Konrad   kondz.io public   https://thiefguild.com

Nov. 19, 2024, 11:55 p.m.   (Last edited: 1 month ago)

22 facts taken from: https://rzontik.wixsite.com/dark/fm-ready

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1. The main source of inspiration for the entire campaign was the game "Return to Castle Wolfenstein". From there, I took a lot of textures, themes for the music, an idea for shimmering textures for burning coals, and the atmosphere for the Marauder mission.

2. Initially, "Patriot" was supposed to be a single mission. The plot perfectly fit into this framework, while it existed in a draft version, and assumed the confrontation between the protagonist, rescuing a comrade from some difficult situation, and the villain major, concerned only with saving the City from outside invasion. However, when the details were finalized, it became clear that the plot enters the framework of one mission with great strain, while suffering from a lack of depth and detail. Therefore, it was decided to give free rein to imagination and stop saving resources. Two or three missions did not provide freedom enough, and in the absence of constraining factors, the campaign was packed into 10 parts, without camvator missions, prologues and epilogues. Most of the time, the plot existed in its 10-part version.

3. "It is said that the Capellan is the secret son of Karras himself." This phrase, uttered by the Mechanist in the Cog Tower, was originally intended only to puzzle the player and send him on the wrong path. Initially, it was just a ridiculous rumor.
But later, during the development of the scenario of the "Enemy" mission, the plot was developed in such an unexpected direction that an accidental silly phrase turned out to be absolutely true.

4. The mission "Reanimator" has got a very difficult fate. Initially, the idea of resurrection with the help of an artifact bearing the unfamiliar name "Ashes of the Phoenix" was intended for a completely separate mission, in no way connected with the "Patriot". Therefore, it was not included in the very first layout of events for missions. Then, when the script grew a little, the idea arose to create a "bummer" mission - in which the main task is completed successfully, but does not lead to the desired results. The goal was assumed to be unambiguous: using the same artifact, try to revive Victoria. It seemed like a great way to implement a long-conceived idea without winding artificial plot structures around it. But when trying to cram the mission into an almost finished plot, it was invariably found that it disrupts the dynamics of the narrative and turns out to be superfluous anywhere in the campaign, so it was decided not to do it anyway. Later, it turned out that unique scripts from Kdau make it possible to connect a mission bypassing the main plot, making it available only when the player fulfills certain conditions. And the "Reanimator" was reanimated. However, the operability of the scripts remained in question for a long time, as a result, the turn to experiments reached only at the moment when all 10 main missions of the "Patriot" were completed. Therefore, the "Reanimator" was made last, and the place was found between missions 9 and 10, which is why the mission received an unconventional numbering: 9 3/4. As a result, becoming optional, it nevertheless fit perfectly into the plot and did not violate anything. The plot develops equally smoothly both in the version with "Reanimator" and without it. And some of the names of the text files for the "Patriot" mission remained with the m10 prefix, and the same prefix was used for the names of the "Reanimator" files.

5. But the scene for the "Reanimator" was chosen long and painfully. Initially, it was supposed to be a mission with natural landscapes, pagans and a slight touch of mysticism. But all the inspiration was spent on the "Pathfinder", so the second forest mission had to be abandoned, otherwise it could turn out to be too secondary.
Then we went over a variety of options: underground catacombs like the Lost City; mansion; industrial premises. And each of these options had many disadvantages. The catacombs are too complex architecturally - they are difficult to make convincing without sufficient experience. The closed space of the mansion reduces the intensity of the narrative, making the action too intimate. There were already industrial premises, and in sufficient quantity.
In the end, an object was chosen, atypical for most missions - a bridge. Firstly, it solved the problem of restricting access (there are two riversides, and one of them must be reached). Secondly, it made it possible to make the mission quite compact. And thirdly, it made it possible to avoid the questionable topic of magic, and instead return to the origins, throwing the player into another battle scene.

6. The idea of escape from the cell using electroshock in the mission "Prisoner" was taken from the LOST TV series. But in the movie, this system did not work, since all the actions of the prisoner were controlled by a video camera, and the effect of surprise was greatly spoiled by this. In "Prisoner", though the camera was present, the observer (Simon) was not interested in preventing the escape.
In general, it should be noted that today, inventing some new and at the same time convincing way to escape from the jail in the game is a near impossible task. Actually, in this form it was originally staged.

7. These strange mechanisms in the Soul Forge in the mission "Saboteur" are nothing more than the early prototypes of Mad Philip's time machine from "Detective". The author (Elvis) was not satisfied with the result and made new attempts to make the time machine look convincing. The model was eventually built on the third attempt, and the rejected mechanisms were used in the "revitalization" workshop of combat robots and in the experimental section of the plant. They can also be found in the form of projection and printing mechanisms in the final mission, in the Beta digital archive.

8. The giant robot in the testing area is a reference to the early 90s game series Descent, published by Parallax Software. The sounds of its engine operation are taken from this particular game, the ability to periodically disappear also came from there, and the robot's missiles are copied from a model from the same game. The name Cloaking Device is from the same source (though in "Descent" these devices could be used by the player himself, and sometimes they fell out of the destroyed robots, and it was possible to pick them up). The female voice saying "Self-desctruct sequence activated" is taken from the game directly - there this phrase sounds when the player has less than a minute to leave the level alive. Finally, there were boss robots in "Descent" also, and, unlike many bosses from countless shooters, capable of evoking a variety of emotions ranging from laughter to fury, these caused a real fear.

9. From the moment the murder of Shame became a plot necessity, repeated attempts were made to save her. The ideas ranged from a fork in the script at this point to an Easter egg. But in any case, this violated the logic of the narrative and the concept of the development of the protagonist. Ultimately, a compromise was found in the form of the appearance of the image of Shame in the finale of the mission "Reanimator".

10. The flashback in the "Enemy" mission (the story of Karras' child and the Count's daughter) does not really give an unambiguous answer to the question: who grew out of the child later? Therefore, it was possible to turn the plot in different ways at the end, without touching the finished video. In one of the alternatives, it was Victoria. This version was worked out to its logical conclusion (obligatory resurrection from the dead, inheritance of the title of Count and the inevitable regency of her adoptive father), after which its complete inconsistency became clear. The final touch in favor of abandoning this version was the stamp in the form of the letter B, which only in the Russian version means "Victoria". In the final version of the plot, this letter means "Blackbrook".

11. Many probably recognized the island of Saint Michel in Normandy as St. Karras from the "Heretic" mission. The place is well-known, but not the only one used in the campaign as a prototype. True, the rest are not so global and much less well-known.
The Cathedral of Saint Remy in "Detective" is actually the Cathedral of the same name in Reims (France). This is a prototype, not a detailed copy; the similarities are mainly related to the interior.
The Blackbrook Robots Factory is a collective image of many factory buildings of the late 19th century. The factories were used in the textile industry, which is hinted at in one of the texts in the plant's directorate. And the workshop in which the huge robot is assembled was built based on the motives of the real workshop at the helicopter plant, where MI-26 is made. True, from the similarities, there is only a scale.
The Egyptian-style pool at the Count's palace is a replica of the pool at a budget hotel in Malta. For greater similarity, even the appropriate furniture had to be made.
The main staircase of the west wing in the same palace is copied from the main staircase of the school, built at the end of the 19th century. It is located about a kilometer from the place where Patriot was created. The texture of the tiles on the floor in this hall is taken from a real photo of this very floor.
And, finally, the well-known Tower Bridge served as a prototype for the Bird Bridge in Shalebridge ("Reanimator"). It is, however, rather difficult to recognize him, because the task of achieving at least a minimal similarity was not posed at all.

12. Some ideas came to the campaign directly from dreams: an endless elevator and a three-dimensional maze in the last mission; meeting place with the boss robot; wing in the mission "Enemy"; atypical Blackbrook streets with straight lines and low fences; the building of the police station in the "Detective".

13. At the same time, many things in the campaign do not have any secret meaning, no matter how much one would like to think otherwise. See examples below.
The umbrella for jumping into sewer was chosen solely for its functional resemblance to a parachute.
"Red Rays of Death" is just a name without any double sense. Such a name is quite in the style of the Mechanists.
"It seems that the wind of change does not obey you" - just sarcasm from the main character, whose gaze is currently fixed on the statue of the Lord of the Winds destroyed by the explosion. And the very expression "wind of change" has long been considered well-established. And only the English version of the name of the statue is to some extent a reference to "The Lord of the Rings".
Almost all the faces of the characters in the campaign belong to completely random people whose photos were found on the Internet. This even applies to the locksmith from the "Spy" briefing. One of the few characters whose face is taken from a specific person is the head of the Count's security, but this face on the model is so distorted that even its owner himself, going through the campaign, did not recognize himself.
The other is the Baron, whose face belongs to the actor who played the role of Baron Vladimir Harkonnen in the TV series "Dune".
And the face of another key character - the Count - does not belong to any real person at all, more precisely, it belongs to two at once, since it was composed of a couple of photos of random people by means of overlaying and erasing.
The faces of monks are best distinguished (the authorship model of PinkDot provides a separate texture file for the face), which is why you will not find your friends among them.

14. The letter about old and new generators in the basement of the Count's palace in the "Enemy" mission has nothing to do with the plot and serves as a kind of message to fans of high-poly models. The fact is that during repeated discussions of this topic, the opinion of the target audience was never taken into account - the very triangular characters who, in fact, will have to use these models. Here this gap has been filled as far as possible.

15. The original full storyline did not include the final flight of the arrow. The campaign ended when the Keepers who burst into the premises at the signal of the transmitter killed the Major. But when this scene was mentally replayed more than a dozen times, there was always something missing in it. In the end, it became obvious that there was not enough answer to the question: what, in fact, next? What followed was neither insight nor intuition. It was just that events were allowed to develop on their own. As a result, one of the Keepers for some reason picked up the Capellan's clothes and pulled it over himself, and this made the main character angry. And everything happened so naturally that the advisability of just such an end was never questioned.

16. For a long time, while the plot was being developed, the main antagonist remained unnamed, he had only a position. Perhaps he would have remained just a Major, if during one tourist trip the driver, who turned out to be a Pole, did not use the navigator. He did this all the time, and the navigator, of course, spoke to him in Polish. The gnashing sounds of one word, which was constantly repeated, eventually became the major's surname, only slightly distorted. And in the original Polish this word means "to turn".
As for the name Marcus, it appeared literally in the last stages, when the story of a child raised by the Hammerites suddenly arose. This name itself was derived from the word "mark" - apparently, the Hammerites gave this name to the child because of the mark on his hand. The name of the Ñathedral, to the doors of which he was thrown, was the final touch.
And the letter M in front of the name of the author of the book, hidden in the library in the "King' Story", then simply meant "Major".

17. Secret passage from the monastery of St. Karras in the Citadel mentioned in Appendix B (mission "Enemy") does exist. You can find the entrance to it if you leave the Major's cell through an underground passage and at the beginning of the path look very carefully at the ceiling. At one point, the stones form an arrow pointing to the left. In this place, you should linger and wait until the wall moves back. True, there will be nothing but a giant door in the opened room, and this discovery will not be counted as a secret.
A similar passage is found in the catacombs of St. Remy. And in the same way, it is activated by a delay in the corridor leading from the catacombs to the abandoned chapel, if you stop between two torches on opposite walls. It is through this passage that the main character is supposed to get on the rails at the beginning of the last mission.

18. In the mission "Heretic" you have to look into one book, which lists the signals for the church organ, written in the form of Latin notation of notes. Of all the signals, the player needs only one, and in the future he has the opportunity to hear it. The rest are not involved. But this is not an arbitrary set of characters, as, probably, many thought. Each signal represents some well-known melody, the name of which, the text of the song, or even the music itself echoes the name of the signal. This is a kind of optional riddle - to understand why this particular melody was chosen for a particular signal.

19. Many were confused about the lack of call buttons for the elevator in the mission "Enemy". And yet it can be explained very simply. The owner of the palace is a disabled person who cannot climb stairs, and the elevators were built solely for his convenience. And it is quite natural that next time an elevator will always be needed on the same floor where the owner left it, because he cannot move to another floor without an elevator. Therefore, he simply does not need a call button.
And there are ladders for the servants.
In fairness, it should be noted that some elevators still have call buttons. These are the elevators that are allowed to be used by the staff, as well as, possibly, built earlier, even before the Count got into a wheelchair.

20. Someone may have noticed a strange inscription on the catapult in the first mission - Thrunite. The explanation is simple: in Hong Kong there is a company with that name, and this company produces powerful LED flashlights. And their most legendary model, produced in different versions for many years in a row, is called "Catapult". And with a light beam, it hits a much greater distance than a projectile flies in the game.

21. For some reason, many did not fully understand this, but in fact the Bracelet of Submisson turned out to be a fake. The explosion in the corner, where the Major threw it, seems questionable, but, in truth, the explosion turned out to be rather frail, and the mocking music also seems to hint at the end. The existence of fakes was also mentioned in the mission "Enemy", so an attentive player would have to figure out what this is about.
One way or another, but regardless of the player, the character understood everything correctly. And he got really angry.

22. And in conclusion - the last fact. As in most other missions of the author, in "Patriot" there is a hint of which project will be started next. As far as is known, until now this hint has not been discovered by anyone, with the exception of one beta tester (and even then who did it through the editor), although many tried.
And this is because the solution to this riddle is as unclear as it is simple.