Decline Thiaf Pre-Release Thread

[J_C]

if you overheard guards having conversations, no two conversations in the game would ever be alike. This held true in the first level of the game, but not really later on, as hardly anyone ever spoke to each other in the game.

LOL no. Every level had conversations from other NPCs. Maybe you should replay the game.

To be honest I loathed the supernatural shit in Thief and Thief 2. I would have been much more content had Garett just focused on being a Thief, with no mysterious overarching bullshit about Watchers/Keepers/Mechanists/zombie alligators.

Was nice knowing you (not really), now would you return to the Eidos forums, I bet the new Thiaf will be to your liking.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

...and could only be played on one of those new fangled 'pentiums' that everyone was raving about.

If anyone was in doubt of whether the post (or the user) is a troll, it's this bit.

By the time Thief was released, the "pentium" thing had long passed the point of being "raved about", Pentium processors had simply become the leading standard in CPU design for PCs. You wanted a quality processor that had developer support? You went for a Pentium processor. For the last 5 years of the 20th century, this was just common sense. Anyone who was dabbling in PCs in the late 90s just knew this, and would never think of wording the above phrase like the troll did.

 

[AngryKobold]

To be honest I loathed the supernatural shit in Thief and Thief 2. I would have been much more content had Garett just focused on being a Thief, with no mysterious overarching bullshit about Watchers/Keepers/Mechanists/zombie alligators.

Was nice knowing you (not really), now would you return to the Eidos forums, I bet the new Thiaf will be to your liking.

Yeah right. That's what you expect from a game about master thief in a medieval- sometimes- industrial world. Looking for plot items in abandoned places filled up to the roof with supernatural elements. Like haunted cathedrals, zombie districts and ancient cities. That's what a master thief does! Scavenging ruins that would scare off Indiana Jones. Stealing priceless things from impenetrable vaults is for pussies.

When I played Thief I, I was constantly thinking how I'd trade ten haunted cathedrals for a single normal mission. How I was sick of zombies yelling like retards. Guess that's what the "revenge" mission on kingpin was about. It felt really out of place between the all zombies and zombies. Somebody at Looking Glass noticed the pattern. So they put it to give the player a glimpse of hope the Ghost Busters business is gone.

All this ghosts devils sorcery as main theme of the game was really tiresome.

From all magical crap Looking Glass threw at us, only the Constantine's Manor felt right. A bat shit insane magician owns something valuable. You come to take it. Simple. So lurking through rooms hanged in cosmic void, avoiding deformed monsters- it's kinda expected to happen. But then Constantine turns out to be a satan bachus of chaos... and you're saving the world WHAT THE FUCK

Go wash your hair. Maybe.

 

[Infinitron]

Go back to whining about Age of Decadence, sir.

 

[AngryKobold]

Stopped to whine about things and individuals beyond any help. Got better things to do.

 

[skacky]

The supernatural elements, the thick atmosphere and missions such as The Haunted Cathedral and The Sword are the reason why I vastly prefer Thief 1 over Thief 2. That and the pacing and variety in missions are goddamn perfect in Thief 1.

 

[Darth Roxor]

That's what a master thief does!

A master knows how to improvise.

 

[JarlFrank]

How did these retards get on the Codex. If this keeps on, I think I will have to issue some warnings.

 

[meanwhileInPoland]

To be honest I loathed the supernatural shit in Thief and Thief 2. I would have been much more content had Garett just focused on being a Thief, with no mysterious overarching bullshit about Watchers/Keepers/Mechanists/zombie alligators.

Was nice knowing you (not really), now would you return to the Eidos forums, I bet the new Thiaf will be to your liking.

Yeah right. That's what you expect from a game about master thief in a medieval- sometimes- industrial world. Looking for plot items in abandoned places filled up to the roof with supernatural elements. Like haunted cathedrals, zombie districts and ancient cities. That's what a master thief does! Scavenging ruins that would scare off Indiana Jones. Stealing priceless things from impenetrable vaults is for pussies.

When I played Thief I, I was constantly thinking how I'd trade ten haunted cathedrals for a single normal mission. How I was sick of zombies yelling like retards. Guess that's what the "revenge" mission on kingpin was about. It felt really out of place between the all zombies and zombies. Somebody at Looking Glass noticed the pattern. So they put it to give the player a glimpse of hope the Ghost Busters business is gone.

All this ghosts devils sorcery as main theme of the game was really tiresome.

From all magical crap Looking Glass threw at us, only the Constantine's Manor felt right. A bat shit insane magician owns something valuable. You come to take it. Simple. So lurking through rooms hanged in cosmic void, avoiding deformed monsters- it's kinda expected to happen. But then Constantine turns out to be a satan bachus of chaos... and you're saving the world WHAT THE FUCK

Go wash your hair. Maybe.

i dont even...

 

[Stereotypical Villain]

Disthievered: Revenge is yours, is mine

 

[Coyote]

I'd have a hard time picking one of the first two Thief games over the other. Thief has better atmosphere and a more consistent level of quality IMO, but Thief 2 has more of what I'd consider the best missions in the series.

On a tangent, since I was reminded of this again recently: I was always pretty disappointed about how Thief 2 handled Casing the Joint and Masks, in part because the idea of using one mission to prepare for the next has a lot of potential, but mostly because of my expectations going in. My initial impression was that the second mission would actually take place during the opening of the gallery, resulting in a very different mission from the one that preceded it despite their shared environment. You'd have to find a way to make your way through the mansion with guests around every corner, using the secret passages and hiding places you'd discovered on the previous mission to avoid the most crowded areas while also dodging the servants who were using them to move about, and having cleaned out most of the valuables on the previous mission, most of your loot would come from pickpocketing nobles. The fact that the level was so empty in CtJ despite there being so many secret passages and curtains and such to hide behind just reinforced this impression.

 

[Captain Crusade]

To be honest I loathed the supernatural shit in Thief and Thief 2. I would have been much more content had Garett just focused on being a Thief, with no mysterious overarching bullshit about Watchers/Keepers/Mechanists/zombie alligators.

Was nice knowing you (not really), now would you return to the Eidos forums, I bet the new Thiaf will be to your liking.

Yeah right. That's what you expect from a game about master thief in a medieval- sometimes- industrial world. Looking for plot items in abandoned places filled up to the roof with supernatural elements. Like haunted cathedrals, zombie districts and ancient cities. That's what a master thief does! Scavenging ruins that would scare off Indiana Jones. Stealing priceless things from impenetrable vaults is for pussies.

When I played Thief I, I was constantly thinking how I'd trade ten haunted cathedrals for a single normal mission. How I was sick of zombies yelling like retards. Guess that's what the "revenge" mission on kingpin was about. It felt really out of place between the all zombies and zombies. Somebody at Looking Glass noticed the pattern. So they put it to give the player a glimpse of hope the Ghost Busters business is gone.

All this ghosts devils sorcery as main theme of the game was really tiresome.

From all magical crap Looking Glass threw at us, only the Constantine's Manor felt right. A bat shit insane magician owns something valuable. You come to take it. Simple. So lurking through rooms hanged in cosmic void, avoiding deformed monsters- it's kinda expected to happen. But then Constantine turns out to be a satan bachus of chaos... and you're saving the world WHAT THE FUCK

Go wash your hair. Maybe.

This. Fucking this. Thief was revolutionary, and a good game without a doubt. However, the supernatural elements really hurt the experience. Thief 2 was better, but it too had retarded magic zombies and other such bullshit.

I would much rather play a Thief where you have different missions where you just have to steal shit from impenetrable places without getting caught. To spice things up, maybe throw in some murder mystery, having bounty hunters and assassins after you, etc. But no magic zombies or saving the world please.

Ofcourse, the discussion is kind of moot as Thi4f looks like shite.

 

[J_C]

To be honest I loathed the supernatural shit in Thief and Thief 2. I would have been much more content had Garett just focused on being a Thief, with no mysterious overarching bullshit about Watchers/Keepers/Mechanists/zombie alligators.

Was nice knowing you (not really), now would you return to the Eidos forums, I bet the new Thiaf will be to your liking.

Yeah right. That's what you expect from a game about master thief in a medieval- sometimes- industrial world. Looking for plot items in abandoned places filled up to the roof with supernatural elements. Like haunted cathedrals, zombie districts and ancient cities. That's what a master thief does! Scavenging ruins that would scare off Indiana Jones. Stealing priceless things from impenetrable vaults is for pussies.

When I played Thief I, I was constantly thinking how I'd trade ten haunted cathedrals for a single normal mission. How I was sick of zombies yelling like retards. Guess that's what the "revenge" mission on kingpin was about. It felt really out of place between the all zombies and zombies. Somebody at Looking Glass noticed the pattern. So they put it to give the player a glimpse of hope the Ghost Busters business is gone.

All this ghosts devils sorcery as main theme of the game was really tiresome.

From all magical crap Looking Glass threw at us, only the Constantine's Manor felt right. A bat shit insane magician owns something valuable. You come to take it. Simple. So lurking through rooms hanged in cosmic void, avoiding deformed monsters- it's kinda expected to happen. But then Constantine turns out to be a satan bachus of chaos... and you're saving the world WHAT THE FUCK

Go wash your hair. Maybe.

This. Fucking this. Thief was revolutionary, and a good game without a doubt. However, the supernatural elements really hurt the experience. Thief 2 was better, but it too had retarded magic zombies and other such bullshit.

I would much rather play a Thief where you have different missions where you just have to steal shit from impenetrable places without getting caught. To spice things up, maybe throw in some murder mystery, having bounty hunters and assassins after you, etc. But no magic zombies or saving the world please.

Ofcourse, the discussion is kind of moot as Thi4f looks like shite.

You know, I admit I was thinking like this a decage ago, when I played Thief for the first time. I wasn't fond of the supernatural elements. But then during the 2nd walkthrough, I learnt to appreciate it, and realised that how much the atmosphere was improved by these supernatural elements.

 

[Great Deceiver]

The Thief series was never big on world detail or setting history. The original Thief was one of the first, proper 'modern'3D games. It took advantage of Voodoo cards, the first ever 3D graphics cards and could only be played on one of those new fangled 'pentiums' that everyone was raving about. Not only that, but something that was considered revolutionary at the time, like nearly everything about the original game, was that if you overheard guards having conversations, no two conversations in the game would ever be alike. This held true in the first level of the game, but not really later on, as hardly anyone ever spoke to each other in the game.

I don't understand how people are dignifying this person with answers. There's just so much bullshit crammed up in one paragraph - I mean, Thief didn't even use fucking Glide, it used Direct3D across the board. Pentiums were new in 1998? What's all this talk about Voodoo cards? Glide and Voodoo were already in fatal decline, I myself had replaced my Voodoo 2 with a Riva TNT before Thief came out, and I had a Pentium 2 by that time, too - and I was pretty behind the upgrade curve at the time. There was no guard banter after the first level? What kind of fucking alternate universe is this? Well, it's just fabrication by someone who has no fucking clue.

 

[retardation]

How did these retards get on the Codex. If this keeps on, I think I will have to issue some warnings.

Please do, I registered here only because I thought there were no plants.

 

[Infinitron]

Captain Crusade isn't a plant, he's just a moron.

I don't understand how people are dignifying this person with answers. There's just so much bullshit crammed up in one paragraph - I mean, Thief didn't even use fucking Glide, it used Direct3D across the board. Pentiums were new in 1998? What's all this talk about Voodoo cards? Glide and Voodoo were already in fatal decline, I myself had replaced my Voodoo 2 with a Riva TNT before Thief came out, and I had a Pentium 2 by that time, too - and I was pretty behind the upgrade curve at the time. There was no guard banter after the first level? What kind of fucking alternate universe is this? Well, it's just fabrication by someone who has no fucking clue.

That's not true what you're saying about Glide. There were still games being released that were designed with primarily Glide in mind and Direct3D as an afterthought until as late as 2000 (Deus Ex). The rapid decline of 3DFX took a lot of developers by surprise. Ultima IX (1999) is another example of such a title.

 

[Diablo169]

Honestly if I were doing a Thief like game these days, I'd structure it like a Hitman game (and I mean a proper one not Absolution). Where you are hired by various benefactors to steal items from many well thought out and seemingly impregnable locations in the city. You could complete various other objectives to set up the heist, and weigh up the risk of stealing other items during the mission to increase personal profit, vs pissing your benefactor off by making the crime more obvious and turning more heat on yourself and them.

Focus should be for the most part on the experience, gameplay and re-playability. Most importantly it should be focused on stealth.

 

[Mangoose]

Honestly if I were doing a Thief like game these days, I'd structure it like a Hitman game (and I mean a proper one not Absolution). Where you are hired by various benefactors to steal items from many well thought out and seemingly impregnable locations in the city. You could complete various other objectives to set up the heist, and weigh up the risk of stealing other items during the mission to increase personal profit, vs pissing your benefactor off by making the crime more obvious and turning more heat on yourself and them.

Focus should be for the most part on the experience, gameplay and re-playability. Most importantly it should be focused on stealth.

I'd settle for more disguise mechanics in stealth games.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Disguises would somewhat go against the whole 'do not be seen' part. But a proper sandbox thievery sim, where you find out about places you can loot yourself, either through contacts, benefactors, or just eavesdropping on people on the street, that would be pretty interesting.

 

[Great Deceiver]

That's not true what you're saying about Glide. There were still games being released that were designed with primarily Glide in mind and Direct3D as an afterthought until as late as 2000 (Deus Ex). The rapid decline of 3DFX took a lot of developers by surprise. Ultima IX (1999) is another example of such a title.

I don't see how this contradicts my post at all - I said Glide was in fatal decline by the time Thief came out, not completely extinct yet. And I believe that is true - single card solutions with better bit depth, higher resolutions and comparable/superior speed were becoming the norm, and things moved pretty fast back then. The fact that you still had the odd primarily Glide title coming out (mostly games that were stuck in development for a considerable period of time) doesn't change the fact that what was once a dominant force in the market was clearly on its way out.

 

[AngryKobold]

I don't see how this contradicts my post at all - I said Glide was in fatal decline by the time Thief came out, not completely extinct yet.

You're in fatal decline.

When Thief came out, Glide was SIGNIFICANTLY FASTER AND MORE STABLE than Direct3D. Glide gave more FPS and visual eye candies than D3D. 3dfx was important player at the market. Glide support was common. At this point being a hardware ghetto didn't bite them in the ass... yet.

Get your facts before writing bullshit FFS.

 

[Great Deceiver]

I don't see how this contradicts my post at all - I said Glide was in fatal decline by the time Thief came out, not completely extinct yet.

You're in fatal decline. When Thief came out, Glide was SIGNIFICANTLY FASTER AND MORE STABLE than Direct3D. Get your facts before writing bullshit FFS.

This is a ridiculous strawman (do you think caps makes your post more valid?) - I never wrote anything about Glide being faster or slower than Direct3D, I merely mentioned that the development environment was clearly shifting even at that time (mid-late 98) from predominantly Glide oriented to Direct3D oriented. Nice try though.

 

[AngryKobold]

Next time wait until I finish editing my strawman to the final version.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Why not... just skip on building strawmen to begin with?

I "was there" in the late 90s, 3Dfx was a large presence, but in 1998 there were shifts in the air. Voodoo cards were dead as the dodo only a few years later.

 

[AngryKobold]

I merely mentioned that the development environment was clearly shifting even at that time (mid-late 98) from predominantly Glide oriented to Direct3D oriented. Nice try though.

You mean: was clearly shifting from Glide oriented support to support for Direct3D AND Glide. Which is bullshit when it comes to demanding 3D games. You know, all blockbusters. Quake, Lichtech, Unreal. Where Direct3D was slower and OpenGL was experimental. FFS just move your dumb date to 1999 and it'll get true. Bet you forgot or you don't really know what's going on back then.

Why not... just skip on building strawmen to begin with?

I "was there" in the late 90s, 3Dfx was a large presence, but in 1998 there were shifts in the air. Voodoo cards were dead as the dodo only a few years later.

That shift in air must have been your fart. There was shift and it happened at the end of 1999. When Voodoo 3 got released. And when 3DFX started to officially wear pants on the head.