I really do. In fact, I would go so far as to say I *do* like it, and have had my optimal enjoyment of it snatched from me by one glaring design flaw.
There is so much to recommend this FM: it's a huge space to explore, its premise is interesting, its protagonist (a shameless Sean Connery pastiche proving he can still play the young thieves' game) I fell instantly in love with the moment the briefing video started, and feel compelled to seek out the other FM he appears in. It does many clever things with small detail and implicit storytelling. It doesn't fail you for getting to the ground the way Life Of The Party does. It plays around with optional objectives in multiple interesting ways, and its main objective has a thoroughly engaging set of plot threads scattered around it.

The problem is the map. It's a good map, don't misunderstand- beautifully drawn and very thorough- but it's utterly useless because it has no automap support. I don't have a lot of patience for modern FMs lacking automap in general, but for a mission of this size and complexity it's absolutely criminal. The southern two thirds of the level feature a sequence of near identical square buildings that are recognisable on the inside but impossible to compare to one another. And since traversal between nodes is limited to what exits a given node has, the whole area is turned into one giant frustrating maze. There are a number of "landmarks"- a rooftop with a pylon, an enclosed space between two edifices with multiple exits next to a balcony, a place where three verandas meet, a mansion full of passed out drunk nobles, an apartment containing a terrarium in the process of being robbed- that I instantly recognise upon encountering them- but I still have absolutely no idea where they are in relation to one another or the broader map because I can't see where I've been.

And, again, since this part of the level is a maze, I can't just figure out my approximate location and hop horizontally and vertically until I get where I want to be. Instead I am committed to traveling round and round in circles and eventually surrendering myself to the thought that the only way I know for sure to even get on the right path again (though certainly there must BE another, else how did I get off it?) is to bumble my way all the way back to Conall's apartment at the beginning and take the branching exit.

The northern third of the map has rather the opposite problem- this is where the meat and potatoes of both the main objective and the least trivial optional objective take place, and consequently it features a number of strikingly distinctive named buildings of singular purpose. But... so distinctive and so singular are they, that the map is hardly necessary. Upon arriving, you can probably get the main objective done and the side one started within all of five minutes if you know what you're doing, and then it's time to once again step out into the great featureless maze in search of macguffins.

I don't know why Feast Of Pilgrims doesn't have an automap. By all accounts it's a difficult thing to implement, but Marbleman and Random Taffer are so utterly gifted in seemingly all other areas of missionmaking I have a hard time believing that's the reason. Perhaps they believe that a manual map is "for real Taffers" and adds an invigorating element of challenge to the game; in which case I must respectfully disagree. The novelty begins wearing off really quite fast the third time you find yourself back at the pylon rooftop without having accomplished anything productive in the meantime. I could, in theory, print off the map and fill it in as I go, or approximate the same thing with in game annotations. But I'm not going to do either of those things, because I think it's ludicrous to be expected to manually emulate a feature Thief 2 already has just for the sake of artificial difficulty and eventually accomplish the same endpoint as if it had been there in the first place.

There are technically other criticisms that could be leveled against this FM; a large number of decorations that look like they should be frobbable are not, for instance, and similarly there are fake doors that look real and untraversable surfaces that look like thoroughfares- but I think a lot of that comes down to pushing DromEd to its limits, and unlike the map thing it was pretty easy to learn the new rules about those.

I haven't finished Feast Of Pilgrims. I can't say I won't- every few hours after quitting in frustration I feel myself drawn back to it with its promises of rich locales and interesting narrative soundscapes playing out behind closed doors where Conall can just overhear- but this kind of relationship with a game is not one that I have actually enjoyed since I was twelve. It's certainly not the one I would like to have.

Thanks for the review.
I initially planned to include an automap, but as you say- they are notoriously difficult to implement.
We didn't reach this decision from the idea that an automap isn't "for real taffers" or something like that. After all, they are included in the original game and we have no problem at all with them.

The real reason was due to time constraints.
We did not even finish the map your are given until about 3 days before the contest deadline.

You may not know this, but automaps are based on room brushing. Room brushing is how Thief calculates sound propagation. Having proper sound propagation in a complex city map is... quite difficult and time consuming- an automap even more so.
If we do implement it in some sort of update, we will have to simplify it by just highlighting where the player is in quadrants or something- I suppose just as they did in LotP.

Anyway, glad you at least *want* to like it despite this flaw.

Aha! Of course. Other participants in the contest have mentioned time constraints and indeed that makes the most sense. And honestly even a zone-based automap would be helpful- being able to look at your comprehensive map and conclusively say "Well there are four places that look like this and I'm not in any of these three" would be properly useful for keeping oriented and probably help learn the landmarks much more quickly.

I did know that automaps are based on room brushing, but not that this was how Thief calculates sound propagation or that this would be uniquely difficult in a LotP-style rooftop map, but that makes sense. Honestly I feel bad about harping on this specific issue so much because there's so much to love about the mission, but because navigation throughout the quarter is the name of the game, having the feeling of making progress with that particular activity frustrated just negatively colours the rest of the FM, you know? Mixing ingredients, stealing seeds, the warehouse distraction, infiltrating St Ives- it's all a joy, but all the in-between parts are just this experience of aimlessly and angrily wandering about geography I've already seen but can't visualise cohesively, which sort of sours the experience. FoP is still good though, definitely top two out of all the contest FMs I've played thus far and jostling for place.