Random Baltherings of a TSC Newbie

[Molmoch]

Great mod! I like the new skills and the shift in strategy that comes with it. I just had a few specific comments and questions that you can take for whatever they are worth. I have started three chars, an amazon, an assassin, and a necro. All are still in Act 1.

1. Monster Body Parts - I would love to see a recipe that gave oyu something if you collected one of each type of part of a specific monster. Maybe make a card? Is there some larger purpose for these things?

2. Skeles seem to already do lightning damage. Is this intentional?

3. Why use soften when six levels later you can use Decrepify? Getting to level 12 is not hard.

4. As always, the necro so completely owns against monsters that it is sickening. I can't even imagine how bad it will be when I hit Revive.

5. I seem to find a LOT of Arctic Furs. Four with three characters. Something feels wrong with that, but it might just be the roll of the dice.

6. The necro skills are all over the board on location. Iron Golem is 24, but its in the 6 spot. Makes it a little confusing.

7. Why have golem mastery if you can only make an iron golem? Or are there other skills you can get later?

8. A lot of food is dropping before I can use it. Whole chickens and the such.

9. I have found several monster parts from rocks and chests for Act 3 and 4 monsters, including two for Mephisto. IMHO, body parts should only drop from monsters themselves.

10. Bosses should always drop something of importance - and hopefully not mushrooms. Its annoying when that boss drops boots, mushroom, a few broken items, and no potions. Doesn't have to be a big drop, but something.

Despite these points, I'm having a lot of fun. When I first bumped into an invis monster, I thought it was a bug! Scared me half to death! Same with the really unexpectedly hard tower.

[Malifrax]

Well, I'm not the creator, but I'll make some comments anyways.

1. Monster Body Parts - I would love to see a recipe that gave oyu something if you collected one of each
type of part of a specific monster. Maybe make a card? Is there some larger purpose for these things?

This is more diffult to do than you think. The way current body parts work is that every type of body part is given a monster name as a prefix similar to how cracked/damaged items are created. So, the item code remains the generic one given to all body parts of that type. In order to make recipes for specific monster body parts, Guy would have to make unique parts for every monster that he wanted to have body parts for, which could lead to a whole lot of work. Of course, the author may be willing to do this, so who knows.

As for the usefulness of body parts, I personally find them pretty useful, depending on the character I'm using. My main character, a level 83 Necromancer, has been using the same tempered dagger since level 15 or so. By upgrading it over time using body parts, I have made it a very nice caster weapon that suits my needs. Besides upgrading tempered items, they can also be used to make the geometrical shapes used to make runic discs.

2. Skeles seem to already do lightning damage. Is this intentional?

Personally, I like the fact that they do lightning damage. It's real useful against those pesky physical immune monsters.

3. Why use soften when six levels later you can use Decrepify? Getting to level 12 is not hard.

If soften still functions like Amplify Damage, then it probably still has the affect of removing the physical immune property from physical immune monsters, which decripify doesn't. I'm not really sure though, as I don't use curses.

4. As always, the necro so completely owns against monsters that it is sickening. I can't even imagine how bad it will be when I hit Revive.

I couldn't agree more. At level 83, my skeleton necromancer has level 94 raise skeleton with level 88 skeleton mastery (includes the meager +skills I have) and the skeletons are pretty much unstoppable against everything but Iron Maiden. I don't use any curses or attack spells, so all of my character's points are spent in skeleton mastery, raise skeleton, and a little summon resistance.

5. I seem to find a LOT of Arctic Furs. Four with three characters. Something feels wrong with that, but it might just be the roll of the dice.

I haven't found a single one of these yet, so I'd say it's just the luck of the draw.

6. The necro skills are all over the board on location. Iron Golem is 24, but its in the 6 spot. Makes it a little confusing.

I agree. Hopefully Guy is planning on cleaning up the locations a little so as to prevent so much confusion.

7. Why have golem mastery if you can only make an iron golem? Or are there other skills you can get later?

I haven't seen any items that grant golem summoning skills, so I have no idea.

8. A lot of food is dropping before I can use it. Whole chickens and the such.

Yeah, this happens a lot. Personally I never use the stuff, and until recently I saved the food I found. Maybe the author can add some recipes that incorporate foods.

9. I have found several monster parts from rocks and chests for Act 3 and 4 monsters, including two for Mephisto. IMHO, body parts should only drop from monsters themselves.

This is more of a problem with using the generic body parts and also how the treasure class system is set up. Guy might be able to fix this if he changes what treasure class the body parts appear in. Of course, if he made monster specific body part drops with unique body parts and treasure class entries for every monster, then this problem would definitely be fixed. Unfortunately, it is a lot of work to do all of that, as I'm sure some modders who have done it can attest (Nezeramontias by Acromatic Aria is the only mod I can remember that uses monster specific treasure classes).

10. Bosses should always drop something of importance - and hopefully not mushrooms. Its annoying when that boss drops boots, mushroom, a few broken items, and no potions. Doesn't have to be a big drop, but something.

I'm definitely for this. Guaranteed drops are one of the many things I missed from Diablo that didn't make it to Diablo 2. The items don't have to be ultra powerful, just minor uniques or set items that help players just starting out. A remake of the old Butcher's Cleaver would be nice to add to The Butcher, and maybe other original Diablo uniques could be added as well.

When I first bumped into an invis monster, I thought it was a bug! Scared me half to death!

I think this is a bug, as in the previous versions I don't remember ever encountering them. The problem with the invisible monsters is that they are not targetable, which is a pain in the butt for any melee character.

[GuyAskingQuestion]

1. Monster Body Parts - I would love to see a recipe that gave oyu something if you collected one of each type of part of a specific monster. Maybe make a card? Is there some larger purpose for these things?

As Malifrax said, this would be really time consuming. Setting up seperate treasureclasses for each monster would be something I would love to do, but I have a life and a degree to get

2. Skeles seem to already do lightning damage. Is this intentional?

Yeah, and if you notice they gain items through monprop

3. Why use soften when six levels later you can use Decrepify? Getting to level 12 is not hard.

Soften>Decrepify
Sorry I can't refer to anything sicne I am not using my own pc but, soften can grant say 200% increased damage, which is far superior. You could make any monster really weak to physical damage

4. As always, the necro so completely owns against monsters that it is sickening. I can't even imagine how bad it will be when I hit Revive.

Really?, maybe some balancing is required... He never owned as much as the Druid used to though

5. I seem to find a LOT of Arctic Furs. Four with three characters. Something feels wrong with that, but it might just be the roll of the dice.

Lucky you I guess

6. The necro skills are all over the board on location. Iron Golem is 24, but its in the 6 spot. Makes it a little confusing.

Iron Golems level requirement is wrong, should be 6 :S
Skeleton Mastery needs fixing too i think...

7. Why have golem mastery if you can only make an iron golem? Or are there other skills you can get later?

You can get fire golem through some rare items, Golem only builds may want a strong golem , might improve the skill however...

8. A lot of food is dropping before I can use it. Whole chickens and the such.

Maybe the drop rates could be moved around, food is really powerful. I might make some recipes, but I though they were good enough
You may find more use for them when the bigger inventory arrives.

9. I have found several monster parts from rocks and chests for Act 3 and 4 monsters, including two for Mephisto. IMHO, body parts should only drop from monsters themselves.

Sure body parts aren't even in the treasureclasses, just a random item drop.. very annoying since it spawns Evil Forces all the time

10. Bosses should always drop something of importance - and hopefully not mushrooms. Its annoying when that boss drops boots, mushroom, a few broken items, and no potions. Doesn't have to be a big drop, but something.

Which bosses? Act bosses were/are too good for drops...
Champions have been adjusted in the next patch to be the best for uniques, and random bosses as the best for sets

Invisible guys are a bug, must of left out the animations or something, since they don't appear on mine...

[Molmoch]

Thanks for all the replies folks. I didn't realize the issue with the monster parts drops. I guess that makes sense. I'll just start using them up pronto then.

When I talked about boss drops, I meant random boss drops. But if you intend to fix it, thats great.

I am getting the feeling that the tower is not meant for the first time through the game. Encountering some of the baddies I did down there has me worried. Is this a post - Baal level? Skeles are holding their own, for the most part. Im on Jail 2 at lvl 16. Guys with Iron Maiden (Cursed Knights?) are the hardest part so far.

Lots of fun. I'm trying a barbarian next for a bit to get a different feel for the melee types.

[Malifrax]

Since you're playing a Necromancer with skeletons, you'll probably get to the bottom before you decide to kill Andariel. I believe the tower is meant for characters who are in Act 4 or Act 5, as it has monsters that are common in those acts along with some that are not in those acts. TsC has quite a few other side areas which are good for experience, items, and just fun to explore.

[mmamono]

just wanted to say I also found 4 arctic pelts