The Lost City of Vulcus

[Waladil]

So in 1.0b and on the people will be appropriately leveled for Nightmare+? That'll probably mean that things bought from Vulcus will pretty heavily outstrip Lost Merchant randarts. Oh lord, could you imagine the stuff you'd get on MADNESS? (Yeah, we're all level 120. Here's a ring with 4-5 egos all far more powerful than the Lost Merchants'.)

A couple design questions while I'm thinking about the items:
1.) Why a discount DURING the siege? Most things bought then wouldn't really be available until after the siege or until most of the way through the siege. It doesn't make much sense from a lore perspective, since why would merchants offer a discount to an unproven ally who just happened to show up before a battle? I suppose it's a gambling scenario, where you can front your money on the assumption that you can defend that artisan, but with most people reporting that it's really hard to successfully defend why would anyone make that gamble for such slim savings?

2.) Why the turn duration? Moreover, why 150 turns? It's long enough to make purchases made during the battle effectively unavailable until after the battle or to have highly restricted availability mid-battle, but afterwards it just seems like a time where you're forced to derp around or just hold X for a while. (What I ended up doing was activating my Rod of Recall then turning it off for 118 turns of cooldown.)

[Doctornull]

There's also a Timed Rest addon which mitigates delays (and the resultant derping).

It's included with zOmnibus, if you use that just hit shift+R.

[Hachem_Muche]

If you notice items that appear to be level inappropriate, let me know.
The items (and costs) level up with player level, not with the level of the NPC's and should scale appropriately with other loot in the game. This is to make sure the player can afford what's offered. Otherwise a level 20 on nightmare could only commission tier 5 items, which are too expensive, typically, and might not even be usable.
Note also that if you successfully defend the town, you can go back when you're higher level and have higher level items commissioned.

As for commissioning an item during the siege:
The dwarves know what's coming and are a bit desperate (but still greedy). So if you promise to hold off disaster they're willing to cut you a break. They do get your money up front, so they're not much worse off if you don't come back. After the town is out of danger, they go back to being typical gold-loving dwarves.

150 turns is just the right amount of time to get something commissioned (if you're quick enough) before the invaders reach the crafter in most cases. You can actually commission more than one item at a time if you want. This is a gamble, that costs you preparation time and possibly being out of position when needed. If you have good mobility, it's not all that hard to dash back to the merchant during the fight to retrieve your item. It's also a completely viable strategy to commission one item, wait for it to be finished and then abandon the town to its fate.

It would be a little weird if the crafters suddenly got faster after the need for speed was removed. Out of combat, the wait is really no big deal, since you can just dash around the map, or whatever until your item is finished.

[Doctornull]

It would be a little weird if the crafters suddenly got faster after the need for speed was removed.

Maybe they get faster when their apprentices aren't out preparing for war, when their forges are fired up and ready to produce, and when the supply warehouse isn't locked up.

The middle of a fight is generally a difficult time to concentrate on anything except survival.

[Waladil]

One thing I noticed is that there's no "benefit" to protecting the guards. Maybe have a small discount per dwarf saved after the battle? I had 6 artisans and 13 guards to start (I don't know if that's random or fixed) so if I saved everyone and each gave a 1% discount, things would be about 20% off afterwards, which I feel to be a reasonable "thanks for saving everyone's life" discount.

[Hachem_Muche]

Maybe they get faster when their apprentices aren't out preparing for war, when their forges are fired up and ready to produce, and when the supply warehouse isn't locked up.

The middle of a fight is generally a difficult time to concentrate on anything except survival.

It's the master artisans (not the apprentices) that can pull out all the stops and rush-finish artifacts for you. The apprentices are out playing cannon-fodder, and have nothing do with the masterful work you're paying for. Rushing out custom gear for someone in the fight is the best way they can contribute to the town's defense -- assume that if you, the player, doesn't come along they'll start working on someone else's equipment. You are correct about it being difficult to concentrate on delicate work in the middle of a fight, of course.

One thing I noticed is that there's no "benefit" to protecting the guards. Maybe have a small discount per dwarf saved after the battle? I had 6 artisans and 13 guards to start (I don't know if that's random or fixed) so if I saved everyone and each gave a 1% discount, things would be about 20% off afterwards, which I feel to be a reasonable "thanks for saving everyone's life" discount.

"Thank you SOO much! Where's my money?" These are DWARVES! Perhaps there should be a price penalty if you let too many of them die? The base costs of items are designed to be in line (tier adjusted) with Lost Merchant artifacts.
There is a benefit to keeping the dwarves alive, of course - they help you win the fight. Losing a Cannoneer in particular, is usually followed by losing a whole section of the town. If you're strong enough to keep most of the dwarves alive, you probably have time to commission an item or two during the fight to get the siege discount.

[Doctornull]

Maybe they get faster when their apprentices aren't out preparing for war, when their forges are fired up and ready to produce, and when the supply warehouse isn't locked up.

The middle of a fight is generally a difficult time to concentrate on anything except survival.

It's the master artisans (not the apprentices) that can pull out all the stops and rush-finish artifacts for you. The apprentices are out playing cannon-fodder, and have nothing do with the masterful work you're paying for. Rushing out custom gear for someone in the fight is the best way they can contribute to the town's defense -- assume that if you, the player, doesn't come along they'll start working on someone else's equipment. You are correct about it being difficult to concentrate on delicate work in the middle of a fight, of course.

Sure, whatever works

I'm just trying to help you come up with excuses for why crafting would be slower when time was of the essence (during the attack), and faster when time is an irrelevant annoyance (after the attack).

[Tharsonius]

hey there again reporting from my lvl 7x archmage.

after the quest failed in main campaign because of the difficulty modifier bug i was able to replace the mod with the most recent version on my running game and now did the Vulcus quest for the first time (intense difficulty) in the infinite dungeon

i had like 17k cash and was able to craft 1x gloves 1x lite and 2x rings during the siege

(high global speed multiple teleports and so on)

im now lvl 77 and the enemys were all lvl 16x

i think the difficulty was ok, i was only able to handle the eastern (+upper and lower) part of the map

for weaker classes or less mobile ones im pretty sure it will be a pretty tough, as it will be at even higher lvls / difficulties.

for me 5 artisans and 5 normal dwarves survived as on the west side some daelachs had spammed darkness and i was too busy fighting some hard boss mages on the eastern side.

town lies pretty much in ruins now, but thx for this nice experience

for the ring crafting with an added gem i think its pretty strong for the main campaign, but as its intented to be used with infinite dungeon it should be fine and im really happy that theres now a purpose for hording money there.



another info, as i mentioned in i500 topic, im using everything is unique addon which replaces all rares by boss/unique mobs - but in this quest only 1 unique spawned and some normal rares - guess it overrides it like chest guardians do too

[Hachem_Muche]

Tharsonius, thanks for reporting your experience.

While the encounter is tuned for normal difficulty, it sounds like the fight went about as expected with a strong, mobile character on increased difficulty. Enemy spawns are defined within the zone to maintain balance between offense and defense. I don't see how the encounter would be survivable if all of the enemies were rare/uniques.

The power of crafted items scale up your level, so the items you had crafted at level 111 in I.D. are significantly better than those you would get in the main campaign. When you have a gem embedded in crafted jewelry, the other powers in the item are reduced somewhat to compensate. The main advantage is that you know it has the powers of the gem you choose.

[Hachem_Muche]

I've just uploaded version 1.1 (for ToME 1.1.1) at http://te4.org/sites/default/files/game ... cus_3.teaa and to steam.

This tweaks npc talent levels at bit, and fixes a possible bug with npc generation.
Artisans now finish work much faster after the siege is over. (Yes, they were going to slow to keep you from abandoning them!)
The jeweler charges less to add lower tier gems.

[Hachem_Muche]

I've uploaded version 1.1a at http://te4.org/sites/default/files/game ... cus_4.teaa and steam.

This fixes a bug that was causing the event not to spawn in the High Peak, and reduced the chance for it to spawn elsewhere.

[Hachem_Muche]

I've uploaded version 1.2 at http://te4.org/sites/default/files/game ... cus_5.teaa and to Steam.

This fixes a couple of minor (mostly unnoticeable) bugs.

[Hachem_Muche]

I've uploaded version 1.3 for ToME 1.2.4 at http://te4.org/sites/default/files/game ... cus_6.teaa and to steam.

This takes advantage of some randboss creation changes in ToME to allow for some more variability in orc uniques created and allows you to unlearn talents inside the town. Custom crafted tools/charms are also buffed a bit.

[jenx]

unfortunately this is buggy in 1.2.4. here are some reports:

Code: Select all

error = "Lua Error: /data/chats/vulcus-chat.lua:315: attempt to call method 'attrPowers' (a nil value)\
  At [C]:-1 attrPowers\
  At /data/chats/vulcus-chat.lua:315 maker_list\
  At /data/chats/vulcus-chat.lua:430 f\
  At /engine/Chat.lua:41 init\
  At /engine/class.lua:39 new\
  At /data/general/events/vulcus-portal.lua:162 reveal\
  At /data/general/events/vulcus-portal.lua:294 on_turn\
  At /mod/class/Game.lua:1361 onTurn\
  At /engine/GameEnergyBased.lua:88 tick\
  At /engine/GameTurnBased.lua:46 tick\
  At /mod/class/Game.lua:1181 "
seen = true
reported = true

Code: Select all

error = "Lua Error: /data/chats/vulcus-chat.lua:315: attempt to call method 'attrPowers' (a nil value)\
  At [C]:-1 attrPowers\
  At /data/chats/vulcus-chat.lua:315 maker_list\
  At /data/chats/vulcus-chat.lua:430 f\
  At /engine/Chat.lua:41 init\
  At /engine/class.lua:39 new\
  At /data/general/events/vulcus-portal.lua:162 reveal\
  At /data/general/events/vulcus-portal.lua:294 on_turn\
  At /mod/class/Game.lua:1361 oldOnTurn\
  At /mod/addons/qqq/superload/mod/class/Game.lua:31 onTurn\
  At /engine/GameEnergyBased.lua:88 tick\
  At /engine/GameTurnBased.lua:46 tick\
  At /mod/class/Game.lua:1181 "
seen = true
reported = true

i removed qqq addon from desc.lua, but error persisted.

[spiralrazor]

Lua Error: /engine/interface/ActorTalents.lua:328: attempt to index local 't' (a nil value)
At [C]:-1 __index
At /engine/interface/ActorTalents.lua:328 learnTalent
At /mod/class/Actor.lua:3962 learnTalent
At /mod/class/interface/ActorInscriptions.lua:103 setInscription
At /mod/Vulcusresolvers.lua:134
At /engine/Entity.lua:571 resolve
At /engine/Zone.lua:473 finishEntity
At /engine/Zone.lua:444 makeEntityByName
At /engine/generator/actor/Random.lua:59 generateGuardian
At /engine/generator/actor/Random.lua:53 generate
At /engine/Zone.lua:934 newLevel
At /engine/Zone.lua:829 getLevel
At /mod/class/Game.lua:854 changeLevelReal
At /mod/class/Game.lua:726 unload
At /engine/Game.lua:379 unregisterDialog
At /mod/dialogs/ShowEquipInven.lua:176
At /engine/KeyBind.lua:229 receiveKey
At /engine/ui/Dialog.lua:567 keyEvent
At /engine/ui/Dialog.lua:339