What about new items?

[Mondkalb]

Just to add more junk.

Today I read in "The Children of Húrin" and when Túrins horn was mentioned I thought that it would be nice to have things like that in Angband.
I.e. the horn of Túrin, the horn of Boromir, maybe horns of various dwarves. There could also be flutes of elves and harps or lyres from aman.
These items could influence intelligence, wisdom and charisma. They might have activations that strengthen the characters fighting abilities or make creatures sleep or weaken foes or scare them. They also could glow and grant permanent light.

To reduce junk effect they should be very rare.
This would require a change in game mechanics - either they would require a new body slot (like worn on shoulder or such) or they must be allowed to be activated in inventory.

[pav]

What about Elemental Blanket, which shields your other items in backpack from acid and fire damage?

[Atarlost]

In ToME instruments use the shooter slot. They are also used for a lot more things, but carrying them as swaps doesn't use any more inventory space than activating them from the pack. It also allows them to give non-activation benefits without altering game balance too badly.

[Mondkalb]

Originally Posted by pav

What about Elemental Blanket, which shields your other items in backpack from acid and fire damage?

Would be cool if it would'nt be too rare.

[Faust]

Originally Posted by pav

What about Elemental Blanket, which shields your other items in backpack from acid and fire damage?

Another Idea would be ego-backpacks e.g. backpack of weighlessness, backpack of elemental protection, backpack of extra storage etc.

[takkaria]

Why would they require a change in mechanics? I think one might wear a horn around one's neck.

Sounds like a nice idea, but given the junk situation, any new items must do something that differentiates them from everything else; otherwise, they turn into just another item to be ignored at some point.

EDIT: And you suggested carrying harps? Have you any idea how heavy a harp is?

[takkaria]

Originally Posted by Faust

Another Idea would be ego-backpacks e.g. backpack of weighlessness, backpack of elemental protection, backpack of extra storage etc.

Now you're in hardcore variant territory.

To have changeable backpacks requires a rethink of the entire inventory system and a lot of rebalancing. The current inventory system is just an abstraction and has no particular grounding in reality. As soon as you start swapping backpacks, though, you have to ask questions like "how much space does an item actually take up?" rather than judging soley on weight, and "how does a mage manage to sheath his dagger, pull a book out to cast a spell, and put it back in the same space of time a warrior hits something once with a sword?". What I'm trying to say here is just that such changes have big implications and change the flavour of the game significantly.

[Though I do think it might be quite interesting to have mages who can't really carry much at all (weakness) and only carry a selection of potions, herbs, and the like-- but that's definitely variant talk. Actually, it's the kind of thing I was planning for my variant, which I may or may not ever write. ]

[takkaria]

Originally Posted by pav

What about Elemental Blanket, which shields your other items in backpack from acid and fire damage?

Scrolls of fireproofing and acidproofing not good enough for you?

Not that they're in V (yet), but they might make an appearance aet some point.

[Faust]

Originally Posted by takkaria

Now you're in hardcore variant territory.

To have changeable backpacks requires a rethink of the entire inventory system and a lot of rebalancing.

Thought this would be quite hard to code, hadn't really thought about the effect on game balance.

A slightly less radical idea is to be able to fireproof spellbooks (this is available in NPP at an insane price, about 90000AU per book!). I often find myself carrying 4 or 5 copies of every book into the dungeon (How do you fit 24 books in a backpack anyway?).

[Mondkalb]

Originally Posted by takkaria

Why would they require a change in mechanics? I think one might wear a horn around one's neck.

Sounds like a nice idea, but given the junk situation, any new items must do something that differentiates them from everything else; otherwise, they turn into just another item to be ignored at some point.

EDIT: And you suggested carrying harps? Have you any idea how heavy a harp is?

Well, carrying a horn or flute around neck would be okay.
Regarding harps I mean the kind that Bards using on arms - they can't be that heavy, can they? After all - the palantir is 20 lbs heavy also.