Move corpses/skeletons to top of 'pile'


Although the central place for design discussion is ##crawl-dev on freenode, some may find it helpful to discuss requests and suggestions here first.

User avatar

Pandemonium Purger

Posts: 1283

Joined: Thursday, 16th April 2015, 22:39

Post Thursday, 4th June 2015, 03:47

Move corpses/skeletons to top of 'pile'

From Prevent AD when no corpses visible:

all before (the OP) wrote:The game should not allow you to cast Animate Dead if there are no corpses or skeletons in LOS. Or at least offer a y/n prompt. It's boring to check every pile to see if a corpse exists or not.


neil wrote:There is a small UI problem with this: namely, when there is a corpse at the bottom of a pile that you haven't stepped on yet. In that case, as far as you know, there is no corpse (even though statistically speaking you know there is an N% chance of there being one). As a result, after killing a pack of monsters you would have to either force-cast or step on at least one corpse first.


Pollen_Golem wrote:I don't like the fact that (at least in tiles) an object (e.g. weapon) can block out the corpse. IMO a corpse should always take preference, visually, over any object the monster dropped when it died. In this case it would be easy to see if any corpses are in LOS, and OP's suggestion makes perfect sense.


Here is one way to do this. Whenever a thing is dropped onto a tile:
  • If the thing is a corpse or skeleton: move it to the 'top' of the 'pile' so that it's visible upon going 'x' 'v'.
  • Otherwise, if it's neither corpse nor skeleton: move it to the 'bottom' of the 'pile'.
Incidentally, this also makes it less likely that you'll see unwanted objects that you deliberately dropped.
User avatar

Zot Zealot

Posts: 982

Joined: Monday, 29th September 2014, 09:04

Post Thursday, 4th June 2015, 04:27

Re: Move corpses/skeletons to top of 'pile'

for anyone except people with AD, I'd prefer the opposite
User avatar

Pandemonium Purger

Posts: 1283

Joined: Thursday, 16th April 2015, 22:39

Post Thursday, 4th June 2015, 05:46

Re: Move corpses/skeletons to top of 'pile'

Why? What particular difference does it make for you, whether you see that dead ogre's corpse, or his giant club?

Spider Stomper

Posts: 206

Joined: Wednesday, 12th January 2011, 15:07

Post Thursday, 4th June 2015, 08:14

Re: Move corpses/skeletons to top of 'pile'

This stops apportation from working on piles with corpses.

For this message the author Zooty has received thanks:
Sar

Dungeon Master

Posts: 1613

Joined: Thursday, 16th December 2010, 21:54

Post Thursday, 4th June 2015, 12:09

Re: Move corpses/skeletons to top of 'pile'

A better solution to this, if it needs solving, was mentioned in the very first posts in that thread (indicating stacks with corpses in somehow, with an icon in tiles and presumably by highlighting them somehow in console).

For this message the author Kate has received thanks:
all before

Tartarus Sorceror

Posts: 1776

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

Location: South Carolina

Post Thursday, 4th June 2015, 12:44

Re: Move corpses/skeletons to top of 'pile'

Zooty wrote:This stops apportation from working on piles with corpses.

Could Apportation be made something like a level 5 spell that lets you choose which item from a pile you want?

I still don't understand why you don't know what is in every pile that in LOS before stepping on it- stepping on piles is up there with being in pray mode to sacrifice while butchering for invented complexities.

To have a L1 translocation spell, introduce one that moves a random item or enemy in LOS to a different random space in LOS. If you cast it enough, the book on the other side of the water will be somewhere that you can walk to. Sometimes it will move an enemy away from you.

For this message the author jejorda2 has received thanks: 2
dowan, Sandman25
User avatar

Barkeep

Posts: 4435

Joined: Tuesday, 11th January 2011, 12:28

Post Thursday, 4th June 2015, 14:48

Re: Move corpses/skeletons to top of 'pile'

Since corpses are no longer "items" in any meaningful sense, maybe they should be a completely separate thing for the purposes of animate foo and `x`. Eg:
  Code:
A club.
There is something else lying underneath.
A hobgoblin corpse.
An adder corpse.
The floor.
I am not a very good player. My mouth is a foul pit of LIES. KNOW THIS.

For this message the author njvack has received thanks:
dowan
User avatar

Pandemonium Purger

Posts: 1283

Joined: Thursday, 16th April 2015, 22:39

Post Thursday, 4th June 2015, 16:22

Re: Move corpses/skeletons to top of 'pile'

Like that, but truncated:
  Code:
A club.
There is something else lying underneath.
The floor, corpses of: hobgoblin, adder.

In any case, I would strongly prefer corpses to be consistently under items or over items. It's a mere aesthetic, but damn, it's an eyesore when sometimes you see corpses, and sometimes you see items, when both are on a single tile.

Ziggurat Zagger

Posts: 8786

Joined: Sunday, 5th May 2013, 08:25

Post Thursday, 4th June 2015, 18:04

Re: Move corpses/skeletons to top of 'pile'

that means you x all the time which is gross
Pollen_Golem wrote:It's a mere aesthetic, but damn, it's an eyesore when sometimes you see corpses, and sometimes you see items, when both are on a single tile.
you do? I never see new corpses appear over items in console, if they do that's a pretty bad bug
User avatar

Pandemonium Purger

Posts: 1283

Joined: Thursday, 16th April 2015, 22:39

Post Thursday, 4th June 2015, 18:14

Re: Move corpses/skeletons to top of 'pile'

I don't know about 'new corpses appearing over items', but since you can have the .\\ symbol on a tile with a corpse graphic (meaning there are other things in the pile) I have to move onto the pile to see what is there. Are you saying that currently, items always take precedence over corpses? I might need to pay some good attention to it, to see how it works. Apologies, if I was mistaken.

Return to Game Design Discussion

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 30 guests

cron
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group.
Designed by ST Software for PTF.