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Thief Deadly Shadows 1.1 Patch Fixes AI

Posted by michael on from the shadows-now-30%-more-deadly dept.

Lemmus writes "A patch for the PC version of Thief: Deadly Shadows is now available. The patch fixes the AI skill level being reset whenever a level is reloaded, the major bug previously reported in a post at Slashdot Games. This is apparently the only thing that the patch fixes, so users with other problems have to wait for another patch. Although Ion Storm warns against installing the patch on installations with user-modified .ini files, most users don't seem to be having any trouble with it."

37 of 132 comments (clear)

  1. Thief 3 Editor Petition by Phoenixhunter · · Score: 3, Interesting

    http://www.petitiononline.com/t3editor/petition.ht ml If you like the game, sign on up. The community will do the rest.

    1. Re:Thief 3 Editor Petition by Phoenixhunter · · Score: 4, Informative
      Perhaps a little html would help me out here.

      Thief 3 Editor Petition

      If you're at all familiar with Thief 1/2, you'll know that there is a great community that to this day makes Thief 2 missions.

    2. Re:Thief 3 Editor Petition by AllUsernamesAreGone · · Score: 2, Informative

      There's a lot of help out there for that - try Dromed Central and Komag's Introductory Tutorial. There's also the Editors' Guild at TTLG.

  2. Honestly... (Ironic, I know..) by Metallic+Matty · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No offense to Ion or any other fine producer of games out there, but should these kind of patches really be necessary?

    I mean honestly, do they HAVE testing? You'd think something like this would be noticed ahead of release.

    All I can think of this Penny-Arcade in reference to Splinter Cell.

    1. Re:Honestly... (Ironic, I know..) by Zorak+Man · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm not bashing you here, but its alot of work to test a game, there are so many problems that could arise. It seems very obvious once we see the bug and it is patched, but its a whole different story after you have been testing the game for weeks on end and you are being pressured by your publisher to meet the deadline.

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      404 .sig not found
    2. Re:Honestly... (Ironic, I know..) by kokij · · Score: 2, Informative

      The first release of Thief was accepted by Eidos - this is pretty rare in the games industry. Usually the publisher will ask for revisions / fixes etc and wait for a new copy.

      Having played the game and having hung out on TTLG.com, this is pretty much the only major problem anyone has reported - and it isn't game breaking or anything. You can still play fine.

      And it does only affect those playing on Expert difficulty. All in all, it's a very polished game. Ignore what people are saying about Invisible War (which I liked btw) - it's a very different game.

    3. Re:Honestly... (Ironic, I know..) by Sancho · · Score: 2, Informative

      Hate to ruin/spoil it for you, but climbing gloves don't make escape easy /at/all/. They are highly limited in their use (unfortunately) and can't be used like you would imagine them, such as climing around things or onto extended ledges. As such, except for a few specific purposes in the game, they are virtually useless.
      Overall, however, I'm very pleased with T:DS. Best $35 I've spent in a long time.

    4. Re:Honestly... (Ironic, I know..) by ksiddique · · Score: 2, Funny

      Don't forget this classic from back in the day...

  3. How does this deserve to be on the front page? by mtrisk · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No offense, but...

    Akamai gets attacked, and the story gets rejected from slashdot, yet a minor patch about a game I've never heard about makes the front page? They must be feeding bat guano to the editors down there in the locked basement.
    Slashdot usually manages to post good stories, but there's always a quirk now and then.

    --

    Without a proper flamewar, Anonymous was undecided on what shell to run.
    1. Re:How does this deserve to be on the front page? by strider_starslayer · · Score: 4, Informative

      The Akamai attack, while huge is all speculation- there's nothing really 'concrete' to report; save that it happened, or seemed to happen... Also the attack only lasted two hours, those were all probabally contributing factors to an Akami story not being accepted (and maby, just maby, all the submitters made really bad posts!).

      That said- I think an Akamai story should have made post. But Thief 3 is a great game in a lineage of great games, your ignorance to its existance is, I apologise, irrelivant. Its important to nerds, so it makes slashdot (as I agree that the Akamai story should have)

      Background: The Thief engine was used sucessfuly in thief 1 and thief 2, which were first person shooters that focused NOT on combat, and killing (in fact your charecter would loose against individual opponents quite easily), but on stealth, guile and tricking the (very inteligent) AI. The same theif engine was used in System shock 1 and 2 (with some modifications to allow for level gaining), since you've never heard of thief I won't expect you to have heard of those either; they were one of the first FPS/RPG hybrid games, and focused on a very intence storyline; that was, damned horrifying to play- Another hallmark of both thief and system shock, perhaps an artifact of an eninge that dose not focuse on combat, is that they are SCARY to play- your heart beats faster, and you find yourself holding your breath, wondering if that enemy will miss you. Or in system shock, you turn the corner only to walk head on to some horrid mutant beastie that will drop you in a few seconds unless you think fast- NOW!

      They are very good games, and thief three represents what could possibly represent a resurection of the 'thief type' engine, allowing for more 'thinking FPS' games. I kinda wish that the Bethsheda softworks guys would license the morrowind engine/editor for that same reason.

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      -Millions of Monkeys, Millions of typewriters, 6 hours of sorting through faeces encrusted pages to find: This post
    2. Re:How does this deserve to be on the front page? by Osty · · Score: 2, Informative

      The Thief engine was used sucessfuly in thief 1 and thief 2

      Technically, it was the Dark engine used in those games, not the "Thief engine". It's also fair to note that the latest Thief game is based on the Deus Ex 2 engine (which in turn is ultimately based on Epic's Unreal engine, as with so many other games these days).


      The same theif engine was used in System shock 1 and 2

      System Shock 2 was based on the Dark engine (IIRC, it shipped between Thief 1 and Thief 2), but System Shock 1 certainly was not. Thief shipped in 1998, while System Shock 1 shipped in 1994. Graphically, System Shock is akin to Doom or Marathon.


      Another hallmark of both thief and system shock, perhaps an artifact of an eninge that dose not focuse on combat, is that they are SCARY to play

      This is no side effect. It's good game design. The Dark engine pulled this off very well, since it was purpose-designed especially for that feel (developed for Thief, and put to excellent use in SS2), but SS1 was able to pull of that creepy feeling just as well.


      They are very good games, and thief three represents what could possibly represent a resurection of the 'thief type' engine, allowing for more 'thinking FPS' games

      The Thief and System Shock series have always been closer to cult classics than mainstream, and I don't expect Thief 3 to change that much. However, the proliferation of stealth games these days with the Metal Gear Solid series, Splinter Cell, and even Manhunt (below the snuff film exterior, the game is another 3rd person stealth game) owe a lot to Thief (Splinter Cell's light meter is straight out of Thief 1 circa 1998), and their success is only good news for the Thief franchise.


      Now let's see System Shock 3, please!

    3. Re:How does this deserve to be on the front page? by Soul-Burn666 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I've just got Thief3 a few days ago and I must say... this is one of the most immersive games i've played in a LONG time.

      I played Splinter Cell and had a lot of fun, but the level of immersion in Thief3 was (still is, i'm scared to play some part here ;) an order of scale greater. The story is very detailed and downright creepy at some points.
      The game isn't perfect, there are glitches here and there (sometimes shadowing problem or getting stuck in the world), but in the whole, the graphics, the maps and the sound are very immersive. You actually feel a part of the world!

      Also, finally when you look DOWN, you see your body and legs!! It may seem a stupid feature, but it really adds to the feeling that you really are there and not just a spirit floating like in most other games.

      Not only that, but there are so many ways to solve each area... u can be stealthy, you can kill the guard, make noise to make them go away, blow out the light with a water arrow, knock the guard out, shoot moss arrows to run on noisy floor and obviously to climb on various stuff and just get where they can't see you. Oh! u can also throw a flashbomb and make them blind for a while ;) There are more ways than that and prolly ways I can't even think of.

      I told a friend of mine started playing it that I get scared by it (sometimes so much that I'm urged to play 3rd person, to see if someone comes from behind). He said "what's so scary about the game?", I told him: "keep playing". hehehe...

      This game isn't in the mainstream of games which is why I didn't really bother aquiering the two first titles, but now I can completly understand the large communities behind this game series.

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      ^_^
  4. Ion Storm to blame? Go poke Eidos some. by Phoenixhunter · · Score: 2

    When the people who invest the money want to cash out, they get to choose, not the people they invested into. From the publishers point of view, they know they'll make almost as much money (99%) with an almost perfect game. Every single month extra they wait, they lose money however. So they cash out when *they* choose.

  5. So is the patch available for the X-Box? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well?

    1. Re:So is the patch available for the X-Box? by Phoenixhunter · · Score: 3, Interesting

      There's word of a possible recall on Thief 3 for the Xbox. Microsoft has the ability to make that call as part of their agreement with the publisher (Eidos).

  6. Not to mention 400 mozilla stories this week by caitsith01 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Come on, there must be more than this happening on earth???

    This week we've seen -

    New Firefox
    New Mozilla
    New Thunderbird
    New Firefox again
    Patch for some game the majority of people reading the article have absolutely no interest in

    --
    Read Pynchon.
    1. Re:Not to mention 400 mozilla stories this week by caitsith01 · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's just part of a new strategy they have called 'fucking up great games.' On an unrelated topic, have you played Deus Ex 2: The Death of Deus Ex?

      --
      Read Pynchon.
  7. Try playing Raven Shield sometime.......... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    You should see the mess that Ubisoft has made of this 3rd installment of Rainbow six. Crappy Unreal build, released when still beta, and about 6 patches so far, 3 of which actually caused more problems then they rectified. Plus there is zero response to any community issues from the Devs.... Practically a primer in how NOT to release games and treat your customers.....

    1. Re:Try playing Raven Shield sometime.......... by Pyrion · · Score: 2

      You should see the mess Ion Storm made with Deus Ex: Invisible War. Hearing that Thief: DS would be based on the same engine was all I needed to hear to decide not to buy it.

      --
      "There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge." - Bertrand Russell.
  8. xbox fix by contagen · · Score: 5, Interesting

    if you have a modded xbox, you can copy the game to hdd, and just edit the DEFAULT.ini file so that the AI settings for normal mode are equal to whatever difficulty you want (it is also fun to boost the numbers a little more than the highest difficulty settings)...this is the same workaround that was possible on the pc i know this isn't a possibility for most people though since it requires a modchip, hopefully they will create an updated gamedisc and let us send our old ones in (or at the very least, fix the game for all those in EU and UK so they don't have to deal with the problem.

  9. XBox version is going to be re-released... by Granos · · Score: 4, Informative

    Because there is no way to patch the XBox version, an updated gamedisk is going to be re-released, according to the Through The Looking Glass Forum Admin (who I can only assume is a reliable source). It is currently unknown whether or not people who bought the unpatched version will be able to trade the game in.

  10. Patch problems by Big+Nothing · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Although Ion Storm warns against installing the patch on installations with user-modified .ini files, most users don't seem to be having any trouble with it.

    In fact, users with modified .ini-files are the only ones who seem to have problems with this patch.

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    SIG: TAKE OFF EVERY 'CAPTAIN'!!
    1. Re:Patch problems by Big+Nothing · · Score: 2, Funny

      Ummkay, parent post is currently scored "4, Interesting". My intention was to go for "Funny", but I guess I'll have to work a bit on my sarcasm...

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      SIG: TAKE OFF EVERY 'CAPTAIN'!!
  11. What, by Inoshiro · · Score: 4, Informative

    you mean this story?

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    --
    Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
  12. Side-effect... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    You can set the difficulty level when you accept the mission (in the briefing). The difficulty level only changes when you (1) save mid-game, (2) reload from that save.

    One of my friends has been telling me that he absolutely loves this bug because it's more challenging. He's been playing on a hard difficulty level - the catch being that in order to play it that way, he has to get through an entire level without saving. This can take two or three hours! He says that he's been enjoying it greatly because the pressure to not mess up adds so much tension.

    1. Re:Side-effect... by igrp · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Hmm, that's an interesting perspective. It's a valid point and I guess it's making the best of the situation but isn't this challenging in the same sense as driving a car with no brakes is?

      I mean sure it makes it harder to complete the game but couldn't your friend achieve the same result by just playing the game and chosing to not save?

      I mean making mistakes is just human and all but shipping a product with such a blantantly obvious bug is, at least in my humble opinion, just ridiculous.

    2. Re:Side-effect... by RKone2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Well, the difficulty changes only after loading. Saving isn't a problem.

      However, travelling across a level divide and back again will lower the AI difficulty as well. Most levels require you to do this.
      With the patch, you can still play the game using the self-enforced no-load rule. Other ways to increase difficulty include:

      Playing without being seen
      + without ko/killing anyone
      + and not dousing any lights
      + using thiefbot to increase AI difficulty even higher than expert (and have it remain high even in the city)

  13. Just AI? by Azari · · Score: 3, Interesting
    It's a shame that this only seems to address the AI bug (according to the download page, anyhow), when there's a save game corruption problem that's been noticed by a few people in the forums as well. Considering the speculation about whether they were even going to bring this patch out, I hope they do something to fix some of the other more irritating problems and don't just leave it at this.

    Be nice if they'd change the default away from running as well. What sort of thief runs everywhere in preference to walking or creeping? (Fixable with some minor ini tweaking, but still).

  14. The Bugs Which Remain... by Hecateus · · Score: 3, Informative

    ...fall mainly on the plain. Seriously, about the only noteworthy bugs which remain are: an uncommon savegame crash which ruins the saved games, forcing user to start over. Not common, but should be fixed anyway. A sound bug which when leaning into a door to listin in on an adjacent room causes the sounds present in 'Garrets' room to die down...thats not the bug part; the bug is that the sound level does not come back immediately when 'Garret' is done listening at the door. This can cause some wierdness, and possibly an exploit or two. These are the most noticable bugs. More are likely present. But, all in all I am having fun with this game. I hope you do too. (and sign that Editor Petition!)

  15. Yup, thats the place. by MachDelta · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Thats the one. Generally known as "The Cradle", since that's actually its (nick)name, and doesn't really spoil anything for people who aren't there yet.

    And yes, its by far the freakiest, weirdest, and most creative level in all of Thief 3. The ending is a real teeth-clencher too. Enjoy! ;)

  16. Re:Not that I like consoles, but still by Mynt-E · · Score: 2, Informative

    They fixed that in the Greatest Hits version. My copy is at 100%.

  17. To be fair by Digitus1337 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    A lot of people seem to be upset over this being posted on slashdot, because they've never heard of the game. It is the third in a trilogy of games that started the sneaker genre. It has a cult following and is made by some of the same people as Deus Ex and System Shock 2. It's not 'just some game' by any means.

  18. Re:Triumph by osu-neko · · Score: 2, Interesting
    However, if Eidos have to re-call xBox thief 3 it could be disasterous for them and Ion Storm. Should we really be happy that an absolutely brilliant game could lose people jobs because of one bug?

    If it puts Eidos or Ion Storm out of business, we should be unhappy. If it convinces them that the risks of working with the X-Box platform are not worth the rewards, I'll be jumping for joy. Virtually every stupid little problem with DX2 and a lot of the changes for the worse between T2 and T3 ('scuse me, T:DS) are due to the dumbing down of the game for X-box. This would have been a much better game if it had been PC only. It does the claustrophobic side well, but count on no more agoraphobic levels (like the rooftop mission in T2) while X-box compatibility is an issue. It is my profound and feverent hope that the X-box version loses money. Just not enough to put the company under...

    --
    "Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
  19. Re:what's funny is.. by WarPresident · · Score: 2, Interesting

    have you noticed console games don't need patches? I mean, I think they test a lot better because they KNOW they can't update them. with PC, I think there must be a mentality of "oh, well, we can always make them download a patch".

    Well, first off, some of the PC game patches have to do with hardware incompatibility issues. A problem that a fully-specced and documented closed system console doesn't usually have. How much testing can a company do for their PC releases? If you write a game to DirectX 8 spec, shouldn't it work on all DirectX 8 compatible video cards without having to create a patch so it can work with Brand X video card? Then there's Windows Update's potential for creating ever changing OS incompatibilities...

    Granted, something as stupid as this Thief bug should have been caught in playtesting, but bugs are here to stay no matter what.

    As far as console games being better tested, I have 3 PS2 games (I'm not much of a console player since my 2600 died years ago) and two of them have annoying bugs. Simpsons Hit & Run crashes occassionally for no reason (not a fun game if your reflexes were post-adolescent when "The Simpsons" were shorts on the Tracy Ullman Show, btw), while the camera in Dynasty Warriors 4 has gotten stuck and left me looking at a blank screen.

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    Here come da fudge!
  20. Re:Well by cherrycoke · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yep. Would'a been funny in, say, 1999, back when Romero still worked @ Ion Storm. Warren Spector, however, has a whole different reputation in the game industry. Next up: Macarena jokes, and all your base are belong to us!

    --
    http://www.farmerbob.org
  21. Re:what's funny is.. by Snowmit · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Uh, the Xbox version has this bug too. The only difference is that they can't patch it. In fact, if you pay careful attention, you'll find that quite a number of console games have bugs that they *can't patch* for the most part. See: Enter the Matrix, Tomb Raider:Angel of Darkness etc.

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    I have a lot of opinions about Cyborgs and Architects
  22. Very fun game overall by Fiz+Ocelot · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I got this yesterday and have been playing a bit. I really like how there are always different ways to do the same thing. Like in one early level you can ring the church bell to get the high priest to leave his room. Or just sneak in like I did, or throw a flash bomb or gas grenade to steal the item. And yes I did pay for it, it's certainly worth the bucks.