Expand inventory, Regularize spellcast macros

[papilio]

1. Crawl's current 52 inventory slots (a~Z) is insufficient for many situations,
and restriction in item slots don't give any improvements or conveniences in gameplay.

So, I suggest to expand inventory slots by dividing inventory to subcategories.
I think this could be understood in the same context as the removal of item weights.

Then the whole inventory slot could be divided into:

1) Equipments. (weapons, staves, armours, rings/amulets, ammunitions)
2) Consumables. (potions, scrolls, foods)
3) Evocables. (wands, rods, miscs, decks)
4) Books. (books, manuals)

All subcategories have equal limit of 52 slots (a~Z), therefore total limit of item slots would be 208.


The in-game UX would be:

1) If player press 'i', they will see screen like

Equipments / Consumables / Evocables / Books

Weapons
a - +7 lajatang of speed

Armours
b - quicksilver dragon scales
c - -2 hat of the Alchemist
d - ...

The inventory slot is initially focused on subcategory of equipments,
and you can tab (or other key, whatever) to pass into:

Equipments / Consumables / Evocables / Books

Potions
a - 36 potions of curing
b - 11 potions of heal wounds

Scrolls
c - 7 scrolls of identify

...to see only consumables. You can also click the title of subcategory to directly go there.

2) UX from '=' (changing index), '}' (inscription), 'd' (drop) would work same as 'i'.

3) There won't be any problem with 'q', 'r', 'v', 'W', 'T', 'R', 'P'.




2. Crawl's spellcasting UX is okay in standards of Roguelike games, but it is indeed awful compared to recent RPG games.

I usually register macros of casting spell to upper numpads (they are indepedent with right numpad keys):
1 - Za / 2 - Zb / 3 - Zc / 4 - Zd / 6 - Zf / 7 - Zg / ...

These make my games with spellcasters very comfortable.
So, how about officially introduce these macros from the initial settings?



Edit: fixed typos

[Sprucery]

About 1: In practice this would mean that the inventory is unlimited. You would have every item you could possibly want at hand.

I think it would be better to reduce the inventory size, not increase it (although status quo is the best imo).

Also, bring back item weights and the relation of Str to carrying capacity...

[Shard1697]

You would have every item you could possibly want at hand.

This is already typically true.

[papilio]

I think there is no reason to limit inventory in recent versions of Crawl, other than technical limitations.
DCSS already has been diversed far away from 'standard' roguelikes (with potion/scroll destroy, item weight, instadeath in deep water/lava, common traps, hidden doors, ...)

[Sprucery]

You would have every item you could possibly want at hand.

This is already typically true.

Maybe, but currently I have to drop something from time to time to make room for something else. It may well be that I don't actually _need_ all those items, but I would like them in my inventory just in case. After this change I would carry more weapon brands just for vulnerable monsters, all non-harmful potions and scrolls, all wands etc.

[Deso]

1 - Anything that decrease the need of memorizing is a plus in my book (less stash travels is good too)
2 - I always wondered why it wasn't like that from the start - Tough i wouldn't restrict it to spell macros - abilities like smite, evocation and breath have place on numbers as well.

[Elitist]

I believe the inventory system works as it is because I'm a player with too many emergency items is invincible more or less. I'm not saying its fun, I'm saying its to stop players from having a ton of evokables/potions/scrolls in their inventories at all times.

[ZipZipskins]

its to stop players from having a ton of evokables/potions/scrolls in their inventories at all times.

If that's the point of the inventory limit it's doing a pretty poor job

[Shtopit]

Inventory related choices (opposed to "what to use") are the worst part of the game, and I don't think I'm the only one who hits S when having to choose between items for the fifth time in a row in Lair.

It's not just a problem of picking up everything, it's that the advantage given by certain items isn't that clear compared to others. Partial identification or two-stages identification makes things worse.

Books are the worst offenders. They overlap, they ask for a very heavy load when remembering where a certain spell is, they are frequent and usually aren't immediately useful.

Jewels also are there. You have rings of DEX, STR, INT, EV, AC and Slay, which must be used to know how strong they are. Amulets of reflection also have this problem.

Wands also have this problem. You have a million wands, and no idea of which one you should let go. Sure, a wand of flames isn't much, but what if you get in the Ice Cave and need to put out clouds? There are five disabling/debuffing wands, two digging wands, four direct damage wands, three self-targeting wands, and the groups overlap. And, of course, wands have the semi-identification problem.

"inventory scrolls" like identify, remove curse, amnesia, enchant weapon, enchant armour, brand weapon, take time to be used. Enchant armour actually got a lot better with crafting gone, you can use them right away. Enchant weapon also can be used immediately. In the late game, however, remove curse and identify become something of a burden which you carry around just in case. The problem with scrolls however isn't that big.

Food could just exist outside of the inventory, in a special menu only to be opened with e.

I think there was some talk about magic book reform, it would be worth getting back on it.

About jewels, making values of +1, +2 etc visible would make things easier. It will make that cursed ring of -6 inconsequential, but, honestly, if you already have that kind of ring identified, you probably also have collected enough scrolls of remove curse.

Wands are more complicated and need more work. I personally would make a single "wand of domination" which randomly causes acid, confusion, slowness or paralysis. I can't think of a way to reorganize direct damage wands. A "wand of helping" that randomly causes healing, teleport or haste would also be interesting.

[Blomdor]

I've been playing regularly for somewhere in the region of four years, and have never known that you could put out clouds with a wand of any kind. Unclear advantages, indeed.

I'd say more on the subject, but...remove food.

[infinitevox]

I like the concept of expanding the inventory, while for flavor reasons I'd prefer it were smaller (and used item weights, STR, etc), that would be detrimental to actual game-play, which I feel would overall benefit from having this.

1. Wands of the same kind stack
2. Remove food

[jalala]

Wow how did i not think of separate inventory slots for food.
Food becomes nuisance, and while the game can't remove food, it would be sensible to make a separate slot.
I'm tired of "Do you wish to ignore this chunk Y/N" and eating jerkies in zot.