ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

It is a rather complex and extremely new content heavy idea but I want to share it.

One thing that bothers me in TOME is that I tend to go for the same order of zones with little variation depending on my class. Player has no real motivation to complete shalore\thalore quests instead of going for trollmire first and more stuff like this

I propose to give a special pop up choice that is similar to escort quest reward on 8th\16th\24th level( may be difficulty level and race exp penalty modified)

When character gets the level game checks some stuff like

-quests completed
-bosses killed
-race
and maybe
-class
-metaclass
-achievements
-attribute
-talents learned

and offers menu to choose from special character effect that depend on a result of the check

Examples:

1) We have a level 8 shalore something who completed the racial quest and killed two bosses needed for that
he gets a choice from one of three rewards:
A: for killing the inquisitor early
B: for killing the crystal early
C: for completing the racial quest in time.
Level 16 shalore will not get any of those choices

2) We have a level 8 character who went straight to the old forest and killed wrathroot before reaching level 8. He gets one choice: reward for killing wrathwood early

3) (non-quest related) We have a level 16 character who has 5\5 mindstar mastery and he gets an additional choice for that.

4) (weird build) We have a shalore who went antimagic get some level-up choice on level 16 or 24

and more and more.

Yes, I know that there are two problems here:

a) It is a LOT of new content to invent, balance and code in. Even if it will be done in small steps
b) It has balance issue with giving something to players without any negative effects.

More bonuses would be nice, but IMHO that might not solve the problem you're trying to fix.

In my case, it wouldn't help.

I always do the Scintillating Caves, Trollmire, and Kor'Pul -- none of the other zones, unless I'm a Dwarf, in which case I also do the Deep Bellow.

I do these zones for exactly one reason: Backup Guardians.

If every starter zone had a backup guardian, but you only got two Backup Guardians across all starter zones, then I'd be a lot more free about which zones I completed.

A third issue is that any meaningful effect will mean that spoiler knowledge will make your build more powerful.
The 'secret' two generic points from the arena is bad already.

I'd rather that every class (or metaclass) had a specific quest, like cursed Tranquil Meadow. But that would probably just end up as another dungeon to slog through and would attribute more to powercreep. Not to mention it's just as complicated as your idea and probably harder to do.

I like the idea, but it seems... Slightly complicated. Just out of curiosity, what do you think the bonuses should be?

I think most people do all the zones. The most vocal people here play at very high difficulties, but most characters seem to be normal, though I haven't done a detailed analysis. At normal it is beneficial to do all the starter zones. I think that if you don't and are blocked by alternate OF and Maze you can wind up having to go into either Sandworm without enough light radius or somewhere else under its minimum level. Unless you're a yeek or maybe cornac.

So for most people it is a question of order not which ones.

At normal it is beneficial to do all the starter zones.

On normal the last first tier zones are way too easy to complete. You may get extremely unlikely and get some very nasty rares but usually it is a grind. Luckily, the option to skip first two levels exists and I can go for my artefact without wasting real life time for some gold\xp

A third issue is that any meaningful effect will mean that spoiler knowledge will make your build more powerful.
The 'secret' two generic points from the arena is bad already.

I have to agree here.

If this this were my proposal, first, I'd move the Arena 2 generic points over into the offered Special Bonuses, and calibrate the 8th level bonus towards that as the basis. (And give the Arena quest a new reward, say, a choice of gold or one of the two non-Chronomancy infusion artifacts).

I'd also make certain that there's at least two choices for each class, and one for each race. And I'd give Siding With The Assassin Lord a particularly juicy and tempting one (saving the merchant already gives you enough of a bonus as-is).

Those are just my thoughts on how to make this idea more coherent, though.

Thanks
Luc "Balanced Bonus" French

first, I'd move the Arena 2 generic points over into the offered Special Bonuses, and calibrate the 8th level bonus towards that as the basis.

It is a nice way to counter the power creep but 2 generic points is a rather big reward and all other rewards should be comparable.

I'd also make certain that there's at least two choices for each class, and one for each race.

It is 56 for classes and 11 for races not counting 1.4.0 additions.

Of course it can be something simple for classes like an option to get +0.1 to one of class talent trees reducing the workload.

The class options can include a bit of degeneracy.
So it wouldn't be a full 56 options.

What can be a suitable reward? I think

>Generic points
>Class points
>Attributes
>Level to talent
>Mastery to some tree
>Locked generic tree
>Saves, immunities, resistances, damage affinity and more
>New quest opened (XP, gold, maybe a guaranteed artefact)

Also, are double-edged choices a good idea? I suspect those are hard to balance.