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May 31, 2004
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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."

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* 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

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* Construction *

Base: From scratch.
Build Time: ~3.5 months

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* Loading information *

This mission can be played with DarkLoader (version 4.1 was tested).

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* 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.