New FM Pack, "Elevator Mission T2"

[Peter Smith]

I am very pleased to announce the release of a new Thief 2 Fan Mission Pack, Elevator Mission T2, by JIS. EMT2 is a nine mission pack. The file is very large-- 135 MB, so it is available initially only using BitTorrent. A link to the file may be found here:

http://thiefmissions.com/info.cgi?m=ElevatorMissionT2

Some of you know JIS as the author of The Elevator Mission, Undeadland, UFO and others. You may remember Elevator as being extremely difficult and requiring a lot of killing. Elevator Mission T2 is completely different - it does not allow killing in most of the missions. If you BJ an innocent, he/she is killed, at least in the first few missions, and the mission fails. So, this mission pack is intended for ghosting or at least sneaky play. The only resemblance to the original Elevator Mission is the presence of quite a few elevators.

I am a great fan of JIS's work. It is quite varied in playing style. One will be a "kill 'em all," one will be a race against time, and one will be a loot hunt. Most of his missions are quite challenging to play. A theme in all his work is excellent architecture, a dark and moody feeling of dread, and somewhat tricky mazes. These missions are no exception in that regard, although I have not played them so I do not know the main theme or the difficulties.

I learned about these missions when corresponding with JIS on another matter. JIS speaks no English whatsoever and relies on a very poor Japanese-English machine translator, so communication with him is a challenge at best, unless you speak Japanese. At first JIS told me that EMT2 would never be released in English. I volunteered to help him by trying to interpret the bad machine translations. This I have done, and this release is the result. However, I have not played the missions yet, so I cannot be sure that my translations are correct.

[EDIT: I have completed the series. I enjoyed it a lot. Please see below for a review.]

We will learn together whether the objectives are clear enough and what are the challenges in the missions. If you find problems with the objectives, please post here. If you have questions on game play, feel free ask here, but remember that there are no English speaking beta testers to help. It may be a while before someone has an answer.

I spent about 10-20 minutes in each of the missions before uploading it. From what I have seen, the game play is fun and the architecture is excellent. There is very little loot to be found, so far as I can tell. There are very few texts to read, and those are not essential to game play, according to JIS, so they have not been translated. I think the game play is simply one of exploration and avoiding AI. That is good enough for me.

According to JIS, mission 9 contains notes for some Japanese friends and colleagues. No attempt was made to translate them.

JIS has stated that this is his last Dromed work. I would like to thank him for sharing this with us and taking the time to convert it to English. Enjoy!

Peter

==============

EDIT: A few days ago I completed the series. There are nine missions, not eight as I originally reported. All nine are real missions. I have corrected errors above.

I enjoyed playing the series a lot. Playing in Expert, it was a real challenge, and I had a great sense of satisfaction to get through it. There's no question that it is fairly difficult, and it takes a lot of perseverance.

It was classical JIS all the way. The architecture is excellent but sparsely furnished. The atmosphere is creepy, grungy, and forbidding. The AI are challenging and must be fought in a few places, but sneaking will be a great advantage, either in bypassing the AI or getting into good position to BJ them. Most of the missions involve solving puzzles that have no clues and finding switches that have a remote action, such as opening a door in another part of the map. JIS is toying with the player, making him think, making him frustrated. You can visualize JIS pulling your chain, working you like a puppet. Depending on how you feel about puzzles, you may feel compelled to get through it, or you may give up. If you like puzzles in general, I urge you not to give up if you can stand it. You will emerge a better player and a better person if you don't go nuts trying.

The first mission is just a walk in the park. Not much to do. Some say it is boring. Don't worry. It is just setting the stage and giving you some architecture to look at. There is a problem of finding a key....

The second mission is a rewrite of the original Elevator Mission. It has many of the same elements as the original, often dressed up in different textures. But the elements have been divided up and moved around. There are some towns in the middle. Some parts of the original are missing. So, it is more or less a new experience. I thought it was a great improvement over the original Elevator in design and in game play. It is easier, but not too easy.

The first few missions have a no-kill requirement. That tests your mettle as a sneaker or a runner. About mid way, the no-kill requirement is relaxed and you can whack away to relieve your frustrations. But you don't have to. In most cases, sneaking will work. In a few cases, you must kill to proceed. It could be the solution to a puzzle. Those places are pretty obvious.

Most of the missions have very little or no loot. Only one mission has a loot requirement. That is a mansion job. In expert, you must find all 200 of 200. There are a lot of little coins worth 5 each. It is very tough! Unless you are dedicated loot hound, as I am, I suggest playing that one in Hard or Normal.

Missions 3-9 are completely new.

The last two missions have lots of little puzzles in them that allow you to progress from one area to the next. Some of the areas are very nice in design. The puzzles have no clues (at least none in English), so you have to think: "What are the resources at my disposal, what can I do with them, and is there any pattern here that suggests something I can do?" They can all be solved with that logic, using the process of elimination, with some minor frustration.

The last mission, Men's Tale, has objectives written in Japanese. Even though they hang over your head, don't worry about those objectives. They will all be resolved at the very end.

So, if you play EMT2 and have difficulty, don't say you weren't warned. If you can succeed and get through the whole thing, then I think you will be very pleased, as I was.

I would like to thank JIS for providing me with many hours of entertainment and for his brilliant work.

[Huntress]

Ha ha...guess I'm going to be in for one strange trip regarding this FM. I stopped on my way from S.D. to visit with tBm and he had file so burned me a copy so I wouldn't have to struggle with the dl...but had no real idea what this was except I made a comment about hearing the difficulty to play the first...but he said..oh this one is supposed to be easier Oh Yea???? Not even allowed to BJ???? That's my salvation for the most part and having to do all this additional ghosting...I dunno but guess since I have it, I'll check it out So yes, Peter, I'll probably be posting in this thread whenever I'll be able to get to it.

Apparently there was another delay in getting my machine back as Abit had screwed up the address to resend the new MB...used the wrong zipcode So Rich (my tech guy) is still working on it to get it all put together and running, etc. Said it might not be till next week but asked if maybe he could get it done by Sat...said he'd try but couldn't promise...darn!! I was hoping when I got home this morning that it would be finished and on it's way here...Oh well, not much I can do about that

Anyway, thanks for your assist to help us non-speaking Japanese Taffers so we could have a better chance of understanding what's going on Ta and Good Hunting!

[Peter Smith]

Hope you enjoy it, Huntress. I am not really sure about it being easier. It depends on how you play. I can only say that in the original Elevator it was nearly impossible to sneak up on some AI, so you ended up having to bludgeon them to death with a BJ, face to face, or get into sword fights with them. This also necessitated a lot of hit and run tactics. I have played 1 1/2 missions of this one and in all cases it has been possible to sneak up on AI and BJ them. But this does require ghosting tactics, so I am not sure which is easier for you. It is still fairly hard overall.

I was wrong about one thing. I said it did not resemble the original Elevator. Turns out that the second mission is the original Elevator, extensively modified, but same basic layout, so far. The other missions seem completely different.

[Gumdrop]

Sounds like just what I need... something to get my teeth into at the weekend, seeing as my Indy boxed set won't be arriving until Monday.

I hope JIS returns for T3 as his missions (the few that I have played) have been something a little different. Good to see you were able to help him out with a translation, Peter.

I've never used Bit Torrent before, so I'll have to give it a try tonight. Roughly, how long will it take to DL?

[Nightwalker]

It took me a half hour to download it with cable but that was right at the beginning and there were only 2 seeds so the download rate was pretty bad. The last couple of days I've left mine on as a seed when I'm not using the computer and quite often there's been anywhere from 6 - 9 seeds.

Huntress, just play it on Normal. That's what I'm doing and it's not hard at all. You can BJ to your heart's content and you get quite a few broadheads, as well.

[Old Man]

Alright. I've completed the first mission -- EMT2, Beginning is Always Night.

I was noticed right off by those cinders underfoot, and although I was able to elude the subsequent search, I was attempting Ultimate Thief mode, so I went ahead and knocked out all the soldiers I could get at. At least I had my blackjack with me. Nothing else. Not even my compass.

Pretty simple and straight-forward. Just one key to fetch that required some climbing and jumping. I thought I was progressing up an elevator when the mission ended. Then I looked at the statistics page. Okay, no loot to get anyway. But what's this 1 of 12 pockets picked? Did I miss a bunch of the level? And just what did I discover about the 'mysterious organization's plans' in the area? 1:04, 1 of 12 pockets, 6 damage dealt, 5 knockouts. Nice architecture.

Onward.

[Huntress]

If you BJ an innocent, he/she is killed, at least in the first few missions, and the mission fails. So, this mission pack is intended for ghosting or at least sneaky play!

This was the part of Peter's message that had me concerned...maybe you haven't received that particular no no in your objectives yet??? So guess I won't know till I can start playing it (whenever I get my main puter back again ).

Seems to me Old Man you wouldn't be able to finish that mission unless you completed all that you needed to do??? Perhaps there was some kind of miscalculation concerning number of picks like sometimes happens??? Ta and Good Hunting!

[Old Man]

Only objectives were to not kill anyone and to investigate this mysterious organization's plans. Both were checked off when the mission ended even though I didn't figure anything out about their plans. Nothing to read as far as I could find. Good thing I didn't wack any civilians then.

I'm guessing that extra damage dealt was when I tried to take out the final sentry. First time I've come across a unblackjackable type who was not wearing that ear-covering helmet.

[Gumdrop]

Thanks for the info Nightwalker. I'll give it a try.

[Peter Smith]

Old Man,

Yes, those cinders are noisy, which was somewhat surprising because I never had problems with cinders before. I guess JIS tuned the AI to be more senitive to sounds.

It is possible to finish the first mission without damage. I think the second requires a heavy hand with the BJ.

Yes, the pocket count is way off. As for the information objective, I suppose that JIS removed some reading material and decided to end it differently.

Wait until you play the second one, Old Man. That will keep you busy for a while. I have been playing it for two nights now, in my spare time, mind you, and stopping to sleep. I guess I am only 2/3 through.

[Old Man]

Second mission, A Doubtful Corridor.

I've managed to find my lockpicks and get the sword. The book to do yet. And I've knocked out every guard type I've come across save one metal helmet type just like the first mission. The mage and Hammerite pair were a little trickier. Had to lure them out and hope they came close to my shadow. They seem able to see me in the shadows even, so I tried leaning around from behind doorjambs also in darkness and that seemed to work. They will eventually find their way to exactly the spot they heard the noise so it's not that difficult to rig it so they'll approach the ambush from the correct direction, etc. Now I've got a cathedral key so we'll see what that's all about.

I never did finish the original Elevator mission so this is all pretty much new to me. And I'm enjoying it too. I do recall some of the level similarities though. And my impression is I like it a lot better this time. Probably because it has that Thief II flavour which to me is softer than the sharp contrasts from shadow to light in Thief Gold.

[Edit]

Just so everyone knows, I had to "use" the gear key twice on each of the three locks it worked. It didn't unlock the first time on any of them. Not really a problem for me since I still needed to retrace my steps to get at a few locks with both lockpicks anyway and I can always use more time to get the level layout clearer in my mind. But this did take a fair bit of time before I bothered to try the gear key again. At the crayman now ...

[/Edit]

[Edit2]

Does this ever end? Got the book. Tough bugger! Eight overhead sword hits plus two broadheads. And he goes out with a bang so I had to lean for the last shot and unlean(?) back behind cover before it landed. Got the "Key to Hell." Dunno yet how I'll leave this. I managed to trip the switch and exit without being noticed by the pair of bad guys. I managed to dispatch one of the trio in the engineer's book church by falling onto him from above and blackjacking him while the other two were busy out looking for me elsewhere. But I couldn't seem to get either her nibs or her pal so I blackjacked them while invisible. And why can't I kill these guys -- mission fails? They're enemies. Nice work with the oriental faced AI, btw, JIS! The "Key to Hell" needed a double "use" too, just like the earlier gear key. Some gritty Rope Arrow work for another switch. Had to leave one behind. There's a lot more but I've got to take a break and hope my head stops spinning. 4:00 so far! Still need to report to the Keeper, and the Optional Engineer's Letter Secret Objective too. 6 of 14 pockets, 17 locks, 3 backstabs, 30 knockouts, 186 damage dealt, 8 others killed, 3 bodies discovered. Oh, and there's one door I haven't been able to open yet with all the keys and lockpicks. One of a metal door pair across from each other. The one I have opened leads down to the square-toothed lockpick area. Give me a bit to see if I can figure this one out then I'll come looking for help on it. Zounds!

[/Edit2]

[Edit3]

Finished! Still need to figure out this engineer's letter bit. That door I couldn't open goes nowhere.

[/Edit3]

[Huntress]

Hey there Old Man...I was curious about your play with Elevator and apparently for someone like me, it seems to be still pretty difficult (comparing your ability to mine and your having kindof a hard time still somewhat) so what I'm wondering....

Peter, is he (JIS) going to at least make a patch for these seemingly apparent bugs (as what I believe are some bugs according to Old Man's report)???? It really seems that this one was not well tested overall IMHO. Shouldn't have to "use" objects twice or whatever to get it/them to work...picks not recorded correctly...guards able to see you in dark and guards wearing helmets that are not the traditional type for the ones you cannot BJ (so you don't know to avoid them instead of blindly going up and get fooled?)....these things are discouraging to me to want to play I'm afraid unless he will try to make it better..

It's just another situation of where I don't want to have to beat my head against a wall trying to figure something out that I shouldn't have to do in the manner that Old Man is having to do (or for that matter, anyone else that plays this game as is). Just my 2¢ as usual but I would like to know if any consideration is being given to fixing it??? Ta and Good Hunting!

[Peter Smith]

Huntress,

The only bad bug is a problem of slow frame rate in the second church, which can be circumvented, I think, if you don't save and reload there. Frankly, I think this is a pretty tough series. I am not sure I would recommend it for you. It takes a masochistic type like me to enjoy it (and I am enjoying it). You need a lot of patience and hunting for well hidden switches and keys, not to mention use of ghosting technique to avoid being killed. So, if you do play it, I think you should do it in normal and then not be too disappointed if you have difficulty. Cheers.

[Old Man]

I know you like to play as "Ironman" like as possible, Huntress. I wish I could develop some of that skill too. We ghosters are pretty quick on the draw with the save keys. Just after doing anything tricky or just before trying anything doubtful we make a save and are not at all shy about reloading over and over until we get what we want. I'm in the software business and what some people call "bugs" others (us, usually) call "features." Who knows, JIS may very well have purposely made the cog/gear locks and the A/B switch require double "uses" and the guards helmets unconventional just to challenge we players. To JIS these may be "features." Frankly, I'm quite enjoying the "newness" of these missions in this manner. Can't take anything for granted. Plus it's quite a challenge blackjacking some of these AI. You play JIS' missions "the old fashioned way. You earnnnn it!" Just get your mind set right before you begin. You know, stubborn like. And then dive right in and kick JIS' butt around the block a couple times! The architecture is outstanding in these missions, IMHO.

[Vanguard]

I'm in the Doubtful Corridor and I think I'm trapped. I've already made quick runs through most of the missions and have discovered in many places where the author did not plan for an escape or return route if you got somewhere that the author tried to prevent or didn't think of. In this mission, I dumped a body on the pressure plate at the door of the cathedral to keep the doors open but on a reload the doors are closed. I don't have the sword because it wasn't a requirement to get into this cathedral, and apparently I hit this cathedral before doing whatever else was needed to get the sword.

I've found no way out so far. I got the key (gear) to the gates of hell and flipped the switch in that one-room secret area. Other than raising the iron gates barring the haunts behind the banners, I haven't found it did anything else. I did manage to alert one of the haunts who sliced the banner when he tried to hit me with his sword. Ran away, flashbombed him, and ran back while he was still dazed. Nothing in his "cubicle" room other than another banner. While the haunts can pass through the banners, I cannot. And I don't have the sword to slash the hanging banners in front of the iron gates (now up) or the banners inside. If getting out of this area requires slashing something, it ain't going to happen because the author let me get here without the sword. There is a wall painting with a black square in the middle (the painting was placed too close to the wall safe behind it) but I haven't anything to open it yet.

In another example of getting somewhere that you'll get permanently stuck, in one mission there is a fat boy standing on a balcony. The author obviously intended players should not be able to jump off the balcony to get to the street below. You can faintly see the outline of a metal fence above the wood balcony railing which is to prevent you from mantling onto the balcony railing or to jump over it. However, in one corner, you can manage to mantle up and over to land with some damage atop a barrel. But once there, you'll never be able to get out.

I don't remember the other spots but do recall that several times I was able to get somewhere that will get you permanently stuck. Hopefully there will be an English version of this FM and that the books and scrolls, what few are readable, will provide some hints. I've played other non-English FMs but JIS deliberately makes even the Normal mode more difficult than Expert mode. No beta testers on this one?

[Peter Smith]

What you say is mostly true, Vanguard, but I think it is inappropriate to complain about testing. This mission pack is a kind gift to us. Besides, it is easy enough to release a mission with one of those innocent mistakes in it, even with testing.

As for getting out of the building with the pressure plate door,

do you remember a wall safe / painting in a bedroom before you got to the cells? There is a switch that opens the wall safe in the opposite room, to the right of the font. The safe contains a switch to open the pressure plate door.

You are right about not being able to get out after jumping off the balcony.

[Vanguard]

Actually I was wondering if there had been any beta testers. The .txt file displayed by Darkloader is very short. It has a section marked "*Cooperation*" but that could've meant they were co-authors or assisted, like providing voice-overs, so you don't know their role(s). It sounds like there were more participants in creating the FM than are listed.

Is JIS also known as Sperry (in other FMs)? No e-mail address in the FM. Does JIS use one of the forums for his/her primary communications, like TTLG (where I'm registered but rarely visit)?

Have you noticed any bugs in the objectives? On my first run through on Expert, I recall few objectives were listed, like only one or two, and I could complete the mission with them not checked off. I wasn't sure of what I needed to get done (even for some of the listed objectives). The mission would end and I'd wonder if I had missed something. On this latest run, I see more objectives and which do get checked off.

Considering the size of each mission, and the number of missions, it's almost like a whole game. After working with dromed that long, I can see why he wants to retreat to a padded room. Considering the size of each mission, I think his/hers is the largest ones that also don't incur severe jerkiness for me or crashes when you get high up for panoramic views (although I've gotten a couple places where the shearing effect did occur).

[Huntress]

Thanks for the reply Peter...and although I would have tried it on the easiest game mode...even from Vanguard...says Normal seems to be even more difficult of a mode than Expert??? That doesn't make sense but I understand from reading about JIS's other FM's he does tend to make them difficult and more of a confrontational type of game (seems to me anyway) which the exception of being a hardcore Ghoster type. So even though tBm was kind enough to include it on a CD he burned for me...I think I'm going to give it a pass I just want to enjoy romping though a game without taxing my poor brain a lot!!! I'm having enough of a time with "Night Falcon" LOL That's enough puzzle play, etc. for me...I'm in the last part of "Tower" trying to figure out how to get inside the Pub with all of our local men in blue having a meeting so I can finish???? LOL

In the meantime however, for a break, I decided to pickup on my game from the Original Diablo/Hellfire where I had started with a new charcter, the Rogue...ha ha, I'm getting my butt kicked but good in my current level...it took a bunch of tries but finally got one semi-boss type with his coherts beat but now I still have some more baddies to go before I get to the next level (which is 11) Eyaaahhhh! Hope I hear from my Tech guy soon as he didn't seem to get it finished Sat. as I was hoping for Then I can finally get back to Diablo II/Expansion and hopfully get to play on-line with Mr. Perfect a little That will be a first although I did get to be a tester for Multiplayer back then...but didn't get the game when it came out and didn't want to do that for real with who knows who (PKr's and the like). But since I know Mr. P...it should be fun cause I know he and I would be partners

Ta and Good Hunting!

[amievil?]

heh, i wish there was a way i could tell JIS that he is in some weird way responsible for some of the inspiration in my new fm

[Peter Smith]

I have completed the mission in Expert. What a ride! Difficult, but a lot of fun, for me at least. I have written a review as an addendum to the first post of this thread, so that first time players will have some idea what they are in for. Check it out.

[Vanguard]

I've managed to get the last mission, I think. It's the one where a Keeper walks away and you have to find the secret of the elevator (which is a huge loading platform). There are a couple of immobile but alive treebeasts and glass patio doors into a building with a patrolling black guard and one gal servant. There are a couple of frobbable candles (they light or unlight) but I haven't found any way to get past the door to the 2nd floor. I even killed the spiders under the porch using the blackjack so I could scrounge the ground and underside of the porch around them.

Thwap! That's me hitting myself with my blackjack to put me out of my frustration.

[Old Man]

Vanguard,

There are a couple of Water Arrows in the pond. Then, shoot one of them at the light fixture furthest from the problem door and that door will open.

And there's one more mission after this one that some of us are playing through now. But this one you're playing is the last one officially.

[Peter Smith]

Yes -- the final last mission #9, Men's Tale seems to be bigger than mission #8, End of EMT2 mission, and it is trickier in places, I believe.

[Vanguard]

Thanks, OldMan. I found it before getting back here. Douse every light crystal. Something like 2 dozen of them and only 2 water arrows. Way too many reloads to get past just this first trial.

I've gotten through the last mission which is really a series of mini-FMs that are trials. I think I had about half my life points left. Most were lost going into a wall chute that flung me up into the next mini-mission something like a hundred feet so I would fall to my death. I managed to orient myself so I was facing the "new" wall in the next mini-mission and would hit the top edge of the wall inset with painting, then bounce off and hit the floor. Both hits (on ledge and floor) caused damage. There was a comment by Garret about waiting aside but nothing about how long to wait. I never saw a change in the water column you scrunch to get into that would indicate a change in the water velocity that propelled you up at high speed. Using the fire arrows took a lot of running around the pillars to lose the spawned treebeast. And not one frickin reaction from the ghost guards. I got a couple more health hits from the haunt with lethal farts. Get too close and your eyes water and you suffer.