jtr7 on 15/9/2008 at 01:09

---

This is old news, peeps, and I even already mentioned it in a post in this thread. Yes, the story is a rough draft needing revision. Thief 2 Gold is a chance for us to make it better. Onward!

Renault on 15/9/2008 at 18:00

---

During my very short stint working on T2 Gold, I often bitched about how it was impossible to cram the four proposed mission into the existing T2 plotline. However, it really all comes down to creativity. Ideas that may have occurred to me at one point in time: ;)

Slums mission - Intro to the City Watch (per Emil's notes), also could be first evidence of the City Watch rounding up derelicts and bums for the Mechanist servants project. Properly placed, we could see Garrett fencing all his loot from the S/R mission. Also could tie into the later undead mission by showing a lone Mech hanging out as a tease.

College mission - The briefing for LOTP starts with Garrett asking Viktoria about the "New Scripture of the Master Builder." Always thought that was a bit awkward and came out of nowhere. Maybe Viktoria's first mission (pre LOTR) for Garrett could be to investigate a well-known local professor who has been seen leaving Angelwatch on a regular basis (he's helping Karras rewrite the ancient texts).

Undead mission - Emil's spills a lot details on this one, but I like the Mechanist connection to tie it to the T2 storyline. Karras contacts the necromancers about their undead practices as an alternate to his current servant project.

Musuem mission - The toughest one, I never came up with much here. It doesn't help that there are basically no notes from any of the devs on this one. I tried to come up with a scenario where something left at Truart's murder scene (G finding Mosely's key ring always seemed very weak to me) would lead Garrett to a museum, maybe even a natural history museum just to be different (natural, pagan, get it?). But in the end, ack... <bangs head against wall>

Hammer mission - Always thought it made sense that The Hammers would provide one key bit of data or info or an item to finally defeat the Mechanists. I also liked the idea that the Hammerites were gathering their forces at some secret location for one last assault on Angelwatch, but Garrett sabotages the effort knowing that they will be slaughtered.

Casing/Masks - Biggest change that needs to be made (imo) is to get rid of the duplication. Casing should stay basically as it is, but at the end, Garrett would unlock a window or provide some other type of easier access for himself when he returns. Masks then picks up from there with no possibility of retreading previously explored areas.

demagogue on 15/9/2008 at 18:51

---

@Brethren. Those are some good ideas and can get a person thinking.

Re: the Slums mission, that works. What is the actual goal of the mission, though?

You could tie the College, Undead and Musuem missions even closer maybe.

E.g., the necromancers practices might not just be an "alternate" to the Servant project, but it might even be a part of the servant technology itself. It could be a mix of scientific technology and necro magic, the technology actually focusing the magic... And it would further involve Karras in digging into very dark aspects of pagan magic at the very heart of his ideology, part of that whole irony of his character. But as for mission design, yeah, K might try to go through the Necros directly first, raising the dead to do K's bidding, and G stops that, so then K turns more to his own technology that he had already started (to focus Necro magic on living people) afterwards.

And once you get on that track, then you can imagine the college mission could follow that line. The professor isn't just helping Karras re-write scripture (he can be doing that, too). But more importantly, he's helping K research very ancient dark arts (like the necromancers) that will enable him to develop his servant technology with dark magic; and it gives G a reason to do the necro mission later. Maybe he finds out that the direct necro-method of raise the dead to do K's bidding is coming soon, so G has to do that mission next.

Then that gives a hook for the museum mission because now we're dealing with an ancient craft; there could be some item or an ancient book that's kept at the museum that K needs to get the technology to work, and G goes there to try to get one of the same items that K got (say there are 3 items, and the mech's stole one, G's goal is to steal another one, maybe at V's prompting, to understand what makes it so special)... something that will help V piece together K's plan, and how to stop it. And it could tie into the Lost City and Masks missions; these ancient pieces (necro magic, Lost City masks) that are part of K's technology, tied together by the ancient magic item that was kept in the museum.

As for the hammer mission, I like those ideas... It could be there are Hammerite spies in the Mech's ranks. So maybe a Hammer spy will know something about Soulforge, like a special way to get in, or a way to get past a particular bottle-necked part inside, like a pass-code. This is right after V's revelation, just before the Soulforge mission. They need the H's help to get through it. Then the other ideas about the assault, etc, could be icing. The main goal is to get information from the H's to help get through Soulforge later.

Digital Nightfall on 15/9/2008 at 19:31

---

That's the best proposal for a fix to that pair I've heard yet. Far better than just making them separated by a few missions.

jtr7 on 15/9/2008 at 19:43

---

And the Cultivator on the top floor.