Tackling the new quests & maps for ADOM

[JellySlayer]

The vampiric effect, unfortunately, doesn't appear to scale with weapon damage output based on my brief testing. Getting a few HP back per hit is still pretty good though--in continuous combat, it's better than regeneration.

[Dogbreath]

Ok, how about an assassination quest from the assassin prince to slay a new NPC which is at the deepest level of a new dungeon. This would be a pre-ToEF danger level dungeon and Boss(he sold him some worthless pieces of glass ). Maybe the final level should be themed. Maybe high experienced ratlings? Or a contract by Thrundarr and Guth'Alak on Kherab(how strong is he, never fought him?) with a whole dungeon under Darkforge, filled with similar inhabitants as Darkforge and some random ChAoS creatures spawning randomly, which he retreats into when the quest is active. The downstairs can be under the spot he is generated on? The quest is obviously unattainable if either Thrundarr or Guth'Alak is dead.

Succeeding makes you a member of the assassin guild and the prince teaches Detect traps, Alertness, Find Weakness, Climbing, Dodge, Alchemy, and Stealth? The prince is however very fond of valuable gems and only accepts payment with valuable gems? Say 5 gems per new skill and 3 gems for [t]heoretical or [p]ractical training?

http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=1837 has some discussion on this topic. (And is also a decent source of mini-quests, IMHO)

[Grey]

For the final quest, getting Souldrinker already requires considerably less work and doesn't require Smithing.

Oh, I didn't notice that requirement. In that case I'm even more against it! Guaranteed rewards for boring play are exactly the sort of thing that can ruin games. Consider how players behave around cats at the moment. You'd be making 100 Smithing mandatory for many players by having a quest like this.

[JellySlayer]

Or they can just take the chaotic option?

[Grey]

And people don't have to avoid killing cats, but they still quite games when they accidentally run into one. Yes, it's dumb, but it happens.

If the quest was not guaranteed it wouldn't be such an issue. Say it appears 1 in 10 games.

[JellySlayer]

If you had three or four of the community quests similar scope, it might not be a terrible idea to have the game pick one of them randomly that you can do on a given playthrough, actually. With five new quests plus several other major quests (Rolf, etc.) being added, having only some of them accessible in a given game might not be a bad way to go.

[Superteeth]

(Maybe?) it goes without saying, but if there are going to be so many additional things to do, along with things to do in the wilderness, it might make sense for the background corruption rate to be toned down a little. It would be really easy for an unspoiled newbie to turn into a purple j with so many different things to do (in fact, with the newest version of ADOM where the background corruption increases every 90 days it is far too easy for a newbie to turn into a purple j, without enough warnings about there being a soft time-limit on closing the gate).

[JellySlayer]

TB has already toned down the background corruption rate, at least in the lower CoC, by a fair bit for pre21.

[Tannis]

I have the day off tomorrow so obviously a) I'm drinking copious amounts of beer and b) I'm brainstorming ADOM quests!

The Old barbarian - he teaches you courage and that's a handy skill - but who is he? Where is he from? Why is he alone? Why, it's time for the second old barbarian quest.

The old barbarian has lived for many moons and many harvests and many summers and many winters alone in his glade. Throughout these years in the wild, dealing with the odd hydra, the occasional drake, and lately an increasing number of chaos spawn, he has learned something about courage. But he didn't always have courage. And that's why he's in exile.

After the PC has reached level 30 and has slayed 75 of his first kill (to make this quest a bit irreconcilable with ultras), the second old barbarian quest is unlocked.

The old barbarian tells you: When he was younger, his tribe in the chain faced egregious raids from an stone giant clan. He was tasked with infiltrating their camp, slaying the stone giant chieftain in glorious battle, and saving his tribe. However, on the fateful day when he scaled the peaks and approached his foes, his heart faltered. He fled, and in his shame made home in the glade never to show his face again before his tribe.

He is old now, and his shame has haunted him for decades. The time has come to make amends. Acceptance of this quest opens up a new zone in the mountains. This zone is the stone giant campsite. The map (maybe 1 zone, possibly 2) is loaded with high level stone giants, earth elementals, greater earth elementals, dorn beasts, stone oozes, and other cthonic beasts. The boss is a named stone giant lord, chief of the tribe of giants that raided the old barbarian's clan so many years ago. The old barbarian will fight at your side as you clean out the stone giants.

If the old barbarian dies: the reward is simply what the stone giant lord drops.

If he survives the assault: he gives you his family heirloom, a precious and unerring artifact longblow that strikes true and strikes hard (we need more artifact bows). Thus the circle is complete: the old barbarian teaches you courage, and you in turn help him find his.

[Dogbreath]

And people don't have to avoid killing cats, but they still quite games when they accidentally run into one. Yes, it's dumb, but it happens.

If the quest was not guaranteed it wouldn't be such an issue. Say it appears 1 in 10 games.

Honestly there has to come a point where you can't expect TB to go to unreasonable lengths to keep people from being neurotic.

I've never quit when I've accidentially killed a cat. For that matter I use a wide variety of weapons - not just spears - and play the game in whatever order I feel like. I really think you're overstating people thinking this would be "mandatory" - after all, most people don't feel ultras as mandatory. It would certainly be a nice quest for those who aren't doing ultra-endings, to get them a really cool weapon to finish the game with. If you are doing an ultra, this quest would be almost worthless as A) it'd take too much time and corruption and B) by the time you're finishing it, you're almost ready to get the TotRR anyway. Kind of the same reason I really wish Needle+Sting was adjusted, actually. They're amazing weapons, but you don't really ever use them since you are usually either A) are about to get the TotRR or B) are about to finish the game. I've actually never played a normal ending where I've gotten Needle+Sting, but it might actually be pretty cool... *goes off to start a dual-wielding assassin*

And Tannis: What about a unique monster, "Stone Giant King" or "Stone Giant Duke" (to complement the frost giant Earls ) or something?