lordhern on 29/10/2020 at 22:59
I'm looking forward to your mission 12 report.
Galaer on 3/11/2020 at 22:02
MISSION 12 - RETURN TO THE CATHEDRAL
MOVEMENT CONTROL
I'm starting in front of Cathedral. Selecting 4 Talismans would mean 4 busts, so I'm gonna avoid that. And I was informed that it's possible to enter Cathedral without using Talismans, but I forgot how. So my first idea was to mantle on window near main entrance and from there jump to wall. Unfortunately closest wall was too high. So I reloaded and decided to do diagonal jump to slightly lower wall.
I jumped and realized that somehow I lost all momentum. After few unsuccessful jumps I dropped on ground and noticed that I'm not running forward anymore. Instead I'm walking forward. Immediately I checked my Control Settings and my up arrow was still bind to run forward option. I reloaded game, but it didn't fixed my issue. So I was forced to reset my game and finally it worked.
Later after beating this mission I did some experimentation and learned that Caps Lock switches between running forward and walking forward. I knew that Caps Lock worked that way in old FPSes, but I had no idea it works that way in this game. This option doesn't appear at all in Control Settings.
After some more testing I found that there is a way to break it. If you activate Caps Lock to walk forward, go to menu and deactivate Caps Lock, then return to game, you will notice that you stay in walking speed. Pressing Caps Lock will not change speed anymore. To fix that you must reload previous save. If you saved after doing that, game will remember this and the only option to fix this will be to reset the whole game.
But Caps Lock isn't the only button with special function that doesn't appear in Control Settings. Did you know that you can move slowly forward? I didn't. The first time I saw this option was in Thief 2. Guess what, if you hold "5" in Num Pad, Garrett will start walking slowly forward. Combine this with Caps Lock and suddenly you will move very slowly forward. And if you combine it with going forward or backward, Garrett will stop moving. Actually pressing both forward and backward resulting in not moving. I always thought that because both movements have different speed, the speed value will be deduced. In other words if I would be pressing run forward and walk backwards, I would end moving slowly forward. But no, this game doesn't work that way. It's really great to learn about that.
BACK TO THE MISSION
Now that we have controls discussed let's return to the mission. So I finally did this jump to lower wall and mantled on top of it. Thanks to that I could explore the roof. In the end I just dropped and mantled on middle tree in Garden. St. Yora was easy to loot, but I think I alerted every zombie there. In St. Tennor I made key to Wine Cellar and left it in front of Cathedral door. Then I went to St. Jenel and fell down. At first I thought there is no way to get out from there without selecting rope arrow, but I was wrong. You can mantle on tiny switch in elevator shaft and from it jump to higher floor. This way i got Cemetery key. I left it near exit from this place and went to Sewers.
Not much to do here. I alerted haunt and instead of reloading I decided to run into him until he will back off, so I will run around him. And it worked surprisingly well. He tried to attack me, but simply going to the side made him miss. So i went back to St. Jenel with haunt running after me. There zombie spot me, so I grabbed golden hammer from his room and ran to mantle on switch and on higher floor. Somehow this alerted haunt who was visiting St. Jenel, so I needed to wait for him to calm down.
I went with key to the Cemetery only to find out there is nothing there. And I had haunt and apparition looking for me. Zombies from Cemetery also went after me. I did strafe run and mantled on wall leading to the back of St. Tennor. Then I visited St. Vale, but there was nothing there. It was easy to get on higher floor by jumping from table. I went to the Cathedral.
I looted what I could. I noticed that from SW side of 1st floor I can jump and mantle on 2nd floor. Locked door prevents me from going to room leading to the Eye and there is no rope arrow anywhere. So I decided to take 2 crates from 3rd floor and do a stack on west side of hammer statue. From there I lean for Eye. To my surprise only nearby zombie went into search mode. I always thought that grabbing Eye alerts every undead in Cathedral, but haunts just immediately went into new patrol route.
Zombie was walking towards me, so of course it ended by alerting every undead to my presence. I went through door and apparition spawned, so I needed to dodge him. I ran to Garden and quickly avoided Murus (I almost ran into him). I didn't want to activate his requests, because I don't think any of it can be completed without a busts. First request requires having all items and then manually selecting them at the Cemetery. In 2nd request I need to bury 2 bodies, but one of them is behind locked door on 3rd floor of Cathedral. And lastly I don't think it's possible to kill all haunts with just the equipment lying on ground or in unlocked chests.
So I mantled on Garden's middle tree. From it I jumped+mantled on north roof. Before grabbing Eye I left here one crate. I used it to mantle on NW roof and from there I jumped on wall. And it immediately finished this mission.
STATS:
Time: 0:42:04; Loot: 1086/2126
Locks Picked: 0
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 0; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Busts: 0
lordhern on 6/11/2020 at 15:01
The cemetery has two loot items - both are on the ground close to grave stones - One is almost due south of the open the grave in the SE section. The other one is in the north central area nearest the wall intersection points.
As for Murus after you grab the eye - the first conversation at the back door of the cathedral doesn't trigger the objectives - it's only after you meet him the 2nd time at the bottom of the broken stairs does his obnoxious objectives come into play.
Galaer on 9/11/2020 at 21:50
MISSION 13 - ESCAPE!
CAVES
Very stressful mission. For the first time I can use blackjack, but I don't want to use it just yet. I'm leaving rope arrows too. First I decided to jump+mantle on ledge with gas arrow. Instead of taking it I took gas mine, because it gave me 2 mines. With them I managed to eliminate 2 ratmen and bugbeast below. Here I also took 6 broadhead arrows. With them I managed to kill 5 spiders and 1 ratman. I was conserving arrows by shooting them into ground in front of cave. For 2 spiders I was forced to quickly lean to the side to kill them.
Then I took water arrows to douse torches near treehouses and went for book objective. There I found another rope arrow. It excited me so much that I can kill another spider that I forgot to read book. I needed to return there later. And rope arrows I also stored in ground near cave and later on treehouse. Now I decided to return for blackjack and try to KO as many ratmen as possible. I also was forced to reset game, because I had bug of repeating sound, which also didn't allow me to use any weapon.
I managed to KO most of enemies in treehouses area. I was surprised by difficulty. I don't remember enemies to alert when nearby enemy got KO-ed and I don't remember them seeing bodies in shadow. Is it Tfix that made this change? Also one fire elemental is patrolling, but he wasn't before. Is it because I doused torches in this area? Using gas arrows and gas mines I defeated rest of enemies, also used water arrows to kill fire elementals.
BASEMENT
This long corridor is very annoying. Lots of ratmen often changing their routes. First group wasn't very hard to dodge. I pushed barrel to move through dark metal passage. Next is metal corridor with 3 ratmen and spider. Super annoying place. I visited spider, because I noticed there good shadow and 10 broadhead arrows. I killed spider. Unfortunately ratman saw me, so I shot him to the state that he ran away. When i was shooting him, he was slashing me, but he never hit me. I used rest of arrows to hurt 2nd ratman, but third was after me. I dodged them and ran to 1st floor.
I went right and hid in shadow. Weirdly enough no ratman showed up even though they were right behind me. After 15 seconds ratman showed up and vanished again. After another 10 seconds 2 ratmen showed up. First saw me and ran away. 2nd wasn't scared, so I reloaded. From my hiding spot I sneaked upstairs. This time nobody spot me. Now I'm stuck on 1st floor without any equipment. All my rope arrows I left in caves. Hopefully I will not need them.
HOUSE
I sneaked to Bar, but frog spot me. Luckily I mantled on counter in shadow, so it couldn't get to me. Then I sneaked behind bugbeast. Took purse and used upstairs gas arrow to douse both torches in front of bugbeast. I went to Dining Room and went upstairs. Frog spot me, I waited for it on stairs and dodged it. Then I went to balcony and dropped outside. That was tough mission.
STATS:
Time: 1:12:29; Loot: 2751/3066
Locks Picked: 0
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 5
Damage Dealt: 222; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 9
Bodies Discovered by Enemies: 4
Busts: 0
Galaer on 16/11/2020 at 11:11
MISSION 14 - STRANGE BEDFELLOWS
At first I wanted to go for loot, but looks like purse is behind locked door and it requires lockpicks. Also noticed that roof is different in this mission than in Undercover and to get on it I was forced to mantle from left side of bridge and it's much harder. So instead I took broadhead arrows, killed red spider and ran to undergrounds.
I would be quiet, but realized that there is Builder Chisel in this part. I found some broadhead arrow on ground and kill green spider. Unfortunately it spot me. Red spider escaped wounded, I killed it when it returned. Unfortunately I also shot wall, which alerted ratmen. I ran away to water pool. I managed to lure into water 2 ratmen. They were partially in water, but still it managed to kill them. I left bodies in water and met with Hammerites. When I returned bodies were lying in front of water. Looks like water current moved them. Also I leaned that if I'm preparing to shoot arrow and jump into water, arrow is being released immediately. The rest of the mission was quiet and no challenging.
STATS:
Time: 0:17:08; Loot: 0/100
Locks Picked: 0
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 67; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 4
Busts: 0
Galaer on 22/11/2020 at 21:31
MISSION 15 - INTO THE MAW OF CHAOS
PREPARATIONS
And so the nightmare begin. This mission will be super hard. So I'm forced to select Fake Eye, so that's bust #1, but I think I can destroy portal without selecting arrows. Problem is elemental arrows are located only in their own areas. So I need to ironman this mission few times. To return to starting part of mission I need to drop on sphere with monster inside. For that I need bodies, so I need to gas 2 ratmen or use fire arrows. Gas arrows require ironmanning almost whole mission, but it's quiet weapon. Fire arrows require shorter route, but I am more visible and these arrows are really loud.
Also I will need to ride sphere with monsters, which actually means riding on monsters. They change their position a lot and you can easily slide down and die. I managed to do this ride once and it was a nightmare. This mission force me to do it twice. I'm not looking forward for that.
GAS ARROW RUN
So first I sneaked to last gas arrow in this area and did few backup saves. I started with 9 gas arrows. Dodging spawning enemies was easy. Then I shot 2 gas arrows into 3 frogs. Ice slide was easy. I decided to run past fire elementals, which was really stressful, because I consider them the hardest enemies in game. Then I did 2nd slide and swimming tunnel. In tree area I used 2 gas arrows to defeat green spiders, then climbed under red spider and needed 2 gas arrows to defeat it too. I climbed up and gassed another red spider.
Unfortunately green spiders noticed me, so I needed to run past this area around left wall. I went to lava area and realized that I only have 2 gas arrows to gas 2 ratmen and shoot into earth orb of the portal. So I went behind one of ratmen and shot gas arrow into floor between them. It worked. In the end is last jump over lava. I hate this jump, because it doesn't look like, but if you don't jump early enough, you run on slope going down you don't see and you can't jump. And I failed this jump. Luckily I managed to mantle on the ledge on the other side.
After that is just final shot in earth orb, which is stressful, because it's at the very end of stressful ironman run through this mission. But I succeeded. It was my 2nd attempt. In 1st I was killed when I attempted to fight fire elementals. Not very bright idea. I took one body to the bridge with magic missile traps and used it as a cushion to drop on monster flying inside egg.
RETURN PATH
Beginning is quite easy. But soon body (in my example crayman) speed up. You must be careful to stay on it. It will change few time position and later speed up again and you will fall down. I climbed few rooms higher and jumped on lying diagonally crayman. There are 2 positions that are very difficult to deal. First is steep diagonal position where it's very hard to stay on crayman. It's hard to stay after he change into it and then it's hard to stay if he change into his standing position.
Second position that is absolutely the hardest is lying position. Transitioning from it to standing position is usual move. It happens 3 times during one ride and it's hate. To stay on crayman you are forced to jump in place and prey to stay on crayman's head. Usually you will just fall through body. If you are lucky though, then save. It's the most frustrating challenge in this run. In the end you will be forced to jump on ledge from lying position, so it won't be too hard.
WATER ARROW RUN
Since most of enemies is down and path is shorter it shouldn't be too hard. I also want to deal with fire elementals for my fire arrow run. I start with 10 water arrows. Then slide down and kill fire elementals. Also crouch when in shadow, because I learned that standing in shadow with water arrows will leave you visible for alerted fire elementals. That's right, this is my 2nd attempt again. I wasted 7 water arrows to kill them, because 2 fire elementals were flying far away and last one hid under bridge and float above river of lava. Spider caves I almost ghosted this time. And I also did successfully final jump over lava. Fire orb disabled. Now I need to return to the start and do fire arrow run.
SECOND RETURN
Here i will focus on things I forgot to mention earlier. First don't ride ratmen, they are smaller than bugbeasts and craymen, so it's easier to fall from them. At some point you will be forced to drop on the edge of head of beast to enter lava cave. For that wait with dropping until the last moment. Otherwise you may slide from body. After getting dropped in stone cave, the safe spot to climb back on body is in 2nd dark cave. There you are jumping on lying diagonally monster. And afterwards you are forced to jump on his head when he changes into hit standing position.
This 2nd time was even harder. Sometimes after reloading you may notice that body is lying differently or it's hitbox is like in standing position. Next reload may fix this. Also sometimes you can get stuck on body without ability to jump. When it happens you better reload previous save. Unless it's happening when you need to land on final ledge. You can get there easily without jumping. Just wait for body to fly higher and strafe run out of it.
FIRE ARROW RUN
In this run the only real problem are red spiders from spider cave. I started with 9 fire arrows. This should be enough to deal with enemies. Did I mentioned I strafe swim through water tunnel? This way it's less stressful. I have no time to destroy any spider, because they alerted to me. I was forced to go past red spider. Luckily instead of shooting web or magic missile, it ran after me. So this was easy. Again I did jump over lava and destroyed water orb, then killed alerted bugbeast and ratman near portal. With last fire arrow I shot air orb. Maybe there is a glitch and it will get destroyed. But no. Did it on my 1st try.
MOSS ARROW RUN
No more egg riding. I just need to return to giant tree and grab moss arrows from top. This means going through spider cave 2 more times. I went through cave the shortest path and again was chased by green spider. He ran all the way to top of tree. I started run with 8 moss arrows. The hardest part was dodging green spider at the top of tree, then went through spider cave the shortest way. Stressful jump over lava and destroyed air orb and the whole portal. I used rest of moss arrows to douse path to the Eye and selected Fake Eye to exchange them. Then hid in shadow and went to wash dishes, so I will not need to wait for Constantine to end ritual.
STATS:
Time: 1:06:01; Loot: 0/0
Locks Picked: 0
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 61; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 4
Bodies Discovered by Enemies: 3
Busts: 1
FINAL NOTES
Very stressful run, but it went better than I expected. Especially egg runs. I thought I will spend an hour for each run. Also ironman runs with elemental arrows went really well. I was surprised that final jump over lava didn't kill me during any ironman run. It killed me twice when I was going to do egg ride though. Also just noticed that number of kills isn't correct. I killed 2 beasts near portal. I used 2 ratmen as cushion, so they drowned in lava. And I also killed 3 fire elementals. That's 7 kills, but in my stats I have only 4 kills. So I'm guessing that game doesn't count killing fire elemental as a kill? Maybe even the same thing happened in my Lost City run.
TOTAL STATS:
Time: 14:02:14; Loot: 27264
Damage Dealt: 639; Damage Received: 0
Busts: 19
VERY FINAL NOTES
The first surprise is time. It's 16 min shorter than my Thief 2 run. Usually Thief Gold takes longer, because it has more complicated missions. I got more loot, but in Thief Gold there is more loot than in Thief 2. And because there are monsters I dealt almost 20 times more damage than in Thief 2 run. I got 2 less busts, but Thief 2 has many forced busts connected with objectives. Masks, Soulforge and Mage Towers are missions were I used 1 lockpick to open 1 lock. If I would combine lockpicks with other locks by doing ironman run, I could lower number of busts in these missions.
What a challenge. At first I thought I will be forced to do a lot of notes where is equipment. And I remember I was playing that way first few missions of Thief 2. But ultimately I stopped doing that. Missions weren't that hard to beat. Originally I thought it will be very light challenge, relax after doing backward run. But it proved that it can be really stressful. Trial of Blood had the most stressful moment with stealing fire arrow from fire near 2 apes. Masks had the most strategic run. I needed to plan where to go and that was fantastic. Maw was on the other hand the hardest run I did, including all previous challenges. Definitely not what I originally expected.