Well one of the big features of beta 35 is the addon system. This allows people to make content for tome but don't want to get it added to the main game. Addons should be compatible but there could be conflicts in fringe cases. to use an addon simply copy the folder to the addon directory in tomebetaXX/game. I have written two addons at this point in time ( my goblin race is converted to this format and the new Wraith race). Other addon(s) are being made so there should be a couple when release happens.

here are the two I have finished
Wraith: http://www.mediafire.com/?rwe69fkq1dghlrf
Goblin: http://www.mediafire.com/?20mc63pg12ar1en

I plan to convert everything I have done so far ( deathknight ,liches and some other stuff)
If enough people clamor/ask I am up to writing a tutorial for the new system (and creating content in general) for the wiki

In about eleven months of the donation system existence today we passed the mark of the 3000€ of donations!
There is also now a handful of recurring donators.

I just wanted to tell you how important this is to me, it shows to me that people think the game is good and they wish to see it go further. And it *will*!

Also, some of the money was donated back to Shockbolt who did (and is still doing) an amazing job with the tiles & graphics.

So to all the donators, a big thank you!
And to all the other players, also thank you for your kind words, ideas, code, ... this is also extremely important.

Soon 2011 will end and I can tell you, 2012 will see the first non-beta release!

Ahh, Doomed. For some reason, I've had a lasting love affair with the class. I like hate as a resource, I like spellcasters as my favorite spellcasters, and I like battlefield control and positioning.

But one thing that always kind of irks *twitch* me about them, is their equipment. Well that, and Antimagic.

See, Doomed for the -most- part are will based, and they don't have/use crits on their spells (exception, dark torrent), they don't use spellpower, and they have few spells that you actually use that even USE the magic stat for damage.

I mean, lets list what uses Will, damages, and its effects.

Willful Strike: Low/Moderate damage, large knockback, short cooldown. Low Cost.
Blast: Moderate Damage huge AoE, moderate/large knockback, daze, moderate cooldown. Medium Cost.
Unseen Force: Random strike aura, moderate damage/large knockback, chance to strike twice. Long Cooldown. High Cost.
Reproach: low/moderate damage spread between everything in range 3, with willcheck to damage. Short Cooldown. Low Cost.
Hateful Whisper: Moderate Damage Condition that spread on it's own. Basically, a cool mechanic AoE. Moderate Cooldown. Moderate Cost.
Agony: Condition, high damage total over 5 turns, with willcheck each turn to save. Short cooldown. Low Cost.
Madness: Adds 25% chance with scaling willcheck to reproach, hateful whisper, and agony (per turn on agony) to stun/daze/slow.

So, pretty much a full kit for damage, mainly things with short cooldowns, good damage overall, and good AoE. Good mix of costs. A pretty good kit.

Now, for Magic:

Creeping Dark: low/moderate damage, random style cloud AoE. Mainly used to trigger +~10% damage from Dark Vision, and to block mob LoS. Not reliable for damage. Moderate Cooldown. Moderate Cost.
Dark Vision: utility, if somethings in creeping dark it takes Xtra damge, also, you get scaling 'infravision' (it's not actually infravision) to see monsters with radius. Costless.
Dark Torrent: Beam of darkness spell, moderate/low damage, chance to blind and cause target to "forget" it's target. Moderate Cooldown. Moderate/low cost.
Dark Tendrils: A moving square of creeping dark pins a target in place, moderate/low damge, long cooldown. Moderate Cost.
Arcane Bolt: fire 4 bolts for moderate/low damage total arcane, at closest target. Moderate/low cooldown. Moderate/High Cost.
Vaporize: High(!) Damage, High Cost, Single target for arcane damage. Long Cooldown.

Ok so, here we've got an unreliable AoE damage (mainly used for it's utility), utility, a beam that's a little less than stellar, a spell that's mostly overshadowed by reproach because of cooldown, and it's madness benefits, and a single target decimator that's certain to cost you more hate than it earns. Or rather: Everything under magic has a higher cost, and if you're using it for damage, you probably wish you were using one of your will skills instead. Creeping Dark for damage? Use blast. Dark Tendrils for Damage? Use Agony. Arcane Bolt for damage? Use Reproach. Vaporize for Damage? Put them in a corner and use unseen force. Vaporize is the only one I really see a fair use for.

This is the point: most Doomed don't even really need magic. It's almost all about Will. And when you don't use crit, you don't use spellpower, and you mostly use mostly one stat for all of your damage, your secondary stat is mostly there for your utility skills... Equipment is trivial. Mostly, useless.

If I had to be a naked character I'd be a Doomed anytime, because they mostly just don't care what they're holding, or even if. You'll hold swords and shield just to get resists and retributive damage. Oh looks that one has higher resists and +wil? *tosses penitence for an iron dagger* Oddly enough I'll carry a sling every now and then because it has +%physical damage which benefits one whole tree they have. Doomed have very little equipment out there that actually appeals to them. There's nothing really that a Doomed sees and goes "oh look, that just made my day!"

And while I like that they remove that -need- for equipment element from the game, I almost more thoroughly dislike it. We need a Doomed Staff, Robe, /whatever. I don't want to find platemail with resists and throw it on because who cares about what crazy mage robes have on them. I don't want to hold a staff and know I should be carrying a shield. That's not what a twisted cursed spellcaster does. But it's what a Doomed does, and it feels disingenuous.

Itemization on a doomed is pretty much what has good resists, +will, and that's about it. It needs some more depth.

Personally I advocate changing them so that they use spellpower, with appropiate scaling. I don't think they need the buff per se, and maybe their base damages should be lowered because of it, but it'd encourage more players to actually invest in magic besides pumping Vaporize to "you dead!" levels. (I'm scared to face my clone in ____ because I know if I feed strengths, put them in creeping dark, and vaporize, I hit for ~1140 damage, and I'm capping with a shield at ~890. Resists? Feed strength will just eat them off).

Antimagic Afterthought:

The way things are built presently, since magic only provides utility effects, and you have a complete damage kit with willpower only investments, antimagic -is- viable. Which, is kind of odd for a twisted cursed spellcaster. Now, Antimagic may seem kind of odd, buttt... Deflection + Antimagic shield has some VERY interesting interactions. I'm talking about taking almost NO damage from spells. Your knockback and the statuses from the retributions line/madness definitely help keep you out of the frontline, means that there become 2 thinks only that you really fear: Archers, and Knockback Immune. I leveled and achieved most of my stuff with a Cornac Doomed maybe 4 months ago with antimagic. Corruptors couldn't hurt me anymore. I died to a vault of Greater Wyrms of Power (knockback immune) in the East after having completed most of the game content, I felt like a potential winner. Plus, when you don't care about equipment, it's a lot easier to swallow the antimagic pill.

Personally, I don't know how/which order of operations the deflection/antimagic shield gets processed in, but I suspect it's the wrong one. It feels like 300 damage inc (Ouch!), /2 to deflection split (drain that deflection) shield, 150 damage - antimagic shield, oh look you took sub 100. THAT's without factoring in resistances, of which doomed can pick and choose equipment for resists at leisure, and feed strengths can give crazy resists if you have an opportune target.

Anyways, off to play the game.

Eidolon Plane 1 1
Infinite Dungeon 1 1
Tutorial 1 1
Wilderness 1 1
Abashed Expanse 1 5
Deep Bellow 1 5
Heart Gloom 1 5
Murgol Lair 1 5
Norgos Lair 1 5
Reknor Escape 1 5
Rhaloren Camp 1 5
Ritch Tunnels 1 5
Ruins Kor Pul 1 5
Scintillating Caves 1 5
Slazish Fen 1 5
Trollmire 1 5
Blighted Ruins 1 8
Town Derth 1 15
Town Elvala 1 15
Town Iron Council 1 15
Town Shatur 1 15
Arena 1 50
Test 1 50
Demon Plane Spell 1 100
Arena Unlock 5 12
Daikara 7 16
Maze 7 16
Old Forest 7 16
Sandworm Lair 7 16
Town Lumberjack Village 8 14
Thieves Tunnels 8 18
Halfling Ruins 10 25
Ring Of Blood 10 25
Ruined Dungeon 10 30
Golem Graveyard 14 20
Tempest Peak 15 22
Lake Nur 15 25
Dreadfell 15 26
Last Hope Graveyard 15 35
Town Last Hope 15 35
Town Zigur 15 50
Paradox Plane 16 30
Temporal Rift 16 30
Shertul Fortress 18 25
Reknor 18 35
Dreadfell Ambush 20 50
Town Angolwen 20 50
Illusory Castle 25 30
Ardhungol 25 32
Crypt Kryl Feijan 25 35
Mark Spellblaze 25 35
Unremarkable Cave 25 35
Flooded Cave 30 40
Temple Of Creation 30 40
Valley Moon Caverns 30 40
Eruan 30 45
Charred Scar 30 50
Orc Breeding Pit 30 60
Rak Shor Pride 30 60
Ancient Elven Ruins 33 42
Town Gates Of Morning 33 50
Shadow Crypt 34 45
Demon Plane 35 45
Tannen Tower 35 45
Telmur 35 45
Valley Moon 35 45
Briagh Lair 35 50
Vor Armoury 35 50
Gorbat Pride 35 60
Grushnak Pride 35 60
Vor Pride 35 60
Slime Tunnels 45 55
High Peak 55 80
Shertul Fortress Caldizar 100 100
Void 100 100

As promised here comes T-Engine4 and ToME4 beta34 ! See http://te4.org/

Don't forget to help ToME by with donations ( http://te4.org/donate ) !

This is a bugfix/balance release.

Release highlights:

• Fixes the dreaded wilderness/map change crash bug
• Fixes the smooth shadow "jittering" when moving fast
• Fixes keyboard handling
• Many smaller fixes
• Talents respec! Kinda!

Expanded changelist:

• Unfocused dialogs will not darken anymore, it was just annoying
• Ghouls correctly get their speed penality
• Added a fourth page of hotkeys bringing the total to 48
• Arcane Eye correctly requires level 4 to track
• Updated keyboard handling, should not double trigger anymore
• Textbox/Numberbox should correctly work with movement keys
• Donators names now appear in green or blue (for recurring donators) in the ingame chat
• Winning as an alchemist by self sacrifice will correctly record the win
• Perhaps fix wilderness map going bonkers
• Assassin Lord should not pop on level 1 and always on level 2
• Limited talents respeccing available: The last 4 class and 3 generic talent points you spent are always reassignable (unless they are on a special talent like imbue item to prevent abuse). Birth talents are also respeccable on birth this way.
• First half of the big LOS/FOV update:
  • FoV no longer improperly peeks around blocked corners
  • LoS is now equivalent to FoV
  • "Smart" LoS: if you can see it, you can target and project to it
  • FoV has a permissiveness setting that can be set for each level
  • Distance metrics are now consistent for FoV, AoE, and talent ranges (defaults to rounded circle)
  • fov_beam_any_angle function now uses "dx", "dy" as input instead of "angle"
• Fix weird health bars
• Extract Gem now works on high end stuff even in low level zones
• Buffed the Void Star
• Fixed cursed items
• Fix Arena start under some circumstances
• Adjusted anomaly damage scaling
• Chronomancy 'teleport' spells now behave similarly to other teleport spells
• Anomaly swap should no longer be able to swap players into vaults
• Spacetime mastery hit bonus fixed
• Adjusted static history scaling
• Fixed Forgery of Haze
• Fix Ambush
• Going East will keep our friends with you
• Fix attack runes cooldowns
• Fix Epoch fight
• Alchemist Gems can not become cursed
• Learning combat training on the golem from an escort wont lower his (hidden) mastery
• Golem Pound does not affect the alchemist
• Locked doors have a padlock on them
• Ruined dungeon and Arena unlock locked doors have tiles
• Fix text lines on very large screens
• Fix bug when doing "New Game" after doing "Load Game"
• ObjectActivable:useObject changed to return a table, objects implementation using use_simple or use_power must thus return a table too
• Fixed using object turn-usage. Turn will be spend when the target is selected only
• Reduced the duration of Blinding Spores
• Wintertide Phial now has an activation
• Buffed the Murderblade damage and added an Frenzy proc
• Skullcleaver drains life
• Fearscape and Flame of Urh'Rok correctly interact
• Fearscape icon fixed
• Lure time increases with talent level
• Summoners can make their minotaur drop their weapon
• Fix projectiles in flight from actors that died using Cease to Exist
• Elementals are now stun/blind/confusion/knockback immune
• Crown/Bindings of the Eternal Night correctly work after a save/reload
• Fix Celia being brought to the Fearscape
• Fix Volcano when save/reloading
• Reavers's Ruin talent now also heals them for each hit they do
• FOV/LOS shape can now be altered by modules using a simple: core.fov.set_vision_shape("circle") . The parameter can be one of "circle", "circle_floor", "circle_ceil", "circle_plus1", "diamond", "octagon", "square"
• The Rod of Recall can be used again to stop recalling
• Vampiric Gift provides a bit less healing
• Black Robe procs reduced
• Chat filter options are now correctly saved when changed
• Chat log dialog will not scroll on new messages if not at the bottom
• Inventory window encumberance title changes color the closer you get to overburned
• Learning a talent triggers its cooldown (except on birth)
• Fixed the shadows "jittering" when quickly moving around with smooth shadows
• Negative fatigue is not possible for psi
• Screenshots works in dialogs & targetting mode too
• Reseted keybinds, this should be the last time, hopefully
• Reaver's Ruin talent damage is computed on the fly so that Bloodlust can affect it
• When the There and back again quest is done Zemekys home closes (since he gets out)
• Fixed random crash on changing levels
• Paradox Mage in the "The Way We Weren't" quest can not self resurrect even if the player could
• Vox correctly states it increases vim
• Inventory title bar (in Metal UI) fills up with a special color to represent encumberance
• Fixed psi tooltip
• Augmentation, Beyond the Flesh, and Quicker than Thought are now instant cast
• Projection Mastery and Absorption Mastery now have whole-number cooldowns
• Psi Archery talents now properly disallow sling use.
• Mindhook inflicts a 1-turn daze
• Reshape Armor buffed and description fixed
• Clarified Shattering Charge description
• Quicker than Thought now properly grants 20% movement speed per talent level
• Eldritch Blow and Eldritch Fury no longer produce errors when used without a shield
• Eldritch Fury can now properly daze
• Golem Crush now correctly checks the target's susceptibility to pin instead of stun
• Invisibility and Darkest Light reduce your damage output while invisible
• Invisibility drains less mana
• Invisibility Runes do not have charges anymore but prevent healing while active and reduce damage output
• Removed speed runes
• Made horror talent descriptions clearer
• Anomalies now reduce paradox when they occur depending on the cost of the talent that triggered them (the anomaly that does damage to spacetime still exists however)
• Anomalies are now called before failure checks so the player can't hit a point where it's impossible to trigger an anomaly
• Rethread and Gather the Threads now have mechanics to reduce paradox
• Energy Decompositoin description clarified
• Brawler birth description clarified
• On birth all talents are respecable
• Rebalanced Epoch
• Various chronomancy fixes

Have fun!

The screenshots page has been updated with much more recent screenshots!

Do not hesitate to submit yours on the forum.

PS: Reminder to players, you can screenshot ingame now! (check the keybind)

Let's get more articles!

I do not know who I am.
I do not know who I was in life.
All I know is the from the notes left behind.
And I know about Magic.

Magic...Magic has been nothing but a problem. By these notes I found laying in this dungeon, Magic what caused this "Spellblaze." Magic is what cursed me in life and twisted my soul and my body. Magic is also what killed me.

And Magic is what brought me back from my eternal rest.

My first memory is awakening in some ruins, surrounded by candles. Strange Runes were carved all over my skin, they appear to have some sort of magical property to them, though I do not fully understand them yet. A necromancer stood outside the candles. Apparently he assumed I was just another mindless servant of his. He was wrong. Refusing to be a slave I quickly felled this necromancer, but not before getting a little bit of information from him, apparently this cloak he possessed will conceal the nature of what I truly am. I could not allow him to live though, he has caused too much suffering to other tortured souls. It will not continue.

"...You are alone! You will be destroyed!"

His words echoed in my ears. Will I be destroyed? What am I to do? Not only does this curse still sit strongly upon my very essence, I am now an undead monster tainted by magic.

This will not do. Something must change.

I quickly headed for the surface, slaughtering all in my way. These undead are all empty husks, I can see there is no real life in their eyes. They will not be missed.

Upon emerging I headed east. I came across a city known as 'Last Hope'. Fitting. This place may be my last hope at Redemption. After speaking with several townsfolk who all seemed to be apprehensive towards magic as well, I received a clue. There is a small village nearby of Warriors of Zigur who dedicate their lives to the eradication of magic.

This may be the chance! Maybe they can remove this curse upon me!

Unfortunatly they felt I was not strong enough to join their order. I headed north and cleared the corruption I found in Norgos lair and the Heart of the gloom. To the west the foul undead in the Ruins of Kor'Pul and the troll Proxx who has been devouring travelers. To the south, crystals with remnant energy of the spellblaze, and a camp of rogue elven magic users.

I felt ready for anything. I went back to zigur and dedicated myself to their order. I passed their tests. Unfortunatly, I did not realize the Runes fused to my body would be destroyed in the process. The very Runes that have been sustaining my unlife.

...and my cloak...

The powers of this antimagic aura flowed through me and completely negated this Cloak of Deception. Before the members of Zigur had a chance to notice the magic fading away, I fled the village. I am no longer concealed. I am truly Cursed now. No more hiding what I am. No more runes to help my survival. The patrols in the area quickly attempted to hunt me down. I was far swifter than they.

I am alone in my search to save myself. I went the only other place I heard of that may have some kind of magic to aid me. Citizens of Last Hope mumbled about the possibility of an abandoned fortress hidden somewhere under lake nur. I quickly made my way through the old forest, only to be stopped dead in my tracks.

An Ancient treant known as WrathRoot would not allow me to pass. With no magic to aid me, even when fully embracing the unholy powers this undead form and this curse gave me, I was no match for him. Struck down by the very Nature I vowed to serve.

Is this how it was supposed to happen? To be destroyed?..I feared death again just as much as I assume anyone that has never died before, because for me with no memories, this was my first death. I did not want to die...I simply wanted this curse removed.

"...You will be destroyed!"...

Maybe I should have listened a bit more to my re-animator

The OSX build is now available at http://te4.org/download !

Have fun fellow OSX people

As promised here comes T-Engine4 and ToME4 beta33 ! See http://te4.org/

Don't forget to help ToME by with donations ( http://te4.org/donate ) !

This is a quick bugfix release, please upgrade it as some vital fixes.

Release highlights:

• Fixes a bug which prevented Dreadfell from loading
• New "metal" UI
• Multiple smaller fixes

Expanded changelist:

• New default UI: "Metal"
• Fix Vampiric Gift mana cost
• Load Savefile dialgo is easier to use to delete
• Celia's mausoleum cracks more
• Shift/Control do not switch icon toolbar anymore (still do with the text one as it makes more sense)
• Stores in ASCII mode are more clearly visible
• Running tries to avoid water
• Paradox fail, anomaly, and backfire calculations now take into the account the cost of the talent being used
• Fatigue penalties for paradox spells doubled
• See the Threads is now instant cast and costs less paradox
• Precognition duration extended
• Mutually exclusive paradox talents now say they can't be used at the same time
• Targeted chronomancy teleportation effects can now backfire (leaving the caster standing one tile away)
• Fixed the stealth equip bug
• Fixed the border on Temporal Clone and made it a 'hit' talent
• Ambuscade can not be used to duplicate items
• Fixed quick entering/leaving a town for the first time borking the stores
• Fixed a profile bug that prevented some people from joining in
• Typos
• Emote graphics updated to not suck
• Fix Worm that walks bug
• Fix Ambuscade bug
• Updated tooltip graphics
• Boss of the shadow crypt now can drop a related new artifact: Life Drinker
• Fix Golem Pound
• Update physfs to 2.0.2, fixing the "missing" dreadfell bug
• Lost merchant quest works more like normal zones (code changes)
• Fix a bug with View Highscore
• Picking up when no objects are on the floor does not loose a turn

Have fun!