I have been working on reorganizing the treasure table for the creatures on Krakiipedia. Previously, it had a field for skins, lock difficulty and "type" of treasure. The skins category was perfect, but the type ended up being a mismash of unorganized styles of description from dozens of authors, and I never saw anything in lock difficulty. So I'm expanding it to include fields for every type of item dropped.
Now in general, with gems, boxes, magic items and the like, its normally quite simple: if they can drop it, they can drop just about anything from that treasure table, subject to hunting pressure and level. The biggest exception to this rule is Alchemy components. So here is my problem.
I am well aware that there are enemies that can drop specialized components, such as Wind Witches dropping Essence of Air. On top of that, enemies drop "general components", like ayanad crystals, essence shards, and the like. What I need to know is this: is this one big table? If an enemy can drop an ayanad-type crystal, can it "always" drop essence shards, or motes, etc? Or is there an individual "flag" for each type . . . for instance, can some enemies only drop essence shards but not ayanad crystals?
My intention is to begin listing possible alchemy drops from various creatures, and knowing that all of these general ingredients are a simple "yes or no" would make streamlining the system much easier. From there, we could individually list the few remaining special drops.
It would also be useful to know exactly what items fall into this "general" category, if such a category really exists as I am hoping it does.
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>Barnom exclaims, "I smell delicious!"
>Barnom says, "Like sage and nutmeg."
IRVINETOMOE
ZIZZLE-ZEARL
Re: Insight on Alchemy Critter Drops, info needed
01/31/2013 09:41 AM CST
Having been a Grummager of ingredients for a long time, and having several characters of varying levels (as low as 10-20, to mid-30s to 50s and 70-90) I have noticed that in general certain types of creatures drop certain types of ingredients. For instance all golems seem to drop crystal cores, all elementals drop elemental cores. And generally speaking if these creature types drops specific items like shards, cores, dusts, motes of any variety they are also likely (more so) to drop the more common ingredients like ayanad crystals as well. So basically, the more unique a drop is to specific creatures like pristine nymph hairs from sea nymphs, or essences of fire from fire cats, etc. they are also likely to drop the less specific (and more common) drops, like ayanad crystals.
The 4 varieties of ayanad crystals are basically tiered rank drop based on levels of the creatures. Ayanads are the lowest and can be found on just about any creature of any level that can drop them. S'ayanads are most commonly found on level 20-30 creatures give or take 5-10 levels. T'ayands can start to be found on level 30-40 creatures with some regularity (again give or take 5-10 levels). And lastly the highest tier crystals, n'ayanads, are more commonly found on creatures 50+ levels.
Some creatures in all level ranges seem to drop a common alchemy ingredients and nothing more. Obviously, there are creature that simply do not drop alchemy ingredients at all, but they are also the ones that never drop any treasure to begin with.
Another thing to note about the more rare drops like motes, dusts, and other various essences is they seem to drop mainly from highly mystical and magical creatures. Additionally, I noticed a rather high probability of these rare drops coming from undead creatures. The more "magically" inclined the creature the more likely it will drop those rare items.
Those are very general guidelines from personal observation from my many experiences of several level ranges. If you want a more detailed data as to which creature drops what, I can start noting when and where I find them and post here periodically.
--Zizzle
The 4 varieties of ayanad crystals are basically tiered rank drop based on levels of the creatures. Ayanads are the lowest and can be found on just about any creature of any level that can drop them. S'ayanads are most commonly found on level 20-30 creatures give or take 5-10 levels. T'ayands can start to be found on level 30-40 creatures with some regularity (again give or take 5-10 levels). And lastly the highest tier crystals, n'ayanads, are more commonly found on creatures 50+ levels.
Some creatures in all level ranges seem to drop a common alchemy ingredients and nothing more. Obviously, there are creature that simply do not drop alchemy ingredients at all, but they are also the ones that never drop any treasure to begin with.
Another thing to note about the more rare drops like motes, dusts, and other various essences is they seem to drop mainly from highly mystical and magical creatures. Additionally, I noticed a rather high probability of these rare drops coming from undead creatures. The more "magically" inclined the creature the more likely it will drop those rare items.
Those are very general guidelines from personal observation from my many experiences of several level ranges. If you want a more detailed data as to which creature drops what, I can start noting when and where I find them and post here periodically.
--Zizzle
IRVINETOMOE
Re: Insight on Alchemy Critter Drops, info needed
02/01/2013 04:29 AM CST
I think my goal is to have one or two relatively concise fields for alchemy on Krakiipedia, one to show if they drop "general ingredients", under which my assumption is that if they drop one, they can drop them all, and then a second to list the rare drops they may have. However, if the drop system is more complicated than that, I may have to make another table entirely, because the treasure table is a little cluttered already.
My ideal would have looked something like this:
Thunder Troll
Alchemy (Common) = Yes
Alchemy (Uncommon) = Essence of Air/Small Troll's Tooth
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>Barnom exclaims, "I smell delicious!"
>Barnom says, "Like sage and nutmeg."
My ideal would have looked something like this:
Thunder Troll
Alchemy (Common) = Yes
Alchemy (Uncommon) = Essence of Air/Small Troll's Tooth
________________________________
>Barnom exclaims, "I smell delicious!"
>Barnom says, "Like sage and nutmeg."
ZIZZLE-ZEARL
Re: Insight on Alchemy Critter Drops, info needed
02/01/2013 11:40 AM CST
My ideal would have looked something like this:
Thunder Troll
Alchemy (Common) = Yes
Alchemy (Uncommon) = Essence of Air/Small Troll's Tooth
That might be just about the best way to approach it then. I thought you were looking for a more concise listing of ingredients per creature. Such as:
Zombie
Common Alchemy: ayanad crystal, s'ayanad crystal, etc.
Uncommon Alchemy: none
Thunder Troll
Common Alchemy: ayanad crystal, s'ayanad crystal, etc.
Uncommon Alchemy: essence of air, small troll's tooth, large troll's tooth, etc.
The key would be to list what would be considered common or uncommon drops. Even though motes, dusts and shards are probably considered uncommon they would probably be found more commonly on more creatures than specific ones like essences of fire, or crystal cores which can only be found on specific creatures.
--Zizzle
Thunder Troll
Alchemy (Common) = Yes
Alchemy (Uncommon) = Essence of Air/Small Troll's Tooth
That might be just about the best way to approach it then. I thought you were looking for a more concise listing of ingredients per creature. Such as:
Zombie
Common Alchemy: ayanad crystal, s'ayanad crystal, etc.
Uncommon Alchemy: none
Thunder Troll
Common Alchemy: ayanad crystal, s'ayanad crystal, etc.
Uncommon Alchemy: essence of air, small troll's tooth, large troll's tooth, etc.
The key would be to list what would be considered common or uncommon drops. Even though motes, dusts and shards are probably considered uncommon they would probably be found more commonly on more creatures than specific ones like essences of fire, or crystal cores which can only be found on specific creatures.
--Zizzle
IRVINETOMOE
Re: Insight on Alchemy Critter Drops, info needed
02/02/2013 07:03 AM CST
See, and I think thats my problem. I don't have that information, nor do I have time to properly research it myself, as we are doing a dramatic overhaul to the treasure table very soon. (as soon as the alchemy issue is resolved, actually). My thought at this time is that we may need to make an individual table for this purpose, listing these types of drops, because it will clutter the treasure table too much . . . realizing that even with uncommon drops, an enemy may have 3 or more is a problem for the format.
________________________________
>Barnom exclaims, "I smell delicious!"
>Barnom says, "Like sage and nutmeg."
________________________________
>Barnom exclaims, "I smell delicious!"
>Barnom says, "Like sage and nutmeg."
OM1E5GA
Re: Insight on Alchemy Critter Drops, info needed
02/03/2013 02:26 AM CST
It might be better to have a space in the articles for each ingredient for people to list what critters they've found it on rather then listing all the ingredients each critter drops. Besides the formatting problems with formatting with the treasure template, it would just be easier for folk to go straight to the ingredient to see what critter drops what they need.
Starchitin
A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
Starchitin
A severed gnomish hand crawls in on its fingertips and makes a rude gesture before quickly decaying and rotting into dust. A gust of wind quickly scatters the dust.
IRVINETOMOE
Re: Insight on Alchemy Critter Drops, info needed
02/03/2013 05:56 AM CST
I had been thinking something similar, and its more reason to make an individual table. Thanks for the input.
________________________________
>Barnom exclaims, "I smell delicious!"
>Barnom says, "Like sage and nutmeg."
________________________________
>Barnom exclaims, "I smell delicious!"
>Barnom says, "Like sage and nutmeg."
