All I can say is play the mission - it's good (actually, both)

I haven't played through that mission so can't compare.

But on a general note as I suspect this is some kind of a catch question of the "why water is wet" type I guess there are some scenarios where a lack of objectives actually helps immersion and would be preferable to a classic "normal fm" setup - I'd say an example would be where the player's avatar's identity and whereabouts are unclear and exploration of the unknown in itself is more than enough of a goal - a classic example always ...

OK I haven't picked up that with Necro Age light gem before as I never played with that mod (never liked its visuals) but it all now seems to make perfect sense as explanation to me, thank you - on both counts... (though the strange behaviour of that woman (I've rarely seen that) still remains not entirely clear to me)

PS So I also gather the guards are supposed to be inside the palace then? As said I've seen them running likely towards the police station when I was relatively far from the...

Ripped_Phreak: I am fully in the know of everything you mention as I've been playing this since almost as long, but the fact remains that I encountered all as described (including the one AI that remained in the 2nd (search) mode forever despite me being fully dark (as long as I remained in the same room with it, when I came back much later she seemed back to normal movement routine). To me it seemed that the detection routines are set far more sensitive than usual (as she may have been per...

An interesting campaign, especially the first mission hooked me, to me the locales are interesting enough visually but as a whole it lacks a certain "something" - sense for detail in terms of the smaller things and interesting tasks to do to make the world more lively, overall scenario and its urgency; it always feels somewhat lacking in the smaller print.

I think you're doing the mission a disservice by panning it without trying harder (it's not harder than lots of others - it just comes to my mind for example that the beginning of The Lost City is practically identical, overall number of initial spiders there = 10) or using specific in-built features that are common sense - like running from some enemies or using spaces that are impossible to enter for human NPCs (admittedly a feature I can't recall from anywhere else but apparently a delibe...

I love the absolute mercilessness (and freedom of imagination and mystery it gives you) of this in terms of absence of any context, you have to parse any interpretations of the place and where your avatar is coming from on your own at your own risk. To my knowledge there is nothing fully comparable among Thief FMs but slightly more "conventional" ones that have some aspects of this are Katharsis and some of DrK's missions (also there is a mission 3 in a campaign called Night Watch with simila...

@Eeerie Quiet: It surely must get better with the next one... :-)

*Spoiler*
AFAIR there is a statue in the Keeper compound that carries like a 250g tiara (where loot in general is very meager in value)

An interesting one indeed. I believe this is by far the author's best mission.

The loot objective is indeed somewhat high (2800 out of 3300, so 83%?), but not downright unfair. Have you swept the lower levels?

Well if weed is your 1st association ;-o I always interpreted it as just smoking to kill time (cool enough as is). Mechanists are there apparently on notice to collect bodies for their certain project...etc.

PS You made it sound as if the story wouldn't fit into some timeline but it wouldn't matter anyway because it would be all nonsensical - it is not. It is relatively difficult to parse the story from all the relevant readables that need to be combined with observations from environmenta...

The plot (or a system of fleetingly connecting sections of different plots in a day in the life of the City that Garrett is fleetingly witnessing) makes perfect sense. Read the readables/hear the conversations/observe the details. Do not bother connecting everything to the basegame timeline or making a sacred cow of it. Thief at its core is best as dark fantasy which many authors nowadays trying to be faithful chroniclers of a non-existent world instead of creating their own enrichments of it...