Melan on 6/2/2018 at 15:12
Quote Posted by fortuni
It is possible for individuals to go to their photobucket account, download all their screenshots and then repost them on another photo hosting site. A pain to do, but do-able.
More than a pain, unfortunately. It is tortuous just to access and navigate through your pictures, and I haven't been able to download them. It is a disgrace.
zappenduster on 6/2/2018 at 17:40
I recommend (
http://webs.com) which is basically free and without ads. The only disadvantage might be that the free account (without an upgrade) only allows a single file uploding. But that should be sufficient for a few screenshots. ;)
fortuni on 6/2/2018 at 19:49
Quote Posted by Melan
More than a pain, unfortunately. It is tortuous just to access and navigate through your pictures, and I haven't been able to download them. It is a disgrace.
Yep, a nightmare. I couldn’t work out how to download all of my screenshots in one go, but you can pull them up individually and d/l one at a time.
Photobucket is vile, worse I once got infected via photochucksh*t with an evil virus that completely scrambled all my files and my only option was to re-install windows. :mad:
Midgard on 7/2/2018 at 00:51
Imgur also might be a good alternative to Photo$%^&it- I mean bucket :D
twhalen2600 on 11/2/2018 at 21:35
The Music of Sibel (Thief II, 2013), by skacky This mission drops you down with a plop.
Some do that, to simulate Garrett jumping down from over a wall at the beginning.
After the landing, you're looking at a tight,
Dark Project-in-
Thief II FM made in under forty-eight hours, and it will take you under an hour to beat it.
The Music of Sibel was made by
Thief 1-style practitioner skacky in AntiMatter_16's 48 Hour Contest, held in August 2013, and got third place. It's another great small FM done in
Thief 1 style, but the difference is that it's made in
Thief II.
There have been debates on whether there is any noteworthy difference between missions made in the
The Dark Project /
Gold and
The Metal Age engines. Personally, I think there's a slight enough difference that if you want to make a
TDP style mission, you should make it in the original
Thief's engine. However, to make a
Thief 1 style FM in
Thief II's DromEd is fine and acceptable.
The Music of Sibel feels
Thief 1 enough, but there's a little something missing. I promise, I'm not just making it up. More than subtle differences, most of the NPCs speak with
Thief II dialogue, which dampens the intended atmosphere.
No matter. This mission is neatly designed, with a couple paths into Lady Sibel's manor. The first is through the front door - you know how that goes. So, the path you'll take is via a Hammerite chapel. Getting to it means going to the area to the right of the start point. There's a Hammerite here you can have some fun with - as you sneak along the shadows to reach the machinery you need to climb up, you'll be constantly alerting him, so he'll be saying “Over there!” or “I thought I spied something...” time and again, and then reassuring himself everything's fine, the whole time you creep.
Inline Image:
https://thiefdiaries.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/the-music-of-sibel-hammerite.png?w=1024There are difficult patrols in this mission, and the first is in the Hammerite chapel. Then, when you climb down a vine out of the chapel, you have to rope arrow way up to a window of Sibel's manor - and then face more tough patrols! I had trouble even seeing the wood texture on the window. For the longest, I walked back and forth between the yard connecting the chapel with Sibel's and a pathway back out to the City area. I decided to use a rope arrow just to try, and lo! It attached.
Speaking of the “City area,” this mission takes place in the Old Quarter. One readable is by a servant leaving employment at Sibel's for some place else because she can't stand how creepy it is, even suffering with nightmares. Would you like to live in Old Quarter? Part of me is intrigued by the thought of living somewhere with such history, and the haunted house explorer in me (I wish!) would love being in an area with such legends and abandoned places. However, at night I might get a little too scared. Unlike the guards, I likely would not be dismissing every little noise as “just the wind” or rats.
Sibel's wind chime offers another bit of dark backstory. The thing repeats music Lady Sibel plays and causes her to sleep deeply and to dream. It's obviously magical, but where did it come from? Maybe from some old magician's place, buried in the ruined part of Old Quarter. That it only affects Lady Sibel suggests it only charms the person whose music it remembers.
Inline Image:
https://thiefdiaries.files.wordpress.com/2018/02/the-music-of-sibel-atrium-with-wind-chime.jpg?w=1024The Sibel manor has flickering lights and tough patrols. If you don't blackjack, timing your grab of the wind chime will be difficult. Once you have it, getting back to the start point is as difficult as getting inside. Since it's hard to climb down a rope arrow from Sibel's window, I just take the front door. The guards don't seem to mind (but that's ‘cause I'm so good).
I finished at thirty-three minutes and forty-seven seconds. It was a good one: the
Thief II voices and engine blunts the
Thief 1 atmosphere, but you still get a good dose of it, and you'll enjoy the tight design and dark little story bits throughout.
Added! Thank you for the review. Nightwalker
skacky on 11/2/2018 at 22:28
Thank you for the kind words! I'm surprised there is so much to tell for a mission this small.
I could definitely have improved/made the wooden windowsills more obvious in the back garden, but I had just run out of time by this point and it was too late. Same with fixing a few issues here and there, like some Jorge surfaces.
twhalen2600 on 12/2/2018 at 03:52
Quote Posted by skacky
Thank you for the kind words! I'm surprised there is so much to tell for a mission this small.
I could definitely have improved/made the wooden windowsills more obvious in the back garden, but I had just run out of time by this point and it was too late. Same with fixing a few issues here and there, like some Jorge surfaces.
I haven't seen the Jorge surfaces. There were some sound issues I experienced, though, like the metal door to the right after you walk forward from the start point sounding distant, or the noise from the big piece of machinery, near the Hammerite standing guard, only becoming audible when standing right next to it. The patrolling guard in the first area would also sound really close or really distant, suddenly. Something to do with room brushes? I haven't messed around in Dromed since 2012, and never made a mission, so have no credibility in judging the problem, but am always curious how sounds can or cannot be "channeled" correctly.
Still a great mission, and I know it was made under the constraints of the contest. Has an
All For a Night's Sleep vibe to it. I really like the quick,
TDP style missions that squeeze in all the types of atmosphere from that game, which yours do so well. Give me those moody City ambiances, a Hammerite chapel, a Constantine-esque manor, and, yes...I'm ready to go exploring!
The Dark One on 13/2/2018 at 03:49
Wow, been a while. Apologies, life has been busy as of late
--------
For the record, this was also made by Jesps.
Pandora's Box is another short mission, but with added difficulty and an interesting local: an airship, which our brave hero has infiltrated to find the titular box and swap it with a fake. The airship idea is interesting, and Jesps incorporates some interesting uses of technology, such as makeshift “spotlights” on the deck of the ship. The layout is linear, but that's the only real gripe.
Difficulty-wise, it's tricky. The highest difficulties forbid you from even been seen, much less killing or knocking out. The guards don't choke you, but moving around the well-lit and exposed deck is tricky, especially because while you get the wind howling in your ears, the guards can hear you perfectly well. But that's a minor hurdle. The loot is sparse and slightly tricky to find, not helped by the guards, but careful searching will turn it up.
On the whole, this is a fun, slightly challenging mission. Recommended, especially if you want something short.
I didn't add this one because you already reviewed it in much the same way in January. Nightwalker
The Dark One on 28/2/2018 at 21:34
More Jesps!
Mad's Mountain was made for a vertical contest mission, which is obvious from the premise: A gang has stolen a valuable painting, and Not-Garrett's client would like to claim it for himself, sending him to ascend the gang's mountain hideout to claim it.
I admit to a bit of weakness for vertical missions, and this mission delivers. Like the previous mission, it's a short and fun romp through the caverns. It's slightly less linear as well, though more in the sense that there are multiple ways to your destination they all end up in much the same place. The atmosphere and storytelling, while minor, are well-done,with hints about loot and some jokes scattered about, along with some mildly creepy implications (such as what I've dubbed the “Epilepsy Room”). The loot is fairly placed, though backtracking for missed pieces would be a pain.
All in all, a fun, short vertical mission. No real complaints. Recommended.
Added! Nightwalker
Mman on 18/3/2018 at 19:16
Death's Cold Embrace:This is a large release, but it takes a slightly different approach to multiple maps by making several of them be based in the same area. Namely a town area (but also one or two others). It mostly works, with various small changes and evolving subplots, but some things, like certain enemy placements, get a bit predictable. There's also a notable focus on small bits of attention to detail, like how most "modern" interior rooms have a light switch (which also creates a contrast with the torchlight and other sources used in older buildings). That comes through even in the locations you don't revisit, and brings a believable atmosphere to each location, even the more intentionally unrealistic ones (like the occasional horror type moments). The general design level is also high, with lots of detail and interesting geometry in just about every level.
Inline Image:
https://imgur.com/gtTgeZb.jpgThe square of the town you'll be getting familiar with throughout the set.The storyline is a major element and a bit different to the typical Thief release in that it's not especially focused on Garret himself; he's essentially a background force who does the dirty work to realise the desires of others (in exchange for a promised large monetary reward, of course), and most of the story revolves around the characterisation and development of the other characters. A background element is also that it's set in-between the first and second Thief games, so the Mechanists are still establishing themselves and robots aren't properly developed yet. The story starts with you doing some espionage work between two warring houses, which builds around a Romeo and Juliet type tale, and then transforms into something else in the aftermath of that. There's various in-game cutscenes to develop it, and quite a lot of voice acting too, which is mostly decent, and the Garret voice stand-in does a good job matching the original. On more of a major spoiler note I did find
A Hammerite priest's willingness to go along with a dark ritual in something called the "Book of Shadows" a bit odd. If you stretch from the end-level twist it sort of makes sense in retrospect that he presumably has some experience of such things (and their legitimacy) from his links with a Necromancer, but that isn't really explored in-game at all unless there's some messages I missed. There's also various subplots that develop as you revisit locations, and it helps sell the places changing and evolving as time passes. I did feel one seemingly major subplot introduced early had a slightly abrupt ending, but maybe I missed some details.
Inline Image:
https://imgur.com/GN8K2hP.jpgThis mansion is another place you'll get familiar withThe gameplay is generally classic guard evasion Thief gameplay, but the storyline does throw in the occasional twist and surprise (the final level in particular is quite a shift from the rest). The interiors tend to have quite a bit of tile, especially later on, but the light switches I mentioned earlier ease things up quite a bit because it's not too hard to make large areas of darkness in most levels. There's decent amount of depth to the level layouts, with plenty of vertical gameplay and multiple approaches, and quite a bit of exploration (some of the secrets I found also had some story content, and I imagine there was background information I missed from the ones I didn't get). Some of the progression felt a bit obscure at times, with important items practically in secrets, but item placements apparently depend on difficulty, so maybe this is only the case on Expert. I also had a bug that made the penultimate level impossible to complete without Yandros modifying my save, but it seems no-one else has had it so I'll assume it's a weird one-off problem. A great set overall, with multiple original ideas and ambitious concepts, and a must-play newer, larger set.
Inline Image:
https://imgur.com/j1RiOlf.jpgThe snowy theme gives the whole set a cold and isolated atmosphere.Inline Image:
https://imgur.com/s5i0gF6.jpgThere are some impressively large interiorsAdded! Thank you for the review. Nightwalker