dpeg wrote:This would be a problem if it occurred regularly. However, if it is only a freak accident, then just chalk this up under extreme variance and carry on: you are playing a unique Ashenzari game, and you perservered despite dearth of ?RC.
So no, I don't see why Ashenzari totally sucks from this anecdote.
As already others pointed out, this was kinda a joke topic, otherwise I've posted it in GDD.
Anyway, I'll try to give a more serious impression, as you have considered it more seriously than it was.
I'm fine with the mechanics of binding with Ash - you trade a normal ability (to quickly swap things to get an advantage in fights) for others (you get better in doing more things faster) - this often offer meaningful choices: early on it can be to choice between faster piety (and with Ash you need to get fastest piety) or using that blowgun which would trivialize anything until Lair. After, it could between rods and training more weapon skill, or having more magic support or swapping between some good jewellery you have.
However, Ash power depends totally on floor loot, case unique among gods. This dependency is furthermore aggravated by requiring three things together!
The first it's the gear: you need to find something at all, to be able to use Ash to some extend. And I'm not talking about end-game material, but shitty auxiliary armour slots, or basic jewellery. I had games where I found my first boots\helmet in slimes:6\vault:5, after the game was won, others where I cleared lair\orcs and perhaps even got the 1st runes and still hadn't jewellery on.
I don't think this is good at all - because it's a very strict requisite which isn't often easy to oblige and over which the player has no control - and especially offers no choice. It would be like Oka's offering finesse after the first Juggernaut kill, or TSO holy warrior for punishing your first 2. Why is this a thing?
This problem is much similar to very old chei - which was depending on equipment in a perhaps even worse way - and which was thankfully resolved time ago. Personally, I would be very happy if Ash could enjoy of something similar - like the ability to curse a slot without anything on - so if you find that +2 MR+ cloak hey you have to burn something to actually benefit of it.
The second problem is that Ash depend on ?RC and nowadays it's the only reason why ?RC and curses still exists. Again, I don't think this relationship had ever any reason to exist.
On one hand, most games have so much abundance of ?RC that after very early game - where most of time you can anyway curse only your weapon because you don't have other shit - this thing lose quickly any meaningful value. On other, there are very few games (like mine) where ?RC don't exist, players can't do a shit about it and there are again no real choices. I don't really believe there's a good middle-ground, because if you find something slightly better when low on ?RC you should anyway try to upgrade - because there's no sense either to way to find something much better in a random game like a roguelike. I can think the only case where it's meaningful it's when you're very close to getting something from your shop-list, or you're entering in end-branch with guarantee loot like Lair:8 or Orc:4 (and that upgrade you can do right now doesn't make difference between life and death).
Anyway, even this extremely corner case can be spoiled by the third problem: you don't only need to find the gear, the ?RC, but also hope you win the curse minigame no one knows why still exists. Like I've posted before, you can lose it even spending 6/7 ?RC.
Sorry, but here I can't really make the effort to write a proper argument: it has totally no sense, gives no real choices and so on all what you want. I can either get what I need, or don't. Stop, it's like playing slot machines with your ?RC.
Admittedly, I can definitely see some extremely corner cases where I can just de-curse some of the gear, losing big chunk of char abilities, if talking of things like ring of robustness, slay +6, rf+ for zot or like that.
To summarize: I don't think binding god's powers to rng loot works, in any way or case. I'd like much to see ?RC and gear game disappear, not because of this game but because it does not work - replacing with one of the proposals I've seen floating around, like allowing free binding of items, and making the ability to de-curse cost a * of piety of something like that. In that case, players would have a meaningful choice over which they have some sort of control: like do I get an immediate upper advantage (e.g. better ring) but losing for a significant time an amount of my abilities (e.g. casting higher level spell).
Wednesday, 23rd September 2015, 07:12 
