Why do Mages drop Priest books and vice-versa?

[Ingwe Ingweron]

It seems strange to me when mages are dropping priest books and priests are dropping mage books. Shouldn't they be dropping books appropriate to their class when they drop books?

[Rydel]

Same reason warriors drop both and the reason that Wormtongue isn't more likely to drop his boots than any other monster with the same number of drops; there isn't code for monsters being more likely to drop specific things, or even associate that those things would be related. The game doesn't even see any relation between the Mage player class and Mage enemies.

I suppose it may be possible to add an additional edit file that includes relationships between items and enemies, though it would have to be rather long for a very small change in gameplay.

[Nick]

Actually, in 3.5.1 there is code to do this, and it's specifically used for mage and priest books - see the "drop:" lines in monster.txt. If it's not working, I don't think that's intentional.

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by Nick

Actually, in 3.5.1 there is code to do this, and it's specifically used for mage and priest books - see the "drop:" lines in monster.txt. If it's not working, I don't think that's intentional.

I think that is there for future because chance min max seems to be 1% for every entry. No-one probably have had time to properly balance that.

Also I don't think it makes less likely for them them drop other items (directly), just a bit more likely to have their associated books in the drop.

[Nick]

It is actually operational in 3.5.1; the min and max you're quoting are for the number to drop, but there is also a percentage chance for the drop to happen (eg 5% for an Acolyte to drop Beginners Handbook).

Originally Posted by Timo Pietilä

Also I don't think it makes less likely for them them drop other items (directly), just a bit more likely to have their associated books in the drop.

This is exactly correct.

[Timo Pietilä]

Originally Posted by Nick

It is actually operational in 3.5.1; the min and max you're quoting are for the number to drop, but there is also a percentage chance for the drop to happen (eg 5% for an Acolyte to drop Beginners Handbook).

Darned work keeps interfering... Of course, I don't know what I was thinking with those min / max, now that read the monster.txt again that's obvious.

Person does odd things when thought pattern is interrupted.

[dstyle]

the same reason you'll find 5 copies of ethereal openings before one copy of mordenaiken's if you're a mage (or vice versa if you're a priest)..maybe they have the same bad luck that we do

[Magnate]

I managed to write a half-decent set of drop profile functions for Pyrel, which lets you say exactly what any given monster can or cannot drop. If Pyrel isn't going to see the light of day, I might port them back to V ...