From old rollplayer to T.B.

[Silfir]

ADOM is perfectly fine for non-hardcore gamers, too, as long as they abandon the expectation that they're going to win right away, or even in the foreseeable future. Roguelikes are great because no two attempts turn out the same.

[Doorsfan]

I believe that the original poster of this thread missed out a very vital part to playing ADOM effectively..

Albeit you can get attached to your character, you should not do so all too much. Then you cannot enjoy ADOM in it's fullest.
It's supposed to be a rush, a thrill, a adventure to live but one mere life - But you must also be generally paranoid enough to realize that almost anything can kill a char.
Be it a power outlet, a mistake, or the server just messing up your game so you have a rollback for like 2 hours.. It's all the same really.

It all boils down to you just having to enjoy the game, more in the sense of enjoying the actual game - and not in the sense of "I built this character, a foundation that will last".
Otherwise it would not be a roguelike game. It's very nature is to have you Die. Beyond this, each to their own with tastes - But your critique is fairly weak in the respect of that you yourself
as a player, could consider this game to not be your cup of tea.

[BlitzerkidSix]

Well said, Doorsfan. I think ADOM reinforces the spiritual truth that all things are journeys, and destinations are mere illusions. ADOM is not WOW; it is impossible to look up a "build" (my least favorite gaming concept, by far) and rapidly advance along some silly power trip with total predictability. The real sadness, to me, is when players cannot "break out" of this mindset just to have some fun. In my table-top D&D game, I have a Cleric who just doesn't get it. He obviously looked up a build, and quite seriously mentioned "fitting [his] alignment to new domains". The character is flat as a pancake and has no conceivable story arc. As a DM, my solution is that no NPC Cleric will teach him spiritual strength for the purpose of a mere power-grab.

Getting back to ADOM, I think new players should seek to appreciate the fun in weak, oddball characters with almost no chance to win. I once played a bard for about three hours, and was shocked to discover that I had only killed 60 monsters. Each kill was a victory in itself, and I was actually engaged. I picked up anything that might be useful, exploited poison, threw things I probably shouldn't have, and generally had a lot of fun struggling against impossible odds until certain death. Of course, I could just as easily declare bard a broken (not the good OP broken) class in a stupid game with no balance. Hahaha. Have a good day, everybody.

[Nobbse]

ADOM is perfectly fine for non-hardcore gamers, too, as long as they abandon the expectation that they're going to win right away, or even in the foreseeable future.

I agree and I always say to beginners: "Don't see ADOM as a way to create an hero, see it as an adventure generator! It's not an adventure, if You cannot die in every moment. Learn to love the adventure that EVERY character has, regardless whether he dies in the Mana temple or in the early game with the first pit viper"

Though I won the game more than a dozen times, I still have MANY early game deaths (some of them avoidable) and I like it that risky way... Example:I like putting on the dagger wih the best price - just to see that it is a cursed low-value dagger of thunder - and challenge the world with that crap until it melts away - together with me

[magpie]

I agree and I always say to beginners: "Don't see ADOM as a way to create an hero, see it as an adventure generator! It's not an adventure, if You cannot die in every moment. Learn to love the adventure that EVERY character has, regardless whether he dies in the Mana temple or in the early game with the first pit viper"

Though I won the game more than a dozen times, I still have MANY early game deaths (some of them avoidable) and I like it that risky way... Example:I like putting on the dagger wih the best price - just to see that it is a cursed low-value dagger of thunder - and challenge the world with that crap until it melts away - together with me

Once I started a grey elf wizard who started with invisibility, teleportation and Ice Bolt. Enough to make anyone full of themself! So I went directly to the SMC (with a view of going all the way to the Mountain Village and opening the short-cut to the CoC), and had my head smashed by a stone block trap 2 steps off the up step! But that's ADOM for you.

If you can't laugh that sort of thing off, yeah, you're better off playing WoW - and even at that I think you better stick to the PVE servers so you don't get upset about being ganked.

[NMBLNG]

It's not deadly unless someone dies.

[TheCableGuy]

I agree and I always say to beginners: "Don't see ADOM as a way to create an hero, see it as an adventure generator! It's not an adventure, if You cannot die in every moment. Learn to love the adventure that EVERY character has, regardless whether he dies in the Mana temple or in the early game with the first pit viper"

Though I won the game more than a dozen times, I still have MANY early game deaths (some of them avoidable) and I like it that risky way... Example:I like putting on the dagger wih the best price - just to see that it is a cursed low-value dagger of thunder - and challenge the world with that crap until it melts away - together with me

"an adventure generator!"

I like that. But that's (sadly) not entirely true for Adom.
A true adventure generator would have variable starts,
fluctuating story-lines, and multiple paths
that change each time to start a new game.

Adom has some aspects of this but the overall game is still somewhat linear.
I think this is my only grievance with Adom and the sole reason I get so frustrated when I die.
I mean, I can only take saving the Cute dog, or saving the Carpenter, or taking on the Pyramid, etc...
on my way to saving the world, for so long before I want to claw my eyes out,
especially when trying to challenge myself.

Regardless, I still give it 9/10

[Stingray1]

Challenge games are an almost decent way to distract from the repetitive parts of the game. I don't think I'll ever do a normal game again. What type of challenges do you take on?

[TheCableGuy]

Challenge games are an almost decent way to distract from the repetitive parts of the game. I don't think I'll ever do a normal game again. What type of challenges do you take on?

For me, it depends a lot on how I feel at the start of the day but I like Fate-runs:
Randomly generate a character and see how far I can get with it.
But that gets tedious too, usually because I know I'm running a doomed character to start with.
And, of course, certain races and classes I instinctual hate so I can't enjoy them either.

But I'm running out of Beginner level challenges.
Hardest Challenge I do sometimes is to do Kranesh quest while doing the Puppy quest
at the same time, set up to do both the courage quest AND the Flik quest......

Needless to say, I haven't yet managed to do it.

[GordonOverkill]

Actually all my game winners so far were fate runs. Also non of them was Candle- or Raven-born. With a very good starting char I always tend to play less cautious and finally die for a stupid reason. Still at the moment I am considering to try a rather weak class like a farmer or a merchant after I'm through with my current game (Gordizzl).