Scroll Proposal: Ego Armor

[ArcaneNH]

Similar to a scroll of brand weapon. This scroll would place a random ego on a piece of armour of the player's choice.

What do you more experienced players think? OP? Meh? Good but would be a royal pain in the Zot to code?

[ydeve]

This is on the will not do list: https://crawl.develz.org/wiki/doku.php? ... ng:wont_do

See the last bullet point.

[Sar]

https://crawl.develz.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=19766&p=267467&hilit=brand+armour#p267467

[ArcaneNH]

it had been a while since I looked at that list, like March. Oh well. Might still code it up on my personal fork as an exercise in learning C++/self-torture.

[duvessa]

It's not on the won't do list because it would be hard to implement it. It's on the won't do list because it's a terrible idea. Implementing it yourself is not going to get it added to the game.

[ydeve]

It's not on the won't do list because it would be hard to implement it. It's on the won't do list because it's a terrible idea. Implementing it yourself is not going to get it added to the game.

Might still code it up on my personal fork as an exercise in learning C++/self-torture.

(emphasis added)

[Shard1697]

For what it's worth, the bullet point in that link just says "Among other problems, boots of running far outstrip any other armour brand, and having this scroll would just mean that you dump it into every pair of boots you find, and usually don't get running anyway (because it's rare). We might as well just increase frequency of boots of running, rather than adding this new item." If that's the [i]main[i/] problem, it could always just only be applicable to body armors-and it could be the same brand, just changed to also be usable on armor as well as weapons to present a choice(in some contexts, at least) of which one you want to apply it to.

(All this said, I'm still leaning slightly to "the game is better without it".)

[Sandman25]

If main problem is with boots of running considered too strong, maybe remove boots of running completely?
Or just make it always reduce enchantment of the boots to -5 or whatever like is done for hat of the alchemist

[TonberryJam]

But getting powerful things rarely is fun. Like mining for diamonds.

[dracos369]

But getting powerful things rarely is fun. Like mining for diamonds.

Actually diamonds are relatively common and are expensive only because of they are marketed as rare. What is worse, we can actually produce artificial diamond now which, unlike naturally occuring ones, have perfect crystal structure, and, because of the diamond lobby, that perfection is seen as something bad. Ironic, isn't it?

But, yeah, I agree with the notion otherwise.

[duvessa]

Actually diamonds are relatively common and are expensive only because of they are marketed as rare.

That's understating it, it's not just marketing. It's a straight-up price fixing cartel.

[Sandman25]

Actually some goods are expensive not because they are good but because they are rare. That's why pictures of dead painters cost so much, people feel superior to others because they possess something unique.

Edit. Oops, it's GDD. Sorry.

[rchandra]

The justification is weak - if you have only a tiny chance of getting boots of running, the increase in survivability from branding a plain cloak or whatever could easily be higher. Especially so if these scrolls existed from changing brand weapon scrolls to brand item.

[duvessa]

Things get put on the won't do list because devs don't want to waste their time explaining over and over again why they are bad ideas. So instead of wasting my time I will just copy and paste my previous explanation, since apparently nobody here actually read the previous threads about this.

I don't think making brand weapon into brand equipment would be an improvement. Any decision of which item to use it on would rarely be interesting - if you use your weapon as your main source of damage, and the scroll would improve your weapon, then of course you're going to use the scroll on your weapon, having good damage is way more important than the single pip of resistance or whatever you'd get on armour. If you don't use your weapon as your main source of damage, then of course you're going to use it on armour, and if armour egos aren't symmetrical then you have the boots of running problem. If they are symmetrical (but they aren't) then you just choose the armour that has the worst ego on it currently.

If there was a 1% chance of running ego/99% chance of stealth on boots but a 66% chance of rF+/rC+/ 33% chance of MR+ on your hat, I would brand the hat every time.

Keep in mind that brand weapon currently doesn't tell you what the chance of each brand is. The majority of players probably don't know vampirism and chaos are even options. If you try to solve the boots of running problem this way, you have a list of egos and corresponding chances for 5 or 6 different slots that the player would have to review every time in order to make a truly informed decision about which slot to choose.
Brand weapon can get away with having a weird ego list and different chances for everything because characters only use one weapon at a time. The questions are "would this scroll improve my weapon" (which is easy to answer) and "do I want to wait for a better weapon first" (which doesn't depend too heavily on the ego list).

[TonberryJam]

Most forms of diamond mining go through hundred of tons of ore just to find a few carats worth of diamonds. That is similar to the loot in this game. And, that keeps it interesting. I guess I was being vague.

people have been making synthetic diamonds since the late 1800's. A new method was discovered recently. Even stars can turn into giant diamonds.

[archaeo]

As it's on the won't do list (and someone has helpfully linked former discussions that explain why), and given that GDD doesn't stand for "Gem Deliberation and Discussion," I'll lock this. Please take all commentary on the disgusting diamond industry to CYC, thanks.