An intro.

[BasiC]

A newbie starts the game with absolutely no knowledge of the world he is entering.
It is as if you are playing morrowind and youre a prisoner sent to exile to a place you know nothing about only its not true since all the characters in ToME are those who have lived in the world of ToME for a long time.

IMO there should be a written intro giving some basic background before you get the screen with your character and given the specific character's intro.

Also there should be at least some explanation for the identification orb..
It makes no sense to have absolutely no introduction to it and than have the user just click on it to find out that is starts a dialogue with some unknown character the player knows nothing about but the players champion apparently does...

[bricks]

The ID orb really does seem like it needs to be addressed (and in my opinion, removed). I'm guessing there was some sort of soft ID game in the past that was cut down. The jury-rigged solutions for Yeeks and Undead are even more bizarre. As far as character intros - we have those already, don't we? I wouldn't want anything more obtrusive, though it is a mild annoyance that I usually get started in a zone that I don't intend to pursue immediately, so starting on the world map would be a nice change.

[Grey]

More intro text is bad in my books, since one would only read it once, and not on the 974 characters you create after. If you have multiple modules though there is a bit more of an intro text to the game when choosing which game to load in the engine. There's also an intro of sorts to the world on the web-site.

[eliotn]

More intro text is bad in my books, since one would only read it once, and not on the 974 characters you create after. If you have multiple modules though there is a bit more of an intro text to the game when choosing which game to load in the engine. There's also an intro of sorts to the world on the web-site.

Which is why you only show the intro text to the player once, then you permanently store it in lore.

[Grey]

Hmm, nice idea. Could work with all of the intro texts in fact.

[eliotn]

This might also be a good idea for most dialogue, as players will tend to skip it.

[donkatsu]

I'm not sure why the Orb of Scrying even exists anymore. What purpose do unidentified artifacts serve except to force a few more meaningless clicks from the player?

[PureQuestion]

I'm not sure why the Orb of Scrying even exists anymore. What purpose do unidentified artifacts serve except to force a few more meaningless clicks from the player?

It makes them stand out.

[Grey]

I'd says the annoyances overall outweigh the benefits of the system. Everything should just auto-id for everyone. The whole id system is a legacy thing that should be dropped.

[PureQuestion]

Well, that's how it does work in the Infinite Dungeon. I'm not sure which I like more. I do like that distinct feeling that the items are special, but you could probably achieve that just by leaving in the lore pop-up.

[Wombat]

I agree with just having the lore pop up since the special items will still stand out while streamlining the play a tiny bit. One of the best development decisions early on in T4 was the elimination of scrolls and potions of all kinds, especially identify.

[Final Master]

I have been in favor of removing the orb before it was introduced.

I also think that making all lore/pop ups as such be perma stored in lore so it won't be triggered anymore as a pop up. Good idea!

[BasiC]

Agree on removal of orb but not on only showing an item lore once...
I sometimes read the same lore many times because i forget it.
With the addition of more items this will be even more true.

[eliotn]

Yeah it would be fine to auto-id everything. But I would definitely give the player some indication when they pick up an artifact.

[Emetivore]

I agree that the ID system is a little strange. It just adds a little chore that we have to do before wearing/wielding yellows, but honestly it doesn't add anything to the game. Either add a bunch of things that need to be identified and limit the player's ability to identify them, or auto-identify everything.