Gajejean on 22/1/2019 at 02:30
Apologies upfront for the long post - after reading the FM FAQs, I am simply seeking help and some clarification on some of the language in the FAQs to make sure I know what I'm doing when it comes to the new FM things I have missed since 2008 or so. I hate to bother you guys about such basics, but on the other hand, this reminds me of one thing I always liked about this forum - regardless of skill level, obviousness of questions (to everyone but the inquirer), rarely is anyone insulted or given bad treatment. Thanks in advance for help with my concerns.
After playing the original game in the late 1990's and then Thief II, III, etc, and then hundreds of legacy fan missions back in the 2000-2008 range, and briefly toying with FMs in 2015, I now want to get back into this superb game and its fantastic community. I've played through the games again (original editions), but now when I look into newer FM's, I see that NewDark is all over the place. This is the basis of my post, to understand and clarify things, particularly NewDark things, noted in the FAQ's.
Currently, I have installed the original Thief versions (Thief Gold ver 1.37 and Thief II ver 1.18). I had updated these years ago with the old thieffixedgold update, convict.osm, DDFix for I and II, tafferpatcher, etc) so that they play great on the Win7 machine.
Although I am very partial to original game style and atmosphere, I want to explore some newer fan missions, most of which now say NewDark only. To run these NewDark games, I assume I have to install the NewDark update which I know is detailed in its FAQ, but now I also see that there is something called TFix 1.26a.
Question 1) Does installation of TFix 1.26a also install the NewDark patch? Or do I need to run separate NewDark updates?
I also currently use the old Darkloader.
Question 2) Is upgrading to Newdarkloader required, or good idea, to run New Dark Fam Missions?
Question 3) If TFix 1.26a is for Thief and Thief Gold, what, other than Tafferpatcher and NewDark patch, do I need in order to make TII games run the newest NewDark fan missions?
Summary Comment: Basically to sum up all of what I am trying to gather, given what I have stated about running the original Thief games on Win 7, I simply want to know what I need to do, and in what order, to be able to enjoy the new generation of Fan Missions on Thief Gold and Thief II.
Last Question: If I make changes in answer to my questions, will I still be able to play the original games, reverting back to the orginal unmodified engine, or would I need to maintain a "legacy" machine to do that?
Again, so sorry for the long post and any errors in technical language I might have used, and so sorry if I am asking things that you think I should have gotten from various FAQs - I certianly don't want to unnecessarily clog up the forum. It has been a long time, and I am so eager to get back to Thief FMs and just want to make sure I am handling the required updates/changes/patches correctly.
trefoilknot on 22/1/2019 at 02:50
TFix is all you need for thief 1/gold. Tafferpatcher is all you need for thief 2 (though a few FMs require a more recent version of ND than is included in the latest tafferpatcher).
These two mods hardly change any aspects of the core atmosphere. The skies and water are improved [IMO] a little, but these are optional changes.
You should use new dark loader or FMselect to play FMs. Old darkloader is not supported for most recent FMs. If you run into problems, the first thing you'll be told is “stop using old darkloader.”
I can't think of any reason you'd want to play without newDark (unless you want to play multiplayer). But you would probably need a separate install if you wanted that. And you'll be back to the same tech issues as before. It'll run on windows 7, but it'll take great effort.
Gajejean on 23/1/2019 at 01:30
trefoilknot, you are awesome. This answers all of my questions, more succinctly that I asked them! Thank you so much. Looking forward to the "new" missions.
Quote Posted by trefoilknot
TFix is all you need for thief 1/gold. Tafferpatcher is all you need for thief 2 (though a few FMs require a more recent version of ND than is included in the latest tafferpatcher).
These two mods hardly change any aspects of the core atmosphere. The skies and water are improved [IMO] a little, but these are optional changes.
You should use new dark loader or FMselect to play FMs. Old darkloader is not supported for most recent FMs. If you run into problems, the first thing you’ll be told is “stop using old darkloader.”
I can’t think of any reason you’d want to play without newDark (unless you want to play multiplayer). But you would probably need a separate install if you wanted that. And you’ll be back to the same tech issues as before. It’ll run on windows 7, but it’ll take great effort.
trefoilknot on 23/1/2019 at 02:33
Happy to help. Let me know if you have any troubles—happy taffing! :)
