The Lost City of Vulcus

[Hachem_Muche]

Some events in history are of such importance and have such wide ranging ramifications that they become fixed points -- junctions in time that must and will happen in order to maintain the integrity of the chronoverse.

Lost ages ago, Vulcus was considered by many to be the greatest center of Dwarven learning below the surface. Even up until the fall of Reknor in recent times, however, Dwarven innovation and breakthroughs continued, seemingly by miracle. Fate, however, dictates that one of the greatest untold secrets of the Empire cannot remain hidden forever. Perhaps you will be chosen to take part in this crucial point in history -- to reap the rewards or to suffer the consequences.

This addon incorporates a new major event (like the drake cave or fearscape invasion portal) that has a chance to occur (possibly more than once) on each level in various zones (Infinite Dungeon, Spellblaze Scar, Ardhungol, High Peak, Reknor, Shadow Crypt). Within the game, this event is most like a combination of the Lost Merchant and Limmir quests, and is intended to replace those for characters in the I.D.

Recommended level 10+ (depending on class). The intended difficulty is slightly higher than the Limmir quest, and there are gradations of success. Participating in the event when it spawns is completely optional and you can do it later if desired.

This is possibly the most complex encounter in ToME, with a large number of NPCs, enhanced AI, and various terrain effects. It is compute heavy and will tax slower computers (even with reduced graphics settings).

It can be downloaded at http://te4.org/sites/default/files/game ... us1.0.teaa

[mordecai]

Downloading for my next game.

Any class/race logic to be aware of?

Any obvious things to be concerned about with addon conflicts?

The big one for me is zOmnibus, rest tweaks and chronometer. Everything else I can turn off

[Hachem_Muche]

It's all new content, should have no conflicts with other addons.

It should be pretty well balanced for a range of race/class combinations (while playing differently for each).

[mordecai]

Awesome,
If/when I find it, I'll get you feedback

Regards,
Mordecai

[Hellcommander]

Isn't there already the vulcus defense random event? Is this that same vulcus?

[Hachem_Muche]

As far as I know this is the only event like it. There was an error in an earlier version of the I500 addon that allowed the player to enter an unfinished version of this event, however.

[mordecai]

Wow ... I can barely survive that swarm ... let alone keep any single dwarf alive and I am an AOE class. There is a chance, I might be able to keep 1 storekeeper alive, I think I will focus on that rather than try to defend the walls next time.

This will be damn near impossible for any class and fully impossible for any melee builds. I am not sure my 50th level berserker crit build with Naloren, -7 cooldown on rush, anti mage prodigy and massive hp regen could keep a single dwarf alive with that hoard.

I quite enjoyed it, thanks

I'll keep trying, it will probably take a build focused on just beating this addon to stand a chance however

Lost my roguelike play life and had to burn Blood of Life. That does not bode well for going to the east

Regards,
Mordecai

[Hachem_Muche]

This encounter is intended to be a challenge, and requires a reasonably effective character, paying attention to everything that's going on (there are clues all over the place), and creative tactics to succeed, however, it's actually pretty easy to survive if things start to deteriorate.

Obviously, I know how the encounter works, but I've succeeded (never perfectly keeping all the Dwarves alive, but keeping at least most of the crafters alive) with at least one Archmage, Alchemist, Shadowblade, Bullwark, Doomed, and a Stone Warden, at various character levels. The tactics for melee and ranged are dramatically different by design.

Check the tooltips for everything for clues, and use the terrain (and your allies!) to advantage.

Good luck!

PS: Don't stair scum this encounter, there are measures in place that will really hurt your chance to succeed if you do.

[Hachem_Muche]

I have uploaded a new version of the encounter that fixes a bug that was causing it to fail on higher difficulty levels.

[Waladil]

I just got it... Had a couple things.

First, I was doing some admittedly hacky-hacky stuff so this might be my fault, but when I first tried to enter the portal, I got a lua error. I dug around for a while and traced it back to the level modifier. It was the overload\data\general\events\vulcus-portal.lua file and the offending line was the "nil" in the upper level range. The error came because the game tried to multiply nil by 2.2 (Insane difficulty modifier) and well that just don't work. I set it to 200 and it worked no problem,

Second, I found it to be far too easy of all things. I think maybe something about my difficulty settings? All the NPCs were around level 55 (I was 50), not the level 80-100 I'd normally expect to see at that point of Insane. The dwarven defenders were able to kill most of the invaders themselves and I ripped through a fair portion to help out. Won with the walls untouched (let alone breached), 13 defenders remaining and 6 artisans.

Third, post-victory I started having MASSIVE lag. While wandering around the outer walls, I found a defender milling about near the SW corner of the town as if he was trying to walk through the walls and so I dug him a hole. (Nice touch on the multiple digs needed, btw.) Once he got through and onto a regular patrol route, my game went back to an acceptable speed. It was still slower than usual but you did say that lag was to be expected.

All in all it was pretty fun! I wish I had the cash to actually buy some of these things though

[mordecai]

This encounter is intended to be a challenge, and requires a reasonably effective character, paying attention to everything that's going on (there are clues all over the place), and creative tactics to succeed, however, it's actually pretty easy to survive if things start to deteriorate.

Check the tooltips for everything for clues, and use the terrain (and your allies!) to advantage.

PS: Don't stair scum this encounter, there are measures in place that will really hurt your chance to succeed if you do.

Survival? Agreed, I died due to stupidity well after the quest was failed and I was cleaning up ... not because of the hoard. Although I am not sure I would have lived trying to hold the centre.

I thought it was awesome, I am looking forward to trying again

My dwarf defenders died with about as much effective defence as the townspeople in Derth

I do not stair scum ... ever ... it is cheap, if I need to stair scum, I leave and come back later

I'll keep trying, it was fantastically fun even as I saw 200+ non trash mobs roll through to the centre of town as I jumped back and forth trying to hold any type of defensible position

[Hachem_Muche]

Waladil, thanks for the report. I've identified a bug in the way game.difficulty is applied to event like this and am fixing it. I also have an idea about what's causing the pathing problem with the dwarves.

You mentioned that the costs of the items were expensive? Tier 5 versions should be slightly less expensive than those from the Lost Merchant.

Edit: My theory on the pathing issue is not proving out. What kind of defender was having trouble, and where was he trying to go?

[Hachem_Muche]

I have just pushed a new version 1.0b out to te4.org(http://te4.org/sites/default/files/game ... cus_2.teaa) and to steam. This should straighten out actor levels for higher difficulty levels.

[Waladil]

I think the level-error bug had already been fixed by the 1.0a version: That wasn't out when I downloaded it and the change you made was much the same as the quick-fix I figured out. Didn't test it though.

The prices were (as you expected) a bit cheaper than the Lost Merchant's. I just didn't have that much on me because I had bought Merchant randarts prior. Although I did get a couple nice things later when I discovered you could just hike back.

The problem defender was a "Dwarven Warrior" and he was trying to rejoin the interminable cycle inside the city walls. I took a trip back and grabbed a screenshot of the place:
http://i.imgur.com/O8V9DxG.jpg
He'd gotten stuck around where my character is standing and so I dug that spot out for him. In fact, judging by the spacing, it might have been that warrior specifically who had gotten stuck.

[Hachem_Muche]

Version 1.0b actually changes the way npc levels are determined, rather than just work around the bug as in 1.0a, so the npcs should all be leveled up appropriately for the difficulty level. The bug I found causes npc levels to be increased twice for sublevel events like the drake-cave.

As for the dwarf getting stuck, I still can't reproduce it. If it happens again, I'd need the save file (or zone file if out of the zone) to track it down.