Making the Breeding Pits Less Disgusting

[Grey]

2) Add a note in the lore that any and all orcs born through this measure, regardless of gender, are sterile.

Though not explicit in the lore, this is meant to be the case, with orcs born from the process more violent and emotionless than previous generations. It's a patch fix for the war effort, with the idea that a more sustainable solution can be found after the war. In the orc campaign they'll come to realise that a quick patch isn't good enough.

I like your idea about the "breeding units" being more visually machine / corrupted magic blight thing. Probably best coming back to this at a much later time though. Hasty patches haven't proved well so far!

[belmarduk]

I've never seen a mountain so tall made out of so tiny a pair of molehills, and I am sorry that you and Grey got dogpiled like this, darkgod. I think it's a testament to how good of a person you both are that instead of flipping out and burning the community to ashes around you (which I, personally, wouldn't have blamed you for considering some of the accusations that were thrown around in this thread) you listened to the feedback and changed the game around to accommodate it. Thank you for continuing to prove why you are the best developer in this genre and one of the hardest working and most respectable developers in indie gaming.

I like ProfessorCirno's idea a lot. I feel like we still need something suitably hatable in the game to take the sympathy edge out of wiping out the prides, so bringing something like the Breeding Pits back in it's place should definitely happen, but this idea sounds way less potentially offensive to people while simultaneously being even more horrifying and damning to the Orc race. Ultimately you guys write and develop the game, but I think this should be something to consider.

[Grey]

Ultimately you guys write and develop the game, but I think this should be something to consider.

Anyone's welcome to write for the game :) I've done a fair bit of the writing, but not all, and new contributions are always welcome. In fact the Breeding Pits came about because of an open call for zone ideas:

http://forums.te4.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=23182

[overgoat]

Looks like DG pulled it: http://git.develz.org/?p=tome.git;a=com ... 6101dab658

Way to over react people and make a mountain out of a molehill

I second the idea to lock the thread so we can just move on.

[Davion Fuxa]

I think before the Thread Lock, there really is only one last post worth mentioning:

The Orc Breeding Pits have been removed - instead of resuscitating this beast it might be better not to have a less 'scandalous replacement' though about at all.

[catwhowalksbyhimself]

I am actually quite sad it came to this. I don't personally think the concept of a desparate orc race being driven to alter their women to just produce enough babies to survive as a species is that bad of an idea. It reeks of tragic desperation. I think the concept is quite salvageable, with perhaps some tweaks here and there.

[Robsoie]

I was going to post a bug report as i'm currently running a character in the east and couldn't find anywhere the location until i found that thread again from searching

Removing it completely only makes it a lot harder for character with huge malus in experience (skeletons by example) that really need all the xp they can get to increase their survival.
And now it's orc patrols everywhere, no way to lower their amount.

Instead of that complete removal, it could have just been retooled into something else, instead of a "breeding camp", a "training camp" in which the orcs are formed into warriors, ready to gut any innocent people in the west would have been just perfect and in tone with the brutal warlike lifestyle the orcs are following.

the "orcs mother" could have been retooled as "orcs wartrainers" tasked with the formation of the warriors, and the "orc grandmother" could have been some kind of "orc overseer" tasked to keep the training camp running.

Destroying the training would then explain the lower amount of orc patrols.
And retooling the camp purpose would remove that frankly disturbing evil tone the breeding camp showed on the game as some lore were trying to make the orcs into simple regular people that were victim of circumstance, while the breeding camp is pure evil, nothing to do with simply trying to survive.
There's enough "everything is dark" already in the game, there was no real need to add another layer on top of that.

[Mewtarthio]

If you want to discuss a new zone to replace the Pits, you should start a new topic for it. This one has... baggage.

[The Revanchist]

Has everyone said their piece here? If so, I think the discussion is done.

I haven't anything left to say about this...

[Darkmere]

I just ran across this thread, and it's been an interesting read. I'm not a very prolific poster, but I lurk often and wanted to leave something encouraging where it would be seen. This seems like the place.

I'll miss the pits, simply because it's one of two places in roguelikes that made me sit up straight in my chair and take notice of what was going on beyond purely gameplay concerns (the other was Mi-Go labs in Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead). That said, the Steam launch and accessibility does lead to certain concerns and I believe pulling the pits in their current form was the best move for the game right now. I look forward to seeing the replacement zone (hopefully to stem the tide of orc ambushes!) and many, many more hours spent in this game.

I don't regret my purchase for a second. This game is great, and everyone involved should be proud of it, even if sometimes things don't work out as you'd like.

[Sradac]

I just dont understand why this was just now suddenly a problem. The breeding pits had been in the game for, like, a really really long time. Why is it just now suddenly "bad"? ToME even has been on steam for over a good month and no real complaints till the past week - 2 weeks.

Did the westboro baptist church download ToME recently?

[cttw]

Basically.

[tylor]

I think taking it out completely is overreaction. It was enough just to deal down graphics descriptions a bit.

[Grey]

I just dont understand why this was just now suddenly a problem. The breeding pits had been in the game for, like, a really really long time. Why is it just now suddenly "bad"?

I think several people have disliked it for a while but haven't voiced complaints. It took one person to state their opinion for several others to then pipe up.

The breeding pits are gone, that's it. I'm sure an add-on will appear putting them back in if anyone is motivated enough, but in terms of gameplay they didn't add much to the game and they won't be that missed. A number of players are happier and we can go back to enjoying playing without being distracted by a controversial and emotive debate. Whatever one may think the zone brings to the game is absolutely not worth this divisiveness.

This thread is now being locked as I don't want further arguments continuing. For those that object to the change, sorry, but don't let it diminish your fun with the game!