Re: CF: using skills (was: Usless Items)

[Raphaël Quinet <Raphael.Quinet@eed.ericsson.se>]

On Wed, 20 Jan 1999,hat@linguine.tte.vtt.fi wrote:
> Another thing that I would like to see changed is a 'use_skill' command.
> I think that the whole command is not really needed, instead of a skill
> use should be automaticilly done when needed.  It really doesn't make
> much sense if you have a jewellery skill and you examine an unknown gem
> you don't recognise it, but when you use_skill jewellery then you
> suddenly identify all your gems.  Similarly, other skills also help
> player to do something, using the skill shouldn't be a main thing, IMHO.

Seconded.

When the skills were first introduced, all of them had to be used
explicitely.  Then the best hand-to-hand combat skill was selected
automatically when no weapon was weilded, then the mountaineer skill
was activated automatically when travelling on hilly terrain, then
recently the bargaining skill was activated automatically in shops.
This is the right way to go, IMHO.

Currently, I bind all the function keys on my keyboard (F1-F12) to
the various skills, and press all keys in succession after picking
up some stuff.  We should not have to tell newbies to do "bind
use_skill jeweler", "bind use_skill smithery" and so on.  Instead,
this should be done automatically when an item is examined (not
when it is picked up - that would be too easy).  This should be done
for all "mental" skills.  Probably also for "sense magic" and "sense
curse".

It would also be more realistic: instead of instantly identifying all
matching items in your inventory when you use one of these skills (how
do you map that to real life anyway?), possessing the skill would make
you better at recognizing the objects that you examine.

Sure, it would then take more time to do the usual thing "kill all
monsters, set pickup mode to all, run around to pick up everything,
use all mental skills, sell the identified stuff".  But I never
considered that as a good feature of CrossFire and this is going to
change anyway when the pickup modes are adjusted to take more time
depending on the number and weight of the objects that are picked up.

There are some skills that would still have to be used explicitely:
"praying", "oratory", "singing".  Maybe we could also do something
about them and completely remove the need for "ready_skill" and
"use_skill"?

-Raphaël
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