If you’re not aware, you can just tap search and the description on a chest gives it away.
I’ll also add that I don’t think that this feature is a good idea from a game design standpoint. That is, it’s something nonobvious that players need to learn, so it increases the complexity of the game, but what it adds in terms of gameplay isn’t an “interesting decision”, since a player should always check – just adds drudge work.
One wants to only add complexity to the extent one must to create interesting decisions for the player. Keep it easy to learn, but hard to master, minimizing the actions that are no-brainers.
Linley Henzell, the Crawl creator, has some quote along the lines of “if it isn’t an interesting decision, it shouldn’t be in a game”.
I think a better route would be one of:
Remove the existing game-resource-cost-free mechanisms that identify a mimic. That is, as far as I know, searching, waiting for the animation on the mimic to run, and apparently this wand thing, though maybe the last is a bug. Those can’t really be interesting decisions, because there’s no tradeoff (well, maybe with the exception of the player’s time for the animation route, but I think that games that make one trade off a player’s time doing something boring aren’t a lot of fun, as “being boring” isn’t something that one wants a game to be).
It’s possible that undetectable mimics are fine on their own, if it makes players weigh the risk of opening a chest at low health or something.
If having detection of mimics in the game is desired, then the cost of any method of detection should be significant enough to make considering doing so a real decision.
I actually specifically wanted players who are paying attention to be able to quickly identify whether a chest is a mimic or not visually, you can even still do it with the mimic’s tooth. I really dislike mechanics in games that effectively force you to perform an attack or search interaction on every chest in case it’s a mimic.
It might be good to have to search the chest in the same manner you search for traps. Would be easy enough to do under no pressure but still could create dilemnas where you can’t afford the extra turns.
Might effectively buff the Talisman of Foresight, which I understand is already considered to be a strong artifact, but I guess that’s not a fundamental issue.
Honestly, going big picture, I don’t even really know why mimics got introduced in…Dungeons & Dragons, I guess? I assume that that’s where they became a swords-and-sorcery staple. Like, it doesn’t seem like they’d typically provide for a lot of opportunities to create interesting stories. Like, you can have a dragon or a human or something with a name and a story and all that, but a mimic is, well, a mimic. I guess maybe it could, if used very rarely, provide a surprise, but it just seems kinda limited.
An original creation for the game’s artificial underground environment, this “iconic monster” looks like a treasure chest and is designed as a trap for unwary player characters.[1]
Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition
The mimic made its first appearance in the original Monster Manual (1977), by Gary Gygax. This book described mimics as "subterranean creatures which cannot stand the light of the sun.
It sounds like originally, Gary Gygax intended them to be slightly less-flat:
The Monster Manual mentions that there are two types of mimic encountered in the game. The slightly smaller version is more intelligent, and is generally friendly if offered food, usually telling a player character about what it has seen nearby. These creatures have their own language and can usually speak several other tongues. The book described the larger variety of mimic as a carnivorous creature called a “killer mimic”. This creature does not speak, and will attack anything which is nearby.
It looks like somewhere between 1977 and 2024, that “friendly mimic” fell out of the Monster Manual, assuming that this is the entry:
I have to admit my first encounter with a mimic in PD was a lot of fun. The game is so mysterious and scary going in blind, and getting bit by a chest that promised loot was a fun surprise. But I agree it gets stale after that.
If you’re not aware, you can just tap search and the description on a chest gives it away.
I’ll also add that I don’t think that this feature is a good idea from a game design standpoint. That is, it’s something nonobvious that players need to learn, so it increases the complexity of the game, but what it adds in terms of gameplay isn’t an “interesting decision”, since a player should always check – just adds drudge work.
One wants to only add complexity to the extent one must to create interesting decisions for the player. Keep it easy to learn, but hard to master, minimizing the actions that are no-brainers.
Linley Henzell, the Crawl creator, has some quote along the lines of “if it isn’t an interesting decision, it shouldn’t be in a game”.
I think a better route would be one of:
Remove the existing game-resource-cost-free mechanisms that identify a mimic. That is, as far as I know, searching, waiting for the animation on the mimic to run, and apparently this wand thing, though maybe the last is a bug. Those can’t really be interesting decisions, because there’s no tradeoff (well, maybe with the exception of the player’s time for the animation route, but I think that games that make one trade off a player’s time doing something boring aren’t a lot of fun, as “being boring” isn’t something that one wants a game to be).
It’s possible that undetectable mimics are fine on their own, if it makes players weigh the risk of opening a chest at low health or something.
If having detection of mimics in the game is desired, then the cost of any method of detection should be significant enough to make considering doing so a real decision.
I actually specifically wanted players who are paying attention to be able to quickly identify whether a chest is a mimic or not visually, you can even still do it with the mimic’s tooth. I really dislike mechanics in games that effectively force you to perform an attack or search interaction on every chest in case it’s a mimic.
Mimics are so cool i love the ebony ones
“Love” is the wrong word. 😅
There’s even a visual queue, besides the animation, to look out for!
The chest on the right is the mimic. The latch is raised on the mimic and in the normal lower position for the chest.
Remember: “If the latch is high, ‘Hi, Mimic!’”
I discovered this during a mimic tooth run, where as far as i know there are no visual differences between normal and mimic chests
deleted by creator
It might be good to have to search the chest in the same manner you search for traps. Would be easy enough to do under no pressure but still could create dilemnas where you can’t afford the extra turns.
Might effectively buff the Talisman of Foresight, which I understand is already considered to be a strong artifact, but I guess that’s not a fundamental issue.
Honestly, going big picture, I don’t even really know why mimics got introduced in…Dungeons & Dragons, I guess? I assume that that’s where they became a swords-and-sorcery staple. Like, it doesn’t seem like they’d typically provide for a lot of opportunities to create interesting stories. Like, you can have a dragon or a human or something with a name and a story and all that, but a mimic is, well, a mimic. I guess maybe it could, if used very rarely, provide a surprise, but it just seems kinda limited.
kagis
Yeah, sounds like it was Dungeons & Dragons.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mimic_(Dungeons_%26_Dragons)
It sounds like originally, Gary Gygax intended them to be slightly less-flat:
It looks like somewhere between 1977 and 2024, that “friendly mimic” fell out of the Monster Manual, assuming that this is the entry:
https://www.dndbeyond.com/monsters/5195123-mimic
I have to admit my first encounter with a mimic in PD was a lot of fun. The game is so mysterious and scary going in blind, and getting bit by a chest that promised loot was a fun surprise. But I agree it gets stale after that.
Dang. I guess that makes the mimic tooth viable for me again tho. Definitely will forget at some point since I tend to play a little loose…