Halls Hopper
Posts: 70
Joined: Monday, 21st September 2015, 03:35
Flavour Reform: Allow Choice of Skill for 'Predicate''
One cool aspect of crawl's flavour is the 'predicate' your character receives based on their highest skill and the strength of that skill. For example, a character just starting out as a wizard gets "X the Magician" as their predicate because Spellcasting is their strongest skill. It's fun to see the different predicates, especially how they develop as you improve that skill, often starting with a somewhat insulting tone (i.e. "the Twirler" for beginning stavers). However, because optimal skilling across builds and characters tends to be similar, characters tend to receive the same predicates as they progress: they are "the Conqueror" or "the Slayer" because of the importance of Fighting, or they have the predicate of their God because of Invocations. Practically, this means that we never get to see a lot of the predicates unless we enter wizmode or intentionally skill our characters poorly.
I propose that we allow players to choose their 'main skill' via an option in the character overview screen accessed via %. The only function of this choice would be that the skill chosen determines the character's 'predicate'; there would be no mechanical impact. This allows, for example, for Hexes to be the main skill of my enchanter (what I assess to be the 'core' or 'essence' of the character) instead of Fighting, even though Fighting will eventually have more experience invested in it.
Positives: players get to see more flavour content than they otherwise would; players have more ownership of their character's 'identity'
Negatives: has to be implemented; does not improve the game mechanically
- For this message the author monkeytor has received thanks: 3
- Cimanyd, NhorianScum, yesno