Dev_Anj
Learned
Now all it needs is Fen rapping those lines, and it will be perfect! :D
Sorry Fen haters.
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Thief fan missions and campaigns
- Thread starter SCO
- Start date
Now all it needs is Fen rapping those lines, and it will be perfect! :D
Sorry Fen haters.
Also, from my counting I see that 8 of 2016's Thief 2 FMs were made by new authors. That's pretty impressive for a game of this age.
I just played through Morbid Curiosity. Holy shit this was good, especially for a debut mission. Lots of little details and hidden areas to discover, optional objectives, solid city section (although it was a little too labyrinthine for my tastes), and especially:
HOLY SHIT THAT GALLERY SECTION
It's so fun and creative! It does have a little "Thief theme park" syndrome to it, but that's because that's exactly it... an exhibition on the different factions and areas of Thief. Undead, Hammerites, Pagans, Keepers, Lost City... it's just such a fun area to go through. It's even more fun if you're a Dromeder because the gallery houses some very rarely - if at all - used creatures from Dromed Deluxe. Hah.
Can't wait for Pukey Brunster to release more missions. This was excellent!
HOLY SHIT THAT GALLERY SECTION
It's so fun and creative! It does have a little "Thief theme park" syndrome to it, but that's because that's exactly it... an exhibition on the different factions and areas of Thief. Undead, Hammerites, Pagans, Keepers, Lost City... it's just such a fun area to go through. It's even more fun if you're a Dromeder because the gallery houses some very rarely - if at all - used creatures from Dromed Deluxe. Hah.
Can't wait for Pukey Brunster to release more missions. This was excellent!
forumvisitor#451
Cipher
How do you improve audio in Thief or in games in general? I used to use some Razer utility which enhanced positional audio, is there any other magic?
cowking
Scholar
- Joined
- Oct 18, 2016
- Messages
- 115
There's the sound enhancement pack, I've used it before and it's good. Makes sounds more "solid" (only way I can describe it), instead of having that hint of static hiss.
forumvisitor#451
Cipher
Okay,thanks for that. I do not mind "static", part of the charm. Wil try that anyways. But what about windows audio tweaks/Realtek driver tweaks/whatever program? I mean improving audio in general.
So I finally played through the Dracula campaign.
The Bathory campaign is one of my favourite FMs ever, but Dracula is obviously Sensut's earlier work: it has a little less of the stuff I loved about Bathory, but more of the stuff that was annoying. Locking the way forward with switches or keys, sometimes for no real reason at all (the final mission has you open an underwater access cave by going into ANOTHER underwater access cave that is hidden behind rocks, and hit a switch there; then you go back out and into the main passage. The only reason for this second cave to exist is to open the gate leading to the first one - it doesn't add anything to the gameplay and you could entirely remove it, it just serves to make the player search for something and obscure the way forward. Also in the final mission, right before the very end, there is a broken lever... and guess where the lever rod that you need to fix it is? RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE LEVER! Why make it broken then in the first place? Pointless.)
The story is good, though, and it's an interesting interpretation of Bram Stoker's source material. It actually incorporates a lot of the original story, and deals with it rather faithfully.
The level design - apart from the aforementioned annoyances - is solid. Mostly castles and some cave crawling and outdoors action, I had the most fun with the castles in the second and third mission. First mission might be my favourite though. Sensut does have a hand for creating visually impressive castles and outdoors areas.
Overall I rate it Good 7/10 which makes it above average but well below the Bathory campaign, which is much more refined and has less of the "let's obscure the way forward so the player has to search the entire area for it lol" thing that plagues Dracula. I'd say it's worth playing through once, but keep a walkthrough ready for when you're stuck.
The Bathory campaign is one of my favourite FMs ever, but Dracula is obviously Sensut's earlier work: it has a little less of the stuff I loved about Bathory, but more of the stuff that was annoying. Locking the way forward with switches or keys, sometimes for no real reason at all (the final mission has you open an underwater access cave by going into ANOTHER underwater access cave that is hidden behind rocks, and hit a switch there; then you go back out and into the main passage. The only reason for this second cave to exist is to open the gate leading to the first one - it doesn't add anything to the gameplay and you could entirely remove it, it just serves to make the player search for something and obscure the way forward. Also in the final mission, right before the very end, there is a broken lever... and guess where the lever rod that you need to fix it is? RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE LEVER! Why make it broken then in the first place? Pointless.)
The story is good, though, and it's an interesting interpretation of Bram Stoker's source material. It actually incorporates a lot of the original story, and deals with it rather faithfully.
The level design - apart from the aforementioned annoyances - is solid. Mostly castles and some cave crawling and outdoors action, I had the most fun with the castles in the second and third mission. First mission might be my favourite though. Sensut does have a hand for creating visually impressive castles and outdoors areas.
Overall I rate it Good 7/10 which makes it above average but well below the Bathory campaign, which is much more refined and has less of the "let's obscure the way forward so the player has to search the entire area for it lol" thing that plagues Dracula. I'd say it's worth playing through once, but keep a walkthrough ready for when you're stuck.
Riskbreaker
Guest
I prefer it to Bathory simply because because I prefer its gothic horror environs and atmosphere to Bathory's more grounded historical theme. Bathory is indeed far more impressive piece of work, plus Dracula's level design sometimes feels downright on rails even without any sort of direct comparison with Bathory's missions. And yeah, some sections are either annoying or tedious like the aforementioned underwater cave or needlessly long catacombs (that you have to traverse while carrying a body). Visuals and mood of Dracula campaign just sort of click with me, is all.
Yeah, the atmosphere is great, and I love the way Sensut managed to marry his own story with Bram Stoker's Dracula, it's surprisingly faithful to the source material (with some small necessary deviations of course). Only the fact that this FM's protagonist, Gellert, who lives in London, is somehow friends with Garret who lives... not even on real Earth is kinda hilarious, especially since it's entirely irrelevant and only mentioned twice as far as I remember.
Yeah and he travels to not-Earth Transilvania, where Vlad Dracula was the voivod of not-Earth Romania, which is being invaded by not-Earth Turks 
Yeah and he travels to not-Earth Transilvania, where Vlad Dracula was the voivod of not-Earth Romania, which is being invaded by not-Earth Turks
You got it.
When that not-moon gets full, you may get a vampire vs werewolves sighting...
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Gotta love the evolution in most of FM authors' style when playing throughout their FMs. This is what makes me keep playing them because you never know what to expect on each release.
Including yourself, pal. Nobles and Craftsmen was a huge surprise after your previous missions cause you hadn't attempted that kind of rooftop mission before, and in the previous missions you tried a new style with each mission, from (non-rooftop) city to sewer, and for the next one it's on to mines. That's some great variety.
I also love the development of Christine as a mission author. Her later FMs are the perfect "relaxing FMs" to me, ones that have a really cozy atmosphere and her unique touch of style. Her first missions suffered from disproportionate dimensions (like many beginner authors, she just made spaces too large) and had way too much marble abuse, but you notice her design improving with each mission when you play through them. It's the most obvious with Christine because she just made such a sheer amount of FMs.
So I'm playing "Up in the Bonehoard" now, and I'm having a love-hate relationship with it.
On the one hand, the design is really surreal and genius, and I love the Alarus extension and the BOW UPGRADE that lets you shoot ropes into stone.
On the other, it's filled with drops that are high enough to damage you (sometimes necessitating horribly awkward and almost impossible rope-action) and lots of climbing and platforming that doesn't work all too well in this engine. The geometry is sometimes wonky and you get caught in it, etc. This mission would've benefitted from some more testing.
But holy shit it's just so creative that I can forgive most of these faults. LITERALLY EVERYTHING is turned upside down.
On the one hand, the design is really surreal and genius, and I love the Alarus extension and the BOW UPGRADE that lets you shoot ropes into stone.
On the other, it's filled with drops that are high enough to damage you (sometimes necessitating horribly awkward and almost impossible rope-action) and lots of climbing and platforming that doesn't work all too well in this engine. The geometry is sometimes wonky and you get caught in it, etc. This mission would've benefitted from some more testing.
But holy shit it's just so creative that I can forgive most of these faults. LITERALLY EVERYTHING is turned upside down.
- Joined
- May 13, 2009
- Messages
- 28,583
I may give it another go, I gave up the last time because somehow I missed the BOW UPGRADE that stinkykitty put in.
Random_Taffer
Educated
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2015
- Messages
- 88
tormund
Arcane
Pagan-infested wilderness is always better with a dash of Sean Connery added in.
Taffers are time travellers.
- Joined
- May 13, 2009
- Messages
- 28,583
My copy of that FM simply doesn't list a date. So I added the proper one. 
This has to be the best custom item ever made for an FM:
Mission is "Up Shit Creek", part 3 of the TTGM campaign, a campaign Unkillable Cat recommended to me back when I first started playing FMs. The missions show they age by now, but they're still solid. My impression up to now is that the author is getting better with each FM; my favourite in the series was Shore Leave, the second mission; it's got a lot of rooftop action back in an era when rooftop action wasn't a big thing in FMs yet (it was released in 2001), and it's overall a very solid city and warehouse mission. The looks are a little bland, but then, none of the early FMs were really big on decoration. The 2nd mission of the campaign commits one cardinal sin though: you have to do an item hunt... and one item you need is a bunch of flowers. And guess where you find them? In a generic vanilla Thief 2 flowerpot. Yeah, those that are used as decoration in the OMs and many FMs, so you'd never even think of approaching and trying to frob them.
This third mission of the campaign is the most creative up to now. Lots of interesting shit in it.
And, of course, the best custom item ever made for Thief
Mission is "Up Shit Creek", part 3 of the TTGM campaign, a campaign Unkillable Cat recommended to me back when I first started playing FMs. The missions show they age by now, but they're still solid. My impression up to now is that the author is getting better with each FM; my favourite in the series was Shore Leave, the second mission; it's got a lot of rooftop action back in an era when rooftop action wasn't a big thing in FMs yet (it was released in 2001), and it's overall a very solid city and warehouse mission. The looks are a little bland, but then, none of the early FMs were really big on decoration. The 2nd mission of the campaign commits one cardinal sin though: you have to do an item hunt... and one item you need is a bunch of flowers. And guess where you find them? In a generic vanilla Thief 2 flowerpot. Yeah, those that are used as decoration in the OMs and many FMs, so you'd never even think of approaching and trying to frob them.
This third mission of the campaign is the most creative up to now. Lots of interesting shit in it.
And, of course, the best custom item ever made for Thief
Dev_Anj
Learned
New Death's Cold Embrace video. Looking very very pretty there!
- Joined
- May 13, 2009
- Messages
- 28,583
I'm more fascinated by the fact that this FM campaign is entering its thirteenth year of production.
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