Proposal: Better Background Names

[jejorda2]

If you're gonna standardize the naming scheme for those 4, why are the zealots not also similarly standardized? Why do they actually get life in their name. Without a description, "Death Knight" could apply to like 5 different Gods. Or doesn't even need to be God related, there's plenty of games where a 'Death Knight' prays to no God, and without seeing it in the zealot subcategory you'd have no idea. But it still gets to be a Death Knight, because Death Knight sounds right and makes sense with what it does, but the name alone doesn't tell you what it does. That's why there's a description of the backgrounds when you highlight them, because the name isn't supposed to be a perfect representation of the class.

I'd rename Yred to Death before I'd rename Death Knight Yred Zealot. Nobody knows what Yred means without playing or reading a while. Death Zealot is pretty good, though.
That's actually a pretty good idea worthy of another thread, renaming each god to a central virtue or theme. We'd be hard pressed to keep the distinguishing starting letters, and it's nice that a deity can exist as it is without a theme. And I've enjoyed the names, but clarity is better than flavor.

[Hopeless]

If you're gonna standardize the naming scheme for those 4, why are the zealots not also similarly standardized? Why do they actually get life in their name. Without a description, "Death Knight" could apply to like 5 different Gods. Or doesn't even need to be God related, there's plenty of games where a 'Death Knight' prays to no God, and without seeing it in the zealot subcategory you'd have no idea. But it still gets to be a Death Knight, because Death Knight sounds right and makes sense with what it does, but the name alone doesn't tell you what it does. That's why there's a description of the backgrounds when you highlight them, because the name isn't supposed to be a perfect representation of the class.

I'd rename Yred to Death before I'd rename Death Knight Yred Zealot. Nobody knows what Yred means without playing or reading a while. Death Zealot is pretty good, though.
That's actually a pretty good idea worthy of another thread, renaming each god to a central virtue or theme. We'd be hard pressed to keep the distinguishing starting letters, and it's nice that a deity can exist as it is without a theme. And I've enjoyed the names, but clarity is better than flavor.

Sez you. Some of us like the flavor. Uniqueness makes a game worth playing a little more despite the fact that generic names tend to be more functional and thus clearer. The ideal is to find flavorful names that fit the function too thus preserving clarity without sacrificing immersion.

[Sar]

Death Knight is a more ~flavourful~ name than Yred Zealot IMO.

[NessOnett]

As a random side note, I am already happy that I get to name all my Chaos Knights 'Nessaj', I would love for Venom Mage to be turned into Venomancer(to fit with Pyromancer, etc.) so I could name them all Lesale. Because those things amuse me.

Also, for the record, "Aeromancer" is a thing, wouldn't need to be Electromancer(which is technically wrong in this context).

[Klown]

Flavor & badass sounding name > D&D LOTR rehashes

[XuaXua]

Mathemagician

[Sar]

I don't think one should hold LotR responsible for the endless copycats it spawned, much less call it "junk".

[Dole]

The proper term for an air elementalist is already in Crawl, and it is "anemomancer." Everyone who speaks English knows that!

[XTAHUA]

I LEARN MANY ENGLISH IN AMERICA. AFTER COME BACK, I MAKE CHANGE BUSINESS CARD SAY "PYROMANCER". I SLEEP WITH MANY WOMAN THAT WAY.

[cerebovssquire]

I LEARN MANY ENGLISH IN AMERICA. AFTER COME BACK, I MAKE CHANGE BUSINESS CARD SAY "PYROMANCER". I SLEEP WITH MANY WOMAN THAT WAY.

sounds like it opened a lot of doors for you

[XuaXua]

I LEARN MANY ENGLISH IN AMERICA. AFTER COME BACK, I MAKE CHANGE BUSINESS CARD SAY "PYROMANCER". I SLEEP WITH MANY WOMAN THAT WAY.

Pornomancer

Starts with Book of Hedonism containing the following 5 unique spells:

• Vibrate Appendage (Level 1, Charm, possibly with Transmutations or Translocations) - Causes any melee attacks to increase in damage and accuracy, but decrease in speed; also player radiates a loud noise during the duration of the spell. Stabbing capability is deactivated during use of this spell.
• Arousal (Level 2, Hexes) - failing a MR check, target becomes distracted, but not confused or slowed; all actions are taken at a reduced -Y% capability based on spell power. No change in speed; not preventable by Stasis.
• Summon Sheep (Level 2 or 3, Summoning) - summons X pacified or neutral-aligned sheep to immediate location; number of sheep increases with spell power, chance of sheep being pacified and not neutral-aligned increases with spell success.
• Tantric Sex (Level 3, Charms) - for X rounds, allows use of a divine ability of currently worshiped deity as if one * piety rank higher; may allow access to ability not at current * level, but any piety cost is as if player was at the one * higher rank.
• Fornicate (Level 4, Hexes) - after failing some form of MR check, causes two enemies in view to attack each other incessantly for X rounds or until a subsequent MR check is passed, or until one is dead. At higher * power, may cause targets to berserk during conflict.

[WalkerBoh]

[*] Fornicate (Level 4, Hexes) - after failing some form of MR check, causes two enemies in view to attack each other incessantly for X rounds or until a subsequent MR check is passed, or until one is dead. At higher * power, may cause targets to berserk during conflict.[/list]

I could be wrong, but I don't think that's how dungeon porn works.

[XuaXua]

[*] Fornicate (Level 4, Hexes) - after failing some form of MR check, causes two enemies in view to attack each other incessantly for X rounds or until a subsequent MR check is passed, or until one is dead. At higher * power, may cause targets to berserk during conflict.[/list]

I could be wrong, but I don't think that's how dungeon porn works.

Explain in great detail how it does, then. Does Daddy dungeon hide the Orb of Zot in Mommy dungeon's Slime Pit?

[Hirsch I]

I would describe it, but And Into would have my skin. no, I learnt my lesson.

[Klown]

Kind of surprised how out of touch most of the Crawl community is with the RPG & Fantasy genres.
To the point where someone sees 'Pyromancer' and asks 'what is that?' or others thinking it looks made up and out of place.

Just an observation, not meant to be offensive there.

[WalkerBoh]

To be fair, "Pyromancer" is already used as a title in Crawl. So it's not really out of place.

  Code:

[22:53:23]   WalkerBoh   !lg * title=pyromancer
[22:53:25]   Sequell   311. MrPlanck the Pyromancer (L27 KoFE of Vehumet), escaped with the Orb and 4 runes on 2014-05-29 20:48:54, with 1906068 points after 103675 turns and 8:44:17.

[Jeremiah]

Skald should probably be called Arcane Warrior to make it clearer what it actually does. Apart from that the names are fine.

[RoGGa]

Having over-analyzed 100+ Wanderers, I'd like to point out that a background's name/label is:
- tightly linked to the short description/definition (visible on the "Please select your background" screen); and
- loosely linked to the long description/definition (accessible via the same screen by choosing "? - Help")

I think a change_request/bug_report should be made on Mantis:
- when any of those 3 is incongruent with the other 2, and
* especially if it is incongruent with the actual items and skills at startup (t=0).

Also, I think a background's concept (as embodied by the trilogy: label + short & long descriptions) should guide the coding.
Unfortunately this is not the case for Wanderers.
It seems that the guiding premise is try to create challenging viable characters with pseudo-randomness (since I have yet to see a sling on any 100+ Wanderers or any starting skill points assigned to Slings).

[McGeekster]

Am I the only person who supports the keeping of the name Skald? It's a perfectly fine term, and it sounds a lot better than some of the changes suggested in this thread. Just my opinion. I do agree with the changing of Fighter to Knight though, simply because "Fighter" is a VERY vague term.

[John Milferton]

Skald -> Bard

[RoGGa]

I do agree with the changing of Fighter to Knight though, simply because "Fighter" is a VERY vague term.

My concern for Fighters has more to do with the long description of Gladiators:
"Gladiators have never learned anything except bashing monsters with heavy things."
This seems wrong since Gladiators start with nets and 2 skill points for Throwing and 3 for Dodging.

It is more Fighters who "have never learned anything except bashing monsters with heavy things." since their starting skills points are only in:
Fighting, starting weapon skill, Armour and Shields