LE Destuctable loot mod (REQ)

[thetaprime]

There seem to be two schools of thought for loot is Skyrim; the school of MOAR LOOT, and the hardcore players who have accepted that it's just too damn easy to drag home hundreds of pounds of gear to a merchant and get rich 15 minutes into the game.

 

I have already seen requests for charred body mods for combat damage and the like, but I'm after the balanced gameplay angle. I propose a loot destruction system based on the method of damage dealt out to the enemy to prevent the Monty Haul looting and the uniform drops by almost all mobs. It's for your own good. ;)

 

I assume that a damage type variable would have to be assigned to each weapon, spell etc. For example, a warhammer would be strictly a crushing weapon and could be given an arbitrary value of 25% to crush any object in the mobs inventory. A battle axe could be assigned 10% crushing and 10% cutting values which are checked as two separate item destruction checks against each inventory item, while a greatsword would be a 5% crushing and a 15% cutting weapon (checked twice against each inventory item). Materials would adjust these values as well as total damage dealt to the mob by that weapon. For example:

 

An elven greatsword would be a 5/15% crushing/cutting weapon, but would be adjusted +5% (again, arbitrary values) for the material it is made out of with a result of a 10%/20% crushing/cutting weapon. A flaming deadric warhammer would be something more like +25%, yielding a 50% destruction chance for the crushing values and say, an additional 15% check for burning damage applied!

 

But theta, a 50% or better chance of destruction!? I'll be beggared! That's just too crazy you say?

 

Enter: item resistance values. The same elven greatsword with a 5/15% cr/cu chance to destroy by cutting, strikes Ned the bandit who is wearing fur gloves, fur boots, studded armor and carrying a health potion, an iron sword and an iron shield, a garnet and a black robe.

 

Resistance values are simple modifiers to the final destruction % value and the bracketed number is a random % generated against the item during combat for each type of damage dealt:

 

Fur gloves -10% to cutting, -5% to burning, -40% crushing, -15% lightning, -20% freezing (4%) - fur gloves are sliced to ribbons.

Fur boots -10% to cutting, -5% to burning, -40% crushing, -15% lightning, -20% freezing (60%) - fur boots are saved from destruction.

Studded armor -15% to cutting -8% to burning, -38% to crushing, -12% to lightning -17% to freezing (41%) - armor is ok.

Health potion -5% to cutting -5% to burning, +15% to crushing, -5% lightning, +10% to freezing (30%) - Potion is cut/crushed and Ned's mother is going to have a hard time getting the red out...

Iron Sword -10% to cutting, -10% burning, -10% to crushing, -0% to lightning, +5% to freezing (1%!) - sword shatters. *smash* *tinkle tinkle*

Iron Shield -20% cutting, -15% burning, -20% crushing, -10% lightning, -5%% to freezing (89%) - Good ol' sturdy shield.

Garnet -10% cutting, -15% burning, 0% crushing, -15% lighting, -5% freezing (73%) - Loot!!

Black Robe +20% cutting, +20% burning, -60% crushing, -10% lightning, -15% freezing (29%) - Big tear!

 

Now consider that the damage/attack dealt by the attacker should also modify the chance to destroy the items. Image Zerk the 56th lvl orc barbarian, encounters some low level bandits on the road and violates them with his warhmmer of probing. He does damage far above that of the need to dispatch these miscreants. It could be something as simple as a static table or something scaled, but I like the idea of static, since material resistances in physics are pretty static:

 

10-30 dam - no modifier

31-60 dam - +1%

61-90 dam - +2%

...etc

 

Zerk rummages through the jelly he left on the road and is dismayed by how little loot is left. Time to go fight some bigger tougher prey.

 

Now this raises a new problem. Herb the assassin uses his glass dagger to throat cut poor boob #12 on his nightly jaunt through Riven and does 946 damage. according to this model -- HE 'ASPLODED!! Shreds of gear rain down in the street for the next 4 minutes. It's clear that locational damage for sneak attacks may have to be implemented OR the damage modifier can be ignored for sneak attack, as the very nature of a sneak attack is precision. One shot, one kill. More loot. Also, DoT spells will need to be calculated as a TOTAL damage per second to the enemy and that % applied. 10 seconds of flames at a high rate of damage could leave very little left of common enemies with poor resistance gear. Imagine the possibilities for say, coming across a fight with bandits against a dragon. Dragonfire should be very unforgiving against most items. Not much left.

 

An additional possibility is for fall damage. Brad the Dovakihn FUS RO DAHs vampire lord Basil off a cliff. Fall damage is applied to all gear (per bounce of course). A fine paste is found at the bottom and not much else.

 

The final feature I'd like to see is dynamic application of item destruction in combat as possible a phase 2 of the mod. Imagine Frank the slayer's gear coming apart in mid combat at Cecil the Wise roasts him with a flame spell set on wide dispersal. His armor values plumet and his weapon melts. Bad news for Frank and his brand new Dragonbone Underpants of Continence....

 

Oh and I want burned corpses ;)

 

TLDR: Damage to your enemy can break their stuff based on a % of damage, damage type, and item resistance to those damage types, Which results in more random loot and less loot overall from mobs that are weaker than you. Good day.

Edited October 11, 2012 by thetaprime