Can we just steal the scroll of acquirement from Crawl Light? Instead of showing the item categories, it shows the items you'd get, like:
- Code:
What item would you like to acquire?
[a] a +0 longbow of flaming [b] a +1 helmet of intelligence
[c] the ring of Phasing {EV+8} [d] a book of Annihilations
[e] an uncursed staff of earth [f] a box of beasts
[g] 9 rations [h] 1190 gold (you have $724)
This way, acquirement is no longer 500 times better for spoiled players than it is for unspoiled players. You're comparing known items instead of unknown ones. Players no longer get a huge advantage from knowing the acquirement rules, because the results of the rules are laid out when you read the scroll.
Now, the obvious issue is to point at this and say the choice of item is always going to be a no-brainer. And that's pretty much true, but here's the thing: with current acquirement, the choice is
already always a no-brainer if you're spoiled, and there's no realistic path to making it not a no-brainer. So if the choice being a no-brainer is a deal breaker, the scroll should be removed altogether. If it's not, the scroll should be changed in this way so that it doesn't reward spoiled players so much more than unspoiled players. Either way, the current incarnation of acquirement should not stay.
The other issue is that this is a buff to scrolls of acquirement, even if you're spoiled. But this can be solved by nerfing the individual acquirement categories. And book/staff/food/gold acquirement are already bad enough to be fine imo, so you really only need to nerf weapon, armour, jewellery, and maybe evocable.
And as a bonus, nobody will ever have to complain about armour acquirement giving shields or book acquirement giving manuals, ever again.
I'm aware there would still be some benefits to being spoiled about acquirement (mostly that identifying all armour/weapons in the dungeon gives you an advantage) but not nearly as egregious as with the current version.
Posted: Sunday, 26th August 2018, 20:49