ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I'm gonna say Nethack just to be controversial, and because it's the only roguelike I've ever completed

I tend to go through moods, though. I can be on a Nethack kick for months, then switch over to ADOM for ages, and then back. ToME reminds me very much of ADOM, though I think it's keeping my attention longer because you don't feel as if you're working against the clock in ToME.

I've played pretty much nothing but ToME for the last three or four months though, which is fairly unusual as I've steered clear of the Angband variants most of the time. When I've been playing it for several years, like I have Nethack, I'll probably have to reassess which is 'best'.

My vote would be split between ADOM and TOME (which I only recently started playing, though). NH seemed too one-dimensional, lacking a plot, quests etc.

I used to be a *diehard* NetHack fan... I've ascended, knew a *whole lot* of the tricks...skipped school just to play . Then I went to college, and my addiction just sort of drifted... Grew up a ~little~ and then got my first career-related job.

One fateful, boring day at work -- I see a banner ad: 'Play Rogue Online'. It all ends/begins there... Did some browsing, first I found the SLASH'em (!!) stuff, then ADoM (!!!) ... then, the almighty ToME (!!!!!). The depth, I love the depth of gameplay. For some reason I cannot focus on NetHack anymore, I try ... I just can't hack it... It's too...too, well, simple.

I'd probably rank ToME 1 first, ToME 2 second, and "classic" Zangband (2.4.0 forever!) as a close third. Being able to add new classes without worrying about skill trees, or metaclasses and specialists...having fixed spell lists for each class...I like that in a *band. I can also accept and enjoy some non-thematic elements, as long as they don't dominate a game.

Granted, as a module coder I do find some aspects of ToME 2 useful...but when I set out to do Norseband as a full variant long ago, I wanted the game mechanics to emulate the "look and feel" of ToME 1 as closely as the new theme allowed. Hopefully T-Engine 3 will be flexible enough to re-create the older mechanics when I start work on the full-edition Norseband module...

_________________
Ingeborg S. Nordén
(isnorden@gmail.com)

Nethack is fun except when it's not. :D

I liked it until I finally got to the last level in the game (just short of the win, avoiding spoilers here), and then the whole level got filled with snakes and I was trapped and got killed. Haven't played since.

Hoom... none besides me voted ADOM. In fear of the darkgod himself, right?

I must say that ToME have more of everything that any other roguelike game, but it is ADOM that is great. Nearly perfect. Though it's getting worse recently. And ToME's going better and better every day, however it still has a long way to go (probably because our illustrious maintainer forgot that if you have more advantages than disadvantages that doesn't exactly make you better than if you have no disadvantages). Ok, enough complaints for today.