Thief fan missions and campaigns

[Riskbreaker]

Visually, "The Widow's Ire" alone is certainly one of most imaginative and memorable missions out there.

(As an interesting aside, I recall a recent discussion on Darkfate where Soul Tear was criticising The Black Parade. As his argument went, these are "clone missions" with stock assets and no unique content or novelty, and therefore turning the building process into "ordinary LEGO". If it wasn't obvious already, this cemented the understanding that our ideas about what makes for good fan missions are diametrically opposed.)

Fucking lol.
Was he sired by the Lord Architect himself? IronEagle was definitely boasting about his virility and his numerous sexual conquests.

 

[Max_b5]

He has the balls to criticise an FM that hasn't been released yet. Ballsiest troll award 2016.

 

[skacky]

It's all about the ice cream cones, baby!

 

[JarlFrank]

(As an interesting aside, I recall a recent discussion on Darkfate where Soul Tear was criticising The Black Parade. As his argument went, these are "clone missions" with stock assets and no unique content or novelty, and therefore turning the building process into "ordinary LEGO". If it wasn't obvious already, this cemented the understanding that our ideas about what makes for good fan missions are diametrically opposed.)

???

Clone missions???

???
???

Yeah seriously, wtf. I guess he's really full of it because his missions feature so many different mission goals they can't even be properly displayed on the objectives screen (lol) and they're so complex that doing them out of sequence will break the entire game. I creating such convoluted and easy to break scripts is the way to avoid making "clone missions", I guess I'd rather play clones than something innovative.

Seriously, wtf.

 

[SlyFoxx]

Took me two days and a few more hours to look back and assess my feelings. On the whole I rolled old school. But the whole thing is almost an issue in futility. So much good work to assess and true art ain't really a competition...if it was I'd have never released anything...and we all know I'm not getting vote one for my stuff. But I did have good time making it. That's all that matters. Working through Komag's tut I never thought I'd finish anything...took me weeks to connect brushes via the z plane. I'm s--l--o--w--l--y pecking away at the same (last) mission I started 10 years ago...I hope I finish it some day. Until then...anybody need Garrett to say something snarky?

 

[Garrettt]

The only reason I voted for Soul_Tear is because of his architecture skills, which is impressive coming from a new dromeder.

I voted Soul_Tear as well because he has a lot of potential.

You are certainly not alone with this opinion.

In soviet Russia poll votes you!

 

[Melan]

Yeah, it is a TDM mission, and it totally looks and sounds like modernised TDP. It captures that elusive feel in a way that's just right. I would be real proud of myself if I had made it.

It is out! Now go play it. :D

 

[skacky]

It's the real deal, indeed. I'm about an hour in, absolutely love it. There's a place that looks like a DIRECT homage to Conspiracies in the Dark.
EDIT: Uh, I'm crashing every time I unlock the steel door featured in the loading screen shot, though. I hope it's not an important door.

And finished it. It's amazing. Everyone go play it right now.

 

[Melan]

Never encountered that problem, but the door simply leads outside, so no big deal.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Until then...anybody need Garrett to say something snarky?

"Lord Dromed must pay for his insolence!"

 

[JarlFrank]

While we're still at the topic of the voting thing, let me just drop here that the Thief modding community is one of the best ever.
The fan missions have extended Thief's life so much, and they've given me so much fun and fond memories, it's incredible. I played Thief 2 for the first time in 2009, played T2X in 2010, and then started with fan missions when this thread here was made. And since then there hasn't been a year where I haven't played FMs, and while some suck and some are mediocre, there is always the great joy of finding a new (or rather, old one that I haven't played yet) mission that surprises me with great design that is ten times better than anything released in commercial games by big studios. Without the FM community, Thief wouldn't be the game that it is for me. Those massive amounts of FMs, many of them good to excellent, turned it from merely a great game to the one game I always return to.

And then, they even developed the Dark Mod, similar gameplay on a different engine - there aren't many fan communities willing to put so much effort into something.
And, finally, it inspired me to try my hand at Dromed myself, with not too shabby results.
I fucking love the Thief community

 

[ERYFKRAD]

I fucking love the Thief community

The things that come out of a taffing good game, damn nothing can top it.

 

[Melan]

I have been playing FMs since 2001, and discovering them at that time (after Inverted Manse, but before Calendra's Legacy) was already an awesome find. Multiple games' worth of mission, some of them highly creative and sophisticated. A lot of flamewars about supernatural elements in Thief, though.

In other news, clearing - who else? - has put an end to the Spoonman mystery. He is in fact the same guy who made Broken Hammers, The Lost Crusade, and Heretics and Pagans. There goes the newbie-out-of-nowhere theory.

 

[Max_b5]

I wish I could go back to the time when I first discovered FMs. I recall playing Sepulchre of the Sinistral for the first time and getting scared as hell. It was a weird experience because I already knew how the game worked and it wasn't supposed to scare me but FMs give you that "Same game different deal" feeling which is kinda similar to playing a whole new game at times. Then I discovered Melan's 'Prowler of the Dark' and started making my first "serious" FM. Good times.

 

[skacky]

Ah, same. The absolute dread I experienced when playing TDP for the first time is something I would love to experience again and some FMs do that very well. Heck, I jumped on my chair while playing Full Moon Fever this morning. Not because of something scary, no, but because a servant sneezed right next to me and I did not hear him enter the room. I hadn't experienced this in a long, long time.

Happy birthday, by the way!

 

[Melan]

Speaking of Broken Hammers, it is one of those absolutely fucking terrifying horror missions that properly recapture the Return to the Cathedral experience. The first time I played it, I just said "ahhh screw this" and quit after I got cornered by a haunt.

 

[JarlFrank]

I wish I could go back to the first time I played Thief 2, entering Lady Rumford's mansion and being super careful and slow because I wasn't used to stealth gaming, hesitant of opening doors and turning around a corner because guards might be there and they might spot me and aaah this shit is so exciting and intense.

Nowadays, I only get it when I attempt to ghost a mission, but even then it's not as strong because by now I know the mechanics of the game and am intimately familiar with the engine. There's a real wow-factor to Thief when you play it for the first time. I remember the incredible excitement of entering locked rooms and frobbing readables there. So much to explore, so much to discover!

I used to hate forced stealth missions in games before I played Thief, because in 99.9% of cases the stealth sucked. Once I played Thief, I learned to love stealth. Having more sophisticated systems behind it than just plain line of sight helped a lot with that, of course.

 

[Max_b5]

Once I played Thief, I learned to love stealth. Having more sophisticated systems behind it than just plain line of sight helped a lot with that, of course.

Funny enough, I didn't even know what stealth games were when I first played Thief TDP. It was my first game ever and I was so young and clueless that I made my way through the game swords-clashing and eventually beat it. Of course, when I started learning English and re-played the whole game the way it's supposed to (stealth), it was a whole new experience which I won't forget.

 

[Melan]

One of the best FM authors, Lady Rowena has been reported to have passed away on April 30. She was tremendously talented, and my personal #1 pick for best author. Rest in Peace.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

R.I.P.

 

[Karwelas]

One of the best FM authors, Lady Rowena has been reported to have passed away on April 30. She was tremendously talented, and my personal #1 pick for best author. Rest in Peace.

Damn, The Tower is still one of my favourite missions... eh. May she stole everything up there, in Mechanist heaven.

 

[skacky]

The Tower is an exceptional mission. Not only does it feature spectacular use of 3D space in such a confined location but it does it in a way that is never frustrating nor overly complex and always intuitive. The dark and twisted Poe-esque tale it tells is also one of the best stories I've seen in a fan mission to date. She will be sorely missed.

 

[Random_Taffer]

What a sad day. She was my favorite author and a wonderful friend as well.

 

[Dev_Anj]

I barely got to know her, but she did seem like a talented author and losing someone so talented is always a pain. A song in the spirit of the occasion:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3ktsS6vDLwVeEpXTF9DbmZySTA/view?usp=sharing

(it's not my song by the way, obviously)

 

[Unkillable Cat]

First her husband, now her.

I always had the feeling from the moment I first read that thread that she was either dying or already gone.