jtr7 on 23/3/2013 at 01:27
Yeah, they have to extricate all the other pieces of the pipeline feeding into it, and work to make it a standalone package. They have to remove all the proprietary and licensed bits that can't be sent out with it. We knew way back when Tim Stellmach wrote up the very basic documentation for DromEd, that he was going out of his way doing even that. Look how long it took T3Ed to come out and how much of a mad scramble it was, working with community members. It was pretty thrilling to see all the experimentation going on right away, everyone wanting to know how many of the problems could be fixed, restrictions removed, how many limits could be raised, and how far we could go with something with no memory restrictions.
Judith on 25/3/2013 at 09:47
Quote:
And I should add that the reason why we rarely ever see editors released for games these days is because almost every studio out there uses at least 10 proprietary pieces of sofware to make their games these days. No one reinvents the wheel and releases their own custom made engines for their games anymore. It'd cost millions upon millions and add years to their schedule for them to do so. Now they use UDK or Unity as a base SDK, Houdini for their character animation, Max, Maya, or Modo for their editors. Then you've got random extraneous stuff like licensed physics engines, facial animation technology packages...it goes on and on. All this stuff is designed with very expensive pieces of software, and it's difficult for studios to release a free way for the fanbase to use it all. Not without huge amounts of sacrifices, or closing off entire portions of the design process to them.
I don't think anyone expects modders to do facial animation. Still, when using UDK you have access to FaceFX and plugins. The same goes with SpeedTree. Custom animation workflow was always enabled for modding through ActorX plugin, which was released for most modeling packages AFAIR (Max, Maya etc.). Noone will be able to fiddle with any external physics engine, only with its output parameters via Actor Classess properties. The only problem here is the scope of what should be hardcoded. Any changes within the UE3 source code sure will be.
clearing on 24/4/2013 at 02:44
Quote:
No editor is currently scheduled, under any form. Apparently the team is taking total control on the final product; considering this last game as a reboot they want to set a new benchmark for the revived franchise. And this might mean to retain a certain creative monopoly on the level and character design to establish a controlled new look of the series.
(
http://www.explosion.com/30090/no-mod-allowed-for-thief)
jtr7 on 24/4/2013 at 02:48
Par for the course. I hope Squeenix grows up, someday. I know EM thinks the industry has grown up, but they are 15-year-olds smoking cigarettes and cursing and thinking they are oh so grown up.
TDM it is!
Renzatic on 24/4/2013 at 03:29
Bad news for T4, but it only gives TDM that much more room to grow.
Renault on 24/4/2013 at 03:44
Not that shocking really, but kind of adding to the argument that EM doesn't really understand what's important to the diehard Thief fans. The original games were legendary in and of themselves, but FMs are what has kept Thief relevant up to the modern day. Of their bloated staff of 300, they could have had one person responsible for putting together a dev kit of sorts to carry on the tradition, and further build their own brand. Instead, they fell flat on their faces again.
So The Dark Mod it is (as well as New Dark). For their next move, would anyone be surprised if EM sent the TDM folks a cease and desist letter? :nono:
Renzatic on 24/4/2013 at 03:54
Quote Posted by Brethren
For their next move, would anyone be surprised if EM sent the TDM folks a cease and desist letter? :nono:
Assuming they're willing to be so lame (which I seriously doubt), there's nothing they can do about TDM. You can't sue anyone over thematic similarities.
Renault on 24/4/2013 at 04:04
You know how it goes, anyone can sue anyone these days. I don't think the TDM guys would last long vs. the EM lawyers (who would?). But luckily, TDM seems niche enough that it's existence probably doesn't bother EM in the least. If they were putting out 100, high quality, high production type missions a year, I think it might be a different story though.
demagogue on 24/4/2013 at 06:17
TDM went out of its way to avoid any reference to any Thief IP. The site even has a policy not to post an FM made by a fan that has any Thief IP in it. What no one can copyright is game mechanics (if that's what you mean by thematic similarities.) But anyway, EM has already known about us from early on and have given us a kind of blessing; or anyway Rene the community manager did way back when.
TBH, though, it's even in TDM's interest that people buy and play T4 & if anything we'd encourage it. The thing is, FM mappers make better maps when they are exposed to classic stealth maps, from TDS or Dishonored or T4. Also we want T4 to succeed because that means more new people will find their way here, find out about TDM, and want to play it/map for it.
Edit: At some point I want to make a post on the pros and cons of "new blood", but maybe I'll say a few things here. We all remember we had an influx with TDS, some for the better, some for the worse (I mean with some of the crazy threads from that time; most all of the latter didn't stay long though). But I think a community needs some intake sometimes... People drift away, and a community can't do so well unless that's matched by new people coming in; if they're younger & enthusiastic & have tons of time to contribute stuff to the community like FMs & thoughtful comments, all the better. And this is the opportunity for a lot of people to find out about the community & see if it's something they want to tap into.
What's interesting is that T4 is the game that will get them interested, but now T2 & TDM will be the ones that hook them in & keep them, because now we know, without T4 having an editor, that's where the FM scene will continue to stay.
jtr7 on 24/4/2013 at 06:36
Is this about new TTLG membership, or new Thief community membership? If it's the latter, it will be at least as divisive and un-fun as what TDS has brought, which never went away, we all just have lees in common to share, so we have to...go elsewhere and discuss other things. Thief[4] will be too different to mesh and meld. People leave because they don't feel welcome or are bored with the topics or threads keep getting derailed before they go someplace new. If T4 brings new blood to T1/TG/TMA, it won't be enough to keep the place from being too fanboyish.
