Thief and TES

[OpalEyedFan]

I love the two first thief games and back in the days I followed the developement of Thief3 with hopes of soon getting yet another classic thief game to play. 2002 was dramatic as we lost Emil Pagliaroulo to the ElderScrolls series. The forums to follow when one is interested in thief games is now, as it was back then, TTLG.com.

 

Now Thief4 is in the works and once more I get my hopes up, expecting an epic thief game experience.

After Deus Ex3 now being released, Thief4 is next in line using the same engine and tech, so hopefully soon pics of T4 will appear on the net.

 

Well, in a moment of nostalgia I went back and reread various posts at ttlg that lead up to Emil leaving the T3 team and joining Bethesda. Btw did you notice the plain common wood chest from Morrowind looking pretty much the same as the wooden chest in Thief?

I figured someone might find this stuff interesting as it documents Emil expressing his admiration for the TES games prior to joining Bethesda.

 

So here are some posts from TTLG 2002, the year Emil switched team :

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26th Apr 2002 Vitali Kram

 

Where is Emil Pagliarulo?!

I worry about Emil Pagliarulo. This man was always with community on this forums. But after his shocking news about "Thief 3 only for XBox" or "PC version after XBox version" Emil disappear from our forums. But we know -- he is still working on Thief 3 as level designer. In my opinion, Thief 3-management just forbid Emil talk with community. If it is then its not fairly from Ion-Storm side. . . . .

. . . . Hey! Thief3-management-censor-men release to us Emil !!! Don't hurt Emil !!!

 

(may be I little brutal and Emil business not so bad. But Emil good man! Paul, what will you say? May be you little enlighten us about Emil. Is he alive? Or Warren eat him long ago? (joke))

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27th Apr 2002 Egg Boy

....

....Originally posted by Vitali Kram

Where is Emil Pagliarulo?! But Emil good man! Paul, what will you say? May be you little enlighten us about Emil. Is he alive? Or Warren eat him long ago? (joke)

 

I suspect Emil has just been very, very busy lately polishing his Advance Wars skills. I heard a rumor that he's got an upcoming "tiebreaker" Advance Wars duel against an individual who is -- by all accounts -- something of a "Genghis Khan" when it comes to strategy games, and whose very name instills fear in the hearts of men in many lands.

 

I suspect that if I were faced with the prospect of an upcoming duel against such a mighty

opponent, I too would be spending all of my spare time preparing for the coming onslaught rather than posting on the TTLG forums.

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29th Apr 2002 Ion-Emil

I Live...AGAIN!

Whaddup all!

 

Yeah, I've been absent from the forums lately. But, before the rumor mill starts churning out a batch of complete falsehoods, let me set the record straight: never once did Eidos, Ion, Warren or Garrett himself forbid me from posting anything on the message boards, before or after my infamous piece of "news." No, I never got in any kind of trouble, and the powers that be were completely understanding of the situation. So there.

Actually, the truth is I've just been extraordinarily busy lately trying to balance my work and

personal life. Not sure who knows this, but my wife and I had another baby five months ago (Cormac Avery), and as you can imagine my family keeps me pretty busy. So, when I'm at the office I tend to concentrate on work, and when I go home I'm busy being daddy.

But...that's still all just an excuse, and the real reason I haven't posted is that I'm a huge

procrastinator! So, I'll be a good boy from now on. Even if I can't say anything, I'll still drop in to hang out and say high.

 

Til next time,

--------

Emil Pagliarulo

Victorian Slumlord

Thief 3

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30th Apr 2002 Ion-Emil

 

I think it's safe to say that you guys will be happy to know how many of your ideas and design concepts have inspired us. Of course, the biggest problem is that I can't tell you WHICH ideas we've decided to go with and which ones we haven't.

 

There was actually one point when all the designers were looking in the forums and checking out everyone's suggestions and wishlists. As it turned out, soooo many of them were part of our plans.

 

I've read a couple of posts that sort of implied that Thief 3's design is already set, and we're proceeding with the game we have spec'd regardless of whatever you guys might suggest. Well, that IS largely true. As a professional project, Thief 3 has a set schedule, a set number of resources, and has been in development for quite a while now....so of course there are things that are pretty nailed down in our overall design.

 

BUT....that's not to say that the Thief 3 designers don't want (and need!) inspiration from you guys. While the "big picture" of Thief 3 may very well be set in stone, there's still a lot of room for flexibility in the smaller level design details. That's where your suggestions, ideas, and brainstorms come in.

----

Emil

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19th Jun 2002 Egg Boy

Originally posted by oRGy

And the reason Egg Boy can't answer any technical questions is of course because HE'S BEEN PLAEYING MORROWAND ALL DAYE LIEK A BAD-BOY!!!

 

Shhhh! Not so LOAUDE! Be NISE and DOANT TELL MY SEAKRETS!!!

If teh WAREN SPECTRO reades teh forrums and findes out taht I haev bean palaying teh MORROWINDE all daye instead fo WOARKING liek I SHOUALED, it could get me into teh TROUBAL!

 

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20th Jun 2002 noah

TIII and Morrowind

If I may de-lurk for a moment...

 

First off - I'm a huge fan of the Thief series and have been ever since I played TDP in college when it was first released. Many a long night did I spend sulking about in the shadows, and being subsequently amazed (and disappointed :-p) when the early morning (real world) light began peeking through my window shade.

 

Needless to say, Thief has had a profound impact on me (not to mention warping my mind a little :-D) and is one of the reasons I chose the gaming profession...specifically, the computer gaming profession.

 

I am an artist for Bethesda and had the privilege of working on Morrowind for a few years. I can't think of a higher complement than one coming from a developer for a highly respected series, especially one I hold in such high regard. Thief: TDP is right up there with games like Ultima VII as one of my all time favorite games ever. Heck I even...uh..."borrowed" the wooden chest design from Thief for the plain common wood chest in Morrowind! ;-)

 

I eagerly await Thief III (and constantly hype it up to anyone here who will listen) and look

foreword to other offerings from ISA. Thanks again for the kind words and for bringing such amazingly rich, detailed, atmospheric, and immersive experiences to the table!

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20th Jun 2002 Egg Boy

Re: TIII and Morrowind

Originally posted by noah

I am an artist for Bethesda and had the privilege of working on Morrowind for a few years. I can't think of a higher complement than one coming from a developer for a highly respected series, especially one I hold in such high regard.

GROUP HUG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks, noah. I can't think of the last time I had so much fun playing an RPG ...

... nothing quite like getting my first quest for the Telvanni, and finding a corridor that goes up, and realizing I had to learn to levitate just to complete the quest, and finding that my intended recipient would rather burn her own cat-slave alive and make a coat of his fur than wear the gown I'm trying to give her ......

...and then finding I want to rejoin the main quest, and discovering I'm such a flaming idiot

that somewhere along the line I sold the package I was supposed to give to Caius Cossades, and now Caius won't talk to me ....... and finally discovering, after 6+ hours of searching and spelunking through old save-game files, that I sold the package to the Telvanni alchemist in Vivec within the first 10 minutes of play, but fortunately, he still has the package and is willing to sell it back to me ....... and concluding that I'm basically an idiot ... ... and eventually being turned into a vampire ...

 

Anyway, please send the good folks at Bethesda my warmest regards for making a truly excellent game.

Ah, well, back to T3 and DX2 ...

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20th Jun 2002 Ion-Emil

Hey Noah,

 

You should also know that the Thief 3 artists are completely in love with Morrowind's aesthetic. If I may quote Ion Austin artist Rob Kovak, "Dude, this game looks bad-ASS!"

And everyone else agrees, too.

It's kind of funny, too. Before Thief: TDP. the only game that offered anything close to the type of thief gameplay was Daggerfall, which I played as this sweet cat burglar character.

Now I'm playing Morrowind as a custom Argonian "Shadowscale," and ripping off anything that's not nailed down. Garrett would be in klepto heaven on Vvardenfall...

Anyway, nice to meet you!

 

-----

Emil

Last edited by Ion-Emil; 20th Jun 2002 at 21:39.

 

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5th Nov 2002 EmilPags

Farewell, Taffers!

Hey all,

 

Well, this isn't REALLY a farewell, since I'll still be floating around the Thief forums. But I

just wanted to let you guys know that my time with the Thief series has officially ended. It was a great run, and I had a blast, but in the end I decided it was time for a change.

 

I'm now at Bethesda, working as a designer on the Elder Scrolls series (you know, Morrowind-type goodness). I've always loved Bethesda's games, and have always wanted to help make them. Now's my chance.

Rest assured, Thief 3 is in great hands! I like to think I did some good work on the project before I left, and you can be sure that everyone else is producing great stuff as well.

Well, anyway, stay Thiefy, and I'll see you in the Bethesda forums!

-----

Emil Pagliarulo

Designer

Elder Scrolls "Stuff"

Edited September 4, 2011 by Opal-Eyed Fan