Galaer on 17/3/2020 at 08:07
BLOOPER REEL
Bonus mission of Thief Gold. Never read ghost report about it, so let's give it a try. So to complete the mission you need to use switch inside right after front guards. The unfortunate thing is the only intended way in is through front entrance. There is also loot stored in one room inside.
GETTING INSIDE
Go to wall to the right from front entrance and do a stack of 4 healing potions. Mantle on it and jump over a wall. There is no way to recover healing potions. You are on sealed part of the street. Go to well. There is one patroller who will completely ignore you. Grab 3 bottles near well and take them to north wall. Do a stack of 3 bottles and on top of them do a stack from all healing potions you have (5). Mantle on stack and mantle on top of wall. Mantle on wooden part and jump on to of north wall. You are above south part of Garden. Just drop on tree.
LOOTING AND LEAVING
Go to corridor and go right to room with 3 drunk guards. One of them will spot you, run to you, after 1 second he will change his mind and return into corner, but stand turned around. I believe that this is still a ghost bust #1. The rest of guards will ignore you, so grab all golden bottles from table. Leave and continue going to stairs leading down to front entrance.
On stairs you can spot dancing zombies. Don't worry, they will ignore you. When you are far away they will move towards room with drunk guards you visited earlier. Also if there is dancing zombie at the bottom in room with standing zombies and archer on the left, then entering this room will second alert archer. In that situation just go away and return when dancing zombie is on stairs.
Next is room with standing zombies and archer. Quickly run right to avoid 2nd alert from archer (only possible when dancing zombies aren't presented in this room). Then just go along right wall to end switch, which will 2nd alert archer and front guards (ghost bust #2).
STATS:
Time: 9 min 52 s; Loot: 850/850
Locks Picked: 0
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 0; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
GHOST: IMPOSSIBLE
PERFECT GHOST: IMPOSSIBLE
SUPREME GHOST: IMPOSSIBLE
klatremus on 18/3/2020 at 15:54
Very nice reports, Galaer! I especially like your Running Interference explanation. After I recently ghosted that one, I've seen multiple people requesting ghosting without knockouts. Running it on hard is a nice way to force that. Very interesting writeup. It makes me want to spin it up and retry it (which I might well do). :)
Galaer on 18/3/2020 at 17:10
I noticed that there are small difference in your video when you play T2fix compared to my run on Tafferpatcher. In your run Basso doesn't wait before he's starting to walk. In my run Basso wait around 5 seconds. It's possible there is more differences between Tafferpatcher and T2Fix. Interesting thing I noticed is on Blooper Reel you can mantle everywhere while in Bafford Manor some walls can't be mantled. It's still possible (at least in Tafferpatcher) to climb on Bafford Manor roof and return to starting point.
lordhern on 25/3/2020 at 02:26
Mantling changes with new-dark vs old-dark does change the game dynamics rather significantly especially with some of the other updates.
I applied New-Dark to the original Dark Project (i.e. the first release, not Gold) I find that new-dark allows me to perfect ghost some levels easier - but it makes it impossible to perfect ghost return to the cathedral with full loot.
I'd like to find a way to set the engine level on a per-level basis w/o resorting to manually starting one engine to start a partical level but i haven't found a way to hook the binaries. Yet.
klatremus on 25/3/2020 at 06:00
Yes Return cannot be Perfect Thieved in NewDark. One loot item at St. Yora's, a plate behind a zombie in alcove, must be skipped. My original run outline on my website was in OldDark, while updates in green have been inserted for NewDark differences. Not sure if you have seen/read them. Take a look if you'd like. (
http://www.klatremus.org/Mission12.htm) Here is my lengthy report on Return.
Blue Jay on 9/4/2020 at 00:50
Quote Posted by Galaer
Hey there. Not a report, but a discovery. It's about
Sabotage at Soulforge. I found out that first watcher from the very beginning of the mission is ghostable. I know that alert from it is excused by community, but I found a way to avoid even first alert from it. Well, it's not without sacrifices. The idea is to buy invisibility potion and immediately after starting the mission use it. You really want to bind invisibility potion to single button. Timing is tricky and I found that mashing buttons didn't work for me. You need the proper timing. But it's really not that hard. Every time it take me just few tries. The sacrifice is that you can only achieve
chemical ghost success that way. In current times it's probably just a fun fact rather than useful trick.
Came here exactly to post this, but looks like I was a month late haha. Here's a short video that demonstrates it.
(
https://youtu.be/QfiqBhTqFUk)
If it matters, I'm playing on T2Fix 1.27b. I bounded the potion to a letter key. It seems like you can't even see the item being selected because it's used immediately.
Galaer on 9/4/2020 at 15:33
Quote Posted by Blue Jay
Came here exactly to post this, but looks like I was a month late haha. Here's a short video that demonstrates it.
(
https://youtu.be/QfiqBhTqFUk)
If it matters, I'm playing on T2Fix 1.27b. I bounded the potion to a letter key. It seems like you can't even see the item being selected because it's used immediately.
Awesome, first video proof.
Also I wanted to correct myself. I said previously that I got idea of community saying that alert from first watcher in Soulforge isn't bust of ghost from Travis Whitsitt video. I rewatched it again and looks like I was wrong. He mention this actually as a ghost bust. Still it was mentioned in 2 ghost reports from Thief 2 Ghost Reports from year 2000. One of this reports mention checking details in "Ghosting Soulforge" thread. Probably somewhere in old Eidos forum. Finding this thread could give some answers regarding community's position in case of this watcher.
lordhern on 10/4/2020 at 23:32
Thief 2 - OM Trail of Blood [NewDark]
playmode- IRONMAN
ghost - IMPOSSIBLE - must damage ice blocking path to get to exit..
perfect thief - Impossible - see above.
supreme ghost - Impossible - see above
perfect supreme - Impossible - see above and also I picked a pocket that wasn't needed.
Total time 27 minutes 57 seconds
2300 / 2330 loot
pockets picked 2/3 (The second pick was in error - normally i only pick the purse of the first patrolling mechanist in this level)
locks picked 0
all damage stats 0
secrets found 0/0
I did have a few "who's the noisy one?" level 1 alerts from the ape-beasts in the fall grotto - i used a vine arrow to get down from the top level and landed noisily enough to generate that level 1 comment from both ape-beasts that warm themselves.
no 2nd level alerts.
chemical used - speed potion to leap stone-to-stone after getting the loot at the long drop. Getting that loot often results in damage getting across the grotto but i was able to strafe-run jump to the first rock and used the speed potion to run-jump the rest of the way and not take any damage.
Since i knew i had to bust the ice at the exit i was unconcerned about property damage and torches etc.
I used four water arrows to douse the torches by the stationary ape-beasts to pass them at the top of the cliffs.
I had no problems crossing the final grotto - I have no idea if any tree-beasts level 1 alerted or not. didn't care.
Galaer on 11/4/2020 at 10:01
lordhern: Wrong mission name. Blackmail is about Truart's mansion. You are talking about Trail of Blood.
lordhern on 12/4/2020 at 02:49
Quote Posted by klatremus
Yes Return cannot be Perfect Thieved in NewDark. One loot item at St. Yora's, a plate behind a zombie in alcove, must be skipped. My original run outline on my website was in OldDark, while updates in green have been inserted for NewDark differences. Not sure if you have seen/read them. Take a look if you'd like. (
http://www.klatremus.org/Mission12.htm) Here is my lengthy report on Return.
thanks - btw - the basement zombie in the penance booth - if you approach the door DIRECTLY from the front you can open the door, lean past the zombie and get the loot without alerting the zombie, and without triggering his scripted movements. I left the same info on your youtube channel video of your new-dark run. (my youtube username is "spambotfodder")