SneakyJack on 30/1/2009 at 06:05

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:laff:

Thanks for taking the time to type all that out, you made your point well. I guess I didn't notice the "modern playboy-ish" style pictures you mentioned - like I said I blew through the missions to take some screens so I might have missed a bit of the scenery along the way. If this is true, that is in poor taste. I did notice the pinup style pictures in the second mission, and though a pinup picture clothed would have had the same effect, I guess the naughty aspect is something the author was going for if it appears more than once in more than one mission.

I guess being female yourself these things seem to jump out at you much easier than they do in the mind of a male (hell, I didn't even notice most of this stuff until you spelled it out for me!) but they didn't really bother me either way. I guess I'm the type that would play a mission that completely insults males and would not be offended - but I have a dark sense of humor. :laff:

In the same way that you noticed women being portrayed in a negative light in this fan mission there are probably many other fan missions that offset this by making the female characters the smart, strong or most entertaining characters (Thief 2x for example) so I guess in a way it evens out - but porn images really have no place in fan missions - like you said we're there to play thief and not to be aroused sexually. That and its a bit lame to put stuff like that in a fan mission unless that is the entire purpose of the mission. One mission comes to mind that was based completely around erotic texts. I didn't enjoy that mission, but im sure some did.

If someone is looking for porn or erotic fiction there are millions of places to find it on the net - keep it out of the thief world. :D

Melan on 30/1/2009 at 06:50

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Definitely yes if you are referring to the first image - it is a tribute to a trap The Tomb of Horrors, an infamously lethal AD&D adventure module. :laff: No idea about the second.


No. Both Calendra missions have been criticised for deviating from the "canonical" Thief gameplay, but that's sort of the point - they are not standard missions. I remember playing them the first time when I had a lot less experience, and the rooftop-hopping in Calendra's Cistern, sneaking through the party area and all that was damned hard. So was the sneaking in A Meeting With Basso
(and I think that was the unfair bit in the series), deciphering the clues in the crypt or the entirety of Midnight in Murkbell. Purah gets away with it because he does it well and he can/could build a mission outside the standard mold. I understand why folks complain, I just don't agree with them.

WRT the sexism bit -- in another thread, someone referred to Mercedes as "Skanky McFunbags", and, well, that has quite a lot of truth in it. :sweat:

SneakyJack on 30/1/2009 at 07:48

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No, unfortunately with my video card fog is enabled but just does not show up. Before I upgraded my video card fog was present, but I have not had fog since. I'm the type that would rather have no fog anyway - and I guess for screenshot purposes its better to be able to see far in the distance anyway. :laff: I apologize if this reduces the quality of certain missions screenshots, I can't do anything about it. :(

There was a discussion that started in this thread about that very subject and derailed into an entire technical discussion about video cards and fog, so thats all I'll say about it.



I just wondered if Lady Rowena was trying to pay tribute to Calendra's Legacy or if it just happened by accident. Thanks for the bit of trivia though, I played AD&D many years ago when I was a kid and had no idea!



Thank you for the encouragement and I'm very happy that some are enjoying the things I've been posting - I'm just the type of person that worries about wearing out his welcome.

I received a PM that made my day from a mission author asking me to post some screens and my impressions of their missions - and as someone who tried dromed but did not have the skill or patience to handle it, it means alot that a fan mission author (a particularly good one at that!) would ask for my thoughts on their mission. Talk about a compliment! :D

nickie on 30/1/2009 at 09:00

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Oh shoot SneakyJack, I suspect you're referring to my recommendations - if so, then I completely misunderstood what you were looking for. :) I thought you were looking for undead missions that weren't that scary and the undead were easy to deal with but also had really good gameplay! For the record, I hate undead, ghosting, and not having a blackjack.

And to ditto everyone else - I'm also really enjoying your reviews. I didn't enjoy CL that much though I don't remember the pictures at all. I might try it again if I can do the blackjack and jumping through the window bit.

jiansonz on 30/1/2009 at 11:01

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I am not a ghoster (usually) and I do not like to be forced to ghost and I certainly do not like timed objectives but Midnight in Murkbell is STILL my favourite mission of all time! :eek: :D

I sincerely recommend that you (in a few months or so) give this mission one more chance, play on 'Garrett' difficulty, and do like this:

* Deliver the Cylix to the Cardinal within time. Yes, forced ghosting and the stress is a bit frustrating, but we´re talking about like 1% of the total gameplay here!
Once this is done, failed ghosting does not mean that the mission fails. If I get caught I generally just hop into the canals and move to another part of town so the guards calm down.

* Go to your room, get your gear but DO NOT yet trigger Mercedes and the NLDE event. You can reach most stuff from the side of the bed, and you can hop onto the bed and lean forward to get the last stuff. You now have a BJ but I recommend you do not use it before the NLDE event. Why? Well, the game "kills" several guards once you trigger the undead, and if they are sleeping from you BJing them, it counts as you killed them (= mission fails).

* Instead, get the awesome dagger at the wizards´place. One of its powers is that if you switch to it, you become less visible than when unarmed (which helps a lot with sneaking from now on).

Now, prepare to have your socks knocked off while you enjoy the looting and pickpocketing of the entire city. There are many (rather sensitive) guards, so it´s pretty hard in many places, but it´s always doable, with many opportunities to be creative. And like I said before, hop into the canal and swim away if things get hairy.


Once you are done with all this, it´s time for the undead. Over time I´ve come to really enjoy this part as well. Once, I even made it my mission to (http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?p=687312#post687312) vanquish them all!.

Once you face the undead, the dagger becomes your best friend. It can even splatter zombies and heal you when you hit (living) enemies. Beware, zombies may explode in your face! Best way is to hit the zombie until it drops, then approach from the 'head' direction, crouch and give it a quick swipe. This is usually a safe way to avoid flying bodyparts.

The arsenal for fighting undead is not bad at all, especially not on the 'footpad' difficulty where you don´t have the sword. I recently replayed on this difficulty. I was not stingy about slaying undead when they were in the way or found me. I finished the mission with all of this still unused: an amulet charge, 16 water arrows, 2 holy waters, a flash bomb and 15 fire arrows.