Next competition

[AnonymousHero]

I meant 2.3.5. I have no idea about the changes done in 2.4, and with a game where irreversible early decisions affect the character later, you always end up with borked builds for the first toons till you eventually get a grasp of all the details. Or you go to the sandworm lair but that has been rebalanced to now spawn <more_deadly_monster_X> and so on and so forth.

I would prefer the older version because I dont feel like re-learning the game.

Jeez you people are conservative -- just try it . There have been very few game play (or "balance") changes in my fork. The only one I can think of of the top of my head would be the removal of traps and making Thaumaturgy a little less absurdly overpowered. (I've also removed Alchemy + Runecrafting because they've been hopelessly broken. Bard is also on the list because they seem to be almost unplayable and the code support them complicates the spell system quite a bit. I'm not opposed to the class per se, it's just a pain to deal with such a large amount of code that's effectively never used.).

It still plays very much like T2 2.3.5 except it actually runs properly on 64-bit by not instantly giving you 300k piety on save/load, etc.

(I'm also thinking about removing ID and just auto-ID'ing everything.)

EDIT: Of course, just to be absolutely clear T4 is a whole different game.

[clouded]

Make some savefiles yo. debo is on a soul journey right now.

[HugoVirtuoso]

FYI to everyone:
2.3.5 was the last 2.x version released by DarkGod. 2.4.11(?) is the last 2.x version released by AH.

[Estie]

I meant 2.3.5. I have no idea about the changes done in 2.4, and with a game where irreversible early decisions affect the character later, you always end up with borked builds for the first toons till you eventually get a grasp of all the details. Or you go to the sandworm lair but that has been rebalanced to now spawn <more_deadly_monster_X> and so on and so forth.

I would prefer the older version because I dont feel like re-learning the game.

[Pete Mack]

Original just means not T4. 2.4 would be my assumption.

[HugoVirtuoso]

Don't Maias have decent melee to compensate? Which version (for the competition) should be the "original ToME"...2.3.5?

[Estie]

Hmm Bard. I never played one, bacause the songs look so weak that they dont matter compared to the other options. For example, you could play it as a simple warrior with magic device and have no problems at all. The restriction "no mindcraft" is rather pointless imo, as there are plenty of other similarly powerfull options. God magic, antimagic, mimicry, symbiosis, you name it.

If you want to create a character so weak that bard songs become a relevant boost, I would suggest no princess quests for starters; other doors to non-bardic power will have to be closed, too, but I am no longer familiar enough with tome 2 to list them all offhand.

Maia lost soul seems off when the intention is to have bard songs explored.

If you make this, I vote for the original Tome (since that is what I remember), and I would play the comp. But, tome being tome, I fear the way to go about this will be to not bother with bard songs much.

[Yottle]

I could make it out with a Death Mold Lost Soul Bard. For a **real** challenge make it a Maia Lost Soul Bard without linked stairs.

[HugoVirtuoso]

@all: So, this may be a bit of a weird request... but I'd like to see the top players here try a ToME 2.x (-AH) bard. Yes, bard. (Even if it's the original T2 2.3.4, that'll probably be OK, I haven't changed much wrt. "balance".)

I'm asking purely because it's been known as a ridiculouslty hard class, but I'm seriously considering removing it because it actually takes quite a lot of "if-then-else" code to support. (I think the general conduct for this would be: Only Music-style magic, e.g. no Mindcraft, etc.)

For a *real* challenge, this should be at least a LostSoul Bard for shits and giggles

[AnonymousHero]

@all: So, this may be a bit of a weird request... but I'd like to see the top players here try a ToME 2.x (-AH) bard. Yes, bard. (Even if it's the original T2 2.3.4, that'll probably be OK, I haven't changed much wrt. "balance".)

I'm asking purely because it's been known as a ridiculouslty hard class, but I'm seriously considering removing it because it actually takes quite a lot of "if-then-else" code to support. (I think the general conduct for this would be: Only Music-style magic, e.g. no Mindcraft, etc.)

[debo]

Sorry for the delay here, folks. I'll have something up soon.

[wobbly]

So comp suggestion quick - poschengband iron man high elf ranger. Nature/sorcery easy id&lore, reduced uniques.

[HugoVirtuoso]

Suggestion for future PosChengband compo: Consider an Archon Force-Trainer? Any thoughts?

[debo]

Sorry folks. Things are a little crazy right now. Will have a comp up sometime in the next week or two.

[Pete Mack]

My suggestion is to hold off for 0.7, when a few glaring balance issues are solved. 0.6.5 was intended as a bug fix release. Any comp now would be reporting a bunch of really obvious problems. Wait until those are fixed, then a comp would actually provide useful feedback.