Thread:Vorknkx/@comment-3547390-20170901233307/@comment-3547390-20170919172219

Indeed, the best developers know when to take a suggestion and when they know better than the people giving suggestions. Thief 2 was essentially a game made that somewhat followed suggestions, but at the same time did it in ways that would work just as well, and otherwise improved on the formula with good suggestions. Had they followed what people were suggestion at the time, it would be horrible, a major portion of the Thief world just would not be appropriate. As for Quake 5, I cannot really care about that when it is unlikely I am getting to 2000s shooters any time soon.

I have heard about such tropes indeed, you are right that it is quite ridiculous as it goes entirely against the original concept. I like expansions that add something new, not things that feel like they don't belong at all. Experimental is always good, but the best will feel like something that could have been part of the original content. This seamless behavior is something I don't really look for in something with weak lore like Quake, but something I get extremely critical about in Thief. Anything that kills my immersion that it is another level of the main campaign, perhaps a leaked level of an upgraded version never released, makes it inferior. It may not kill all enjoyment based on how good the level is elsewhere, but it is highly bothersome and won't be seen the same. Thief fan levels love to do this thing where they make dialogue where the main character speaks. The problem is that Thief's voice artist is very talented and amateur fan level makers sound nothing like him. This is why they should not try to make the main character speak, it just sounds horrible.

I have used VMs as the situation required them, but I am far from proficient. It just doesn't come up enough and I tend to prefer just accessing the things directly for full processing power. Plus I can never seem to get hardware acceleration right in a VM. I used to use them as test boxes, but viruses can hide themselves if it is a VM or even access your main computer in such a way, rendering such tests useless. As it stands, it is a last resort option, but one I don't like taking if I don't need to.

Exactly the problem, this stuff can get pretty tedious. Luckily what I was dealing with there was by far the most monotonous I have run across, well that and rulebooks which are dry combat info. The better side is when you focus on adventure modules, for those tend to have a lot of lore. Curious about how the B-Wing fighter was made? There is an entire adventure dedicated to that. Curious about Labria, the cool looking devil dude we saw for two seconds in A New Hope? There is a module for that, plus you get a guide explaining all about the planets the various cantina aliens are from. Curious about heavily armored stormtroopers called Zero-G troopers that are like elite stormtroopers? There are technical readouts on them. The strength of these is when they flesh out the world of Star Wars. Comics as a medium suffer because most things are going to be in brief panels, which are even more forgettable than the background extras in the movies. Novels can work a bit better, but by the late 80s all the Star Wars novels are garbage due to all but Splinter of the Mind's Eye being some Indiana Jones story before the Empire in the outer sector, where absolutely nothing shall hold any relevance. Splinter of the Mind's Eye isn't much better, but at least it felt like a Star Wars conflict as opposed to something that was ripped off from Temple of Doom with Short round being replaced with some kooky droid that loves to complain a lot.

As much as it bothers me, I cannot remove my knowledge of what comes ahead, though it does also work as good incentive as I know it gets better. Star Wars Battlefront had everyone literally lobbing them. Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds had troopers designated for it specifically called Grenade Troopers.

At the end of the day, that is the biggest thing you learn when dealing with fan resources. Take what you like, forget the rest. I check out everything on the palette, but my official lore only includes the good parts.