Couldn't find any thread about it...
The legendary Rogue-like Ancient Domains of Mystery (ADOM) will be going through a renaissance. After a successful indiegogo campaign, the developer Thomas Biskup got enough cash to make a new version of it... And it looks like it's going to be awesome.
So, this not only makes it the most funded gaming product ever on indiegogo, it also makes it the most well-funded Rogue-like in the world. We have much to hope for.
For those who don't know about the game, here's a Let's Play: Youtube link
What do you think? Is it going to be awesome? Have you played ADOM before? What's your favorite class/race combination? Made any ultra endings with cool characters? And so on and so on...
Interesting. I'll definitely want to see what Biskup will do with it.
That said, I have a love/hate relationship with it. I appreciate the world build and the rich tapestry of quests available. I love all the options you can have in character creation. I love the idea of the questionnaire that helps determine your stats if you choose to take it. I love the ability to adjust "tactics" (take penalty to attack to improve defense and vice versa).
But at the same time, it is obnoxiously hard. And not hard, like, "Wow, the solution to this puzzle takes some really creative problem solving skills" hard, but "The random number generator just hates you" hard.
And, I should interject here, I am a person who's played through Nethack often enough to ascend on three different occasions. I'd like to think I'm someone who can have a certain degree of patience and understanding with oldskool roguelike difficulty. ADOM makes Nethack look like prancing through a happy field with bunnies and rainbows and unicorns.
I can't imagine how many characters I've gotten killed just walking out of town the first time and running into a random encounter that was impossible to flee from and impossible to win at 1st level. What's the point of filling out that cool questionnaire at character creation if there's a 90% chance your character is going to die within the first 10 minutes of playing.
I hate this kind of "hard" because it often has very little to do with player skill and everything to do with how the dice roll. Absolutely, if you know the game well and you know to build a good character, you can survive where many others would fall. But sometimes the game just drops unending nasty on your head and there's very little you can do about it.
And also because you do need to be experienced with the game to play it well, you learn that a lot of the apparent choices you have are just for show. You really do need to optimize your character build as much as possible if you want to survive. 'Course, that's fine, but I don't like it setting itself up as a game with a seemingly infinitely flexible character creation system only for you to realize that there's only a few right answers, so to speak, when creating a character. Of course, people say that about a lot of games, Pathfinder included, but I feel like ADOM does this especially egregiously.
That said, what is interesting and compelling about the game is enough to make me want to pay attention to this. I'm masochistic enough to give it a go, probably. (Heck, it's been long enough since I played the original that I might dig that up before I remember why I ragequit the first time.)
As for characters, my most successful character was a dwarf priest, IIRC. I don't remember how she died, I think I was deep into that one mountain that has the dwarf city in it and I got killed by one of the guardians of the doo dads I was questing for. That was clear as mud I'm sure.
Interesting. I'll definitely want to see what Biskup will do with it.
That said, I have a love/hate relationship with it. //
But at the same time, it is obnoxiously hard. And not hard, like, "Wow, the solution to this puzzle takes some really creative problem solving skills" hard, but "The random number generator just hates you" hard.
Oh, I think we all have! But for me, who's finished the game thrice but only standard endings (and two times with "easy" characters - high elven archer and grey elven wizard, as well as one "medium" difficulty gnomish monk), the RNG fits perfect in most cases because it forces me to adapt - I can't get stuck in one playstyle because occasionally there'll come a situation where that just won't work (random item destruction of key tool, random creation of out of depth monster I have to run from, random *stuff* causing me to lose favor of my god).
And I think the difficulties in nethack and ADOM are... different. I know many who think ADOM is harder, but I can't get jack sh*t done in nethack without getting killed. I think it's like... NetHack has fewer random threats, but also fewer solutions to those. In ADOM you can often find a way to get past the difficulties in one way or another, but in NetHack when you're screwed you're screwed.
Oh, and if you often die to random world map encounters, I have one suggestion: Get Long Legs. ASAP. It does wonders. And don't be burdened!
EDIT: And I agree about the plentitude of "trap options" being an issue - that's one of the things I most hope will get better in the new version. I'm fine with some feats being very build-specific, but some are just plain bad, like, always. For one, I hope they increase the +Stat talents to +2 or +3 bonuses because those are so obvious "newb" choices they should at least do something.
And I hope he finds a use for Charisma/Appearance.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I'd disagree that NetHack has few solutions to things, per se, but I think the way in which you going about seeking those solutions are very different between the two games. With NetHack, it's about, "Hey, what happens when I try this spell in this way?" or "Oh, I forgot I had that wand!" With ADOM it's often about adjusting tactics or applying the robust skill system to good effect. In both games, it also can depend a lot on the gear you've found and what you are aware you can do with it.
And of course experimenting with gear you don't know what does... and I think ADOM is more punishingly lethal (though just barely) when experimenting with gear and abilities, which is frustrating when you need to experiment to learn how things work. One thing I've always wished ADOM had, taken from the book of Nethack, is Xplore mode, where you earn no score but you can go through the game and mess around and not worry about dying. I wonder if the new version might allow for something like that, if it is going to be as RNG-driven as the original (and I imagine it will be).
Long Legs is duly noted. :) I will give it a try again at some point.
I'd hope with a newer, deeper version character reactions vary more according to Appearance, or maybe you can use Charisma to recruit followers.