List of all items on screen.

[Zero]

I really like the new window that shows you the names and corresponding symbols of all the monsters on the screen. It saves me from having to constantly press 'l' and look at each monster to see what it is. However, the monster list only uses the leftmost portion of its containing window. I'd like to request that this window be divided into two columns. The left column will contain the list of viewable monsters, as it does now. An additional right column could be added showing the names and symbols of items on the screen, aligned at whatever character width the monster list requires. For example:

p Novice priest (x2) = Ring of Slow Digestion
b Giant fruit bat    - Rod of Frost Bolts
                     | Long Sword (4d5)
                     , Mushroom of Cure Blindness
                     ! Clear potion (x2)

The width alignment could change as the monster list changes:

p Wormtongue, Agent of Saruman = Ring of Slow Digestion
b Giant fruit bat              - Rod of Frost Bolts
p Novice priest (x2)           | Long Sword (4d5)
                               , Mushroom of Cure Blindness
                               ! Clear potion (x2)

or it could be fixed, chopping off the end of certain long monster names, but still having enough of the name so you know what it is:

p Wormtongue, Age = Ring of Slow Digestion

The way it is now, after any kind of object detection, I have to go into look mode and check each and every wand/staff/rod/potion/scroll/ring/book/amulet to see if it's one I care about, so I know whether I should go fetch it. And as someone who uses a k-ay macro to reduce screen clutter and mark off items I don't want, this would save me the hassle of having to destroy items.

I suppose unidentified weapons and armor could be left out of the list, since you'll want to identify every one you come across anyway. The option to hide squelched items from the list would also be a plus. However, if the squelch functionality is fully implemented--that is, if squelched item types are automatically destroyed whenever they are created--then I suppose this list might not be necessary.

[Big Al]

I'd like a feature like that for objects too, though I don't think that they should be in the same window. The term windows are resizable (at least they are in the OS X port - I'm assuming they work the same elsewhere). So if you want the list of known monsters with a list of known objects beside it, just open two windows, scale them down to half width and put them beside each other. That seems a better option than imposing a particular structure on the window.

P.S. Have I ever suggested that the monster list be sorted by depth, with the hardest monsters first? That way, you can see at a glance what the hardest monster on the screen is, and, if the list is too long to fit on a full screen, you only lose the weaker monsters off the bottom of the list. Makes more sense than the seemingly random order they're in now.

[Zero]

Actually, I was thinking that invisible monsters and cold blooded monsters should have an associated color the way uniques are purple in the monster list. I've often found myself going through detected monster lists looking for invisibles that I'd have to keep a closer eye on.

Maybe there should be a color code for the list? Purple: unique, yellow: invisible, blue: cold blooded, green: summoners, red: breeders, etc. There'd have to be an order of precedence for monsters that fall into more than one category.

And I want the lists in one window, because that way I wouldn't have the window border overlap taking up space on the screen. I try to maximize the amount of information that gets displayed per pixel. However, you are probably right that most people would rather have them as separate lists, and from a design standpoint, I'd agree with you.

[Big Al]

*shrug* In the latest version of the code things are slightly more colourised: out of depth monsters are red, uniques purple. Other than that, I don't think that it would be particularly useful to have colour codes for eg. cold blooded and such.