Thief fan missions and campaigns

[Icewater]

Hey CroGamer, have you tried The Tower by Lady Rowena? It's a great small mission packed with tons of stuff.

 

[CroGamer1234]

Hey CroGamer, have you tried The Tower by Lady Rowena? It's a great small mission packed with tons of stuff.

Yeah, The Tower is a classic. Lady Rowena truly knows how to make a good mission, and doesn't waste space. So much content in such a small mission.

 

[Riskbreaker]

On the subject of FMs that don't get nearly enough love, I'm pretty partial to "Stones and Glass Houses". Really good mini campaign, both the visuals and gameplay feel like continuation of vanilla T2. There is a great deal of variety between missions, and they are all really well-made: you have a really great city-style mission (with some pretty neat locations like a keeper hideout hidden in the sewers, or caverns used as a hideout by the local gang), -huge- prison, and a mansion mission with more than one twist. Each mission has a detailed automap, plus (iirc) there is an item shop at the start and between second and third mission. Like I said, it looks, feels and plays like more of vanilla Thief 2.

(Also, this FM is actually a sequel to an older and much more well-known "All Torc" campaign. Decent stuff, but also way simpler than "Stones and Glass Houses" and not nearly as good imo)

 

[skacky]

Yeah I really like Stones and Glass Houses too. The prison is definitely not my favorite of the bunch, but the other two are great.

 

[JarlFrank]

On the subject of FMs that don't get nearly enough love, I'm pretty partial to "Stones and Glass Houses". Really good mini campaign, both the visuals and gameplay feel like continuation of vanilla T2. There is a great deal of variety between missions, and they are all really well-made: you have a really great city-style mission (with some pretty neat locations like a keeper hideout hidden in the sewers, or caverns used as a hideout by the local gang), -huge- prison, and a mansion mission with more than one twist. Each mission has a detailed automap, plus (iirc) there is an item shop at the start and between second and third mission. Like I said, it looks, feels and plays like more of vanilla Thief 2.

(Also, this FM is actually a sequel to an older and much more well-known "All Torc" campaign. Decent stuff, but also way simpler than "Stones and Glass Houses" and not nearly as good imo)

All Torc was great, and Stones and Glass Houses was a great sequel to it. I really hope the maker of these goes on to make another mission pack.

 

[Yandros]

All Torc was great, and Stones and Glass Houses was a great sequel to it. I really hope the maker of these goes on to make another mission pack.

If I'm not mistaken, R Soul has a new mission in beta test currently, so hopefully it will be released soon.

 

[Tannar]

If I'm not mistaken, R Soul has a new mission in beta test currently, so hopefully it will be released soon.

Is that so? I thought I remembered him saying something about that awhile ago. If so, that's great news! His missions are always among my favorites. He's not testing at Dussander's, though. I wonder where it's being tested.

 

[CroGamer1234]

"Bloodsport" is an interesting mission. It is set in a big arena complex owned by some blood-centered cult. It's a typical 'escape' mission with some pretty interesting areas. 7/10

"Saturio Returns Home" is a great mission. You've been ask to find some kidnapped guy named Saturio (who would have guessed). It's a mansion type missions with a small bit of undead. Once you menage to get inside the mansion, you're free to explore as you like. 7.5/10

"Raid on Washout Central" sets you as a female thief Ryalla, who needs to meet some guy in the inn, and stealing whatever she can before she gets there. I really like when missions have you playing as someone else than Garret. The story is pretty thin, but the mission is really atmospheric with the whole city submerged in rain. 7.5/10

 

[General_Norris]

Hmm, I couldn't get the mission to work, chances are I have an old version of DarkEngine or something. Do you guys know how I can check and fix that?

That's strange. Not counting a couple of glitches, it worked fine, and I'm have NewDark and everything installed

Oh, sorry, I was actually refering to "Of thieves and rubies" not "Snatch and Grab".


"Saturio Returns Home" is indeed a great mission, with the caveat that you should not try to ghost it because guard senstivity has been raised a ludicrous amount and it's more annoying than fun. In fact there's a point (In the top of the tower, where the combat bot and some guards watch the entrance to Saturio's prison) in which I'm not sure there's even a way to not alert the guards, I made it all the way through there and had to make a run for my life after that point.

 

[CroGamer1234]

Hmm, I couldn't get the mission to work, chances are I have an old version of DarkEngine or something. Do you guys know how I can check and fix that?

That's strange. Not counting a couple of glitches, it worked fine, and I'm have NewDark and everything installed

Oh, sorry, I was actually refering to "Of thieves and rubies" not "Snatch and Grab".


"Saturio Returns Home" is indeed a great mission, with the caveat that you should not try to ghost it because guard senstivity has been raised a ludicrous amount and it's more annoying than fun. In fact there's a point (In the top of the tower, where the combat bot and some guards watch the entrance to Saturio's prison) in which I'm not sure there's even a way to not alert the guards, I made it all the way through there and had to make a run for my life after that point.

Oops. My bad.

I've never been a big fan of ghosting. I usually just whach everybody I see on the head. And yeah, that doorway on the tower is definitely badly designed. I had to waste my precious flash bomns to ger rid of the guards.

 

[Riskbreaker]

As an aside, I just played the contest mission Curse of the Skull Goblet - it's truly a mission of two halves. The first half takes place on a ship and is really kind of dull - tons of identical rooms, all with 2 footlockers to lockpick, lots of metal floors so you pretty much have to crouch walk everywhere. I could easily see quitting early on and never getting to the 2nd half.

The latter portion of the level is tons better - setting is a creepy, caves/mine and abandoned town/ruins area with some cool effects and a few unique AI. Very pagan influenced, some interesting (and confusing) navigation too, sometimes vertically. It's worth checking out if you can get by the first portion. There's a cool shimmering effect in some of the caves with the water reflecting on to the walls that I've never seen in an FM before.

Just finished it meself, and I gotta agree. Ship section is really tedious and uninteresting, what with forced ghosting and ship interiors being pretty bare-bones and bland looking. Island section is really great tho, it has great atmosphere and is just joy to explore. There is one part that will be particularly appreciated by taffers with a fear of heights.:D
Island section actually reminded me of another FM, "Scepter of Dor Am'al". It also had a shipwreck, creepy atmosphere, labyrinthine sections consisting of narrow passages, town under some sort of supernatural influence (way subtler in that regard tho), and was also bigger and more varied that it seems to be at the beginning.

 

[Cavalorn]

Hey guys!

Cavalorn here from TTLG. Glad I finally stumbled across this place. It's great to read some honest reviews, which point out the flaws and design problems with the missions, and not just praising them. I really enjoyed reading through these pages! Keep the reviews coming!

 

[skacky]

At this point, everyone on TTLG will migrate here.

 

[JarlFrank]

This thread is probably the second-largest Thief community apart from TTLG.

 

[Melan]

I assume Darkfate.ru, ttlg.de and the TDM forums are larger.

 

[Riskbreaker]

Might be a good time to consider turning this place into more of a... safe space.

 

[Karwelas]

Let's make Thieves Guild on Codex. We will have taffers community there, but with class.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

I assume Darkfate.ru, ttlg.de and the TDM forums are larger.

There's also the question of how much of the Thief community from the Eidos forums is still around.

 

[Dev_Anj]

Good news! Not fan mission related, but today the City map with all locations in the original missions was drawn, and it shows the scale of the city as well as locations outside the city, like the Mage Towers. It can be found from this post here: http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10995&page=99&p=2292448&viewfull=1#post2292448 . Here's a scaled down image of the map:

Spoiler

 

[Unkillable Cat]

That map needs a legend for what FMs are located where. Fortunately I have a prototype of the map that does just that (but couldn't find via Google Search).

Here we go...

The bubble on the left is Cragscleft (T1) while the bubble in the lower right is Markham's Isle (T2).

The castle-like structure south of the left bubble is the Mage Towers (T1).

The small green blips NE of the Mage Towers and East of the Cragscleft bubble are the surface areas of the Bonehoard (T1).

The forested area at the top is the Pagan village that the Mechanists are invading (T2).

The little island just off the coast, SE of Wayside is the Overlook Mansion (T3).

Just east of that is the Docks area from T3, and on the prototype map you can see the Sunken Citadel (T3) branch off in a SE direction from there.

The area just left of Shalebridge is Shalebridge district, with the Cradle (T3) on the far east side but the Keeper Compound (T1 and T3) on the far west side.

The area north of the Old Quarter is the Haunted Cathedral and its immediate surroundings (T1).

The area by Wayside is the map used for "Ambush!" (T2)

"Shipping...and Receiving" (T2) is straight west of that.

The little blip just south of "South Quarter" is the tutorial mission from T3.

West of the "South Quarter" marker is Rutherford Castle, the second mission from T3.

North of the SQ marker is where things start to get crowded. The closest section is the South Quarter map where Garrett lives in T3. The Pagan encampment (T3) is also there, but barely visible. Not visible on this map is Pavelock prison which branches south, as well as the Lost City which fills in the space between this map and the next one above it by the "Newmarket" marker, which is where the "Assassins" mission takes place (T1). More than that, "Song of the Caverns" (T1) continues off from the Assassins map, the big brown square is the opera house.

Just east of the opera house is the Hammerite Compound where "Undercover" and "Strange Bedfellows" take place (T1).

Straight south of the "D" in the "Downtowne" marker is the inn that's used as a front for the Thieves's Guild in T1.

The area above the Downtowne marker is Stonemarket, where we can find St. Edgar's Cathedral (T3) and the clocktower (T3). The area to the NE of that is Bafford's manor (T1).

Quite a ways north from Stonemarket is Constantine's Mansion (T1).

If we hop across the river, we get the police station in which "Framed" takes place (T2), and SE of that is the First National Bank (T2).

Sheriff Truart's mansion is somewhat east of the bank (T2).

The Auldale map, including the city museum and Gamall's hideout, is just NE of the "Auldale" marker.

The large structure just east of the Auldale marker is Soulforge (T2 final mission).

Gervasius's mansion ("Casing the Joint" and "Masks") is east of Soulforge, and the mansion from the first T2 mission is just NE of that.

Angelwatch (T2's "Life of the Party") is the rectangular section just west of the "Dayport" marker, and the Eastport Mechanist Seminary is somewhat east of that.

Finally, "The Maw of Chaos" is not presented on this map for obvious reasons.

This map tells us a few things:

Except for the tutorial mission at the Keeper compound, all of Thief 1 takes place in the northwestern section of the city (and beyond).

Thief 2 mostly takes place in the east section of the city, though the seaside of the western part of the city also makes several key appearances.

Thief 3 is all over the place.

 

[Dev_Anj]

That map needs a legend for what FMs are located where

I assume you meant original missions, because fan missions are so many, and rely so much on how ambiguous the City's structure is, that placing them on a map would be a headache and it would quickly get overcrowded. :D

Anyway, I agree that it would be a nice feature, and those are some interesting findings. So the northwest part of the City is the older section that also tends to have slums and poorer areas, while the east part is the more developed section with modernized facilities and rich habitats. That's interesting. As for Thief 3, I think forgetting about the city sections would be better as they are ridiculously small, but that's not really practical of course.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

So very true of you, I mean OMs. Adding in the Fan Missions would require the City to grow into dimensions we can't even begin to comprehend.

 

[Yandros]

UC, can you post that over in the TTLG thread for my reference later? Or I can copy and paste and attribute to you if you prefer.

 

[Unkillable Cat]

UC, can you post that over in the TTLG thread for my reference later? Or I can copy and paste and attribute to you if you prefer.

Just copy/paste it for me. I did a few corrections just now, so it should account for every location in all three games.

No need for any credit, since I'm stealing this from another source myself.

 

[Tannar]

That's very cool! I'd been following the progress for awhile, and then I kind of forgot about it. Great to see it reach completion.