FMs - Ghost/Perfect Thief Results (Part 7)

Hexameron said: 25th May 2010 01:58

Hi Peter - I tend to get swamped during my graduate school semesters, so I have to take a break from Thief for a few months at a time . I'm glad to see that you and Klatremus contributed some reports. Reading them last week actually inspired me to post again.

Hexameron said: 31st May 2010 05:29

FM: Snobs part 1
File: snobs-part1_fixed.zip

Ghost - Failed
Time - 00:47:55
Loot - 15285/26755
Pockets Picked - 6/24
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0
Secrets Found - 1/1

Cause of Failure:

-Cannot sneak by frogbeasts in sewer near mission end.

Comments - Several of the guards in this mission are hypersensitive, but not all of them; indeed there was a randomness to the AI sensitivity that made this mission an unpleasant experience. The two guards outside of the mansion are quirky and dousing the torches above their heads can put them on 2nd alert. One guard inside of the mansion also has super keen ears; even picking a lock a floor below him sets him off. In addition, the guard patrolling the walkway towards the mansion is hypersensitive to 1st alert material: open a door near him or run too fast and expose yourself to light and he starts charging in 3rd alert fashion.

In all of the above instances, I was able to persevere and reload dozens of times to finally avoid alerts. For example, I doused the torches outside of the mansion only when the guard upstairs closed the door to the balcony. Also, I made sure to pick the moneybox behind the trophy only when he was patrolling on the balcony with the door closed. However, I could not safely get inside the shop with secret room and purple diamond worth 10,000 without upsetting one particular guard. As soon as I stepped inside the shop (with absolutely no shadows whatsoever inside), one or both of the patrolling guards outside started charging me in 3rd alert mode. I wonder if this might have been scripted or if the AI are tweaked to the highest sensitivity to provocation. Just look at the bottom screenshot - I moved silently into the shop while this guard's back faced me and he still turns around and starts charging from a long distance away:



And getting inside was necessary for that purple diamond worth 10,000 - if I was going to meet my loot requirement, I would need it. Fortunately, I had one invis potion, so I downed it and went in quickly and into the secret room without stirring up that guard. I couldn't get in, grab the diamond, and get out while my invisibility stayed in effect, though. What's odd and for reasons I can't explain is that I could sneak out of the shop while the guard's back was turned.

-If I could have snuck past the spiders using the lightfeather key I found in the fountain behind my house, I could have reached the pub from its basement. But there are two patrolling spiders and one spider guarding a door - a light mushroom illuminates the area and I couldn't sneak by. The only reason I would have to visit the pub is to get another 10,000 purple diamond. Either way, the player must collect at least one of these purple diamonds to meet the loot requirement. I suppose I could have used my invis potion to sneak by the spiders, but by comparison, the secret shop room seemed the better alternative.

-I had to avoid one new objective which would have me go into the jail and free the thieves. One glance of that jail and I thought to myself, "forget it" - it screamed unghostable.

Interestingly, I ghosted with much effort 99% of the mission. But I knew I was busted when I saw this appalling scene:



Not even a sporting chance to sneak by here . Those frogbeasts guard the crawlspace that leads to a sewer gate and the mission end. I'm literally five yards away from completing the mission, but those two frogbeasts are impossible. I could not avoid being seen whether I climbed up the ladder or mantled out of the water. So I swam close enough to the edge until they saw me and exploded in aggression.

Hexameron said: 31st May 2010 18:31

FM: Treason and Plot
File: treason.zip

Perfect Thief - Success
Time - 00:40:11
Loot - 944/944
Pockets Picked - 1/2
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

Comments - This little mission is a bit tedious to ghost owing to the many marble floors and surplus of patrolling thieves; indeed, the thief hideout is a very busy place. This main hallway of which the player must traverse many times is a case in point of the dense traffic of patrollers:



There is a tricky situation of having to enter a room with a thief who pivots, but more often than not stands facing the door. The solution to entering safely is to open the door and watch the thief's shoulder:



When he turns, I could then move into the shadowy patch of the doorframe and then proceed at my discretion into the room and onto the bed:



-Dousing the gas light around the thief in the cafeteria puts him on 2nd alert.

-I had to trail the guard-looking thief in the office as there are no shadows in the room and the guard continously makes a circular patrol around the perimeter of the room.

-Although the darkloader mission text begins with a complete loot list, I tried not to look at it. Much of the loot is hidden in pitch black shadows, such as the gold cup on the floor next to the large ramp. One needs a flare to even see it.
-There is a blue gem behind a banner that can be frobbed without slashing the banner.
-The gambling room has one piece of loot that is a little difficult to reach. The floors are mostly marble with a thief who pivots very frequently and in a random manner. In addition, another thief enters the gambling room from time to time and the only safe place to hide is against the walls. I had to moss the marble floor, wait for the pivotting guard to turn away, and then run and jump onto the moss against the wall. Then I could lean forward and get the loot glasses:

Hexameron said: 31st May 2010 18:42

FM: The Auldale Chess Tournament
File: chess.zip

Perfect Thief - Success
Time - 00:40:46
Loot - 5692/5692
Pockets Picked - 3/5
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

Comments - This is a breezy little hotel mission with no trouble spots. I doused a couple gas lights in the room with pivotting archer so I could get all of the masks on the wall using a rope arrow.

It doesn't look like the pivotting archer turns away from the wall very often, but when he does, that gives the player time to rope up and grab the masks:



To sneak through the large suite with the chess pieces (obj), I had to douse a number of gas lights. Without dousing the gas lights, I would always be seen near the chessboard by the sentinel nobleman:



-I found the information book (obj) under the nobleman's bed, and wow - this must be the longest readable I've ever encountered in an FM: it's a 20+ page technical treatise on chess. Reading just a couple of pages made my head hurt.

Hexameron said: 31st May 2010 19:14

FM: Complications
File: complications.zip

Ghost - Success
Perfect Thief - Failed
Time - 00:34:09
Loot - 2374/2489
Pockets Picked - 1/2
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0
Secrets Found - 1/1

Comments - Even though the third difficulty is named "N/A", the objectives are the same as normal, and I selected it so I would get the expert number of health shields. The AI in this mission have typically very short circuitous patrols that get annoying after a while. For example, lots of houses have one AI that just walks back and forth from one side of the room to the other. This challenged me a bit, especially in the undead dimension.

What's original about this mission is that the player first encounters the town in its normal state with human inhabitants. When you enter a magician's house, the door locks behind you and you must return to the town in another dimension in which the town is overrun by undead. This undead dimension allows the player to access areas that were blocked off in the normal dimension, but the undead dimension is harder to sneak through: the streets are illuminated by unnatural light sources and bonfires; a hustling and bustling contingent of haunts, zombies, and apparitions doesn't help either. It's quite a bear sneaking through this mess, especially around the town center.

-I got the loot in the house with the back-and-forth patrolling lady (across from Garrett's house) by circling around her flank as she turns.

-I couldn't get the copper coin stacks on the shelf behind bar; the barkeep has a very short back-and-forth patrol and the interior is bright as can be. I was able to get the wine bottles and purse on the table, but I couldn't get behind the counter:



In the other dimension, the barkeep is absent and I can sneak into the pub, but the copper coin stacks do not exist in this dimension, so perfect thief is impossible:



-Much of the mission involves lots of retracing of one's steps. One has to keep going back to each dimension to figure out what to do next. I used the shed key on the locked door behind Garrett's house. Under a bucket in the shed is Raphael's key, which is used on the door that locks you into the magician's house and keeps you from returning to the normal dimension. Once you open the door and return, a male nobleman holding a sword spawns in front of Garrett's house. A new objective is triggered to find a key that was apparently hidden by this guy. So I picked the box key off of his belt and then went back to the undead dimension. The key would unlock a moneybox in the pub containing another key. Now I could go to Garrett's house and open the locked door. It's a dizzying procedure 

Raphael still blocks the door way, but once the door is unlocked, the mission ends. If I had to actually enter Garrett's house, I would be busted since Raphael bars the way.

-Interestingly, after I tried causing a ruckus and killed any undead, the dimensions got screwed up. After alerting all of the undead and killing some, I went back to the normal dimension and saw that wherever I had slain or disabled some zombies, their corpses would somehow teleport over to the normal dimension.

Hexameron said: 31st May 2010 19:20

FM: February
File: february.zip

Ghost - Failed
Time - 00:13:36
Loot - 0/0
Pockets Picked - 1/2
Backstabs - 1 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 34 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 1

Cause of Failure:

- Cannot kill Ramford's ghost (obj) without alerting him.

Comments - There is no loot in this mission - just a few readables to find and a few trivial tasks to perform. I had to kill Ramford, the patrolling apparition upstairs, but I couldn't destroy him in one stroke. I only had a sword at my disposal, but an overhead slash didn't kill him instantly. One overhead strike and then another horizontal cut did the job. I couldn't tell if attacking Ramford alerted any haunts outside, but once Ramford's ghost vanishes, all the haunts disappear.

Hexameron said: 31st May 2010 19:39

FM: Choose Your Own Adventure: Taffyski
File: cyoa.zip

Ghost - Failed
Time - 00:00:17
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:

- Cannot maneuver through ski posts without being seen by all three guards

Comments - This Choose Your Own Adventure campaign includes three difficulty levels that are actually three different missions. Normal difficulty is called "Taffyski" and the hard and expert are "HauntGemA" and "HauntGemB" respectively. I decided to play Taffyski and the HauntGemB.

In Taffyski, the player is dropped into a bright snowy slope. Two archers overlook the slope and a guard immediately alerts to the player's presence:



The objective is to maneuver through all three ski posts and jump over the ramp. Doing so without taking damage from the archers is I suppose the challenge here, but I did it after a few reloads. Once you get through all three pairs of ski posts, a button spawns and pressing it ends the mission.

FM: Choose Your Own Adventure: HauntGemB
File: cyoa.zip

Ghost - Failed and incomplete
Time - 00:02:55
Loot - 0/0
Pockets Picked - 0/1
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 12
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

Cause of Failure:

- Cannot obtain precious diamond (obj) without being seen by haunts.

Comments - This mission is no better than the ski mission. The player must move through a maze of curtained chambers. Entering one curtained path might be a dead end and teleports you back to the beginning. It can be an endless labyrinth, but there is one way to defeat the whole thing: lean forward into the curtains and see where it leads. If there is a dead-end stone wall, the player should avoid stepping through it or else be teleported back. I kept leaning forward until I got to the last room with the precious diamond:



Looting the diamond spawns two haunts which immediately see the player:



What's worse is that there is another flock of haunts that spawn in the curtained maze. I tried many times to exit, but having five haunts in chase while trying to navigate that ridiculous maze left me enervated. I just couldn't get out without being killed. Here's my last sight as I fall dead from the swarm of haunts:

Hexameron said: 31st May 2010 19:48

FM: The Fever
File: Fever.zip

Ghost - Failed
Time - 00:10:16
Loot - 0/50
Pockets Picked - 1/3
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 46 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 4

Cause of Failure:

- Cannot proceed through portal and cure Christine's fever without killing three apebeasts and a little pagan girl.

Comments - This is a weird but well-done nightmarish mission. The hall of frozen zombies that don't alert to the player is chilling. Curing the fever of the little girl involves entering her dreams. There is one stage in which the player encounters a pagan sacrificial altar and a portal. The only way to proceed is to eliminate the apebeasts and pagan girl that step out of the portal:



Once they're all dead, the objective to cure Christine's fever is completed. Back at the house, the mission ends when you read a note on the wall:



Reading it causes two apebeasts and the little girl to spawn behind you. What I did to avoid being seen was to just hide in shadow and then read the note. That way they would just spawn and stand there - the mission ends a few seconds later:

Hexameron said: 31st May 2010 20:02

FM: The Night Shift
File: thenightshiftv1.1.zip

Perfect Thief - Success
Time - 00:43:11
Loot - 3474/3474
Pockets Picked - 1/3
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0
Secrets Found - 5/6

Comments - This is an easy mission to ghost because virtually every light can be turned off. There are a number of materials that can be combined together to make things: the spring in the basement can make a gas bomb; the monkey's head in attic is used to make a scouting orb; the tool from Benny's toolbox repairs the broken arrows into assassin arrows.

-I was able to crouch and move through the room with the moving blue beams without tripping the alarm.

-There is a very well-hidden signet ring on the wooden structure that houses the lamp above the book of shadows; you need rope arrow to get up there:



Although I said the mission was easy to ghost, ghosting may only be possible by tricking the mission to end before it really should. When you complete all objectives and enter the storage room, the lights turn on and the door closes behind you. A note is left by the closed door and in about 5-10 seconds, two bluecoats rush into the room (although they are running, they are not alerted):



After the 5-10 second timer, a new objective appears to find the "real book"; apparently, the one I looted is a fake. However, I had already been in the storage room and I picked the little lockbox that opens the grate leading into the sewer. Therefore, I was able to finish all my objectives, enter the storage room, and move as fast as I could into the sewers, which is where the mission exit is. In short, I tricked the mission to end before a new objective was about to trigger because I had completed all other objectives:



This may be cheating the game, but hey, I completed it legitimately, even if I didn't do what the author intends. Also, it doesn't look very feasible to ghost the mission if you take on that new objective. Not only do you have to deal with those two bluecoats that run into the storage room, but also at least six more that spawn in the museum (and are alerted because the alarm trips after the new objective triggers). Sneaking around the museum with permanently 2nd alerted AI didn't appeal to me, so I'm fine with the cheating short cut I took.

Hexameron said: 31st May 2010 21:26

FM: Sneaking Through Venice
File: WC_SneakingthroughVenice.zip

Ghost - Failed
Time - 00:32:28
Loot - 1245/1320
Pockets Picked - 3/12
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 3
Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 1
Secrets Found - 3/3

Causes of Failure:

1. Cannot kill Negretto (obj) without alerting him and two other thieves.

2. Cannot drop down into secret grotto with treasure chest (obj) without alerting a number of AI.

Comments - I encountered a lot of sound propagation issues in this mission; AI in different buildings or on other floors often heard me and went on 2nd alert.

-I couldn't pick the vault door from beneath the apartment at mission start without alerting the two thieves, so I had to enter the apartment through its window using a rope arrow. There is a hard-to-see switch above the door frame in this house that opens a compartment near the curtain.

-I entered the casino via the window at the bottom of the canal. To get in without being seen by the gamblers, I had to douse both gas lights inside. Even then, I had to drop down and dart quickly under the counter because of the lamp that still illuminates the room:



Then I hugged the wall and zipped past, making sure to hit the light switch to the lamp. I also needed to douse two gas lights on the upper floor of the casino so I could lean forward and nab the purse from the nobleman by the gambling table. I couldn't move into the room any further to reach the coin stacks without being seen by the other gamblers.

-I had to use two moss arrows on the tile hallway that connects the gambling den with the kitchen. I couldn't sneak across in time before the patrolling female thief would have me in her sights; running was necessary.

-In the kitchen, I was able to get 2 of the plates on the wall near the servant; to reach the other, I would have to douse one of the gas lights; I didn't do this in case I would need to save my water arrows for a greater purpose.

-To get into the lady's room without being seen by the thieves guarding the landing, I could either nudge one or mantle onto the electric light. I opted for the latter:





-There is a switch on the window frame in the lady's room that moves the pedestal revealing a secret hideout. I couldn't land on the vault door (in order to reach it with a picklock) without making metal foot noise, so in order to pick it, I CCCed to the very edge of the corner without falling onto it.

-In the secret hideout is where my ghost bust occurs. Before I get to that, I must say that picking the door down here tends to alert least one thief on the upper floor; I actually reloaded a bunch of times and did manage to pick it and get only first alerts, but it took so many reloads that the probability of success is low.

-Next is the chest surrounded by a fence. The floor looks like stucco, but has a metal texture:



Opening the chest causes the floor to disappear and the player to fall into a pool of water, which alerts three newly spawned thieves. It is possible, though, to wiggle your way in between the chest and the light above. It's a delicate action because of the metal floor, but if you crouch next to the chest and jump, you'll stay stuck on the edge:



Then, after opening the chest, the floor disappears and you won't fall into the water, but remain on the very edge:



Now I could safely avoid the pool of water - it's a nice trick, but it didn't help me ghost this one. There are three thieves including Negretto (whom I must kill per an objective) that spawn in a nearby room and I could not sneak in there without being seen - the electric lights foiled me:



So I lured them towards me and knocked each one out. I dropped Negretto into the pool of water and went down there myself to get the treasure chest. Falling into the water makes a splash that alerts the two thieves and noblewoman on the floor above. If the sound propagation wasn't screwed up, they shouldn't have heard me.

Hexameron said: 31st May 2010 21:36

FM: A. K. A. Noah
File: WC_akaNoah.zip

Perfect Thief - Success
Time - 00:21:01
Loot - 1999/1999
Pockets Picked - 3/4
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0
Secrets Found - 1/1

Comments - Nice and short atmospheric mission that takes place in a stormy seaside mansion.

-The two guards in the mansion are easy to sneak by, although one occasionally gets stuck on the banister at the top floor.

-Much of the loot consists of unusual items that looked like junk, so I got in the habit of frobbing everything.

-I had a choice of either throwing a bucket of water or using a water arrow on the elemental plate in Noah's study (frobbing book in the library moves the painting to reveal the plate). Throwing the bucket makes enough noise to alert the guards, so I opted for the water arrow alternative.

-I heard some crayman noises in the subterranean cavern, but never found the source. Instead, there are two bluecoats down there. All there is to do in this cavern is go into the room with the water elementals, read the diary on the table, and move to the unfrobabble gate a few meters away (it's apparently an exit).

-There is an optional objective to free the elementals, but I couldn't figure out how to do it. Plus, the water elementals are aggressive (they are reskinned fire elementals), so I didn't want to take the chance of alerting them.

Hexameron said: 4th Jun 2010 00:43

FM: In These Enlightened Times...
File: WC_InTheseEnlightenedTimes.zip

Ghost - Success (Chemical) or Failed; I need a second opinion 
Perfect Thief - Failed
Time - 00:38:52
Loot - 855/1025
Pockets Picked - 7/7
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0
Secrets Found - 2/4
Hidden Objectives - 3/3

Comments - I can't be sure if I can claim a ghost success on this one or not. After taking the staff (objective), three ghosts spawn in the ruins and patrol unalerted. In addition, a visible energy barrier is created that prevents the player from returning to the mission start. The only way to remove the barrier is to dispatch the ghosts. These ghosts carry ankhs on their belts, which can be pick pocketed:



The ankhs can be picked without even drawing a first alert from them, and once the ankhs are frobbed, the ghosts vanish in a puff of smoke without even a death cry:



I was able to pick the ankhs of all three ghosts without one first alert, and when all three ghosts are gone, a voiceover that sounds like The Eye moans something and the barrier disappears. No damage or kills are reported in the stats, but since there is no explicit objective to "destroy the spirits", I am unsure if dispatching them (even when it's necessary to eliminate the barrier and get back to the starting point) is an acceptable action for ghosting. Thoughts anyone?

Other Notes

-I could only access the ruins by jumping into the water at the mission start and swimming there; making a splash anywhere else tends to alert the patrolling thief.

-To get around the two thieves next to the Cthulhu statue, I had to carefully jump onto the horizontal beams and move across to the wall with the torch. Then I could land on the torch and subsequently the wooden platform:



-Frobbing the sword in the archaelogist's corpse causes his spirit (a patrolling apparition that does not alert to player) to dissipate and a new objective to release his soul simultaneously triggers and checks off.

-I used a few water arrows around the place, but one is absolutely necesary above the submerged staircase. Since the patrolling spider invariably has the staircase in his view, one cannot move down there without being in darkness.

-I could not take a step down into the submerged staircase without making a splash noise. This almost always alerts the patrolling spider. There is, however, a way to enter the water unheard: wait for the patrolling spider to make his way into the room on the left. He must be at the very end of his patrol inside the room so that the sound propagation works in your favor. In my experience, if the spider is at any other point in his patrol, he will hear the water splash. This screenshot is murky, I know, but the arrow points to where the spider has completely entered the room and I have safely lowered myself into the water:



-I needed to use two breath potions during my swimming expedition through the submerged part of the chapel. One was quaffed so I could have enough air to pick the locked door to the room with the staff. One more breath potion was downed so that I could get the staff and swim all the way back to the surface.

Hexameron said: 11th Jun 2010 01:33

FM: Strange Meeting
File: SeltsameBegegnungV2.zip

Ghost - Failed
Time - 00:22:08
Loot - 0/0
Pockets Picked - 0/1
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 7992 Damage taken - 5
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 6

Causes of Failure:

1. Cannot sneak by hammerite in library.

2. Cannot sneak by two thieves beyond the library.

3. Cannot sneak by pagan in grassy area.

4. Cannot sneak by combat bot in bright room.

5. Cannot sneak by zombie outside of cell.

6. Cannot kill treebeast or Garrett clone (killing one of them becomes an objective depending upon the player's actions) without alerting them.

Comments - This may be the worst FM I've ever played . It's one of those missions that not only mocks your attempts at stealth with rudely-placed AI that must be confronted, but it features the most complicated puzzle I have ever encountered in any mission. I have no compunction in admitting that I had to search TTLG for answers to this puzzle, which I'll explain in a moment.

There is perhaps only one AI that the player can actually avoid alerting and that's the pagan woman standing in the white chamber with marble floors. All others will be alerted by the time the player makes it to the end. There is no sword, BJ, or any useful equipment except for some flash bombs, and they instantly kill AI when dropped, so I averted the inevitable frontal assaults by killing every AI in this fashion. I don't know if it's possible to sneak beyond the mechanist bot without taking damage: it patrols in a compact, bright, and marble-floored room that can only be entered and exited by mantling onto open slit windows. I purposefully alerted the bot and caused it to continuously shoot bombs into the wall until it disabled itself from the explosions.

Once in the prison, I was stuck. I also couldn't help but alert a zombie facing the cell that the player teleports into:



There is no conventional way out of this cell. The puzzle of getting out is so insanely difficult, especially when there are no in-game hints or readables about it, that I cannot imagine anyone figuring it out unless they consult the TTLG thread.

Here is the sequence of actions the player must have the instinct to perform:

1) Pick up the wooden chair and the spoon that functions like a key when used;
2) Use the spoon on the little burrow in the ground and pick up the dead hand;
3) Drop the wooden chair on the planks of the camp fire;
4) Pick up the electrical device situated outside of the cell that is close enough to the bars;
5) Drop the electrical device next to the chair so that when you frob the device, it makes a clicking sound;
6) Pick up the boulder and throw it at the gas light on the wall! ()
7) The gas light is now frobbable (makes sense ) and you can drop the gas light bottle onto the chair and then you get a lit camp fire;
8) Then drop the dead hand onto the fire and you get a hand bone; but wait! There's more!
9) Now throw the boulder at the hand bone and it turns into a finger bone! (Of course, isn't that obvious? )
10) Finally, use the finger bone as a lockpick to unlock the cell door.

I would have never gotten past step 6 without help from the forums. I am stunned that the author expected the average player to know to do all of the above without a single clue.

There's one more difficult puzzle once the player gets out -- oh, and there is no equipment to deal with the zombie, so one just keeps it in chase while exploring. The ritual chamber looked like a dead end to me, but the player must either drop the body of the pagan girl (found in a nearby cell) on the fire until the girl is killed, or step into the fire and take damage himself. Again, there are no readables to suggest this. How hard would it have been to create a book that details or implies that some kind of sacrifice or shedding of blood is needed to activate the portal? I opted to damage myself and even that worked only after I took multiple health-shield damage from the fire.

By now I had found all of the sword parts (parry guard is at the top of the white chamber; blade of hate is on the pagan stone; sword knob is available after escaping the ritual chamber). Dropping all parts into the blood water in the forge makes a spike appear; frobbing that teleports the player to a place with two doors. Only one of the doors will be accessible owing to the choice the player made back in the ritual chamber of either taking damage or dropping the girl onto the fire. So what's my final objective beyond this door? Kill a treebeast standing by a dead thief on a small ledge above some lava... 

Hexameron said: 11th Jun 2010 02:03

FM: Dangerous Conditions
File: WC_DangerousConditions.zip

Ghost - Success
Perfect Thief - Failed
Time - 00:11:24
Loot - 180/270
Pockets Picked - 2/2
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

Comments - This is a short mission with one scripted event that could conceptually be a ghost bust. After dropping the powder A and G on a contraption in the lab, an explosive device appears. One of the objectives is to place it in the storage room and get out without being seen. Once I placed the device in the storage room and left the tunnel leading to the lab, a scripted explosion (not a real one that would alert AI) occurs with impressive visual smoke and debris flowing out of the tunnel:



Afterwards, a bluecoat and the chemist from a nearby shack run over and begin a scripted conversation about the accident. "This isn't standard procedure" the guard says; a clever sequence of original Thief 2 sound files create a genuine conversation between the guard and chemist, and judging from their remarks, they don't suspect foul play:



When the conversation is over, they walk away unalerted:



One could argue philosophically that this is a bust since AI are seen to be reacting to a noise and deviate from their normal positions, but I saw no evidence of technical alerts. The explosion is not a real one or else the nobleman outside of the hut would have heard it, and the alert level of all AI remains at zero as if nothing happened.

What's weird is that there is an optional objective to not alert anyone before placing the explosive device in the storage room. If you fail that, a new objective appears to put everyone into the storage room before using the explosive device. I guess the author intends the player to KO everyone and drop their bodies in there so that no witnesses are left behind. But if you don't alert anyone and then place the explosive box in the storage room, a different new objective triggers that states that I really can't alert or harm anyone now that the bomb is in place - this new objective will be checked off when the game is finished, but the aforementioned optional one is cancelled out. At any rate, I didn't technically alert them -- even the new objective proves I didn't, but I'm open to disagreement.

Hexameron said: 11th Jun 2010 03:30

FM: Relics
File: Relics.zip

Ghost - Failed
Time - 00:32:15
Loot - 1875/1875
Pockets Picked - 1/3
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0
Bodies Discovered by Enemies - 3

Causes of Failure:

1. Must break wood planks blocking door to crypt; doing so alerts a haunt.

2. Cannot retrieve loot in sarcophagi hall without alerting at least one haunt.

3. Cannot get Brother Aaron's hammer (objective) without alerting four skeletons.

4. Must kill and alert ten zombies in order to collect all loot (objective).

Comments - This mission can be an annoyance if one doesn't inspect every room closely since on expert difficulty there is an objective to collect all loot. So at the starting point, I made sure to rope up to the rafters in the chapel and my hunch was rewarded: there is a lootable mask up there.

I encountered a ghost bust very early in the game; the wood planks blocking a door must be destroyed. Incidentally, the noise alerts a haunt beyond the door:



I waited for the haunt to calm down and proceeded to ghost the rest of the mission. I had to douse the torches in this corridor or else the observing skeleton would see me moving by:



I found it impossible to move about stealthily in the tiled-floor sarcophagi hall. I had enough moss to carpet the area, but the problem is that this room is illuminated by an unnatural glowing light source that brightens the room at quick intervals. With one idle skeleton observing the entrance and two patrolling haunts, it was a challenging area to get through. I managed it only by entering the hall via the upper balcony. I shot some moss down to the sarcophagus and surrounding floor and placed a rope arrow above the hall:



Even though I could get down quietly and quickly backpedal away from the haunts with a 1st alert, I wouldn't be able to sneak to all four corners of the hall to retrieve the LC jars. When one haunt is patrolling away, the other is moving in an opposite direction, so I knew this was a no-go. I decided to leave the loot for later.

-I got the rosary without disturbing the apparitions; I just roped up to the far left balcony and jumped quietly onto the wooden railing.

-I got the hilt with no problems. Once the hilt is taken, a stream of traps are set off and a number of fire and magic projectiles continuously fill the room, but I just crouched and moved by without being hit.

-Then there is the chamber where Brother Aaron's hammer is kept. Four skeletons guard a bright area with a checkered board of pressure plates that must be stepped on in a specific order. The skeletons do not initially alert to the player:



It's only after taking the hammer that one skeleton is scripted to go on 2nd alert. It and the others will now recognize and alert to the player's presence:



There is no way to get out now without being seen by all four skeletons, so I had to run with them in tow. I took the opportunity to go back to the hall and get those LC jars and consequently alerted two haunts and another skeleton.

The last bit of loot must be generated into existence by destroying the ten zombies in a dark dungeon pit:



I've never come across this before where loot is spawned by killing foes. There is a panel of red buttons and pushing them activates a series of traps in the pit that eventually kill the zombies. After each zombie is slain or knocked down, a piece of loot appears on the table in the pit:



Each zombie must therefore be taken out so that all loot will be manifested on the table.

Hexameron said: 12th Jun 2010 00:22

FM: A Winter Holiday
File: ferie_en.zip

Ghost - Failed
Time - 00:25:38
Loot - 3420/3425
Pockets Picked - 0/1
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

Causes of Failure:

1. Cannot enter crypt below lighthouse without alerting haunt.

2. Must break icicle to retrieve scepter (objective)

Comments - This Polish mission takes place in a frozen swamp with a cabin and an old lighthouse. Entering the water of the frozen pond does damage to the player and there is only one AI in the mission. The objectives are to "ensure that my instructions have been carried out" (I never knew what that means, but I imagine there is something lost in translation) and find "as much loot as I can."

Reading a book in the cabin satisfies the "instructions" objective, but triggers a few more to get a keeper medallion, a scepter, an antique angel, and food. The key to the larder is on the floor in the old lighthouse. Underneath the lighthouse is a secret room with the requisite loot (3000), but I was stumped for a while on how to actually gain entry beneath. There is a lighter-colored wood panel in the floor that looks like a secret door, but I searched and frobbed manically until my right-clicking finger hurt; I could find no switch in the lighthouse:



The only solution to opening the panel that I discovered was throwing a nearby boulder at it. As soon as the boulder makes an impact, the panel slides away. Unfortunately, the noise from the boulder hitting the floor alerts the haunt patrolling below:



As for the medallion, it's located in a niche beneath the larder on an ice floe surrounding the cabin's foundation. Finding the scepter is more complex. There is a section of icicles hanging off the roof of the cabin that highlights when the player approaches; Garrett then says "Hmm."



Breaking the icicle causes the scepter to manifest and drop to an ice floe. Although breaking ice is one of the more absurd examples of "property damage", it is a bust nonetheless.

Hexameron said: 12th Jun 2010 00:43

FM: Mann Mansion
File: MannMansionV.1.1.zip

Perfect Thief - Success
Time - 00:07:23
Loot - 880/880
Pockets Picked - 0/1
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

Comments - A very small mission - although there are little to no shadows, ghosting it is a mindless exercise. All idle AI face the walls and the one patrolling guard in the dining room is easy to get around.

The only slightly challenging aspect of the FM is getting 860 loot per the objective on expert. There is one well-hidden piece of loot: a ring underneath a potted plant on the dining room table:

Hexameron said: 12th Jun 2010 00:56

FM: A Wedding at the Bar
File: tnh-watb.zip

Perfect Thief - Success
Time - 00:10:49
Loot - 4229/4229
Pockets Picked - 0/15
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

Comments - This FM is more like a demo of scripted AI behavior. The objectives are to swap the wine and water labels on their respective casks located in the backroom of the pub. That way when the guests are served water, they'll actually drink wine and fall unconscious from intoxication. I could only enter the backroom of the pub when the idle bluecoat looks away; otherwise, he would go on 2nd alert. Even then, the servant girl inside stands close to the casks, but I could lean forward enough to frob the labels. After this, one must simply wait for the scripted events to unfold. It takes a while - about 8 minutes of waiting and watching. First, the guests attend a music recital.



Then the bluecoat leaves the building and the guests gather in the pub and start drinking. One guest even sits down at a chair and plays a horn. Shortly after, the guests fall unconscious. The purses on their belts, which were previously unfrobbable when they were in the concert hall, can now be looted with impunity.

Tannar said: 12th Jun 2010 05:35

Nice reports, Hex! I agree that Strange Meeting is a little frustrating. I was determined to figure out the puzzle in the cell for myself but finally had to give up and look for a hint on the forum.

Hexameron said: 12th Jun 2010 17:26

FM: The Dream of Tyrus
File: TheDreamOfTyrus.zip

Ghost - Failed
Time - 00:53:13
Loot - 1145/1200
Pockets Picked - 10/18
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

Cause of Failure:

- Cannot reach rooftops without being seen by at least one archer in the watch towers.

Comments - This is a bizarre mission with huge open areas, inaccessible places, and a confusing plot: the player is tasked with helping a woman have an abortion! I never thought I would see that in Thief. The only objective in this mission (other than not harming innocents) entails three steps: find an abortion arrow, use it on a woman named Julia, and go back to the starting point to pick up a "package." By the way, this mission can only be played on Normal difficulty.

I was able to ghost almost all of the mission, but the ultimate bust was getting to the roof. Here's the situation: I only found one way to access the top of the buildings and that involves ascending the tall clocktower with a drunk guard at the bottom. If anyone knows of another way, even if it involves climbing, I'd like to know. At the top of the clocktower is an opening with a horizontal bronze pipe that functions as a bridge between the clocktower and the rooftops. But as soon as I stepped onto the pipe, one or both of the two archers who patrol in their watchtowers immediately saw me and started firing:



This isn't natural. Those archers are so far away that they shouldn't even utter a first alert to my presence. I noticed this also back at the hospital with the thief standing on the balcony. There is a potential to be seen by the nearby archer in his watchtower. I swear these archers can see in the dark. I even waited on the edge of the roof of the building with two inclines and everytime the archer made his round, he muttered a 1st alert even though my light gem was at its darkest.

Back at the clocktower, I reloaded a handful of times and tried to get across unseen, but never had any success. It may be possible to do this and if there is another way to get onto the roof, this mission could be safely ghosted.

Other than this one situation with the archers, I had no other major ghosting issues:

-In the large marble-floored chapel, I had to maneuver over the balcony and use a rope arrow to get back because the main entryway into the pew area is too bright and observed by two guards.

-The building with the two inclines across from the hospital with a thief on the balcony already presented a challenge with that archer who has infravision. But dealing with the thief himself is tough as well. I found that I could not run across the banner signpost without being seen by the thief. Instead, I used a rope arrow on the wooden ledge under the window with the telescope. I could then jump across and land on the rope and climb up with only a first alert from the thief.

-The drunk green guard at the bottom of the clocktower doesn't seem to alert to the player.

-I could sneak across the pipe leading to the sanatorium without being seen by the drunk archer (who is even closer to the pipe than the aforementioned ones).

-The apparition in the attic of the sanatorium isn't a problem as long as his back is turned. But he does seem to be hypersensitive.

-Once down in the sanatorium, I carefully searched one of the inmate rooms and found the abortion arrows on the floor under the table:



-I then proceeded to a large garden with apparitions and a very frightening child zombie in a shed. I only discovered how to reach Julia on the balcony by getting a scare from the child zombie. I opened the shed door and was startled by the 3rd alerted child with such unnatural speed that she could outrun a haunt. I turned towards the wall and started jumping to avoid being hit. To my great surprise, I stuck to the wall instead. It turns out that the vine, which doesn't look out of the ordinary, can be climbed. Obviously, I reloaded and avoided the shed entirely. But through that careless bust, I figured out how to reach Julia on the balcony.



Shooting her with the abortion arrow is like shooting an AI with a water arrow. It doesn't alert or cause damage. In this case, the result is a little disturbing: I shoot the woman with the abortion arrow and a bizarre scene unfolds with a baby cradle falling from the balcony to the ground:

Hexameron said: 12th Jun 2010 17:51

FM: Annihilated
File: annihilated.zip

Ghost - Failed
Time - 00:03:24
Loot - 0/0
Pockets Picked - 1/2
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 82 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 6

Cause of Failure:

- Cannot destroy the zombies (objective) without causing multiple alerts.

Comments - The mission starts with a noblewoman being slain in a hallway and a few zombies becoming 2nd alerted:



I was able to sneak by the zombie after he calms down. I could even slink into the foyer and get the footlocker key without upsetting the zombie with the blue lightsaber (yes, I believe it really is a lightsaber ). The locked footlocker contains an arsenal of fire arrows and this is the only means of disposing the zombies in this mission. So what could have been an interesting undead mission with considerable ghosting challenges ended in a first-person shoot-em-up with fire arrows. Once all zombies are destroyed, the mission ends.

I just have to say that I'm disappointed and baffled by this enforced melee fest, especially when the mission design itself is superb. The interior architecture is gorgeous; the ceiling dome with a small bird flying in the sky is breathtaking; the textures, the meticulous attention to decor, and the light fixtures are all top-notch. But what does this very talented author have the player do? Kill zombies... That just seems so degrading to the quality of the dromeding here.

Hexameron said: 13th Jun 2010 17:15

FM: Citadel of Wrath-Amon
File: cytadela_en.zip

Perfect Thief - Success
Time - 00:27:35
Loot - 7000/7000
Pockets Picked - 0/8
Backstabs - 0 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 0

Comments - No ghosting problems - this is a fun little fantasy mission with an orc fortress for the setting. Although I wasn't challenged very much, the thick orc patrols in the narrow corridors necessitated a lot of darting around and moving from room to room. The orc downstairs gave me the most trouble because of his patrol up the long winding staircase which offered no space for hiding. Whether I wanted to ascend or descend the stairs, I had to either wait at the bottom or top of the staircase and wait for him to walk by.

It also took me a while to finally discover the money in the guards quarters (objective). It's found behind a secret wall that opens from frobbing a small lever. The lever is barely visible for being ensconced in the wall above the bunkbed at the end of the room:



After reading a scroll in the officer's quarters, I knew to look for a vital key on the pyre at the top of the fort. The key is used on a lockbox that reveals a lever buried behind a wall of crates in the storage room. Switching the lever opens a wall in the chapel on the second floor. Beyond this wall is a chamber with Wrath-Amon's helmet (objective). A floor panel in front of the helmet reads "be quick or be dead", but when I expected a volley of fire arrows or some other deadly trap, I later discovered that the wall in the chapel had closed, thereby sealing me inside the chamber. So the warning actually alludes to the fact that the wall in the chapel slowly closes after the helmet is taken. This may be even worse than physical traps because if you quicksave after taking the helmet and don't rush back, the wall closes and you're trapped. If you don't have any other saved games, you would have to restart the mission:



I never tried to find out, but I wonder if there is a way to open the wall again if the player doesn't make it out in time. From what I saw, I doubt it, and thus reloading or restarting is the only option. At any rate, I didn't quicksave after taking the helmet. So when I didn't make it back through the closing wall in time, all I had to do was reload and know to rush out of the chamber after nabbing the helmet.

Hexameron said: 13th Jun 2010 18:10

TDM FM: The Builder's Influence

Ghost - Success
Perfect Thief - Failed
Time - 01:21:14
Loot - 3750/4515
Pockets Picked - 0
Damage dealt - 0 Damage taken - 0
Kills - 0 Knockouts - 0
Stealth Score - 7

Comments - I had only one difficult spot in this mission, but my main concern while sneaking through the building with predominantly marble floors was to keep my stealth score high. I would have had a score of 9 if I hadn't decided to get the loot from two footlockers with AI sitting a few inches away. The problem was the marble floors; I couldn't get close enough to the footlockers without making foot noise. In hindsight I didn't need to get the loot in these footlockers, but I chose to since there is a 3500 loot requirement and I didn't know how much loot was available in the mission (one of my wishes for improvements to TDM would be to allow the player to view his statistics after he dies or fails the mission, much like in the original Thief games. At present, the player has to wait until he legitimately finishes the mission until he can learn how much loot exists).

My only ghosting issue was in the office with Gerrard's tax records. There is an idle guard who stands close by the cabinet containing the records. Since I was trying for a high stealth score, I had to ensure that he would never be 1st alerted. What's odd is that he will stand in place permanently unless and until he is 1st alerted. In essence, 1st alerts break him free and causes him to carry out his routine patrol in the room, which would have made ghosting easier. I didn't know about this until much later.



I didn't dare move any closer to the guard without dousing the light to the left. Then I was able to sneak up to the chair around the corner and mantle onto the bookshelf. I couldn't get down quietly to the floor, though, without using a moss arrow:



I took the tax records (objective) without disturbing him. I was even able to mantle onto the bookshelf behind him and get the two pieces of loot on the small table in between the bookshelf and the wall.



Finally, I hopped back onto the bookshelves and made my way back, but I needed to use yet another moss arrow (my last one) on the floor so I could drop down unheard:



As I said earlier, it turns out that a 1st alert will make the guard start his normal patrol of moving to each corner of the room and even sitting down in a chair. But even when I had instigated some 1st alerts earlier, I always assumed that he was moving because it was a deviating investigation - that is, an alert level between 1st and 2nd. I insantly reloaded without giving it another thought. It never occurred to me to watch him carefully after he was 1st alerted, which I did do eventually. Bottom line: I didn't end up disturbing him or initiating his patrol because I stuck to the bookshelves that surround the room and used moss to soften my drop to the floor.

Hexameron said: 15th Aug 2010 21:15

FM: CZSK Council
File: czskcouncil.zip

Ghost - Failed
Time - 00:17:10
Loot - 0/0
Pockets Picked - 0/1
Backstabs - 2 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 109 Damage taken - 0
Healing taken - 0 Kills - 4

Cause of Failure:

- Cannot kill Rogue Keeper (objective) without alerting him in the process

Comments - This mission was made by the same author who gave us the WaterWay Tunnel series. What's involved here is a lot of puzzles and assassinations. Four AI have to be killed and in a slightly specific order owing to the lack of equipment and weapons.

Killing the rogue keeper and maintaining ghost mode is not possible. Two fire arrows are conveniently located outside of his locked room; the key to this door is actually spawned by pressing the Ramirez button (the key appears in the water tunnels). Even with the keeper unalerted at a long distance away, a single fire arrow does not instantly kill him:



One more fire arrow shot did, but there is my only ghost bust in the mission.

One of the more enigmatic aspects of this mission is that a particular apple must be frobbed to open a shaft with a secret button. Since I rarely loot apples for any reason and they looked so innocuously displayed on the fruit stand, I didn't give it a second thought. It's only when I got stuck and then re-investigated every room that I finally noticed one apple opens a wall panel. I couldn't crouch and get into the tunnel to reach the button, so I fired a broadhead at it:



Once that's done, another secret area opens up where Aspirin, a male thief stands. I was able to slink to his right profile and kill him instantly with a backstab. Later, I dispatched Norbik (the hammerite) with a single broadhead without problems. In one room of the wealthy house is an empty chest; inside it is a button that opens a way to Karras. Per the objective, I killed him instantly with an overhead slash.

Getting to Yohny (haunt wearing thief apparel) is not intuitive. I just happened to notice after jumping onto a wagon behind the fruit store that part of the black sky texture below the brown fence is a crawlspace; it's not visible unless standing on the wagon. The passage leads to a maze where Yohny resides at one dead end:



Yohny cannot be killed instantly by any means. A will-o-wisp floats above him making a frontal approach impossible. I was able to lean around the corner and remain in darkness, but even firing a holy water arrow at him only hurts him. Fortunately, I discovered that Yohny does not need to be killed to complete the objective. Rather, pressing the small button inside Yohny's alcove is what transports the player back to the fruit store and ticks off the objective. But to reach the button, I had to carefully lean around the alcove entrance and continue frobbing until I touched it:

Hexameron said: 15th Aug 2010 21:36

FM: The Creepy Temple
File: TheCreepyTemple.zip

Ghost - Failed
Time - 00:26:50
Loot - 1150/1300
Pockets Picked - 0/1
Backstabs - 2 Knockouts - 0
Damage dealt - 96 Damage taken - 9
Healing taken - 4 Kills - 4

Cause of Failure:

1. Cannot sneak past apparition at top of staircase.

2. Cannot sneak to the masks on the wall at top of tower because of an invisible apparition.

3. Cannot sneak by invisible apparitions in the chapel in order to get the masks, eye, and key.

4. Cannot sneak by spider in tunnel leading to horn.

5. Cannot sneak by treebeast in crypt.

Comments - There is no reason to expand much further upon my experiences in this FM. It is a virtually a reskinned version of The Mechanist Cathedral, which was not very pleasant to play: huge open spaces, sloppy AI placement, and very little consideration for stealthy options.

I had to use a healing potion because I took a lot of damage from gas plants blocking the way to the horn (objective). There is not enough room to get over the gas plants or wiggle through them. Towards the end, I gave up trying to sneak around and ended up killing a lot of AI. I have to say that the invisible apparitions may be one of the most challenging and frustrating AI I've yet encountered. Trying to sneak by something that you can't see and which doesn't move or make a sound is pretty hopeless...