omega-rpg/lib/help3.txt

INVENTORY
=========
omega inventories are now much different from other rogue-like games.

Unlike rogue, et al., you cannot directly employ every object you
carry. Every object may either go into your "pack" or into some
specific inventory slot such as "belt" or "ready hand" or "left
shoulder" etc. Some slots are dedicated to certain types of items (eg,
only armor can go in the armor slot), but other slots are general
purpose, like your belt or your shoulder.

It takes game time to transfer an object from your pack, (which can
hold a fixed number of items) to specific slots from which the item may be
useable. The pack is implemented as a mock-stack, so the deeper you burrow
into your pack looking for some item, the more game time you are
wasting. Therefore, carrying a whole lot of (semi)useless items may be
a strategically bad move.  Of course, as always, you can't carry more
weight (either in your pack or in your inventory slots) than is
dictated by your current STRENGTH and AGILITY.

INVENTORY CONTROL MODES
=======================
There are two type of inventory control: Display mode and Quick mode.
Which mode you use by default can be toggled by the TOPLINE option
settable with the 'O' command and in your .omegarc file.

In Display mode, all the inventory slots are displayed in the menu
window. In Quick mode, only the message lines above the main window
are used, and therefore the slots are not all displayed, only
one of them at a time. Additionally, the commands are slightly 
different. One nuance to the display -- note the character following
the index of the slot in the following two lines.

-- b> weapon hand: mace
-- c) left shoulder: short sword

The '>' in the first line indicates the mace is "in use", while 
the ') in the second lines means the short sword is not currently
being used. If it is possible for an item to be "in use" in the
current slot, it will be indicated by a '>'. Therefore, if you
don't want to put some new unidentified weapon into use, don't
try to carry it in the weapon hand; the same holds for shields
in the shield slot, etc.

The amount of time each action takes is indicated below. Dropping two
items takes twice as long as dropping one item.

DISPLAY MODE:
^l,^r: Redisplay inventory (if screen is munged). Takes no time.
d:  Drop the item currently in the 'up-in-the-air' slot, or in the
    'selected' slot if there is nothing 'up-in-the-air'. Takes one second.
p:  Put the 'up-in-the-air' item into your pack, or the 'selected'
    item, if the 'up-in-the-air' item is vacant. Takes 5 seconds.
l:  Looks at the item in the selected slot.  Takes no time.
s:  Show the contents of your pack. Takes 5 seconds.
t:  Take an item from your pack and put into the 'selected' slot, or
    if that is full, tries to put into the 'up-in-the-air' slot.
    Takes 5 seconds + 1 second/item examined in pack. I.e., rummaging
    at three items before taking one takes 8 seconds.
e:  Exchange the 'up-in-the-air' slot with the 'selected' slot. This
    will merge two quantities of an item together if possible.
    Either slot may be vacant, in which case it is a simple 'put'
    or 'take' to a slot.
    Takes 2 seconds.
x:  Same as 'e' but quit inventory mode immediately if the
    up-in-the-air slot is vacant after the action (ie, if it wasn't
    an exchange, but was just a put). Helpful when picking up new items.
    Takes 2 seconds.
>:  Cause the next slot lower down to be the 'selected' one. Takes no time.
<:  Cause the next slot higher up to be the 'selected' one. Takes no time.
?:  Print this help. Takes no time.
ESCAPE: return to game, dropping any object in the 'up-in-the-air' slot.
        Takes no time.

In Display Mode, the 'selected' slot is the one with a highlighted
'->' before it.

QUICK (TOPINV) MODE:
d:  Drop an item. Takes one second.
p:  Put some item into your pack. Takes 5 seconds.
l:  Looks at an item.  Takes no time.
s:  Show the contents of your pack. Takes 5 seconds.
t:  Take an item from your pack and put into some inventory slot, or
    into the 'up-in-the-air' slot if the one selected is full.
    Takes 5 seconds + depth of item in pack.
e:  Exchange the 'up-in-the-air' slot with some slot. This
    will merge two quantities of an item together if possible.
    Either slot may be vacant, in which case it is a simple 'put'
    or 'take' to a slot.
    Takes 2 seconds.
x:  Same as 'e' but quit inventory mode immediately if the
    up-in-the-air slot is vacant after the action (ie, if it wasn't
    an exchange, but was just a put). Helpful when picking up new items.
    Takes 2 seconds.
~:  Enter Display Mode. Takes no time.
?:  Print this help. Takes no time.
ESCAPE: return to game, dropping any object in the 'up-in-the-air' slot.
        Takes no time.

In quick mode, there is no 'selected' slot, instead the letter
identifying the slot must be entered following the command.

The 'e' and 'x' commands in both modes are the ones you'll use most;
it combines taking and putting from inventory slot to "up-in-air"
where picked-up items will be, and where you will drop items from on
leaving the inventory mode. Usually the pack is used for items which
it is not important to be able to get at easily, while inventory
slots are for useful items.