Tips for finding loot

[STiFU]

16 hours ago, STiFU said:

Have a special frob-highlight for loot.

Tracked:

https://bugs.thedarkmod.com/view.php?id=5428

[peter_spy]

16 minutes ago, STiFU said:

You can pick almost anything up and throw it somewhere to distract guards. That IS gameplay!

With a paper hitting the ground?

Finding an office room with multiple of frobable scrolls on a shelf would suggest that maybe something's hidden under, or behind them. In the last few FMs I played they're just there for no apparent reason.

[demagogue]

I remember I made two long shelves in the lab in my FM that were chock full of alchemist junk, bottles and skulls and glassware and gizmos, and there were quite a few people that were disappointed that they couldn't pick anything up from it. People like intractability.

For that matter, my alchemist lab for my (our) T2 FM had a little easter egg where if you found some lead and mixed the right stuff with it in a cauldron in the right way, it would transform it into gold with a flash and a bang. (The alchemist was hover sleeping nearby, so the bang was a funny, scary moment, but fortunately the guy is a heavy sleeper.) My point is, in that level (not only in the lab, e.g., the lead you got from elsewhere) there was stuff you could grab because it encouraged playing around with making potions to see if something worked. So I even understood that sentiment.

Interaction brings a world alive. But I'll grant it's good if the interactable elements sometimes "do something", even just as an easter egg to the FM.

[kingsal]

Its tough because loot placement really depends on the mission and varies wildly in some cases.

I always look out for chests, bedrooms, storage spaces, secure looking areas, ect. Also if a room feels like dead space, there is a good chance the author hid something in there. To be honest though, I have times where I'm not in the mood for loot hunting so I'll play a mission on a lower difficulty. There's no shame in that in my opinion.

I think Thief did a pretty good job with loot by having it in sensible locations while still validating exploration. The spaces in that game were less cluttered, so items stood out more for better or for worse. Its clear LGS put thought into it. It would be interesting to hear their philosophy.

A shader glint would certainly do the trick, but it might actually encourage authors and players to think less about loot, which might not be the right path. I don't know though,  I can see the accessibility point as well.

[Xolvix]

14 hours ago, STiFU said:

You can pick almost anything up and throw it somewhere to distract guards. That IS gameplay!

Unfortunately I've always felt paralyzed about doing anything like this in TDM because as I understand it, throwing objects to distract guards qualifies as a hit against one of the higher tier stealth penalties you see on the ending mission summary screen. I have never used noisemaker arrows for this very reason because I always felt that the reaction of guards looked like it would affect the stealth score, and I'd rather find a silent workaround. You can do that in other stealth games because they generally only care if you're spotted or not, and don't have the layered scoring system TDM has.

On 11/21/2020 at 8:11 AM, chakkman said:

BTW, I'm getting worse and worse at spotting stuff in games as well, especially when I play on my Xbox... guess it's something you have to accept when you're getting older, hehe.

Heh, I guess that's true somewhat. I'm 37 and I don't know if that's "old" or not but I can still see stuff reasonably clearly in TDM for the most part. I did have to tweak the lighting when it updated to 2.08 as the new post-processing lighting method changed things and the defaults just aren't quite enough to match how 2.07 looked, but it's nice and clear now (well, clear as in ambient lighting isn't pitch black anymore).

On 11/19/2020 at 3:26 PM, NeonsStyle said:

Always good to check all paintings, some are lootable.

Paintings annoy me. I've missed a lot of loot because I've assumed paintings weren't lootable, then I get to missions where ALL paintings are lootable, then I get some missions where SOME are lootable and some are not, but the ones that ARE lootable aren't distinguishable from ones that aren't (like having gold trim or something).

 

Edited November 23, 2020 by Xolvix

[Jedi_Wannabe]

14 hours ago, peter_spy said:

With a paper hitting the ground?

Finding an office room with multiple of frobable scrolls on a shelf would suggest that maybe something's hidden under, or behind them. In the last few FMs I played they're just there for no apparent reason.

I know I am among the minority, but I love it when this happens! Maybe I am weird but that feels like true trial and error and raises tension even more when it was all for naught, especially if a roaming guard is nearby. From a gameplay perspective it’s a bitch and I predict it at this point but I still love wasting time opening every door and cabinet and pulling out every drawer, and picking up every scroll and meticulously setting it back down exactly as I found it. I do it every time and love it even tho I know 95% of the time it pans out the same way. 
Im all in favor of new options for the sake of accessibility even if I don’t use it.

[peter_spy]

I think that modern games got us used to the fact that interactivity is has its context, and is mostly a meaningful, conscious design choice. That's why in the context of action or even stealth-action games, most of the stuff is static (plus performance constrains, I guess). And these games also have certain helpers, like interactive object highlights, because game environments are so complex these days, it's hard to always pinpoint player tools or other usable objects.

[esme]

If you want to see where the loot is, use the console & bind tdm_show_loot to a spare key

bind "/" "tdm_show_loot"

for example

If you're feeling frustrated by a loot requirement & just can't see it no matter what or you're feeling bone idle & "want all teh lootz just coz" use it, if you aren't or you want bragging rights don't

At the end of the day, it's a game, play it how you like

Edited November 23, 2020 by esme