ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Why not imagine specific terrains with associated effects. Presently, there are, AFAIK, water (that creates suffocation), and lava (that burns), but we could imagine other terrains.

Some terrain ideas :

Hills: obscures LOS, +100% movement cost, +2 visibility, +10% damage when attacking someone not on a hill
Mountains: obscures LOS, +300% movement cost, +4 visibility, +20% damage when attacking someone not on a mountain, -100% confusion resistance (vertigo!!)
Swamp: +100% movement cost, 10% chance to get a random disease/turn, +x cold damage/turn
Jungle:obscures LOS, +100% movement cost, 10% chance to get a random poison/turn, +x nature damage/turn, +x defense, +y stealth bonus
Forest: obscures LOS, +100% movement cost, +x defense, 5% chance/turn to spawn a random animal in a neighboring tile
High Herbs : obscures LOS, +50% movement cost
...


And if this kind of feature exists in the game, we could imagine a class, that can, among other things, terraform terrains, and, of course, items that improve speed or other aspects on specific terrains (mountains boots, climbing kits, etc)

Interesting.

-100% confusion resistance on mountains is a bit much, IMHO, especially since not everybody is bothered by heights in the same way. Perhaps a vertigo trap, resisatable with mental save/confusion res., could represent a particularly harrowing place.

Also I don't really like the damage bonus for hills and mountains - I'd prefer bonuses to accuracy and defense. Also, ranged weapons and alchemist bombs could get +1/+2 more range when targeting none mountain/hill terrain. Maybe other spells, too.

Swamp: instead of disease, a chance of being pinned? And if disease chance, at most a chance of 5%, or better 1%. I'd rather see them spawning mosquito swarms (up to 5% each turn or something like that) that can cause disease, though. Could be low level enough that they won't give exp and never drop stuff to prevent scumming. Cold damage is a bit over the top too, especially since not all swamps are cold. Maybe a chance of being slowed? Slime damage instead? Reduced accuracy and defence seems appropiate to, and maybe fatigue increased by 25% multiplicatively + 10% flat (so it's especially bad for heavy armor users, but mages don't get off free either).

Jungle: I'd make the poison chance per move instead per turn, so that you can rest up. Resting in one place should be moderately feasable in jungle and forest, if not in a swamp. Higher stealth bonus for staying in place (hard not to make noise, though in a jungle there's enough critters making a racket to cover somewhat).

Forest: stealth bonus when staying in place. Not sure about the animal spawning - shouldn't that also happen in jungle, and why not in high herbs and swamp, either? Anyway, I'd suggest a chance per move, not turn, and low-leveled to prevent scumming.

Some nice ideas, though I think care should be taken with putting in place terrain which causes damage. We don't want all the monsters killed before the player sees them! Instead they should cause statuses like dex drains or slowing effects or reducing certain resistances or abilities.