Gerrard’s Temple,
A ‘prelude’ FM to Lord Azaghal Campaign

By: Jericho Barimen
Release Date: October 30th, 2003

This is a relatively small FM. I was bored with the creation of a larger mission, so the idea was to
‘quick release’ a small level. Then I added a few other things, so it’s not really that tiny. This level is
supposed to be a ‘prelude’ FM to my upcoming campaign, if I ever release it.

Please notice that it doesn’t contain much custom stuff, very few objects, practically no custom
Ais nor textures. I based my work purely on the original T2 stuff and focused on creating the right
kind of atmosphere and story. As for the story, I did not present a complete one in this FM, it’s
more a kind of an initial ‘splash’, an introduction of main characters, who will be involved in the events
later on.

I must admit I was a little inspired by T1 Lord Bafford Manor and the same as with the first Thief mission,
the idea was to give Garrett a ‘quick and easy job’. Just as he refers to it as ‘I have a simple job plan for
tonight’. :-)

Now for some technical comments... When you explore the outside of the temple, you might experience
a decrease in the frame rate. This is due to the large number of the objects rendered. I tried to cut down
on the ‘object budget’ in this particular area of the mission, but people with slower hardware might
experience slower performance. However there shouldn’t be any serious problems with polys, max I
was able to detect was around 500, which I think is acceptable. I modified the front gate of the temple,
because the original one didn’t have ‘block vision’ and that was a bit irritating to explore the inside with
the drop in the frame rate, caused by the outside objects. Also, I had some room brush problem at the
area close to the front gate, but I think it’s working fine now.

Be careful with the movie. Avi’s sometimes work tricky in Thief. If you opened Windows Media Player,
reboot your computer before you play “Gerrard’s Temple”, else you might not get the movie. Either way,
it’s best to reboot anyways. :-)

The movie is a low-resolution one, so don’t be surprised to see some “pixel simplification” sometimes.
The reason is size, the movie is “only” 20M in size. :-) Words on the flamewall fade in a different way
than in the original Thief movies, I used ‘dissolve’ instead of ‘fade’ option, I think ‘fade’ looks better,
but I was too lazy to change that. :-)

The rest should work just fine... I hope. :-)

Gerrard’s Temple is fully ‘ghostable’, yet some sections might be a bit of a challenge to be ghosted.

The whole thing took me about 2-3 weeks to complete. Releasing an FM is such a time-consuming effort.
Anyway, please enjoy this FM and in case anyone wants to share his impressions, I’d be very happy if
you email me at jericho_data@o2.pl, in case you want to ask about something or you want to point
something out or have any comments or flames. I want to learn from this FM and improve in the future.

One final comment. I was lucky to have a GREAT team of beta-testers!!! These guys were true
watchdogs and hunted down all of the bugs, as well as provided valuable comments and suggestions
for improvements.

Have fun cracking the secrets of ‘Gerrard’s Temple’!

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Briefing (in case someone can’t download an AVI briefing)
“I have a simple job plan for tonight. A small, city Hammer temple has recently attracted my attention.
Not that I’d like to marvel at its architecture, but the temple should hold some nice valuables and I think
I need them more than the Hammers do. A priest in charge, named Gerrard will be out of the temple
tonight, leaving on some kind of mission for the Hammer order. This should make my job easier. Still,
I should watch out for Hammer guards. The front entrance is guarded as always, so I’ll be looking for
another way in. I’m not sure, but there should be one. The tool I want is a crown, pure gold, adornments
and it should come out at a high price. A temple should hold some gold and jewelry as well, so I’ll make
sure they belong to the right person – me. An associate of mine has provided me with a map, which will
come in handy. OK, no point in waiting. The Hammers are burdened with wealth and I better hurry and
lift this burden off their shoulders. It’s time to go…”

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Mission Credits
- Story & Concepts: Peter Smith, Seth
- Voice Acting: Uncadonego, Seth
- Objects: Schwaa, Namless Voice, DEDX, BlackRuin
- Testers: Peter Smith, azrarhn, Preno, Seth
- Architecture: Alexius (for his ideas & tutorials)
- Tutorials: Komag, Alexius
- Special Thanks: TTLG community (Schwaa, frobber, Mortal Monkey, Yandros and others)

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Contact info: jericho_data@o2.pl
Homepage: none
Description: Contains the first mission of the campaign.

Game: Thief 2: The Metal Age
Mission Title: Gerrard’s Temple
File name: miss20.mis
Difficulty Settings: Yes (Normal, Hard, Expert)
Equipment store: No
Map / Automap: Yes / No
New graphics: No
New sounds: Yes
Multi language support: No
Briefing: Yes
Debriefing: No

* Construction *
Base: From scratch
Build Time: Less than a month

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Known Bugs
- ‘Gerrard’s diary’ objective didn’t check off for one of the beta-testers, but since it worked OK for the others, I hope nobody will have problems with it.
- I sometimes had some sound problems in front of the main temple’s gate, which I hope was successfully eliminated
- Sounds inside the temple might sometimes seem unrealistic, AIs are often sensitive. This was improved in the final version and should now be a trade-off between unrealistic and fully realistic.
- If the AVI briefing does not run, you need to reboot.
- I struggled to make both outside ponds climbable, so you can mantle out of the water. It should work OK now, but still one of the beta-testers reported some difficulties with mantling out.
- I had some duplicated objects in this FM, I tried to eliminate all of the doubles, but cannot guarantee I hunt them all, although I think I did.
- There are a few sitting AIs in this FM. They sometimes might behave strange, but I had to edit their properties in order to avoid some bad looking things (like having them stand inside of the chairs or pews). So this is a lesser-evil. Sometimes when you BJ them, they might make a step forth or jump back before they fall onto the ground.

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Loading information: Play with Darkloader. Do not unzip unless you really want to.

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* Copyright *

Copyright (c) October 2003, Jericho Barimen
Permission is granted to freely play and distribute this level providing it remains whole and
intact. This level may not be used as a parachute replacement. This level was not made and is
not supported by Looking Glass Studios or Eidos Interactive.

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The names or likenesses contained herein are purely fictitious and any resemblance to real
people, living or dead is purely coincidental.

Enjoy this FM.