suggestion: make statue/shattering vaults easier to understand

[MattWeiner]

There is a kind of vault where the way in is to read a scroll of shattering that destroys a statue blocking the entrance. Experienced players probably know what's going on here, but it seems like it may be unfair to newer players, because shattering doesn't usually break statues. So this depends on the item breaking its own rules in ways that aren't described in the text.

(In contrast, things like the gas trap/fire trap/barricade machine and the stone guardian/flood trap machine require some lateral thinking, but they do work on existing mechanics.)

I'm not sure what solution I'd want here. Shattering can't break statues in general, because that would work for vaults where a statue lets you see inside but there's another entrance. One idea would be to mark undissolvable walls and replace the statue with a normal wall--this would also allow tunneling in but I think that wouldn't be too bad--but we might not want to reveal the vault boundaries in the way this would require.

Maybe the least intrusive suggestion would be to make flavor text for the special statue--have it described as a "crumbling statue" on hovering, and replace the "weathered the years with grace" text for it?

[nstoddard]

I agree with changing the statue's description/icon somehow; in addition to this issue, there are vaults where there's 2 different visible statues and it's not always clear which one is breakable with shattering (it's usually possible to reach both with the shattering scroll, but I'm not sure if that's always true).

[Medwar]

Tunneling into a vault with a shattering-statue is already allowed. I think it's ok. Like the staff of firebolt gives you access to the wood-barricaded rooms.

But yes, maybe in such rooms the statue should be replaced with something shatterable. Or it can be made like: β#β where the shatterable block of wall sits between the two statues. Another thought: As I remember a standalone statue is prone to shattering and tunneling. So the game mechanics are diffferent only for walls and statues that are around a vault.