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THE DARK MOD - Mission 1: A New Job Although
there is no official campaign for this mod, this is the mission recommended
for new players, after finishing the training mission. It’s a short, but nice
introduction on how to apply your skills in a real burglary situation.
Nothing special, but good enough to be enjoyable. I found all the loot on the
first playthrough also, which doesn’t happen too often. I am slowly but
surely taking a real liking to The Dark Mod. Seeing as it is 14 years old
now, it’s about time. All
I had to do was break into the Canonbury Tavern and steal Rothwick’s ruby
collection. There was also a 640 loot requirement, before finally meeting my
contact in Royston Court. Besides that I wanted to get used to and experiment
quite a bit with enemy alert levels. The biggest difference between TDM and
Thief is their ‘Suspicious’ level, which includes two types of alerts; a
first alert with only verbal remarks like in Thief, but also a more severe
type of alert where they give a verbal cue, but also stops to look for you.
This last one isn’t the same as hunt mode in Thief, because they don’t leave
their route or station, but they are suspicious enough to take the time to
look. As of writing this report, we are still unsure whether this latter type
of alert should be allowed for regular Ghost or not. All alert types are
disallowed for Supreme, which is my preferred mode. Streets I
started in a side alley south of the tavern. A homeless guy close by didn’t
alert to my presence in any way that impacted ghosting. I had to pass through
a small plaza just west of here, and I assume the intended way through was
mantling onto a large pipe by stacking one of the smaller crates. For
Supreme, this crate would have to be returned and there was no way of doing
that and still end the mission later. Experimenting a bit, I found I could
instead jump to the pipe directly from a barrel with a bag on top of it (left
image below). The mantling action is different, but much better, in TDM. If
the mantle is difficult, Garrett takes a bit longer to pull himself up. This
is more realistic, but can also be misleading, because at first it seems like
you won’t make it.
After
listening to the guards and dropping to the street level around the tavern, I
played around with alert levels some. I had previously downloaded a Stealth
Statistic tool made by Dragofer, found here. This makes it possible to check your stealth
statistics from a radable in your inventory. It updated real time, which was
just perfect to gauge what guards allowed or not. Both alert levels 1 and 2
triggered the ‘Suspicious’ category of the document. The only way to distinguish
it further was to read the end statistics when finishing the mission. You can
cheat your way there prematurely by pulling up the console (ctrl+alt+tilde)
and writing ‘tdm_end_mission’, sort of like the ctrl+shift+alt+end cheat in
Thief. Only
one piece of loot existed on this side of the tavern; a ring in a bird’s nest
in the west alley. I mantled up a few overhangs and a nearby wooden roof to
get closer. There was a small pipe crossing the streets below that had to be
traversed. Dropping onto the pipe made a lot of noise, but mantling up it did
not. There is no silent outer edge of surfaces in TDM, so mantling thus
becomes a more important ability in this regard. To get back from the top
pipe without alerts, I had to do a running jump all the way to the wooden
roof (right image above). This made noise, but not enough to trigger any
alerts if the patrollers were far away. The
side door to the basement was the intended way into the tavern, but it was
pickable and not possible to relock. The front door, however, was unlocked,
and it was no problem to sneak in behind the helmeted sentry’s back unseen. The Canonbury Tavern I
headed upstairs straight away, after reading the guest log. The lone guard up
there was wearing an eye patch; the game even made an audio cue about it. I
assumed that meant he was blind on his left side, and indeed he was. He
stopped at either end of the hallway, plus directly outside room III. I snuck
in after him as he headed down to the end and slipped into Rothwick’s
chambers (room IV). The sir was sleeping, but woke up if I stepped too
loudly. His loot-filled footlocker was pickable, but the key on his belt also
worked. In those cases, Supreme requires relocking it, and since I wanted to
avoid the unnecessary lockpick count, I snagged the key from his snoring
side. It was stuck to my inventory and couldn’t be dropped, just like many
keys in Thief. I’m not sure if I could’ve replaced it without waking him up.
He didn’t hear any sounds from the footlocker or the cabinet, but as pointed
out in Galaer’s ghost report, he does “alert” to opening the secretary desk.
The only reason I could confirm this was from the stealth statistics
document. Rothwick neither woke up, nor made any verbal or physical remarks
of any kind. Closing the desk didn’t trigger any further alerts, nor did
opening it a second time. This is thus a type of alert unique to TDM, one
that never would’ve been detected in Thief, and one that without the stealth
tool would’ve been near impossible to know where came from. I suspect this to
be poor coding of the engine rather than a proper alert worthy of a Supreme
bust. I’m not sure if there is a property in the editor that determines
whether sleeping enemies will give alerts of type 1 or not. Perhaps not. After
discussing this situation with Galaer on the forums, he claimed he had been
able to pass Rothwick’s room without any alerts at all. I had a hard time
believing this, but I went back to try nonetheless. Voila! He was right
indeed! When I triggered the alert earlier, it must’ve been from my feet
tapping on the wood and not from the desk. If you move without creeping, even
in the slightest, an alert will trigger in the stats. As long as you hold
creep, you are good, but you must keep creep pressed until after letting go of run forward.
As you can see from the screenshot
below to the left, I have obtained the diary from the desk without any alerts
whatsoever.
I
haven’t found a way to eavesdrop on doors in TDM yet, so I had to guess a bit
when leaving Rothwick’s room. Or perhaps it’s just not as effective, as I
didn’t hear much of a volume increase leaning into the door. I grabbed the
loot from room III also and headed back downstairs. The innkeeper’s room
wasn’t that tough as long as I creep-crouched. I could mantle over his bed
unseen. I knew the safe combination from the wine bottle in the basement in
my first playthrough. Successfully relocked the safe with no alerts also. I
was even able to get his cash box key from the desk unseen (right image
above). Just like Rothwick’s key from upstairs, this one couldn’t be dropped
back, but was necessary to relock the cash box behind the bar counter. The
restaurant itself wasn’t that tricky. I stole the cash when the maid was out.
She even headed down to the basement occasionally, in which case she was gone
for quite a while. Although I didn’t need to get to the north end of the
restaurant, creep-crouching along the bar counter did the trick. I was far
enough away from any of the lights to avoid alerts. Left
via the front door and met my contact in Royston court. No big deal.
Successful Perfect Supreme! Statistics: Ghost
- Success! Perfect
Thief - Success! Supreme
Ghost - Success! Perfect
Supreme - Success! Time
- 38:26 Times
saved - 42 Damage
Dealt: 0 Damage Received: 0 Health
Restored - 0 Pockets
Picked - 1 Loot
Acquired - 703 out of 703 Killed
by the Player - 0 KOed
by the Player - 0 Bodies
found by AI - 0 Alerts
- 0 Suspicious, 0 Searches, 0 Sightings Stealth
Score - 0 Consumables
- None |
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