Pre-identify all non-artefact armor and weapons

[Moose]

It has occured to me that in many of my games, at some point, I find myself typing CTRL-F glow, runed, etc to try to find robes that might be resistance, or fire resistance, or something else handy. Similarly to weapons as well. When I just got killed by a +5, +6 "normal" trident that spawned on an orc, it even stuck home more.

The game generates a lot of good loot, but it's a bitch to sift through it all, and is what some would call "scummy" behavior, which I believe is something this game is built on avoiding. One could argue that optimal behavior might be that once you get a few remove curse scrolls, you just wield-test every weapon and armor (in your class) you find, in hopes that it has a great enchantment, or brand you might need.

I'm personally too lazy to do this, but I think it's a shame that I miss out on a lot of good loot due to my laziness.

A couple of potentially nasty side effects of having all weapons/armor pre-id'ed:

1) Players miss out on the thrilling experience of having a horrible cursed weapon stuck in their hands.
2) Players miss out on the wonderful side-effects and capers of accidentially wielding something fun like a short sword of distortion
3) Remove curse scrolls lose even more utility
4) The game becomes a little easier, especially in the early-game

[BlackSheep]

Better yet, just let players pick the equipment they want!

[galehar]

search for "ego && stuff", with stuff being the weapon type or armour slot you're looking for. You'll get all the glowing and runed stuff and won't miss any potentially good stuff (highly enchanted items are guaranteed to have a cosmetic flag).

[ackack]

Another alternative would be worshipping Ashenzari.

Though the observation has been made before, I'll say that cursed items are basically completely inconsequential with some very minor exceptions. The only times I've ever run into any issue with this is doing Tomb after a lot of ?rc got mulched or on characters that try to play the whole game silenced.

[dpeg]

Moose: if it has a really good enchantment or an ego, the item is guaranteed to get a notifier ("runed", "glowing"). The behaviour you describe was endured by players quite some time ago (back then, even non-glowing/runed items had a chance for an ego).

With this information, it is not clear if you are asking for a change, or just didn't know about it. If something has to change, I am against displaying all item properties all the time. If at all, I'd do it like for books: you know the enchantment/ego when you pick it up. However, I don't think this is really necessary: I don't feel bothered by this part of the game (and yes, it was annoying back when we use-tested everything).

[savageorange]

^ I certainly think that the current situation, where I can start with a book of Conjurations but still need to pick up a random flavoured book from the ground before I discover that -that- book is Conjurations, too, could be improved. It seems a little silly, overall, that you wouldn't know the 'flavour' of your starting book.
Anyway I certainly agree -- having to pick up a book before you know what type it is doesn't really have any significant gameplay effects, it's just a minor piece of grind.

@Galehar: By 'cosmetic flag', do you mean that anything that is plain (no actual ego) but has pluses better than +2,+2 will always show up as glowing/runed/foo?

[galehar]

@Galehar: By 'cosmetic flag', do you mean that anything that is plain (no actual ego) but has pluses better than +2,+2 will always show up as glowing/runed/foo?

The chance is (enchantment - 2) / 3, so it is guaranteed at +5.

https://gitorious.org/crawl/crawl/commit/1cee2155

[rebthor]

TL:DR of the OP: Give me all the benefits of worshiping Ash without any of the restrictions. Kthxbye.

[Moose]

TL:DR of the OP: Give me all the benefits of worshiping Ash without any of the restrictions. Kthxbye.

Gee, if we combine your theory here (granted the word "all" is accurate) with mine, that it's grindy scummy behavior having to wield-test all these unknown weapons and armor, and we follow my suggestion, we could get rid of a god while we're at it too!

[Sandman25]

@Galehar: By 'cosmetic flag', do you mean that anything that is plain (no actual ego) but has pluses better than +2,+2 will always show up as glowing/runed/foo?

The chance is (enchantment - 2) / 3, so it is guaranteed at +5.

https://gitorious.org/crawl/crawl/commit/1cee2155

So one can still miss +4 plate armour unless he tries all plain plate armours, correct?

[Amnesiac]

don't they auto-ID on pickup if you have a high enough weapon skill?

[Sandman25]

don't they auto-ID on pickup if you have a high enough weapon skill?

Is it related to weapon skill? I was surprised recently when I found a runic plate armour in Ctrl+F but was unable to see it when I arrived (everything in LoS so no monster could pick it up). I guess it was automatically identified because I was in the same cell, it turned out as +3 plate armour when I weared it.

[Amnesiac]

Um, I'm not sure I haven't misunderstood you but weapon is auto-ID'd when you have it in your inventory and you gain enough skill or you have it from the beginning(but even the exact copy might not auto-ID along with something for some reason, probably a predeterminating random roll or something) and armour only auto-IDs when you put it on.

[Sandman25]

Um, I'm not sure I haven't misunderstood you but weapon is auto-ID'd when you have it in your inventory and you gain enough skill or you have it from the beginning(but even the exact copy might not auto-ID along with something for some reason, probably a predeterminating random roll or something) and armour only auto-IDs when you put it on.

Oh, I see. Your post was after mine and you wrote "they" so I assumed you were talking about plate armours. Yes, wielded weapon autoids with high enough weapon skill.

[galehar]

So one can still miss +4 plate armour unless he tries all plain plate armours, correct?

Yes, although the chance is pretty low.

don't they auto-ID on pickup if you have a high enough weapon skill?

Only throwable weapons. Others, you need to wield them (they might be cursed). I don't like this exception on throwable weapons, but when I brought it up to kilobyte, he said that otherwise, you can guess the enchantment by throwing them with no curse risk. It's theoretical, but probably some player is crazy enough to write a script to do the stats and guessing.
Anyway, even if not perfect, I think it would be better than status quo. This exception on throwable weapons can be quite confusing.

[Amnesiac]

Hmm, I probably mixed daggers with other SBs on my stabbers. Now this is confusing.

[rebthor]

So one can still miss +4 plate armour unless he tries all plain plate armours, correct?

Yes, although the chance is pretty low.

don't they auto-ID on pickup if you have a high enough weapon skill?

Only throwable weapons. Others, you need to wield them (they might be cursed). I don't like this exception on throwable weapons, but when I brought it up to kilobyte, he said that otherwise, you can guess the enchantment by throwing them with no curse risk. It's theoretical, but probably some player is crazy enough to write a script to do the stats and guessing.
Anyway, even if not perfect, I think it would be better than status quo. This exception on throwable weapons can be quite confusing.

Isn't every weapon throwable?