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

[Gottschkopf]

So, I did it. I killed the sorcerers and won the game. Afterwards, I tried to tell the Summoner, but apparently it's not implemented yet. Then I got faceraped to death by Atamathon...

Here's the Char, if you need him for statistics or something:
http://te4.org/characters/183704/tome/6 ... c7d0eb267c

Do I get a cookie now?

[nekarcos]

So, I did it. I killed the sorcerers and won the game. Afterwards, I tried to tell the Summoner, but apparently it's not implemented yet. Then I got faceraped to death by Atamathon...

Here's the Char, if you need him for statistics or something:
http://te4.org/characters/183704/tome/6 ... c7d0eb267c

Do I get a cookie now?

CONGRATURATION
THIS STORY IS HAPPY END.

BEING THE WISE AND COURAGEOUS HYDRA THAT YOU ARE,
YOU FEEL STRONGTH WELLING IN YOUR BODY.

RETURN TO STARTING POINT.
CHALLENGE AGAIN!


*Ahem* But seriously though-- Your character is going to be immortalized in the Character Vault, but more importantly, it shall now end up inside a test tube inside my laboratory, where I will study what exactly makes it what it is. Of course, it's not an entirely "pure" sample... I mean, look at all those strange add-ons... Ah well. I shall dissect it and make useful what I can. I'll soon figure out what makes it tick...

... Yesss... This is acceptable...


PS: I see your "Vim" meter there... How do you like the Blighted hydra tree...?


Addition:
Alright, I've inspected all the add-ons, and I can SAFELY say NONE of them could have influenced standard Odyssey of The Summoner gameplay. I'm ready to officially consider this the FIRST officially-reported Odyssey of The Summoner victory!

... EXCEPT for ONE little thing...

QuickTome: Orb of Communication
Apparently, this allows you to learn "Mindstar Mastery"-- Which is something I intentionally made unavailable to Avatars-- ESPECIALLY because of the Hydra class. Did you make use of this at all? Be honest now... I can't confirm for certain because the vault doesn't show talent categories the class doesn't have built in (hence why "Blighted" talent trees never show up)

[Gottschkopf]

You should be able to ignore the addons, none have any impact on gameplay (except stunt's tweaks, but not on this class).
Regarding the blighted tree, I'm afraid you'll have to ask someone else. I'm no big fan of watering down chars to hybrids and I had no Cat-points over.
If I had known the tradeoff, I'd just spent a life instead of transforming.

But i'm kind of an extremists regarding this, there surely are others who find this interesting.

(The first time I died through corruption, because I assumed I'd get somthing if I just wait it out... That didn't went so well )

[nekarcos]

@Gottschkopf
... Aaaand done.

I'll find a better way to "represent" the reported winners-- But for now, I've written your character/name into the very code of Odyssey of The Summoner. You are now permanently a part of "OoTS", and anyone who gets this add-on will partake in your glory!

I hope this list expands in the future, but as of current, you are the ONLY reported "Version 0.3" winner.

[jenx]

Finally beaten the Arena with the new hydra. It is stronger.

[nekarcos]

Finally beaten the Arena with the new hydra. It is stronger.

... But is it... "Broken"...?

[jenx]

The active versions of wild gifts appear in the right column for status effects, which is where all the negative effects appear. They should appear in the left column, to be consistent with the rest of the game.

[nekarcos]

The active versions of wild gifts appear in the right column for status effects, which is where all the negative effects appear. They should appear in the left column, to be consistent with the rest of the game.

If they were beneficial effects, you would be able to remove them whenever you like WITHOUT incurring a penalty for activation. nsrr pointed this out, using "Rabbit's Foot" as a very strong case: You could activate it-- Then just cancel the penalty-- Which is silly!

Also-- ToME does not have a way to mark something as both beneficial and NON-cancelable... So... It can't be helped!

But yeah, if it were up to me, I would have a category for "Neutral" effects-- And that's probably where most "other" type effects that occur in the game would go (Zone effects, Inscription Saturation, "other such nonsense", etc...)

[jenx]

I'm getting lua errors when clasping some items. the game keeps on though going

[jenx]

MAJOR BUG: my first discipline SWITCHED from where I put my first generic, Nature Hardened, to Eagle Eyes!!!! This totally screws my character plan

[jenx]

The active versions of wild gifts appear in the right column for status effects, which is where all the negative effects appear. They should appear in the left column, to be consistent with the rest of the game.

hmmm - I've just realised that the active versions turn off the passive bonuses.

imo, it makes the active bonuses completely useless, and this explains why I have had some crazy deaths.

I honestly cannot see the point of disabling the passive bonus.

I'll have to play the firedrake now in a completely different way, and tbh, I just can't see this class as enjoyable any more now

can you please reconsider this design feature. we're now back to the beginning of having no way to deal with status effects.

[lunitan]

... It's REALLY starting to freak me out how you keep knowing these things before I even reveal them...

You not so subtly hinted at it in your previous post, as for the other stuff it's just educated guesses based on what I think is the best way to go forward.
Also magic.


I like the new category point thing (glad you took my suggestion). At first I thought it'd be overpowered but it's not really. That said I think there needs to be one less cat point given at the start. My reasoning for this is you should not be able to get every single skill unlocked in each playthrough. As is you can get almost everything with the 4 cat points at the start and 5! you get for playing you can unlock everything but one talent tree (probably cold blood if you want the best long term gains.) Too much choice is just as bad as too little.

The 4 cat points at the start can be kept at that number if you implement a cat point sink like normal tome has, which I think is a good idea generally. A cat point could be invested to give a talent the disciplined bonus? Not sure how or even if that can be coded, maybe you can instead use a cat point to double discipline a 10/10 natural combat ability so it doesn't consume the passive effect when you use the active? The first option acts as a psuedo extra infusion slot while the latter acts as more "gear".

Also a couple bugs, one thing has to do with cold bloods first skill, occasionally I get a lua error about exp actors or something like that, unfortunately I don't have a screenshot and don't have the time to try and recreate the bug right now, but if you haven't figured it out by Monday I'll be back to play testing. Also sometimes as a ritch I start with an unerring scalpel which is weird, it's seemingly random. I also have a problem with patrols, they kill my new characters about half of the time, and you can't even use the opt-in mod to evade them because it doesn't target normally friendly patrols. I rarely get killed before reaching the summoners grove though, so perhaps after the initial chat the summoner can "escort" you to derth and you are just teleported there. Could be an option or just a mandatory part of the plot.

[nekarcos]

@jenx
RE: Clasping items
I'll need to know what items you're clasping, or else there is pretty much nothing I can do.

RE: First Discipline changed
... Did you, at any point, unlearn Nature Hardened...? Because as soon as you reach Talent Level 0, it elects your next earliest talent as your "First Discipline"-- Which was probably Eagle Eyes.

RE: Passive-for-Active trade-off
On the contrary jenx. it means you'll play even better than before-- Now that you realize what's been happening to you. That is to say, this knowledge is certainly not hurting you-- It's helping you!

But yeah, the "purpose" is that it's a strategic choice you have to make. You'll notice that every Natural Combat talent has a Passive effect and an Activated effect that covers the Passive's weaknesses.
For example, "Nature Hardened" gives a ton of Armor and Armor Hardiness. However, Armor won't protect you from fireballs and lightning bolts. The activated version gives you ALL Resist-- This WILL protect you from fireballs and lightning bolts-- But not NEARLY as well as it was from standard attacks.
You can "optimize" on this however, because the passive effect scales on Talent Level, while the activated effect scales on Wild Power (general Natural Combat talent levelage). This means the "Min/Max" way to invest into Natural Combat is staying at Talent Level 1 or going to Talent Level 10.

... Bah! I've been so loudmouthed about Avatar gameplay strategies recently...


RE: Reverse Changes
I have done nothing but give to Avatars. Why do you speak as though I've taken something away...?


@lunitan
RE: Subtle Hints
... Oh... I guess so...

RE: Several Category Points
I haven't given you "more" category points. This is the same amount you ALWAYS had!
What I did was lock away 4 talent trees, then I gave you 4 category points. That's all, really.

RE: Too many category points!
Sure, you might be able to unlock everything-- But you won't be able to invest into it all efficiently! There aren't enough Talent Points in the game for that!

RE: Disciplines?
This idea came about rather suddenly-- And believe me... I've already worked out most of the "problematic" things revolving around its implementation.

Particularly, there's a rather-arbitrary boost in Avatar power at Lv27 because this is EXACTLY when it's possible to reach TL10 with ANY Natural Combat talent. So... this is an obvious design flaw.

If you were to look at an Avatar's power level on a graph, it would spike ALLLLLLLLL the way UP the moment they reach that level-- And, being a game developer of sorts, seeing that graph causes me a similar reaction to how a firefighter staring at a fire might react: "Why the hell aren't I fixing that RIGHT NOW...?!"

... So, why HAVE I left it in this state...?

Well, the last few weeks of taking requests and balancing OoTS made me realize that allowing something to run wild is a MUCH better (and less protested upon) method of testing than "Oh, by the way, that sucks because I already nerfed it".
In other words: I've decided to let everyone see my development process and decision-making INSTEAD of being opaque and just ensuring them that everything was well thought-out and makes complete sense.


RE: Merciless Killing error
Oops. Found the error and dealt with it-- My bad...

RE: Unerring Scapel?!?!
Also, on Fire Drake and Hydra, you sometimes get a Crystal Focus. I haven't decided if I should fix this bug yet because it can sometimes be a REALLY pleasant surprised... But, at the same time, this encourages Restart-Spamming-- WHICH IS BAD!!

... So... I think I'll fix that RIGHT now...


RE: Patrols
It's DEFINITELY mandatory that "The Allied Kingdoms" hates you. The point here is that the player has to realize they're a scary monster roaming the wilds-- And the introduction sequence makes it clear that you can't speak or communicate through normal means. There are IMPORTANT reasons for this these explanation that I can't explain just yet (though I think you can figure out why yourself...)

... But yeah... If enough people complain about this, I will definitely need to do something about it...

[lunitan]

RE: Several Category Points
I haven't given you "more" category points. This is the same amount you ALWAYS had!
What I did was lock away 4 talent trees, then I gave you 4 category points. That's all, really.

RE: Too many category points!
Sure, you might be able to unlock everything-- But you won't be able to invest into it all efficiently! There aren't enough Talent Points in the game for that!

Really? I guess I never counted before. Probably because I forgot about wyrm bile and we get another cat point. That said talent points are a good restriction. In that case I actually really like the unlock thing. We'll see if any other people complain that ritch is getting special treatment here (though ritch is meant to be the more flexible/cunning one so it makes decent sense, plus hydras and fire drakes are pretty deeply stuck in their roles)

RE: Disciplines?
This idea came about rather suddenly-- And believe me... I've already worked out most of the "problematic" things revolving around its implementation.

Particularly, there's a rather-arbitrary boost in Avatar power at Lv27 because this is EXACTLY when it's possible to reach TL10 with ANY Natural Combat talent. So... this is an obvious design flaw.

If you were to look at an Avatar's power level on a graph, it would spike ALLLLLLLLL the way UP the moment they reach that level-- And, being a game developer of sorts, seeing that graph causes me a similar reaction to how a firefighter staring at a fire might react: "Why the hell aren't I fixing that RIGHT NOW...?!"

... So, why HAVE I left it in this state...?

Well, the last few weeks of taking requests and balancing OoTS made me realize that allowing something to run wild is a MUCH better (and less protested upon) method of testing than "Oh, by the way, that sucks because I already nerfed it".
In other words: I've decided to let everyone see my development process and decision-making INSTEAD of being opaque and just ensuring them that everything was well thought-out and makes complete sense.

The added transparency is a very good thing, it helped you win back at least one guy (fire emblem I think?) and probably sets the stage better for newcomers. As for the disciplined thing maybe there's a max cap on the number of disciplined skills you can get, say 3, like in normal tome, and with a cat point investment (I still think a cat point sink is needed) you can raise that max by one. Not sure how this would work coding wise, you may have to make it so only the first discipline and the next 2 skills can be skilled up to ten and the rest can only go to 9?

RE: Patrols
It's DEFINITELY mandatory that "The Allied Kingdoms" hates you. The point here is that the player has to realize they're a scary monster roaming the wilds-- And the introduction sequence makes it clear that you can't speak or communicate through normal means. There are IMPORTANT reasons for this these explanation that I can't explain just yet (though I think you can figure out why yourself...)

... But yeah... If enough people complain about this, I will definitely need to do something about it...

Is it possible to just start all allied kingdom patrols around the corner or something so you can see them but they are too far away to intercept you before you get to derth, unless you diddle around too much on the world map?

[jenx]

Finally beaten the Arena with the new hydra. It is stronger.

... But is it... "Broken"...?

DUH DUH DUH - I meant, the new Fire Drake.