zTome 1.0.4.17

[minmay]

zTome is a version of ToME4 focused on reducing the length of the game and eliminating annoyances and cumbersome mechanics. It is not intended to be easier or simpler, only faster and more convenient. The current version of zTome undermines or skips over several plot details, and as such you are advised to win at least one game of ToME4 before playing.
This is an early and extremely rushed version, and overwrites a ridiculous number of files. It will break with most other addons. This will change eventually. Changelog: http://www.cowmuffins.net/stuff/ztome/CHANGES (too long to want to paste it in here). I have also written a guide that walks through the game detailing all the important changes.

[darkgod]

HTTP 0 ?

[ajfluffy]

I thought this was going to be tome, with only zombies lol.

[Strongpoint]

- Octopodes, a new race that can wear 8 rings

Someone likes one race from crawl stone soup way too much

Don't even want to test how ridiculously overpowered that
achievable +40% resist all + 40armor from rings alone
What did you did to balance that? Blocking other equips like crawl did?

[minmay]

Octopodes are present solely because zTome started as a joke in the ##crawl IRC channel. Basically, there was a trend of coming up with increasingly silly fake DCSS forks (all named 'mcrawl' or 'wcrawl' or 'tcrawl' or something similar), and eventually it extended to other games, and I decided to turn zTome into a real one. Since this is becoming a more serious project they will probably be removed.
They're actually probably the weakest race in the game right now - getting 40% resist all from rings would require finding 8 plain voratun rings, and I've won without ever even getting one of those, let alone several. They do block all other armour slots except hats.

HTTP 0 ?

When attempting to upload:

Code: Select all

An HTTP error 0 occurred. 
/filefield/ahah/game_addon_version/field_teaa/0

Unfortunately status code 0 could mean almost anything...
Attempting to save or preview gives HTTP 413 instead. This occurs in both Firefox and Chrome, and on both of my computers. Sorry about the lack of detail in the original post, was in a rush.
edit: I can also upload files of similar size to other sites just fine.
edit2: also tried making various tiny changes to the addon itself, didn't change anything

[jenx]

- Octopodes, a new race that can wear 8 rings

Someone likes one race from crawl stone soup way too much

Don't even want to test how ridiculously overpowered that
achievable +40% resist all + 40armor from rings alone
What did you did to balance that? Blocking other equips like crawl did?

resist all is not all it is made out to be. resistance penetration is very significant at high levels and in nightmare/insane mode.

[minmay]

I believe I've narrowed down my problem with uploading: after some tests, uploading a smaller addon (762 bytes, specifically) works fine. darkgod, you may want to check the file size limit on uploads, particularly php.ini and/or .htaccess. In the meantime I'm going to clean up some things that will hopefully get it below 1mb.

[minmay]

Okay, it's fixed, the addon is on te4.org now (with octopodes taken out since I want to split them off into a separate, less serious addon).
edit: and quickly updated to version 2 because i was tired and accidentally removed starting equipment

[jotwebe]

It's pretty brutal in a fun kind of way. I like it. Also my old laptop likes the smaller levels.

Some stuff I'm less sure about:
* Some of the immobiles spit poisons or slime these days, they won't kill you on their own, but they can swing a fight pretty badly.
* Lite: sure, with your setup you need guaranteed access to powerful light sources quickly, but seems a bit extreme to yank it out altogether.
* why do you hate luck? Ok, probably because it's mostly hidden and only matters if you take Lucky Day. But if that was grounds for elimination, none of us would be safe

Loved the guide, too, although it is highly inaccurate in that I don't have air conditioning, and have never [ASIDE 1] played a skeleton archer.

Octopodes could fit in the lore as the Sher'tuls' country cousins. Of course they'd need a name with gratuitious apostrophes in it...

----
[ASIDE 1] well, maybe once, but if I dod it was a long time ago

[minmay]

* Lite: sure, with your setup you need guaranteed access to powerful light sources quickly, but seems a bit extreme to yank it out altogether.

Remember that zTome originated in the DCSS community, you won't find any roguelike fanbase that hates lighting systems more than they do. I think removing light radius and removing escorts were my two most requested features. And personally, I wanted to make LOS reciprocal, which wasn't really doable with variable light radius; this is also why Highers' extended sight radius went away. (Don't worry, enemies with level 10 breath weapons still get to attack you from 15 squares away.)

* why do you hate luck? Ok, probably because it's mostly hidden and only matters if you take Lucky Day. But if that was grounds for elimination, none of us would be safe

For a long time, the only change to luck was removing its effect on spell friendly fire chance (it's awkward that being at 49 luck instead of 50 is really terrible for archmages). I also tried actually showing luck and its effects in-game, but ultimately it felt like it wasn't worth keeping - except for a couple of specific talents, holding Prox's Lucky Halfling Foot was like holding a spinel that also gives you +1% crit chance. Certainly if it ever gets changed to do something more interesting, it could come back pretty easily.
By the way, if it wasn't clear, the current Lucky Day effect is pretty much a placeholder, so if anyone has something better for it I'd appreciate hearing it.

[johnnyzero]

Cool addon/variant.

Rips out a lot of the early tedium of ToME and changes the base gameplay in a subtle manner. The game still feels like tome even with the LOS + lighting changes. Quick travel is nice, and the lack of escorts/arena is actually a big impact. Less free talent points, but not having to worry about these quests makes progressing through the game much faster.

Someone likes one race from crawl stone soup way too much

Mummies are in zTome?

[jotwebe]

I think removing light radius and removing escorts were my two most requested features. And personally, I wanted to make LOS reciprocal, which wasn't really doable with variable light radius; this is also why Highers' extended sight radius went away. (Don't worry, enemies with level 10 breath weapons still get to attack you from 15 squares away.)

I've always seen escorts as ToME's variant of crawl's timed mini-branches - they're supposed to tempt you into recklessness. But on the smaller levels they'd be even more luck dependent than they are in vanilla. And I don't really mind light going, although I did like blinding things. I suppose I still can use stealth or invisibility, right?

For a long time, the only change to luck was removing its effect on spell friendly fire chance (it's awkward that being at 49 luck instead of 50 is really terrible for archmages). I also tried actually showing luck and its effects in-game, but ultimately it felt like it wasn't worth keeping - except for a couple of specific talents, holding Prox's Lucky Halfling Foot was like holding a spinel that also gives you +1% crit chance. Certainly if it ever gets changed to do something more interesting, it could come back pretty easily.
By the way, if it wasn't clear, the current Lucky Day effect is pretty much a placeholder, so if anyone has something better for it I'd appreciate hearing it.

Ah, I'd forgotten about the friendly fire thing. Well, if Lucky Day also gave +12 defense and +7 saves, it would be pretty much the same right? No problem with that. It'd also should probably boost the evasion power of Duck and Dodge to 90 or so, I guess, so it stays Halfling-aligned.

Anyway, got a little further with a new char (my poor Doomed stumbled from one horrible situation into the next). dying the final time in daikara or so. I think allowing a third starting dungeon may not be a bad idea, it'd allow some leeway if you're screwed or your build doesn't get off the ground quite as fast. On the other hand this is certainly exiting, so consider this just an idle thought, not a feature request.

Finally, I found a bug when entering the Dark Crypt (the Bloodmage one), got an error pop-up and a black play area after. Truly a dark crypt.

[minmay]

That bug should already be fixed since 1.0.4.3, but thanks for the report anyway. I forget when the zone change autosave happens, if it screwed up your save, I'm terribly sorry.

(For anyone curious, in converting from a module to an addon (zTome started before I knew addons even existed, I think it was beta 30-something) I failed to overwrite Kryl-Feijan, who has the Darkness talent, which I also forgot to add back in the conversion for compatibility...)

[johnnyzero]

Bug Report!

I entered the Dark Crypt from the world map, but the The Sect of Kryl-Feijan quest never popped. I didn't notice this until after I rescued Melinda and tried going to Last Hope to collect my reward. Sure enough, I was able to teleport back to the Dark Crypt using the rod of recall, was given the The Sect of Kryl-Feijan quest, and subsequently failed since all of the cultists were already dead. Melinda did transform into Kryl-Feijan though, so at least I was able to get boss XP.

Character link.

Edit: Bonus bug. Became a lich and couldn't go back to Rel to get to Irkkk. Tried both the rod and the walking through halfling ruins. When I got denied by the tunnel stairs, I decided to try to recall to Murgol Lair and walk out. I ended up in the middle of a mountain chain in Tar'Eyal.

[String]

Any chance of making that quick travel rod of recall a separate download?