ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Right so voratun sometimes gets generated, and well I've been told, it's not so bad, it's usually plain, and you can't wield or sell it anyway.

Right... But the skeleton warrior (lvl 4) can wield it, and smack me for 85 damage... My little 100 shield rune didn't do much there. The worst part is, only the log file told me it was voratun, the actual hover text didn't show any weapons at all.

I'm OK if they wield the steel, or even dwarven-steel (though then it MUST drop so I can get it), but the voratun being wielded, and not at least displayed is... not cool. Not cool at all.

I agree. You can tell sorta by looking at the enemy's strength stat, since the game cheats the strength stat requirement (which actually makes it even more unfair). However it's not exactly very nice to have to tooltip over every single skeleton you encounter in case they are wielding an incredibly imbalanced weapon...

Personally I think the game simply needs stronger controls over material types. Or, forgetting that, not letting the enemy cheat the stats on equipment. Would it be that hard to introduce?

Grey wrote: Personally I think the game simply needs stronger controls over material types. Or, forgetting that, not letting the enemy cheat the stats on equipment. Would it be that hard to introduce?

There currently are filters, but they are fairly limited in scope right now checking things like type/subtype/name/unique and the existence or non-existence of any property (but not the actual value). Support for a more generic filter where you can pass a function could be useful. For example:
I'll tinker and see if I can extend this.

The problem of course would be that the filter would have to scale with the monster's level or stats. By the same token, maybe higher level monsters should have a minimum filter?

How about capping material level in starting dungeons for both monster generation and loot?

Personally I think skeletons (and other npcs) should be generated with good weapons on occasion and I think the game should cheat the stats to do it. I just don't think it should happen in starting dungeons.

The new dwarf dungeon was especially bad for this. Between skeleton archers and skeleton warriors I ended up dying 4 or 5 times to get through to the end (I cheat ressed). I know the undead starting zone is just as bad (though I rarely play undead anymore) and most people will avoid Kor'Pul until they get Trollmire + another dungeon under their belt because of skeleton warriors (and skeleton mages but that's a different subject).

Actually there is already support for a function in the "special" value of the filter table:
I will still probably tinker with trying to extend the entire filter system... seems to be an emerging pattern of mine.

While it is pretty frustrating to get smacked by a voratun-wielding skeleton at low level, I would say that a more game-breaking version of the problem is when the alchemist golem starts with a high material weapon/armor. Then its stats get increased, which is an advantage that will last the whole game. And if you use quickbirth, for as many games as you wish. (And it is easily scummable by repeatedly restarting your character until it happens too.)

I was wondering why I once had a level 6 golem with 36 strength and stralite plate armor. Seemed pretty ridiculous.

Marcotte wrote:While it is pretty frustrating to get smacked by a voratun-wielding skeleton at low level, I would say that a more game-breaking version of the problem is when the alchemist golem starts with a high material weapon/armor. Then its stats get increased, which is an advantage that will last the whole game. And if you use quickbirth, for as many games as you wish. (And it is easily scummable by repeatedly restarting your character until it happens too.)

But let's get an alchemist winner first.