Originally Posted by
adom-admin
@ixi: Actually I have been wondering the same. For Ultimate ADOM (
http://www.adom.de/ultimate) I'm actually very seriously considering to getting rid completely of item identification. Just let everything be identified right away and that's it.
I didn't actually reply before, but I wanted to mention that I got more or less convinced that artifacts having *some* unusual characteristic should be the default, with possibly only *very* justified exceptions.
I was also partly concerned because the conversation seemed to be nearing to topic of getting rid of identification altogether. This has now happened in the context of Ultimate ADOM, so here's what I think about that:
Preserving the system in some form I firmly believe would be desirable. Just seeing an item and magically knowing its characteristics, as much as it is commonplace in "modern" RPGs, is not necessarily a good thing, especially if more interesting mechanisms could be implemented. With the limits of UADOM's game systems and even its visual interface yet unclear, just in vague terms I think that presenting players with more information than "black wand", but not outright having a user guide and warranty attached might be possible, like revealing more information that you could conceivably get if you were there physically. This could be engravings on the handle of a weapon, or carvings on a wand, or some specific decorations on a shield that could be similar to something you've seen already, or certain words on a scroll that you know (say, scroll of peace and scroll of danger have similar, just reversed functions therefore they contain similar incantations).
This might work exceptionally well with procedurally generating items (in some controlled fashion), as you would have no way to bypass having to deduce an item's properties from examining such clues and experimentation (or applying magic to find it out). But this isn't even necessary. Even with a fixed list of items the actual clues you get from their appearance could be randomly generated.
Nature's Companion would sometimes have an elaborate embroidery of a tree, or flowers, or have small vines incorporated into it as threads. Or it might not look special, but you'd see it rejuvenate withered plants when near them. Wands of trap creation and trap detection might not always have the same look or material, but sometimes their shape, or some carving or some unusual material would relate them to each other. Scrolls of danger and peace would not have the same exact words each and every time, but rather would have significant similarities in the wording between each other; these would be just a few words long, randomly, but not independently generated gibberish. Thus deductions about items' functionalities would have to be done in the game, foreknowledge and experience would not make it irrelevant.
While some of these ideas may not be feasible, I say it with the hopes that others are not completely outlandish.