It sound good, and I think it could be a good idea to take in account the race : someone said before in the blog about a dwarf who start in a human village...

I don't know, I kind of like starting in the same place every time. It also gives better prerequisites for challenge-type games. I actually feel that those suggestions would impose more limitations than possibilites on a character.

I really like this idea, would be something different from other roguelikes (at least those I've tried out). Also it makes sense that different characters start out from different locations since because of their various histories. Really well thought out fresh idea, which would bring something new to the table. The randomly created world already gives each character different starting point, so this should work nicely with that.

Well since each JADE map will be randomly generated you'll never start in the same place anyway. Infact the same place won't even exist in a subsequent game.

I certainly think a degree of variety would be welcome in how you start the game, but I agree that it shouldn't inhibit your ability to play the game the way you want to.

Hmm... maybe there couls be a way to "save the world" and have it re-used... or how about an option to re-start a dead character, to play exactly the same character in exactly the same world? This could be used to make a starting game file and mass-distribute it for the purpose of contests who fares best with this particular character and whatnot.

Yeah your right, it would be nice to revisit a particularly entertaining or interesting map or to be able to share it with friends.

In addition to a random method, if this is included, then there should also be a selectable option.

There's quite a few other scenarios you could come up with:

-Criminal on the run
You've been exiled or have fled from your home town for some crime you've committed. Alone and friendless in the world, you set off to try and start a new life, or maybe find somewhere else to steal from. You have to be careful around law enforcers in case your reputation has spread.

-Plucky adventurer
You seek fame and fortune by exploring the far corners of the world, rescuing princesses, defeating mighty dragons etc etc. Your parents thought you were a dumb schmuck, but made sure to give you some gold and rations so you'd at least last to the next town.

-Rising star
Your successes in your profession have brought you to high standing in your guild, but now is the time to really prove your worth. To advance to the next level in your order you must seek out the source of the chaos that is rumoured to be troubling the world again. You set off well-prepared, but utterly unaware of the terrors that are before you.

-Mission from god
Your deity has appeared to you in your dreams and told you to leave everything behind and go forth on a quest to save the world. Others think you're mad, but you know this is your destiny. The forces of chaos will fall before the divine wrath that powers your soul.

-All for love
You have fallen madly in love with a noble woman, but her father does not approve. You have begged for her hand in marriage, but in scorn he has stated that not till all the forces of chaos lie defeated will he ever let you touch his daughter. So with a burning fire in your heart you set out to prove that love can conquer all...

-Running out of time
You have fallen ill with the terrible Purple Blight. The healers in the city have no cure for you, and some say it is the taint of chaos on the winds that is causing this awful affliction. So now you must seek out the source of this wind and destroy the chaos that has infected your flesh. If you cannot succeed in 90 days your body will begin to wither into dust. With nothing to lose and a world to save you set off in haste.

-Lust for power
It is rumoured that strange things stir again in the dark places of the earth. Not for several millenia have such powers appeared on Arcardia, and they fill you with one thing - desire. You set off to find these powers... and conquer them. Whatever chaos lords or gods rule this new invasion had beter watch out, because a new player is looking to muscle in on the action.

-Get the balance right
You've always been a pacifist, deploring violence on any level. And yet these chaos monsters and lawful crusaders are always starting fights and wars and all sorts of unclean things. It's all so messy. So you feel it's time for you to clean things up and set things right again. It's time to restore the balance in the world, and you've decided that the only way to get things even is to kill... everyone... Maybe then you can enjoy some peace and quiet... You set off on your quest with a funny look in your eyes, and an array of interestingly shaped daggers in your pack.


If there are different start places and situations though, there should still be a default start location. The above would only be a choice, or maybe result from random questions, and would be more difficult than a normal game - sometihng to add a bit of challenge and variety. A lot more starting ideas could be thought up to cater more for all races, classes and alignments.

Yes, my choice of scenarios was by no matter meant to be exhaustive. I haven't even touched things like "The undead who didn't lost his will", with variants like "Golem rebelling against its master".
Or how about "God coming to earth in the form of talking animal"? Another classic :D

Your mention of "all races, classes and alignments" reminds me another thing I want to see. To really sample the incredible richness of JADE, I want to have ability to play absolutely anything and everything. I want to be able to go through the game as shadow centipede :)

For game balance, let's say you had to defeat a generic monster 100 times and then you could play it. So killing 100 ancient red dragons would let you play as ancient red dragon, which would make the game easier, but after dispatching 100 ARDs, you'd deserve it. (not sure if all 100 would have to be killed by a single character - what would be better?)

I'm not sure about adding in stories for characters, who may end up playing completely out of character anyway.

There was the opening question system in ADOM - did many people care about that? I would spend quite a while answering those questions for some characters and then it'd die quickly and I'd get extremely frustrated. Eventually, I added the Questioned_Attributes = FALSE in the config so I didn't have to put up with that nonsense.

I'd like to echo Ankherias's and Dougy's sentiments. While a lot of these sound interesting and have potential to enrich the gameplay experience, they could work better if they emerged over time through a player's choices, partially in response to what fate (chance) caused that player to encounter. And even then, the taking on of such quests shouldn't be forced. It's important to avoid the potential to "limit" characters.

Edit: Also, I seriously would like to reject many of the cliched scenarios that were mentioned. Role-playing suffers too much from people who all RP the same stereotypes (like being an orphan or on a quest for revenge). ADOM's storyline is above-par when it comes to fantasy, so I'd love to see JADE kept that up.

I like that idea. But I think that beginning of game shouldn't be randomly generated, but player would be able to choose it. Starting scenario would affect final score, and it would be something like difficulty levels. "Chosen by gods"(where PC starts with "Fate smiles" instrict) or scenario where player starts with powerful artifact would be easy mode(final score would be low) and "Cursed at birth"(PC starts cursed or doomed) or "Runaway slave"(PC starts in middle of goblin camp with no equipment) would be harder challenges.

UnReal World roguelike already has about 11 different starting scenarios(btw. that's very good game).

Well, since we are talking about what I call "How I Became an Adventurer", I'd like to add that one of the things I really like about ADOM is that everyone arrives in the Drakalor chain FOR the Drakalor chain. Crazy powerful stuff's been originating from there and some old sage named Khelavaster was going around telling people to show up there and help fight Chaos. Some of my characters arrived to try to harness the power there for evil, while most of my characters arrived to either fight it, investigate it, or for whatever reason. My point is, whatever the background of my character, I was not forced to have a too-detailed story attached to my character, or forced to chose a background for him from some compilation of possible backgrounds. He just had one, and I knew it, and I played that character knowing it.

I'd prefer a simple start ("You have just finished your apprenticeship and now explore the area around your home town" or something like that). But if this is implemented in a reasonable way it might work, so I haven't voted yet.

OR you're a fledgling wizard who stumbled upon some ancient necromantic text inside a tomb you were exploring. You always were facinated by the undead and always wanted a closer look at them to study them, without them trying to eat your face of course. You decide to give up you mediocre training as a wizard and become a full blown necromancer. You start in a crypt within that same graveyard you needed more room to work with, maybe a few corpses you dug up to attempt to animate them, some potions of unholy water laying around, a few other "necromantic" items around, cursed holy simbols cool stuff like that. Obviously this is a necromancers start scenario =) Yese I like necromancy very much so.

BTW, is there a way to display the votes for/against a feature in the forum, next to the thread name, so a quick check would be availaible?

Also, another idea which is connected to this one is the following:

Since monsters and characters work completely the same in JADE, is there any obstacle to making all intelligent beings in the game playable?

You might think that being able to play as, say, ancient red dragon, would make the game worse, but what if you had to, say, kill one hundred ARDs with your characters before you'd be allowed to play as one? In other words, what if various special playable characters were collectible, and you had to do minor or major quests to unlock them? This would add to replayability value (plus, with the random world, the game could be made challenging to anyone: if a player chooses to play as red dragon, he could just happen to play in a cold world mostly covered with snow :) )

Simply said, what I propose here would be strictly voluntary, just an option to use all the perks of the monster system to the full.

how about this, the game starts and you are a djinni that was summoned by some idiot with a cursed ring. you kill the dude and go on a rampage.

in a similar vein you could be a spectre or ghost summoned by some necromancer and then betray him and become a ghost king dude

or how about you start in a monastery? where do all those chaos monks get trained as monks anyways?

Hmm. IMO... Different starting scenarios would be nice, if we could select them. Yep, definitely nice.About the way to make world replayable - look at DF. It's simple. You can have an option to export RNG seed used to generate world, and another option to start game with selected seed. Well, this may probably disable any kind of 'bones' files, which is bad. And about about playability of other creatures - IIRC even Creator said somewhere that this would be possible, if only in case of shapeshifting.

yeah itd be real cool if you could choose it, or not have it, or have it random