I would like to thank all the people that already donated to ToME, it keeps me enthusiastic and happy to know that my players are enjoying the game enough to think it is worth giving money.

On that note I want to thank Canderel whom is the very first player to setup a recurring donation!
This is a very encouraging step for me and it is my hope many others will follow the lead.

Recurring donations simply are a subscription (that is handled by paypal) in which you define the amount to provide each month, automatically.

So again, thanks to you all and happy tom'ing!

Trap Tip 1: Exploding Disengagement

Here is how to use explosion traps properly even prior to getting Trap Launcher at level 12, without exploding yourself:

Disengage. If you start as a Cornac Rogue, you can use your freebie Category point to unlock the tree with Disengage in it, and spend your very first generic point on Disengage. Spend your first two class points on Trap Mastery.

When you've got a whole group of enemies right in front of you, and enough room behind you, lay an explosion trap on your own tile, and then disengage the enemy in front of you. Kaboom. And only the monsters burn!

Note that it's important to make sure before you lay the trap that you have enough stamina for both the trap and the disengage.

Unfortunately, only Cornac rogues really benefit from this technique, since rogues of other races have to wait until level 10 for disengage. It would be so wonderful if rogues started with that tree unlocked already.

Trap Tip 2: Catapult Archery!

When you've got a bunch of enemies coming at you, back into a hallway so they can come only from one direction, and lay a catapult in the opening. Stand behind it with your bow or sling ready. As the enemies approach, they'll be hurled back. While they're being pushed away from you, shoot them. Shoot them until the catapult goes away. Lay another one. Shoot some more! Also fun with wands.

Trap Tip 1: Exploding Disengagement

Here is how to use explosion traps properly even prior to getting Trap Launcher at level 12, without exploding yourself:

Disengage. If you start as a Cornac Rogue, you can use your freebie Category point to unlock the tree with Disengage in it, and spend your very first generic point on Disengage. Spend your first two class points on Trap Mastery.

When you've got a whole group of enemies right in front of you, and enough room behind you, lay an explosion trap on your own tile, and then disengage the enemy in front of you. Kaboom. And only the monsters burn!

Note that it's important to make sure before you lay the trap that you have enough stamina for both the trap and the disengage.

Unfortunately, only Cornac rogues really benefit from this technique, since rogues of other races have to wait until level 10 for disengage. It would be so wonderful if rogues started with that tree unlocked already.

Trap Tip 2: Catapult Archery!

When you've got a bunch of enemies coming at you, back into a hallway so they can come only from one direction, and lay a catapult in the opening. Stand behind it with your bow or sling ready. As the enemies approach, they'll be hurled back. While they're being pushed away from you, shoot them. Shoot them until the catapult goes away. Lay another one. Shoot some more! Also fun with wands.

-Orc cryomancers. Oh so very very much.
-The maze.
-Having to do the six orbs puzzle over and over again with each character.
-Hybrid classes. What kinds of stats is a Wyrmic or Arcane Blade supposed to put points in?
-Grinding because you've run out of safe-ish dungeons but won't dare enter Dreadfell until level 27 -- And even that's a bit risky.
-Being permanently confused because you're standing nest to a headless horror you can't get away from because you're confused.
-SKELETON. MASTER. ARCHERS.
-Reknor. The levels are too large to find anything, and are full of multicoloured dragons.
-Spending half an hour searching for the exit on a level and finding that it's about five squares away from the exit.
-When the minotaur fails to drop his awesome magic mapping gem. I forget what it's called but it's the best light I've ever found.
-When you're told that the staff of absorption got stolen even though you killed all the ambush.
-Having more than seven abilities.
-Enemies getting WTFHAX critical hits at the worst possible moments.
-When the game runs at 4 FPS because there's an acid cloud on the level.
-When the game runs at 4 FPS anyway.
-Being sandwiched between some gravity-altering abomination and the Sandworm Queen in an unstable tunnel.
-The tidal pulse attack that orc high cryomancers have.
-The Shimmering Caves. My anorithil had difficulty there at level 15.

NEW VERSION http://te4.org/blogs/toahero92/2011/03/development-log/updated-beta21

This is just a mod.
You probably won't appreciate this but I do not care.

This modifies the "Rogue" class.

 It gives +20 to all stats.
 It gives all powers. 
 You still have to learn individual powers but you can learn EVERY power.(this includes powers not normally available, including NPC powers) See Note 1
 Talent mastery is 10.
 All Talent Categories are known.
 It also gives you a "Rod of Recall" & an "Orb of Scrying" on birth. See Note 2
 You get 700 unused stats, 600 unused talents/generics, 150 unused talent types.
 You get an "Infusion: Wild" that has a cool-down of 1, lasts 900 turns, reduces damage taken by 900%, and Cures EVERYTHING. See Note 3
 You get a Life rating of 100, a Mana rating of 100, a Mana Regen of 900, and a Max Life of 500.

This mod also adds some files to the techniques folder because when I was digging I found that I was getting some errors because some files could not be found but were referenced in the default game.
NPCs could access these correctly but I could not.

So I fixed that.

The only files that this modifies are the files:

 "..\game\modules\tome\data\birth\classes\rogue.lua"
 "..\game\modules\tome\data\talents\misc\npcs.lua"

The files added are:

 "..\game\modules\tome\talents\other\other.lua"
 "..\game\modules\tome\talents\technique\other.lua"
 "..\game\modules\tome\talents\wild-gift\other.lua"
 "..\game\modules\tome\talents\spell\other.lua"
 "..\game\modules\tome\talents\chronomancy\other.lua"
 "..\game\modules\tome\talents\corruption\other.lua"

Installation (Place Step 0 wherever you like)

 0:Do nothing.

 1:Unzip the file using a program that can decompress 7zip (.7z) files.

 2:Then extract/copy the entire contents of the file to your T.o.M.E. installation directory.

 3:Overwrite anything it asks you to. [back ups of the original files I have already made and included in the install(as-of "version = {3,9,20}")]

 4:Start up the game and select whatever race you like. (I like to use Human/Cornac)

 5:Select the Rogue Class and Sub-class.

 6:Play the game.

 7:Have fun.

 8:Remember that all credit goes to Nicolas Casalini/"DarkGod" and that I just ctrl+c & ctrl+v really good.

Download Link
http://www.4shared.com/file/obH5WQAK/MyRogueMod.html

Note 1
Some NPC powers cause instant death and/or may not work/cannot be seen.
This is because I didn't add some tags to the rogue that the talent looks for.
For example, "Invoke Tentacle" may not work because I couldn't find a NPC with the tag "GRGGLCK_TENTACLE" and since I could not see the correct context to put the tag in, I didn't put it in.

Note 2
I did this because of a bug (that I could not figure out how to fix) from which you don't get the "Rod of Recall" drop.
I also did this because of a bug that when you birth as a Human Cornac Rogue (with the mod) you don't get a "Orb of Scrying" and have to drag your items to Elise.
I found that annoying.
So to fix them both I force the game to make you spawn with them.

Note 3
You also spawn with a default "Infusion: Wild" & a default "Infusion: Regeneration".
You can get rid of those by right clicking them on the "display talents quick page"

I just discovered something about Windows and gdb under MinGW.

I was playing in svn 2777 and it started to loop on me.

Not having run it "under" gdb I thought I'd try something just to see if it worked. So I opened up my MinGW MSYS command prompt window, and looked at the ps command help. "ps -W" lists Windows processes with their pid's. In this case, t-engine was on Windows pid 1088. So then I started gdb and did "attach 1088" and lo and behold, it neatly attached itself to the looping ToME process and stopped it, ready to debug.

It's not the claustrophobic architecture or the hordes of the undead, it's because the place itself is a jerk. I just finished running the ruins with my lvl 30 Cursed, a cursed who received a voratun greatsword at lvl 20ish. He still takes it out of his pack sometimes to stare at wistfully, "If only you were an axe," he whispers to it nightly. So I enter the ruins and its like entering CRAZY BOB'S VORATUN WAREHOUSE. Just for fun I picked up every voratun weapon I came across and I now have a copy or three of every type of voratun weapon made, oh except NO axes of any variety. If you'd like I can melt down one of my three longswords and try to make you some voratun underpants because damn if I know what else to do with all this. Damn you elven ruins, DAMN YOU!

Wrathroot..

He's quite scary, actually, most of the bosses are. Well, my berserker Hajmin would think he would be able to take on ol' magical tree, even forgot to activate his dwarfly powers. If you don't know what happens to a berserker vs. a tree(may apply to most bare melee chars), perma-stun and freeze imminent. I show my face, hid.. barely made plans but to bash him in the face, showed myself again, and PEEK-A-BOO, it's Wrathroot. No biggie, I try to smack him in the face with a stun, and in flashes of like 10 or more frames, I was dead. Freeze and stun was my last known inflicted damage, as I couldn't scroll up to see how my ass was handed to me, but lesson learned, FEAR THE CASTERS.

tl;dr: My dwarf berserker phailed fighting Wrathroot. Note: Perma-stun and freeze.

Question is, how do I ensure that is doesn't happen again? Cold resist sounds like the most viable plan, but.. my manly dwaft was getting stunned right back, which tells me there isn't enough muscle or something in him.

O' well. YADS.. I forgot.. DS is death story.. whatever..

Well, new to the Tome4 experience and liking it so far. Decided to run some berzerkers on Roguelike difficulty to have some fun. Got first one to 18th or 19th and ran into a horrible death in the sandpits, I pretty much know what to do there now. My latests is 22nd and I'm about to retackle with phase door runes in tow and a wand of teleport just in case.

Unlocked the mage class and I'm having fun but killing Bill the Troll is more a case of luck and tactics as opposed to just hack to death. First try mage was 4th, but initial contact with Troll got rushed and nearly killed, 2 bad phase door casts later and I'm amazed I lasted that long. Already have another saved and on the way, will try at 5th level this time with focus on spellpower and damage in the talents trees.

The only thing that I'm just completely missing is the Character updates that I see on the Tome4 website. My account updates achievements and death stats, but not the actual character profiles that I see in other peoples accounts. Checked the forum for dump posting info, but I don't know if that's the same thing and I'm just newbish enough to be on the confused side of things.

But all in all I am having a blast.

After tons of failed attempts resulting in piles of burned or drowned yeeks, one little yeek has finally survived long enough to unlock the Mindslayer class! A Doomed. The first Doomed character I have ever played, actually. She later was slaughtered by a bunch of capital E's in Derth. Poor thing never did find a single phase door or teleport rune, so she had no real way of breaking line of sight. I should have known better than to try to go to Derth for the first time with a yeek who was weak against mages. At least she did what she was created to do, which was to unlock Mindslayers.

The main trouble I had with the Doomed was that none of her talents give her enough range to do anything to ranged attackers. The archers shoot at her, the skeleton mages zap her, and she can't really do anything to them except try to duck behind corners and lure them into her range. She was like a weak mage who couldn't zap things unless they were right on top of her, and couldn't do anything to bring them closer. I didn't get a chance to try out the creeping darkness stuff, but maybe that would have helped to at least break their line of sight so they couldn't shoot her while she was advancing to put them within range. I can't see me playing a yeek again anytime soon. Next I need to play a caster to unlock corruptors. Poor Olivia the anorithil messed up on that quest by selecting the incorrect dialogue option.