Should T3 score alternative playing styles?

[klepton]

All -

My apologies if this idea has already been discussed, I haven't been on here for quite a while since my PC died...

There has been a lot of discussion in the forums on alternative playing styles, or modes (as defined at Thief_Modes_of_Play (http://forums.eidosgames.com/old-ubb/Thief_Modes_of_Play_Final_rules.htm) ), but unless I am mistaken, we have to rely on the honor system for claims that a level has been successfully completed in a given style. Now, I'm all for honor, but sometimes it's hard even for you the player to know for sure.

So, why not have the computer keep track of alerts, damage to objects, etc., and then rate you as Ghost, Perfect, whatever style Thief?

It seems like it would be a trivial addition for the Thief III developers to add code to do tracking and reporting on styles of play, at least for most of the components of the style definitions. Perhaps we should lobby Eidos on this...

Maybe not all of the styles would be easy for the software to track. E.g., if one AI kills another, how could the software tell whether that had been purposely induced by Garrett or not? (Maybe if Garrett had alerted neither, and had interacted with no object visible to either...)

Anyway, I'd be interested in people's views on the feasibility and desirability of having the software track alternative playing styles.

[ChangelingJane]

Thief III will have 4 difficulty settings, which open up new objectives and "mini-quests". Beyond that, there will be a way to customize the difficulty and victory settings, including "no kills", "don't be seen", etc. Check out the FAQ, I'm pretty sure it's in there.

[klepton]

Glad to hear it!

Any idea on specific place this was covered? I couldn't find anything about it in the FAQ on this site, TTLG forums (though it may be in one of the many threads there), T3 portal (http://www.thief-thecircle.com/t3/) or Eidos game site....

Thanks...

[Squid]

Some of the game designers for T3 have mentioned it in interviews. I thnik Spector himself has mentioned in an interview that you will be able to do this.

To my understanding, this is the way it's going to work.

First, you select your difficulty setting.
Second, you select any difficulty options you wish, such as Ghosting, No Kills, etc. These options are supposed to be selectable regardless of the difficulty setting you pick.

Basically, almost every mode of play that we've talked about here and at TTLG is being added into T3. Talk about a company listening to it's customers! (Thanks, Eidos... you guys pay attention to your fanbase. Another major company I know of has been busy ignoring or even insulting their customers' complaints.)

Squid