Scale D:50 balors with in-game time elapsed.
issueid=3728 06-12-2015 11:35 AM
Ancient Member
Number of reported issues by Blasphemous: 110
Scale D:50 balors with in-game time elapsed.

I was thinking about players like myself, where we prefer to build up an immensely powerful char to deal with any situation imaginable.
However that takes time and aside from an almost unnoticeable corruption hit past day 90 and lower score, there are no consequences to overplaying the game and overpreparing for any threats.
So, the idea is to increase balors' and the greater balor's levels by one for each day past 90 spent on roaming around Drakalor Chain.
It would also be lore friendly, as the increased corruption spilling from the chaos gate into the world would also strengthen the chief lieutenants of Chaos who are arguably the closest to it, both geographically and alignment-wise.

Those who close the gate before that time are unaffected and they form the majority of players, I think.
However, those few like me who like to stick around longer than that will have some serious consequences to contemplate.
Most importantly, they will have some challenge.
I hate to say it but to a heavily spoiled player like myself, the game offers *very* few challenges past mid-late game.
This RFE would partially remedy that, as I would gladly intentionally play long past the 90 day limit to have some fun on D:50 after reading a scroll of monster aggravation.
I had a char that destroyed the casino shopkeeper in 3 turns of straight melee, char that made the cat lord panic and run after two hits, char that annihilated 6 eternal guardians like they were goblins...
I understand that the game cannot keep the challenge for players that know it very well but I still think at least D:50 should scale with the player in a more reasonable way.

I had this idea after my Serpent's Bite-wielding assassin stabbed a balor to death in one go and dispatched the rest while surrounded by them without sustaining more than 100 points of damage - barely a dent in the pool of 800+ HP.
It was a powerful char, true, but nevertheless I expected a bit more from the reds.
Fistanarius is particularly disappointing in the long run - there's nothing special about him, as plenty of monsters summon minions and plenty of monsters teleport around.
An extremely experienced greater balor that hits 7 times and deals 100-200 damage with each hit, that would be something of epic proportions, assuming the player doesn't just revert to slaying ammo.
D:50 would no longer be a village dungeon to my overblown hero but something I actually have to focus on.
Issue Details
Issue Number 3728
Issue Type Feature
Project ADOM (Ancient Domains Of Mystery)
Category Windows 7
Status Suggested
Priority 9
Suggested Version ADOM r58
Implemented Version (none)
Milestone (none)
Votes for this feature 1
Votes against this feature 10
Assigned Users (none)
Tags (none)




06-12-2015 07:03 PM
Ancient Member
I support this feature as a config option. But unspoiled players often have lots of time elapsed and are going to have an extra tough D:50. Next time they'll spend even more time prepping and get an even tougher D:50...

There are already score rewards for pushing D:50 early (fewer turns). If you want to spend your time grinding to a super powerful character and have super powerful foes then I'd rather that be a config option/gametype, since I suspect most people with high elapsed game time are there because they aren't as good/ready for D:50.

06-12-2015 07:38 PM
Ancient Member
I think this would hurt more than it helps. Very few people would describe the game as 'easy' and perhaps it's time to move on to an entirely different game if you've reached that point. I think the problem for me is the lack of end-game variety rather than lack of difficulty.

In the end it's all about preparation and counter-measures; if you know what to do, save for the early game, and assuming you have no lapses in memory or organisation, it is difficult to fail. Early game is trickier because of the randomness and as you progress you bring those random elements under control. What i'm saying is, the game is always going to be easy for someone, or it's going to be unfair.

I do agree that Fistinarius is a bit bland though and doesn't command as much respect as he perhaps should, but in the end he'll fall the same way everything else does; magic, missile or melee. Increasing the risk of one strategy will push people toward another. I'm not sure how one will make an interesting fight without inventing new mechanics or strange properties for that monster. That is something worth exploring though.

Maybe, being highly chaotic, balors could have different properties. One turn their speed doubles, another turn they penetrate armour, another they regenerate, etc. Or maybe have such property randomly generated and fixed for each individual balor when it spawns.

I think the most interesting fights are the ones where I have to mull over every turn, and the enemy always presents a threat if I choose wrong. I think the nearest thing to that is probably the water dragon. A battle where you have to stay on your toes.

06-12-2015 11:45 PM
Senior Member
I think the problem is that the more challenging content is there (Andor Drakon) but it's hidden behind a wall of arbitrary fetch quests. Look, I get that maybe we need to require the chaos trinity/TotRR/etc. to get the good ending, but it makes me really mad that I can't even fight Drakon just for a challenge without doing all that pointless stuff. I don't understand why everything in ADOM has to be so obtuse. He's already there, the late game is too easy, but I can't get to him.

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