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THE DARK MOD - Mission 2: Tears of St. Lucia This
is definitely a much more fleshed out mission compared to A New Job, but also
a lot tougher. Part city, part church mission, although the latter is where
all the action takes place. The streets are mainly for show, but enjoyable
enough. I especially like all the work put into the readables,
making the hammerite church and its inner workings
seem believable and alive. I’m realizing that The Dark Mod is in principle
more challenging than Thief ever was, especially on the highest difficulties.
I’m still a newbie to the mod though, and still learning as I go along, but I
can definitely recommend this as a solid challenge. I
had to find a way into St. Roderic’s Church and
steal the relic, supposedly kept in an ornate box, that
had made the statue of St. Lucia weep. Secondly, I had to damage the statue
and make it look like an accident. 1,750 worth of valuables was my loot goal,
plus making my way back to the starting alley. Streets The
initial streets only had two issues. First, the (chamber?) pot with the
padlock key couldn’t be replaced to the correct windowsill. Frobbing the pot automatically put the key into my
inventory, but it also made me pick up the pot. Dropping it without moving it
even an inch made it fall to the streets below. In fact, anywhere along that
sill made it fall. It was almost as if the pot originally was suspended in
thin air, but when picked up now needed solid surface to rest on. That sill
seemed to have no clipping surface at all. Supreme only requires you to put
items back in the nearest logical place if you cannot physically return it to
its original location, so the adjacent sill would have to do (left image
below). It behaved the way a normal windowsill should.
The
next issue came on the enclosed floor with the dead “squatter” above the
sewer entrance hatch (right image above). It had four boards protecting it. I
could reach them all from below and move them out of the way, but it easily
triggered alerts. Remember, I use Dragofer’s
Stealth Statistic tool found here. It is almost essential if wanting to reduce the
amount of triggered alerts. I will use it for every mission I ghost, I can
guarantee you that. The first time I moved the boards I didn’t bother to
check the stealth tool even, as there are only neutral homeless people around
the streets, but no guards. Then when I reached the sewers I suddenly had 10
alerts! I then realized the guy in the boarded up shelter just north of the
sewer entrance building triggered these alerts. If you enter his place and he
sees you, he’ll say “I don’t want any trouble”. I guess he’s not fully
neutral after all. I eventually managed to both remove and replace the boards
to the upper floor, as well as the debris on top of the sewer entrance,
without triggering any alerts from him. It was difficult, but good practice
in object manipulation. Sewers The
only issue underground was in a small closed-off section with a single spider
(left image below). It was guarding a dead end tunnel with a piece of loot.
I’m not sure if all spiders are equally sensitive, but it could hear me and
trigger alerts even before ascending the ladder that led to the adjacent
tunnel. I could get as far as in the picture without any modification to the
stealth score, but beyond this was impossible. The spider’s patrol route was
completely random; it didn’t even seem to have set boundaries. It would just
randomly stop at any point in its path, turn around, continue, or keep staying
there. I found no way to drop to the lowest level without busting Ghost. I
never got the spider to trigger only an alert 1, the minimum was a suspicious
alert (called alert #2), where it stopped because it heard something. In TDM,
there seems to be no way to drop silently off an edge, unless you’re landing
on grass, carpet, or other soft material. Here there was only rock or wood.
In Thief you can always drop a distance like this and hold crouch in order to
avoid falling noise. Not in the Dark Mod. Also, there is no silent outer edge
of objects to land on, which could’ve taken me quietly onto the lower level
of barrels. If using a moss arrow (which you have to buy ahead of the
mission), I could get to the bottom level undetected, but as soon as I crept
into the tunnel out of view of the bright mushroom, the spider usually
detected me and turned around. A couple of times I managed to creep into the
far corner beyond the tunnel, but I would then bump into some debris on the
floor and make noise. If not, I would be too close to the spider as it
patrolled back and once it bumped into me, I was caught. As if this wasn’t
enough, once you take this piece of loot, two more like spiders spawn in the
previous area, making it absolutely impossible to return. Long story short,
this piece of loot must be skipped for all modes of ghosting.
St. Roderic’s
Church I
emerged in the lavatory. Reverend Brenard was the
only one who visited this room. He could spot me through the toilet lid, I
assume via the tiny slit on the side. He had a rather lengthy, though random
patrol route around the premises, but he often visited both the restroom and
his private chambers. I could quite easily take his key from the outside
hallway. Even though he unlocked the door to his room, you can’t block doors
in TDM like you can in Thief. Enemies will turn around and wait until the
door is fully closed before continuing. If you frob
the door at any time before it fully shuts, they will start the door-closing
process all over again, and usually give a verbal remark in the process.
Although the ghost rules for the dark mod still is a work in progress, the
current rules does not allow scripted alerts to open doors, even if they
don’t show up in the stats. Thus, taking his key was 100% necessary, as his
chambers contained a mandatory objective and the door was not pickable. I knew from Galaer’s
report that there was a loot item in there that he would detect missing and
alert to, so although I had his key, I didn’t enter his room yet. Alerts to
missing loot are currently deemed allowed for all ghost modes, as long as you
are not seen or heard in the process. We have reasoned that loot is such an
integral element to gameplay that ghosting shouldn’t discourage taking it,
unless enemies see or hear you in the process. These alerts do not count
towards the stat score. Such items would therefore be beneficial to take as
late as possible. I
also stole a guard’s key patrolling in this area, and looted his quarters.
Nobody else went in there. Cleaned the southwest area of
this floor easily. The meeting hall was just a matter of waiting for
it to be empty. I think the reverend and two guards came through here at some
point. Hilariously, on top of the table was the best place to hide. The gems
in the portrait were tough to find. Tougher still was the scriptorum
further south. A lone scribe was sitting in there, facing away from the
entrance (right image above). Two loot items were on shelves along the
western wall. The key to snatching both items was using the variability in
the vision of stationary enemies. All of them turn their heads either
direction from time to time. At first I thought this was just idle movement,
and it is, but it actually changes their viewing angle. This can be
frustrating if you get caught when you don’t expect it, but it can also be
exploited in order to access areas that would otherwise be covered. The
rightmost shelf wasn’t too difficult to approach. Here, as long as the scribe
didn’t turn north, I could lean in for the steal. The left shelf was tougher.
If I snuck up next to him, he had to look south like in the picture for me to
steal it successfully. I got all the loot in this room with perfect stealth
score intact. Crypt The
crypt was extremely tough. I could have doused a few of the torches/candles,
but I wanted to try to fully Supreme Ghost it. There were two entrances, the
elevator shaft to the east being the best approach by far. The door was
frequently used by one of the two patrollers, and enemies very easily detect
doors being open in TDM. The crypt had a central foyer and three side halls
with caskets; all of these locations had loot, and plenty of it. The
patroller who utilized the door also went down the western and southern
halls. The second patroller went back and forth between the eastern and
western halls, but he could also stop in the foyer, facing south. The latter
patroller had an eye patch and thus couldn’t see to his left. This was very
helpful.
I
took the loot in the east hall easily, since it was dark and this was where
the lift dropped me off. TDM keeps you on alert even in perfect shadows (if
there even is such a term in this mod), as all enemies will catch you if they
bump into you. This was a point of contention by many players in Thief, so
I’m happy this has been corrected. As the eye patch guy headed west and the
other guard left through the door, I followed, grabbed the loot on the
pedestal in the foyer, and headed down the south hall. This was a very risky
place to be, as both guards could see me from the foyer, and as mentioned,
one of the guards occasionally came down here. I could hide behind the broken
casket, but I couldn’t hide here if the guard came by. Then I completely by
accident found a weird “glitch”. If you crouch in the southwest corner of
this hall, lean right and move your mouse slightly west, the light gem
suddenly goes a lot darker (left image above). This trick did work in other
areas around the map too, but nowhere was its effect as apparent as here. I
think that when you are leaning, if you move the mouse, you are actually
tilting your head sideways, almost like putting your ear to the ground. If the
game this way detects that you are even lower to the ground, then you might
take on the light properties of the floor, where it might be considerably
darker. I don’t see any other reason why this would affect your light gem
this tremendously. I went from being spotted all the way from the foyer, to
not even getting an alert 1 if the patrolling guard came down this hall. If
this is a universal trick in TDM, it could be a crucial find for the ghosting
community. From
this corner, I could time both patrollers and head back to the foyer. There
wasn’t enough time to go down either of the other hallways from here, so I
quickly mantled the top shelf in the southwest corner (right image above).
Here I was safe from anyone passing. With one out the door and the other
close to the elevator, I dropped and looted the western hall. It was pitch
black all across, so no worries there. Then I could quietly follow the eye
patch guard back to the lift and dodge him as he patrolled back. Still
perfect stealth stats! Statue of St. Lucia Next
up was the chapel. The altar was mostly dark, yet the only piece of loot
there, a chalice next to the pulpit, was noticed by either passing patroller.
They literally raised havoc once noticing its absence and scoped me out quite
quickly. I skipped it and would look for a way to get it later. Instead I
followed both patrollers (who were not far apart) down the carpeted aisle to
the east end. Here I grabbed the vestibule key from one of them and hid in
the back room. The
vestibule was the second highly challenging area, rivaling the crypt in
difficulty. I entered via the southern door. Two guards; one stationed in the
north, pivoting west-southeast, and a patroller with three random stops. All
the loot in the northern end of the room could be noticed by at least one
guard. Instead I started by grabbing the items in the south. There was a very tough to find ruby on a shelf by
the large statue here (left image below). It was the last piece of loot I
found during playtesting. The vase in the arms of
the statue in the southeast corner was tough to get. Both enemies in this
room had to be facing away and I still had to creep-crouch around the corner
of the scaffolding not to trigger any first alerts. You can instead drop from
atop the huge statue if you want, but you still have to sneak back along the
ground.
Getting
the loot in the north involved proper planning and some luck. Missing loot
isn’t always noticed by enemies on the first passthrough,
and that can give you precious time to get out before they start searching.
After having searched and given up, in TDM enemies walk around with their
weapon drawn, indicating that they are a lot more aware of their surroundings
than normal. Another reason why taking this loot last was
smart. If the stationary guard was facing west, I could sneak around
on the back of the large crate and grab all the loot unseen. I also took the
walkway key from the table here. The patrolling guard also carried a copy of
it, and although the verbal remarks enemies give to missing keys are allowed
for Supreme, I wanted to avoid it if I could. None of the keys were
returnable in this mission anyway. With a bit of luck, I could now sneak over
and leave through the southern door (the same one I used to enter) before anyone
noticed the loot being gone. The sentry also had to be facing east not to
notice the door being open. The
final piece of loot was a plate on a table with a candle directly in front of
St. Lucia’s statue. This one I had to take coming through the northern door,
and again the guard here had to be facing east (right image above). I did
this move about five times and only once did he not alert to the loot
missing. Most often, he would comment instantly and start searching, quickly
encouraging the other guard to join in. Checking my stealth score, however,
it still said zero across the board. The last time he didn’t alert right away
and I was able to get back out to the chapel unseen. I could then hear both
guards starting to search through the door. The
only thing left to do was destroying the statue. I went in through the
western walkway door this time, accessible from a ladder northeast in the
chapel. The idea was to drop the large stone hammer onto the statue from
above by pushing it. I got up there by mantling from the walkway railing. At
first I tried from the crate, but it dropped a few inches once my weight got
on it and that alerted both guards downstairs. After completing the
objective, all the guards from the courtyard and the chapel entered the vestibule,
fully alerted. There were six guards searching in total. I’m not sure if this
is a scripted response or from them hearing the drop. Either way, it didn’t
count towards the stat score. I still considered this a bust, as it was a
direct consequence of my doing. Destroying the statue didn’t count as
property damage though, since it was explicitly directed in the objective. While
the guards were searching, I could easily go back to the chapel and grab the
gold chalice. I also headed back to the reverend’s room to steal all the gold
and the relic behind the secret panel. From there, the way out was next door.
Headed all the way back to the initial entrance, where I replaced the debris
as best I could. Ended the mission in the starting streets. Statistics: Ghost
– Failed! Perfect
Thief – Failed! Supreme
Ghost – Failed! Perfect
Supreme – Failed! Time
– 1:07:47 Times
saved – 103 Damage
Dealt – 0 Damage Received – 0 Health
Restored – 0 Pockets
Picked – 5 Loot
Acquired – 2780 out of 2830 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 Notes: -
Skipped
a gold plate worth 50 in the sewer tunnels. The patrolling spider was impossible to fool for any
ghost mode. -
While damaging
the statue of St. Lucia isn’t a bust, as it is explicitly stated in the
objectives, the guards got alerted in the process. Although these alerts
didn’t count towards the stealth score, I still counted them as busts. |
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