ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I think most of us are probably into ToME for the strategic depth and class variety. The game does a great job of quickly creating tactical situations over and over, but on top of that there is a good amount of really interesting lore to discover.

The main plot and side quests are in my opinion very well-written, but unfortunately everything kind of falls apart after the orc prides. The whole plot after this point feels extremely rushed and incomplete. After you return to Aeryn she basically says "hey I think there are two bad guys behind everything oh and btw here's the entrance to their secret lair". When you encounter the final bosses, there's a weird line of dialogue that goes something like "You guys were supposed to help people!", despite the fact that we have no idea who the - these people are. I feel like there's supposed to be a tragic love story here, but these guys have absolutely zero screen time before the final fight.

If you skip the staff of absorption side quest, Aeryn shows up at the end all pissed off at you for reasons that are not very apparent to the player. If you manage to beat the mage couple you see a few sentences explaining that the Sunwall was destroyed by orcs, but this seems really out of left field considering you just genocided them from the face of the continent. It's a jarring contrast to the siege of Derth, which gives you numerous indications that the town is in danger even though it is completely inconsequential in the long run. And then you find a convenient note on the villain's corpse explaining how to stop their carefully laid evil plans! Seriously?

This game is awesome, and its great that the devs are updating pretty much every aspect by adding new classes/races/, revamping old ones and building new campaigns. But we will probably always be coming back to the main campaign, so please give it some love.

please also modify the AoA campaign in the following ways:
after saving melinda and getting her into your fortress, have her also spawn in Zigur if you told her about them, or have her also spawn in Derth as a shop(and move the lantern/pickaxe shop to the side) if you told her to open up a shop there, and if you told her about angolwen, have her spawn there somewhere
also, give an option to tell her about the grand corruptor if you side with him; maybe she can spawn in Zigur with him

I think the Lore coming up to High Peak is mostly fine. You actually get several hints about the Final Bosses prior to talking to Aeryn - specifically from the Orc Pride Leaders that you defeat telling you that they know something is up. However, I wouldn't be against updating the Lore if it meant making the High Peaks lore more enjoyable to read. Maybe depending on what happens at the Charred Scar there could be Lore specific to whether you succeed in stopping the Sorcerers or fail to do so. Examples:

If you fail to stop the Sorcerers from charging the staff, then maybe the Orcs rally as a united force ready to finally crush the Sunwall with whatever weapon 'their masters' have prepared. The Orcs are still divided into individual prides, led by leaders eyeing each other more then anything else. Until of course you kill their leaders. Without their leaders to each each other the rank and file Orcs look to strike a blow back against their enemy. Even as an leaderless unruly mob, their combined forces are enough to greatly outnumber what little resistance the Sunwall has to offer.

Maybe traveling up High Peak you might find some Lore written by Aeryn - telling you about what happened after you entered High Peak the Orcs overran the Sunwall, her anguish at the situation, and her directed hatred at you for 'killing' the Pride Leaders which ironically were the only thing keeping the Sunwall from being invaded. Maybe top it off with a little note that Elandar offers Aeryn the chance to 'take' her Vengeance on you.

If you succeed in stopping them charging the staff, then the Orcs are rather disgruntled. I'm not sure when Kruk Pride gets attacked by the Orcs on the Mainland as described in the EoR campaign, but perhaps it could happen after the Charred Scar failure - the Orcs are looking to take theri anger out on something, they don't think they can take the Sunwall, and they don't exactly like Kruk Pride. However, Kruk Pride somehow manages to hold them off.

Traveling up High Peak in this scenario, you wouldn't get the Lore from Aeryn, or really any Lore describing what is going on. Instead, we just emphasize that this happened in the EoR Lore.