TheUnbeholden

Quite a nice looking mission but its mostly on the outside, what with the huge church and the nice set of buildings on the town.. on the inside the level design is quite uninspiring. I must admit I was pretty disappointed with the gameplay mostly due to the level design. Its all just corridors,

ah nevermind I restarted the game and it seems to take 5-7 hits now, phew thats a relief... now I get to die a much deserved death when they come at me.

Another all round fun fest. Its a fairly large mansion and in my favourite climate, in a secluded location. The enemy patrols had made me more aware of what I was doing and had me tactically KO'ing some of the them while an arrow to the back of the head of others. The item hunt in particular was alot of fun, fidcal should take notes. Its fun when its not mandatory I also like that a mini puzzle had me use fire for once. Problem is

Man am I impressed, finally a big map worthy of thief 1-2. Now I have to say right off the bat its a damn good mission from a visual perspective. Its dark to and a cathedral of adequate size The amount of enemies are very satisfying with the tougher revenants, keeping me to using the sparse fire arrows and mines only when I need the time to search rooms. A fair bit of loot that aslong as you go through ever room you will find most of it, although there is one challenge that involves some climbing and rope arrows which was very satisfying.

I guess it affects the people who wish to ghost a mission and obtain "Perfect thief mode", ie cause no second level alerts, kill or knock out no one & obtain maximum loot (& injure no one, including monster AI). Unless you claim such an alert isn't one that is caused by someone seeing or hearing you but the stealth score is thusly affected. It makes sense for AI not to go on alert if there is a extinguished torch or a door is found unlocked, or if they notice their keys are gone because there is no way around that the majority of the time. Stealing loot is the point of the game, eventhough in real life missing valuables would make someone suspicious its a counter intuitive to the objective ghosters or anyone who puts strict requirements on themselves. I am sort of being devils advocate here, I'm more of a pragmatic but I understand why some would want to be a perfect thief.

Fairly well constructed for a small mission me thinks, it provides 2 ways around into the main area just before you go up the stairs and some hidden loot that I found thanks to a idea I got from a previous mission. Problems

Assassination, I'm hoping for alot of different kinds of those. Seeing as we almost always see the expert level "don't kill anyone" objective, to go out of your way to plan and execute your target actually fits thief well with the stealth mechanics & mines and firearrows that rarely get any use, it would be cool if the target was well guarded and you'd have to either fight it out hard or find creative ways to either lure them away or stage a accident. Now that dropping things on peoples heads can kill them as of 1.08, its perfect timing!! Aslong as the pre-existing work hasn't been released before, than its ok. Not like anyone would be able to prove it otherwise. As soon as the guidelines are presented then mapping should begin. I don't buy the categories thing of WIP vs fresh because why should they be treated differently, and if they are how should they be treated differently, what would constitute as fair. Also how would one differentiate WIP vs fresh if only some of the content in the WIP was made previously, but most the levels was made after the competition. It's just pointless bickering & thinking to much. Its like how bikerdude tried to put shadowhides work up to scratch with the other fm's, alot of work into trying to make the fm something its not... long. Thankfully he decided to use his levels for something else & only did optimization and graphical enhancements. Fact is if a mission is fun or beautiful which you don't need any longer than 3 months worth of work to make, any time spent more only makes things larger & more polished, not necessarily more fun. This advantage could be one gained by different people in the future. Either way seasoned mappers are going to make better missions so trying to 'even the playing field' by judging them differently is absurd, is it not?

Must admit had me scratching my head a bit for the first 10 minutes, getting through the street is tough cookies. Theres a very well lit spot with 2-3 guards alternating with a small opportunity window and a women at the end of the street. Not to mention the place itself is fairly well guarded on the outside so its only a matter of exploring well right at the beginning. I think I liked the challenge along with limited equipment though I can see some people not liking the rather strict route to take as opposed to the much more obvious yet very difficult one we are led onto. Theres a bit of mantling and tight rope here for the acrobats, while a little bit of sneaking for the rest of us. It would be a nice to see more from Melan because I think he is probably like Jesps in that he can make a well rounded mission, Melan only needs to apply himself more to make something longer & larger. I wonder if your working on anything? It would be a shame if this where your last. Story 2 Gameplay 3 Appearance 4

Its one of the more interesting missions, its not as big as I was expecting as the word "city" implies but I still found alot of fun to be had, chantry, mansion where the highlights. The monastery was way to hard getting in through the front entrance especially with the well lit front door, very hard to look inside without getting spotted but I guess thats the price you pay for being so unimaginative as to go in through the front door. The appearance, well I think it all speaks for itself. From the very moment I started the ambience, news wall references, and 3 guards patrolling had me ducking and weaving into crevices I normally don't need to use. Although I would have preferred a larger builder prison, I guess you can't make everything by everyone's standards. Overall excellent gameplay, near perfect appreance and a fairly good story from the readables. Nice, and thanks bikerdude for making it run well.

Yeah this was

I must admit this one a bit mixed for me. Seasonal theme was not really all that evident, probably because I just associate dark orange leaves with autumn. & For a crypt like place it was all really well lit, many years of neglect should have made the place more dark, I still give the aesthetics the full 5 because its just so atmospheric. My main issue:

We have won a award, I mean you guys have, DARKKMODDDDD Community Award.

Well seeing as Fidcal and Springheel seem to be ignoring me I'll ask here. HappyCheese & Nyarlathotep I noticed are on the tdm member list on moddb but not for the one listed on this site. Wondering what their roles where? Noticed some others like PPoe are not listed under "other contributors" eventhough hes done work translating the mod.

If someone (ie wench) ran at me and tried to bj me I certainly wouldn't resist.

I would love a pure rooftop mission, I've always loved going on rooftops more than anything else in Thief, but for some reason so few mods (or even official maps) allow you, most go out of their way to bar you from being able to go atop by spikes at the top of walls like T3. People choosing the third option sounds a bit to much of bullshit & chips, ie wishful thinking of people who want their cake & eat it, I would say the streets would sacrifice detail & probably would have you die from the fall. Certaintly I wouldn't mind a short detour that goes to the ground level, but mostly it would be rooftops or maybe going down a level or two to leap from a window in order to get across to another building.

this is the TDM fan missions section

I like it except for the grunts that the player character makes when he mantles... sounds a bit to burly for a thief. Wondering if you could use only non-grunting sounds for that.

Lockbox key? Why the incorrect names, they are called doors... just rename it to door key #1

My main concern for this how you guys are taking the approach to the stealth gameplay, each Thief game has brought something new to the table. Story and graphics are important but the nitty gritty, the reason we all play for is the gameplay. How will you guys take on the stealth gameplay, is there any experimentation being done to bring it to revolutionary heights? What I mean by revolutionary: http://sneakybastard...s-meant-for-me/ Taking it in new directions. To get some conversation and analysis going, On the weekend of June 22, Sneaky Bastards (a group of people dedicated to bringing the best stealth games to the public eye), kicked off Stealthjam: the world's first global stealth game jam. It was a weekend brimming with stealth design discussion and furious prototyping, and teams of independent developers from around the world raced to explore new forms of stealth gameplay in just 48 hours. What follows are the best indie games; that take stealth in directions we have not seen before. The result? 21 one games for your pleasure http://sneakybastards.net/stealthjam/

I've found nastiness, like 3 ladders that don't let you climb out which is kind of immersion breaking if it looks like you logically can within arms reach but you you just fall to the bottom and take damage :/ Apart from that and the really obscure clue for the tomb , It was one of the most beautiful and well paced FM's I've played and boy the took me by surprise I liked the level design for the most part, and some tough searching for the vault key... nice The tavern, to tough for me, that damned noble men and him seeing me through that coloured glass window when I can't seem to see him :/ The difficulty was fairly up there only for the objectives and I think there was enough guards seeing as the areas are not so much big but long, quite a few hallways that fit into the whole builder thing of being simple and practical for all those bedrooms. Though I would have liked more to find in them like readables and such. It seems theres alot more loot than meets the eye to...

I thought there already was a zombie model.

Following a post someone made a while ago... Totally agree. I personally think that while a wolf is a excellent hunter and impossible to sneak right up to it or passed it unless you keep a distance of at least 20 metres... a werewolf is a like a incredibly powerful version of it that not only would have those heightened senses but also have a highly strong, fast, and regenerative body that easily makes them the most powerful creature in the world. It could take on a elephant and win, other various lions, leopards, jaguar, grizzly bear. Perhaps a Cheetah might beat it speed wise but aside from that a werewolf is king of the jungle. You would have to find tricks to beat it like explosive arrows, flashbang, a few land mines, but if you don't have all that then its basically about keeping a distance from it... or run like hell when it comes and prey you have a rope arrow to get to high ground or barricade a door. If anything I think it should be upped senses wise for the following Dark Mod v1.8 It should be the most challenging AI to come up against. Wondering if this beast has ever had a tweaking made to it?

Very nice mission, the sort that you love to do every once and a while. It had some tough mission objectives, others like Benny's footlocker just needed some common sense. Overhaul I liked the details, going through all of those houses, eaves dropping in the bar, the tight alleys and that random cat scared me you bastard even some secret loot high up there for the real ninja thievers. I admit there wasn't as much AI as I expect but then again this isn't a big mission and these places are not high security so it makes sense.. the tight level design helps up the difficulty factor. It was quite beautiful from the tower top, and I felt that I'm generally let down by easier FM's, this one made up for it in all the right ways. In general I liked the hideout/sewer system, and the premise of the story even if it was a tad simple. I think I'm going to like what b1k3rdude conjures up.

Well I suppose when it comes down to it, it doesn't matter if something is made by one or more people. The reason why I used the word 'official', is that the people who created this project made it the way it is through collaboration, and it would be pretty dam tough to make a 'game' on ones own especially with adequate play time. I would say that NHAT or Sotha's could 'be official' if most of the TDM team agreed to it. I think it would be a shame to not have a 'collaborated effort' on the campaign. It would be missing out on alot of talent. I think everyone deserves to be part of this journey to the top the mountain so to speak...

the length, and the fact it comes with the mod would speak for itself... Aslong as it covers the 3 criteria as I said.