Home Gaming New Thief loses its experience system

New Thief loses its experience system

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tazstealing

The new game from Eidos Montreal bearing the Thief name could be an amazing reboot, or it could be a terrible game that only cashes in on the name of its forebear. Whichever outcome, there’s a vociferous group of fans that will never be happy with the game – and those fans are actually affecting the game’s development.

Eidos Montreal confirmed that the system has been removed, and it was done as a result of fan feedback.

"Fans might be surprised how often the devs go to the forum to see how things are perceived in the ‘real world’," Eidos’ Daniel Windfeld Schmidt said.  "This feedback is extremely valuable to us, so as you can imagine, the consistent reaction to the XP system was something that indicated we needed to revisit some design decisions."

It does mean that players won’t be punished by an end-mission lack of XP if they do missions in different ways.

"We wanted to put emphasis on stealing things, and put the rewards on the stealing aspect. We want to allow the player to decide the ‘how to’ – we shouldn’t judge how the player wants to achieve their goal, only reward them for achieving it."

The game will still have an RPG-lite vibe about it, and instead, Garret will have to focus on stealing things if he wants to upgrade his various abilities.

"The goal is to use gold to buy elements to progress, to encourage the player to steal," Game Director Nic Cantin says. "The player will be able to choose how to spend money, for more stealthy or more aggressive tools."

On the one hand, I love that Eidos is listening to fans – but on the other,  while i do agree that Thief should be primarily about stealing, I do sometimes wish those especially vocal fans who think they know everything would shut up, and just let developers make the games they want to.

What do you think?

Last Updated: October 17, 2013

30 Comments

  1. ToshZA

    October 17, 2013 at 14:33

    I think its a catch 22 in every case. Because there are so many people, opinions will always vary, and if devs don’t listen, fans won’t be happy, and if devs do listen, who do they listen to? They can’t please everyone, and someone will always get the short end of the stick.

    That’s the world we live in.

    Reply

    • Skyblue

      October 17, 2013 at 14:59

      Agreed, opinions are like assholes, everybody has one.

      Reply

      • RapturedMossel

        October 17, 2013 at 15:28

        Yup, just look where my opinion got me this morning.

        Reply

    • SargonTheGreatPandaOfAkkad

      October 17, 2013 at 15:56

      Solution. Make new titles. Then old fans (purists or otherwise) won’t have their expectations (and fond childhood memories) butchered by Jay Wilson the Devourer of Small Bunnies and Dreams.

      Reply

      • ToshZA

        October 17, 2013 at 16:02

        This would be a great solution. I support this way of thinking.

        Reply

        • SargonTheGreatPandaOfAkkad

          October 17, 2013 at 16:07

          I generally just support thinking. After investing a fair few million years into reaching ever greater intellectual heights, you’d think it’d come naturally? But glad we agree. 😉

          Reply

          • ToshZA

            October 17, 2013 at 16:11

            Oddly enough, the more the human population grows, the thinner the intelligence pool seems to get.

  2. Alien Emperor Trevor

    October 17, 2013 at 14:38

    I think when it comes to larger game mechanics, devs should stick to their plans. They came up with them for a reason after all. If they choose to expand or alter it based on feedback, that’s great – but removing it because people who haven’t played it have complained about it is silly.

    This is the reason I don’t bother reading the Star Citizen forums any more. I deal with enough whiny kids during the day as it is.

    Reply

    • Sageville

      October 17, 2013 at 14:41

      What games do we play that don’t have a “Progress” or XP bar?

      I think I’d be lost.

      Reply

      • SaintsRowNigri

        October 17, 2013 at 14:43

        Gears of War? Or am I missing your question now?

        Reply

        • Sageville

          October 17, 2013 at 15:01

          Hmm, doesn’t GoW have some sort of Level system? (Never Played it)

          Reply

          • ToshZA

            October 17, 2013 at 15:04

            Not as far as I remember. But then, all I remember was loading the game, killing some shit, and 3 hours later watching the credits thinking “That was a waste of money, what am I going to do the rest of the weekend?”

          • SaintsRowNigri

            October 17, 2013 at 15:19

            If I had a hat, I would tip that to you, Good Sir…

          • JHN

            October 17, 2013 at 16:42

            Nope no leveling up in GOW

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        October 17, 2013 at 14:48

        The way I understand this particular story is that people complained about upgrades being purchased through XP, and that if they only complete certain objectives in a level, then they get less XP & therefore can’t get as many upgrades as people who complete more. Which to me makes perfect sense – because why should they get the same reward for rushing through a level as people who see & do everything.

        Reply

        • Sageville

          October 17, 2013 at 15:00

          Yeah, putting a higher XP value on Rush vs stealth would force peeps for play rush style, rather gooi XP for completion of mission instead of how you completed the mission.

          Reply

  3. Johan Fourie

    October 17, 2013 at 14:52

    “I do sometimes wish those especially vocal fans who think they know everything would shut up, and just let developers make the games they want to.”

    Do you remember that steaming pile of Alien Colonial Marines?

    Yea.No.

    Reply

    • loftie

      October 17, 2013 at 14:57

      and auction house 3!

      Reply

      • Johan Fourie

        October 18, 2013 at 08:32

        God, one of the main reasons I never even bothered to pick up the game. Diablo ended with D2 for me. :/

        Reply

  4. loftie

    October 17, 2013 at 14:53

    NOOOO, look at what happened to Auction House (Diablo) 3!!!

    Keep the spirit of Thief, dont fix it if it aint broke..

    Reply

  5. Alien Emperor Trevor

    October 17, 2013 at 14:53

    I finished downloading The Dark Mod last night, will give it a whirl over the weekend and get my Thief on.

    Reply

  6. Lourens Jordaan

    October 17, 2013 at 15:11

    Stealth vs Agressive tools? Sounds more like Thief vs Robber. Both have stealing involved but they’re not the same thing.

    Reply

    • SaintsRowNigri

      October 17, 2013 at 15:29

      YAY!!! South Africa being acknowledged in a game too!!!

      Reply

  7. iTile

    October 17, 2013 at 15:45

    I’m going to have a thief marathon soon, and upload it to youtube. So people can see how thief was, and how it has been ruined.

    Reply

  8. JHN

    October 17, 2013 at 16:44

    Im starting to think this is basically going to be Dishonored except not killing people but stealing things, not sure if thats a good or a bad thing, I loved dishonored but some originality would be great.

    Reply

    • taekahn

      October 20, 2013 at 00:01

      You have it reversed, dishonored borrowed from the thief franchise, not the other way around.

      Reply

      • JHN

        October 21, 2013 at 10:33

        Thats all good and well but dishonored added a new dynamic to genre, is thief going to do the same or is it going to be a “repeat” i have a feeling the success of this game hinges on it being able to do something new!

        Reply

  9. Zubayr Bhyat

    October 18, 2013 at 08:33

    TBH I think this is agood choice. The first Thief game didn’t need a XP system, and this won’t either. Character development in terms of items is sufficient for a game like this. I see a snag though – How innovative will gameplay be to offset the lack of the XP system.

    Reply

  10. Johan du Preez

    October 18, 2013 at 08:54

    My spider senses tells me this is heading for a fail.

    Reply

  11. brethren

    October 23, 2013 at 18:49

    If they were making a new game with a new IP, I’d agree with the opinion of “vocal fans should shut up and let devs make the games they want to make.” But this is Thief, and if you’re going to use the name to sell some games, then you’re also going to have standards to live up to. Arkane came up with DIshonored, and while it was thief inspired, it was a new IP and they could do whatever they wanted to with it. But this is different – they’re using Thief and Garrett.

    In short, if you’re going to make a Thief game, make it thiefy. Getting XP for a headshot is not thiefy. Luckily, the devs realized this and didn’t let their pride mess with them.

    Reply

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