Uninspiring unique drops

[Mondkalb]

I also wonder why the game generates excellent "normal" armor like a "Mithril Chain Mail (Dwarven) (-1) [28+17] (+2)]" at 4500 feet.
This would be a wonderful armor for any char above 2000 feet (especially because of the lightweight of only 15 lb). But nobody needs it anymore that deep in the dungeon, because everybody who managed to get there has usually already plenty of nice artifact armor.
Items like this were really useful if they were dropped by boss uniques.

I can't remember when one of my chars has used dwarven armor. It's useful if you don't have fa or if you need the con bonus. Both ist only true in the early part of the game.

[PowerDiver]

I can't remember when one of my chars has used dwarven armor. It's useful if you don't have fa or if you need the con bonus. Both ist only true in the early part of the game.

Then you just need to dive faster so that the "early" part lasts longer. My current char would seriously consider it for the +2 con to get over 600 hp, at 4650'. I'll upload the dump in a minute.


The real problem is that the player simply does not use that many wieldables in an entire game. E.g. I once counted a game I posted to rgra, used only 13 IIRC melee weapons in the entire game. If every unique dropped an item that was sufficiently good to be worth considering using, most people would have all of the powerful artifacts by the end.

[Mondkalb]

I am playing for many years now. When I dive fast I die fast. Even more with the newer versions with the ridiculous hound packs.
My only chance is playing slowly.

[buzzkill]

The real problem is that the player simply does not use that many wieldables in an entire game. E.g. I once counted a game I posted to rgra, used only 13 IIRC melee weapons in the entire game. If every unique dropped an item that was sufficiently good to be worth considering using, most people would have all of the powerful artifacts by the end.

The real problem may be that there are far too many weapon (and armour) drops. My recipe, much less non-consumables generated and dropped, more (often needed) consumables, and somewhat less (rarely needed) consumables.

Off the top of my head, I think that 2 (on average) weapon/armour per level would be sufficient. It sounds harsh at first, but that's a total of 20 choices by the time you reach DL10. I'd say that's probably far less than there are now and could probably be trimmed further. Finding a new weapon would be a happy event rather than something to be ignored.

Expected results, less junk, less selling, less trips to town, more excitement.

Has anyone experimented with 'common drops' for monsters. For example, your garden variety orc would commonly drop an {average} short sword or leather armour. A common thief would commonly drop a {average} dagger. In this way, the player could, with some accuracy, if the drop is {good} or not, as the commonly dropped items would most likely be of the {average} variety. If a monster drops an item that he wouldn't commonly drop, then it could be assumed with some degree of accuracy the the item is {magic}. So, after clearing an orc pit, one could, pretty much, disregard the dozens of short swords (though there may still be an uncommonly dropped {special} short sword in the mix) and focus his attention on the interesting items, like the trident or the robes without going through a stack of identifys.

[zaimoni]

Has anyone experimented with 'common drops' for monsters. For example, your garden variety orc would commonly drop an {average} short sword or leather armour. A common thief would commonly drop a {average} dagger. In this way, the player could, with some accuracy, if the drop is {good} or not, as the commonly dropped items would most likely be of the {average} variety. If a monster drops an item that he wouldn't commonly drop, then it could be assumed with some degree of accuracy the the item is {magic}. So, after clearing an orc pit, one could, pretty much, disregard the dozens of short swords (though there may still be an uncommonly dropped {special} short sword in the mix) and focus his attention on the interesting items, like the trident or the robes without going through a stack of identifys.

Almost: RAngband is a long-unmaintained variant that assigns realistic drops to humanoid monsters; forked from V2.8.x.

Sadly, ~DL6 it was trivial to load up on {excellent} weapons from clearing snagas and similar.

[Pete Mack]

UnAngband has appropriate monster drops. You can play it in non-campaign mode if you don't like fixed quests. Unfortunately, without the obligatory fixed quests, the automatic stat increases are unbalancing with fast diving. You can just kill a few monsters, get to 4 or 5 blows, then max out your SIZ/CON stats.