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T H I E F: T H E B L A C K P A R A D E
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AN UNOFFICIAL EXPANSION FOR THIEF GOLD by Feuillade Industries

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Mission Title : Thief: The Black Parade v1.0
Author : Feuillade Industries
Game : Thief Gold
Date of Release : November 30, 2023
Language : English
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Table of Contents
I. Introduction & Story
II. Important Notes
III. Expansion Features
IV. Frequently Asked Questions
V. Credits & Special Thanks

I. Introduction & Story

“‘Twas done then, as it had been promised aforetime; that the Power was taken by the Elders and thrust under where the Black Stars hang, then placed within the Highest Tower which is said to rise amidst the ruin that is the Tomb of Empires.” -- Translated fragment from the Book of Ash”

In THE BLACK PARADE you play the character of Hume, a hardened criminal who was sent into exile as a punishment for his crimes. The year is 833, you are now back in The City, a sprawling metropolis of soot-caked brick, greasy fumes and noisy machinery, with many a sinister conspiracy whispered behind closed doors. Lost and without a penny to your name, you are back to your life of thievery and must find your old associate Dahlquist. Shadows and silence are your allies. Light is your enemy. Stealth and cunning are your tools. And the riches of others are yours for the taking.

THE BLACK PARADE comprises 10 huge nonlinear missions that will test your thieving skills. It is recommended to have played through THIEF: THE DARK PROJECT and/or THIEF 2: THE METAL AGE at least once beforehand, since these missions are slightly tougher than the base game.

Break into guarded mansions and steal your prize, hop from rooftop to rooftop to reach your destination or explore ancient crypts to find forsaken relics of yore. In addition to the classic THIEF: THE DARK PROJECT tools and items, the undermarket happily provides new gadgets such as Disruption Bombs or interesting potions for those who have the means to buy them. THE BLACK PARADE aims at being a love letter to THIEF: THE DARK PROJECT, and we hope we succeeded!

II. Important Notes

- THE BLACK PARADE requires NewDark 1.26 or above to work properly! Please ensure you have installed the latest version of TFix or TFix Lite to play!

- THE BLACK PARADE is a campaign made for THIEF GOLD. As such, it will NOT work with THIEF 2. Do not attempt to play it with THIEF 2!

- Playing this campaign with THIEF: THE DARK PROJECT rather than THIEF GOLD will result in a lot of bugs and missing content!

- THE BLACK PARADE comes with a default config file that enables the following:
-- Enhanced Skies
-- Weather
-- Fogging
-- Audio Channels set to 48
-- New Mantle
-- Correct rope length
-- a few other options

III. Expansion Features

THE BLACK PARADE aims at providing a slightly different experience from your usual THIEF fan-mission and we took advantage of the massive scale of the campaign to introduce changes gradually. As such, several of the game’s base behaviors and mechanics have been modified, with new ones introduced as well. Several of these we thought were much-needed fixes to bugs and exploits found in the original two games, while others are simply additions we thought would make the game more challenging and provide some novelty for veteran players. Here is a list of all new/modified mechanics:

- Hume is not a Keeper and thus never received Garrett’s training: NPCs will now notice you if they bump into you or vice versa, sometimes even in a perfect shadow. Be careful!
- Hume can move banners aside instead of having to slash them.
- Water arrows can now be used to expand moss patches.
- Servants will re-light extinguished torches on higher difficulty levels.
- Servants may clean moss on the floor if they notice it on higher difficulty levels.
- Zombies now smash wooden doors open instead of simply opening them.
- Electric lanterns carried by guards can be turned off.
- A few guards in the campaign are outfitted with heavy armor and helms so they cannot be knocked out using the Blackjack.
- Hume can pick up small creature corpses such as spiders or sweels.
- Hume has additional footstep sounds for chains and pipes; these are metal sounds that aren’t as noisy as regular metal (about as noisy as stone/wood).

In addition to modified and new mechanics, THE BLACK PARADE also comes with four new items: two grenades and two potions:

- Disruption Bomb: this bomb releases a cloud of disruptive energy that disables electrical devices for a time.
- Smoke Bomb: this makeshift grenade releases a cloud of noxious smoke that dulls people’s senses. It is also said to be an efficient critter repellent.
- Strength Potion: this potion makes Hume incredibly strong for a time, allowing him to lift heavy objects with no penalty and also allowing him to inflict more damage. It also makes Hume easier to detect.
- Spirit Potion: this rare and expensive potion makes Hume shift from the physical world to the astral plane, rendering him invisible as long as he does not move too much.

IV. Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Do I need to own THIEF GOLD to play this? A: Yes.

Q: Will this work with THIEF 2? A: NO. This expansion is for THIEF GOLD only.

Q: I’m seeing this error message when I load the first mission: “INVALID/OUTDATED NEWDARK VERSION” A: Update THIEF GOLD to the latest NewDark version. See Important Notes above.

Q: What are the system specs? A: We can’t really give a precise answer other than they are higher than the base game and that any computer that isn’t 10 years old should be able to run this perfectly. Be advised that a few missions have expansive vistas that will cause the framerate to dip, but there’s only a few of these.

Q: Why THIEF GOLD? A: Because we like THIEF GOLD more than THIEF 2: THE METAL AGE. The latter also received an unofficial expansion in THIEF 2X: SHADOWS OF THE METAL AGE, which we highly recommend. It made sense to us to do the same for THIEF GOLD.

Q: Why not use Garrett? A: We have already made a few missions featuring Garrett and we thought a new character could bring a new perspective to The City.

Q: Is this expansion canon? A: No. We have done a whole lot of research on the lore and greatly expanded it, but at the end of the day this is an unofficial expansion and it is still fan-fiction.

Q: How much replayability is there to be found? A: THE BLACK PARADE’s missions are as large if not larger than those from the original game and can be played in a whole lot of different ways. Much like the original levels, difficulty alterations sometimes have a big impact on how a mission plays. The new tools featured in the expansion also provide even more replayability and can create unforeseen situations.

Q: This isn’t one of those campaigns with Nintendo hard difficulty relying on impossibly tiny switches, unfair AI placement, overly restrictive objectives and obscure keyhunts, is it? A: No. We made THE BLACK PARADE following THIEF: THE DARK PROJECT as a strict guideline, as it should be. We do not pretend to be anywhere close to the genius of Looking Glass, but we do think we have a firm grasp of what made THIEF great. We tried to replicate this the best we could. This means that most of the puzzles to be found in this expansion rely a whole lot more on navigating in 3D spaces, avoiding getting caught and finding clever, emergent solutions to problems rather than having to find some hidden switch tucked away in a pitch-black corner or getting through an area using save scumming.

Q: Are you guys fans of My Chemical Romance? A: No. This is what happens when you think you have a cool name and don’t Google it beforehand.

V. Credits & Special Thanks

FEUILLADE INDUSTRIES IS: DirkBogan DrKubiac FireMage marbleman Schlock Prinxellier skacky

PROJECT DIRECTOR: skacky

LEVEL DESIGN: DirkBogan DrKubiac FireMage marbleman Schlock Prinxellier skacky

SCRIPTS: FireMage

WRITING: DirkBogan FireMage marbleman Prinxellier skacky

CAMPAIGN MESHES & OBJECTS: DirkBogan FireMage

CAMPAIGN MOTIONS: FireMage

CAMPAIGN SOUNDS: Brandon Alexander Gamophyte

KEY ART: Dominus

BRIEFING ART: Dakota Lee Floatharr WhaleOil1 wycha

CUTSCENE ART AND ANIMATION: mensch FireMage

BRIEFING AND CUTSCENE ANIMATION: FireMage Frère Staven mensch

CUTSCENE SOUNDTRACK: Citizen Marmot

UI & MENUS: FireMage Kingsal skacky

MAP ART: Tannar skacky

ADDITIONAL ART: atis Dominus Medd

VOICE ACTING: Andrew Bartmess Ceamonks890 Daniel Thron FenPhoenix Gavin Edgington Goldwell marbleman masterthief3 Mattdistraction Pukey Brunster Random_Taffer Shadow Creepr Supremcee Unquenque Yandros

Additional voices from THIEF: DEADLY SHADOWS

TEXTURES:
Arx Fatalis
Calendra’s Cistern/Legacy
Clive Barker’s Undying
Dave Gurrea
DrKubiac
FireMage
Lady Rowena (gone, but never forgotten)
Melan
Necrobob
Return to Castle Wolfenstein
The Wheel of Time
Thief: Deadly Shadows
Thief 2: The Metal Age
Tomb Raider: Anniversary
Undule
Vigil

OBJECTS:
Circle of Stone & Shadow
FireMage
Jason Otto
Nameless Voice
R Soul
Thief 2: The Metal Age
Thief 2X: Shadows of the Metal Age
zappenduster

SOUNDS:
Actraiser
Ambient Alchemy
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Baldur’s Gate
BigFishAudio
Bioshock
Brandon Alexander
Cloud of Judgement
Coil
Darguun
Dario
Dark Souls 2
Demon’s Souls
DirkBogan
Doom 3
Fatal Frame 4
FireMage
Flow
Fornever
Freesound
Gamophyte
Gigagooga
Ishar 3
Jason Gervais
Jóhann Jóhannsson
Lecarde Chronicles
Loanstar
marbleman
Myst: Uru
Sephy
Silent Hill
Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 3
SoundsGood
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl
The Dark Mod
The Knife
Thief: Deadly Shadows
Thief 2: The Metal Age
Twin Peaks
Yuzo Koshiro
Zero-G


BETA TESTERS:
brethren
BrokenArts
Dark_Max
fortuni
Jayrude
Klems
Korthak
Mattdistraction
Melan
mensch
nicked
Nomadman
Random_Taffer
R Soul
Skejven
Suibriel
Vegetables
wycha
Yandros
Zoro

SPECIAL THANKS:
- All the support we gathered from TTLG and elsewhere. You mean the world to us!
- Ariane4Ever
- Melan for his help with fleshing out the plot.
- Whoever made the sacrosanct NewDark. This campaign would not exist without you, whoever you are!
- Dillon Rogers for being awesome and for keeping the spirit of Thief alive with Gloomwood!
- Random_Taffer for composing cutscene music.
- Jax64 for his help with the Sim Menu buttons order.
- Daniel Thron for being a rad dude, for lending his voice to Keeper 3 and the Ettin and for the very kind words about the project, we cannot thank you enough!
- Dominus and Supremcee for making it possible for skacky to meet Daniel and getting him to record voices for the project.
- MandaloreGaming for the shout-out to THE BLACK PARADE!
- Prinxellier’s cats
- The Petitoriup
- Azaran (previous Keeper 2 voice) and McTaffer (previous Hammer 1 voice), sorry your voices couldn’t be used for the final project.

...AND, OF COURSE, LOOKING GLASS STUDIOS!

THANK YOU FOR PLAYING!