Gnomes do not auto ID rods?

[malcontent]

Is there a reason a gnome can auto ID wands and staves, but not rods?

Seems inconsistent to me, but maybe I'm missing something?

[Bill Peterson]

Is there a reason a gnome can auto ID wands and staves, but not rods?

Seems inconsistent to me, but maybe I'm missing something?

Maybe something to do with wands and staves being made of wood?

[malcontent]

Maybe something to do with wands and staves being made of wood?

I don't see anything in the code that suggests a wood preference for gnomes. I'm inclined to think this is an over sight.

Nick, Can I submit a pull request to possibly get into the 4.2.2 update?

[malcontent]

Nick, Can I submit a pull request to possibly get into the 4.2.2 update?

It is a pretty easy code change...

[malcontent]

Nick, Can I submit a pull request to possibly get into the 4.2.2 update?

Whoops. I meant the 4.2.4 update.

[Nick]

I don't see anything in the code that suggests a wood preference for gnomes. I'm inclined to think this is an over sight.

Nick, Can I submit a pull request to possibly get into the 4.2.2 update?

The code to me indicates that this was intentional. Of course that doesn't mean we can't change it. What do others think?

[Estie]

My belief is that rods were excluded to not let the gnome racial ability become too powerfull compared to others, like recognizing mushrooms.

Personally I dont care about balancing the races and I am all for making it consistent. Let gnomes recognize rods, too.

On a somewhat related note...identifying all the hundreds of different devices is the most tedious part of the game since rune id has been introduced.

Would it be possible to group the devices a little, so that when you have learned the wand of fire ball, the rod of fire ball will be known, too ?
Or dragon breath potion - wand. If it does the same, the device type that delivers the effect wouldnt matter.

[Pete Mack]

Why do you bother identifying everything? If i have a staff of no obvious value, i just ignore it, unidentified.

[Estie]

By "ignore" do you mean squelch ?

I am a fanatic squelcher; so for example, I will squelch resist heat potions when I have fire immunity and remember to unsquelch when I lose fire immunity again due to changes in gear.

Now to determine the usefulness of a staff you need to activate it; and activating once (with a target in LOS) is also what you do to identify (most) staves. So what do you gain by ignoring unidentified ?

[Pete Mack]

Yes, i mean squelch. If i run across a low level staff that seems to do nothing, i *know* it is bot worth carrying.

[Estie]

I guess not having to pick it up and carry around the corner to affect some monster does save on tedium.

[Sphara]

Change or not, I won't mind. No real gameplay effect for me. Can distinguish Disable Traps from ts ray. All others identify with or without having one monster around to zap at.

[Mondkalb]

With rods you don't loose charges trying to identify it, so I think the advantage of auto-ID is minimal.

[fph]

What do others think?

First of all it's not clear to me what the lore reason behind this choice is. Do gnome have affinity to magic? To wood? To phallic objects? Is this a canonical Tolkien thing or just a folklore/DnD thing?

[Grotug]

Personally I'd prefer rods not auto id'ing to be left alone. It does seem pretty reasonable to keep the power level of Gnomes in check in this regard; lore considerations not withstanding.