Nightwalker on 28/12/2011 at 16:29

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Glad it helped. As you could probably tell from my link that wasn't done properly, I was in a bit of a hurry or I would have just told you what you needed to know.

The Phantom on 14/6/2012 at 20:42

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Having re-played "Skeletons in the Closet", madwolf's earlier city mission, recently, I planned on playing it's sequel: Moth to a Flame.

Actually, it's not actually a sequel in the way you're required to play Skeletons in the Closet (SitC) to understand Moth to a Flame; it's story loosely follows on the events in the previous mission. Because of the connection and the clear similarities between the two, a comparison has has been included in the following review.

What is immediately evident when beginning Moth to a Flame is the significant graphical improvement over it's prequel. An enormous amount of custom textures, objects and skins has been used to give the City a new look, whereas SitC mostly relied on stock resources. It's a pretty sight :). Another thing drawing my attention is that the City in Moth to a Flame overall is way more complex then the town in SitC. Where the latter was mostly compiled as a big square, the first is made of different fragments, contains difference in heights between areas, is more vividly and, just like in SitC, gives the player plenty of opportunities to break into houses and apartments (with a lot of climbing and mantling involved) and hides a high amount of loot to find. Great fun all around :thumb:.
Overall I'm impressed with the design and detail of the city. It's clear a lot of work went into it so nothing but respect for the author. Still a few critical notes. The big presence of custom textures ruined the feel of classic Thief for me a bit, and don't always fit well with each other. I would stick with a more restrictive use of custom textures, to prevent problems as just mentioned, but that's my humble opinion. Others might have no problem with this at all and merely appreciate the graphics. A second note is that the sound isn't always well implemented. Several times when I hid in a street corner, the noise of a patrolling guard nearby just stopped (only reappearing after I came back into the open). It can be a bit annoying when you run after a corner only to find yourself bump into a guard which you haven't heard approach :tsktsk:. Still, I had a good time. I was happy with the presence of maps (something that SitC lacked) and the city is pretty varied in design, including sewers, a canal, gates to separate different sections of the city, and several pubs/brothels and other public buildings can be accessed.

In terms of story, Moth to a Flame doesn't disappoint either. Garrett returned to the City after his trip to the North and finds himself having a hard time with riots, a dwindling economy and crime that is blamed on our hero. And when he and his friend Edwin agree with a bank robbery, they end being set up by their partner Roberts (who robbed the Bank a night earlier). It's up to Garrett to find the Bank Haul in the first place. Story progression is quite good with plenty of objectives get triggered along the way. We find out that Edwin is arrested by the Guards (it's up to you to find and rescue him) and get the opportunity to discover if Roberts is the only one involved in the setup or that there are other people involved. Intruiging to uncover and at the end the whole picture is complete. Some aspect make a re-appearance from SitC, like leaving evidence on a desk and a certain person's involvement is illicit this time (rather then genuine like in SitC), which goes in the way of originality, but it doesn't really matter. It's an understandable choice to re-use some elements if it's suits a story. At some moments, however, after reading a scroll that triggers another objective, I felt that the objectives jump to quickly to a conclusion, telling you what to do next. Like with the note from Edwin that Garrett's finds under his door at the start. It says Robert set them up, that he is at the Ancient Unicorn, and after you read it the objective "get the Bank Haul" appears (while "Find out where Robbert is and get revenge" or "Meet with Edwin at the Ancient Unicorn" would've made just as much sense). Also, Edwin could've been more grateful (like sharing some information) after his rescue, but that's only a minor complaint.

Sometimes that did frustrated me while playing the mission was that it isn't very clear where to find the keys to the Warren and the Park. Both can be hard to find if you overlook some tiny switches in the Mayor's office and the house opposite the Park respectively. While in both buildings there are vague leads present that there's more to be discovered (like the Mayor reminding his wife to close the safe in his study room in the future and a tenant in a letter to his Landlord that he can hear him shuffling about the house but never actually sees him) but it leaves open the not unlikely possibility the player ends up wandering the streets for too long, searching for those keys in the wrong places :erg:.

Because of it's shortcomings, and some remaining bugs (llike with an AI getting stuck, ruining an otherwise achievable ghosting effort) I wouldn't consider it a better mission then SitC, but Moth to a Flame remains a nice mission nonetheless. It's City is well designed and very complete, offers some memorable moments and scenes (like the theater with the actors practicing a piece and of course the scarecrow), made me giggle at moments (with Brother Xerxes and Robert's drunkenness) and the story is interesting enough to keep the player immersed. In addition to the main goals, there's plenty of thieving with a lot of break-in's and loot to uncover. Equipment is a bit overabundant and a knockout limit would've been welcome on Expert, but there's plenty on offer here for an interesting city venture :).

Now on to the sequel, Turn of the Tides, which might be the best piece of work madwolf brought this community before his "retirement". I'm interested to find out :D.

Difficulty: Expert (1 KO)
Time: 3 hours 10 minutes 59 seconds
Loot: 8968 / 9198
Secrets: 2 out of 2

P.S.: I've added some tags to this thread for people to find out if this mission suits there interests.

The Phantom on 15/6/2012 at 21:31

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Thanks Tannar. I'm playing TotT right now and really enjoy it so far.

malau on 16/6/2012 at 05:20

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Madwolf made some great FMs.
I remember being astounded by the realism of his street layouts and buildings, and wonder if they inspired DrK, who went on to take the realist approach to a whole new level of intricacy ?

DrK on 20/6/2012 at 11:40

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Actually no, I discovered this fm way after I started working on mines. Thing is, I played turn of the tide first, which really impressed me by its atmosphere, I really felt I was in a seatown. It's still in my top 10 favorite fms because of that :)

Then I played moth to a flame and skeleton in the closet afterward. I don't remember if I played having a ball though...

But I discovered his stuff way after I started Rocksbourg. Back then the only mission that inspired me was midnight in murkbell.

It's a shame Madwolf doesn't work on dromed anymore :(