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| Wednesday - 07.14.1999 |
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COT Takes Us To Visit...
- 1:00pm EST - Jyre |
...The Lady's lodge. I shudder just thinking of the place. But what, you might ask, is wrong with the pentogram shaped building described in 'Lytha's' letter to Master Nightfall. Aside from the strange noises, lights and screaming, that is. Well, the truth is, I never visited the lodge myself. But Master Nightfall has... And his description of the place... It is not pleasant. You can find it, and other things, in Chapter 16 of COT
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More New Desktop Wallpapers, from October121
- 9:15am EST - Nightfall |
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Hot on the heals of the last batch, the sneaky taffer October121 has more for us. Yes, the tube containing eleven neatly rolled desktop wallpapers arrived last night. His collection features mostly images taken from the briefings, with a Thief logo thrown here and there. It's a good set, check it out! As usual, the package can be picked up in the Themes area of the Files chamber.
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New Off-site Dromed Guide: Dromed Tid-Bits
- 7:30am EST - Nightfall |
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Good news for all you camel trainers out there (has this risen to in-joke status yet?), Dromed Tid-Bits, an off-site guide, has been posted up. This guide is similar to TEG's "Mucho Macho Dromed Guide", but with different content, and it's only in txt format. Like the MMDG, the content was taken from various posts made in the Thief Editors Guildhouse.
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New Fansite Found: CockRoach Girl's Thief Waves
- 7:15am EST - Nightfall |
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Searching through the short list of my fellow Dark Ring members, I happened to notice a listing I had not known of before. Nestled somewhere in the massive "GeoCities" condominium complex, is one of our bases!
This small chamber hosts a collection of Thief waves, mainly Garrett's comments, as well as many guards, servants, and a few Hammerite yells. What's that you say? Why not just get them off your CD? Feel free to go shuffling through 1,000+ arcanely named wave files, if you really want to. Or you could go to this site, and download some favorites! The site is called: CockRoach Girl's Thief Waves. Bravo to the author!
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Thief-TheCircle.com Joins The Dark Ring
- 6:55am EST - Nightfall |
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The Circle of Stone and Shadow has offered its support to the small but growing cause of The Dark Ring. This ring is a collection of secret bases, ranging from attics, and sewers, to museums like this one, where all thieves may take refuge.
All fantasy aside, I've never been a big fan of webrings, so that's why I'm joining the Thief one, not creating it! *smirk* It would be nice if all the Thief sites were on this ring, so come on, join up!
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New, Bug Fixed Version of "The Tower of Illusion", by Wrichards
- 5:20am EST - Nightfall |
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It is only right for me to mention that the notorious fence, "Wrichards" has gone and changed the details of his second mission right under our noses. He sustains that the changes are very minor, and hardly noticeable, but important nonetheless. I am referring, of course, to the second chapter in his ongoing quest, "Tower of Illusion." TEG now holds the updated version of this missions for download . It carries the rating of 5 bronze hammers, so it comes with a modest endorsement by The Circle.
If you have never attempted this mission, now is the best time to do so. If you love the missions, and plan on playing it a few more times, you'll definitely want to grab the new version!
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| Tuesday - 07.13.1999 |
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New Thief Desktop Wallpaper, by Huckeye
- 1:30am EST - Nightfall |
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One thing the new theme that October121 just sent me was lacking, was a desktop background. Huckeye makes up for this omission with his collection of desktop wallpaper! I heard his proclamation in the guildhouse, and was off to check it out in a snap. This set of six hand crafted high quality backdrops is now available for download in the same place as the Theme is, the Themes area of the Files Chamber. Watch out though, these images are high quality, and thus quite large. The download is over 2 megs!
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New Thief Desktop Theme, by October121
- 1:20am EST - Nightfall |
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A crafty thief operating under the name of October121 sent me a package today, containing something I hadn't seen in a while. In it contained decorations fit to make you desktop offer a very thievish atmosphere. It contains icons, sounds, a color scheme, and startup/shutdown screens. It's available for pickup in the Themes area of the Files Chamber.
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Two New Mission Reviews: "Gathering at the Bar" & "Torben the Traitor"
- 12:30am EST - Nightfall |
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TEG's newest intelligence agent, a spy who wants only to be known as "Daniel" (he's not me, we just have the same first name), has written up reports on our two most popular missions, Gathering at the Bar" & "Torben the Traitor"
Daniel gave, of course, shining reviews of both missions, saying this about "GatB": My favorite custom map. Levels can't get any less linear (except if someone puts out a desert level) , and I like that. You have so many possibilities to explore the Inn that it fills me with sorrow that it is only 2 stories high. There could have been a few more of those atmospheric sounds, too I hope more (and bigger) levels like this will come out, and can only agree with whoever gave this thing 2 silver hammers.And this about "Torben": All in all I like this little assassination bit very much; so much that I contacted Tony to do a level with him 8-) I played it 5 times so far and it was always fun. It's definitely in the silver hammer league, but since it isn't really big, it only gets one hammer from me. I think we can all look forward to more great maps by this author.You can read the full reviews by clicking on the links above. As always, missions can be found here. If you have been putting off checking out these fine creations, I suggest you wait no longer! |
| Sunday - 07.11.1999 |
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The Footpad Has Been Revised Again
- 12:30am EST - Nightfall |
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The Footpad, the sometimes very useful, often not, basement of The Circle (at the very bottom of the site,) has been revised once more! It now contains links to our two sister sites, SShock2.com, (devoted to System Shock 2, a game being developed by many people who worked on Thief, and uses an enhanced version of the Thief engine.) and the soon to be opening Thief2-MetalAge.com, (This will be the center of operations for all spy activity concerning The Metal Age. Though major Thief 2 news will also be shared here, the majority of infobits & screenshots will be displayed there.) and last but not least, Through the Looking Glass, the mother site. (A site dedicated to all games of Looking Glass Studios, and even those of its close associates, like Irrational Games, and the Deus Ex team.) As before, of course, The Footpad still contains links to the news archive and site info, with content such as site credits, site specs, etc.
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| Saturday - 07.10.1999 |
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Links Added to - Trimfect: The Thief Project
- 5:20pm EST - Nightfall |
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In case any were unaware, Trimfect, resident & employee of The Circle, has his own small establishment, which he showcases his own work, as well as several tomes containing guides. Just now, I set up several direct links to these guides from the Dromed Guides & FAQs section of TEG. Increased access will give these guides the attention they deserve, and help many aspiring Dromed users with their projects.
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New Dromed Guide - Creating a Custom Mage
- 5:10pm EST - Nightfall |
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A person, who makes himself known only as "The_Thief," has offered to share his wisdom in the area of character creation. He was written a guide to creating a custom mage enemy. It was his intent that this guide would help his fellow Dromed users be able to make any type of custom enemies for their missions. Also included in this guide is a list of all creature models, names, and voice sets. The guide may be found in the usual place, in The Editors Guild.
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Thief Media Site Opens - LoanStar's Music Archive
- 11:10am EST - Nightfall |
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Master LoanStar was kind enough to inform me that his hall of music has been opened to one and all, and hosts a large variety of mood music for your listening pleasure, or for use in other more nefarious projects. He would like for me to reiterate that the music in his archive should only be used for listening, or for inclusion of ambient background music for the missions you create. I listened to a few of his creations, and he is quite the composer! Thank you, LoanStar, and I hope many taffers find your music as well done as I did!
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A Keeper's Tale, Chapter 7 Completed
- 12:30am EST - Mishkal |
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Thanks to the support of Master Nightfall, I have been able to bring to you my story as to how I became a Keeper. It pleases me to inform you that Chapter 7 is now finished and available at the Circle. This is by far the longest Chapter to date, and I hope the wait for its arrival has been worth it. Obviously, I have had many other concerns to attend to, and I hope the delay has not been too long. For now, read on. There is much, much more to come!
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| Friday - 07.09.1999 - Nightfall's Mother's Birthday :) |
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"Postmortem: Thief" - Article by Lead Programmer Tom Leonard
- 11:40pm EST - Nightfall |
The spy network & guildhouses have been buzzing with the news of an article entitled: "Postmortem: Thief", penned by Tom Leonard, one of the founders of The City. This article details the development of Thief, the game that almost never was. he talks about the successes, and failures, and the development proccess which can best be summed up in the word "Grim." Here's an except that I know will catch your attention:
Thief: The Dark Project is one of those games that almost wasn't. During the long struggle to store shelves, the project faced the threat of cancellation twice. A fiscal crisis nearly closed the doors at Looking Glass. During one seven-month span, the producer, project director, lead programmer, lead artist, lead designer and the author of our renderer all left. Worse still, we felt a nagging fear that we might make a game that simply was not fun. But in the end, we shipped a relatively bug-free game that we had fun making, we were proud of, and that we hoped others would enjoy.Thank God that they managed to pull through. Lord knows where we'd all be if they hadn't. Bravo, Tom, and good luck with your future projects! |
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"Koobze" - A New Fan Mission by, Who Else? Koobze!
- 11:20pm EST - Nightfall |
Koobze, the thief, has decided to try his luck at being a fence. His first mission for anyone who is interested: Raid a massive keep, and steal everything you can. Sounds simple, no? Thankfully, TEG has our trusty agent, UA, to sum up this job in more objective terms:
A very good first attempt by koobze with very nice AI and design, with the negatives being the huge scale of the level and extremely high polygon counts. Difficulty is high and weapons are limited, but a fair diversion all in all.UA chose to give this mission a score of 3.5 bronze hammers, and has written an extensive report. If you feel up to it, the details & starting equipment can be found in the halls of The Editors Guild, in the Missions area. Or you may simply go here. |
| Thursday - 07.08.1999 |
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Wow, People are Still Reviewing Thief!
- 09:15pm EST - Nightfall |
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The makers of the gameing review site, IronPlanet decided that the first game they wanted to review was Thief, so they did! Being the cool, considerate people that they are, the gave it a very nice review, and a good score. Since they asked me nicely, several times, to post up a link to the review, I decided to do so. Here it is!
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Two Reviews, of "The Skull of Lysander"
- 09:00pm EST - Nightfall |
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We have two very contrasting reviews of the recently released "The Skull of Lysander" mission, by Phillip McReynolds. Kessler liked it quite a bit, and UA felt that is was released far too soon. See what they had to say, in detail, in their reviews. To balance out the scores, the mission was given 4 bronze hammers.
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Thief Mapper, a Tool to Make Automap Creation Easier
- 08:20pm EST - Nightfall |
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Thief Mapper, is a tool, made by Caeyr, designed to make the creation of automaps for your Thief missions easier. No, the program won't draw the map, but it will help you place the "you are here" areas.
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The 15th Chapter of COT hath arrived
- 07:15pm EST - Jyre |
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Ahh, Brother Thurm, he is such a delight to listen to, don't you think? What? You don't know?!? Then you'd better go have a listen. He has many important things to teach us all. You can find all his words, along with more from Master Nightfall and James right here.
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| Tuesday - 07.06.1999 |
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"The Skull of Lysander" - Fan Mission by Phillip McReynolds
- 09:30pm EST - Nightfall |
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"The Skull of Lysander" is TEG's newest fan-made Thief mission, made by Phillip McReynolds. Since I've been grossly busy the past few days, (obviously since I haven't updated this site..) I haven't gotten a chance to play it enough to give a fair impression of it. At first glance, it seemed quite good! If anyone is interested in sending me a review of this, (or any other unreviewed mission for that matter) please do!
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| Saturday - 07.03.1999 |
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Thief 2 is just the beginning
- 09:00am EST - James |
According to the August issue of PC Zone (August issue, out in early July? Go figure)
Delirious with the success of Thief: The Dark Project, publishers Eidos have signed up two sequels - Thief 2: The Metal Age and Thief 3 - which are currently under development at Looking Glass Studios. While the third gamew is a long way off, Thief 2 should be out next spring.And yes, those are apparently separate products from Thief Gold. Looking Glass games - with sequels! Thief 3 signed on! The world is definitely improving. |
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Thief wins Best Fantasy Action Game in PC Zone
- 09:00am EST - James |
PC Zone strikes again. While their review of Thief was a touch on the cool side (90%, did not like zombies), in the August issue's "Supertest" of Best Fantasy Action games, Thief came off as a clear winner, followed by the excellent Realms of the Haunting and beating off a passel of others with a blackjack. Can you stand to read more praise of Thief? Go on, I dare you:
Thief blew everyone away with its superbly engrossing atmosphere. The overwhelming sense of involvement that is generated by Looking Glass's classic and original title couldn't fail to grab people. The attention to detail is second to none, and the fact that it took the first-person game down a new road, breathing life into the genre, can only be applauded. |
| Friday - 07.02.1999 |
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Want a Custom Dromed Menu? Try A Little Mouse's
- 1:25pm EST - Nightfall |
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Another scheme straight from the "A Litte Mouse Idea Bin," is the concept of putting up custum dromed menus for download. He leads the way with his menu, well named as ALM's Menus.
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A Guide to Creating Your Own Command List
- 1:05pm EST - Nightfall |
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When Woodync sent us a list of all dromed commands, A Litte Mouse said, "Why go through the hassle of coding this, when we can just tell everyone how to make one for themselves?" So we did, and here it is.
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| Thursday - 07.01.1999 |
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More COT
- 5:40pm EST - Jyre |
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Yes, I know, its Thursday and COT is due out on Wednesday but, as usual, somebody *tries to look innocent* forgot to do it.
Ghost is back home again and, unsurprisingly, he's not overly pleased to discover what Lytha has done to his house. If only those two had learnt how to talk to each other... I've added a short piece to this weeks tale as well. It would have been longer but recalling that moment... And we get to read another section of Da- I mean, Master Nightfall's personal log.
You can find it all here.
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Advanced Alarm System: Dromed Guide by MacNokker
- 11:05am EST - Nightfall |
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MacNokker has written a guide to making Advanced Alarm System. That is, an alarm that acts as a tripwire, so that it goes off whevever a player enters a certain point.
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