Lol. Now I have it dropping too much loot

Aha. Two areas of concern:

Firstly, after messing about with values... here seems to the way to go:

[mLootProps
nickname = ge_s_battery_01
drop_properties = 33, 30, 75, 1, 1000, 1000

I dunno what the 1000, 1000 does, but the 33 is the percentage chance, the 30, 75 is the range, and ... uh... I dunno what the 1 does, but it seems to be important. It was 0 before. Is that the Level?

And yes... I have a very good reason to be increasing the drop amounts. I'm in the middle of rebuilding another part of the FL game design, and it's a necessary change to bump up bots/batts, believe me.

By range I take it you mean monetary? Otherwise check out the higher level stuff, like decent weapons.

[mLootProps
nickname = gd_gm_gun01_mark01
drop_properties = 8, 105206, 105206, 0, 2, 1
[mLootProps
nickname = gd_gm_gun01_mark02
drop_properties = 8, 211397, 211397, 0, 2, 1
[mLootProps
nickname = gd_gm_gun01_mark03
drop_properties = 8, 378331, 378331, 0, 2, 1


However, someone DID do a post on these values after some exploration. I have a feeling he got the same for the first value (% chance), I think the 2/3rd were monetary value (as in min to drop).

Further down the file of course,
[PhantomLoot
nickname = ge_s_repair_01
toughness_range = 0, 1
percent_chance = 16
num_to_drop = 1, 1
[PhantomLoot
nickname = ge_s_repair_01
toughness_range = 2, 2
percent_chance = 19
num_to_drop = 1, 1
[PhantomLoot
nickname = ge_s_repair_01
toughness_range = 3, 3
percent_chance = 15
num_to_drop = 1, 1
[PhantomLoot
nickname = ge_s_repair_01
toughness_range = 4, 4
percent_chance = 18
num_to_drop = 1, 1

Which seems to be alot more indicative imo. I would probabily try removing all the phantom loot - or all the mlootproperties - and seeing what gets dropped instead. Then fiddle with the values (control environment in a empty system with a solo controlable encounter of lvl 1), fiddle values (be in a cheap ass ship) and see if they stop dropping. Then try again with a bigger ship (worth more) and then try again against more difficult (higher level opponents). Its alot of testing, but may bring out the values.

I would do it myself, but everytime I start fiddling or look at someone elses stuff, I get guilt pangs that I am not working on my own mod instead. Once I finish off what I am currently on (which could be a few weeks) I'll join you in trying to discover stuff if you like

LOL. I keep "discovering stuff" in the process of getting Toolkit 1.3 built. I spent practically all day coding it, for the third day in a row- methinks next weekend it'll be time to release it.

Just wait 'til you see what I've done with Encounters, among other things... about as thorough an un-winding as what I did with the AIs. Which, if you haven't already borrowed, I'd strongly encourage taking a read- all reports indicate that it greatly improves server efficiency because it's so much less redundant than the stock FL schemas. Next version will have minor tinsel added to it, to provide a teensy bit more variety... but only just a minor bit.

At any rate, I think that you may be on to something. The PhantomLoot entries are probably the outer bounds... the mLootProps are probably the control range. Which figures, given that weapons and other Equipment aren't even listed in PhantomLoot. But that was, in my opinion, a dumb way to hack it- why not just do it once and be done with it? Why the doubled controls?

I'll have to cross-check against pricing, in that case, since I intend to completely re-work pricing... ah... and I also got rid of many of the Shields, so I'd better make sure that they aren't still listed in here, else I might see CTDs when Loots are spawned. It's all makin' sense.

While I'm talking about random things... I've built a Fuse that causes a random Hardpoint to get disconnected, with fate = loot. This works... but I keep seeing a message in Spew saying that objects with FATE_UNKNOWN are being spawned, and the FL engine (that miracle of robustness) says that it's substituting FATE_DISAPPEAR and culls the offending object. Got any idear what is causing that? Could it be Lights are being "broken off" and handed to players? Or Contrails, maybe? It's gotta be something like that, that's going to a named Hardpoint, I'd think.

If I have to, I'll fix all that by... heh... waitaminute... well, here's a solution.

I'll just go ahead with my "100% totally customizable Lights" idea which I had earlier! I'll make another "dummy Shield" category (kind've funny how I keep finding more uses for the Shield categories I freed up), and attach Lights and Contrails to the invisible dummy Shields, much like I did with my invisible, dummy... nevermind... I should save a few surprises for the release, when all will be documented for everybody to borrow from

Hi Argh

Wanting to creat loot myself so I have found your post. Having made scaners, tractor and powerplants saleable at bases I want to make them lootable as well.

Decided to use the shield loot as a template. A shield generator being like a powerplant.

[mLootProps
nickname = shield01_mark01_lf
drop_properties = 6, 5000, 5000, 0, 2, 1

[mLootProps
nickname = shield01_mark10_lf
drop_properties = 6, 646965, 646965, 0, 2, 1

This means that all I need to determine is the purpose of 5000, 5000. Looking at all the shield loots these values do increase as the shield worth increases. There is not a consistant ratio though. The first shield price is 1000 (5000 / 1000 = 5). The last shield price is 289150 (646965 / 289150 = 2.24)

To test I am setting the first number to 100 to ensure they get droped. I am then setting the second and third numbers to a mean ratio value (I think mean is the right word). Namely ((5 - 2.24) / 2) + 2.24 = 3.62. The second and third numbers will be powerplant price * 3.62. I will then go hunting and hopefully looting.

OK. Nothing happend. Penny drops. NPCs don't have ordinary power plants so made infinite_power lootable and added loot_crate to misc_equip.ini. Still nothing.

[mLootProps
nickname = commodity_boron
drop_properties = 100, 0, 3333, 1, 150, 150

Commodities do drop so took 1, 150, 150 from the end. Ran test and infinite_power is now being dropped. So is the 1 an on/off switch. Changed to 1 back to a 0 and ran test. Still being dropped so on/off switch it is not. Study LootProp.ini and discover that all equipment is set to 0 and all commodities are set to 1. So it appears that the 0/1 value is a equipment/commodity switch. This means that the 150, 150 values allowed the dropping and having those values at 2, 1 meant nothing happened, during testing anyway.

Conclusion:

drop_properties = [assumed percent chance to drop, [something to do with value, [something to do with value, [equipment/commodity switch, [pos. rate of drop, [pos. rate of drop


I hope the above test results will help. I have had a late night and an early morning. I now have to walk the dog and then put away XML scipts and do some propper work with VB. It just doesn't stop.

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Keep violence virtual - bring it on!