Can't play thief 2x shadows of the metal age

[Zara]

it says when i try to play "Please insert the Thief 2 Game Disc into the CD drive"

[ps47.3dfx]

pretty sure you will have to patch T2 with TafferPatcher and load T2x as a standalone fan mission, the original TX2 installer (and executable) has not been working properly for ages, so you either need to make it FM ready yourself, or get one of the pre-patched versions, see here[www.ttlg.com].

[dunbaratu]

It's a known problem with a known solution: T2X is a very old fan-mission package dating back to before there was a standard fan mission format used by the modding community. As such what it tries to do is make a copy of everything in T2 and then overwrite parts of it in that copy with its own replacement files.

The problem is one of those file changes it does overwrites the Steam (and GoG) changes to the config files that had been done to make the game work without the CD. It writes it out with the old original settings Thief 2 shipped with, where it assumed you use the CD as part of the proof of ownership. (Note, it also tends to clobber over settings inserted by recent T2 patches you can download off the net, so this "insert CD" thing isn't the only problem it has.)

I forgot exactly which file it was that it does this to, but generally the way you should install T2X these days is as follows:

1 - Make a backup of T2 just to be sure (or be willing to have to wipe it and re-download it from Steam if you got it that way).

2 - Download and run the T2X installer .exe file. It will make a subfolder called "t2x" under your Thief 2 installation and populate it with both the actual fan mission content, and also those config file changes you don't want. Do Not Run The "t2x" Game Yet. Just install it and let it make the t2x folder.

3 - Go into the "t2x" folder and delete all its copies of the config text files (I do not remember which files those are but they should be clear which they are - several small ascii files with lots of settings in them.) Also, delete its copies of all .exe files. Those are just copies of the stock game's exe files and leaving them there might override any T2 patches you might have downloaded and installed previously.

4 - Take what's left of the "t2x" directory after step 3, and package it into a ZIP file with relative paths starting just inside the "t2x" directory.

5 - You now have a ZIP file that is formatted in the way that all other Fan Mission files are formatted, and you can use it the same way you'd use any other Fan Mission ZIP file you'd download off the net.

6 - Delete everything in the "t2x" directory and (recursively downward from there). Use the ZIP you made as a fan-mission ZIP instead.

I know the development of t2x is done and the team is gone, but I really wish someone would do the above things and offer the ZIP file for download on their website (which still exists) so you don't have to do all this and people can just say "download their recent ZIP instead of their EXE" when this question is asked. For licensing reasons I don't think anyone else other than the t2x team is allowed to distribute that ZIP themselves, even though it's free.

[ps47.3dfx]

pssst the link in my post.