Announcing Thief: The Dark Project 20th Anniversary Contest - Nov 30, 2018

[Yandros]

November 30th, 2018 marks the 20th anniversary of Thief: The Dark Project’s release. Garrett was first let loose in The City’s darkened and mysterious streets on this day twenty years ago. The rest, as they say, is history.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of this masterpiece, a contest was held here on TTLG where Fan Mission builders had one year to build one or more missions in the style of the original game and using mostly stock assets. We are very proud to announce that we received a grand total of 24 missions for this contest!

Brethren graciously offered to host all the missions in one page, which you can access here: http://www.southquarter.com/tdp20ac/

He is also providing a mirror on Google Docs here.


You can find the individual mission threads below.

An Enigmatic Treasure with a Recondite Discovery by GORT
Catacombs of Knoss by Anonymous
Darkness Walk With Us! by Haplo
Dewinder Manor by psych0sis
Downtowne Funk by Yandros
Heart And Soul by StinkyKitty & McTaffer
In & Out by FrenchDecay, JarlFrank & marbleman
Lord G by Anonymous
Lost Among The Forsaken by King Mirdas
Madness Of Wolfgang Handspiegel by mtk
Making a Profit by vfig
Mother Redcaps' Last Request by Swiz
Order of the Dew by Jayrude
Rose Garden by Melan
Shadow Play by Schlock
The Burning Bedlam by Phantom
The Hunt, Part 1: Search by Grandmauden
The Lost City of Gazing Glass by mtk
The Scarlet Cascabel by Tannar & PukeyBrunster
The Sound of a Burrick in a Room by son_of_a_dude
The Tomb of Saint Tennor by vegetables
The Whistling of the Gears by Deception
Ultimate Burglary by -Terra-

Before playing these missions, please take the following into account:

• If you are using Darkloader, please update to NewDarkloader or use FMSel. Darkloader is outdated, unsupported and doesn’t work correctly with NewDark Thief 1 missions.
• Remember that ALL these missions are for THIEF 1/GOLD. As such, do not load them with Thief 2!
• It is REQUIRED that you update to TFix/TFix Lite 1.26a or later, as at least one mission will be completely broken under older versions.
• It is highly recommended you disable all the optional features it contains (e.g. T2 textures, T2 skies and so on).
• It is highly recommended you do not use the Enhancement Pack and/or HD texture packs either.

Seeing as this is a contest, you taffers get to vote for your favorite mission. The voting period starts right now and will last until March 1st, 2019. Mission voting is presented as 3 categories worth 10 points each — Atmosphere, Gameplay and Story, or a general score of 30 without categories. Voters can choose either system to score missions. Be advised that judges may deduct up to 5 points per submission if contest rules were broken.

You can vote for each entry by following this link: http://www.ttlg.com/polls/20thAnniversary

You can view the (now closed) original thread announcing the contest one year ago HERE.

In most cases, the anonymous authors’ identities will be unveiled after the voting period ends and voters’ comments will be posted for every mission. The author whose mission received the best score shall obtain the prestigious title of Master Builder 2018 and everyone shall bow down to them (unless you’re a Pagan, in which case you may throw rotten apples at them).

—

skacky would personally like to thank Yandros for helping him out with the organization, Brethren for hosting all the missions on South Quarter as well as Al_B for the voting forms. skacky would also like to express his undying gratitude to everyone who made a mission for this contest, whether they managed to finish in time or not. He really didn’t expect the response for this contest to be so positive and enthusiastic. You are the reason why Thief lives on despite being 20 years old!

[Johnny01]

Again To all authors:
Thank you so much for contributing your time, effort, and above all personal creativity to this community.
Not only are you each enhancing the legacy of Thief by adding a creative piece of yourself to it; you're providing a huge amount of satisfying entertainment as an art form. Veterans and new mapmakers alike. You really came through for this celebration.

And I'm personally very grateful for the admins who provide the platform and structure that motivates these feasts.

Now perhaps I'll return to streaming for this...

[nicked]

Anyone got a link to the latest TFix? Not sure if I'm up-to-date...

[Bosh]

There you go nicked: http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134733

[Bosh]

AMAZING! Thank you to all authors, everyone involved "behind-the-scenes" in whatever capacity and to the organisers. Everyone!
What a lucky bunch of taffers we are

[nicked]

There you go nicked: http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=134733

Thanks!

[trioptimumscapes]

Thanks to everyone involved for ur hard work .Am in thief heaven

[DarkMax]

Congratulations and thanks to everyone involved, including testers, resource makers and Dromeders. This is gonna be some good taff!

[Aemanyl]

May the ghost of Brother Murus bless all FM authors. Thank you.

[nicked]

I created a scoresheet in Excel to keep track of my scores before voting, but I figured I might as well share it in case anyone else is interested:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1I14...ew?usp=sharing

Now with 2 extra columns!

[Tommyph1208]

24 missions, starting december 1st... Its symbolic! Best Christmas calendar ever!

(Edit: Just looked at the llink and there are only 23 files though?, I think The Scarlet Cascabel by Tannar & PukeyBrunster is missing?)

[DirkBogan]

This is a phenomenal achievement. It speaks to the timeless quality of the original game, the talent and passion of the community, and the tireless dedication shown by the creators and moderators of this forum. The mix of old and new blood in this contest, first-timers and grand-masters, shows that all three of these elements contribute to an active and continuing legacy. Everyone involved should be proud of their part in this legacy. Because of them, Thief shows no signs of going away any time soon!

[vegetables]

Congratulations everyone, very much looking forward to playing all of these.

[klatremus]

Waking up to find 24 new Thief Gold missions!! My head can't process the information. Thank you so much to everyone involved, mission authors, admin, event moderators, and eager fans spurring the creators on.

Question: I'm removing all enhancement packs and mod features. Is it enough to just remove the mod_paths in cam_mod.ini or should I physically move/delete some files in my TG install folder? Also, should we uncheck NewMantle, or is that required for these missions (even though it wasn't part of TG)? Thanks

Edit: Also, which releases have multiple missions? Are we voting on the campaign if released as a 2 mission pack, or each individual mission?

[Galaer]

Hey there. I have a problem with downloading The Scarlet Cascabel FM. Looks like it doesn't appear in the folder with links to the contest missions. Could somebody fix that.

Also a question. If I have Thief Gold 1.26, do I still need to update my Tfix?

[Yandros]

If you look in the thread for that FM, you will see that it is not yet available for download, but will be shortly.

Both TFix 1.26 and 1.26a install NewDark 1.26, but 1.26a includes a fix which is required for Haplo's FM (and possibly others) to work properly. If you're not sure, better to go ahead and install 1.26a.

[demagogue]

Congratulations to all involved! I don't know many communities that could have this kind of spirit even 20 years down the road. Here's to the next 20, and thanks for the FMs.

[Yandros]

Hey there. I have a problem with downloading The Scarlet Cascabel FM. Looks like it doesn't appear in the folder with links to the contest missions. Could somebody fix that.

If you look in the thread for that FM, you will see that it is not yet available for download, but will be shortly.

The Scarlet Cascabel is now available.

[Azaran]

This is bigger than I'd ever imagined

[Kerrle]

Awesome. And holy crap, that's a ridiculous amount of new Thief to get through.

I've cross posted this to a few other forums to spread the word. It'd be an excellent thing for a Thief newcomer to start with!

[HipBreaker]

This is incredible, everyone. Congratulations! I can't wait to get started!

[downwinder]

ok downloaded 24 missions wow,before i even dive into playing them i do want to coment on 2 mission names lol "order of the dew" and "dewinder"

i am betting its going to make me happy

[fortuni]

Thank you and well done everybody!

The Authors, the beta testers, the translators, the organizers, the voice script actors. It's been an incredible year for everyone involved and the result is the biggest and best contest ever.

All of us players will have a fabulous December, and I for one have no intention of rushing through all the missions immediately. 24 missions + an extra bonus mission from MoldyBread is thief heaven.

Master Builder 2018, an stupendous title awaits someone!

[Tannar]

Pukey and I would like to thank skacky for creating this contest and all his work running it, and Yandros for all his work organizing the release of it. Congratulations and good luck to all the authors. Happy Anniversary, TDP, and everyone.

[zappenduster]

Just started with the first FM, but considering the amount of FMs I think it is helpful to write down some notes for an objective vote. This seems to be a good way to to it:

http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthrea...=1#post2311966

Judging:
Eight criteria have been chosen for judgment. Voters should provide a 1-10 score for each criterion for each mission. Some aspects to consider for each criterion are listed below. Weights for each criterion will be applied to the average 1-10 score for each criterion for an overall mission score.

• Overall Enjoyment/Quality (Weight: 2/10) - The focus of this criteria is overall fun factor and the general quality of the mission as a whole. Voters should grade the mission based on a first play-thru.
• Gameplay (Weight 2/10) - This category focuses on quality of the gameplay. Is it difficult in a fun way or is it frustrating? Is the gameplay too easy or simple? Does it provide good sneaking opportunities? Is it ghostable? Does the gameplay vary by difficulty? Is it linear or does it offer plenty of freedom of movement. Would the mission still be fun on another play-thru?
• Story (Weight 1.5/10) - Is the story interesting, well executed, emotionally evocative? Are readables amusing or interesting or deep?
• Design (Weight 1.5/10) - Is the mission well constructed? Is sound propagation implemented correctly? Does the author use more than basic shapes and flat terrain in construction? Are rooms reasonably decorated or featureless?
• Atmosphere (Weight 1/10) - How well is the implied atmosphere of the mission implemented?
• Technical Effects (Weight 1/10) - This category is focused on the implementation of a variety of technical/scripting effects. Good implementation of patrols and objectives (and other basic scripting without anything more involved) should warrant a fair score. More complex features and their execution are the focus of this category and CAN include visuals effects, conversations, special usage of animations, interactions, and complex puzzles (beyond grab x and place it at y location or key hunts).
• Use of Space (Weight 0.5/10) - How well is the limited space used. Is it not overly cramped or filled with wasted space?
• Uniqueness (Weight 0.5/10) - Is the mission unusual, is its design or gameplay original or uncommon?

Any other 'official' vote system or suggestions for this contest?