• Modules
• Thief: The Dark, Deadly, Metal Age

A module based on the Looking Glass Games "Thief" series.

GameWorld

A mediaeval, steampunk-oriented gameworld, based within "The City". Different factions and groups vie for control of the city, the poor just suffer. You, however, just want to get rich.

The game would be heavily quest-based, both hard-coded and in a similar way to Lost Temple quests. (i.e. a "random" dungeon will be placed on the map when you receive a quest)

The quests will vary in character:

• Retreive a certain artefact (as per current Lost Temple quests, generate a special artefact)
• Obtain a certain amount of loot.
• Assassinate (End-of-dungeon Boss Character)
• Escape (like the ToME thieves quest, with most of your equipment GONE)

Non-mainline Quest rewards would be more along the lines of skill-point bonuses or gold rather than items.

Dungeon

The "Wilderness" in this case is an urban one, which in its "micro" level is like an arena orc-caves level. For non-urban dungeons (like plot-related quests), a "dungeon" at the edge of the city is the "exit" to the level. Very little of the dungeons would be "tunnelable", and "formal" rather than "crazy" creation patterns would be used.

Characters

• Races
  • Human
  • Pagan
  • Hammerite
  • Keeper
• Classes
  • Thief
  • Warrior
  • Mage (Not Mechanist)
  • Mechanist (Not Pagan)
  • Archer

Another feature will be "prestige" which will influence what quests you get offerred. Basically identical to piety, it will vary according to class. If you are a thief who murders innocents all the time, you will have an appropriately poor reputation, wheras a warrior who's into pilfering will similarly be shunned, a mechanist that makes use of magic will have the same disadvantages of a mage who's into gadgets...

Monsters

• Human: Hostile Guards, Hammerite and Mechanist Warriors, Keeper Assassins, Thugs, Nobles, Innocents
• Undead: Skeletons, Ghosts, Zombies
• Natural Creatures: Giant Spiders, Rat-Men, Animate Trees, Ape-Men
• Mechanical Creatures: Children of Karras (Both sizes), Metal Faces
• Magical Creatures: Stone statues

In general, Monsters will now hit much harder. The larger Children of Karras will be dragon-like in their scariness, and even the humblest of guardss will be able to dispatch interlopers quickly. The trick will be to play the game on your own terms.

Items

In accordance with the setting, magic items are now extremely rare. Mechanical gadgets proliferate... flash grenades, mines, gas bombs.

Treasure will be de-emphasised and replaced with valuable artefacts. A small silver statue will weigh a bit, and can be sold for a bit. A huge vase however, will be heavy as all hell and incredibly valuable to fence. If you can only make sure it doesn't get broken...

Suggestions

ReenenLaurie: Sounds like a great deal of fun. I played the 1st game to an extent... but my brother played and replayed it a lot. Would be interesting if pick pocketing and lock picking gets a more intricate game mechanic than it is at the moment. Trap sets would obviously add a new dimension.

ZasVid: This is really interesting. I just finished playing Thief III and I loved it. I wonder how to do mechanics to handle things a la Thief...

RavenRed: I've thought quite a bit about that.

Most of the changes apply to AI and stealth. New implementations of both would be required. I don't quite think the AI is up to "patrol" standard, but some mechanism needs to be there for both "going back to sleep" and "running around shouting", as these are both essential parts of the Thief experience. The quest-based nature and "prestige" (read "meeting mission objectives") are easily enough coded. Metal faces are easy enough. Just think of a shrieker mushroom combined with an iron golem!

• ZasVid: Yeah, it needs more states an opponent can be in -> "sleeping", "unaware", "anxious", "hostile" at least. Well, something like "knocked out" too. The quests are easily coded, yes, but there ought to be an awful lot of them, and different, to provide variety. On top of that, most levels should be persistent i.e. to be able to tread back on your own traces to get out of 3-storey mansion.

  • RavenRed:True, but I'm wondering whether persistent levels can be coded for Random Quests only and then deleted afterwards in order to keep savefile size down. Re: the AI, it would require a moderate amount of coding (I would think) in order to get those states, and I'm not sure if there's any good (current) AI option for a monster that doesn't involve reacting to the player. I haven't looked it up, but I'm pretty even invisibility is an element of randomness rather than the monster being "unaware" of the player.

As for the children of Karras (don't know if they're in T3, but I loved them in T2), give them 100% immunity (under the TOME 3.0.0 engine) and make them damageable by fire, and highly vulnerable to water.

One of the keys to this will be limiting the power of the players. Neither Blaster characters (see Sorceror) or Tank players (see Swordmaster) should be able to smash their way into a place and kill everyone there. Guards will need to be tough and deal a good amount of damage. You need to FEAR attracting attention, rather than welcoming it.

Another thing I've been wondering about is whether floor tiles can have an effect on stealth. The dreaded "tiles" effect should be real, along with (potentially) moss arrows...

• ZasVid: Yes, the ground should be important. I think it's possible even now - Yavanna's regeneration on grass.

  • RavenRed: Sadly, I think the sound/sight division is a bit outside of the current ToME capabilities. Although if you read the Idea about stealth and invisibility it does give some ideas about how the player being "unsighted" could impact on stealth...

BTW, haven't played T3, any good?

• ZasVid: Yeah, if you liked previous parts, you'll like T3. There aren't many gameplay changes and when there are, they're for good (at least in comparison with T1, I haven't played T2). Though it's closer to cRPGs now - every mission but first starts somewhere in the City and you have to get there by yourself through the streets, along with selling loot and buying equipment in shops.

  • RavenRed: Sounds timeconsuming, if more textured. Once those lazy buggers at Eidos manage to send new stocks to Australia, I'll be on it...