Midnight (v1.13)

[HousePet]

Looks like this will need an update, so please speak up if you know of any bugs, have balance suggestions or minor talent changes.
No major changes please, or I'll get snowballed into attempting to totally rewrite Anorithil, and I don't have time for that at the moment.

Current change list:
Starlight no longer gives unlimited see invis.
No longer makes Forbidden Tomes unusable.
Mana Flare and Shadow Swell won't get their celestial regens wiped by Twilight flipping anymore.
Starlight now gives a bigger Infravision bonus and the See Stealth/Invis is comparable to Hieghtened Senses.
Racial talents can't get to 0 cooldown anymore.

[Quetz]

Reports:
1. Starslinger uses the old Field Control tree
2. Starslinger has three talents with ? image in Archery Excellence tree
3. Moon Paladin uses the old Dual Weapons tree

[HousePet]

Ah yes, those categories need changing.

[HousePet]

Updated:
Starlight no longer gives unlimited see invis.
No longer makes Forbidden Tomes unusable.
Mana Flare and Shadow Swell won't get their celestial regens wiped by Twilight flipping anymore.
Starlight now gives a bigger Infravision bonus and the See Stealth/Invis is comparable to Hieghtened Senses.
Racial talents can't get to 0 cooldown anymore.
Star Slinger has lost Archery Excellence, Archery Utility and Field Control.
Star Slinger has gained Called Shots and Mobility. Star Fury now starts unlocked.
Moon Paladins now get Duelist instead of Dual Weapon Training and can unlock Dual Techiniques.

[scsijon]

HousePet, two things peeving me on this one

No indication when starting to choose that there is only one set of weapons available for either players, even though OffSet is still visable in Inventory.
Nothing added in it's place such as extra Rings, a second Amulet, or even an extra Miscellaneous 'slot' may be better as that hasn't been done yet.

I also expected to have to go to Angolwen and see Linanill after being transported west for 'Instructions and guidance' for the Serpentine Invaders Quest for some reason. But apparently i'm on my own now.

I'm playing Mardrop / Shadowblade at present, but not sure I'll continue as my feeling is that this addon mix seems incomplete, sorry.

And yeah, I don't play online as I'm on satellite and delays and costs make it impossible.

[HousePet]

No indication when starting to choose that there is only one set of weapons available for either players, even though OffSet is still visable in Inventory.
Nothing added in it's place such as extra Rings, a second Amulet, or even an extra Miscellaneous 'slot' may be better as that hasn't been done yet.

I have no idea what this bit means at all.
Is it something about not being given extra equipment choices? Because that is all done by class, not race and race is the only part of this addon you are playing.

For the second part: I'm not sure about why you have to go see Linanill, I didn't code anything like that. But being on your own after the Serpentine Invaders quest, that is how the vanilla game does it.
This is just a couple of new races and classes, not a complete campaign expansion. What are you expecting to be there?

[scsijon]

No indication when starting to choose that there is only one set of weapons available for either players, even though OffSet is still visable in Inventory.
Nothing added in it's place such as extra Rings, a second Amulet, or even an extra Miscellaneous 'slot' may be better as that hasn't been done yet.

I have no idea what this bit means at all.
Is it something about not being given extra equipment choices? Because that is all done by class, not race and race is the only part of this addon you are playing.

For the second part: I'm not sure about why you have to go see Linanill, I didn't code anything like that. But being on your own after the Serpentine Invaders quest, that is how the vanilla game does it.
This is just a couple of new races and classes, not a complete campaign expansion. What are you expecting to be there?

Sorry, I missunderstood your Addon.

I'm in my 40's of possible unusual mixed race / class combinations, some have been suprisingly good, while others haven't got past the opening quest and the number has been reused.

Playing as a Mardrop / Shadowblade, I have only one useable set of weapon slots, I can't equip or change to the "offset" set, somehow it's been disabled without anything in the game start to tell me it's not there. I shall have a look and try with another class and see what happens, maybe it's the class or the two in combination. I thought it was something your addon had set it and I like the idea as a complication, but was looking for some form of compensation to not having that extra set of weapons. It would certainly do well for a party player where players can specialise, but not for us single players.

For some reason to me the quest doesn't seem to be complete, it's like it's 3/4 done against the other 'extra' quests, without no step to go on or end, maybe it's just me.

[HousePet]

I have no idea how to disable the quick swap slots, so hopefully I haven't done that.
You could give it a quick test with other addons disabled to check it.

I think there are a couple of quests that don't get marked as fully complete, even though there isn't anything else to do.
In most cases, the quest journal is cosmetic only and doesn't affect your progress in the game at all, so I wouldn't worry about it.

[scsijon]

It looks like the problem is with the xorn addon rather than yours, my apologies again, it was just that yours was the last one added.

I shall notify them, as one addon should not be allowed to affect other players.

EDIT: and isaacssv552 doesn't have a forum page for xornModded or anything since 2017 and it's 2015 for this https://te4.org/games/addons/tome/xornModded
So i'll just leave it disabled and go on from that.

[Fede_Argentina]

Hi =)

First, sorry for my english, is pretty bad...

*********SPOILER ALERT*******

Ok, i´ll try to explain... I start a Mardrop Necromancer and go to the "vermin" dungeon, when i reach the boss, i was teleported to rhaloren camp, but never give me new quest, i killed de naga boss and do several dungeon (rhaloren Trollmire etc), but the only "main" quest i still have is the inicial of sunwall...

***** END OF SPOILERS*******

I Hope you can understand and answer me, because i really like this caracther and i dont wanna get stuck if i keep playing.

Greetings from Argentina!

[smithfield]

Hey, I'm jumping on the train in motion w/o completely catching up.

I've been playing Midnight on and off for a while now. I enjoyed it very much.

I didn't push deeply into the class until recently. I made a half hearted effort a few weeks ago, but after I made my own icons, I played again with much more focus - (i had to see my art work light up ).

I didn't really 'get it' with the class until I used Constellation Strike the first time. I just happened to be in Trollmire 3 when I got it and my first jump landed me directly in the middle of Prox and gang around the dinner pot. Great chance to see the Moon Paladin group fighting powers in action. That fight really hooked me. I was tepid up to that point.

I'm just getting to lvl 12 as of this writing.


As I said, I've got a batch of talent icons that I've designed.

Celestial / Night
Celestial / Moon Magic
Celestial / Guidance
Celestial / Lunar Combat

have treatments.

Some are experimental in appearance. I'd be interested to know what others think even at this stage.

[smithfield]

I really enjoy Midnight.

It takes advantage of the platform which ToME provides, to again provide a
multiplicity of experiences. You won't see it all in one go ever.

Midnight or rather its author HousePet realizes that there are other ways to
approach the Starting Area question.

The more I play ToME, I come consider character classes as cars. They're
powerful. They let you do things and see things that you otherwise would not be
able. There's real danger involved and the very instant when you are careless. Bam.
You find out about it in a rude way.

The zones in ToME are like scenic drives of one sort or another. They're not really
puzzles. They are at first, and for a while as you learn the game. But in the long
run - ( which is the way that ToME is structured - repeat visits for everything. )
these zones are places that we visit. We know them by the experience that we have
when we are there.

No one is ever afraid of the rat pits in Kor'Pol. For some classes, its just a
chore. For some classes its like taking a four-wheeler in through the front window
of the local McDonalds - lots of fun. Of course when you do this in real life its a
lot more dangerous, but that's just what makes ToME so cool - you can have the
thrill without being taken into detention. Vicarious is the way I like my violent
outbursts these days.

Midnight introduces 2 new vehicles - 2 classes. The Moon Paladin and the
Starslinger. First up. Great names. Almost all the way through HousePet's use of
naming is on the edge of poetry. It was this aspect that really caught me first.

These two vehicles are very different rides. The personality of the Moon Paladin was
so strong to me that I felt moved to make my own set of talent icons. I am including
an update the earlier release here. The Moon Paladin becomes quite a bruiser but has
a very soft start - IF you're new.

This is a problem with a wide variety of classes and Dr. HousePet has, I believe,
correctly diagnosed the problem and solved it by adding two zones w/ two bosses that
add just enough to the early game to smooth things out for classes that need a
little more to get confidently to an through the Maze.

The addition of two new races, the Mardrop Human and the Star Elf, makes these new
starting regions available to any of the other classes, and the Mardrop's racial
talents work very well with things like the Arcane Blade which is definitely a class
that benefits from taking the extra fights at the start.

The Starslinger is one that I am just starting to explore. Again, its obvious that
she has a very soft start, but the combination of Stealth, Slings and sniping from
cover promises lots of fun. At the moment as a first time novice, this class feels
extremely vulnerable - but isn't that always how things start out. I'm interested to
see how far I get and how I feel on my second playing.

These 'training wheel' levels are very cleverly designed as they are optional in all
possible ways. A Moon Paladin is always going to start in GoM. If the race makes you
strong enough, just jump into the Fens and work things out West. Otherwise, the
Mountain Orchards are just a bit to the north. This sort of design creates an
environment rather than an activity which is a wonderful happenstance and if
HousePet did this consciously then I congratulate him.

Thats it for now. Here is the latest evolution of my icon set..

[HousePet]

Awww thanks.
Both those classes need a little clean up, but they aren't the worst I've ever made.
As for the "Training Wheels" zones, they are deliberate.
ToME4 gives you your first boss as a level 8 enemy, and this can wipe the floor with you if you aren't ready for it.
The Gates of Morning start doesn't give you the option of going somewhere else if you don't have the equipment or right talents for the boss yet. (The Astrologer is probably still harder than I wanted though.)
That is half the reason I created the extra zones there.
The other reason is to add some more variety to the zones you do before you move on to the next tier dungeons.

[smithfield]

It appears that
if I am Stealth'd
and use Cloak In Night
that when Cloak In Night expires
it breaks Stealth

Is this the intent?

Also, is it the intent that Restful Night break Stealth.

It'd be nice if Cloak in Night did not break stealth and would then be a counter point.
One Neg.E. source that breaks Stealth, one that does not.
Makes a natural companion to Shadow Swell and Shadow Shot.
(and I bet the Astrologer would still see me.)

I'm really enjoying the Starslinger class. The first time I tried it, I was going to write some angry thing about it being so under powered, blah blah blah.
But then after a few tries I started to get the hang of it and now I'm starting to see what its all about.

The Astrologer has killed me the first time he sees me every time I get there as a Star Elf Starslinger.
Hes too fast and even w/ Shadow Swell and Stealthx2, he ran me straight down. And, I couldn't hit him.

I've been through this enough times to see the clever way you designed certain things to work. I suspect mb I'm missing something.
I can always kill Mr.A. as soon as I come back. I start the nightchill and let the open air work its magic. Repeat until problem goes away.

Also.. this is only a tangentially related note, but you may know what to do with this.

I've been running a great deal more addons recently then I did in the Summer.
I've returned to an older character and it confirmed something that I suspected.

If you have addons that add items to the loot spew, slings and sling ammo become extremely rare.

I've just started a new Starslinger w/ only the Midnight addon and I've already seen more sling drops than I did all the way to Diakara.
Serious drop off.

I had so many going that I'm not certain of what does what, but it seems like this is a meta issue of how the game responds to the addition of item categories.

[HousePet]

Just doing a quick check, as I'm still drowsy from medication last night...

Cloak in Night makes you invisible and increases your Stealth power, but as its not instant, it will potentially break Stealth.
So what is likely happening is that by activating it, you are breaking Stealth and becoming invisible, so when that wears off you are still not invis or stealthed.

Its intended as an Escape/Emergency talent. So if you are already in Stealth, it isn't really intended for you to use.
If you are using it and then activating Stealth, and it is breaking stealth when it expires, something might be going wrong. Or you would already have been detected and the stealth increase effect being removed is making you visible again.

Restful Night is a rather powerful effect, so it was never intended to not break Stealth. However, when this class was written there was a talent called Unseen Actions that gave you a chance to not break stealth when using these talents. Some rebalancing may be needed. Then again, you can never rely on Stealth for protection.

The Starslinger class is likely a little underpowered relative to more recent classes, as there has been a bit of power creep and it was written years ago.. Its picked up a little bit of power from some of the revised vanilla categories, but it may not be meshing as well as it used to.

The Astrologer has always been a problem. I keep nerfing him, but sometimes he can still kill you easily. As a Starslinger you will need to use the terrain to kite.

As for useful drops. You will likely need to check shops for good slings and ammo.
The way the game appears to handle item drops is that more types dilutes the pool, whereas more artifacts increases the likelihood of an artifact drop.
However, I haven't added in any extra artifacts that would work well for Starslinger in this mod, and sling users already had a small range of options to start with. Its something I need to address if I get time to review this class/mod.