't interrupt an enemy while he is making a mistake

[Serpentine]

It is very unlikely to be astroturfing. But there are a lot of people who enjoy tearing down 'old' games and calling the people who play them clueless old nostalgiacs 'seeing the past through rose-coloured glasses' or who are 'deluded by their experiences as 14-years-olds'.

That is pretty much my go-to bait these days. Ironically when its time for a little bit of fun at my bridge, I'm generally playing some horribly old game. (Currently back to ja2 vanilla)

 

I mean when you come to think of it, I'm pretty sure Carmack and Co. would have been jamming QTE's into Doom, if they had thought of it. Back then it was just the same formula, no innovation. Quake 1 had dogs I think, but you couldn't even play as other characters or even pick a class - how boring.

 

Edit: But I do think that ol YoungZer0 sounds a bit too angry, maybe I am just bad tho. Not edgy enough. I better move into a clock tower.

[Bikerdude]

there were a few positive comments in there, like the one by wolf about how beautiful the training missionm was - makes all my hard work and that of the original authors of that mission worthwhile.

[Serpentine]

there were a few positive comments in there, like the one by wolf about how beautiful the training missionm was - makes all my hard work and that of the original authors of that mission worthwhile.

I really liked the changes to the training mission!

I think I noticed some of the blocks of hint text were missing/not working... but that was about it. Oh and a few of the patrons in the fighting area need to go missing, they just murder performance in an area where people will want all that they can get.

 

The neglected rooms at the back of the item handling area were awesome - much improved without actually completely changing them. My hidden treat also fits in perfectly now - such a nice touch. Other people might even find it

[Bikerdude]

• I think I noticed some of the blocks of hint text were missing/not working...
  
• Oh and a few of the patrons in the fighting area need to go missing, they just murder performance in an area where people will want all that they can get.
  
• The neglected rooms at the back of the item handling area were awesome - much improved without actually completely changing them. My hidden treat also fits in perfectly now - such a nice touch. Other people might even find it
  

• hmm minor, but should be fixed for the next release.
  
• Yeah will have to replace all of them with rag dolls and a background crowd noise - but setting up RDs in the correct pose is a right PITA (which is why I went for live Ai) - if someone knows of a better way, Im all ears.
  
• heh, only the most dedicated and sneeky of players will find that one.
  

[Springheel]

Yeah will have to replace all of them with rag dolls and a background crowd noise - but setting up RDs in the correct pose is a right PITA (which is why I went for live Ai) - if someone knows of a better way, Im all ears.

 

Aren't they func_anims, rather than actual AI entities? The former don't do much to performance.

[Bikerdude]

They are all Ai entties that are blind and def with a 1000 health, how would I setup a func anim entity? as this would usefull for adding 'fake-ai' to player-inaccessable area's in future maps.

[Moonbo]

Hey Biker,

 

If you need an example, the people standing inside the church in Requiem are all Func_animates :-).

[Bikerdude]

Sweet, ta.

[chakkman]

I really liked the changes to the training mission!

 

+1 In fact it's was so nice, that i decided to play the whole mission again. Really great for beginners now to get into the game. 2 issues i noticed though: In the alert mission, when you get back out of the room where you hid the first body (after picking up blackjack, and moss arrows, the room which got added), the light from the corridor with the noisy floor, where you blackjacked the guard, shines through the wall. I noticed that in another area too, just can't remember where. Also i found that the breath, visibilty and health display is a bit too milky when under water, so it is difficult to read. Also i found the performance quite poor when under water, but that could be because i activaed bloom now, i guess that's taking a bit of performance.

 

I liked that some parts are much brighter now, they were too dark. Also the lighting seems to have been improved.

[Springheel]

They are all Ai entties that are blind and def with a 1000 health, how would I setup a func anim entity? as this would usefull for adding 'fake-ai' to player-inaccessable area's in future maps.

 

Well no wonder people are getting hits in that room. I thought they were func_anim entities! Even blind and deaf AI are still "thinking" and that's going to eat up a lot of CPU cycles. Replacing them with func_anims is definitely a good idea for the next update....I have some sitting ones in Whiterose if you check the map. You could probably cut and paste them.

[Obsttorte]

I mean when you come to think of it, I'm pretty sure Carmack and Co. would have been jamming QTE's into Doom, if they had thought of it. Back then it was just the same formula, no innovation.

That's what made the game worth playing. Never change a winning team.

[nbohr1more]

Joystiq !:

 

http://www.joystiq.com/2013/10/13/thief-homage-the-dark-mod-steals-spotlight-for-itself-goes-stan/

[nbohr1more]

Random blog? Kudos nonetheless:

 

http://vorpalchainsword.blogspot.com/2013/10/thief-dark-mod.html?m=1

[stumpy]

why would you want the lockpicking to be a mini game, you would never be able to spot a guard coming towards the door. Does that mean in thief 4 lockpicking takes you away from the guards and just freezes them in place.

[lowenz]

why would you want the lockpicking to be a mini game, you would never be able to spot a guard coming towards the door.

In Deus Ex Human Revolution you can move the head while hacking

[nbohr1more]

Explosion ? Look pretty professional?

 

http://www.explosion.com/45766/broken-glass-studios-dark-mod-now-standalone-experience/