Oszkár's little ideas. :)

[Winkler Oszkár]

Dear developers of The Dark Mod!

First of all, sorry for my bad English!

 

I write down some of my tiny ideas for your fantastic work. Maybe some of them are already done or in progress, some of them were cancelled, but this is my way to give tips for a great team. (If this topic is totally unnecessary, please delete it.)

 

+ Thief 1-2-like control system. Not Thief 3-like. So the player can crawl without a sound if he or she use the movement keys accordingly.

+ When the player look at an item (door; piece of gold; vase; etc.), it will light up, but not the whole object, just it's outline (wireframe) with a 20% gamma setting. No more lightning up in the darkness which burn the players' eyes out. The player should learn these outlines, so he or she can detect the object's type in completely dark areas as well. This type of solution can create a whole new playing style, because if the area is too dark and the player can see just the outline of an object and he or she cannot detect the object's outline correctly, it could be deadly. ("Ups... I thought it was a golden vase, not an active mine which explodes when I touch it...") - Oh... and the item's name will not appear on the screen when the player look at it! Please.

+ The HUD system should be adjustable. The player can switch off the visibility indicator gem, the health display, the ammo display, etc.

+ Before the mission, the player can buy different kind of weapons and items, like short and long swords, little axes, spears, knives, hammers, potions, mines etc. Of course, the FAN-mission creator can determine which weapons and items are purchasable before the mission starts. So, if the player somehow has information about the next mission's conditions, i.e. zombies, he or she buys holy water, water arrows, and a bigger weapon (which is slower but does more damage on zombies).

+ The Doom 3 engine provides a great level of possibilities (i.e. active and usable monitors). Books, maps and papers in the player's hand should be in real time, so in a dark area, the player is unable to read it (except if the player holds a lantern or torch in his or her hand)! These objects are interacting with the world, i.e. with the lights. A paper is as shiny as the surrounded geometry in a room. If there is not enough light, the player cannot read the text easily or absolutely cannot.

+ The player can jump, crouch, crawl, climb, walk, run, sprint, and block the enemy's attack with the weapons if the attack isn't too hard. (With a bigger weapon, the player can block harder attacks too.)

+ There is no bow zoom or mechanic eye, however there are some tools to provide the special visions, like night eye, scouting orb, eagle-eye (zoom), etc. (these are tools, like mines and bombs in the inventory.)

+ The player can pick up and hold any smaller objects in the world in his or her inventory (swords, little rocks, vases, etc.). These includes the valuable items too, like gold; golden vase; etc. There is a limitation, so the player has to choose between the "jewels". Which has the more value? (Every object in the inventory can be dropped.)

+ If the player buys or finds a backpack, he or she can hold more objects in his or her inventory.

+ Broad head and some other type of arrows can be recovered after use.

+ The real time lock picking should be working this way: use one of the two picks on a door. The player hears a continuous sound and watch, how the lock's pin moves. When he or she hears the sound with its higher volume, he or she must use the action button to secure the pin. Then do this with the other lock pick if it is necessary. (This system is good, because if the player is unable to see the lock's movements in the darkness, the sound guides him or her.)

 

i.e. for the sound system of lock picking:

 

S1 – very quiet

S2 – quiet

S3 – normal

S4 – louder

S5 – loudest (When the player hears this volume of the sound, he or she can secure the pin.)

 

Easy lock: S4-S5-S4-S3-S4-S5-S5-S5-S4-S3-S4-S5

Normal lock: S1-S2-S3-S2-S3-S4-S3-S4-S5-S4-S3-S2-S3-S4-S5

Hard lock: S1-S2-S1-S2-S3-S2-S3-S4-S3-S2-S3-S2-S1-S2-S3-S4-S5-S4-S3-S4-S3-S2-S3-S4-S5

 

These are just examples. There could be more complicated or simpler versions.

 

+ The player cannot only pick up objects into his or her inventory but he or she also can grab these items to move in the physical world. (Like in TES IV - Oblivion) Grabbing will be good to move bigger and heavier objects, those the player cannot hold in his or her inventory.

+ The player can throw every single item, which is in his or her hand or inventory, with the press of a button. The longer he or she holds down the button, the bigger will be his or her throw. (golden vase, little rock, sword, mine, etc.)

 

These are my tips for now. Maybe I continue later.

[New Horizon]

Thanks for sharing your ideas.

 

Some of them are in the same vein as what we have already done, and some we won't be doing. I won't specify right now, as things can easily change.

 

That being said, we've pretty much locked down all of our features, so the chances of adding 'new' features at this point is pretty slim. We need to focus on finishing basic the Thief style game mechanics.

[Winkler Oszkár]

So, The Dark Mod will be almost completly a Thief 1-2, just with a modern (Doom 3) engine? If this is the case, I am really happy! Yes?

[ZylonBane]

Jesus Christ why are you using those gigantic underlined plus signs as bullets? And Times New Roman? Arrrgghgh, my eyes!!

Edited July 31, 2007 by ZylonBane

[Komag]

So far it pretty much replicates most of Thief 1/2 gameplay, and then improves things from there.

 

(I don't mind the bullets/font)

[New Horizon]

So, The Dark Mod will be almost completly a Thief 1-2, just with a modern (Doom 3) engine? If this is the case, I am really happy! Yes?

 

For the most part, yes. We're refining, and improving things where we can. I'll refrain from getting into detail as things can always change...but so far, so good.

[STiFU]

Wasn't the intention of TDM, to make a non-crappy Thief 3? That would totally answer your question I guess. Or was it just the at first missing T3-Editor?

[Nyarlathotep]

Neither. It's the intent of the Dark Mod to keep the Thief community going, by providing a new, expandable base (eventually completely open-source). It has absolutely nothing to do with Thief 3 in particular. In fact, if I remember correctly, the Dark Mod was started before Thief 3 was even announced.

[Vadrosaul]

Neither. It's the intent of the Dark Mod to keep the Thief community going, by providing a new, expandable base (eventually completely open-source). It has absolutely nothing to do with Thief 3 in particular. In fact, if I remember correctly, the Dark Mod was started before Thief 3 was even announced.

 

Dunno bout that last sentence, but we can infer that TDM will be non-crappy and be superior to anything TDS.

[New Horizon]

In fact, if I remember correctly, the Dark Mod was started before Thief 3 was even announced.

 

Huh, what? Thief 3 was released months before we started working on TDM. We started TDM because T3 did not satisfy many in the community, there was also no editor released with T3 when it came out. As far as we knew, there was never going to be a T3Ed. When it was released, there was question over whether or not we could continue....but once we learned that T3Ed was as hard coded as T3 itself, we knew continuing was the only logical choice. So, here we are.

[Nyarlathotep]

And now you (and I) know! And knowing is half the battle! GI-Joe...

[Macsen]

Jesus Christ why are you using those gigantic underlined plus signs as bullets? And Times New Roman? Arrrgghgh, my eyes!!

+Stop.

 

+Complaining.

[Winkler Oszkár]

Thank you. I see, this is a healthy team with a great sense of humour. I believe in your talent and looking forward to the first final release! Thief 3 really wasn't that thing I was looking for. Oh... and I won't use + again.

 

If I have some other new ideas, can I still write them down here?

[ZylonBane]

+Stop.

 

+Complaining.

NEV^eR!

[STiFU]

Wow... L34t h4x0r sk1llzzzz!!

 

To those who don't know me, no i don't post stuff like this in a serious way!!

Edited August 2, 2007 by STiFU

[Crispy]

NEV^eR!

That's artistic! Have you ever considered a career in graphic design?

 

NEV^eR!

Oh. Okay.

[OrbWeaver]

That's artistic! Have you ever considered a career in graphic design?

 

Don't mock it -- companies pay hundreds of thousands for somebody to produce a design like that (although not to the individual graphic designer, of course).

[Nyarlathotep]

That's actually rather sad. I think I should start a company hiring out trained monkeys for graphics design.

[Ishtvan]

You would have to pay those monkeys to sit and sip coffee in "hip" neighborhoods also, and pretty much rip off whatever they see people doing.

 

[EDIT: Like, "I just saw this awesome "Never" design on the intraweb! That would work great for our Nike campaign!"]

[Nyarlathotep]

Graphics designers (the ones with said job title) are mostly complete hacks? Why I NEV^eR!

[OrbWeaver]

It's not the graphic designers that are the problem, it's the 150k-per-year "consultants" who do nothing more than farm off the work to some 25k-per-year grunt that increases the price. It is the same situation in any company I guess (it certainly is in mine).

[bob_arctor]

That never just reminds me of the typography and graphics in the early 90s when they were obsessed with the new technology and everything was on a white background.

[Crispy]

Don't mock it -- companies pay hundreds of thousands for somebody to produce a design like that (although not to the individual graphic designer, of course).

Who's mocking?

[Winkler Oszkár]

Another "crazy" idea of mine: Please create us a video-trailer of a small mission, which was designed with the current toolset of The Dark Mod. The mission shouldn't be logical or big, just to show, how things work at the moment. What do you say?

[New Horizon]

Another "crazy" idea of mine: Please create us a video-trailer of a small mission, which was designed with the current toolset of The Dark Mod. The mission shouldn't be logical or big, just to show, how things work at the moment. What do you say?

 

Already planned, just a matter of getting it done.