THE KEYHOLING HOW-TO This keyholing how-to is only a draft. I am certainly no master of keyholing myself and describing it from memory as I have no access to my PC now. 1. Introduction Keyholing was invented by Lytha a few months ago. It is a technique - call it a bug exploit if you prefer - that allows to take or frob objects from behind locked doors. I have keyholed many doors in Thief Gold, but not a single one in Thief 2. Lytha has reported she did it in Thief 2 with the old style doors that have the same model as in Thief Gold. According to information from the developers, the keyholing bug was fixed in the 1.18 Thief 2 patch. Lytha developed keyholing into "door transgression" which is much more difficult but can bring you through a solid door without a key. Door transgression is not explained in this document. An introduction can be found on Lytha's web site. 2. Theory Keyholing exploits a bug in leaning to the left, right and forward. When Garrett leans around a corner, his body is subject to a certain tension that tries to pull him back into the neutral position. This tension can become very high when, for example, he leans around a corner and then turns away from the corner. When the lean key is finally released, his head snaps back at high speed. This effect combined with pressing multiple lean keys at the same time can be exploited to ram his head through a solid door. In theory, it should work with any non-wall door or window that has a frame that is thick enough to lean around. Due to effects similar to the Sudden Heart Attack Syndrome (SHAS), attempts to keyhole a door often kill Garrett on the spot. 3. Preparations Before you begin your keyholing exercises, check your key bindings. You need the "lean left", "lean right", "lean forward", "strafe left" and "strafe right" keys accessible with the same hand. All the lean keys and one of the strafe keys plus the jump key have to be pressed at the same time. At least, you can not use the default "lean forward" key (Alt-w). Change that to an unmodified key. For example, I have q = lean left e = lean right v = lean forward a = strafe left d = strafe right Now, make sure that your keyboard is able to handle all these keys simultaneously. Many keyboards can not handle arbitrary key combinations. Fire up the game and press (but not release) "lean left", then "lean forward", then "lean right", then "strafe right". Repeat this with "right" and "left" exchanged. Should any of the keys fail to work, change your bindings until you find a set of five keys that works. 4. Keyholing 4.1 Locating a suitable spot You need a door, window or portcullis with a solid frame that is not too thick and not too thin: Good: XXXXX==========XXXXX XXXXX==========XXXXX XXXXX ........ XXXXX XXXXX ........ XXXXX XXXXX ........ XXXXX Frame too thick: XXXXX==========XXXXX XXXXX ........ XXXXX XXXXX ........ XXXXX XXXXX ........ XXXXX XXXXX ........ XXXXX XXXXX ........ XXXXX XXXXX ........ XXXXX Frame too thin: XXXXX==========XXXXX X : Wall or door frame = : Door Not all doors are suitable for keyholing. Some are just fake doors with a solid wall behind (for example one of the doors in the very first room of the training mission). Other doors simply refuse to be keyholed. A very good door to begin with is the door leading from the sparring area to the acrobatics area in the training mission. It has a nice doorframe and you can not die in this mission. However, there is nothing interesting behind it. Other good opportunities are the armoury door in Return to the Cathedral and the door with the grate before it that bars the way into the keepers' compound in The haunted Cathedral (more difficult, not good for beginners). As keyholing requires a lot of reloading it may be a good idea to set the screen resolution to 640x480 to speed up loading. 4.2 Step by step The technique is described only for doors and only for the left side of the frame. Swap "door" with "window" and "left" with "right" if you like. When you are told to press a key, do not release it before explicitly told so. Metal doors are easier to keyhole because they are thinner than wooden doors. X : Wall or door frame = : Door ^ : Garrett's head facing straight ahead \ : Garrett's head facing slightly left / : Garrett's head facing slightly right < : Garrett's head facing left > : Garrett's head facing right L : Garrett's head facing very far left O : Garrett's body (if no body is drawn it's directly below the head). 1) Directly face the door and move up to it as far as you can. XXXXX=========XXXXX XXXXX ^ XXXXX 2) Strafe left until you hit the door frame. Now you are wedged between the door and the frame. XXXXX=========XXXXX XXXXX^ XXXXX 3) Press the "lean left" key. Turn left a little bit until Garrett's head snaps past the door frame and looks directly at the wall. How far you have to turn your head depends on how thick the door frame is. XXXXX=========XXXXX XXXXXO XXXXX \ Keys held: lean left 4) Turn right a little bit so you are facing slightly towards the middle of the door. The head must not snap back yet. The crucial point of keyholing is to find the right angle. A few degrees make the difference between success and instant death. Practise this a bit until you get a feeling for the right angles. XXXXX=========XXXXX XXXXXO XXXXX / Keys held: lean left 5) Make sure you do not look up or down. This can interfere with keyholing. You can press the "center view" key to make sure. XXXXX=========XXXXX XXXXXO XXXXX / Keys held: lean left 6) Press the "lean forward" key without releasing the "lean left key". Several things can happen. a) You take damage and are kicked about the room. Reload and try again. b) The view shakes for a few seconds. You may take damage. Possibly reload and try again. c) You are killed. Reload. d) Your head ends up inside or through the door. Congratulations, proceed with the next step. XXXXX/========XXXXX XXXXXO XXXXX Keys held: lean left, lean forward 7) A door is made of several layers of solid surfaces. Garrett's head may now be inside one of these black layers. This isn't the optimal result, but may sometimes be corrected later. At this point, you may already be able to look into the room or reach the objects you want to get. In this case: well done. If not, proceed with the next step. 8) Turn your head left until you look at the door frame. XXXXX<========XXXXX XXXXXO XXXXX Keys held: lean left, lean forward 9) You may now press the "strafe right" key to get further through the door. This may or may not help a bit. Release the key. XXXXX<========XXXXX XXXXXO XXXXX Keys held: lean left, lean forward 10) Now the difficult part. Without letting go of the other keys, press the "lean right key". The door may spit you out now. If so, try again. But usually, Garrett's head gets even further through the door. < XXXXX=========XXXXX XXXXXO XXXXX Keys held: lean left, lean forward, lean right 11a) This step is optional. Turn a little bit to the right and press the "strafe right" key to slide towards the right side of the door and release the key. \ XXXXX=========XXXXX XXXXX O XXXXX Keys held: lean left, lean forward, lean right 11b) This step is optional. Turn a little bit to the left and press the "strafe right" key to slide towards the left side of the door and release the key. L XXXXX=========XXXXX XXXXX O XXXXX Keys held: lean left, lean forward, lean right 12) Turn your head to get the objects of interest into view. 13) Release all the keys before your hand gets sore. Happy keyholing Luthien ^_^ ^_^ October, 2002