JohnEric's "Thief" Home page
Showcasing "Stronghold", a Thief 2 game.
Major Note!
There is now a new version (2003), reflecting all of your input. Thanks!
I removed the intro movie for a faster download.
If you want the intro, e-mail me
and I will make it available on this site.
Get "Stronghold" version 4 here!
Use Darkloader
For those of you unfamiliar with Thief add-on games, I will explain what part I played in the development of this add-on expansion. Regarding "Stronghold", I am the author, the designer and developer. The custom objects, maps, voices, sounds, and skins, are my work. DromEd was the editor I used to create this add-on game from scratch. You will need to download the user friendly "Darkloader" program from the two sites listed and linked at the bottom of this page. Place the Stronghold.zip file in a folder on your hard drive, install Darkloader, tell Darkloader where the add-on folder is when it asks, run the program and select Stronghold. That's it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* The ever resourceful 'Apache' got all the way up on top of the guardhouse and peered down on the grounds below. There's nothing there. Actually, there's no harm done. It must have been quite a feat to do that. A challenge in fact. He sent me some screen shots, and I've included them here for you. In fact, I kind of like this so much that I did remove the vine arrows from the cold storage room, but then put them in the guardhouse hall, so anyone who wants to go back and climb the guardhouse for kicks ... can. OK ... I dare you!



* A note of interest on the god's sword Shieldbreaker. Did you
notice that if you change weapons with one of the familiars nearby, the flame
moves from you to it, then back again when you pull the sword back out?
This only works if you change weapons. The rationale here is that as
long as Shieldbreaker has your undivided attention, it does not need to see
outside
the scabbard. Change the weapon, and it does want to see what's going
on ... so it shifts it's watchful eye to a familiar.
Thank you Mr. Fred Saberhagen for the creation of your "Swords"
books!
Although Stronghold is tight as a drum, and that tight drum is pounding ((a little joke for those 'familiar' - oops, there's another one - with Stronghold already)), I still crave input on any flaws that are found. Here's a brief list of things one might think are flaws, but aren't. You'd just need to get used to my style to know these ...
* Often, I throw in details that are meant only for realism in that world for the in-game characters. You might want to do something with them, but for reasons of 'getting on with it' I left it simple. Also, terrain might be inconvenient, but then so is in real life. Any cavers or mountain climbers out there?
* The story takes a somewhat different, and decisive, step in a direction I believe could be hinted at after completing T2. Although it may or may not jive with other FMs, I'm happy with the story concept.
* It is written to encourage you to save and come back to AI locations over and over again, either to play with your inventory ((there's plenty of it)), or watch the AIs play with each other again. The AI fights are not choreographed. They will have different outcomes each time you watch the sequences. Try interacting with the fights a little, or not. Lure a mechanist into battle with a wandering hammer haunt ... you get the idea. I did something like that in Benny's Dead by luring two little family creatures into a building full of cops ... and said let the fun begin! Thanks again GBM.
That's all I'll say on the subject. You
get the picture.
JohnEric
Go to the following sites to download.
By all means, feel free to visit Night Sky Gallery. Click the
eye ...
Current favorite CD ... "The Power and
the Glory",
by ... Gentle Giant. Long live progressive music!
As long as I am pontificating, I'll just
add ... please support your local bands, artists, and writers.