@ubi-borealis Thanks for the update.

I have some new ones, from Lolingestone:

Weak spot hits one-shotting:
https://streamable.com/3f13jq: (https://streamable.com/3f13jq)
https://streamable.com/mqgn6j: (https://streamable.com/mqgn6j)
This one's happened quite a few times. That particular enemy seems especially prone to it, but I've had it happen in every challenge. I assume the arrow is probably grazing another hitbox, but the damage icon shows the shot won't kill and then it does.

Enemy climbing/falling death:
https://streamable.com/8nuxwd: (https://streamable.com/8nuxwd)
This one's pretty consistent, too. I know it's because I'm on the roof, but it's the best place to snipe from so of course I'm going to spend 99% of my time up there.

Missed headshot:
https://streamable.com/lbzk36: (https://streamable.com/lbzk36)
I've seen others mention this is an issue with shooting from below, but regardless, still frustrating when it happens. Sidenote, that enemy is also prone to walking off his platform and dying.

Hopping on/over railings after weak spot hit:
https://streamable.com/qa932e: (https://streamable.com/qa932e)
Though they don't always fall like that, the jumping on the railing/pirouette happen pretty much every time when hit from behind.

Last one for this batch, enemies spawned out of bounds:

I do have a video, but not on this computer...if it's important, I can get it transferred. In any case, I got to the end of the trial and couldn't reach them, and so couldn't finish. It was also my first gold run after a number of attempts, which hurt. I've only had this happen once, though, so maybe it was just a fluke.

Sadly, even knowing what's happening, I'm definitely not quick enough to deal with the problem children before they do their thing. Believe me, I've tried (and tried, and tried... ).

I'm all for adding some extra enemies in challenges like this; actually, even across the board, though that's risky in the Ravens as stealth requires more fine-tuning of the level design (IMO). Safer/easier option might be just reworking the scoring math so it's a little more forgiving. I don't mind the challenge of "perfection" (despite that meaning I will never get golds in some of the Bear challenges, and how much that pains the completionist in me lol), but they do need to be consistent.

@ubi-smash Hopefully this works! https://streamable.com/063f4g: (https://streamable.com/063f4g)

I included everything (even my terrible aim! ). It shows all of the enemies in the room initially, then at about 1:00, one seems to be missing, and at the end, two are missing.

Hope this helps!

@ubi-borealis Thanks so much for this!

Truth be told even with the fix I still struggled with this one (a lot... lol) but eventually the stars aligned and I was able to get it with room to spare.

The biggest issue for me was with headshots. It could be entirely operator error, but when firing at an angle up, even a pretty shallow angle, the arrow's drop often resulted in a kill that didn't count as a headshot. When I tried to compensate for that and aim a bit higher, the arrow often missed entirely.
It made the last room really difficult for me; I'd consistently get there with two spare headshots only to finish one short because I couldn't get credit for any of the three platform guys. I was honestly about ready to give up, but made one last attempt in full stealth mode, luring the problem children down and out one at a time. I finally got them all that way, but it took ages.

@jareds82 You need to do challenges at other shrines. Redoing the same ones won't count for the quest.

Wait, so are explosions supposed to count as indirect kills? I assumed they're treated differently, as another challenge specifically requires explosion kills.

@ubi-smash I'm playing on Xbox One, and I've also often ended up 2-3 enemies short of what's needed in this challenge. I don't know if it's the same enemies each time, but I've definitely had issues with the last "room" in the cave, especially with the enemies on the platform/walkway. Several times I've seen them, so I know they spawned initially, but after leaving that area (luring other enemies out of the cave), when I go back, they're gone. I don't know if they somehow died, or despawned, but it's happened several times.

@fortyniners354 You should be able to restart whenever you want - there's a restart challenge option on the pause menu.

@hern_the_hunter What ended up working for me was to stay in stealth and not wake up the room. I went to the entrance and whistled to get the nearest ground-level guy, luring him well into the previous area before engaging so the remaining enemies remained passive. I might have gotten the big one next...I think he always noticed me and I lured him out that way. As long as they don't really see you and start attacking, you can get them one by one.

For the platform guys, luring with arrows worked. I hit the wall a bit away from the first one, just close enough for him (and only him) to notice it. They'll climb down on their own, and can be lured the rest of the way out of the room with another arrow and/or whistling.

It's a bit tedious, and oddly as much of a stealth challenge as most of the stealth trials, but it's doable.

@r2smuse I posted this a while back, it's what worked for me in that last room:

I went to the entrance and whistled to get the nearest ground-level guy, luring him well into the previous area before engaging so the remaining enemies remained passive. I might have gotten the big one next...I think he always noticed me and I lured him out that way. As long as they don't really see you and start attacking, you can get them one by one.
For the platform guys, luring with arrows worked. I hit the wall a bit away from the first one, just close enough for him (and only him) to notice it. They'll climb down on their own, and can be lured the rest of the way out of the room with another arrow and/or whistling.

Hope it helps!

@noviceguy It's definitely different for me.

I do see the first-person view being more immersive in a "the player being the character" way, but not overall. It's just different.
It's probably impossible to judge how immersed someone is; we're all going by our own experiences, and we connect with different things. Based on how I've seen it described by others, though, I feel like I get just as immersed as anyone else. When I don't have million distractions outside of the game, I'm hyper-focused. I'm in that environment...sort of... I just don't have to feel like I'm Sam to feel like I'm there.

As far as third-person being more cinematic, sure. I do like seeing the character, but as a player I'm not just an observer. I have a direct connection with everything Sam does. He might have all of the cool animations, but I told him to do them. I (the third-person camera) am there to help him, and my immersion is in that role. Depending on how you look at it, maybe it's really not that different...a third-person camera on Sam is first-person for me... Getting too deep here. lol

@NoviceGuy When Deadly Shadows came out, I knew of the Thief games, but hadn't tried them. Not because of the first-person camera, but because I was still pretty new to the genre back then.

I can see how accommodating first and third person would impact development, and I respect that the fanbase would rather the devs focus and not cut corners. For me it's one of those things where I don't want it to have to be a choice, but I guess that's not very realistic these days...
In any case, when it came to DS I had no baseline. It had a little jank, but overall it was endearing, and I still like it.

As for the immersion aspect, I don't think I've ever really felt it in that way, but I understand. In first person, it's "you". Sort of an extension, I guess, but minimal. In third person, the character's still an extension, but distant. The player's more of a guardian at that point. I think I'm happier in that role.
Plus, some first person cameras give me motion sickness, so...yeah.

Off topic: EA Motive had another livestream on the Dead Space Remake. This time they're exploring Art Direction and other related areas.

@noviceguy Without these videos I probably wouldn't have had much interest in the game, but wow... I've been impressed with the previous ones but I especially like this - they're going into all the stuff I really like. Environments and atmosphere all the way. lol

I had seen some Thief retrospectives on youtube and some people saying that back then they were afraid of that third person view, they thought it would change the nature of the game, make it casual since the game was going to be released on Xbox as well. But at the end it didn't change anything and didn't alter the first person view gameplay.

@LuckyBide Yeah, as an option it shouldn't have changed much. But maybe if they'd redesigned something to allow for the third person I could understand.

Some threads need constant update so it's cool to be able to edit a post indefinitely.
But now we don't have the choice unless to get used to that new rule ^^

I think the current mentality is "we'll cross that bridge when we get to it...if we get to it". Since they can edit freely and manage "official" threads, they probably don't see much need. We've had plenty of threads where it was needed, though, so hopefully they change that.

There should be a special trophy called "Perfect Ghost" available for each mission.
If you finish a mission without knocking or killing a guard, without destroying a light bulb, without breaking any lock, picking up all the gadgets that you used and by re-locking all the doors that were locked, then you get this trophy ^^

That'd be my default way of playing. lol

No sadly the guards perception don't change according to the lighting in Hitman. I wish the devs did that.
The only time NVGs were useful in Hitman, guards in the dark were just lost and spinning around. It feels a bit ridiculous watching it by todays standards but back then it worked and it made that mission quite unique and very cool. Here's a video, NVGs are at 4:46 ^^

I can see how that would have been fun back then, but that AI... They didn't even talk?

I didn't watch the whole Dead Space video but it's cool to see the devs continuously making these livestreams, I really like all the technical explanations. I hope the Ubisoft Toronto team will do the same.

Agreed! I love the technical stuff. I really want to see one from the SC team about light and shadow/detection systems (and I want to be impressed with new tech!).

Another decision that they made that upset many old fans was replacing Garrett's original voice actor because they wanted someone to do voice acting and motion capturing simultaneously. That definitely added more fuel to the fans that Thief (2014) was not going to be for them.

I wasn't following the game closely at the time, but boy does that sound familiar... I don't know how much more work it is to do them separately...maybe a lot. Either way, I don't care. They need to respect the characters (which include beloved voice actors), and put in the work.

From what I can see, the decline of the Thief series started with Deadly Shadows when they tried to implement aspects like third-person perspective - likely to appeal to the console market since stealth games in consoles were predominantly third-person games. By implementing a secondary camera perspective, the developers had to accommodate that and change the gameplay design. 

Without the third-person I probably wouldn't have played it... lol
I don't know nearly enough about the tech to say whether or not I believe that the addition of third-person needed to change things. Sometimes it's just an easy thing to blame.

Splinter Cell can be played as a succession of missions, true. Having a real story behind connecting all the missions is also nice, it kinda give a motivation and a global objective to our actions.

@luckybide For sure, a good story can bring a lot to the table. But, if the environment's good enough, not having a story is not an issue for me. Prior to Conviction, some people argued that the gameplay couldn't really stand on its own; like it wouldn't be fun if you didn't have a real reason to sneak around somewhere. Then we got D-Ops.
Granted, I think it absolutely helps to have fleshed out characters; we learned about Kestrel (yay) and Archer (boo) in the Co-Op campaign. But the D-Ops missions themselves were clearly about the environments. The missions made little sense, but they were fun.

The newer games took themselves too seriously, especially Blacklist. That's why they didn't sound right at some points. They need to bring back that humor, those organic dialogues and interrogations, those small gameplay mechanics and possibilities. And I hope they bring them back in the remake as well, and expand on them.

They dug themselves into a hole with the Sarah and Lambert storylines. Everything became so dark (bad dark), with betrayals left and right... Grim as the "Ice Queen" can fully disappear as far as I'm concerned - I've hated all of that. Definitely need to bring back the camaraderie. If Grim doesn't tease Sam about being old in the remake, I'll be pretty sad.

So why not calling it Coastal Estate, haha !
I really think you need to remake it into Unreal Engine someday, working on your map with that engine might give you extra ideas to improve it and make it better 

lol Missed opportunity!
If I have the time, I'll definitely try to piece some stuff together. I only recently fully switched over to Unreal 5, but it's been awesome so far. I did try the early access version when it came out last year, but a lot wasn't supported yet. Now they seem to have worked out the kinks, and I've been loving Lumen.

If your everyday work is close then I understand that you aren't motivated, it's normal haha.
You're right about the "skill" point, I wish I already had enough experience to create these animations in a faster and better way, but we all have to build that experience first ^^

The game stuff is why I got into the work in the first place, so I do wish I could do more with it. At the moment I'm also trying to balance with my replay, and since I'm on CT I'm taking my time. Pretty sure I spent an hour just in the Bank...

I would have preferred that Sam didn't have feelings for here but instead just played along and pretended to "love" her to get some information and some access privileges to JBA intel. That would have been a terrifying but amazing surprise for the player imo.

I would have been okay with that version. It certainly would have made more sense than Sam actually being attracted.

We stealth fans don't want this but a lot of players who don't know that much about stealth don't really care, or don't even realize how much some of the modern games have a worst AI than games released twenty years ago.
But yeah, AI is definitely the key to bring back the stealth genre on the front of the gaming stage.

This is true. So many people just don't know any better, and/or they can't see the differences in the stealth. I hesitate to call it subtlety, because to us the differences are really not subtle.

I laughed at the comparison image haha.
AI sensitivity is increased on Expert mode but I don't remember it being that strict. And I don't think movements matter in CT, at least when you walk slowly.
Anyway I think it's easier to progress in full darkness in CT, mostly thanks to the OCP.

I love a good visual aid!
Guards are definitely much more aware, though. Not insta-detection, but they'll investigate...and then detect...and then you're dead. My issue isn't with it being punishing, it's more that I really love the moments when a guard passes super close by without seeing you. It's a different type of tension - if you're fully hidden, when they start to approach you don't know what's going to happen. They get closer, and Sam's head locks on (I love that), and he raises up in the Closer-Than-Ever position, ready to pounce, and then all you can do is wait and hope... The closer the guard passes, the more satisfying it is.
OTOH, if you're not fully hidden, you know that as soon as that guard gets within whatever radius, he's gonna see you, and then that's the end of it. There's no real build of tension - it's over before it begins.

This is great, I love all the details. It feels like a real professional briefing when I read it haha. I wish I could see the blueprints and the images.
I love the fact that there's so many entry points, and especially rappelling.

@LuckyBide lol Thanks! I may be able to recompile the images, but they're so bad. Using the sandbox mode of a tycoon game to make images is a little bit different from using Unreal. Slightly poorer quality.
It was fun, though, and interesting to look back on. Since it was pre-Conviction, we didn't have Deniable Ops yet, and there were still quite a few people arguing for the necessity of a real story. I didn't agree - not that I don't like a good story, I just don't need one.

I can already picture a very funny interrogation moment with the guard having a twitchy memory ^^
And it amused me to read that he will radio to his buddy for the code because I once thought about the integration of cellphones in Splinter Cell and how they could impact gameplay and create new mechanics (by the way we can imagine a loooot ^^). And I thought about a sequence like that where a guard would call another guard to get a code for a door, unless Sam was far away and using the TAK/EEV to listen to his conversation.

I definitely like opportunities for lighthearted stuff, but staying stealthy at the same time. They missed some opportunities, IMO, with things like this. Of course it doesn't fit with the seriousness of the newer games, but hey, remake!

Anyway except for the panic room, your mission idea feels totally different from Private Estate (and way way better ofc). Seeing all the possibilities and objectives, that would be a long but fun and challenging mission. I really want to play it now, especially if this is to take down that awful villain who sells gardening tools on the black market haha !
Great job, I hope you'll work again on it someday. Thanks for posting it 

Yeah, it was the setting and some elements of the environment more than anything. It shouldn't have surprised anyone that I'd go for that, either, given my username. lol
I definitely would still play it, too. It's kind of like a Grim mission, only bigger.

Yeah, I loved that balance as well. And it seems to be very recurrent in stealth games (Styx, Hitman, MGS,...). It's a genre where gameplay tends to be so serious and slow that counter-balancing it with humor is the exact perfect thing to do !

True! It works so well. Some serious elements are fine (like with Morgenholt, for example), but not all the time.

I hope I'll be skilled and motivated enough someday to give life to my animation ideas ^^

I struggle with motivation, too; I don't have a ton of free time and since I do variants of this stuff for work, sometimes I get burned out... But don't let "skill" be a thing. Everyone starts somewhere, and if you have fun, that's all that matters.

I agree, it's easier to remember the JBA members. Even if most of them were quite caricatural.
I kinda liked Enrica and her interactions with Sam, even if I didn't really like the ending of Double Agent V2.

Some of the Enrica stuff bothered me though! The almost-attraction thing just felt icky. Sure, he was going through a lot, and she wasn't necessarily evil, but she's still a terrorist. Sam needed higher standards. lol

I couldn't imagine where this system would be nowadays if the games kept going in that great direction, especially with the AI possibilities that bring up new consoles and PCs.
There is so much to do with AI innovation and renovating the alert system and the NPC reactions...

Well the remake's a great place for them to start - they can stay true to the feel of the original game while massively upgrading the AI. I don't think anyone wants/expects the simplicity we had twenty years ago.

CT is definitely brighter yeah, but it's still quite easy to be able to know if you're hidden without looking at the light bar.

I dunno... Maybe it's different on the XBox. The difficulties in SC1 and PT didn't really go into guard perception, AFAIK, but CT is another beast entirely. In the first two, as long as you're somewhere in the bottom section of the slider you're essentially invisible until a guard bumps into you. In CT though, on Expert, that's definitely not true, even for the bottom section of the bottom section. If that indicator isn't smushed to the left, suddenly it's "Did I see something there??"s everywhere.



It's like a single pixel-width of safety on that entire bar. lol

Maybe movement matters, too? I haven't really tested it. I just know that in order to get a guard to pass super close without seeing me, I better be all the way to the left.

Not really a problem, of course, but it does make the rest of the bar kind of pointless, at least on Expert.

I personally don't care and don't think it changes things that much. And I always prefer third person stealth games over first person ones. But some stealth purists are very strict and don't like change so I can understand that haha.

@luckybide I'm terrible with change! lol But the third-person thing was just an option, so I don't see why it would be a problem...unless it affected something in first-person mode. I don't remember anyone saying that, but who knows?
Generally I try to be accepting of options, as long as that's really what they are.

5 minutes, damn !
I can understand time limit editing on some other platforms, but on a game forum that's not really necessary...

Yep, it was so bad! The limit isn't really in place for regular members, though, AFAIK. I just want to be able to fix typos.

I hope that the team isn't complete yet because they're selective.
But it might be possible that they don't get many candidates, not because of Splinter Cell or any of their others prestigious IPs, but because of all the stories around sexual harassment and abuse that came around about two years ago.

I haven't heard much recently..hopefully that's good. It'll be interesting to see why types of games we see post-changes. The announcement of the remake alone (especially the way they did it) seemed like a good sign.

I don't think this will go to the level of building destruction, probably some furniture destruction when a gunfight happens. But hopefully this will be destruction that impacts gameplay, like glass remaining on the ground and stuff like that.

Broken glass would be fine, though with how I play, I'd consider it a failure if I left something like that behind.

True, sadly the night are not very dark in Hitman. But agent 47 doesn't have nght vision goggles. Only game he had some was Hitman 2 Silent Assassin, since then I think he never got some again
Yeah the sandcastle is nice, I'm sure we'll have a challenge around it. Hitman developers like to put tons of small nice touches like that in the games ^^

Well if the dark's not that dark, I understand not having NVGs, especially if they're not focused on shadow gameplay.
And I love little details in images like that. Not as cool as a traffic cone, of course, but it works. lol

It would totally be feasible and be credible, I recently read that it was already possible in MGS 3 :

@luckybide That's great! I even have that game, but I barely touched it... lol

Yeah I really hope that keypad thermal feature will become systemic accross all the future games because it's very cool. But at the same time making the game more open means offering new paths and new possibilities, as long as they're challenging and stealthy too.

And hopefully the devs will want to encourage that. They have so many opportunities to take classic features and integrate them in more sandboxy maps. It could work so well.

Alright, keep me informed if you find it back.
Or maybe it's time to update your idea and even create it for real, haha.
Now that Unreal Engine 4 and even Unreal Engine 5 (since a few days) are accessible and free for everyone, this could be a great opportunity 

Here's my very long original post (minus some formatting and image links that no longer work). It's interesting to read through it now...I was just a baby back then.

So I clearly didn't go the "story" route, but this is what I like so this is what I did.

Oh, and while I am somewhat sad to post this knowing it's a death sentence for it...meh, better to live for a moment than never at all, right? Also, feel free to laugh at my "visual aids" - I know they're funny. 


Isolated Oceanfront Estate
(Aerial [minus fog for sake of visibility])

Topography, Etc.
The grounds immediately surrounding the home are mostly level. Oceanside, there is a 20' drop at the edge overlooking a small private beach. A 100' radius surrounding the home has been cleared and landscaped. Beyond the yard, on the front and sides of the home, for 200' the trees have been thinned. Beyond that, the forest is untouched.
Time of Day - Full Night
Weather - Foggy
The fog is denser in open areas and thinner in the trees.

Buildings, Etc.
..Home - Traditional Style, Large
....Four Levels
......Basement - Entertainment, Etc.
........Home Theater
........Game Room
........Gym
........Laundry
........Storage
......First Floor - Main living area.
........Foyer
........Family Room
........Study
........Kitchen
........Dining Room
........Living Room
........Mud Room
........Manned Security Office
........Central Stairs (access all floors)
......Second Floor - Family bedrooms, etc.
........Master Bedroom
........Childrens' Bedrooms (2)
........Guest Bedroom
........Panic Room
........Rec/Playroom
........Office
......Third Floor - Staff living area/bedrooms.
........Staff Bedrooms (3)
........Lounge/Kitchen/Etc.
........Sitting Area/Landing

Entrance Points, Etc.
..All Main Level Doors
....Foyer
....Study
....Dining
....Kitchen
....Mud Room
..Basement Door
..Second Floor Balcony (Master Bedroom)
....Accessed by rappelling from the roof.
..Third Floor Balcony (Staff Living Area)
....Accessed directly from the roof.
..Third Floor Windows (Staff Sitting Area)
....Accessed via the portico roof.
..Main roof accessed via drains on both ends of the home.
..Portico roof accessed via a drain on the "island" or by rappelling from the main roof.

Detached Garage
..Six Car (three doors on each side; completely open inside).
..Above the garage is a guest apartment, currently used by the head of security.

The Tunnel
A "secret" tunnel runs between the main house and the garage. Access from the home is behind one of the mirrors in the gym, and from the garage is behind a false wall in a closet. It is entirely smooth concrete block/stone, roughly 12' wide, poorly lit, wet, and dingy.
Midway along is a locked side-tunnel lined with cells, an interrogation room, etc.

Pier
Past the garage the drive curves through the forest and down to the beach, accessing the pier where a large yacht is docked.


Primary Objectives
..Confirm Mr. X's involvement in something.
....Stealthy Method - Hack office computer.
....Not-So-Stealthy Method - Interrogate the guy.
..Find and confirm the identity of captives.
Captives are being held in the underground cells. The door code is known only by Mr. X, the head of security (who mans the security office in the house) and the two main grunts, one of which has a twitchy memory. The code can be found by hacking the security office computer, by interrogating Mr. X (an "anything else I should know?" part of the main deal)/the head of security/the grunt that isn't an idiot, or by following a sequence of events that starts with listening to a conversation between the grunts in the garage about whether or not the captives had been fed that day (no). The player can then follow Idiot Grunt into the tunnel, where he'll radio to his buddy that he's forgotten the code. It'll be radioed back to him, and as long as the player is close enough, they'll hear it.
They can then follow the guy in, or wait for him to finish and leave.

Secondary Objectives
..Always possible:
....Obtain documents hidden in a secret room of the guest house.
..Only possible if the player remains unseen:
....Bug the limo.
....Bug the yacht.
It would be clear that if the player were to be seen, an examination would be inevitable; the bugs would be revealed before they would be of any use.

Details, Details

·The mission would start and end in the water, but the player would decide in what order and how to complete objectives.

·The guard presence outside would be significant, especially as the player got nearer to the house. Inside, however, would be a relative safe zone, with only the head of security manning the security office, and possibly one or two watching a moving in the theater...because it could be amusing.

·Thermal goggles would be used to look through the roof to locate people inside to avoid (depending on speed and the status of the person inside [awake, asleep, etc], the player may be heard).

·If an alarm is triggered, all family members will enter the panic room and it will be locked down while the guards do a thorough sweep. All lights will be turned on. If the player can remain hidden for that time, the lights will be turned back off, the kids and Mrs. X will go back to bed, and Mr. X will head to his office.

·Because of obvious issues, the kids' bedrooms would be locked and prompt a "there's nothing in there you need (so why are you trying to go in there you idiot?)."

·The identity of Mr. X is unimportant. He could be involved in politics, the mafia, or sell gardening tools on the black market. I wouldn't care as long as I got to play around at his house.  

This is like opening a time capsule. lol

Pandora Tomorrow is such a great entry, I feel that it is too underrated by the fans.
I also like how mission locations are varied with some outdoor environments, that's imo a point on which Ubisoft Shanghai did better job than Ubisoft Montréal in the early games.

I think my opinion of it was marred because I originally played them out of order. Basically, after CT, nothing really stands a chance...
This time was different, since I started it immediately after finishing 1. The progress is clear, and I definitely have more appreciation for it now.

But overall in the four first games, devs managed to make us live a real and thrilling stealth espionage adventure, managing to renew gameplay or give it enough different coating so the games don't feel repetitive. And that was common to the other games of that era, games had a soul back then. The new Hitman games have a great gameplay but most of the missions and ways to kill lack personality and are way less badass and impressive than the ones from the old games. The atmosphere in Contracts and Blood Money is far better than the one in the new trilogy, same thing with the old games compared to Blacklist (Conviction is a special case).

Yeah, the tone definitely changed, too, which I think impacts the feel of the missions. The early SCs were dark, but in PT and CT, especially, the core characters had a lot of personality. I've always liked the contrast between the seriousness of the missions and the levity of the interactions/dialogue.

The SWAT turn animation looks cool but I never really liked it, because it literally makes Sam invisible so it ruins the immersion for me.

That's fair. For me it's one of those cases where I know it's silly, but it doesn't bother me.

I once thought about an animation that would allow Sam to go over an open door but that would involve making some noise, maybe too much haha. I'll have to do a sketch of it someday.

Please do!

Pandora Tomorrow has my favorite villain in the entire series: Pointdexter. I really like that guy. He's smart, he's working for the US government so he knows what's going on, the way he talks is professional. Sadono is an interesting character as well, but I prefer when villains are real spies or agents rather than mercenaries or terrorists. Except in Blacklist, Sadiq's character was way too cliché and ridiculous for me to take him seriously.

I liked Soth, too, but I'm usually somewhat indifferent toward villains unless they're really fleshed out, or they do something I really don't like. For example, I remember more about the JBA members than most of the other baddies in the series because you have so many more direct interactions with them as a player. I didn't like them, but I do remember them.
I really wanted to like Sadiq, though, because of Carlo Rota. IMO the issues with that character were not because of him.

Also I remember that they improved the alarm system in PT. No more non-hidden bodies that trigger an alarm, and the introduction of this 3 steps alarm with guards putting on helmets and bulletproof vests. This was a nice addition but the system then introduced in CT was the pinnacle of this idea.

It's good evolution. They have to start somewhere and at least they made progress each time.

I don't even remember that they changed the light meter by putting 3 sections instead of 5. Anyway I don't really look at the light meter when I play, excpet in very rare and special occasions or in situations where the game lacks optimization and has bad shadow rendering (which is more the case with Ubisoft Shanghai's games). Anyway I feel the lighting system was well done and didn't need to look at this light meter, but maybe it's just my way to play these games ^^

It is pretty easy to see when you're hidden, since that whole bottom section is essentially "dark". Boy does that change in CT, though.

@noah_fence2022 Glad that worked! And yep, that should work for all of the embassy missions.

As for the gadgets, that I don't know. Some of the restocking numbers are effected by difficulty, but I didn't think that came into play until Realistic or Perfectionist.

Doing a little research... lol

Okay, I searched some old threads and it appears that the number of "active" (in inventory and/or placed) mines is limited based on difficulty. If the mines were triggered, you should be able to refill them, based on what I'm seeing, but I'm not sure if it's counting the number of all mines, or the number of each kind of mine.

Sorry that I don't have more info - I have very little experience with mines (I'm a mostly hand-to-hand takedown player).

@luckybide It felt very alpha back then. Now...maybe beta? lol

It's been a while since I noticed any updates, but hopefully they're still working on it. The notifications are nice, and even though there are still some issues with it, I do like dark mode. It fits Splinter Cell better, too.

The last Thief from 2014 was nice but disappoiting, it didn't feel like a real Thief game.

@luckybide I remember people saying that about Deadly Shadows, too. Some of it was because of the third-person option, but that's how I like to play. As an option, though, I definitely don't understand the hate. The 2014 one had some elements I liked, but I didn't get into it to nearly the same degree as DS.

But Eidos Montreal did an amazing job with the two last Deus Ex games, I dream of the day this studio will announce a new one.
And hopefully the next Thief game will have a third person mode so you can enjoy it ^^
Anyway if Embracer brings back these franchises the right way, that could give a good impulsion to the stealth genre. The more AAA games we will have, the more attention this will bring into this genre, and possibly interests new players.

Agreed. We're long overdue for a true next-gen light and shadow stealth game. With the technological advancements we're seeing these days, making a very high-quality, balanced game is definitely within reach.

I talked too fast, the problem came back for me haha. I need to log in again even if I'm already logged in on the main website ^^'

That's a shame... It's bizarre, though. Even though it doesn't automatically log me in here, it does show notifications at first. I still have to go to another part of Ubi and back before it actually works, though.

Oh they added an time limit for editing ?
I miss the old forums more and more 

Yep, the editing window is now 24 hours. It started at 5 mins! There are reasons to have a limit, but I'd suggested that trusted members not have one. That was about six months ago, though...

Interesting. So the game still isn't fully complete yet. I guess Ubisoft as a whole company still has troubles recruiting people.

They're probably going for the best candidates that they can. Even with everything that happened, they're probably still flooded. Plus it's Splinter Cell - who wouldn't want their name on that?

I also wonder what breakables mean in the case of Splinter Cell. I first thought about penetrable surfaces during gunfights. But I'd rather prefer to be for throwable items like bottles, haha. Or as we dream for a long time, maybe throwing bottles or shooting at tube light bulbs would end up creating broken glass on the ground, which would make noise if we step on it.
Or maybe they plan to add a knife in the remake and we would be able to break locks and cut fabric like in CT.

I thought about bottles, but aren't those done with emitters? Also, I wouldn't think that it'd require an entire role...
I'm picturing environment destruction...chairs, tables...even buildings? That's a little scary. There are situations where it'd be fine, especially cinematics. However, anything like the destructible environments from 2007 Conviction would really change the tone of a classic Splinter Cell. I do want to be supportive of options in gameplay, but breaking things isn't very stealthy.

PS: on another topic, IO Interactive announced that Freelancer mode will be postponed, but the new map is coming in july: https://www.ioi.dk/hitman-3-year-2-road-ahead/: (https://ioi.dk/hitman-3-year-2-road-ahead)
This map could make an interesting environment for SC ^^

I like that image - nice atmosphere. The shadows aren't quite dark enough, but the sandcastle's a nice touch.