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#3038 Swap names of Repel and Deflect Missiles (spells)
Does anyone else feel like the names of these two spells are the wrong way around? Repel should be the stronger one and Deflect should be weaker. Deflection implies that you've taken a hit but redirected it away from yourself. Repulsion, however, brings to mind images of a projectile being pushed away entirely, before it even reaches you.
- Lagus
To me, repulsion implies an effect which takes what would be a grazing hit and turns it into a miss, while deflection is something that can take a direct hit and turn it the other way. So I disagree about this being at all obvious.
I had a feeling it wouldn't be so easy. :) It's just that to me, 'deflect' sounds weaker because it implies you're still /taking/ the hit, just redirecting the damage slightly, whereas 'repel' sounds stronger because repulsion is a force, which would be emanating from the character and preventing projectiles reaching them at all (or slowing them to harmless speeds). I propose a poll to find how other people view this. :)
- Lagus
Won't do :)
deflect > repel is a Crawl staple. If we change this for no really good reason, we get complaints from all continents. That's not worth it.
dploog:
There would be no harm done. I suppose you're concerned experienced players would be confused ? Any remotely experienced player will stop for a while and think once he sees "2" next to Deflect Missiles. It may be annoying for a while ( I don't think so...) but beneficial in the long run. I think Crawl will be only getting *more* popular from now on, and people who come will be more numerous than those who already play it. I think Crawl is a rising star. Not yet as popular as Dwarf Fortress, but it's getting there.
I fully agree with this FR. Deflection sounds weaker, it's change of projectile's trajectory. Repulsion implies stronger effect, like being pushed back.
REflect missiles, however, WOULD sound more powerful than repel, since reflection does imply a missile being turned back on itself - but then, that implies that the spell actually sends the missile back to its sender. (Hey, do we have that?)
I don't mean to make a big thing of this - after all, Crawl's fanbase is quite international and thus what sounds 'proper' to me might sound totally different to another player. It was just one of those 'It just bugs me' kind of things, I was wondering if it bugged anyone else. :)
- Lagus
Deflect gets my vote as the stronger spell. It's a matter of insect repellent vs. flyswatter; the former is passive, the latter is active.
-mong
Of course, we could get rid of qualitative descriptors entirely if it's a problem.
"Reduce missile to-hit by X"
"Reduce missile to-hit by Y"
Crisis averted! Or deflected, if you prefer. :P
Honestly though, these things are never going to be cut-and-dried. There's a case to be made for either name. Rather than have these semantic battles, we should improve spell descriptions to better reflect their effects.
-mong again
I myself get occasionally confused by the names, but I do think it's not a big deal either way. I wouldn't mind if they were switched around. Deflect *does* sound a bit stronger.
@dploog: Seriously, I don't see why switching these names would be a bigger problem than changing monster names, god behaviour, or switching monster glyphs around.
jpeg: Yes, you're right. It's not big deal. It just seems not to be true that one of them sounds strictly stronger than the other. But I am no native speaker.