New Missions...Taffer!

[SlyFoxx]

Silver...Just so you know....everybody but you got the werewolf thing.  Feel better now?  I didn't think so.

[Silver Sorrow]

I knew it!! It's a vast both-wing (or the whole friggin' bird) conspiracy that exists only to confuse the hell out of me! Not only does it go all the way to the top AND the bottom, it also covers everything in between. All planes of movement/existence are rallied against me...

...kinda makes all you guys feel insignificant, doesn't it? Then again, maybe there IS no conspiracy. Maybe I'm not important enough to be conspired against...

...holy crap...maybe THAT'S the conspiracy: the no-conspiracy conspiracy!

   

[hitch in voice]

iN oTheR newwwwwsss...

[shaky rambling]

For T1/G, Lighthouse Shed (5.1mb) by Dront is ready to be downloaded for your downloaded Thiefatrical pleasure.

[gentle sobbing]

EDIT: Corrected which game is needed for Lighthouse Shed: T1/G. Some people just can't embrace the awesomeness that is Thief 2.

[Silver Sorrow]

Tried Insanity's Crescendo again. Kept getting stuck in that maze with the overpowered haunt chasing me into dead ends. Over and over and over. This one goes into the circular file--

--EDIT--

--it figures that I'd find my way out seconds after complaining that I couldn't do it. Lost some health, but I finally got out (yeah, I know: retrace my steps...but taking the route backwards is difficult enough without some idiot haunt chasing me). I still want to beat the guy senseless with a baseball bat.

EDIT 2: Finished. Thought I did pretty well until I discovered that I missed three secrets and 5400 loot.

[Silver Sorrow]

For T2:

Darkstone Gem part 1: Looking for Info (37.2mb) by DarkMax. [This confused me for a moment, as there was another (relatively recent) mission called "DarkStone Mine."]

City Conflict 5 (1.2mb) by Silencium18. [I just gave this one a quick look-see, and it looks pretty good for a 1.2mb file. (Filesize isn't everything; a bigger footprint usually means a bunch of textures/custom stuff and a movie or two.) I'll give the rest of the series a try when I have the time. ]

Also, Freddy Fox has written a walkthrough for Insanity's Crescendo...you know, if you're into getting all the secrets and loot and stuff.

[Silver Sorrow]

Since this section of the forums is really burnin' up the ol' bandwidth -- -- I thought I'd at least post something.

epithumia has collected all (probably) of the Crap Contest missions together, and you can see them all here.

A new campaign for T2 is available; When Still... (107.2mb) by Eternauta is the delightful tale of...oh teh noes!! teh ebil chrissjans r killing ebberyones!!...or something like that. The storyline and most (or all) of the readables look like they were written by someone suffering from a mild concussion.

Seriously: I dislike FMs where real-world religions are dragged into the Thiefverse...there's a lot of allegory readily available, why not use it? Make up your own religious sect. But no. Here we have the Hammers -- already an allegory for medieval Catholicism -- being edged out by Christianity. Tons of crosses all over the place...frescoes...stained glass...mentions of the Vatican...I don't know. And goddammit, I'm out of gummi bears.

There are several high-quality missions where the art of the Hammers is actually Christian iconography, and it's utilized splendidly; I have no problem with the art or the religion itself, understand. I just lament the fact that the author just doesn't appear to be clever enough to invent his own allegorical sect.

With that said, the first mission looks great, but...well, it's neverending. This "manor" must exist in a dimension of its own, because I don't think there's enough landmass anywhere in the mundane to provide it a stable foundation.

Anyway, I look forward to editing my post with apologies once I play through the rest of it. I wonder how ol' head wound's gonna pull it off?

EDIT: My RetardSpeak is a little rusty. Corrected.

[Silver Sorrow]

When Still...:

Map One
Visually edible, but geographically improbable. Room after room after room after room...one opens into another, which opens into another area with several more doors to...ugh. The author really should look into tightening up his architectural ambitions. Many of the rooms serve no real function, and with all the spinning around in circles, it's easy to forget which locked door was where; I spent most of my time looking for this or that door, and so on. This is like the Winchester Mystery House, but with less purpose. If you can get through this one, the second map is easier to navigate.

Map Two
More of the same, but this time in some sort of water treatment plant/sewers/haunted bingo parlor (or not). Not quite as twisty and turny as the first map, but still...kind of brutal.

Map Three
The neverending abbey. Door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door after door...you might get the idea, but let me maker it clearer: there are a lot of doors.

And he's really stingy with the water arrows.

Also, "most" lights can be interacted with (either through frobbing, water arrows, or a switch)...the others cannot. These untouchables are usually in areas where you NEED to be able to turn them off. Well, there's always growing corn for a living.

So that's where I stopped for the moment, as I felt it vital to the human race as a whole that all of you are kept up to speed with what I thought about this campaign so far. So now you can go back to your boring, pointless little lives with renewed vigor. Or you could just give up, realizing the hopelessness of it all. Either way, whatever.

[Silver Sorrow]

Astounding. I finally got to the point where I erase all memory of these mediocre little sneakfests almost immediately after uninstalling. I can't remember what the third map was even about, but from what I posted last, there was a LOT of doors. Huh.

Of course, should I load the offending FMs up again, it all comes crashing back before I take two steps. It's times like that when I wish I had access to all kinds of illegal candy.

But I still vaguely recall Map Four, because it's a disappointing knock-off of The Cradle, albeit without the atmosphere. I went through a hell of crappy caves and bad pagan architecture to get to the orphanage...and it wasn't all that great. Everyone at TTLG seems to be having thiefgasms over the whole thing, which means that I'm totally wrong, once again. Well, fuck it. I'm calling this one a shovel.

However, A Visit For The Knights (17mb) by DarkMax is available for your T2-ing tendencies. I hope it isn't one of those...

The story takes place after Thief: The Dark Project.

I have a bad feeling about this... 

[SlyFoxx]

It's not just you SS.  The brush work and lighting were VERY impressive.  But the sprawling and confusing nature of the maps and the long winded readables really detracted from the experience.  Shame really. 

[Silver Sorrow]

Hola, people. I'm back from a delightful vacation of necessity...that is, holing up in a hotel for a few days until we got the air conditioner fixed. Just basic cable (), a couple of books (David McCullough's 1776 and the two latest James Rollin's Sigma Force installments**), my ipod (the friggin' battery juices fast, dude), and a sore neck and numb legs because the mattress was made by Klingons.
[** I was thinking about who should play Seichan if the Sigma Force books ever made it to the big screen, and Lucy Liu crossed my mind...but at 42, she may be a little too old for the role by the time the Gray/Seichan installments were made...even the otherwise excellent choice of Michelle Krusiec would be too old for the role in a conservative estimate of ten years. ]

Anyway.

When Still...: I agree: I liked the lighting and the shapes of things (soon I hope that I will find...thoughts deep within my mind...that won't disgrace my kind), but it was damned hard to keep from just abandoning the whole thing. I did like the orphanage in general (and choosing the wrong ending was funny), but it could've used more attention: decoration, etc. Seemed a little too close to the Cradle for my liking. Overall an impressive effort, but not without navigation problems...and my crude GPS didn't help a whole lot.  

[Silver Sorrow]

[insert sarcastic witticism here]

Three FMs of note, each one for a different game.

For the Dark Mod, there's The Beleaguered Fence (10.9mb) by Sotha.

For T1/G, there's Projekt Hammer (1.1mb) by DarkThief; the mission's been out for a year or so apparently, but this update adds an English translation.

And for T2, there's The Bodysnatchers (7mb) by DarkShadow. Sounds promising.

[insert tiresome sign-off here]

[Silver Sorrow]

Summer Vacation Contest...four missions (probably), download links in the first post, other mirrors available by scrolling down and looking for them.

[SlyFoxx]

I really enjoyed all four SVC missions.  My fave was A Night's Profit...got my ghost on and almost made it bust free....1 bust around the half way point....DAMN! 

BTW...what ever happened to bobdog?  Can't remember him posting in here recently...

[bobdog]

I still live ... but I haven't played Thief 2 in nigh on a wildebeest's hump. My new computer just doesn't run it properly and to be honest, I got kind of bored with all the sub-par T2 missions wasting my time.... I know, heresy!!    I do aim to give the Doom 3 conversion a spin (The Dark Mod??) and T3 and its few add-ons, but don't intend to return to T2 at this time.

Of course, when T4 comes out, I'm all in on that mutha!!

[bobdog]

... and too bad I'm not playing T2 anymore -- this actually looks really cool! Tales of the Penitent Thief is built in the Dark Engine, but with cel-shading graphics. It's an adventure game rather than regular T2 gameplay, built by Digital Nightfall and Sliptip. Check out the trailer for more info.

[Silver Sorrow]

So while I was looking the other way...

For T2:

T2 Bathory Campaign (~257mb) by Sensut.

Horns Of Canzo 2: The Dragon's Claw (~135mb) by sterlino.

Okay...Sensut encourages the use of the NV Enhancement pack, while sterlino warns "This mission is not compatible with the NV enanchement pack, unistall it before install this mission" [sic]...so try not to get confused.

Oh, and Anthony Huso, aka Purah, has released a novel. The Last Page. Use Amazon's nauseatingly happy "Look Inside!" feature and find the second mp of the city. Now. Do any of those names look familiar? Hmmm?

Much of this is old news. But since my interest in the outside world is minimal at best, that's what you're going to get.