Alternative detect monster spell?

[Mikko Lehtinen]

I don't like casting Detect Monsters and then trying to remember where the monsters were.

Does any variant have alternative takes on Detect Monsters that don't depend on player's memory? Or do you have ideas that would help? I'd like to cook something up for Fay.

[Magnate]

I don't like casting Detect Monsters and then trying to remember where the monsters were.

Does any variant have alternative takes on Detect Monsters that don't depend on player's memory? Or do you have ideas that would help? I'd like to cook something up for Fay.

Sangband has flag-specific ESP at high levels of certain skills, so you gain innate ESP of demons / animals / undead if your Holy / Nature / Dominion skill is high enough. At lower levels you can still sense them, but they flicker in and out of focus (and are sometimes asterisks rather than their actual monster glyph). I've always thought it would be a good mechanic to extend (e.g. you could have potions or spells which granted temporary versions).

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Leon may have taken those flickering asterisks from Ey Perception mechanic, actually. Fay may already have much of the necessary code.

I don't like spells that you need to cast repeatably either, so I'd need to make this a skill maybe. Lots of options here. Maybe I could just make Perception skill stronger.

[Estie]

I have played alot of tome2 and didnt like partial ESP at all, because it doesnt remove the need for monster detection and thus is of so little value that I ignored it for evaluation purposes.

But the Sang asterisks now....what would the game be like if ESP just showed you an asterisk instead of the ascii symbol for a monster ?

[fph]

Wouldn't the simplest solution be a new key "show me the output of all the detect monsters that I cast on this level"?

In the end, we already have a key for "show me the state of the shops the last time I visited the town". (even if I didn't actually enter the store?)

--federico

[Mikko Lehtinen]

Wouldn't the simplest solution be a new key "show me the output of all the detect monsters that I cast on this level"?

In the end, we already have a key for "show me the state of the shops the last time I visited the town". (even if I didn't actually enter the store?)

--federico

I like this! Maybe showing the output of the last detect monsters would be enough?

[Mikko Lehtinen]

What if Detect Monsters would reveal monster location permanently until they move?

[ekolis]

Or it could be a timed effect - instead of just "detect where monsters are now", it could be "detect monsters for 1d4+4 turns" or something...

[Derakon]

You could also, of course, set up a keymap to quickly cast the spell and bind it to an accessible key / key combination. I usually bind ! and @ to detection spells, for example.

[Mikko Lehtinen]

You could also, of course, set up a keymap to quickly cast the spell and bind it to an accessible key / key combination. I usually bind ! and @ to detection spells, for example.

mad is not slower to me than ! or @. But I'm a Vim user.

I think I'll try making Detect Monsters stick until the monster moves. That makes it more powerful but that should be ok -- I've removed many other detection spells from spellcasters so it's good to buff this one.

I get annoyed at memorizing monster locations in tight spots where I need all brain power for tactical analysis.

[buzzkill]

Nothing new here, but DaJ has a (rare) potion in addition to the scroll. The potion grants a short duration continuous detection, similar to ESP.

[LostTemplar]

mad is not slower to me than ! or @. But I'm a Vim user.

Good thing about macros is that you can add spaces in front of it (and after it), to clear messages, so it works instantly any time.