Thief fan missions and campaigns

[Yandros]

I think Dafyyd's latest comment is telling:

I'm about two minutes away from dropping this mission. It's neither intriguing nor even fun anymore.
...
I'm tired of spending more time reading the thread than playing the game.

But was this mission actually intended to be played? Or just... admired?

 

[JarlFrank]

I haven't even played the mission myself yet, only watched Fen's Let's Play. The guy tends to be very fair and forgiving towards FMs, but Keeper of Infinity made him rage multiple times, and at one point he came close to giving up. When he finished the second mission, he said he's probably not going to LP a mission by Soul Tear ever again because those two missions were just so incredibly frustrating.

They certainly are beautiful to look at, though, and extremely impressive from a technical standpoint. Heck, they are probably among the most beautiful Thief FMs ever released, and if you took the basic architecture of it and changed the gameplay to be less troll-ish, it would have potential to be an amazing mission. But the way it's right now... it looks impressive, but it doesn't look fun. It looks like the creator wants to show off and tell you "Hey player, look at my cool design! Look at how many different objectives there are, this mission sure is complex, huh? Look at how big it is, here's one more optional objective, in fact, here are so many objectives that they can't all be displayed on the objectives screen anymore! Also, the scripting - oh boy, did you see my scripting? Check out those fresh scripts mang, shit is so cash! Oh and I also implemented some clever puzzles, that's cool huh? Look at what I'm doing with this engine! LOOK AT THE AWESOME THINGS I'M DOING WITH THIS ENGINE!!"

Judging from the Keeper of Infinity missions, I'd hire Soul Tear as a programmer, scripter and/or graphic designer.
I wouldn't hire him as a gameplay designer, though.

P.S.:
talking about Fen's let's plays and technically impressive missions, check out this very impressive thing I created for April 1st:

 

[Dev_Anj]

I have a very exciting announcement to make.

Skacky, Firemage, Squadafroin and an unknown guy are working on a 10 level campaign for Thief: Gold. Skacky just announced it today on TTLG, and right now he's looking for voice actors and people who can make briefing videos. Details below:

The year is 833. Your are Hume, a hardened convicted criminal returning to The City after a forced exile. You are lost, don't recognise places that used to be familiar and you are a stranger to everyone. Plunge into a sinister plot involving crime, dark secrets, hushed conspiracies behind closed doors and eldritch terrors as you try to make a living in this ever-hostile city of gears, smoke and filth.


Teaser emulating the style of old TDP trailers (but with less talent!).

- 10 Huge Missions
The Black Parade is comprised of 10 sprawling missions that will test your thieving skills. Explore the darkened backstreets and alleyways of The City, take on the Thieves' Highway, go spelunking for riches guarded by the ancient dead and plan audacious break-ins in The City's finest households and guarded places.



- Expanded Lore
Built upon Thief Gold and a bit of Thief 2: The Metal Age, as well as the lore established by the likes of Purah and Melan, The Black Parade aims at expanding the lore considerably by adding several new quarters and districts to The City, as well as fleshing out various factions and aspects such as administration, the criminal underworld and the rivalries between several groups. You only saw a fraction of the huge medieval metropolis through Garrett's eyes. Hume brings a new perspective and the story is carefully intertwined with Thief Gold's. For instance, here is our City map.



- A Love Letter to Thief Gold
This campaign is designed as a tribute to Thief Gold and its very peculiar style and level design. It is an old-school campaign at its core and while it uses a bunch of new textures and objects, they are still faithful to the original artstyle. Expect surreal areas and a creepy atmosphere!



Help needed
The Black Parade is well underway but we are currently only four people working on it. We have the whole mission design, objects and story covered, but we are lacking the talents for Thief 1 and 2-style briefings and voice acting. If you are interested in helping, please get in touch!

http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=146501&p=2315674

 

[Excidium II]

sexbad?

 

[TripJack]

 

[Unkillable Cat]

You crazy sonovabitches...

 

[Melan]

Oh damn

...er...

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Oh yeah baby.

 

[Riskbreaker]

Well, I'm officially far more hyped for this than for any upcoming commercial release. God bless you all, skacky & co!

 

[JarlFrank]

I haven't been this excited about anything gaming related in the last 10 years.

 

[Arrowgrab]

Conductor, I'd like a full-fare, first-class, one-way ticket on the

, please.

 

[skacky]

Hmmm. Should've googled our campaign's name beforehand...

 

[Renault]

Like I said on TTLG, the brothel was made pretty damn hard on purpose so this is no surprise the reception seems to be mixed.

Couldn't locate this particular discussion over on TTLG - was curious to know though why the brothel was intentionally made so difficult. I just finished this set of FMs (Chalice of Souls) over the weekend and had a great time with it, with this part being the exception. It was difficult to the point of frustrating and stopped being fun. Hopefully you guys can scale it back a bit for the upcoming campaign.

 

[skacky]

I thought the brothel itself would be too small/over too quickly so I cranked up difficulty quite a bit. In retrospect it was a really bad idea. Don't worry though, the campaign won't have any levels as bullshit hard as that one, even the most heavily guarded ones.

 

[Renault]

Sounds good. Btw, kind of random thought here, but I think difficulty is why a lot of diehard Thief fans stay away from TDM. They don't really play Thief as a hardcore stealth simulation, it's more for the exploration and atmosphere. A lot of TDM missions are hard to the point of frustrating, and I think that's the way they like it over there. Maybe I'm saying this because Chalice 2 kind of reminded me of a TDM missino in that respect.

 

[Max_b5]

The Black Parade looks beyond amazing!

 

[Dev_Anj]

Hmmm. Should've googled our campaign's name beforehand...

Haha! With any luck your campaign will be coming on Google as results for that name. Let's just hope the mainstream media reports on it.
So anything special planned for the Codex with regards to this new campaign? I hope you get people for the voice acting and briefings soon too.

 

[Yandros]

Random_Taffer and I already volunteered to do voice acting. I'm good at guards and nobles, from gruff to clear and both British and American. R_T is really good at voicing sissies and that's about it.

 

[Dev_Anj]

Lol at that last line!

To be honest I can do oriental accents, if the need arises. It's just that I don't have a good microphone here.

 

[Melan]

Yandros: Would you also do a few lines for my upcoming mission? It's not much, but I'll need a decent variety of voicework.

 

[skacky]

We will contact everyone who offered to help in due time, once we have everything mostly ready.
I've been working hard on revising the briefings and various conversations in the past few days, and Squadafroin also made a pivotal point in the campaign's storyline a whole lot better.

 

[Yandros]

Melan: Happy to, just email me the particulars.

 

[Karwelas]

I SKIP READING CODEX FOR TWO DAYS AND FUCKING THIS. I'm too hype now, really. You fukken taffers. Damn, I would be happy to contribute, but I don't know anything about Dromed. Maybe voice acting... hmm.

 

[Random_Taffer]

Random_Taffer and I already volunteered to do voice acting. I'm good at guards and nobles, from gruff to clear and both British and American. R_T is really good at voicing sissies and that's about it.

You miserable faggot.

He's right, though. I can actually do a decent T1 guard2 impression.

 

[Yandros]

I was thinking more of your excellent dainty male servant impression.