More and more I'm thinking about using a more Diablo-style magic item system than your typical roguelike, one in which the term "loot" might get passed around from time to time. This will all require me to implement items in general, but that's a task I'd have to go about doing anyway.
The plan then is to define various item types and base statistics which can then be modified by various adjectives. A semiinteresting consequence is that these adjectives can be magical or mundane, and these all will add up to some rather verbose item names, i.e. a Flaming Vorpal Sharp Iron Longsword of Balance and Pestilence.
On identification, the basic aspects of an item would be available at first glance; taking the above item as an example, on the ground the item would read "metal Longsword". After an Appraisal, something which should take a short but non-negligible amount of time (around a minute), the extent of the item's physical properties would be revealed, so the aforementioned sword would now show up as a "Sharp Iron Longsword". Depending on a character's sensetivity to magic, the item's magical nature can be known as early as seeing the item on the ground, or even from a distance if the item in question was of artifact-level power. At whatever point the item is revealed to be magical, the item's name changes color to whichever tier of power it belongs to. At that point, an Identify spell (available on scrolls, from the players' spellbook, or from some NPCs in town) would need to be cast to reveal the exact nature of the magic item, even though its effects have been benefiting the player from the time they equipped it.
A part of me thinks it could be interesting to have there be no easy identify - no Deckard Cain to tell you what things are for a negligible fee or less - and have the properties of the item revealed as the player's character observes their effects. But then, there would be little benefit to doing so, and the process of rubbing various combinations of weapons and enemies together would be more tedious than imaginitive, even though the process would in most cases be fairly quick (i.e., it's a simple matter of identifying Volcanic weaponry as it tends to set things on fire), and thus would be a good deal of work on my part for very little if any benefit on the player's part.
Yeah, don't do the player figuring it out thing. I know that I personally would not like having to go out and try weapons that might be subpar against my current enemies, or go back and find weaker enemies to be safe, when I could just look at the name. What could be fun is having a Diablo-style naming system, but no explicit details as to what the adjectives mean. For example, in the case of the Flaming Vorpal Sharp Iron Longsword of Balance and Pestilence: Flaming means that it's on fire, and will either cause burn damage to enemies or actually set them on fire (could depend on the enemy, but whatever), so there is some non-frustrating player experimenting there. Vorpal is a made-up word by Charles Dogson, but assumedly it makes a sword better at doing sword things. Same thing with sharp. Now Balance is a little odd, so you can test to see if your stats get balanced in any way, or if the sword is easier to handle. And pestilence is the really interesting one, because that either diseases your enemy, or you. So, there's still experimenting and exploration to be done, but it's much less frustrating and more rewarding.
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