Now that I've finally gotten a character far into the farportal, I have some things to say! Character link:
http://te4.org/characters/62972/tome/3b ... dc066e684a
As for the gear and stats, look at Balancing point 1.
Bug:
1) Now that HousePet did something with Arcanum to 'fix' the staff shop, something in Zizzo's pack (point planner, I believe) entirely breaks the shop (but not the one in Maj'Eyal). I have no idea if you can fix this on your end.
Balancing:
1) The +10% of your gold bonus after completing a farportal is nice. Too nice. My character currently has over 40000 (40k) gold, and can afford a new t5 randart with a couple re-rolls after every farportal. I love it, but it's too good.
Suggestion: capping the gain at 1000 bonus gold (or some other arbitrary number).
2) The cursed warrior thing is superb. Early on, it is hands-down more powerful than all but the strongest randbosses. However, if it dies for some reason, your character is surely a goner too. Even late-game, it still out-muscles rand-bosses thanks to the epic combination of rampage and bloodthirst, and having 3k health doesn't hurt, either. Comparatively, the tanky things are a waste of space on the battlefield.
Suggestion: 1 less category point.
3) While there is an exotic weapons shop, there is no way to unlock the mastery (unless Legacy of the Naloren does, in which case I stand corrected).
Suggestion: Let the character buy level 1 exotic weapons mastery for 50 gold (like a warrior escort would do).
and a couple totally optional suggestions:
1) put in the items vault as 'take-out items only', if that is possible.
2) add the random events to IF like i500 does in ID
Overall, it's a lot of fun!
Edit: (to avoid double post)
Got a second character pretty far:
http://te4.org/characters/62972/tome/47 ... 299733d43e
a few more notes...
- I got a 4th category point at level 46. Is this to compensate for not getting to kill the Corrupted Sand Worm?
- past level 50, levelups are significantly reduced in usefulness: Intended, or interaction with i500?
level 51 - 1 stat point, 1 skill point
level 52 - 1 stat point, 1 generic point
level 53 - 1 stat point
level 54 - 1 stat point, 1 skill point
- the level of the fortress doesn't seem to scale. After blowing most of my
80 000 gold on randbosses (who were slaughtered) and restocking the shops, the items dropped and restocked were almost entirely T1 with some T2. Randarts dropped by the randbosses were T4 or T5.
- again, it is far too easy to stockpile a hoard of gold and use it to buy yourself a new randart every farportal. It only takes 7 farportals (without spending any gold in between) to double your money.
- strangely, the merchant doesn't make randart quivers (for bows), or shots (for slings). This makes archer-types unprecedentedly weaker.
- 100 farportals down, and I have yet to kill a red crystal to get the ingredients I need to make a potion.