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02/09/2012
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Title : Shadow Politics
Filename : shadowpol.zip
Author : skacky
Contact info : PM on TTLG
Homepage : http://www.skacky.net
Date of release : April 28th, 2012
Version : 1.1

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* Play Information *

Game : Thief: The Dark Project or Thief Gold (TDP users, see below!)
Level Names : Shadow Politics
File names : miss20.mis
Difficulty Settings : Yes.
Equipment store : No.
Map/Automap : Yes/No
New graphics : No.
New sounds : No.
New conversations : No.
New models : No.
EAX Support : Yes.
Multi language support : No.
Briefing : No.

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* Story *

This FM takes place between Thieves' Guild and The Sword.

"After the Ramirez and the Downwind Guild jobs, I decided
to keep a low profile for some time in order to strengthen my network
of acquaintances and associates. It didn't take long for some rich
people to follow my trail and try to contact me; heh, I robbed
and humiliated a Warden after all. One night a stranger knocked
on my door and said his master wanted me to do a job for him.
I was about to dismiss him when he managed to... distract me.

15,000 gold for the job, it's something I cannot refuse. The job
is to break into a highly-secured embassy in the middle of Hightowne
and steal a priceless diamond staff owned by an aristocrat from
Blackbrook, a city-state currently at war with The City. That noble-
-man, Duke Whitehall is urging the Baron to cease the war between
The City and Blackbrook for economic reasons, and my mysterious
employer doesn't want that to happen. By stealing his staff, he
thinks that the Duke will blame The City for the theft and return
to Blackbrook, cancelling all negotiations and thus allowing the
war to continue.

Breaking into this embassy will be tough; since the meeting is to
be held tomorrow, the security will be extra-heavy. The district is
closed at night and a swarm of lawmen patrol the streets, but
fortunately a friend of mine can let me through the Lampfire Lane
gate for two pieces of silver. I also have a map of Hightowne that I
managed to piece together over the years. I don't go often in there,
but it's a pretty lucrative area despite the danger. Once there,
I will have to carefully avoid being caught; the rooftops or the sewers
should do the trick. My employer has given me instructions to follow
with some information about the embassy itself, this will come in handy
when I'm there, because I have the feeling this is not going to be a
cakewalk..."


* Additional Notes *

- Thief: The Dark Project users: INSTALL AND APPLY THE THIEF GOLD PATCH BEFORE YOU PLAY! This is critical, as some AI, textures and objects may not be rendered or may crash the game if you don't apply the patch!
- The map only covers what Garrett directly knows about Hightowne. There's lots of stuff he didn't scout.
- This mission rewards exploration, so feel free to explore! Be careful though, as there are some areas where you might be able to get out of the level, and this might cause a crash!
- Ghosting this mission should be possible, but Supreme Ghost is definitely impossible.
- Some AI may act weird with their patrols (the guard near the priory, mainly). A quick load may solve the problem.
- You can access every area with one or two rope arrows, so make sure you save at least one or two. There are two rope arrows you can find in the mission on any difficulty level.
- Obvious inspiration taken from Sperry's Walking the Edge and Melan's Disorientation.

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* Construction *

Base : From scratch
Map Size : Medium to Large.
Build Time : 3 months including the time I took to learn dromed.

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* Loading Information *

Darkloader ready. Do not unzip -- Place in fan mission folder and install using Darkloader 4.2 or later.


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* Special Thanks *

- Thanks to Melan, Purah, DrK and Sperry for their awesome work that made me create my own FM.
- Thanks to my betatesters jonescrusher, bob_doe_nz and fibanocci.
- Thanks to all the people at #dromed, PotatoGuy/Spud and ScaryKitties!


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* Copyright Information *

This mission is (c) by skacky, 2012.

Distribution of this level is allowed as long as it is free and the package is kept intact.
No one may edit and re-distribute this mission without my expressed permission.

blah blah, you know the drill.