No Vertical Challenge for Thief 2

Played on Expert, Newdark

Very similar to my "No Horizontal Camera Challenge", but instead of not looking left and right you are forbidden to look up and down. Because of that I'm going once again to play only on keyboard. Potential problems will be with swimming and climbing ropes and ladders.

MISSION 1 - RUNNING INTERFERENCE

I noticed that I can't grab unconscious bodies, because they are too low. That's the reason why I need to pickpocket them before KO-ing enemies. Plus I can only grab their purses when I crouch. I could grab 3 golden bottles and secret speed potion in wine cellar by crouching and backing off. For 2 plates in dining room I needed to ride dumbwaiter down to grab them. It's very easy to grab junk goblet by mistake, so I alerted patroller. I could reach secret lever in basement only by crouching and leaning forward. I couldn't grab 2 nuggets behind crates in basement and 2 pieces of loot on tray lying on grass in garden. They are too low. The same goes for secret lever on 2nd floor, which gives me tiara. And unfortunately this tiara is necessary to complete loot objective, so that's bust #1. I had no problem getting wedding rings for Basso and Jeneviere.

STATS:

Time: 0:27:30; Loot: 1015/1285
Pockets Picked: 7/9
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 12
Damage Dealt: 12; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Secrets: 3/3
Busts: 1 (secret lever on 2nd floor that gives tiara necessary for loot objective)

MISSION 2 - SHIPPING... AND RECEIVING

BEGINNING

At the starting point I must mentioned it's a bit scary to drop from crates without ability to look down. I'm going east for a change KO-ing archer and knight on the way. Then I listen to Hammerite and noble conversation and going behind them inside while also KO-ing them. Kilgor's hangar has locked chest. Luckily it's possible to use lockpicks despite the fact that we are frobbing them way above chest. Then I went to Building B while KO-ing everyone I could. In Hangar #4 is urn on floor. To grab it you need to crouch walk and when you are step slightly downwards you can highlight it. There is also tapestry on higher shelf, which you can grab by mantling on machinery and running towards it. Then I'm going on Davidson's Ship.

DAVIDSON'S SHIP

Since I couldn't climb ladder I went to ship via pier. Stationary thief has 1st bag of spices. I didn't KO him as I had no idea if spider from small shed will attack his body. I opened shed and after reload spiders attacked thief. I opened secret crate and grab bed 2nd spice. Golden bottle in this crate is too deep for me to grab it. I even managed to clip into this crate by leaning forward, releasing lean, then quickly crouching and hold lean forward again. Then I turned 180 degrees around. Here I can push forward or backwards to move camera slightly downwards, but it will never move low enough. Also there is a risk of getting stuck permanently. Afterwards I just mantled and quickly cancelled it. That way I clipped into crate under bag of spices display. It's easy to get out by mantling.

Chests behind banners are low, but I can still frob them from farther away. I went under deck. Here is golden bottle on bench and it requires downward step while crouch walking. To get out you can stack 2 crates under hole and climb on deck. But you can also climb ladder without looking up. All you need to do is jump on ladder, move to it's side and jump to climb up. Then move back to front or different side of ladder and jump again to climb up. Then you can jump and mantle on deck. This only works in Thief 2. In Thief 1 you can only climb ladder from one side. Also I have no idea if it's gonna work on ladders stuck to wall as ladders in this mission aren't.

On deck there was fight between thief and spiders. To my surprise when one of spiders jumped thief managed to hit him and killed him. I ran to pier, but enemies spot me, so I fell into water and they restarted their fight.

BUILDING B

NE crate, west crate and crate in Osterlind's office contains spices, but they are too deep in crates to grab them. On 1st floor in SE part I can strafe jump and mantle to chest with rope arrow. Out of curiosity I tried to cross it over without going around it and using rope arrows and it was easy. I just needed to crouch jump on top of it. This doesn't work in Olddark though as there is invisible object placed above chest. When attacking it makes wooden noise, so I suspect it's invisible duplication of a chest. Behind this chest is crate with 3rd spice, which I can grab when dropping down.

My next target is climbing for secret chests in shaft near stairs. I can't use rope arrows as it requires me to be on the same level as wood I want to shoot, so I need to use crates. So I decided to return to ship, because under deck is a lot of crates. Thief fell into water and drowned. Only 1 spider remained. I let him go behind me into water and he died too. In spider shed is last spice, but again it's positioned too low for me to grab it. So now I have a problem. Out of 7 spices in this mission I can only grab 3. Others are too low. I decided to wait until later, because maybe I will find fire arrows or mines and I'm going to move spices that way.

So now I have unexpected problem. Crates on floor are too low to grab. Luckily later I noticed that when crouching in certain distance from them it's possible to highlight them by leaning forward. This way and using stack of crates under hole it was possible for me to move all crates on pier. It took me around 20 minutes and in the end it was pointless as I used only crates from hangars #2 and 3. I only needed 11 crates for climb: stack of 4 crates and 7 crates. Though I also put stack of 3 more crates for easier climb. After getting secret I just needed to blindly drop on crates.

BUILDING A - CODE SWITCHES

I returned to starting point, because I forgot statuette from crate. And again it's located too low to grab it. I went to Main Office. There is purple box above mail. To grab it you must climb to it and drop to highlight it. And then we are coming to 2nd unexpected challenge - code switches. When you stand you can highlight top row (switches #1-3), when you crouch you can highlight #0. Sometimes when you go near code display you can crouch and uncrouch to get stuck while highlighting other rows ( mostly #7-9). If you are close to the window you can also activate switches by throwing crate at them (when you stand you always activate #3, when you crouch - #0). I tried also highlight #4-6 by climbing on crate by running into it. You must climb somewhere between top and edge of crate, which is very difficult. I was doing this king of stuff during my jumpless challenge. I had no idea that this knowledge will become useful again.

Ultimately I learned easier method. Just stand in front of switches and then crouch and uncrouch. For #4-6 you must uncrouch very quickly. Also this trick doesn't work in south shed near trash chute. I think switches there don't stick out of wall that much like switches from Main Office and other sheds. I tried to use code display again, but it's much harder to get stuck on it than in Main Office. When trying to use crate I noticed that when crouching I don't only highlight #0, it's possible to highlight #7 and 9. But not #8. Eventually I decided to use switches from Main Office and other security sheds.

BUILDING A - HANGARS

In Lord Porter statuette and purple box under counter are too low to grab them. For painting secret I needed to mantle on lamp and shoot arrow into it. To go to 2nd fllor I need crates to climb. I needed 8 crates. First I do stack of 6 crates (top 3 crates are placed to crate stairs, so I will manage to jump there and mantle on top of stack), then I put crate on top of elevator switches. I take last crate with me, mantle on single crate, jump to top of 3rd crate and then mantle to of stack. Here I need to crouch, drop final crate and jump. Try to position yourself on top of a stack. Since my crate wasn't far enough to jump from top of it I needed to move to it's edge and then I jumped and mantled on 2nd floor. Then I push down switch to trigger secret and quickly up switch, because I was worrying that elevator my destroy crates. To return I blindly dropped on crates.

In Noah Jerm is crystal on top shelf, which requires me to drop it to highlight it. Here I also complete loot objective. The same technique is used in Selentura to grab key from purple box. Safe is of the size of crate and you need to use the same technique to highlight it. Outside of Building A in NE corner of map is another crate with statuette positioned too low. In Blackheart there is flute on small table and again it too low to grab.

Lastly is Mynell and his spiders. Fight with green spider is easy enough. It alerts 3 small spiders though. I thought I will manage to lure them to water, but they don't leave hangar. So from ground under ramp I decided to shoot them with broadhead arrows, which was tricky as I couldn't use full strength shot and spiders needed to be close enough. Nugget in spider's cell is too low on floor.

2nd floor has freezer with key on roof, but I can't grab it, because it's too low. So I decided to bring 3 crates inside. I put stack of 2 crates under ceiling vent with key and another near wall vent, then I pushed switch. Key fell somehow on single crate, which allowed me to pick it. Climbing up to roof was easy and opening safe was also easy.

All objectives completed except getting 2 spices. I didn't find any explosive weapons to push spices somewhere else. I tried to destroy crate to move it or elevate it with moss arrow, vut it didn't work. So I'm forced to look down to grab 2 spices (bust #1-2). I chose spices from Osterlind's office and spider shed on ship. Then I returned to starting point.

STATS:

Time: 2:55:39; Loot: 1405/1655
Pockets Picked: 13/18; Locks Picked: 4
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 33; Airborne Knock Outs: 1
Damage Dealt: 56; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 5
Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0; Disabled: 0
Bodies Discovered by Enemies: 3
Secrets: 14/14
Busts: 2 (2 spices from Osterlind's office and spider shed on ship)

Will you allow yourself to drop a crate (or use rope arrow) to change viewing height (e.g. for switches/entering codes), or only when you actually need to move up or down over something?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kangra

Will you allow yourself to drop a crate (or use rope arrow) to change viewing height (e.g. for switches/entering codes), or only when you actually need to move up or down over something?

My rules are about not pressing buttons for look up or down on keyboard and don't use mouse to achieve the same effect. So using crates to get a certain height is fine. Leaning lowers slightly height and it's allowed. You can try to get stuck on something, so pressing forward/backward will make you look up or down. This also is allowed.

MISSION 3 - FRAMED

Quite easy mission for a change. In Sewers I can fit in underwater tunnels by swimming forward, but manhole requires looking down, so I can't use this route. Instead I mantling at cistern near watcher, mantle on wall, then on roof and land on 2nd floor balcony. Secret ladder in Warden Affairs is attached to wall and it's harder to climb. I can't go to it's side like with ladders not attached to walls. Still it was possible to climb it. I needed to mantle on lever and jump on ladder. Look at it while standing on it's middle and jump. You will jump backwards, but back wall from shaft will push you forward back on ladder.

I needed to skip 4 secret coin stacks under control panel on 1st floor, though it was possible to press secret switch loot is too low. The same goes with statuette in water in basement. Code switches for Vault are a bit higher this time, so only switch #2 is tricky. I founded that if you get close you can jump and quickly press it. The rest of mission is easy.

STATS:

Time: 0:36:43; Loot: 1113/1378
Pockets Picked: 3/3; Locks Picked: 8
Back Stabs: 0; Knock Outs: 0
Damage Dealt: 0; Damage Taken: 0; Healing Taken: 0
Innocents killed: 0; Others killed: 0
Iron Beasts Destroyed: 0; Disabled: 0
Secrets: 8/9
Busts: 0