Adding Replayability Especially Early Game

[overgoat]

Awesome, thanks!

[edge2054]

darkgod works fast!

From the SVN notes:

Orc breeding pits: reduced the total size
Daikara: only 4 levels now
Maze: only 2 levels now (one is huge)
Eruan: only 4 levels now
Old forest: only 4 levels now
Sandowrm lair: only 4 levels now
Ardhungol: only 3 levels now
The four orc prides are now 3 levels

haha.. yeah, Darkgod is the man. Early game still needs help though

[faustgeist]

Greetings all,

There are present designs elements which fairly change TOME 4s re-playability. Beginning with the Transmogrification chest in equipment, on start-up (after unlocking the achievement.) It is, at the same, time convenient as heck... yet also renders visiting towns unnecessary until one needs to go shopping for 300pt shield runes. Which is the ONLY thing I have every bought from any town after thirty + characters.

From a *re-playability* perspective the only non-plot things in a town are alchemist quests and runes. I have never seen gear for sale better than what falls in the Elven Vault or Dreadfall. And even then... practically everything in the East is better than gear in the start zones -so buying something at a store is quickly outdated. All of my 40+ lv toons each have 7,000+ gold and will NEVER spend it... because there is nothing to buy. Dwarves love it for their racial benefits... but I do not feel money is important after lv 30 for any other class/race.

I think in TOME 4, having five towns is the same as having one. From flavor, RPG and immersion perspectives this is not true... but from the practical application of what a town offers -and from the re-playability angle - they are all the same.

The only variety after 30 game plays is the farportal... where I can take a toon thought 15 or so foreign lands I've never seen.

As for how to solve these issues, I had better put my thinking cap on.

~Robin

[phantomglider]

There is at least one good use for money. The merchant you rescue from the Assassin Lord sets up shop in Last Hope, and once you come back from the Far East you can commission good randarts from him.

[Dekar]

And shops sell slime daggers for the offhand at early level, but thats about it.

[NEHZ]

There is at least one good use for money. The merchant you rescue from the Assassin Lord sets up shop in Last Hope, and once you come back from the Far East you can commission good randarts from him.

On my current game this guy had a cool artifact worth 7200 gold. Before going east. (he also had some other nice stuff, but being a dwarf I couldn't buy anything expensive without having it cut into my Power is Money)
If you're lucky the shops have some expensive stuff that you actually want. If you're unlucky it'll be hard to spend your money.

[timphiz]

One thing that could be done is to add more dungeons and then make the game draw from a pool of them on character generation rather than using the same ones each time. I think the prime candidates for shuffling like this would be the T2 dungeons and the prides. Some problems with the idea:

T2 Dungeons
The Lake of Nur: You could put it at the end of a random T2 dungeon instead of the forest specifically
Temporal Rift: You could put this on level 4 of a random T2 dungeon instead Daikara specifically
Sandworm Queen's Heart: You'd need to guarantee access to this or an item with a similar effect. Maybe make a slime themed dungeon that drops an item that gives a free level up and access to the slime tree
Escorts: Guarantee two T2 dungeons with escort potential so you can't get unlucky and have them all pushed into Reknor/Dreadfell

Prides
You'd need to create new prides that fit with the themes of the existing orbs (pride of undead orcs, pride of air/earth elementalists etc) or create new orbs and have those randomly chosen as well.
Maybe change Vor Armory to the Orc Armory and have its leader be neutral to inter-pride conflict.

An alternate solution to the prides would be to simply create more of them that always spawn, but only require defeating 4 of them to win. Have the high Sun Paladin say something like "Sunwall is spread too thin fighting off the attacks from the 8 prides, if you could destroy 4 of them I'd be able to consolidate my forces enough to deal with the remainder."

For all I know my suggestions would be too much work or fly in the face of the game's lore/design goals, but I do think it would make the game less repetitious.

[BasiC]

As a newcomer and as someone who played many other roguelikes Id suggest adding more types of random quests to the starting areas, and making levels more random in what is inside of them.
If you start in the Trollmire than there should be many random things that might appear on the level each time.
Sometimes a fortress in some location, sometimes an underground path, sometimes you'd encounter a "gang" war between thieves, or a troll fighting a pack of wolves...
It just needs more diversity.
Any mini scripted event should also have randomization in it..
Im not sure how the engine works and how it generates levels but the starting levels just need some more complex dynamics than just "grind through hordes of x creature types till you get to the boss".

Perhaps it is a problem of Creature and enemy humanoid interactions...
Maybe it would be possible to not make absolutely everyone want to attack strictly you...
Instead of trolls wolves bears and bees all coming for you there should be levels of hostility between them and if those are greater than the hotility towards you they will fight each other.
Some creatures also need to be able to flee with their movement decreased if strongly hurt...

You could than have, for example, a sentient being (a humanoid or not) fighting some wild animals and you pass by and it asks for your help promising reward...This can be none scripted aside from the generic miniquest it decides to give you.