Petike the Taffer on 13/4/2021 at 23:35
I will recommend five missions for the shortlist, as the choices from the shortlist are already great:
Off the Record by Yandros (TMA) - size-wise a small mission, set in a single administrative building of The City, but very well-designed and atmospheric (great choice of ambience), I think it's a great intro to
Thief fan mission newcomers who want to practive a more overtly sneaky approach (i.e. ghosting)
Pirates Ahoy ! by Christine (Schneider) and Greenhorn (TMA) - the quintessential pirate-themed fan mission, or more specifically, a campaign pack of four missions with a shared narrative - really, really fun
Whispers in the Desert: From Beneath the Sands 2 by nicked (TMA) - the quintessential
Indiana Jones-style mission in an ancient Egypt inspired temple (it's thrilling, but not morbid, the exterior scenes are set during daylight)
Escape from the Planet of the Robots by Sliptip (TMA) - if it sounds a bit wacky, it very much is... Garrett somehow ends up aboard a hi-tech compound with retro-futuristic machines and robots, and he has to rely on his wits and future gadgets instead of his typical ones (also, the music is exceptionally memorable and fun in this one, adding to the fun atmosphere)
The Bridge by str8g8 (TDS) - the moodiest and I think probably best TDS fan mission
Choose whichever of these you like, or none at all.
Quote Posted by Esse
Finally,
The Dark Mod is worth mentioning. It started as a conversion of
Thief over to the Unreal Engine and then became a freeware, standalone game with its own Thief-inspired world. It has several missions made entirely by its and
Thief's FM community, and has a robust editor of its own. I highly recommend you try it out after you finish some more fan missions.
A bit of correction: It runs on a customised idTech 4, not Unreal engine. The unrelated
Thievery and
Nightblade multiplayer mods by Black Cat Games used the UT engines, while
Thief: Deadly Shadows used a tailored Unreal 2 engine, IIRC. The Dark Mod uses a heavily customised (and open-source released)
Doom 3 engine, but it hasn't been associated with Doom for nearly 8 years at this point. And from a handful of missions in the late 2000s and early 2010s, it's grown tremendously and now has around 155 missions.
TDM started out due to a fear that the community will never get a level editor for TDS, then continued as a fan mission making alternative based on a then-newer engine (pre-production began in 2004, mere months after TDS and
Doom 3 were released), then with the opening up of the Doom 3 engine to the public, aimed to become an entirely standalone freeware game. You could say the evolution of the idea was haphazard, but built on strong foundations (a good choice of engine, a determined and talented team, etc.) and it evolved naturally in its ambitions (not unlike how the first
Thief game evolved naturally during its early development).
Despite the difficult first five years for the TDM development team, TDM has really achieved its original goals many times over, and even achieved several new goals the team didn't originally contemplate. It's probably the clearest answer of the extended Thief fandom on how you can make a tribute to
Thief in a new engine, with many later added improvements and innovations, without needing to "dumb down" the gameplay of
Thief. Much like with the other
Thief-inspired total conversions, TDM now has a developer and fan community of its own, which is as much an offshoot of the TTLG community as a wholly new one, with plenty of new talent contributing to the game.
I, of course, agree with the essence of your post. Good choices of FM authors, in addition to those that have already been brought up by the other posters.
I'm partial to T2 missions by Yandros, and ones with unusual gameplay or fun adventurous themes, but that's my subjective preference. :) As much as I can appreciate a horror-themed mission, I like the down-to-earth, humorous and experimental ones even more. :)
marbleman on 15/4/2021 at 16:58
Any news on the retrospective? Still looking forward to reading it. :)
Brodo Swaggins on 19/4/2021 at 14:16
Quote Posted by marbleman
Any news on the retrospective? Still looking forward to reading it. :)
I'm still playing through missions! My day job and a big move got in the way of my freelance work for several weeks, and I haven't heard back from the editors I've pitched...which may mean there's no interest - in which case I'll still write up a bunch of capsule "reviews/history lessons" and post them here, if folks are interested. But thanks for asking! Hopefully will have more news soon.
Going through the list has been fascinating. So far, mostly great experiences, especially with the "classics." Really interesting to see how general tastes have evolved, from early undead showcases to mansion missions to sprawling city layouts/total conversion experiments. I'm on Night 3 of Seven Sisters right now and am completely blown away. What a huge loss Rowena's death must have been for the community.
However, I played T2X and really did not enjoy it, with one or two missions as exceptions.
Curious to see how the rest holds up.
marbleman on 19/4/2021 at 14:42
Nice, good to hear it's still in the pipes. I'd be interested to read it in any format.
Brodo Swaggins on 21/6/2023 at 15:23
Hey folks. I'm necro-ing this thread because I just had a chat with an editor at RockPaperShotgun, and while they didn't bite two years ago, they are interested in FM-focused coverage for Thief's 25th anniversary later this year.
Too early to do much right now, but I wanted to reestablish contact here and let people know this is on the horizon. Ideally I'd love to do a few interviews with members, both about specific missions and the community generally.
Are PMs used to chat on TTLG? Is that the best way to reach out? Or do folks prefer email or some other platform for individual convos?
I'll keep an eye on my message inbox here - please feel free to ping me if you'd be interested in chatting.
In the meantime, two questions for the group:
1) Is there a primary contact person for The Black Parade?
2) Does anyone know what happened to Pukey Brunster or Tannar? As the winners of the 20th anniversary contest I was hoping to chat with them, but they seem to have vanished from TTLG almost two years ago
marbleman on 21/6/2023 at 15:43
Quote Posted by Brodo Swaggins
Hey folks. I'm necro-ing this thread because I just had a chat with an editor at RockPaperShotgun, and while they didn't bite two years ago, they are interested in FM-focused coverage for Thief's 25th anniversary later this year.
Too early to do much right now, but I wanted to reestablish contact here and let people know this is on the horizon. Ideally I'd love to do a few interviews with members, both about specific missions and the community generally.
Are PMs used to chat on TTLG? Is that the best way to reach out? Or do folks prefer email or some other platform for individual convos?
I'll keep an eye on my message inbox here - please feel free to ping me if you'd be interested in chatting.
In the meantime, two questions for the group: 1) Is there a primary contact person for The Black Parade?
2) Does anyone know what happened to Pukey Brunster or Tannar? As the winners of the 20th anniversary contest I was hoping to chat with them, but they seem to have vanished from TTLG almost two years ago
Not sure if you've seen this, but I've decided to make a (
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=151801) video retrospective myself using the plan I posted here earlier.
fortuni on 21/6/2023 at 16:28
A lot of people who used to a big time contributors on this forum are now found on Discord, might be an idea to put a shout out there, you could even open a dedicated channel to discuss things.
Skacky is the main man for The Black Parade.
Can't say if Tannar or Pukey will be back, noticed them both going quiet some time ago, I expect Yandros may have news about Tannar if anyone has.
Renault on 21/6/2023 at 16:38
Quote Posted by Brodo Swaggins
1) Is there a primary contact person for The Black Parade?
FYI, Broken Goddess is another large FM campaign that's being worked on right now. Contact either Yandros or Random Taffer for details, and/or check here: (
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=150114).
Kubrick on 21/6/2023 at 17:41
Excited to see this again also because I love reading your reviews on Thiefguild. They are the reason I've been playing Keeper of Infinity right now
edit: I hope your piece includes an angle about this subject in particular. We've had our share of straighfoward mission retrospectives (although there never can be enough of them), so I think it'd be a nice unique subject to bring up
(
https://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=152258)
Brodo Swaggins on 21/6/2023 at 20:12
1) marbleman, that's a fantastic video. Well done. I will absolutely be reaching out to you as I put together my research (also, I loved Cracks in the Glass)
2) Thanks for the Discord tip - I didn't realize the community had expanded over there - will check it out. Is there a larger Thief server, or is the Dromed one a catch-all?
3) Thank you for the Broken Goddess reminder - will certainly contact the authors
4) And yes, I certainly plan to include a reflection on the age of the community, and its attendant deaths. While I've only posted recently, I've been lurking here for almost twenty years, and recognize many of those names from the old days. It triggers a specific melancholy that I can't imagine feeling outside of a community like this, an indication of what makes these games (and people) special.
Please keep the tips and messages coming! Thanks all very much. Looking forward to writing something exciting.