Changing talent names/icons

[bricks]

Bit of an odd question here. I've got a few things I'd like to implement using the new addon feature. One core mechanic will be a simplified crafting system, where one talent starts the creation of an "item," which, upon completion, will become the on-use effect for another talent. So the player has some crafting talents and some "slot" talents. I'm pretty well settled on this system; near-equivalent alternatives like using paired "craft" and "use" talents or "sustain/spike" talents won't allow me to do everything I'd like.

The trick here is making it clear to the player that 1) a slot is filled, and 2) what will happen when activating that slot. Only way to keep this from becoming a nightmare to play is to change the talent name/icon on-the-fly, so the player can tell at a glance what is in the slot. Nothing like this exists, so far as I recall, so I suspect there is no support for it.

So I guess my question is: How hard would this be to implement? I understand most all of the data files, but the class and engine files can be a little tricky for me to disassemble. I also don't have access to the addon system quite yet, as I'm running on a Mac. If this is near impossible to implement, I suppose an alternative would be to flip out the empty slot talents with the filled slot talents.

As an aside, a forum specifically for addons would be nice, since the feature is rather specific to ToME 4 and not the T-Engine itself.

[darkgod]

Care to elaborate with an example ? I'm not sure I understand what you need :/

[bricks]

Ha, yes, it is really vague. I'm working up my own version of an Alchemist class. One part of the class will be the crafting and use of potions and bombs. The scheme looks a little like this:

Talents:
Use Item in Slot 1
Use Item in Slot 2
Use Item in Slot 3
Craft Fire Bomb
Craft Healing Potion

If I want to have a Fire Bomb available for use, I hit Craft Fire Bomb, and it gives me a timed effect called "Crafting Fire Bomb." Once this effect times out, the talent Use Item in Slot 1 would be updated to Use Fire Bomb in Slot 1. If the player wanted to use a Fire Bomb, they would hit that talent, and after successful use it would return to Use Item in Slot 1.

The trouble is expressing this in a way that can update talent names/icons, otherwise the player has to check the descriptions every time they want to use a talent.

[Rectifier]

I like the gameplay implications for this concept bricks. It would force premeditated choices for the bomb or potion crafting because the craft skill couldn't be spammed for abuse and adds a limited ammo concept to bombs..

[bricks]

Thanks! Yes, I wanted to adapt the limited-item feel of oldschool roguelikes to ToME's talent-based system and lack of traditional consumables. This hypothetical alchemist would have to choose between damage and recovery, and would also need to juggle between crafting items and doing large amounts of burst damage. Hopefully it will be fun instead of tedious. The two other core concepts for this class are golems (which I'm splitting into two types with very distinct skills) and talents that enhance unarmed melee skills with elemental damage and special effects (calling this "Combative Manipulations" for now). If this all comes to fruition, it won't be for a few weeks hence, so don't get too excited.

[darkgod]

Ahh I see, yes nice idea.

I wouldnt do it by changing the talents themselves, maybe instead, you store a table of which talents are "known", and when talents are used (in the action function) you remove them from this table AND unlearn them. When the timed effect times out you set them to learnt and assign them hotkeys (you can sstroe which hotkey was where and switch seemlessly probably).

A bit like inscriptions work (you probably want to make a nice Actor method to add/remove one of those talents for ease of use)

[bricks]

OK, cool. Guess I wasn't too far off. I've done a little digging through the inscription code so maybe I can figure it out. Thanks for the help!