Feature Specification: Rewards System

Fionn · Post by **Fionn** » Wed May 17, 2006 8:21 pm

My concern is the paradigm we currently find ourselves in that as PCs get bigger, so do the mobs. This spirals until you 'have' to be PC5-10 to leave the tavern.

Thinking it over, if we could track spawn kills on a per-group basis (tribe/area), and force the groups to grow organically (no CR5 until you have 1 CR3 and 10 CR1-2), this rather neatly solves both issues. Patrol quests won't *need* to be statics. PCs will either keep the roads clear, or they'll travel in large groups ;)

I'm picturing a WP_ORCS that has % chance to spawn a small raiding party. They'll kill local wildlife and start a counter. When it reaches 10, they become a large raiding party. When it reaches 100, they become an Orc Camp (with named Boss) and have a % chance to spawn WP_ORCS in nearby areas that don't already have WP_ORCS.

Dynamic WP_ORCS will be destroyed when Boss is killed, toolset WP_ORCS will not. The counter decrements if a majority of non-Boss are killed. The Orc Hills always has a couple places you may find Orc. If left unchecked, things get *BAD*.

We'll need to balance the growth rate to the players somehow. If the PC-hours are such that they can only hit one area a day, having 10 areas each with 10 day counters ensures growth with no other activity.

Ronan · Post by **Ronan** » Wed May 17, 2006 8:38 pm

Fionn wrote:Thinking it over, if we could track spawn kills on a per-group basis (tribe/area), and force the groups to grow organically (no CR5 until you have 1 CR3 and 10 CR1-2), this rather neatly solves both issues. Patrol quests won't *need* to be statics. PCs will either keep the roads clear, or they'll travel in large groups

That is actually what I had in mind. I was thinking I'd expand on the population trends listed in the monster manual, which mention certain numbers of elities, noncombatants, etc. per total population.

Builders could always just place more spawns or up the growth rates, yeah. In the end I don't think we'll be able to enforce everything in script if a builder wants to purposefully go against everything ALFA is trying to do.

Fionn · Post by **Fionn** » Wed May 17, 2006 9:38 pm

Well, if we force the lazy builder to be consistant to ALFA standards, most will ;)

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Wed May 17, 2006 10:16 pm

If the system can handle the spawning dynamics WELL, I think it will become the defacto system. There will probably always be rare exceptions for those statics builders need to spawn, but that's builder discretion as you say.

I like the concept that's taking shape here, but I imagine creature demographics vary not just along racial/tribal/type lines but also in relation to terrain and to locale. That's a lot of ground to cover.

Baalster · Post by **Baalster** » Thu May 18, 2006 8:44 am

My dream was at one time to track all this through a database, and just decrease or increase the mosters are they are farmed/left alone. If implemented alfawide that would mean that a drow invasion on multiple fronts can be implemented, as will a horde of orcs moving south from the Moonsea region really be felt by the players.

Baalster

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Sat May 20, 2006 3:07 pm

Updated system name. Since we're talking about loot/wealth and experience, and since that's tied together in our standards, I took a page out of the DMG and called it all Rewards, if nobody minds.

AcadiusLost · Post by **AcadiusLost** » Tue Apr 10, 2007 9:12 pm

Cipher drew my attention back to this today, with respect to the early ACR release preparation. Is this something that should wait for later? The current version of the acr_xp_i.nss is in my starting hak, but I don't believe it's integrated into spawn rewards. The acf file we call on a creature's OnDeath event doesn't currently reference any of the acr_xp_i functions like ACR_AwardCombatXP(). Actually, I don't see any of the default obsidian code in our creature event acfs either- does this mean in their current state, they won't give any XP?

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Fri May 18, 2007 9:32 pm

Sorry for not responding sooner. I missed this somehow.

Yes, we need to tie the ACR XP system into the creature death event as well as any quest or DM XP reward systems we develop or integrate. We also need to start fleshing out how loot rewards will work and I'd like Standards to weigh in here if possible, or at least "ratify" whatever requirements we spell out here.

A full featured reward system would be one where:

1. All items in a creature's possession will drop OnDeath.
2. Random loot for the encounter will be generated based off loot tables (a la DMG 3.5 + MM)
3. DMs can grant additional rewards using the wand/chooser

I believe 2 & 3 should be constrained by our wealth guidelines. If a player increases their wealth by accumulating gear dropped by critters (#1), then their wealth can be gradually brought back in line by limiting, or forgoeing entirely, any random or DM awarded loot.

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Fri May 25, 2007 11:23 am

Do you have any of Ronan's work on spawn drops?

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Fri May 25, 2007 3:40 pm

If he did any work in this regard, he never committed it to the repository that I'm aware of. What did he do exactly?

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Fri May 25, 2007 3:54 pm

Ah, I'm not aware how far he got into any scripts, but we spent a fairly absurd amount of time discussing it via IRC. I shall peruse the logs, if I still have them (November iirc), and get something put together ASAP. I did think we had code that generated random loot to the value of [some factor of CR] less the value of the dropped equipment. If not, that is generally the principle we are proposing to advance along, yes?

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Fri May 25, 2007 4:19 pm

Yes, that's right.

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Fri May 25, 2007 4:21 pm

( [creature multiplier] * [factor of CR] ) - [value of dropped gear]

Can we attach a creature multiplier value to each critter? Did we want to do this when they were made?

ç i p h é r · Post by **ç i p h é r** » Fri May 25, 2007 4:30 pm

Can you explain the formula? Is this the value cut off for any random reward the system generates?

Rusty · Post by **Rusty** » Fri May 25, 2007 4:33 pm

It would be the maximum drop value, yes. The creature multiplier would be 0 (animals) potentially through to 2 or 3 for high-loot creatures, the factor of CR is the arbitrary figure we decide is balanced. I'll post something detailed with actual numbers an all this weekend; leaving work right this minute.