ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I resisted most of the threads under the spoiled discussion.

The problem is that every time I get to a part of the game I've yet to see, I'm almost certain to get killed the first time. Especially when I'm not sure exactly how serious the situation is.

Just managed to get a Hlf. Archmage to around 18, and decided to follow-up on the Derth situation.

Now I know a little bit more about what is going to happen there, but it didn't go particularly well.

I've been trying to play in an unspoiled manner as possible, and I guess this is one of the costs.

There was a level ranking for the quests in T2. Might be nice if there were something like that in T4?

One more thing. In retrospect, I realize I should have more carefully examined all the dangerous characters in the fray before the end. I made a few bad choices and then it was too late.

It might be nice to be able to inspect the creatures in the neighborhood from the last menu (the one where you can dump, return, restart,...).

Try playing on adventurer so you have some latitude in experimenting with the optional content.

I used to play unspoiled & roguelike, too, and had much the same experience. The concept behind adventurer sounded a bit strange, but I find it actually doesn't feel so in play.

+1 on the idea to have the screen still active. So you can inspect the stuff that killed you, and learn which talents pwned you.

It'd be neat.

Adventurer is a weird mode for me. If I die from something I *should* have survived(playing careless/stupid...), I usually start from scratch anyway. I generally only let myself cheat death when it's one of those "WHOA WHAT" moments.

tomeaddict-T4 wrote:Just managed to get a Hlf. Archmage to around 18, and decided to follow-up on the Derth situation.
Now I know a little bit more about what is going to happen there, but it didn't go particularly well.

The problem with this quest is that is somewhat out-of-depth considering how early you get it. See also this thread I started a while ago to address some of these issues:
http://forums.te4.org/viewtopic.php?f=3 ... ilit=urkis

I also noticed that the shockbolt tiles give a visual effect on dungeons you have not visited yet. Players investigating these could find themselves dead sooner than they imagined. Quest progression still has to be streamlined, and the quest interface can be improved so it makes a bit more of a linear story.

I played adventurer a few times when I first picked up T4 to gain a little familiarity. Once, I got (relatively) far along and that feeling when you realize it is all over in n turns arrived. When, n+1 turns later, the next screen told me that I had a chance to carry on, the experience up to that point was cheapened---just a little.

I haven't played adventurer since. I think there is a different kind of edge to the game if you know that death is very serious.

Granted, I might like to take back my decision to try to deal with the Derth situation. Even Blood of Life doesn't really help with that. (I can't remember how BoL acted in T2, but discussion of this topic might be spoiled.)

Adventurer mode is completely different with the 'send me somewhere else' option.

I like to think I get better, but perhaps I'm just getting better at the early game and the issues faced there are a different set from later in the game.

Anyway, the level of the quest idea would probably not be as useful as being able to take a better postmortem.

I'm not interested in making this thread spoiled in any way, and maybe it is on the verge here and there, but I am surprised that I've only unlocked 3/26. Perhaps I'm treading the same path too much. (Clearly there is a place on this forum where the unlockables are discussed---and it isn't my point to bring that issue here.)

Just that I have it in the back of my mind that perhaps some of the locked creation options might make the game even more fun, and that I might unlock more if I played Adventure.

Still, I have a feeling I will still click rougelike...


(Marvalis' post was made after I typed the above...

Thanks. I use the ascii, but I'll try the other tiles on and see what you mean.

I have a few things that I could add about the quest, but I feel like they might be a little spoiled. Perhaps obvious in retrospect, and deadly nonetheless. I'll take a look at the other thread and say it over there if it is relevant. I haven't looked at the ideas forum much. Perhaps some of my comments belong there.)

Thanks again for the great game everyone! (I've decided to send a few euros to support that statement.)

Death certainly does seem to be the common way to learn. I remember the first time in the Maze, on the last level, exploring around, them all of a sudden becoming confused, and killed the very next turn from multiple hits by the then-unseen Minotaur Of The Maze.

Of course, after the fact I did some quick research online and found out that he's notoriously tough and requires some way to quickly get rid of that confusion.

I happen to have my best char. yet in the maze right now and I'm thinking about what she's going to face a few floors down. I've had good luck and bad and wondering how she matches up versus the last time I was around here.

A monster recall option like back in T2 would be great.

Again this point probably belongs under Ideas but it would be cool if we could look at the encountered monsters somehow. This would resolve my end of life comment above as well.

Maybe there is something about the leveling issues---I'm not exactly sure how much uniques change from one incarnation to the next, but I could have scribbled down a note on paper about what a certain enemy was like...that definitely doesn't seem like something that should be necessary.

I wouldn't even mind if the unique wasn't exactly the same as the last time. It might help a little just to have the memory refreshed as to what happened last time around.

Maybe there could be an extra step in the Derth arc. Say, at level 10 the clouds appear, but as yet there are no real changes. You ask someone what's up with the weather, and get told that yes, the clouds are unnatural, and some people got killed by a lightning-shooting creature. The arenas guy has changed text, saying "I think I'd better get out while the going is good..."

Somewhat later, say level 15, the gwelgoroths invade for real and everything goes on as it is now.