Chade on 15/11/2013 at 03:31
Quote Posted by Springheel
But sneaking through the pouring rain is perfectly okay.
...
What's with all their obvious spin?
There was not necessarily any spin in that answer. He straight out says the pneumonia comment was a joke. He gives a plausible reason below that: water just isn't part of their theme.
I do think it's a little bizarre that we've had two thief games without swimming, though. I don't think it's important, it's just strange. Why not put some swimmable canals in? What's the harm?
Quote Posted by Vae
Not only will there be no swimming, the game will be NuCity-centric, as well....
I wouldn't be surprised if this were true, but it doesn't follow from his swimming comments at all. He doesn't need to list every location in the game to make a point about theme.
I thought they answered this question in an earlier Q&A, but I couldn't find anything directly related. There was an answer in Q&A#2 which does mention areas outside the city, but only very briefly, so I'm not sure I trust it:
Quote Posted by Q&A #2
Our environment design is really varied so that you can discover the different areas of the City in depth. The poor parts, the rich parts,
outside of the city and in.
Quote Posted by Vae
It looks like Schmidt is using the self-imposed restrictions and terms that community members made up, and crediting himself for the idea
Why shouldn't they use restrictions and terms that the community finds fun and are familiar with? And where on earth did he credit himself with any of that?
Quote Posted by Vae
So NuThief is going to have achievements, and no restrictions on gameplay unless you choose to ghost
He just mentioned a restriction that didn't involve ghosting, so that's obviously not right.
Personally I think customizable difficulty levels are a good thing. I was looking forward to them in thief 3, and was disappointed they were dropped. I want to be able to play on the hardest difficulty possible no matter what my chosen playstyle. Likewise, as a beginner, I may well have opted to enable some restrictions despite not being ready for harder AI.
Quote Posted by TFA
Daniel: Stealth is vital, and thus we have upgrades (to both gear and Focus) that will help stealthy players ... there are things to smooth lockpicking, reduce detectability, minimize footstep ...
That surprises me a little bit. It will be interesting to see whether they balance that appropriately. I hope it's not possible to create a character build that is no longer capable of sneaking around a level.
Springheel on 15/11/2013 at 04:02
Quote:
He gives a plausible reason below that: water just isn't part of their theme.
Which is complete crap, because we know at least one sequence takes place on a bridge, and another (or perhaps the same one) involved the player shadowing a boat along a river. I'd be shocked if there weren't also sequences in sewers. And since fans have been asking about swimmable water for years without an answer, I highly doubt they just never thought about it.
The suggestion that water just isn't present and therefore swimming wasn't really a concern is weak, and the claim that it has something to do with their "autumn setting" is laughable.
Chade on 15/11/2013 at 04:32
I wouldn't be surprised if his answer is complete crap and the real reason has something to do with some silly tech restriction or something else like that.
But nothing you said then makes his answer "complete crap". He never says they have no water. He never says that no-one thought about it. He just says that swimming in water isn't part of their "theme". It could be as simple as them dreaming up a bunch of experiences and moods they were going to convey, and swimming never making that list.
Pyrian on 15/11/2013 at 04:38
Bah. When they model getting soaked, leaving suspicious trails of water and making sploosh sploosh sounds, significant amounts of equipment impaired or failing to work, plus the near-certainty of sinking under any load, then maybe I'll be concerned about the lack of swimmable water. But frankly, all the years of perfectly dry water never did anything for me and I don't miss it.
Renault on 15/11/2013 at 06:24
Just noticed this:
Quote:
for example perform aerial takedowns
Awesome, sounds just like airborne knockouts! Hopefully it won't cut to third person.
I will say, it does sound like they're putting a fair amount of effort into giving the player a lot of options. Ironman mode, Ghost mode, and other optional objectives related to disabling traps, distracting guards, and using the environment. All of these sound very stealthy and thieflike. And these are all new options we
didn't have built into the original games.
DWS was a bit vague on exactly what parts of the UI can be disabled, but he did say the list was "extensive" so that sounds promising too.
That said, I'm still not a fan of the upgrade system, and hopefully it's not just the XP system in disguise.
Esme on 15/11/2013 at 11:51
Inline Image:
http://darkfate.org/files/images/screenshots/thief4/thief_screenshot_111313_ss07_1384351104.jpgI'm impressed by the sewer system, it seems to be able to remove groundwater at a phenomenal rate without using drains or gutters, if it rained like that where I live you'd need a boat to cross the street.
Also apart from the rain, nothing actually seems to be wet
-- EDIT --
Also I don't care how poor/ill/stupid people are supposed to be, no one leaves their washing out to dry in the rain
DJ Riff on 15/11/2013 at 12:11
Quote Posted by Esme
Also I don't care how poor/ill/stupid people are supposed to be, no one leaves their washing out to dry in the rain
They may be dead or gloomed already.
Esme on 15/11/2013 at 12:15
Quote Posted by DJ Riff
They may be dead or gloomed already.
If you're feeling that bad then you wouldn't do the laundry in the first place
DJ Riff on 15/11/2013 at 12:32
Gloom is not about feeling bad, it's more about being insane. We don't know yet how fast it happens and what are the symptoms. Maybe people lose their memory and forget about their laundry or walk away/sleepwalk and never come back because they forget where they live and so on.
Beleg Cúthalion on 15/11/2013 at 12:42
Quote Posted by Renzatic
You know, I'm far from being sold on Thief 4, but I do have to say that the way some people take what the developers say and try to reinterpret it in the worst way possible is kinda damn obnoxious.
Seconded. Vae is probably the only one which I would knock out with Focus enabled if he was a guard in T4. Oh, and I hope there will be a replay I can save to my hard drive. I mean, this guy manages to
criticise bash the devs for certain decisions and then again for correcting them.
