It finally happened... I started Yandro's FMs

BR4ZIL on 14/7/2023 at 04:41

So... a bit of backstory, I have been playing FMs from both Thief 1 and 2 in a very strict author chronological order, that is to say, i go down Taffer's Paradise list of FMs and for every author i come across in the chronological order, i play their entire catalog of FMs.

So... after about 3 (or 4?) years since i started this journey, i finally came across Yandro's first FM... and oh boy he has a LOT of FMs on his name, i think he will be the first Author that will essentially take me from the early 2002 FM scene, all the way to 2017.

Of course he isnt the only one, there has been a few authors on the list thus far that also made FMs all the way to the 2010s, but i dont think they had that many FMs as Yandros has. I wonder if when i enter the mid 2000s FMs, i will come across more authors that have kept a steady pace of FMs too.

So my question is, which other authors should i keep an eye out that also have a long history like this?

Anyway, i look forward to play his FMs, there are some 25 of them!

Snake on 14/7/2023 at 11:26

Nicked is up there with Yandros for steady releases over many years.

fortuni on 14/7/2023 at 12:18

A number of Yandros' missions are rather small but he's always been highly inventive with novel game play ideas, for example he was the first author to introduce AI's turning off lights, something that we all take for granted nowadays. I also remember being blown away with the lighting inside a cupboard in Burrick's Head Inn, a mission that came out in 2003. His missions have been as varied as tomb puzzlers (Dance with the Dead and Mask of Agamemnon), fun demo type missions (Snowball Fight, Spoof: The Daft Project, The Summit, Hammerite Deathmatch and RGB) as well as his blockbusters (Drymian Codex and Death Cold Embrace).

On top of all that he has contributed massively to so many other authors missions as co-author, voice actor, giving Dromed advice, beta testing etc. without him this community would have been very much poorer over the last 20 years.

Enjoy your Yandros journey BR4ZIL, and thanks Russ for everything you have done for us, may you continue to be here in another 20 years.

Samantha1 on 14/7/2023 at 14:07

As already mentioned Nicked definitely gets the crown for many releases back then until today. Every mission of his is high quality stuff and a must-play :)

zajazd on 16/7/2023 at 06:40

Interesting approach. Some years ago I set a goal for myself to play every T1 and T2 fan mission ever released and I completed that goal in a relatively short time, but I was quitting the missions that were annoying me. Now I'm giving the second chance to them and I'm finding some gems. I was playing them in various order, for example for some period of time I was going from the smallest missions in file size, then in alphabetical order, then in chronological order etc.

BR4ZIL on 16/7/2023 at 16:20

Quote Posted by zajazd

Yeah, i am playing to completion every single FM so far, ghosting every time if possible as well. Even going the obsessive route of playing "Beta/Different versions" of an FM when available.

Thats probably why its taking me this long to go through the years of FM history, but i dont mind, haha.

I figured it was interesting to play an author's entire catalogue first due to interconnected storyline, even if minimal.

A lot of authors put small references to their previous FMs. The only downside is that when the FM author references his other contemporary authors, you might lose the reference , but thats much rarer, at least thus far.

Well... its not "normal ghosting", its more like freestyle ghosting. My ghosting rules are normal, with a few exceptions:

- AI Alerting for Infighting purposes is allowed, including those forced by myself, the player. I do love a bit of chaos in a FM, i can spend HOURS trying to get every AI to fight every other AI using sounds to attract then to each other :p

- Undead are baddies and must be killed :mad:. Another preference of mine, i always like to anihilate all the undead in a FM, even if it takes fairly annoying or elaborate ways to multi-kill undead with limited resources.

- When the last objective is to "Get to the Exit", if need be, i allow myself to get guards alerted as i run to the exit. This rule came to me as i faced too... too many FMs where AI pathing breaks down the further you get into a FM, making backtracking outright impossible. I will say that this rule is thankfully getting used less and less, as i start to play more "modern" FMs in the 2002s onwards.

- Lastly, Spiders (and specifically Spiders) are allowed to be killed, this is another rule added due to far too many FMs putting small spiders in unghostable positions.

Other than these, i am pretty much ghosting as one would be, thankfully i am not running across too many FMs where i need to push unalerted guards out of the way so i can pass behind them undetected (which is an annoying 5-7 minute process). These rules have carried me from 1999 FMs to 2002s FMs so far! :D

mxleader on 16/7/2023 at 17:08

Great news!

His missions are all pretty fun to play through. I play through the versions of his holiday mission every year.

BR4ZIL on 18/3/2025 at 00:24

And i finally finished them yesterday, had 1 year of hiatus between starting and finishing Death's Cold Embrace, haha. I remember stopping partially because i was almost sure the FM was gonna have a sad ending, but i am super glad to be proven wrong!

john9818a on 18/3/2025 at 01:21

I would think Christine Schneider has the most FM releases. Thiefmissions.com has 22 listed including the Lord Ashton Series. :)

Yandros on 18/3/2025 at 03:13

Last time I counted I think Cardia had the most, but Nicked may have passed him by now. Also I do have one FM since 2017, I did Downtowne Funk for the T1 Anniversary Contest.