Dodian Forums - [Server] Systemic NPC Drop Table Adjustments to Improve the Economy

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Systemic NPC Drop Table Adjustments to Improve the Economy

Item inflation is a problem that plagues RS3, OSRS, and Dodian.
The Dodian and RuneScape economies were built from a series of reactions and badly thought-out expansions that were designed to look temporarily shiny without significant consideration for how they would impact the long-term game economy.

My idea to kill item inflation is to have a system of 3 NPC types:

Unique drop NPCs:
- Drops either one unique item - like an Abyssal Whip, or a unique armour set.
- Targeted only when their unique item drops are in high demand.
- Players stop killing them when the unique item price is low, preventing further inflation.
- The items cannot be obtained from Smithing
- Not assignable by a slayer master, but could be locked behind a slayer requirements.
- Killing the NPC should could have either a GP or resource deflationary mechanism to decentivize camping of unprofitable NPCs.

Consumable Resource NPCs:
- Drops unique consumable resources tied to its NPC type (cow hide, green dhide, dragon bones, etc)
- The resources cannot be obtained from Dodian skills (food, logs, ores, runes, gems)
- Assignable by a slayer master to encourage market liquidity

Pure GP NPCs
- Drop only consistent GP that is tied linearly to the NPC's combat level
- Allow GP multipliers for special circumstances (slayer task 1.2x, key dungeon 1.6x)
- Does not contribute to item inflation
- Assignable by a slayer master

Generally desired effects:
- Unique items will only enter the game when they're in demand
- New content can be created to spread out the unique item drop table (abyssal demons, gargoyles, and such)
- Dead content is repurposed
- Mining / smithing will become useful again for pre-dragon gear
- New players will have better access to GP, stimulating early-game trading

Anticipated downsides:
- GP inflation that will need to be systematically deflated by another mechanism
- The game play won't be as linear for new players, forcing them to trade to progress combat efficiently, which might be frustrating

Development Pseudocode:

Code:

void onNpcDrop(Npc npc) {



        final int UNIQUE_DROP = 1;

        final int CONSUMABLE_RESOURCE_DROP = 2;

        

        switch (npc.dropTableType) {

                case UNIQUE_DROP:

                        ResultSet resultSet = SELECT chance, item_id, quantity FROM npc_unique_drop_table WHERE npcId=npc.id

                        

                        foreach (Row row : resultSet.rows()) { // support for multiple unique drops in case of item sets

                                double chance = row.chance

                                int itemId = row.item_id

                                int quantity = row.quantity

                                

                                if (chance <= Math.random()) {

                                        drop(itemId, quantity);

                                }

                        }

                        break;

                        

                case CONSUMABLE_RESOURCE_DROP:

                        ResultSet resultSet = SELECT chance, item_id FROM npc_consumable_resource_drop_table WHERE npcId=npc.id

                        

                        foreach (Row row : resultSet.rows()) { // support for multiple consumeable resource drops for cases like green dragons

                                double chance = row.chance

                                int itemId = row.item_id

                                

                                if (chance <= Math.random()) {

                                        drop(itemId, quantity);

                                }

                        }

                        break;                

                        

                default: // Pure GP

                        final int ITEM_ID_COINS = 995;

                        final int GP_PER_COMBAT_LEVEL = ?;

                        int multiplier = 1;

                        if (npc.isSlayerTask) {

                                multiplier *= 1.2;

                        }

                        if (npc.isKeyDungeonMob) {

                                multiplier *= 1.6;

                        }

                        

                        int quantity = npc.combatLevel * GP_PER_COMBAT_LEVEL * multiplier;

                        drop(ITEM_ID_COINS, quantity);

                        break;

        }

}

Pure GP mob is lame. Your idea on unique item drops could be expanded upon a bit, though, for example: we're all used to the ice queen dropping C shield and bow, and bloods. what if queenie only dropped the shields, ice elves or whatever is in there drops bows on an even lower chance, and the giants drop the bloods as often but in lower quantities?

Quote:

Originally Posted by a retard (Post 25)

Pure GP mob is lame.

Sure, but they will always be reliably profitable, and not be detrimental to the item economy. The lameness will can be supplimented elsewhere.

Quote:

Originally Posted by a retard (Post 25)

we're all used to the ice queen dropping C shield and bow, and bloods. what if queenie only dropped the shields, ice elves or whatever is in there drops bows on an even lower chance

I don't think NPCs being killed for item A should drop an unwanted item B. Optimally, we should have her drop only ice gloves, and then introduce a new area in Lletya with bosses that drop c shield and c bow.

Quote:

Originally Posted by a retard (Post 25)

and the giants drop the bloods as often but in lower quantities?

This devalues RuneCrafting. Why not have the giants drop GP, and then allow players to use the GP to purchase blood runes? We can optimise trading between different play styles.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dashboard (Post 26)

Sure, but they will always be reliably profitable, and not be detrimental to the item economy. The lameness will can be supplimented elsewhere.

I don't think NPCs being killed for item A should drop an unwanted item B. Optimally, we should have her drop only ice gloves, and then introduce a new area in Lletya with bosses that drop c shield and c bow.

This devalues RuneCrafting. Why not have the giants drop GP, and then allow players to use the GP to purchase blood runes? We can optimise trading between different play styles.

This devalues GP, though, immensely. Noone will sell their bloods for GP if they can just get them from giants. The items were never really unwanted, Cbows got tons of love as did cshields.

Quote:

This devalues GP, though, immensely.

It's a lot easier to introduce GP sinks than it is to introduce item sinks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by a retard (Post 27)

Noone will sell their bloods for GP if they can just get them from giants.

Blood runes would just increase in GP value. If there are worthwhile GP sinks, it will continue to be in high demand.

Quote:

Originally Posted by a retard (Post 27)

The items were never really unwanted, Cbows got tons of love as did cshields.

Sure, but there would had been a significant inflationary problem if the economy had gone on for a longer period of time. You can observe the effect
early on in the game when players bring in too many archers' helms from Ungadulu when they camp for zerkers.

The effect can totally be avoided if we spread out the drop table.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dashboard (Post 28)

It's a lot easier to introduce GP sinks than it is to introduce item sinks.

I have to agree on this one, skilling is super underrated at dodian, especially because we have a pretty low player base. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr Lars (Post 38)

I have to agree on this one, skilling is super underrated at dodian, especially because we have a pretty low player base. :)

i agree on that point as well. the Eco would do wonders if we sorted it. there's not exactly a crazy amount of content to keep under control or drops either,so this is a good way to outline the unique drops like he has proposed. so if the server started by making sure all unique and GP drops were devised in this way, then later down the road it isn't an issue and it isn't a major overhaul of server re-work on the drop tables followed by a reset. nobody wants that.:duck:

Quote:

Originally Posted by dashboard (Post 28)

Blood runes would just increase in GP value. If there are worthwhile GP sinks, it will continue to be in high demand.

This may or may not be true, it depends how many blood runes start circulating as well. but the GP sinks do need to come into play, not even sure where and they would have to be decent. because i cant even think of one in server right now. there arent exactly tons of shops to eat it up.