A minor gripe re: drops

[Hariolor]

Ok, so I've been getting quite a bit better, and have run several characters down to around DL99 recently. One even managed to take down sauron (my first ever, woo!).

That being said, I'm playing 3.1.1, and it feels like there's something wrong with drops. Maybe this has already been addressed in some of the nightlies (I don't play them), but some examples.

In my past five games I have not gotten anything more interesting than gold from smeagol or wormtongue. Bullroarer has dropped a scimitar with some plusses, but that's it. Same game a bit later, and I bump off Orfax - nothing.

Sauron dropped a few ego polearms and a non-artifact amulet. One the same level I killed Smaug *and* Glaurung (I love Narya), and got a big fat pile of gold and some fairly useless ego items. Then, a few feet down the hall, I kill a random black Orc and it drops Calris.

Now, I was already in my endgame gear, so I didn't *mind* that the drops in the endgame were less than spectacular, but it's getting a bit frustrating. I love ID by use, and the overall frequency of useful items feels higher. But I'll be darned if it isn't depressing to bump off nasty uniques and get a fat helping of nothing. Doubly so when their lowly minions down the hall drop epic weapons of awesomeness.

There, had to vent. Carry on!

[buzzkill]

Maybe, instead of generating an artifact at the time of the drop, artifact(s) can be generated at the time of level generation. Then the chosen artifact(s) could be given to a more suitable candidate(s) (who should certainly use it against you).

[pampl]

When you say that Smeagol and Wormtongue just dropped gold, do you mean that euphemistically and they dropped something useless that sold for a lot, or do you mean a literal money drop? If they literally dropped cash that's worse than bad luck, it's a bug: Wormtongue is explicitly flagged to only drop items. I thought "great" drops had to be items and therefore that Smeagol also always drops items, but I'm looking at the code and it looks like I was wrong about that.

It might also be worthwhile to check your squelch settings though I dunno how much un-IDed stuff they could possibly be hiding.

[Hariolor]

I don't play with squelch on - I don't worry about turncount, so I'm fine sorting through junk.

IIRC wormtongue did not drop any actual gold, indeed I recall the past couple times I've killed him that he's dropped nothing at all. Smeagol has left gold behind once or twice, but again, it's mostly a lot of nothing.

I kind of like Buzzkill's idea of assigning drops on level generation, then matching them to suitable enemies.

I certainly prefer a hard-fought battle that yields great rewards over stumbling across a full plate of isuldur just laying around collecting dust somewhere.

[Pete Mack]

In 3.1.1 Smeagol and Wormtongue can drop gold if they stole it from you. They should should also always drop a "great" object (ego item, artifact, etc)

There was a long-outstanding bug that good items also included lots of utter rubbish. I hope that's been fixed. (Sauron dropping a wand of Haste monsters makes a kind of sense--he could use it on his allies, but it's still infuriating.)

[FUD]

I have noticed very similar results from these two. I like to play a mage and I find both smegol and wormtongue difficult if you find them in the shallows, and to get nothing for you troubles is kinda frustrating.

Whinge moan...

[PowerDiver]

In 3.1.1 Smeagol and Wormtongue can drop gold if they stole it from you. They should should also always drop a "great" object (ego item, artifact, etc)

"He may carry a single exceptional object." Emphasis on *may*.

It's just a lottery. There's no significant difference between no drop and dropping a quarterstaff of slay troll.