Thread:Deathstalker666/@comment-1496755-20180827202615/@comment-3547390-20181022224903

Nods, the main reason I haven't checked out 1.07 is due to my lack of making it to 1997 and SOA. But yes, it would be nice to know what exactly was needed to change the version number like it did.

Quite true indeed. People never really know what they want, they aren't developers, so usually listening to the fans results in quite the mess that ends up failing in comparison to the original intent. Of course, there are shining examples where it worked, like Thief 2. That was pretty much fan service, though one where people could hold a lot of criticism depending on how much you liked the first game. Personally, I find Thief 2 much greater, especially for the replay value.

That isn't out of the realm of possibility. Minecraft pretty much does exactly that. I would love some sort of hybrid, taking the randomization nature of Minecraft and mixing it with the sophistication of Skyrim. We don't need scripted quests, we just need a functional stealth system and some randomized events. In fact, that is pretty much why I heavily mod the games, the base ones are rather... predictable in nature. Not as bad as Morrowind, mind you, but still enough that you could easily get tired of doing the same things over and over. Spam enough mods, the world gets crazy. I wish Sands of Time, a mod which spawns in random enemies, worked better. There is a bit of an audio glitch which the creator refuses to pay attention to due to a sort of egotistical hubris. A shame when a massive endeavor is done by someone who gets too full of themselves and refuses to listen. Sort of the antithesis to those games falling apart. Everything in moderation, I guess.

Try four windows. My living room had windows on the back walls running alongside the room, so no matter what you were getting reflections from one of them. I still remember putting a blanket over that thing, only problem would be that it would start to heat up. Granted, I still hate windows as they distract me, but now it is more due to personal preference than due to the reflection making things literally impossible to do. If you knew how dark Thief 2 gets, you would know I was probably insane for playing it as much as I did that condition. Oh, long transfer times were quite the nightmare as well, as were long loading times in general. Plus the times you would have audio stuttering and would need to run out and buy some sound card.

I don't remember the visual effects, but one of the crack music tracks (probably the one for Thief 2, knowing me) is stuck in my head and probably will be until I have Alzheimer's and forget it. No idea what the name of it is, the problem with crack music is that there is just an insane number to dig through. I could tell right away, yet finding it is like finding a needle in a haystack.

Trust me, I know this way too well, this is pretty much why the Thief series, while a cult classic, never really caught on like it should have. When Thief came out, the graphics were already a bit primitive, being a bit more angular than other games of the time. Even in 1998, people were stingy for graphics, meaning they couldn't get past it. I will say that Thief 2 is also a perfect example of what you mean. Thief 2 was, sadly, rushed and the intended Gold version was never to be that would have made the perfect game even more perfect. That game is an onslaught of perfect levels, especially when it starts getting into the swing of things, but then it sort of falls apart at one point. The level in particular is extremely incomplete to the point it is noticeable and jarring, it is quite annoying to touch, and the main redeeming point (which also is possibly one of the worst things) depends entirely on various factors. I hold a lot of passion for Thief 2, as you know, but there is definitely that wart that someone could see and say "I have no idea how you could tolerate it". The reason is what you just said, because that one experience is not enough to ruin some of the best moments in gaming I have seen, the track record is too perfect otherwise to hold such a grudge. Now the first game, I am a bit more shaky about, primarily due to a very apparent glitch that gets in the way more often than not as well as quite a number of subpar levels. There is still plenty of quality, especially since it is extremely important to play before the second game and might as well be seen as the first half of a greater whole, but my opinions tend to deviate a lot more on that one. Yet I still find quite a bit of enjoyment due to there being quite some high points.

Unreal is pretty much dismissed as a tech demo, often people just love the Unreal Tournament series. Personally, I love the concept of Unreal a lot more than the later games, it is hard to explain without having experienced it. But what Unreal offers is what a lot of people criticize it for, the amount of variety and "inconsistency" it had. Aka every level isn't just a military base. Also a good thing to be said about Quake, which could be criticized for similar reasons. The lesson is that "tech demos" are far more interesting because it means every level isn't just going to be the same forgettable experience over and over, they are going to try to make themselves distinct enough that you can remember them, especially Unreal (since Quake was still leaning to the corridor-shooter mindset).

Yes, I personally can't stand it. It flies directly in the face of what I enjoy to be forced to install the latest version, even if it is indeed the best version. I enjoy building up through the various versions, so taking that away bothers me too much, and is one reason I cannot stand Steam. That one of the great things about Minecraft actually, a large number of different versions and a mostly good collection (some are missing) of older versions. Get a different frontend and you can always play offline instead of having to be checked. The main problem is the lack of internet archiving means that mods are sadly far more shaky than say Quake, which has hundreds collected on archived CDs.

Many of them did, but I think I remember one or two occasions where they were necessary to progress. I just really hate puzzles, as you are pretty aware from my numerous rants on the subject, and Duke was far more of a FPS with puzzle gimmicks than the straight minded challenge nature of Quake. Admittedly, Quake is not the hardest game in the world, but at least it also doesn't include any frustrating puzzles. Actually, now that I think about it, that is perhaps one of the biggest differences between Thief 1 and 2. The second was challenge based, while the first depended on the level but would include more puzzle sections.

Nods, it is true, most games at the time were struggling to give forth their own identity. It seems "Doom clones" went away with the addition of story-telling devices interestingly enough. People would say Quake was pretty much 3d Doom, but add some story and it is no longer Doom.

Funny you mention it, I have seen Dark City actually. If I recall, it had a lot of twists, sort of like Donnie Darko. I don't remember being a big fan, not really a big movie buff. Something about the lack of interaction just kills any real interest I can have in it. Not sure why I can handle superhero comics (other comics are really bad for me as I tend to get lost on who is who, superhero comics have the convenience of a guy in a distinct costume), but would find movies (I remember trying to watch Iron Man and being bored to death) just uninteresting.

In the grand scheme of things, this is probably the Fandom change I can support the most. Being that we were already QuakeWiki, that means we didn't even use the Wikia name, and thus Fandom doesn't hurt us at all. Thank goodness, with all the terrible changes we have seen, it is nice to have a change I could care less about. Ironically it was the most promoted. Get something which will break the Wikia's font, ruins all of our infoboxes, and it will be done instantly without notice to help people on phones. Get a name change in the URL and it is talked about for months. Go figure.

Should we feel honored we were chosen in this migration over Doom Wikia? We now have bragging rights even more valid than all the content on our pages.

I am curious if there is a Nazi Fandom, Drug Fandom, and Crime Fandom now...

P.S. I hope we can do some server stuff soon. I should mention I have been feeling a bit... worse... lately due to the lack of playing games with people. Dominus hasn't even talked to me since the last time we did the server, so it has been slowly getting rougher. I guess it is the one con of documenting it all, when you look back and see how vast it is, you start to realize just how much fun you are missing out on by not having an active server. I wish I didn't get like this. My father suggested promoting it on Facebook, but I can't see how someone would want to limit themselves to the 1996 levels I have played outside of the few of us here. And, due to how I am, it causes too much emotional strain to try to break away from that.