Monster Drops That Aren't Drops

[fred_penner]

I thought of this while reading this thread and this quote from Learner, regarding monster drops changing:

Don't bother, it'll all be changing. One goal I have is to make the drops less predictable to make things more interesting.

Why not have monsters drop a "note" or some information informing the user of a way to redeem their prize for killing the monster? For example, you kill a Troll and a scrap of a map falls out of its beard and the map shows the location of some treasure. You go there and you can get the treasure. It's like a quest. And I feels like it makes more sense than having a book or an axe fall off the dead body.

 

Messages like this could simply appear as text on the screen after the monster is dead, just like when you get a bonus for harvesting.

 

From a server programming point of view, you could create a stack to put these prizes in memory and limit it to 5 or so. That way, once the stack is full the user needs to start claiming them or they can't get anymore. Or make them like a bag, which dissapears after a while.

[Placid]

I think that makes a lot of sense. Not only does it add to the novelty of the game (instead of just getting a book from a corpse), it adds a certain rpg/quest element to the game, which would keep people playing.

 

This cant be to hard to change either?

[Dorplein]

Cool idea...but well it won't be to hard to get if it's just a map. Maybe some sort of riddle or a very little quest...It would make getting thing much harder and you can't just kill 1000 animals while picking up all the stuff. You realy need to make the walk everytime.

 

/Edit make only the pretty good items a quest or something, not all the items.

Edited November 3, 2004 by Dorplein

[jamesvm]

hey could give coordinater of location where prize so that you can have it implented faster and then when actual made actuall text or riddle or map or what ever do for done then you can change it to it.

I hope understant what try to say. Cause add lot more fun and monster drop would be higher and less items in markeyt too.

Edited November 3, 2004 by jamesvm

[Puntif]

A "treasure map" is a kind of quest. If you can successfully follow it, (and this kind of quest might always end at a guarded treasure), you get the treasure. Or maybe some of the maps lead to nothing since either it's a bogus map or someone else got the treasure first. And for this game's purpose, a treasure map item could be generic (there is only one "treasure map item id" that when "used" brings you to the map's destination which is randomly determinedat that time (perhaps depending on the character's stats/levels/nexuses you get a guardian that is appropriate). Or it could be a multi-phase quest - once you complete phase one of the map's quest the map's item id changes to "phase 2" with the same appearance and the same or slightly modified description. After you have completed the entire sequence and morphed the treasure map through all it's levels you get to the final map that gives you a treasure.

 

Perhaps the "item description" will tell you what game map to go to, then when on the correct map, "using" the item will tell you how far and in what direction you need to travel to get to the destination.

[Guest Josra]

Thtas a great idea. drops r drops. u egt some money,wepons or some books.

but the notes give u some fun. i played abit ages ago in the days of plat coins.

i loved doing the quests. and the rewards were great! (even thought u could only buy cords). But the hunting sounds great!