Curse mechanics is redundant


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Lair Larrikin

Posts: 28

Joined: Wednesday, 31st May 2017, 18:31

Post Sunday, 29th April 2018, 07:12

Curse mechanics is redundant

I mean, it really is.The only thing which can be cursed is equipment, and the only effect - you can't take it off. It can be kinda annoying when you try to equip "glowing daggers" and stuff at very beginning of the game, but that's it. Scrolls of remove curse are very common. You can just blast away every curse from your inventory with one scroll, throw that garbage away, and that's it. That mechanics is really underdeveloped. So my suggestion, is either remove that mechanics entirely, and rework Ashenzari, or develop it into a normal state and give every item in the game actual B/U/C status. This is going to be a very hard work, so I guess, it easier to do the former.

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duvessa, nago
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Tartarus Sorceror

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Joined: Saturday, 18th June 2016, 13:57

Post Sunday, 29th April 2018, 10:31

Re: Curse mechanics is redundant

Right now, I think that it's a snake biting its tail. We have Ash > we need curses > we need the ID minigame, because otherwise curses would be meaningless for whoever isn't playing with Ash > Ash can have the superpower of free ID.

I think that both the ID game and curses should be removed. Curses made more sense when the game was more simulationist, and so you could starve from them, or the clothing was layered (I seem to remember that it used to be layered and you had to take off the top things to change what you were wearing underneath). The ID game causes only a lot of drop - collect - equip - (potentially read scroll or remove curses) - drop - collect - reequip previous item, because, after a while, useful equipment becomes extremely rare.

Probably, the ID game as-is only makes sense for scrolls and potions. It could be kept for those.

The easiest way would be to make curses an Ash exclusive. Rename "remove curses" to "Ashenzari scroll". Maybe even give the option of converting to Ash when you read one (like when you identify them), to add some variety. Remove the ID minigame, except scrolls and potions. Let Ash auto id scrolls and potions.
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Lair Larrikin

Posts: 22

Joined: Tuesday, 27th March 2018, 08:41

Post Sunday, 29th April 2018, 16:06

Re: Curse mechanics is redundant

I finally have to agree here. It really made more sense in earlier versions.

The ID game was also more meaningful when Scrolls only got identified after you could see the effect. Now identifying is basically a no-brainer and at the worst case you loose one scroll. Quite similar to potions after removing stuff like poison. I think degeneration is the last remaining potion that has a bad effect.

As of now I think the game would benefit if Ash is reworked because 1% of the game content hinders the development of the rest 99%.

Also yay for more inventory space :D
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And all the sea were ink,
And all the trees were bread and cheese,
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Lair Larrikin

Posts: 28

Joined: Wednesday, 31st May 2017, 18:31

Post Sunday, 13th May 2018, 16:23

Re: Curse mechanics is redundant

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