More God flavour

[Bim]

I always have enjoyed the bit of flavour that comes with joining a god (and dying), for instance Sif Muna whispering 'I know many secrets...' when you join and so on.
However, other than that (except possibly for Xom) the gods are pretty much silent throughout, other than the occasional Trog roar or something.

I'd love to see more flavour, just text wise, to make you feel a bit more involved, rather than them just being like a set of mutations. The main problem I see with this is that a lot of the time it gets lost under a jumble of other information, so possibly they could come at times with low tension?

I'm sure this has probably been suggested in one form or another, but I feel just a few extra lines could really add a lot to the experience.

[TwilightPhoenix]

One way to do it would be to rework the "Bob accepts your kill" messages to stuff like "Okawaru approves of your victory", "Trog roars in delight", and "Vehumet appreciates your destruction of another foe".

[KoboldLord]

We probably don't need the gods to be more chatty, but it would actually be pretty nice if they had a wider variety of flavor messages.

[roctavian]

Especially for those times when players fat-finger "p," and get "so-and-so approves of you" or whatever. That information is already displayed as piety stars, so we may as well vary the messages for fun.

[mageykun]

Isn't coming up with better and more varied flavor messages in the bailiwick of the Text Improvement Taskforce?

[Grimm]

God speech is not currently in that bailiwick, no.

[Bim]

I certainly agree that we should get rid of as much message spam as possible, and as has been mentioned, probably placing it in places like 'p' and having a few different messages for killing foes would be the best way to go about it. I've always liked how some gods say different things when you kill spellcasters/heretics and so more of that sort of thing would be nice.
For instance, TSO could congratulate you more for killing one of the pan lords/greyon/T1 demons and Sif could congratulate you on learning a level 9 spell. Similarly, Lug could say random things whilst wandering around the abyss, and Trog could just roar more at things.

A little bit off topic (but still within flavour), I think one way of improving interaction would be if the gods dropped more small gifts at full piety (which could be more difficult to keep topped up?) just things like the odd potion from Sif, a scroll of enchant armour/weapon from oki, some fruit from fedhas. Really not that often, but just something to keep you interested while at full piety, and possibly to stop god swapping in late game as is the norm for a lot of players.

[dpeg]

Crawl gods are not so bad at pretending not to be slot machines. However, it could certainly much better. Improving messages *that are already there* is good (like the special messages for killing casters under Trog) but I don't think that additional messages is the way to go. Rather, I believe that there should be rare, one-off effects -- in fact, I made a list with ideas quite some time ago:
https://crawl.develz.org/wiki/doku.php?id=dcss:brainstorm:god:concept:general#random_effects

Bim's proposal is quite close, only that gifts are the wrong tool, in my opinion.

[molari]

One of the reasons that Sif Muna whispering about secrets is thematic and always makes me smile is that it doesn't happen often (no spam) but does happen when something meaningful happens (in this case starting up a saved game). In this vein I think Gods commenting on milestones - reaching a level, getting a rune woudl aid immersion.
Some Gods would also add a comment or two on areas of particular interest to them e.g. Vehumet getting excited by you learning a storm spell or killing 3 of more enemies with one shot. This could be a 'light' version of the achievments idea which has been floating around for a while i.e. some notification of a significant in-game achievment with the advantage of being tied thematically to the God you currently follow.

[TwilightPhoenix]

In that vein, Trog's kill messages could change as you kill more and more in a single berserk and killing a lot of foes in one go should have him make a comment when the berserk wears off.

[IronJelly]

In that vein, Trog's kill messages could change as you kill more and more in a single berserk and killing a lot of foes in one go should have him make a comment when the berserk wears off.

Totally this:

You slay the orc.
Trog is delighted.
You attack the orc.
You slay the orc.
Trog watches with interest
You attack the orc.
You slay the orc.
Trog Cheers your name.
You are exhausted
"Well done, mortal. You have shed much blood today in my name."

I wouldn't mind seeing more divine flavor messages myself.

[Kate]

https://crawl.develz.org/mantis/view.php?id=4091 (!)

[Grimm]

"Whicked Sick"

[Stormfox]

You slay the orc.
Trog is delighted.
You attack the orc.
You slay the orc.
Trog watches with interest
You attack the orc.
You slay the orc.
Trog Cheers your name.

I played a couple of rounds of Smash Bros. last night before bed. All I could think of when I read that was how the crowd starts chanting your name when you're kicking major ass.

[IronJelly]

You slay the orc.
Trog is delighted.
You attack the orc.
You slay the orc.
Trog watches with interest
You attack the orc.
You slay the orc.
Trog Cheers your name.

I played a couple of rounds of Smash Bros. last night before bed. All I could think of when I read that was how the crowd starts chanting your name when you're kicking major ass.

*deep voice* Pikman.
*Chanting* Olimar!

I sort of still play Smash Bros from time to time too.

[IronJelly]

Another idea I just saw in the Crazy Yiuf board:

'p'raying on altars you find belonging to the God you already worship could generate flavor messages.

You offer a prayer to Zin. Before you do this, you clear the years of dust from his altar. Zin appreciates this.

You offer a prayer to Trog. A Voice booms, "You have come far and shed much blood in my name."

You offer a prayer to Makhleb. Makhleb wonders why you stopped killing to perform such a meaningless task.

You offer a prayer to Xom. Xom asks, "What is it you need, my child?" (then he ignores you anyway)

[TwilightPhoenix]

The altar kneels before you and offers a prayer to Xom. Xom asks, "What is it you need, my child?" (then he ignores the altar anyway)

Fixed.

[Sojiro]

More variety on the messages you get over and over again would be nice.
Flavor messages that are only sent when the player ask for them (praying without sacrificing anything) would not create any unwanted clutter.

Messages on milestones would be a good way to make things more engaging as they happen at meaningful moments. However it would be harder to design and code, and would add to the clutter (even though I think it'd be totally worth it).

[Bim]

I think 'milestone' messages would be fantastic, and wouldn't add too much clutter. However I REALLY love the one off effects that Dpeg mentioned, especially the cross-god effects. I think this combined with the early gift mechanic mentioned on the mantis would make them so much more fun all the way through rather than just grinding your way up the piety.

[kefir645]

Okawaru now says something along the lines of "I averted TSO' wrath, mortal. This time..." when you kill holy creatures. Neat.

[cerebovssquire]

Okawaru now says something along the lines of "I averted TSO' wrath, mortal. This time..." when you kill holy creatures. Neat.

I think every non-good has a piety/200 chance of doing that (Okawaru is definitely not the only one), and it also isn't a new thing.