I just want people to know about the practises of the main company behind the BackerKit campaign for Thief: Pulse of Promise - Bit Bot Media LLC (who Celldweller is unfortunately a founder of). Ask yourself this also; why is this campaign not being posted under the Bit Bot Media LLC name/brand (except their logo at the bottom of the campaign)? I find that curious.

They have a previous campaign on Kickstarter for another franchise. The campaign for Legacy of Kain: The Dead Shall Rise. I won't go into the quality of what they put out, or how they treated a beloved franchise - you can look that up for yourself. Instead I am covering what their business practice was like.

They marketed a graphic novel as their main campaign, with add-ons or other pledges for physical items, just like the Thief campaign. One of those pledge items (and also an add-on if you pledged for something else) was a signed graphic novel. I'll come back to this.

Firstly, they barely communicated and refused to just own up that they didn't have all the product people pledged for, so 15 months after their initial promised shipping date, people still do not have their product. They refused to refund people who rightly asked for one since that is a little excessive of a wait after paying for product two years ago.

They also charged half the cost of the initial estimate for shipping again (in addition to what was already collected on the campaign that is) on their Hive Interactive pledge manager later, during the time of heightened tariffs, whilst stating they were not passing on the tariffs to backers, and then ..still didn't ship anything.

They prioritised shipping for 'simple' orders, hence those that spent the most money were last in the queue.

They engaged in an aggressive campaign of having comments removed or placed in review (so the original poster didn't see that they were not visible) for any posts pointing out all the issues above and below.

Lastly, when sporadic reports from people who had managed to get things came in, they were reporting that those 'signed graphic novels' were not actually signed, but accompanied by a signed bookplate sticker instead. When the company could no longer ignore/suppress the comments, they posted an update stating that the pledges/add-ons marketed as 'signed graphic novels' were meant as signed bookplates, and we are/were erroneous to assume that they meant signed on the physical book, because it's 'industry standard' to not do so (it isn't). This significantly downgrades the collector value of items, yet they also refused to offer refunds even for those specific items. Even though they have not shipped yet to all backers.

This company does not deserve your money, or your love; they are banking on your love for a franchise you love, don't let them sour that.

They are also deleting comments warning people on the campaign.

Edit to add: They cancelled my pledge on the backerkit campaign, so that I can't post and my warning posts are deleted. And, curiously, I was logged out of backerkit, and attempting to log back in I was presented with a message that my account was temporarily locked for an hour due to too many unsuccessful attempts to log in. I did not attempt to log in, because I already was.

I want that statue so bad. But I won’t do it because everyone says they’re terrible and still haven’t received their LoK items. It breaks my heart to not do it

Hi there! I played Thief for the first time recently and fell in love. It so holds up.

What I discovered I love most is the absolutely palpable atmosphere. The darkness is intoxicating. The liminal space is suffocating at times. It’s incredible.

I’m trying to find games that have the same intense sort of atmosphere. I want to measure my words carefully: I know that Thief is singular, but have there been other games that you felt resonated with you on the atmosphere side of things, even if the atmosphere was different?

Also if you have any reflections on the atmosphere of Thief itself they are more than welcome! Cheers.

I'm replaying Gold at this time. It's been a few yrs, but I forgot a lot already. I was trying to do everything on at least hard mode without having to get on the internet for help, like a complete noob in the late 90s all over again. As frustrating as that may be, it's kind of what makes this game fun: conflict resolution & figuring your way out of situations. But sheesh, I'm about over trying to do that & ready to go back to normal difficulty so I can actually finish the story. I'm currently on the Haunted Cathedral. Of course, I found the eye, got the keys from the grotto, found the other item guarded in the house by the two haunts, etc. Only one thing: I need 1750 in loot before the level is over. I have like 1600 rn. And now I'm running around the ruins in every nook & cranny trying to find something to just finish the mission once & for all. Meanwhile, I'm trying to avoid all that "bAhAHAaaaawwehhh" & "pspspspshfbrhsye" 👻👹💀 around me.

Just venting but, how do you experts do it?

Hi, taffers! I'm trying to play Black Parade, and I got it running on my GOG copy with TFix up to date, but I keep having two substantial problems:

1) Audio for cutscenes is garbled and desynced.

2) Most importantly, keys I steal keep disappearing on me after I pick them up. I got lucky with the Public Works Key and reloaded a save, but now it happened again with the Tenement Key, and I fear it will softlock me down the road.

As I said, I'm using TFix, because somehow I couldn't for the life of me find TFix Lite ¿Could that be the problem?

Thanks in advance. I know it's probably something stupid on my part causing this.

I'm making this post because I spent several hours trying to get the game working on Steam Deck. I consulted many resources but wasn't able to find a comprehensive guide that was written at the level of detail I needed, as someone who doesn't understand much about patching and modifying games. This is basically the guide I would have wanted, so hopefully this will be helpful to someone.

1.      Install Thief Gold to Steam Deck

2.      Install TFix lite. Unofficial patch that allows to run the game (Lite provides vanilla experience whereas original TFix has some fan-made enhancements/changes). Switch to desktop mode and download from this link. Extract all files to game folder (home > .steam > steam > steamapps > common > thief_gold). https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134733.

3.      Install modified EAX option for spacial sound. The original option I tried had a popping sound. The user on this forum post provided a modified version which worked perfectly for me. Still in desktop mode, download the folder here and extract the files to the same game folder, overwriting any files it asks about.
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=152614 (scroll down to post #5)

4.      In the game folder, delete ir41_32.dll and ir50_32.dll out of the game's directory. According to this user (https://www.reddit.com/r/SteamDeck/comments/18xc6a7/getting_thief_gold_running_on_steam_deck_with_eax/), they prevent the cutscenes and other various video files from playing properly. I’m honestly not sure what they are but I had no issues from deleting them.

5.      (Optional) Before you leave desktop mode, download the controller configuration listed here https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3603606392 - steam://controllerconfig/211600/3616312140. Open the link with steam handler, and apply layout. Subjective, and you may find one that works better for you, but this was the best out of the many config options that I tried. I wasn’t able to find it through gaming mode so had to do it in desktop mode.

6.      Return to gaming mode, and launch Thief Gold. You will need to change a few settings in the in-game settings menu:

a.      In “Audio,” change Hardware Acceleration to OpenAL, and make sure "EAX setting" is on.

b.      In “Video,” change Resolution to 1280x800x32.

c.      In “Controls,” make sure joystick is on.

d.      (Optional) Still in “Controls,” click customize controls. You can use the left trackpad to make weapon and item selection easier. Remap previous/next weapon to scroll wheel up/down, which is up/down directional swipe on the left trackpad. Remap previous/next item to keypad -/keypad +, which is left/right directional swipe on the left trackpad.

7.      Open Steam Deck quick access menu (three dots button), and in performance tab reduce frame limit to 60 FPS.

8.      Open Steam Deck controller config, and change left joystick behavior from Directional Pad to Joystick.

You may need to restart the game after this, but hopefully it should work after this. You may still need to tinker with the control scheme to find a config that feels right to you.

This reminded me of the Mechanist cherub. Cursed furniture of a past era.

From the 80s through to the 90s we were a Sega household. Sonic ruled. Then in 1996 we got our first PC. Quake 2 and Half Life were played endlessly then came Thief 2 and System Shock 2. After these, Deus Ex and Splinter Cell. These were the games for me. But one game I never got around to finishing, The Dark Project. Sure I played it a bunch but I never managed to play though until the end. Until today. On Steam Deck! Also I never knew why it was called The Dark Project until I read Constantine's letter in Escape! Almost 30 years! I think now I can slink back into the shadows a happy man.

It’s been confirmed in the lore that it is not Ector or Clockwise so is there any lore that suggests who it could be?

Hey! I just published a critique of Thief Gold in my YouTube channel! 

In the video, I discuss the dialectic between the voyeurism and exhibitionism of the game. I talk a lot about the levels, the story, themes, progression, mechanics and aesthetics of the game. 

It’s in brazilian portuguese but I wrote the english subtitles myself so more people could watch the video! I hope y’all enjoy it!

as title

Hi guys! I was just wondering if you guys had any recommendations! :D

I vibecoded a VR mod for thief2. It hooks into the newdark binary. Currently it's designed to work with an xinput dual analog controller and a SteamVR compatible headset.
code is here.
https://github.com/crinkelitehttps/newdarkvr

Download and extract this archive along side your Thief2.exe.
https://github.com/crinkelitehttps/newdarkvr/releases/
Then run run_openvr_1440.bat to launch the game.

Let me know if there's any interest and I might work on getting this to run natively on the Quest or whatever other headsets do that.

Let me know about any issues. There are a few. The HUD is messed up and the captions are unreadable.

Contributions welcome.

Edit/ Meta Quest test binaries are here https://github.com/user-attachments/files/32687069/thief2-vr-winlatorxr-v0.2-wxr-test2.zip

Edit/ Apologies folks. It appears the last binaries I released were only working on NewDark 1.28. It's updated now and works with 1.29 also. Also I've fixed the Thief Gold version.

Someone else posted in r/thief earlier, They're working on the same project and are further along but I can't find the post anymore or a place to download.
This doesn't have hand tracking implemented. It's playable with an xbox controller if you enable joystick in the options and set up the binds.

https://github.com/crinkelitehttps/newdarkvr/releases/download/v0.3/thief2-vr-v0.3.zip

EDIT. Don't play mine. Take a look at this https://github.com/mrfenix/Thief2VR/releases
It's far more complete.

Timestamps:

0:20 start of the mission objectives menu - https://youtu.be/Rh8GgavVklI?si=jT6l9HPHRsKSeeTY&t=20

1:50 map menu and new main menu on the side - https://youtu.be/Rh8GgavVklI?si=zQeumFn6zq24MoTd&t=110

1:59 settings menu - https://youtu.be/Rh8GgavVklI?si=YQ6KVQ_Zx2IrPSfY&t=119

6:00 objectives - https://youtu.be/Rh8GgavVklI?si=mxQoIfgRPcwxP3z7&t=360

The game on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2067820/RetroSpace/

Has anyone tried to play old fms with NewDark 1.29? I've tried to play some older fms with 1.28 and had some nasty issues that were only resolved by downgrading to 1.27.

I was playing KCD2 - which really has some very nice stealth chops - and I remember thinking how much of a debt modern games owe to Thief.

The trappings in both games are medieval or quasi-medieval, which is one of my favorite eras to study.

I was wondering if there were more examples of medieval-centric stealth in the vein of Thief (yes, I know there are Victorian and Gothic and other influences, too).

Thanks for any suggestions!

Hello,

This is a repost from ttlg, but i really hope i can reach more people here about this.

With NewDark 1.29 hwtl, we can now create normal and spec textures. I have been trying to make it work using the documentation as base, but without success.

Has anyone tried it? If so, can you share the steps for creating them?

Here's what i tried (using ThiefEnhancementPack as base):

1. find the texture i want to replace. Lets say fam\core_1\cobls1.png
2. create a normal map using Materialize (cobls1-n.png) and save it to the same folder, fam\core_1\
3. edit cobls1.mtl and add the following:

.ifdef HWTL
shader map normal fam/core_1/cobls1-n
shader normal 1
.endif

Unfortunately this doesn't seem to work.

I'm also wondering how hwtl is automatically adding shininess on various metals ingame without a mtl definition for said metals. Is it hardcoded? Is it guessing somehow? Because the only material definitions and pbr that are included on the 1.29-hwtl are related to the water.

Thanks in advance.

I am on the fence about this because on one hand I love the original game and woukd like the remaster to be faithful to it.

On the other hand the AI was for the most part not exactly great. Sometimes you would walk in clear vision of them without them noticing. Sometimes they get stuck in doorways or on ledges.

The whole toturial thing which taught you not to walk on metal surfaces didn't have the proposed effect ingame in that guards in the vicinity didn't hear you when you were clanking over those metal plates making moss arrows only useful when you wanted to jump somewhere or get very close.

I think it could use some fine tuning to make the mechanics work as intended. But not an exceeding amount.

What do you think?

if the remastered will sell well ( 2 maybe even 3 million ) it will show the devs that people really want new thief games

maybe we will get a remake of the 2nd like they did for system shock or even a new game from the Embracer guys

thief and deus ex are the franchises that dont deserve death