Runes and inventory

[Moose]

Has any thought ever been given to making runes somehow bonded to the player, and no longer a part of the inventory? It would seem that doing this would simplify a few things for the PC.

-- No longer do 15-runers need to waste a third of their inventory slots hauling runes around

-- Those who dont like to lug them around often drop them off some place which requires tedious micromanagement and stash handling to track them, and I even think some players have botched their 15-rune endings because of this

-- I not sure about this one, but if they take up weight, this would be a factor too

What would be nice, is that if once a player picks up a rune, it is somehow magically bonded to them permanently. Perhaps you could view your bonded runes on the '%' screen. This would also be a nice place for the UI to show one's rune-progress without having to manually calculate it.

[danr]

I don't know about "magically bonded" but they could be treated like gold - weightless and not taking an inventory slot.

They currently have a weight of 10.0 aum, I believe, and I assume there's some game balance reason for that, although it seems to me that it would be fair to let players have full use of their inv. slots when they are in the extended endgame which is the hardest part of the game.

Stash management is a fairly tedious aspect of the game I think.

[ryak]

In my opinion, stash management is actually quite advanced in this game at least compared to other games. However the rune situation is a problem.

With runes, players (especially people with many runes) have to choose between
1. having limited inventory in zot or
2. stashing them and stopping somewhere they shouldn't have to on the way up.

I think this is particularly annoying when you have to open zot since you have to bring at least 3 of your runes to do that but then you either need to
1. make an extra round trip to your stash to take them back or
2. lug those 3 runes through zot AND stop at your stash to get the rest.

Maybe allow runes to stack together with runes of different types? That along with reducing the weight a little would eliminate this tedious aspect of the game for most players.

[evktalo]

This was proposed before, but turned down. I think it was an old Sourceforge FR if anyone likes to dig it up. I think I like the idea, myself.

--Eino

[Kate]

I find that physically picking up the runes and carrying them with you on the orb run is a nice bit of flavour, and pretty minor. If you somehow can't handle the loss of a few inventory slots, you can put them on the D:1 upstairs. Stashing your runes and coming back to them later can be done in just a few keypresses, it's hardly "tedious micromanagement", and there's certainly no reason to carry 15 runes with you while you're exploring Pan.

I wouldn't complain or anything if slotless, weightless runes were added but I don't think there's any problem with the current setup either, it's nice having them a tangible part of your inventory when you win.

[Moose]

I still think that the management (micro or not) is still a bit frivolous. Also, having runes bonded to your character would let you see a nice overview of which runes you have, and/or are missing.

I must say that I do find it interesting that you enjoy physically carrying the runes around in your inventory and stashing them. Honestly, I'm not a good enough player to have had that pleasure.

[galehar]

Also, having runes bonded to your character would let you see a nice overview of which runes you have, and/or are missing.

We could do that by just adding them to the "known items".

As Marvin, I like having them tangible.

[dpeg]

Also, having runes bonded to your character would let you see a nice overview of which runes you have, and/or are missing.

We could do that by just adding them to the "known items".

As Marvin, I like having them tangible.

Both parts seconded. Listing runes at the very end of \ is a great idea.

[danr]

What if the runes would meld into each other as you collected them (and thus you needed 3 together to have sufficient power). The description of this "super rune" would list all the ones it is made up of.

Thus, you have something tangible to carry and have listed in the inventory, but it only takes one slot.

[Moose]

I'm still trying to figure out the use case for carrying runes around. Maybe I just like things streamlined and less complex when there's no need for obscurity.

Take gold for instance ... Once you pick it up, why on earth would you ever want to drop it? It's weightless, and takes no inventory slot, and it's highly convenient.

Same could be with runes. Why would you EVER want to drop one when you picked it up? Oh yah, because they take up inventory slots. That's the only reason I can see that anyone would ever want to drop a rune.

Runes are already tangible in that you must pick them up to pass through into Zot. You can apport them as well, like any other normal object.

But, I think it should stop there. Once you've acquired a rune, you've done your job, let's forget about it and move on!

The only rationale I can see for keeping them as they are would be to punish players as they get farther and farther in the game by requiring inventory slots to be sacrificed (or by making them manage a rune stash, as simple as some think it is). Losing inventory slots, and managing stashes don't add any fun to the game for me, and I'd wager that many other crawlers agree.

I just wanted to voice my dissent once more, and am now done.

[dpeg]

This is a non-issue. You pick up very few runes in a game. Now compare with gold.

The keeper of this thread is to list runes collected so far in the discoveries screen (\).

[danr]

By the late game, every inventory slot counts.

Now - do you have to carry three runes to the Zot entry to open it, or is it sufficient to have picked up three runes and stashed them somewhere?