Iceblade on 20/11/2015 at 19:08

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So you may be going...ugh not another favorite FM thread.

Well, most of those are trying to pinpoint a favorite FM of all time - an impossibility. This thread is more an encouragement to look back at some of the favorite FMs from years long gone bye. It might even spark a few more downloads.

I'll generally be keeping my lists down to between 1 or 2 missions per year per game, but I may have to increase it to 5 for some of the more prolific years.

So here is my list:

1999
Thief 1:

* The Library - This mission is quite well constructed with an excellent visual design. It actually felt like I visiting the Lycaeum from Ultima.
* The Gem - While the Library appealed to my sneaky and aesthetics sensibilities; the gem is great due to its story and deviations from "traditional" gameplay. There is also a nice little bit at the very end that caps the mission off perfectly.


2000
Thief 1:
* The Order of the Vine - This mission combines a dark atmosphere with challenging, traditional thief sneaking and an excellent story that tie-ins well with the OMs. The architecture is also quite beautiful considering it is largely if not entirely stock resources.
Thief 2:

* Equilibrium - This mission remains to this day on almost every taffer's must play recommendation list. The parts I like most about it is the level of challenge it provides should you play it on a more violent normal difficulty play-through or the purely non-violent expert difficulty.
* Stowaway - I find that this FM is one of the best daylight missions visually. The interior and exterior architecture is excellent - also the texture palette has been rarely used over the years making the mission stand out more visually. This is also one of first missions I've ever played, so that may contribute to my bias. While the mission is lacking in story/objectives, and underutilized daylight difficulty, the mission was for contest and most missions were much weaker. One final detail is the difficulty, which was higher back in the day, but the mission will be really easy for the modern thief player.


2001
Thief 1:
* Varyx Obelisk - A rare keeper focused mission with a excellent story, healthy use of secrets and puzzle, and plenty of fun gameplay. I highly recommend this mission for any taffer to play.
Thief 2: I'll only pick one mission from each of Komag's contests for this year with one noncontest mission.

* Airship - Very novel use of thief and the mechanists. The outside sky area was well done and gameplay is very fun. Its just a pity that it would be so many years before this concept would be seen again with Sterlino's fantastic Flying Age campaign.
* Durant - This fun mission is set within the Thief 2 campaign timeline with plenty of references to other OMs. The ghosting at the beginning is tough by doable for a serial blackjacker like myself. In addition, the story progression in the mission is well scripted and engaging with excellent mission pacing. Definitely one of the early missions that met or surpassed OM quality, in fact it feels like it should be included in the Thief 2 campaign.
* Hightowne Museum - Though small, this FM is a fun and high quality romp through a museum. Lots of good taffing to be had here.


2002
Thief 1: There are a couple of really good T1 missions from this year that I don't remember much about, so I'll need to replay them in order to decide. The Restored Cathedral is definitely high on my list, though.
Thief 2: Ouch this is a tough year. I really have to give it to Christine and John D.'s campaigns. Both contain fun, beautiful, and well-designed FMs of a high quality. But an addendum to this is that taffers should probably play the re-released Dark Beginnings campaign for the more polished and visually upgraded version of John D's campaign.

* Your Last Breath - This is a great mechanist-sub-base FM, which up to this point hadn't been revisited from the OMs excluding the similarly-themed Airship FM. The exterior water areas are quite well done considering the engine and resources available. Good sneaking and excellent design for an aquatic mechanist base as well. Not a lot to the story, but John D's FMs work best story-wise as complete campaign.
* Lord Ashton's Series - I'm giving the whole series a fav here. Partially because the missions themselves are so similar gameplay-wise, and partially because I can't choose just one of them as they are all beautifully constructed and well designed for fun, sneaky gameplay. Also, I love stealing all of that delicious looking food. I'm salivating just thinking about it.
* Brawl in the Tombs - I have to give an honorable mention to Brawl in the Tombs for the extremely fun creature brawls in this mission. It really took creature clash FMs to the next level and added lots of more traditional thief elements with fantastic sequel story-wise to John D. larger campaign.


2003
I won't be including T1/G FMs from here on unless there is one I found to be highly enjoyable.
Thief 2: This year's KOMAG contest provided a lot of great FMs that I enjoy a lot. Though I'll keep the number down to two, I did also really like Thief Noir and RGB for atmosphere and theming/gameplay, respectively.

* Burrick's Head Inn - A very fun mission with lots of story and atmosphere. Very well designed puzzles. One of two favorites from this year's KOMAG contest.
* Dwelling Insanity - Another favorite from this year's contest, I really enjoyed the look and design of the whole mission. It actually inspired one of my (many) unfinished FMs that may or probably won't be finished.
* Cop in the Shadow - Atmosphere, gameplay, story combined with a well-paced sprawling level. This is great FM that is easy to see why it was chosen for the Together in Shadow review series.



2004
Thief 2: A good and technically creative year for FMs. In particular, it was a big year for Belboz with the heart of his TTGM series being released - the Trickster's Rift Gem Mine. In addition, he also created an excellent training mission and crafted some of the more unusual and fantastically fun missions from his series with Elsewhere and Chasm of the Lost I and II. Another KOMAG contest occurred this year generated some fun entries.

* Chasm of the Lost I - Since each of these missions is so different from one another, I'm only going to choose just one mission, and this is by far my favorite. The inventive use of the Hand mages is very different and fun with very fun and logical puzzles to keep you busy. Interestingly, this was my first encounter with the mages, so the Mage Towers OM was a bit of a let down in comparison when I finally played it. Even though, this is my favorite, I still quite enjoyed the creature elements in Elsewhere and the undead busting fun of Chasm of the Lost II, which was probably the first time I actually had fun in an undead mission up to that point in 'taffing' career.
* Into the Maelstorm - For this year's KOMAG, there were quite a few enjoyable entries, but I found this little gem to be the most fun. A well constructed pirate cave complete with undead pirates - that description alone should pull a player in. Obviously, I wasn't the only one who found this mission the best of the contest since it did win. It seems to me that multi-author FM have been some of the best released through Thief's 16 year FM history - though not necessarily my favorite.


2005
Thief 2: The FM's certainly reached a mature stage by this year. The Keeper of the Prophecies series wrapped. T2X - the community's first major completed Mod Project - was also released this year. There was a number of very solid missions released in addition to a first Novice Author contest and a Beauty contest.

* Thieves Highway - The FM that really reached the best in terms of fun gameplay is this FM by Uncadonego. This took the first part of Life of the Party and created a whole mission around it complete with an area to manufacture your own tools ala Soulforge. There is no shortage of places to visit or paths to transfer and is the one of best Thieves Highway mission until Melan's Bad Debts years later.
* Requiem for a Thief - This contest really demonstrated the level of detail possible in the Dark engine and there were some amazing entries from seeing a misty cemetery to a Clocktower to a Hammerite Imperium Cathedral and more. My favorite amongst this group, however, is the chapel where you can listen to 3 different eulogies at Garrett's own funeral. Creative and beauty to behold.
* not sure yet about the novice contest FMs - my memory is little iffy especially when it comes to mission names.

Dev_Anj on 28/11/2015 at 06:56

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I'll admit I only really started playing Thief from around 2013, so I don't have as many fond memories of these missions as some others. But I have played a few well known missions, like The Seventh Crystal, Mission X, Gathering at the Inn and the Bathory campiagn. I generally like them but have found that they have problems either characteristic of the missions of those time, of being overambitious, or of having some bad design traits. So I can't exactly list my favourite missions by year for many years.

pavlovscat on 28/11/2015 at 23:56

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Thanks for reminding me of some missions I must replay. Varyx Obelisk is high on my list of top missions, T1 or T2. Of the T1-G FM's, some of the standouts are Order of the Vine, Autumn in Lampfire Hills, Calendra's Cistern, JIS's missions.

So many T2 FM's! It's hard to pick favorites, but the Lord Ashton and Night Falcon series were some of the first FM's I played at Nightwalker's suggestion, and I was hooked. Anything by Christine is superb. My first experience with any FM was T2X. That is one that I will always want to replay. Of the earlier missions, several stand out in my mind: Durant, Cop in the Shadows, Brawl in the Tombs, Raid on Washout Central, L'Arsene series, Lady Lisa's Harbor, For a Better Tomorrow series, Keeper of the Prophecies series, Snobs, Ruins of Origina, Lady Whitman's Disease, Lord Alan series, Shining Standards, and so many more which I can see in my head but not recall the names.