Uniques now purple in nightlies

[Timo Pietilä]

Come on. When is the last time Sauron summoned 4 'p' uniques against you? Most people try to track down uniques and kill them first.

Nevertheless, to answer your question, if it happened to me I would go into the knowledge menu and change Sauron's color. Maybe 10 keystrokes one time in this exceedingly rare occurrence. OTOH, current non-obvious uniques annoy me multiple times every game for a total of hundreds of keystrokes on average.

I have sometimes played without killing all uniques and have got from Emperor Q or Morgoth summon against me:

Several demon uniques, giant uniques, dragon uniques, "h" uniques, few "p" uniques, Vecna and Feagwath. (not all in same game, but combination of those in some order).

Also any monster that can summon "similar monsters" can summon unique of its kind. So all angels basically can summon Azriel, Uriel and Gabriel. Draugluin can summon Carcharoth.

Several vaults can contain several unique monsters. Lets say you get Harowen, Ar-Pharazon and Gorlim in same vault. How do you figure out which is which? By looking? Every time they move (if they are next to each other).

etc. etc. etc.

Changing all uniques to same color is bad move. Very bad.

Uniques should be their own color each (except maybe ringwraiths, which are basically of their own monster type).

[half]

Am I the only person who read the topic title as:

Uniques now in purple nighties.

[Nick]

Uniques now in purple nighties.

Awesome. I'd like to see Quaker.

[PowerDiver]

Changing all uniques to same color is bad move. Very bad.

Uniques should be their own color each (except maybe ringwraiths, which are basically of their own monster type).

I don't think that is possible. There are a limited number of useful colors. I cannot even distinguish the colors we have now. I have learned to manually check every time whether that R is a red frog or a cave lizard. There are too many different 'p's to give them distinguishable colors. You cannot use the colors already taken by warriors, priests, paladins, etc. In fact, I wish rangers and paladins were a different color. A string of nov rangers down a corridor is insignificant compared to a string of nov paladins. That color change would be far more useful to me than different colors for Angamaite vs Sangahyando, or even Ar-Pharazon vs The Mouth.

IMO the point of the colors should be to be able to distinguish what you need to look at. Uniques are typically much closer in power to each other than to any other monster with the same letter. Not always, but most of the time when you encounter them. If you can give them distinguishable colors that would be great, but by far the most important thing is to be able to distinguish them from non-uniques at a glance.

[d_m]

IMO the point of the colors should be to be able to distinguish what you need to look at. Uniques are typically much closer in power to each other than to any other monster with the same letter. Not always, but most of the time when you encounter them. If you can give them distinguishable colors that would be great, but by far the most important thing is to be able to distinguish them from non-uniques at a glance.

Agreed. I think the correct priorities are:

1. Distinguish uniques from non-uniques
2. Distinguish uniques of hugely varying power levels
3. Distinguish uniques
4. Distinguish non-uniques

I think #1 and #2 are both reasonable if we're willing to adjust a lot of colors. #3 and #4 can't be completely solved but it is easy to write a program to see which crowded letters have one color which is crowded and one which is vacant (someone else has done this and I did it independently using angrep).

[Marble Dice]

Agreed. I think the correct priorities are:

1. Distinguish uniques from non-uniques
2. Distinguish uniques of hugely varying power levels
3. Distinguish uniques
4. Distinguish non-uniques

I think #1 and #2 are both reasonable if we're willing to adjust a lot of colors. #3 and #4 can't be completely solved but it is easy to write a program to see which crowded letters have one color which is crowded and one which is vacant (someone else has done this and I did it independently using angrep).

Keep in mind it's easier to distinguish colors when they are displayed next to each other. Maybe you can't tell a cave lizard from a red frog if you encounter a lone R, but if there were two standing next to each other, you could tell the difference.

For example, if we had 256 color support, we could basically have three shades of each color. Normal enemies could use the dark and mid tones, while the lightest tone for each color was reserved for unique monsters.

[Hariolor]

Keep in mind it's easier to distinguish colors when they are displayed next to each other. Maybe you can't tell a cave lizard from a red frog if you encounter a lone R, but if there were two standing next to each other, you could tell the difference.

For example, if we had 256 color support, we could basically have three shades of each color. Normal enemies could use the dark and mid tones, while the lightest tone for each color was reserved for unique monsters.

Yes, this.

[Nightmarjoo]

But I didn't change that, did I? w is one of the letters with no unique ...

Well there's a problem, we need a unique w that moves incredibly quickly and summons similar monsters! And breeds explosively, of course. And it should crawl to consume food.

[Timo Pietilä]

Agreed. I think the correct priorities are:

1. Distinguish uniques from non-uniques
2. Distinguish uniques of hugely varying power levels
3. Distinguish uniques
4. Distinguish non-uniques

I think #1 and #2 are both reasonable if we're willing to adjust a lot of colors. #3 and #4 can't be completely solved but it is easy to write a program to see which crowded letters have one color which is crowded and one which is vacant (someone else has done this and I did it independently using angrep).

Agree with 1. but for the rest I would rate 3 and 4 before 2.

Which is pretty much how it is now. You can easily distinquish U unique from non-unique U:s and same applies to orcs, Angels, humans etc.

Eddies comment about not being able to distinquish between rangers and paladins I don't quite understand. They are different color now (one is light grey, one is white).

[fizzix]

Well there's a problem, we need a unique w that moves incredibly quickly and summons similar monsters! And breeds explosively, of course. And it should crawl to consume food.

if you're looking for a unique w, might I suggest Jormungandr. Although I guess he's more of a J not a w. But J has no unique either!

[Derakon]

ToME has The Icky Queen (basically a pumped-up Blue Icky Thing with escorts and no multiplication) for 'i', and the Sandworm Queen (basically similar to a wyvern) for 'w'. The only J unique I can think of off the top of my head is the Serpent of Chaos, though, and that seems...inappropriate.

[fizzix]

Seems that some were missed

Atlas still appears dark Gray and Qlzqqlzuup seems to be multi-colored.

[d_m]

Atlas still appears dark Gray and Qlzqqlzuup seems to be multi-colored.

That flicker effect is independent of the "color" of the unique. Farmer Maggot is also not purple but who's counting

[fizzix]

maeglin is still dark gray

and greater balrogs are still violet

aren't you happy i'm massacring the uniques?

[ekolis]

The only J unique I can think of off the top of my head is the Serpent of Chaos, though, and that seems...inappropriate.

Jormandgund? Ouroboros? Or make one up?

edit: or The Serpent of Eden, or... hmm, was Asmodeus a serpent?