Fan Mission: Sir Talbot's Collateral by Baal & Bikerdude (15/04/2015)

[V-Man339]

Simply loved it.

It felt like what Thief 3 was trying to accomplish with some of it's more aristocratic missions.

[Baal]

Thanks to everyone sharing their opinion.

 

V-Man, I have seen your Let's Play. Thanks for doing that. I always wanted to see how people play the mission and I hope more will surface in the future.

[V-Man339]

Thanks to everyone sharing their opinion.

 

V-Man, I have seen your Let's Play. Thanks for doing that. I always wanted to see how people play the mission and I hope more will surface in the future.

Hah, Let's Plays implies I would dare to destroy your atmosphere with my voice.

No, I'm not into that, it's why we have annotations.

 

Don't take me as the common player, either, I tend to do all loot stealth score 0 runs as a form of self-challenge.

[llanita]

Excellent FM! One of my faves now.

[Baal]

Nice. Thank you.

[Silverd]

To be honest I am a bit disappointed by this mission, I dunno ... I do not really find the objectives very clear, the optional objective did not work for me and I just cannot get into a smooth play.

 

 

Switched the male bust with the female one, still waiting for the trigger taking place ...

 

 

For the video at the beginning subtitles would be good, because I think it is not that easy to understand.

 

Good: Enemy customization, good atmosphere and overall setting.

 

Still thank you for this map!

[Baal]

Thanks, no problem.

 

The objectives and readables in this mission never tell you outright where to go and what to do but they should give you enough information. At least that's what we tried to achieve. Can you be more specific on what was unclear to you, please?

 

The secret objective is not important. The problem you had with it only occured once while beta testing and we don't know what caused it. It is a mod bug anyway, I can't do much about it.

Edited October 15, 2015 by Baal

[Silverd]

Sure!

 

 

I have still not found the key for the box containing the dagger for example, the box was hard to find and only with videos. I think finding the generator lever can also be quite tricky, so for me it was definitely too search-time-consuming.

I am more used to linear maps, where the objectives are quite clear and fast to tackle. I dislike it when I have to spend more time searching for fulfilling objectives than exploring, fighting, looting, stealing or whatever else. Also the evidence objective seems to take another while in searching.

 

Might be that the purpose of this map is diametrical to my personal preferences.

 

Actually I am not yet even sure what this mission is about, as I have got some troubles understanding the introduction video. Maybe subtitles really would be a good idea?

[Goldwell]

Actually I am not yet even sure what this mission is about, as I have got some troubles understanding the introduction video. Maybe subtitles really would be a good idea?

 

I found this on Bikerdudes YouTube page for the briefing video if it helps

 

"Break into the house of Frederick Talbot, a wealthy businessman who requires the services of a thief, to demonstrate your mastery of the trade and leave him a message in his own bedroom."

[Baal]

This is the intro videos text (written by Melan, by the way):

I suppose it is not commonplace in my line of work to receive an invitation from a future client, and every honest craftsman would take a person like that for a snitch, a madman or an insurance fraud. So to say I took Sir Talbot, an up and coming factor with an orderly home, a devoted wife and a clean pair of hands for all three would be no overstatement.

Yet when he spread the word in the right kind of places that he was looking for the services of a professional, the price was high enough to turn my head. It is not my style to just get up and introduce myself to a suspicious character, but I also asked a few questions, spent a few days observing Sir Talbot's home near Haylittle Market, and now I've got my own proposal to make.

 

I will give this Talbot character a demonstration of my talents, place my calling card in his bedroom, and leave undetected. What's more, I intend to take a good look at those clean pair of hands to see if the stories are indeed too good to be true. But hey: with the hands he will soon be shaking, what's a little dirt between us? He might see it as blackmail; but me, I'd rather think of it as collateral.

 

• I have still not found the key for the box containing the dagger for example, the box was hard to find and only with videos. I think finding the generator lever can also be quite tricky, so for me it was definitely too search-time-consuming.

• Might be that the purpose of this map is diametrical to my personal preferences.

• This objective is not supposed to be easy to find, that's why it is optional? There is a (hidden) readable giving clues about it.
  Search the captains quarters.

• Yes, the map is nonlinear on purpose. I like it that way.

Edited October 16, 2015 by Baal

[MirceaKitsune]

I just now got around to playing it. This is by far one of the best and most near-perfect TDM missions out there! It has a nice and less ordinary story, great visuals and architecture, many objectives to complete, lots of secret areas to find. Really great work, I liked everything about it

[Baal]

Thanks. We're glad you liked it. And it's always nice to get (positive) feedback.

[Don Locust]

great and well done fm, thank you guys and Archemappers.

I could find all objectives, alas not the 2nd dirt ... any hint for me please?

[Bikerdude]

• Archemappers.

I could find all objectives, alas not the 2nd dirt

• Thats a new one on me

• Which objective/s are you unable to complete..?

[Baal]

Thank you!

 

You'r refering to the "Find dirt on Talbot" objective, right?

 

First,

 

The locked safe in the study next to the library contains one piece.

 

 

Second,

 

Have you found the hidden access to the roof of the house?

 

[Gerberox]

Could you help me a bit?

 

How to put the message in Talbot's diary?

Anyway was it in his bedroom? I got it earlier.

 

[Bikerdude]

Hmm, from memory I believe you just place it in his footlocker near his desk..

[Gerberox]

He has a desk but when I put the diary on the desk the objective doesn't marked to be fulfilled. I tried different positions.

 

Edited February 4, 2017 by Gerberox

[Bikerdude]

Wrong desk and that dosent look like the right room. The main bed room has Lady talbot asleep in it and the desk you need is next to the window.

[Gerberox]

Thanks, got it.

This is the best mission so far for me.

[Gast]

Just completed this mission and it's a really good one. It took me about one hour and it was fun, perfectly balanced in fact. Every space is coherent, you know at first glance where you are when entering a room and this helps immersion a lot. This brought back memories of the Rutherford Castle and TDS in general, atmosphere wise.

[Bikerdude]

Baal and I are glad you liked it

[nbohr1more]

I made a small material def change to this mission in preparation for 2.06

 

I changed "sort postProcess" to "sort nearest" so that your firefly particles won't

render through geometry with FBO enabled.

[Bikerdude]

thanks.

[chakkman]

I just finished this mission. Was fun to play.

 

 

 

Things i liked:

 

- The mission was very fine designed, with a logical way to run though the objectives, and places in the mansion. Even though i first had no idea that those grates were only accessible when the generator was powered up. After i fetched the key from the Guard Captain, i was quite desperate to get through that grate where the Captain's chest was.

- Nice visuals, and the mansion was well designed.

- Great atmosphere, with the visuals and ambient sounds really fitting well together.

 

Things i did not like that much:

 

- Once again, i felt the architecture was a tad claustrophobic (not as sever as in other missions though), which made it hard to not get spotted, and to find places where you can hide. Also, 2 or 3 guards and the maid being in the kitchen in quick succession doesn't have to be. Again, i can only argue that, if you let guards guard your house, you wouldn't let the run over each other in one place, but, rather let them guard different parts of the mansion.

- Knockout objective. Pulease, don't make "only one knockout" objectives on hardest difficulty. It doesn't even make sense. Why would you instruct yourself, or be instructed to only do 1 knockout? In the end, i was forced to ghost the mission, because i like fulfilling objectives, and even the medium had the only one knockout objective, and, thus optional, players really like to get the objectives, so, it's a pointless restraint to make the player play the mission like the mission maker wishes.

- It was a bit unclear that the grates only work with the generator powered up.

 

 

So, gameplay wise, there were a few flaws for me. I enjoyed the rest of the mission though, it was really well done.