inventory management question

[bio_hazard]

Not sure if this is general/ideas/spoily, but I have an inventory management question.

Looking for advice on how to choose which weapons to keep. For example, returning from the Trollshaws I've got multiple iron maces, iron longswords, and war axes. There doesn't appear to be pseudo-ID in the game as far as I can tell, even to the extent of telling me which ones I've tried to wield and which ones I haven't. I started reading ID scrolls and one came up as "flaming"- I swear I had wielded them all and none seemed to have unusual effects when hitting monsters. Of course, it's possible I kept re-wielding the same 2 axes and missed the the other ones...

Is it even possible to test weapons (or armor) to determine their bonuses/ego status, or do you have to ID everything? Is it possible to inscribe at least so I can add {tried} to the description?

I've had previous characters sell un-ID'ed ego weapons already, so if there's a way to keep the good stuff, that would be cool.

[Jaorin]

You might be able to get an idea from how much the shopkeeper is willing to pay for an item.

[Frumple]

The shopkeeper selling price doesn't seem to really kick in until steel+, and even then barely.

Honestly, for <anything below the top tier material> weapons, the ego stuff doesn't really do enough for you to care about; it's generally been 10-15 points of elemental damage at the most, that I've noticed. Icy or slime covered is about the best you can hope for (They've got a chance to slow, iirc), barring a lucky elemental one, but even then the damage bonus you'll get from them won't have you keeping it once you've got a steel/dwarven-forged/etc. weapon; the damage jump between materials is just too large. Might make a difference if you're running a Blade or have decent elemental boosting accessories...

If use-ID's possible, you should see additional damage types popping up when you attack things, iirc. If that's not happening, I dunnae believe it can be done. You can try dropping them to make sure you're not re-using the same ones; so long as you don't leave the level (possibly two stairs distance, but that's a notice-in-passing, not a solid testing period type thing) they won't disappear. Anyway, you might be able to tell the higher damage range ones by checking your character screen damage stat once you're worn it. Dunno if that cooperates with unID'd weapons, though. Will have to check, I guess...

All that being said, ego items are actually fairly common, once you start hauling in multiple levels worth of loot. Your best bet would be either IDing everything (Scrolls pack ID at a certain magic score, for what it's worth, and you break even selling steel weapons) or buying back the good stuff. That second's a bit lulzy, though; iirc, it'd take something like 15-20 iron weapons to buy back a single iron ego weapon (If I'm rememberin' it right, it's usually around 7-8 gold for one.). S'honestly a little off-putting how marginalized ego weapons are in comparison to T2/3, at least until you stop getting better materials regularly...

EDIT: Changed the non-opaque mechanics number. Wouldn't call it a spoiler, per se, but eh. .\game\modules\tome\data\general\objects\scrolls.lua for the curious.

[Shoob]

hmmm, some spoily stuff was said in that last post...

[Frumple]

Eh? Where at? Can do something to obstruficate it, I guess, but I dunno' what's being spoiled...

[darkgod]

Yes egos are meant to be not uncommon at all once you progress a bit.
I purposefully made all boss drop from 3 to 5 or more egos while not having much loot
on the floor. This provides a reward for killing a nasty monster and a chance to get better loot while preventing too much clutter.

PS: Frumple: about the level of magic required to pack id

[paboperfecto]

buying back the good stuff

If a shop keeper is willing to offer more for a particular item than it regularly sells for don't sell it to him but spend the 1.00 gold to get it ID'd first. With beta 2 gold shouldn't be THAT much of an issue with enemies dropping gold now.

[bio_hazard]

Thanks for the replies. My char is on it's way back to Bree now, and will see if I can get a sense for regular prices from the shopkeepers.

I'll admit that pseudo-ID is one of my favorite things in Angband and it's derivatives, but I'm enjoying the new ToME so far in spite of it's absence.

[Frumple]

If a shop keeper is willing to offer more for a particular item than it regularly sells for don't sell it to him but spend the 1.00 gold to get it ID'd first.

Aye, that's what you do once you start hitting steel (Which sells for a full gold anyway, so you're not really losing anything if it's not something useful.); actually, checking the LUA, it looks like there's only a few weapon egos that effect cost? May be reading it wrong, I guess. The lower elemental egos actually sell for more un-ID'd?

Anyway, iron junk doesn't give a price variance except very, very, rarely, from what I've noticed, (At the least, I've sold a bloody large lot of iron ego weapons for the standard half gold.) so it's not particularly helpful early on and not cost effective at all unless you've got the ID talent or a sufficient magic score for pack ID. Most iron ego weapons still sell for less than a gold.