Making my first FM: Exploring an underwater Lovecraftian City

Nachzehrer on 24/6/2020 at 14:22

Good day people,

I have recently gotten into Thief 2, finished it a few days ago and started playing fan missions. Now, me being a Lovecraft fan, I really want to make a FM featuring Garrett finding a lost underwater city which should take place after the mission "Precious Cargo" where the submarine did not go to the destination that Garrett expected but instead the submarine was supposed to lead an expedition to a lost city underwater. Now Garrett finds himself there and his objectives should be escaping the city while also gathering a lot of loot.

So now I have a few questions:

1st: Is it even likely that I would manage to pull this off, having never worked with DromEd before or is my idea too ambitious?

2nd: Can I use DromEd from Thief 2 to place the Craymen from Thief Gold? Same goes for the Cthulhu statue in the Lost City (I haven't found it in Thief 2 in kidnap so I'm thinking it might not be in the game).

3rd: How do you guys like this idea? Would you think it would be well received in the community?

Thank you for taking the time to read my post. I hope that you will be able to answer my questions.

Have a great day!

Brethren on 24/6/2020 at 15:58

An underwater lost city, frankly, sounds awesome. It might be a difficult task for someone who has no experience, but it's definitely doable.

Dromed can be a beast, but there are lots of people in the community here who have never designed game before but still were able to learn the editor and make a mission.

You can definitely move resources over from Thief 1/Gold. There are tutorials on this.

Speaking of, I would start with the (https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=131800) tutorials page here on TTLG. There are several guides on how to get started on creating a mission. I'd recommend (https://nickdablin.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/absolute-beginners-guide-to-creating-a-thief-2-mission-part-one/) nicked's beginner's guide.

Nachzehrer on 24/6/2020 at 22:57

Quote Posted by Brethren

Great! Thank you for your input and the useful links!

ZylonBane on 25/6/2020 at 01:18

Would this be a city that was built underwater, or built above water and then flooded? If the former, then you'd basically be doing BioThief, but without the benefit of pressure-bearing plate-glass windows (which would be painfully anachronistic) to look out, so it may as well be set in an underground dungeon. If the latter, then you'd practically be required to give Garrett something like a diving suit to let him survive in completely water-filled structures.

nicked on 25/6/2020 at 07:14

Quote Posted by ZylonBane

pressure-bearing plate-glass windows (which would be painfully anachronistic)

You could probably just do hand-wavy magic barrier windows instead. If it's already Lovecraftian in theme, there's no reason why you couldn't have maddening windows that are beyond the ken of man.

PinkDot on 25/6/2020 at 12:34

I love underwater themes and they are not that common in FMs. As a hobbyist scuba-diver, I'd love to see some more elaborate diving mechanics in the game, taking the deadly water pressure into account. I think having mechanists-themed mission would naturally allow for introducing diving equipment and not just relying on having a dozen of breath potions in your pocket for a prolonged underwater exploration. Actually - that's the thing - swimming in Thief is always a quick job - you always have to rush or else you'll drown! Whereas proper diving with equipment is anything but a rush! You just slowly explore and enjoy the state of floating in the depths of water. It comes with other challenges of course, and that is what I'd love to see implemented one day. However, this may be a bit more advanced for the first mission, as most likely it would involve scripting (squirrel) and using maybe custom HUD. (don't know how much is possible).

Quote:

but without the benefit of pressure-bearing plate-glass windows (which would be painfully anachronistic) to look out

I have not played Bioshock - do you mean the glass walls and corridors with vistas into water? You could do that in Dromed, I believe, bearing in mind the engine's limitations on geometry complexity and fidelity. You can carve out air space inside water volume and put some invisible or semi-transparent objects blocking your (and AI's) way, so you wouldn't simply step into the "water wall". You could also come up with custom water textures, so there's no shimmering caustics-like effect as it may not look correct at those windows.

nicked on 25/6/2020 at 12:46

I don't think he meant it was impossible in Dromed, just that it would be impossible in-universe for Thief-level of technology.

john9818a on 25/6/2020 at 14:42

Would this be similar to the lost city in Thief Gold where you have to swim through underwater passages to get to the lost city?

ZylonBane on 25/6/2020 at 20:49

That would make it a subterranean city. Which I suppose could be "under water" if there was a lake or ocean somewhere above it, in a technically-the-truth sort of way.

john9818a on 26/6/2020 at 04:39

You're right... I forgot that it was subterranean.