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THE DARK MOD - Talbot 2: Return to the City This
is my first Melan mission for TDM. It’s a sequel to
the first mission in the Talbot series, Prowler of the Dark for Thief 1, which
I have yet to play as of writing this report. No worries, you don’t need to
have played the other missions to understand each one individually. Although
it’s a different engine, you recognize Melan’s
style immediately. Lots of detail crammed in small spaces, hidden stuff
around every corner, and vertical exploration en masse. I tell you what, it’s a certain way to fall in love with The Dark
Mod. I
had to break into a hammerite storehouse and
retrieve some inert explosives. Then I had to grab 1,500 worth of loot and
find my way out of the district, seemingly not the same way I entered. A
bonus objective was to divert the hammerites’
attention. This last one meant it was optional from a gameplay standpoint,
which for Supreme is still a required task. Streets The
streets didn’t have many very tough spots. It was harder finding all the loot
on my first playthrough. Headed
clockwise around the map first. Entered Sykes’
basement this way. I didn’t want to pick the lock on the door to the
upper floor from here, so I headed back out and would enter a different way
later. Found a well-hidden candlestick on a roof ledge not far from here
(left image below). It wasn’t until I was going back down I realized the
vines along the wall were climbable. I had used a rope and some elaborate
jumps to get up there before. I do remember Melan
has used vines this way in previous missions. More hidden loot when I circled
back around to the market. Some diamonds in a gargoyle statue on the chantry
roof (right image below), which was actually referenced in readables later on. I could mantle the first two roofs,
but needed a rope arrow to get all the way up there. I was checking the
stealth statistics quite frequently, but not as often as before. I’m starting
to get a good feel for what guards will react to and not.
Sykes’ Entered his bedroom through the open window. Couldn’t drop straight to the floor, but instead
snuck onto the small table and finally dropped onto the carpet. This room and
the guard in the foyer outside were no issue. Just creep-crouched and the
stealth score remained at zero. You can tap the run key while creep-crouching
to get small speed boosts, but if you hold it for more than just a tap you
make noise and usually trigger an alert 1. The
biggest issue came in the downstairs living room. There were two candlesticks
on the mantelpiece in front of a sitting noblewoman, who I assumed to be Mrs.
Sykes. She never left, although she did turn her head from time to time.
Another woman, a maid, occasionally entered the room from the kitchen, but
she was easy to time. I could mantle up the railing and furthermore onto the
mantelpiece without alerts easy enough. I could reach the farthest
candlestick from here while staying dark (left image below). The problem was
returning. As I’ve mentioned in previous reports, you cannot drop onto a hard
surface (stone, wood, metal) from more than a foot or two without making a clunk
and getting caught. It also seems like if you drop or jump into a mantle from
such a height, you make an equal amount of noise
when you finish the mantle. That was the case if trying to mantle the railing
directly from the mantelpiece. I’d have to do a crouch-run jump to make the
mantle at all, but I always made enough noise to trigger an alert 1 from the
lady. Marbleman reported being able to make this
mantle silently, but alas I was not able to. He reported a success rate of
approximately 1 in 30, though I definitely did more jumps than that. Whether marbleman’s move is reliably repeatable or not, I wanted
to try to find a more consistent solution. I
noticed that I could from the northwest corner of the mantelpiece mantle onto
the bookcase to the northeast. Again, a crouch-run jump was necessary. Since
this wasn’t a drop, but instead brought me to higher elevation, it didn’t
make noise. It seems this is the way the dark mod works at least. If so, I
like it, as it is both logical and predictable. Alas, I couldn’t drop or
mantle silently from here onto the railing either. Then I made an interesting
discovery. If I fastened a rope into the archway above the railing, the woman
gave quite a fearful remark. “Help, there’s an intruder!”,
or something to that effect. The stealth score was unchanged however.
These are similar to enemies alerting to open doors and would thus bust
Supreme. Experimenting with the rope, I noticed something else also. If I
fastened it anywhere above the dark part of the wood, she didn’t alert. There
was a light colored crown molding above with an intricate pattern, where the
rope could be attached undetected. I’m not sure if it was due to the slight
difference in distance from the woman, or the arrow being darker closer to
the ceiling. Nonetheless, this was a great discovery. I could now run onto
the rope from the bookcase, carefully climb down onto the railing, grab the
rope, and then finally drop silently onto the rug. Perfect!! The
rest of this building was not a problem. I left via the bedroom window like
before.
Storehouse Dropped
the note into the donation box and headed into the cloister courtyard.
Climbed the fence to the south and entered the storehouse vault by way of the
underground grotto. I could’ve entered from above as well, but this seemed
sneakier. I really liked the object manipulation solution to getting the
explosives (left image below); Melan really used
the engine’s capabilities to great effect there. Left via
the grotto again, in order to avoid picking the lock to the basement hallway. Out
in the courtyard I climbed the vine and furthermore a preplaced rope, which
took me all the way to the clocktower window (right
image below). Cool rooftop area this. Entered the storehouse attic and
starting looting from the top down. Nothing much to report.
There was a guard that alternated between the attic and a couch on the main
floor, although he didn’t actually sit on the couch, but rather floated in
mid-air. On my first playthrough I think he sat
correctly, so this might’ve just been a fluke. The basement patrollers seemed
a lot less alert than the others, plus one of them wore an eye patch. I left
via the attic window, dropping to the streets below.
Statistics: Ghost
– Success! Perfect
Thief – Success! Supreme
Ghost – Success! Perfect
Supreme – Success! Time
– 1:20:52 Times
saved – 122 Damage
Dealt – 0 Damage Received – 0 Health
Restored – 0 Pockets
Picked – 0 Loot
Acquired – 2580 out of 2580 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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