Crazy Map Idea #35324

[thetragictaffer]

So I'm sitting here downloading some more maps and thinking of what other unique locations could be the basis for a TUT map. The key of course it to make sure that the locale fits into the Thief universe, so something like an alien base on another planet wouldn't fit, but submarines and airships would. It was then that I started mulling over some steampunk stuff in my mind before I came across a brilliant idea.

A steam-powered rocket ship.

It would make for an interesting and unique locale, plus it fits okay with the Thief universe. You could either go the whole hog and have the Thieves stow aboard the rocket ready to strike while it's in orbit, or perhaps the thieves could infiltrate a secret rocket test facility and sabotage the ship before it's first test flight. It' no more far fetched than the submarine base from Thief 2 and I think it would be fun to run around the bowels of a huge Victorian-esque spaceship; everything would be dark and gloomy, steam erupting from pipes and the vast empty blackness of space beyond the portholes.

Does anyone else think this would make quite a nifty little level?

[-=V12US=-]

Give the thieves claws and you got yourself another Alien movie, lol.

But really, that sounds like a cool map. Would allow for playing around with the gravity too, IE: Players jumping 6 feet high, hehe.

[LaughingRat]

Very Vernesque. Vernian? Verne-like?

Whatever, you get the idea.

[thetragictaffer]

Give the thieves claws and you got yourself another Alien movie, lol.

But really, that sounds like a cool map. Would allow for playing around with the gravity too, IE: Players jumping 6 feet high, hehe.

There's always explosive decompression. :twisted:

[SiLeNt_NiGhT]

V12US wrote:

"Would allow for playing around with the gravity too, IE: Players jumping 6 feet high, hehe."

Victorian Spaceship would be a cool idea, perhaps an orbital facility. The gravity concept could be done with the centrifugal force idea, ie; vast rotating oddly shaped hull. Getting to the ship could be via Zepplin to atmospheric limits, then steam propelled or coal furnace type glider to the spinning station itself...

...or you could just zap players there via the warp zone... who says our universal laws of physics should have to apply? There is magic in the thievery universe after all....

[DeepQantas]

Yeah. I agree with the Verny thing...

The spaceship must absolutely be something that couldn't really even get off the ground.

And hey... how about sails for solar wind, too? :grin:

The gravity concept could be done with the centrifugal force idea

Nonsense... Next thing you say is probably that man couldn't have landed on the moon since cheese isn't solid enough to hold a space ship.


Victorian spaceship needs to be built with victorian physics.

[thetragictaffer]

Well, I started work on TH_Rocket today.

Instead of sails I'm going for the "Massive rocket engine" idea to try and explain how the huge ship actually got up there in the first place. I think it was in H.G Wells' "War of the Worlds" where some ships were launched by giant guns that killed huge chunks of the population with each shot. My backstory won't be quite that bad, but it will basically involve massive rockets (we're talking SKYSCRAPER size here) having been used to launch the ship from a remote location. It's pushing the laws of physics to a nervous breakdown, but like DeepQuantas said, "The spaceship must absolutely be something that couldn't really even get off the ground."

As for how the Thieves get there, the good old "stowing away in some cargo" rationale will work well enough.

I'm planning to wing things a bit gravity-wise by having the spaceship in low-orbit so that there's enough pull to stop thieves and guards bouncing off the walls. I've sketched the floorplans out on paper and both the engine room and the cargo hold take up most of the map despite there only being about eight "crew" on board"; hopefully it will convey a real sense of "inefficiency". Think of a cross between a Victorian Ironclad and a Klingon Bird of Prey for an idea as to the kind of environment I hope to have inside the ship..

I will definitely be putting in an airlock, out of which you can blow some taffer into space. There will be a reward however for the plucky thief brave enough to hang around inside an airlock and look for it.

[Thebos]

The idea sounds intriguing. Two words came to mind upon reading: Sunburst Device!

(For those who wonder why check Thief 2, "Life of the Party"- Find the hidden sunburst device and read about its development)

[LaughingRat]

As for how the Thieves get there, the good old "stowing away in some cargo" rationale will work well enough.

*raises hand*

Umm. How do they escape, then?

[Curunir]

Well, the hidden in cargo idea = good, reminds me of a Thief 2 mission


The idea, LR, for them to get out could be to make it seem like they were never there. This would, however, create a ghost-only map.

"Don't let anyone know that you are there. No KOs, no Kills."

Could satisfy several people's desire for a TUT ghost-map.

[SiLeNt_NiGhT]

I wrote:

The gravity concept could be done with the centrifugal force idea

then DeepQuantas wrote:

Nonsense... Next thing you say is probably that man couldn't have landed on the moon since cheese isn't solid enough to hold a space ship.

Victorian spaceship needs to be built with victorian physics.

.... man couldn't have laa....uh......er.....moon..... okay, cheese ...uh, that is feta,.... er .....{raspberryyyy}.


(... i don't get it.... how are Victorian physics different from Newtonian,....or Einsteinian for that matter? okay,....then lets discuss parallell universes and superstring theory, ....I think that..... OH That's right, I get it, Queen Victoria had a brief but stimulating menage' with Sir Issac and ..... )

[SNAFU]

Ummmm... ok....

OMG! SS2 RIPOFF! OMFGZ!!!11

[-=V12US=-]

Maybe there's a small escape pod thingee attached to the rocket which the thieves could use for escaping?

[Omega]

Hmmm.

Th-Airship is another map in development by Mordengaard, but that's a zeppelin.

[thetragictaffer]

*raises hand*

Umm. How do they escape, then?

There IS no escape, Mwuhahahahahahahahha!

Nah, the "escape pod" of the ship will be the main bridge area, which will be a seperate little ship itself. The idea is to have the bridge section attached to the main hull with huge electromagnets, which the Thieves will have to shut down if they want to escape. Of course, the only reason the bridge would have reason to seperate from the main hull is if some terrible catastrophe occured that required an evacuation of the ship. The bridge/escape pod has its own auxilliary cargo hold so I'm sure you can all work out how to get off the ship.

OMG! SS2 RIPOFF! OMFGZ!!!11

Hmmmm...

Charles Babbage's Difference Engine + Thievery = Clockwork AI!

"*tick tick tick* I can't let *click* you do that *whirr* Dave."

I am hoping to capture some of the atmosphere of System Shock 2. There will be quite a few logbooks scattered around telling some of the backstory, through which I'll give some of the Bot guards a bit of "personality" for those who play it in single player.