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Thief: The Dark Project vs. Gold

Which one do you like best?

  • The Dark Project

    Votes: 20 32.3%
  • Gold

    Votes: 40 64.5%
  • Gold, without the new missions.

    Votes: 2 3.2%

  • Total voters
    62

McPlusle

Savant
Joined
May 11, 2017
Messages
319
So I've been playing Thief for the first time and have largely been having a blast -- until the Thieves' Guild, which I learned was added in Thief Gold, along with some modifications to vanilla missions and some new enemy types. As such, I used GoldToDark to revert the game back to The Dark Project before reinstalling TFix, only to learn that the Gold modifications to the vanilla missions returned. So now in a roundabout I have three different games to play in one game. Pretty impressive. I'm going to start the game over again, this time backing up the GTD files to write over TFix, so I can play a TFixed version of the original Dark Project, before jumping back into Gold. Which version of Thief 1 is your favorite?
 

Nano

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 6, 2016
Messages
4,648
Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In
Thieves guild is great, nig.
I hated that mission when I first played it (because of the confusing level layout). But I ended up growing to really like it. It had one of my favorite storylines in the game (the infighting among the Downwind Thieves Guild leaders), and some of the my favorite music too.

OP: Even if you hate Thieves' Guild you should play Gold just for "Song of the Caverns", which is generally agreed to be one of the best missions of the game.
 

Unkillable Cat

LEST WE FORGET
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Messages
27,089
Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy
Having only played Thief Gold (grabbed it at a sale back in early 2000, which is where my taffing career started) I can't say for certain which version is best, but judging from what's added and what's taken, I can see a good argument for playing either pure Dark Project or pure Gold.

Dark Project:

# Only has 12 missions instead of 15, so the game doesn't overstay its welcome.
# Doesn't have the overly confusing "Thieves's Guild" mission, nor the dull "Mage Towers" mission.
# Has a couple of neat level-based exploits, like how a Speed Potion can be used to nab one of the Talismans in the Lost City to save a LOT OF TIME.

Gold:

# Has so much variable content that the only complaint that is valid about it is that there's (possibly) too much of it.
# Although the "Thieves's Guild" and "Mage Towers" missions are sub-par, they include a lot of lore, atmosphere and new things for the modding community to play with.
# Has the awesome "Song of the Caverns" mission.
# Has the improved "The Sword" mission, with the massive addition of the Little Big World.
# Various minor improvements to other missions.

Am I ever going to sit down and play ungilded Thief to determine which version is better? Unlikely.
 

Nano

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Mar 6, 2016
Messages
4,648
Grab the Codex by the pussy Strap Yourselves In
You can skip missions in all TDP/TG/TMA games by pressing ctrl+alt+shift+end, it takes half a second to do it. If you don't wanna play the Gold levels, skip them and now you have Thief TDP bar negligible changes. You have the option in Gold to do this but in TDP you'll always "skip" them, so...
Problem with this solution is that you always start levels with the money from the last one, meaning you have to go through some missions (The Sword, in the case of skipping Thieves' Guild) without buying anything from the store.
 

Unkillable Cat

LEST WE FORGET
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Joined
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Messages
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Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy
You can skip missions in all TDP/TG/TMA games by pressing ctrl+alt+shift+end, it takes half a second to do it. If you don't wanna play the Gold levels, skip them and now you have Thief TDP bar negligible changes. You have the option in Gold to do this but in TDP you'll always "skip" them, so...
Problem with this solution is that you always start levels with the money from the last one, meaning you have to go through some missions (The Sword, in the case of skipping Thieves' Guild) without buying anything from the store.

There's more to this than just that, as Thief uses several methods of storytelling to get exposition across, some of it is found in the missions themselves.

Unfortunately Thieves's Guild and Mage Towers show such clear signs of being ret-conned into the game, that you can skip both of them and lose out on nothing except lore fluff and such; the plot and main characters are completely unaffected. (You can do the same to Song of the Caverns if you don't like opera.)
 

Darth Roxor

Royal Dongsmith
Staff Member
Joined
May 29, 2008
Messages
1,878,405
Location
Djibouti
In Mage Towers I like that one room with the talking statues. I thought it was decently creepy :M

"Your greed will be your downfall, poor Garrett!"
 

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,184
Location
Bjørgvin
Mages Tower is only sub-par because the concept is so great it should've been much, much better and much more creative, but it's still an enjoyable level with lots of neat stuff. Sadly though it should have been the upwards vertical version of Bonehoard mixed with Constantine's house, full of traps and magical things. I have so many ideas for a proper Mages Tower level, I swear one day I'll put them to use in the dark engine dark mod.

One thing that disappointed me a bit in Mages Tower was that the mages with Arabic sounding names didn't have any accent.
 

McPlusle

Savant
Joined
May 11, 2017
Messages
319
I've since started the game over again for the umpteenth time, back on Gold. I'm up to Haunted Cathedral, and while Thieves' Guild does pale in comparison to the rest of the missions I've played, so far the game is still an absolute masterpiece.
 

Beastro

Arcane
Joined
May 11, 2015
Messages
7,944
Only annoying thing for me with the Thieve's Guild was the terrible choke points that screamed lazy design.

Mage's Tower I like as a break from the norm, but it feels more like a fantasy RPG setting with the elements and shit than what one doesn't expect to be in Thief.
 

fantadomat

Arcane
Edgy Vatnik Wumao
Joined
Jun 2, 2017
Messages
37,087
Location
Bulgaria
I like how these threads always aggro the same people, me, Cat, Octavius (which is another cat? :M), still waiting for JarlFrank

Thiefag squad, assemble!
It is only natural,Thief games are a few of the best games ever made and the best in the genre. Therefore its fans are people of taste and class. Cheers fellow patricians :obviously:.
 

octavius

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
19,184
Location
Bjørgvin
This seems like a good time time to play the first user made Thief mission on my play list: Gathering at the Bar.
 
Joined
Apr 19, 2008
Messages
3,059
Location
Brazil
Divinity: Original Sin
Gold is better. Old thiefs is like, the more, the better. And if people complain about the game getting longer, my first playthrough was from thief gold to thief 2 from start to finish, so it was a marathon of 31 levels. Why should I complain?

Problem with this solution is that you always start levels with the money from the last one, meaning you have to go through some missions (The Sword, in the case of skipping Thieves' Guild) without buying anything from the store.

I never bought/buy anything anyway.

Dark Project:

# Only has 12 missions instead of 15, so the game doesn't overstay its welcome.
# Doesn't have the overly confusing "Thieves's Guild" mission, nor the dull "Mage Towers" mission.
# Has a couple of neat level-based exploits, like how a Speed Potion can be used to nab one of the Talismans in the Lost City to save a LOT OF TIME.

# Well, that's not bad, as thief 2 has 15 levels also.
# I really don't know what is so bad about thieves guild. I thought Haunted cathedral much more confusing. And mage's tower is OK.
# exploiters gonna exploit

Gold:

# Has so much variable content that the only complaint that is valid about it is that there's (possibly) too much of it.
# Although the "Thieves's Guild" and "Mage Towers" missions are sub-par, they include a lot of lore, atmosphere and new things for the modding community to play with.
# Has the awesome "Song of the Caverns" mission.
# Has the improved "The Sword" mission, with the massive addition of the Little Big World.
# Various minor improvements to other missions.

Am I ever going to sit down and play ungilded Thief to determine which version is better? Unlikely.

# I
# Can
# See
# Only
# Incline
 

JarlFrank

I like Thief THIS much
Patron
Joined
Jan 4, 2007
Messages
33,052
Location
KA.DINGIR.RA.KI
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Yeah, it's like I've had this Deja Vu before. Only thing missing is JarlFrank raking in brofists.
JarlFrank?

Sup.

Thief Gold is great, stop complaining about Thieves Guild it's not as bad as people claim to be. Yes, the sewers can be a little labyrinthine but they're still decent. It's a cool mission overall, never felt especially bad to me.

Mages Towers are an interesting concept ruined by meh-tier elemental towers. Super slow platform surfing in the air tower, ugh. Could've been pulled off better. Still thankful it exists, since it led to a cool FM being made in its spirit in like 2011 or so, called Tower in the Forest.

Song of the Caverns is one of the best missions in the game. Cool plot twist and turning the player's expectations upside down. Raoul is awesome. The opera house is gorgeous. It's the most "classic city heist" style of mission in T1, but is more atmospheric than most of those from T2. Great addition.

The bad: mages in the Lost City are just way less cool than craybeasts because that way the LC feels less abandoned and forlorn. In the original T1, the atmosphere of that place is much better.

But... that's about it. Other than a worse Lost City, everything is better about TG.
 
Joined
Oct 10, 2014
Messages
900
Codex 2014 PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex USB, 2014 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. I helped put crap in Monomyth
Personally, I prefer vanilla Thief for pacing reasons. They should have put those three Thief Gold missions into Thief 2. Thief 2 deals in repetition and I gladly would have seen "Casing the Joint" replaced with something else instead of playing the whole thing all over again in the next mission.

Some other points about Thief VS Thief Gold:
- Thieves Guild: The biggest problem I have with it is that is waaay too hard a mission waaay too early in the game. It's a bitch to navigate, causing a lot of newbies to give up. It also makes the story come to a screeching halt: Just after your fence gets murdered, you're ready to dive deeper into the mysterious plot. Instead you get this mission which doesn't have anything to do with anything. It's still a fun mission once you wrap your head around it and realise that 60% of the level layout is fluff that can be ignored. You can have a lot of fun (if you're into causing monster infights) with the street patrol outside. At the very start of the level, listen to the conversation between the guild members. Quicksave near the end of their conversation, then quickload. The conversation will start all over. Rinse and repeat. By the third or fourth time you've done this, the street patrol willl walk right past the guild members, causing them to attack him. The street patrol is acting neutral towards anyone in the level at first, but getting attacked or hearing a loud noise will send him into a killing frenzy and he will attack everyone and anyone in sight. Great fun! I cleared out the whole level just using the street patrol.

- Mage Towers: I like this level, but there are two main problems I have with it. First, we have something of a continuity problem: The preceding mission "The Haunted Cathedral" asks you to steal 750 in loot (that's on normal mode, on expert the difference is more negligible), while this mission asks you to steal 400. The following mission "The Lost City" is a tough one and you're going to need all the equipment you can get, so putting a mission there that asks you to steal less money is a mistake. The other problem would be the air tower. Did we really need platforming in Thief? Is that a welcome addition to the game? I don't think so. Also, it's a pain in the ass if you want to speedrun the level, since you'll have to wait for those slow-ass platforms.

- Caverns: I love that level. Again, tonally I thought this would have been a better fit for Thief 2 - I think they even mention it in the Making Of-video for Thief 2 as a level they are currently working on.

- Little Big World is a cool addition, even though it teeters dangerously close to immershun-breaking.

- I dislike the fire shadow they put in for Thief Gold. I can understand why they put him in, but having an unkillable foe has always annoyed me.

- "Lost City" replaces all the craymen with mages. Personally, I prefer the craymen.

Dark Project:

# Has a couple of neat level-based exploits, like how a Speed Potion can be used to nab one of the Talismans in the Lost City to save a LOT OF TIME.

This one would actually be a plus for the Gold version. You can pretty much skip the entire level if you have two speed potions. In the original version, you had to get two talismans, so you had to go through the whole level, in Gold you can just take two big leaps and you're done. The opposite is true for "Return To The Cathedral": In vanilla, there was an exploit that let you keep the cathedral doors open by putting a skull there. No more errands for Brother Murus. Gold did away with that.
 

Chippy

Arcane
Patron
Joined
May 5, 2018
Messages
6,037
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I was playing Dishonored recently (for the first time) and it made me nostalgic for Thief. Has anyone tried this mod: https://www.moddb.com/mods/thief-gold-hd-texture-mod I always swore I'd never use another graphics mod after the last one for Severance: Blade of Darkness blew up my video card and damage my monitor.

I might try it anyway. I'm currently weighing up how much I wanna play Thief against how much I can stand the graphics...
 

Zed Duke of Banville

Dungeon Master
Patron
Joined
Oct 3, 2015
Messages
11,759
Mage Tower and Opera House were great missions.
I own the original version of Thief: The Dark Project and never played Thief Gold. Not sure if :obviously: or
rating_negativeman.png
. :M
 

Unkillable Cat

LEST WE FORGET
Patron
Joined
May 13, 2009
Messages
27,089
Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy
Dark Project:

# Has a couple of neat level-based exploits, like how a Speed Potion can be used to nab one of the Talismans in the Lost City to save a LOT OF TIME.

This one would actually be a plus for the Gold version. You can pretty much skip the entire level if you have two speed potions. In the original version, you had to get two talismans, so you had to go through the whole level, in Gold you can just take two big leaps and you're done. The opposite is true for "Return To The Cathedral": In vanilla, there was an exploit that let you keep the cathedral doors open by putting a skull there. No more errands for Brother Murus. Gold did away with that.

While this is old, I'm seeing this now because I'm fresh from a replay of Thief Gold, and sadly this is not possible.

Yes, you can quaff a Speed Potion and jump across that gap to get to the Talisman, but I don't think it's possible to get the same way back, even if you climbed up on the roof of the temple.

You're only eligible for :obviously: status if you own the trapezoid big boxes of Thief TDP, Thief Gold, and Thief 2.

Taff me then, for I only own the trapezoid box for Thief 2. For the other two I own the European releases. I do own the rolling demo disc for Thief: The Dark Project, does that count?
 

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