ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

A couple of ideas for the World of Eyal:

Put upper limits on zones (mostly starter zones to start, but eventually covering all zones):
Once you're high enough level, you can zone in, but find out that some other adventurer has already been there and cleared the place out.
This would allow for more zones to be added of the same tier without causing problems with exp/gold bloat. Among other things you could then have a new set of starter zones in the East (for starting Anorithils/Sunpaladins), and would make game play even less linear and more interesting. This should be phased in as new zones are added.

Time dilation on the world map:
Make each step on the world map take extra time (much like the Eidolon plane or Temporal Rift). I'd suggest a 10:1 ratio. This would make overland travel a lot more 'realistic' while allowing players to recover resources and health between world encounters and eliminating the cheese of casting a bunch of buffs on yourself and then traveling across the world map to another zone with the buffs still going.

Make the Ambush! spawn randomly:
Right now, this 'Ambush' is too predictable. Unthematically, you always know exactly when it's going to happen. (They even ambush you somehow in the middle of recalling out of the zone to your fortress.) Instead, have it only spawn randomly on the world map near Last Hope once you qualify for it. Basically just have the chance keep going up as you get closer to guarantee that it happens. I think this would make the encounter much more interesting (and more tense) and would fit the plot better.

Hachem_Muche wrote:A couple of ideas for the World of Eyal:
Make the Ambush! spawn randomly:
Right now, this 'Ambush' is too predictable. Unthematically, you always know exactly when it's going to happen. (They even ambush you somehow in the middle of recalling out of the zone to your fortress.) Instead, have it only spawn randomly on the world map near Last Hope once you qualify for it. Basically just have the chance keep going up as you get closer to guarantee that it happens. I think this would make the encounter much more interesting (and more tense) and would fit the plot better.

I really like this one. As it is now I always prebuff as much as possible and am geared out specifically for the ambush. It almost feels like I am ambushing them now.

overgoat wrote:

Hachem_Muche wrote:A couple of ideas for the World of Eyal:
Make the Ambush! spawn randomly:
Right now, this 'Ambush' is too predictable. Unthematically, you always know exactly when it's going to happen. (They even ambush you somehow in the middle of recalling out of the zone to your fortress.) Instead, have it only spawn randomly on the world map near Last Hope once you qualify for it. Basically just have the chance keep going up as you get closer to guarantee that it happens. I think this would make the encounter much more interesting (and more tense) and would fit the plot better.

I really like this one. As it is now I always prebuff as much as possible and am geared out specifically for the ambush. It almost feels like I am ambushing them now.

+1 for this.

Hachem_Muche wrote:Put upper limits on zones (mostly starter zones to start, but eventually covering all zones):

I have been thinking of an idea that's similar, but not the same.

It's optimal to visit all the tier 1 dungeons you can, but after two or three you pretty much just roll through the rest to soak up some experience and loot in a way that's not terribly interesting. Unless you're a newbie in which case you probably head straight for the nearest tier 2 prompted by your quest log and get killed. Also some races/classes get an extra one/two dungeons to grind through to see some extra lore. My proposal is thus:

Every character gets three random dungeons assigned to them randomly in the quest log at birth, and all the others are unavailable.

The number is negotiable, but I don't really see why anyone should get more or fewer than anyone else. Naturally race/class specific quests will only be assigned to those that had them anyway. I'm not convinced any of them need to be mandatory - does a Dwarf badly need to do one or both of the Dwarf specific quests rather than just three of the eight they have available?

I think it's better for the RNG pick the dungeons to enforce variety, but could be convinced otherwise. Also one issue with a level based cap is that it could turn the experience penalty for strong races into a "do more dungeons and get more loot" penalty.