Thrundrarr's "kill quest"

[magpie]

I just want to start off by saying, I love ADoM. Duh! Or I wouldn't spend so much time playing it! I honestly think it's one of the best games I've ever, ever played, for a whole slew of reasons I don't need to spent time enumerating to fellow ADoM fanatics. And I'm massively grateful to Thomas for all the time he's spent creating it over the years.

That said ...

I loathe Thrundrarr's first quest, to "kill a <foo>". Loathe it. It's bad. It sucks.

Here's the problem as I see it:

It's either ludicrously easy - "kill a giant rat", "kill an orc" ... Which isn't so bad, but it doesn't feel like a quest at all. The only thing worse in this regard would be a 'go collect me some herbs - I feel a bit of a cough coming on!', or 'Give me some gold - my treasury is feeling a bit empty right now!'

... or it's ridiculously grindy. He'll assign you with a mid-level monster which is super-rare - like, you'll see 4 or 5 in a whole game if you play all the way to D:50 - but if you don't do it, you are blocked from doing any other of his quests, except for the 'portal' quest. Great! Another 2 or 3 hours grinding the Big Room or the ID just to have a chance to do it - or otherwise, just give up the idea of doing any of his quests! I don't mind grinding, but to be forced to grind, or you're denied the chance to do a fair percentage of the quests which are in the game?!? Are you kidding?!? Because when I play ADoM, the first thing I think is, 'Wow, I hope I have to spend hours grinding S'es in the Big Room this game!!!'

Furthermore, when a ridiculously rare monster is generated, it makes me NOT want to play ADoM any more. A quest which, most of the time, just makes me want to do something - ANYTHING - else, rather than continue playing.

It sucks. It just reeks of 'placeholder'. And it's been in the game for a long, long, long time.

Can this please, please be replaced with something that doesn't suck, and soon?

(I say this, Thomas, with the utmost respect. )

PS: I am playing on pre 20; I understand this issue has been addressed since, and doesn't apply any more since the extreme random nature of the quest has been addressed.

[Ravenmore]

Here's the RFE regarding this quest:
http://www.adom.de/forums/project.php?issueid=1880

I guess Thomas tweaked it somewhat and more changes are coming, based on feedback.

[magpie]

Thank goodness. I really hope so! Please, Thomas, please!

[asdf]

Are you playing 1.1.1? Thundaar's quest is perfectly fine and fixed already in latest prereleases.

[Tyrnyx]

After version 20's typically much rarer monster and the extreme strategies I did to complete it: don't go down one of the double stairs until after almost every other option - typically not finding it until the TotHK, version 23s seems rather tame. Personally, I haven't gotten a monster that wouldn't normally be generated in an [mildly] extended stay in the big room. Troll seems a common choice.

One option would for the player to do that quest at his/her leisure and not have it bar the entire chain of quests. However, an argument against that is that the whole chain is in itself unnecessary. I'm sure that the Creator considered this.

[kNightCrawler]

In the latest publicly released version, 1.2.0pr23, Thrundarr only ever seems to assign either a dark orc, troll or hill giant. It seems pretty reasonable for the point in the game in which he gives the quest, the completely random monster thing sure did used to be annoying... =\

[GordonOverkill]

Dark Orc, Troll and Hill Giant sound perfect to me. Somehow they all appear kind of related to dwarven culture, so it also fits thematically.

[Carter]

Dark Orc, Troll and Hill Giant sound perfect to me. Somehow they all appear kind of related to dwarven culture, so it also fits thematically.

agreed.

please god don't touch this quest again. PLEASE.

[Heikki]

In the latest publicly released version, 1.2.0pr23, Thrundarr only ever seems to assign either a dark orc, troll or hill giant. It seems pretty reasonable for the point in the game in which he gives the quest, the completely random monster thing sure did used to be annoying... =\

I had to kill a lightning lizard. One was found in Rehetep's place so that was easy, but this can really be frustrating sometimes. Luckily I've had this assigned only once. Still I think this quest is fine and should not be touched anymore.

[LexyBoy]

The problem I see with it is that Thrundarr's quests are supposed to be guidance for new players. After getting assigned a quest which involves trawling round waiting for some random monster, they will naturally proceed down and so very likely stumble upon the DH/AF split. Sure, they'll figure out that DH is a deathtrap soon enough but will miss out on Thrundarr's quests until they work out to complete the first quest before descending.

Also, it's too arbitrary - wouldn't Thrundarr ask you to do something at least a bit useful? Like wipe out an ant nest on the level below, or visit DFG and report back, or take a message to the mad minstrel or something? To me, it doesn't matter if it's easy, he's just asking you to prove yourself. The other quests are all a piece of piss anyway.