Thief 3 Gold - Public beta test (TDS Spoilers ahead, obviously!)

Beleg Cúthalion on 13/8/2014 at 11:10

OK, I'll have a look at Lord Ember's convo then. However, if I ever heard it it's been a long time. I haven't messed with Heartless Perry at all IIRC, I only remember this bug from a time when the day-to-day transition didn't work yet for the new maps. Hm... In any case, I'm probably too busy until Monday, so any tweaking can happen only next week. Maybe we should delay the hotfix until then, after all with only the digits in the integer file being affected, there is no need for shipping new maps as yet.

Edit: After a quick glance into T3Ed it seems like the Lord Ember convos should work. He has things to say to three of his guards, the furthest away the one on the outer platform. His patrol should lead to all three eventually. I probably too the third guard down to quickly when testing so I couldn't hear it.

Edit2: Found the bug, Ember thinks he cannot leave his room. Something invisible messed up the navigation mesh. I'll take care of it later.

Eilhan on 13/8/2014 at 18:42

Quote Posted by snobel

The path in ProgramData is the default, but the SU installer has an option to select a custom path for FM installation. That's probably the case here.

Correct. I have all my downloaded fan missions (For Thief 1/Thief 2/Thief 3/SS2) in G:\Fan Missions\[Gamename] and have set up the fmsel to install them in an FMs folder in each game's install directory.

Beleg Cúthalion on 13/8/2014 at 20:49

Luckily the error could be found elsewhere. Have you tried changing the first number in the Ints.txt instead of the third one?

Eilhan on 14/8/2014 at 19:25

Quote Posted by Beleg Cúthalion

Luckily the error could be found elsewhere. Have you tried changing the first number in the Ints.txt instead of the third one?

Yes, I just did :) Had to load a saved game on Hard difficulty and restart it on Expert, but I was able to finish the mansion on Expert, looting everything but the inheritance (Got to 90% loot grabbing everything else). Worked like a charm. Gonna continue with the clock tower in a few days.

AntiMatter_16 on 15/8/2014 at 02:43

It is possible to prevent guards carrying torches from DYING after being blackjacked and falling on the torch? I swear. It happens every time.
*Thunk*
*Collapses on torch*
*Screams in pain*
*Dead*
...
*Sigh*
*Reload*

Beleg Cúthalion on 15/8/2014 at 07:58

I have thought about this myself and there are probably ways to do it (like immediately delete the stimulus of the torch once the AI is unconscious) but I wonder if that wouldn't be one of the difficulties that should remain in the game. We cannot build it around a completely smooth and clean stealth experience IMHO.

snobel on 15/8/2014 at 13:02

In TDM you can pick up bodies while they're dropping, but that's probably hard to copy? Another way would be to extend the time (or decrease the damage) so that you have just enough time to pick him up (on Expert - on lower difficulties increasingly longer). Would that be possible?

AntiMatter_16 on 15/8/2014 at 23:50

It's not a difficulty because it's essentially random. It's an annoyance. It cannot be mitigated by skill, only by attempting it several times. As a player, it simply breaks immersion and lessens my experience.
Is there a purpose to have a fire stimulus on the torch anyway (at least of that magnitude)? As far as I know, they don't use it to light torches that have gone out, which would seem logical. Besides, it's unrealistic to have a torch that kills instantly. If an unconscious body fell on a torch, it would just smother the flame.
Random, unrealistic, annoying, breaks immersion.
It's your call, but the whole point of this project I thought was to provide a better player experience.

On another note:
If you douse a torch, or frob out a candle, and immediately look away, the smoke particles will remain in the exact state they were when you looked away until you look back. Wandering back through a mission to see torches you doused a half hour ago smoke is also immersion breaking.

Beleg Cúthalion on 16/8/2014 at 08:08

I will have a look at this next week hopefully. The stimulus is for the damage, don't know if I can do anything about frobbing k.o.ed AIs earlier. One could even consider re-lighting torches while we're at it. :sly: The smoke emitters that stay there when you look away have bothered me, too, but I guess I can only do a workaround like deleting them in any case five seconds or so after they have been created. All of these changes would affect the GameSys, so this might be snobel's chance to shout Veto! because it could disallow having other tweaks (like the Minimalist Project alongside).

snobel on 17/8/2014 at 06:19

Yeah, losing compatibility with the MP would be a great pity. I'd at least lobby strongly for postponing gamesys-affecting changes until a later release.