Thief fan missions and campaigns

[Icewater]

That "old murky software rendered look" is mostly the lack of texture filtering, I think. I'm pretty sure you can turn that off in NewDark.

 

[marbleman]

Cat, first of all, you're right: I wasn't replying to your particilar question about ESRGAN pack or the use of mods in OMs for that matter. ESRGAN pack is indeed better than any texture mod out there as it doesn't try to alter the game by adding vegetation that wasn't there before or replacing in-game paintings with real-life photos. I was replying to the statement that "there is nothing wrong in trying to make the game look better" because there clearly are things to take into consideration, especially when it comes to FMs. The example above is just the most vivid comparison I could come up with, but this happens in a lot of FMs. Best case scenario, you get a weird mish-mash of custom textures meant for the FM (which can still be low-res) and HD textures that replace the stock ones. Oftentimes, it looks worse than the vanilla mission. Worst case scenario, you get what I've shown above. In many old FMs, authors imported custom textures by replacing the stock ones. For example, that starry ceiling is a replacement of cement. When a texture mod comes in, it replaces the texture yet again, and you get this. Therefore, any texture pack, including Thief 2 ESRGAN pack currently in development, will result in these issues.

Andronovo, no need to twist my words to come up with counter-arguments. Besides, while there are indeed missions made with the texture packs in mind (though I can honestly only name one, Bertrand's Forgotten Tomb), I can tell you for a fact that most of them aren't.

I'm not gonna like, I have developed an aversion to all texture packs and will likely never use one, but I guess with all this rambling what I'm trying to say is: if you absolutely want to use texture packs, use them mindfully.

 

[Murderer’s thumb]

For disabling texture filtering you have to make several changes to the cam_ext.cfg. You get blocky textures, but you don't get the harsh shadows.

 

[JarlFrank]

This specific texture pack doesn't work well with this FM. Therefore all texture packs are bad.

See this is the stupid fanboy bullshit I was talking about. What about fan mission that are specifically designed with texture packs in mind?

Then the FM author has probably included the new textures in their own fam folder so they're integrated in the FM and don't overwrite any vanilla textures, rather than relying on players to install third party mods.

Unless he's a gajo, then he probably just overwrites vanilla textures.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Just finished the "Thieves' Guild" OM in my T1 playthrough, and I'm convinced that it is the worst mission in the entire game by far. It's massively long, needlessly convoluted, yet somehow manages to be mostly barren and empty and (worst of all) it adds nothing to the plot or gameplay of the game. (It adds fluff to the lore and background of the game world, but that's about it.)

Every mission up until this one introduces some new gameplay mechanics. The tutorial lays down the basics, then Lord Bafford's Manor is thrown at the player to check if he was paying attention. Cragscleft adds metal floors, the undead, Hammerites, moss arrows, holy water, noisemakers and some light terrain traversing. The Bonehoard adds more undead, Burricks, traps, fire arrows, basic puzzles and goes all in on terrain traversing by adding rope arrows. "Assassins" adds lockpicks, mines and scripted events and then we should get "The Sword", which puts all of these elements to the test... but instead Thief Gold players get "Thieves' Guild", which adds... labyrinths and frustration?

At the end of it I had 72 knockouts, 2416/2716 loot, 8 Mines, 10 healing potions (!!!), 3 Speed Potions, 6 Flashbombs, 12 keys and a sick feeling to my stomach. The loot count made me stop and pause, and I checked back on "Assassins" - it has max 2405 loot.

Meaning... there's really no reason to play "Thieves' Guild" at all, is it? 9 extra gold doesn't make a licking difference.

So can't I just remove it from the mission line-up in USER.CFG by deleting the "15,"-segment ? Or will that börk the game?

As for my impression of the ESRGAN texture pack - no major complaints so far. Some textures look bad if you look at them long enough, but otherwise most of them blend in pretty well. What they do for me is that they make distant things look much better - it's as if Garrett finally got his prescription glasses.

 

[Psych0sis]

Some people here will soon screech at you for daring to insult Thieve's Guild, but I'm with you UC. Overall it's okay but it suffers from a pretty bland map and the gameplay really, REALLY drags on after a while, but I wouldn't say it's the worst level in the whole series.

That belongs to something like Kidnapped or Casing the Joint.

 

[Arrowgrab]

Just finished the "Thieves' Guild" OM in my T1 playthrough, and I'm convinced that it is the worst mission in the entire game by far.

Since the topic came up anyway, let me ask a question from all of you: can you recommend an FM which is like Thieves' Guild but done right?

Let me explain what I mean: Thieves' Highway (rooftop) missions were established by Life of the Party, and became really huge with FMs. It's not hard to see why. They're set in an environment uniquely suited for non-linear exploration and complex 3-dimensional navigation. They can also have a refreshing variety of environments with different styles of architecture and buildings you can "dip" into a bit. In time, the idea was expanded (or perhaps you might say combined with missions such as Ambush! and Trace the Courier) into comprehensive "city crawls", for lack of a better name. You know the sort of FM where you get to explore a complex cityscape with rooftops, interior areas and street-level exploration all being important.

So, I've been wondering for a while: are there any FM's that are like rooftop missions (or city crawls), but with a subterranean emphasis? FM's which take place largely in an urban underground environment (sewers, basements, hideouts, tombs, etc.), but still offer complex nonlinear 3D exploration and varied environment which feels like a well-made rooftop/city mission, only underground?

 

[marbleman]

So, I've been wondering for a while: are there any FM's that are like rooftop missions (or city crawls), but with a subterranean emphasis? FM's which take place largely in an urban underground environment (sewers, basements, hideouts, tombs, etc.), but still offer complex nonlinear 3D exploration and varied environment which feels like a well-made rooftop/city mission, only underground?

Breathing Corpses

 

[Unkillable Cat]

So, I've been wondering for a while: are there any FM's that are like rooftop missions (or city crawls), but with a subterranean emphasis? FM's which take place largely in an urban underground environment (sewers, basements, hideouts, tombs, etc.), but still offer complex nonlinear 3D exploration and varied environment which feels like a well-made rooftop/city mission, only underground?

Off the top of my head there's the first mission of "Ruins of Originia"... starts in a mining village, then goes bonkers through a series of tombs, mines, tunnels, lairs and even an aquarium.

 

[Arrowgrab]

Thanks for the tips! I think I played Ruins of Originia back in the day.

 

[nicked]

So can't I just remove it from the mission line-up in USER.CFG by deleting the "15,"-segment ? Or will that börk the game?

You can edit missflag.str and save a copy in /strings, add skip to the mission you want to skip i.e. miss_15: "skip"

I think Thieves Guild is mission 15.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

There was also a new T2 FM by a new author, Merchant's Manor, released just last week, but it seems to have some serious technical problems so maybe wait for an update on that one.

I've played it, and I actually quite enjoyed it. It's a mansion heist with lots of Mechanists, lots (x2) of open spaces and lots (x3) of marble floors. And a hedge maze for the hell of it. As a result it feels like an old and primitive FM cobbled together for fun, with proportions of things are off-kilter and things placed around 'because it looks kinda cool'. There are also some very cool "show, don't tell" moments, like the guard who may be about to rape a passed-out servant girl, or the aftermath of the manor lord's skillz with the ladies in his bedroom.

The technical problems seem to stem from the author's lack of experience with DromED, but the end result is still worth a look. The soundscape seems skewed, with the occasional dead zone and noises being heard through walls in the manor. There are no objectives on Expert level so there's no point in selecting that difficulty level, and a secret door is supposed to be button-operated but the door itself is still frobbable. It all adds up to give the place a surreal feeling. There's also something in this FM that I'm not sure whether is due to a bug or by the author's intent, and that's the fact that doors don't immediately fly open once they're successfully picklocked. It took a while to get used to, but it also just feels sensible.

So yeah, wait for a possible update.

EDIT: Typo.

 

[SlyFoxx]

I worry about those two sometimes.

 

[Icewater]

Hory-fucking-shet, a 13 mission campaign in [current year]?

WOW.

 

[Mikeal]

Hey taffers what's your top 10 Thief fan missions?

 

[Melan]

In no particular order:

• Calendra's Cistern / Legacy
• The Seven Sisters
• Gems of Provenance
• Shadows of Doubt
• Endless Rain
• Whistling of the Gears
• Thieves' Highway
• Sepulchre of the Sinistral
• Keeper of the Prophecies
• the Rocksbourg series

 

[Curratum]

Too bad that the Broken Goddess campaign is being led by Yandros, his maps are almost always shit. It's going to be vaporware anyway, they don't even have screenshots.

I'm only sad that we will never get the Black Parade TG campaign. Skacky is now a full-time employee of 3D Realms, working on WRATH Aeon of Ruin, so Black Parade is done. Shame, because it looked like they had SO MUCH built already.



Skacky claims three new people are working on it but eh, I don't think it will ever come out.

As for favorite FMs, I guess uhh...

- Transitions in Chaos: Conspiracies in the Dark
- Greyfeather Gems 1+2
- When Still...
- Heist Society
- Mystic Gems: Pt.1 Unlucky Soul + Pt.2 Heart of Bohn

 

[marbleman]

In no particular order and without repeating what's already mentioned:

Thief 2X
Ominous Bequest
Broken Triad
Godbreaker
Saints and Thieves
The Chalice of Souls
Rose Garden
Disorientation
Bad Debts
Lost Among the Forsaken

 

[Unkillable Cat]

In alphabetical order, and contains a few personal favorites (and should not be considered a definitive or final list):

A Night in Rocksbourg 3: Ink and Dust
Breathing Corpses
City Public Water Works (3rd mission of Gems of Provenance)
Disorientation
The Folly of Youth
Lost Among the Forsaken
Mines of Margroth (1st mission of Ruins of Originia)
Ominous Bequest
<Insert skacky FM here>
Unbidden Guest

Too bad that the Broken Goddess campaign is being led by Yandros, his maps are almost always shit. It's going to be vaporware anyway, they don't even have screenshots.

While I agree that them announcing the project so early was not very sensible, I disagree with your opinion of Yandros and his map-making skills. They're not shit, but there is an outdated approach to them. Sometimes that works for them, sometimes not.

 

[Psych0sis]

Too bad that the Broken Goddess campaign is being led by Yandros, his maps are almost always shit. It's going to be vaporware anyway, they don't even have screenshots.

I'm only sad that we will never get the Black Parade TG campaign. Skacky is now a full-time employee of 3D Realms, working on WRATH Aeon of Ruin, so Black Parade is done. Shame, because it looked like they had SO MUCH built already.

What's bad about DCE, Downtowne Funk and Cell 6, to name a few? I quite enjoyed all of those thoroughly, and even then, Yandros doesn't have as big hand on things with this campaign. He's only done work on about 2-3 missions. I agree it did get announced too soon, in my opinion, but work has already begun and some of the missions are coming along very nicely.

Also, you quite literally have no idea what you're talking about with TBP. From what I've been told, it's coming along swimmingly with the new recruits Dirkbogan and Schlock. Hell, as an added bonus I'll even tell you right now Skacky (Yes that one which you think has moved on) JUST did some work on one of the missions last week. It's still a bit off, but it's not dead.

 

[Curratum]

Huh... I thought Skacky was working full-steam on WRATH. Glad to be proven wrong, in this case!

 

[Icewater]

Our Lord And Savior Sensut has come out with the next part of his Dracula campaign remake!

https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150172

 

[Mechs Delight]

There is another new mission, but it's just the usual Beltzer twaddle that has no real purpose for existing.

 

[Psych0sis]

Can't say I've ever enjoyed a Beltzer mission, though I've only played a couple. He seems like a Cardia-lite author who just constantly releases missions ranging from meh to really shitty and honestly I couldn't care any less.

Haven't tried Nosferatu at all, but from what I hear it's basically a walking simulator. But maybe it'll have the atmosphere and spook factor to be worth it for halloween.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I felt like posting about the new Beltzer mission... but considering both how the quality of his missions has been debatable, and how he reacted to my review of his last mission... well, thanks for taking that load off my hands.

I've yet to play it, but I'll at least give it a look. Check impressions in the next post.