Improving the level-up stat picker prompt


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Tartarus Sorceror

Posts: 1776

Joined: Monday, 21st February 2011, 15:57

Location: South Carolina

Post Thursday, 12th May 2011, 13:29

Improving the level-up stat picker prompt

Sometimes, when I gain a level and am prompted to choose whether I want to increase Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence, I am not sure which one to choose.

I often have a target strength that I want to reach with a caster so I will have enough carrying capacity, but I don't always remember whether I'm wearing a +2 or +3 ring of strength. The same goes for Intelligence when I'm a fighter or hybrid.

The screen says I have 8 Int, but did that last potion of cure mutation undo the potion of gain intelligence?

I can afford to buy that Ring of Str in the antique shop, but how good is it? Do I want strength now and Int later, or the other way around?

Have I identified the Potion of Gain Dexterity yet?

I often want answers to these questions before answering the prompt, but the prompt is modal so I just have to guess.

I see two ways to try to fix this:
  • Make the prompt non-modal. Just have it ask (S)trength, (D)exterity, (I)ntelligence, or Decide (L)ater. If (L)ater is picked, give a message that the (a)bilities screen can be used to increase stats at any time. Using the ability would just bring up the same prompt, S/D/I/L.
  • Make the prompt a full screen like you get when you pray at an altar, describing all equipment and mutations that affect stats. It would be a lot like the (%) character info screen. Describing what's equipped right now would go a long way, but I'd like to have info on everything in my inventory, if not everything that has been seen on the floor and in shops.
The non-modal prompt is probably easier to code and understand, but maybe there is some balance issue with making a "gain stat" ability. And I guess anyone could argue that players should think ahead and prepare for that next level-up, but it seems like Crawl's developers have done a good job so far of keeping interface from getting in the way.
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Dungeon Master

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Location: France

Post Thursday, 12th May 2011, 13:42

Re: Improving the level-up stat picker prompt

Those proposals aren't bad, but they require a significant amount of coding to fix a very minor issue, so I doubt that they will ever be done. In case of doubt, just raise int, you can't have too much of it ;)
<+Grunt> You dereference an invalid pointer! Ouch! That really hurt! The game dies...
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Slime Squisher

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Joined: Friday, 4th February 2011, 18:04

Location: The South, US

Post Thursday, 12th May 2011, 14:37

Re: Improving the level-up stat picker prompt

This is a related idea from the wonderful Things that should be more transparent thread.

dolphin wrote:Another thing I think should be more transparent is how much your stats are boosted from items and mutations. So instead of | Str: 22 |, it would be | Str: 17 +5 | or even | Str: 17 +4 (in some color picked to designate item-based stat gain) +1 (ditto for mutations)


the wiki post -- jejorda suggests using| Str: 20 (22) |notation
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mageykun

Snake Sneak

Posts: 110

Joined: Monday, 20th December 2010, 21:11

Post Friday, 13th May 2011, 14:40

Re: Improving the level-up stat picker prompt

Why don't you use horizontal number row 5 (not numpad 5 which delays 1 turn) for wait/search?

Snake Sneak

Posts: 110

Joined: Monday, 20th December 2010, 21:11

Post Friday, 13th May 2011, 15:00

Re: Improving the level-up stat picker prompt

I was unclear whether S is equivalent to long wait or 1 turn wait. But, yes, in that case, please pretend i asked why you don't use . or numpad 5 instead. I guess providing an option to remap (S)trength, (D)exterity and (I)ntelligence to other keys wouldn't hurt, but its probably a lot of effort for what is essentially a non-problem since there's already a perfectly good solution available (don't use S for wait).

Or you could remap S so it doesn't do wait and force yourself to use . or numpad 5 :)

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