ring of lesser Shadow

[ctnbeh13]

I agree with Mino. The choice of selecting one master or trainer to focus on severely limits the "chance" of picking the right one. In a fully populated cave where one master or trainer actually spawned with a RoLS, choosing to focus on one gives you a 1 out of 14 chance to get the right one. This is not a scenario worth repeating.

[Dreia]

I would assume that the drops are not predetermined but are chosen only whenl you kill a monster, that would be a huge waste of resources if the game set all of the drops even if you are just passing through an area. Saying that one of the 14 "has" a RoSL is not at all correct therefor. each kill has a small chance of dropping the ring regardless of which mob it is when you kill it or whether you kill any of the other mobs in the room. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

~D

[Samuel]

I also agree with mino.

I agree with Mino. The choice of selecting one master or trainer to focus on severely limits the "chance" of picking the right one. In a fully populated cave where one master or trainer actually spawned with a RoLS, choosing to focus on one gives you a 1 out of 14 chance to get the right one. This is not a scenario worth repeating.

Thats not true. The drop items are not assigned at spawn time. Instead they are assigned at when a monster gets killed. (Just try to kill the same master several times and look if he drops a rock or not.)

So in each master/trainer-kill you have a 0.0001 chance of getting a ring. (it doesn't have to be a different one) So on average you will gain a ring every 10000 master/trainer-kills.

Your ring gathering rate would be around 0.0015 per minute if you killed all masters and reloaded the game if you doesn't gather a ring. (takes approx. 1 minute to kill the 14)
Your ring gathering rate would be around 0.0008 per minute if you killed all masters and go to bed/wait for respawn. (takes 2-3 minutes to kill the 14)

The first way would on average last 10 hours a ring the second around 20 hours.

Edit: Dreia had similar thoughts.

[ctnbeh13]

Well, it seems my attempt at supporting a fellow player in their advising of another, with supportive example did not fair as well as I hoped. For whatever it's worth, the last actual programming that I had an active hand in was plotting graphics for DOS programs. So, as you might imagine, I'm not as well versed in the many programming languages that are current today.

The scenario I portrayed for my example was one where a definite RoLS drop occurs, but not known to the player which of the 14 candidates it was. I have not made time as of yet to review Oskar's source code. Therefore his chosen method of specific loot population is not know to me in regard to map based NPC assigned or randomly generated per kill, NPC assigned. The former, as apposed to the later, is still the more common choice for realistic results for a programmer, as far as I've read. My personal experience with this game seemed to support this belief and logic.

Dreia & Samuel; If Oskar's source code does not support my scenario and perceived experience, then I apologize to both of you personally for any error on my part.

[Dreia]

Heh we all make mistakes (well except for me! ) I will be quick to point out that I myself am not speaking out of a personal knowledge of the code that Oskar has written but rather pointing out that the method you spoke of would be a horribly inefficient use of resources (why run calculations for an event that won't even happen?) and as such is not the logical process to use. There is no need to apologize, nothing personal was involved.

~D

[ctnbeh13]

My apologies to all. I was not wrong to agree with Mino, but certainly was in regard to offering the supportive reason that I did. I should have been more patient to post and not assume the choice of programming. My mindset at the time was more reminiscent of other games were you cleared an area and then had a chance to explore it, only experiencing the respawned upon later revisiting.

So to run a determination cycle for enemy inventory once for 14 NPC's (including the RolS) for purposes of fair distribution, eliminating the option of the lazy "save, kill, reload" cycle, etc., vs running the same cycle 14 times on the per kill basis seemed more realistic of an approach. The only resource consumption that may be slightly imposed upon would be in the memory department, which shouldn't be enough of an impact to eliminate this method as a good choice. Naturally, respawned enemies, which I've more often than not, seen to appear in groups of 2 or more, would then have the loot cycle run on them.

Now for the part that will have some of you cheering in the aisles. I conferred with Oskar about this matter, and he confirmed that NPC loot was generated "after" the kill. This is how he wrote the code.

[Mino]

I have a question for anyone else (like me) who does not yet have a Ring of Lesser Shadow...
If the new update (v 0.6.9) comes out before you get one, do you plan to still try for one, or just leave the caves to try out the new quests, and check out if any new items can be bought?

I've been reading some of the posts on the alpha testing, and I would probably find it more fun to complete what ever I can and then come back to the caves if I don't have ring yet. But it might also be helpful not just to have the ring, but any additional exp and gold I would get while trying for it, if I can be patient enough to keep grinding.

[Corwinn]

Hi,
This is my first post, just to let you know that I got my 1st RoLS at lvl 26 after 351 small rocks, and the 2nd RoLS at lvl 29 with a total of 594 small rocks.

I don't know if it's relevent but here is how I did: I brought a lot of meat (about 100), minor potions of health (the cheapest per HP) and bonemeal potions (about 50) into the cave and i haven't left the cave as long as I could heal myself. I have not been playing continuously, i just stayed in the two rooms where the ring is expected to be dropped.

Good luck!

[ctnbeh13]

Welcome & Congratulations!,

Glad to hear that you got that challenge out of the way. If you're not running version 0.6.9b1 yet, feel confident in it's stability and give her a try. The new map areas and content are excellent. Samuel has been cataloging items from the game, and based on his posts, some of the new items are definitely worth working for around and in the Blackwater Mountain area.

[ScorpionZ]

Hi,
This is my first post, just to let you know that I got my 1st RoLS at lvl 26 after 351 small rocks, and the 2nd RoLS at lvl 29 with a total of 594 small rocks.

I don't know if it's relevent but here is how I did: I brought a lot of meat (about 100), minor potions of health (the cheapest per HP) and bonemeal potions (about 50) into the cave and i haven't left the cave as long as I could heal myself. I have not been playing continuously, i just stayed in the two rooms where the ring is expected to be dropped.

Good luck!

And I have been pounding my head against the wall for the last 25 levels and with 2500 rocks have yet to collect a ring. Congrats anyway!