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C H E A T I N G     W I T H     D R O M E D . E X E
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Contents
- 1.0  Foreword
.1  Notation
- 2.0  Preliminary Procedures
.1  Setting up Dromed.exe
.2  Safeguarding and Copying Existing Files
.3  House keeping
- 3.0  Fundamentals of Dromed.exe Operations
.1  The On-screen View(s) and Mouse-Ops
.2  Commands in 2D
.3  Commands/Moving in 3D
.4  Other commands (from the main Dromed window)
- 4.0  Precautions
- 5.0  Adding Objects (i.e., time for some serious ass-forkin')
.1  Navigating The Object Hierarchy
.2  Placing the Object
.3  Sizing, facing, and positioning
.4  When you need more than one...increasing stack count
.5  Putting Items in Chests (Linking)
- 6.0  Last Words: How to Cheat Responsibly
.1  Why Do My Editted Levels Not Work?


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Foreword:
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I cheat. A lot. Whenever I can get away with it, I'll go to any lengths to win/finsih first/kill you. If you're like me, then Thief and its even harder sequel Thief ii, is not the game for you.

However, there are so many things to steal it just appeals to my kleptomania -- not to mention killing people in the dark -- this game is a stalker's dream and a victim's nightmare.

I'm not weird, just eccentric.

IMPORTANT NOTE: This guide only serves to brief gamers on how to adjust/add objects in Dromed, not how to build levels. I ain't got that time and I sure as hell can't get any decent voice actin' from where I come from to warrant a fancy schmancy original Thief/Thief ii level. The damn thing's also too complicated and will probably blow up in my face if I screw it beyond normal parameters.

Also, much of the game details are netted from the Normal Difficulty.
Since finishing Thief/Thief ii on any level of difficulty nets the same result, it is "unprofitable" (and lame) to do any part of these games on a difficulty greater than Normal -- any novice thief should know that.


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Notation:
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I have been game raping both Thief Gold and Thief ii maps liberally, so I will use the notation "ii-" before any Thief ii maps as to avoid undue confusion between the games. Just remember that you DON'T rename your Thief ii files (they should look exactly like Thief/Thief Gold files). You, of course, can try that and e-mail me what happens to your game if you do.


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Preliminaries:
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For those of you lucky enough to have bought Thief and/or Thief 2 with the level editor (retail ~$20 or less; 15 pesos in Mexico, and $75,000 in Canada), you are indeed holding a tool far more powerful than a mere
Gas Arrow. With this program, you can increase and adjust your starting gear to obscene quantities -- making even the expert level on par with
Super-Easy (not available in Guatemala). But before you get all excited and possibly do something that will kill your system, let's set up our files and folders first.

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Setting up Dromed.exe:
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#1: To proceed, you will need Winzip.exe or Pkunzip.exe inorder to extract the necessary files for Dromed to run. Don't have it? Do a web search and find it you cheap bastard.

#2: Thief Gold's level editor is on the first disc (Installation) and is housed in the directory CD-Drive Letter:\goodies\dromed\dromed.zip.

Ditto for Thief ii (Disc One: Installation), except the pathname is
CD-Drive Letter:\editor\dromed.zip.

You will need to unzip that file to the folder where you have Thief/Thief ii installed (i.e., extract to C:\Program Files\Looking Glass\ThiefG).

When you do, Winzip/Pkunzip will ask if you want to overwrite certain files such as Dark.cfg etc.; to insure that Dromed runs perfectly, you should select "Yes to All", however; if you are unsure whether or not you wish to overwrite critical game performance options (such as the
IDE83 video bug), you should say "No" to each overwrite.

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Safeguarding Old Files:
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**WARNING** If you have downloaded any "patches" or "upgraded maps" from Looking Glass, or some other loser Thief site, BE SURE TO MOVE those files to another directory or to make a back-up on a 350 mB Zip
Disk or on a CD.


DO NOT E-MAIL ME DEATH THREATS BECAUSE YOU MISTAKENLY ALTERED YOUR FAT.


#1: Eject Disc One: Installation and insert Disc Two: The Game. Go into the CD-Drive directory of Thief, Thiefg, or Thief2 and Copy/Paste all the files that have a .mis extension into the thief directory on your hard drive. On early versions of Thief Gold, this will overwrite
Miss15.mis, but that's okay -- otherwise you will miss out on one of
Thief Gold's unqiue missions, as the Dromed tutorial map was accidently misnamed Miss15.mis. I will however, use Thief/Thief Gold's Miss1.mis (a Keepers' Training) for the tutorial, as all training should be kept on Keeper grounds.

#2: Remove the Read-Only Property on all the *.mis files in your
Thief/Thief2 directory. This will allow you to adjust them if necessary. If you screwed up a map beyond your belief, retrieve them from the Game CD. It should be noted that these missions are the factory missions Looking Glass originally wanted you to play. All the dialogue and crap-chat will be there, as will the objectives, enemies, etc. The point now is to modify them so that even a blind taxi-driver can finish it.

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House-keeping
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*.mis files are big. A dozen of them take up an easy 150+mB. If you are pressed for space, you should delete unecessary files, and uninstall crappy games that take up your disk drive, like Halo or Legacy of Lame
Soul Beaver 2. You can also try just copying one file (I recommend the smallest Thief/Thief Gold file, Miss1.mis) as I will be using that to explain the tutorial.


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Operating Dromed
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For those of you who've editted Duke Nukem 3D (mostly by putting in an extra pair of strippers), this shouldn't be too much difficulty -- the principle remains the same; only the commands (and certain specifics) are different. For those who can't tell a mouse from external speaker, then you shouldn't be playing this game; go buy porn.

Dromed is basically the program by which the programmers (probably) made the entire gawddamn game. It offers a static but adjustable view by which the user (i.e., you) to move about a specific level of Thief in its entirety in order to change/add/delete details such as enemies, treasure, weapons, items, patrol routes, rooms, objectives, etc.

IT IS NOT PLAYING THE GAME ITSELF. The enemies do not move, nor does anything else for that matter. There is no sound save for the incessant clicking of your left and right mouse buttons; and you cannot "finish the game" in any respect while using Dromed. If you are still unsure of what the hell is going on, then please read the Dromed.doc that comes with the editor and come back when you have achieved some understanding to what the hell we're doing. I don't need rookies, unless you're a young, sensitive slut, between the ages of 18 and 35. Ethnicity and religion are optional. Like dancing? Long walks? Parties where we mix with people who think Survivor is cool and play Jenga all night? Then take a hike.
Applicants must suffer from nymphomania but otherwise be Vee-Dee free for a period of three to five years, and preferably top heavy if you know what I mean and I think you do, but if you claim Virgin Preference send yourself today.

Now, given the All Mighty's power to smite thy foe and carve something from nothingness, you may now begin to see the possiblity this program offers. Need a 100 gas arrows? Not a prob; just one question? Where d'ya want it? How about right next to you when you start? Can't be invincible? How about a 500 health potion pick-me up? Get the picture?
Now let's review the basics of using Dromed before we get into some serious ass-forkin'.

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The Views Available
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When you run Dromed from the Start Bar (or via double-click), you will see an unimpressive black screen split into four smaller windows. A grid of white lines should show up in three of the four windows, with the upper left window showing either total black or a single white line.

THIS is what the map looks like if nothing is in it -- in simple terms, you're basically in a Black Hole so obviously, you can't see anything from nothing. Okay, enough Nihilist rhetoric, let's get down to business.
The little purple dot/sperm cell appearing in three of the windows is the Dromed 3D Camera -- it will serve as the marker for the 3D view and as a marker to some extent, in the other views. Otherwise, you can pretty much ignore it.

There are basically two views you should concern yourself about: The
3D view in the upper left window, and the top view (or as we architects say, 'The plan view. Show us the plan view.'). These two windows wil be your most often used, as you will basically create onjects in the Plan
View, and use the 3D view to determine most of its attributes such as dimension, orientaton, and placement. The other two views are Front and
Side, and while not terribly important, they are nevertheless useful when you need to determine where things are on the Y and Z Axes.

The pointer you move about resembles a red and white cross and can be used to readjust the window sizes by holding the left mouse button (LMB) over where the window borders intersect and moving the mouse. Adjust the view if you like, but do note you will probably need all four windows to check where your objects are.

On the bottom, there should be a small table of values, of which six are extremely important. X, Y, Z, H, P, and B values. X and Y are self-explanatory to first year algebra students: they determine the
X and Y coordinates of an object (or ;brush'). The Z value is the height while the P value determines pitch -- whether an object is tilted as in leaning against a wall, etc. The B value is the value of bank and the H value determines yaw. You can click the values and manually type in the numbers (then hit enter), but you can also adjust the values by holding the LMB on the appropriate variable and moving your mouse up/down, or side to side. You don't have an object to see the effects yet, but you will soon enough.

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Commands in 2D
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Now, move your cursor over to the upper right window (henceforth referred to as the Plan View) and hold your right mouse button (RMB).
A small command window should pop up, and as long as your RMB is held, it will remain. You may move the cursor over the commands and notice that your selection will be highlighted in purple; by releasing the
RMB, you will confirm that command and it will be immediately executed.

In the PLAN, FRONT, and SIDE views, the commands will be the same: show/hide grid; solo/unsolo; synch all/asynch all; teleport camera; zoom in; zoom out; zoom in all; zoom out all; fit to region.

A brief explanation:

SHOW/HIDE GRID - Shows or hides the white grid lines. On maps that have numerous objects (such as Miss5.mis - Assassins; or ii-Miss7.mis
- The Bank) you should hide the grid to make things run more smoothly.