A Keeper of the Prophecies

Episode 1: The Enterprise

a Thief 2 fan mission by frobber

(Originally released for Thief 1 November, 2000)

enterprise22a.zip – July 1, 2005

Overview

The Trickster is dead. The world has been saved from his evil. And yet strangely I have grown darker these

past weeks. But Why? Comfort from old wine cellars has been easy enough to find, and loot at the expense

of my rich neighbors still pays the bills. It is the simple life I had always wanted for myself.

No surprises – and no world in need of rescue!

The Hammerites have promised a new mechanical eye. But what good is having their machine vision?

Even when I had two perfectly normal human eyes I wasn't any richer than I am tonight!

Yet, as I write this, I am beginning to feel a shift in the air ...and not simply the rumbling of distant thunder.

Perhaps it is just another crazy dream, but I can feel an inner gnawing saying that my fortunes are about to

change ...that the BIG one is just around the corner where I'll finally know the true comfort and peace of

mind that comes with becoming a genuinely wealthy man!

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IMPORTANT: CLOSE ALL OTHER PROGRAMS AND PLAY ONLY ON A FRESH RE-BOOT

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Supported Features:

Weather

Fog

EAX (environmental sound)

Minimum System Requirements:

600 Mhz CPU

TNT graphics card (or equivalent)

128 MB RAM

Thief 2 Patched to Version 1.18 (Required)

Recommended System Requirements:

1.0 GHz CPU or faster

Geforce 4 graphics card (equivalent or faster)

256 MB RAM or more

EAX compatible Sound Card (highly recommended)

Game Saves

For any mission, including the originals, Thief 2 might create a corrupted Quick Save file on very rare

occasions – so it’s wise to save every so often to a named slot in the ‘Save’ screen.

CREDITS

Voice Acting

SlyFoxx – Garrett

frobber – Master Solustice

Design Elements

Thorin Oakenshield – AVI 'movie' animations

Purah – with permission, many textures borrowed from the Calendra's series

David Gurrea Hernandez – many textures unfortunately greatly reduced in detail to fit the dark engine

SilentSleep – fade-up from black technology

GOB and MOG – wood texture borrowed and altered, from their Contest 4 mission The Bar

MsLedd – AI “skin” for Alisha

Goober – comments and suggestions

Play Testers

Renanse

Albert R. Conklin

SlyFoxx

Nightwalker

Daedalus

Spitter

Shadowspawn

TheNightTerror

Audio

Many unspoken thanks to the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) for the sounds of their

commuter rail passenger carriages and locomotives. To those seeking audio of metallic clanging, grinding,

and heavy machinery - trains are a gift from the gods! One old freight elevator in South Boston is the

source of terrifically authentic mechanism and metal door sounds.

Ambient recordings were made with a RipFlash Trio direct-to-MP3 codec (160kbs stereo). Miniature

condenser microphones were variously wired into my backpack or hiking boots and were connected to

the RipFlash through a custom battery-powered microphone pre-amp of my own design.

Audio was processed using CoolEdit 2000.

Playing Information

The Enterprise is a two-part mission. The first part is small, and the second part very large.

The Thief 2 fog setting is entirely optional – it looks cool either way. But setting for rain fall is a good

idea since the sound of rain will be there whether or not you have Thief 2 set for rain.

The lighting may seem a tad bright. This done because not all machines display the game brightly enough.

Use the - minus and + plus keys to adjust your screen for the right on-screen feeling.

EAX ambient sound is recommended. Adjusting Audio in the Thief 2 configuration screen may help

headphone and other 2-speaker systems sound better.

Except for growing annoyances, there is no real differences between Normal, Hard, and Expert. So it’s

really a matter of how long you want to play, and how annoyed you are willing to become.

Oddities and minor bugs that won’t be fixed

Sometimes Garrett will sink through a large descending freight lift platform while walking around if the

platform is still moving. This doesn’t seem to happen if you stay put and just enjoy the ride. It also does

not seem to happen when ascending.

Sometimes on some computers there is no bashing sound when black-jacking an AI. In one case there was

also a report about a loot item which made no sound when grabbed, and other rare instances of sound

drop-outs. This only happens on some machines, and only rarely (I hope). Try setting audio channels in the

Thief configuration to 16 instead of 24 if this is happening on your machine – it might help.

Some of the workers may run off yet never find their way home – mainly because “home” is atop some

workbench, and AI don’t seem to mark that as a place to call home. If you’re ghosting or otherwise

bashing your way through, then you’ll rarely see this.

Frame rate on Expert may be a bit choppy – this is mainly due to AI programming. Bashing AI will help

a lot. A fairly ordinary rig should have no problems, but if you do have screen chop, then only play on a

fresh re-boot and don’t run any other programs – and play on Hard if you’re machine is still sucking wind.

You won’t be missing anything other than a few bored guards.

General Information

Game: Thief 2: The Metal Age

Mission Title: The Enterprise

Filename: enterprise22.zip / miss17.mis (intro), and miss18.mis (part two)

Difficulty Settings: Yes

Equipment store: Nothing for sale

Map / automap: Map in part two, no automap

New graphics: Yes

New sounds: Yes

New Objects: Yes

Other stolen stuff: Garrett's local neighborhood from the 'Lost City'

Multi language support: Only English

Briefing : “frobber” logo, and a small transitional AVI

Story Information

As a responsible adult, I must add that you should not take any of this story literally or personally. I am no

fan of brutality, and it can keep me awake at night to think about the details of such things. But there is a

message in this mission - Power can corrupt even those people who should know better.

Copyright

Subject to the copyright limitations specified on the game CD...

Hosting of this fan mission is allowed on any public or private network so long as distribution is at no extra

charge (beyond normal access to the network) and the zip file is kept intact and unmodified.

Re-distribution of an altered version of this mission including changes to any supporting files is not

permitted.

Without my permission, an unaltered version of this fan mission may be included on a CD-release mission

pack, provided that this CD is sold for the cost of production and shipping only, or is a freebie given away

in some other form such as a magazine-published mission pack promo.

Revision History

enterprise20.zip – July 26, 2003, Initial release.

enterprise21.zip – July 31, 2003, Improved sound for non-EAX and 2-speaker systems; Fixed loot

problem (100g buried in a wall); Tweaked some scrolls (minor); Placed a few AI where they

wouldn't be seen improperly (can't say more); Updated this readme file.

enterprise21a.zip – Aug 7. 2003, Updated this readme text to be consistent with the mission series.

enterprise22a.zip – July 1, 2005, Updates in preparation to become part of the complete campaign release.

Disclaimers

Any resemblance in the real world to places, events, or people found in this fan mission are entirely

unintended, purely coincidental, and a total figment of your imagination.

This mission was not made by Looking Glass Studios (RIP), Eidos Interactive, or Ion Storm of Austin, TX.

It is therefore impossible to ask them for support. Seek help among the playing community as follows…

For Support questions…

Post a message in one the following locations. Someone there will have an answer to most questions:

Fan Mission section of the TTLG forums

http://www.ttlg.com/forums

Eidos Thief Missions Forum

http://www.eidos.com

If are really stuck, you can write to me… frobber@edanet.com … and I’ll see if I can help.

(I also enjoy feedback, criticism, and any other sort of fan mail.)

Enjoy!