{"id":42788,"date":"2018-05-21T06:00:02","date_gmt":"2018-05-21T10:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=42788"},"modified":"2018-05-20T15:54:49","modified_gmt":"2018-05-20T19:54:49","slug":"diecast-211-more-mods-thief-vs-thief-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=42788","title":{"rendered":"Diecast #211: More Mods, Thief vs. Thief 2"},"content":{"rendered":"


Direct download<\/a> (MP3)<\/small>Direct download<\/a> (ogg Vorbis)<\/small>Podcast RSS feed.<\/a><\/small><\/div>
\nHosts: Paul<\/a>, Shamus<\/a>. Episode edited by Issac<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Show notes:
\n00:13 Mailbag: Total Conversion Mods<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Diecast,<\/p>\n

Last Diecast you talked about mods. But you neglected a category of mods which I am quite fond of: Total conversion mods. Mods that take the assets (and\/or add their own) and use those to
\ntell an original story. Examples that spring to mind are the Total conversion mod Enderal, for Skyrim. Or Black Mesa, which uses the HL2 source engine. <\/p>\n

My question is have you played any total conversion mods and did you feel they improved upon the base game or made for a worse experience? <\/p>\n

Best regards,
\nLucas<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

06:14 Mailbag: Big Mods <\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Diecast; <\/p>\n

Two questions based on last week’s’ mod talk:<\/p>\n

Firstly: Are there any games you play\/played where the mods overtake the game, either partially or totally? My personal example is Arma3, where my ~370(!) mods take up over 130Gb compared to the game’s 32Gb. Total conversions also apply, or even simple\/small mods (Frostfall for skyrim?) that take a game, and turn it into something completely different.<\/p>\n

Secondly: In regards to modding for balance, you mentioned the recent XCOM games: while I modded my playthroughs so easy that I only lost a single soldier in beating both games, The popular mod for both EU and 2 was the "Long War" mod, which made the game significantly harder. What are your thoughts on using mods to adjust difficulty up or down? Do you think it’s a response to publishers not providing a wide enough range of difficulty options, or instead players choosing to play the game in their own style regardless of how it is intended to be played?<\/p>\n

Thanks,
\nShas’Ui<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

20:11 Mailbag: Games that “get good” late.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Hi, Diecast!<\/p>\n

My question isn’t exactly really interesting, but, eh, it never really stopped me.<\/p>\n

Let’s say you play a game that – for most of the time, e.g. 15 hours – is boring. But then it has this one moment\/segment that’s trully awesome. It’s so good, it’s practically an art of its own. Life changing experience. How willing would you be to play such a game, knowing that in advance? Or even replay it?<\/p>\n

For example: for me Fallout 4 was… well, a rather boring game, but its DLC, “Far Harbor” was amazing. Would you play Fallout 4 just to get to this DLC?<\/p>\n

I guess what I’m asking is: what’s better? A game that is consistently good but never really “awe inspiring”, or one that’s terribly flawed, but contains something truly mesmerizing? Since their length matters, let’s assume that both requires 25 hours to complete each.<\/p>\n

Again, apologies for any mistakes that I made – your language is still pretty funny :).<\/p>\n

Anyway, have a good time and keep being awesome!<\/p>\n

Sincerelly,
\nDarek<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

25:56 Mailbag: Softball questions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Diecast<\/p>\n

Are there any TV-shows\/movies that you have watched recently and enjoyed?<\/p>\n

What are your favorite foods and why do you like it so much?<\/p>\n

What are your favorite colors and why is [your choice] the best color?<\/p>\n

When is the next reset button?<\/p>\n

All the best, Tocopheryl<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For context, I pronounced this name “Tocophery” because I had this message in a Google Doc, and my cursor was positioned right at the end. The trailing lowercase L blended in with the cursor.<\/p>\n

That’s the only one I have an excuse for. All the other names were butchered due to incompetence.<\/p>\n

42:22 Mailbag: Thief vs. Thief 2<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dear Diecast, <\/p>\n

I’m currently playing through Thief 2 for the first time (I’m 20) it might just turn out to be one of my favorite games I’ve ever played. This came as a major shock to me because I played Thief: Gold about a year ago and borderline hated it. I think this is mostly down to level design. Thief Gold’s levels are gigantic, labyrinthine, an filled nonsensical copy pasted rooms. Not to mention a few them also seem to have and odd fixation on zombie killing as well. Thief 2 scales down the levels a bit, makes the maps more detailed, and makes each area memorable which leads to less aimless wondering. Also some levels seem to funnel players to the correct area somehow even thought there are several paths, but I’m not a level designer so I don’t know. My point is that while [they] are identical in many ways, the level design feels drastically different and it seems like people don’t talk about it very much. Perhaps its because people really just aren’t talking about thief all that much. I mean, I haven’t even used a guide for Thief 2, while I basically had to use one for every level on the first. Anyways, do you have a preference between the 2 games and have you noticed this difference? <\/p>\n

P.S.
\nThere is this level in the first game where you have to pretend you are a Hammerite student and you have to solve this puzzle by finding and flipping a bunch of tiny switches very quickly and I just lost it. Like seriously, how did anyone figuire that out without the interenet??<\/p>\n

-No name given<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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