Thief fan missions and campaigns

[Unkillable Cat]

I guessed (correctly) it was yours pretty early on, and I still stand by every word I said about it. You currently hold the crown for 'best T1/TG FM ever made' in my books, and I wish good luck to anyone who tries to take it away from you.

That said, the top result of the contest is a travesty, the Scarlet Cascabel does not deserve the victory here. I do not care for sob stories about what the modders had to go through to get it done. They created their mess, and they had to get outside help (read: others participating in the contest) to get out of it on time. It's good but not that good, and to deserve a shot at the top spot it would have needed more time... which it didn't have. They should not get a pass because they made bad decisions that bit them in the ass.

I know the contest is done in good faith and on friendly terms and all that, and I find comfort in knowing that there is a gaming community out there that is caring and kind and looks out for each other, but if people are willing to disregard the rules of a contest just to have everyone "equally happy" then they should re-examine their priorities. When back-room behind-the-scenes activities take precedence then we have a Problem on our hands. This is why I post about Thief stuff here and not over at TTLG: The last time I did that people there took offense that I dared to point out the Emperor's lack of clothing.

As the Codex is want to say: Modder drama is best drama, but in regards to this I'm just gonna grumble a 'humbug' at this and leave it at that.

 

[DrKubiac]

To me, the biggest issue with Scarlet Cascabel is that some areas had severe issues with gameplay, and it's understandable with context. I've been cursed by most chimneys in this mission, got stuck in terrain and objects, had trouble finding proper shadow to hide in sometimes... It ended fourth on my list because of that. But as a veteran with dromed, I can see the astonishing amount of work and passion that was put in, and it's overwhelming to do such a thing on such a small period of time. Sure, they were way too ambitious and maybe lost focus at some point, but they managed to make it work in the end.

I don't say they deserve the victory because boohoo muh poor authors, I say they fought way harder than most of us did (I guess, I'm not even sure) and it shows to the point I can disregard some flaws. It's not a travesty, they didn't steal the victory at all in my book, the mission has strong qualities. Despite all their efforts and trouble, if the mission was shit, I would have been harsh in the ratings anyway.

And I have the same issues with TTLG, I wish we could be a bit more honest over there. We can be harsh and keep it civil, a hugbox doesn't help much when you're trying to improve.

 

[Psych0sis]

At least I didn't get last

I like Scarlet Cascabel, I even had it in my top 5. But I expected Burrick or Forsaken (my personal top pick) to win. It seems even Rose Garden and Whistling got fucked by retards that probably found them too hard.

 

[DrKubiac]

Yeah a few missions got royally fucked by the votes.

 

[Psych0sis]

Anyone here know of a really good mechanist compound mission? I've played through Hidden Agenda and Watery Grave (though that isn't really a compound per say) as well as replaying eavesdropping 500 times. I need some inspiration on my sanctuary grounds mission and I'm in a rut trying to conceive what might be needed/would be nice to have. Hammerite missions could work too.

And I'm a sucker for a damn good mech/hammer mission.

 

[Mechs Delight]

Plus, I remember the authors of "Scarlet Cascabel" saying that they would work on a bugfixed edition to release in the future (over at TTLG). That was a classy gesture on their part. When (hopefully) the pack is re-released, I think the second mission could honestly challenge Lost among the Forsaken and The Sound of a Burrick in a Room (my co-picks for contest winner) as some of the best Thief Gold missions of all time.

 

[nicked]

I'm super happy with 4th place, was higher than I was expecting.

I ran out of time to finish all the entries sadly. The Scarlet Cascabel was one of them - I hit a crash and never got around to downloading the fixed version.

Of the ones I played, the scores look about right to me.

 

[JarlFrank]

 

[Maggot]

Anyone know the name of the song played in this Thief trailer at around 01:10?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Darude: Sandstorm

 

[Unkillable Cat]

It sounds like a track made by Eric Brosius, but not used in either Thief (2) or System Shock 2.

 

[JarlFrank]

 

[nicked]

If anyone missed it, the Thief 2 anniversary contest is now on: https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=149648

I get that it needs to follow hot on the heels of the last one in order to make the deadline of Thief 2's 20th anniversary, but I reckon I'm still a bit burned out from the last one so I doubt I'll take part. I hope there's a lot of entries, but wouldn't be surprised if others are in the same boat and the turnout isn't as good as the Thief 1 contest.

 

[Melan]

I am sitting this one out, too - simply can't commit the same time and effort this year. I do hope it motivates a slightly different pool of authors to create their amazing missions.

 

[marbleman]

FrenchDecay and I are planning something a bit more ambitious this time. Hopefully, it turns out as good as we imagine it.

Meanwhile, the follow-up to Cracks in the Glass is still not even 10% done.

 

[CyberModuled]

I apoligize if this isn't entirely on topic to the title of the thread but I'm recently installing Thief 2 for another replay with the latest version TFix 2 and I was wondering if the "Sound Enhancement Pack" is worth trying out at all. They say it's just re sampled/remastered sounds but I can expect not to hear any out of place sounds, right?

 

[Unkillable Cat]

octavius In regards to your recent audio troubles with Thief 2, could you tell us whether you used this patch, and whether you enabled this feature?

 

[octavius]

octavius In regards to your recent audio troubles with Thief 2, could you tell us whether you used this patch, and whether you enabled this feature?

Yes, I have it installed. But it shouldn't effect the soundtrack, but rather things like doors opening and such.
I installed a vanilla version of T2 with ugly stretched screen and all, and the background sound in the first level sounded the same to me.

 

[Psych0sis]

Anyone tryout the new Thief 2 campaign "Patriot" ? I played a little bit of it but gave up from boredom. Small uninteresting buildings with only one way to enter for most of them, and little to no rewards in them, so what the fuck was the point? That along with the forced combat confrontations just made it an easy decision to drop it.

It did some neat things though with objects and scripts that I guess could be cool to see in action, but otherwise I'm gonna pass. Should've expected this considering his last FM effort, King's Story, was a bloated mess that ran, looked, and played like shit.

 

[SlyFoxx]

I quite enjoyed KS for the most part but it did suffer in many areas. I don't know how the testing process went but it seemed to suffer from not enough input from others. A bit of "wadda I do now?"...can be good but KS had more than is good. I see that the new mission is already generating a fair share of questions. I imagine we're in for more of the same. Seems to be a Russian thing...making missions extra hard just for the sake of being hard. But I'll get to it at some point. I at least try and play everything as I like shiny new stuff and Zontik does have his own DromEd style and much of it I do quite enjoy.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Downloaded it (2.1 gigs!) and I want to strangle him just for the horrible menu tune. I ended up deleting it from the files (look for 'Boogie.wav' in the \SND\Music folder) but that leaves the crappy menus themselves.

 

[Max_b5]

I use DarkLoader and DL doesn't support 2 GB files, so I'll pass

 

[Icewater]

>DarkLoader
>2019

 

[Max_b5]

 

[Mechs Delight]

I just sort of skimmed through the missions in "Patriot," and it just seemed seemed to check off all the boxes of my personal mission pet peeves (and I agree with Cat that the menus are horrible). Forced ghosting, endless corridors, over-sized buildings, the list goes on and on...