Most inept thieving in the world.

Kainus on 24/11/2006 at 14:55

problem: i was playing T2 the other day...i forget the mission, but it's irrelevant since it happens all through the game and in FMs. example: i pull out a rope arrow, i aim at a board over my head, i shoot the rope-arrow. it unfurls and the end extends to my waist. i take a few steps back, run towards it, and jump and try to grab it. i fail, and fall into a moat.
this continues for about 35 minutes.
so am i just completely useless at thieving, or is there something i should know about climbing rope-arrows?

GUFF on 24/11/2006 at 15:38

Rope arrows seem quite buggy in both Thief TDP/Gold and Thief 2. Sometimes I'll jump to one and my character slides up it real fast and then goes flying in a random direction, sometimes enough to cause damage or death from fall damage or smacking into a wall really fast. Maybe you just don't suck but are running into buggy behavior displayed by them often. It seems to happen more often while running.

Dia on 24/11/2006 at 16:32

Even after years of playing Thief and the FMs I still have trouble occasionally with rope arrows! Worst of all is when you've already climbed one rope and have to jump to the second rope (or third) and miss. I groan every time I miss and end up plummeting to my death. It happens to all of us taffers at one time or another.

It also took me some time to realize that saving while you're on a rope isn't such a good idea either.

:o

paloalto on 24/11/2006 at 16:52

The City Gazette.
Worlds greatest thief found strangled on his own rope.
Longer story in evening edition.

Darkelf on 24/11/2006 at 18:21

I remember one time in a mission I wanted to climb a rope arrow which was clearly not that high for me to jump on it. I think it was in Thief Gold. But the game refused to let me grab it. I basically jumped like a moron for about 10 minutes trying to grab the damn thing, It was the only way out and I had no save before it so I couldn't ignore this part or I had to redo the whole mission.

In the end I succeeded jumping on it after all, but man what a chore it was. These games and their design are often frustating.:mad:

Kainus on 24/11/2006 at 20:18

heh. well at least i'm not the only one.

Lady Taffer on 25/11/2006 at 00:20

When the rope unfurls for me and I run and jump at it. . .I bounce off it as if it were a wall. .. this continues repeatedly with me trying different angles and different running distances untill after the 15 time, or so, I finally grab ahold. .. . . . . .and this ALWAYS happens in the lost city at the last ruin. .. the one where you're balanced precariously along the foot-wide ledge with the ever-present possiblity of falling hundreds of feet into a lava pit. :sweat:

The inscrutable po on 25/11/2006 at 02:03

I used to have trouble with ladders too and suffered many injuries that could have been prevented. Both ladder and rope require skilled, knowledgeable use.

First off, I hope you're not trying to "grab" like Lara Croft does. You should just stick to the rope. It has to be jumped onto or fallen onto unless you're in water where you just swim into it and start going up. Sometimes without even knowing it, you'll be using some sort of grabbing technique from another game or real life. Be sure you're not doing that.

Is the rope arrow dangling over a bed or other object? Your invisible feet will get in the way. Garrett doesn't scrunch up much. Same problem if you're banging your head silently against a torch or lamp.

The rope should not be too close to a wall or object. Just because you can see it, that doesn't mean Garrett can grab it. Try to stay at least a foot away from the wall with the rope.

You're best off jumping onto the rope from several feet away. Garrett doesn't jump far. Some people try to compensate by waiting too long to jump. Garrett might already have run through the "grab" zone. I like to hit the rope before garrett starts arcing down.

Looking at old threads I just found that there is a setting for rope arrows. You can have it on "touch" or "jump" and with some settings you can just frob a ladder to get on.

(http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=87770&highlight=rope+arrow)

I think mine is set to jump.

When it comes to ladders I've found that from a high place it's safer to avoid the sides of the ladder because sometimes I'll bounce off or slide down if I try to grab the edge.

One of the trickiest moves with a rope arrow is getting on one from a single high beam. If the arrow was set from the ground, it's probably pitched downward and when you try to walk onto it you'll most likely slide off it and plunge to your death. The thing that sometimes works is if you take that arrow out and set a new while on the beam so that it's angled up with the feathers higher than the point. You'll have to lean out to do this. Once it's set, back up to it slowly. Garrett's ass should ride up the shaft and then he'll grab the rope at the top if you do it slowly. You'll be able to climb down safely. The safer method is to shoot a new arrow into a beam that runs perpendicular to your beam. Then you can just walk or run off and your trajectory will miss the arrow but catch the rope.

There's also a place in [SPOILER]Calendra's Legacy, the library[/SPOILER] where the books are a couple hundred feet high. You can stand way back and sink rope arrows starting from the top and then into the rope of the arrow above and in that way sort of splice the ropes. They're not really spliced, but you can climb about four rope arrow lengths that way. It's a real nail biter. If you stagger the arrows and try to jump one to the other it won't work because you're too close to the wall and by jumping you'll push off the books.

There's an fm called "The Great Tree" that's good for learning about rope arrows. I think it's by Komag.

Elentari on 25/11/2006 at 02:43

When I was playing the T2 Demo (just for kicks as I'd already played the full game a dozen times) I made a jump at a rope to get back over from a roof and I swear the the thing actually bucked me off. It actually arched like a horse preparing to buck. It was so stupid it was funny. Of course, Garrett goes flying like thirty feet to crash into a wall.

They are definitely bugged, but as stated, you *can* play with the settings and choose which works best for you. Personally I left it on jump as I got tired of getting 'stuck' on ladders and such when I didn't want to be on them. But yeah if you have too much trouble there are options. Or you could change it to 'touch' for those real trouble spots then swap back.

PeeperStorm on 25/11/2006 at 03:10

I've noticed that the orientation of the surface that the arrow is stuck into seems to make a difference. For example, if I shoot a rope arrow into the bottom of a particular wooden beam I can't grab it. If I shoot it into the side of the same beam then I can grab it. On other wooden beams the reverse might be true, or it might not make any difference. I make it a point to save the game before shooting a rope arrow, just in case.