Tip of the Day on main scren

[Grey]

Maybe on the main T-Engine screen there could be a "Tip of the Day" box with user-submitted tips. These would be short and offering very specific advice items. Examples:

Alchemist's golems start with 3 rune slots that you can fill up, and gain more rune slots with further talent levels.

Talents can be set to auto-use in the talent menu so they are always activated when available. This is especially valuable on instant activate effects should as a Rogue's Stealth.

Suggest more!

[bricks]

Wild infusions can only remove a single effect.
When an undead egotistic slavedriver necromancer starts locking doors, you should take note.
You can use instant-cast abilities through confusion.
Invisibility is great for getting out of a tight spot.
Careful; teleporting spells may fail in critical locations.
There are absolutely no moral implications to killing orcs.
A staff in hand is worth two in the Ambush.
Adventurer parties aren't hiring.
Saves are not compatible between releases, but your unlock progress will remain.

[marvalis]

how about this one:

Freeze effects are dangerous! Try to get 100% stun resist as soon as you can.

(it is not immediately obvious for new players that stun resistance works against freeze)

I am sorry

[Elkan]

You can easily switch between two prepared sets of weapons with the "x" key. This includes Kinetically wielded weapons, but it usually takes a turn!
No room for that rune of teleportation? A staff of conveyance as an alternate weapon can get you out of trouble fast, but you might end up anywhere!

[shooth]

You can set fellow forum-users to be your friends... Or your foes!

Idea: Friends/Foes show up as different colors in chat.

[marvalis]

Use the 'l'ook command to look around
Hold shift+direction key to shift to any square while targeting.

If you ever make this list of tips, put it on the wiki also.

[jotwebe]

• Use the "PgUp" and "PgDn" to view your different hotkeys.
• When targeting spells or missile weapons, press "Shift" with the cursor keys for exact targeting.
• Beware: Undead monsters cannot be blinded!
• Don't forget your usable items! Assign 'em a hotkey to remind yourself!

[Talonj]

How about instead of tips, we actually make a help file included/accessible within the game?

[Grey]

Nothing wrong with both. Would be nice to have the tips on the loading screen actually, so players will naturally see them as they play.

[Talonj]

Loading screen tips are actually a trap, please don't do them, especially if they're actually useful tips.

I have a high-end computer (And I'm using it to play ToME, go figure), and on many games with loading screen tips I can't actually read the tip before the game's loaded whatever it was loading.

ToME actually takes a long time to load, though, but if this is ever optimized...

[martinuzz]

- Bathe in Light not only heals, but it also damages undead
- (An Anorithil's?) darkness damage has a small chance to blind
(I have noticed that with Twilight Surge and with Shadow Blast)
- Necromancers love vomit
- Spellcasters all like Spellbinding
- Earthrunes can save your life
- Ruination can really help you out
- Everybody likes a Juggernaut
- Do you have a panic button?
- DON'T PANIC
- Wands of Healing are a nice, but rare find
- Shop inventories are generated when you first enter their town, their tier rising with your level
(Not 100% sure here, it could also be when you first enter an individual shop. I did notice that Elvala, Derth and the other elf town are capped at tier 2, but Angolwen and Last Hope can go higher)
- Infravision also gives some light radius
- A ghoul can leap over 1-tile walls
- Orc war parties are unimpressed by level 1 Celestials
- You might not want to start all alchemist quests at once
- You can order your escort to wait a few turns, more than once
- Perhaps, Telos broke his staff intentionally
- Some darkness can only be dispelled by a certain artefact's light

[Grey]

I think tips should be more specific than "x is nice".
Also, what's wrong with getting several alchemist quests at once? It doesn't affect the whole competitive thing.

[Silvermoon]

Tips should not be on the title screen, as tips are module specific. Tips also should be avoided on loading screens because on high-end machines, loading is pretty fast, and some people read slow. I suggest 'Tip of the Day' on character birth and upon loading.

Tips should also be broken down into categories --

General - General gameplay tips that are nearly universally helpful.
Example: "A Phase Door rune can get you out of a tight spot; although it occasionally makes things worse."

Race - Tips in regard to racial properties and abilities. These only appear if you are playing the relevant race.
Example (Higher): "Infusion: Regeneration cannot be used while under the effects of Gift of the Pureborn. Be careful!"

Class - Tips in regard to class-specific features. These only appear when playing the relevant class. Tips that apply to more than one class in a category can probably be universally applied to the category.
Example (Alchemist): "An alchemist's golem starts with 3 rune slots that you can fill up, and can gain more with the Runic Golem talent."

Unlock - Subtle hints about unlocking things that avoid outright spoilers. They might stop appearing if you have the relevant unlock, but depending on how vague they are, they could be rolled into General.
Example (Reaver): "It is said that true heroes will slay thousands on their journey."

[Grey]

The race/class specifics should be with any char, as it's good to pick up general hints for advice on future and past chars.

There are already unlock hints on the char selection screen, so I'm not sure that's needed.

Anyway, char creation screen does sound like the best place for the hints. There's nothing wrong with them also being on the loading screen though - if they're missed they can still be seen on the char creation screen, and there may be a way to see the full list through an in-game menu.

[martinuzz]

I think tips should be more specific than "x is nice".
Also, what's wrong with getting several alchemist quests at once? It doesn't affect the whole competitive thing.

Perhaps it's just the RNG, but I have noticed, that when turning in the ingredients for a potion will cause another alchemist, who you already have on your active quest list, to complete one random potion without your help.

So if, for example, you want to make sure that you get both the class as well as the generic point potions, you could start with talking to the alchemist that makes one of those potions, and with 1 or 2 alchemists who do not make the other potion.

Once you have gotten one potion, you can talk to the other alchemist and accept his mission.

Again, it could be the RNG making me think it works like that, but so far I've only seen potions for alchemists, who are on my active list, be completed without my help.

A second, unrelated reason not to take all alchemist quests at once, is to wait with entering Last Hope until you are level 20+, to get better tier items from it's shops.