schwaa: I love when an FM catches me by suprise. Equilibriums Keepers did this, CC's Mercedez, T7C's intro, ect... Things that show attention to detail. I've overlooked them in the past but Conversations really make the game realistic, If gaurds always walk by each other but never talk, its OK, but if they wave and say hello or complain about all the work they have to do, and go on their way it can make a big differnece. Silver Sorrow: what I love in FMs: Gas arrows. Lots of them. Love them. Want to marry them. Lots of shadows. No burricks. (okay, that was probably negative. Still...) Very different objectives/goals and/or playing styles on different skill settings. For example: Inverted Manse, Art of Thievery, The Karrassinian Threat, Dyer's Eve, Cult of the Resurrection. Flexibility in performing the objectives, instead of a linear trudge. If I want to drop by, say, a museum first and steal the Venus de Milo's arms (you've always wondered what happened to them...now you know: Garrett!) before breaking into the Bakery to steal the Trickster's Dozen Donut Special (you only get ten doughnuts...that's why he's called "The Trickster"), then that's good. Ridiculous amounts of loot. Give me a good reason to break into a mansion with over-caffeinated guards and jumpy bots, besides blackjack practice. If I see that I've missed 2,000 loot somewhere, I'll want to play again to find it. Guards with definite, predictable patrol paths. Discerning visual patterns was never one of my strong points; that's why I went into the audio side of things. A guard doing lazy eights in a basement upsets me for some reason...maybe I need to keep a psychiatrist on retainer. Where appropriate: Haunts. Loads of Haunts. Love Haunts. Might leave my wife, Luda Mae Gas Arrows, for Haunts. A complete absence of burricks. (did I already mention that?) Very important: especial attention paid to architecture and how rooms blend together; detail is a must, but not to the point where the framerates make me do the technicolor yawn. A good sense of humor is a must. City streets and buildings. Can't get enough of those maps. The same can be said about haunted crypts. Hammerites! If zombies are present, then there MUST be plenty of fire arrows/holy water arrows to deal with them. It's highly satisfying to be able to take care of them all. Electric lights I can turn off via a switch. Flipping the lights off on a room full of upper class twits before cracking their skulls makes me giggle like a schoolgirl. Conflicts between AI; guards vs. thieves, Hammers vs. Mechanists, spiders vs. servants, Haunts vs. everyone else, that sort of thing. Secrets. The more the merrier, especially if they're worth the search. No, I don't mean Victoria's Secret...although... ("Steal six pairs of black panties, eight red, two blue, and one leopard print. BONUS: Steal Tyra Banks.") I'd like to mention gas arrows again. Put a lot of them in your missions. Now. You read me. Do it! Water arrows, too. Never can have too many of those. And best of all, NO SHATNER! Norman Druart: This post didn't have any impact on the "What do you dislike" thread so I'll re-post it here. 1. I really love an involved creative storyline; that, for me, is one of the major ways Thief differentiates itself from the other first person games. Its support of highly customizable plots and objectives gives the FM author incredible freedom just not seen in most other games. 2. I wouldn’t demand this from most FM’s or authors but I’m wowed by the technical innovations seen is some missions. Whether it be new skins, custom creatures, or new items, it’s great to see authors thinking outside of the box of the typical Thief style. Great examples of pushing the technical envelope are found in “The Order of the Vine” and, of course, “Equilibrium.” (To be honest, I never actually got into playing "Equilibrium" but I do admire its truly innovative design concepts) 3. A touch of humor is always appreciated. OK, maybe in “Inverted Manse” it wouldn’t be appropriate but in other missions I get a kick out of seeing a tombstone dedicated to “Kenneth McCormique” or the dromed Garrett in a prison cell. Hit Deity: You want predictable guards? Hmmmm.....OK, I can go for that. It's one of the unrealistic things that I like to see in an FM. Guards being able to see you in almost total darkness is not.... Oh, sorry, positive things....right. Ok: Undead, all kinds Lots of darkness Plenty of places to hide in ambush Places to climb up onto Lots of AIs that can be blackjacked Tasteful humour Lots of loot Plenty of weapons, all kinds Custom sounds, AI conversations, and textures NoCokePepsi: I just wanted to say that I am indeed grateful for these fan missions, but I didn't think the other thread was too negative myself, since we didn't mention any particular fan missions or authors. Anyway, here's my positive list... Reaching hard-to-get-at places and being rewarded for it. Secret passageways! Teleportation. Supernatural elements. Hair-raising spookiness and/or creepiness. Shadows to hide in where guards or civilians are passing. Atmosphere, lots of atmosphere! An immersive story line which engages the emotions. Personal motivations for Garrett's mission. Uncovering shocking secrets. Dwellings that look like actual human habitations. Clever use of weather in T2 missions. Humorous references. Well-placed clues in the reading material. There's other things too, if I had more time... fornever: I personally love atmosphere, especially when it involves horror and a good story line.. I'm a huge horror movie buff.. My favorite missions would be the ones that involve a haunted house, creepy graveyards and tombs, or a city overrun with the undead... (I'd personally love to see Shunned turned into a horror trilogy :^) So, here are some of the things I like: Undead New graphics (especially new character skins and atmospheric decorative touches) New sounds (especially things like the creepy voices and sounds in Curse of the Ancients) Good storyline that unfolds as you progress through the mission Good AI and placement of enemies (nothing like throwing the keyboard across the desk after getting "tapped" on the shoulder by a zombie you didn't know was behind you) Immersive settings (one of my favorite things about Thief and FMs is that you can actually get fully absorbed into the game to the extent that it can sometimes feel like you're really there..nothing like a creepy old dilapidated house to set a mood :^) Weapons :^) I'm sort of a hack and slasher...well, more of a Hannibal Lechter-style psychotic Thief that enjoys knocking innocent kitchen workers out and then killing them in creatively brutal ways.... So, sorry to all of you sneakers out there, but I want weapons..fire arrows, broadheads, explosives, elevators I can crush cooks with...fires I can toss guards into...fountains I can use to drown innocent maidens... Uuhhmm...maybe I've said too much on this one..heh Creative new objects: I love the jack-o-lanterns in Autumn In Lampfire Hills..and there was one mission (I can't remember which)that had a teddy bear as well as some other new objects...brilliant! (Now if only someone could get those teddy bears to walk around speaking in creepy voices and weilding knives...but maybe that's asking too much..heh) Sexual innuendo: Remember the thread on the board where we discussed this? Come on, you know you want it :^) Storylines where the head of the manor is a mysterious man with a stigma involving tales of debauchery and torture..all while "mysterious moaning noises" are heard by all of the servants. Sure, we all know approximately how it's going to end...but it's a great storyline that's enjoyable time and time again... Use of the Craymen's "speech" for other "supernatural" creatures (that clicking and squeeling just freaks me out...especially when I'm running away from whatever's behind me and it's gaining!) So there's my list.. Hopefully it at least entertained (if not inspired) you...heh Ekim: Okay, here's a list of a few FMs and some of their particularly good points. Ritual - original AIs, spookey feeling, a small chapel full of hammers to sneak through and a little girl to escort. I finished this one with 2 shields and the main cause was the escort duty. Saturio Returns Home - Feels like Bafford's with a crypt and an involved plotline that fits the Thief ethos perfectly. Equilibrium - Did that shadow move? Silent Nightmare - I don't know why this level makes me jump so but it does. Lots of Zombies, haunts, ghosts, three holy water vials but I spent all my water arrows sneaksie-style. Dyers Eve - This has many good features but they will all be forever overshadowed by that Zombie voice. Brr! Washout Central - Speaking of Brr, someone get Ryalla an umbrella - it feels like she's going to catch her death in that rain. Ranstall Keep - I've said it before, I'll say it again - this is Hitchcock done with the Dark Engine. Anyone want to add to the list? bdkl: What makes a fan mission for me is taking the Thief engine and making it do things you never thought possible . That and a compelling story line . I can't think of a better example of this that T7C . I think a T2 sequel to hush would probably hit the nail on the head as well . Sharga: I know this was already said, but I love it when there are hints given in scrolls or books, especially when they aren't obvious hints (although those are nice too) I know Mystery Man had a lot of these. But not every book has to have a specific purpose. For Example: the scrolls in Komag's Spider Caves and The Great Tree were excellent just because they created a great and interesting story about characters and made the mission seem more realistic. I also like supernatural stuff, including teleporting. And I love it when you're simple afraid of doing something because you know something bad will happen. Like going in a room or stealing something or reading a book. Either the atmosphere is really good and it creeps you out or previous hints have told you that something unpleasant is comming. Even if nothing does happen. : Quick example: the nursery in 7th crystal. I was so positive that something was hiding in those shadows before the room that I fired a fire arrow in there and reloaded just to make sure. Was also somewhat freaked about entering the secret passage behind the tomb. gmcdorman: I would love to play a mission that put Garrett in an (almost) passive role. For example, upon breaking into a large (castle or monastery or school or guild hall or something else along those lines) to rob the place blind (probably something specific) stumbles upon some political and murderous intrigue. Perhaps one of the AIs is attempting to solve the mystery. Garrett, still trying to accomplish his mission, runs into this "detective" in different locations, eavesdropping on his (or her) discussions of evidence and theories. Somehow the murder and Garrett's objectives coincide. Maybe there is some "secret" that Garrett can't discover, but must catch the "detective" discovering. Or it could even be something small such as watching an AI find his wife with another man and the ensuing argument. Or how about combing the idea behind Mercedez with the idea behind Equilibrium's Keepers: An assitant AI that can actually attack and steal. We often see AIs that travel between one or two rooms, but wouldn't it be awesome to watch an AI travel great lengths to speak to someone, find something, or whatever? For example, the steward of some castle is talking to a guard about something and the guard says, "I don't know, why don't you ask the captain?" The steward walks all the way across the castle to find the captain, has a conversationwith the captain, and then goes somewhere else. And all of this happens without a trigger so that every time you play the mission you might catch the steward somewhere else -- you might never hear him speak to anyone, maybe you'll just blackjact him in a hallway. I would also love to play a mission that had a nearly limitless city. I'd like to see more skylines, big buildings, etc -- just a more concrete feel of the City. Where are the government buildings? Where are the factories (other than the Hammers)?, etc. The Museum Heist was fantastic because it added a more human feel to what we know of the City -- and it had an awesome skyline. Pedestrian traffic in cities is great -- especially when they don't scream and run from you -- it makes the City seem as populated as it should. Mostly, though, I just plain love playing fan missions of any kind. William The Taffer: ///Me takes notes/// keep it up taffers! This is going in my site :D