ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I'm a brand-new player to ToME that's been playing pretty much every day for the last 3 1/2 weeks. During that time, I've been keeping track of all the things that have bugged me, and having just beat the game on Adventure difficulty, I figured now was a good time to share my suggestions.

Warning: there are a few spoilers in my suggestions.

Things that I think that would help new players

• Topics to add to the tutorial: autoexplore, item egos (better colors are not always better, especially with bows), stun/freeze and confuse resists, escort orders, and speed.
• Speaking of the tutorial, I think it would be great if, after a certain number of games (3? 5?), the game would highlight the advanced tutorial in the main screen at least once. I didn't do the advanced tutorial at first, but later I completly forgot it was there and didn't do it till I read about it online much later.
• Not seeing the open way on the map because of trees -- the Elvala path is the worst offender here. I'm not sure how best to tackle it but I remember not even knowing I could get to Elvala my first couple of games.
• You have no idea to keep ego-less amulets the first time you can enchant them, and you don't find out that you'll need them (if you need them) until the end of the game, where you can't do much about it. It would be nice if this could be communicated to the player in advance; maybe a low-level-only jewelry enchanter in Angolwen?
• Prides are very tempting for new players that see them -- they're open and have a quest line for them and everything -- but they will probably get slaughtered if they so much as move a single square in them. This seems bad. Why don't players even get a warning when they step into them, like with Bill?
• It's not always obvious who you can talk to and who you can't. I missed the spider cave and jeweler in the Gates Of Morning the first few times around because I never knew you could talk to those people, since you can't talk to most people and everyone looks the same. Is there any way to signify through their icons that you can talk to someone?
• Last Hope combat/archery training is really easy to miss, especially because the first is useful to non-melee characters who might not ever think to visit that particular shop. Can this be made more obvious somehow?
• Why is Ring Of The Dead vague while Blood Of Life is not? Especially given than I have to use up a ring slot for it, which for something unproven (the first time) is hard to justify.
• It would be nice if the race-specific unlocks gave players a bit more of a hint about how to unlock them, so players could reasonably get them unspoiled. Why not show something vague in the character creation screen, like "You need to play as a Yeek to unlock this class" for Mindslayer?
• Why isn't there a warning when you take the stairs to High Peak that you can't get back? You get a similar warning in Tempest Peak even though you can Rod Of Recall out of there. (I understand that Tempest Peak used to be different and this is a holdover from that, but if the warning was a good idea for the old Tempest Peak, it should be a good idea for High Peak.)

Things that just don't make sense to me

• Bloodhexed pickaxes: why do they exist? It just makes me have to wield it to use it and then unwield it after. It's not a real penalty, just annoying.
• "But I am the Master!" dialogue choice with Fortress Shadow is non-selectable. Is this a bug?
• Why doesn't Ukllmswwik The Wise (the dragon in the Flooded Cave) say anything when you come back after the Temple Of Creation quest? All the other quests like it have some kind of final dialogue.
• 100% showing up occasionally as XP for next level is confusing. I understand that it's probably because of rounding but it still confused me at first.
• Why is Rod Of Annulment on one screen while Rod Of Recall is on another? I understand that they have different sorts of function but on the surface it appears inconsistent and strange.

Things that would make my life easier

• Automatic use of abilities (especially manasurge) still tries while confused, which has killed me several times. It would really make my life a lot better if this didn't happen.
• It would also be a lot better for me if "rest for a while" didn't happen if I've been hit by a ranged enemy that's still alive and can see me. It's killed me several times, since I typically hit this key twice to recharge my shields and such and that's sometimes enough to kill me. I realize this might be a controversial change though.
• When an ability puts your abilities on cooldown, like the one the Weirdling Beast has, it should be made more obvious to the player than it is currently. This has nearly killed me many times even though all my sustains are on my main shortcut bar. I just don't see them.
• Shielding runes should be less rare. I've had three archmages not get one better than my starting rune till after level 30. This is the main reason I've been playing skeleton archmages currently, so I don't have to worry about this problem. (Controlled phase door runes are too rare, too, though I don't use them myself.)
• Friendly AI shouldn't walk into traps you've found or flames you've made on the ground.
• Can Cleansing Flames tell the player when it removes a status effect? I'd like to verify that it's doing what it says.

A few opinions

• Yet another vote that many dungeons should be shortened; in my opinion, most should be capped at 3 levels, with a few exceptions like Dreadfell and High Peak. I paid close attention while playing and after that is definitely when most of them become annoying. I also think that 3 levels could be shaved off Dreadfell and High Peak with no loss in enjoyment.
• 1,000,000 damage seems like too much for the Wildfire/Ice tree unlocks. 500,000 seems a lot better to me. Many folks are going to doing most of this damage as an archmage, and if you're a newbie like me, you're only going to get 150,000-200,000 damage on both per game because you're still having trouble beating Dreadfell. Having to play 5 or 6 archmages just to unlock them seems excessive.
• I said this in another thread, but the only unlock I feel is truly unfair is the necromancer unlock. The Last Hope graveyard can just annhilate characters; even after I knew what I was doing, I lost three characters to it before just cheesing the level on it, which is not a good answer.
• I had no idea I could save the Wayist for a while, because I've played so many other games where people get killed as plot points that I never thought I could save him. Might just be me, but maybe it would better if he said "Save me!" and/or ran towards you instead of Subject Z, to communicate that he can be saved.
• Why isn't lore available at the main menu, where I'm much more likely to read it? This would also remove the arbitrariness of having to do Lake Nur first for the Last Hope graveyard quest.
• Switching cloaks as a skeleton all the time is a pain. I like the thematic aspect but even after playing 6 of these guys I still forget to switch cloaks sometimes.
• Does the staff/ring/amulet fetch quest seem odd to anyone else? It's the only quest in the game like this, and experienced players usually shortcut it anyway.

Hope this isn't too much of an info dump! I haven't been this hooked on a game...well, pretty much ever, and I just want to see it get even better.

lenocinor wrote:Topics to add to the tutorial: autoexplore, item egos (better colors are not always better, especially with bows), stun/freeze and confuse resists, escort orders, and speed.

I like the suggestion to add autoexplore to the tutorial, for instance, a "press z to autoexplore" dialog.
The second suggestion can probably be covered in the second tutorial, as these interact with saves.
Speed can probably be covered in the first tutorial, either with an enemy that moves faster or a talent/item that gives you a temporary boost of speed.
For escorts, this can be covered by telling the player that he can order the escort to find the portal or wait a few turns by right clicking and selecting that.

lenocinor wrote:Not seeing the open way on the map because of trees -- the Elvala path is the worst offender here. I'm not sure how best to tackle it but I remember not even knowing I could get to Elvala my first couple of games.

Yeah it might be a good idea to convert it to a path to make it clearer, unless there is a good reason why DarkGod wants it there.

lenocinor wrote:You have no idea to keep ego-less amulets the first time you can enchant them, and you don't find out that you'll need them (if you need them) until the end of the game, where you can't do much about it. It would be nice if this could be communicated to the player in advance; maybe a low-level-only jewelry enchanter in Angolwen?

I would add descriptive text that communicates that certain NPCs can socket a gem into the item. The locations of the jewelers are there for balance reasons; for example, if you go anti-magic you won't have access to the jeweler.

lenocinor wrote: Prides are very tempting for new players that see them -- they're open and have a quest line for them and everything -- but they will probably get slaughtered if they so much as move a single square in them. This seems bad. Why don't players even get a warning when they step into them, like with Bill?

Sounds like a good idea to provide a warning.

lenocinor wrote: It's not always obvious who you can talk to and who you can't. I missed the spider cave and jeweler in the Gates Of Morning the first few times around because I never knew you could talk to those people, since you can't talk to most people and everyone looks the same. Is there any way to signify through their icons that you can talk to someone?

If you notice, NPCs you can talk to have a blue border (most) of the time, but I think its a good idea to vary the borders to make this clearer.

lenocinor wrote:Last Hope combat/archery training is really easy to miss, especially because the first is useful to non-melee characters who might not ever think to visit that particular shop. Can this be made more obvious somehow?

Making an NPC that has dialog bubbles to signify that he provides combat training is a good idea.

lenocinor wrote:Why isn't there a warning when you take the stairs to High Peak that you can't get back? You get a similar warning in Tempest Peak even though you can Rod Of Recall out of there. (I understand that Tempest Peak used to be different and this is a holdover from that, but if the warning was a good idea for the old Tempest Peak, it should be a good idea for High Peak.)

I like the idea of adding a warning.

lenocinor wrote: 100% showing up occasionally as XP for next level is confusing. I understand that it's probably because of rounding but it still confused me at first.

Yeah that is unintuitive and confusing. Should be simple to make the range of percents 0 to 99.

lenocinor wrote:When an ability puts your abilities on cooldown, like the one the Weirdling Beast has, it should be made more obvious to the player than it is currently. This has nearly killed me many times even though all my sustains are on my main shortcut bar. I just don't see them.

Maybe adding big text (for when it affects the player only) would be a good idea?

lenocinor wrote:Friendly AI shouldn't walk into traps you've found or flames you've made on the ground.

I think making traps a vault only feature would be helpful in solving this problem for traps. However, there are times where you want friendlies to go through traps or flames to engage a monster.

lenocinor wrote:Yet another vote that many dungeons should be shortened; in my opinion, most should be capped at 3 levels, with a few exceptions like Dreadfell and High Peak. I paid close attention while playing and after that is definitely when most of them become annoying. I also think that 3 levels could be shaved off Dreadfell and High Peak with no loss in enjoyment.

Seconded. I like the idea of many different short dungeons better than several long dungeons.

lenocinor wrote:1,000,000 damage seems like too much for the Wildfire/Ice tree unlocks. 500,000 seems a lot better to me. Many folks are going to doing most of this damage as an archmage, and if you're a newbie like me, you're only going to get 150,000-200,000 damage on both per game because you're still having trouble beating Dreadfell. Having to play 5 or 6 archmages just to unlock them seems excessive.

I like this idea. Also, the achievement as it is is not well thought out, as you can accomplish this by damaging yourself with fire spells. This achievement should not rely on scummy behavior.

lenocinor wrote:I said this in another thread, but the only unlock I feel is truly unfair is the necromancer unlock. The Last Hope graveyard can just annhilate characters; even after I knew what I was doing, I lost three characters to it before just cheesing the level on it, which is not a good answer.

Yeah, the last hope graveyard should have a warning. That said, I disagree and think its a valid unlock method. I think the Maurader unlock needs fixing badly.

lenocinor wrote: Switching cloaks as a skeleton all the time is a pain. I like the thematic aspect but even after playing 6 of these guys I still forget to switch cloaks sometimes.

There have been suggestions to make the disguise feature slotless.

lenocinor wrote: Does the staff/ring/amulet fetch quest seem odd to anyone else? It's the only quest in the game like this, and experienced players usually shortcut it anyway.

Maybe it should be changed to only accepting any of the current artifacts, or one with an arcane focus. Having to send in 10 of these objects is just an exercise in tedium anyways.

Thanks for the feedback. I agree with all your implementation suggestions.

I see the blue border you're talking about now on the default tiles, but it's pretty subtle. Maybe it could be more obvious somehow?

I agree that the Marauder unlock needs fixing, especially in telling the player a bit better how to get it, but it was both less difficult and more interesting for me to get than the Necromancer unlock. I'm not saying every unlock needs to be super-easy to get but having to cheese the level on the Last Hope Graveyard after losing three characters seemed pretty bad to me. If there were alternate unlocks that you'd get after playing a while (like people have suggested before) then I'd be fine with the main unlock being so hard, but there aren't.