ToME - Realond the High Human Bulwark

[Molach]

Welcome to the playthrough/showoff of ToME. I did a brief intro thread about this great game earlier, but it sort of died out. At least this I can continue a while on my own. Until I die, I suppose.

te4.org:


Some history (from old, failing memory)
First there was angband.
This game spawned various variants, or *bands.
One of these was ToME. Which is Trouble of middle earth. This game was pretty fun, I even went on to beat it once. ToME was but still a band, same rules, many of the same creatures, same races/classes. It did have various dungeons on an overland map. The standard 1-100 of angband was divided into 4: barrow downs, mirkywood, dol guldur and angband. Then more and more optional dungeons were getting added.
Then I took a little break from the game, and enter ToME. Which is Tales of May’Eyal now. Game can't be said to be a *band, it has it's own engine. All Middle-Earth stuff has been taken out, presumable for copyright reasons, and the game and history changed. I’ve played it a bit through the changes, never completely won but very close. After about 4 months hiatus I see the game has opened, and finally reached 1.0 stage. (it went to something like 0.42.b) So let me check it out.



I have an account over at May’Eyal, and noticed there was a “reset data” button. So I reset all my unlocks, my achievements and lore found. Starting with a clean slate. Just like you guys will. There is still my characters’ histories – obituaries, “most common killers [of my characters]” - skeleton warrior, degenerated skeleton warrior and rattlesnake are my top 3, and that I’ve created 5 dwarven Bulwarks before.
Hoping for lucky nr 6.

Let’s play.



Here is character creation screen. 4 races and 3 classes available. Humans and Elves have two variations, then there’s Halfling and Dwarf. And there are of course two locked options. Unlock them in-game. Cool. Only 3 classes, but ‘warrior’ class has several subclasses which again play out quite differently. I’ll play a Warrior-Bulwark, which is defense-oriented. Then there’s the powerhouse, the Berserker, the overpowered archer and the magical-focused arcane blade. And there are still more locked class options, 6 main with a total of 17 subclasses to unlock. The game gives hints about unlocking them, the locked warrior subclass I’m mouse-overing mentions a ‘ring of blood’ as a hint.

I start up.



I select “Normal” difficulty. Nightmare is advertised as ‘unfair’ game setting. And Insane is locked until you beat the game. But I also select “Roguelike” as permadeath setting. Many like adventure mode, which is like those old coin-op machines, you start with a couple of lives, get more as you advance. But run out of them and you’re just as dead as I’ll be in a while. But going for realism here.

“Realond” is ready to roll.

Levelup screen (you could say I gained level 1 just now...yohoo)


Lot of important stuff here. This is where we shape our adventurers. Stats, class skills and generic skills, and even opening new category trees.

Stats are, from top, Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Magic, Willpower, Cunning. For a warrior like me, Magic is only useful for giving increased saves, but all the others could be useful. Willpower gives more stamina, Cunning better crit chance, for example. Most skills require certain stats before you can obtain them.

Class skills on left, and are connected to class powers. Generic points go on the right, and are…more generic. Everyone gets a “Race” generic category, as 'Higher' I'll start with a regeneration power and with some more levels I can try out 3 other racial skills. Need to put points in those, though. I've got two categories which are common to most other warrior classes, and Cunning/Survival category is shared by all chars. I think.

As an example I’ve highlighted the Last stand talent. I’ll need to be level 12 to put a point here, I need a Strength of 36 which I’ll have. Also need to have put at least one point in the previous 3 talents. This is similar to and inspired by Diablo II. Each ‘row’ here is one of the three trees you got in that game. So obviously we get more ‘trees’ to put points into. But max investment is 5 points, not 20. “Last stand” is a sustained talent. It costs 50 stamina. There are passive talents which are great for lazy people, there are activated ones which take a resource hit to use. (Resource varies with class, for a bulwark it’s stamina. Mostly). A sustain does not drain stamina with use, luckily, it just removes the cost from your stamina pool. So you want to put on every sustain, but then end up with 10 stamina for free use, which doesn’t do much. The talent also gets better with stats. Many talents do, and this means that many 1st-tier talents are useful all game. Archmages typically uses the 1st level spells for simple damage, higher-tier spells are typically for special effects or area or…well I don’t know. Mages use mana, and have even harded choices to make concerning which sustains to keep on – can’t do them all.

At levels 10, 20, 30 I will pick up category points, which means I can unlock more ‘trees’, customize character further.

Well, enough talk. I put a class point into shield wall (sustained talent, gives defense and armor (dependant on dex) but less damage), rush(think leap attack from Diablo, similar) and put my generic point into vitality (lower duration poison&disease, and gets a healing boost when under 50% HP). The class also comes with a shield bash attack which can stun enemies, and a racial skill that makes me regenerate every now and then.

Trollmire it is.



I start inside the Trollmire, but am free to go back to the world map. > or < to change.

First fight.

Mouse-over to check out stats, and if they are affected by any sustains. These first levels will be pretty easy for a Bulwark, just walk into monsters and kill them. I’ve got good defense, and can regenerate. If I don’t get surrounded in open terrain by 8 dangerous trolls, I’ll be safe enough. And I wont, there are trees about.

I activate shield wall power, and will try to keep it on for the rest of the game.

By the way, fighting is done typically rougelike-style, just walk into the mob. Against neutral/allied mobs you right click and select attack, so no accidents possible by walking around. And a VERY useful button is ‘z’. Auto-explore. If you just wanna pass a level quickly without fighting, you should manually walk around, but if you don’t care, and wanna clear the whole level, z will do that. When you walk on objects or spot enemies it stops, you can pick up (‘g’) or hit monsters, then press ‘z’ again.



The Troll is not why I’m damaged, that was a rattlesnake. I activated an infusion. These are inscribed into the skin, and have cool-down periods before they can be activated again. In short, no more collecting potions of healing. You try to find good inscriptions, but once you tattoo it into the skin, you can use it as many times you like. However you can only have 3 at once and there are several types which could be useful. ‘Regeneration’ is good at game start. My other infusion is ‘wild’ which cures some bad states you might end up in and give +resist all for a while. There are also magical runes, defensive and offensive. But just 3. Unless I invest a precious category point in making room for 1-2 more.

‘Normal’ magical items are identified by walking on them. More magical items you get an orb of scrying to identify them with. In short, after the first dungeon you’ll always know what you find.

Gain level 2 while slaying stuff, put points into str*2 and dex, shield wall and weapon mastery (+physical power and +25% damage on sword, axes, maces). If you press escape you exit levelup screen and go back to game, can always press ‘G’ to bring it up again, if you wanna wait a bit before commiting skills. Sometimes you wanna save some to take advantage of level 4 powers, for instance.

About weapons, they are pretty simple, there are 3 types (swords, axes, maces) which is covered by one skill, and dagger which has another skill. The 3 types come in 1-handed and 2-handed versions, their power level is then increased (multiplied) by their metal type, iron<steel<dwarven-steel<strahlite<voratun. So no need to learn hundreds of different item names, it’s pretty obvious what you have. You need strength to wield the better stuff (dex for daggers) though, but it is very worth it. Getting a good weapon pretty important for me as a warrior. One with +extra magical damage is often good, even though with high strength and physical power good raw damage is important.
Escort.


Help a person get to their exit portal, get a reward. Stats or perhaps some talents you need, or even talents you didn’t know you needed because they aren’t in you class’ repertoire. Some of those will be useless as you will lack a way to regenerate the resource they require. Say you get arcane eye. Nice spell. The game will give you a mana bar. But with no mana regeneration you can cast it twice per levelup (fills mana bar) and that’s it. But a sustain like precognition could work out well, you won’t care that your mana bar shrinks as you are not using it. And passive skills are always usable. I am unfamiliar with this type of escort, don’t really like temporal stuff and time-travel paradoxes even if people say they can be very powerful. But I’ll try to help.

Right click, ask where portal is. My job is to stay ahead, so I need to know where shell go. If I bump into her I will not attack, luckily, rather switch place.



I know, dear. And also, while I appreciate that you were aiming at the bear I was standing in the way of your beam spell. I can handle these creature, just you hang back and wait. (You can tell ‘em to wait in place, but only for a while, and only every now and then. They get bored. Yep, self-preservation is not their greatest talent).

However we made it.


I might have taken +1 to cunning, but went with this instead. Might get better with some stat increase, or maybe I get a similar escort and can take the power to the next level for more effect. Never has this skill before, but it's passive so no hassle
I’m down to level 3 by the way, which means…


Doom is upon us. Prox, the guardian of trollmire. With my regenerative powers, shield bashing and ability to run and rest a while, it will be easy. Or pretty easy. Most humanoid mobs have skills they use, and may have infusions of their own.

Not this troll though.


A win. And of note is the fact that I’m now level 5, up from level 2. Level guardians give a LOT of exp. And they hold nice loot, guaranteed artefact and several other items. You will get exp from other kills, and might find great loot anywhere, especially in vaults, but this lets one have a much more mission-oriented playstyle rather than grind-oriented. You can sneak about and take out the boss, and not be too far behind the grinder who kills and clears everything on a level. Just don’t complain when you become swarmed by hordes of bypassed creatures in a horrid dungeon somewhere…



Haul of items. 3 artifacts is nice, but they are a bit level-regulated unlike, say, ADOM. No more getting bracers of war as first precrown. So you get stuff that would be trash at level 40, but useful for you now. And some things are actually good all game, at least for certain situations. Rod of Recall is guaranteed as first boss drop. Wouldn’t want to walk back out of this dungeon now. A ‘lucky Halfling foot’ worn item gives +5 and warns against traps, boots give some +cunning. And pickaxe for digging. Miner’s means it gives slight infravision. I take it all, then head to town.

Recall out.
New talent screen:

Full shield wall (never leave home without it), riposte (not sure what it really does) more weapon mastery and got armor training so I can wear massive armor. Also precise strikes, a sustain that gives minus 10% attack speed but more accuracy and critical hit chance.

Okay, I need some R&R in town. Catch you later.



Next up: Fighting in arena and a closer look at my potential skill choices and destorying some select foes.

[Ichabod]

I'm following this.

[Molach]

Screenshots were a bit messed up. Let me cover that up by posting some new ones, less hassle than fixing the old...

Enter Dearth, walk around a bit...

Hello...


Sure.

Lets go

Quest log:

So this turns up as a quest. Easy to finish, of course, just survive 3 fights.

First fight:

Halfling slinger. Rush was made for this, closes teh distance and unleashes a heavy attack, also dazing enemy (which is good...for you. Almost like a paralysis. Press the key, or point/click to activate skill. Can't use often, and range not too good yet, so need to invest skill in this before long.

Generic enemy:



And remains of last fight in bottom left corner. Arcane blade, hits with fire-infused weapon, can cast some fire-based skill. Had to use all regenerative abilities (only one regen at a time, though) and even a 'wild' infusion (+resist all and clears many effects...like burning).


Hey...
Achievement and an unlock. Also a message, that ToME is free, but I can donate a little if I wanna.

Reward is 2 generic points. And when I last played, you had to finish quest before level 10.
Arena-mode is just another way to play the game, start a new game and then fight in the arena thru 'waves' till you die.

And I get a good drop, steel waraxe (tier 2 one-handed axe). Also got +15 poison damage per hit, this is a lot better than what I had before. I've pumped strength a bit so can use it right away.

I take a trip into the infusion shop.

This psychic's infusion is twice as good as my starting (60HP). Psychic means the power increases with willpower. Titan is what I should be looking for, strength. Dueler is dex, sneak is cunning and wizard's magic. There are different tiers of the infusions
too, so a plain one in a high-level shop (or drop, or vault) will beat even a Titan's one in this shop.

Regen and Wild I've mentioned. There's healing which gives about same amount of HPs, but all at once. In the beginning game, at least, I like to run with two regen infusions, later on maybe one of each is better idea. Sun is 'spot stealth and invisible + blind enemies in a radius'. Not on display, there's movement which clears pinning effects and gives 500% movement for a while (actually very very good, escape option) and some that give a boost to stats (not so good). There's also rune shops. Runes can be Phase Door, Teleport, Damage shield (Absorb X amount of damage before crumbling) and probably a few more.

Lots of nice things to tattoo on your body, but one only gets 3 slots at start. Can spend category points (you only get 3-4 of these per game) to get up to 5. But then you can't open up these fancy categories like "Superiority" "Field Control" or "Warcries". There is also a max of 2 of each type, so no more than 2 regen infusions. Or damage shields.

So I take this one, use it, and, having spent all my money, leave for Kor-Pul.
(Was named Dol-Goldur in an earlier version)

[Lewwyn]

Whats the furthest you've gotten? I made it to the Master but never killed him.

[Molach]

Come crawling faster
Obey your master
Your life burns faster
Obey your master

Ahh, the Master. Yeah that is a hurdle, need to do it to open the rest of the game. Kind of like Fire tower/Ancient Chaos Wyrm in ADoM. Got some tips on how to handle him. Some characters are better than others, too.

I got to the final fight in 0.37 or something, but we ended up in a stalemante - neither could kill each other. We both had too much healing/shielding/regeneration and too little damage in attacks. Called it a draw. Later versions has added stuff that could have prevented this, but haven't actually won the game since it's been called May'Eyal.

And in version 1.0, _this_ is the furthest I've gotten.

Ehm. Yeah let's see how far I get:

Kor'Pul:

Undead theme. And remember, my top killers were skeleton warriors and skeleton archers? Yup, undead. Probably not smartest dungeon to enter now, there are 3-4 other I should do now, come back a bit later.

I think this is new, randomly appearing rare monsters.

This one was no problem.

Golden chests also new, seems like they contain an item and monsters. Dunno if it can have other effects yet.


And then, I wanted to show off a vault. You can see it behind the wall of text here, bottom left corner. Vaults can always be recognized because when you try to enter the door you get a "You might open the door. Open? or No?". Something. Lost the screenshot. Vaults typically contain monsters, they come in several themes. This one has some infusions and runes lying on the ground. However it also has 4 skeleton mages. I think Mages are a bit overpowered in this game, can do a lot of damage with their spells. And most monsters get the same skills/spells as the player. (They are basically AI-controlled players, can have runes and infusions too. The sentinent ones). So I decided to demonstrate that you do not enter this type of vault without an escape option. Those mages are killers. Here I'm demonstrating the death screen.


Argh.
But I cleverly am showing off this screen while I'm early in the game. Without reporting it only takes 15 minutes to get to this point, and I have in fact, as you are reading this, taken another character to this point so there will be no delay in reporting.

The 'restart with same character' button means that I do not need to select race and class and level 1-skills again. Everything else becomes randomized. So next up, how to finish Kor'Pul withOUT dying. Too much.

[Qgqqqqq]

I'm following this.

+1

[Molach]

Realond II:

Did everything same as before. RNG did some things differently.
Just to show off main differences in early game:

Got a warrior escort, so I get this. This is actually a level 8 generic skill, and will definately be maxxed my me, so this is very useful. Can clear some nasty effects as I put points in it (and get more constitution)

Got a nice artifact when killing Brox:

Blood of life. Drink it, it disappears. Hm.
The iron weapon 'of massacre' is about on par with the steel weapon I found last game.

Herbalist has a WARRIOR's regeneration infusion. Which means it gets better as I improve strength. (Titan's is constitution, remembered wrong)


Got a second warrior escort.

This one actually manages to find the (close) portal on his own while I'm fighting a rare snake that was very hard to hit.

Again, unflinching resolve.

Chief of Kor'Pul, the shade. Magic users. Hm, thought we were gonna stay away from these?


And just in case someone forgot since last post, here is the death screen again. He got a critical roll on one of his worse spells.

However, since I have blood of life in my veins....I get an extra life! One & only one I'll ever get, though. Adventure mode means you have several, about 10 I think by the time you reach level 50. Blood of life is not super-rare, you should typically get it in the first 5 dungeons. And there are really a lot of nasty stuff later on which are better to use it on than this shade, but, you know, felt I had to show just how this...works...

Level 7, got some new gear. Shade also dropped the Staff of Kor'Pul, nice for a caster, useless for me.


Except I have a use for it regardless...

[Molach]

Showing this next in too much detail, probably last time. I think these 'no way, bye' options are funny.
First, our 'infused by arcane powers' artifact.

Good for a mage. Spellpower means more damage/effects from every spell. Spell crit obviously good. Extra elemental damage too. For me, beyond useless.

Go a bit SW, meet a young man.








Missing from this picture is a * Archmages are banned in several countries due to overpoweredness.
Well they are kind of fragile, late game Orc Elite Warriors can totally slay them if they get to rush and stun them. Ironically enough.

And to the west, a glowing portal which will take me to Angolwen, the city inside the mountains there. (North of portal is the lair of the minotaur, not gonna go there just yet)

A bit about economy - you can buy an item for 100 gold, and typically sell it for 2. I'll still sell stuff I find but one typically tends to find most of the stuff in dungeons rather than shopping for it. Gold still good for picking up runes or infusions, or rings in Angolwen, but one just does not make enough gold early on to be able to shop all the time. Shops keep same items in stock a long while (they re-stock when you kill master, I think) so I generally check around, see if there's anything I wanna save up for or just go off to next dungeon.

Next up, clearing 3-4 starting dungeons before continuing the quest line.

But if I should decide to show off the death screen just one more time, I might do Bulwark just one more time, then move over to archmage.

[Sian]

sure ... i'll give it a spin

[NobleHelium]

Can you please make the screenshots bigger? The text is barely readable.