Digital Nightfall on 10/4/2007 at 17:48
In case you don't know what happened, here it is:
Thief 2's plot almost didn't exist. T2 began as a mission-pack for T1, only a separate game due to engine enhancements, and was a list of mission types with nothing to glue them together. Halfway through, some of the developers said, this sucks! and wrote a plot for the game, trying to find a way to string all of those missions together into something coherent. We've all seen the results.
So how would you do it? Here's the list of mission types, mix and match them for your brilliant follow-up to The Dark Project!
A mission where you have to rescue a damsel in distress.
A mission where you need to rob a warehouse.
A mission where you have to frame someone for a crime they didn't commit! - This description always made me crack up
... escape across town from an ambush
... eavesdrop on an important conversation
... rob a bank
... blackmail someone
... follow a courier
... follow a trail of (something) left by a fugitive.
... trek across the rooftops
... stowaway on a boat
... kidnap someone
... "case the joint" before you
... rob the place you just cased
... sabotage some machinery
I only put them in that order so I could remember all of the missions. So, let's have it. Forget everything you know about Thief 2, and write your own plot using just that above. Any order will do. The only rule is that you have to include Sheriff Truart and Karras somehow; but feel free to break that rule. Oh, and you're allowed up to five "non plot" missions prior to the main plot, ala Thief Gold. The Metal Age is waiting!
And if that's too much work, just make a joke or something! ;)
Meisterdieb on 10/4/2007 at 22:23
How about...
...we leave the missions and their order alone, only put one mission after "sabotage" where Garrett wakes up, sweating, from this terrible nightmare; thinking: thank god, that was just a dream. I CAN'T be that stupid and gullible. Only in a dream would I be so dumb and NOT see what was going on around me"
No, seriously. Great idea! I'll have to see if I manage to write some short bit...
Vogelfrei on 11/4/2007 at 01:54
I actually am kind of happy with how the loose bundle of missions turned out to be a rather coherent game and built up tension so well (at least for me). Still, this is a promising - not to speak of entertaining - task and I'm looking forward to what's coming. Maybe I'll give it a try, too... after having slept at least six hours.
(By the way, waking up from a dream in the end is one of the worst endings I can think of, at least for written fiction.)
Somebody_Else on 11/4/2007 at 16:20
I didn't mind the story at all, and I didn't even know it had been thrown together back when I first played it.
How about we take all the best fan missions, come up with a story, and make our own Thief III?
yubetcha on 11/4/2007 at 17:50
For one thing, I would throw out Casing the Joint, and maybe replace it with something else. Or not replace it. Just get rid of it. I never saw the practicality or sense of going through all of that trouble just to come back later to get things. As long as you are there the first time, get what you came for the second time.
A mission where you have to rescue a damsel in distress....
Not exactly a damsel, perhaps, but someone tells you that Victoria has been captured, and wants you to rescue her. You decide to do it. I don't know why, since her conniving cost you an eye. Perhaps you are told that you would be paid in gold. You wonder why someone like Victoria would be able to get her hands on gold, but you decide to find out. Your interest is piqued.
A mission where you need to rob a warehouse....
After you rescue her, you expect to get paid, but she tells you that there is a gold shipment at the warehouse, and that is your payment. The problem is that she doesn't know where it is. So off you go to find it. And you find some loot of course, but nothing to write home about. In an office, however, you find a note that tells you that two men are plotting something, but the note isn't specific. The note is written by a man who tells another man to meet him at a certain place. Just your luck. You have about 2 or three hours to get there. You are frustrated that you didn't find much at the warehouse, so you hope that these men will have something to "give" to you without them knowing it.
eavesdrop on an important conversation......
You find the men that the note in the warehouse mentioned. Just as your usual luck would have it, they are beginning to speak to each other just as you find them :D . (Or maybe you get there early and have to wait for awhile). Anyway, one tells the other that your fence's brother has been captured, and he wants the other guy, the captain of a ship, to buy him for slave labor. You realize now why some of the men have been disappearing in Dayport and surrounding cities. You leave to get to the ship before it sails.
escape across town from an ambush.....
You stop at your apartment to get more equipment, and as you are leaving, another thief visits you. Someone you have known for awhile. He tells you that he knows where guards took a HUGE cache of gold. Meet him at the local pub in a half hour, and he will give you a map. He says that he isn't good enough to do the job himself, and he needs your help. You tell him that you have something important to do, and he says that it won't take long, and you will never need to steal again. But you didn't know that this thief is trying to get you out of the way. You go to the pub, and all hell breaks loose. You hide for a couple of hours till things cool off, and when you make it to the dock, you find that the ship is gone. You go to your fence, who promises to pay you more for your items for the next year, if you will just help his brother.
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Okay, that's all I have so far. I have to get back to work. Perhaps I will add more later. Or someone can continue this one if they want (or start their own, of course).
The missions below are unused so far.....
A mission where you have to frame someone for a crime they didn't commit!
... rob a bank
... blackmail someone
... follow a courier
... follow a trail of (something) left by a fugitive.
... trek across the rooftops
... stowaway on a boat
... kidnap someone
... "case the joint" before you
... rob the place you just cased
... sabotage some machinery
Dark Arrow on 12/4/2007 at 16:25
All right, let's play.
Mission 1: Warehouse mission.
Basically it teaches you to be a thief. Meant for new players to learn the robes of being a thief. Introduces the City Watch and hints that sheriff Truart has some big plans for the City.
Mission 2: Eavesdrop
Garrett goes to learn about the plot Truart is masterminding. He learns that Truart has hired a hammerite priest called Karras to build him security machines. These machines would protect the city from villains like Garrett and allow Truart to rule the streets with an iron fist.
Mision 3: Rescue a damsel in distress.
Getting to Truart won't be easy. Garrett must find out about the security of the City Watch headquarters. There is a whore in a local cell that might be usefull since he has been known to meet with City Watch officer Hagen. Garrett goes to a local City Watch base and releases the prostitute to gain information about Hagen and perhaps some proof Garrett could use.
Mission 4: Blackmail
Garrett breaks into Hagen's residence and confronts Hagen with the evidence. Hagen tells Garrett about Lt Mosley and that she has special keys to Sheriff's suite and she has master key to the headquarters of the City Watch.
Mission 5: Sabotage
The first batch of security bots have entered the streets. Garrett avoids the bots in the streets to enter a factory which manufactures the said bots. He disables the production line and causes massive damage to the systems in the factory.
Mission 6: Rooftops
Garrett is going to the bank to frame Karras and steal Truarts gold. To get there safety he has to use the rooftops of the city.
Mission 7: Bank and Framed.
Garrett needs to cause distruss between Karras and Truart and to steal the gold Truart is paying to Karras to his own pockets. He enters the bank to steal the gold and to frame Karras for stealing the money and producing poor quality bots.
Mission 8: Ambush
Garrett has been spotted. He has to escape and ambush, but it is more important to find out who fingered him. So he contacts the local underground and escapes the City Watch.
Mission 9: Follow a fugitive
Garrett follows the man who sold him out. He ends up to the door of Lt. Mosley whose personal guard kill the man for being a criminal.
Mission 10: Case the joint
Mosley can wait. Truart is rebuilding the City Watch headquarters. It is time to get some intel about the place, so Garrett goes undercover to find information about the place. Most of the place is locked up and security is being upgraded, but Garrett has access to low security places.
Mission 11: Follow courier/ Kidnap
Mosley isn't at her home, but one of her guards knows where she is and he is about to go to her. Once Mosley is found Garrett kidnaps her.
Mission 12: Boat
Garrett is carrying Mosley to his hideout, where he will be able to interrogate her and find out more about Truart and about the security of the City Watch headquarters.
Mission 13: Truart is going down
Garrett enters the headquarters of the City Watch to take Truart down. With the information that Mosley has given to Garrett and with her keys the job becomes possible. Garrett enters Truarts suite on top of the headquarters and poisons his food. Good riddance to the sheriff and his plans of making the city a bad place for people like Garrett.
Digital Nightfall on 12/4/2007 at 16:52
That's wonderful! I love how you shifted the focus away from Karras and towards the city watch. Great job! :thumb:
Gestalt on 12/4/2007 at 17:10
It'd be fun to see a setup where you rob a bank, frame someone else for the crime, then blackmail them into helping you.
redface on 12/4/2007 at 17:38
I wonder if it would be possible to make our own version of T2's story by simply editing the books & objectives files (and if needed the mission order), without having to modify the .mis files at all...
A huge task, but doable, don't you think ? How's that for a mod idea ?
Digital Nightfall on 12/4/2007 at 21:55
I think that if you stripped each mission down to bare geometry, scenery, and props, and replaced all of the AIs, readables, scripted events, and so forth, it'd be very possible to create an entirely new plot without changing a single terrain brush.
