07-11-2003, 09:08 PM
For the most part a pretty good post about what to do with the runes when you get them. Most of what you dug out of the TC table was correct except for one part which will have a big impact on the number runes that you can expect to get from her. The problem starts here:
When picks is a negative value, it means to do a number of picks equal to the absolute value of the 'Picks' (two in this case). AND to do the picks in a non-random sequence. It will start doing the picks from the first Item (Countess Item) until it has used up a number of its item picks equal to the the Prob1 of the first item to be picked (1 in this case). After all of the traversing of the TC tree is done for this pick it will continue across the items in order doing the picks until it runs out of items or the the number of picks to do.
Now what is important here is that the game has for a normal TC drop, a maximum of 6 items that it will drop. You can have it set to try to drop more than that, but any items checked after the 6th will not spawn. Quest rewards and some terrain contains ("sparkly chests" for example) will not use a modified drop system that references the TC tables, but can generate more than 6 items. This is usually done by looping through the TCs for chests several time to gnerate items and also force specific items into the drop (Horadric Cube or Soul Stones for example).
Now with the countess this means that the first thing that is checked for actually generating the items is the "Countess Item" TCs and these in turn have a pick=5, NoDrop=19, (gld) Prob1=11, (equip) Prob2=19, (junk) Prob3=15, (good) Prob4=3. In a players1 game this would result in a no drop chance of 19/(19+11+19+15+3)=28.36% for each if her 5 picks from this TC. If all of them pick an item, there will only be 1 open pick when you get to the point of picking the runes. If you are lucky there will be no more than 3 items picked at this stage leaving 3 open pick chances for the rune TC.
Now with the Countess rune TCs the pick=3 with a NoDrop=5 and (rune) Prob1=15. This will mean that there are 3 attempts to pick a rune and a 5/(5+15)=25% chance of a no drop on each of the picks in a players1 game.
Whay a concern with these being a players1 game? With more players in the game (or using /playersX settings) and more party members in the area, the game will adjust the NoDrop to smaller values. This makes it more likely to pick items and in this case a better chance that the first 5 possible items wil end up coming from the Countess Item TC instead of from her Rune TC. More players=less chance of seeing runes.
This still makes the countess a good place to hunt the runes as it is extreamly likely that you will be able to get a least one rune off of her under even the worst conditions. You can't sat that about the majority of the monsters in the game.
Brista, the rest of the post is quite good by the way. :)
Quote:Countess: Countess Item 50% / Countess Rune 50%
Countess (N): Countess Item (N) 50%/ Countess Rune (N) 50%
Countess (H): Countess Item (H) 50%/ Countess Rune (H) 50%
NoDrop= 0 for all, Picks = -2
When picks is a negative value, it means to do a number of picks equal to the absolute value of the 'Picks' (two in this case). AND to do the picks in a non-random sequence. It will start doing the picks from the first Item (Countess Item) until it has used up a number of its item picks equal to the the Prob1 of the first item to be picked (1 in this case). After all of the traversing of the TC tree is done for this pick it will continue across the items in order doing the picks until it runs out of items or the the number of picks to do.
Now what is important here is that the game has for a normal TC drop, a maximum of 6 items that it will drop. You can have it set to try to drop more than that, but any items checked after the 6th will not spawn. Quest rewards and some terrain contains ("sparkly chests" for example) will not use a modified drop system that references the TC tables, but can generate more than 6 items. This is usually done by looping through the TCs for chests several time to gnerate items and also force specific items into the drop (Horadric Cube or Soul Stones for example).
Now with the countess this means that the first thing that is checked for actually generating the items is the "Countess Item" TCs and these in turn have a pick=5, NoDrop=19, (gld) Prob1=11, (equip) Prob2=19, (junk) Prob3=15, (good) Prob4=3. In a players1 game this would result in a no drop chance of 19/(19+11+19+15+3)=28.36% for each if her 5 picks from this TC. If all of them pick an item, there will only be 1 open pick when you get to the point of picking the runes. If you are lucky there will be no more than 3 items picked at this stage leaving 3 open pick chances for the rune TC.
Now with the Countess rune TCs the pick=3 with a NoDrop=5 and (rune) Prob1=15. This will mean that there are 3 attempts to pick a rune and a 5/(5+15)=25% chance of a no drop on each of the picks in a players1 game.
Whay a concern with these being a players1 game? With more players in the game (or using /playersX settings) and more party members in the area, the game will adjust the NoDrop to smaller values. This makes it more likely to pick items and in this case a better chance that the first 5 possible items wil end up coming from the Countess Item TC instead of from her Rune TC. More players=less chance of seeing runes.
This still makes the countess a good place to hunt the runes as it is extreamly likely that you will be able to get a least one rune off of her under even the worst conditions. You can't sat that about the majority of the monsters in the game.
Brista, the rest of the post is quite good by the way. :)