Artifact drops

[Belgarion]

Right, so you said in another post that artifacts drops 1/100 on the artifact monsters.

Does this mean that there is a 1% chance for an artifact to drop for each of these monsters, or is there some more creative system in play?
As far as I recall there ended up being another system in retail UO cause the simple 1% chance one was just frustrating.
You could either kill thousands of them without getting shit, or you could get them all the time.
A system where there is some sort of counter on the character doing the killing that increases as you kill mobs, giving higher chance for drops, and depletes once you have a drop?

[Calix]

I have no idea how it works mate. It's the system from OSI UO. I'll paste the code in here when I'm home.

[Mercury]

didnt osi supposedly have a "bar" which filled with killing the doom mobs and when you hit max you got an arti drop?

[Fatalist]

merc's right, there was a 'progress' system because after a while as people complained the standard doom chance was too random! Not sure if this ran in parralel with the chance of getting an artifact based on damage done etc, but ultimately it meant that eventually you would be guaranteed an artifact.

[Mercury]

fuck me, mike said i was right. first time for everything.

[Nixon]

There was? I don't remember such a system ever being implemented.

[Belgarion]

It was. But it was quite late, so you ladies might not have been playing at the time.

[Noxin]

I think it's probably the best way to deal with it... Start at 1% and increase by 1% with every doom mob killed until an arti is given, then reset.
Unless the doom mobs are easier than OSI version like in Legacy, in which case you could probably increase by a smaller percentage each time.
You could also add a bit more funkiness to the system so that the larger your chance of getting an arti the better the arti will be... so if you get a drop at 1% it's weighted towards giving a crappy arti say 80% crappy 20% awesome, but if it dropped at 10% chance that ratio is weighted 40% crappy, 60% awesome.

Theoretically it should be easy enough to implement.

Edit, with further thought you could probably do a proximity check for other players too... So if you killed it with only 2 friends your chance increases more/arti probablity weights more towards awesome, but if you kill it with 20 people then the increase is fractional. Or do a damage ratio... if you did 20% damage to the mob you get a 0.2% drop chance increase but if you only did 5% damage you only get 0.05.

[KoKane]

To be honest though, I think we can change things like how artifacts are acquired. Looking back, I think its awfully basic and eventually a dull routine (although everything gets like that in an MMO no matter what). Go to mob, grind its hp down, roll dice for phat loot.


Look at how champions work and cram PvM PvP and player interactions etc etc, all together. Look at Calix post on it. More systems like this would be good. More ideas that are new in themselves but not taking away from UO. If anything, going to Doom with your uber Tamer or even insane Paladin Dexxer PVM God, isnt really UO at all.
Its natural for everyone to want to reach maximum efficiency and do everything alone and in no time at all, but its not what UO was about, or why its fun.

Some new system could be good. It should maybe force players to work together? or force them to trade at least. Thats the bare minimum player interaction right there.

[Calix]

Elaborate a little on what you're thinking KoKane?

[KoKane]

Oh, just got an idea for this.

Yet another way of making crafters good/useful? Make it so an artifact isnt quite useable instantly. Something is wrong with them or they need to be fixed up a bit, but only by a trained blacksmith / tailor or whatever. ?

I dunno really. What I was getting at really is just have a look at how everything is done in UO and in an L25 type shard. Look at the daily routine of a player and see how they mix with other players or other playstyles and how often or why. Always keep the 1 char rule in mind and consider it when evaluating how players will interact with new changes made. Try to establish at what point does a player no longer need another player to get his things done. I know that can vary on the player and their playstyle but if you can start to force player interaction in ways that dont seem forced, I think you could give UO a new lease of life with a new pub 25 based server.

[Nixon]

Are we allowing that dye (can't remember what it's called) that allowed you to change the hue of items/artifacts in?

Obviously the awful colours won't be in, but the likes of shadow etc?

Being able to customise the colour of my suit was important!

[Fatalist]

Pigments of Tokuno I think it was? See no reason it shouldn't be allowed really - was SE but none of the colours you could choose were offensive. Helps with uniforms (thinking RP?) and SUIT PRIDE. I'd be happy to have it in.

[Calix]

Some of the colours were awful, but they can be changed. I'm not against allowing it in without the really garish colours.

[Joe]

change the name and the item itself too for sure, to something more in keeping with UO, not sure how they are obtained currently but could be one of the crafter items we add?