FMs - Ghost/Perfect Thief Results (Part 7)

 

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25th Jan 2010, 02:42 #151

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Report #3 of 7

FM: Bad Intentions [Thief Anniversary Contest]

 

Ghost - Success

Perfect Thief - Success

Supreme Ghost - Failed

Perfect Supreme - Failed

Time - 23:27

Loot - 2700 out of 2700

Pockets Picked - 2/3

Locks Picked - 3

Backstabs - 0, Knockouts - 0

Damage dealt - 0, Damage taken - 0

Healing taken - 0, Kills - 0, Bodies Discovered - 0

Secrets Found - None

Consumables - None

 

See the entire report with screenshots here (FMs).

Loot list here.

 

 

Comments:

 

My third 10th Anniversary mission was ‘Bad Intentions’. The objectives this time were to enter Lord Jonstone’s manor and steal his precious gem ring. 2,500 was the required loot amount, and the objectives already demanded Ghosting procedures. In addition, I had to find a way to make Jonstone unsuspicious of me.

 

The first stop of trouble was passing the guarded storage room in the basement. The door in the opposite corner led to the 1st floor, so there was no way around it. A patrolling swordsman from the hallway had this room as part of his route also, making it even tougher (see image below).

 

 

 

For plain Ghost it wasn’t a problem, but eliminating all comments without dousing either of the two torches was a pain. The sentry had three facing angles, and turned quite frequently. As I entered he was facing away, and I snuck towards the dark nook with the barrels on my right, hoping he would stay turned. After about 10-12 tries he finally stayed turned long enough. Reaching the door to the stairs was easier, as I could move swifter without getting spotted. The key from the patrolling guard disappeared upon use. After all the hard work passing the basement unseen, I found it very anticlimactic to bust Supreme in the first room of the next floor. A lady servant stood her ground in the kitchen, immediately commenting on the basement door opening. Frustrating, but inevitable.

 

I moved my way upwards without further problems. The mission design was ok, but lacked some detail to pass for a realistic manor. By far the prettiest area was the living room on the second floor (see image). The girl here had a longer patrol route going back and forth from the downstairs kitchen.

 

Lord Jonstone’s loot was hidden behind one of his bedroom paintings. Cleverly, there was a hidden switch within this secret nook (see image below).

 

 

 

It opened a crawlspace behind the dresser with information on his stolen gem. This spawned some items in the downstairs study, including a money box unlockable with the well-hidden key from the attic (see image). This was the only key that could be replaced, so I made my way back up one last time to cover my tracks. Had to drop the confession note onto Jonstone’s nightstand anyway.

 

Passing the basement storage room to exit the mission wasn’t as hard as before. The kitchen lady still gave a comment when I descended the stairs though. Overall, a decent contest mission.

 

 

Notes & Busts:

 

- Got a comment from the old lady servant in the kitchen when opening the basement door. Had to return to the basement later also. These two comments busted Supreme in the end.

- The body discovered is probably from the mage fight at the end. But I was long gone before they even showed up.

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25th Jan 2010, 02:49 #152

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Report #4 of 7

FM: The Homeless Dude [Thief Anniversary Contest]

 

Ghost - Success

Perfect Thief - Success

Supreme Ghost - Failed

Perfect Supreme - Failed

Time - 17:57

Loot - 1223 out of 1223

Pockets Picked - 1/3

Locks Picked - 3

Backstabs - 0, Knockouts - 0

Damage dealt - 0, Damage taken - 0

Healing taken - 0, Kills - 0, Bodies Discovered - 0

Secrets Found - None

Consumables - None

 

See the entire report with screenshots here (FMs).

Loot list here.

 

 

Comments:

 

My run through the Thief Anniversay Contest had come to ‘The Homeless Dude’. It was undoubtedly the shortest entry so far, but not the worst by a long shot. My objectives read as follows: steal a weapon from the store, aquire 1,000 in loot, and obtain the Serpentile Torc.

 

I started in the streets close to the store. I could reach the blackjack by standing on top of the lamppost base timing the guard’s patrol. The first real challenge came in the sewers, when needing to pass two stationary spiders. Most players know that spiders see with their rear ends, so the exiting tunnel was well-covered by one of the critters. I found one way to stick to the shadows without causing any alerts (see images below).

 

 

 

I hopped across the lit gap and landed silently on the sloped piping foundation. From here I could creep along the path as shown, without getting spotted. The side of the tunnel closest to the spider was dark all across.

 

The rest was standard Ghosting. Dodged the patrolling archer when he made his turn, lifting his purse in the process. The guard in the store basement had a short, but annoying route. I had to enter the bedroom to get the key, unlock the front door upstairs, then come back down to replace the key (and pick the safe). A little tedious, but all in a day’s work.

 

Unfortunately, picking the door to the house across the street alerted the thief inside. The guard also commented unless I waited for him to move away, but the thief’s mumbling could not be avoided. Supreme busted there I’m afraid. The thief further commented on opening the bedroom door, and again when picking the footlocker with the torc. The guard in the streets also heard this, although I can’t imagine how. A short mission, but with several fun and challenging situations.

 

Oh and the mission wouldn’t end after taking the Serpentile Torc. Something is messed up with the objectives, so I just ctrl+shift+alt+ended it to get the stats.

 

 

Notes & Busts:

 

- The thief in the house across the street from the store commented on me picking the front door, opening the bedroom door and picking the bedroom footlocker. The latter was also commented on by the guard patrolling the streets. Supreme busts.

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25th Jan 2010, 02:54 #153

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Report #5 of 7

FM: Falling Down [Thief Anniversary Contest]

 

Ghost - Success

Perfect Thief - Failed

Supreme Ghost - Not Attempted

Perfect Supreme - Not Attempted

Time - 16:51

Loot - 400 out of 420

Pockets Picked - None

Locks Picked - 3

Backstabs - 0, Knockouts - 0

Damage dealt - 0, Damage taken - 0

Healing taken - 0, Kills - 0, Bodies Discovered - 0

Secrets Found - 1/0?

Consumables - 1 Moss Arrow (coffin at start)

 

See the entire report with screenshots here (FMs).

Loot list here.

 

 

Comments:

 

Perhaps the most unique mission of the bunch; in a good way! The initial objectives didn’t reveal much of the story. In fact, the mission as a whole didn’t provide much of a story at all, which was kind of a downer. From the start I had to avoid any “unwanted delays”, whatever that meant. No knockouts or kills either. Didn’t go for Supreme in this one, only plain Ghost.

 

Ghosting challenges started right off the bat though. Plunging down the grotto I somehow managed to step onto a ledge right above the coffin. I can’t give a proper how-to, as it was sort of a fluke, but it kept me from losing health. I repeated the move several times. Falling from this height made me break the coffin and alert the nearby crayman to hunt mode. Actually it wasn’t the break but the skeletal remains dropping to the ground that alerted him. I circumvented this by mossing the coffin from the ledge first (see image below).

 

 

 

The situation was now deemed an unwanted delay, so that objective got marked red. Instead I had to find my way out of the cave system. There was also an optional objective of getting all the loot.

 

Found I could sprint out the first cave without getting spotted by the crayman (the one that alerted from the coffin breaking). He gave a high-pitched chirp indicating a first alert, but that was allowed. The spider nearby had a rather peculiar patrol route, involving a leap and some on-the-dime rotation. I could grab the loot inside its cave quite easily. Inched back behind the sentry to reach the caves above. Had to dodge a mushroom-carrying patroller to reach a narrow side cave with a dead beast. It had a retrievable claw stuck in its belly (see image). Figured it’d have some purpose later.

 

Had no further problems until reaching the top cave, past the idol worshiper. A beast patrolled a partially flooded area with bottles dropping from the surface. I could hear the culprit above. Two pieces of loot lay in the pool, but I couldn’t get to them without alerting the crayman. His patrol was so short he heard me wading in. Initially I thought he might have alerted to the falling debris only, but after waiting him out and trying to go for the loot again I still found it impossible without further alerts. He might have been more on edge after all the rattle. The coin and the fine wine were therefore skipped. Only 20 loot so no biggie, but the optional objective was screwed.

 

This meant I couldn’t get the doorknob from above either. The traditional way out by means of the gate was thereby out of the question. Had to get the necklace from the deposit box by means of the idol below (see image). A rather funny situation indeed. The creatures nearby went haywire, but I figured it was ok since they alerted to the crayman’s actions, not mine. If people want to deem this a bust that’s ok. I finished the mission both with and without the necklace anyway. The stats would be the same, only 125 gold less.

 

Took a while for me to find the hidden exit. There is no hint regarding its location (or existence) anywhere in the mission, at least not that I found. I was pretty sure it involved the claw, and after some thorough searching I cashed out, no pun intended (see image below). Fun mission!

 

 

 

Notes & Busts:

 

- Had to skip two pieces of loot from the flooded area in the topmost cave. The crayman alerted when wading in to grab the loot.

- Making the crayman break the deposit box to retrieve the necklace inside alerted the beasts below. I accepted this as it was the crayman’s doing, but I finished the mission without too, just to be safe.

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25th Jan 2010, 02:59 #154

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Report #6 of 7

FM: The Kindred Vault [Thief Anniversary Contest]

 

Ghost - Success

Perfect Thief - Failed

Supreme Ghost - Not Attempted

Perfect Supreme - Not Attempted

Time - 39:06

Loot - 1575 out of 1675

Pockets Picked - 0/2

Locks Picked - 3

Backstabs - 0, Knockouts - 0

Damage dealt - 0, Damage taken - 0

Healing taken - 0, Kills - 0, Bodies Discovered - 0

Secrets Found - None

Consumables - None

 

See the entire report with screenshots here (FMs).

Loot list here.

 

 

Comments:

 

My sixth mission in the anniversary contest was up. I was to break into a haunted crypt situated outside of town. During the night I needed to obtain 1,500 in loot and an invisibility ring. I hadn’t robbed the dead for a while, so this could be a good one. Supreme was way out of reach, so I kept it to plain Ghost.

 

 

Top crypts

 

The initial burricks were easy to dodge. Found some hidden artifacts in a compartment by the double doors. Took my way into the crypt by way of a hidden lever under the brazier. The rolled up rug spawned a spitfire trap, but that is allowed in Ghost. I ascended into the depths.

 

A zombie and a mummy were my only concern in the main part of the crypt (see image). Smaller chambers were spread around a central foyer. The two patrollers had predictable routes, and waiting them out usually provided small windows of opportunity for safe movement. The middle of the room was dark, despite the four surrounding torches. The side chambers has light sensors that triggered on entry. The doorways however was dark and I could reach most of the stuff leaning in.

 

Snuck upstairs to grab the second keystone. These unlocked floating bridgeways accessing the eastern area of the upper floor. Two cages had floor panels outside the gates. I could leap by without spiringing any traps. The loot in one of the cages also sprung a gas trap, but I got out of there in time. Supreme wouldn’t have been close to the loot requirement due to all of the traps. Two tiny gems were hidden in plain sight in one of the wall paintings (see image).

 

After using the pagan keystone I got access to the last caged chamber upstairs. Taking the mask here set off a fire arrow that alerted both of the patrolling undeads. Needed to skip it to keep Ghost intact. Perfect Thief was thus unattainable, but it cannot have been intended from the author’s side either.

 

 

The deeper the better

 

The last gate downstairs was now open. It gave me access to the tombs below. The innermost chamber held the final casket with the invisibility ring. When opening the lid, three zombies were set loose to patrol around the floor. They all gave a growl initially, but I think that was part of the trigger, as I was totally out of sight. They never went into hunt mode as far as I could see. I could wait in the dark hall until they passed (see image below).

 

 

 

There was a ‘master key’ in the casket also, but it didn’t unlock anything that I could find, so I left it. I always try to replace objects and return conditions to their previous arrangement, even when not going for Supreme Ghost. I guess that mode has rubbed off on me a little too much throughout the years. Another lever provided the exit back to the main floor.

 

I emerged in the southeast chamber. A new stationary zombie had now spawned in the middle of the foyer. It could see me quite clearly through the doorway. I had to cross the caskets and inch into the doorway for the lights to go out and avoid the zombie’s looks. Then crossed the casket outside to the stairs. Two skeleton archers had also spawned upstairs (see image). They blocked the intended way out through the metal door. I could have used the invisibility ring to pass them, but they function kinda like potions, and that would label my stats ‘chemical success’. Others might disagree on the ring’s function, but there was an alternate way out regardless. The ladder could namely be reached from the lower level by the use of a stackable object. I fetched the healing potion from the northwest chamber upstairs to complete the job. Had to leap from the ramp to avoid the skeletons. This way I could even close up the gate leading to the downstairs tomb. The small height addition provided by the vial was enough to reach the ladder and exit the crypt.

 

 

Notes & Busts:

 

- Had to skip a mask in the northwestern upper chamber. It set off a fire arrow trap that alerted the zombie and the mummy below.

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25th Jan 2010, 03:05 #155

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Report #7 of 7

FM: An Old Friend [Thief Anniversary Contest]

 

Ghost - Success

Perfect Thief - Failed

Supreme Ghost - Not Attempted

Perfect Supreme - Not Attempted

Time - 34:20

Loot - 2200 out of 2623 [Chemical: 2348]

Pockets Picked - 0/3

Locks Picked - 2

Backstabs - 0, Knockouts - 0

Damage dealt - 0, Damage taken - 0

Healing taken - 0, Kills - 0, Bodies Discovered - 0

Secrets Found - None

Consumables - 1 Water Arrow (in sewer worker’s hideout), [Chemical: 1 more Water Arrow & 1 Invisibility Potion (the pub)]

 

See the entire report with screenshots here (FMs).

Loot list here.

 

 

Comments:

 

My seventh ghost run of the anniversary contest brought me back to good old Lord Bafford. Apparently he’d been moving down in the world, now residing among the town’s less fortunate. My job was to steal his beloved scepter, plus 2,000 gold worth of loot. The objectives said I needed to return to the starting position, but the readme.txt informed me this was a mistake. The mission would end as soon as all the other objectives were met. From my first playthrough I knew Supreme was far beyond impossible, so I kept it to plain Ghost for this one.

 

 

The streets

 

The map has some unrealistic sound propagations. I noticed this right off the bat, with two nearby guards going straight to hunt mode. I was still inside my quarters when it happened, way out of sight. I waited for them to settle down and went on with my business.

 

The initial streets contained three guards of worry. One stationary archer up the stairs by Bafford’s main entrance was extremely wary. He was probably the one who triggered earlier. As long as I stayed east of the bridge I was fine. Another guard was stationed by the pub, an area I needed to deal with later. The last guard was circling the canal, with a pit-stop by the recently mentioned sentry. The armory was tempting, but had an insanely hard front door to pick. I knew of an alternate way in through the sewers, so I headed southeast to the only unguarded area of the streets. Underneath a pile of crates was a manhole leading me to the stinking depths.

 

 

Underground

 

The home of the sewer worker posed somewhat of a challenge (see image below). He gave a first alert upon opening the door, but didn’t see me enough to start hunting. The doorway was dark with occasional flickers, I think from the mushroom just outside. He did a strange pivot after a second or so, providing enough time for me to leap onto the bed behind him. I couldn’t leave without nudging him off the bed though, so I opted out of that move entirely. Instead I doused the torch behind him and stole his possessions without any mutters. I needed the key from his desk to access the wizard’s tower later.

 

 

 

Further down the sewers I passed a patrolling archer and found a secret thief’s den behind a sliding panel (see image). The hidden lever was on the backside of a metal pillar at the far end of the walkway (see image). The den’s owner was dead, but he’d kindly provided access to the weapon’s shop above. In addition, there was another key to the wizard’s tower on the desk. I cleaned the store, including an annoyingly hard-to-pick lockbox under the counter.

 

Now I could pick the main door from the inside, which obviously made the job a lot easier. I was aware of the outside patroller, so I listened for his footsteps while working the lockpicks. For some reason, the footsteps remained absent and the door opened without any patroller in sight. I soon realized the numbnut had fallen into the canal and drowned (see image!). I know this “breaks” the intended street situation, but I was in no mood to start over.

 

The wizard’s tower was now accessible. I cleaned the upper floors without trouble. The underground study had a barrel covering the opening. It was backed too far into the corner to be pushed out. The only way to get rid of it was to break it, but that’s considered property damage. I had to skip the coin stacks down there worth 75 gold. Perfect Thief busted.

 

The pub was a different story. The guard outside made it impossible to Ghost conventionally. I started by dousing the alley torch; that way I could approach the doorway and peek inside. The customers reacted like normal enemies. There were no removable light sources and a total of 148 gold on the counter. An additional 200 were hidden downstairs, way out of reach. None of the loot in here was needed to make the mission requirement, but I wanted to see if it was possible nonetheless. The only way to reach any of it was by the use of the invisibility potion from the wizard’s tower, and even then it was a tight call. After a couple of tries I got my moves right and left with the loot and a couple of grumbles only. Keep in mind that this renders the status ‘Chemical Ghost’, a mode less favored by most thieves.

 

 

Bafford’s

 

Bafford’s was my last stop. With the patrolling swordsman “conveniently” out of the way, my only task was to elude the archer in the stairs. He ended up being easier than first anticipated. I rushed to the stairs from the east corner and ducked down, only spawning a comment. If applying enough speed, most AIs can be tricked this way, if going from bright to dark. He quickly settled and I could plan my next move, which involved using the same tactic past the west corner. This was more difficult, as I now was going from dark to bright. It took about five tries before I got it right.

 

The side door led to a servant’s quarter with some loot and a key. The key unlocked Bafford’s kitchen door, which opened straight to a stationary guard and a patrolling maid. Like before, I could rush across the hall without stirring the guard’s attention. I slipped through the curtains behind his back and cleaned the upper floors. Nothing to report except for Bafford who woke up when going for the key on his nightstand. Actually, it was the commotion from the door that woke him. No worries though, the room was dark and it only counted as a 1st alert.

 

The area below the kitchen held more loot. It also had a hidden lever behind some old crates (see image below). The lever opened a hidden crawlspace under the kitchen stairway (see image). I passed the maid easy enough and grabbed the secret loot. The key from Bafford’s bedroom unlocked the footlocker holding the scepter.

 

 

 

Overall, this mission is a very good contest entry. Unfortunately, there are too many bugs and shortcomings to win a competition like that, but this is one of those missions I really wish would be rereleased as an expanded version. The map has a good layout with a nice background story. You see various interconnected parts of the city, with some interesting readables and informationals spread around. I hope Lost Soul finds it worthwhile to elaborate on this gem’s potential.

 

 

Notes & Busts:

 

- The cointstacks in the wizard’s underground study was skipped. The barrel blocking the entrance could only be removed by means of property damage.

- Getting some of the goodies from the pub (148 gold) solicited the use of an invisibility potion. The success status is then depicted as ‘Chemical Success’. I opted out of this method, but included the possibility in my report for completion.

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25th Jan 2010, 03:22 #156

Hexameron

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Great reporting there, Klatremus! Your solutions are very interesting to read. I hope designating your recent reports as # _ of 7 doesn't mean you're not going to contribute more

 

For "The Kindred Vault," I think it's possible to sneak by those two skeletons. Like you, I opted to stack my healing potion (and dewdrop) so I could reach the ladder. Dafydd noted a long time ago in the TTLG thread for this FM that he was able to sneak past the skeletons without using the invis ring. I would link to the TTLG thread if I could find it, but ever since their forum changed, I haven't been able to find a bunch of old threads through keyword searching. Either some threads have disappeared or TTLG's search functionality is handicapped at the moment.

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25th Jan 2010, 05:12 #157

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Glad you enjoyed them

 

The numbering was more to remind readers multiple reports were recently submitted. I guess it also confirms my ocd-like behavior in being overly systematic. I am in no way shape or form done reporting.

 

I don't really see how those skeletons could be Ghosted, but I can't say I tried a whole lot once I discovered the other way out. I guess if dousing whatever there is of torches it could be done. Kinda makes me wanna go back and retry ... I might just do that.

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27th Jan 2010, 01:54 #158

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FM: The WaterWay Tunnel Part 1

File: ftb-thetunnel1-2.zip

 

Ghost - Failed / Incomplete {and aborted}

Time - 00:14:28

Loot - 91/1524

Pockets Picked - 0/2

Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0

Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0

Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

 

Cause of Failure / Incompletion:

 

-The mission may be ghostable, but I could not fulfill my objectives and find what I needed to, so I aborted

 

Comments - This may be one of the worst FMs I've ever played. Frankly, I don't know what the author was thinking - a mission that basically puts the player in a bland labyrinth of underwater tunnels with no distinguishing landmarks, very few pockets of air, and only a couple of breath potions? What Thief player would find this fun?

 

The way I played this mission was to explore as much as I could while consuming my only breath potion until I found an area above water. Then I would reload and try to swim to the newly-discovered location without using a breath potion. There is just not enough air pockets or breath potions to make it to one area and back. Death from drowning in this FM is a given. I tried drawing a map of the underwater tunnels, but gave up on that quickly.

 

The surface areas I found:

 

-Gas plant area with frogbeasts (that do not alert) and dead thief

-Cabin with apparition (there's a switch near the mattress on the first floor; I heard something open after frobbing it, but I searched high and low and could not find the source!)

-Interior hammerite quarters with a locked door that I found no key for

-Interior room with diving helmets; is this the mission end?

-Navigation globe at the end of a tunnel with a forest-textured wall blocking the path

 

This mission is really puzzling and I have a lot of questions that not even its TTLG thread could answer, although I'm glad I'm not the only one who had trouble: practicaly everyone including the indefatigable FM player, Nightwalker, said they couldn't figure out how to complete the mission. A number of people said they couldn't get the objectives to check off, so I assume the mission is bugged. Many couldn't find enough loot, too, and that plagued my game experience as well.

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27th Jan 2010, 03:27 #159

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FM: The WaterWay Tunnel Part 2: Ground Guest

File: ftb-thetunnel2.zip

 

Ghost - Failed {and aborted}

Time - 00:27:12

Loot - 0/201

Pockets Picked - 1/2

Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0

Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 4

Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

 

Cause of Failure

 

-Could not fall into well near meteorite without alerting nearby zombies

 

Comments - Although WaterWay Tunnel Part 1 was a masochistic exercise, Part 2 did not turn out to be as bad. This is an undead mission with a lot of haunts and zombies in an abandoned town. I still ended up aborting the mission as I never found the key to the armory gate and I reached a point of no return by entering the sewers.

 

-The frogbeasts at the beginning do not alert to the player.

 

-In the first section of the town, there is a chimney access into a house. The fall down the chimney causes damage, but I found nothing of interest in the house; it seemed pointless except for a house key that lets you exit. Also, dropping down into the sewers causes damage; I later surmised that if I continued playing after falling into the house, it's possible that I would have died once I fell down to the sewer part. I didn't find any healing potions in the mission. So I reloaded and did not bother getting into the house.

 

-Getting past the pivotting zombie with the lantern is a real hassle. I had to wait for the patrolling zombie to make his way behind me and then make sure the lantern zombie faces either the left or right wall. I could then run behind his flank and jump onto the wall ladder and then onto the ladder leading out of the sewer; there are two ladders that must be climbed. What foils this easy maneuver is an invisible barrier between the zombie and right-side wall. I could mantle over the barrier and then jump onto the ladder, but it took a dozen reloads to get by without alerting him. It's also possible to move by his left flank, but the success rate for the left side seemed lower for me. The zombie randomly pivots and only faces one direction for a few seconds. I did manage to ghost him, though:

 

 

 

-Although I didn't complete the objective to find new equipment, I assumed the mission end is the underwater corridor accessible from a well. Dropping down the well results in a splash, but due to bad sound propagation, I could no longer hear the zombies once I was in the water. I did hear multiple 1st alert groans for an instant after my splash, but the sound muted immediately. Judging by the proximity of the splash to the zombies standing near the meteorite, I think it's safe to say that the groans I heard were 2nd alerts.

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27th Jan 2010, 03:39 #160

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FM: Gladiator

File: Gladiator.zip

 

Ghost - Failed

Time - 00:01:25

Loot - 0/0

Pockets Picked - 0/1

Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0

Damage dealt - 10 Damage taken - 0

Healing taken - 0 Kills - 1

 

Cause of Failure:

 

-Cannot reach nobleman without being seen by the arena combatants

 

Comments - This may be the shortest mission I've ever played! It takes place in a gladiator arena in broad daylight. Opening the gate to the arena activates a melee between a thief, haunt, apebeast, bluecoat, and two spiders. I avoided the ensuing battle by easily mantling out of the arena. The only objective is to kill the nobleman responsible for putting me in the arena. On my way towards the nobleman, the arena combatants had spotted me; the area is just too bright for any sneaking. The nobleman seems to be blind and deaf; I killed him with one horizontal sword slash.

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27th Jan 2010, 03:45 #161

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FM: Powerslaves

File: power.zip

 

Ghost - Failed

Time - 00:05:41

Loot - 0/0

Pockets Picked - 0/1

Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0

Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0

Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

 

Cause of Failure:

 

-Could not reach powerslaves victrola without alerting a zombie

 

Comments - This isn't a serious mission. The objectives are to sneak past the guards and into the museum and listen to every recording. The recordings are sound bytes of songs from the heavy metal band, Iron Maiden. I started listening to recordings on the left side of the museum until I found one pedestal that didn't have a victrola on it. At this point, a new objective occurs to find the powerslave recording. It's lying on gravel in a bright section of the sewers. With no water arrows, I had no means of sneaking past the zombie who was staring at the victrola. He was alerted after I ran through.

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27th Jan 2010, 04:04 #162

Hexameron

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FM: The City Square

File: CSv2.zip

 

Ghost - Success

Perfect Thief - Failed

Time - 00:07:16

Loot - 180/327

Pockets Picked - 1/2

Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0

Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0

Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

 

Comments - This mission should have never been released. It reminds me of some of the unfinished and raw amateur FMs released in 2000. With only one essential objective of finding 100 loot, you could probably finish the mission in two minutes, but ghosting this one is a little tough because the author clearly intended for confrontations with the AI. The ambient lighting is extremely high and most areas are way too bright.

 

Right at the mission start I'm faced with a dilemma of sneaking by three AI. The first is an archer to the left who thankfully pivots. The second is a guard with a short rectangular patrol around the lamp post. The third is off screen and is a mechanist patrolling around the church to the right:

 

 

 

The trick to even entering the streets is to wait for the archer and patrolling guard by the lamp post to be facing away. Then I made a sharp right dash into the narrow streets surrounding the mechanist church. This is the only feasible path because it's dark. However, the mechanist will soon come around the bend and the street is so narrow that she got stuck walking into me. I was able to move right through her by staying crouched, literally running into her, and leaning left.

 

-Inside the mechanist church is a tiara. It might be possible to ghost the church, but I didn't have the energy for it. I would need to moss the metal platform in front of the church entrance, wait for the outside patrols to be in my favor, and then run inside the church to douse the gas lights inside. Since two mechs inside face the entrance, it just seemed like I would be setting myself up for a reload fest and it's not worth the effort.

 

-Only one of the double doors of the bank can be picked; I found 80 loot inside.

 

-It took me 20 minutes in another saved game to find the signet ring in the pool. It's very difficult and I searched the entire grounds including the pool floor and still didn't find it. I knew it had to be there because a readable clearly said a ring was lost in the pool, so I searched very thoroughly until I found it. It's on a black tile near one of the corners. You have to be looking straight down at your toes to see the ring highlight:

 

 

 

-Thanks to bad sound propagation, it's possible to make the splash into the pool and not alert the patrolling maid and bluecoat. They don't even 1st alert when I splashed into the water.

 

-The warehouse is too hard to get into and the guard inside seems to be alerted by the nobleman or spider bot as soon as the mission starts. On my first time playing, the guard inside made some commotion and alerted the archer outside. I reloaded and this didn't happen again.

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27th Jan 2010, 04:26 #163

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FM: The Mechanist Cathedral

File: MechanistCathedral.zip

 

Ghost - Failed

Time - 00:37:08

Loot - 1227/1242

Pockets Picked - 0/1

Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 6

Damage dealt - 117 Damage taken - 0

Healing taken - 0 Kills - 4

Iron Beasts Destroyed - 3

 

Causes of Failure:

 

1. Could not sneak by two mechanists upstairs through concert hall

 

2. Could not get into elevator room without alerting two mechanists

 

3. Could not sneak through elevator room without alerting golden child

 

4. Could not sneak past two spiders in the crypt

 

5. Could not sneak by appartion in the deepest recess of the crypt

 

6. Could not sneak into chapel without alerting two mechanists

 

7. Could not reach hand of glory without alerting either spider bots or the watcher

 

Comments - Yeah, this isn't a mission for ghosting; it's not even a mission I enjoyed playing because the rooms are so huge and spacious that it killed my framerate. Every room was literally a gigantic square with marble flooring and AI blocking pertinent doors. There is only one difficulty (Normal) and a pretty hefty loot requirement (1200) considering there's only 1242 in the mission.

 

-I was able to ghost the combat bot outside of the cathedral, which I'll bet is not what the author had in mind. The outside of the cathedral is illuminated to the maximum and the entrance to the cathedral is locked. A combat bot patrols back and forth near the entrance, making a confrontation seem inevitable. Well, it took me about five minutes, but I defeated this situation by running up to the locked door when the combat bot is patrolling away, picked the door for a few seconds, and then ran away before the bot could see me. I repeated the process until the door was picked open:

 

 

 

-I might have been able to douse enough torches in the concert hall to avoid alerting the two mechanists by the stage, but I'm glad I didn't try since I would be busted by so many other things.

 

-I could loot everything from the pub counter without alerting the two servants; I also got past the spider bot guarding the two safes and doused one torch in the room, which enabled me to be close enough to pick the safes.

 

-In three instances, the author positions two AI at a few doors you need to get through, thereby mocking any hope you might have of sneaking through. I quickly gave up sneaking because of this and started KOing and killing anything in my way.

 

-The hand of glory is guarded by three spider bots and a watcher. If the floor wasn't marble, I could have ghosted the bots and watcher. But I couldn't move fast enough to evade the watcher's gaze without making noise on marble and alerting a spider bot:

 

 

 

I resolved to use fire arrows and mines on the spider bots and then retrieved the hand of glory with no problem.

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27th Jan 2010, 04:53 #164

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FM: Happy New Year Mister Lambert!

File: Lambert.zip

 

Perfect Thief - Success

Time - 01:15:26

Loot - 3932/3932

Pockets Picked - 7/9

Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0

Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0

Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

Secrets Found - 5/5

 

Comments - This is an excellent FM with an interesting story and hilarious little touches from the author, like the drunk guard carrying dewdrop and the party guest animations. The snowy city and christmas tree in the foyer makes this a very fitting FM for the winter season. Ghosting is straightforward with only a couple of issues.

 

-Sneaking through the party room looks daunting at first. The key is to douse both gas lights in the room; only then could I enter it without one of the partiers noticing me. They tend to dart quickly across the room and start dancing. The erratic nature of their movement makes sneaking a little intense at times.

 

-I used one moss arrow at the foot of the staircase in the foyer just to ease sneaking. Sometimes the one guard and servant who regularly patrol through the foyer get stuck in a door frame. I found that the third guard who comes by is able to eventually push everyone through the door frame:

 

 

 

-At one point, a noblewoman leaves the locked bathroom upstairs. She is important to find because she has the balcony key on her waist.

 

-Once on Lambert's balcony, a haunt (or supposedly an undead Jack) finds his way in and attacks Lambert. This scripted event results in Lambert being slain and Jack continues to hunt around. Once he calmed down, I picked the balcony door and was able to sneak through Lambert's quarters without alerting Jack. He routinely exhibits a 2nd alert animation even when he isn't hunting:

 

 

 

-It took me a separate blackjack run to find all of the secrets, loot, and especially the frobbable coathook in Lambert's bathroom. This coathook opens a niche with Lambert's code. With all four codes collected, I followed the formula described in Lambert's journal. I used pen and paper to do the arithmetic of adding and subtracting the four-digit codes until I got it: 7284.

 

Hard-to-find loot:

 

-Snowy city: goblet and plate on balcony

-Snowy city: two silver nuggets on ledge above the pub

-Mansion kitchen: gold plates under donuts; they appear invisible to the eye unless you pick up the donuts.

-Gold wine bottle in one of the hyperactive party guest's hands

 

Secrets

 

My mission stats count five secrets, but I thought there were much more than that:

 

1. Barracks outside of mansion kitchen: switch opens a compartment in the fireplace; I had to inch up carefully without being burned and lean forward until I frobbed the purse.

 

2. Servant room in mansion: switch behind curtains on upper window moves a painting with loot behind it.

 

3. Barracks inside mansion: frobbable crayman trophy opens niche with loot.

 

4. Locked bathroom: switch under sink opens an alcome above the bathtub with an amulet and tiara.

 

5. Library: switch on the right-side bottom ledge concealed by a potted plant; opens a metal plate inside the fireplace with Mazarin's key (this opens the portrait in Lady Mazarin's bedroom)

 

6. Foyer with christmas tree: frobbable statue makes a banner slide open revealing an invis and healing potion.

 

7. Lambert's bathroom: coathook opens compartment in his quarters with his code.

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27th Jan 2010, 05:03 #165

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TDM FM: Trapped!

 

Perfect Thief - Success

Time - 00:35:13

Loot - 2260/2260

Pockets Picked - 5

Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0

Kills - 0 Knockouts - 0

Stealth Score - 10

 

Comments - It's not often that I manage to obtain perfect thief and avoid any first alerts in a TDM mission. I might call this close to being a perfect supreme, but I didn't supreme ghost this one because I failed to return the keys I took. The AI are spread thin enough throughout the thieves hideout and with plenty of dark areas to hide in, I had no trouble avoiding first alerts.

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27th Jan 2010, 05:18 #166

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TDM FM: Living Expenses

 

Ghost - Success

Perfect Thief - Failed

Time - 01:16:17

Loot - 1848/2347

Pockets Picked - 2

Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0

Kills - 0 Knockouts - 0

Stealth Score - 0

 

Comments - I'm disappointed with my zero stealth score, but I couldn't do any better with some of the AI I encountered. I think the dining room downstairs and the upstairs bar with skylight are what tripped me up. In the first case, there are two AI that routinely patrol through the dining room. I couldn't stay in any portion of the room without someone 1st alerting. In the bar with skylight, it's not possible to get in or out without one guard reaching 1st alert. The floors are marble and even staying on the carpet isn't effective because of the other guard's path. I must have gotten at least four 1st alerts here.

 

 

 

-The room with the diamond is impressive to behold. At first, I was confused. I went through the trouble of picking the complex lock and thought I had found only an empty room beyond it. By closing the door behind me, however, a portion of the room changes. A series of buttons and panels reveal themselves until the diamond display makes a grandiose appearance.

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28th Jan 2010, 23:56 #167

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FM: Under Templehill

File: templehill.zip

Ghost: Failed

Perfect Thief: Failed

Time: 2h 38min

Loot: 3020 out of 3070

Pockets picked: 16 out of 17

Backstabs: 0, Knockouts: 0

Damage dealt: 0, Damage taken: 0, Healing taken: 0

Innocents killed: 0, Others killed: 0

Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0, Disabled: 0

Secrets found: 9 out of 9

Hidden objectives: 4 out of 5

Karras Volumes: 7 out of 9

 

Reason for Failure: Unfortunately, this mission cannot be ghosted successfully. The principle objective requires you to destroy two devices and the mission cannot be completed until you do so. Even if the property damage itself could be subsumed under rule # 11, there is no way to destroy the devices without alerting numerous AI.

 

There is also one optional objective which can’t be completed since it calls for the destruction of a generator. It can be done without alerting any AI but as an optional objective it isn’t covered by rule # 11.

 

Comments:

 

This is all unfortunate because the rest of the mission is quite ghostable and presents a very fun challenge when doing so.

 

The police station:

 

There is not much reason to go into the police station. There is one purse that is easily obtainable on the fourth floor (the only loot in the building) and one optional objective that can be completed there. It is funny and certainly worth seeing once but I’m not completely sure it is worth the time it takes to ghost the station just for that objective.

 

You can enter the police station either via the rooftops and balcony over the courtyard with the archer practicing, or through the underwater secret entrance. The front doors at street level aren’t an option for entry with several guards and a watcher inside, nor is the street level door to the stairwell with a guard right behind it and facing the door.

 

I entered via the roof. There is a guard in a fourth floor office that may not appear ghostable at first glance but if you hug the left wall as you enter the room you can read the note and grab the purse from the desk without him noticing you.

 

There is an archer behind the third floor stairwell door to the room with the portcullis lever so there is no entry there without dousing torches. I had to resort to dousing a torch in the stairwell and one in that room in order to raise the portcullis. There is a spot on the stairs that has enough shadow to hide from the guard that patrols the stairwell:

 

 

 

You can traverse the stairs without using any consumables. As long as you are in shadow the guards seem not to notice you. I had one walk into me and then around me without noticing I was there.

 

When you enter the second floor from the stairwell the archer that was practicing outside is now patrolling in and out of the door to the courtyard very quickly. This doesn’t give you much time to enter any of the rooms there without dousing torches. And there is no reason to enter any of the rooms on that floor unless you want to complete the optional objective or pick pocket the arrows from the archers. There is also nothing to be found in the cells on the lowest floor except one drunk that is best left alone.

 

Ironguage’s mansion:

 

Entered through side door. Found secret in wine cellar. Using the hiding place under stairs in the main hall, it’s fairly easy to ghost the watcher and the single patrolling guard, even without resorting to the fireplace passage.

 

Mechanist Church:

 

I entered the Mechanist area via the window at the north end of The Shamblings across from Jemola’s place. There are a lot of noisy surfaces here so I timed the guard/bot patrols and creeped across metal walkways and tile floors. There are plenty of shadows so being seen isn’t an issue.

 

The room with the two large bots is quite difficult to ghost. I was unable to find a way to ghost the bots without the use of a speed potion and two moss arrows. They are very sensitive and The Pixie arranged a setup that clearly did not have ghosting in mind. I tried riding the metal platform without being noticed but it is impossible. The only way to bypass the bots is to creep out into the shadow on the floor as close to the bots as possible and then use a speed potion to get past them without them noticing you. I was successful doing this once without mossing the floor but could never do it again without moss.

 

 

 

If you’re going to creep around the first floor of the church it is best to avoid the central aisle. I found that I made slight tapping sounds when using that aisle no matter how slow I went. It seems as if Garrett’s feet sink slightly into the floor surface in that center aisle.

 

The Crypt:

 

The crypt is easily ghosted. You can avoid the flying eyeballs and patrolling zombies easily as there are plenty of shadows and hiding places. There are lots of arrows to pick pocket from the skeletal archers and it is simple to do so. But the mission requires you to destroy the upper and lower cones which are generating the energy that is imprisoning Jemola in order to free her. There is no way to destroy the cones without alerting the AI that are guarding them.

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29th Jan 2010, 06:48 #168

Hexameron

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Nice report, Tannar! You mentioned having to destroy certain "cones" and alerting the AI; how did you destroy the cones? Were the AI triggered to alert when the cones were destroyed or was it the loud means of destroying the cones (such as using fire arrows) that caused alerts?

 

As for the unavoidable foot noise you described when you tried creeping in one area, it may have been due to a bad framerate; did you experience any slowdowns? On many occasions, I've had my creeping function severely broken when an area is laggy. Normally I can glide forward smoothly without making foot noise, but when I'm experiencing lag, I can't even press the creep key without making an instant foot noise or tap as you described.

 

P.S. What are the "hidden objectives" and "Karras volumes" you listed in your stats?

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29th Jan 2010, 07:09 #169

Tannar

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Originally Posted by Hexameron

Were the AI triggered to alert when the cones were destroyed or was it the loud means of destroying the cones (such as using fire arrows) that caused alerts?

You have to use fire arrows to destroy them. There seems to be no other means provided.

Originally Posted by Hexameron

As for the unavoidable foot noise you described when you tried creeping in one area, it may have been due to a bad framerate; did you experience any slowdowns?

No, it wasn't lag that was the problem. I didn't experience any lag there. It was as if there was a problem with the terrain. This occured in several areas of the city as well, usually when there was sloping terrain (which is not uncommon with the dark engine) but the cathedral floor was flat. It just seemed that Garrett "sank" into that section of the floor a bit.

Originally Posted by Hexameron

What are the "hidden objectives" and "Karras volumes" you listed in your stats?

These are unique to this mission. There are 5 hidden objectives to discover and 9 books to read which The Pixie included in the stats page. I probably didn't need to include them in the report but since they were in the stats, I did.

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1st Feb 2010, 20:09 #170

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FM: The Taffer's Bank

File: taffbank.zip

 

Perfect Thief - Success

Time - 00:14:10

Loot - 3550/3550

Pockets Picked - 6/7

Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0

Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0

Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

 

Comments - This is a short dromed training mission with no ghosting problems. Two of the large rooms upstairs were empty and pointless. Perhaps the only trouble I had was getting to the moneybox behind the counter next to the bank teller. I crouched next to the bench against the right wall and ran forward to the edge of the counter. The teller remained 1st alerted for a while. I waited for him to calm before leaving the counter area. Again, I could only crouch and run to the bench; standing was a sure way of being seen.

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1st Feb 2010, 20:27 #171

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FM: Gearheart

File: gearheartv3.zip

 

Ghost - Failed

Time - 00:21:14

Loot - 1007/1007

Pockets Picked - 3/4

Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 6

Damage dealt - 37 Damage taken - 0

Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

Iron Beasts Destroyed - 1

 

Causes of Failure:

 

1. Could not sneak to the altar in the chapel without alerting at least one mech priest

 

2. Could not sneak by masked mechanist guarding way to crypt/dining room.

 

Comments - Regardless of difficulty, all loot in this mission must be taken to fulfill the 1000 requirement. The only loot I had trouble finding was 2 loose coins on the floor in front of some pews in the chapel. I could not sneak through the chapel with two patrolling mech priests. Once I picked the chapel key from the priest, he would get stuck in the door. I could use this to my advantage by locking the door behind me as I went into the chapel, but the illuminated interior and mech priestess inside conspired against me - I had no chance of ghosting it. Dafydd mentioned in the FM's TTLG thread that he couldn't ghost the chapel either.

 

-I had another issue with the mechanist guarding the way to the crypt and dining room. If I could have ghosted the chapel, I would try harder to deal with the mechanist guard. Over his head was a gas light and I could not enter the area with the guard without dousing the light. I should have been able to lean left while hiding behind the open door and douse the light, but it just wasn't working out for me.

 

-I had no trouble staying in the darkness of the door frame in the dining room and dousing the gas light in front of the watcher. I could also sneak by the patrolling mech upstairs in the barracks if I stayed to her left flank as she turns.

 

-Dousing the four gas lights in the lobby is essential, but sometimes dousing them puts the combat bot or mech priest on 2nd alert. I had to moss the marble section of the floor, wait for everyone to exit the lobby, and then run up to the switch controlling the gas lights. That way I wouldn't have to douse them with water.

 

-Owing to my two ghost busts earlier, I gave up sneaking and KOed just about everyone.

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1st Feb 2010, 20:43 #172

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FM: Last Gleaming of the Rising Sun

File: risingsun.zip

 

Ghost - Failed

Time - 00:35:18

Loot - 1885/1985

Pockets Picked - 1/3

Backstabs - 2 Knockouts - 0

Damage dealt - 167 Damage taken - 0

Healing taken - 0 Kills - 9

 

Cause of Failure:

 

-The only way to progress to the basement is to bash the doubledoors leading there

 

Comments - This is an undead mission that would have been fully ghostable if I could have found a key to the basement. The basement key does exist, but it is in the basement and there is no way down there except through the locked doubledoors.

 

-Reaching the book about what happened to the colony is a little tough. One must use a rope arrow to reach it and there is a broken window pane on the floor. Once you climb the rope, the pane will be directly under the dangling rope and it is impossible to detach from the rope without making foot noise on the pane (equivalent to walking on marble). Instead, I had to place my rope arrow in such a way that the rope lowered to a section of wood flooring. I then proceeded to climb until I could frob the book. Although I still could not detach from the rope, I could remove the rope arrow itself and drop onto the wood floor without making noise - however, if I had been over that window pane and removed the rope arrow, I would make loud marble foot noise.

 

-As mentioned previously, the only bust I incurred was having to bash the basement doors in. This alerted just about everyone including two haunts and zombies. I used all my flashbombs on them and dispatched any remaining zombies with my sword. I could sneak by the two haunts in the basement, but I saw no point this late in the game, so I killed them with all my broadheads.

 

-Without lockpicks, the only way to traverse the tunnel leading to the vault is to avoid the mines on the ground. There's enough space to get through without tripping any.

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1st Feb 2010, 21:13 #173

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FM: Saints and Thieves

File: saintsandthieves.zip

 

Ghost - Success

Perfect Thief - Failed

Time - 01:24:41

Loot - 1867/4439

Pockets Picked - 7/9

Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0

Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0

Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

 

Comments - A perfect thief is not possible to obtain here because it requires rescuing the child slaves and bringing them to a city gate. When they flee towards the gate, they drop the vault key on the ground, which makes enough noise to alert the patrolling thief.

 

I gave it my all to get that key without the thief alerting. Escaping with the children is bad enough. When you enter the slave pen where the children are being kept, the objective to find the smuggler's cache is cancelled and a new objective pops up: find incriminating evidence and let no harm befall the child slaves. It really is clever of the author to enable the player to frob the children to get them to follow you or stop in place. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work smoothly, and ghosting your way out of the hideout below the warehouse with these children in tow is very frustrating. At least I could douse every torch along the way. Still, if the children stop at any point in the light, most AI will see them. Also, if you bring them into any rooms, the children tend to never follow you again, so you are confined to move through the corridors. If the children remain in the darkness, guards will brush right by them and not notice:

 

 

 

I was perturbed that after rescuing the children, the author deigned to position an archer on the steps leading up to the warehouse, which means my easy way of escape was foiled. Instead, I had to go all the way around through the barracks and deal with numerous thief patrols:

 

 

 

Once I exited the warehouse, I had the children follow me to the city portion and towards a gate. Once they got there, they ran to the gate and dropped a key. No matter where the patrolling thief stood during his patrol, he always heard the key drop. I tried luring the children to the gate and waited for the thief to walk far away and it still didn't work. I even tried placing some scrolls and a healing potion on the ground where the key would fall. And still the key fell through the items and made noise:

 

 

 

What makes the situation worse is that it's easy to break this scripted event of the children running to the gate and vanishing. For example, if I run in front of them before they get to the gate, they stop in place. Usually, if I leave the gate, they will resume their path, but often they don't and will remain stuck forever:

 

 

 

Bottom line: I could not get the vault key from them without the thief hearing it. I discovered later that I didn't have to rescue the children in the first place; the objective merely states to let no harm befall them so I could have left them in their pen all along. And I found enough loot to satisfy the 1600 requirement and I had located the incriminating evidence without having to descend into the vault. So I let the kids stay in front of the gate for the remainder of the mission; the patrolling thief didn't see them. Yet without the vault key, I could not reach the rest of the loot in the mission.

 

-I found the incriminating letter in the safe behind a painting in the captain's office on the top floor. I dropped this in the city watch building to satisfy the objective.

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1st Feb 2010, 21:29 #174

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FM: Rosaries Are Red

File: rosaries.zip

 

Ghost - Success

Perfect Thief - Failed

Time - 00:33:32

Loot - 3581/3693

Pockets Picked - 0/1

Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0

Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0

Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

 

Comments - This has only one (Normal) difficulty. It cannot be ghosted if a) the two haunts spawn in the office after reading the desk journal and b) the new objective to escape through the pump station is triggered by reading the scroll in the basement. I had to maintain my two primary objectives only: find 3000 loot and the rosaries from vault 8.

 

-Reading the journal in the office on the top floor causes two haunts to spawn and the office door to lock shut. You have to kill the haunts and then the door will open:

 

 

 

I didn't garner any useful information from the journal, so I reloaded and didn't touch it again.

 

-Reading the scroll on the floor in the basement triggers a new objective to escape through the pump station. To do so, one would incur two busts. The first results from dropping the node and bulb into the workshop machine chutes in order to create an explosive device. Dropping these items into the chutes is loud enough to alert nearby zombies, and mossing the chutes didn't seem to help. The second bust inevitably occurs when using a fire arrow on the explosive charge to blow open the pump station door. I reloaded and didn't read the scroll in the basement, thereby avoiding all of these busts. Once I had 3000 loot and picked up the rosary, the mission ended.

 

-To obtain the vault key and workshop key, I had to figure out the four-digit code that opens a compartment behind the bookcase in the top floor office. There are four statues in the mission with placards that have a single number on them. One might appear as "[3" and another just "8". I realized after I found four that the numbers comprised the code: "[3" "8" "3]" and "0". It made sense that the brackets designate which digits are first and last. Thus the code would either be 3803 or 3083; the latter one is the real code.

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1st Feb 2010, 23:45 #175

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Dual Plot FM: The Ghost House / Haunted Hospital

The following two missions are part of a joint FM. Even though the "Haunted Hospital" is a separate mission, it still has the heading "The Ghost House" in the objectives and save slot screens. At one point in the beginning the player chooses which mission to play. Once I completed one, I restarted to play the other.

* * *

 

FM: The Ghost House

File: Ghosthouse.zip

 

Ghost - Success

Perfect Thief - Probable Success

Time - 00:25:45

Loot - 1350/2405

Pockets Picked - 0/2

Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0

Damage dealt - 50 Damage taken - 0

Healing taken - 0 Kills - 1

 

Comments - I reported that I might have achieved a perfect thief because in the darkloader mission notes, the author says the stats' loot count is wrong, that the total loot is "about 1350." Considering he said 1350, I assume that's the real maximum and I did find all loot.

 

This FM reminds me of "Deceptive Perception" - very eerie and full of scary ambient noises and special scripted effects. Some effects made ghosting difficult. Walking into the kitchen causes a disembodied voice to say "Leave!" followed by a butcher's knife flying across the room that damages the player. It's possible to avoid the knife, but it took me a lot of reloads because the knife is quick.

 

I also had a terrible time getting safely beyond that annoying ghost in the walls. The effect is stunning really and I didn't know such things were possible in dromed: an apparition whose face and limbs appear in the walls, floors, and ceiling will swipe at the player, and it can be hard to dodge. I found that if I just ran away or backed up quickly into the lady's bedroom, the apparition would miss. Otherwise, simply staying in the hallway where the apparition hides in the walls is close enough to take damage.

 

I had some difficulty sneaking around the apparition guarding the bedrooms upstairs. It didn't help that on the way to him I had to worry about the wall apparition attacking me. I mossed the couch on the right and waited for the dimming lights to go black and then jumped across:

 

 

 

On my way back, I repeated the process, but once I entered the hallway, that apparition in the walls started up again. He really is irritating. One more reload and I managed to sneak by the idle apparition and ran downstairs before the wall apparition appeared. It's worth noting that this wall apparition is not an alerted AI.

 

-The objective to kill the undead in the basement really interprets to "kill the zombie." To do that without alerting the zombie, I used the holy hammer that was alluded to in a readable. It's lying on the ground next to a dead thief. I waited for the zombie to face away and threw it:

 

 

 

Upon impact, the zombie explodes and a dead thief apparition appears briefly before dissipating entirely:

 

 

* * *

 

FM: The Haunted Hospital

File: Ghosthouse.zip

 

Ghost - Success

Perfect Thief - Failed

Time - 01:13:49

Loot - 1685/2455

Pockets Picked - 0/2

Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0

Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0

Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

 

Comments - This mission may not have as creepy an atmosphere as The Ghost House, but it is a horror FM on steroids, replete with all kinds of spooky AI, ambient sounds, and horrible sights. I'm still unnerved by the randomly opening and closing doors - such a brilliant and eerie effect. The doctors are certainly the scariest custom AI I've ever seen. And the nobleman with a zombie head that turns 360 degrees a la The Exorcist is quite memorable too.

 

I also had quite a few scares that caused me to yell loudly in real life when I triggered the spider traps... My fright turned to glee, though, when I saw that the undead and spiders don't get along. It was hilarious to watch the skeleton and haunt futilely attack the spiders, never able to dish out damage while the spiders circled around them. Likewise, the spiders couldn't hit the undead and it was a stalemate that could go on forever. Obviously, I reloaded and avoided tripping the spider traps:

 

 

 

-I had to use a moss arrow in one corridor after entering the hospital wing. It seems the author allowed enough room for the player to scale on top of the rafters, which I did, but once the rafters branch out to the first two corridors, there isn't enough space to climb back up after dropping down; essentially, for those corridors, the rafters are a one-way trip. With the haunt and zombie patrolling through the +-shaped halls, I couldn't get through fast enough without moss. It was only these two corridors that I couldn't squeeze through when climbing a rope arrow.

 

-I read about the mercury and snake blood and found them as two canisters in a laboratory. I used them on the lich Nemazidah's heart and then frobbed the death scroll I found next to a dead mechanist. The objective checked off and I can only presume the lich died instantly from that. I found him earlier in a ruined church surrounded by haunts. I think he would have been far enough away that none of the haunts would hear or see him die.

 

-There is an objective to save all patients from the hospital and it took me about an hour in another game to figure out how many patients there are. It's deceiving. Some of them are unconscious bodies lying around in rooms. I found one patient being operated on by a doctor, but there was no way to pick him up and I couldn't get in there without being spotted. I saw one guy hanging on to the balcony of the upper hospital ward, but he was a red herring:

 

 

 

He moans "Help me" whenever the undead haunt and doctor patrol through. When I tried to frob him, he laughed and I was dealt damage... Forget him

 

I took as many unconscious bodies as I could find and dropped them off of the balcony near the mission start. I found two patients in the upper ward. There is one guy in a room in the last corridor on the left when entering the hospital wing. Another patient is in a room overlooking the garden with the weird legless zombie. I carried them both across the overhead rafters, which made ghosting this place much easier. The last patient was the unconscious pagan near the female zombie on the balcony. After I tossed him over and saw my objective complete, I realized there are just 3 patients that must be saved. By the way, dropping the bodies over the balcony doesn't seem to do any damage to them:

 

 

 

-In the darkloader notes, the author says the loot total is 3330. I wasn't feeling energized enough to scour this freaky mission looking for more loot...