What this Mod changes:
Fixed:
- Wall Hug Invisibility Bug [Still provides cover from guards...but they WILL find you if they get too close.]
Removed from game:
- Loot Percentage [This is optional]
- Fatigue [All guards become tired rather quickly while Garrett could run without losing his wind at all. Rather than
punish the player with fatigue, I removed it completely. The gameplay feels much more balanced this way. In a
future release I aim to try and make only overweight guards fatigued.]
- Arrow Trails.
- Mechanical Eye Overlay.
- Mechanical Eye Sound.
- Back Button. [Use escape instead]
- Gear select sounds.
- Automatic blackjack raise in first person.
- Glowing feet. (from the tutorial part of the game)
- Arrow trails.
Added:
- Custom sound support and several custom sounds. [User may add their own sounds as well.]
- Tutorial helptext files reflect Minimalist Project changes.
- Weapons Exposure. [Like the original games, drawing a weapon will now leave you slightly more
exposed as indicated by a slight increase in lightgem visibility. As in the originals, the blackjack will not
make you more exposed.]
- Edible Food. [You may once again eat food, just like the original games. Eating a food item will restore
1/4 of a hitpoint. Four items will restore 1 full point.]
- Loot Glimmer: Remove or have activated by frob distance.
[The loot and junk in TDS look very similar. There are slight differences but unless the textures can be changed in
such a way that they stand out from each other, Loot Glint will be activated by player distance from the item. This
means that you will no longer see the item from long distances. Contributed by Sneaksie Dave and Bumbleson.]
Changes made to user Interface:
- Custom Menu Screen. [This is now made optional]
(Thanks to S_HOLE at the ttlg.com forums)
- Original Thief Fonts Added through the creation of custom bitmap fonts.
[The fonts were updated in version 1.3]
- Modified Thief header that swoops in on main menu (text changed to reflect that “The Minimalist
Project” is installed). (Thanks to John P. for the original Thief header “glow” texture)
- Loading page logo changed to reflect that “The Minimalist Project” is installed.
- Frob highlight in a more subtle color than the original.
- Hud size Minimized - colors tweaked for visibility since it is smaller.
- Retro Hud is offered as an alternative to Minimalist Hud.
(Removes the T3 lightgem and replaces it with a casing that is more like the original. The compass
is also minimized in this Hud as well.)
- Weapons and Items placements on screen are reversed - based on originals.
- Weapons and items now slide in quickly from the side and after a few seconds slide away again,
leaving only the weapon amount numbers visible. The Retro Hud remains true to the originals. (A
variation of a tweak generously donated by Philky of TTLG.com)
- Loot popups appear in lower right hand corner once and fade quickly.
(closer to the way it works in the first two games)
- Lock Pick Hud removed.
- Hud Clamps removed.
- Hud Gears removed. (Tweak donated by Philky)
- Original font colors have been added. (Tweak donated by Philky)
- Black screen when reading like in the original games.
- Health bar is wider to keep in tone with original games.
- Health gems are replaced with shields as in the first games.
(If you choose the Minimalist Default Hud, the shields will slide out of place and appear only
when you are injured.) Note: this will affect the textures of the Health Potions and the gems in the Hammer priest’s wands, since these all share textures originally.
- Mapped the "use" function to pressing of the center mouse button. Weapon scrolling is
still in effect. [No center mouse wheel? Just remap it.
]
Custom Difficulty: Play Styles
- Playstyles have been added in this revision. The player can choose from the following styles.
Cutpurse, Assassin, Thief and Ghost. All Playstyles have the same AI difficulty and Density.
*It was necessary to give all playstyle levels the same AI sensitivity. All Playstyle levels perform at
Expert difficulty though they do not necessarily conform to all the established rules of the playstyle due
to the limitations of the AI.
- Enhanced AI sensitivity
- Broadhead Max: 15
- Water Max: 15
- Moss Max: 15
- Fire Max: 10
- Gas Max: 5
- Noise Maker Max: 5
- Healing Potion Max: 5
- Flashbombs Max: 5
- Oil Flasks Max: 5
- Mines Max: 5
- Holy Water Max: 5
- Gas Bombs Max: 5
Animations:
- Many are tweaked to be more Thief-like.
(Hopefully control is more precise.)
- Creeping will not make you silent anymore, be forewarned.... only crouching is silent now.
- Head bob reinstated, but lessened to a degree.
Camera:
- Death camera is fixed to 1st person view.
- All camera modes are in 1st person as DEFAULT (I sympathize with 3rd person players but "The Minimalist Project" breaks many things in third person.)
Before Installing Please Take Note:
I set out to make The Minimalist Project a tribute to Looking Glass and the old Thief games. Thief Deadly Shadows missed the mark on several key points, in my opinion, and being so appreciative of what the originals achieved with a minimal yet functional approach, it never felt quite right. My aim with this project was to give Thief 3 a familiar feeling. I can only hope that I have succeeded.
Version 1.4 comes much closer to my goal but to be honest, The Minimalist Project probably never will be able to cover everything I want to.
Technical:
This installer will alter some of the Thief - Deadly Shadows system files. Most of the original files that the install alters will be backed up by the installer first, and will be restored and/or put back to their original state when you choose to uninstall the Minimalist Project.
However, the installer will replace your original T3Main.exe file with a version that comes with the Editor for the game. In other words, it’s replaced with a newer, but still original file. This is done because the file version that comes with the Editor allows for custom sounds to be implemented. The original T3Main.exe will not be restored when you uninstall the Minimalist Project. This is done on purpose, both because it eases the process of making the installer, and because the new file is of no harm to your install. If you would like to be 110% on the safe side however, you should make a backup of your original T3Main.exe file now, before installing this release. It is not deemed necessary by us though.
The Minimalist Installer has been thoroughly tested by several beta and release version testers before it was ‘published’, but in the off chance that something still should happen, a “worst case scenario” will never be worse than that you might need to reinstall the game. Such a situation is highly unlikely to occur, but is mentioned here because anything can happen as far as computers and their users are concerned.
If possible, you should always try and uninstall the Minimalist Project before you uninstall/reinstall the game. Then reinstall the Minimalist Project afterwords if you like. Your currently installed version of the Minimalist Project should also be uninstalled before installing a newer version.
The authors take no responsibility for what negative effects this install may have on your computer. It is tested, but released as-is with no warranty, express or implied.
By clicking ‘Install’ you agree to these terms of use.
Any need for technical help may be directed to New Horizon, whose e-mail address is included in the installer itself.
Uninstall / Modify:
To uninstall / modify the Minimalist Project once you have installed it, go to the Control Panel, Add or Remove Programs, and in the list that comes up find the entry called Thief DS Minimalist Project, Version 1.4. Highlight that entry, click Change/Remove, and you can uninstall or modify the install from there. There will also be an uninstall .exe in your Thief - Deadly Shadows root folder.
-You can also re-open the installer to modify your install, so keep the installer file in an easily accessible place on your computer after installation.
For instance; if you didn’t install the ‘Loot Glint’ removal option the first time and then later change your mind, you may now open the installer again, and it will let you add that option to your install.
The option(s) you install will then turn up in the uninstaller, and vice versa.
Compatibility with other community tweaks:
To experience the Minimalist Project the way it’s meant to be experienced, you will have to let it replace your .ini settings for it’s own. Your (customized or default) .ini files are backed up by the Minimalist installer, and are put back if you later choose to uninstall The Minimalist Project.
Since John P. made the Minimalist installer, it will also be compatible with his Miscellaneous Thief DS Textures pack. This means that if you already have the Misc. pack installed when you install the Minimalist Project, and you also decide to install The Minimalist Project’s ‘Loot Glint’ and Menu Background, the same files from John P.’s Misc. pack will be backed up if they are found, and then later put back if you decide to uninstall the Minimalist Project’s versions. If you install the ‘frob highlight’ option in the Minimalist Project, and you had the Misc. Pack’s ‘frob highlight’ installed beforehand, the ‘frob highlight’ from the Misc. Pack will be restored when the Minimalist Project is uninstalled.
However: installing them in the opposite order – Minimalist first, then the Misc. Pack – has not been tested, and the loot glint and arrow trail options from the Misc. Pack will most likely override the versions from the Minimalist Project in such a scenario, because the Minimalist Project is newer than the Misc. Pack, and the Misc. Pack doesn’t have code in it to check for other tweaks before it installs.
The Minimalist Project installer has not been tested for compatibility with games that have the Thief DS editor installed, but as far as we know it shouldn’t create any conflicts. If you do experience problems in that regard, contact New Horizon so we can look into it.
Warning:
Minimalist 1.4 does not work with Thiefbot, the T3 Tweaker or T3gamesys tweaker any longer. The gamesys.t3u and many other .t3u files have been rebuilt to such a degree that these programs are no longer compatible.
Credits:
Special thanks to John P. for manufacturing this installer, Sledge for his generous advice, S_Hole for his excellent Retro Menu, Myagi for the loot percent removal/ frob tweak and to Philky for the tweaks credited to him above. I would also like to send a huge shout out to my beta testers, word up to Komag, SortYa, R Soul, Joey_561, Lake and TheDorkProject. Without these guys I would not have had time to find as many bugs as we could. Many thanks go out to Taffers on the various Thief Forums for contributing to and inspiring the Minimalist Project. I can not take full responsibility for the work put into this project. John P. has put together an excellent and constantly improving installer. I am in debt to you all.