Racial Equipment

[Davion Fuxa]

I've seen minmay and dpeg hint on the concept of racial equipment in Crawl now and I think some discussion needs to be made about them.

To describe this topic pertains to and centers on is the inclusion of Elven, Dwarven, and Orcish racial modifier for equipment and whether we need it is Crawl; perhaps Demonic as well in the sense that Demonspawn benefit more when using such weapons (not to advocate those weapons removal but rather the removal of the Demonspawn's benefit with those weapons).

Personally, I think that racial equipment should stay because it has the basis to be interesting - but if it does it needs to be fleshed out more and made more interesting for all characters regardless of species type. For said species types it can just mean they should use their racial Armours - even over Dragon Armours.

Elven Armour for example is straight up better then regular Non-Racial Armour whether your character is an Elf or not - this is due to almost all Elven Equipment has no real negatives. Dwarven Armour is almost always worst for non-Dwarf characters - and that is because it does have negatives of hampering spellcasting and the fact that it is so damn rare mean there is few situatiosn for it to be useful. Orcish Armour serves no purpose for other species.

But anyhow, what might be the thoughts of the community on this first?

[reaver]

The major problem now is that racial armor is currently way to much work for too little gain. I've been working on makeitem.cc, and around ~50 lines of code are dedicated just to generating what race something is. It just isn't worth it for so little gain. One idea I liked was that for the current racial effects strong enough to actually have an effect be spun off into their own egos. For example, Elven armor might become a "of spellcasting" ego which lowers the encumbrance rating of a piece of armor. I only other effect I'd bother with would be the interaction of orcish equipment and Beogh.

Like ambient noise, I'm surprised that the demonic bonus for Demonspawn exists. Since demon weapons tend to be the best anyway, I don't see why they get a special bonus, particularly since they are already late-bloomers in species difficulty.

I think that if racial armor could be salvaged with interesting enough effects, It'd be best to just make them egos anyway and let equipment have more than one ego. "A chain mail of fire resistance and spellcasting" Artifacts and Angband show that can work, and if we want power differentials between the two effects we could have different lists.

[galehar]

The major problem now is that racial armor is currently way to much work for too little gain.

What work? It's already coded.

For example, Elven armor might become a "of spellcasting" ego which lowers the encumbrance rating of a piece of armor.

That's mostly what already happens. That's funny, last time we discussed racial equipment, several people suggested that they get effects that they already have. They have minor effects, but I think it's ok. It's not hurting the game in any way.

[Tiber]

I like racial equipment. It's not major or anything, but I think it adds flavor to the game. Dwarven items could maybe use a little work, because the spellcasting penalty leads to the same problem that makes medium armor useless, and the rewards aren't enough in that case.

I think the biggest limitation of the system though is you generally end up with either dragon armor or artifacts by end game, and those can never be racial. Is there any actual reason why artifacts can't be racial anyway?

[galehar]

I think the biggest limitation of the system though is you generally end up with either dragon armor or artifacts by end game, and those can never be racial.

Dragon armour are supposed to be magical and better than common metal armour. Although with the new finer encumbrance rating, I hope we can tune it and make the non-magical armour a bit more competitive.

Is there any actual reason why artifacts can't be racial anyway?

I don't think there is no. It's just a quirk of the item creation code path.

[reaver]

The major problem now is that racial armor is currently way to much work for too little gain.

What work? It's already coded.

Well, first the code has to be maintained. I mentioned I knew that from working on makeitem.cc (I should probably finish that soon). I have to change the code that generates the race to use random_choose_weighted() which is definitely work which needs to done. Although I'm just cleaning up the code right now, It would be necessary eventually if something was ever changed in that bit of code.

The far more important "work" I am talking about, though, is cluttering the game with unnecessary complexity, and teaching new players that complexity. This is why Sludge Elves were removed. Sludge Elves were already coded, but were removed because there were few reasons the choose them, often being called "worse merfolk." Racial armor is similar, being relevant only in convoluted scenarios outside some trivial cases.

For example, Elven armor might become a "of spellcasting" ego which lowers the encumbrance rating of a piece of armor.

That's mostly what already happens. That's funny, last time we discussed racial equipment, several people suggested that they get effects that they already have.

Yes, I'm saying that since Elven armor is basically an "of spellcasting" ego already, we should just go ahead and call it an ego to avoid confusion and dump orcish and dwarven armor.

[njvack]

As dpeg mentioned, there's orcish gear and begoh, but I can see two possibilities:

1: Have Beogh bless and "Orcify" regular gear.
2: Just not have orcish gear and let Beogh give you the bonuses because you are an awesome Orc.

I'd kind of vote for the {spellcasting} ego and killing racialness.

[Davion Fuxa]

One reason I'm for keeping the Racial Aspect is because it can be an interesting way of diversifying Armour and providing more choices for the character - sort of like a second Ego but potentially one designed to possibly be harmful in a way for other species (like how currently Dwarven Armour hampers spellcasting on Non-Dwarves)

Here's a rough idea of just how it might be thought to diversify the Armour (I'm sure others may think of potentially better ideas too):

Dwarven Armour is Well Crafted - so it has 'the Best AC and GDR' for alternatives compared to Normal Armour and the possibility of a Random Ego. For Non Races it also comes with a bigger penalty to EV, while Dwarves have also a Lower EV and can cast spells better in it. (I'd just straight up double the AC Values so we could see Dwarven Scale Mail with a base AC of 9, and associate the GDR with the new AC value so it would be 37% - Dwarven Plate Mail would be 12 AC and GDR 44%; EV's would just be -4 and -7 lower for non-Dwarves, -2 and -5 for Dwarves). Armour is limited to Scale Mail, Chain Mail, Splint Mail, and Plate Mail.

Elven Armour is Honed for Magic - so it has a lower penalty associated for it versus Normal Armour when it comes to casting spells. Elves have an even lower penalty. (Basically keep it as is) Armour is limited to Robes, Leather Armour, Ring Mail, and Scale Mail.

Orcish Armour is of Crude but Effective Craft - compared to normal Armour it has its own Special Ego's associated with it that no other Armours can get. (Maybe transfer some existing Ego's to be Orcish Armour only or make some new ones. Personally I'd say transfer Magic Resistance - that screams 'Needed by Orc'. Could also be that the Orcish Armour could get Ego's usually only reserved for Robes like Archmagi and Resistance, and dump Magic Resistance to Robe only too.)

We could also perhaps add in a couple new Racial Armours as well to the mix:

Halfling Armour is Sleek Armour - Designed to provide the least resistance for Halfling movement, the Armour provides a bonus to EV, Stealth, Archery. Kobolds and also get the full benefits from the Armour. Other species only get the bonus to EV and not Stealth or a lower Ranged Attack Speed. Only Racial Armour Spriggans can Wear. Special Armour type - Sleek Armour: 5 AC, -1EV, 24% GDR, Stealth+, Archery,

Ogre Armour is Patchwork Armour - Designed to provide at least some deterrence to attacks Ogres, the Armour not so much protects the Ogre but Damages those who attack him. Wearable by Ogre's and Trolls, but they don't get a benefit from wearing said Armour and reflecting damage. Special Armour type - Patchwork Armour: 4 AC, -1 EV, Reflect Damage Given to Ogre 25% of the time when hit.

Demoic Armour is Evil Armour - Infused with the very essence of Hell, when the character is hit it throws the player into a fury giving then a boost in combat ability to crush their foes in retaliation. Wearing the Armour makes the character susceptible to Holy Attacks if they aren't already.

[Wahaha]

-Remove racial prefixes from non-body armor because they're not that important.
-Rename "elven" to "light" and make it give equal bonuses to all races. Appears on the armors that could be elven, but not on robes.
-Remove "orcish" and make Beogh gift enchantments for the weapon and armor that the player is using, similar to how Beogh blesses orc followers. If a NEW weapon or armor receives an enchantment the old weapon or armor loses the enchantment. This prevents swapping weapons or armor for the enchantments. I highly doubt swapping would be a real problem anyway but this just makes it not worthwhile. Yes this means that every weapon and armor is eligible instead of just orcish ones.
-Rename "dwarven" to "heavy" and make it give equal bonuses (or unbonuses) to all races. Appears on the armors that could be dwarven.

[Davion Fuxa]

-Remove racial prefixes from non-body armor because they're not that important.
-Rename "elven" to "light" and make it give equal bonuses to all races. Appears on the armors that could be elven, but not on robes.
-Remove "orcish" and make Beogh gift enchantments for the weapon and armor that the player is using, similar to how Beogh blesses orc followers. If a NEW weapon or armor receives an enchantment the old weapon or armor loses the enchantment. This prevents swapping weapons or armor for the enchantments. I highly doubt swapping would be a real problem anyway but this just makes it not worthwhile. Yes this means that every weapon and armor is eligible instead of just orcish ones.
-Rename "dwarven" to "heavy" and make it give equal bonuses (or unbonuses) to all races. Appears on the armors that could be dwarven.

Wow, we are really make Armour and Shields damn similar - Small Shield, Medium Shield, Large Shield with Light Armour, Medium Armour, and Heavy Armour!

Actually I sort of support this idea. Instead of making a mottled assemble of ideas that could be good or bad for several racial armours, we just have to make 2 different sets worth of really good ones.

[Speleothing]

I think you are at least partially misinterpeting what was intended. There wouldn't be just light, med, and heavy like with shields. There would be Light Plate Armor (of Ego), or Heavy Plate Armor (of Ego), or Plate Armor (of Ego).

[xzanthius]

i like the variety among low level items.

[XuaXua]

Armour needs better in-game descriptions for proper comparison between
Guaranteed Damage Reduction is 100% spoiler based, so comparing +X lesser armour vs. +0 next-higher-tier armour is not possible.

[Davion Fuxa]

I think you are at least partially misinterpeting what was intended. There wouldn't be just light, med, and heavy like with shields. There would be Light Plate Armor (of Ego), or Heavy Plate Armor (of Ego), or Plate Armor (of Ego).

Nah I got that, and it is indeed a good idea because the Light [Armour Type] or Heavy [Armour Type] simplifies things to just two additional sets, instead of multiple distinct Racial [Armour Type] sets which provide big benefits for characters meeting the Racial acquirement, minor benefits for characters not meeting the Racial, and all of which differing in some way from just regular Normal Armour.

A question though should be raised for Weapons though. Should Light and Heavy values apply to them if we followed this idea or should they be just all be kept vanilla?

[pubby]

Here's an idea: racial prefixes should be strongly tied to certain weapon and armour types.

For instance, glaives would always be elven, bardiches would be orcish, and halberds would be dwarven.

[Grimm]

The main problem with dwarven items is that there is only one species of dwarf in the game, which is only called dwarf by chance and doesn't really synch with dwarven gear.

[Davion Fuxa]

The main problem with dwarven items is that there is only one species of dwarf in the game, which is only called dwarf by chance and doesn't really synch with dwarven gear.

This isn't actually really a problem, there could be no Elves and Elven Equipment would still be awesome. The problem is that the Dwarven Equipment had a nasty spellcasting penalty attached to it which makes it so lacklustre.

[Tiber]

The main problem with dwarven items is that there is only one species of dwarf in the game, which is only called dwarf by chance and doesn't really synch with dwarven gear.

Well, the fortress/stronghold dwarf idea didn't seem too bad. Did that idea stall or something?

And yeah, the problem seems to lie mostly with dwarven armor, because elven/orcish items don't have any penalty to them, and dwarven items' bonus isn't really relevant outside one branch.
It got me thinking - a lot of fiction has dwarfs or dwarven items as resistant to magic. What if all dwarven items gave a tiny amount or MR? In addition, dwarven body armor gave a small amount of damage reduction vs. spells (not counting things like smite or torment of course)? It risks making dwarven items too powerful, I know; however, it sets a nice counterbalance to elven items being better for magical offense, and might make non-dwarfs consider dwarven armor.

[Grimm]

In that case they could be made extremely rare and flavoured as "treasures left by a now-vanished race".

[khalil]

Well, the fortress/stronghold dwarf idea didn't seem too bad. Did that idea stall or something?

According to the comments on the patch:

Activity seems to have dried up on this species, I'm resolving the issue but the branch is still in the repository if anyone wanted to rework this into something usable.

I'm not sure as to why it was considered unusable, but there you go.

[pubby]

Well, the fortress/stronghold dwarf idea didn't seem too bad. Did that idea stall or something?

According to the comments on the patch:

Activity seems to have dried up on this species, I'm resolving the issue but the branch is still in the repository if anyone wanted to rework this into something usable.

I'm not sure as to why it was considered unusable, but there you go.

That was for "Forge Dwarves" which were a separate idea from "Fortress Dwarves". If you're still interested in the "fortress dwarf" idea then the "dwant" proposal I posted is in many ways a revision and improvement of them. New species are off-topic for this thread though.

Armour needs better in-game descriptions for proper comparison between
Guaranteed Damage Reduction is 100% spoiler based, so comparing +X lesser armour vs. +0 next-higher-tier armour is not possible.

Some in-game probability charts would be nice.

[Wahaha]

Armour needs better in-game descriptions for proper comparison between
Guaranteed Damage Reduction is 100% spoiler based, so comparing +X lesser armour vs. +0 next-higher-tier armour is not possible.

Some in-game probability charts would be nice.

In practice this is almost never a problem and in the very very rare occasion that it's a problem it's still not a problem.

[tasonir]

I can't be the only one who thinks dwarven armor is useful. Everyone seems entirely focused on body armor. Yes, dwarven body armor is probably for anyone with a spell, but dwarven boots, shields, cloaks, etc are better. The ac bonus is rather small, but a bonus is a bonus, and resistance to corrosion is pretty nice in the rare cases where it's used. Am I missing something horrible why no one has stuck up for it yet? Dwarven bonuses do apply to non-body gear without hampering spellcasting, correct?

[Davion Fuxa]

I can't be the only one who thinks dwarven armor is useful. Everyone seems entirely focused on body armor. Yes, dwarven body armor is probably for anyone with a spell, but dwarven boots, shields, cloaks, etc are better. The ac bonus is rather small, but a bonus is a bonus, and resistance to corrosion is pretty nice in the rare cases where it's used. Am I missing something horrible why no one has stuck up for it yet? Dwarven bonuses do apply to non-body gear without hampering spellcasting, correct?

Spells are just that important in the game. Yes you can play spell-less but the majority of characters that will play will use spells in some shape or form. Even on spell-less characters though, Dragon Armour outclasses it.

[WalkerBoh]

I like Wahaha's idea regarding light/heavy armour.

[Davion Fuxa]

Figured before brain-storming begins on how Light Armour and Heavy Armour would work in conjunction with Normal Armour and against Dragon Armour I'd put this out there once again:

What should happen with Weapons?

To me, I'd be for keeping Racial Weapons in light of the fact that we have Demonic Weapons . The Bonuses provided however would have to be useful to really make them stand apart - and this is for all species and not just the specifically specified racial match (assuming we keep it so that specific species are better with their racial weapons).

[reaver]

To me, I'd be for keeping Racial Weapons in light of the fact that we have Demonic Weapons . The Bonuses provided however would have to be useful to really make them stand apart - and this is for all species and not just the specifically specified racial match (assuming we keep it so that specific species are better with their racial weapons).

I don't get how demonic weapons are an argument for keeping other racial weapons. The "Demonic" qualifier seems to be used to justify the highest tier weapons being completely absent until late in the game, and then appearing on even popcorn enemies to ramp up the challenge. Furthermore, I'd be fine with removing it.

What "bonuses" are you referring to? If you're referring to slaying bonuses, why not incorporate that into the enchantment? If you're referring to new, special bonuses, why not make it a brand?

Wahaha and Davion Fuxa have mentioned ideas to make heavy/light armor. The problem is this can just be replicated by tweaking the base type and enchantment. Light armor is just armor one level lower with a higher enchantment (No, GDR isn't relevant in this case. We could always increase the enchantment until it was worth it.), while Heavy armor is just armor one level higher. Seriously, Doesn't:

has 'the Best AC and GDR' for alternatives .... it also comes with a bigger penalty to EV

Sound like going from chain mail to plate mail to you?

[Wahaha]

What I have suggested is a change that makes elven and dwarven prefixes easy to understand and "relevant" for all races. Davion Fuxa suggested something completely different, I'm not sure why you decided to mix our ideas, please don't do that. The dwarven prefix doesn't give a penalty to EV. It gives a bonus to armor skill. You're also talking as if the elven prefix lowers the armor penalty. It kind of does that, but only for spells. Not for EV and other things. So no, light/heavy isn't just an armor of one level lower or higher. You're also not considering the AC bonus from armor skill derived from the base armor AC, or the maximum enchantment value.

That said, I don't actually care about elven and dwarven qualifiers. They're mostly irrelevant and I ignore them. Wouldn't care if they were gone. I think my suggestion is better than the current situation, but I'm not defending racial prefixes.

[Davion Fuxa]

To me, I'd be for keeping Racial Weapons in light of the fact that we have Demonic Weapons . The Bonuses provided however would have to be useful to really make them stand apart - and this is for all species and not just the specifically specified racial match (assuming we keep it so that specific species are better with their racial weapons).

I don't get how demonic weapons are an argument for keeping other racial weapons. The "Demonic" qualifier seems to be used to justify the highest tier weapons being completely absent until late in the game, and then appearing on even popcorn enemies to ramp up the challenge. Furthermore, I'd be fine with removing it.

Maybe at one point it was added in to name the highest tier of weaponry and what not, but it has come to be developed to be a separate tier of weapon that doubles as racial weapons.

One things that could be done is making Racial Weapons more like Demonic Weapons in that instead of bring a classifier of the weapons design, we just make some more separate tier weapons - so we could have a Dwarven Axe (One Handed) and Dwarven Cleaver (Two Handed), which could act as a wellcrafted weapons that cleave for more damage then what other axes cleave for.

What "bonuses" are you referring to? If you're referring to slaying bonuses, why not incorporate that into the enchantment? If you're referring to new, special bonuses, why not make it a brand?

Dwarven Weaponry is Corrosion Resistant which gives the weaponry a chance to resistant Corrosion if the weapon isn't enchanted high enough. It isn't exactly strong enough to make Dwarven Weaponry stand out but it could be change to something that would or just buffed to immunity to Corrosion Damage regardless of the enchantment level.

Elven and Orcish don't have bonuses for non-races but something could be factored in - like making Elven Long Blades Stab like Short Blades on Tier 3 stabs or Orcish Weapons might be 25% AC piercing.

Wahaha and Davion Fuxa have mentioned ideas to make heavy/light armor. The problem is this can just be replicated by tweaking the base type and enchantment. Light armor is just armor one level lower with a higher enchantment (No, GDR isn't relevant in this case. We could always increase the enchantment until it was worth it.), while Heavy armor is just armor one level higher. Seriously, Doesn't:

has 'the Best AC and GDR' for alternatives .... it also comes with a bigger penalty to EV

Sound like going from chain mail to plate mail to you?

I'm not sure how the Light Armour or Heavy Armour would be tailored but some values like: Spellcasting Modifiers, Spellpower Modifiers, Slayer Modifiers, Stealth Modifiers, Corrosion Resistance/Immunity, Knockback Resistance/Immunity, Constriction Immunity (downgrades it to Held), etc. Furthermore, we might make it so that Light Armour could require a Dex Score to equip and not even touch the Strength Score.

All of that could be values that differentiate the Armour without touching the AC, EV, or GDR values - they also don't really sound all that interesting as brand but combined with each other in negative and positive ways they can still be added in to make Armours interesting.

[reaver]

To me, I'd be for keeping Racial Weapons in light of the fact that we have Demonic Weapons . The Bonuses provided however would have to be useful to really make them stand apart - and this is for all species and not just the specifically specified racial match (assuming we keep it so that specific species are better with their racial weapons).

I don't get how demonic weapons are an argument for keeping other racial weapons. The "Demonic" qualifier seems to be used to justify the highest tier weapons being completely absent until late in the game, and then appearing on even popcorn enemies to ramp up the challenge. Furthermore, I'd be fine with removing it.

Maybe at one point it was added in to name the highest tier of weaponry and what not, but it has come to be developed to be a separate tier of weapon that doubles as racial weapons.

One things that could be done is making Racial Weapons more like Demonic Weapons in that instead of bring a classifier of the weapons design, we just make some more separate tier weapons - so we could have a Dwarven Axe (One Handed) and Dwarven Cleaver (Two Handed), which could act as a wellcrafted weapons that cleave for more damage then what other axes cleave for.

This still doesn't explain why Demonic weapons are something to emulate. I just said I'd be fine if they were removed.

What "bonuses" are you referring to? If you're referring to slaying bonuses, why not incorporate that into the enchantment? If you're referring to new, special bonuses, why not make it a brand?

Dwarven Weaponry is Corrosion Resistant which gives the weaponry a chance to resistant Corrosion if the weapon isn't enchanted high enough. It isn't exactly strong enough to make Dwarven Weaponry stand out but it could be change to something that would or just buffed to immunity to Corrosion Damage regardless of the enchantment level.

Elven and Orcish don't have bonuses for non-races but something could be factored in - like making Elven Long Blades Stab like Short Blades on Tier 3 stabs or Orcish Weapons might be 25% AC piercing.

Once again, why not use a brand? Particularly since you're adding all new effects.

I'm not sure how the Light Armour or Heavy Armour would be tailored but some values like: Spellcasting Modifiers, Spellpower Modifiers, Slayer Modifiers, Stealth Modifiers, Corrosion Resistance/Immunity, Knockback Resistance/Immunity, Constriction Immunity (downgrades it to Held), etc. Furthermore, we might make it so that Light Armour could require a Dex Score to equip and not even touch the Strength Score.

All of that could be values that differentiate the Armour without touching the AC, EV, or GDR values - they also don't really sound all that interesting as brand but combined with each other in negative and positive ways they can still be added in to make Armours interesting.

If Crawl had these values for all armors, the game would be unplayable. Comparing six numbers on each armor you find to your current one is the a textbook example of scumming. It's fine to add it occasionally, of course, but that would be better suited to something like brands or randarts.

In addition, you seem to have too high standards for egos. Look at vorpal-It literally does nothing but add more damage. Flaming and electrocution are hardly better. There's nothing wrong with adding these as a egos. If you think they do too little, combine them together to one super-ego. That's basically what Stasis is.

What I have suggested is a change that makes elven and dwarven prefixes easy to understand and "relevant" for all races. Davion Fuxa suggested something completely different, I'm not sure why you decided to mix our ideas, please don't do that.

Sorry if I offended you by conflating your ideas like that.

The dwarven prefix doesn't give a penalty to EV. It gives a bonus to armor skill. You're also talking as if the elven prefix lowers the armor penalty. It kind of does that, but only for spells. Not for EV and other things. So no, light/heavy isn't just an armor of one level lower or higher. You're also not considering the AC bonus from armor skill derived from the base armor AC, or the maximum enchantment value.

Look, best example I can find why this line of reasoning is wrong:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episod ... d-conflict
After watching the video, using their terminology, all you're doing is making new "calculations." "Calculations" aren't fun because they answer is so obvious. On the EV thing, you could write a script to determine how much damage you'd take and whether the AC was worth it. Something like rCorr, rF, or Ponderous is a choice. Do I want to be better against Slimes or Orbs of Fire? Is the movement hit worth the extra AC? The greatest players in the game can and have debated for years on these sorts of issues without coming up with an answer. Ask the top players what the best acquirement is, and you could hear a different answer from each one. A reduction in EV vs. higher AC can be decided by anybody willing to work out the math.

[tasonir]

I can't be the only one who thinks dwarven armor is useful. Everyone seems entirely focused on body armor. Yes, dwarven body armor is probably for anyone with a spell, but dwarven boots, shields, cloaks, etc are better. The ac bonus is rather small, but a bonus is a bonus, and resistance to corrosion is pretty nice in the rare cases where it's used. Am I missing something horrible why no one has stuck up for it yet? Dwarven bonuses do apply to non-body gear without hampering spellcasting, correct?

Spells are just that important in the game. Yes you can play spell-less but the majority of characters that will play will use spells in some shape or form. Even on spell-less characters though, Dragon Armour outclasses it.

I feel like I have a problem communicating. People constantly misunderstand what I'm trying to get across. The secondary armor slots, when dwarven, give bonus AC at NO SPELLCASTING PENALTY. They are strictly better than regular items. People should use them always. There are no dragonscale boots, so normal armor vs dragon armor doesn't apply.

Granted the bonus is very small (I could be wrong but I think it's .04 ac?), and minmay thinks it might be a bug, but dwarven secondary armor is just better.

Edit: just realized it was unclear because I left out the word "worse" in the original quoted post above. It should read " Yes, dwarven body armor is probably worse for anyone with a spell, but dwarven boots, shields, cloaks, etc are better. " I am in fact terrible at english.

[Wahaha]

Look, best example I can find why this line of reasoning is wrong:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/patv/episod ... d-conflict
After watching the video, using their terminology, all you're doing is making new "calculations." "Calculations" aren't fun because they answer is so obvious. On the EV thing, you could write a script to determine how much damage you'd take and whether the AC was worth it. Something like rCorr, rF, or Ponderous is a choice. Do I want to be better against Slimes or Orbs of Fire? Is the movement hit worth the extra AC? The greatest players in the game can and have debated for years on these sorts of issues without coming up with an answer. Ask the top players what the best acquirement is, and you could hear a different answer from each one. A reduction in EV vs. higher AC can be decided by anybody willing to work out the math.

I'm not making any new calculations, my idea simplifies the elven and dwarven qualifiers, makes them useful for all races, but it doesn't change any math. These calculations are already in-game. If you have a problem with these calculations then it's a problem with what elven and dwarven qualifiers currently are. Except elven doesn't change EV or AC and dwarven slightly improves both EV and AC, I think you keep misunderstanding what they do. And like I said, I'm not defending racial qualifiers because they ARE mostly small differences, often irrelevant. I want them to be removed or made into something relevant, which is why I shouldn't even be defending my idea because it accomplishes neither of these things. I just dislike incorrect assumptions.

[Davion Fuxa]

This still doesn't explain why Demonic weapons are something to emulate. I just said I'd be fine if they were removed.

There is a lot of work in these weapons. TSO worshippers can bless them to become holy versions of the weapons (Demonic Whip becomes Holy Scourge for example) and the concept around them also is flavorful. That's also a reason for Racial versions like Dwarven, Elven, and Orcish.

Elven and Orcish don't have bonuses for non-races but something could be factored in - like making Elven Long Blades Stab like Short Blades on Tier 3 stabs or Orcish Weapons might be 25% AC piercing.

Once again, why not use a brand? Particularly since you're adding all new effects.

Orcs are more likely to spawn with their own weaponry and if a developer wanted to make them more interesting or dangerous in a specific way he might alter their weaponry so on a whole it was applied in a certain way. This could be done with a brand but it may also be more effect as a supporting modifier to a weapon that could also have a brand - imagine AC piercing with Poisoning for example.

Additionally if the player acquires a Racial Weapon then the developer may develop the weapon so that it instigates some decision making on the player. To flesh out the above Elven idea, maybe all non-Short Blade weapons have improved Tier-3 stabbing; and this is designed to encourage players to train different skills or altar the players playstyle. Again, this could be done with a brand but as a supporting modifier players may be more encouraged to try it out since the weapon could also have a desired brand.

If Crawl had these values for all armors, the game would be unplayable. Comparing six numbers on each armor you find to your current one is the a textbook example of scumming. It's fine to add it occasionally, of course, but that would be better suited to something like brands or randarts.

I'm not getting what your sort of explaining here, but here's just a random idea to describe what Armours may look like

Light Armour: Hampers Spellcasting Less, Less En-cumbersome, Usually of Lower Enchantment level, Harder to use Enchant Armour Scrolls on, Requires Dexterity Score along with Strength Score to avoid problems
Normal Armour: Normal Penalties
Heavy Armour: Stealth penalty, More En-cumbersome, Knockback Resistance, Constriction Immunity, Usually of Higher Enchantment Levels, Easier to use Enchant Armour Scrolls on

That sort of setup doesn't really scream to me that it is making the game unplayable. Certain Armours cater better to certain playstyles, ego's/enchantments that happen with them, or depending on how your run is going; but it isn't like you should be unhappy with wearing a Heavy Armour instead of Light Armour if you are a Spellcaster, or hating life in regular Normal Armour if you go against Naga's or Elephants in Melee.

In addition, you seem to have too high standards for egos. Look at vorpal-It literally does nothing but add more damage. Flaming and electrocution are hardly better. There's nothing wrong with adding these as a egos. If you think they do too little, combine them together to one super-ego. That's basically what Stasis is.

Vorpal is the most versatile brand in game, and on Ranged Weapons it can be king. Flaming is extremely dangerous because it is a constant source of lost scrolls for players when enemies hit them with such items. Electrocution is a fixed damage increase separate from actual damage inflicted. All of these brands serve a purpose

As for Armour ego's... the thing here to note is that it is likely a Spellcasting Armour would really do little compared to one of Fire Resistance or particular instance type armour like with one that makes you only get held by Naga's or avoid being trampled by Dragons would serve little purpose most of the time. But they aren't pointless enough that if they happened along as a second modifier that you wouldn't notice them as being potentially useful.