Thief Deadly Shadows 1.1 Patch Fixes AI 132
Lemmus writes "A patch for the PC version of Thief: Deadly Shadows is now available. The patch fixes the AI skill level being reset whenever a level is reloaded, the major bug previously reported in a post at Slashdot Games. This is apparently the only thing that the patch fixes, so users with other problems have to wait for another patch. Although Ion Storm warns against installing the patch on installations with user-modified .ini files, most users don't seem to be having any trouble with it."
Thief 3 Editor Petition (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Thief 3 Editor Petition (Score:5, Informative)
Thief 3 Editor Petition [petitiononline.com]
If you're at all familiar with Thief 1/2, you'll know that there is a great community that to this day makes Thief 2 missions.
Re:Thief 3 Editor Petition (Score:1)
Re:Thief 3 Editor Petition (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Do these petitions _ever_ work? (Score:2)
Yup. (Score:1)
Honestly... (Ironic, I know..) (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean honestly, do they HAVE testing? You'd think something like this would be noticed ahead of release.
All I can think of this Penny-Arcade [penny-arcade.com] in reference to Splinter Cell.
Re:Honestly... (Ironic, I know..) (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Honestly... (Ironic, I know..) (Score:2, Informative)
Having played the game and having hung out on TTLG.com, this is pretty much the only major problem anyone has reported - and it isn't game breaking or anything. You can still play fine.
And it does only affect those playing on Expert difficulty. All in all, it's a very polished game. Ignore what people are saying about Invisible War (
Re:Honestly... (Ironic, I know..) (Score:2)
I'm not too disappointed about the lack of rope-arrows, but I'm concerned about the dumbing down of the game - climbing gloves would appear to make escaping very easy, and portals might utterly ruin the atmosphere.
That said, with a game such as this, it will take a lot to ruin the game, even if it is sliced into chunks for XBoxes. I'm a firm fan of these ha
Re:Honestly... (Ironic, I know..) (Score:3, Informative)
Overall, however, I'm very pleased with T:DS. Best $35 I've spent in a long time.
Re:Honestly... (Ironic, I know..) (Score:2)
Compare this to a bug in Starcraft; the invulnerable drone. It took players months and months to discover that if you morphed a drone at just the right time, he'd
Ion Storm to blame? Go poke Eidos some. (Score:2)
Try playing Raven Shield sometime.......... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Try playing Raven Shield sometime.......... (Score:2)
Re:Try playing Raven Shield sometime.......... (Score:1)
Re:Try playing Raven Shield sometime.......... (Score:1)
Re:Try playing Raven Shield sometime.......... (Score:2)
The Bugs Which Remain... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Honestly... (Ironic, I know..) (Score:1)
Ah, so you must work work on one of those perfect software projects that always produce bug-free software on time and on budget then. What is it? We know it can't be for Microsoft, Apple, Sun, Novell, IBM, Linux, BSD, Apache, Mozilla, KDE, Gnome, Samba... Hell, even NASA get it wrong
Re:Honestly... (Ironic, I know..) (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Honestly... (Ironic, I know..) (Score:1)
example:
IN SOVIET RUSSIA, story ends YOU!
How does this deserve to be on the front page? (Score:4, Insightful)
Akamai gets attacked, and the story gets rejected from slashdot, yet a minor patch about a game I've never heard about makes the front page? They must be feeding bat guano to the editors down there in the locked basement.
Slashdot usually manages to post good stories, but there's always a quirk now and then.
Not to mention 400 mozilla stories this week (Score:5, Insightful)
This week we've seen -
New Firefox
New Mozilla
New Thunderbird
New Firefox again
Patch for some game the majority of people reading the article have absolutely no interest in
Re:Not to mention 400 mozilla stories this week (Score:2)
In the past, I would have taken you to task over this point.
However, having tried Thief 3 (Deadly Shadows) it seems to me that Ion Storm have missed the point
(i.e. lost the plot) and spoiled the wonderful Thief series.
Bring back Looking Glass!
Re:Not to mention 400 mozilla stories this week (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Not to mention 400 mozilla stories this week (Score:1)
You must be new to Slashdot if you think what you say here has the slightest bit of relevance towards the selection of a story.
First of all, Slashdot has always selected stories based on what interests the editors of Slashdot. This is how it is, always has been, and always will be. People read Slashdot to the degree that their interests coincide. But story selection has never taken reader interest into account.
Secondly, you
Re:Not to mention 400 mozilla stories this week (Score:2)
Furthermore, and although its audience may be only approximately as intelligent as "wild monkeys clicking links at random" (which I personally think tends to underrate the skills of wild monkeys),
Re:Not to mention 400 mozilla stories this week (Score:1)
Neither do I. I post on Slashdot because ranting is fun... ;)
Re:How does this deserve to be on the front page? (Score:5, Informative)
That said- I think an Akamai story should have made post. But Thief 3 is a great game in a lineage of great games, your ignorance to its existance is, I apologise, irrelivant. Its important to nerds, so it makes slashdot (as I agree that the Akamai story should have)
Background: The Thief engine was used sucessfuly in thief 1 and thief 2, which were first person shooters that focused NOT on combat, and killing (in fact your charecter would loose against individual opponents quite easily), but on stealth, guile and tricking the (very inteligent) AI. The same theif engine was used in System shock 1 and 2 (with some modifications to allow for level gaining), since you've never heard of thief I won't expect you to have heard of those either; they were one of the first FPS/RPG hybrid games, and focused on a very intence storyline; that was, damned horrifying to play- Another hallmark of both thief and system shock, perhaps an artifact of an eninge that dose not focuse on combat, is that they are SCARY to play- your heart beats faster, and you find yourself holding your breath, wondering if that enemy will miss you. Or in system shock, you turn the corner only to walk head on to some horrid mutant beastie that will drop you in a few seconds unless you think fast- NOW!
They are very good games, and thief three represents what could possibly represent a resurection of the 'thief type' engine, allowing for more 'thinking FPS' games. I kinda wish that the Bethsheda softworks guys would license the morrowind engine/editor for that same reason.
Re:How does this deserve to be on the front page? (Score:1, Troll)
Re:How does this deserve to be on the front page? (Score:2, Informative)
Technically, it was the Dark engine used in those games, not the "Thief engine". It's also fair to note that the latest Thief game is based on the Deus Ex 2 engine (which in turn is ultimately based on Epic's Unreal engine, as with so many other games these days).
System Shock 2 was based on the Dark engine (IIRC, it shipped between Thief 1 and Thief 2), but System Shock 1 certainly w
Re:How does this deserve to be on the front page? (Score:4, Interesting)
I played Splinter Cell and had a lot of fun, but the level of immersion in Thief3 was (still is, i'm scared to play some part here
The game isn't perfect, there are glitches here and there (sometimes shadowing problem or getting stuck in the world), but in the whole, the graphics, the maps and the sound are very immersive. You actually feel a part of the world!
Also, finally when you look DOWN, you see your body and legs!! It may seem a stupid feature, but it really adds to the feeling that you really are there and not just a spirit floating like in most other games.
Not only that, but there are so many ways to solve each area... u can be stealthy, you can kill the guard, make noise to make them go away, blow out the light with a water arrow, knock the guard out, shoot moss arrows to run on noisy floor and obviously to climb on various stuff and just get where they can't see you. Oh! u can also throw a flashbomb and make them blind for a while
I told a friend of mine started playing it that I get scared by it (sometimes so much that I'm urged to play 3rd person, to see if someone comes from behind). He said "what's so scary about the game?", I told him: "keep playing". hehehe...
This game isn't in the mainstream of games which is why I didn't really bother aquiering the two first titles, but now I can completly understand the large communities behind this game series.
Re:How does this deserve to be on the front page? (Score:1)
The only thing that takes away from the experience of 'really being there' would be the (from what i read) possibility to change to a third-person view.
Re:How does this deserve to be on the front page? (Score:1)
Re:How does this deserve to be on the front page? (Score:2)
Actually, combat is quite easy to perform in Thief when you know what you're doing. Against the inexperienced guards, you can easily cut them down with a few sword hits.
The only problem would be with Wraiths and other enemies with an ability to perform rapid attacks - those opponents can hit you twice in succession before yuou can even land your first blow. However, I did finally manage to take out those opponents by exploit
Re:How does this deserve to be on the front page? (Score:1)
Agreed for Thief I, disagree strongly for Thief II. If you see Thief II: The Metal Age around, grab it, it's worth it. At $49.99, it'd be a better buy than most games on the shelf today with that cost or more, the fact that it's likely to be heavily discounted as an older game only makes it an even better value. Within the FPS genre, no better games have been produced to date (don't know about Deadly Shadows yet...)
Re:How does this deserve to be on the front page? (Score:1, Redundant)
If it was 'Theif 3 breaks sales records', or 'Theif 3 introduces a revolutionary kind of AI', or anything to that effect, it'd be frontpage-worthy. but this is a fucking PATCH. The 2 recent Starcraft patches are more newsworthy than this ('Blizzard still cares about eight year old games' is news)
What, (Score:5, Informative)
Re:How does this deserve to be on the front page? (Score:2)
Re:How does this deserve to be on the front page? (Score:1)
If you were a master of economics like me, you'd know why.
Typical ./ readers are geeks who don't have significant others. Therefore, any distraction that allows them to become
Re:How does this deserve to be on the front page? (Score:1)
Re:How does this deserve to be on the front page? (Score:1)
No. I find some exciting news about some p
why don't they test before release ? (Score:1, Insightful)
I just wish it was only microsoft who did this kind of thing, but stupidity reigns everywhere...
Not that I like consoles, but still (Score:2)
Re:Not that I like consoles, but still (Score:2)
Re:Not that I like consoles, but still (Score:2)
Suppose a patch is released for the Xbox. What if Ion Storm goes out of business and the patch for Thief isn't available anymore? I as a PC user can burn my copy of the patch to CD-rom... what can Xbox owners do to archive patches for their games?
Re:Not that I like consoles, but still (Score:2)
what's bugging about this is that MS doesn't keep leaches on it's licensees, back in the day a console game with an obvious bug such as this wouldn't get a license(not that it kept crappy games from being published but still)..
Re:Not that I like consoles, but still (Score:2)
What about Gran Turismo 1.982?
If you don't catch the reference, it's about the bug in GT2 that prevents you from getting a 100% completion stat. 98.2% is the best you can do.
Bugs can exist in any game, good or crappy.
Re:Not that I like consoles, but still (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Not that I like consoles, but still (Score:1)
Re:why don't they test before release ? (Score:2)
Yes, I imagine they took undebugged code straight from the intern who wrote the entire game and slapped it on the gold master.
How did this get rated insightful?
So is the patch available for the X-Box? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:So is the patch available for the X-Box? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:So is the patch available for the X-Box? (Score:1)
I'm certain you could patch a game through XBox Live if the game itself were designed with that functionality. You can download content for a game, which is just files that get stored on the XBox HD and can be loaded by that game. Those files could contain executable code which could be run by the loader on the disc. Some of the downloadable content for certain games includes new gameplay types, which may already involve
Good... (Score:1)
xbox fix (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:xbox fix (Score:1)
It's probably a hard-coded default on load, and they simply neglected to apply the user-selected (or even
Re:xbox fix (Score:1)
Re:xbox fix (Score:1)
It's pretty easy to test, too- On normal difficulty, you can run up behind a patrolling guard across a wood or stone floor and blackjack him before he can turn around. If the game's actually operating at expert difficulty, you won't reach him in time.
Re:xbox fix (Score:2)
Scariest ... Level .... Ever. (Score:1)
Re:Scariest ... Level .... Ever. (Score:1)
u mean the level with the fuse?
If so, then i'm currently somewhere in the middle of it and I had to tell myself repeatedly: "this is just a game..."
Didn't help, I had to leave the game and i'll return to it when i'm ready
Yup, thats the place. (Score:4, Interesting)
And yes, its by far the freakiest, weirdest, and most creative level in all of Thief 3. The ending is a real teeth-clencher too. Enjoy!
XBox version is going to be re-released... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:XBox version is going to be re-released... (Score:2)
Of course, that's assuming that the game supports Xbox Live and Live-based patching. Crimson Skies, the Xbox dashboard, etc. support these. I haven't played Thief, so I don't know if it has Live...
Re:XBox version is going to be re-released... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:XBox version is going to be re-released... (Score:2)
Patch problems (Score:5, Interesting)
In fact, users with modified
Re:Patch problems (Score:3, Funny)
Side-effect... (Score:4, Informative)
One of my friends has been telling me that he absolutely loves this bug because it's more challenging. He's been playing on a hard difficulty level - the catch being that in order to play it that way, he has to get through an entire level without saving. This can take two or three hours! He says that he's been enjoying it greatly because the pressure to not mess up adds so much tension.
Re:Side-effect... (Score:4, Insightful)
I mean sure it makes it harder to complete the game but couldn't your friend achieve the same result by just playing the game and chosing to not save?
I mean making mistakes is just human and all but shipping a product with such a blantantly obvious bug is, at least in my humble opinion, just ridiculous.
Re:Side-effect... (Score:1)
Ah yes, you're one of those rational types who doesn't really have knowledge of (or at least doesn't admit to) real human nature...
Re:Side-effect... (Score:2, Interesting)
However, travelling across a level divide and back again will lower the AI difficulty as well. Most levels require you to do this.
With the patch, you can still play the game using the self-enforced no-load rule. Other ways to increase difficulty include:
Playing without being seen
+ without ko/killing anyone
+ and not dousing any lights
+ using thiefbot [team5150.com] to increase AI difficulty even higher than expert (and have it remain high eve
Re:Side-effect... (Score:2)
Just AI? (Score:3, Interesting)
Be nice if they'd change the default away from running as well. What sort of thief runs everywhere in preference to walking or creeping? (Fixable with some minor ini tweaking, but still).
Triumph (Score:1)
Re:Triumph (Score:2)
Bugs happen. Big bugs happen. But developers are paid to make sure the big bugs stop at happen, and don't continue on to release.
Re:Triumph (Score:2)
Yes we should. I'm sick and tired of companies that decide to push their products out the door early and force us all to be beta testers. Take the proper time to test your products before you release them. I hope they have to recall every X-Box game produced and a whole bunch of people get fired. Maybe that will teach these executives that are always rushing things to slow the fuck down and give the deve
Re:Triumph (Score:2)
You know, you can always create your own game company, write your own product, test to ensure that there are absolutly zero bugs in the game, and then ship it. Imagine all the sales you could get based on the fact that you have absolutly no bugs in the game.
You can test as long as you want to - how
Re:Triumph (Score:2)
Re:Triumph (Score:2, Interesting)
If it puts Eidos or Ion Storm out of business, we should be unhappy. If it convinces them that the risks of working with the X-Box platform are not worth the rewards, I'll be jumping for joy. Virtually every stupid little problem with DX2 and a lot of the changes for the worse between T2 and T3 ('scuse me, T:D
Re:Triumph (Score:2)
Payne in the ass (Score:1)
Note to slow moving minds out there: I know it's not really a bug. It's called sarcasm.
Game testing (Score:1)
During the bad ol' days of BBS door games, my board beta tested a new game and my users thoroughly wrung every cheat and bug out of the game they could find. They were so thorough, the game author noted design flaws rather than just programming bugs. It made the game better and far more challenging. I even demonstrated an unintended "God mode" that
To be fair (Score:2, Insightful)
what's funny is.. (Score:2, Insightful)
It's pretty bad, because the very first thing I do when I buy a piece of software is go download the patch. It's so rare I get something that DOESN'T have a patch out already. Even hardware, there is almost always a patch out for the driver never than the one that shipped with it
Re:what's funny is.. (Score:2, Interesting)
Well, first off, some of the PC game patches have to do with hardware incompatibility issues. A problem that a fully-specced and documented closed system console doesn't usually have. How much testing can a company do for their PC releases? If you write a game to DirectX 8 spec,
Re:what's funny is.. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:what's funny is.. (Score:2)
Champions of Norrath, an admitedly fun game, was absolutely ridden with bugs. I was able to run past nearly every NPC whose purpose was to block a path. I was able to skip quests by doing this and even found myself able to hit the level boss and a Peles (a guy whom you aren't supposed to fight until much later) as they stood there motionless and invunerable. Not only that but some of the NPCs that were supposed to follow you would repeatedly get stuck on terrain or even become invi
Very fun game overall (Score:3, Interesting)
Deja Vu... (Score:1)
I admire your ability to get paid for this. (Score:2)
Whinge, whinge, whinge... (Score:1)
"News for Nerds. Stuff that matters." Gamer nerds are nerds, too. If you haven't even heard of the Thief series then quit your whining and go back to discussing the latest release of Mozilla FlamePidgeon (or whatever today's build happens to be called).
Re:Does it run on Linux? (Score:1)
Re:Well (Score:3, Insightful)