Identify nerfed in 4.1.0?

[PowerWyrm]

"Oracle of knowledge"
...

[Antoine]

*turns around white potion repeatedly, staring intently.* *Casts Identify.* "YOU HAVE NOTHING TO IDENTIFY" *throws white potion at Filthy Street Urchin* "Potion misses, potion breaks, you have no more potions of *AUGMENTATION*" FML

The Filthy street urchin looks more awesome! The Awesome street urchin hits! The Awesome street urchin hits! The Awesome street urchin casts a bolt of frost! You die...

[NimrodPE]

"Oracle of knowledge"

Yes, your point? RL I'm studying engineering and now let's think "angbandish" and picture a mage with an item he doesn't know anything about. He creates the spell "Identify", because that's why it exists. Now the same mage or any other mage stumbles upon another unknown item but this item isn't a legal target for the spell (however this has metamagically to be explained). What is he going to do if he's not 100% absolutely conservative? He tweeks Identify or creates another spell to identify this unidentifiable item.

My point is: From an engineering viewpoint it doesn't make sense to render potions/wands/rods/staves illegal in v4.1.0. If we were playing v1.0 I'd suggest to improve ID for future releases.

Then again: As stated earlier, imho it's now better overall although it doesn't make sense that ID can't ID everything.

[Derakon]

The first pass at rune-based ID removed all spell-based Identify, and there was a minor player revolt. I get the impression, though I could be wrong, that the complainers mostly play mages, in part precisely because mages don't have to deal with the "identification minigame", and they were peeved that they were now being forced to participate even in the weakened minigame that rune-based ID presented.

So if anything that should be an argument for doing away with unidentified items entirely.

[Nick]

OK, so what I'm hearing is change the name to Identify Rune, problem solved

[PowerWyrm]

Yes, your point?

Eye of the Beholder reference. In that game, there's a location where you can identify all your items.

[NimrodPE]

Oh, sorry, unfortunately I never played this series ;(

@Nick: Yup, that's a logical solution. Although I still wonder why no mage ever invented an "ID-every-item-spell" but gladly I'm not a mage in Angband ;D

[Pondlife]

I still wonder why no mage ever invented an "ID-every-item-spell"

In nethack there's a really easy way to identify all your items :-)

[krazyhades]

In nethack there's a really easy way to identify all your items :-)

lol! DYWYPI?

[kandrc]

lol! DYWYPI?

This works in Angband, too.

[Bostock]

DYWYPI
is my least favorite pie,
it makes me want to cry.

[Mudd]

The one that's killing me in the early game is scroll of deep descent. I've almost given up on reading scrolls until I'm up a few levels.

[Estie]

The one that's killing me in the early game is scroll of deep descent. I've almost given up on reading scrolls until I'm up a few levels.

I buy a magic mapping scroll along with phase door and clw for exactly this occasion. Usually when you descend, reading a map will find a staircase.

[wobbly]

The one that's killing me in the early game is scroll of deep descent. I've almost given up on reading scrolls until I'm up a few levels.

At worst just read recall straight away. You don't have to wait till descent kicks in. As long as you have the gold for a new recall scroll & don't mind starting back at dlvl 1 then deep descent is harmless.

[Pete Mack]

Or you can consider it an opportunity for fast level gain. It's especially fun as a mage. Detect like crazy, then search for a higher-level weak monster--especially a wolf, while avoiding everything else. BOOM! Cl 8 with a couple magic missiles and flasks of oil.

At worst just read recall straight away. You don't have to wait till descent kicks in. As long as you have the gold for a new recall scroll & don't mind starting back at dlvl 1 then deep descent is harmless.