Thief fan missions and campaigns

[SlyFoxx]

Hey pal, don't get any bright ideas. I'm not doing a groaning Garrett/Zombie voice set.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

skacky bro how can u be so boring why design longass labirynefjeofje wheh u can design a simple corridor so i never get lost and have phun also stop putting objectives like dont kill no guards u make this mission boring thief is a first person shooter and u r a heretic bro

 

[Dev_Anj]

I thought Dishonored was a better FPS than Thief. I mean, it has two pistols and a crossbow, so clearly it's a quality FPS!

 

[Renault]

Speaking of tough missions...playing through Rowena's Curse right now. A very difficult mission on expert, LOTS of guards, and LOTS of tile. Pretty much impossible to ghost, I attempted it in the beginning and finally got frustrated and gave up. Now I've pretty much blackjacked everyone in the joint. It's also kind of a keyhunt, but the story is good and the mansion has a nice layout. Not done yet, just got to the "ancient" portion, but I've played long enough to realize - I've never played this FM! Hard to believe. Anyway, despite the criticism, this is a great FM and highly recommended. Pretty much in line with anything done by Lady Ro. I wish she would release more stuff.

 

[Yandros]

She has a mission in the works, but no idea when she expects to release it.

 

[Renault]

Yes, I believe she's working off of existing T2 OMs.

 

[JarlFrank]

Rowena's Curse is one of my favourite FMs, but yes, it's a blackjacker's mission, not a ghosting one. But the story is great, the layout is good, very solid level design and some nice surprises, the keyhunt isn't that bad as the keys aren't that deviously hidden, you pretty much find them by exploration, and the structure is pretty nice - when you have mysterious rooms that you can't open for half the game and then finally find the key.

For me it's about on par with Ominous Bequest, if only a little less elegant due to guard overdose. Also, bonus points to Rowena for naming every single guard

 

[Random_Taffer]

IIRC she made Rowena's Curse the way she did because she assumed that everyone else who played Thief was a blackjack maniac like her. I made a similar mistake in my first mission by forcing combat.

But yeah, Rowena's Curse is great. Awesome story and some truly hair raising moments.

 

[JarlFrank]

Well, I'm a blackjack maniac so I don't mind the many guards. In the end, I had several mountains of K.O.'d guards lying about.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

In fact, the mission has bonus objectives that cannot be completed without the blackjack. I don't believe that ghosting Rowena's Curse was ever part of the plan.

 

[Melan]

Until relatively recently (the last 5 years or so), ghosting was a fairly niche playstyle. Now that almost everyone still playing fan missions is a hardened veteran, you see it more often, but most missions weren't designed with ghosters in mind. Paradoxically, this was okay with the ghosting fans, since the best ghosting experience doesn't result from ghost-friendly missions, but defeating the game against all odds in an unplanned, devilishly challenging setup.

 

[Skunkpew]

I'm not ashamed to admit I've spent hours of my life nudging stationary guards forward, bit by bit, into corners and against walls.

 

[JarlFrank]

Until relatively recently (the last 5 years or so), ghosting was a fairly niche playstyle. Now that almost everyone still playing fan missions is a hardened veteran, you see it more often, but most missions weren't designed with ghosters in mind. Paradoxically, this was okay with the ghosting fans, since the best ghosting experience doesn't result from ghost-friendly missions, but defeating the game against all odds in an unplanned, devilishly challenging setup.

It wasn't even really intended as a playstyle for the OMs, at least not a full not-a-single-guard-engaged-in-any-way ghost playstyle. The missions weren't designed around it, except for Casing the Joint. That's the only OM that enforces ghosting, and is designed around it by having lots and lots of secret paths through the mansion far away from the hallways patrolled by the guards. Most other missions can be ghosted, sure, but they weren't designed around it. They were always designed around actually using the tools you get - your blackjack, your water arrows, your moss arrows, your flashbombs. I tend to be very conservative in my use of these (as I am one of those gamers who thinks WELL I MIGHT NEED IT LATER HERP DERP and end up with a huge inventory at the end) but sometimes in the OMs, there are places where using these is just the obviously best solution, rather than trying to ghost while keeping the torch on/taking tiny steps on the marble trying not to alert anyone.

It's a playstyle the players have come up with because they thought it was a cool idea. And apparently, the devs liked the idea well enough to base one mission in T2 on that playstyle.

But in itself, it was never a playstyle intended to dictate how missions should be designed. Something being not ghostable just motivates the hardcore ghosters to try and do it anyway.

Sometimes, I like ghosting because it's a challenge and makes Thief just that little bit more intense.
But usually, I love using my blackjack

 

[Yandros]

As a player, I also tend to hoard most of my gear, and blackjack most everyone. As for mission design, I do take ghosting into account but mostly during testing and not design. I have several of the best ghosters among my regular testers, and if they say "if you just tweak this one thing, it goes from being impossible to ghost to possible but challenging", I'll make the change.

 

[Melan]

My usual playstyle is "ghost when you can, blackjack when it gets frustrating, let loose with the artillery when you must". It is satisfying to navigate around opposition, but when it becomes a chore (the garden and lower mansion level in Rowena's Curse is a typical example), there is no shame in thinning out the ranks a bit. My missions are all ghostable, but with the understanding that it is going to be optional and hard. Penny Dreadful 2 goes a bit overboard with the difficulty, but that's on purpose.

 

[Karwelas]

Playing Wicked Relics. Very good mission, but I'm not too far yet. Mission is fun itself, good builded mansion, good secrets and texts. I had fun with plot, crused item and music create that a bit creepy atmosphere of that mission. And a bit of humor from Garret. Like always.

By the way, a question to all of you, 'dex bros. Do you know any other good game with multiple good players scenarios, modules, missions? I heard something about Quake, Doom, Blood and some other games, but I prefer to use good sources (like, well... you )

 

[baturinsky]

Playing Wicked Relics. Very good mission, but I'm not too far yet. Mission is fun itself, good builded mansion, good secrets and texts. I had fun with plot, crused item and music create that a bit creepy atmosphere of that mission. And a bit of humor from Garret. Like always.

By the way, a question to all of you, 'dex bros. Do you know any other good game with multiple good players scenarios, modules, missions? I heard something about Quake, Doom, Blood and some other games, but I prefer to use good sources (like, well... you )

System Shock 2, Never Winter Nights.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

You just named three good suggestions yourself, the Codex has resident experts in each of the three.

A kinda off-the-wall suggestion from me, if you're into puzzle games, is DROD (Deadly Rooms of Death). There should be a playable demo available, give it a try and see if it's something you like, because there are TONS of user-made "holds" for those games.

 

[Karwelas]

System Shock 2, Never Winter Nights.

Will check System Shock 2, get a game from devs, long stream story.

I raped almost every good module from Neverwinter Nighs and I heard that most of module scene is dead now, except multiplayer, but I still play there. (THIS IS HOW YOU WRITE IT :totallynotbutthurt: )

 

[baturinsky]

SS2 campaigns can be difficult to find, so here is the link https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=hpjb1efmqotfkb4lepnclr5n85&board=3.0

 

[JarlFrank]

Playing Wicked Relics. Very good mission, but I'm not too far yet. Mission is fun itself, good builded mansion, good secrets and texts. I had fun with plot, crused item and music create that a bit creepy atmosphere of that mission. And a bit of humor from Garret. Like always.

By the way, a question to all of you, 'dex bros. Do you know any other good game with multiple good players scenarios, modules, missions? I heard something about Quake, Doom, Blood and some other games, but I prefer to use good sources (like, well... you )

Personally, I really like some Tomb Raider fan levels, although by now I've kinda grown tired of the old TR4 engine.
Check this out: http://trle.net/toplevels.php

The best thing: most of these don't even require you to have the original game installed. They're playable by themselves and come with their own exe.

 

[Karwelas]

Personally, I really like some Tomb Raider fan levels, although by now I've kinda grown tired of the old TR4 engine.
Check this out: http://trle.net/toplevels.php

The best thing: most of these don't even require you to have the original game installed. They're playable by themselves and come with their own exe.

I remember that you linked these fan levels before, thanks Jarl. I owe all of you one beer if you ever happend to go into potatoland. (Or Canada/Australia, I want to escape from there soon. AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.)

 

[Melan]

Duke Nukem 3d also had an amazing dev community, and I have only seen some of the single player maps.

 

[baturinsky]

DukePlus http://www.moddb.com/mods/duke-plus/downloads/dukeplus-235 comes with a few good levels pre-packaged.

 

[Baron Dupek]

Speaking about DN3D - I'm trying to run HellDuke, can't run like instruction install said. I must run eDuke32, then set to hellduke from the options, and then run.
I rather stick to the Doom WADs....