------------------------------------------------------------------------------- May 31, 2004 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: Out for a Revenge, version 1.01 Author: Istvan Varga Contact info: istvan_v@mailbox.hu * Description * "A week ago, Lord Ramsden offered me a job, that I refused - I did not want to get involved in his dirty business; that was not a lucky day for me, though: he already had plans on making use of me in a quite different, but still very profitable way, in case I do not want to work for him. When I was about to leave the pub where I met one of his men, several guards were waiting for me on the street; it was a well planned ambush, and I did not have much chance to escape. They brought me into Lord Ramsden's prison, to keep me there until Lord Ramsden comes to an agreement with the City Watch about the reward to be paid for successfully catching me alive. Fortunately to me, they had quite different opinions on the prize, giving me enough time to escape from his prison, which was really only suitable for keeping drunk guards and peasants, and not a person with my skills. As I quietly slipped out of the prison (a few of his guards will surely regret trying to imprison me), I already had some plans on a revenge. Killing him would be an option, however, I have a better idea; with all the attention of the City Watch on me these days, murdering someone would surely not improve the situation. On the other hand, if I could come up with some serious evidence about him, then not only would Lord Ramsden get what he deserves, but all the commotion about his case would divert the attention from me for a while. And, there is definitely something I can use against him: some lady has recently disappeared after a party in Lord Ramsden's mansion. Rumors say that the lady knew about Lord Ramsden's dirty secrets, and blackmailed him; she was probably murdered in the mansion, but no one has any real evidence, and the body was never discovered. And, the corrupt officials of the City Watch were not really interested in arresting a rich and influential person like Lord Ramsden. While they did investigate, they did not really try hard to find out what happened. However, it is quite likely that even the most corrupt official would no longer hesitate to arrest him once there is sufficient evidence ... and I will come up with that for sure ! This night, I will break into his mansion, and search around. If I find something usable (a diary or a letter written by him, with details about the murder, for example), I will steal it, and, using my connections, pass it to the City Watch. Lord Ramsden imprisoned me, but now he will learn what it is like to be in a prison. Of course, while I am there, I will not miss the opportunity to grab from his wealth - he has much more than he deserves anyway, and there is the possibilty that I will not find any evidence; then, at least, I do not break in for nothing. I will take the Hammerites' prized gold hammer from the chapel as well: not only is it worth stealing for its value, but it may even happen that the Hammers will accuse Lord Ramsden for being involved in the theft ... and what those fanatics do to alleged thieves can make the prisons of the City Watch favorable in comparison. It is important, however, that Lord Ramsden must not know about the break-in, otherwise he would have a chance to escape from the law, or send his men after me to silence me like that lady. As soon as I have everything I was looking for, I will quietly leave the mansion, before I get caught or some evidence of my break-in is discovered by Lord Ramsden. I start on the streets of the City, and need to find a way to break into the mansion ... there are chances that it will not be easy (although the good thing is that I can loot a few houses on my way to the mansion; the City has many rich merchants, who will probably not miss a few bits of their wealth until it is too late). To make things worse, there are many guards on the streets, and, knowing about my escape, and the reward, they will not hesitate to catch me as soon as they spot me. I can only hope that at least the unarmed citizens will ignore me unless I threaten them or break into their homes." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Play Information * Game: Thief 2: The Metal Age version 1.18 Mission Title: Out for a Revenge Version: 1.01 File name: miss19.mis Difficulty Settings: yes Equipment store: yes Map / automap: yes / no New graphics: yes (mostly from Thief 1) New sounds: yes (from Thief 1) EAX support: yes Multi language support: no Briefing: no Difficulty level info: Normal, Hard, Expert * Additonal gameplay information * The following section provides more detailed information about playing this level, and by reading it you may avoid some frustration and bad surprises. Beware though that it may also contain 'spoilers'. Difficulty levels Normal: there is generally no limit on the use of weapons, and you have a maximum of 16 hit points. Note: unlike in the original Thief II missions, the healing effect of food and healing potions is not doubled on this skill level, and vulnerability to weapons is not reduced, either. Hard: killing humans is not allowed, and the maximum number of hit points is 13. This setting is very similar to the 'Expert' level of original missions, and is recommended for most players. It may be worth noting that you encounter more human opponents on this skill than on 'Expert', so if you are looking for the most challenging gameplay, try playing on 'Hard' without harming anyone, or without even being spotted. Expert: in addition to not being allowed to kill humans, there is also a limit of maximum 10 knock-outs, which may not include any unarmed people (e.g. servants or merchants). Beware that knocking out non-human monsters also counts against your maximum of 10. On the other hand, the use of gas arrows and gas mines is not limited, and you may even use these weapons against unarmed humans. Furthermore, your starting equipment does not even include the blackjack - if you have plans on using this weapon at all, you need to buy it, and it is so expensive that after purchasing it, you will not have any money left for buying other items. Also note that you cannot use the blackjacks that you find during playing the mission (they are 'junk' and can only be thrown away) - not quite fair, but the only possible way to obtain this weapon is purchasing it. Finally, the maximum number of hit points is only 10. Note: this difficulty setting has actually less human opponents than 'Hard', to improve your chances of successful sneaking. Blackjacking In order to make the gameplay more challenging, the use of the blackjack is limited in some ways compared to the original Thief II missions: - you need to hit the head of an opponent for a successful knock-out. However, due to the limitations of the game engine in supporting locational damage, this does not always work as you would expect; in particular, it is more difficult to knock out enemies from the front (and hitting a searching guard while leaning forward is quite unlikely to yield success), and you cannot knock out anyone who is sleeping - a blackjack hit would only serve to injure and wake him or her up in a rather bad mood. - some guards wear KO-proof helmets (such helmets have a distinctive golden color, and thus are easy to identify). Hitting these guards is definitely a bad idea, not only because of the loud metallic sound made by the unsuccesful hit - they also tend to be very fast and aggressive swordsmen. * Known problems * - the map does not always select the right page for the player's current location (but it is not supposed to be an automap, anyway); this can happen in the basement where the map of the southern area is displayed, even when the player is in the northern area, in fact - when crouching and creeping at the walls of the lobby, it is possible to get stuck sometimes; try to avoid contact with the walls - patrolling guards may get confused around some patrol points - care is needed when following them * Changes in version 1.01 * - conversation of servants in game room was not always triggered correctly; should be better now - less AI confusion around patrol points ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Construction * Base: From scratch. Build Time: ~3.5 months ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Loading information * This mission can be played with DarkLoader (version 4.1 was tested). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Copyright * This level is (c) by Istvan Varga , 2004 Distribution of this level is allowed as long as it is free and the package is kept intact. You may not include this level to any map pack without my permission. No one may edit and re-distribute this mission without my express permission. This level was not made and is not supported by Looking Glass Studios or Eidos Interactive.