TDS20AC Mission — Mysteries of Tolham (05/25/2024)

Lord Taffer on 6/9/2024 at 09:30

Thanks for playing the mission and for all the feedback! Here are the comments:

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My one complaint is that some of the readables felt a little lacking. Besides that, level design and atmosphere were top notch.

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This mission was a very pleasant surprise and a monumental achievement for the author. It is a pure joy to explore. There are countless paths to take and, while confusing, it never becomes frustrating just getting lost and finding yourself emerging into an area you had been to before from a completely different angle. There is a unique atmosphere, surreal in a kind of Into the Odd way but very much its own style. There is very tasteful use of custom textures and sounds which don't feel out of place. I think this mission will instantly become an all time great, particularly in the sandbox city genre. The only critiques I have relate to a lack of story - there are some nods here and there to magic and the effect it has had on Tolham but I don't think it is told particularly well and the readables are few and far between and are written in a slightly exposition-y style. The mission also has almost nothing in terms of a reference or homage to TDS and while that wasn't a strict requirement of the contest, it would have been nice to see a few more acknowledgements. I think the closest it gets in this regard is some ambient tracks from TDS. Nonetheless, this has already become one of my favourite missions and I think it would be a deserving winner of the contest.

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It was fine, but it really did not remind me of ds at all.

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An amazing mod, with secrets around every corner

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"The density of the city itself and the detail that accompanies it is impressive, and naturally encourages exploration, but it feels like the reward is the exploration itself. A lot of platforming here feels disproportionate in what you get at the end - making multiple, death-defying leaps for a stack of coins, for instance - and the frequency of these led to navigation feeling more of a chore, by the end.

The atmosphere and distinct identity of Tolham is what kept me going through the mission. A lot of the ambience are just stock ones, edited, but even that does a lot to create a fresh feeling of unease traipsing about these winding corridors. The hand drawn map is also a really nice touch, too."

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Nice city sandbox with surreal feeling over it. Perhaps too labyrinthine and devoid of challenge in some areas (platforming aside) but very enjoyable.

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Almost perfect.

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Nice big level but can be confussing on where to go.

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Awesome mission to explore, but I failed to see connection to TDS

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The atmosphere and the architecture is very strong with this one. It can be seen that a lot of work went into designing this mission, however I feel like it is a bit too hard. I generally dislike daytime missions because Garrett is highly visible and the textures don't look too good when the ambient light is too much. The flow of the mission is also affected by the daylight, since you can't concentrate on searching the many small hidden places when constantly being threatened of being seen. Instead, you are always forced to move quickly if you don't want to be detected. The story is a bit clichéd, looking for similar stones in one small place in the city, nothing we have'nt seen before. I mostly enjoyed this FM because of the ambiance (the music was very good in some places) and because of its looks, but the gameplay is more difficult than it should be and the loot is many times hidden in the most unexpected places (on torches, in the hands of statues) and it's rather annoying.

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This was a nice, large area to explore (using all sorts of Thiefy fun with ropes, etc. - jumping from place to place) but that's about it. Plot - what plot? Just grab a bunch of stuff for no reason. Also, these types of missions suffer from the "great place to gameplay, but not a place where people actually live" where the buildings don't have entrances usable by mortals (instead of thieves), there are no bathrooms/living rooms/kitchens/etc. to these areas. "Because it's mages" doesn't really work as a reason.

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I really liked the T1 atmosphere in this, though in my opinion it´d suit more for a T1 contest than a T3 one. Also for me the gameplay was difficult and the story felt boring.

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Lots of time to spend on this challenging mission. Not a fan of climbing missions. I get frustrated easily. That said, it was satisfying when you completed an objective.

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Really huge and well thought out. I enjoyed the many secrets, the environment switched to many different feelings too. Music and sound was well made, very tricky puzzles with a few maybe being a bit to specific. opened up feeling claustrophobic and maze like, but by the end it made sense and had a unique approach. Only thing missing was the story behind the world was extremely cryptic. That is better than being very straight forward, but I have no idea what was happening with the stones haha. Very well done, the love and attention put into this level was amazing!!

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This mission is a very good continuation of a spooky approach to FMs that started few years ago.
The scale of the mission however might not fit everyone's liking. For sure there will be people who love and who don't like this mission.

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I like the atmosphere of Tolham, an ancient city of mages and convoluted machinery, built up over one another. Reminiscent of Into the Odd, but with the "Odd" cranked up to ten - which makes the atmosphere suffer a bit. In my opinion a disturbing place of weird magic works much better when there's very few of them in a mission, but when most of the city is just that, it has a much lesser effect. On the plus side - Tolham is quite striking visually, with all the machinery and magic going on.
Gameplay-wise, I loved it. I just love city missions and climbing on ledges. There's quite a few hidden places.
Story-wise, it's good. I like the sense of a grander mystery it presents.

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I had a lot of fun with it, and even though I thought I searched every nook and cranny I got bare minimum of loot (expert) and missed two extra objectives. Initially I found myself anxious stretching the routes and exploring but everything connects together in neat(?) way, travelling from far stretched places was exhausting. It is a big mission that feels like a tangle of cords (in a good way).
Visuals is the subject I can ramble about, it reminds me a lot of 70's high fantasy with acid? music. The colors scheme were over the place and usage of textures and their edit is rich to point of being on edge between concious artistic decision and being tacky.
The Tolham as place feels for me like an old mage in bright blue robe adorned with stars, a dashing hennin, but the guy has crippling depression. I wish the mage could cast fireball, since there were not too many challenging or intimidating areas.

There is no story to follow, the place may have lore and suggested points, but it is basically fetch to get items in visually rich environment.

Besides some texture usage, and ambiance; it feels like a mission that can be independent, and doesn't need the context of contest. Without a doubt I see the inspirations The Author put in the readme being founding rocks for the Tolham. My experience with the mission was good.

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The FM has charming atmosphere, but navigation in the vertical city is very disturbing, same like very strange design of interiors. Including mix of various themes, especially sepulchrals. I dont get it. From the other hand, the mission is quite a interesting challenge, what should be nice for advanced players.

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while not really connected to TDS, its still a very creative mission

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Love it all the way through.

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I love having a big cityscape to freely roam around and get lost in, and "Mysteries of Tolham" definitely delivers on that front. Unfortunately, it also felt the least TDS-like of the contest entries.

sallyrom09 on 11/9/2024 at 15:34

The people who recommend them without caveats have just gotten used to it and don't perceive the horrible, middle school level writing anymore, and some of them get really upset if you point out that the average writing quality is actually sub-RR tier.

klatremus on 13/9/2024 at 16:33

Back to this wonderful mission and prepping for my recording. 2 questions:
- Can you get into Darklon's without his key?
- I seem to remember being able to teleport up to the walkway in the west with the patrolling skeleton and the floating skull in 2 ways. I know you can frob the skull on the roof with the monkeyman, but wasn't there another way too? One that had you spawn to the north of the patrolling skeleton?

Lord Taffer on 13/9/2024 at 17:26

klatremus, I can't think another reasonable way down to Darklon's area. Close to hammerites, next to the waterfall in the north, there's a cavity down that leads to Darklon's area but I'm not really sure if one can somehow survive the fall.
You can teleport there (almost above the museum) from underground where Artefact of Seasons is located.

klatremus on 14/9/2024 at 02:09

But you can't get to the walkway with the patrolling skeleton via that teleporter, can you? You only get up to the ledge above the museum with the small plaque (you can jump here from the museum windows too btw). I thought there was a third teleportation device that took you up to the same level as the skeleton, but just to the north of it. No? Maybe I've dreamt it.

I frobbed a golden arm in the Artefact of Seasons area to get there. That's the one you're referring to, right?

lordhern on 14/9/2024 at 05:44

Quote Posted by klatremus

PM me - I found a non chemical clean way to enter (via the long drop at the waterfall) I recently finished a perfect thief run, ghost clean (but not supreme)

Lord Taffer on 14/9/2024 at 07:24

Yeah, there are just two skull teleports back and forth (between patrolling skeleton and monkeyman) and the separate golden arm one-way teleport to the ledge above the museum. Those are all the teleports outdoors.

<Username> on 15/9/2024 at 18:20

I was very impressed by this exploration-focused mission and its environmental detail. Well done! :D

Stats:
* Normal difficulty
* 2 hours and 42 minutes
* 3203 of 9004 total loot
* 0 hints needed
Elements I liked:
* A mission set at dusk is surprisingly rare and a nice change from the usual night or day setting.
* The environment is atmospheric and mysterious, just what I love about T1.
* The surreal and fascinating building style made for interesting exploration.
* The mission is nonlinear.
* The mission made me feel slightly lost at the beginning, but eager to discover the rest of the map and get my bearings.
* You can climb up to some rooftops and the views are stunning, especially considering the engine is more than 20 years old.
* If an object is purely decorative, it cannot be frobbed. This prevents the player interacting with objects just to check if any of them are important.
* Some of the loot placement is really cool. You really have to pay attention to details in the environment.
* Varied ambience music, including some from T3.
* The mission was challenging, but I managed to finish it without hints.
Could be improved:
* It is possible to squeeze through the triangular hole in the wall of the small room with flashing lights, two power coils, and a machine. There is nothing else in there. I could not get out again and had to reload.
* Some areas don't have any ambient sounds nearby and are just dead-silent.
* Ambient sound sometimes starts and cuts off awkwardly if you take one step across an invisible line on the map. An example is the flower garden where the note of Captain Harrigan for the guards is pinned to the wall.
* "Mumbo-jumbo" is a West African word and feels out of place in the Thief universe, where influences from the African continent do not exist.
Other observations:
* Broadsword of Sheol is mentioned in a journal.
* Some books in the museum share titles with classic Thief fan missions.
* Curator Dromius' name brings to mind the title of a certain mission editor.
* Unless I missed it, there is no connection to Deadly Shadows beyond a single mention of Pavelock Prison.

shadows on 12/12/2024 at 16:00

Played over 4 hours of this and my head is spinning. Thanks for this gem Lord Taffer! I've explored a lot of the map, but I suspect there's quite a bit more to do, seeing how there's more loot to be found.

I wonder how a walkthrough will be written for this. There are so many branching paths. Perhaps some kind of visual map showing 'nodes' and the connections between areas?

I am on expert and have one objective left. Finding the Tharmaz's Azure.
Also just below the bridge near Salimar's house I can hear and see a guard patrolling through the windows, is that area accessible?
The top of the Mage's tower I can see an object floating. I got near the top before but could not see a way right to the very top.

Any hints appreciated. Thanks!

Lord Taffer on 13/12/2024 at 10:38

The locked museum door:

Hint I don't know if you already put something to that brazier in front of the big gargoyle and then you should be able to proceed.
Bigger Hint You can see a room below you in the museum main display room's corridor where two guards patrol. There are two grates on the floor and you can see a certain object there, in the room below. Find a path to that room, entry point is quite close. This object, the gargoyle's brazier, and high altar on the main display room are the main things to get the azure stone. Now, you should be able to open the only locked door in the museum.

Guard below the bridge: player can't get there.

The top of the Mage's tower: you can get there, just think what you can use or open more like to climb up. Hope these help! :thumb: