book IDing


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Spider Stomper

Posts: 211

Joined: Thursday, 5th January 2012, 08:32

Post Saturday, 1st September 2012, 03:38

book IDing

First, I don't see the point for this message:

  Code:
            else if (num_unknown == 1)
            {
                mpr("You must pick up this book before reading it.",
                    MSGCH_PROMPT);
            }

which happens when you hit M over an unread spell book. Picking it up, reading it, and dropping it is just keystroke++.

But perhaps more significantly, non-randart books that you've identified should really just be globally identified every subsequent time that you see a copy.

Dungeon Master

Posts: 553

Joined: Wednesday, 22nd December 2010, 10:12

Post Saturday, 1st September 2012, 04:12

Re: book IDing

yogaFLAME wrote:But perhaps more significantly, non-randart books that you've identified should really just be globally identified every subsequent time that you see a copy.

I've always thought this as well.

Slime Squisher

Posts: 400

Joined: Saturday, 24th September 2011, 03:45

Post Saturday, 1st September 2012, 04:18

Re: book IDing

If only we had a dev here, they could fix this for us!
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Dungeon Master

Posts: 4031

Joined: Thursday, 16th December 2010, 20:37

Location: France

Post Saturday, 1st September 2012, 08:28

Re: book IDing

I did that when I implemented memorisation from the floor. Id'ing a book is already a free action, it just felt weird that you could freely id a book without even having to pick it up. Maybe id'ing could use one turn instead, but then, also when doing it from the inventory. I'm just a bit worried about interface inconsistency.
<+Grunt> You dereference an invalid pointer! Ouch! That really hurt! The game dies...

Vestibule Violator

Posts: 1567

Joined: Friday, 21st January 2011, 22:56

Post Saturday, 1st September 2012, 09:24

Re: book IDing

galehar wrote:it just felt weird that you could freely id a book without even having to pick it up.

You mean like every potion and scroll? Any flavor reasons that apply to books also apply to scrolls, and the gameplay benefit of known books not being IDed on sight is dubious at best.
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Dungeon Master

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Location: France

Post Saturday, 1st September 2012, 11:07

Re: book IDing

Galefury wrote:
galehar wrote:it just felt weird that you could freely id a book without even having to pick it up.

You mean like every potion and scroll? Any flavor reasons that apply to books also apply to scrolls, and the gameplay benefit of known books not being IDed on sight is dubious at best.

I think you're mixing 2 different topics. Yeah, identifying a book should probably also id books of the same subtype, but that's not what I was talking about.
<+Grunt> You dereference an invalid pointer! Ouch! That really hurt! The game dies...

Spider Stomper

Posts: 211

Joined: Thursday, 5th January 2012, 08:32

Post Saturday, 1st September 2012, 14:22

Re: book IDing

galehar wrote:I did that when I implemented memorisation from the floor. Id'ing a book is already a free action, it just felt weird that you could freely id a book without even having to pick it up. Maybe id'ing could use one turn instead, but then, also when doing it from the inventory. I'm just a bit worried about interface inconsistency.


Makes sense. I don't think anyone's feathers would be too ruffled if reading a book took some aut.
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Tomb Titivator

Posts: 857

Joined: Monday, 31st January 2011, 23:19

Post Saturday, 1st September 2012, 22:26

Re: book IDing

yogaFLAME wrote:
galehar wrote:I did that when I implemented memorisation from the floor. Id'ing a book is already a free action, it just felt weird that you could freely id a book without even having to pick it up. Maybe id'ing could use one turn instead, but then, also when doing it from the inventory. I'm just a bit worried about interface inconsistency.


Makes sense. I don't think anyone's feathers would be too ruffled if reading a book took some aut.


I would be annoyed.

Imagine you just cleared slime and have a ton of books from the loot. It's nice to just hit M and see what spells you can memorize instead of reading each book one by one. I really don't see why books aren't automatically identified anyway. Fixed artifacts are because they're trivially identified so why not books other than Annihilations or whatever?
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Crypt Cleanser

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Post Sunday, 2nd September 2012, 04:07

Re: book IDing

Just auto identifies the book when you step on it. Since there isn't any risk identifying a book other that picking it up it removes the tedious keystrokes without changing the gameplay by more than a turn. I like the fact that we don't know what a book contain, because when next to an OOD or in the abyss, if you know what the book contain it's more a "yes/no" than a "well if" decision.

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