ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

I've seen some people (at least one) complaining about Orb of Scrying cluttering their inventory.
Maybe it could be changed from item to a talent?

This is a really awful idea. You'd have to sink 5 points to actually figure out what stuff is?! (Yeah I know, 1/5 identifies weapons, 2 would do armors, etc. ) That's worse than the old "scum for stacks of ID scrolls" in the older betas.

Taxorgian wrote:This is a really awful idea. You'd have to sink 5 points to actually figure out what stuff is?! (Yeah I know, 1/5 identifies weapons, 2 would do armors, etc. ) That's worse than the old "scum for stacks of ID scrolls" in the older betas.

Eh? Why? Just because it would be a talent doesn't mean it NEEDS to have 5 levels. I don't think that's what the OP wanted.
It could just be a 1-level activated talent that still passively identifies non-greater/artifact stuff you step on.

I don't want it to be a talent that one have to invest talent points into.

Just make it so character gains a skill (activated in "m" menu) instead of an item.

Edit: Of course, passive id-ing would work too.

Is one key item really such a big deal of clutter?

Maybe the option to equip it in the tool slot would be nice, and have it usable from there.

I don't think one item constitutes clutter.

As for the idea of making ID a talent, skill points don't grow on trees. I can't think of any character where I'd not throw all 5 points into this category so I don't have to keep running back to town over and over to
*wait for key phase*
"Sellify"
* *
everything I pick up.

The orb adds nice flavor to the game and I'm a big fan of it

@Charlatan73: As I wrote earlier, I didn't mean to make it a full talent (with talent points and so on), but a skill (like "Luck of the little folks" etc.), gained instead of the Orb.

And the Orb wouldn't disappear from the game. Instead of pressing "u" (and then selecting the Orb) you would press "m" (and then select "Use Orb of Scrying" etc).

But I won't insist.
I'm content with Orb as it is now.
It's just that when I saw someone complaining about it sitting in inventory, an idea came to me... maybe not so good*

*Especially, that in a short time someone would complain, why doesn't a particular rod behave in the same way.

i think having the orb appear in the talent menu instead of the inventory is an ok idea, but as i've said, i'd rather see it removed entirely. one item IS clutter if its guaranteed to be there the almost whole game, performs a single very basic function, and adds little more to gameplay than the occasional keystroke - it's like including an item that needs to be used to go down steps or to rest. te4 has done a great job streamlining what were pointlessly tedious elements in tome2 and the bands - fuel for light sources, food, and now ID. since ID is 95% removed from the game, why not just remove it entirely?

(this is the last time i harp on this, i promise )

See... and to me, this is a reason to make the item more interesting. Currently, it does very little to gameplay, but has some nice fluff. All we have to do to make it more interesting is to add some more crunch to it. There's a seer on the other end of this thing, right? Perhaps she could call *you* from time to time. If we ever wind up putting in rewards for gathering lore, she might be a part of that. Certain quests could be triggered by her calling you, and some quests might result in the orb being useless for a (short) time, or sacrificed altogether, in extreme (and unusual) cases.

i'm all for more random quests and utilizing NPCs in a more in-depth fashion, definitely.
expanding elisa's role still wouldn't validate a relatively useless item's inclusion in the game, though. why have the item at all in that case? it'd be like the obligatory item you get at the beginning of a final fantasy game that sits clunking up your inventory until, right before battling the last boss, it's *true power* is at last revealed....zzzz*snore*zzzzz
im sure elisa could contact you without an orb, or she could symbolically give you a pendant or something that would never have to show up in your inventory...

If something is boring/clutter I vote to make it more interesting! Right now it is essentially a phone... how can we make it a smart phone? What if you could throw/roll it and have it behave a bit like Arcane Eye? Or lure monsters toward it as Elisa hurls insults at them? Anyone else?

I like that items are items. I like that it doesn't imply that there's anything directly magical about my character. Perhaps I'm a bit weird this way.

yufra wrote:If something is boring/clutter I vote to make it more interesting! Right now it is essentially a phone... how can we make it a smart phone? What if you could throw/roll it and have it behave a bit like Arcane Eye? Or lure monsters toward it as Elisa hurls insults at them? Anyone else?

its not a even a phone right now - its a rod of perception with zero recharge time that is only useful for id'ing about 1-2% of items. i'm for making it interesting, but it probably shouldn't grant any more abilities (between class abilities, escort rewards, and runes/infusions, i think most classes probably have *too many* abilities right now)....and most of the other ways of expanding its use that i can think of or that have been proposed (communicating w/ npcs, using it to decipher pieces of lore or arcane objects, use in random quests, use at major plot points) don't really warrant an inventory slot and the added keystrokes for basic identification, imo...

I would rather clutter my inventory than my hotkeys.

one wouldn't need to assign it a key (just access it from the talents menu), but that's a fair point.