Thief fan missions and campaigns

[Icewater]

Also the architecture, including its vertical nature, and the layout and how the level connects together was really well done, especially for a first mission.

 

[Melan]

This has been the most enjoyable mission I have played in a long time! The concept is excellent, and all the elements are in place. The soundscape is good. The architecture is good. The readables are sparse but good. There are challenging sneaking segments. And of course there is so much to explore I still haven't found some 1200 loot.

A clear winner, and a superb first mission!

 

[Max_b5]

Yeah that was an excellent first FM for sure. Good to know that you got along with Dromed. Keep it up marbledude

 

[nicked]

I'm having a lot of fun with this one.

Pros:
- The awesome Sword-style weirdness of the level layout.
- The "find-your-own-path" navigation of the rooftops and ledges is great and some of the best design in the level.
- Good use of original resources and judiciously used custom objects.
- Lots of fun little world-building details, like the rose on the window ledge.
- Open without being confusing - despite the numerous paths, I don't feel lost because of well-placed landmarks and unique areas.

Cons:
- Outside the trippy stuff, the level design, texturing etc. is very boxy and basic - it's perfectly serviceable, just very obviously a first mission in places.
- Story is interesting but under-engaging, I think because, as others have said, there's very little being explained at all.
- Very little challenge - the roofscapes are fun, but all the jumps, parkour etc. are easy, and there's too few, and too predictable, AI to pose any real threat.
- Way too many long lockpicks.

 

[nicked]

And finished! Great fun mission, look forward to part 2!

 

[marbleman]

Thanks for playing!
All criticizms are spot on, though I'd like to note that making every jump easy was very much deliberate. Considering how awkward Thief platforming can be, I wanted to ensure that movement is as fluid as possible.

 

[JarlFrank]

- Way too many long lockpicks.

How to avoid making too long lockpicks when dromeding:

invert the letters so lockpick turns into pocklick, and now imagine having to do a pocklick to open doors
how many pocks would a player want to lick?
not many
therefore make lockpicking short and sweet instead of long and disease-ridden

 

[nicked]

That said, the "Challenge of Patience" did make me chuckle!

 

[Yandros]

My general rule of thumb: Locks should never have more than 2 or 3 tumblers if there are never any AI in the area aside from when pursuing the player. And in many of those cases one might ask why that lock is locked at all.

 

[Max_b5]

I have some good and bad news.

The bad news is that the whole Pagan mission I've been building had to be divided into two missions, and most of the 'The Sword' Maw-ish stuff is in the second half that is still not finished. All because Dromed is a little bitch with cell limits.

The good news is that the first half (the forest) is in beta right now

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Another T2 FM slipped past me recently, I just gave it a go.

"Fall of Anduin Karol" is another debut mission, but a short one. Garrett is to break into a mansion and get some dirt on a hobnob. Pretty standard fare, with some sewers and a corpse thrown in for good measure.

I honestly don't know what to make of this one. For every good idea there's an equally bad one. The readables dost make me think the author playeth the Ultimas too mucheth, and guard placements are atrocious. But there's a clever mind at work here... somewhere. Finding the combination is actually clever, the humor is good and the secret druid grove is very very real, but the loot objective is a little too high.

Don't expect too much of this and just roll with it, it's not that long anyway.

 

[nicked]

Just played through the Black Frog, since it seems to be regularly recommended on Must Play lists etc.

I enjoyed it enough to want to reach the end, but it was a bit of a slog getting there at times.

Pros:
- The story develops at a good pace. There's a good sense of progression, reveals are spaced well and the gradually-raised stakes are effective.
- Some interesting horror elements. The design is at its strongest in spooky areas like the abandoned fishery and there are some fun, scary setpieces.
- Looks good graphically - plenty of interesting environments, and a decent amount of variety.
- Technically profficient, not much in the way of bad bugs and everything works the way it's supposed to.
- The Black Frog world in the final mission was a cool idea, although I would have liked more to have been done with it. Since it reused the layout of the house, there could have been some interesting puzzles to do with switching between the locations. As it is, it does feel very much like a separate place, but still pretty cool.

Cons:
- No two ways about it, gameplay is often a trudge. Unnecessary lockpicking everywhere. Interminable key hunts and looking for secret switches. Having to scroll through TTLG just to make progress is highly immersion breaking.
- The writing... isn't great. I hesitate to criticise too harshly because it clearly wasn't originally written in English. But the readables vary from charmingly odd (likely due to translation), to horribly, immersion-breakingly bad. There are way too many readables along the lines of "Dear person who is not Garrett, First here are three pages of fluff. Now I sure hope Garrett doesn't find the secret thing that I've hidden from him in this exact location. Boy, that would be real bad. Yours Sincerely, Hinty McHinterson."

On the whole, it was worth sticking with, but probably not one I will replay.
There's a lot of fun and memorable moments, particularly in the fourth level, but an interesting story has been smothered in the telling.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

- The writing... isn't great. I hesitate to criticise too harshly because it clearly wasn't originally written in English. But the readables vary from charmingly odd (likely due to translation), to horribly, immersion-breakingly bad. There are way too many readables along the lines of "Dear person who is not Garrett, First here are three pages of fluff. Now I sure hope Garrett doesn't find the secret thing that I've hidden from him in this exact location. Boy, that would be real bad. Yours Sincerely, Hinty McHinterson."

This is what I have countless times referred to as "Audiolog Syndrome", and you just reminded me that the article I planned to write on this has been gathering dust for far too long.

EDIT: typo

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I planned to write on this has been gathering dust for far too long.

Onwards, good fellow.

 

[nicked]

I get why it happens - it's hard to write something that has the sole purpose of providing the player with a hint, while not obviously being a hint. So there's this tendency to overcompensate by padding the clue in unrelated waffle. If you combine that with a lack of confidence in the non-verbal exposition of your level design, you end up with a clunky, over-long infodump that the player has to wade through to get to the important clues. And you get over-shared backstory that would have been more effective if it was merely hinted at.

 

[marbleman]

Using letters, notes, or even ledgers is a good way to avoid audiolog syndrome.

it's hard to write something that has the sole purpose of providing the player with a hint, while not obviously being a hint. So there's this tendency to overcompensate by padding the clue in unrelated waffle.

Hiding clues in a wall of unrelated text is common, but I tend to disagree with such a decision. The clue might seem obvious to the author, but it's often not the case for the player. I definitely missed clues in such readables.

 

[KitchenTong]

Is there a list of the top FMs for Thief 2? I would like to try some.

 

[JarlFrank]

There's no list. But there are some widely recommended FMs.

This thread has lots of recommendations in the first few pages.

Some major classics are all FMs made by Lady Rowena, all FMs made by Eshaktaar, the Calendra series.

 

[Mechs Delight]

"Cracks in the Glass" is a wonderful FM!

 

[Martyr]

anybody here, who is able to explain step by step what I've got to do, to get this FM running?
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=145777
thing is, I've never installed/played a FM so I've zero prior knowledge and I find the instructions to be lacking, for a noob like me.
Thief Gold (gog version) is installed; no mods, patches, etc. what do I have to do next?

 

[Icewater]

1. Install the NewDark patch if you haven't already. The easiest way is to install TFix, which includes it and some other handy things.
2. Configure Thief Gold to use the built-in FM selector. The simplest way is to open cam_mod.ini in the game folder and change the line ";fm" underneath "; always start the FM Selector (if one is present)" by removing the semicolon in front. This will cause Thief Gold to automatically bring up the FM selector when the game is launched.
3. Also in the game folder, create a folder named "FMs" if there isn't already one. Then, create an appropriately-named folder inside that one that will hold the files for the FM.
4. Download the FM and unzip it to the folder that you created in step 3.
5. Start the game, the FM selector will pop up. The FM will have the same name as the folder you made in step 3. Select it and hit the "Play FM" button.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Thief Gold from GOG comes packed with NewDark already, so that is not a concern.

 

[Icewater]

I'm thinking it's probably not the latest version, though.

 

[Martyr]

1. Install the NewDark patch if you haven't already. The easiest way is to install TFix, which includes it and some other handy things.
2. Configure Thief Gold to use the built-in FM selector. The simplest way is to open cam_mod.ini in the game folder and change the line ";fm" underneath "; always start the FM Selector (if one is present)" by removing the semicolon in front. This will cause Thief Gold to automatically bring up the FM selector when the game is launched.
3. Also in the game folder, create a folder named "FMs" if there isn't already one. Then, create an appropriately-named folder inside that one that will hold the files for the FM.
4. Download the FM and unzip it to the folder that you created in step 3.
5. Start the game, the FM selector will pop up. The FM will have the same name as the folder you made in step 3. Select it and hit the "Play FM" button.

works like a charm, thanks a lot !

 

[JarlFrank]