Flux on 2/6/2015 at 08:33
Quote Posted by henke
Flux, I like that you guys are still working on the game and tweaking it in patches. The faster crouch speed and easier knockouts definitely made it more pleasant to play. What I'd like to see the most from the AI is that they pause at both ends of their patrol routes, instead of just at one end. Also they could do with more of a intermediate searching/alerted state when they notice you, instead of going straight from 0-100. Tho I'm sure you've heard all this before and I guess it might be hard to implement at this late stage.
Pausing both ends are easy, we can do that at some points, random ones though, otherwise would be easy to knock out, wouldn't it?
intermediate searching/alerted state...If I understood you correctly, this feature is there actually, but if you stand or try to combat them, they will go from yellow(alert) to red(combat) instantly, we thought this would be more realistic. However, if you run away as fast as you can after they spot you, in most cases they will let you "escape" thus staying in orange state.
A.I states are explained more: there((
http://steamcommunity.com/app/284990/discussions/0/617335934135442142/#c613958868354789068) http://steamcommunity.com/app/284990/discussions/0/617335934135442142/#c613958868354789068)
heywood on 2/6/2015 at 14:02
Quote Posted by Flux
By default AI vision was as it is, exactly like in Thief 1 & 2 on
easy difficulty but some reviewers screamed off "OMG Blind AI" without even trying other difficulty settings. You know, to us, thief fans, this has never been a problem but to some, it can be. Sit in a corner in dark in Thief1&2, AI can come half feet near you, if your light-gem is dark, you are not visible, cool...So it seems "not cool=bug" to many, I guess. Yes, we were a bit defensive over forums at launch because a simple design decision on
easy difficulty has caused the game to be labelled as "buggy AI"
I played on normal difficulty. A few years have passed since I last played Thief 1&2, but I don't remember sneaking being as easy as in Solarix. It just seemed that the guards' vision didn't extend that far and they had very limited peripheral vision. I could move across an openly lit area with a guard facing me and they wouldn't see me as long as I was far enough away. Also, the large open spaces seemed to be sparsely populated with few guards. As long as you gave them a wide berth you could run around the level with impunity, not worrying about being stealthy.
When I was being sloppy and a guard did notice me, as long as I kept moving and got out of their field of view quickly they were never a threat. If I was right on top of them, they would turn hostile quickly, but if I was any distance away it seemed like I had to stand still for a second or two in order for them to go from alerted to hostile. When alerted, the guards will move slow and stalk rather than pursue or hunt the player. And when you're in the dark, the guards seem oblivious to your position even if they saw you run there or a camera is pointing right at you.
I don't want to sound too critical because I really did enjoy the game, but the things I mentioned above resulted in easy sneaking so the game didn't have enough tense moments, even with the checkpoint save system. Hopefully I will have a different impression once I play with the patches.
BTW, I think the checkpoint save system is perfect for this kind of game. I hate checkpoint saving in FPS games, but for a stealth game with horror themes it works great. And the checkpoints were generally well placed.
I'm kind of puzzled by the relative lack of response to this game. Given the pedigree, I expected more people playing.
Flux on 3/6/2015 at 18:52
Quote Posted by heywood
Also, the large open spaces seemed to be sparsely populated with few guards. As long as you gave them a wide berth you could run around the level with impunity, not worrying about being stealthy.
I agree, especially in chapter 3 I think we wanted to give some room for steam achiement exploration, hopefully will come in the next patches. It is all balance though, in a large level like ch3, you don't have to be sneaky but after chapter7, things change about "being sneaky"
Although since, generally speaking people are ok with performance, I don't see why not add a bit more A.I to chapter 3
Thanks for the feedback guys, really appreciated.
Quote Posted by heywood
I'm kind of puzzled by the relative lack of response to this game. Given the pedigree, I expected more people playing.
I'm surprised nobody from ttlg yet posted a screen of credits' "special thanks" section yet;)
Tony_Tarantula on 4/6/2015 at 03:45
Quote Posted by Pyrian
"(blank) was basically Thief with (blank) but without stealth" should be a meme.
Thi4f was basically thief with shitty QTE's but without stealth.
Your welcome.
heywood on 4/6/2015 at 09:39
Quote Posted by Flux
I'm surprised nobody from ttlg yet posted a screen of credits' "special thanks" section yet;)
If anyone is interested, there was a special thanks to TTLG's Thief modding community.
Flux on 6/6/2015 at 16:15
(
https://noplatform.wordpress.com/2015/06/06/solarix-and-other-indie-immersive-sim-games/) https://noplatform.wordpress.com/2015/06/06/solarix-and-other-indie-immersive-sim-games/
This article has Deus Ex, Thief, System Shock, Crysis, Skyrim, Dishonored, Neon Struct, Solarix, Amnesia, Soma, Routine, Spirits of Xanadu and Eldridch in it, and some design omens for future of pc gaming.
Flux on 3/7/2015 at 09:09
Third patch is out, non-drm version coming soon
(
http://steamcommunity.com/games/284990/announcements/detail/92671019655031399)
Some enhancements to the A.I from the latest patch
Quote:
Miner-Zombies have much better sight radius and vision abilities now to detect the player, even on easiest difficulty. This would add extra tension and challenge in the related chapter.
Alert periods are increased for some of the soldiers, in a randomized manner. Some of the guards are more paranoid now, they will insist in searching for the player “more” when they become suspicious. We haven’t applied this to whole of the guards to balance “randomization” of A.I and some “unexpected” behavior will now add more tension. Be even more careful now, about not to alert them, since some soldiers might not give up until they search every near nook and cranny once they are suspicious.
Soldiers now have limited clip-ammo size for the machine guns. This means that when you are caught, they will still try to hunt you down mercilessly but when they run out of ammo for each clip, they will play reloading animation. Because of this, players will have a bit more “extra time” to manage their escape when they are caught.
One of the criticism to the A.I was that their patrol routes were easy to detect and memorize. Now, we added some randomization to patrol routes of certain guards. Some of them will randomly switch to alternate paths while patrolling. Now, players have to be more careful if they want to knock them out during their patrol routes because it is more “randomized”.
Some of the soldiers & cyborgs now work in teams, alert one, he might "notify" his closest buddy. However, we randomized this feature to add more realism to the A.I. Some of them would prefer to investigate "solo" when they sense danger, some of them would want to work in teams all the time.
Some of the cyborgs have better sight radius and vision abilities now to detect the player, even on easiest difficulty. This would add extra tension and challenge in the related chapters.
Flux on 10/7/2015 at 07:55
Non-DRM version is available to buy via our own website. You can pay with paypal.
(
http://www.pulsetense.com/solarix/) http://www.pulsetense.com/solarix/
Shadowcat on 10/7/2015 at 11:27
Nice one. Have you considered taking the game cross-platform? Or is it going to stay Windows-only?
Flux on 11/7/2015 at 11:05
Mac version is being tested and we have approval from microsoft for xbox1. But being a tiny team makes such ports longer than expected. For xbox1 release, first we have to port the whole game from UDK to Unreal Engine 4, which would take time.
