Tartarus Sorceror
Posts: 1698
Joined: Saturday, 18th June 2016, 13:57
The Inventory Thread
A very good post: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=16402&p=224735&hilit=inventory#p224735
Quazifuji wrote:There's been a lot of discussion and radical proposals about making inventory management less tedious, I thought I'd pitch in some less radical and hopefully less controversial ideas that could maybe be implemented in the meantime, since inventory reform seems to be a pretty heated topic that might take a while to sort out (if it ever happens).
There are a bunch of ideas here, but they all come from the same core premise: it is optimal to walk around with a full inventory most of the time, because inventory slots can essentially represent tactical options in combat and having more tactical options is better. However, walking around with a full inventory leads to some annoying scenarios. Most of these scenarios either involve some awkward inventory shuffling when you find a new item you might want, or auto-explore being annoying with autopickup when your inventory's full. I think putting all of these changes in would make having a full inventory vastly less annoying.
1. Allow ID scrolls to be used on items on the floor. If I find an unidentified item while my inventory is full, and I want to identify it with a scroll, it is currently a 4-step process: I have to drop a different item, pick it up, use a scroll on it, the determine if I want to keep it or swap it again for the item I dropped. If you could ID items that are on the floor, the first two steps of this process would be eliminated.
2. Make items that auto-ID on pickup (wands and books) auto-ID when you step on them instead. Similar to change 1. Finding an unIDed wand or book with a full inventory is a 3-step process (drop something else, pickup to ID, determine which to keep) that could be reduced to a one-step process.
3. Let scrolls and potions be used from the ground. Another "turn a 4-step process (drop item, pick up consumable, use consumable, pick up dropped item) into a one-step process (use consumable)" suggestion. Food already works this way, why not potions and scrolls?
4. Make the "cannot pick up item" prompts for autoexplore happen when you land on the item, instead of when you try to autoexplore while standing on the item. I think this one's a bit more debatable, might work better as an rc file option. Right now, every time you auto-explore while your inventory is full and encounter and item on autopickup, it interrupts auto-explore. If you try to auto-explore again, it prompts you whether you want to continue or not. Personally, I would find it better and less awkward if it prompted me at the end of the autoexplore when I landed on the item, instead of when trying to start an explore while standing on it.
5. Add a third option to the "cannot pick up item" autoexplore prompt that turns off auto-pickup for the item. The "cannot pick up item" message it also annoying when it's an item that you don' want. This can be solved by going into the menu and micromanaging your auto-explore options, but sometimes I forget or my preferences change. It would be nice if, when encountering the prompt, I could have a third option besides "yes" or "no" for "no, and turn off autopickup for this item" to make things a bit simpler. This way, I don't have to periodically dig through the autopickup menu to modify my changes, and instead can just respond appropriately when the prompt shows up.
6. Add an option to let chunks be picked up automatically upon butchering, but not on autopickup. It's nice to have chunks automatically get picked up when I butcher something if I have room. It's annoying if I leave chunks behind because my inventory's full and autoexplore prompts me about it. I'd like to have an option where chunks get picked automatically when I butcher something if I have room, but are otherwise ignored.
Stuff I support:
- Remove Spellbook inventory slots
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=22303
Status: the Devs seem OK with it, but it needs a patch that also removes Trog book burning.
- Show numerical value of rings whose kind you have already identified ("you see here a ring of slaying +4)
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=22295
Status: currently no Dev comment.
- Remove food inventory slots: have food be visible when hitting e.g. the e button, but not take room in the inventory.
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=22382
Status: ?
- Remove blowguns and turn needles into thrown darts
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=22361
Status:
Lasty wrote:I already have a patch for that on the ranged reform branch. The branch as a whole is still in progress.
- Remove arrows and bolts
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=22344
My opinion is that it would be better to keep them because they make the early game more interesting because they are limited, but they should be visible in the Q menu and not take inventory slots, and also be visible near the name of weapons which use them:
"i - a +2 shortbow (30 arrows)".
Status: ?
Stuff I am thinking about:
- Removing doubles.
1. One example are teleport items ( viewtopic.php?f=17&t=22391 ).
2. Papilio noticed the ring and potion of flight. I think they both could be substituted by a wand of flight, which would in theory be a small buff to mummies and DD, but I think in practice wouldn't change anything balance-wise, besides the fact that mummies would be spared the annoying interaction of putting on the ring each time they want to levitate.
- Kill scrolls of randomness, or make them do something.
- A very nebulous wand reform. Stacking? ---> currently trunk has no wands of HW, Tele or Haste. I think that's nice, although it's a hit to mummies, and Tele was handy for everyone to escape silence.
More stuff, that I don't support or think needs work:
- Expand inventory slots by dividing inventory to subcategories; All subcategories have equal limit of 52 slots (a~Z), therefore total limit of item slots would be 208.
viewtopic.php?f=17&t=22139
I don't support it because it's too much stuff. It streamlines the pick up part, but not the use of what you actually have in your pockets, especially for new players, who would have a lot of items and problems having an overview of what they can do.
Inventory expansion:
By 26:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=10141&p=139929&hilit=inventory#p139929
Having two inventories, one for consumables and one for non consumables:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=16318&p=223366&hilit=inventory#p223366
As tested in a fork:
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19227&p=260634&hilit=inventory#p260634
- Merge potions of might and cure mutation
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=22389
I understand the reasoning behind it, but the idea itself is rather strange because of how different the effects are (which is at the same time its strong and weak point).