Fear is something that game players can appreciate in a game. In Thief, the editor has
an opportunity rarely encountered in the gaming world to create Atmospheric locations and levels.
Those of you United Kingdom taffers may have noticed that PCGamer magazine nominated Thief Dark Projects infamous Return to The Cathedral as the scariest level ever encountered in a game. They were { probably } right.
Note:
The following is not a tutorial, and will not give step-by-step instructions. Level design is
A creative process, and it is up to the individual to choose the theme and content of his or her level. It merely provides some hints and tips on how to create interesting levels.
About the Author ( Z )
I am certainly no Expert at Dromed, in fact, I’m little more than a Newbie in terms of skill, but I have 1-year experience. But that fact did not deter me from writing this. So there.
Versions note: At first, it may seem that Thief 2 is not half as good at creating “ scary “ levels as Thief 1, and , to a certain extent, this is true. But, Thief 2 adds new concepts which can be useful, such as Flares and Scouting Orbs, to the game. It also
Allows us lots more nifty editing stuff, such as fog, weather, New Sky, and Coloured Light.
Finally…
A lot of the cool scary creatures prevalent in Thief 1, such as Zombies and Haunts, are in T2, but others, such as the Burrick, have been left out. You can find out how to replace them, as well as do 25 other nifty things, at www.Thief-TheCircle.com/teg .
Prologue: Who is This Guide For?
This guide is for intermediate Dromeders who have basic Dromed knowledge.
It is assumed that you have read all the info in the “ Docs “ folder of your Thief Disk.
It may also be useful to peruse the guides at the link above.
Topic 1: Ambient Sound
This tutorial does not enter the scope of Ambient Sound, but at the above link you can find a tutorial about it by LiquidEgg { a.k.a. Me!!!!!!! )
Many sounds can be added to levels via Ambient Sound placement.
Topic 2: Subtle Hints
Giving hints to the player can be helpful when you want to warn them about a trap or
imminent disaster.
But you must be careful not to make hints too obvious, or too subtle. A scroll bearing details of what’s going to happen ( in the from of a journal, notice or (( for Hammers and Mechanists )) a scriptural passage ) will do fine, but try if possible not to allude to directly to the dangers/terrors/horrors/ “ Oh my God, What the Heck is That??? “ ‘s that
are coming to the player.
Topic 3: “ Remains “
Physical/Debris/Remains has many useful things to frighten
the player. First are bones:
Useful in situations where the player is confronted with places that are haunted or deserted. Bones can, with skill, be assembled into a full {human} skeleton.
Bodyparts: Probably the goriest function in the game is the ability to “ frag “ zombies. The results of this are very interesting. One can create a scene of carnage, or one of mystery, or one of terror. Note that all zombies in Thief2, when fragged, turn into the FemZom, for some reason. Zombie and HammZombie frag as normal.
Bloodstains: Anyone who has played the Thief2 OM Trail Of Blood knows that bloodstains are extremely effective. Bloodstain 1 is generally the best, as it is largest,
2 and 3 are smaller. Self-Cleaning Bloodstains have little use in an FM, as, as the name suggests, they clean themselves. A DamnSpot is a Bloodstain1 that may be modified, using S&R, to damage a player who comes near.
Morbid Note On Bloodstains: Bloodstains in Thief1 and Thief2 are different. T1 has a deep red pool, while T2 has more realistic bright red splashes. Both are useful.
Topic 4: “ Corpses “
As one of the Looking Glass Thief 2 team noted “ Theres no problem that cant be solved with a dead body “ Err……. Well, that’s debatable in the Real World, but in Thief, its true. True I tell you. To create a corpse: Get a Creature from the Object Hierarchy ( No monsters or Zombies, just Human or Apebeast or Haunt ) and give them the property:
Metaproperty – AiBehaviours – Ai-B-Gen – M-PosedCorpse.
Hopefully, the creature will now be lying down. On the floor. Dead. There, a corpse. Hah. Now, the other creatures are not really compatible with PosedCorpse. However, another MetaProperty for Zombies has an interesting effect. Give a Zombie of any kind –
Metaproperty – AiBeahviours – Ai-B-Gen – ZombieBehaviours –
M-ZombiePossum.
This will cause a Zombie to lie down dead, but get up, groaning, to kill you when you come near. Scary stuff, for some.
Topic 5: “ Ghosts “
Making a creature into a Ghost is simple. Create your creature. Give him the property
Renderer – Transparency ( Alpha )
Set the number to .35 . This is always a good
transparency value.
Now you have a creature you can see through. Now, for extra effect ( if you want extra effect ) change the property –
This is the creatures voice. The “V” stands for “Voice”. The
rest is easy to decipher. Change what ever is there to –
Vhaunt – Both Games, Vcray – Thief1, Vappar –Thief1, Vghost – Thief2, Vtree – Thief2, or Vapes – Both Games.
Try them all out. Experimental creativity is very, very important.
Topic 6: “ EmitterTraps “
These are traps that shoot from walls. To get one, create-
Fnord – TrapTrig – EmitterTrap.
Now, alter the rotate the Trap to face where you want to face. ( If you’re not sure which way its facing, select it, and type “Cam to brush” in the command box in the lower right corner of the screen. You are now facing the same way its facing. Now, edit property –
Tweq – Emit. The Emit What box says broadhead. Type in what ever you want to shoot out of the trap in that box. It should be in the Projectiles section of the Object Hierarchy, but you can use other things, to.
Now, create –
Fnord – TrapTrig – BoundsTrigger.
Re-size it to your liking and place it opposite the EmitterTrap. Add a
ControlDevice Link from the BoundsTrigger to the EmitterTrap.
Now load scripts, Portalize, do pathfinding, etc. and hit Alt-G.
When you walk into the BoundsTrigger, the trap shoots.
Now, add to the EmitterTrap’s property’s –
S – Scripts. Type ReloadTweqEmit in the Script1 box. Keep the TrapTweqEmit script.
That’s all there is too it.
Final Topic: “ Comparisons “
An OM: Thief One : Down in the Bonehoard.
Early in the game, Garrett is introduced to the Zombies and Burricks.
We had seen 1 or 2 Zombies in Cragscleft already, but this was far more atmospheric.
Bonehoard contains huge catacombs and those with EAX sound-card support will hear mysterious echoes. Puzzles, traps and interesting features galore await. As well as many strange creatures. Quite the interesting mission, Eh???
An FM: Thief Gold : The Varyx Obelisk. By J.D.Smith. ( a.k.a. Xarax )
The Varyx Obelisk is an enchanting TG mission. It contains many interesting puzzles, based around an interesting plot. In keeping with Digital Nightfall’s No Spoilers policy, I will not elaborate as regards to plot. Expect some monsters, humans, traps and burglary though. Excellent.
“Glossary”
OM: Original Mission. The original Thief, Thief Gold and Thief2 missions.
FM: Fan-mission. Missions made in Dromed by non-Lglass Thief fans. Get them at the Circle.
Lglass – Looking Glass Studios. The now dead company that made Thief. R.I.P.
The Circle – A semi-official website – run by Digital Nightfall. The home of all Thief FM’s, patches, multimedia, fanfic’s, and everything. – See link below.
The Forum – Through The Looking Glass’s forums for all their games.
TEG – The Editors Guild – The Dromed Section of The Circle and a TTLG Forum.
www.Thief-TheCircle.com - The Circle of Stone and Shadow.
http://www.thief-thecircle.com/teg/- The Editors Guild.
www.Thief-TheCircle.com/missions/new/ get The Varyx Obelisk here.
Forums@TTLG.com - The TTLG Forums.
Thief – The Dark Project, Thief Gold and Thief 2 – The Metal Age are copyrights of Looking Glass Studios and Eidos Interactive.
This unofficial guide was written by Z on 27th October, 2000.
The Varyx Obelisk used by author’s permission.
Looking Glass – for creating the Thief legacy.
J.D.Smith ( Xarax ) for allowing me to refer to his mission.
Digital Nightfall for creating the Circle.
Everyone at the Forum – for their idea’s and support.