Has development of ToME stalled?

[jenx]

I'm afraid to say that I'm losing interest in this game for two basic reasons.

First, I'm tired of the same bugs being reported over and over again in many but not being fixed. There are some that have been around for forever it seems. As part of this i can't understand why patches can't be pushed as soon as bugs are fixed as it's the case with all other games i play.

Secondly and this is the major issue for me, the core game hasn't evolved enough substantially in a long time. EoR and Ashes are ok but i find it tiresome to invest in campaigns when it leads to little or no change in the core game. A few classes have been tweaked but these changes i find are too minor to keep up my interest. What seems to have stalled is creative, substantial changes to the basic campaign. I use to look forward to announcements but these days they are mostly minute big fixes.

I've never found addins a satisfying way of expanding the game because more often than not they have bus, sometimes deep into a character development. I don't want to waste time waiting for that. Or for incompatibility issues.

Am i the only one feeling this?

[HousePet]

My addons do not have bus!

[0player]

Well, the issue with long-standing bugs is that codebase is frankly a monstrosity and some of its dark corners covet terrible secrets. If a bug is not fixed in the next release, it's not because we didn't hear of it, it's because we still haven't found out what causes it.

[jenx]

What about issues though in the main game?

Is there stuff in the pipeline with waiting for?

Id love to see more variation in game story development, more decision making with consequences, and some perennial issues addressed such as play in the east.

[achoice]

Am i the only one feeling this?

I feel the similar.
I've several wins and it is a great game. BUT it feels a bit .. stale.. same story - to few random aspects or surprises. To little variation on different playthroughs.
Also - it boils down to "knowing when to take it slow" to survive. 95% of the time I feel rather "safe" - and then 5% I need to "play slow and good" - and that is the key to survival.

I'm a period-player, every second year or so I return, play intensively for a couple of weeks and get fed up.
Perhaps more/better random quests? More segmented/varied main story? Give player chance to make plot decisions which affect how story is played?

[Micbran]

Agreed. This is actually the main I reason I started making addons. I wanted to play new classes with very different mechanics so I gave it a shot, only to discover it's a little bit more difficult than anticipated (and to realize that once you finish coding a class, you don't EVER want to play it).

Id love to see more variation in game story development, more decision making with consequences, and some perennial issues addressed such as play in the east.

Probably one of my few gripes with ToME is that everything feels... Same. Same order, same zones, same enemy types, same bosses. Rares/Randbosses, vaults and alternate zones all bring welcome variation, but sometimes it isn't enough. The game just needs more random, outside of Sawbutcher mobs OHKO'ing you. How is a good question and adding more story variation is nice, such as the basement of that one tower vs. that demon realm choice given in Tannen's quest line.

[pingpongalong]

I've felt the same way. I'm also a player that plays super intensively, then leaves for a long while before coming back when the game has made some changes.

EoR was great and something that I really, really enjoyed. I think there's so much that could be done to make the game more interesting though. When the game starts out, it seems like there's such a vast amount of unlocks and things to do and it feels incredible. After awhile though, you find the edges of what the game has to offer.

I think something that'd be neat is if the game put a bigger focus on trying out the various race/class options. It'd be really neat if there were special bonuses (or dare I say penalties) for playing a specific combination, beyond the generics. It'd take a lot of thought to figure clever interactions, but it'd help to make different play throughs feel that much different. Maybe I should make a thread for this, but it's 2:30 am and I'll be luck if any of this was coherent.

[Zireael]

I don't think the development has stalled, the git repo is fairly active.

As for more random, I think the main problem with the game is that there's not enough variety in level generation. HachemMuche's fixes as well as the quest levels in ID are good improvements. I wish we had quest levels in the base game, though.

[jenx]

The comments in this thread, though from only a few players, seem to confirm the main concerns I have. I think a future for ToME that would be worth exploring is a MUCH larger insertion of quests, variations, forking paths, and alternate endings.

The bit about unlocks also reminded me of how much fun they were and how much I missed that. So adding more talents, equipment, etc perhaps, that is only available throuhg unlocks might also be something worth considering.

I've been playing with OoTS addon by Nekacaros, and even though his forum interactions drive me nuts, I'm enjoying the completely different way of playing that his addon creates.

[HousePet]

I don't think development is going any slower than it always has.
Most of the code is written by DarkGod, who also has another job.

[Strongpoint]

I think the feeling of "stalled" development is related to the scale. New or reworked class looks like a large change when you have something like six of them and barely noticeable when you have a lot of them. Same goes for zones, talents, artefacts...

[darkgod]

I'm also currently on vacation far away from a computer (except for now

[Jarinex]

I know for a fact development hasn't stalled because I always see them posting stuff on their twitters and seeing stuff they mention on here. I'm sure Darkgod is just busy with life, but I bet he has things in store.

Honestly, I don't think there should be more unlocks (unless they are really easy). I use the unlocker mod because I don't really feel like unlocking everything.

That being said, it would be cool to have some new areas and stuff to explore in the main game with alternate paths and endings (kind of like what ADOM does).

[Sheila]

Development is the same as it has always been. I hear darkgod doesn't really like releasing small, quick patches, that's just how he works I guess!
A lot of it is also people not even being aware that there hasn't been a patch yet and coming on chat and asking if things have been fixed, to which the answer is obvious.

I think at this point it's a matter of asking yourself how much time you've put into the game. It's a bit entitled to feel like something has to entertain you forever or keep your interest forever.
Honestly, how many hours do you have in this game? How much did you pay for all these hours? People get bored of things eventually, that's normal.
There's things that could improve and content that could be added but it honestly sounds like your average cold turkey to me.
As for changing the core game... don't fix what isn't broken, it can often lead to worse content.

I do agree that some meaningful choices and branching routes might freshen things up a little, but at the moment I'm more interested in seeing the whole east becoming less of a slog, IE prides and eruan.

And at the end of the day and in all honesty, the game is ultimately free, DG honestly has little obligation to continue developing but probably does for the love of the game.