First off- ToME 4 made me say WOW. I'm amazed; this is a really well updated roguelike, something I've been hoping to find for years. I'm very happy to see extensive use of LUA, the ability to add modules, etc. Add to that, the polish is terrific; the world feels quite well developed, the graphic tiles look great, and it plays extremely well. Thank you very much!
Now that I've got that off my chest, I'll share some "newbie" impressions from playing B19.
1. Selling change; this was quite jarring, as it's a departure from every roguelike I've ever played. I appreciate what you're trying to accomplish, and it's working- I can adventure for quite a while without going back to town to restock/sell off- especially with the addition of the infusions (more on those later). My only concern is whether the early game isn't a little overly gold constrained, as randarts don't show up until significantly later, so the only income for an early player is selling gems. I did start out collecting everything in sight, went back to town, and found nothing could be sold, so I was a tad puzzled for a bit. Might be good to have someone in town say something explaining this?
2. Initial difficulty; I started out fiddling with the fighter class, took a bit to get used to how things worked, but I promptly zoned out of the trollmire and went to the dungeon right next door. On the first floor of that dungeon, there appears to be a hard-wired vault... with level 20+ monsters
Is that supposed to be there? What's the purpose? There's also a randomly appearing building in the trollmire with a skeleton mage who's quite deadly for very early adventurers. 3. Wandering around a bit, there are a *lot* of dungeons, many accessible very early on. Has anyone considered giving any sort of difficulty rating to the dungeons, or quests leading into them from the towns? The towns seemed a bit empty and devoid of anyone interested in talking (except the loremaster) to me, so I'm a bit anxious about where I should and should not explore.
4. The regeneration infusion- this is amazingly powerful early-on. It almost seems too powerful at the outset, but it's not terribly long before it feels absolutely necessary- especially coming up against higher-level critters early on, this becomes absolutely essential to survival pretty quickly. It is definitely frustrating to come up against bosses/high-levels who have healing and/or regen infusions; this has already prevented me from taking down a number of baddies. I see that's been mentioned elsewhere, so I'll assume it will be addressed. My one question that I havent seen addressed is this; I'm not sure if the infusions are sufficient as a complete replacement for healing potions. With potions, I can chain-chug a few pots to keep myself alive when I run into something I was otherwise unprepared for, and buy myself an escape. With a cooldown on the infusions (and I hear rumors of it being increased), I'm concerned that I'll be SOL when I come across those situations. As a player, I think I should be able to (commonly) survive, learn and come back to try another day when I run up against something I'm not prepared for, rather than take a character death and have to start from scratch. Especially in a game where it's not a simple "go deeper, things get progressively harder", and there isn't a clear path of which dungeons to tackle in what order. What I'm thinking of is- if the infusions keep or get longer cooldowns, how about putting potions back in, as a "backup" for those situations? We wouldn't need to carry a stack of them, only a couple for emergencies.
5. Unlockables- This is awesome! I'm really excited to unlock more bits, then come back and try them.
I've done a bit of reading, and the work on balance seems extensive and looks like it's progressing pretty well.
Thank you Dark God, and the other contributors, this is a really wonderful game, and I'm very excited to explore it!