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Here are some shitty pearls of wisdom I sent to Dalai ages ago when he was making a map. I might add some more later. Har, Rar.
1) Make sure any building you design makes some sort of functional sense. Eg a bank will have vaults, but it will also have customer desks, areas where the officers work, break rooms, storage rooms, etc. The part of the feeling of being "thrilled" in Thief is that butterflies in stomach emotion one gets when one is trespassing on someone elses premises, and these premises must be convincing instead of DM like abstract spaces.
2) Keep ambient wind noises and such higher above the player or where they can't get to, or where you might reasonably expect wind noise to come from.
3) Texture consistency both inside the map and between maps in general is a good idea. Also the default (flats) cobble texture sized to 0.5 should be used for streets unless there is compelling reason otherwise. 0.5 gives greater shadowmap detail also. As oRGy is a design genius, oRGy maps = canon maps (though Thief maps>oRGy maps)
4) Please don't use the door textures from ThDoors.utx for unopenable doors in front of houses. Use the ones in ThCity.utx>Doors instead. This helps players distinguish between doors that can be opened and those that can't, therefore avoiding frustration.
5) Always make lit up windows a) have the lit version of their texture and b) have their brush with bright corners selected.
6) "Deeper" windows look thiefier than shallower windows. (ie 16-32units recess rather than 8)
7) Never stretch textures. Looks shoddy. Fit brushes to window texture size, repeat the texture, or make a new one.
7b) Except to use the Align To Floor function on arches, that is.
8) Nice skyboxes - use the ThSkybox stars texture for stars (its 256*256 instead of unreals 128*128, ergo more detail), the one from Th-Folly is the best in Thievery by a fair bit I reckon. Copy teh technique.
9) Electric lights should be brighter than torch lights. Electric lamps should have a faint light blue or green hue. Standardise light settings for various light fittings across the level so the player knows what to expect and for thematic consistency.
10) Anything that looks good in Thief looks good in Thievery. The engine is almost the same, functionally.
12) For gameplay featurey lights, make sure the floor has some 0.5sized texture to increase the shadow detail so players can appreciate it and react to it better.
13) Make things like pillars and added decorative brushes semi-solid, wherever possible - it reduces the node count and therefore helps performance.
15) ZONE your map. Ideally every room should be a seperate zone, unless you are running out of zones (limit: 64.) Speeds up processing and allows more interesting reverb properties, and events.
16) Use animated water textures instead of the unanimated ones.
17) If you can, invent a history and plot behind your buildings that makes sense and that you can refer to. (Not like I did this personally or anything...) More believable is more immersion and shiat.
18) Break any of these rules rather than do anything outright barbarous.
Ciao Ciao...
1) Make sure any building you design makes some sort of functional sense. Eg a bank will have vaults, but it will also have customer desks, areas where the officers work, break rooms, storage rooms, etc. The part of the feeling of being "thrilled" in Thief is that butterflies in stomach emotion one gets when one is trespassing on someone elses premises, and these premises must be convincing instead of DM like abstract spaces.
2) Keep ambient wind noises and such higher above the player or where they can't get to, or where you might reasonably expect wind noise to come from.
3) Texture consistency both inside the map and between maps in general is a good idea. Also the default (flats) cobble texture sized to 0.5 should be used for streets unless there is compelling reason otherwise. 0.5 gives greater shadowmap detail also. As oRGy is a design genius, oRGy maps = canon maps (though Thief maps>oRGy maps)
4) Please don't use the door textures from ThDoors.utx for unopenable doors in front of houses. Use the ones in ThCity.utx>Doors instead. This helps players distinguish between doors that can be opened and those that can't, therefore avoiding frustration.
5) Always make lit up windows a) have the lit version of their texture and b) have their brush with bright corners selected.
6) "Deeper" windows look thiefier than shallower windows. (ie 16-32units recess rather than 8)
7) Never stretch textures. Looks shoddy. Fit brushes to window texture size, repeat the texture, or make a new one.
7b) Except to use the Align To Floor function on arches, that is.
8) Nice skyboxes - use the ThSkybox stars texture for stars (its 256*256 instead of unreals 128*128, ergo more detail), the one from Th-Folly is the best in Thievery by a fair bit I reckon. Copy teh technique.
9) Electric lights should be brighter than torch lights. Electric lamps should have a faint light blue or green hue. Standardise light settings for various light fittings across the level so the player knows what to expect and for thematic consistency.
10) Anything that looks good in Thief looks good in Thievery. The engine is almost the same, functionally.
12) For gameplay featurey lights, make sure the floor has some 0.5sized texture to increase the shadow detail so players can appreciate it and react to it better.
13) Make things like pillars and added decorative brushes semi-solid, wherever possible - it reduces the node count and therefore helps performance.
15) ZONE your map. Ideally every room should be a seperate zone, unless you are running out of zones (limit: 64.) Speeds up processing and allows more interesting reverb properties, and events.
16) Use animated water textures instead of the unanimated ones.
17) If you can, invent a history and plot behind your buildings that makes sense and that you can refer to. (Not like I did this personally or anything...) More believable is more immersion and shiat.
18) Break any of these rules rather than do anything outright barbarous.
Ciao Ciao...
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