How to edit loot lists?

[9hao]

I have been looking everywhere for how to edit the loot tables-- I know a lot of mods that do it, (OOO, etc.), but I have yet to find a tutorial or howto. Could someone please point me in the right direction?

[LoginToDownload]

(This assumes you have the CS)

 

Leveled lists of items are held in LeveledItem objects. The "Chance None" box of a LeveledItem determines the percentage chance that the LeveledItem won't return anything at all. All of the items in the LeveledItem's main list have a specified level and a count. The count is self-explanatory, the number of items, and the specified level determines which item is selected. Unless Calculate from All Levels <= PC Level is turned on, the level has to be less than the player's level and have no greater leveled item also on the list that's lower-level than the player's. If the aforementioned box is checked, it just has to be less than the player's level. Of all the possible items that meet the level conditions, (an item with a count higher than one still only counts as one item for these purposes. However, you can add the same item twice with a count of "1" to improve the chances of that item turning up) one is randomly selected as the item the LeveledItem returns.

 

For example, open up the LeveledItem AdventurerWarriorCuirass. As the name implies, this determines what Cuirass to give the randomly generated adventurers in certain dungeons so it will more-or-less be appropriate for the player's level. The Chance None is 0, so it will always return something. Cuirasses of varying power are listed in a scaling order of level, all with a count of 1. A Level 7 player will always have this return an Iron Cuirass, since IronCuirass is at Level 4 and the next highest-level item is the SteelCuirass at Level 8. Similarly, a level 15 player will always return a Chainmail Cuirass, and a player Level 20 or over will always return an Orcish Cuirass. If the "Calculate from all levels <= PC's Level" box was checked, however, it would be randomly selected. A level 16 player would have the LeveledItem return, potentially, any item on the list except for OrcishCuirass, but a significant bias still being on the higher-level items. You'd probably rarely see anything weaker than ChainmailCuirass turn up.

 

Now let's look at something a bit more complex. Take a look at LL2LootJewelryMagic25. This LeveledItem is put in a few more valuable "loot" chests to give a random chance of finding some magic jewelry. Chance None is 75, which means this LeveledItem has only a 25% chance of returning anything, and Calculate from all levels <= PC's level is checked. Also checked is Calculate for each item in count. This determines, if an object, actor, or other LeveledItem has a count of more than one of these, just to check once and multiply the item or to check fully multiple times. For example, if it was unchecked, a chest that has five of these would have a 25% chance of returning five identical pieces of magic jewelry. Since it's not, it checks for the 25% chance and, if so, return the appropriate jewelry five times, which would in likely return less than five, but more than zero. If it beat the Chance None more than once, (Probability suggests that, if it's checked five times, exactly one piece of jewelry will be returned) the jewelry items returned would likely be completely different from one-another.

 

You'll also notice that all of the potential items the LeveledItem can return are other LeveledItems. In fact, all this LeveledItem really determines is which power-level of magic jewelry to give, after which the appropriate LeveledItem returns a specific piece of jewelry from that power-level. Also note that, for some incredibly weird reason, average pieces require a higher level to turn up than grand pieces. Doing one preview with a count of 10 and Level 15 gave me a Ring of Shock Shield, and two Rings of Resist Shock. Trying again at Level 18 gave me a Necklace of Water Breathing and a Ring of Resist Fire.

 

As an example of LeveledItems in action, take a look at the container "ChestVendorSmithAll01", a chest for Smith vendors to draw most of their wares from. It contains 6 torches, 20 repair hammers, 2 VendorAmmo (All of the possible results of this LeveledItem come in large counts. No point in selling one or two arrows, is there?) LeveledItems, 8 VendorWeaponAll LeveledItems, (return a random weapon of any type depending on the player's level) and 8 VendorArmorAll LeveledItems. (likewise, return a random piece of armor depending on the player's level) Also, -20 Iron Arrows, to stop the randomizer returning too many, I suppose.

 

A few words on creating and editing LeveledItems. To add items to a LeveledItem, right-click on that LeveledItem's item list and select New, then select the item in question via the drop-down box and type in the level/count. As an alternative, you can drag the item you want to add from the Object Window to the LeveledItem list. To edit one of the existing items in the LeveledList, left-click on it in the item-list and the boxes on the right will allow you change the item/level/count. To delete items from the LeveledList, right-click on the item in the list and select Delete. Also note that LeveledItems can't be added directly to the world, only placed in Containers' and Actors' inventories.