Tales of the Wild Coast Discussion Thread

What was the name of the "farmer" that had a holy sword lying around collecting dust, waiting to give to someone?

If I were that guy's god, I'd be pretty pissed, probably send him a dream showing him being taken to hell in the afterlife and being excommunicated from his church in every land.

 

It could be interesting if it could be made a bit random. The items shouldn't be the same each time. Nor in the same places. They wouldn't have to be in locked chests. Perhaps they could be in the presense of those spiders in the basement of the Welcome Wench or used by some skulking ne'er-do-well.

 

Well, you can get through the game with barely any killing going at all. Sneak through most big battles if you can, talk to key characters to gain access to locations; get to level 4 of the temple w/o much fighting, do Hedrack's quest, join the forces of evil. Makes for a pretty short and possibly boring game though.

Oh great, from bad to worse. Instead of the BG style looting system, you propose the Diablo-style: open chests guarded by mobs, with randomized loot. Purrrease.

Agree.

 

I think I mentioned that before: Get the skull. Go downstairs and loot Zuggy's thrown. Game over. Short, boring.

Right idea, but still too much. No chests. No mobs. Yes randomized loot. Either loose or used by a bad guy. You know, first level stuff. So that you never know what's in an "empty" room or building.

 

Oh I agree. Not my style at all. Just pointing out that it can be, and indeed was, done.

I believe I was the first to report having done it with a party of three and no NPCs. And that was fighting every battle.

Said party was two Half-Orc brothers: a Fighter/Thief and a Cleric, and their obscure object of desire, and de facto party leader, an Elven Druidess.

 

That's just as boring, but in a different way. Really though there's only two ways to approach this. Something that is really good, but just once. Or something that is duifferent every time, but can never match that one-off experience. My suggestion would be to mix the two.

As to what challenges should await, then I would suggest things like hidden doors that require high Search; rare books that require Appraise; funny sounding floorboards that require Listen; etc. Anything that requires skills is good IMO.

 

I was thinking of getting people to pick up things they don't normally use. To make each new game start slightly different from the previous. An odd masterwork scythe or something is likely to cause me to change how I was going to play the early part of the game. The idea is variety.

Well-crafted encounters are going to re-unbalance the game.

 

^ So you're basically suggesting more random encounters, each time with different loot. That's fine, but just think of how much work it's be to craft each individual one. I don't think TOEE engine even has any kind of inventory randomization technology.

Also, I dislike random loot, because it makes you re-load until you get what you want/need. Now, random loot that's fixed for the entire game regardless of re-loading can work well, but that'd be hard to implement.

Oh ALSO: Dragon Age does randomized loot on critters, MMO style. Basically, the equipment is set, but every item has a % chance of appearing once the critter is dead; better items - lower chances. Horrible idea, IMHO, completely unbalances risk and reward.

I did a two-man run like that. I did get bored when I hit 20 though, so I recruited a few late-game NPCs along the way (oolghrist and the demon sorceress). I did an evil dwarven cleric double-wielding dwarven axes (and rebuke, of course) paired up with a CN bard as an archer and supporter. Basically, you level much faster, so the game goes even easier than is you have a full party. I did a three-man run as well at some point, but I forget the composition of the party (though I recall it had a sorcerer with Augment Summoning - awesome idea imho). The easiest chara to solo, imo, would be either an evil cleric, or the said sorcerer - instead of having party members you summon/charm/rebuke mobs of enemy creatures and wreak havok in your path :love:

 

Well if you hit 20 it would be way too easy. I was talking vanilla and the level 10 cap. It gets easy for a while, but then it gets harder again.

 

just stopping by to say I'm really sad about the welkwood bog "hiatus" since it was the feature I was probably looking more forward than any other... Hommlet fed-ex questiong got boting after the first ten times I've done em.. and considering how much i love low-level dungeons (moathouse is so far my favoutire in the game) I surelly hope the welkwood project will get reopened sooner or later..

Anyway thanks for all the effort you are putting into this..you are really giving life to a fantastic game that otherwise would be long dead!

 

^Well, can always just skip fedexing and go adventuring right away!

 

But level 1 moathouse involves a lot of reloading i guess

 

Well, didn't you say you were looking for a low-level dungeon crawl?

 

yes but I was referring to the enemies personally i like my chars to be able to resist to a sword thrust!