Release Date: 12.24.06 Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!
Version: v1.0
All required custom scripts are already included in this archive.
Setting
A long lost underground temple and cave system, just after the events of Tomb Raider I.
Story
Lara discovers a fragment of an ancient Greek manuscript which suggests that there is an extension to the area known as St. Francis’ Folly, inaccessible from the area she had previously visited and difficult to get into, but home to an artifact known as the Mask of Agamemnon. Mythical accounts claim that Agamemnon wore the mask during the Trojan wars, and its powers are what prevented him from being slain by an arrow. Whether it has any real powers or not, it would surely be an incredible addition to her collection, so she endeavors to find it. And some extra baubles and trinkets along the way would also be nice.
Difficulty Levels
Easy: Fewer enemies, more cash to spend and more equipment
Normal: Average numbers of enemies, less cash and less equipment
Hard: More enemies, and even less cash and equipment
Total Loot: 4945 Secrets: 5
All areas, secrets and loot are accessible/available on all difficulty levels.
Tips (no real spoilers)
There is little about this mission which is similar to most other Thief missions you have played.
Here are some things to keep in mind:
Lara Croft has many talents, but stealth is not one of them. While you can still use shadows to your advantage much as Garrett would, you lack the ability to judge how well hidden you are. Thus, there is no light gem.
Due to lack of time and difficulty of implementation, there are no guns as in the original Tomb Raider games. You have traditional Thief weaponry, plus one new grenade at your disposal. Maybe if I do another TR-styled mission it will feature more modern firepower…
Tomb Raider features frequent camera cutscenes where you get a ‘preview’ of the area you’ve just entered, or get to see the effects of frobbing a lever or button when they control something that’s not nearby. The style of those brief cutscenes are replicated as faithfully as possible in this mission. Note: When you see bluish lights during a cutscene, they serve as a hint, so heed them.
Tomb Raider features a great deal of acrobatic running, jumping and mantling. Since many Thief players find this style of play overly difficult or tedious, there is some but hopefully not too much of this required in ths mission. When in doubt, try a running-jump-mantle by running and then pressing and holding Jump down until you mantle up.
Credits
Huge Thanks to Gumdrop (Tim Murray) for the base of this mission
Most images and music: http://www.tombraiderchronicles.com/
Testers:
Nightwalker, Freddy Fox, Moghedian, Dafyyd, TheNightTerror, SlipTip, and of course Gumdrop
Scripts (many things in this mission would be impossible without them):
Telliamed (tnhScript, Public script)
Nameless Voice (NVScript)
Textures:
Tomb Raider I
Flame and smoke bitmaps for torches and fire elementals by Nameless Voice
Creatures:
Blue monkeys from DEDx, ported from SS2 by Rob Hicks
Skin modified by Yandros
Burricks and Fire Elementals ported from Thief 1 by Gumdrop
Some Fire Elemental settings taken from Nameless Voice’s FM The Temple of the Tides
The very cool bone guard guys by Targa
Objects:
Targa – The sword, and the base object for the new health bar
Tdbonko – The Mask (texture altered by Yandros)
Vigil & Yandros – iron gate
Yandros – Lara skin and arm mesh textures, new health bar, medikits
Gumdrop – New textures for levers, torches, lost city chests, vine railing, everything else
Sound:
Ambient music & sound effects
Main ambient music – Paradise Lost by Lisa Gerrard
All other music and custom sounds from Tomb Raider I, ported by Gumdrop and Yandros
Voices
Some voices are actually Lara from Tomb Raider I
All others are Ryalla from Curse of the Carnival (Beta) by Alexandria Thomson
Ryalla voice modifications: Andrew Dagilis
By the way, there actually is an artifact called The Mask of Agamemnon (although it probably wasn’t really his).
Learn more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mask_of_Agamemnon