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]

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]

Exactly what sort of ice is that?

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

[Nick]

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]

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]

@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.