Item Teleport

[Seravy]

We already know item teleport is bad for game balance but we had no good ideas last time, however Sapher's last game reminded me of the problem.

This time I have an idea that might actually help :

"Items cannot be moved to/from units that already ended their turn"

As simple as that. Unless I'm missing something, this shouldn't interfere with the intended use of moving items, and shouldn't be particularly unfun or anything like that. If a unit ended their turn, it means you already didn't move their items until the end of the turn since their turn represents the entire time period until the beginning of your next turn from the unit's perspective. In other words the current system basically means you teleport items back in time - if 25 combat turns represent one full overland turn and you use the item on 3 different heroes for the full 25 turns each then either the item travels back in time or the battles didn't actually happen in the same overland turn... 

Implementation would be, if a slot on a hero that ended their turn is clicked, regardless of reason (removing or adding item), a red message window appears that says "This unit already finished their current turn.". I think items collected at end of combat will still find the unit in "active" state, as they are marked inactive only after the end of the entire movement process, which is after the end of combat and getting treasure, so heroes would still be able to equip items they found immediately. But it's best to double check that before deciding to add this feature.

(AI's would probably ignore this rule but they can't move items with the intent to to use it twice a turn anyway - they only move items at the start of their turn, when a new hero is hired, or when new items are obtained, and 99% of the time the items end up on the same hero as that's the optimal setup.)

[Nelphine]

I like that. Admittedly it will be annoying for those times when it's late game, turns are super long, and you find a hero you want to give an item to, but the hero with the item already moved. I'd probably forget to move it for the rest of the game just due to long turns.

But despite that, I like the idea.

[Nelphine]

Wait, I'd only put the restriction on 'from' not 'to' specifically for convenience. At least i don't think abuse of choosing which hero gets the item during the AI turn is a big deal?

[Seravy]

Problem is, "to" includes "from" as it takes out the existing item. So I prefer doing both, basically, I'll make the click on the item slot do the message immediately, regardless of the presence of any items, and skip the rest of the procedure. (if we are extra good on space we can consider checking for an item already existing in the clicked slot)
Aside from this I have no reason to disallow moving to heroes, but it works better for flavor and consistency this way too. If you want the hero to be safe, keep the items on the before you move to unexplored areas, not after. Just because in the game turns are consecutive doesn't mean in reality the enemy can't attack your exploring hero before you have the time to chant the item transfer magic.

[Nelphine]

Right my thought is, particularly in early game , you're hero finishes a turn by clearing a lair and finds an item, I want to be able to give that item to that hero; actually, I don't care if the hero has an item already, if the hero is in the stack that finds an item id like to be able to equip it immediately.

Further, if I finish with a hero, and another stack later in the turn finds an item, and the hero in the first stack doesn't have an item, I want to be able to equip the item.

So, primarily when finding items, I want to make sure that convenience isn't lost.

[Seravy]

I explained that should be possible, the hero who found the item is still currently moving so it's not yet marked inactive. However that hero won't be able to equip items found by other heroes later.
The easiest way to get around that is by making sure the hero who is going to attack a lair that turn goes first.
(automove can get in your way as it happens first, but it's not exactly the best idea to do automove with a hero anyway, or just in general on high difficulty)

[Hadriex]

Small change, I can see new players or those who are used to MoM being confused and upset unless you can communicate this in game. So long as you can do that seems fine.

[Seravy]

Successfully implemented with this message :
   

I see one potential problem though - if you're attacked multiple times during the enemy turn.
Not being able to transport items looted from the enemy/received from own dead hero makes perfect sense - the battles happens simultaneously in theory, so same case as your own turn. However if multiple enemies attack your same hero(es) on the same tile, not being able to equip the items from a lost hero on another doesn't make sense. (and might result in losing items due to not having slots to put them into)
Unfortunately, this happens outside combat so being "the defender" probably won't work to allow an exception, and there is no global variable to track who is playing their turn.

...one workaround I can think of is to make units refill their overland movement points at the beginning of the first AI's turn instead of after the last, but then you can move any item anywhere during enemy turns which is also not very good.

Edit : I was probably overthinking this, garrisoning heroes didn't move last turn, so they can exchange items or equip loot freely, it only affects heroes who used up all movement (or attacked).

[Bahgtru]

"Items blocked: the hero has already moved"