Vestibule Violator
Posts: 1591
Joined: Saturday, 3rd August 2013, 18:59
Proposal: Remove identification
I'm going to try my best to explain what exactly identification represents in the context of the game. Essentially, not IDing scrolls/potions on pick up generally means that you end up with 1 less of each type of potion and scroll than you would normally have(unless the time you use it is appropriate, which is entirely RNG based), and scrolls of ID basically say "gain 1 extra potion/scroll that you have not identified yet." Obviously, it depends on how you choose to play the game, as has been discussed in one of my previous threads. However, no matter how you decide to play it, the function of identification is still the same.
I believe this has a negative effect on gameplay for a number of reasons. First of all, its tedious, and not just tedious, but consistently tedious as since it happens every single game. More importantly, it restricts the options of the player in certain circumstances in the early game, essentially turning what could be a choice of "should I use this potion now or use a weaker one to save resources in case I need it later?" into "#YoloQuaff." I know some people like the #YoloQuaff mechanic in the early game, but its just not good game design no matter how you look at it. The random elements of the game are meant for variation, and unavoidable deaths are required otherwise the game presents no 'real' challenge for skilled players, they are not meant to force player skill to take a back seat to a die roll which is exactly what not having potions/scrolls ID'ed upon pickup does.
But lets take a break from potions and scrolls and talk a little bit about some of the other uses of IDing things. Scrolls of identification are also used to identify amulets in case you don't want to accidentally equip faith and be forced to either keep it on or lose a lot of piety. Another use is for figuring out the number of charges in a wand, although people tend to reserve this for the 3 rare wands since they are the only one that have a real effect on the game if they run out. The there is the use of IDing branded and randart weapons to avoid accidentally equipping distortion. Then there are a few niche situations like when one might want to identify the top card of a deck, or maybe they are just lazy and don't want to equip something so they just read the scroll instead(I know I do this a lot). My question is, why does any of that need to be in the game? Would it be added now if it were proposed? Wouldn't it make a whole lot more sense to just ID things upon pickup? All it adds is an extra step, its not like scrolls of identification are in short supply in most games, and reducing the amount of them would only cause frustration since it further hinders player decisions, and before somebody mentions it, there is nothing fun about risk-IDing something that could potentially screw you over that you really didn't need to do, which is the only decision that could potentially arise from limiting ID scrolls.
There is only one other thing that ID scrolls and identification in general has to offer to the game, I guess you could call it the "curse" feature in which an item can negatively impact you as a result of equipping it without IDing it. This is separate from the above paragraph because unlike faith amulets and distortion weapons for example, these 'curses' like contamination and draining have virtually 0 effect on gameplay as they currently exist due to having negligible effects, not to mention the fact that they are pretty uncommon anyway. I did like 10 full zigs the other day and only got contam/drained 4 times after easily 50+ wear-ID'ed rings/amulets/armors/weapons. Even if they were to have an effect, they would again only serve to annoy players further by limiting decisions and punishing them for taking risks, ultimately resulting in the optimal behavior becoming "just wait until you get an ID scroll or you can handle the downside." Unfortunately, that makes it a no-brainer.
My apologies if I come off as rude or aggressive in this proposal, I am merely trying to accurately express my opinions of this subject. I respect the devs for the work they do and appreciate their willingness to read my long winded complaining.
TL;DR: Identification adds a level of consistent tediousness to the game while creating nothing of value in exchange for this tediousness. Additionally, it prevents potentially interesting player decisions and forces player skill to take a back seat to die rolls. It should be removed in its entirety.
crawl.akrasiac.org:8080 <- take this link to play online or spectate.