Dumb questions thread

[Frumple]

Re: 5, you can also activate debug mode (there's instructions here), which is sorta' like T2's old wizard mode. While it's active, you can cheat-resurrect freely, among a number of other things. 'Bout the only thing it does is stop your characters from uploading to the character vault while debug mode's active.

Re: 6, there's precisely one area that you can endlessly scum randomized zones. Downside to it is that it will eventually kill you -- the guardians of the place have something particular to them that can occasionally make them deadlier than the final bosses

There's also ambushes on the world map, both in the early and late game. Downside to those is that they'll probably eventually kill you

T4 does have some scumming options, but they tend to be incredibly high risk. I don't recommend them if you're trying to not die, heh.

That said, there's six tier one dungeons accessible by everyone, four tier two... you should be able to get pretty comfortable as far as experience goes if you feel like clearing everything out. You might check here, though it says it's incomplete. Seems pretty solid for the west, though, so it might be something good to get you started off.

Re: 2, you might consider using the SVN version. It'd let you download once and then update individual files as DG and company update th'files themselves. Downsides being you wouldn't be able to use the character vault and, well, you'd have to be willing and/or able to figure out how to compile T4 on whatever rig you're using. But, it'd definitely save some bandwidth over the long run, and help cut down individual download periods into more bearable chunks. Plus you'd get access to cutting edge changes

Re: 4, I think the Furyband site has a mirror for 2.3.4, which looks like the last T2 version. Lemme see if it works real quick... yeah, looks like it. Try here. There's probably a few other places with mirrors, laying around somewhere. Checking, The angband ladder does have a 2.3.5, so you might prefer there. Also give a gander to the T2 part of this forum. It's down a bit from the T4 and T-Engine stuff. Looks like there's a thread for finding the latest stuff down there, so you might have some luck with it. E: This post seems to have a link to a working build of 2.3.8. Just downloaded it and fired it up to see if it'd run and it didn't seem to spout out any errors or nothin', and I hit Bree without any problem, so that might be what you're looking for. Unless you want to try compiling, as there seems like there's a 2.3.10 for linux or somethin'.

[Crim, The Red Thunder]

Thanks for the prompt answers. As for the farming/grinding/scumming, the problem came when my hobbit rogue lived through the first two dungeons for the first time, and was forced to die/respawn in the old forest after about 10 steps in... (Was one of those randomly generated elite things in a bad spot, but still...) Didn't have much luck living through the other dungeons in that set... Character is dead and gone now, and has been for a while, but the thought of trying to build up extra experience before heading back to the (waiting) elite got me thinking about looking for ways to earn extra stuff. Had my... bad... runins on world map with same character... Not the funnest days ever, though I lived through all but the first few.

As for the old Tome versions, THANKS! I'll definitely pick those up, for reminiscence if nothing else. I loved the old game too much to let it die... (Even with the insane frustrations it often gave me, but we all had those.)

Further questions arise however...

One: What is this character vault of which you speak? I don't think I've been prompted to upload anything...

Two: Why does my copy of ToME keep trying to connect to a server? (And/or reconnect after losing a connection) I opted out of the online-savefile thing... I think...

Three: I see this thing about ToME trying to get on Steam... This fills me with fear... Does this mean that ToME is going to become a pay-to-play only game?

Four: What is the difference in these items with different power-sources? (Or is this too spoily to answer here?) Some say they come from nature, others from arcane... Does it matter?

[Frumple]

Re: 1, character vault! Basically, if you've got an online profile and you're running vanilla (or the right addons, if everything's working correctly), you get a live character dump you can easily link people to, in a somewhat more readable format than the in-game character dump option. If your version's synch'd and you're logged into your profile (well, and have one, of course ), you automatically upload your characters to the vault. Not logging in to the profile prevents this behavior, so far as I know.

Re: 2, so long as you're not logged in, I don't think it should be trying. Lemme check quicklike... yeah, looks like it. If it's trying to connect, you're probably logged in. Note that once you log in once, it'll automatically log you back in when you open T4, until you manually log out. I think, anyway, heh. I have no idea if you can opt-out of the character vault but still get in the in-game chat, but that might make a fair suggestion for the ideas forum if you can't.

Re: 3, never, according to DG. If T4 does get greenlit, all that will happen is that a steam purchase will act as a donation, so you get access to explorer mode and custom tiles. The game will still be as free as it is now. Note that the game is and will remain open source and is pretty human readable, so even the donation stuff isn't much of barrier if you really want it S'just more polite to use debug mode for infinite lives, yeah, instead of activating explorer mode via text editor.

Re: 4, there's a few cases where it matters. Specifically, if you see stuff that's "powered by arcane disrupting forces" (kinda' lavender-ish) then any talents you have that are arcane (IsSpell=True in the tooltip, generally. If it's powered by mana/vim/positive/negative/paradox, it's probably arcane. Shalore talents have a chance to fail as well, I think.) have a chance to fail while you're wearing them; additionally, any arcane sustains may randomly disable. There's also a particular in-game side-quest type thing you can do that can completely disable your ability to wear arcane powered items.

I don't think it's terribly spoily... iirc, the stuff'll probably get a tooltip detailing that information eventually. Arcane disrupting stuff's been generating some complaints from folks that didn't notice what was causing their sustains to turn off, heh.

[greycat]

As for the farming/grinding/scumming, the problem came when my hobbit rogue lived through the first two dungeons for the first time, and was forced to die/respawn in the old forest after about 10 steps in...

Without getting too far off topic, the Rogue is one of the more challenging classes to play in this game. They're quite fragile. Berserker, Bulwark, Archer and Alchemist are a bit easier to start with.

Darkgod doesn't want people to be able to farm/grind safely in this game. That's his design decision, and he's been consistent in implementing it.

Overall, the balance has gone back and forth as new features are added and then tweaked and then removed and then added back in a new form.... Right now (beta 42) the balance meter is pointing to "hard", which is unfortunate for newcomers. The development version is somewhat easier, so the next version looks like it'll swing the balance meter back closer to the middle.

[Crim, The Red Thunder]

Without getting too far off topic, the Rogue is one of the more challenging classes to play in this game. They're quite fragile. Berserker, Bulwark, Archer and Alchemist are a bit easier to start with.

Darkgod doesn't want people to be able to farm/grind safely in this game. That's his design decision, and he's been consistent in implementing it.

Overall, the balance has gone back and forth as new features are added and then tweaked and then removed and then added back in a new form.... Right now (beta 42) the balance meter is pointing to "hard", which is unfortunate for newcomers. The development version is somewhat easier, so the next version looks like it'll swing the balance meter back closer to the middle.

Actually, that's been my best run so far. Dwarf bulwark didn't make it out of the opening dungeon, my wizard died right away in the first quest they're offered. (too soon to take it, I think...) My human warrior didn't live through the first two... That rogue unlocked... pretty much everything so far.

As for balance, I'm still on B41 until I finish my characters and get around to upgrading. Worth waiting it out for B43? Or will it be too far off for that?

[greycat]

Beta 42 changelist. I'd definitely upgrade from beta 41. I have no idea what the timeframe for beta 43 is, so I wouldn't wait for it.

[bricks]

Dwarf bulwark and the Archmage start are also very difficult. Ranged classes handle the dwarf starting dungeon/boss better, and the Archmage (optional) starting dungeon requires you to abuse projectile travel time and a souped-up Phase Door spell.

[Crim, The Red Thunder]

Re: 1, character vault! Basically, if you've got an online profile and you're running vanilla (or the right addons, if everything's working correctly), you get a live character dump you can easily link people to, in a somewhat more readable format than the in-game character dump option. If your version's synch'd and you're logged into your profile (well, and have one, of course ), you automatically upload your characters to the vault. Not logging in to the profile prevents this behavior, so far as I know.

About setting up this online profile... If I do this, and my net connection craps out (Which Comcast does often...), would I still be able to play ToME? And exactly what versions are supported on this? Will it not function until after I upgrade to the most recent B42? And can it kick in on a character in progress, or would I have to wait until I finish my current character(s) and start afresh?

Edit: And are there any costs involved?

[Frumple]

Connection's only needed for the vault and the in-game chat. If your connection craps out, only thing that's messed with are those and you can go right on playing. If you reconnect later, they'll both start back up, no fuss, no muss.

Any version you download from the site is supported by the vault, so far as I know. At the very least as far back as when the online functionality was first added, I guess. It's only when your files don't match the plain, unedited files that your character won't upload to the vault. If you're not messing with addons or doing edits yourself (and aren't in debug mode, of course!), there shouldn't be an issue.

If you're using an addon nabbed from the site, things are done right on the addon's end, and nothing buggers up, it's possible for characters to be uploaded to the vault as well, just with the used addons being specified (so they're separate from the vanilla stuff). Not entirely sure precisely which stars need to be aligned for that to work properly, though

It can kick on for in-progress characters... sometimes. I think. I'm not actually sure what you have to do to make sure of it, heh. It definitely works with new characters.

There's no costs involved, outside any restrictions on bandwidth usage or whathaveyou your internet provider may have. T4 is pretty much completely free in all ways, with the only thing approaching deviation from that is the donation stuff (explorer mode, custom tiles), which doesn't really have a gameplay effect (explorer mode, arguably, but you can just fire up debug mode and get the same thing). Game's open source, yeah.

[Grey]

If you're dying in the Old Forest make sure you're doing all of the starter dungeons - the Shaloren, Thaloren and human ones. That's 6 dungeons before the Old Forest.

[wobbly]

Do escort rewards count towards max. stats?

[aardvark]

Do escort rewards count towards max. stats?

Nope! They're a separate bonus. If you look on the character screen, your stats are listed as Base/Current. Racial bonuses (and penalties), quest rewards (including escorts), and item bonuses all go under "Current." Only points allocated at level up go toward the base, which is what has the maximum.

[Crim, The Red Thunder]

Probably a REALLY dumb question, but... I find myself missing playing classic ToME; has anyone ever created a module that ports the classic tome storyline, and character/race/etc over to the modern T-engine, as it exists now? Something that would let me play my Ent Sorcerer, or my Rohanknight Wainrider (Granted, that was Theme/fury, but still)? Take them on the classic quest to find the one ring and destroy (or wear) it to face the greatest evil and save the world, blah blah blah, you know the story you've heard it a million times, etc. etc... It seems that since the story already exists, as do a lot of the stats, someone might have done it, or DG might have done it early in the development of the engine... but... I don't see anything like that in the add-on section on the main page so... was it done? If not, CAN it be done? Or was there some sort of legal issue inherent in abandoning the Tolkien universe?

(Hey, it happened to MEmod...)

[Mewtarthio]

I know that someone's working on porting ToME 2 over to the new engine here.

[Urist]

i just completed a run with a skeleton alchemist. i never invested anything into cun since i wound up with 2 points in trap handling from escorts. that was great, but by the end i had no idea where to put my attribute points. i more or less stuck them into dex and wil, dex, because they seemed to be some use, and wil because they promised some gain. could someone help me come up with a better rationale?

also, i had 2 shielding runes plus that reflective thing on my golem. ok, and maybe a manasurge cause he was all about the magic skills; what other runes could i have put on it?

also what about telos's broken staff? can it be repaired or do people actually invest in armor training to wear a shield along with the top half? .. i had boots of phasing, 2 controlled phase door and 2 shielding runes, so i only died twice and had altogether too few near death experiences to think of getting a shield until the very end.

shields.. i just read that blocking means they block physical and whatever elements they are listed as resisting.. by shaving the 'block power' off of incoming damage ... i hope i read that right ... is that what it is? and they do that only when blocked is active, yes? .. how do they reduce damage otherwise? that's to say i'm not really sure how defense/armor/hardiness work at all. can someone please point to or give an explanation?