ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

So, I'll just copy my reply from steam about game being too long etc, which also have some idea I really have for a long time but didn't bother to post it.
____
When I'm before arraving at Far East I feel my desire to play game suddenly dissapears.
I often drop character there at 42 lvl, even before going to Reknor.
And if I gathered will and cleansed all ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥t orc prides from which only Grushak is difficult and thus interesting (and the rest are absolutely identical and different tiles and enemy types doesn't save the day), I then often lose my willingness to play before High Peak because it's not difficult - I rarely lose characters there, but its enormous and incredibly boring (at least it was like that on Nightmare, and I got enough of High Peak there so I rarely even try it on Insane).

What I have in mind for long time, it's a suggestion to you Dark God - make some kind of Plot Elevator at the first floor of High Peak, that could bring you right to the Duo Mages in final fight or at the last floor of High Peak. Better so make a quest in order to activate it.
Make a strong enemy boss or something like that so it won't come for free and will require EFFORTS from player to skip Most Boring Part Of The Overall Good Game - I mean High Peak.

Thus player will have a choice - to grind if he desire it, or to skip if he very much desire it.

Hear my call DG!

I don't think allowing players to optionally skip boring zones is a good game design. If it is boring, why do we have this in the first place? It make sense for T1/2 dungeons because they are stuffed with critters, and you can't make them too challenging because it could be overwhelming to new players. So allowing the more experienced players to optionally skip them is a good choice, but the same does not apply to the far east.

With that said I do agree the east is boring, and I am a bit baffled as to why it is made even more bloated. Therefore I had bumped an old thread up which is about changing the east. You can find a lot of good suggestions there.

See here: http://forums.te4.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=48215

Maybe there are players who do like High Peak. Maybe someone will be undergeared and want to try his luck there to get better gear, dunno.
I can't speakfor everyone, but I'm sure I'm not alone in that I don't find High Peak particularly entertaining.
So instead of like removing i completely, in order not to throw baby with the bath, we could have some alternative way to Sweet Couple.

I'm not for skips yeah; I do agree that the east has a problem though.
I'm working on a redesign of the Prides to reduce their levels size and shake a bit their layouts and improved greatly their turn lag. (i'll patch it up in a 1.6.x not 1.7)

I'm very firmly against shortening Dreadfell / High Peak however as those are the "final" zones. Making them more interresting that I am open to though

Well, it's not actually skiping them.
It's more "alternative path that is shorter" with some quest/boss fight inolved.
But anyway, thanks for info!

darkgod wrote:I'm working on a redesign of the Prides to reduce their levels size and shake a bit their layouts and improved greatly their turn lag. (i'll patch it up in a 1.6.x not 1.7)

Looking forward to seeing that land!

Perhaps an alternate path that you get for siding with the Orc when you arrive in the East could work?

You would miss out on all the extra towns and get sent by one of the Pride Leaders to investigate the High Peak (which they all want to do, but can't because they are gridlocked by the other Prides).

Would have to be locked until have finished the game once.