Re: [Crawl-ref-discuss] Identify Spell

[David P. <dp...@mi...>]

Just one more iteration:

And identify spell used to exist. As it happens, it was extremely rarely 
used (being level 6 in Divinations). As I see it, there are only two 
possibilities: make the spell cheap and accept that every caster will pick 
it up at some point (and forget it later), or make it very expensive (as 
it used to be).

The real problem behind all spells of this nature is that they're not 
tactically relevant. Spells should always be tactically relevant; 
otherwise their use of MP, hunger, success becomes meaningless (imagine 
putting on two rings of wizardry and wielding a staff of energy -- this is 
only possible for spells you don't cast in/near battle).

We have closed this chapter by moving all effects of this type to a god, 
which makes for very convenient play if following Ashenzari.

To end on a positive note: being restricted to scrolls of identify allows 
us to have scrolls used on decks of cards give away the top card! Bonus 
implementable :)

Cheers,
David

On Wed, 27 Apr 2011, Jude wrote:

> On Wed, Apr 27, 2011 at 7:16 AM, Jesse Luehrs <do...@to...> wrote:
>>> Again, I await a reasonable critique, as opposed to an out of hand dismissila based on a generic argument.
>>
>> You still haven't explained why you think that giving any kind of pure
>> advantage to the player, even a small one, would be an improvement to
>> the game. That is the issue here, not any discussion of mechanics.
>>
>> -doy
>
> I agree with doy; you have outlined your idea quite extensively, but
> I've yet to see any evidence as to *why* giving the player a minute
> advantage is  any good.
>
> Recreating the identify spell would reintroduce the same reasons as to
> why we removed it to start with: it creates a situation where the
> *optimal* behaviour is to identify absolutely everything. It cheapens
> identify scrolls as well as the Ashenzari passive abilities. It's a
> spell that every would be worth learning for every character that can,
> even if it requires them taking off all their armour and putting on
> enhancers in order to successfully cast it and identify all their
> equipment.
>
> Not  only did we remove the identify spell due to this behaviour
> ("scumming" about sums it up), but the entire divinations school. All
> of the situations you've identified as reasons for an identify spell
> were part of the reason for removing it initially.
>
> -J
>
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