QUICK Campaign

[nsrr]

https://te4.org/games/addons/tome/campaign-quick (also available on the Steam Workshop).

A fast playing campaign that sends you on a sprint through portions of Age of Ascendancy dungeons with a pit stop after each at a central hub that contains many options for shopping as well as an NPC who will craft randarts with one ego of your choosing (once you have completed the first segment and gathered enough money).
The player is offered a reward before each dungeon, and these bonuses largely offer rewards that could be gained from optional quests in AoA.

The campaign is broken into 8 segments, with a reward before each. Speak to Zemmekys to start the quest to to progress it after each dungeon.

(start) Choose an inscription (shatter, blink, manasurge, acid wave, biting gale, healing, movement, regen, phys wild)
Segment 1: floor 2 and 3 from one of Trollmire, Norgos Lair, or Ruins of Kor'Pul (chosen randomly).

Choose an 'escort' reward (your choice of an escort tree or a couple of talents from one of the trees; tree is locked if you don't know it, unlocked if you have it locked, boosted by 0.2 if you have it unlocked). You also receive 2 generic points.
(tinkers (with Orcs), staff combat, mindstar mastery, and antimagic are available under the "lore mastery" option; if you choose antimagic you also get a free point in Resolve, as from the quest.)
Segment 2: floor 2 and 3 from one of Heart of the Gloom, the Deep Bellow, Rhaloren Camp, or Scintillating Caves (chosen randomly).

Choose a teir1 boss artifact that hasn't generated yet (or Bloodcaller). You also receive +12 to all saves.
Segment 3: the entirety of The Maze or alt Sandworm Lair (or floors 2-4 of normal Sandworm Lair) (chosen randomly).

Choose the Heart of the Sandworm Queen or the Corrupted heart. You also receive +12 stat points. Don't forget to eat the heart to get your bonuses!
Segment 4: floor 3 and 4 of Old Forest or Daikara (chosen randomly).

Choose Anti-Magic Adept (if already anti-magic, available with escort rewards), the Rune of Dissipation, or increase Stun, Silence, Disarm, or Confusion immunity by 30%.
Segment 5: floor 6,7,8 and 9 of Dreadfell + Ambush!

Choose +25% resist all, +25% all resistance penetration, or 6000 gold. You have a chance to shop after choosing the reward for this segment.
Also learn Relentless Pursuit.
Segment 6: floor 2 and 3 of Grushnak or Gorbat pride (chosen randomly).

Choose an inscription (storm shield, heroism, phys/mental wild, mirror image, rune of reflection, rune of the rift, primal infusion).
Segment 7: floor 2 and 3 of Vor or Rak'Shor pride (chosen randomly).

Choose one Alchemist final reward. Also gain all lesser alchemist rewards (equivalent). You will have a chance to shop after choosing the reward. You also receive the any command orbs you didn't get from the orcs (when you start the segment).
Segment 8: slime tunnels + floor 1, 4, 5, 6 and 9 of high peak + "the sanctum" (this is not the real sanctum so we don't have to short circuit a dozen end game quest things, but the encounter is the same). Sanctum is after floor 9, don't get caught off-guard!

Post Game: Return to Point Zero for a chance to enter the Infinite Dungeon or fight optional bosses such as Ata, Lina, and your doomed shade. A few other post game options (with DLCs) are planned, but not yet implemented.

v0.0.1
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This is a testing build. All segments and rewards are completely and the campaign should be playable from beginning to end. However, some features I intend to add have not been implemented yet. I decided to upload the addon while I work on those things in case anyone wants to try it out, as any feedback on the XP, shop, and rewards balance especially would be greatly appreciated. Not yet available on Steam.

v0.0.2 - v0.0.4
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The Fate Twister (randart crafter) is now in working order and the assigned zones and chosen perks will be added to the online character sheet (at the end of the Log section).

v0.0.5
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Fixed the Fate Twister for real (fingers crossed). Added escapes to all chats with Zemmekkys, so you can back out before choosing a perk. Fixed a bug with the increased resists final perk option. Added an option to refuse each perk. Resorted segment 1 and 2 zones: (1)Trollmire, Kor'Pul, Norgos or Ritch and (2)Deep Bellow, Heart Gloom, Scint Caves or Rhal Camp.

v0.0.6
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Upgraded shops. Altered Point Zero map a bit (no access to any shop before the first segment). Reduced price of the Fate Twister about 60%. Spell-checked player-facing text. Added an ending message and win condition: winning the campaign now counts as a win. Cut the first floor from normal Sandworm Lair. Possibly fixed the implementation for online event zones.

v0.0.7
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Upgraded shops some more and altered Point Zero even more. Added many more shops, items are split up much more (at least one shop for every slot, multiple for weapons and armor, split up by type). Removed the awkward land bridge to access the shops in the south of Point Zero, added a teleport bridge across the gap instead. Fixed possible soft lock in 'zone-change' vaults (e.g. bandit fortress and collapsed tower). Possibly fixed the implementation for online event zones (it didn't). Changed the order of the final 3 perks. Res pen / res / money are now offered before prides and the money value is reduced slightly and the other two rewards were bumped up 1 segment each. When you choose the alchemist reward before the finale, you will have a chance to shop after (in case you want to stick the emerald in a ring or something). You no longer receive the actual items for the lesser alchemist elixirs, you just get the equivalent bonuses. Nerfed that OP storm shield a bit. Removed Ritch Tunnels from the zone list (the zone can't spawn any rares, it seems). Aeryn will join you in the Sanctum.

v0.0.8
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Fixed an issue with the zone/level change restriction handling that was causing it to bypass the stairs kill timer. Actually fixed the implementation for online event zones, for real. They will spawn on the same island as the Fate Twister in Point Zero. Note, the run will have to have been started in 0.0.8 and there is a known issue with online events that can sometimes occur if you are in the zone where the event portals will spawn (in the case of Quick, Point Zero). This issue may occur in Quick as well, I can't be sure, but I have confirmed that the event portal will spawn when you return to Point Zero if you are outside of the zone when the event is triggered.

v0.0.9
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Fixed seventh perk rewards not generating. Cleared the 'hates_antimagic' field from Point Zero NPCs.

v1.0.0
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Fixed a soft-lock state if you were killed in the ambush after Dreadfell (once the story death triggers you will just need to attempt to use the world exit and then you will be able to use your RoR to return to PZ)
Added Bill's Trunk to the early artifact perk list.
Added support for Steamtech. (This was originally a 'stretch goal' but I felt motivated to tackle it since the end result was utility for an entire meta-class rather than optional challenges)
If you are a Tinker class (or Adventurer), the Ancient Automated Teacher will appear in town at the start of the campaign (along with an AAA that sells guns and another that sells saws). They can be located in the southern shopping area.
You can now choose to learn about tinkering as a Lore Mastery option at the 'escort' perk tier (or choose to gain 2 levels Last Engineer Standing).
If you choose to learn about tinkering, tinker items will begin to appear in the world and AAT will appear in Point Zero (with his AAA buddies).
You will not be able to access them until after the dungeon, and gaining the Tinker generics will cost 500 gold and 1 cat point (the same as in AoA).
Added a end game chat with Zemekkys to learn more about the main character.
Added an end game quest with options to open the path to the Infinite Dungeon (one-way, as usual) or to challenge Lina, Ata, or the Rak'shor Cultist/Doomed Shade of yourself.
You don't get anything special for completing any challenges and once you have started a challenge you cannot return to Point Zero until the challenge mobs are dead (Lina, Ata, or both the Cultist and Shade).

v1.0.1
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Fixed a bug in the anti magic adept reward option.
Updated the Tinker Master chat to check for knowing both talents that it teaches rather than checking for the 'create tinker' talent. If you know one but not the other (adventurer, wanderer), you can pay the money and cat point to gain the other tree and talent (plus an extra point in the talent you already). If you know both talents it can teach but do not have an APE (wanderer), the teacher will provide you with one if you ask nicely.
In the Quick campaign, creatures that normally drop ingredients will drop one extra ingredient, chosen at random. This is just to help out Tinkers, since the alchemist quest does not exist.

v1.0.2
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Fixed temp zone transition gating

[Zizzo]

Is… Zemekkys supposed to turn hostile when you're antimagic? I've reproduced this both with an Oozemancer and with a regular character that took Wild-gift/Antimagic as a stage reward.

Also, I've tried taking the Rune of Reflection as a stage reward a couple times, and haven't ever gotten it. [sound F/X: source diving] It looks like your main quest's .seventh_perk() method is missing the 'perk_name' and 'perk_data' arguments that the other similar methods have. (I have myself frequently lamented that Lua doesn't catch that sort of error at compile-time. )

[nsrr]

Hm, no, he shouldn't hate you for being or going anti-magic (of course it would make sense lore wise, but it would also make some characters impossible in the campaign, and that would be no fun). I'll look into that.

Whoops, I think when I shuffled the last perks around I forgot to make sure I updated the parameters. I'll have to fix that. Thanks for the reports

[nsrr]

Is… Zemekkys supposed to turn hostile when you're antimagic? I've reproduced this both with an Oozemancer and with a regular character that took Wild-gift/Antimagic as a stage reward.

Also, I've tried taking the Rune of Reflection as a stage reward a couple times, and haven't ever gotten it. [sound F/X: source diving] It looks like your main quest's .seventh_perk() method is missing the 'perk_name' and 'perk_data' arguments that the other similar methods have. (I have myself frequently lamented that Lua doesn't catch that sort of error at compile-time. )

Ok, version 0.0.9 is up with fixes for both of these issues.

Point Zero NPCs will no longer 'hate_antimagic'. The seventh perk (higher level/rarity inscription) will now properly generate the reward once again, and Primal Infusion will now generate properly (this was not reported, but was not working for a different reason; this has been corrected).

[rexorcorum]

Heya nsrr, I was able to finally beat the Master with my Krog Mindslayer on 0.0.9 (game was also created on that version) , but it looks like I got softlocked in the Ambush level . I story-died there and now can't use neither the RoR, nor the exit, hehe. Here is the character in question: https://te4.org/characters/1899/tome/62 ... 496ea049d7

[nsrr]

Heya nsrr, I was able to finally beat the Master with my Krog Mindslayer on 0.0.9 (game was also created on that version) , but it looks like I got softlocked in the Ambush level . I story-died there and now can't use neither the RoR, nor the exit, hehe. Here is the character in question: https://te4.org/characters/1899/tome/62 ... 496ea049d7

Darn, I know exactly what happened there. It seems so obvious once someone reports it, you know?

I have an update in the works right now and I've included both a general fix for this and a fix specifically for characters stuck in your situation. I just have to do a little testing on the other things I was working on and then it will be ready to go.

If you do not want to wait for that to continue the run, you can remove the attribute "quick_campaign_no_recall" from the character and then they will be able to proceed as normal. You can either find and delete the line in the save file, or pop the character into dev mode and input "game.player:attr("quick_campaign_no_recall", -1)" in the Lua console.

Thanks for your report!

And sorry for the trouble

[rexorcorum]

Heh, glad to be of service.
I will wait for the patch, no problem. I will probably die in the Prides anyway, so ...

Btw, have you considered adding some extra minilevels / bossrooms (like Bill's glade or the Weirdling beast in the fortress or an arena level, for example) with a couple more bosses, mainly for a bit of extra loot? I play on NM and my budget is extra tight - was able to save 1200$ for a randart just before Dreadfell and have only spent around 100$ for infusions before that. Still, the campaign is great fun - the Master has mercilessly decimated a couple of my Mindslayers, before this one Krog managed to persevere!

[nsrr]

Heh, glad to be of service.
I will wait for the patch, no problem. I will probably die in the Prides anyway, so ...

Btw, have you considered adding some extra minilevels / bossrooms (like Bill's glade or the Weirdling beast in the fortress or an arena level, for example) with a couple more bosses, mainly for a bit of extra loot? I play on NM and my budget is extra tight - was able to save 1200$ for a randart just before Dreadfell and have only spent around 100$ for infusions before that. Still, the campaign is great fun - the Master has mercilessly decimated a couple of my Mindslayers, before this one Krog managed to persevere!

Glad you're waiting, because I told you the wrong temporary solution anyway ... Sorry, the Ambush is a bit of an exception to the rules that usually prevent zone/level changes in this campaign, and I got things mixed up.

But, the solution in the update will take care of it. I've got that tested, and half of the other stuff I was working on, so just a little more testing and I'll likely have the update out later today.

I am considering different approaches to the loot situation, but I'd rather not add extra zones or levels, even optional ones (as many would feel compelled to do them anyway). The focus of the campaign is to be Quick, and adding more zones and levels is contrary to that objective. The shops in Point Zero sell things a bit cheaper than most stores and I could probably tweak this value more. The price on the randart merchant can be changed, too, although being able to just barely afford one before Dreadfell is probably about where you should be. I'm also considering just adding a "money multiplier" for the campaign. There is an option to increase the money gained from money piles as loot (in fact, it's currently set to double), but it doesn't affect any other money source, like selling items. However, I could superload the incMoney function to increase the value actually gained from all sources in our campaign (except the early free money and the later perk option, as those bypass incMoney). Lots of options are on the table, but I really want to avoid anything that would make the campaign any longer than it already is, even if that content is optional (at least until the campaign is over; extra content after that is ok because anyone who just wants to run the campaign is free to quit with their win at that point). It's already slightly longer than I would really like.

[rexorcorum]

Ah, yes, you have a point to not de-quicken it

[nsrr]

v1.0.0 is up!

The campaign is now up to par for my goals of the "full release" (and then some, see below). From here on out it's just bug fixing and balancing. I do have a few more ideas for end game challenges (with certain DLCs), but I'm going to take a break from adding anything new for a while.

v1.0.0
___
Fixed a soft-lock state if you were killed in the ambush after Dreadfell (once the story death triggers you will just need to attempt to use the world exit and then you will be able to use your RoR to return to PZ)
Added Bill's Trunk to the early artifact perk list.
Added support for Steamtech. (This was originally a 'stretch goal' but I felt motivated to tackle it since the end result was utility for an entire meta-class rather than optional challenges)
If you are a Tinker class (or Adventurer), the Ancient Automated Teacher will appear in town at the start of the campaign (along with an AAA that sells guns and another that sells saws). They can be located in the southern shopping area.
You can now choose to learn about tinkering as a Lore Mastery option at the 'escort' perk tier (or choose to gain 2 levels Last Engineer Standing).
If you choose to learn about tinkering, tinker items will begin to appear in the world and AAT will appear in Point Zero (with his AAA buddies).
You will not be able to access them until after the dungeon, and gaining the Tinker generics will cost 500 gold and 1 cat point (the same as in AoA).
Added a end game chat with Zemekkys to learn more about the main character.
Added an end game quest with options to open the path to the Infinite Dungeon (one-way, as usual) or to challenge Lina, Ata, or the Rak'shor Cultist/Doomed Shade of yourself.
You don't get anything special for completing any challenges and once you have started a challenge you cannot return to Point Zero until the challenge mobs are dead (Lina, Ata, or both the Cultist and Shade).

[rexorcorum]

And the Krog guy happened to get a win . After which I happen to lock myself, again, this in the spaceship cave under the Golem graveyard , but I was just fooling around and don't really plan on continuing the character, so no need to worry.

After Dreadfell I got the Bearscape and Poosh and they were very nice exp and item boosters and practically afterwards I was able to make 5-6 randarts more til the end of the game. So, it looks like from this Krog Mindslayer's perspective that the real struggle for substantial power is before the Master and afterwards I got exponentially better at surviving and mowing everything, of course antimagic is helping a lot in this case. Soon I will try some other 'hero' to see they will behave.

In the meantime I made a Wanderer for funsies, it's almost certain they will not survive Dreadfell, but that is the expected outcome for almost all wanderers in places dark and creepy. One thing to report here - I got a Tinker talent and the first AAA got it's shop unlocked, but there isn't any APE for me. I know this is a known Wanderer issue, but maybe you can do some wizardry and make the AAA hand you the item, if you happen to know Tinkers? Of course, I forgot to activate the Wanderer addon I am usually using that takes care of this scenario, so maybe I just do that next time.

Anyway, a huge thanks for the campaign - it's quick-ish, very tight, unforgiving and immense fun, and it got me back into ToME playing, it seems, hehe.

[nsrr]

Congrats on the win! And I'm really glad you're enjoying it

I'll look into the spaceship cave thing. I never encountered it in my testing. I did encounter other other event mini areas, like damp cave, and I was able to transition between those and the level without trouble... but some vaults were tricky, like the collapsed tower, so perhaps this is a similar situation.

I'll look into the Wanderer/APE situation, too. I have heard about this, but I haven't messed with wanderers or tinkers outside of Orcs, very much, so I'm not totally sure on the details. Does it happen under any circumstance, or only if wandering has already unlock one of the two trees the AAT wouls teach you? (And yes, it's currently using the exact same chat as the normal AAT, so it would have the same issue, whatever the situation that causes it. But if I can implement a work around for Quick, I will, even if it means changing to a 'new' chat.)

Thanks again for the feedback

[rexorcorum]

Further reporting from the Tinker/Wanderer front:

• If you are a Wanderer and have a Tinker category unlocked, but haven't learned a talent yet, you can still pay the 500 gold to the AAT and it hands you the APE along as unlocking the 2 categories, as intended
• But if you have put a point into a Tinker talent, the option to pay the gold is gone and the shop option at the AAT is activated, which results in you not having the APE
• It also happens that some schematics require monsterbits and it looks like the campaign doesn't care about those . For example, the Healing salve requires troll intestines and I have killed a bunch of those, but collected no innards

Not sure about the solution to the above problem, as many zones are skipped and quite a few enemies are not present. Maybe a new monster butcher shop perhaps, hehehe?

And back to my run, it looks promising so far !

[rexorcorum]

A quick addendum: I somehow have gathered a few minotaur noses!

[nsrr]

I looked into the chat for the AAT and I see what you mean. I can hook into that and change the options to accommodate wanderers and adventurers pretty easily, I think.

I didn't think about the whole "tinkers need monster bits" thing. I'm not sure what to do there, but some kind of shop might work... or maybe I can just make all mobs always drop their own bits and drops some random bits as well, at least if tinkers are present in the world. There's no alchemist quest, so it's basically just resources for tinkers?

I looked at the dwarf ship thing, too. I think I can get around it the same as the bandit fort and fallen tower, but those took special casing, so I'll have to add a similar check for it.

Thanks again