A Little Tidbit on Thief III

[Munin the Raven]

This is from TTLG, posted at The Circle by Dan:

The following came from The Gamestar News Page, a German gaming news site. It was sent in and translated by Matt Kimmich / Thirith.
On a visit to the Ion Storm offices in Austin/Texas we were allowed an - albeit very brief - look at Thief 3. The third installation in the thieving saga (better known in Germany as Dark Project) almost threw us off our feet due to the excellent graphics, fantastic shadow effects and extremely realistic NPC models. Talking of feet: While the jumping sequences in the first two games still were a nuisance since you never knew when Garret had actually reached the edge of a chasm, in part 3 you'll actually see the master thief's feet when you look down. This makes climbing passages so much easier. Another improvement: When picking locks there's a nice animation of Garrett's hands actually manipulating the lock. Unfortunately there are still no released screenshot.
I wonder how showing hands while lockpicking will work. I mean, before we could pick locks from any position or angle as long as we were in range. In T3, will we only be able to pick the lock if we are directly in front of it so the animation can play? Hrm. Thanks, Matt!

I'm sure the people who were complaining about their invisible feet will be relieved. I'm guessing the lockpicking animations will be like the ones used in Deus Ex and Morrowind and won't affect the ability to unlock anything in range/sight.

[Mr. Perfect]

Ooo. I hadn't even thought about feet. That's a cool idea.

[ChangelingJane]

That, on top of having your own shadow, is gonna make things eerily immersive, even moreso than Thief/2. This should be fun

[Specter]

If we project shadows, then the question that pops into my mind is; Will the AI take note and react to them? That would put a new spin on things, someone simply having their back turned isnt enough anymore......

[Salvage]

Specter, the original intent by the dev team was to have AI react to suspicious shadows, how it is currently nobody knows(media blackout).

[ChangelingJane]

Originally posted by Specter
If we project shadows, then the question that pops into my mind is; Will the AI take note and react to them? That would put a new spin on things, someone simply having their back turned isnt enough anymore......

Yep, as Salvage said, that's the idea. They said that it WILL be in for Thief III, and NOT in for Deus Ex 2. I'd like to know how the game determines what is a suspicious shadow and what isn't.

[Specter]

I guess Ive been living in the shadows, havnt I? ;-)

[Bat-mite]

I would say that any shadow that looks like a member of these forums would definitely count as suspicious!

Originally posted by Mr. Perfect
Ooo. I hadn't even thought about feet. That's a cool idea.

And you're suppose to be Mr. Perfect. lol

Well, I gotta say it sounds interesting and realistic. Looks as I got something to really look forward for.

[newk007]

The third installation in the thieving saga (better known in Germany as Dark Project) almost threw us off our feet due to the excellent graphics, fantastic shadow effects and extremely realistic NPC models.

That's AWESOME!!! Another brilliant game I can't run on my computer!!! ROCKIN!

It's upgrade time...

[theBlackman]

I've wanted FEET for years. I seem to remember a discourse on FM design, as in what do players want to see, and FEET were one of many mentions.

I've stepped off into too many pools of lava because I could never tell where my footses were. LOL

[TRoosevelt_26]

Arx has footsies.