Asherons Call: A Small Touch of Dev Q & A

Question: astral_dominae - Obsidian Chitticks are bugged, they dont do a damage type
Answer: Orion-Turbine - This is indeed not a bug, it is by design.

Question: Gangster_Of_Love - Why is it ''Tusker Island Recall'' and not ''Aphus Lassel Recall''
Answer: Orion-Turbine - That would be me. Momentary lapse of reason. We''ll be moving that to the more appropriate and lore related name of Recall Aphus Lassel for next month.

Question: Zarok - The Great Machine? Has this been explained? or is it just for show ?
Answer: Sean_Huxter - The Great Machine has a history. It is the first functional object in Asheron''s Call. Ever. Way way way back when the game was just in the early development stages, coders began work on the game systems. The first function was click-on, click-off. The Great Machine was the first object in AC that actually functioned. The second functioning object was the cow. When you click on it, it tips. This came long before the cow functioned as a creature. That came later. But for a long time, you could click on a cow and it would tip. Click on a Great Machine to turn it on or off. It is a museum piece that we thought would be cool to put in the game to honor its past. Don''t believe any stories about how it would work but the engine couldn''t take it. It works perfectly. And has, for a very very very long time. As for lore, of course it has a reason for being there. But you don''t know what it is. Perhaps you will never know. I know I don''t.

Question: Sito_of_Frostfell - New DI drop formula? Has anyone seen anything about the recent changes in the DI drop formula? I believe it was done in the Novemeber patch. I did not see much info on it eccept for the coment that a bug was removed and the system was working correctly now. Thing is... I have been doing some DI tests. So far I can''t get an item that is >6% less from the value of the DI''s to drop.

As an example...

3k DI''s
2.8k item
value diffrence = 6%

/die (rough day )

AC finds the highest value items and drops it. In this case a 3k boquet (missile weapon?).

Ac now wants to find the next item to drop. Since the first item was the Boquet the remaning ones would be valued at 1.5k. The random 10% at this point makes them valued betwen 1,350p and 1650p. This is far lower then the 2.8k and 2.6k for the coat and the bow so AC should drop the coat at this point. Instead a Boquet is dropped.

Repeat the above for each time AC drops an item.

The only way I was able to get the coat to drop was by shorting my DI''s i.e having 7 DI''s instead of 8 so when AC dropped 8 items the coat HAD to go.

So what we have happening is that the Boquets (3k Value) are ALLWAYS dropping before the 2.8k coat, even after being halfed in value for being a repeat DI.

With 9 3k DI''s (max drop+1) and the 2.8k item in 10 deaths I have not seen the 2.8k item drop yet. Ether the system is broken (both good and bad) or there is a new formula at work. Something doesn;t seem right. Then again, it looks like I will be able to run my DT archer in 400al base armor with a 150% mod AR bow only useing Wedding Boquets (3k) as DI''s. Boy, it makes you want to be there when they open the corpse and complain about the crappy loot.... hehehe.

Answer: srand - The value of items (for the purposes of the the drop on death code, that is) is randomized somewhat. It used to be randomized 90-100%; it is now randomized 0-10%, as was originally intended. This happens after the value of duplicated types is cut in half, so you can regard this as randomizing the value of duplicated type items up to 5% (of their total value).
Answer: srand - Sito: That''s interesting. I''ll take another look when I have a chance. I suspect that it has something to do with the .. err .. odd category type of Boquets (is that really how you spell that?), but it could be something else.