ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I've been playing roguelikes for quite a while, and I really like playing tome4 even though I'm an avid Furyband player. (Don't laugh, please!) Anyway, here's some notes I've taken. I took a look around the latest forum posts to make sure I'm not repeating someone, but I'd bet some of these are already known...

Bugs:
- Mentioned already somewhat lightly- worm masses can "Multiply" into impassable terrain and even the player (and it continued attacking from there!... I thought it was just poison damage, but I died trying to "rest it off")
- When I attempt to move offscreen or into terrain without sucessfully moving, I still end up using a round (or whatever the exact term is). I did this at first to pause a step before I found that numpad 5 does this.
- As mentioned with items being hard to see in another thread, I can't see poison traps in the Trollshades. I haven't seen the shadow effect (shown in the thread) on the trap character yet, so maybe this has already been solved.
- Shift+numpad to run with numlock ON doesn't work for me (Windows XP)

Thoughts:
- Auto-disarm is a bit annoying when you can't see or don't notice a trap in time. If you want to keep it simple and friendly, at least don't allow players to auto-disarm when there's no disarm skill! I couldn't disarm a sliding rock with 25+ tries! But we will need a way to pass traps, so perhaps just add a confirmation on disarm?
- The damage message for poison/fire/etc doesn't really indicate that it was not just done by an attack. That is, the damage over time messages look like the monster is attacking you (eg. after you kill it, etc).
- I ran into a random quest (I think?) on the world map, but I couldn't tell the difficulty, or if I'd ever have a chance at it again, so I took it and died somewhat promptly. Is the quest retryable or what?
- Should starting items be occasionally ego powered? (do we use that term anymore?) An item I had when I started was a kinetic dagger, but I couldn't tell what the bonus was... or perhaps it's just that I don't know what "apr" means on a weapon, since that value was quite a bit different.
- Clicking back to the game (to regain focus) will usually DO something, and it's not always predictable, since the game window doesn't redraw itself when out of focus (images of other windows that were on top of the game will remain after those windows are closed). I always alt+tab back to be safe.
- I'd like to see the map automatically change corners if your character moves under it. Then, when the map is centered, it covers too much, but I do like the size. Perhaps show the center map just when tab is being held down?

Me being nitpicky:
- The damage/status effects drawn on screen (which are awesome) do not change position when the map moves. For example, if you hit a trap in the same move as the map moves, it will look as though something farther away was hit.
- Attempting to rest with a monster in sight shows 1 turn rested, but no turns passed.
- Multiple messages go off screen... perhaps marquee them to display solely the latest ones?
- Could it save the last used window location?

Surprises:
- The esc button holds a plethora of goodness (change buttons, change window size, etc)
- Apparently you can click+drag the mouse to look around the map!
- Apparently you can right click a location to run there!

Most of these are probably addressed to darkgod, but to answer your game question: No, that quest is unfortunately not re-tryable. I wish it were though.

- Mentioned already somewhat lightly- worm masses can "Multiply" into impassable terrain and even the player (and it continued attacking from there!... I thought it was just poison damage, but I died trying to "rest it off")

This is deliberate, Worms can breed literally under your feet. Once you have killed all the worms, move a few spaces so you move off the square you are on and reveal any worms that might have been there.

- When I attempt to move offscreen or into terrain without sucessfully moving, I still end up using a round (or whatever the exact term is). I did this at first to pause a step before I found that numpad 5 does this.

This is also deliberate, although I agree that if you try and don't move you should not spend a round.

- As mentioned with items being hard to see in another thread, I can't see poison traps in the Trollshades. I haven't seen the shadow effect (shown in the thread) on the trap character yet, so maybe this has already been solved.

Every one has that problem, and this is being addressed in another bug thread.

Zop wrote: - Auto-disarm is a bit annoying when you can't see or don't notice a trap in time. If you want to keep it simple and friendly, at least don't allow players to auto-disarm when there's no disarm skill! I couldn't disarm a sliding rock with 25+ tries! But we will need a way to pass traps, so perhaps just add a confirmation on disarm?

I haven't actually played rogues that much, but auto-disarming seems like a bad idea : in many cases I have actually moved in such a way as to "lure" a monster into a trap, which can be especially useful with "stun" or "poison" traps. It would be annoying to lose this strategy automatically because traps "disappear" as you see them... so maybe make an active disarm command instead?

Good point ..

Trap Avoid rather then Trap Disarm would be really nice, especially for rogues who are listed as being able to set traps in their description (though I don't see any talent that allows this).