Mirage Source

so I'm soundboarding ideas for how to create loot tables (a la Diablo or WoW) looking for the most elegant and easy to implement design. so far I have come up with something that sounds promising.

Add an iLvl to item attributes
Add a flag for certain items to not be included in the iLvl search (such as with a -1 or a whole other attribute, this is to stop quest items and special items from dropping on normal mobs)
add a monsterLvl to NPC's
add a check box for Boss status
Add an array for the types of items allowed to be dropped per NPC (animals drop fur, soldiers drop weapons and gold, etc.)
create a MySQL table for monsterLvl, min/max iLvl for each monster level (so that level 1 monsters don't drop level 50 items)
make a MySQL search query with the restraints of the min/max iLvl of the drop and also the type.
Drop a random item from these results.
If it's a boss NPC consult a special table of named NPC's with specific items for each boss.

This would not replace the current item drop already in MS, but rather compliment it, because you still need specific creatures to drop things for quests and such. (don't want just anyone dropping the key to the dungeon!)

Now please, give credit where credit is due if you decide to make a similar idea for your own game, but please don't try and rip off this idea, I've worked real hard on coming up with this. If you help me with this (through advise, optimizations or actual code help) I'll also give credit.

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Ok, I see a lot of you looking but no comments? sorry for the double post, but maybe I wasn't clear. I was asking for feedback on this idea and wanted some opinions.

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tldr

Ok, seriously? I have this topic up for over a month hoping some people would be interested and give me some input, and all I get is a damn tldr?! This royally upsets me.

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I don't see the point.

Thank you, a decent response! Anyway, this is to make the game more random. More like traditional RPG's and MMORPG's. Things like World of Warcraft, Diablo, Final Fantasy even, have distribution tables for items. so this way multiple monsters have a way of dropping multiple items in a nice clean fashion without having to go over every monster profile updating this and that.

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Go for it... let us know what happens

This thread was one of those

"I'll come back to this one"'s that got forgotten <3

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Why not try my app, ColorEye, on your Android devlce?
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It seems easier to just hard code a randomizer..

Well, that would work, except you start getting weird things like level 100 items on level 1 chickens, and feathers dropping off of snakes. With this, you would basically give a level range for when an item would drop, and maybe even what type of monsters drop it. This gives randomness without making it so random to ruin in-game mechanics. and having special boss loot tables would give players incentive to fight bosses again and again, as there will be chances of getting different things for different classes.

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I dont know if I like that idea from my understanding,

if a snake and a chicken are about the same level then there is still a chance that the snake can still drop feathers...

my suggestion would be to add like a monster class with a monster level that way you can make a tables more specific on the types of the monster and their levels instead of adding a Item level

so for example a chicken would be

a animal then adding a subtype for like a bird so

Animal < Bird
Animal < Reptile

that way you can make tables based off of the type of creature it really is and there levels

Demon < Horn-winged

a demon with horns and wings can possibly drop horns and wings or some demon feathers...

Demon < Winged
Demon < Horned
Demon < Water-Demon
Demon < Flame-Demon
Demon < Elite

just an example serveral types of monsters and also have it based off of the monsters level...

So a chicken cant drop gold(How the hell is a chicken carrying gold did we rip it open?) I can understand a chicken dropping Chicken that we can sell, or a cow dropping beef, or a duck dropping a raw duck... that way you can be more specific as to what monsters drop what.

Just stating this because from my understanding is you would add a monster level and a item level a level 1 mugger can drop some Cloth pants, and then if a chicken is close to that level they would have a chance of dropping the cloth pants... just a suggestion of how to do it I usually refer to a drop table as a table of a bunch of items one specific monster can drop never ever thought of it as a bunch of items a set of monsters can drop...

Also i'm at work whil;e I posted this so if you said this same thing already just disregard this >.> i tend to skip things when im reading forums at work if you may have noticed in the featured tutorial section and maybe some other posts.

Make it so if you use a fire sword a duck will drop cooked duck!

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Why not try my app, ColorEye, on your Android devlce?
Do you like social gaming? Fight it out in Battle Juice!

I am a professional software developer in Salt Lake City, UT.

XD that made me LOL.

That would be awesome imma try to do something like that

Well yes, that's what I mean by having item types allowed to be dropped by NPC's. I'll add a new array to the monster/NPC and you will be able to select multiple item types that that particular monster can drop. humanoids can drop gold armor and weapons, animals can drop animal parts, etc. and also by restriction of level along with that type. so a low level humaniod isn't going to drop "The Sword of a Thousand Truths" and a high level humanoid is going to have a smaller chance of dropping a rusty dagger. and in addition to those two parameters is a third set of tables specifically for boss type mobs. mobs that are labeled as bosses will have separate drop tables that will allow them to drop several different special items related to that specific boss.

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