ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

The new birth screen in b29 is a big improvement over the old system. Random characters and the character vault are very cool additions, and the entire process has been made much more intuitive. That said, I still feel like there are a few things that could be improved upon:

1) The random character generator would be more intuitive if it didn't randomize game mode and difficulty in my opinion.

2) The descriptions of some races and classes are long enough to require scrolling down in the description box (w/ default text font & size) to read everything. This can be somewhat tedious, especially as it's usually important racial stats that end up being cut off. It seems like a simple enough solution would be to just make the character birth interface fill the entire screen. This would provide ample room (at least at my resolution) to list all information without the need for scrolling, and I personally think it would look better than having the game ui showing up in the background.

3) This has been mentioned elsewhere, but I'm reiterating it just to keep it in mind - it would be greatly beneficial if we were able to view the skill sets available to each race and class during character creation. I can think of two ways this might be done in a relatively intuitive fashion:

a) Keep the descriptions of the races/classes on the main birth screen relatively simple and 'lore-y', with the option to double click on any race or class to see a 'pop-up' with more technical information like stats/resists/starting equipment and, of course, skills.

b) Create an option to see a 'preview' of your character before actually starting the game. This could be as simple as letting the player look at the level up screen for their character.

1. Agreed heavily, since there's no reason why anyone would want their difficulty and setting randomised. I also think they should be more clearly marked as dropdown boxes or separated out tick boxes. New players may not even realise that there is a tutorial.

2. Certainly makes sense. And stats could be moved to the top of the description for each race.

3. Perhaps a bit too far? It doesn't take much to actually get in and try things out. Then again the first level-up screen could be entirely integrated into the start-up screen, all on separate tabs. Changing race or class would then reset any stat or talent points spent.

umh, do i miss something? i can't find the b29 in the download section...

There is a closed test beta of 29. He is referring to this, not the official release of b29.

Ok, thanks.

Grey wrote:3. Perhaps a bit too far? It doesn't take much to actually get in and try things out. Then again the first level-up screen could be entirely integrated into the start-up screen, all on separate tabs. Changing race or class would then reset any stat or talent points spent.

The main reason I would want this is so that I can match my race to my class a bit better by being able to look at the race skills. If my memory was better I'd just remember what they all did, but it's not.

I agree that it's not really too much work to just start the character and then check what the exact skills are - however, if you're trying to compare several different race/class combinations, the process of making a new char, naming it, waiting for the game to load, then deleting or 'rerolling' the character in case it's not what you wanted can become tedious. Of course it's also possible to just look these things up on the wiki, but it would be more convenient if this info could be accessed in game - not least for new players who may not know about or feel like messing with the wiki.

Final Master wrote:There is a closed test beta of 29. He is referring to this, not the official release of b29.

Whoops, should have been more specific about that, sorry.

I do tend to look at the wiki myself, or the actual lua files.

If it's just race you're concerned about then maybe the racial skills should be listed in the racial description, and a tooltip could give each of their effects when hovered over the correct portion of text.