Hats vs. Helmets is not Gloves vs. Gauntlets

[XuaXua]

Hats / Caps give one step less defense than Helmets, but can be worn with some iterations of horns and/or antennae (I think), whereas Helmets cannot.
Helmets tend to have certain non-artefact brands (See Invisible) that Hats do not (Intelligence).

I can see (no pun intended), in this sense that Helmets are geared towards warriors and Hats to wizards.

There is no spellcasting penalty that I know of to Helmets vs. Hats.
I'd think there could be, if a helmet restricted some forms of casting without some Armour skill, otherwise it's a no-brainer to wear a helmet over a cap.

- - -

Gloves are no different from Gauntlets other than what brands are available (probably; never see Gloves of Strength or Gauntlets of Archery (I think)).

One might think that Gloves would be to Hats/Caps as Gauntlets are to Helmets, but it's not there (to my knowledge).

Was it intended to be this way, or were Gauntlets to give an AC bonus (with maybe a slight attack speed penalty negated by Armour Skill)?

Just asking.

[inkydood]

Pretty sure it's just a cosmetic difference, like with plumed/golden helmets. I saw a discussion on this a while back, debating just having one name for the same item. Makes sense, especially because "internal consistency" is a minor design goal, though I'd prefer to see them differentiated:

1. First, for the same reason-- consistency. Differently named items should, in theory, act differently.

2. However, giving the player more (real) choices increases depth, making for a more interesting game.

3. Renaming to just gloves/gauntlets assumes the player is too stupid to read the item description and conclude they're the same. Sparing the player a brief moment of confusion would be a nice minor change, but differentiation would be better.

4. While immersion isn't an official goal of the dev team, Crawl is not a game dealing in complete abstraction like Chess. It's a tactical game, but it's also fantasy game about slaying dragons with swords (to simplify, a little bit). Even if gloves/gauntlets and other similar cases are never differentiated, having both is a small part of making the Dungeon feel more alive, which I think is a good thing. What some might see as sloppy and inconsistent, I see as welcome attention to detail. Feel free to disagree.

5. Your idea of hats/gloves for wizards and helmets/gauntlets for warriors seems like it'd be a no-brainer much of the time, but not always. A more interesting solution probably exists, though perhaps nobody will think of one for a long time. This reminds me of a similar case-- all else equal, elven armor virtually always weighs less than its standard counterparts, and is therefore strictly better (by a negligible, but real margin) for everyone but Orcs and Dwarves, who have their own branded armor. Ultimately, these are no-brainers, but minor enough to be left alone, and best left in because they might be the basis of something more substantial later on.

[XuaXua]

See, that's the thing. My suggestions aside, Hats are markedly different from Helmets and yet Gloves are identical to Gauntlets.

With Gloves/Gauntlets there feels like a Hats/Helmets difference was intended, but never implemented.

Differentiation is implied, but does not exist, with Gloves/Gauntlets simply because differentiation exists with Hats/Helmets.
Looking at it from the opposite view;
Differentiation is not implied, but does exist, with Hats/Helmets because differentiation does not exist with Gloves/Gauntlets.

Pretty sure it's just a cosmetic difference, like with plumed/golden helmets.

I was under the impression the idea was bandied around (somewhere) for Horned/Spiked helmets to grant a horned alternative attack, but could be wrong. Not a fan of it, myself.

[jejorda2]

Should gauntlets be blocked by level 1 of the claws mutation, while gloves can be worn at level 1 and level 2 but not level 3? Then if you're a demonspawn, you need to decide whether to enchant the gauntlets of dex that you might lose with later mutations.

Stockings could be the new wimpy boots, but there's no reason for MOAR symmetry.

[XuaXua]

Stockings could be the new wimpy boots, but there's no reason for MOAR symmetry.

There is one design for boots in Crawl Tiles that looks like sandals.

[varsovie]

1. First, for the same reason-- consistency. Differently named items should, in theory, act differently.

2. However, giving the player more (real) choices increases depth, making for a more interesting game.

3. Renaming to just gloves/gauntlets assumes the player is too stupid to read the item description and conclude they're the same. Sparing the player a brief moment of confusion would be a nice minor change, but differentiation would be better.

The problem is, how to differentiate glove/gauntlets without breaking the balance since hands is a minor slot in Crawl and lot of species/mutations can't use it, and without making the diferenciation meaningless.
Separate the ego so glove get Dex and gauntlets get Str is mostly meaningless.
Giving 1+ acc to gloves and +1 dam to gauntlets will differentiate them, but will be mostly meaningless while giving a hard time to choose for some newby, or even frustration.
Making one wearable with claw 1 simply make it a no-brainer (or strictly better).

So yeah, with the range of 1 to 2 AC, Dex or Str ego only, marginal armor slot easily lost, no meaningful effect on gameplay, it's hard to find something good to differentiate both.
So I would suggest to gives only one name (glove because it's shorter).
Another solution maybe to give the init.txt an option plain/rich, with plain we will have only one name/tile for everything, in rich multiple variations and adjectives (eg. Spiked black leather braces).