Splashcups on 7/1/2014 at 13:01
In the sense of creating a new game (sequel) that is of current generation, yes. Although, not for the continued creation of original Thief style FMs, DromEd could still use some improving, but thats a different thing to what we're talking about. So ideally, it would be great to create a new one for that matter, though it would really have to be done right. Like you said, what matters is how it works. It would have to look and feel like the Dark Engine, and also have all the technical capabilities of games of this generation.
Deadlove on 7/1/2014 at 13:13
Yeh, who'd have thought that the light/shadow system in idTech4 would trigger the Thief bug and inspire something as wonderful as TDM? :angel:
Renault on 7/1/2014 at 15:05
I think the best scenario for a newer, modern Thieflike game is a group of ex-LGSers doing some kind of Kickstarter project and creating a spiritual successor with no direct, obvious references to the Thief universe. I'm guessing the new game from EM will sell well enough (and maybe produce it's own sequel) that any small independent group trying to buy the IP will find it to be too cost prohibitive.
Luckily though, we pretty much have the next best thing in TDM, and it's free. :cool:
Starker on 7/1/2014 at 15:25
I'd rather see a new immersive sim than a rehash of the old. LGS went from Ultima to cyberpunk to medieval steampunk and didn't sit around and settle for small incremental improvements. In the LGS tradition, it would be high time for a new setting.
Splashcups on 7/1/2014 at 15:33
Imagine they returned and actually did the original "Dark Age of Camelot" idea.
New Horizon on 7/1/2014 at 21:02
Quote Posted by NuEffect
Well there might be stuff in DromEd that is useful, conceptually, but the engine is too old to be updated now, isn't it?
It's raw code, it doesn't age like a physical thing. It could be used for a base and rewritten. Age has little to do with it. What's more an issue is finding someone with the time, skill and endurance to do it.
It would be a completely new engine by the end of it since so much would have to be overhauled to take advantage of modern hardware, but with all the AI, stim/response, and core systems in place...it would be a grand place to start.
SubJeff on 7/1/2014 at 21:05
Yeah, that's what I meant by the conceptual part of it. You'd add so much stuff to it that it'd end up being a quite different beast.
Renault on 7/1/2014 at 21:56
Yeah, it's not a matter of aging, more about just being completely out-of-date. Programming methods and procedures have changed drastically in the past decade, I would imagine.
Platinumoxicity on 7/1/2014 at 22:32
There is one thing about the Doom3 engine that still holds it up over many engines used in AAA games today. Exclusive use of dynamic lights. I thought that Deadly Shadows, F.E.A.R, Doom3 and Riddick back in the last decade would have been setting the new standard for what lighting in a game should be, but I was wrong. As games became more cinematic, flexibility was cast aside in exchange for static visual direction for very tightly scripted scenes. At least I wasn't naïve enough to think that Thief would be setting the same high standard from a gameplay perspective, with its high focus on maximizing the quality of simulation-like core mechanics.
Looking back at what Deadly Shadows kept from Thief 2, and added on top... from the perspective of keeping up both the standards for visual and gameplay sophistication, it is pretty damn great. It still plays like Thief should, and it has the lighting mechanics to match the simulation. The Dark Mod achieves the same, and more. At the moment, it doesn't need an engine better than what Doom3 has to offer. Because as things stand, the engine is offering more in some areas that matter, than other current engines do.
