make scrolls of fog more common

[Pollen_Golem]

This is an intricate scroll, and not as common as I'd like it to be. After all, it doesn't make enough fog to immediately block LOS in all directions, so it's not OP for a consumable, and yet you rarely get a big stack of it like with other scrolls. It should be at least as common as scrolls of teleportation. Let noobs get all the fogging practice they need!

from larger post viewtopic.php?t=18073

[amaril]

I like this--fog is one of the more fun consumables in the game. It allows the player to buy time, reposition (in a game that's basically 'about' positioning), direct an uncontrolled blink, or escape an alerted monster with a stealthy character. Fog is an intuitive effect, but effective use often requires foresight, making it a skill testing item (rather than one that dramatically sways combat in your favor, like just about every other consumable).

As an aside, I feel like Cloak of the Thief is one of the most powerful items in the entire game, but there is a significant difference between 15 fogs/game and ∞ fogs/game.

[tedric]

What is the current weighting of ?fog compared to other scrolls? (I am apparently a terrible code-diver, because I spent like half an hour clicking into likely-looking files without finding the scroll weight list...)

I find that I'm often reluctant to use it when it would be useful, because it seems rare enough that I think I "should" save it for the situations where I really need it. But then when I really want to block LOS, like right frakkin' now, the effect isn't reliable enough to have justified hoarding my scrolls. This tends not to happen with, say, ?blink, which intuition tells me has a higher weighting AND is more reliable.

[Pollen_Golem]

https://github.com/guyht/crawl/blob/mas ... akeitem.cc
this seems to be the way scrolls are weighted, and if so, blinking and fog are equally common/rare:

  Code:

1465         {
1466             // total weight:    784  if depth_mod < 4
1467             //                  913  otherwise
1468             //                 -112  in sprint
1469             item.sub_type = random_choose_weighted(
1470                 200, SCR_IDENTIFY,
1471                 112, SCR_REMOVE_CURSE,
1472                  // [Cha] don't generate teleportation scrolls if in sprint
1473                  80, (crawl_state.game_is_sprint() ? NUM_SCROLLS : SCR_TELEPORTATION),
1474                  40, SCR_ENCHANT_ARMOUR,
1475                  40, SCR_ENCHANT_WEAPON,
1476                  40, SCR_RECHARGING,
1477                  40, SCR_MAGIC_MAPPING,
1478                  40, SCR_AMNESIA,
1479                  32, SCR_FEAR,
1480                  32, SCR_FOG,
1481                  32, SCR_RANDOM_USELESSNESS,
1482                  32, SCR_BLINKING,
1483                  // [Cha] don't generate noise scrolls if in sprint
1484                  32, (crawl_state.game_is_sprint() ? NUM_SCROLLS : SCR_NOISE),
1485                  32, SCR_IMMOLATION,
1486                  // Higher-level scrolls.
1487                  27, (depth_mod < 4 ? NUM_SCROLLS : SCR_VULNERABILITY),
1488                  17, (depth_mod < 4 ? NUM_SCROLLS : SCR_ACQUIREMENT),
1489                  17, (depth_mod < 4 ? NUM_SCROLLS : SCR_SUMMONING),
1490                  17, (depth_mod < 4 ? NUM_SCROLLS : SCR_SILENCE),
1491                  17, (depth_mod < 4 ? NUM_SCROLLS : SCR_BRAND_WEAPON),
1492                  17, (depth_mod < 4 ? NUM_SCROLLS : SCR_TORMENT),
1493                  17, (depth_mod < 4 ? NUM_SCROLLS : SCR_HOLY_WORD),
1494                  0);
1495         }


[daggaz]

Breaking LoS is an incredibly powerful ability. While it is true fog doesn't break LoS in all directions reliably, it hardly matters as you generally need to break LoS in one direction only, and often for only one monster. Cast fog, step the other way, problem solved.

That said, I think they could be a tad less rare... blink is far more powerful.