TMA20AC Mission — The Pursuance Of An Inscrutable Reciprocity (Mar 24, 2020) - by Yandros
<Username> on 28/4/2020 at 12:20
Yes, I am playing on v1.2. I think your suggestion does not work for my specific scenario: I saved after Mathew had returned to Samson. Neither of them have the ruby now.
john9818a on 28/4/2020 at 13:31
It pays to make more saves as we play and not just use the quick save. :)
urgrue on 28/4/2020 at 13:43
I force myself to use only one save file (never a quicksave), and if I misjudge it and get stuck - too bad, start over. But I save often.
<Username> on 28/4/2020 at 16:10
I have two hard saves, one a while before I followed Mathew, one directly after the bug occurred. I will go back to the first save. Hopefully it will prevent having to restart the entire mission.
csamba on 2/5/2020 at 00:19
Has anyone found the third secret in Mission 1? I have (1) the woman's personal chest in the warehouse, and (2) the moneybox on the ledge above the corner where she had the conversation with the guard, but the last one eludes me completely.
If it's under the small round platform at the top of the spiral staircase of the far SW house then its activating mechanism appears to be very well hidden...:confused:
urgrue on 2/5/2020 at 00:24
Quote Posted by csamba
If it's under the
small round platform at the top of the spiral staircase of the far SW house then its activating mechanism appears to be very well hidden...:confused:
That's where it is, and it's not hidden at all. Try looking straight up and then jumping.
<Username> on 2/5/2020 at 10:07
I went back to my first save before the conversation between Mathew and Samson. After it ended, I followed Mathew to the noble with the guard voice in the statue square. Whenever Mathew reached for the belt, the ruby did not spawn. When I knocked him out, the ruby did not fall to the ground. I reloaded several times, but it did not work.
Then I tried the method you described in post #79. This time, the ruby fell to the ground. Thank you! You save me from having to restart the whole mission.
csamba on 2/5/2020 at 13:32
Quote Posted by urgrue
That's where it is, and it's not hidden at all. Try looking straight up and then jumping.Thanks a lot! I've actually tried a few blind jumps there, but I gave up too quickly before
realizing that one of the small ceiling lamps was different.
urgrue on 2/5/2020 at 14:06
Quote Posted by csamba
Thanks a lot! I've actually tried a few blind jumps there, but I gave up too quickly before
realizing that one of the small ceiling lamps was different.
Actually,
two of them are different. Wax on, wax off.
<Username> on 2/5/2020 at 15:02
A City with Opportunities
Likes:
* The buildings are intricately designed and well lit. The view from the rooftops atop the ladder was especially great. The streets might be mostly empty, but I was okay with this.
* Loot is well placed. You have to do quite a bit of climbing to get it.
* I liked having the option to end the mission early, even if an exit after merely 18 minutes did not feel like a satisfactory experience.
* If you stand directly under or next to certain light sources, a corona of light is visible. That is a nice effect. I don't remember that from the original game.
* I found a lockbox with some loot when I crept around a ledge on the outer wall of a building. It was worth about 500 and prompted the "secret found" chime. Felt like an accomplishment.
Dislikes:
* The "Toilet Paper Air" joke in the readme made it harder to immerse myself in the atmosphere of the mission. I kept thinking about it while playing the mission.
* Finding the Precursor statue in The Lost City in Thief: The Dark Project was a surprise. I always thought the Precursors were a mystery, unknown to most inhabitants of the City. People in the City worship the Builder, not some creepy tentacle monster. It does not make sense to me why there would be a Precursor statue just out there in the open.
* The tip that you can buy in the shop is useless. I felt swindled.
* The journals about "BALL!!" and "Ctrl+Shift+End" read like in-jokes and were immersion breakers.
* This bit right here was another immersion breaker: "Due to the age of this book, the first half of the pages are in bad shape. Garrett decides to open the book to the start of the other half..." The books in the original game never contained third-person commentary like this. Everything you experienced was from Garrett's perspective. This helped with keeping you immersed.
* Another part from the same book: "Garrett, you are that person. Yes, I did foresee you entering the Mages' Guild in the previous city." This is the oldest twist in Thief texts: The author expected you to read this book and is addressing you directly. This was great for the first one or two missions, now it just feels played out.
* Why do metal beasts need a "recharge station" when they are powered by a furnace?
* Not a big fan of the text-to-speech used for conversations. It was a bit distracting.
Hints needed:
* #1 Got the East Decor Store Key but could not locate the store.
* #2 Missed the ruby in the sewers several times even though I was looking for it after I heard the conversation.
Questions:
* What is up with the weirdly shifting wall on the rooftops near where the disappearing Keeper and the Precursor statue are? Is this a visual bug?
Bugs:
* I got out of bounds after I shot a rope arrow up the building opposite of the Eastside Decor Store and then jumped to mantle onto the ledge of the roof of the store.
* It is possible to end up in an unwinnable state if you are seen by Mathew and Samson before their conversation starts. Mathew then never leaves to retrieve the ruby.
* The ruby did not spawn when Mathew grabbed it from the belt of the noble with the guard voice. This happened in v1.2. I had to stay with Samson and wait for him to come back.
Stats:
* Normal difficulty
* 1 hour and 36 minutes
* 6161 of 7472 loot
* 1 of 3 secrets
Collecting It All
Likes:
* The texture work in the mansion is good. I felt it was aesthetically pleasing.
* The puzzle with the six levers had just the right amount of difficulty. There is a clear hint on what the solution is and then it is a bit of a challenge to find the writing on the wall.
* The note about "thy droppings" was pretty funny. It seemed believable someone would write a note like this. This is the one joke in the two mission that worked.
Dislikes:
* The clock puzzle was baffling. Even with the explanation posted in this thread, I still don't understand it. It is the most complicated puzzle in a Thief fan mission I can remember.
* Even with the solution for the clock puzzle, the glass doors would not fully open. I started cursing when I read on the forums you also have to have a certain statue in your inventory. That was nonsensical.
* I had a hard time locating the statue in the maze where you have to place them gem. I did not enjoy having to search the maze for so long.
* Some parts of the mansion are too symmetrical for my taste and many corridors felt a bit empty to me. In general: less symmetrical = more engaging.
* After the mage had disappeared, I had not idea where to look for the gem. I found its chamber purely by chance when I was running aimlessly through the mansion.
Hints needed:
* #1 Clock puzzle. First I could not figure out the code, then I read you have to have a certain statue in the inventory, otherwise the glass doors won't open.
* #2 Location of the keyed gem. I had forgotten about the lockbox in the bedroom on ground floor.
Stats:
* Normal difficulty
* 1 hour and 27 minutes
* 1745 of 2595 loot
* 0 of 2 secrets