ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Really, this is an honnest question. I never won it. Just saw a winner on the geomancy competition.

What am I doing wrong ? Not diving fast enough ? Spending too much time finishing unuseful levels ?

Start with 98 quests and take the first 10,000 AU you earn in the Barrow-Downs to Gondor, then use the Thunderlord's Nest to warp to the bottom of Mordor. Kill a Great Hell Wyrm using flasks of oil and shoot 'n scoot tactics.






Seriously, Moria is usually where I start finding some real equipment. You don't really need resists, just a way to kill massive quantities of orcs, and a means of identify.

"Fear is the key.." Don't hit anything you can't kill, and don't hit anything while you're afraid.
I usually have a special feeling after BD, Orc Cave, Sandworm and Old Forest if I have a winner. If there isn't that feeling I might as well quit before I die.
Pick a character which you like to play. Don't bother with Yeek Bard if it doesn't sound like you.
After that special feeling it's just DIVE! and those deep levels will take care of your equipment problems.

Play defensively. Have means of escape. Pick your battles. Don't stand next to a monster if you're not going to melee it.

Know how to play the particular class you're playing.

Know your spells (tomes/books, wands, rods, staves...)
Know thy God.

You can never have enough HP or mana.

Know where to find what you're looking for.
I'll avoid spoilers here, but know where to look for guaranteed artifacts/drops useful to you. Remember that some types of monsters are more common in certain dungeons. Know where the special levels are. Don't hang around the bottom of a dungeon with a guardian if you're not prepared for it.

After you reach character level 50, there's no need to fight every monster in your way, unless you're looking for loot or clearing a quest.

Also, check out surviving strategies for Vanilla and other *bands. Some?/most? apply to ToME.

I've never won ToME. The last roguelikes I've won were Nethack and Moria. But here is what seems to be the trick to winning ToME:

Run away!

You can run away a thousand times and still win, but if you get killed once, you won't win.

Don't be afraid to be afraid. If you're not sure you can kill it, don't try unless you absolutely have to. You can always come back to the level and it will probably be gone (unless it's a quest monster, in which case you can come back when you're stronger).

Of course, knowing the dungeons is pretty important so you don't end up wandering into a quest that is too hard for you and has no way out except to complete it. But perfect knowledge of the dungeons won't help if you stick around for "one more hit" when you should be teleporting away.

Keith

BauMog wrote: I'll avoid spoilers here, but know where to look for guaranteed artifacts/drops useful to you. Remember that some types of monsters are more common in certain dungeons. Know where the special levels are. Don't hang around the bottom of a dungeon with a guardian if you're not prepared for it.

That might be a part of my problem. I have been playing ToME/Moria the last 15 years (how many life-turns? ), but I do not know where special levels are, what the quests requires, etc. *ToME* DOESN'T tell you where special levels might be. In fact, it doesn't tell you where dungeons are !!! If you try to know, you can get killed by an ambush in the wilderness !

There SHOULD be a way (scrolls found on the ground) to give newbies clues about the "things you better know if playing ToME" such as more town/dungeon map location, clues about quests, clues about special levels, etc.

No ?

Lord Satri wrote:

BauMog wrote:There SHOULD be a way (scrolls found on the ground) to give newbies clues about the "things you better know if playing ToME" such as more town/dungeon map location, clues about quests, clues about special levels, etc.

Well, there are the maps to the towns. Similar might do for dungeon locations -- e.g. a Map to Moria would light the area around Moria.

Another possibility would be that talking to certain people in town would give you suggestions of where you should go next. Possibly, if you clear all ten levels of the Barrow-downs, for instance, someone in town would suggest routes to Lothlorien and Mirkwood -- or other locations, if you seem to have the abilities needed to deal with them. The game could evaluate your abilities and -suggest- a dungeon to go to, just as it now compares your Combat and Magic to decide which second Bree-quest you get.

I recommend starting a "throw-away" character or two whose sole purpose is to roam around the world and locate places. The overhead map never changes and it won't take you long to memorize where dungeons are.

If all that fails, pressing ? can lead to all kinds of easily accesible (and some spoily) information; one of the first things that really impressed me about this variant.

Verilee

When I first started playing *band variants, the first thing I did was cheat, and cheat heavily. Specifically, I turned on the avoid death cheat and started with an easy character: the Fighter (tm). Get a hang for the game that way, and don't worry about high scores until you're comfortable playing the game. Remember, the point is to have fun, not get high scores. Doing it legitimately is a lot more satisfying, but banging your keyboard to smithereens because you died at level 4 again is not fun by any definition.

Read the help files. Read the strategy section. Experiment with the cheat modes (they're there for experimenting, after all).

hey... I enjoy being killed repeatedly on level 4 and resent the implication that this is a bad thing.... but then again, I'm playing a yeek bard, and sadly, I feel that it is a class that does indeed suit me

However, thanks for the starter of this thread as I love hearing the replies and have always wondered at the ways people play, maybe one day I'll be able to contribute. I wonder how similar the winners strategies really are though? I mean... do all of you winners out there feel like no matter what class you play, your strategies end up being pretty much the same?

Lord Satri wrote:I have been playing ToME/Moria the last 15 years (how many life-turns? ), but I do not know where special levels are, what the quests requires, etc.

You could always search the site, or ask in Spoilers.

Arioch_Arioch wrote: I wonder how similar the winners strategies really are though? I mean... do all of you winners out there feel like no matter what class you play, your strategies end up being pretty much the same?

Actually, I find I always play the same way- avoiding melee and using either magic or archery. All of my wins in any variant have been mage/sorcerors or archers. I guess it is a matter of personal preference. Of course, now that ToME allows stacking artifact ammo, I don't want to play any class without archery (except sorcerors).

Steve

a) Magic - at medium levels, being a warrior can be a PITA, IMHO.
b) Equipment - wear what will help you in most situations, but keep backup items in your pack for special situations, e.g. when you need a different set of resists.

Monster memory is important, but patience is most important. Going forward with inadequate stats and equipment accounts for most of my character deaths.