Experience and Magic

[RumblingSky]

That's a perfect response and I appreciate you taking the time to explain it so thouroughly. It makes perfect sense.. especially since I don't have the background or experience to know to be concerned with things like server lag from dropped items.. yet..

[A gnome too far]

Good guesswork all, that's pretty close to what we're doing.

One correction: Loot is generated on spawn and opposed to on death--if some bandit has a shinier sword than his buds he'll use it.

Durr, yeah. Shoulda figured it was onSpawn. At the low levels its easier to spot these enemies because once in a while you'll see them throw a tanglefoot bag, use a potion of bless, heal themselves, etc.

For the enemies that drop their own items: Do you just make several versions of an NPC (edit copy) and then just change around which parts of their items are droppable, then throw them all into the same encounter? So like 8 of them with nothing droppable then 2 of them with maybe sword and shield and the other sword and armor.

At a guess I would say that they write a % chance for an item to spawn (ie CreateObject) in the creatures inventory into the creatures OnSpawn script. That way you only need one template for the creature, and if the % chance is say 10% for a sword to spawn in the creatures inventory then statistically 1 in every 10 spawns of that creature will have one.

** edit** I think the function is actually CreateItemOnObject, not CreateObject, but you get the idea anyway.

[AlienOverlord]

I played a long time on a server where the max xp was 36 and average was 6-12 and no minimum. The server did allow you to get to level 7 a little faster and then a long haul the rest of the way. Coming here it has been refreshing to be able to gain a level in a playing session. The xp is much higher here, but I don't think it is overly so. The average seems to be around 50 per kill, which isn't too high in my opinion.

That same server had you saving to get full plate armor and only getting about 300 gp per hour at low levels but much more at higher levels. Coming to this server I thought the gp gain was insane. I leave most loot and I still have more than I need. Certainly it sucks to be worried about using a healing pot to save money and then being pissed when you die, but it is also rewarding to grab loot because you are saving for a new sword. I was happy to be able to buy full plate right away (if I didn't mind being weaponless )