Feb. 21, 2013: Randomizing Some Loot Drops

A long time ago I started to give goblins semi-randomized loot, where not all of their items that look the same have the same properties. Any of their held items have a small chance of getting a property added to them (such as +1 enhancement or minor acid damage).

I'm working on updating this a little bit. The updated code will alter the names of items that gain a special property, which it didn't before.

In addition, I'm currently working on loot drops for many of the "normal" orcs of Aenea (not the Big Bad ones). The new code will do things like alter the item names of orc-made/held items so that they have Orcish names, and like the goblin loot, add item properties randomly. Like the goblin loot, the percentage chance for an item to gain a special property will be about the same as the chance such items had of appearing in the older drops. Because orcs have their own spellcasters that can enchant items, there is still a chance that randomly enchanted orcish items can be wielded/used only by those with orc blood (orcs and half-orcs).

I do not have plans of expanding this sort of thing to every loot drop in Aenea. The drow may get this treatment, as might bandits that watch the roads, but that's about it.

While this does mean that players familiar with some enemies won't be able to automatically sort (weapon/shield/armor) loot from them based just on inventory icons, it also means that such loot drops will be getting a few extra item properties thrown into the mix for more variety.

Loot sorting hint for those that don't already know:

Quickslot the Examine function (the eye icon from). When you go to see what's on a set of remains, open it's inventory, then use the quickslot key to change to the Examine function. Use this on the first item in the enemy's inventory. If you can identify it based on Lore, good. If not, the description won't change for you (like normal). Without bothering to close the examine window, you can hit the quickslotted Examine key again and click on the next item...it will automatically close the first examine window and open a new one for the item just clicked on.

On the fence with my reaction to this. Variety is good, not beng able to sort loot easily is very tedious. Quick slots are too precious to waste on Examine. Problematic.... *frown*

daveyeisley wrote:On the fence with my reaction to this. Variety is good, not beng able to sort loot easily is very tedious. Quick slots are too precious to waste on Examine. Problematic.... *frown*

Somewhat agree, though Examine may be used temporarily in place of a lesser priority Quickslot (eg; Stealth, some potions, linor weapons, etc). Simply swap back after major hauls.

I like the system so far.

There's really not any "sorting loot" issue. After running around the goblin caves with a level 4/level 5 character, I was doing the same amount of examining to root out good magic loot from common junk as I was before.

The difference is now the items all have different looks. And there's more than just the goblin mind-reading hammer and generic +1 weapons to pick up. I found 1 mind reading hammer, so they're still in there... but I also found a crossbow with unlimited basic ammunition, a "crystal studded club" which had +2 cha, a ceremonial morningstar which had a -2 attack penalty, but was worth some 700 gp (impractical but fancy and pricey?), weapons with acid damage, shields with +1 or +2 vs gnomes or such, a few regular +1 weapons... a variety of stuff, not only in looks, but in properties.