ID-by-use in current dev version

[takkaria]

Well, I've spent the Easter weekend doing a bit of hacking, with the outcome that the current dev version has a fairly decent ID-by-use system. If you're wearing an unidentified ring, and it happens to be one of Ice, then when you attack someone with it for the first time, you'll get a message like "Your Rhodonite Ring flares! You burn the mangy looking leper.". If you're wearing a ring of teleportation, then when you teleport, it'll tell you which ring is doing it. And if you get attacked by a firebreather with an item with fire resistance, it'll glow and from that you can tell what it was doing.

I bet it's not entirely bug-free and there's probably some messages which won't make much sense in order, but I thought I'd give people a headsup about it, since it'll be in 3.1.1 beta when I release that farily soon.

(Also, if you pseudo-id something as excellent and it's cursed, it'll come up as {excellent, cursed} now, rather than {worthless}. We'll see how this plays out, too.)

[Nick]

Originally Posted by takkaria

If you're wearing an unidentified ring, and it happens to be one of Ice, then when you attack someone with it for the first time, you'll get a message like "Your Rhodonite Ring flares! You burn the mangy looking leper.".

Exactly what sort of ice is that?

[takkaria]

Originally Posted by Nick

Exactly what sort of ice is that?

Hot ice. You know, that stuff they get out of the ground and powers cars...

[Nick]

Originally Posted by takkaria

Hot ice. You know, that stuff they get out of the ground and powers cars...

I'm glad I asked.

On to the actual topic, I'll be interested to see how this goes. I currently have curse ID by use in FA, but not really anything else - but this reflects the fact that ID is getting easier, and doesn't find curses. I guess the main problem with ID-by-use is sticky curses, which really discourage it.

[takkaria]

Originally Posted by Nick

I'm glad I asked.

On to the actual topic, I'll be interested to see how this goes. I currently have curse ID by use in FA, but not really anything else - but this reflects the fact that ID is getting easier, and doesn't find curses. I guess the main problem with ID-by-use is sticky curses, which really discourage it.

I hope to move to something like what you've done in FA at some point, so that sticky curses don't exist so much. Hopefully what I've done so far will make a positive difference to the game anyway, though.

[bio_hazard]

a bit of a derail here, but what if curses were lifted (or had a chance to be broken) in certain circumstances such as gaining a character level, going deeper in the dungeon, killing a monster or x number of monsters, etc.

[Pete Mack]

It wouldn't help. Some cursed objects are so bad that you want to take them off immediately. (Aggravate, or some huge combat penalty, or a big stat hit.)

You just can't afford to wander around with those for any length of time.

[Magnate]

@takkaria: I've been following the changesets, but haven't had a chance to test this directly yet. If you shoot a monster, does the code now tell you whether the brand came from the ammo or the launcher (or even both)?

[takkaria]

Originally Posted by Magnate

@takkaria: I've been following the changesets, but haven't had a chance to test this directly yet. If you shoot a monster, does the code now tell you whether the brand came from the ammo or the launcher (or even both)?

Yup, should do.