Thought you might find this interesting...

[Dash]

As published on Gamespot.com


Thief: Deadly Shadows bug reported

Reported glitch in the PC and Xbox versions of the game causes saved expert games to revert to default difficulty.
Following recent reports of layoffs, the Ion Storm saga took another turn today when a glitch was reportedly discovered in Thief: Deadly Shadows. According to posts on the official Ion Storm forums, games saved at the "expert" level will revert to the default "normal" difficulty level when restarted or when revisiting previously explored levels.

Specifically, the bug affects AI-controlled characters' awareness and combat. Instead of being alerted by moved objects or inflicting severe damage, AI characters will be the semi-unaware, punch-pulling opponents from the second-lowest difficulty level. Apparently, the glitch is caused by an error in the DEFAULT.INI file which resets the multipliers that increase the affected values.

When contacted by GameSpot Eidos reps admitted they had heard the reports of the bug, but did not specifically confirm its existence. Ion Storm was apparently more forthcoming: a post from one of the game's developers said "the find isn't being ignored" and that the studio was "looking into it." However, the person didn't sound optimistic, saying, "Can't say anything more for now, and there aren't any guarantees...."

The Ion Storm staffer's trepidation may be justified. Although distributing a patch for the PC version of the game would be relatively easy, a remedy for the Xbox edition would be another story. Thief: Deadly Shadows is not Xbox Live-enabled, and Microsoft does not typically issue autoupdate for games that do not support its console's online service. There is also the question of who would make the patch, given that Eidos has reportedly laid off a good portion of the game's development team.

[PokingAbout]

There is also the question of who would make the patch, given that Eidos has reportedly laid off a good portion of the game's development team.

anyone else just see a plane crash into the ground? happened to say Eidos on the side... no...

[Dash]

Originally posted by Dash
However, the person didn't sound optimistic, saying, "Can't say anything more for now, and there aren't any guarantees...."



What I want to know is - what is so secret about a patch? You either do it or you don't. Well, just goes to show that no patch is forthcoming... at least in the foreseeable future.

[grafixmonkey]

Sounds to me like someone has just complained about the bug, and they haven't quite found out if it's really there yet. I'm still trying to figure out what "revisiting previously explored levels" means, and why it's such a problem if it reverts when you hit Restart. Doesn't it let you change difficulty levels when you restart?

Anyway, my first time through I'm playing on normal difficulty so I wouldn't have noticed anyway. Maybe next time when I play Expert, I might.

[Micro]

To give you proper perspective of why this bug truely is bad:

You start cradle on expert level, creep around a bit, then run into a nasty who kills you. No problem, you quickly reload your last quicksave.... only now the game plays at normal settings.... To keep a game on expert, you'd have to play the whole mission, never get killed, take a break, etc..

While I know this is possible, having done so in the last two thief games, its not going to be very fun and for most people, not acceptable. Those of us who have jobs, kids, wives (ie, not a geek 17 year old with nothing better to do) are not happy with this bug.

-Micro


Edit: And yes, the bug *IS* there, other posts here on this forum have confirmed it.

[grafixmonkey]

Yeah I saw this thread before I saw the others, and it sounded really "Maybe kinda might be a rumored bug but nobody's seen it yet." But the other posts are definitive, it's definitely there.

Pretty odd really... this is the kind of thing that shouldn't be able to happen in a decently written program. It's the kind of thing that *should* be really easy for a programmer to avoid. Properly updating variables and making sure they aren't overwritten by incorrect values later is pretty basic stuff. Apparently one of those two is not happening right.

[Kokopelli]

Two points have strengthened my doubts..

"...that the studio was "looking into it." However, the person didn't sound optimistic...

"...given that Eidos has reportedly laid off a good portion of the game's development team...

Those two points may be an indication that there will not be a patch nor will there be any dev tools released. The possibility of the latter crossed my mind given the game was released for both the PC and the XBox. Hopefully that will not be case and the tools/patches will be released. It would be a sad day to see a wonderful series slaughtered. It would also tarnish my faith in Eidos and would cause severe doubts over any of the future remakes this year. e.g. Leisure Suit Larry and Sid Meier's PIRATES!. I almost did not buy Deadly Shadows after having the extreme displeasure of purchasing Lords of the Realm III and DX: IW earlier this year. So far, I love Deadly Shadows, but I am itching to build some huge maps for too.

[grafixmonkey]

You guys are like CNN. Bunch of doom-sayers speculating without any info. I've yet to see any game not get a patch if there's any kind of major problem with it, apart from the occasional gem that seems to run flawlessly out of the box without any extra support needed. This game is like a medal on Eidos' and Ion-Storms' jackets. I don't care if they fired the whole dev team, the T3 dev team is not the only group of people who know how to code, and even if they were they could be hired back as consultants if not on a more permanent basis. Unless Eidos and Ion Storm have somehow gone completely broke, yeah right.