ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

So, just to get the feel of the proverbial room: How outraged would the ToME-playing community in general be by an addon that basically bypassed the orc ambush? Because I think I'm up to... [checks notes] four characters now that have been left languishing at the end of Dreadfell for months, because I just cannot motivate myself to drag them through what's going to amount to a death trap. [And yes, I know it doesn't technically count as a "real" death. It still feels like a failure.]

Anyone who didn't like the idea of skipping the Ambush would ... not skip it.

I don't think there'd be much outrage.

Personally I beat the ambush (on Normal) the first time I encountered it, mostly by accident rather than good planning or whatever, so I probably wouldn't use your addon, but none the less I highly recommend that you just - do it and don't worry about what anyone else thinks. Single player game, your experience is more important than someone else's opinion of your experience.

Maybe give an dialogue option in-game where you just hand the staff to the orcs?(you could get the same effect just standing there and let them whale on you, of course) This would be a bit like a mod optionally disabling the Land of Poosh. Fair enough, but why bother?

Unless the though of "loosing" a fight is so unbearable that it must be avoided at all costs - but then why not play Skyrim? Insert rant about instant gratification, youth today, in my day, roguelikes, pandering, inflated egos, roguelikes, youth today, Electronic Arts. /outrage

Also, the ambush gives you a motive for reveangance on the orcs.

Doctornull wrote:Anyone who didn't like the idea of skipping the Ambush would ... not skip it.

I don't think there'd be much outrage.

This. I'd be annoyed if the ambush was removed from the game, as I enjoy it as a nice test of a characters abilities with little risk. An option to skip it though? Sure.

i don't like the idea.


and i can't remember not winning the ambush

Doctornull wrote:Personally I beat the ambush (on Normal) the first time I encountered it, mostly by accident rather than good planning or whatever, [...]

jenx wrote:and i can't remember not winning the ambush

Oh. Well. Now I feel inadequate...

jotwebe wrote:Unless the though of "loosing" a fight is so unbearable that it must be avoided at all costs - but then why not play Skyrim?

(shrug) Forgive me if I fail to see the appeal of a fight I know I can't win.

jotwebe wrote:Also, the ambush gives you a motive for reveangance on the orcs.

*blink* ...Motive? Every single orc I have ever encountered in the game has actively tried to kill me. I need more motive beyond that?

jotwebe wrote:Maybe give an dialogue option in-game where you just hand the staff to the orcs?

That turned out to be the least invasive method of implementation, in the form of my new Ambush Escape addon, which adds an option to the orc ambush entry chat to allow the player to escape without a fight. I was torn between having the player chuck the staff into the woods as a distraction or just point and say, "Hey, look over there! An obvious distraction!"; I eventually went with the former on the grounds of requiring slightly less en passant chat surgery.

[Technical Information:]

*ahem* So, you know how the ambush gives you a sort of "death protection" if you get killed before Ukruk dies? Well, turns out my addon wasn't properly clearing out that bit, leaving you with an unintentional "extra life" (and a potentially game-breaking exit back to the world map). That's fixed in v1a. We Apologize for the Inconvenience.™

So, at some point our modifications to the quest description apparently lost the proverbial thread and weren't properly describing the quest after using our escape option. That should be fixed in v1b.1, just pushed out.

Clearly it's been too long since I've tried to run a character through nsrr's QUICK campaign; I forgot that it does go through the post-Dreadfell ambush, and I sorely missed having this addon to skip past it. Our base approach, of course, is heavily tuned toward the main campaign, and thus would break badly here; in v1c, then, we sneak into the QUICK plotline and arrange for an extra way out of the ambush back to Point Zero. We also add some custom campaign-specific tweaks to the "A mysterious staff" quest description.