ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I know this has been brought up several times before, but there's doesn't seem to be any changes listed in b21 to help the problem.

I'm all for a challenge, but I normally expect this in boss fights at the bottom of a dungeon, not when casually exploring the world map. It is insanely difficult at the moment for anyone to explore the east, and this is an especially huge problem for people who don't know where everything is and can't just make a beeline to wherever they're going. I had a hellish difficulty in trying to find Limmir's valley dungeon last night as I traipsed around various mountain ranges, trying to follow the vague directions, running away from orc patrols the whole time. Any time I was forced to encounter them the fight would be a 15-minute pitched battle that I would pull through by the skin of my teeth. And 10 seconds after I escape I'd get thrown into another! It's a chore just to get from A to B, especially when you don't know where B is.

Some suggestions:

- Allow exitting to the world map with negative statuses, so there's at least the option to pop on some defensive inscriptions and run away
- Have multiple world map exits
- Bigger terrain areas. Currently a big part of the problem is having to deal with so many orcs in such a small area, with nowhere to run or hide.
- Less powerful orcs in each encounter. And by that I mean 2 beefy bad guys instead of 6, with the majority of numbers made up from regular orc soldiers. Facing numerous high mages at once is a challenge few can withstand.
- Less orc encounters. Even with easier encounters it would still be frustrating getting about, because there's just so many of the damned patrols, sometimes with 2 or 3 showing up at once. There should be at most a third of the current number of encounters, making it not dissimilar to the encounter rate in the west.
- Have the quest dungeons marked on the world map when you get the quest, so you at least know where you're going.

Oops double post

I would love to see the ambushes be weakened, as in less elites and units, as you killed their leaders. It makes no sense to me that orcs would still be just as strong and organized with all of their leaders killed. From the lore I would have guessed a power struggle would have arisen and all the most powerful orc would be killing each other at a chance to become a leader I.E. less powerful orcs out on patrol.

I think it would also be nice to have stronger themed orc patrols, reflecting each pride. That way you don't end up fighting necromancers, cryomancer, berserkers, etc at the same time.

For those who don't check on the SVN:

Grey wrote: Some suggestions:

- Allow exitting to the world map with negative statuses, so there's at least the option to pop on some defensive inscriptions and run away
- Less orc encounters. Even with easier encounters it would still be frustrating getting about, because there's just so many of the damned patrols, sometimes with 2 or 3 showing up at once. There should be at most a third of the current number of encounters, making it not dissimilar to the encounter rate in the west.
- Have the quest dungeons marked on the world map when you get the quest, so you at least know where you're going.

Despite changes in the current code (albeit great), you SHOULD be able to exit to the world map with infusion and rune saturation (forgot the actual terms). I agree with poison, bleeding etc. but those too? Gimme a break!

I think the ratio reflects the militaristic nature of the east. I think that the *amount* is fine, but the intensity is a bit high.

Having quest dungeons marked would be a huge boon. Agreed, for the first time visitors. Or even just discussing certain areas with the Sun Paladins should give you some "exploration" of the world map.

yufra wrote:I think it would also be nice to have stronger themed orc patrols, reflecting each pride. That way you don't end up fighting necromancers, cryomancer, berserkers, etc at the same time.

Yes! That would make the game more rich, and just generally release the pain.

If the saturations were turned into "neutral" statuses then the world map restriction would end. They also would no longer be cleared by Providence (which I personally consider a bug, but your mileage may vary).

What about if you could bribe them? Pay a free passage or something, that could ease the pain for specific situations/classes.

Another thing I don't fully understand about them is what to expect from a clash between a 'p' patrol and an 'o' patrol. I remember when I played an alchemist back in the ~b15 they would take win the first fight, but lose the second one. And if you bumped against them after fighting a 'p' patrol you could erase them from the world map, but that worked only sometimes. I guess it has to do with some symbolic hp of the patrols and bump attacks happening under the hood, but I would like to fully understand it.

Maybe a solution for this would be different kind of patrols (small, medium, large) and an easy equation for the results of each clash. That way you could know what you are being chased by.

I would also like to have some interaction with the 'p' patrols, after a specific quest you could gain their sympathy and then you'd be able to guide you through the East or even escort you to different areas.

Imagine you come out to the eastern world map for the first time and you see a battle between 'o's and 'p's a couple of tiles away from you. If you help them and success, you'd get their support for your stay in the east.