"Odyssey of The Summoner" is OUT!! Find it here...

[nsrr]

@nsrr
I'll do a thorough Ritch run and see if everything's still in working order.

Good to hear. I really like the Ritch, and I like it more the more I play it. I'm working on a run in exploration mode that I plan to play to the end. I'll let you know how it goes.

I found one thing that doesn't seem to be working right, and it's kind of build breaking. Wild Swings and Flutter don't work together.

I know Flutter gives me a huge chance to swap places instead of attack (tremendously useful in SWL, by the way), but I was not hitting at all. The log would just say that I had 'bumped into' the target.

With Flutter switched off, I seemed to be hitting about half of the time, which is just about what Wild Swings should be giving me at talent level two. The rest of the time it would say the target 'evaded'.

I assume the behavior of Wild Swings is supposed to effectively override the accuracy loss from Flutter, and that what I'm seeing is not intended behavior. I'm pretty sure you specifically mentioned the combination yourself at one point.

I'll attach excerpts from my log.

[nsrr]

Okay, I think I was misunderstanding the description of Flutter. I assumed that with it on I would still attack an enemy if we bumped and didn't swap places, and that using 'Attack' was just noted as a way to bypass the swap chance. I didn't realize that with Flutter on you have to use the 'Attack' talent if you want to hit them at all.

Got it now. It works properly when I use 'Attack' instead, sorry for the false alarm

A couple notes on the run so far:

Flutter feels like an absolutely essential defensive ability for Ritch to me now. I have something like 80 effective defense at level 18, and a 69% chance to deflect projectiles and swap places with enemies. Basically the only things that can hit me are beam and cone attacks. It's even more essential than the life stealing and speed provided by Bloodletting.

Also, being able to take Hungry Eyes as a First Discipline makes the life-stealing from Bloodletting less essential, so I guess there's that to consider, as well. I have both Strewn and Agonize unlocked already, which wouldn't be possible with a normal assignment of starting talents and categories. I suppose I would take Strewn over Agonize for the ability to hit in melee with Flutter active. Agonize is great for both Searing Spray and Blinding Shot, though. Blinding Shot does massive damage compared to anything else I have at my disposal (maybe Shatter, but I haven't invested in it). I've had a few hits well over 500 damage already, I think the highest was 800 something (after stacking on Searing Spray and Firewall).

Now that I know how amazingly useful Flutter is (I really want to underscore it for anyone that's looking for Ritch tips: max Flutter ASAP), I think one quick way to give Ritch a huge early game survivability boost would be to re-arrange Wing Pod. Drop Flutter down to the second talent and move up Batter and Predator's Stride to third and fourth. What do you think?

[nekarcos]

@nsrr
Heh... I always knew "Flutter" was extremely powerful, but I was hoping the "loss" of melee capabilities would offset the extreme defensive bonuses it gives. As a note, there was a time that Flutter was going to drain stamina each turn, but I ultimately decided to remove that because it "muddled" a Ritch's build path and made the talent too loaded.
But ya-- Because the latter half of the game features very few melee attackers (or direct-hit projectiles), I'll let it slide and see if it remains to be powerful even then.

All that said, making "Flutter" any more accessible (lowering its "talent rank") would definitely just lead to an "optimal strategy"-- Which is never a good thing (since this add-on strongly encourages build diversity and creativity). Remember how powerful "Lick Wounds" and "Treasure Hoarder's Will" used to be? Sure don't want THAT happening again...

Oh, and about "Blinding Shot"... I feel like I MIGHT have overbuffed it a bit-- But again, I'll let it slide, and we'll see if I really went too far (it becomes a "Go-To" talent).

[maanur]

Some bugs in Ritch's character sheet:
- Number of attacks scales with dexterity, but in fact you always get 2 claws (and sometimes a stinger one, or just plain 1 if in Predator Stance).
- Natural Attacks, Stinger says that the base damage is the same, as with hookclaws (yes, my Ritch uses weapons only in fights where it needs Scrap)... But in fact damage is several times less, even against larger targets (thus ignoring armor?).

And one more suggestion:
- Stinger talents, as they are now, imply hit-and-run tactics. All, except for Diving Bomb, making that talent useful in very small number of situations.
It would be much better, if using Diving Bomb on adjacent target made Ritch to jump away from them, much like Disengage...

[nekarcos]

@maanur
RE: Natural Attack Count
The "Natural Attacks" mechanic is something I'm building, and will take time for people to understand (since, at current, there are only 3 classes that make use of it-- And they each do so in a very inflexible way). Basically, the "Natural Attacks" count does not represent how many "times" you will attack-- It represents "how many of your Natural Weapons you will use per attack". This being the case, you will ONLY attack twice if you only have two natural weapons, no matter how high your "Natural Attack" count is... So, it should mostly be ignored for characters who can't acquire additional natural weapons (Fire Drake and Ritch).

RE: Stinging
I looked into this-- You're right. If you attack in Predator Stance WITHOUT a stinger active, the character will "punch" the target (as in, not even use their stinger or hookclaw combats-- They will use the "Unarmed" combat at the top-left of the character sheet). If I recall, I think I left it like this because it was sorta funny (since its supposed to be about as effective as jabbing someone with the bladeless hilt of a sword). However, it is definitely misleading, since "Predator Stance" says you will attack with a Stinger, and the character sheet says stingers deal so-much damage... But, at the same time, there's a big fat warning both on the talent and each time you attack that very much says "don't attack without a stinger, it won't hurt"... So... *shrug* This is more debate than an actual issue/bug...

RE: Diving Bomb
I COULD make it instant-use. Honestly, I didn't really like the idea of trading hits with a target either-- Especially since my landing location was always going to moreorless be random. This should make the talent a lot safer-- And maybe even give it some utility as a "charge-based" gap-closer. Who knows-- Let's continue to investigate this...

[maanur]

But, at the same time, there's a big fat warning both on the talent and each time you attack that very much says "don't attack without a stinger, it won't hurt"... So...

Either you should plainly remove the Stinger from natural weapons list, or the mechanics of Predator Strike should be changed to actually use that values.

Personally I would like Predator Stance being an alternative to StrongArm. Maybe use the same bleeding progression? It would be interesting, somewhat balanced, and furthermore realistic.
And decreasing your own size for that "nigh infinite armor penetration"... Nice challenge!

[nekarcos]

@maanur
The "Stinger" section represents how much a SUCCESSFUL sting does-- Bumping them without a stinger uses "Unarmed" combat.

[Kamani]

If anybody knows any of the secret effects, please post it on the Spoilers forum. I am trying to learn as many of them as possible.

[Almonihah]

@nsrr
I haven't tweaked Ritch very much from since you left it. I hate to say, but it's an extremely unpopular class, and you're pretty much the only person who gives me in-depth feedback about it lol.

Why be a bug when you can be a dragon? I suspect this is what the lesser popularity of the class stems from.

I've only been playing this sporadically, which is why I haven't had more comments.

[astralInferno]

I couldn't try ritch because of the open veins/inflame bug, and I have too many addons to turn them all off ^_^'' If not for that I'd be using it a lot.

[nekarcos]

@astralInferno
If enough people encounter this conflict and give me a list of their add-ons, I can moreorless deduce which ones are causing it through commonality. Although I don't plan to "actively" attack this problem, every bit of "evidence" can help me deduce the issue.

[astralInferno]

I use a lot of addons, so I /really/ doubt this will be useful, but...
addons = {'orcsallraces', 'darkpriest', 'adventurousarcanecombat', 'bonusescorts', 'gladiator', 'emblazoned', 'sk_dream_hammer', 'nur_kit', 'orb_ruined', 'stoned', 'nalorenrace', 'pepper-pack', 'mummyrace', 'bastion', 'wraith-race', 'grayswandir-fallen', 'infernopettiness', 'adventurerplusaura', 'steeldrakes', 'technicolorgolems', 'infernoracepack', 'orcpitsrestoration', 'necrofriends', 'moremastery', 'embersraces', 'mana-surgery', 'archmageacid', 'midnight', 'blightedclass', 'adven_addon', 'anguish', 'alt-talent-reqs', 'stone-wardens', 'draconic-fork', 'sunmagi', 'deathknight', 'mightylevelupcheat', 'opt_zone', 'tempusfugit', 'ignore_rc_locks', 'celestialoddities', 'arcanum', 'hedgeknight_reborn', 'orcs', 'faerierace', 'hexkin', 'grayswandir-monk', 'viperclass', 'items-vault', 'assassin', 'new-short-staves', 'ashes-urhrok', 'savefile_note', 'rerolls', 'select-your-escorts', 'nullpack', 'sk_subrace_pack', 'witherer', 'necromancy+', 'wretchedtalenttree', 'eternaldarkness', 'verdant'}
That's one of the most recent characters I made. (not actually an OotS character; but if they were they'd have a similar set) You can see why I wouldn't want to turn them all off and on, but then I 110% see you can't test them all.

[Kamani]

Turning off this addon is making it impossible to start a new save. New issue too, and I have NO idea why.

[nekarcos]

@Kamani
*Sigh*... This is not a new problem at all.

This is something I discovered that happens when you beat the game with an "Odyssey of The Summoner" class and try to start a new game with the add-on off.
BECAUSE the error shows up when the add-on is no longer active, I can be certain this isn't just bad coding on my part, but a strange interaction with the T-Engine itself. My theory is that the game is trying to "load" a class from my add-on for the High Scores board or something... I haven't been able to investigate it that well because it's such an odd and bizarre bug.

... Either way, you can fix it by removing the "offending" save data (or, if you're not sure which, renaming the folder and allowing ToME to create a new save folder). You can find it in "[<computerAccountName>/T-Engine/4.0/tome/save]".
Sorry about this! I have no clue what causes it exactly...

[Kamani]

Well, I will just leave it on. I like Odyssey of The Summoner, and it doesn't seem to interfere with my game of Orcs.