TDM Fan Mission Lists: Released and Upcoming

[nbohr1more]

Added... though I thought we already had Baal's?

[Bikerdude]

Just a small update, I've asked for read/write access to the OP & 2ndP so we can keep this thread updated etc.

[Goldwell]

Could someone please add three entries to the upcoming list for me but please don't add any links to them other than this post. My old The Accountant post will be locked as I will create a new one when its released and I won't be releasing anymore information until the release so my old post serves no purpose.

 

1) The Accountant - 1-2 months left which includes a beta phase so my guess is it will arrive early 2014

2) The Accountant Part 2: An Honest Life of Dishonesty - Only the story is conceptualized so To Be Advised

3) The Accountant Part 3: Redemption - Same as part 2 so To Be Advised

[grayman]

Moved Home Again from the WIP list to the Released list (yay!).

 

Updated expected release date for Cleighmoor to Feb (should be around the 26th).

[raymeld]

I don't know where to put this comment as the threads on Elite City have been closed because the ' mission ' has apparently stirred up a lot of angst but just played it through with no crashes or problems and loved it ! Particularly liked the

guards with the wolf heads and loud stomping walking noise. Also the train ride into Elite City. Had fun bumping off the majority of the guards prior to finding the way in.

[Bikerdude]

There is also now a wiki page to track upcoming fan missions:http://modetwo.net/d...ng_Fan_Missions

I have done a bit of updating to this page, there is a little suprise on there aswell.

[Goldwell]

How do we add our missions to the wiki page?

[Bikerdude]

If you havent got perms, just Pm either myself or Springs and we will update it for you.

[RJFerret]

I'm nearing completing of "Inn Business" too, should be a matter of weeks now, depending how testing goes.

[Springheel]

Seems like a reasonable place to post this:

 

We've definitely had a bump from going standalone. The last time we had this many missions in a single quarter was the Fall of 2011.

 

My total is 82 missions, though I actually thought we were higher than that.

[Goldwell]

I wonder why there aren't as many releases for TDM as there are for say Thief 1/2/3?

 

Is it because there's more work involved in editing/creating a map for TDM? because the community here is very supporting but I just wish we had more of a flow of FM's

[Springheel]

I wonder why there aren't as many releases for TDM as there are for say Thief 1/2/3?

 

There are more releases for TDM than there are for T3, I believe.

 

There were 8 TDM missions released in the last six months...how many T2 FMs were released in that time, for comparison's sake?

[Digi]

82 is still a lot. Anyone jumping into TDM has tons of material to occupy them. Even with conservative estimates, that amount of content is equivalent to 4-5 full-length games.

 

This might not be consolation to longtime vets who have played everything, but the lower number actually helped me settle on playing TDM. Where do you begin when there are hundreds of FMs? But like, an hour of reading this forum, and I had a list of 10-12 of the best TDM missions. I could dive into excellent content, feel like I had experienced TDM at its finest, and not feel overwhelmed.

 

Still, I understand the desire for a more steady stream of FMs. Spring's numbers and timeline indicate an average of roughly 16 FMs a year, which seems decent.

[Goldwell]

Don't get me wrong I really enjoy the dark mod and I think it's great we have missions at all but I guess the greedy part of me just wants more

[Digi]

Spring, though you may be aware of it already, check this link out:

http://www.tafferspa...f1missions.html

 

It seems to be fairly up-to-date, and answers your questions about recent releases. I counted TDM missions at 85 from that list, and yes, there are more TDM FMs than T3. But T2 is lapping the field by a wide margin. But it's not all rate of release. They have about an 8-year head start on TDM. Even at TDM's modest pace, that's over 100 missions. There are T2 windows where they'll have 30+ FMs in six months, and others where it's in single digits.

Edited June 2, 2014 by Digi

[Digi]

Ok, I just ran new calculations, and it turns out I underestimated T2 a bit. In about 14 years of existence, T2 has 811 FMs, for an average of 57.9 a year. Even with some moderate slow-down, they did over 40 in 2013, so it's not exactly dying.

 

T1 is at 13.2/year over a slightly longer period of time (it has 198 total). But with T1, it's frontloaded in its first few years. In the last five years or so, TDM is healthily outpacing its output.

 

So yes, T1 has more missions, but it had a 9-year head start. TDM is more active these days, so it's in better shape than some might think. Only T2 is more prolific in both total missions and recent output.

Edited June 2, 2014 by Digi

[Springheel]

So by that site, T2 has had 11 new missions released in the last six months, and we've had 8. That's a pretty decent comparison, I'd say, especially considering there was a T2 mapping contest in Januaray.

[Digi]

So by that site, T2 has had 11 new missions released in the last six months, and we've had 8. That's a pretty decent comparison, I'd say, especially considering there was a T2 mapping contest in Januaray.

 

True. But as it's on the low end for T2 and high end for TDM, it's probably too early to call it a trend. Just prior to that period, T2 had 13 released in a single month.

 

I'm not trying to be a downer, just provide proper perspective. I hope TDM continues the positive trend upward with FMs. I like it better than T2, which was incredible for its time but shows its age even with graphical and design innovations in the years since. TDM isn't perfect, but in my opinion at least is the best Thief experience out there right now (including the recent commercial release of T4).

Edited June 2, 2014 by Digi

[Goldwell]

Well I know that we have FM's coming out this year (hopefully) from myself, Sotha, Sir Taffsalot, Melan, ERH, Baal/Bikerdude, and one from yourself Digi So all up that's another 7 FM's we should hopefully get this year which is something to look forward to.

 

Also it's not a new one but Bikerdude is re-releasing his St Albans Cathedral FM for standalone which I haven't played yet and should be great fun.

[Springheel]

True. But as it's on the low end for T2 and high end for TDM, it's probably too early to call it a trend.

 

Oh, certainly. The T2 mapping community is much larger than TDM, so I'm surprised it's as close as it is.

[Digi]

Well I know that we have FM's coming out this year (hopefully) from myself, Sotha, Sir Taffsalot, Melan, ERH, Baal/Bikerdude, and one from yourself Digi So all up that's another 7 FM's we should hopefully get this year which is something to look forward to.

 

Also it's not a new one but Bikerdude is re-releasing his St Albans Cathedral FM for standalone which I haven't played yet and should be great fun.

 

Let's call it 6 and a half. I'll be surprised if mine feels like a full mission.

Edited June 3, 2014 by Digi

[Melan]

The T2 community used to be huge; for a few years, you wouldn't just have a lot of missions, but you would regularly see enormous fan missions with hundreds of custom assets and very high production values. This is no longer the case, although you have some old projects finally seeing completion and surprising everyone - these mostly have many years of work behind them. But Thief 2 had very high visibility on the market, and thousands and thousands of active players. Disorientation, my most successful mission has had something like 850 downloads on Thiefmissions.com alone, and it is a relative latecomer with its 2009 release date. The heavy hitters like CoSaS are at 5-6000 downloads each.

 

In comparison, TDM missions are slightly different - to my surprise, there have been much fewer small missions made by beginners, and much fewer huge missions (even though TDM can do them just fine). Most TDM missions are medium-sized, and fairly well detailed even when created by newbies. Also, in Thief, you'd sometimes see dozens of cookie cutter mansion missions, while the TDM scene has more variety. (Sometimes I think we might have "too many" city missions? Well, guilty as charged...)

 

It is a different editing community. There was a time when I was worried about our visibility, and annoyed we weren't getting enough recognition from TTLG, but no longer. TDM is doing fine for a niche mod.

[Goldwell]

The T2 community used to be huge; for a few years, you wouldn't just have a lot of missions, but you would regularly see enormous fan missions with hundreds of custom assets and very high production values. This is no longer the case, although you have some old projects finally seeing completion and surprising everyone - these mostly have many years of work behind them. But Thief 2 had very high visibility on the market, and thousands and thousands of active players. Disorientation, my most successful mission has had something like 850 downloads on Thiefmissions.com alone, and it is a relative latecomer with its 2009 release date. The heavy hitters like CoSaS are at 5-6000 downloads each.

 

In comparison, TDM missions are slightly different - to my surprise, there have been much fewer small missions made by beginners, and much fewer huge missions (even though TDM can do them just fine). Most TDM missions are medium-sized, and fairly well detailed even when created by newbies. Also, in Thief, you'd sometimes see dozens of cookie cutter mansion missions, while the TDM scene has more variety. (Sometimes I think we might have "too many" city missions? Well, guilty as charged...)

 

It is a different editing community. There was a time when I was worried about our visibility, and annoyed we weren't getting enough recognition from TTLG, but no longer. TDM is doing fine for a niche mod.

 

Blasphemy! You can never have too many city missions!

 

I only came here about a year ago but was there any reason why TDM didn't gain recognition from TTLG? I would have expected this to be really popular with those guys considering it was born on TTLG forums (from what I understand)

[Digi]

Originality is likely pretty hard. I know there's variety even in the same mission type, but a lot of times we're just splitting hairs when we make distinctions between, say, mansion, cathedral, castle, fortress, museum, bank, etc. missions. Thief isn't necessarily about enormous diversity, though, but about the feeling of being a master thief. The levels themselves usually boil down to the same basic formula. But that's nothing to be ashamed of.

 

Compared to the main Thief games, though, the one thing that stands out to me is the amount of undead/horror levels (I include ghosts and spiders in this too). The Thief games have, what, one or two per game? Same with T2X, which only boasts two. About 40% of TDM FMs have some combination of those. I'm using the Wiki list of FMs for the percentage.

 

To me, it seems like one of the biggest strengths of TDM is vaulting, scaling, climbing, etc. As such, I think that compared to the overall FM total, we're lacking Thieves Highway FMs, which could shine on TDM in a way that they can't in the other games. I've seen levels that incorporate Thieves Highway elements. But, to date, I've encountered only one that truly feels like traveling via rooftop (William Steele 2).

[Obsttorte]

Don't forget The Phrase Book.