ID-by-use

[dhegler]

Is there any ID-by-use? Or, just use my gold to get identify scrolls? That seems to be the only thing my scarce gold is good for early-game at least. Or, is this a "spoiler"? You guys seem pretty adamant about what spoilers are... If it is, I'll look at the other forum, but I would guess others may ask the same question...

[Taxorgian]

There are a few items that do identify by use but there aren't many. ID scrolls will eat some cash, yep.

[greycat]

If it's any consolation, most of the weapons you find in monster drops will be "ego" items, so you won't feel like you're wasting ID scrolls on them. Also, there are fewer items lying about, or dropping, in general (compared to ToME 2.x or Angband).

Gold becomes much more prevalent after the first couple dungeons. It won't be terribly long before you can buy out all the ID scrolls in the Bree store.

Finally, unlike Angband, the stores give you the same amount of gold for selling an identified or an un-identified item. You don't need to ID things before selling them. If you're a warrior who's specializing in axes, and you find a steel longsword you're never going to use, just sell it.

[Baker]

Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to completely remove ID from the game. When you think about it, it's really pointless busywork in the same vein that eating food would be. You're ultimately going to identify everything anyway, no matter what it is, because it could after all be better than what you have (or at least more valuable sales-wise than the scroll you spent on it). As such, there's really no reason to have ID in the game. Cursed items don't seem to exist (yet), so it's not like there's an actual risk in just wielding the new weapon you found and looking if it does more damage.

[greycat]

You're ultimately going to identify everything anyway, no matter what it is

Untrue.

because it could after all be better than what you have (or at least more valuable sales-wise than the scroll you spent on it).

As I said above, there's no need to ID things before selling them. IDing them doesn't change the amount of gold you get for them. It just wastes a scroll.

If you're wondering whether it would be worthwhile to use an ID scroll on that random iron greatmaul you found on the ground on the way out, I can promise you it's not. As far as I know, no combination of ego powers on an iron weapon is ever going to make it sell for more than the 1.00 gold it costs to replace an ID scroll. In fact, don't ALL iron weapons ALWAYS sell for the same amount, regardless of their ego powers or their base damage? I'm pretty sure you need at least a steel weapon before powers affect the selling price at all.

Cursed items don't seem to exist (yet), so it's not like there's an actual risk in just wielding the new weapon you found and looking if it does more damage.

I have to assume that's going to change at some point.

[Baker]

As I said above, there's no need to ID things before selling them. IDing them doesn't change the amount of gold you get for them. It just wastes a scroll.

If you're wondering whether it would be worthwhile to use an ID scroll on that random iron greatmaul you found on the ground on the way out, I can promise you it's not. As far as I know, no combination of ego powers on an iron weapon is ever going to make it sell for more than the 1.00 gold it costs to replace an ID scroll. In fact, don't ALL iron weapons ALWAYS sell for the same amount, regardless of their ego powers or their base damage? I'm pretty sure you need at least a steel weapon before powers affect the selling price at all.

Huh, I actually didn't notice that, I haven't really bothered very much with selling things so far, given that you only get one tenth of the item value in vanilla ToME. Anyway, that's good, I suppose, but personally I'd still end up identifying everything, simply because it might still be a better item than what I have. And if you're going to say that random item drops aren't likely to be a meaningful improvement on what you already have so I needn't bother, I kind of wonder why they're even there, other than because that's just what roguelikes do.

I have to assume that's going to change at some point.

Well, it might, but even then there's not a whole lot of danger in it. So my weapon sticks to my hand, whatever, worst case I'll have to pony up the money for a Remove Curse scroll and be on my merry way.

Personally, I'd rather see a system like in Portralis, where cursed items can be both good and bad for you in a meaningful fashion. Portralis has a system where cursed items are unusually powerful, but add to a "misfortune" rating that can screw you over in different ways by messing with the RNG, spawning more and more cursed items and eventually making all enemy monsters into Elites or Bosses, in addition to spawning particularly difficult enemies that only show up at all if you carry cursed items. You know, don't just add curses for the sake of having them, but make them an interesting part of gameplay instead of a minor annoyance.

That's of course assuming there are going to be cursed items at all, but I still think that the idea of manually ID'ing every single item is just... outdated. It's tedious and really doesn't add anything meaningful to the game experience, it's mindless busywork and a time- and moneysink. It doesn't even help you get better deals in the shop! If it doesn't add anything in the way of variety or tactical depth I'd rather not have it in the game at all.