Make spell memorization screen show more info

[danr]

When deciding what spells to memorize, I want to know spell power and hunger cost. It seems the only way to see those for spells I don't yet know is to toggle to description mode and look at each spell individually.

Could it be made to work like the spell inventory screen, where pressing I a second time toggles to showing spell power and hunger cost for the whole list of spells?

The interface would be very simple, most of it is already there for the I screen. The control would be identical, you just press M a second time to toggle to the other view. It would be a significant yet easy interface improvement.

Alternatively, both the I and M screens could be made to show all that information on just one screen, but I'm guessing that's not practical, and it would certainly take a lot more work even if it could be done.

[dpeg]

Good idea!

But I think we could be even better: here is the information we currently show

  Code:

I = M:    name  - type  - failure - level
II:       power - range - hunger  - level
new M:    name  - power - failure - hunger -level


It is actually possible to display all that information for new M. The only drawback would be missing type, but that's the least interesting bit of information: completely static.

  Code:

I = old M: |     Spells (Memorisation)         Type                          Failure  Level |
II:        | Your Spells                       Power         Range           Hunger   Level |
new M:     | Spells (Memorisation)             Power         Failure         Hunger   Level |


[Galefury]

IMO being able to see the spell schools is far more important than power and hunger. I never care about those when memorizing spells.

[XuaXua]

That's because you have that stuff memorized, and that's why the blue group is thanking/backing up your claim.
That or they feel it's insignificant.

If it's insignificant, why is it a factor listed on spells then, and why even contrast something that provides additional insight to decision making, no matter how insignificant you deem it?

[BlackSheep]

It was less a criticism of the idea of showing power and hunger up front than it was of the idea that spell schools are uninteresting because they don't change.

[Galefury]

Argh, ninjad. This is a reply to XuaXua.

Actually spell schools are much easier to memorize than spell power and hunger, because they never change. I know the schools of almost all spells by heart (and I'm sure so do most people who have been playing crawl for a while), and yet I think spell schools are more important to see at a glance.

I'm not opposing MM working like II, I like that idea. I probably wouldn't use it much, but I'm sure it would be useful to some players. But I am against replacing spell schools with hunger and power on the memorization screen.

[crate]

Basically which schools the spell is a part of is orders of magnitude more important than the spell hunger, and also dramatically more important than spell power. The memorization screen leaving out information that is very important to display information that is not important should be unacceptable.

I am ok with adding more information to M if it fits, just don't do it at the cost of making the screen actually less useful.

[palin]

What about using abbreviations for schools in the "new" M screen?
Two letters seems enough to differentiate )I did not enumerate them, so I may be wrong) and spells currently can be at most 3 schools so 8 to 10 characters (including separators) should be enough.

[Deimos]

I think that might be a turnoff for new players; seeing "fm em co" on your Bolt of Magma could be confusing before you memorize the school names. Hell, we need a guide for some players to even correctly abbreviate their class combos!

[palin]

I think that might be a turnoff for new players; seeing "fm em co" on your Bolt of Magma could be confusing before you memorize the school names. Hell, we need a guide for some players to even correctly abbreviate their class combos!

There could be an explanation below, and every single spell could have full description and school. After all abbreviations are better that the other way: nothing

[Jabberwocky]

I think that might be a turnoff for new players; seeing "fm em co" on your Bolt of Magma could be confusing before you memorize the school names. Hell, we need a guide for some players to even correctly abbreviate their class combos!

https://crawl.develz.org/tavern/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=4

[danr]

I wouldn't want to give up the spell schools, to me that's nice information to have. I may have it memorized for the spells I commonly use, but when I'm standing on a stack of 20 spellbooks and looking for a new spell to add to my arsenal there would be many times when I don't remember the schools of each spell.

I like the current II interface, just do the same thing for MM. It's very easy to toggle back and forth and essentially have access to all the info at once.

To those saying hunger cost and power are less important - I agree they are not important in the big scheme of things in planning which spells you will use over the game. However, when having to make a decision about what to fill your only 5 remaining spell slots with, it is very important to see how good a given spell will be for you _right_now_. It's not good to fill those slots with a spell that will only be useable 5,000 turns from now.