Good finds you'd just as soon not find

[BlueFish]

Sil often brings out an interesting bit of gamer psychology in me. Sometimes when I find something, I know it's a good find but I wish I hadn't found it because of the inventory decision it forces. The two most consistent offenders are potions of voice and potions of elemental resistance. Anybody else feel like that?

This was on my mind because recently I've been playing a "strength" build with a dwarf belegost 4/1/4/3. Pretty fun on the off chance you can survive to the first forge. 3d10 damage with a shield is pretty fun. But I found a strength +1 ring at 500' and swapped it in for a +2 ring of accuracy. Didn't really want to but it was thematic, and I had a 6 lb battle axe so it did increase my damage. But I was pretty ambivalent about the find. I liked that accuracy.

[HugoTheGreat2011]

Originally Posted by BlueFish

Sil often brings out an interesting bit of gamer psychology in me. Sometimes when I find something, I know it's a good find but I wish I hadn't found it because of the inventory decision it forces. The two most consistent offenders are potions of voice and potions of elemental resistance. Anybody else feel like that?

Me, definitely. My primary offenders are the !Elemental Resistance and sometimes !Clarity. Whenever I encounter these, I am compelled to keep them, but then I have to chuck them out once I have permanent sources of Clairty and Resist Fire.

[taptap]

I am often agonizing over questions like take the 7.3 lb -1, 2d9 glaive or the 5.8 lb -2, 2d9 glaive? Or worse, which artefact should I drop? I tend to keep elemental resistance and hardly ever use it when critical, but drop clarity, orcish liquor and voice.

[debo]

!Voice definitely, although I've trained myself to do without them now. !Elem I keep if I only have 1 source of FR or 0 sources of cold, I ditch it otherwise. Holding onto liquor and slow poison is also agonizing in the lategame, the former is useful to dispel fear but can be substituted by Rage, latter is obviously useful but !Miruvor totally eclipses it. Both of those replacements are things you probably want to be stingy with though!

Good shields on 2H specialists can be a bit agonizing, since the option of 1H+momentum is always there now...

Some of the strong artefacts with danger have this effect on me for sure, as do fine throwing weapons. I'm sure there are more also!

[kryft]

Originally Posted by taptap

I am often agonizing over questions like take the 7.3 lb -1, 2d9 glaive or the 5.8 lb -2, 2d9 glaive?

This kind of agonizing prompted me to write fsil. Often I can just get a straight answer to which one is better for my character, but many times the answer is still 'it depends' - a testament to the balance of Sil - and I end up agonizing over a slightly different question.

In general I suffer from this problem all the time: I commit to a certain kind of character either psychologically ("I'm going to play a Finarfin with Concentration and Subtlety"), in terms of exp investment, or both, and then I'm annoyed when I find a great item that 'forces' me to play something different if I want to play optimally (which I do). I don't really mind finding an item that would have been great if I had built my character differently; what really jars me is when I find an item that would have been great for a different character, but is still good enough for mine that I can't pass it up it even if it means that some abilities that I've already taken will be 'wasted'.

I realize that this is silly and irrational and consider it a pathology. Saithnar is a frequent offender in the "too good to pass up even if you end up being weak in comparison to what you would have been with different abilities" category, and Hador's shield is a good example from the "noooo I wanted to get Subtlety but now my hands are bound (no pun intended)" category.

[locus]

I hate finding a good longbow, because the -1 Evasion means I have to pay attention and swap it out before melee combat all the time.

[half]

Originally Posted by locus

I hate finding a good longbow, because the -1 Evasion means I have to pay attention and swap it out before melee combat all the time.

This is a good point. I wonder how much the [-1] bugs people. It is there to make a long bow more a choice of a dedicated archer, but I wouldn't be too averse to removing it if it has too much of a 'optimal play is not fun play' effect.

[mrrstark]

Originally Posted by half

This is a good point. I wonder how much the [-1] bugs people. It is there to make a long bow more a choice of a dedicated archer, but I wouldn't be too averse to removing it if it has too much of a 'optimal play is not fun play' effect.

It bugs me, personally. Doesn't the lack of investment in Archery already require enough of a choice to distinguish between dedicated archer and dabbler trying to kill runners?

On the topic of stuff I'd just as soon not find, going heavy polearm focus/conc build, and then finding two artefact daggers....

[wobbly]

I play mostly smiths, so smithing an item then finding a carbon copy in the next room is the major killer for me.

Regarding the evasion penalty on longbows it's annoying to me but not a big deal. I do get the impression most dedicated archers go the short bow path anyway, so is it actually doing what's intended in the first place?

[evilmike]

Originally Posted by half

This is a good point. I wonder how much the [-1] bugs people. It is there to make a long bow more a choice of a dedicated archer, but I wouldn't be too averse to removing it if it has too much of a 'optimal play is not fun play' effect.

I'm fine with longbows for archery focused characters, but for everyone else I use a shortbow just to avoid needing to swap it out in melee, more because I'm lazy than anything else. Though even for archery builds I find shortbows more fun overall, since they're a completely valid choice and don't encourage you to shuffle your equipment.

That means the -1 evasion DOES have the intended effect in my case, just maybe for the wrong reasons.