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Suggestion for Readables


LeatherMan

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So I'm in the dining room in the church, sitting on the table waiting for the patrolling guard to leave the room, and I decided now would be a good time to catch up on my reading. I whip out the notes I had just picked up and start reading. No problem, right? Same as it's always been with the Thief games (minus the time freeze).

 

Then it dawned on me - How is it that I'm reading this note in an area so dark that a guard passing a few feet away can't see me? Shouldn't I light my lantern or be near a light source in order to read? Wouldn't that be more realistic? 

 

So, would it be possible to require a certain amount of light to be available to read the readables? This would require the player to either provide light or be near a light source in order to read, and I feel it would add another dimension of realism along with a little more difficulty if this were possible. The player would then have to be more cautious when reading so a guard doesn't see them.

 

I noticed that if you "drop" a note into your hands and stand near light you can see some text on the note (it's not readable, just visible), but if you are in the dark you can't see the text at all, so it does seem at least remotely possible. Thoughts?

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IIRC this was actually raised and possibly dismissed some months (years?) ago. Reading is a pretty touchy subject, as some are speed readers, some are slow readers (myself) and some are not even native speakers of the language in use. So I think we leaned toward making it more user friendly as opposed to realistic. I know for me, the pressure of real time AND having to read to follow plot/clues AND slowly AND needing to find a light source would be too much.

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Yes, I think I agree that it would be too much to require that as well, good as is. I cool idea though, but I think it would just most likely end up hurting gameplay too much

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It's kind of like punishing the player for getting the readable. Great, you went through the effort of getting it from wherever it was, but now you have to stand in some light so you can read it.

 

My thoughts: Keep them the way they are.

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Also, the thief is trained to have excellent night vision (maybe he closes one eye when going into bright areas so that it retains night vision), so in real life he could read the letter in the very dim lit area. But for us playing the game, we need it lit well just to be able to practically read it while sitting in front of our computers.

 

So one could just think of it like another HUD element, simply representative (but not literal) of what's really going on.

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Then it dawned on me - How is it that I'm reading this note in an area so dark that a guard passing a few feet away can't see me? Shouldn't I light my lantern or be near a light source in order to read? Wouldn't that be more realistic?

 

Yes, this was raised back when we first started discussing the new reading system. As others have said, it has two major problems--one, you have to find a light source in order to do important gameplay things like look at maps or read clues. That can be time consuming and annoying. And worse, you have to make yourself visible to AI (by being near light) at the very time when your attention is elsewhere.

 

We decided it was too much of a double-whammy. :)

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And worse, you have to make yourself visible to AI (by being near light) at the very time when your attention is elsewhere.

 

We decided it was too much of a double-whammy. :)

 

Well I was thinking that would add a level of difficulty (and possibly suspense) to the game. At any rate, I can see it being extremely irritating depending on the number of readables some FMs would have.

 

 

Ah well, 'tis better to have been considered and shot down, than never to have been considered at all. Or something... :)

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Well I was thinking that would add a level of difficulty (and possibly suspense) to the game.

How about on expert mode, the thief isn't as good with his nighttime reading abilities :wacko:

 

jk :laugh: , you know how many people would complain about being able to read in the dark and than started a new game, and can't?

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Simply imagine a solution in context with the steampunk world and the objects at hand, and you can reason the characters ability to read in the dark. Perhaps he can squeeze a little button on his lightgem to make it glow radiantly enough to provide reading light ;)

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Simply imagine a solution in context with the steampunk world and the objects at hand, and you can reason the characters ability to read in the dark. Perhaps he can squeeze a little button on his lightgem to make it glow radiantly enough to provide reading light ;)

Yes, because the lightgem isn't just a gui item?

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