Thief fan missions and campaigns

[JarlFrank]

Beltzer is back with a new fan mission: http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140757

Haven't played it yet, and haven't played Beltzer's previous missions either, so let's ask our Thief FM guru Unkillable Cat on his opinion about Beltzer's missions.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Beltzer's missions aren't that good, IMO. He's rather new to DromEd, and his Reunification campaign is not much to write about. BUT, you can see while playing the Reunification campaign that he's getting better at DromEd'ing, and that was why I tried out his latest FM earlier this morning.

"The Abandoned Castle" is a standalone FM. Garrett hears about an abandonded castle and goes to score some easy loot. While I enjoyed playing it (and found all the loot on the first go) I won't exactly recommend it. Reasons being, among others:

# It's a keyhunt mission, with keys hidden in some rather devious places. Your lockpicks serve NO purpose whatsoever. (At least not on Expert).
# Rooms are disproportional in size and scale. You have gigantic rooms which make the furniture seem tiny by comparison, and you also have large pieces of furniture in rather small rooms.
# The biggest challenge this FM offers is meeting the loot requirement. Second-biggest challenge is deciphering the vault code, but at least there is some ingenuity used beyond basic algebra.
# It's supposed to be a horror mission, yet offers little except some blood, corpses and cheap scares. As for backstory... child turns evil, kill parents, kills everyone in castle, haunts castle. No reason is given, no names, nothing.
# Speaking of abandoned castles, it has a surprisingly well-groomed garden, still has full electricity and fresh food products in the basement, despite there being rotting corpses and cobwebs in the rest of the castle.
# There's a maze in there somewhere, but it took me 10 seconds in total to render it completely pointless and reach the end.

Overall, it's an improvement over his previous work, but he still has some way to go. It's not his mastery over DromEd that holds him back, but his skills as a level designer and storyteller in general. It just all feels... thin.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

A small new FM dropped in, "M.S. Gold - Rust". This one takes place on a ship that seems to have falled prey to a zombie infestation.

The author manages to make a really moody and suspenseful environment, and it actually looks like a boat. Unfortunately, that's where the good points end. The author has NO CLUE what Thief is about. The mission is completely on rails - there is only ever one way to go, one way to do things, in one specific order. There is NO exploration, you can't mantle anything unless you're supposed to go there! You can't even mantle over the waist-high rails down to a catwalk strung along the ship's hull! No equipment either, I manged to find a flare, otherwise it's just a keyhunt FM. There are plenty of doors around, but you can only frob them once you've done certain things, meaning lots of backtracking.

This is Thief, not a modern-day AAA title devoid of any soul or enjoyment. FM's like these should simply not be released for Thief, the author should find some other game more suitable for this crap.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Hmm... I keep hearing whispers about an awesome new FM that's coming up soon. "The Drymian Codex" takes place in a "reclusive monastery", meaning Hammerites and probably some Undead. They also say it's big, as in a large mission, so it looks to be one of the big releases of 2013.

ETA is within the next two weeks. Just thought some Thief-hungry players here might want advance notice.

 

[poocolator]

I'm pretty sure Unkillable Cat is some sort of god.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

No, I am no God... I am merely the Cat of Karras... the Cat of Karras...

Anyway, the Drymian Codex hasn't showed up yet, but a Thief 1/Gold FM has. "Nigel's Treasure Room" starts out as a simple little city mission. Cross a couple of streets to find Nigel's house, rob his treasure and rid yourself of the competition. But wait, what's this? A journal mentioning a set of caves and a magic scepter? Maybe there's a little more to this than first expected.

It sure is. Those "caves" are a roughly 3-hour spelunking ride through some very interesting areas. You'll be dealing with a metric fuckton of spiders (all kinds), some craymen dukin' it out (both kinds), a ratmen-infested house, an abandoned mine, bugbeasts, large open caverns with fire elementals and flowing lava, some VERY dubious jumping sections (including what must be the trickiest jump I've ever seen, which involves bunny-hopping to cross a river of lava) and a large Hammerite Church, before you find the well-guarded scepter and a raft that ends up sending you back to the surface.

I ended this journey just 100 shy of the loot objective on my first go. It's actually a rather challenging FM, as the jumping sections can be tough to overcome, and some of the areas are tricky to navigate, even though it's nearly impossible to get lost in this FM, as it's mostly all on rails. But it still rewards exploration, but still I found many areas to be rather bland. It's not one of the best FMs made for Thief (Gold), but it's still rather good, and a good timewaster if you're bored, though the replay value is somewhat lacking.

 

[Cassidy]

Even when they intentionally try it, FM makers can't twist the Dark Engine into the shit of modern popamole "stealth" of the likes of Alphail Prototurd because fortunately DromED does not support QTEs, retarded special abilities with cooldowns and "hiding" through boxes with sticky cover:

Therefore, for those really bored and curious, some gems from 2006, 21 of them more specifically, which you might or not find similar to Alpha Popamole, Dishonored and Thi4f:

Total Crap FM Contest missions

 

[Unkillable Cat]

The Drymian Codex still hasn't landed, with translation issues being the reason. Yes, Potatoland is actually to blame. :-/

In the meantime, I had a look at a FM that had been sitting unattended for some time - "The Mine Saga". This is a collection of 4 FM's by the same author, trying to tell a story involving a mine. The first FM is short but will stick with you afterwards, as it takes place in a mine (duh...) and is dark. I mean Thief 1-dark. You won't see shit. Thank the Builder for Flares, they are life-savers here instead of being next to useless. The second FM is a direct sequel to the first, and also another short FM, having you break into the estate of the mine's owner. This one includes a naked chick taking a shower, something stinky in the attic and an elemental puzzle. Short but sweet.

The third FM is where things get interesting. It's by far the biggest one, and has you out in the wilderness looking for a Mage Tower to retrieve a crown. It's actually much smaller than it looks, as it's really only 4-5 areas connected by long, winding ravines. The ambient light is interesting throughout, there's a new type of Undead that virtually invisible (and fast) and plenty of little neat touches to make it memorable. Oddly enough, the storyline in this one (and the next FM) have absolutely nothing to do with the "previous" story, which I found to be a disappointment. The final FM is almost tiny, only sporting 4 critters and an area the size of the courtyard in the first T2 mission! Don't let that fool you, it's actually a VERY challenging FM. And yes, it has a mine in it.

But by far the weirdest thing about these four FM's, is that the author was clearly going through some kind of psychotic episode due to a break-up. All four FM's have themes of love, loss, betrayal and remorse, and the end credits even feature an original song on those same lines.

Overall... worth a look, but it's not for the lonely types. Or those scared of Undead.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I just remembered something the other day - out of all the FMs released for Thief 2, only one of them refused to work properly for me because of... I don't really know what the problem was, but probably a memory leak. Anyway, 10 FPS is not a good way to play a game, so I skipped it and almost forgot about it. Then NewDark was released, and I suddenly thought to check today to see if it worked... and it does.

"Durant" is an old FM, made by one of the people that would later make the T2X mission campaign. It's supposed to take place between 'Kidnap' and 'Casing The Joint' in Thief 2, so it's full of Mechanists, noblemen and Lord Gervasius gets some love as well. The goal is to grab your gear from a Pagan mole, then steal the Durant painting from a well-guarded manor. Let's just say it's one of those FM where nothing goes according to plan.

Items of note in this FM:

# It's one of the tougher ones out there. On Expert level you're not allowed to knock out humans with the blackjack, but 'other' means of knockouts are allowed, like Gas and Frogbeast Eggs. Weird.

# Spelling errors ahoy! This FM was never proofread, and it shows. Even the mission objectives have bad spelling. Kinda annoying and cheapens the mission, considering it's supposed to be part of the OM for Thief 2.

# The well-guarded manor is actually a fortress. It has some clever secret passages, but I found it to be a little too well-guarded for my tastes.

# You can shock the monkey. Literally.

# There's an art dealer shop there with a safe that requires two buttons to be pressed within a short time frame. When I say "short time frame" I mean "Not gonna happen". One button in on the lower floor, the other up in a bedroom. And there's a patrolling guard doing the rounds between the two floors. Maybe it can be done with a speed potion, but I'm doubtful of that.

# Speaking of the art dealers, both of them appear to be urnings. Not that it bothers me, it's just so rare to see it in a game. (Look up that word to know what I mean.)

# The level layout is bizarre... EVERY room, corridor, hallway, sewer and crypt in this FM is made out of rectangles and squares. Except for the cave underneath the well, it's all right angles and the cardinal directions - no diagonal passageways whatsoever.

# There's a way to completely screw yourself over in this one. There's a cog key that must be made from scratch in the Mechanist facility, with the finishing touch being to unlock a machine on the third floor with a combination code. Except the machine has been sabotaged, so it only works once. If you do things out of sequence, you can't make the key. And from what I hear about the loot requirement, you kinda have to visit the house the cog key unlocks (the art dealer).

Overall... it look unfinished to me, even though it went through several revisions back when it was new. Even with NewDark the memory leak is noticable (the game stutters in the mansion/fortress) but even if that point is ignored, there's little reason for me to recommend this FM. I can clearly see it being one of the better missions around when it was released, but it has aged terribly. The curious and those looking for a challenge might like it, but it has more things going against it than for it.

 

[skacky]

Ah yes, Durant, I remember playing it about a year ago. I never had any problems running it but I didn't find it very memorable as a whole, the only thing that I really liked was the mansion's exterior that had a very good style but the rest was pretty meh, especially the Mechanist warehouse thing.

By the way, so far there are 3 entries to the 64 cubed contest. I beta-tested two of them and they are both pretty good. I love size restriction in contests since it forces designers to squeeze a lot of stuff in a reduced area, and rather than limiting creativity it enhances it. The Tower, A Weekend Getaway and The Affairs of Wizards are the best examples of that.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I remember the last 64 cube contest, and The Tower... well, towered above the other entries, even though there were some other nice entries like Off The Record and the Crypt of St. Lucian. There are some other wonderful "small" FMs out there, like The Inventor's Tower and Hightowne Museum.

Meanwhile, the Drymian Codex seems to be just around the corner, and I discovered that it's a "Reloaded" FM, meaning that it's based on previously made work, which in this case is The Monastery of St. Fera, an old and typical FM about breaking into a Hammerite compound to steal some valuables. While it has very little to offer in its original form and has aged terribly IMO, I can understand why someone would want to revamp it and make something of it, the potential surely is there.

On a related note of some slight embarrassment to myself, I thought that The Drymian Codex was first based off an FM called The Skull of St. Yora, and I started playing that instead. It's a mission where a Hammerite asks you to recover the aforementioned skull from a former-Hammerite-now-Mechanist location. When I originally played this I remember just breezing through it without as much as a second thought about why everything looked familiar, but now when I replayed it, I noticed it instantly: It's a re-hash of Return to the Haunted Cathredal, Mechanist style. The once grimy, dark, Undead-infested holy place of worship has gotten a new paintjob, new lights installed, a lovely little elevator to the basement and they even redid the floors! Very little else has been changed, except there's a upper-class neighborhood where the graveyard used to be... :-/

 

[Tzaero]

And The Drymian Codex is out.
http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=140990&p=2170196#post2170196

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I'm playing it now, needed a break because... THE CRYPTS ARE THE SCARIEST FUCKING THING SINCE SHALEBRIDGE CRADLE.

 

[Icewater]

Good to hear. Fuck the haters who don't like Thief's supernatural elements.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

And... that's a wrap. I was right about the Monastery of St. Fera having the potential to be something awesome. Namely, this FM.

This lives up to all the hype. It starts out rather plainly, get into the Monastery through the sewers. Except the sewers are not only beautifully done, but also creepy. They go a long way towards building up the suspense that leads to... the sealed crypt.

First off, the crypt is OPTIONAL. You don't have to go in there, and the mission goal in there is also optional. There's enough loot around elsewhere for the nansy-pansies to stay out. Oddly enough the mission contains no Undead, but whatever that... thing is in the crypts makes the point irrelevant. There's another crypt later on, but it's not as creepy and actually has a nice little secret.

Except for a "minor" plot twist about 2/3ds through, there's nothing here to surprise people, it's just a classic "raid the Hammerites" FM. Just done masterfully and with high attention to detail. Of course, there are a few surprises along the way... ;-)

Tl:dr version: Get this and play it.

 

[skacky]

I love how this FM uses a specific gimmick I am also using in one of mine. Oh well, it's also done better in the Drymian Codex. :p
I'm still not finished (I'm 1h30 in) but it's indeed a great FM so far.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Since there is nothing better to play, I've been digging through some of the old FM's I have saved and trying to remember why I saved them in the first place.

The first one is the "Suffer Catalyst", which is primarily an Undead romp. Traverse some tricky haunted caverns while almost unarmed, find some Hammerites, then go through a portal and find a large house full of some more Undead before getting your hands on the eponymous Suffer Catalyst, a +3 Mace of Undead Slaying. It has some decent scares and is just creepy in general, and the various zombie models are pretty well done, but beyond that there isn't much Thiefness to be found here.

Then I had a go at "Third Time's the Charm", where Garrett breaks into a mountain monastery. The title refers to the fact that you're the third thief in recent times to attempt to loot the joint. This is exclusively a Hammerite mission and also a rather long-winded key hunt. The good points is that it's a beautiful mission, not too tough (killing the Hammerites is allowed) and there are plenty of secret hiding places to find. The bad points is that it follows "modern" level design (meaning that the longest possible distance must be traveled to get from the bottom to the top, you'll see what I mean) and there are several places where you can get trapped in the mission, behind chests, in dead-end caves, etc. There's nothing bad about this FM, but there's really nothing outstanding about it either.

The third one was "Freedom for Nepumuk", which I heard mentioned but don't remember ever playing, so I thought I'd give it a go. It's a rather old FM where Garrett must break into a castle and rescue some guy. In all honesty I'm not sure what's going on, because the intro movie is in German, but it sure starts out in an interesting manner; gray fog restricting your view so you can barely see a thing. But the fog soon lifts (somewhat disappointingly) and the rather large castle is soon found. Getting in is not easy, since Garrett barely packed his lockpicks, let alone any weapons. Once inside... it's one of the best examples of "crumbling castle" I've ever seen, and it's big and fun to explore. But the faults cannot be ignored. The designer forgot to account for people getting into water, as far too often there is NO WAY to get back out of some waterspots, even at the start! There's a ladder in a well later on that's broken, meaning that it's very hard (if not impossible) to get out of the well. Prisoners are hostile to your presence, which can be a drag since you'll be making your way in through the prison. And almost every person is carrying a lantern, so this is a frustrating ghosting mission on Expert. But do I recommend it? Despite its charms, no. It's way too frustrating and not thought through.

 

[Melan]

Freedom for Nepumuk is full of great architecture, but I agree it is severely flawed. It's fun to explore, but a hassle to finish, so I never did.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I had another go at Nepumuk, and actually had a SHAS* moment while playing it. In NewDark. Should give people an idea of the magnitude of the problem.

Beyond that, I did some more sneakings through memory lane (and old FM's):

"Three Crowns" starts out innocently enough: Break into a warehouse and steal 3 crowns. Cue a cityscape mission that offers quite a lot to see and do, though nowhere near as awesome as Bad Debts or Behind These Dark Walls. Then you reach the warehouse... and things start to get a bit more complicated. One thing this FM does is that there are gates and doors that only open once certain plot requirements have been fulfilled. This makes things somewhat confusing and can lead to players wandering about aimlessly trying to figure out where to go next, not to mention breaking the Thief immersion somewhat. But beyond that, this FM is actually quite fun. You're in for one hell of a ride, that's all I'm gonna say. It has a little bit of everything in it, though no Undead and you can kill to your heart's content.

"A Night's Profit" (a.k.a. the crate mission) is a shrunk-down version of the "Shipping... And Receiving" OM from Thief 2, featuring only one small warehouse and the accomodating docks. Don't let that fool you, this FM is tough. On Expert there's a limit on knockouts, and you'll be running back and forth looking for keys, doorcodes and even using a Mechanist photocopier, all while dodging plenty of guards! This one is perfect for the "purists" who don't want any Undead or supernatural stuff in their Thief game. I call it the crate mission because it has an ungodly amount of crates, both movable and static ones.

"His Own Medicine" is another one for the purists. Garrett is tasked with stealing a valuable mask from a noblewoman for an antiques dealer. Let's just say things are never as simple as they look. The FM even follows this creed, as it is surprisingly tough. Just getting past the first gate will probably take several attempts, and sneaking through the Hammerite church later on is a challenge. One thing this FM has going for it is the attention to detail. Lots of little things to notice and admire.

*SHAS - Sudden Heart Attack Syndrome. The de facto term used to describe when the Dark Engine instakills you because there are too many 'objects' concentrated in one spot, and you happen to walk over that spot. There was an infamous spot like this in Return to the Cathredal, but DromEd'ers learned how to avoid making them years ago. Uneven stairs are the most common example of this.

 

[SCO]

SHAS: what a appropriate bug

 

[DeepOcean]

*SHAS - Sudden Heart Attack Syndrome. The de facto term used to describe when the Dark Engine instakills you because there are too many 'objects' concentrated in one spot, and you happen to walk over that spot. There was an infamous spot like this in Return to the Cathredal, but DromEd'ers learned how to avoid making them years ago. Uneven stairs are the most common example of this.

For some reason, this never happened to me while playing but I can see that this bug have the potential to cause a real heart attack happening on the middle of return to cathredral.

 

[skacky]

I finally finished The Drymian Codex. I feel a bit underwhelmed but it was definitely a high-caliber FM. I think the major problem I had was the walls of text everywhere, I am the kind of player who really dislikes having to read too much, which is why I just cannot play missions like Finals at the Academy. I wish it was more visually pleasing as well, especially with all these fancy textures. More details would have been nice. The actual gameplay was awesome though, with lots of guards and interesting setups, lots of secret passages and an outright terrifying bit. I must confess I didn't complete the related optional objective.

Concerning Three Crowns, this one is among my favorites and it's definitely something unusual. I like how bbb manages to make his missions seem pretty small at first glance and then throws huge areas to get lost into. It took me more than three hours to complete Three Crowns the first time. The doors are indeed a problem (which is also present in Drymian Codex to a lesser extent) but his subsequent missions fix that.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

More FMs played, decided to go (mostly) alphabetical:

"A Lovely Night" is your typical mansion mission - get in, steal lots of loot, get out. With this one, however, there's a catch (isn't there always?) Knockouts are forbidden on Expert level, and I dare say the whole house is made of marble, but it's enjoyable nevertheless. It's not that large a mansion, and you'll soon be wrapped up in the not-so daily routines of the hobnobs living there, but sadly you can't really interfere, except making off with the valuables.

"A Pirate's Downfall" is an FM I'd completely forgotten about until I started playing it again. Garrett is off to rob another manor that seems to have been taken over by men of low moral fiber. Cue a checklist as long as your arm of valuable items to rob, a gigantic cavern that must be spelunkied through before even reaching the manor, a haunted tomb, probably THE most cryptic cypher hunt ever to grace an FM, and it's chock full of little funny details - check the titles in the bookshelf for a good laugh. I'd recommend it, if it weren't for one problem... it doesn't work with the new patches. It's been known for many months that it's incompatible with NewDark, yet neither the author or anyone else seems to care about it. A pity.

"Horror in St. Urbain" is certainly one for the horror freaks - a burglar friend of Garrett's hasn't come back from what seems to be a simple heist in a poor section of town. Garrett goes to investigate - and finds untold death and devastation with no survivors, and something stalking the streets... and guess who has to clean up the mess. While this FM builds up suspense masterfully, there are plenty of little nitpicks around to detract from the experience, and the culprit may seem a little cheesy to some players. I still recommend a playthrough.

"A Theft in High Towne" is a 'Thieves' Highway' kind of mission, really just a condensed version of 'Life of the Party', featuring many of the same elements, like nobles sulking, thieves housebreaking and a creepy tower. Garrett has been hired to break into a Hammerite stronghold and steal a hammer, but isn't allowed to harm any of the Hammerites. Everyone else is fair game, though. As can be expected, there's plenty to see and do, and even though the streets are off-limits, some of the mission takes place on ground level. Highly recommended.

 

[skacky]

If you enjoyed A Theft in High Towne you should play Complicated Cargo if you haven't already. It's Life of the Party AND A Theft in High Towne.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

That's the 'Firefly'-inspired Reloaded FM, isn't it?

I passed on that the first time round because I felt I was missing out on some big in-joke or something. Which may be understandable since I haven't seen the show.