ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I spoke with Het briefly about the Arena and I know DG loves unlocks but I think this mode is going to have a lot of mass appeal beyond RPG fans.

In other words, I think a lot of people who won't enjoy the RPG module will really enjoy Arena mode and that the unlock should either be non-existent or tied into completing Tutorial mode or something. Keep it separate from the main module so people who just want to play Tome 4 to kill some monsters can do so.

Which also gets me thinking about class unlocks. Maybe arena mode should have it's own class unlocks. Maybe surviving so many waves lets you choose a class to unlock or unlocks a random class.

Just a few thoughts.

I agree on not having it locked at all. Otherwise we'd just have to invent some empty content purely to justify the unlock.

Having alternative ways of unlocking all the classes through the Arena mode would be fantastic. It would make the unlock system as a whole feel less restrictive.

Grey wrote:I agree on not having it locked at all.

So do I!

Otherwise we'd just have to invent some empty content purely to justify the unlock.

Like a certain vault in the Trollmire?

Having alternative ways of unlocking all the classes through the Arena mode would be fantastic. It would make the unlock system as a whole feel less restrictive.

As a not-lover of the unlock system, that would make things way better.
I had considered 'double' unlocks for quite a while actually - when I realized that you couldn't get the Tempest unlock through lightning damage but only through the quest - and ideally you'd be able to get both.
Perhaps you could eventually unlock some classes in the arena by facing themed waves with an appropriate boss?

I really do like the unlock things, but I can see the point here, so how about... Arena starts out, freely available, with most of the classes and some of the races still locked, as normal. Playing through the arena allows you to unlock various options - eventually all of them, but unlocks are not shared between arena and base game. Playing the base game, you can eventually get to a point where you "unlock" the arena, at which point the unlocks are shared between game modes. If you managed to get far enough in the arena, you might be able to open shared unlocks there, too (particularly appropriate for the arena's "win the game" point). That way, people who don't care about playing the arena version can just play the arena version (and eventually unlock everything), people who just want to play the normal version can just play the normal version (and eventually unlock everything) and we still get the niftyness of feeling that the two modes are connected by achieving something in the unlock system.

If I'm not able to play what I've unlocked during normal play in the arena I will cause bodily harm to some living entity in this universe. It would be so STUPID to block that.

If it WERE to be locked content, and I REALLY don't think it should be as it's a completely different game really, it's it's own module for -'s sake. I have no issues with having a 'demo' available in game, but please, an arena, a place of battle popular to the locals, locked?

...and relatively quickly get all of your unlocks ported over as soon as you hit some reasonably easy unlock point in the main game. I'm not suggesting that the cross-unlocking be all that hard to pull off from the main game side.

Sirrocco wrote:...and relatively quickly get all of your unlocks ported over as soon as you hit some reasonably easy unlock point in the main game. I'm not suggesting that the cross-unlocking be all that hard to pull off from the main game side.

But...why? It's just needless complexity. Does every nice new thing need an unlock or some special restriction?

It's not necessary. It'll work fine either way. I just like the idea (however illusory) that I'm earning these things in gameplay. I like the "ding", you know?

Hmm Whait this "Arena" is?