Thief & System Shock series - Appreciation Group

For all the people that enjoyed(and still do) System Shock 1 and 2, as well as the Thief series. With their fantastic gameplay, story and atmosphere. Thanks to Looking Glass studios for bringing to us the best stealth-shooter FPS RPG's.

Thief fan sites:

TTLG Forum: This is the mothersite and hub of the Through the Looking Glass Fansite Network. This site holds general LGS news and hosts the fansites for LGS's older titles. That is the new TTLG, the original TTLG Thief site (from before TTLG.com was even a registered domain) has its first news post on July 19th 1998. It still remains to this day the place for Thief related discussions and news.

Over a decade after the original game was released - the Thief community still continues to amaze.. and to push the boundaries of the original game engines further than anyone thought possible. Never before have I been a part of such a generous and giving community that produces fan missions even today that are beyond the scope and vision of the original creators - and they do it for the love of the game, and in tribute to those very creators.

Im proud to be a part of this community - and proud to support this masterpiece of a series that paved a way for an entire gaming genre.

The folks at ttlg.com forums are one of the best groups I've been a part of in an online community - and congratulations to thief-thecircle.com on 10 years of greatness. Here is to hoping for ten more. Cheers.
-SneakyJack

Taffer's Paradise and Southquarter: Two of the largest databases of Thief and Thief 2 fan missions.

Thief: the Circle: Was created in 1998 by Digital Nightfall and Saam. Its a one-stop archive for Thief behind-the-scenes stuff (devs and the fan community alike). It was a great and exciting time to be modding for T1 and T2 between 1999-2005 when sites like Thief: The Circle and other community-run pages were really alive and bustling with activity - where reviews would go up of recently released fan missions that where hosted on that site. Its no longer updated for community releases until Digital Fall (now employed at Arkane studios) says otherwise. It still stands as a testament to the greatness that is Thief. Among behind the scenes information the site also contains various useful guides e.g. A Novice Keeper's Lexicon, Keeper's Chapel, A Thief Bestiary, and Thumper's Guide to the Strange & Unusual.

Thief Missions: This has hosted every Thief fan mission for over 12 years, its still used for newer FM's by all us Taffers. It is run by Epithumia who is still active on the TTLG forums. ModDB Thief 1 and Thief 2 pages however also hosts all fan missions that where on there and the now defunct "The Keep of Metal and Gold", and all the T3 fan missions that where on "ShadowDark Keep". There is another site called "Gnartch's Missing Thief Missions", it lists all the missing FM's in the Thief Missions site which are also available on ModDB. You can find Gnartch on the TTLG forum.

The soundtracks for Thief 1, Gold and 2 can be found here (russian site, translated by google translate): Dark Fate Thief Gold & DarkFate Age of Metal

Cavador's Thief 2 Fan Mission Walkthroughs: Provides the most in depth walkthroughs of Thief official missions as well as fan missions (FMs), for almost every one in existence. Still updates the site to this day. There is one more place for walkthroughs of official missions and a FAQ thats the Keepers Chapel on Thief: the Circle. Lytha's Thief Collection has a lootlist.

Thief: The Keepers Compounds (Lore): Here you will be trained in the art of stealth and the ways of knowledge, for knowledge is the weight placed on the scales of balance -- a balance that must be maintained at all times. We must possess knowledge, for none others know its importance. Neither do they understand, which is why our role in history must be kept hidden. Thus it is that the Keepers have remained ever vigilant throughout the centuries, gathering knowledge and remaining unseen. You, too, shall learn of these things, and shall one day assume your rightful place among our ranks. Explore the lore of the Thief universe.

Azaran's Spire (Lore):
Have you ever wondered what a Hammerite Mass or a Pagan service looked like?
Or what secrets the Hand Brotherhood taught its members?
Or what life was like under the Mechanists? Step inside and see what you may uncover.

ShaleBridge Cradle: This is a site dedicated for Beta Testing Thief Deadly Shadows and The Dark Mod. Also see The Dark Mod forums for everything related to that cool fan created standalone game.

Game Informer - Shalebridge Cradle: It has a downloadable PDF file of a 10 page article specifically dedicated to the Shalebridge Cradle level. An excellent read. The longest magazine article on a single level within a game ever. Turned the person who made it into legend that is still building thief inspired missions to this day.

System Shock fan sites:

TriOptimum Corp Net: Back in the days of its prime, this site was the center of all System Shock activity on the web. When it expanded, and spawned TTLG, the site became a monument. It's still the best place to get System Shock 1 info, links, and more!

SS 1 & 2 Discussion: The most active place online concerning System Shock 1 is not a site at all, but a forum! Yes, people are still talking about this game! Join in!

Shock 1 Music: A collection of Shock 1 music, featuring tweaked midis, midi remixes, the Mac CD soundtrack, and original derivative by Chicajo.

Guide to Citadel Station: This site was Digital Nightfall's first contribution to the System Shock online community. It's a level by level tour of the station, not a walkthrough, written for purely nostalgic purposes. It also hosts the largest collection of System Shock 1 screenshots anywhere on the web.

Voice of the Resistance: Who is better suited to tell the story of System Shock then the characters in the game? This is a complete archive of all logs, both in text & audio, in the game, and even a few that were cut.

A Hacker's Guide to Sin: A complete mental breakdown of System Shock, this guide takes a very tongue in cheek approach to giving players hints & tips on how to do some really cool stuff in SS1. Expect many laughs from this one! It was made by J P Morris.

Arsenal - The Tools of War: This as of yet unfinished site was designed to be a guide to all weapons & tools in System Shock. Hopefully someday someone will finish it!

TriOptimum Archives: A part of ShockData, this site offers a very complete collection of System Shock 1 downloads, media, and just about anything else you could hope for!

System Shock 1 Walkthrough: This is a complete walkthrough of System Shock 1. It's easy to use, and error free. If you haven't played the game for years becasue you got stuck, by all means, help yourself!

How to get Thief started! -

1) Make sure your game is patched with Newdark. If you have the GOG versions of the games, they should be already patched. If not, make sure to grab TFix for Thief Gold, Tafferpatcher for Thief 2 and the Sneaky Upgrade for Deadly Shadows. Tafferpatcher and the Sneaky Upgrade should have an installer option to create a shortcut to the Fan Mission launcher (FMSel). Choose this.

2) For Thief Gold, or if you don't want to re-patch for 2 and TDS, you'll need to manually activate FMSel. Do this by creating a new shortcut to the game's exe, then right clicking the shortcut. Go to properties and find the Target box. Add -fm to the end, after the quotemark (")- make sure to leave a space between them. Now that exe should open FMSel.

3) Download missions! The full list is here. Yes, there are a lot. Most have been uploaded to the Thief and Thief 2 ModDB pages.

I would start off with T2X: this is a full fan-made expansion pack for Thief 2. I can give you a full list of other recommendations if you tell me what kind of missions interest you. There's a huge variety, as you might expect! In fact there are HD texture versions of Thief, Thief 2 and Thief 2X.

4) Once you download a mission's zip file, open FMSel and choose a folder for FM zip files when it prompts you to. Drop new missions into this folder and then install the mission by double clicking its name in FMSel. Double click again to play!

How to get System Shock 2 started! -

GOG / Steam installation on Windows
Install the game to a path with 80 characters max length. Do not install to the "Program Files" folder. Download SS2Tool to your game folder and start it. Install recommended mods.
Steam: After installation move the game folder to where Steam's mandatory update system cannot overwrite SS2Tool's changes and mods. For example move your game from: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\SS2 to C:\games\SS2
GOG: Disable automatic updates in GOG Galaxy to avoid overwriting SS2Tool's changes and mods

How to get SS2 patched:

SS2Tool is a patcher/updater for System Shock 2. Before you can use it, you need to Install System Shock 2 on Windows, Mac or Linux.
After that SS2Tool can be used to fix a broken SS2 game and to regularly keep your game up to date.
It is recommended that you subscribe to this topic to stay informed about content updates.

SS2Tool includes the latest New Dark version, a lot of checks and fixes written especially for System Shock 2, as well as Blue Mod Manager to manage game modifications and Shocked Basic Toolkit to create your own mods and missions.

System requirements

• Windows Vista or above is required. If you're on Windows XP please copy the complete game folder to a machine running Vista at least. Run SS2Tool there, then copy the game back to the XP machine.
• Internet access required: SS2Tool compares your game to a master that is maintained here on the systemshock.org server. It uses Rsync for this comparison and therefore both - SS2Tool and Rsync - will need to be allowed in your firewall when the request pops up.

How to install SS2Tool

• Drop SS2Tool into your game folder and start it there.
• Run regularly in Update mode. Subscribe to this topic to get informed about resource updates.
• SS2Tool may fail to complete if the network connection breaks off. In this case simply run it again.

Game modifications
Lost at which mods to use with SS2? Check the Newbie Modding Guide.