Erica issues(Erissues)

[Shard1697]

So Erica shows up. But, something's different than normal. She's wielding a rod that she randomly found on the ground, which she was able to pick up because I hadn't seen it yet.
However, her tile still shows her wielding a flaming scimitar, even though she's not actually wielding any kind of scimitar at all. (Also, joke's on her, I had immunity to flame clouds mut)


Her actual flaming scimitar was lying on the ground over here, where she found the rod of clouds.

There's a few things here which can be improved.
1. Monsters like Erica who are defined by having a specific weapon probably should not throw it away on a whim.
2. If monsters who are supposed to have a melee weapon grab a rod, they should probably still carry their old weapon and switch away from the rod when they run out of MP, kind of like a centaur switching at close range. (Monsters use up rod MP, right?)
3. Monsters like Erica should, either way, still show what weapon they are actually wielding on their tile. Then comes the question "should Erica's scimitar still look unique?", to which I say "no, but I think branded weapons should have unique tiles anyways, flaming weapons should look fiery freezing weapons should have a blue glow etc"(I was working on making some unique branded weapon inventory/doll tiles, but they were lost along with all the rest of my spritework when my laptop died )

Alternatively, should monsters be able to pick up rods in the first place?

[ion_frigate]

#consolereasons

All kidding aside, I favor option one. Monsters with "signature weapons" should just hold on to them. In addition to being good flavor, it gets around having to give them generic tiles - don't forget, using the same graphic for Erica's scimitar as for that of a random orc severely restricts the poses she can be displayed in. If there's anywhere that tile designers should be allowed a little more artistic liberty, it's uniques.

I think option two may have some technical issues, though perhaps they've been fixed. I recall that Crawl's monster item use is rather weird and restricted, surprisingly even more so than NetHack.

[Sprucery]

I recall that Crawl's monster item use is rather weird and restricted, surprisingly even more so than NetHack.

Surprisingly? In Nethack, monster item use is not very restricted imo... (unless this has changed in the new version).

[Shtopit]

I think branded weapons should have unique tiles anyways, flaming weapons should look fiery freezing weapons should have a blue glow etc"(I was working on making some unique branded weapon inventory/doll tiles, but they were lost along with all the rest of my spritework when my laptop died )

It would be pretty cool if you did that. Another option would be putting the small glyphs from the inventory on the tile to show what brand the monster is wielding.