Fridgecritter 2X Diablo 2 random loot

[miotch]

server offline?

[Fridgecritter]

I chose Plane of Torment for the higher zone for 70s... I think this is crashing the server. None of the other zones seem to crash it. I will be working today to get it worked out.

Thanks for the tips on tutorialb. I had the zone as one of the choices on the teleporter, but not too many people used it. I guess if you make them go there first, and don't let them out until they bring the quest item, it would work out well. I see a problem with sending them to other similar places and making them get a quest item in order to leave... since the game is so big, and people will want to explore all of it.

Maybe this is not what you meant. If so, elaborate please. I will also be working on the loot tables today. I will be changing the name of the server to ALPHA since I am obviously not ready to have it open all the time, so players enter at your own risk (and by risk I mean several restarts while it's in alpha mode). I should have done a lot more research before opening it in the first place.

Anyhow, it should be a fun project, and last me a while. The server is paid up for 6 months, so it's here long term... I got a good deal on it through work hehe.

Thanks again for all of your input, and the code, Angelox.

[lsuee]

I'm actually having a good deal of fun on your server so far. I do have a couple of questions and would like to offer a couple pieces of advice.

Questions: You mentioned putting the server in ALPHA mode and said we can expect several restarts. Does this mean several restarts per play session, per day or per the ALPHA period? Furthermore, will our characters be wiped once you decide the final version is done?

Advice: Give main bosses their own item loot that will give people a reason to kill them. The other piece of advice would be to make all items dropable.

[Fridgecritter]

There will be a few restarts a day, depending on how many changes made to the database I do per day. I will try and wait until I have a few changes made until I do a restart.

As for character wipes... I don't plan on wiping the chars. I don't know if I will have to, and I don't see a reason to do so yet, so the answer for now is no.

I thought about taking the no-drop or no-trade status off of things in an effort to get people to trade back and forth for gear they can't use since there is no economy on a custom server... But I changed my mind because I don't want people hording items and giving it to their alts and not having to earn anything with their alts.

As for the bosses, there will be some planning involved, but I am not sure what yet. I am thinking not just drops, but custom quests that will take you to all corners of Norrath and beyond to finish them, with good rewards of course.

[lsuee]

I like that idea. Perhaps I can help you expand on it a bit. A series of quests to kill several of the big-named bosses that give nice items as rewards...AND if you complete certain chains of the quests you get keys allowing entrance into a few locked zones offering higher challenges and better rewards.

Just an idea that would be fun...

[Fridgecritter]

Well, after reading this reply, I am kind of disheartened after some thought. I think the project here at eqemu should not stray so much from the original game that it becomes another game altogether. That is my opinion. Having said that, I think if there is so much work done to the quests that it becomes a custom kill-and-quest server, it will take away from the content and theme of the game so much so that it will not be fun.

Ok, so where do I stand after all of this? I think there should be a few changes made to the original game so a small population can play on it while still having fun, and receive some sort of benefit that they would not receive on another server, making it unique and fun. This is why I need to change the random drops so lower level mobs are not dropping level 75 items. It's just not fun.

If I cannot alter the game just slightly without altering too much of the game, I think I will just open a PVP server. That was my first thought before I saw GeorgeS tool to implement random drops.

For now, I plan to wipe everything but the character and inventory info, and dive into the database to manually implement random drops that are level specific. I think this will be the best way to do it. I will keep the spell scriber and teleporter, but no hot zones, no custom exp for the hot zones. Just 3X exp across the board and random drops that are level appropriate.

Feedback appreciated. Thanks.

[Fridgecritter]

Well, I'm used to just diving head first into software and figuring out how to do it later. I started using GeorgeS Diablo II random loot program (great program btw) for implementing loot on my custom server about a week ago. I didn't bother to read the directions, and added loot to the tables. I was frustrated when I didn't get the results I was hoping for, and there were lower level mobs dropping level 75 loot.

After actually reading the help files and doing a little research, I figured out how to use the custom query tool that is built into the program, and I am now working on getting proper loot for appropriate leveled mobs using the program. It is simple enough... All you have to do is enter criteria for what you want to be edited into the tables. If you put "reqlevel<=10 AND an ac<=6". then a level requirement and an AC cutoff is made to distinguish those items.

I am doing all of the loots over again now, and hopefully it will be a lot better, and players will have gear to prepare them for the next level.

[Cvinion]

First thanks for a the fun server man, Im having tons of fun playing here, but secondly I was just curiois as to if you have an idea of how long it will be before the custom loot tables are implimented, any updates on this would be really appreciated. I jsut like staying on top of things to know what the next big thing is going to be.

[Fridgecritter]

This afternoon I will be running all the queries on the tables, this should take about an hour or so, then I will implement them if I have time. If not, then it will be tomorrow morning before they are implemented. I want to make sure I get it right this time.

Also, I don't want to flood this forum with issues like this. The website is up at http://www.fridgecritter.com and the forums will be up this morning. You can post there. Thanks.

[Fridgecritter]

Here are the statistics for random drops:

100% of mobs in the game with loot tables associated with them have a 35% chance to drop added items randomly along with the regular loot that was already in the loot table.

Levels 1-10 mobs have chance to drop added items up to level 15 and or items with a recommended level of 20.

Levels 11-20 mobs have a chance to drop items up to level 25 and or items with a recommended level of 30.

Levels 21-30 mobs have a chance to drop items up to level 35 and or items with a recommended level of 40.

Are you seeing the pattern? You may get items that are a few levels higher than the mob's level, but not much over that.

At level 60+, Mobs will not drop items (other than items that are from the original drop table) that are level 49 or lower. This makes it so higher level mobs won't drop junk (if they didn't originally drop junk).

[Cvinion]

Great addition Fridge, Let's see how it works out. Very excited about getting my druid up some levlels and seeing how things go.