ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Here's a list of things I think would be good to get done before the big release. I'll leave out obvious things like fixing typos and bugs. Note that this is a long list. I don't think there should be any rush to get a final release out; if it takes until next summer, so be it. Polish, polish, polish! Tome only gets one first impression, so it had better be a good one.

-Add a heavy layer of content between first arriving in the Far East and tackling the last three orc prides. Currently we have the There and Back Again quest, the Jeweler quest, and the Water Silmaril quest, but I think we need at least two more big zones. There needs to be a heavy buildup to the endgame.

-Fill out the towns. They're empty, yet we have multiple functions crammed into existing shops. Split the recharger off into his own map location in town, for example. Same with the weapons trainer in Minas Tirith. Add more npcs with side quests. Add npcs that tell you about the existing dungeons. Make specialist item shops (bow shop, burglary shop, Pete's Platemail Palace, etc.) Another town or two in the Far East would be nice, too.

-Make exploration of the world an important activity. Put in fun things to find. Make it difficult to reach certain areas, then put in something to reward the players who do reach those areas. Reduce the view distance in the world map so we have to explore to see what you've made. This will be particularly fun with the brand new setting.

-Polish the item-coloring system. For example, either make Torment weapons good or don't call them greater egos. At first I was all excited about finding blue weapons, then I figured out that most of them were worthless ammo or worthless torment weapons. Keep blue equipment exciting by carefully controlling what gets the greater ego flag.

-Implement long-term processes by which a player can customize their character, aside from simply leveling and spending stat and talent points. The antimagic quest is an example of this, as are the escort quests, though they're rather unreliable. Another example is the collection of Brotherhood of Alchemists quests I posted a while back.

-Consider making Archmages the difficult class to unlock, and the other *mancers easy. Right now unlocking the various *mancers doesn't feel very rewarding, as they're just Archmages with one extra tree and several missing trees. Maybe Pyromancers and Cryomancers should be open at the start and you have to do something amazing to eventually unlock the super-duper game-winning class, the Archmage.

-Include some UI refinements for keyboard users, as most of Tome's initial audience will be roguelike fans. Things like default cursor position weirdness and awkward cursor movement will be an immediate turnoff for Tome players coming straight from Angband, for example. Digging is also really annoying for keyboard users right now.

-Reexamine all talents and discover which are never used and why. Then either replace them or fix them. Update talent descriptions so they give the player all the important information. In particular, tell the player how the talent scales. Maybe tell whether the game uses effective talent level or not.

-Include many more egos and artifacts, especially ones with stun resistance. We're rather short on greater egos, too.

-Diversify the orc prides and make them more epic feeling. They're the endgame, so they should definitely have some new tricks to show the player.

-Make lore have some sort of impact on gameplay, or there are going to be a hundred posts after the game is released all asking what the deal is with those tattered notes.

-Include many more vaults.

-Include a great many more unique monsters.

Add your own ideas!

When does it feel like you're playing a beta, and what would you change to eliminate that feeling?

I'd like to see more advanced trees like berserkers and fighters have.

Wyrmics especially are lacking in decent level 10+ trees. Maybe a multi-hued wyrm tree, a summoning tree (drakes only), or a temporal drake tree would be nice.

I'll see if I can get some ideas going on these.

*edit* Also enslaved Half-Dwarves and Crossbow Wielding Halflings.

I disagree about making Archmages more difficult to unlock. They are the easy class of the game, and so should be very accessible for new players who want an easy class to explore with. If we only give new players difficult classes many will be turned off because they think the game is impossible. This especially applies to non-roguelike players who will be attracted to ToME by its eminently acessible interface.

If you feel cryo and pyro mancers aren't special enough to warrant a difficult unlock then maybe they need more cool stuff added.

Overall I think a lot of polish is needed to many of the talent trees to make sure that they are all useful and balanced well. This should really be done on a class by class basis, making sure each class has a very solid offering and that their talent trees work well together. Recent changes to Berserkers, Arcane Blades and Rogues have been great - we need to make sure every class gets the same level of close attention.

More artifacts and egos are definitely needed, but I feel they need to be consistent with the new setting too, whenever that is implemented. Indeed, the whole new setting thing will need some careful thought on place names and changes to bosses.

Yeah archmages are fine as they are. In next beta they are getting the nerfbat too and even if they are still strong it's not really a problem as long as it's not too much.