T2 Fm - Kingsbridge (Released 12/23/14)

Dawggon on 1/1/2015 at 18:38

Thanks again, D.G. I'm on it as soon as I finish a very late breakfast...while someone else is watching the football game. :ebil:

P.S. Found the scroll by the chasm and had read it earlier. Didn't check off on objectives. Retraced all my steps and cannot find how the plague started.
All other objectives checked off except going back to my room, which I did. This is played on Expert

Eternauta on 1/1/2015 at 19:44

Quote Posted by skacky

Yup, that's the one that took me ages to find as well. I did visit this area before but the frob distance on the chest is very low so I thought if was just scenery.

Eternauta: I for one really enjoyed this mission, but I would've toned down the snow a tad as it can sometimes be a bit hard to see things. I wrote somewhere else that the use of ambient music, moody and warm lighting inside with nevertheless really deep shadows with really good textures and architecture made me feel like a true intruder inside the counts' houses, something I haven't felt in quite a while in an FM.

It's ok. I haven't received negative reviews in the TTLG forum but for pm or mail. :D

All critiques are fine but I just wanted to clarify that I haven't had hurry to release Kingsbridge.

prjames on 1/1/2015 at 19:46

Quote Posted by Eternauta

I have got several negative reviews about this mission. This is good, I like it.
I want to know what players think about it. However, I would have never had a 15 months long Betatest if I had been in a hurry to release it.
If Kingsbridge is ugly, with empty rooms and repeating items, this is what I wanted it to be.

It was a precise choice!
Mea Culpa! :D

I really liked this mission; specifically how dark/nasty the city feels with the flames and "crazy people" (John teetering on the railing) right after you exit the jail; I liked the new gameplay mechanics including the bug potions, the alarms, the in-game shops and the Lost and Found as well as "use thing on other thing" mechanic (the ladder, the arrows for saving the Wanderers, the printing press and the "This noble is a bad noble" poster). I also really loved the option to remove the plague from the city at the hardest difficulty and how the music changes and a cutscene plays when you put the last ampoule in the last fireplace. I don't feel the rooms were all that repetitive, I love large missions and buildings with a lot of rooms can be part of it. My only complaint was that at two of three difficulties, Garrett must end the mission with the plague, but that's a reasonable (and rather interesting) design decision/plot twist.

By the way, I'm still only at 5/7 secrets, does someone want to post a secret list for us taffers yet? :cheeky:

- prjames

smithpd on 1/1/2015 at 20:45

Well, for what it is worth, I played this mission dozens of times over the 15 months beta, and I did not ever find it ugly or repetitive, from start to finish. To be sure, it is not "pretty" as in pastries, fish, stained glass, and fine table settings. It is kind of a gritty old town, by design, as you would expect in that era. I like gritty. Every area has a unique configuration. The similarities of architecture, in fact, contribute to game play by not providing give-away clues about your location on the map. Anyway, I think that comment is mostly unfounded. Keep up the good work, Eternauta! :)

Dark_Garrett on 1/1/2015 at 22:36

@Dawggon. I think that objective is completed by reading one of the dairies in Petranilla house.

Quote:

prjames

By the way, I'm still only at 5/7 secrets, does someone want to post a secret list for us taffers yet?

I'm still at 6/7, can't find that last one. I could be spoiled now:D

Twist on 2/1/2015 at 00:20

Eternauta, I loved this mission, and I can tell it was thoroughly beta tested. It is unusually polished, well-balanced and well-paced. This is particularly impressive given the different and new gameplay elements it introduces and seamlessly integrates into classic Thief gameplay.

The mission is pretty enough that my wife saw it over my shoulder and commented, "Wow that looks cool -- what are you playing?"

For people looking for all the secrets, here are my notes. This provides (overly) verbose directions to them all, so don't reveal the spoiler if you just want hints:

1 - In the Tavern, under the cellar stairs.
2 - Across from Audrey Ainsworth's place (climb up the crates in the corner); This is the first, easiest Count's estate, in the NW, Fountain district.
3 - In the woods, reached by jumping on the frozen river to the west of the main bridge, and using your sword to break through white icicles. Go all the way to the big chasm with a wanderer across it. Right before the chasm (on the left if you're facing the chasm), you can jump and mantle into an area that is a secret with a little loot. You can also fall into the chasm to teleport into this same area... and be dead but not die. :erm:
4 - In the crypt below the cathedral (in northeast church district), there is a locked-off room next to Archibald's tomb (where you get the ampoule). To teleport into the room, you have to shoot the red switch above the tomb in the room through a window with a large hammer in it. Once inside grab the middle of the three loot bags, then grab either of the other two to teleport back out of the room. Oh, and to reach the crypt, frob an unlit torch in the cathedral.
5 - In Bertram Beardsley's office (within the padlocked area upstairs), a switch on the inside wall of his desk opens an obvious safe panel on the wall of the office, hiding loot. Beardsley's place is the one in the church district to the northeast, near the Cathedral.
6 - In Couthbert Crane's stairwell attic: Crane is the 3rd, most difficult Count Estate to infiltrate, in the Well district to the south. The attic is reached by rope-arrowing to a beam above the main, large stairwell.
7 - The last and trickiest one for me: just to the west and south of the potion shop is a passageway to the main bridge area. In that passageway, you'll find an alcove with a large crate and a lantern on the crate. Get close to the ground right next to the crate to highlight a frobbable trap door. Inside you'll find a bug potion, ratman potion, a wind arrow, a rope arrow, and a generous slice of pistachio pudding pie.

Is there any reason to play on the lower difficulties if I've already finished it on Freedom? I mean, are there different things to do and see on the other difficulty levels or are there just fewer things to do and see?

Thanks again for this great holiday treat, Eternauta. :)

Dawggon on 2/1/2015 at 00:22

Thanks Dark_Garrett, but I have read the articles in Petranilla's place at least 3 different times and that doesn't solve the problem.

I notice that some people shoot the special arrows into the fireplace. What does that do? Then, you wouldn't have enough arrows to douse the Wanderer's. ????

Dark_Garrett on 2/1/2015 at 01:00

It was #7 and it's quite embarrassing... I actually hid in that corner (standing on top of it) from a patrolling guard. On another playthrough I put an unconscious guard there!:o:tsktsk: Thanks Twist!

@ Dawggon. I used the 4 amupalets(i know i spelled that wrong lol) directly on the fireplaces and it gets all the Wanderers(plus a cool cutscene!) I didn't do the arrow way, because I knew I wouldn't have enough to get all the Wanderers, don't know how that way works.

@ Twist. Same stuff, just less to do like you said.

Tannar on 2/1/2015 at 01:28

Quote Posted by Dawggon

Found the scroll by the chasm and had read it earlier. Didn't check off on objectives.

This is not the note in the caves that you need to read. Look for a small square pool of water not to far in from where you entered the cave area. There is a note on a block next to that pool.

Quote Posted by Twist

Is there any reason to play on the lower difficulties if I've already finished it on Freedom? I mean, are there different things to do and see on the other difficulty levels or are there just fewer things to do and see?

No, there is nothing new. There are more objectives on Expert than on the lower difficulty levels but the ones they share in common are the same.

Quote Posted by Dawggon

I notice that some people shoot the special arrows into the fireplace. What does that do? Then, you wouldn't have enough arrows to douse the Wanderer's. ????

Your choice is to use the ampoules on the arrows to free the wanderers (and there are enough for that purpose), or to use the ampoules on the fireplaces which will rid the city of the plague. You cannot do both. If you put them on the arrows, you can't use them on the fireplaces and vice versa. If you want to be spoiled further, read on.

Using them on the fireplaces not only rids the city of the plague, but also frees the wanderers.

Random_Taffer on 2/1/2015 at 12:54

Quote Posted by Eternauta

This is a great mission. It isn't ugly, nor is it filled with empty rooms. The architecture was also great. The folks that said these things are idiots.