Save scumming

[dhegler]

I know no one probably likes the idea of save scumming, but I am starting to get frustrated in the amount of deaths I have and then having to go back through all the levels to get back where I was. Maybe a lot of people here have hours to "waste" on games, but it is valuable and scarce time for me. Is there a way to do this, maybe in the spoiler forum? It is also annoying that when you accidentally run into a wall or object, it takes a turn, giving all surrounding nasties time to hit you. I know you should be careful, but let's say you run around the Trollshaws fleeing from someone and accidentally run into a tree because you don't know if there is an opening or not... I am getting tired of dying and then spending another 3 hours to get to where I was, getting a bit farther, then doing it all over again. It doesn't keep all those autosaves somewhere, does it? In Angband, it wasn't as much of a problem because the story/adventure was less linear and always felt like a new adventure. I think one of the strengths of this game is the storyline and I love it, but there should be a way to keep newbies interested. It gets tiring to run through the Trollshaw, Amon Sul and the Old Forest 8 times in a row, taking 3+ hours or so to do so each time. It is far too easy to make a mistake somewhere by running into a wall, getting hit by a stunning blow and having a skeleton or something hit you 3x before you can react and die. It is more annoying to a mage who can't get Health and is susceptible to 1-2 hits before death.

[darkgod]

Dont play a mage if they are too weak for you

More seriously, the wall bump is a bug I intend to fix.

As for comparing to angband, I really do not get it. Angband has random levels and only one kind of levels. That's all. How can that be more diverse ?
Also you're certainly not forced to do things in a certain order, you can vary, most people do depending how their mood/char.

Oh, and I believe easy mode is for you, multiple lifes are available there (although still limited it's much betetr than one ;> ). Do not be ashamed of using it, I know I am not

[dhegler]

My mages stay alive longer than my fighters, and most of my deaths are due to bumping into a wall with low life, or hitting the wrong key on the keyboard. My last death was accidentally hitting the hotkey for identify rather than heal. Is there some way to save the hotkey and keyboard mapping for a certain class of character?

[darkgod]

No, but I am pondering how to do it

[Kats]

Mages are unbelievably strong. I played slingers for quite a while before switching to an archmage, and boy. The game felt trivial.. That is, until the thunder lord of freezing stuff froze me and threw lightnings at me.

However, trollshaws are more deadly to mages than other locations. The stupid "can't see behind corners" is seriously annoying and it is too early to get Vision and l5 Sense.

I very much prefer the old forest due to its long corridors.

However, that did not stop Bill from flattening one of my l11 mage because the pansy was hiding behind a tree, and just HAD to use stun as his first skill.

[overtrix]

You'll feel better in the long run if you use easy mode rather than rescuing save files, sounds overly grandiose in the context of a computer game but is surprisingly true. If you do want to though, at the point where it tells you that you've died, don't touch anything in the game - go and find the "T-Engine" folder within your user account and make a copy, exit the game, then replace the old one with the copy - computers are fast enough and hard disks big enough that you might as well not faff around with the actual save file. No kidding though, the game will lose its novelty and appeal very much faster if you do this, has always been true of roguelikes, see if I'm not right [folds arms and goes "hmmphh"]

[overtrix]

p.s. for example the thing with the skeletons, it's part of the game - you can't afford to let a skeleton hit your low-level character because it will probably kill you. It would be possible to go and explore the LUA files, remove their ability of stunning blows, but this a thin end of the same wedge as save-scumming (sorry, extreme abuse of metaphor there). Next to make the potion shop pay full price or charge 1/10, make a dagger grant 200 life, there's no end in sight yet your fun with ToME is almost over. Best is to trust the maintainer(s) to balance things, and if there's something which annoys you it may be possible to lobby - this has been a lasting strength of ToME. One roguelike, there is a priority (not starving) which dominates, or at least did last time I was there, and the maintainers expressed "this is our game, if you don't like it then sod off" - a different model, and not best.

[dhegler]

I know there is a balance, but it is too easy to "accidentally" hold down the arrow keys and hit a wall (I know I can use SHIFT, which I do sometimes), or hit it 3x in a row while exploring and some skeleton mage hits you twice with manathrust and you're toast, no matter what class you play. Unfortunately, I don't know how that can change, except being more careful with keys, but after playing 6 characters and going through the same quests 6x over, it just gets tougher and tougher to slow down and pay proper attention.

I find mages MUCH more powerful than the other classes, but I may try an arcane fighter to see if that suits me better.

[edge2054]

As has been suggested I'd play on easy over save scumming.

As to the multiple keypress issue, that's just par for the course. You either get patient or get dead. Or get frustrated and give up.

If you really want to cheat though I'd do it by enabling the lua console rather then save scumming. It's much easier.

*edit* As to how to do that I won't say in general discussion. Run a forum search.

[Sirrocco]

I'd echo the easy mode thing. "Easy" was, quite literally, *made* for people like you, and there's no shame in playing that way if that's what you'd enjoy. If you find your eyes glazing over from playing the same character through the same dungeons 5 times in a row, that's understandable, but there are ways around it. For one thing, try different character types. Try playing an alchemist. Having a big, mean, disposable buddy to do your dying for you can be huge as a way to stay alive (especially when you being stunned doesn't stop him from killing the guy who stunned you - or vice versa), and the dramatic differences in playstyle will make the game experience rather different. Play as a wyrmic (if you've unlocked them) and go heavy defense. Taking skill 5 in the frost defensive sustain and loading up on heavy armor and the HP regen skill will mean that you're almost unkillable in melee for a while - to the point where attacking you will generally do (a lot) more damage to the attacking enemy than to you. Try playing as an archer. Try playing as a shadowknife. Once you have two or three distinct playstyles that you find that you enjoy, the whole thing becomes a lot less monotonous.

[Wombat]

I'll put in another vote for using easy mode. I think the game is getting more well balanced with each update. If you spend some time in easy mode getting the hang of the various techniques for the different classes, it will be well worth the effort.

Most of my deaths are due to carelessness at this point. I just had a very promising L21 berserker die because I didn't see the orc master assassin due to the swirlies from hymn of perseverance and chant of fortitude that I had running. Oh well. I look at careless deaths as part of the game. You need to keep your focus over a long period of time.