Sacred 2:Sacred 2 - Item Drop Mechanics

Sacred 2 - Item Drop Mechanics By Cthulhu Per a quick discussion I had with Antitrust, I've decided to post this spiel on this forum. I have not seen anyone else attempt to discern the game's item drop mechanics at this depth. Thus, this may be useful to the few of you who are into studying a game on this level. If someone else has already done similar research, I applaud you for being faster at getting the word out than myself... and would graciously appreciate it if someone would delete this thread. I warn you however, as you will soon find out, there's still some work that needs to be done before anyone will be able to make a comprehensive list of the game's drops. If you're fine with that matter, read on: How this began: A few weeks ago I set out to create a database that would allow someone to look up a unique/legendary/set item. They could then see what monsters they had to focus on killing in order to get the item desired. Unfortunately, the game uses a seemingly far more complex set of algorithms to handle drops than Diablo 2. 1: The Server Scripts As some of you may or may not know, quite a bit of knowledge can be discerned by reading what's inside the various scripts used to populate a server instance. The following are the ones pertaining to items: A) blueprints.txt <- A script generated by the editor that gives the game the data to fill out all of the items within itself. The names for the items are stored separately in the "Global.Res" file found within your localization folder. + This file also gives the game what it needs to create individual item bonuses, the possible bonuses that rare items can incur, etc. Thus, if you are already getting ideas - don't try to make your own custom items unless you wish to edit over a previous item.* B) drop.txt <- This script provides a the data that the game needs to know what the possible drop patterns are and what is included within them. One of the things within a pattern is a variable that some of you may recognize - the Danger Class. C) creatures.txt <- This can be used to cross-reference with the drop.txt file and the blueprints.txt file in order to discern what all of the monsters are capable of dropping. 2: What is Done to Determine a Drop's Contents The game uses several variables when you "roll" for a drop: - The weighted probability associated with an item. (see drop.txt) - The "dice" roll of your character, which is modified by the zbonus values located in balance.txt, along with your +% chance to find valuables. (dice rolls are determined to exist by viewing a binary dump of some of the game's system files) - The drop pattern of whatever breakable item/chest/monster that's dropping items. (see drop.txt) - Danger class (see creatures.txt, drop.txt; danger classes themselves are apparently defined internally, I haven't found them yet in any binary dumps; I hope I've overlooked them). - Damage preference (This is less defined than Danger Classes; I think it is defined within one of the libraries or executable file). - Damage probability (Again, undefined). - And this is the BIG ambiguous variable that I was referring to: "Initialization Type" Whatever this happens to be, it is an argument that's sent to a small routine that runs inside Sacred 2 called the "Drop Manager". After viewing the binary dump of the sacred 2 logic file, the drop manager handles a lot of stuff (including, but not limited to): - Keeping track of stuff that falls on the ground when you drop it. - The items being moved around in your inventory. - Item graphics It appears to be a subset of one of the drawing parts of the game. So far I can only see the method calls and dependencies, but the contents of the methods appear to be (for the most part) unreadable, due to compilation. Before we delve any further into this, I want to point out.... 3: Merchant Offerings Merchants, Blacksmiths, Rune Masters (and possibly the mount vendors) use a slightly different approach for their wares: - Die roll modified by bargaining - Danger Class - *Damage preference & probability may or may not be used. They're present in the lists that the vendor pattern draws from, but I suspect they are ignored. - Expected Type (Not clear on what this is, it may be another thing that's stored in the game's system files; I haven't been able to tell what it does from adjusting this value and testing the adjustment in single player). - Minimum Quality (I'm pretty sure this pertains to the zRare Categories listed in the balance.txt file, but I haven't seen enough from adjusting this value and playing SP to be sure.) - *Initialization type One of these are what was fixed internally to stop bargaining from letting the vendors put up unique, set and legendary items for sale. I'm suspecting it was the initialization type since Despite the above, there are some strong assumptions / facts that I have been able to discern: - Based upon their danger classes, all monsters have various drop patterns. Some do not hold anything, while others can have junk, gold, runes or the very wide ranged "Standard list". For example: Certain legendary weapons, such as "Magisil" show up in the standard drop list; this list only gets used for (in order of most possible to lowest possible): - the crystals on the Seraphim island (if you didn't have the misfortune of finding a mutant) - see further below for monsters... As you have probably seen, the last boss doesn't always give good stuff. That's becuase his danger class allows for either the drop pattern of the t-energy crystals from Sera island (note: he obviously does not drop mutants, thankfully) or empty drop patterns? So, from only looking at the drop patterns for the last boss, one would think that he either has a chance of giving you something from the standard drop list or nothing. But having played the game, that is obviously not the case. From looking at his empty drop patterns, he has initialization types. So what does this mean? Guesses: A) Initialization types take care of loot rolls in the event of Ascaron not bothering to specify a specific one for a monster/chest/whatever. B) The initialization types stack up to form complex randomization/dice rolls that finally pick something out of a monster/chest/whatever's specified drop patterns. Furthermore (these are hypotheses): A) After a blue print list is selected via the drop patterns, the game may use: (any possible) combat arts, elemental damage and weapon types that you hit the monster with. This narrows down which item TYPE will be rolled on. B) Using the weighted probabilities, your chance to find valuables + anything else that might adjust your zbonus rare scores, the game picks an actual item to drop. Also, in addition to the last boss, "danger class 10" is shared with some other monsters/bosses: - The region dragons - The storyline dragons - The Carnac - The Scorpion king - The Crystal boss - The Forest Guardian - Various unimplemented monsters (I.E. T-Energy Dragons) - The Blind Guardian band members (LOL!) Ultimately, does this mean that the Seraphim Island, last boss and other monsters pointed out up above are the best ones to "farm" for rare items? I think it's too hard to tell from what we have at this point. I suspect that Ascaron is not totally finished with the drops in the game. Other nuggets of gold: There is a drop pattern of unique/legendary/set items that is used for determining quest rewards. All items in such a table have only a .10 percent weighted probability of being given to you. That's the only definite I have been able to derive; beyond that definite, it's guess work: - I THINK you MIGHT need to have Bargaining Mastery in order to even have access to this table - And/or it may only be possible that it applies to quests with high star ratings Some of the interesting things seen within this drop pattern are: - Another unique Glaive besides Lord Wayne's Player Killer and the Glaives of Atherton (has 2 gold slots, +chance to find valuables, + offensive skills, -% combat art regeneration). - A unique hammer (Gives life leech, strength, EXP per kill, 2 gold slots) - 3 unique batteries that can only drop from quests (Solar, Dura and Ultra; Blueprint ID's 2486, 2658, 2660). - Most of the set items within the game - Practically all of the legendary items, with (presumably) the exception of the one for the Ascaron mega-quest. - Various other already seen unique items Originally published at DarkMattersfor review and discussion. See Also Sacred 2 Player Contributed Guides