mikjames on 28/3/2017 at 11:16
I'm curious how many, if any of the Thief 2 Gold mission resources have been made into complete fan missions?
From what i've heard, LGS left behind all sorts of design plans and dromed maps of the planned Thief 2 Gold release. I see the college has been completed via the golden project fm, but is it based on the LGS designed layout?
I'm curious to know of any other T2G missions that have made it into fan projects, even if they have an unrelated storyline I would still like to see the map layouts.
Renault on 28/3/2017 at 14:16
Sort of a touchy subject, but here goes anyway. The only FM that has used one of the Thief 2 Gold maps was Bulgarian Taffer's mission
(http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=127676) Golden Project - First City College.
However, it is not based on any of Looking Glass' original design plans or ideas. And it actually uses the T2G museum map, not the college map (even though the mission takes place in a college).
In the end, it really has nothing to do with the Thief 2 Gold project that Looking Glass had intended to release, it just borrows a bit of architecture from one of their maps.
@Unna - you linked the wrong mission above, FYI.
Bulgarian_Taffer on 3/4/2017 at 12:34
I think that even though the Thief 2 Gold is an emotional subject, a decade has already passed and this gives us an opportunity to reflect on what was done, what wasn't done and what was supposed to be done. By reflect I mean that we can analyze the past rationally, without allowing emotions to cloud our judgement. As a person who participated in those events, I could present my points of view.
Now, let's begin with the facts. Looking Glass Studios (LGS) was an innovative company. Its activity led to many revolutions in the game industry. Unfortunately, as a company that took many risks and this contributed to its downfall, LGS was not financially successful and was forced to close down. Many people working for LGS were redirected to other projects and history overall considers this as having a positive aspects on the evolution of the games. Unfortunately, the overall impact on the Thief franchise was negative. After LGS closed its doors, two more Thief games were released - TDS and Thief (2014) and both of them didn't have the same impact as Thief : The Dark Project and Thief 2 : The Metal Age. I'm not talking about myself - I enjoyed both TDS and Thief (2014), but overall their reception was leaning towards the negative.
Now, certain facts about Thief under LGS. Thief : The Dark Project was released on November 30, 1998. Thief Gold didn't appear until October 26, 1999 - almost a year later. The next thing we know for certain is that the company already had serious financial troubles when development of Thief 2 proceeded. An article on Polygon states the following : "But in the final months of production on Thief 2, Eidos exceeded the game’s budget to cover development costs, and Looking Glass employees stayed in the office around the clock and slept there without bathing in an effort to release the title by its do-or-die March 23 release date. " And so Thief 2 was released on 21 march 2000 and LGS went out of business on May 24, 2000. Then we know that some kind of Thief 2 Gold was already in the making. In 2006 certain unfinished missions were released.
Now there are many unknowns: What were these missions supposed to me? What part of them were scheduled to be part of the original Thief 2 release, only to be subsequently dropped? Even under a hypothetical scenario, I mean, if LGS continued to exist for one more year just to release Thief 2, nobody would be able to predict if all of those missions would be part of the final product. Game development is something very dynamic.
What we could say for certain is that LGS with their Thief product inspired a lot of people, myself included. I wouldn't be the same person without Thief. It is part of my life - a very important part, I dare say. Setting aside personal impart, Thief inspired a great community that still exists.
This community created fan missions, fan mods, fan expansions, spiritual successors. And there were certain grand projects announced. Unfortunately, few of them got completed. Thief 2x is a marvelous example, followed closely by The Dark Mod. Other project like CoSaS and The Hammerite Imperium were sadly only partly completed. And certain project never came to fruition. The fact that Thief 2 Gold was one of them only saddens me, but this is what happened.
I think that the first reaction when the unfinished content was released was quite emotional: WoW! That's great! Surely, LGS is out of business, but we're here! We can accomplish what they didn't, and that would be awesome!
Now I'd say this reaction was kinda impulsive. And I impulsively joined the initial team. Of course that I love Thief! Of course this is my favourite game ever! And I want to leave a lasting trail in its history. I admit - there's certain love, passion and ego, of course.
Three years later, however, the project was going nowhere. In 2009 it was pretty certain that the original concept was gone. My motto however in life is - Better create something rather than be left with nothing. I still believe that, even when we talk about Thief (2014) :) This time it was going to be different. I did form a team and people joined, however none of them were part of the original Thief 2 Gold Fan mission project. This time however I decided I'd be be holding strict schedules, have set up goals, just to have something finished. So Thief 2 : The Golden Project - First City College was released in mid-summer 2009.
What I failed to foresee before starting the project was that setting up such a title would certainly generate expectations. And people would expect not only certain type of quality - they'd expect it to be as spiritually close to Thief 2 as possible. But unfortunately, I may have been influenced by Looking Glass and Thief, but that's that - just influenced and nothing more. We, the FM creators, are creating our own missions, own stories and we inevitably try to implement our own vision. Developing a project by following the notion "what would LGS do" is quite hard, if not impossible. In the end, First City College was based on a map that was edited so heavily, that certain people told me that it would have been the same if I made the project from scratch, rather than using a Thief 2 Gold abandoned mission as a base.
Does Thief 2 Gold FM project still have a future? I don't believe so. I wouldn't rule that completely either - perhaps some day another developer will decide to rebuild the missions. But chances IMO are very low. The community treats there abandoned missions as relics, and nobody would be able to completely recreate them according to the vision of LGS. Maybe they should just stay as-is, unblemished and untouched. Looks like there is a demand for a Thief 2 Gold, however, people don't just want another FM set - they just want another Thief game which is the same of the first two titles. This is wishful thinking.
Let's leave Thief 2 Gold where it should belong - in the past.
downwinder on 3/4/2017 at 23:36
i recently seen nexus lectum video and what she showed wasent enough to know what direction missions would go let alone anything else in mission the maps them selves are not even 10% done in my view,and to be honest th emissions them selves seems more like filler then anything
i don't think the t2 gold extra levels would have had a classic like song of the caverns
it should be time to get t3 stuff made into t2 newdark,from what i seen of t3 stuff in t2 is amazing,the voices/textures/etc i don't see why more hasent been done,besides a handful of missions
skacky on 3/4/2017 at 23:55
Since you seem to REALLY want to put TDS stuff into T2, why don't you start doing it?
downwinder on 4/4/2017 at 00:57
my skill set are not in making missions i am a artist and have a different set of skill,i already offered to let people use my art in missions but not many people are interested in 8-bit minimalistic pixel art in thief and to be honest i cant blame them,it don't fit the theme
