Palmberg on 30/10/2002 at 09:18
That pirate ship looks amazing! :eek:
I wish he would continue with that mission!
uncadonego on 30/10/2002 at 13:29
Palmberg,
have you been on the ship in Smuggler's Request? It's pretty sweet too.:thumb:
Palmberg on 31/10/2002 at 10:54
Then I must download Smugglers request!! :cheeky:
...At last its finished, Time to play!! :D
Brian T on 4/4/2003 at 17:25
I just finished Seventh Crystal and want to add my voice to the praise it gets. The cinemtatic cut scenes were something I haven't seen in any other missions and they really added something fresh. I think the pros have been mentioned, beautiful visuals, interesting plot (more interesting than some of the yawnsome original Thief 2 levels !) helpful map ( a too rare thing in many FMs), intriguingly large mansion to explore, surprises like the little girls voice and the skull, and good voice acting. IMO the only cons were that some of the "frobbable" objects were a bit hard to spot, and after pulling the lever in Saturtine's bedroom attic it wasn't easy to guess that an opening had appeared between two desks in the library. Without help on this forum I could easily have spent a long time scouring the entire mansion to figure out what pulling the lever had actually done.
BTW are the snow effects in some FMs made by designers here or were they something already in Thief 2? I'v enever seen falling snow in the original Thief 2.
But yes dammit a Gold Hammer!
Silshas on 10/7/2003 at 04:49
Finished!
Wow, that was fantastic! What an amazing mission. I was edging through that mansion on the edge of my seat by the end there, after the point where I went back to the third floor after listening to the servants in the attic. Totally freaked me out after that point :)
I finished Thief 1 and 2 on the Expert setting about a half a year ago and thought I'd have to wait until Thief 3 till I could taff around some more, I never bothered to try the fan missions.
All I can say is wow :) That FM had me more edgy than the actual game's missions did. Excellent job! I hear that the creator's working on a sequel? Can't wait, fingers crossed!
Vigo on 10/7/2003 at 05:12
Not sure about the current status of the sequel. Wasn't Saturnine saying that he sorta stopped working on it after Dromed started giving him a little too much frustration?
Funka J on 24/8/2003 at 12:29
I finally finished this FM. First of all I must say the design is first-class, the second act is just beautiful to look at, this guy could have had a job going for him if Looking Glass were making official add-ons for Thief 2. Unfortunately not. The mansion is huge, some of the rooms are so detailed and gorgeous I was more keen on looking at the detail then actually playing the FM.
Unfortunately the FM isn't actually that great in terms of playability. For a start, the keys you have to collect, I ended up with something like six or seven keys - I think that's way too much for a good mission, and has the player running all over the mansion. Most of the time, there was no indication which key went in which door, for example, when I found the key to Bradley's room, I was unsure where his door was, finally finding it in the servants quarters - where you get another key and have to go somewhere else to unlock a door, repeat process... Since the mansion is so huge, wandering from location to location was sometimes an ardous task.
There were many books and scrolls to read. Whilst I love atmosphere and agree it adds to the overall feel of the mission, I don't enjoy reading through pages and pages only to find it has no clue as to where you're supposed to be going. Maybe I lack the patience of most players of the FM's, but I was frustrated as to the location of hidden levers (hidden is an understatement). I'm sure if I read more of the scrolls I would find out, but it was more of a chore than a challenge. Some of these are located under small panels in darkness... Maybe if the maker of this map had more conversations between NPC's which gave away these locations, it would make the map more playable and quality. Don't forget, the best missions in Thief and Thief 2 included this feature.
Guard placement was generally good, but I found it increasingly annoying avoiding them whilst I was investigating which key fitted in which door. I would have liked more shadows to hide in, as a lot of the time you are waiting around to see if a guard turns round so you can move a it further down the huge coridoors.
After the mansion you go into the crypt, one of the most boring challenges I've had to complete in quite some time. This involves going down a lift and pulling a lever, the only threat here is two spiders which can easily be dispatched.
The cut-scenes were awesome, I especially love the ghost-feel they have to them. The final cut-scene is great, taking place in a court-room. I would love to see more originality with the work of this great designer. Possibly Garrett escaping from the court-room and having to find his way out? This would be more original than 9/10 missions we see today, which are basically "break in and take item X and leave." I hope to see more work from this designer.
Overall - 6.5/10
I would give him a 10/10 for effort though and definitely full marks for design
Sluggs on 24/8/2003 at 13:59
Yes. As i have already said in the proper 7th Crystal thread - It rocks!
Although the mansion was great there were some things that i didn't like such as some areas looked rushed and some textures were unaligned but other than that it was pretty good. The Mansion was indeed huge and i liked it for that too. I want more huge Mansions like that - I don't mind getting lost in a mission - It makes it a longer mission. I would love to have that huge Mansion as seen in Clive Barkers' Undying in Thief - I adore that mansion. Same thing with that though, with those unaligned textures! :eww:
Sluggs :thumb:
PS. To all Thief Fan Authors: Try to make your main mission as good as your CamVator sequences! I've noticed that some intro's are actually better than the main mission(s)! (No name's mentioned) :eww:
caffeinatedzombeh on 24/8/2003 at 14:58
Quote:
Originally posted by Funka J Unfortunately the FM isn't actually that great in terms of playability. For a start, the keys you have to collect, I ended up with something like six or seven keys - I think that's way too much for a good mission, and has the player running all over the mansion. Most of the time, there was no indication which key went in which door, for example, when I found the key to Bradley's room, I was unsure where his door was, finally finding it in the servants quarters - where you get another key and have to go somewhere else to unlock a door, repeat process... Since the mansion is so huge, wandering from location to location was sometimes an ardous task.
That the mission ended up as a key hunt is somewhat regrettable, pretty much every time you are forced to find a key to do something is a direct result of dromed forcing the mission to be split. Once the crypt was removed from the main house there was no way for the player to get down there and then return to get the crystal on the way out, this caused a large number of doors to be locked so the player had to do things in the right order, from a players point of view this sucks, from Sat's point of view it sucks even more.
Quote:
After the mansion you go into the crypt, one of the most boring challenges I've had to complete in quite some time. This involves going down a lift and pulling a lever, the only threat here is two spiders which can easily be dispatched.
The spiders are quite harmless, another side effect of having force the player to do things in the right order, you have to have the rosary at that point. About 90% of the crypt was removed in an attempt to keep it in one mission and it wasn't put back after it was split. Perhaps a third version is required, complete with mine carts and electrified water.
Quote:
The cut-scenes were awesome, I especially love the ghost-feel they have to them. The final cut-scene is great, taking place in a court-room. I would love to see more originality with the work of this great designer. Possibly Garrett escaping from the court-room and having to find his way out? This would be more original than 9/10 missions we see today, which are basically "break in and take item X and leave." I hope to see more work from this designer.
if Garrett didn't have to escape for this mission to make any sense in relation to the plot of t1/t2 he'd most certainly be meeting his end in part 2
Cerebration on 25/8/2003 at 11:43
The Seventh Crystal is one of my favourite FMs, and Saturnine's mansion beats Truart's for being the one I'd most like to live in (although I'd have to do somrthing about those Hammer crypts - concrete perhaps).
The fact that T7C is so story-driven (and what a great story it is) means that it doesn't have the same level of replayability that some FMs have, especially those that concentrate less on plot and more on action. But I see it as a one-off, a mission where you slowly discover all the problems Lord Saturnine's been going through, and I never found reading through the books and scrolls a chore at all (in fact, the texts get to the point far more quickly than many other FMs).
The only problem I had with the key-finding was after listening to Bradley's conversation in the attic. I'm sure many others did this - I rushed down the stairs to the door of the servants' quarters and waited with blackjack at the ready to intercept him. Having had so sign of Bradley (I waited for some time), it was only after a violent rampage through the mansion that I happened to go upstairs to the third floor and found him and the key.
I suppose we can only imagine what the crypt would have been like had it been a separate mission.
