The Dark Wiki has coverage of T:TDP --> TG changes down to 'the chewing sound for bread and cheese', and a page on the Fire Shadow enemy that was added.

What's really annoying is that there was going to be a Thief II Gold...

+1 to these remarks.

And re: "smacks of PC pandering" remarks: I'd say no more than in any other cRPG game where there are as many female as male adventurers, as well as tradesmen, merchants, politicians, and church leaders. Trying to faithfully replicate historical feudal gender roles was never a big priority in fantasy-themed computer games.

This utterly ruined the atmosphere of The Lost City for me. Thief: TDP's representation of it was perfect as a mysterious and forgotten centuries-old tomb sealed from the outside world, until our cynical Garrett comes upon it. Instead, Thief Gold's take is that it's just another way-station for the Almighty Fire Mage guild, and if their fireball spells won't get you, their unbearable droning voices will (I hated the "Mage Tower" mission as well, natch). The mages in general seem a poorly thought-out inclusion to the Thief world, and questions like if they're warring with the Keepers (are the slain corpses of Keepers in Thief: Gold's The Lost City victims of a skirmish with them?) or other factions in The City are never satisfactorily answered.

I disliked this needless "makeover" of The Lost City almost to the point of preferring Thief: TDP to Thief: Gold. The Thieves' Guild and The Song of Caverns make up for it, but just barely.

replacing the gold map with the original version should be trivial, especially with the latest updates. just google for thief unstripped missions. there will be a slight discrepancy of having to get the water talisman for the second time in song of the caverns, but it seems like you are ready to pay that price.

You are correct, I would.

I got this page from googling "unstripped thief missions". Is it simply a matter of downloading Miss9.zip and putting it somewhere in my Thief: Gold directory?

IIRC, the dead keepers were in the original version of the Lost City? One of the mission objectives was to recover their medallions. IT would seem even in that game Garret wasn't the first to discover the Lost City.

the bodies are indeed present in the classic version of the map, so the keepers are definitely not fighting against the mages (or anyone else, as that would violate their principles). probably an expedition that went bad.
unzipping it into the thief folder, yes.

Alternatively, you may give a try to GoldToDark, which I recently made a thread about on the TTLG forums, though of course you will lose all other benefits of the Gold version. Make sure you read the Read Me.

Am I the only one or would anyone else like to see the dark god Cthulhu type demon creature featured as a statue in the Lost City in a future game as the next major villain Garret has to take on? That statue has to be based on something right?

Lots of people like the largeness of Thief 2's levels, but I think it's partly an illusion.

Thief 2's missions are big and spacious, but the large spaces are lacking in detail to the point that the levels sometimes look unfinished. The most glaring examples are Shipping and Receiving's outdoor areas and Life of the Party's tower interiors, especially the lower levels, and the many functionless and lootless rooms with copypaste static object compositions in all of the missions. The AI is as near-sighted as in Thief 1, so they appear dumber in Thief 2 where more often than in Thief 1 the only thing hiding an otherwise well-lit Garrett is a 20 meter distance to the guard.

Thus, even though Thief Gold's levels are more compact, its level and AI design are much more meaningful and complementary, making it the superior game in that regard.

I didn't like how thief 2 disabled the ability to pick up and stack objects like could be done in the original game.

Totally in agreement. Casing the Joint being repeated twice was obnoxious. Especially that close to the end of the game, I feel something more interesting could have taken place.

Thief Gold gets my vote. I did enjoy the spelunking as well.

I am really late to this game series (absolutely love it though), but I think I can already say that I prefer Thief1 over the sequel. Even though I have started with the Metal Age (haven't finished the last mission yet though) and I am currently in the middle of The Sword mission in Thief1, I think the tighter - and more creative - level design and the more common horror elements make the game a bit more challenging and more intense than Thief2. I enjoy both games a lot -I actually haven't enjoyed any games this much in a long time -but Thief1 holds more variety for me.

I was also very curious about the ominous tomb raid levels, and I have to say that I loved Down at the Bonehoard. It probably would have been scarier for me if I had played the game nearer to a time when it came out, but it still gave me a nice adrenaline rush and a few surprise jumps. Looking forward to more of this kind of missions, although I have to say that I find the burricks more of a threat than the zombies, and sometimes they are downright annoying.

I can't really comment on the differences between vanilla Thief1 and Gold since I didn't have the chance to play the former, but I did find the Guild mission too tedious after a while, as it had a rather boring level design and lacked the intensity of other levels in the game.

I am much more into Thief 2 than Thief Gold. My biggest problem with the first game is that it's improperly named. You spend more time in that game being an exterminator, undead clean-up machine and solver of other people's problems than you do thieving. I want to steal something, damn it, and that game doesn't have enough! Thief 2 is much better at balancing the storyline with enriching yourself at some other fool's expense. The controls and game play are refined, with the addition of inventory scrolling with the mouse wheel being the best. The storyline doesn't featured the cliched and incredibly annoying twist of you working for the villain all along. Karras is a much more straightforward enemy than Constantine, although he does have a silly voice and you don't get to watch him blow himself to smithereens like you do Constantine. Overall, I'll take Thief 2: The Metal Age any day.

The story and level design aesthetics are very different for each game. IIRC, in Thief 1 the story was designed first and then levels fit around the story. In thief 2 the levels were made first and then a story placed on top of them.

In this way perhaps the second has more imaginative gameplay options, less restricted more open spaces. Whereas the original was more restricted in regards to the story. More closed in a bit more linear and claustrophobic.