Thief fan missions and campaigns

[ironmask]

I just finished playing intertheft. It was definitely a huge improvement over the original. Less confusing layout and a much stronger atmosphere. I actually manage to beat the mission without entering every room. Pretty impressive for a debut mission.

 

[JarlFrank]

I'm playing the House of the Architect and holy shit, it's positively HUGE. This is gonna take me a while to taff through. Very strong TG style atmosphere, too.

 

[JarlFrank]

Finished House of the Architect after only one hour and thirty minutes, which is less than I expected to spend on it based on the high loot goal and descriptions of its size.

Had a good time with it. Especially that final area where you find Constantine's sword is... quite something else. Don't think I've seen anything like it before.

 

[Curratum]

Butthurt Yandros locked the Black Parade thread. If that thing doesn't come out in 2022, it's officially vaporware.

https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146501&page=17&p=2491164&viewfull=1#post2491164

 

[Unkillable Cat]

"These Unfortunate Ones" by justsomemusicguy

Garrett has a score lined up; a wealthy nobleman has some valuable trinkets on display at his manor that he likes to show off to his friends. First Garrett has to visit his scout to learn the finer details of the heist, before he can pay an unfortunate visit.

This is the author's debut FM, but you wouldn't think that after playing it for a bit. It has amazing attention to detail... but it overdoes it a bit in places. The author calls this a "small FM" - which is total taff considering it's a medium-sized map, which he has split it in half (one part cityscape, one part oversized manor) and weaved a most elaborate web of passageways between the two. But taffers are not allowed to think outside the box, there are a lot of invisible walls up at the parapets and rooftops, and only a handful of stackable items around - the manor lord must have made it a hobby to glue down all the crates. I also noticed a few instances where the AI has been modified, or small scripts have been introduced to produce a pre-determined outcome. (Open the front door of the manor from inside while the guard is standing outside, you'll see what I mean.)

But those are minor pests in what is otherwise an excellent first outing. There's plenty to see and do (including brewing the world's strongest cuppa) and it's full of surprises.

Rating: 8.5/10. Can you find "The Book that was Never Found"?

 

[toughasnails]

Butthurt Yandros locked the Black Parade thread. If that thing doesn't come out in 2022, it's officially vaporware.

https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146501&page=17&p=2491164&viewfull=1#post2491164

Their top guy was hired by Arkane, I doubt that is conductive to him doing much work on it...

Anyway you should know better than being worked up about it. There is a lot of these ambitious community projects for various games that took ages to come out, and there are of course many that never materialised (Dark Mod was once supposed to have lengthy "official" campaign by star FM makers for example).

 

[Krilmar]

I've been following the TTLG thread and skacky's posts on Twitter. Apparently they are over 95% done with it and only scripting is left to do but only one team member is knowledgeable enough to do it. It's all about him finding the time to work on it. If it doesn't come out this year I'll be real surprised.

 

[manifest]

What's going on with the TTLG forums? I can only see 10 or so threads in most of the useful sections.

 

[ciox]

It's that terrible thing called "show only threads from last 30 days", change it to all time.

 

[hibby]

Heads up to anyone following this thread: nicked released a followup to Catacombs of Knoss. I know what I'll be doing for the rest of the evening.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

"Legacy of Knoss" by nicked

Garrett's doing more research into Knoss after having raided his catacombs, and has found what seems like a lead with an antiques dealer in the City district of Greytwist Murking. Taffing ensues.

This one is solid, fun cityscape mission all around. It ticks off all the boxes. The only time I noticed I wasn't having fun was navigating some of the many ledges and sills high above the streets, as precision movements were needed and I fell off too many times. I found 5/8 secrets but also discovered the sixth but couldn't activate it. I was ~1700 short of the total loot, so I probably missed something big. The one thing that disappointed me was the ending, either I'm missing something or it feels off.

Things to keep an eye out for:

# An audiobook of sounds to relax by... solely in written form.
# A cup on an unreachable windowsill, but where there's a will...
# A strange recruitment program in the castle basement.
# A naked noble.
# ZAWA. (I don't know if this has any further meaning.)
# A thief trying to lockpick... a wall?

And many good vantage points high up.

Temporary rating: 8.5/10. Still have yet to do a final passover, but this one looks to be a classic. One of the top entries of 2022.

 

[hibby]

"Legacy of Knoss" by nicked

Garrett's doing more research into Knoss after having raided his catacombs, and has found what seems like a lead with an antiques dealer in the City district of Greytwist Murking. Taffing ensues.

This one is solid, fun cityscape mission all around. It ticks off all the boxes. The only time I noticed I wasn't having fun was navigating some of the many ledges and sills high above the streets, as precision movements were needed and I fell off too many times. I found 5/8 secrets but also discovered the sixth but couldn't activate it. I was ~1700 short of the total loot, so I probably missed something big. The one thing that disappointed me was the ending, either I'm missing something or it feels off.

Things to keep an eye out for:

# An audiobook of sounds to relax by... solely in written form.
# A cup on an unreachable windowsill, but where there's a will...
# A strange recruitment program in the castle basement.
# A naked noble.
# ZAWA. (I don't know if this has any further meaning.)
# A thief trying to lockpick... a wall?

And many good vantage points high up.

Temporary rating: 8.5/10. Still have yet to do a final passover, but this one looks to be a classic. One of the top entries of 2022.

This mission really pushes the engine's boundaries with its long lines of sight. On one hand it's affecting because it's so unusual in a normally claustraphobic game like Thief, but on the other, these big wide open areas were the least fun to play. The exteriors tend to feel sparse and uninteresting.

I agree with you about the platforming; it's mostly an exercise in quickloading. Designing platforming in Dark requires very aggressive testing and iteration, though. It's hard to hold this against the author because almost nobody gets it right.

The interiors shine. Lots of lived-in nooks with interesting geometry, and places like the antagonist's castle and the theatre backrooms are disquieting in a distinctly Thiefy way. The cave section treats you to some beautiful, mind-bending and creepy rooms. The writing is also of a very high quality, and I enjoyed all the readables. My only complaint in this area is that some of the text serves no clear diegetic purpose. The scroll in the clocktower is great, but to whom is the sleeping NPC writing? The scroll written by the sewer maintenance guy in particular seemed like it would have been better as part of an overheard conversation; as text it doesn't make very much sense.

Other random notes:

• These are the only good smoke particle effects I've seen in Thief. They look quite nice.
• The custom ambients set the mood well, and while the mission gets a lot of mileage out of them, they don't overstay their welcome. I wish they had been paired with a richer soundscape, though.
• The doors into the necromancer's domain are cool and memorable. You really feel like you're crossing the threshold into something very old and alien as you unlock them.

A classic indeed. I had a lot of fun.

 

[Krilmar]

# ZAWA. (I don't know if this has any further meaning.)

ZAWA was mentioned in a keeper text found in "The Chalice of Souls" second mission. I wonder if it ties in with the Black Parade or it's something entirely different.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

The interiors shine. Lots of lived-in nooks with interesting geometry, and places like the antagonist's castle and the theatre backrooms are disquieting in a distinctly Thiefy way.

You reminded me of a point that I forgot to mention, but should have: Housing interiors (especially the antiques shop) were sometimes amazingly decorated with Thief-items. There were also a few places that were quite barren by comparison, but those were the exception than the norm. But the basic rule was this: If it was an attic/storeroom, it tended to be full of stored items.

 

[Krilmar]

skacky confirmed that The Black Parade won't come out in 2022 on TTLG.

 

[nicked]

# ZAWA. (I don't know if this has any further meaning.)

ZAWA was mentioned in a keeper text found in "The Chalice of Souls" second mission. I wonder if it ties in with the Black Parade or it's something entirely different.

Just a reference/easter egg to Chalice of Souls for the keen-eyed Thief FM lore fan.

 

[Scrounger]

How many of you taffers have found a bonus objective? Hint hint, gems and stuff! :D
Beautiful mission btw, thanks nicked!

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Oh, so they're real! I didn't find a single one.

 

[Scrounger]

They are like ordinary loot from chests, I see now that you've mentioned ZAWA skull. If so, then that's the first one

 

[Unkillable Cat]

OK. I guess they're found in the secret areas.

I found a large gem underneath a statue in Shadewall Castle, so I guess that's two?

 

[JarlFrank]

This is excellent. Replayed Catacombs of Knoss in preparation for this (the original release, only just now realized there's a remaster and checked that out too).

Catacombs of Knoss is utterly excellent. Trying the remaster I notice that the ambient light has been increased so you can actually see where you're going, which is a good thing - but to be honest, the pitch darkness grew on me in my replay of the original. It adds that certain kind of atmosphere that makes the tomb feel truly dark and forlorn. Overall, the catacomb level is the two-mission mini campaign's highlight. It's the Bonehoard on steroids. A very welcome addition to the sadly rather rare tomb mission genre. There need to be more Bonehoards, and this one perfectly hits the spot.

I'm one and a half hours into Legacy of Knoss and still haven't even visited the sewers nor the theater. It's big and it's awesome. Yeah the platforming can be a bit wonky but I can live with that. The sheer amount of places you can go to makes up for it. Whenever I reach a new area I am yet again greeted with two or three new branching paths I can take. And there are so many interesting locations that go beyond simple "noble's mansion" or "commoner's apartment". The haunted castle that was turned into an inn but has an ancient catacomb in the basement. The artifact collector's castle which feels quite eerie in its interiors due to all the magic shit she messes with. Lots of fun stuff that mixes the supernatural themes of Thief with the city mission template. A rare combination, but it works oh so very well.

 

[JarlFrank]

Played through Scarlet Cascabel for the first time, the updated version. Didn't play it back when it was released for the contest for some reason.

Really good, I can see why it made first place in the contest. If it didn't explicitly tell you that all its resources are stock-derived, and that it runs on Thief Gold, you'd think it was one of those high quality Thief 2 FMs from the golden age of the mid-00s with shitloads of custom resources and all, like Broken Triad or Seven Sisters.

The FM has two levels. The first sends you into a forest village where you are to meet an old friend to get some information. But of course, she also wants you to do her some favors. Pretty big forest to explore with some secrets to find, lots of bonus objectives, and the village is utterly charming. Some rope arrow action to get to high-up places, shops to loot, and mysteries to uncover. My favorite level in the two-level FM.

The second level is set in a reclusive mountainside mansion that has been converted to a hotel. This one is massive, and of course it has a dark secret! Feels like a mix of the classic Rowena's Curse style mansion with a secret, and the hotel mission in T2X. The tone is dark overall, but with some humor put into the mix as you raid hotel rooms occupied by eccentric guests, including a certain lady from a fan-favorite guard conversation. I found the horror elements to be really creepy, especially the two haunted hotel rooms, and the second half of the mission becomes straight horror (and also more linear).

I spent four and a half hours in total to complete this two-mission FM. Quite the massive spectacle.

___________

After that, I played another 20th anniversary contest mission that I hadn't played yet before: Downtowne Funk by old-timer Yandros.

It's a pretty solid classic Thief 1 style FM. It's a lot less ambitious than the other contest entries, but it's still worth playing: it feels exactly like what the city sections of the original games should have been. The style is bare and utilitarian, very much like the original missions, but has plenty of places to break into like in modern city FMs. It really deserves credit for its faithful recreation of the original style while injecting it with modern FM scene ideas.

It also re-creates the mansion of one of the Downwinder bosses from the original Thieves Guild, except you don't enter from the sewer but from the street. If this had been the original Thieves Guild mission, it would rate a lot higher among people than the sewer slog, ha!

 

[octavius]

Completed the infamous (?) Art of Thievery.
I didn't play it on highest difficulty, but chose the Sane difficulty, since highest difficulty means ghosting the humungous mansion with an army of 100 guards. Kudos/condolences to those skilled/autistic enough to be that comitted (as they probably should be). With medium difficulty, and not using any outside help, I still used six hours, and had found 5050 of 6685 loot, picked 16 of 30 pockets and found 7 of 12 secrets. There were still areas to explore, but I felt exhausted even if playing only in 30-60 minute bursts.

Definitely a mission that relies mostly on having patience and endurance, but rather too big for my taste. I don't mind large Tomb Raider style missions with lots to explore, but for pure mansion heists I prefer smaller missions.
But overall quite enjoyable, even if it's not my favourite type of mission.

EDIT: seems playing on medium difficulty was a mistake. Apparently the ghosting is an optional goal, and you miss some content on lower difficulties.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Doesn't make you want to try again though, does it?

I've done the autism-part in that FM, many many years ago... and for some reason I haven't seen a reason to revisit it.

 

[octavius]

Doesn't make you want to try again though, does it?

To be honest, it does. I now feel like I played some watered down version, with all the puzzles missing.
But I will save it to some other time when.