--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

April 28th 2013

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Author : Cúthalion

Contact Info : belegcuthalion@hotmail.de

Homepage :

Version : 1.01

Date of Release : 06.06. 2013

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Briefing:

I've been quite busy since I left the Keepers and I guess the loot I accumulated over the winter earns me the title of an... economist. However, all this precious stuff isn't worth anything unless I manage to turn it into cash. But this is not as simple as it sounds. Around town all fences in the area are controlled by the City Wardens and frankly I wanted to avoid paying them a visit... unless they don't know about it. So here on the westbank I'll hardly be able to get my goods to the black market without anyone trying to kill me if I don't work for them.
I place great hopes in the eastbank of the river. A guy named Cutty supposedly outsmarts all the fat cats and still manages to keep his head above the water. No ones likes this swindler if I can trust the local gossip but this is exactly why I take to him straight away.
Another advantage is that no one knows his home turf. Unfortunately this will turn out to be a problem for me as well. Many clues point towards the area between Dayport, the infamous alleys near Shalebridge and the less seedy streets of Auldale. The whole region is a colorful melting pot of all sorts of citizens and nonentities, so I'm not surprised that this Cutty character remains unnoticed. One single note leads to somewhere near the 'Baron's cesspool', as people tend to call the new sewer system near the City Council building.
On my way here I spent too much time picking pockets, especially in Shalebridge, so it is indeed a little too late for my visit. Nevertheless I have to find this slippery fence now and convice him of a partnership with me.


NOTES: This mission takes place even before Thief: The Dark Project. Garrett isn't known to the City Watch yet. So you won't be harmed unless the bluecoats catch you with drawn weapons, while picking a lock or in the company of other criminals. Some people might not like you entering their private buildings or areas and some of the more dangerous fellows won't ask questions if they already catch you inside a forbidden place.

FURTHER NOTES ON TDS GAMEPLAY: Make sure you know how to let TDS-Garrett jump and climb (for instance forward key and shortly after jump key, both held, to make him mantle a trim or something (or vice-versa with the trim is directly in front of you); also that you need to face an edge straight on but without touching it for mantling to work. Plus, you can move Garrett during falling, e.g. towards a ladder). You'll probably need it often and sometimes in a hurry. The AI awareness is significantly increased in comparison to vanilla TDS, so don't expect wall-hugging to be as powerful. Likewise, sneaking without crouching is not silent anymore. The automatically raised blackjack is removed (one of several Minimalist Project features that I used), so blackjacking requires good timing. Knocking out sitting AIs was not successfully implemented.

Please note that the loot summary in the post-mission statistics shows slightly higher values for both max and (probably also) current loot. The reason is that I altered the standard re-selling prices for many items which works fine for the FM but the statistic menu probably considers only the archetypes of these items. I was too lazy to create new archetypes for the items in question after I learned about the issue. A complete loot list is included in the zip file with the correct values.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Playing Information*



Game : Thief 3 - Deadly Shadows

Mission Title : On the Trail of a Fence

Mission File Name : Hermes

Difficulty Settings : Yes

Equipment Store : No

Map : Yes

Auto Map : No

New Graphics : Yes

New Sounds : Yes

New Objects : Yes

Multi language support : Yes

Difficulty Level Info : Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert

Known Bugs : The introduction sequence is prone to bugs. If you run into things that seem odd, just reload. You're losing only about two minutes. Some of the private area and hostility scripts might cause strange moments (e.g. alarm cascading) during the game but hopefully not too often. Anything might always happen, so save regularly! Despite a clean navigation mesh in most areas, some AIs may be caught walking against walls or railings. I have no idea how to counter that, the NM clearly tells them not to!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Video Briefing Length : 1:50

Video Briefing Size : 100 MB

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Construction*



Base : From Scratch

Build Time : 6 years

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes :



Version 1.01

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks :



From TTLG in general and the T3 Editor's guild in particular (in no notable order whatsoever): Ziemanskye, Tiens, Flux, Judith, JohnP, Child of Karras, Vogelfrei, New Horizon, str8g8, Massimiliano Goi, ShadowSneaker, jtr7. Thanks as well to the FM loader programmers which helped fixing not only FM loading problems but also T3(ed)'s registry issue: R. Potter, Xiaopang & last but definitely not least snobel. Thanks also to saxmeister for his wonderful Garrett voice acting.

This mission uses additional textures by JohnP, str8g8, Tiens, Judith, Renzatic & Flux
~ static meshes by str8g8, Ziemanskye, Tiens, Judith & Flux
~ music by the Child of Karras aka JayB
~ briefing video artwork by Yalda
~ ini tweaks and files by S_Hole, Minimalist Project
~ Thief-1-styled menu background by Dave Angel
~ Garrett and guard voices by saxmeister

Thanks to my beta testers for their valuable contributions: gnartsch, Judith, snobel, Lauryl, xxcoy, Child of Karras. A very big thank you to Azaran for the French translation and Smallman_647 and Overmann for the Italian one. Thanks to Soldi for providing the Russian translations. Sorry for the lot of text I handed over to you!

Sources of Inspiration over the last years were str8g8's excellent mission "The Bridge" which I shamelessly copied occasionally, artistic impressions and photos of medieval and later cities, artworks and architecture of the first The Witcher game, the remaining old industrial buildings of my own home region, impressions of old London, also through the Sweeney Todd movie, and mostly tons of pictures from all over the web.

Version 1.01 makes the briefing video display as intended with newer versions of the Sneaky Upgrade. No changes to the FM itself.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

*Loading Information*



Runs from FMSel as included in the Sneaky Upgrade for TDS. Older FM loaders might work (if re-packed as an ordinary *.zip file for GarrettLoader and TFMM) but are not supported just in case. Leave the file ZIPPED - DO NOT UNZIP this file, but put the whole zip file into whatever folder/directory on your hard drive where you keep your Thief 3 FMs, then run your FM loader and play!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* Copyright Information *



This level is © by (Beleg) Cúthalion 2007-2013



Distribution of this level is allowed in any way, shape, or manner you wish, as long as it's been executed with my consent.



This level was not made and is not supported by Looking Glass Studios or Eidos

Interactive.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------