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[Soulwynd]

Beta 4 is out. Gonna be testing it later.

[Robsoie]

I finally managed to get some time to play this ToME4 , that i always had on my "toplayoneday" list.
It's the beta 18 apparently,

And i had a lot of fun with the game system, it's very good with those abilities and the character progression between gained levels.
The mouse driven interface is excellent, so well done that in fact you could play ToME4 without even need to hit your keyboard.

After playing the tutorial (very well done in explaining the system), i managed to clear the dungeon near the town playing a human berserker (the regeneration ability is more than usefull), noticed a few stutter (very weird considering it's a turn based game).

I then moved to the nearby Trollmire forest after a stop in town to get the scrying orb that allow me to identify my newly acquired items.

While i was in the dungeon things went smoothly, until a point in which the game started a terrible slowdown for no reason i could see (as it was between 2 turns, where nothing is supposed to happen), the interface was painfully unresponsive, then after a few seconds, it was back to normal smooth, something i noticed in the Trollmire forest, at a lower rate and impact.
Then after a 5 minutes, again a horrible stutter/slowdown, after a few seconds, back to normal etc... etc...

Retried with turning anything off and disabling the saves, but changed nothing, there's some kind of regular stutter from time to time, and in the dungeon it can even worser.

The game seems really excellent with its progression system and excellent interface, but the engine run horribly sometime, that's really strange considering the visual are rather simple, the amount of enemies is not really high and it's turn based.

I noticed a thread about those slowdown/stutter on the ToME4 board, so i really hope this problem will be solved one day if it's widely noticed.

[Tellemurius]

its the creatures that are spawned that slow down the forest dungeon.

[Robsoie]

That's very unfortunate, as it's a real pain for enjoying the gameplay
The forest dungeon slowdowns are existing but not huge, and they occur sometime even after you cleaned one of the forest part, where no creature is spawned anymore.

Now the dungeon (name escape me) that is west to the Trollmire forest one have some floors affected by very heavy stuttering , small freeze making it a pain to play.

The "you find an opening and hear cry of help" 2 floor deep dungeons full of assassins in comparison is completely smooth and unaffected by those problems in those 2 floors you explore.

It's a game with a great fun potential, i hope those problems will find a solution in future betas.

[Sowelu]

Achievements?  Unlockables?  Not sure if want...

[RAM]

It is possible to edit the file into giving you access. Rogue-likes have always involved a certain amount of grinding, although it isn't generally enforced... One unfortunate thing I noticed, dealing a lot of damage of a certain type allows you to... deal a lot of damage of that type. I would rather get access to deal damage of the opposite type as I have had plenty of experience of freezing people already...

[Neonivek]

The Alchemist has some real problems keeping up at a certain point if they chose to go down the golem route (since Mana steal is useless and HP steal is bad, yet you need to get all the way to the end to get the REALLY useful Golem abilities) in the damage department

Also why does the game have point sinks?

[Blaze]

Is it just me or does anyone else find that they nerfed anti-magic to hell?

Sure we have the resistance skill, but on the other hand, a lot of resistance granting items are arcane, and now we can't equip arcane items. This makes it incredibly difficult to get stun resist, which is pretty important for a fighter. Not to mention of ton of other artifacts are arcane, including the recall staff.

Considering taking Anti-magic cuts you off from a a HUGE amount items and skills you'd think it'd be worth the effort.

[Robsoie]

Yes, i find anti magic completely useless and after obtaining it a complete waste of skill point that would have been better spent elsewhere.
In b19 i made a long run with a human berserker, then in b20 i tried the same combo with the difference that this time i made the anti magic quest thinking it would help in some situation (those horrible, horrible Orc and Elf spell user that can nuke a very high level character with every of them focusing on you).

After earning it, i noticed absolutely no difference in how my character was dealing with magic users, and worse the anti magic shields is crushed every time you try to use a phase door/teleport or any usefull rune in combat.

It's very hard to obtain (depending of course at what kind of level you try the quest, the final arena test can become extremely hard if you're around level 11/12), It's only a waste of skill points currently.

[DarkGod]

heya, yes antimagic is a bit lackluster right now, this is being adresses though.
next beta will have movement infusions garnt a huge movement speed increase, to give anti magic users a thematic tactical escape; new antimagic specific artifacts are added and new antiamgic egos are planned
Also Zigur shops are much better stocked.

Comments how to improve are always welcome

[Robsoie]

Great to hear this will be adressed.

With an anti-magic that will become a valid path (i mean usefull for surviving instead of losing skill points you could have put into more important skills) and the recent fix for the slowdown/stuttering that works greatly, ToME4 is definitively going to a great direction.

[DarkGod]

Thanks

[Neonivek]

Well DarkGod my only gripes with playing very little are
1) There is a HUGE difficulty spike once enemies have ranged and magical attacks. They make melee attackers seem pathetic. It isn't that they are too tough, it is that your just dropped off a cliff and are suddenly going "Why are these ordinary enemies kicking my butt?".
2) There are so many point sinks... or rather skills with either no point in leveling them up (as in they don't improve) or that compete with other skills that are just as good (or sometimes even better).
3) TREES TREES!!! RUN!!! DANG IT TREES!!! NOO TREES!!!

I am not exactly sure how to fix those, however I guess...
-Not all skills need 5 levels and not everything in a skillset needs to be a 4 step ladder?
-Some earlier ranged enemies with elemental attacks with less damage before level 15

The only other kinds of comments I have are suggestions... and I am sure you have enough of those.

[martinuzz]

Today, beta21 has been released.

1) There is a HUGE difficulty spike once enemies have ranged and magical attacks. They make melee attackers seem pathetic. It isn't that they are too tough, it is that your just dropped off a cliff and are suddenly going "Why are these ordinary enemies kicking my butt?".

Only in the very beginning of the game, ranged and magical enemies can be very hard to deal with, especially for melee characters. Once you gain some levels, and some HP, they stop being very dangerous. For melee characters, the rush talent really helps.

2) There are so many point sinks... or rather skills with either no point in leveling them up (as in they don't improve) or that compete with other skills that are just as good (or sometimes even better).

The former is being adressed by the frequent updates. It's still beta, so it's expected to need some balancing.
The latter allows you to play the same class in a different way, next time you play it through. Try another build. Allows for more replayability.

3) TREES TREES!!! RUN!!! DANG IT TREES!!! NOO TREES!!!

I suspect that you are referring to the Trollmire's dungeon generator. It's a bit harder to navigate than your usual dungeon. But it looks great. Most other dungeons however, have a more traditional hallway/room setup, so you can run to your heart's desire there.

[Robsoie]

Tested a bit this new beta21 and it's very good, performance is now awesome, there is simply no more slowdown and heavy stuttering as in previous beta.
That alone is really great.
The menu are now using some colored background instead of plain black, will take a bit of time to be used to it.